Valentine’s Day (6)

“—Please calm yourself. He is not an opponent upon whom you should unleash that fist, Your Majesty.”

…She stopped me?

That strike had been filled with enough rage and magical power that no ordinary human should possibly have been able to stop it.

Thinking that, I turned my crimson eyes toward the person who had caught my hand, and found a beautiful woman who looked to be in her early twenties.

She had long black hair and narrow eyes that gave off a slightly cold impression.

Her eyes were a near-black amethyst color, and the hand that had stopped mine was covered in something that could hardly be called human skin—black scales—which gradually receded until it became an ordinary human hand.

…I knew that far too well.

“…Let me ask you one thing.”

“Anything you wish.”

“…Why are you here, Reinerrude?”

“What a strange thing to ask, Your Majesty. It is my duty as your maid to care for you and accompany you. Therefore, I would say it is only natural for me to appear wherever Your Majesty may be.”

“…No, that is absolutely not natural…”

I let out a sigh.

The anger that had consumed me only moments ago cooled all at once with Reinerrude’s appearance, and when I lowered the arm I had swung, she withdrew her hand as well.

With faint crackling sounds, the scales that should have been a racial trait of hers flaked away.

Ordinarily, they should have fallen to the ground and remained there, but instead they dissolved into empty air, which felt strange enough that I looked at Reinerrude’s face.

She moved only the corners of her lips slightly.

“I will explain everything in detail later. For now, please see to your friend.”

“Yeah. Got it.”

“Then, if you will excuse me. As this was such a sudden matter, I apologize for appearing before you in such an unsightly outfit. I shall return later in proper formal attire.”

“…Yeah, okay…”

…I mean, that was fine and all.

But Reinerrude’s formal attire was that, right…?

Also, please do not leap away and vanish like a ninja right in front of people.

Could you not casually do things that were obviously inhuman?

…Though I supposed I was hardly in any position to complain anymore.

I had just unleashed speed and force that absolutely could not have come from an ordinary human swinging an arm.

I had noticed Tojo trying to go after Tomo again, so something inside me just snapped. What was I supposed to do?

Ideally, I should have put up a barrier so he could not get near Tomo in the first place, but if I did something like that, there was a chance my magic would be exposed, so I had restrained myself.

I had still been keeping watch, though, and I genuinely had not expected Tojo to attack Tomo again, so I lost control for a moment.

Sigh.

I was going to cry if Tomo was scared of me now.

What if I turned around and she was looking at me like I was some kind of monster?

“Rinne…”

…Maybe I should have just knocked her unconscious and covered everything up afterward.

Thinking something like that, I timidly turned around and looked toward Tomo.

She was looking down and trembling.

…Ahh, it was over.

This definitely looked like she was terrified of me, right?

“…Tomo…”

Well… maybe that was fine.

Even if she became afraid of me and started avoiding me, what mattered most was that Tomo was safe. Worst case, I could transfer schools, or attend an online high school while working harder as a Vtuber.

If it were online, I would have more time for editing videos too.

And I could do everything at my own pace.

…Wait.

Was switching to an online school actually a surprisingly viable option…?

“…Rinne, help me…!”

“Huh? I mean, I came here to help you, Tomo. I wasn’t planning to hit you or anything like—”

“—I seriously, seriously, seriously need to pee…! Hurry, hurry and untie my hands…!”

“Y-Yes.”

That was an emergency.

I went around behind her as instructed, channeled magical power into my fingertips, and cut through everything holding her hands in place.

Tomo hurriedly stood up, then stared at me.

“…Where’s the bathroom…?”

“I-I don’t know.”

“Thought so! Rinne, thanks! But bathroom first!”

…Tomo, we are supposed to be dazzling high-school girls.

I really do not think repeatedly shouting “bathroom” is appropriate.

For now, she apparently found something that looked like one, and I watched her run off with complicated feelings.

Maybe she had only said all that because she was scared of me and wanted an excuse to get away.

Thinking that despite myself, I went around placing curses on each of the men lying unconscious nearby.

I also brainwashed them into fully confessing what they had done to their previous victims, for the sake of those who had suffered in silence.

If the hearts of those people who had been left with wounds that would never fully heal could be lightened even a little, and if they were able to seek legal compensation, then perhaps that would offer some small measure of salvation.

Still, even if these men were arrested, their crimes would probably not result in particularly heavy punishment.

The victims had to carry what had been done to them for the rest of their lives, yet the ones who inflicted that suffering would eventually be protected and released because of things like human rights and legal protections.

Personally, I did not like that.

So I cursed them.

Just like the three men back at school.

Of course, I was absolutely not placing especially heavy curses on them because I was angry that these men might ruin my relationship with Tomo.

Absolutely not.

No means no.

I merely added the tiniest little extra touch, like sprinkling a dash of seasoning into a dish—a curse that would make them dream every night of being pursued by a deranged serial killer, despair utterly, and wake each morning with violent heart palpitations.

There was no deeper meaning to it.

Once I finished applying all the curses, I finally went over to Tojo, who had been blown into the wall and collapsed there.

Wow, he was a mess…

He did not seem to have died instantly, but several bones appeared to be broken, and his internal organs looked damaged too. If I left him alone, he might actually die.

I gave him a certain amount of magical treatment… there. Now he would remain in agonizing pain, but he would not die.

Now then, what should I do with the root cause of all this?

As I was thinking about that, Tomo came jogging back toward me.

“Rinne!”

“Welco—whoa.”

When I turned around, Tomo threw herself at me, and I caught her in my arms.

Her body was trembling slightly, and I figured she had probably been terrified, so I hugged her back a little tighter.

“Thank you, Rinne…! I was so scared, but I was so happy when you came! And you beat all those guys too—you were seriously so cool!”

…You’re not freaked out?

No, I mean, that thing with Tojo at the end was clearly an attack no normal person could have performed unless they had magical power like me.

Surely she could tell it was beyond human ability.

“Rinne, you should’ve told me! You’re, like, some kind of martial arts master, right!? Being that strong is insane! You were so freaking cool!”

“Yeah, sorr—wait, what?”

“That was crazy! And that woman who showed up at the end, is she your senior or something!? Oh, I know! She’s your master, right!? She taught you all that, didn’t she!?”

“Huh? What?”

“You know, like when two masters clash fists and the impact blasts out all around them! I know about that! I’ve seen it in anime!”

…Anime is anime, you know?

If two human martial arts masters punched each other’s fists at full strength, I was pretty sure they would both just shatter their bones.

Please face reality.

“And that thing where you went like this and curled your fingers at them, like, ‘Come at me’—I’ve seen that too! Rinne, you totally are a master!”

Mmmmm, I only did that because I saw it in a movie too…!

Wait.

Am I actually in no position to tell Tomo to face reality…?

“Thank you, Rinne! Seriously! Thank you so much!”

…Yeah, well, I supposed this was fine.

One way or another, Tomo seemed to have accepted that explanation.