Mahou Shoujo Ikusei Keikaku - Volume 16 - Chapter Pr

PROLOGUE

In a prefab hut once used for road expansion work was a three-legged table crushed into the wall. There were countless marks from a sharp blade: on the floor, walls, and ceiling, followed by blood spatter.

The name General Pukin just about popped out of Frederica’s mouth, but she reflexively pressed her lips firmly shut. Adding “General” on top of “Pukin” would be far too sentimental to say in front of her underlings.

This wasn’t the time to be lingering on the past. They were in the present. Frederica shook off the feelings for Pukin that had welled up and turned her eyes to the scene before her.

A lot of people resented, hated, loathed Pythie Frederica. More than she could count on her fingers—tallying them all up would make a thick catalog.

But despite that, not many people would attack her allies.

They would have to know where Frederica was hiding right now as well as whose help she’d requested; they’d have to be strong enough to kill a capable mercenary, think nothing of human life, and be dispassionate about the act itself.

When Frederica had been told about the situation, the first to come to mind as a possible culprit—mastermind, rather—was Lapis Lazuline the First. But once she actually saw the scene for herself, a completely different person came to mind.

Squatting down, she poked at a slice in the floor. It was a wonderful cut, one that hadn’t been made with brute force—the blade had been sharp, and there had been technique involved. Frederica wiped her hands with a handkerchief and exhaled.

“What do you think?” she called out, turning around. A magical girl tied up in chains, with dozens of talismans stuck all over them, wriggled like a worm. That wasn’t who Frederica was talking to, of course. She’d been addressing the person standing to her right: the magical girl Asmona, dressed like a painfully conspicuous boy detective from her red newsboy cap with white polka dots, framed glasses, and shorts with suspenders.

“Kimiera and the others must have fought here and lost. The methods used make me think that this is intentional, made out to be a terrible scene to teach us a lesson. I would hazard a guess that this is something of a warning. It’s like how the Mafia will pack stones into the mouths of the dead to make an example of them.”

She didn’t even glance at Frederica. Asmona spoke politely, but her tone was rough, giving full voice to her unspoken irritation: “We pointlessly made more enemies because of your stupid behavior.” Asmona scowled as she grabbed the brim of her hat with her right hand while she placed her left under the bridge of her glasses. Then she adjusted her hat and glasses at the same time and sighed in an incredibly deliberate manner.

That drew a sigh from Frederica as well. Some tension was fine, but this was a bit much. Normally, Frederica would have been acting a little sillier, but she wasn’t in the mood. The magical girl wrapped in chains and talismans between Frederica and Asmona stirred uncomfortably.

Frederica rubbed her chin in a show of contemplation. “Yes, certainly,” she said. “I do agree that there is a strong implication here that they’re calling attention to this. To leave not only signs of battle, but even the blood seems like a warning… Oh, it’s rather impressive of them to use Kimiera’s group.”

Ghost Transmigration Kimiera Kakuryo, whose hideout had been here, had been a graduate of the Archfiend Cram School, a magical-girl educational institution. In other words, she’d been strong. And coming with two equally strong companions just for a warning seemed like overkill.

A yellow mist gathered around Asmona, then abruptly dissipated. She was using a tablet that hadn’t been there moments earlier. She looked at the screen, then sighed again. “I’m not done collating the results, but there is the blood of three people here. Lulunam and Furuhara Botan, who were with Kimiera, are both unaccounted for, so that’s probably who it’s from.”

“What about enemy blood?” Frederica asked.

“There are signs that it was cleaned up.”

“To leave only Kimiera and the others’ blood makes it seem even more like they’re trying to show that off.”

This really felt like a warning, but Frederica thought that seemed rather strange. Killing Kimiera, Lulunam, and Botan was less an immediate warning and more a use of force. That must have taken quite a bit of time and effort.

The only one who could carry this out would be Lazuline the First. Or the Osk Faction, in particular the Lab. The principal of the magical-girl class was also not out of the question. Aside from that…, Frederica thought, mentally making a miscellaneous list lumping together any people who could be her enemy.

Hmm.

None of the candidates quite fit the bill, and they were all mismatched, not meshing with each other. Frederica was confused, too. The moment she’d witnessed the scene, she had imagined the face of a certain magical girl, and she just couldn’t wipe away that impression. She knew that individual was no longer alive. What’s more, Frederica had been directly involved in her death and had witnessed it personally using her magic. The girl’s death had been vivid and incomparably cruel, her whole body bursting open—considering the girl’s rampage up to that point, Frederica thought it had been a truly befitting death.

Pukin couldn’t be the culprit—she was already dead. No dead person could have done this. That much was clear. But for some reason, she couldn’t get Pukin out of her mind.

Frederica looked at the ground with just her right eye. Her right foot was tapping on the floor. It was an unconscious gesture. Anger, irritation, distrust, worry, and not just that—there was also some fear there. Even being an outlaw—no, precisely because she was an outlaw, fear was important. No matter how powerful your magic was, you had to be afraid of things that scared you, or you’d have no future.

She looked away from her feet and eyed the scene again. Those cuts were symbolic. It made sense that Pukin came to Frederica’s mind; with her bare hands, Pukin had killed two magical girls of an antiestablishment faction who’d mocked her. But being caught up in this gave Frederica doubts. Pukin had actually been fearsome. Frederica never wanted to face her again. And she never would. In that sense, Frederica was acting like a small child frightened of a fictitious monster. This fear wasn’t for the sake of self-preservation—frankly speaking, it was a disgrace.

Frederica understood this logically, but she still couldn’t shake the idea of Pukin being the culprit. Why was that? Was it out of fear?

Once upon a time, Frederica would have laughed off that fear without a care about her own future. The terror and fear that Pukin induced was part of her charm. She was incredibly exciting and addicting. If she truly had been alive, then Frederica would have been glad, thinking nothing could be more fun.

But Frederica was different now. There was something she wanted to do, no matter what. She couldn’t afford to let a little fun with Pukin lead to her demise. Her stance toward fear had changed compared to the time when she had been a free outlaw, and maybe that was why she couldn’t get Pukin out of her mind.

It had been confirmed that in the incident at the magical-girl class where the homunculi had gotten out of control, one of those homunculi had been modeled on Pukin. But was that enough to recreate this feeling like a hand clenching around Frederica’s heart? It was also not impossible that some high-end homunculi that had yet to be disclosed could reproduce Pukin even more accurately.

The possibilities just kept growing. Frederica couldn’t discard the things she should have thrown away. But this time, she wouldn’t think lightly of her first impression. Sometimes a magical girl’s hunch worked beyond logic. She would investigate thoroughly and conduct a magical inquiry, and if this was worth taking into consideration, then she would do that. That would be good enough.

“We should change plans.” Asmona was facing her again.

Frederica nodded, posing like she’d been listening attentively the whole time. “Hmm?”

“The mercenaries aren’t under control at all. Since they’re all operating as they please, we’re unable to track them, even after a situation like this happens.”

“Indeed.”

“It’s a general issue of quality. Any magical girls hired by Pythie Frederica are either villains or bankrupt of character. That’s why they do as they please. We should increase the routes by which they’re hired.”

Frederica looked over at Asmona and thought, That’s why I can only hire people like you. Asmona met her gaze with a look that said, “You’re first on the list of villains and those bankrupt of character.”

Frederica nodded deeply.

“I believe that this time, we should recruit motivated personnel with a sense of ethics,” Asmona continued, “using ideology, politics, or religion. At this rate, it will be a ragtag gathering, a disorderly mob.”

Asmona’s eyes were practically threatening Frederica: “Do you get that? Because if you don’t, then I’m giving up on you and slapping you with my letter of resignation.”

Fortunately, Frederica intuited Asmona’s intentions. This incident had clearly been caused by an information leak. To prevent that, they should gather personnel through different routes for some perfunctory reasons, then change the information they offered via each route before severing contact. That would make it easy to tell where the leak had originated in case something similar happened again. Asmona was implying, “I don’t know where the leak came from, so just figure it out.”

The fact that she’d taken all this into consideration was what made her a good subordinate. The problem was her assumption that Frederica would do all the work.

Frederica gave a little smile. The image of Pukin had yet to disappear from her mind, but it was better to smile than to fret about it.