Volume 1 Chapter 86: More Villainous Than the Villains
The video slowly became blurry. In the end, the whole screen was covered in black-and-white static, making a sharp electric noise.
The Professor pulled the USB drive out of her arm.
The small device was sparking, giving off black smoke, yet it still flashed with light. It was clearly completely broken.
But that did not trouble the Professor.
She pressed several buttons on her arm, and the video that had just disappeared suddenly appeared again in front of the two of them.
After pausing the video, the Professor stood there silently for a long time before finally turning to Heidi and asking,
“The person in this video... is she the magical girl you met last time?”
“Yes! It’s definitely her! The name seems to be... Kaguya?”
Looking at the familiar figure in the video, Heidi unconsciously bit her lip. A nervous feeling rose in her heart, and scenes from a few days ago returned to her mind.
Facing the Professor’s newest research result, even that magical girl who had always blocked their plans had been powerless to resist, slowly forced into a dead end.
But this person...
She defeated that synthetic beast in only three moves.
Three moves.
Only three moves.
Even now, Heidi could not forget the Professor’s shocked expression after watching the recording that day.
That synthetic beast could be called one of the Empire’s greatest efforts.
Although the Professor never said it directly, they had clearly invested a huge amount of time and energy into it.
Yet all that hard work had been mercilessly crushed under that girl’s feet.
Just like in the video, where she casually stepped on Liu Li, the person the Professor had spent great effort supporting.
Maybe from the very beginning, that person had already been targeting them.
So she used this method, step by step forcing information out of everyone who knew something, until she could find their location.
First Heidi.
Then Liu Li.
Next Zhang Min.
And finally, the Professor.
What a perfect chain...
Heidi’s thoughts became complicated.
She had to admit that the image of that girl in the dress had left too deep an impression, becoming something she could not erase from memory.
Compared to the Professor and the others, who had only watched a video, Heidi, who had faced Kaguya in person, understood her strength much more clearly.
A strange light shone on Heidi’s pale face.
Her small hands began to tremble slightly.
And the shaking became stronger and stronger.
But it was not from fear.
Instead...
She quickly grabbed her own hands and turned her head to the side, whispering softly,
“Alright, alright, I know you’re excited and want to fight her… But can she really find this place? After all, this is...”
While speaking, Heidi unconsciously looked toward the video on the table.
In the next second, her expression suddenly changed.
In the video, the image that had frozen after being paused suddenly began moving again.
And the girl who had been sitting gracefully in the chair had somehow already stood up.
She slowly moved her beautiful face closer to the camera.
“T-This... wasn’t this a prerecorded video...?”
Heidi’s closed lips slowly opened wider and wider in shock.
In the video, Kaguya’s shining lips moved silently.
Although Heidi heard no sound, she could clearly read the mouth movement.
“Found you.”
Heidi was suddenly shocked. But before she could react, a sharp alarm sounded throughout the hall.
“...She has arrived.”
The Professor’s voice was still rough and calm, without even the slightest change in tone. As if Kaguya’s arrival had no effect on her at all.
The sharp sound of electricity echoed through the whole hall. Heidi instinctively looked around.
Then she saw silver-white streams of electricity shooting out from the now completely black screen. More and more gathered together, lighting up the dark hall until it looked like countless silver snakes dancing in the air.
Inside the screen surrounded by electricity, the girl in the dress calmly stepped out from it.
She casually sat down on the round table without any politeness.
The tips of her legs, wrapped in black stockings with garter straps, lifted slightly. Her black little boots gently swung as she crossed one leg over the other.
Resting her cheek on one hand, Kaguya smiled brightly at the two people before her.
“My, my, you really were hard to find~”
“So this is the secret base of your whatever Empire?”
“Why don’t you even turn on the lights here... Can you really see each other’s faces during meetings?”
She casually took a gummy candy from the candy jar at her waist and popped it into her mouth.
Then she curiously looked around. Her gaze paused for a moment on the fierce black statue standing in the center of the hall.
After that, she puffed out her cheeks in fake dissatisfaction toward the two of them.
“Hey, I’m a guest at least. Couldn’t you at least pour me some tea?”
The girl seemed to have no sense of danger or caution at all, even though she had entered enemy territory.
Her relaxed attitude made it seem like she was visiting a friend’s house.
“Kaguya...”
Heidi’s little face became tense. Pressing her lips together, she unconsciously stepped back.
“How did you find this place!?”
“This is our Empire’s forward base for contacting the human world! Forget magical girls, even ordinary subordinates and monsters in the Empire aren’t allowed to know where it is!”
“A power that allows movement through reflective surfaces... and also...”
The Professor, who had been watching coldly the whole time, slowly stepped forward and pointed at the black USB drive lying on the table, still giving off a weak flashing light.
“A signal transmitter?”
Heidi suddenly understood and stared at the Professor’s thin figure in disbelief.
“Professor, if you already knew, then why...?!”
“You have come from far away. We failed to welcome you properly. Please forgive us, Miss Kaguya.”
The Professor ignored Heidi’s question completely. Instead, she bowed slightly toward Kaguya.
“I am a researcher of the Arsis Empire, Dian Imelda.”
“Eh? Professor?”
Heidi opened her mouth in surprise.
She had known the Professor for so long, yet this was the first time she had ever seen the usually cold Professor treat someone so politely.
“Oh? So you’re the Professor that Boss Liu talked about?”
Kaguya’s eyes curved like crescent moons.
With a light jump, she hopped off the table.
Without even looking at Dian, she put both hands behind her back and casually walked one full circle around the hall as if sightseeing.
Then she suddenly jumped in front of the two of them and let out a deep dramatic sigh.
“Ah, what a coincidence. If this blonde little sister hadn’t randomly bothered me, I probably wouldn’t have met Boss Liu afterward...”
L-Little sister?
Heidi pointed at her own face in confusion.
The blonde little sister Kaguya mentioned... was her?
You’re the little sister!
Your whole family are little sisters!
Leaving age aside, just by height alone, I’m half a head taller than you!
Heidi’s eyebrows rose angrily as she prepared to argue back. But the girl before her lowered her head slightly and continued talking to herself.
“Sigh, sadly, no matter what I said, Boss Liu refused to be my friend.”
“This tragedy could have been avoided...”
Her tone carried real regret, as if she truly felt sorry for Liu Li’s death.
“She wouldn’t be my friend, but she also refused to die.”
“So that put me in a difficult position, didn’t it?”
“Ah! Speaking of that...”
Changing the topic, Kaguya gently touched her chin with a slim finger and whispered with a troubled face.
“Boss Liu is dead. Even though I don’t think it was my fault...”
“You people will definitely try to take revenge afterward, right?”
“Never-ending assassination attempts! Open attacks and secret tricks!”
“That sounds troublesome.”
“I’m a suuuuper person who hates trouble.”
“So...”
Her eyes moved like flowing water, carrying a smile that was not really a smile.
“To avoid all of you bothering me in the future...”
“Sorry, but could you all please die?”