"S-Stop chasing me!"
"Dieeeeeee!"
"...Hmm."
What should I do? Should I help?
All sorts of thoughts swirled in my head.
Investigator Iha Yu was overwhelming the person who looked like a rabbit, and Spira was locked in a fierce battle with someone who seemed to be a chicken.
The problem was Laira. She looked to be in serious danger.
Since the fight itself wasn’t even a contest, it had devolved into a game of tag where she was just running away.
"Was the ‘inferior student’ setting a mistake...?"
I’d only added the inferior student setting because I thought it’d be better to use her as a villain than to let it become a dead setting.
And yet, the investigator had managed to put that nearly forgotten setting to good use.
Just as I was wondering how on earth I could take this person out, a certain setting suddenly came to mind.
Investigator Iha Yu and Teacher Claire had once been close friends.
Thanks to that setting, I’d been able to recruit her as an ally with ease.
Then I remembered—Teacher Claire had a setting where she retired from the front lines after developing PTSD from some incident.
...If Teacher Claire and the investigator were close friends, then the investigator must have gone through that same incident with her. I asked the Author about it, and sure enough—
I got the answer I expected: it was possible.
After convincing the Author, I tweaked the setting just a little.
There was no way the investigator could have avoided the PTSD that even Teacher Claire had suffered from.
She was a person, after all. Just a person.
Three close friends from school days.
What if all three of them had been thriving on the front lines, and then two of them—excluding Teacher Claire—became investigators?
And what if one of them had been killed by a villain in a moment of carelessness?
What if Teacher Claire had been so traumatized by the loss that she retired from the field, and the investigator had been left with emotional scars from losing such a close friend?
That was the thought process behind the change.
I created the existence of a friend—someone closer than anyone else, someone she could never see again.
And the culprit who had taken that friend from her.
"I was just admiring how well I’d set that up a second ago..."
A sigh escaped me.
Just like how Teacher Claire’s setting had snowballed, another setting was now rolling like a snowball.
Laira was an inferior student.
This was a fixed setting. The Author had once said that settings could be forced to change, but would they really take such a risk for Laira?
Probably not. The Author hadn’t even been happy about saving her in the first place.
To them, Laira was just a character they’d spared on a whim—someone whose life or death didn’t matter either way.
It left a bad taste in my mouth.
"...Author. You said settings could be forced to change, didn’t you?"
[Hmm... Well, it’s possible, but if you twist them too much, they stop making sense, so you can’t overuse it. It’d take a lot of effort.]
"What do you mean by ‘stop making sense’?"
[Well, if the change fits the logic, like with the investigator, then it’s not a problem...]
The Author’s explanation wasn’t hard to follow.
It was simple. A setting error.
...For example, if Amelia was described as having eaten, and then in the very next scene, she was having lunch with Yu Siwoo on a date—how would that feel?
Unnatural. To me, to the Author, and to every reader following the story.
[If causality shatters too severely, I don’t even know what might happen. It’s too dangerous, so I’ve barely ever tried it.]
"I see…"
I was certain now.
The Author had no intention of risking their own safety just to help Laila.
It was strange how that obvious fact made my mood sink.
"Well, there’s nothing I can do. An employee’s safety is… wait, huh?"
[Oh, that. She still hasn’t taken it, huh?]
Laila, who had been running nonstop, finally got a moment to breathe and hastily swallowed something from her pocket.
That… wasn’t that the thing I gave her before?
The pill I’d handed over as a reward, claiming it would make her stronger.
She hadn’t taken it yet?
"I thought she’d already eaten it and just said it was weak."
I’d been about to step in to help Laila, but I decided to watch a little longer.
…Right. Even an underachiever gets stronger little by little.
No matter how slow the learning curve, if you keep practicing, you’ll improve at least a little.
Her combat style had changed, and her movements were sharper than when I first saw her. I’d assumed she’d already taken it.
"…This is interesting, isn’t it, Monkey?"
"Mmph, nngh…!"
"Don’t worry. It’s too early for you to die."
Killing everyone would be easy, but who knew? Maybe keeping a hostage or two wouldn’t hurt.
I adjusted my stance and decided to watch what Laila would do next.
Let’s see how this plays out.
"…By the way, Author, what does that pill even strengthen?"
[Hmm, who knows!]
"…Sigh. You’re not going to tell me, are you?"
[Well, you’ll find out soon enough! Spoilers are forbidden!]
"You—!"
"Hah, kgh—!"
My heartbeat was deafening.
Was this a side effect of the pill? …Damn it. I should’ve taken it when I got it.
I was an idiot for not remembering how it felt the first time I took one.
My body burned as if on fire. I squeezed my eyes shut.
There was no attack—just silence, so quiet I could only hear my own breathing. …What the hell?
I forced my head up to look at the guy chasing me and instantly regretted it.
What was up with those half-crazed eyes? They gave me chills.
"What kind of pill was that?! Where did you get it?!"
"What… are you… talking about?"
"Your body—! Just a moment ago, you only had ears and a tail!"
"…Huh?"
"And those fangs! Where the hell did you get that pill?!"
…Fangs?
Without thinking, I reached up and touched my teeth. Something long and sharp grazed my fingers.
What the—
"Weaver Mensch pills don’t increase compatibility no matter how many times you take them! …Where did you get that pill?!"
"Hah, haha… Beats me. Sorry, but I don’t have a clue."
"If you won’t talk, I’ll make you! With that pill, I don’t need a plan!"
Running was out of the question now, and it didn’t look like he was going to let me go. That pill must’ve been something special.
Damn it. Nothing was going right.
"…I really didn’t want to use this."
"Don’t worry. I won’t kill you!"
It was an ability I’d sworn never to use, but with my back against the wall like this, I had no other choice.
No allies around. No irreplaceable objects to break.
All that existed was the enemy threatening me.
If that was the case, then it was time for my ability to shine. …I’d never been able to control it, so I’d barely used it before, but I’d make it work somehow.
Every time I used this ability, everything ended.
"You said it was a pill that makes me stronger, right?"
"UWOOOOOOOO!"
"When I wake up, I really hope that freak is gone."
Crack. Crunch.
With a sound like something twisting, my vision went black.
-BOOM!
A sound that didn’t seem like it could come from flesh colliding with flesh.
As the impact from that noise struck him, Minos felt confusion.
"…What the?"
It was a dull, heavy shock.
A sensation like something solid had slammed into him.
He’d only ever felt this kind of impact from superhumans with incredibly sturdy defensive abilities.
He hadn’t expected the woman running away from him to have that level of defense.
"What in the…"
He turned around—and immediately regretted it.
It was even more shocking than he’d imagined.
"A beast? No, that can’t be. She was human."
"Grrrrrr…"
"She’s definitely not in her right mind."
"KRAAAAAAAH!"
It was a person. But it wasn’t a person.
She clearly walked on two legs and had two arms.
But those eyes, wild with madness.
The violet fur covering her entire body made it impossible to see her as human.
"…She’s lost it. What the hell is this?"
"Awooooooo!"
It looked exactly like the illustrations from his childhood textbooks.
A being that was human yet a wolf.
A terrifying creature said to go berserk under the full moon, driven mad by blood.
Despite attempts to coexist with them, their violent rampages under the full moon had made them feared by all.
"A werewolf…"
He looked up at the sky.
The brightly shining full moon sent a chill down his spine.
If the old tales were true, he needed to run right now. This was an extremely dangerous situation.
…But Minos didn’t run. There was something he had to do.
"I don’t know why you suddenly transformed like that or went insane…! But I have to find out! The truth behind that pill you took!"
"KRAAAAAAAH!"
"Weaver Mensch can’t afford any more dangerous setbacks…!"
Sharp fangs and claws.
Eyes consumed by madness.
Even facing a beast with nothing but his bare hands and no support, he didn’t flee.
Because there was something he needed to uncover.
He knew how dangerous a werewolf in this state could be, yet Minos chose to fight.
"Come at me!"
The hunt had begun.