“It would be easy if the sister was simply the culprit. Hearing about that would make it easier to write the report on this case later.”
Handling the ‘Unlaws’ incident is his job, but writing the report is part of the job too.
At the Cartesius Balldlum branch, Norman’s sister Sphera Hamish is the director, overseeing administration, liaising with nobles, covering up incidents, and giving overall instructions.
The scientist Jim Adamworth researches the abilities of ‘Unlaws’.
There is also another person in charge of gathering information, but that person seems to dislike them.
Even Sphera and Jim get along poorly with Elteel and the others, so they rarely interact.
Sipping tea, he opened the file of documents.
It was then, as he was going over them again, that it happened.
“Oh?”
“Hm?”
First Elteel turned toward the entrance of the shop, and Norman followed her gaze.
The one who entered was a child.
A ragged, tattered child whose gender was hard to tell. The child went straight to the back of the shop to their table and stood there silently without saying a word.
A homeless child.
“Good work.”
Norman offered the untouched two shawarmas on his plate to the child.
The child took a folded memo from their tattered pocket and placed it on the table, then left without a word.
Their time in the shop didn’t even last a minute.
“I had asked for an investigation on the first three homeless victims before going to the brothel.”
The memo was written on a piece of notebook paper, with surprisingly neat handwriting for a homeless person cramming the page.
“As expected, this is impressive for such a short time. Sleeping spots, meals, workplaces, supply routes…wow, even how often they got intimate with women…”
Norman’s movements paused for a moment as his eyes scanned the memo.
“Norman sama?”
His pale blue eyes
narrowed slightly in thought.
The information he had gathered up to now, combined with what he just received about the homeless’ living conditions. A girl sold into prostitution by her brother, mutilated by a deviant nobleman. The illegal members-only brothel and its pitiful girls. The three homeless victims. Hellcatee Street. Why did she remain at the brothel?
It was like tangled threads unraveling.
No, rather, scattered points being forcibly connected.
He had no definitive proof.
Piling up “maybes” to forge a semblance of a theory.
Norman fell silent, but Elteel simply gazed at him, saying nothing.
She soon resumed eating with elegant poise, showing neither indifference nor laziness.
Like a loyal dog awaiting its master’s command.
If called upon. If ordered. Ready to act immediately.
Maintaining a tense balance, unshaken no matter what happened.
“……Elteel. We may have to split up for a bit after this.”
“What…?!”
A sound like “Gaan” could be heard.
“But…then what shall I do…?”
“Sorry. It seems better if I show my face alone on that street, at least.”
“Will you be okay?”
“I’ll put on a little act. Of course, I’ll be relying on you in the end. May I?”
“…Well, it’s not like I can refuse when you ask me like that.”
She smiled happily.
Norman had asked knowing full well Elteel wouldn’t refuse him.
“Still, you look so lovely when concentrating on your deductions, Norman sama. Just like a great detective.”
“Well, I’m just an amateur detective at best. …Then I suppose you’re my assistant?”
“No, I’d prefer to be your pet.”
“….If that’s what you want, I guess.”
“Rest assured, Norman sama.”
Elteel placed a hand on her chest and smiled gently.
Like a servant pledging loyalty to her master.
“No matter who your enemy is, I shall accompany you to the very ends of hell.”
Her words were moving, but considering what would happen next, it pained his heart.
Well, just a little bit.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT LOCALIZERMEERKAT.PAGES.DEV
●
A young boy walked through the chilly night streets.
The Hellcatee crossroads. He paced back and forth, surveying his surroundings, but his stride itself was light.
The streetlamps placed at even intervals along the street dimly illuminated just his feet, leaving the entire area quite dark.
In some places, the moonlight allowed bare visibility.
One could even call it carefree,
inviting, yet with enough careless openings to slaughter him.
A gray, foul-smelling boy who appeared at the illegal brothel.
Accompanied by a detective, he shamelessly pried into the brothel’s affairs while appearing dazed, dragging along a giantess like a servant before leaving.
He didn’t know the details.
—— In which case, [it] thought, I’ll just kill him.
[It] followed behind the boy.
Maintaining a distance of about ten meters. Silencing its footsteps, stalking closer.
Fingers dangling, knees bent.
Ten meters. For an ordinary person, it would take several seconds even at a full sprint to close that gap. But [it] was no ordinary being. Ever since stabilizing this power, its physical abilities had increased dramatically. A murderous intent and hatred for those it had killed before welled up from the depths of its chest. That was the source of its power’s manifestation.
Hence, that distance took [it] but an instant to cross.
Another instant to thrust forward its weapon.
And it would be over.
Closing the distance in a single step, swinging the weapon down onto the defenseless back—
“Oh, that was dangerous.”
“!?”
The boy spun around, avoiding the attack.
●
Norman saw the girl slide to a stop on the cobblestones.
A cheap, simple dress and equally cheap, tattered clothes. Bandages were wrapped around visible parts of her body, along with scars from old wounds. She had messy, unevenly cut pale blonde hair. And three-inch nails drenched in blood.
——It’s her.
“……Why?”
Jacqueline Harley, sister of the slain [laborer], asked.
“Nothing special. You’re just giving off too much killing intent.”
More than that,
“Jacqueline Harley. Shall I tell you about yourself?”
“….?!”
The battered girl’s face twisted as she clenched her fingers and nails.
“I think that brothel is going to go down, just as you wished.”
“———”
However, Norman’s words caused her tension to ease slightly.
Seeing this, he knew his conjecture was not too far off.
“The detective I went to that shop with is quite important and has a strong sense of justice. he won’t let a place like that remain. That’s why you started this, right? The serial road killer case.”
“……I’m surprised. I thought you were some kind of being, but you’re just a detective?”
“I do get called that sometimes, but I’m really not a detective.”
“……What do you intend to do with me?”
“That’s up to you.”
Ideally, he wanted this to end peacefully.
Though that would require dealing with Elteel later.
“My job is to apprehend ‘Unlaws’ like you, so I’d prefer if you surrendered obediently.”
“An…rou… So there really are others like me.”
In the dimly moonlit street, Jacqueline, in an almost crawling posture, narrowed her eyes.
There was a particularly striking vertical scar around her right eye.
She must have skillfully concealed it with makeup at the brothel.
“The kind like you is what we call a ‘Category II Deviant’ at my organization.”
“……? Types, categories? There are different levels and kinds?”
“That’s how my Cartesius organization classifies them.”
It’s not that complicated a concept, really.
With anomalous abilities directed at oneself, basic physical capabilities tend to be enhanced as well.
Ridiculous strength, durability to brush off bullets, endless stamina to run for hours, recovery ability to heal most injuries overnight with rest.
Assuming superhuman athletic abilities as a baseline, coupled with the anomaly itself.
Manipulating body temperature, having abnormal flexibility, generating electricity. On top of the prerequisite physical prowess, further specialized bodily functions—like generating exceptionally hard nails.
What they can do exists on the extension of human limits.
“But the scary part isn’t the ability itself. Put another way, perhaps it’s because they’re so overwhelmingly capable that their mental restraints tend to come loose easily—a sense of omnipotence. Of being almighty. Surpassing human capabilities causes their rationality to slip.”
From human.
Physically and mentally, they become outliers.
“To put it simply, they’re a bit mentally unhinged. Unable to resist doing whatever they want. Casting aside self-control, ethics, and the like.”
“Hah. So that’s why ‘Unlaws’? Quite an ironic name. I’d like to give a round of applause to whoever named them.”
“It’s not very funny.”
“——Don’t you understand, detective? If you know so much about ones like me. I won’t stop. Those five I killed were all unforgivable scum.”
“So that makes it okay to kill them?”
“If I don’t kill——”
The battered girl’s mouth curved into an arc.
I want to. I should. I have to.
Once that conviction takes root——you can’t stop.
“Are you the same type, detective?”
“Well, what do you think?”
“No matter how I look at you, you’re the enemy of women.”
You’ve already figured it out, haven’t you? She smiled, her nails reflecting the faint moonlight.
“Um, I did consider your motive and all that. Want to hear about the other types?”
“Not interested.”
Jacqueline slowly rose to her feet.
“Haah.”
Norman let out a breath.
“Ufufu.”
Jacqueline laughed.
And her killing intent exploded forth rigidly.
“——’The Righteous Quintuple Canonical Claws’!”
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