Tendo Civil Security Company.
Sitting in the president's chair in her office, the black-haired, straight-haired high school girl CEO watched as yet another victim appeared, and she let out a sigh.
She had warned them. They still looked.
In that case, nobody could say she hadn't reminded them.
Fine. At least now she wasn't the only victim anymore.
It wouldn't be just her eyes that were "defiled," and it wouldn't be just her heart that took a substantial "hit."
A sincere warning?
Sorry, but what she actually wanted was a dose of strong, proper stimulation.
So, naturally, she wanted to see how this victim would speak in the livestream chat.
Yes, purely to see the victim's comments, and then criticize along with everyone else.
She wasn't curious and she didn't want to watch, not at all. Absolutely not.
Also, the reason she didn't log off was because she wanted to ask the Whisperer miss about the progress of manufacturing Earth Elixir.
Kisara Tendo had watched the entire process too, but unfortunately the medicine names that were "harmless to the brain" were a mess in her notes.
And in her world, it was also difficult to find so many different pharmaceuticals.
Whisperer Tessa, on the other hand, was incredible—watching while rapidly copying everything down, almost as if she could split her attention perfectly.
Kisara couldn't do that.
Every so often she had to pull her eyes away from the livestream and back to reality to check her paper, and then some words overlapped, or she wrote past the edge of the page.
She couldn't become a human printer the way the Whisperer could.
So, if the Whisperer's side succeeded, then once the energy bar filled up, they could use Energy Coins to transmit Kain straight across.
Of course, Kisara had also contacted Saeko Busujima. If that side could mass-produce it and have some surplus, she wanted some reserved for her as well.
That said… how long would it take for the progress bar that generated Energy Coins to fill?
Right now, it was only a tiny sliver.
But Kisara had confirmed one thing.
When she went out to hunt Gastrea, the progress increased noticeably.
Aside from that, she had also witnessed her only employee's "handling" of two targets, and felt a faint, lingering reluctance about it.
In other words, as long as she streamed scenes of hunting Gastrea, it would keep increasing.
Was she supposed to become a war correspondent now?
Enough. She'd think about it later.
She needed to get into the stream and participate in criticism, otherwise the room might close and she'd lose her chance.
…
Kain stared blankly at the face in front of him—a face that was supposed to be "disgusted" with him.
Unfortunately, the disgust was becoming harder and harder to fake, because what the owner of that face was doing made embarrassment seep through her expression instead.
The classic "back-washing" scene had already ended.
Now the distance between them was simply too close, the contact too provocative, and the teasing far too practiced.
Kain's nerves tightened, and he forced himself to keep breathing steadily.
"You were looking forward to this, weren't you?" she said, putting on a tone of disdain that didn't quite match her flustered face. "What a pervert."
Before Kain could respond, a sudden disturbance snapped his attention sideways.
Someone's chaotic voice came from outside the room, and the momentary tension inside was cut off cleanly.
…
A strange sound rolled across the sky, and a heavy downwash pressed toward the ground—rotor wash.
A helicopter descended through the newly fallen night and landed on the Takagi estate's helipad.
The first person to disembark was a broad-shouldered man.
His presence alone carried that wordless authority of someone who did not need anger to intimidate, a man whose willpower looked unbreakable.
"Welcome back, Dad~"
"Mhm."
As the chairman of the Tokonosu region's largest right-wing political association, Souichirou Takagi merely nodded to his daughter.
Now, he would see with his own eyes what sort of person his daughter had brought here—whether the threat his wife described was real.
"What is it?" Souichirou asked. "Worried I'll clash with him?"
"Huh? No. I, it's just—he—nothing."
Saya's reply came out tangled.
She wasn't worried her father would clash with Kain.
Her expression made it obvious her father had misunderstood.
She wasn't worried.
She was sulking.
"He bullied you?"
"N-No."
"Then why do you look like you're angry at him?"
"Dad doesn't need to understand that!!!"
Saya burst out, then shrank her neck under her father's deathly stare.
Souichirou didn't like her raising her voice like that. It was rude.
So Saya fell silent and followed behind him.
Just before entering the VIP reception room—
"Chairman, do you really intend to meet him?" one man urged, his voice unsteady with fear. "It's dangerous. Th-That thing is a monster."
Saya glared at him, instantly displeased.
He was one of the people who had been with her mother earlier.
Had he been frightened out of his mind?
Don't spout nonsense. How could he call someone a monster so casually?
He claimed he was worried about the chairman's safety, but in reality he was trying to "persuade" Souichirou to "send them away" and not allow them to stay here.
The man went rigid.
Souichirou's stare had pinned him in place.
In the next second, Souichirou opened the door.
"…"
His body stiffened almost imperceptibly.
His eyes locked onto one person immediately.
It wasn't because there was only one male in the room—there were several women there as well, and Yuriko was among them.
No, the reason he fixed on that young man at first glance was instinct.
If one had to describe it in animal terms, it was the intuition of a beast.
Humans were animals too. Strip away civilization, cast them back into the wild, and eventually they adapted, and the beast's intuition returned.
Souichirou hadn't abandoned civilization to live like a savage.
This was something he had forged after years of dealing with all kinds of factions, walking through real crises, and surviving them.
A hard-earned Beast Instinct.
The instant the door opened, his body snapped into a level of tension he had never felt before, warning him that something terrifying was inside.
His muscles screamed for him to stop—before his conscious mind even finished processing the scene.
So Souichirou's gaze followed the source of that pressure.
A young man.
He looked like a university student at most, but to Souichirou, that still counted as "a boy."
He wasn't particularly bulky. If anything, he had a studious, almost bookish air.
To an ordinary person, he might even look harmless.
But that was only because ordinary people lacked the experience to recognize danger—because they had not stepped close enough to death, or climbed high enough to see what lay beneath the surface.
To Souichirou's senses, there was a chilling aura of death wrapped around him.
How many life-and-death situations had he endured?
How many people had he killed?
Compared to the old monsters Souichirou had met—men who had survived real wars and true darkness—this young man felt even more frightening.
Now Souichirou understood why Yuriko had used a single noun to describe him.
Ashura.
Not as an adjective.
As a noun.
The meaning was entirely different.
And in that moment, Souichirou realized Yuriko's warning—"he could destroy this place alone"—was not exaggeration.
If anything, it might have been conservative.
His daughter had brought home a truly troublesome existence.
(End of Chapter)
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