episode_0097

“Ah.”

“…!”

“Listen to my words.”

A creepy yet eerie, awe-inspiring voice pierced through Lian’s mind.

“Ugh…”

Upon recognizing the voice, a sensation akin to one’s body contorting washed over him. It wasn’t pain he felt. Hence, it was even more discomforting. His body seemed to sway like jelly or twist like a pretzel.

Simultaneously, a vague, distant fear as if thrown into the middle of space constricted Lian’s breath.

An indescribable nausea messed up his mind.

‘Agonizing.’

Terrifyingly recalling such thoughts.

“Now… Aaahh?!”

The unsettling voice, which instilled discomfort, diminished with a deflating sound like a balloon losing air.

“W-What is this!?”

The majestic and fearsome voice transformed into an incredibly cute, endearing voice, calming the turmoil in Lian’s mind.

Lian opened his tightly shut eyes and looked towards the source of the sound. A cute creature the size of a human head floated in the air.

Round face, chubby body, chocolate ball-like eyes, a mouth resembling the number three, much like an otter.

“Huh… Magical girl mascot?”

The creature, resembling a mascot carried by magical girls, had a bewildered expression on its face. Raising its small, pudgy hands to its soft cheeks, it spoke.

“Why have I, the great one, turned into this weird thing?!”

Despite appearing angry, its demeanor was adorable. Lian silently stared at the creature before quickly reaching out and grabbing it. The cute face was squished under his rough touch.

“Eh?”

The creature, resembling a mascot, emitted a deflating sound, not expecting to be grabbed so roughly. Lian continued to roughly handle the creature, thinking, ‘These mascot-like guys need to be properly subdued to listen.’

Yes, in the world of comedy, there were indeed… magical girls! Comedy world magical girls could be society’s downtrodden, middle-aged men, or even grandmothers, regardless of age or gender.

The issue was that those who became magical girls didn’t do so willingly.

Beings called mascots set up black companies, deceiving others with their cute appearances to engage in fraudulent contracts. In simple terms, magical girls were victims, and mascots were swindlers preying on innocent people.

Lian had encountered mascot scam groups several times.

In a remote place, while smoking a cigarette and urging his subordinates with a heavy voice, a guy switched to a cute voice when talking to a pretty lady, saying, “Wouldn’t you like to become a magical girl? Let’s protect the world together!”

If he had seemed like a thug on the outside, the pretty lady might have slowly distanced herself. However, with a cute appearance, he easily lowered her guard.

Lian immediately ran over and kicked the chirping sparrow mascot. Although the pretty lady was flustered, worried about the scammer, showing a wanted poster torn from a utility pole, she realized the danger and thanked him in surprise.

From that day on, Lian was targeted by the crazy sparrow mascot.

The mascot, who held a fairly high position, began to chase after Lian as if crazy, saying he would make her into a cute and lovely girl and eat her up.

Coaxing, threatening, kidnapping, and so on.

After overcoming all sorts of dangers, Lian discovered the mascot’s weakness. Mascots are weak to violent skinship. If you stroke their back randomly or pat them like kneading rice cakes, they melt down and wag their tails.

Upon learning this fact, Lian’s approach upon discovering a mascot was to first overwhelm them by patting them all over wildly until they melted down, then engage in conversation.

The reason she started patting any living creature in front of her immediately upon seeing them was also because of this.

“This is Noah, hnnn…”

The creature let out a cute breath, gradually slumping down. Its round eyes half-closed, and its triangular mouth hung open.

Only then did Lian stop her hand and spoke, “Why did you bring me here? Where is this place? And who are you?”

As Lian asked her questions one after another, the slumped creature perked up again, forming a confident expression with eyebrows drawn diagonally above its chocolate ball-like eyes.

“Hmph, why should I tell you that?”

Seeing the creature wiggling its stubby legs and pouting lips, Lian steeled herself.

“I didn’t want to resort to ‘that’ technique…”

Just as Lian was about to decide and act on something, the creature stared straight into her eyes.

“‘Having lost track of Hamulina’s trail from this human lad, with traces of a foolish god lingering in his mind… How did I end up in this state.’”

The creature had deeply embedded itself in Lian’s consciousness, a subordinate of the unfortunate Hamulina. They perceived time very slowly, hence not questioning Hamulina’s absence for years at a time.

But complete disappearance was a different matter. Being faithful servants of ‘the One,’ they were beings who couldn’t die even if they wanted to.

In such a situation, having been erased as if with an eraser by Hamulina, it was only natural for her subordinate to be perplexed.

“Even though my body is in this state, the powers bestowed by ‘the One’ remain intact! I may not know how my body ended up like this, but… delving into my mind might reveal the truth!”

With a dignified expression, the creature gazed deeply into Lian’s eyes, known as the gateway to the soul. Their status was so lofty that merely facing their soul could drive the other party insane.

If that happened, Lian would naturally fall under their control, freeing herself from this ridiculous state. Moreover, she would be able to understand every bit of the power Lian possessed.

“Heh heh, now – show me your soul.”

As the chocolate ball-like pupils sparkled, the creature looked beyond Lian’s eyes. And then…

…?

“There’s nothing to see.”

“There shouldn’t be nothing to see?”

To peer into the soul, one must first look into the mental world, the bridge connecting body and soul. However, that connection point, the ‘mental world,’ was filled with nothing but darkness, completely empty.

“So I couldn’t even observe a mere human’s mental world?”

Her pride wounded, she forcefully activated her powers. As a result, something began to appear in the darkness, becoming familiar to her eyes as if getting used to the darkness.

“Hmm, as expected, the mental world of humans is something like -…”

She, who was mentally chuckling arrogantly, discovered ▉ in the darkness.

▉ looked at her…

“Tickle tickle.”

“Hehe..! Hahaha!”

As Lian mercilessly started tickling her soft body, her abilities were canceled, and her life, which had been pushed to the brink of death, came back to her.

Unaware of the reason, Lian just worked hard to capture the mascot with her hands.

Before she could even feel relieved about surviving a situation where she almost perished, the unbearable tickling that followed made it strangely unbearable. She writhed, tears streaming down her face.

“You still won’t talk? Won’t do it?”

“Heh, hehehe! Stop, stop! Euhaha!”

Despite hitting Lian’s hand heavily with her soft hand and even showing tears, Lian cleverly knew it wasn’t the right time yet.

Only when the living being seemed on the verge of passing out did Lian stop the cruel tickling.

“Hee… Heehee…”

The living being breathed heavily in Lian’s hands. As time passed and the creature found some stability, it began rolling its eyes and sweating coldly.

Lian finally thought the mascot had become communicative, but the reason she began to read Lian’s intentions was due to ▉ she had encountered in Lian’s mental world.

“What was that earlier? It felt like I was facing that person.”

Unconsciously recalling an impure thought, she lightly shook her head.

“Uh… I understand why Humulina suddenly disappeared. She must have vanished because of that monster-like thing earlier.”

As she trembled in fear, Lian asked with a kind expression.

“I’ll ask again. Where are we? Who are you? Why did you bring me here?”

“Well…”

She could no longer ignore Lian’s words. Trembling with fear at the eyes piercing through her, she couldn’t help but shudder.

“In fact…”