Doing Good Deeds Will Bring Blessings¿

By anyone’s standards, Leila Lopez’s life had been fortunate. To begin with, she was born in the United States—New York, no less. After all, only a tiny fraction of the world’s population is born into a country that holds so much wealth. On top of that, as she grew up, Leila realized she had been born with a special power, the ability to wield mana.

Normally, under the Special Protection Act for Minors, she would have had to wait until adulthood to learn how to use mana. But Leila’s parents didn’t see it that way.

“You need to deal with the world flexibly and adapt as you go.”

With her parents’ support, she began learning magic far earlier than most people.

“This is such a cliché backstory. Isn’t there some kind of fast-forward?”

And while studying magic under hired mages, Leila came to realize something else. She possessed another special ability beyond controlling mana. She could peer into other people’s “inventories.”

It was a one-of-a-kind ability, utterly unprecedented even if one searched the entire world. Thanks to this, as soon as she became an adult, Leila made a name for herself as a promising A-rank talent and firmly established herself as a rising Hunter in New York. Of course, she still had to serve her mandatory service period, but that was nothing.

“When your service ends, wouldn’t you like to stay by my side?”

Leila thought she would never forget those words for the rest of her life. After all, it was Estella, likely the greatest Hunter in the world, personally inviting her to join the Hunter Association.

The Hunter Association was the organization with the greatest global influence among Hunters, and the New York headquarters was practically its nerve center. Being invited into that organization was an honor no Hunter could refuse.

“Honor? Sounds more like vanity.”

And as a senior executive in charge of the Hunter Association’s Development Division, Leila took pride in her position. Being able to see others’ inventories meant she could prevent dangers that might befall Estella, the president of the Hunter Association, before they ever happened. Each time, Leila felt a deep sense of pride…

“Yeah, yeah. Next.”

“We’re special. But not everyone is.”

Despite possessing power that could overturn the world if she wished, Estella never showed arrogance and devoted herself solely to magical research. Her goal was always the same.

“Because we are born strong, we have a duty to lead ordinary people.”

The strong must never oppress the weak simply because they are strong.

“For the happiness of as many ordinary people as possible.”

Following Estella’s convictions—that was Leila’s pride. And so she fully intended to continue supporting Estella at her side. She truly had.

So?

“I got caught up in ridiculous political maneuvering…”

As Leila unconsciously began to answer, she suddenly felt something strange upon hearing her own voice. Who… am I talking to right now?

A quiet tongue-click echoed near her ear. “Oh dear. I suppose it’s because you’re a mage. Your mental barrier is thick. Not easy to break through.”

“What…?”

“If you’d stayed unconscious just a bit longer, things would’ve been easier for both of us. But it can’t be helped.”

Before Leila could fully regain her senses— Bang!

“Aaaagh!” A scream of pain burst from her involuntarily.

The bullet grazed her calf. The moment the searing pain hit, all of Leila’s memories came rushing back. Right now, I’m—

“Inflicting physical pain isn’t really my preference.”

At the end of her trembling gaze stood a young girl. An East Asian girl with jet-black hair flowing down to her waist. Eyes the same color as her hair gleamed with an unsettling light. It was Jeong Daon, the girl Leila had kidnapped.

In the girl’s hand was a handgun. Naturally, it was Leila’s gun.

Despite having just pointed a gun at someone, the girl spoke with a faint smile on her face. “At least it was point-blank, so it’s a relief it didn’t miss. Right?” The voice saying that sounded like a flat, mechanical monotone. The ear-piercing–shaped translation device Leila had prepared was now glowing on one side of Jeong Daon’s ear.

It seemed she hadn’t just taken the handgun, but the items as well; thoroughly looted. And as for herself, she was wearing the handcuffs she had put on Jeong Daon, seated on a chair and tightly bound. She couldn’t move an inch. A hollow laugh escaped her without thinking.

“…Impressive.”

Of course, it was true that she had let her guard down. Using teleportation magic three times in a row while bringing someone along would have been taxing even for a high-level mage like Leila. As a result, her physical condition was beyond terrible. But those were nothing more than excuses.

Who could have imagined she’d be taken down by a rookie Hunter barely twenty years old?

I really have gotten rusty. I’ve done nothing but research for nearly ten years. Maybe it was inevitable.

Ever since finishing her mandatory service, she’d held a pen far longer than a weapon. Even so, she never expected to be crushed by someone so young, let alone to be utterly defeated in unarmed combat by someone holding a gun.

Leila forced a bitter smile. “The police must be on their way by now, right?”

Since she’d been attacked and knocked out in the middle of a call, Jeong Daon had surely already contacted the police. She didn’t know how long she’d been unconscious, but it wouldn’t be strange for them to arrive soon. Even if this place was quite far from New York City proper…

So this is how it ends for me.

Honestly, she didn’t have the strength left to struggle anymore. The kidnapping of Jeong Daon had been her last desperate attempt to turn the tables while on the run.

This really is the end…

“Ah, don’t think it’s over already.”

At those words, Leila doubted her ears.

“What did you just say?”

“I said don’t think it’s over. You vomited blood and used teleportation magic three times just to make tracking harder, didn’t you? Thanks to that, I bought myself some time to torture—no, interrogate you.”

“…The translator must be malfunctioning. I think I heard something wrong.”

“There’s a lot I want to ask you.” As Jeong Daon spoke, she moved the handgun. This time, it was aimed squarely at Leila’s head. “Let’s start with who you were talking to on the phone.”

“…What do you think you’re doing right now?”

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m getting a little payback on a criminal who threatened me with bombs and kidnapped me.”

“…”

It wasn’t wrong, strictly speaking.

Leila bit down hard on her lip before speaking. “You seem to be mistaken. I have nothing to say to you.”

As a kidnapper, she had no excuse, no matter how many mouths she had. But that was separate from whether she would submit to this East Asian girl barely twenty years old.

“I’ll talk at the police station. You must’ve watched too many movies. Stop trying to act tough—aaagh!”

Bang! A gunshot rang out from close range.

“Oops. My mistake. I missed.”

Pain arrived faster than conscious thought.

“Gyaaaaaah!” a scream burst out of her involuntarily. This time, the bullet pierced straight through her calf. It hurt as if her entire leg were burning away. “It hurts, it hurts!”

She thrashed, but the chair didn’t budge at all. It was bound too tightly.

“A doctor—call a doctor…!”

Groaning in agony, Leila met Jeong Daon’s gaze through her blurring vision.

And she was horrified.

Is this person a psychopath?!

Even as Leila screamed in such desperate pain, there wasn’t a hint of emotion in Jeong Daon’s eyes as she looked at her. It was the expression one might use when staring at an inanimate object. It sent chills down her spine.

That gaze poured cold water over the searing pain, and with the last scraps of her reason, Leila felt a single doubt rise up.

Didn’t she say it missed this time?

She’d said earlier that it was good it didn’t miss when the bullet grazed her calf. Yet now, after clearly shooting her properly, she claimed it missed. It didn’t add up.

More than that, it felt like she wasn’t speaking to her at all, but to someone else entirely…

But that question didn’t linger any further. Jeong Daon spoke words Leila could not possibly ignore.

“Let’s get back to the original topic. So, did the executives at the Hunter Association headquarters end up fighting among themselves over Estella’s favor?”

Leila’s pupils shook violently. “How did you even know… that the executives were fighting among themselves?”

“You said it yourself.”

“What? Are you saying you cast hypnosis magic while I was unconscious? That’s ridiculous!”

As a former executive of the Hunter Association, Leila was well aware of the danger that another mage could use confession or coercion magic while she was unconscious. That was why she had long since engraved protective magic onto her body, reinforcing her mental barrier in preparation for any chance of information leakage. So no matter how long she had been unconscious, there was no way she would have revealed her secrets.

Unless her opponent was several levels above her.

“You broke through my mental barrier? How on earth did you—khk!”

Thud! The air was knocked from her lungs.

Jeong Daon had kicked her calf, the same calf that had already been shot.

Kicking an injured wound!

Even as Leila writhed in pain, unable to scream, Jeong Daon didn’t so much as blink.

“You seem to be mistaken. I’m the one asking questions here.”

“You… you…”

“Tell me the name of the Hunter Association executive who wants me. Otherwise—”

“Aaaagh!”

Jeong Daon pressed the tip of her foot down hard on the bullet wound in Leila’s calf. The act of grinding into an already agonizing injury sent pain exploding through her brain, as if it were being set ablaze.

“By the time the police arrive, you won’t even be alive.”

None of this made any sense. To an outside observer, it would look as though Jeong Daon had kidnapped her instead. Casually taking the gun and firing it at her, inflicting physical pain with unsettling familiarity, nothing about this was normal. She was not normal by any measure.

What the hell are you?

Cold sweat poured down her body, not just from the pain but from the sheer abnormality of the situation.

According to the investigation, Jeong Daon was certainly talented as a supernatural ability user, but her life itself had been utterly unremarkable. Excellent grades, yes, but not extraordinarily so. An orphan, with no family to rely on except an older brother six years her senior. Someone who had scraped by, barely making ends meet, until she happened—by luck—to discover her talent as a Hunter.

And yet that same person could stare unflinchingly at someone screaming in agony like this? Was that even possible?

“Do I really have to dirty my hands this much just to make you talk? How annoying.”

But reality was right in front of her. That bored tone, the indescribable authority in her demeanor. It was the attitude of someone accustomed to holding the upper hand, to controlling the situation.

“Surely you know better than anyone that there are still plenty of bullets left.”

As she said that, the way Jeong Daon’s gaze swept over Leila’s body was like a butcher evaluating cuts of meat. Something icy passed through Leila’s chest.

Who… did I actually kidnap?

Jeong Daon spoke slowly. “I’ll count to three. Three, two—”

“I-I’ll talk! I’ll talk, so let me go!”

She had tried to endure it somehow, but the overwhelming physical pain eroded her already exhausted mind. And on top of that, the pressure digging into her wound did not lessen at all by this incomprehensible woman.

“So please, take your foot off—!”

“Start with the name. Who is it?”

“J-James. James Chen!”

At the hastily blurted-out name, Jeong Daon finally lifted her foot from Leila’s calf. Only then did Leila realize tears were streaming down her face.

“That’s a Chinese name.”

The one doing the interrogating, however, seemed utterly uninterested in such suffering.

She merely asked, mechanically, “So then, why does this James Chen want me?”

“…That’s what I want to ask.”

Leila clenched her teeth and looked up at her interrogator. Perhaps because her vision was blurred from the pain, the girl who stood there, utterly indifferent to Leila’s agony, detached from the suffering of this world, felt almost like a god.

“Is there any high-ranking mage right now who wouldn’t want you?”

Or perhaps, a demon who had appeared solely to shatter the pride of mages.