Ugly Guy, Hardcore Fighter-Chapter 87: The First Defeat (Patreon)

-Thank you DCRangeRange, Dean Dexter and CannedbreadFollow me on Patreon via Linktree https://linktr.ee/Mnotia-

In the conference room of the Visbridge Selenoa Branch, I placed a single sheet of paper on the desk.

It was different from the paper Rizu had given me, which was in my pocket.

To keep its source from being figured out, I changed only the handwriting.

I didn’t alter the text.

I copied exactly the parts that had manifested as abilities, the parts that had orange lines drawn under them.

“When I looked into the royal palace’s office, this is what came out.”

A lie.

“As expected of a former detective!”

“As expected of a former detective.”

Seika-san and Seiji-san said almost simultaneously.

It passed.

The former detective setup is convenient.

...No, at this rate, I’m not a detective, I’m a thief.

Good thing nobody called me out.

Everyone gathered around the desk and read the text written there.

『Anyone who defies me, reflect in a cold, narrow cage.

Until you truly understand what you did wrong, don’t come out.

Use that power for people correctly this time.

No matter how much you apologize, I’m the one who decides whether to forgive you—』

Having finished reading, Seika-san raised her face from the paper.

“This is... Abel-san’s?”

“It’s too early to conclude it’s his ability description. But there are too many overlaps with yesterday’s trial.”

Seiji-san’s voice was calm.

But his hands, clasped on the desk, were clearly tense.

Seiji-san unclasped them and lined up eight small slips of paper on the desk.

Then he wrote down, one by one, the words from Special Notes that bothered him.

『Defy』

『Cage』

『Reflection』

『Understanding』

『Strength』

『Use It Correctly』

『Forgive』

『I Decide』

Seiji-san selected three of them and placed them in the center of the desk.

『Defy』

『Strength』

『Cage』

“First, the most likely starting point is 『Defy』.”

I nodded too.

As expected of Seiji-san. I’d been bothered by the same part.

I looked at Rizu.

She was focused on Seiji-san’s words. I couldn’t read an answer from her expression.

“What exactly counts as 『Defy』?”

Ria crossed her arms.

“If I give an opposing opinion? If I don’t follow an order? Or just hating him in my heart?”

“We don’t know. If King Abel is the one who decides what counts as 『Defy』, then it’s dangerous for us to test the boundary from our side.”

At Kato-kun’s immediate answer, Reia-san cut in from the side.

“Then we just slash him without saying anything.”

“That’s the confirmation method we should avoid most.”

Seiji-san rejected it immediately.

“It ain’t confirmation. It’s a solution.”

That’s not a solution, that’s starting a war.

“If we only ask questions, it won’t count as defying him, will it?”

Kato-kun answered Seika-san’s question.

“Normally, yes. However, if King Abel is the one who decides whether it’s 『Defy』, we can’t call it safe.”

Special Notes aren’t legal provisions.

They’re a power born from the emotions of the one who wrote them.

“What action makes him feel defied? Only he knows that, huh.”

“Probably.”

Kato-kun answered briefly.

Seiji-san next placed his finger on the paper marked 『Cage』.

“Yesterday, Dario-san was taken to 〈House of Gratitude〉. It may be connected to this 『Cage』.”

“A place for reflection, perhaps?”

Seika-san said.

“You think it’s that soft?”

Reia-san furrowed her brow.

“A torture chamber, isn’t it?”

“Rare for us to agree.”

Ria and Reia-san both grinned wickedly.

You guys have atrocious tastes.

But I’m also bothered by the word 『Cage』.

Because something that looks like an answer, 〈House of Gratitude〉, is right in front of us, we want to connect them.

But if we decide the answer first, we won’t be able to see anything else.

“About 〈House of Gratitude〉, I’ll ask at the meeting if it seems possible. If we only ask questions, we shouldn’t immediately be judged as 『Defy』.”

Seiji-san looked over the remaining slips.

“And strong Special Notes should have activation conditions or burdens to match. Something begins by 『Defy』 and ends by 『Forgive』. It can be read that way.”

Then, for some reason, he looked at me.

“What do you think, Shigeru-san?”

“M-me?”

I pulled three slips toward me.

『Defy』

『Cage』

『Forgive』

“If we make too many guesses, we get pulled along by them and can’t see even what’s visible.”

I flicked the paper marked 『Strength』 with my finger.

“This one’s pretty suspicious too. But it can be read any number of ways. 『Defy』 and 『Forgive』 form a pair, beginning and end. Only 『Cage』 is a word with concrete form. For now, I think we should focus on these three.”

Seiji-san nodded.

“It’s quite harsh that Shigeru-san isn’t among this meeting’s participants.”

“It’s not decided we’re going to fight yet. If even members who weren’t invited go, that might be what trips 『Defy』.”

Seiji-san shifted his gaze to the blue sealed letter placed at the edge of the desk.

It was the formal invitation to the meeting, handed over by a royal palace messenger after yesterday’s Gratia trial.

In the attendee column inside, five names were specified.

Seiji-san, Seika-san, Kato-kun, Ria, Reia-san.

Rizu and I weren’t among them.

The reason these five were called and the two of us were left out—

Well, I can mostly guess.

【Invited】

Seiji-san: Gratia Precision, 88.

Seika-san: Gratia Precision, 98.

Kato-kun: Gratia Precision, 95.

Ria: Gratia Precision, 68.

Reia-san: Gratia Precision, 79.

【Not Invited】

Rizu: Gratia Precision, unknown. The parrot said “irritating.”

Me: Gratia Precision, 5.

“Easy to understand.”

When I said that, Rizu nodded slightly.

From the King-sama’s perspective, we must be the two he doesn’t want to invite.

“That’s right. As Shigeru-san says, we’ve only been invited to talks. Please wait at the branch, you two.”

Seiji-san said that.

I answered, “Got it.”

I said I’d wait.

I didn’t say I wouldn’t go watch.

＊

The royal palace conference room was strangely white.

The walls, the pillars, the long table—all white.

Even the sunlight coming through the windows looked like Abel’s ally here.

I was lying prone on a beam in the ceiling.

Rizu was hidden in the shadow of a pillar on the second-floor corridor overlooking the conference room. I don’t know how she got in. When I ask her, it usually ends with “normally.”

In the conference room, Abel spread both hands with a smile.

Kato-kun had brought the usual newspaper along with his documents to check past articles.

“I’m glad you came. I want you to lend your strength to this country. For that, I wanted to hear your thoughts today, so I set up this place.”

The usual parrot was on his shoulder.

“Seiji, sixty-two. Seika, seventy-one. Kato, sixty-four. Ria, thirty-one. Reia, forty-four.”

Everyone was lower than the numbers I’d heard before.

Even so, Abel was smiling.

“You came to watch yesterday’s Gratia trial, right? Is that why the numbers dropped?”

Abel brought it up first.

“Within the scope made public, I believe it was a coherent verdict.”

Seiji-san answered quietly.

“Then what’s bothering you?”

“I’ll ask directly. Where was Dario-san taken?”

“〈House of Gratitude〉. A place for him to understand his mistake.”

“What about visits with family?”

“Once his reflection is over, he can meet them.”

“Who decides that his reflection is over?”

Abel’s smile stopped for just a moment.

“I do. As king, I decide.”

Seiji-san didn’t argue.

“One more. There are complaints that even people who pointed out defects in the Gratia system are being taken away. Shouldn’t opinions meant to improve the system and rebellion against the king be separated?”

That was cutting it close.

I watched Abel through a small hole in the ceiling.

The parrot was silent. Abel was still smiling.

“Of course. If the opinion is correct, I welcome it.”

“Is it also the king who decides whether it’s correct?”

It was Kato-kun.

Abel’s gaze moved slowly.

“That’s right.”

“Then if the king is wrong, the system has no means of correction.”

Just like Kato-kun.

Correct. Too correct.

“I am wrong?”

“It’s a question of possibility. As long as you’re human—”

A white light ran.

There was no sound.

Kato-kun’s legs hardened into a square, his waist changed into a wooden drawer. Both arms spread out as a tabletop, and before he could even scream, a single black office desk remained there.

“A desk. I see, just like you.”

Abel narrowed his eyes as if checking the completed form.

“Kato-san!”

Seika-san stood up as if repelled.

Her chair fell backward.

White letters floated above the office desk.

『CALCULATION BEGINNING.

CALCULATING RESOURCE ALLOCATION NECESSARY FOR THE KING’S POLICIES.』(TL Note: oh god, please dont tell me this guys been majin buu-ing people)

“Kato-san!”

Seika-san called again.

The desk didn’t answer. Only the gears embedded in the tabletop and the white numbers began to move.

A guard picked up the newspaper that had fallen to the floor.

“I’ll confiscate that too.”

Abel glanced at the page once.

“It seems you’ve written quite a lot of unnecessary things about this country.”

“You... what did you do?!”

Around Ria, multiple layers of red magic circles appeared.

The magic circles increased in brilliance, and the surrounding air distorted with heat.

“Please wait!”

Ria’s flames were faster than Seiji-san’s voice.

Just before the flames reached Abel, a second white light ran.

Ria’s body shrank small.

Her golden hair changed into a clockwork spring, her spread arms into ornamental dolls. What fell to the floor was a music box with a red lid.

The lid opened.

A gentle melody played.

To that melody, a tiny Ria spun with a smile.

“A music box. Not bad. It suits your power.”

『COMFORTING THE KING’S HEART. COMFORTING THE KING’S HEART.』

The music box repeated in a flat voice.

“You bastard!”

Reia-san drew the scimitar at her waist.

The slash split the white desk.

Abel moved back with his chair. The parrot on his shoulder scattered feathers.

This is bad. It’s a complete negative chain.

At this rate, I have no choice but to go out and stop it—

A third white light hit Reia-san’s chest.

Reia-san too, just like them—

I thought.

But.

Nothing happened.

“...Huh?”

For the first time, composure vanished from Abel’s face.

“Why?”

The light ran again.

Reia-san shielded her face with her arm.

Even so, no change occurred in her body.

She kicked off the floor.

The tip of the scimitar ran straight for Abel’s throat.

“Reia-san, stop!”

Just before the tip reached him, Seiji-san jumped from behind and pinned Reia-san’s arms.

“Let go! He turned Ria into—!”

“Not now!”

“Then when is it okay?!”

The guards all raised their spears at once.

Seika-san knelt before the music box, trembling, unable even to reach out.

I checked on Rizu through the small hole in the ceiling.

Her hand, lurking in the pillar’s shadow, reached for her bow.

But it stopped just before touching.

Rizu’s gaze turned smoothly up to the ceiling.

Through the hole, our eyes met.

She was waiting for my judgment.

If she put her hand on the bow and nocked an arrow, that instant might be judged as 〈Defy〉.

So she still didn’t move.

But with Rizu’s skill, from nocking the arrow to releasing it wouldn’t take even 0.1 seconds.

The next instant, she could pierce Abel’s brow.

If she intended to shoot, she could shoot at any time.

But if she shot, what would happen?

I still hadn’t decoded his ability.

The next light might go toward Seiji-san or Seika-san. No, there was no guarantee it would end with just light.

Besides, if we defeated Abel, would Kato-kun and Ria return to normal?

If they didn’t, it’d be the end of the volume.

I tapped the beam twice very softly with my fingertip.

—Wait.

After a short pause, Rizu nodded once toward me.

Understood. It was a signal to convey that.

Immediately after, Seiji-san’s voice came from the conference room.

“We’ll put away our weapons.”

Still holding Reia-san back, Seiji-san told Abel.

“So please, don’t hurt anyone else.”

“That depends on you.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I’m saying you were the first to defy me.”

“Defy? You were the one who first turned two of ours—”

When Seiji-san slowly released his hold, Reia-san, still glaring at Abel, returned the scimitar to its sheath.

Ignoring Reia-san’s words, Abel stood up.

His voice, shaken until moments ago, had returned to its usual calm.

“You can go home today. Cool your heads and think about my proposal. I still have expectations for you and Seika-san.”

“What about Kato-kun and Ria-san?”

“Once their reflection is over, I’ll return them.”

Can I believe that?

But what would fighting on accomplish?

We don’t know how to return Kato-kun and Ria. It’s better to buy time here for now.

And it seemed Abel wanted time as well.

His mouth moved slightly.

“Impossible... why? Where did it go wrong...”

Normally, it was a whisper too quiet to catch even if you strained your ears.

But my god-class hearing didn’t miss it.

That light hadn’t worked on Reia-san.

For Abel, that was clearly a miscalculation.

In other words, he had assumed that technique would work on all five people invited to this meeting.

Even if the talks broke down, he could silence everyone in the end. He had prepared this place thinking that.

Now, he himself was beginning to doubt that premise.

Seiji-san lowered his gaze to the music box.

“I will definitely come to get you.”

That day, we had no choice but to leave the two behind and go home.

The Strongest Newspaper was also seized by the royal palace.

It was the moment Visbridge first lost to Abel.

-Thank you DCRangeRange, Dean Dexter and CannedbreadFollow me on Patreon via Linktree https://linktr.ee/Mnotia-