……。
…………。
Wait. If I think about it calmly, it’s a crime!
No matter how much I hate them, spraying poison gas on a classmate is not something a person should do.
Kiraboshi frantically shook her head, dispelling the wicked delusion, and while panting for breath, she pushed back the salaryman who had made such an outrageous proposal.
“Kageichi-san… still, I can’t. I can’t spray insecticide on people.”
“Hmm. Certainly, insecticide would be too tasteless for them.”
“Yes, yes!”
Good. It seems it was just a joke.
Spraying poison gas on people is something only a notorious head of state would do.
Besides—if I had been made to hold that insecticide, Kiraboshi might have committed a mistake.
…Though that would never happen.
Kiraboshi is a good girl, recognized by her mother, teachers, and classmates. That’s impossible—
Thump.
A noise next to me.
Instead of storing the insecticide in his Inventory, Kageichi took out… a familiar box like a kerosene tank, and a nozzle?
He explained with a cheerful smile.
“If it’s not for insects but for people, it would be impolite not to use a flamethrower.”
“Eh!?”
“Humans should be burned, don’t you think?
What do you mean, “should be burned”?
“By the way, this type uses the user’s Magical Power to spray, so I don’t think Kiraboshi-san’s Magical Power would be enough to kill her. Well, her clothes might get scorched, but that’s part of the charm.”
“C-Charm…?”
“I almost died here. Running away naked is cute, isn’t it?”
W-What is this person? He’s crazy…
I thought he was a little off from the moment I met him, but—no, that’s…
Kageichi presented his own flamethrower to Kiraboshi, who was wide-eyed and speechless.
“…………”
The exterior looks like a rocket launcher with a hose connected to a kerosene tank and a large-caliber muzzle at the tip.
The appearance, which makes it clear that it will spew fire with a single pull of the trigger, glistens seductively, as if tempting Kiraboshi.
…Of course, I think that’s just my imagination.
“What will you do? Everything is up to Kiraboshi-san’s free will, so feel free to refuse. Well, I would unhesitatingly go exterminating pests, and thanks to the Hide Cloak, there’s no need to worry about being found out. I think it’s a good opportunity to punish your classmates without them knowing who did it, but I don’t want to force my values on you.”
Kageichi pushed up his glasses, smiling as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
…But even if I’m not caught, a crime is a crime.
The heavens are watching, and half-burning a classmate is inhumane, and nothing good comes from revenge.
Wasting your life by being swayed by momentary emotions is what fools do.
“…………”
In the first place, Kiraboshi, whose best quality is being earnest and kind, could never handle something like this.
My parents have said it countless times.
—Our daughter would never do anything bad.
—Her only good point is that she’s earnest.
A Class Representative of impeccable conduct. Kiraboshi Yoshiko is a person who is inflexible, timid, gloomy, and always unable to take a step forward.
But if I live earnestly, surely someone will help me…
That’s why.
Something this bad must never happen in Kiraboshi’s life.
Besides, if it’s found out… that the earnest Class Representative burned someone.
If people said, “I always thought she’d do it with that serious face”—Kiraboshi couldn’t live with herself.
That’s why.
Even if the hateful sisters are right in front of me…
“――――Haa…”
I take a slow, deep breath.
…It’s okay.
I’m a decent person. Yes.
I gently release the trigger I had unconsciously been gripping.
Finally finishing organizing my thoughts, I smiled at Kageichi.
“…I’m sorry, Kageichi-san. I still can’t do it. …Because I’m just a high school girl who can only be called Class Representative at school, whose only good quality is living earnestly.”
Yes.
This is how my life should be—
“Hey, Aneki. What are we going to tell the ojou?”
“Hmm, how about we say she brought her boyfriend into the Dungeon and did it? Oh, you should say that at school too! The earnest Class Representative is actually having a lot of sex, that’s so hot, right?”
“Good idea. Let’s make the guy an older salaryman. An ugly one. The earnest glasses-wearing Class Representative is doing sugar daddy stuff. It’ll sell.”
“Yeah, yeah, let’s ask a friend to make an AI photo composite and leak it to the school account, it’ll sell for a lot, she’s already dead anyway, so let’s make some money—”
Kiraboshi pulled the trigger.
“Gyaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!”
The gushing hellfire instantly engulfed the pests.
The Kamase Sisters screamed and rolled around, engulfed in flames.
Kiraboshi approached the insects, who were crying out in agony, “Hot, what is this?” and expressionlessly unleashed a second blast of fire on those rolling on the ground.
Most of the physical phenomena within the Dungeon are converted into Magical Power.
Even if their skin is burned, they won’t suffer severe burns, only Magical Power damage. As long as their Magical Power isn’t completely depleted—as long as their HP doesn’t reach zero—they can survive.
However.
The sensation of being burned alive is no different from reality.
Unable to stand due to the heat and suffocating sensation accompanied by intense pain, the insects pathetically screamed and rolled around on the ground.
Kiraboshi expressionlessly continued to chase after those who were fleeing, as if performing a task, and relentlessly unleashed flames upon them.
Eventually, the flames sputtered out as the fuel ran out, and Kiraboshi vigorously swung the flamethrower in her hand, repeatedly slamming it down on her prey with a “gosh,” “thud.”
She beat and slammed them as if trying to smash their heads with a metal bat, continuing to swing even as her own arms ached.
“It hurts, it hurts! What, what is this!”
“Aneki, help me, help me!”
Kiraboshi continued to beat them relentlessly, even as the metal of the nozzle bent.
And finally, she lifted the remaining fuel tank with both arms and slammed it down with all her might on Kamase Aneki’s face, as if dropping a stone.
Blood spurted from Aneki’s nose, and the sisters, whose faces were battered and bruised, pitifully exposed their skin through their torn uniforms—
Screaming, they fled from the labyrinth as if tumbling away.
“Ah…!”
The reason the sisters were able to escape was because Kiraboshi’s level was low.
As Kageichi had advised, the total amount of Magical Power contained in the flamethrower was small, so it didn’t cause fatal damage.
But none of that mattered.
Kiraboshi shuddered and hugged herself as she watched the fleeing sisters.
…I did it.
I did something terrible.
I succumbed to the lowest and worst act of inflicting one-sided violence on someone in a fit of anger.
A heinous act that everyone detests and grimaces at.
Evil, unbecoming of the image of an earnest Class Representative.
Sin.
Folly.
Something that should never be done.
And yet, ah.
How sweet and exhilarating, the best act ever—
“How was it? Do you feel a little better?”
“Ah…!”
Kageichi smiled lightly at Kiraboshi, who was trembling with excitement.
“Living life isn’t just about living safely and securely. Compliance with the law. Devotion to others. All well and good. But I always think it’s a waste to accumulate Stress and ruin your own life.”
“…………”
“In order to live a healthy and peaceful life, which you only get once—I think assault and murder should be done casually, as long as it doesn’t cause trouble for society, but that’s just me.”
Well, I guess no one will understand this value.
Kiraboshi thought to herself as Kageichi spoke calmly—but isn’t murder, in the first place, causing trouble for society?
Wearing a suit, looking like a serious salaryman. Kageichi Futsuu.
Contrary to his name and appearance, his sense of ethics is completely broken.
He’s not a decent person if he casually bares his fangs at people, saying that it’s not a crime if you don’t get caught, and recommends it to others.
The original Kiraboshi should hate him like a viper, a freak.
…And yet.
Why am I so drawn to his claims…?
“Well then. Now that we’ve had a good break, let’s get down to business.”
“Eh… what was it again?”
“The job. My job is to defeat the Dungeon’s Boss. To that end, I’m chasing after that Streamer.”
Upon being told that the previous encounter was with a mob, a run-of-the-mill Monster, she had met along the way, Kiraboshi suppressed her surging excitement, reminding herself that was the case, and followed after the man.
The back of the very ordinary suit-clad man now seemed strangely grotesque to Kiraboshi—
At the same time, it also appeared bewitchingly attractive, and she had a feeling that this was not just her imagination, that he held something more.