Ch.44Plan – 6

As soon as he heard those words, his face contorted severely, but he quickly regained his composure, perhaps thinking it was just a bluff to extract a confession.

“Do you think the Order will stand idle if you kill me? And there are plenty of witnesses who saw that only you and I were here together. If I die—”

“That’s right. I would be the culprit.”

His expression twisted again. From my response, he seemed to realize I had something up my sleeve.

“Don’t worry. I’ve prepared the script already. You attacked me as I was gradually uncovering the truth, but in self-defense, you ended up dead instead. And traces of succubus pheromones will be found on your body. Simple, right?”

I gently swirled the bottle in my hand.

“I caught a succubus yesterday, you see. She was desperate to live, so when I questioned her, she spilled everything. And she knew something quite interesting. Berserk mode? Apparently, it’s something they mix into their pheromones when they want things to get rough.”

Nika whimpered that the Queen had drained every last bit of her energy, but she immediately fell silent when the Chairman glared at her.

“You were enthralled by a succubus, lost your ability to make rational judgments, and broke the pheromones hidden in your mouth to keep your secret, even if it meant killing me. And due to the berserk effect making you too violent to subdue, I had no choice but to kill you. How does that sound? Like it?”

“…!”

Half a lie, half the truth.

What power would a succubus have to make a normal human rampage like a berserker? The name might be “berserk mode,” but its only effect was to make things a bit rougher in bed.

Besides, no matter how excited a man gets from pheromones, he wouldn’t attack another man. In other words, it would be very difficult for him to attack me.

But that’s why Rosaria was standing by the door. When Rosaria received my signal and opened the door first, he would truly charge like a monster toward the visible woman—Rosaria.

And before he could pounce on Rosaria, the Chairman would step in and kill him. That was the plan.

That was what we had agreed upon last night, and what I was about to do now hadn’t been agreed upon yet. What I was going to do to make it look like I had been attacked by him.

“W-what are you doing…?”

I opened my mouth, put my entire left thumb and the protruding part below it into my mouth, and brought my front teeth to the joint between my middle and index fingers.

—Crunch! Crack!

And I bit down with all my strength.

“Hii, hiiik?!”

My front teeth dug into the skin, tearing off chunks of flesh. Blood burst between my lips. When my teeth hit the finger bone with a sickening crunch, he let out a shrill scream.

Ignoring his screams, I clenched my jaw once more. With a tearing sound, chunks of flesh began to come off completely.

—Thud!

“Huaaak?!”

Finally, my front teeth dug into the bone, meeting each other between the chunks of flesh. He continued to scream as he watched the lower part of my finger being torn off completely.

Ptui. I spat out the lump of flesh that had filled my mouth. The chunk of flesh with my thumb and index finger attached rolled on the floor. Blood poured from my mangled left hand.

“You, you’re insane! Insane!”

Perhaps it was the sight of blood, but he was half-crazed, spitting as he ranted.

“I’m insane just for biting off a finger? Please.”

Dripping blood, I approached Alexander. Tied with rope, he tried to escape backward but rolled awkwardly on the floor. I knelt on one knee and grabbed his hair, lifting his head.

“Well, I’m about to kill the Pope’s own son, so I should at least do this much, don’t you think?”

“How did you—huwup?!”

I rubbed the torn part of my hand against his mouth. Chunks of flesh stuck to his lips, and his teeth and the inside of his mouth became covered in blood. He struggled frantically, but he couldn’t overcome my strength.

When I removed my hand, I could see his mouth and lips covered in blood. To anyone watching, it would look like Alexander had tried to kill me, and I had desperately tried to resist with my bare hands, only to have my finger bitten off by him.

As I stood up, I sprayed pheromones on him, who was still in shock, as a finishing touch. Then, I hid the bottle back in my sleeve and cast a status ailment removal spell to ensure I wouldn’t be affected.

This way, even investigators would be able to detect the pheromone residue.

“Kuuugh… you… crazy bastard…”

Alexander writhed disgracefully with his eyes half-rolled back. I waited a moment for him to become more and more excited.

Before long, he began making strange groaning sounds and thrusting his hips against the sofa. That should be enough. Now it was time to start acting, something I had absolutely no talent for.

I burst through the door as urgently as possible. Then I rolled on the floor, making sure my mangled, torn hand was clearly visible.

“Mr. Mira Crate, what’s wrong—KYAAAAH!”

Rosaria, who had approached thinking it was time to proceed with the next part of the plan, let out a genuine scream. This was understandable since this part hadn’t been agreed upon.

The Holy Maiden candidate’s piercing scream drew everyone’s attention. They all looked shocked as they saw my torn left hand. Especially the Chairman.

“ROSARIAAAAAA!!!!!!”

While everyone’s attention was focused on me and my torn left hand as I tumbled out through the door, Alexander, who had practically ripped apart his ropes, charged at Rosaria.

I deliberately staggered to the side, making sure everyone could clearly see his ferocious appearance. And the red blood smeared all over his mouth.

From a distance, I could see the high priest’s eyes bulging in shock. The investigator shouted urgently.

“What happened, student!”

“That guy used something strange! I’ll explain the details later, but we need to kill him quickly! Otherwise—!”

“UAAAH! ROSARIAAA!”

Alexander, his eyes completely rolled back, charged at Rosaria. It was obvious what state his lower body was in.

—SPLAT!

But his body never reached Rosaria. The Chairman had blown his upper body apart. The lower body, now separated from the torso, took a few steps forward before collapsing on its own.

Thud, roll. The head, with blood all over the mouth, rolled across the floor. The eyes remained wide open until the very end.

“……”

Everyone fell silent at this shocking scene. As Rosaria, half-sobbing, tried to heal my hand, I stopped her with a look and spoke to the investigator.

“There might be traces of him left in the room. Let’s investigate.”

“Let’s do that.”

The investigator who went inside came out shortly with a stiff expression.

“Demonic energy has been detected. It appears to be from a succubus.”

“…!”

While everyone was collectively shocked, the investigator carefully held something out. It was my severed finger.

“First, get treatment, student Mira Crate. The shock must be great, so I’ll hear your explanation a little later. And, Starlight Order members?”

The investigator’s eyes became extremely cold.

“Demonic energy was detected in a place that you prepared, you inspected, and you declared safe. You will have to provide an explanation for this incident.”

The high priest seemed extremely flustered. As he said, the Chairman had accepted all our demands, even those that seemed excessive, so they couldn’t even find fault by claiming we had tampered with anything.

While the investigator’s subordinates surrounded the high priest, the Chairman carefully dusted off my finger and brought it to the torn area. Seeing this, Rosaria went “ugh” and dry-heaved.

“Let me reattach it for you.”

“…Yes, Chairman.”

White light emanated from Rosaria’s palm. The broken bone reattached, the fallen flesh filled in. Finally, the torn skin healed.

As I clenched and unclenched my left hand, Rosaria, sobbing, hit my chest.

“When did I tell you to go this far? I told you not to get hurt. You said you understood. You said not to worry.”

“I didn’t die. I didn’t even lose consciousness. I wasn’t seriously injured. That’s what matters.”

“…Not seriously injured? This? Your finger was completely torn off!”

I lowered my voice so the Chairman couldn’t hear and whispered in her ear.

“In the past, having a finger torn off didn’t even count as an injury. So it’s fine.”

“Just because it was like that in the past doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt now…”

“Well, maybe you’re right.”

I just laughed it off lightly. For me, it really was a minor injury, but apparently not in this world.

Why do you think healing magic developed to such an extent in the first place? It’s all to treat such wounds on the spot and urge soldiers to continue fighting. A soldier who whined about losing just a finger would have been slapped.

“Student Mira Crate?”

Suddenly, a shadow fell over my head. I looked up. The Chairman was looking down at me with a stiff face.

“…What is it, Chairman?”

“How are you feeling? Are you alright?”

“Ah, I’m fine.”

I showed my left hand. I really was fine. It wasn’t a serious injury to begin with, and thanks to Rosaria, it had already healed. It wasn’t bravado or endurance—I was being sincere.

But the Chairman, despite my answer, approached with a concerned expression.

“I’m not talking about that wound.”

“What…? Then which wound are you—hup?!”

Before I could finish speaking, the Chairman knelt on the floor and embraced me tightly.

As my face was buried in his chest, which felt almost violently large, I struggled with my limbs, but his palm began to stroke my head.

“There, there… I understand. You were exposed to succubus pheromones, so it must be unbearably difficult… But it’s alright. Please endure just a little longer… I’ll help you…”

‘No, what strength…!’

I tried to struggle free, but it was futile. There was nowhere to grab, and the Chairman was holding me with all his might, showing no signs of letting go.

Then I realized that the Chairman didn’t know I could cure status ailments. So he naturally thought that if pheromones were detectable even in the room, I must have been exposed too.

And he thought I was forcibly suppressing my arousal.

“……”

I sent a plea for help with my eyes to Rosaria. Rosaria, who had been flustered, carefully spoke up.

“Um… Chairman. When I was healing him, he seemed fine, so maybe you could let him go—”

“Don’t talk nonsense, Holy Maiden candidate. Of course he would pretend to be fine in front of you, as he couldn’t show his excited state. He must be suffering greatly right now.”

I was indeed suffering greatly. Just for a slightly different reason than the Chairman thought.

I tried to escape by grabbing the Chairman’s shoulders and pushing him back, but he seemed to interpret this as a desperate struggle to contain my excitement, and his grip on my head only tightened.

“Shh… it’s alright. It’s okay… I can accept it all, so just relax… I’ll take care of you until you calm down so you don’t pounce on anyone else…”

‘…How do I convince him?’

Should I just come clean?