Editing CubexCursedxCurious:Volume11 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 5===

"Ah, sure... Can't be helped, I will do my best. I won't lose to your Fear-senpai, Yumecchi!"

Kagidou Himeno&mdash;Laurica "Trash" Shoegazer delivered her line with perfect acting skills. However, perfection was only limited to the surface. Her mind was currently filled with a chaotic vortex of thoughts.

Can't be helped? No, this was her mission. The path for her to approach that person.

Won't lose? No, she must win. Otherwise, «Battle Demon» Nirushaaki could not be drawn out. Otherwise, the Wathe handed to her by the Dominion Lord for this mission&mdash;«Râmnicuešč Village Rulebook»&mdash;could not activate.

This Wathe was the old and worn book currently kept in her schoolbag. She had heard of its origins. A certain village chief in Eastern Europe had suspected his wife of infidelity. As his suspicions ate at him repeatedly, he finally went mad. Clearly he was the village chief, clearly the greatest person in the village, so why did his wife betray him? Who was it? During this time, his term concluded and the election for the next term began. Superficially, he played the part of an outstanding village chief, maintaining a harmonious family, and was hence re-elected. Then having gone mad, he decided to write, in fresh blood on the covenant where the village rules were recorded, the words "the winner of the election has the right to know all the villagers' secrets." Thus after his re-election, he began tracing all of his wife's movements and investigated the secrets of everyone who came into contact with her. After finding all the villagers' secrets, he reached an inevitable conclusion regarding what course of action he ought to take.

Those who had touched his wife, those who had spoken to his wife, those who had made eye contact with his wife, those who had breathed the same air as his wife&mdash;In order to prevent them from contacting his wife ever again, he sentenced them all to the punishment of blood and burial.

As a result, this set of village rules was cursed. Although the Knights Dominion destroyed Wathes as their main goal, temporary reprieve was sometimes granted to Wathes with unique properties like this one. Another reason why this Wathe was kept instead of destroyed was due to the peculiarity of its cursed ability and activation conditions. The user who obtained victory in a vote within a certain domain would be able to learn the losers' secrets.

The user was Laurica. The vote was this school beauty pageant. Once she won, in that very instant, all the secrets of the losers&mdash;every girl who was eligible to participate&mdash;were supposed to flow into her mind. Among them, surely the word "Draconian" must appear. Someone surely possessed this secret.

(I... am only standing here in order to win...!)

She had made full preparations beforehand to guide things towards this end result.

She had searched for a candidate like Kagidou Himeno who not only possessed a high level of beauty but also social relationships that would not arouse suspicions even after Laurica used «Rawhide FCD» to become her. After investigating Kagidou Himeno's voice, manner of speaking, personality, interests and detailed habits, Laurica memorized all of it and copied them exactly.

Then using Kagidou Himeno's identity, she improved her standing among first-year students whom she could make contact with in a natural manner. Due to the apparent scarcity of first-years entering the school beauty pageant, to avoid attracting too much attention, she also manipulated social relationships indirectly to make a few first-years participate and serve as distractions.

In the end, she surmised that one of the reasons why she was selected specially for this mission was due to the "trash" she possessed&mdash;this particular Wathe bearing both advantages and drawbacks. In that sense, she was very fortunate. For the sake of her future, she decided to grit her teeth and endure, because there was finally value in owning this one Wathe, rotten, evil and disgusting.

This Wathe was neither the tranquilizing needle «Swine-Hugging Love» that that only worked on animals apart from humans, nor the «Gruppen Healing Cloth» that could heal incised wounds by causing fractures somewhere on the body in exchange, nor the «Fork of Epicure» that made all kinds of bizarre meat taste delicious whether it was human flesh or rotting meat regardless, but conversely made all other food tasteless, nor «Bartolomey Oblivion» that could erase memories from thirty minutes ago at most. Rather, it was Countess Gritze's specially prepared aphrodisiac, the «Perfume of Mating Season».

This was a perfume that was able to raise affection levels in the opposite sex. Laurica had used it a number of times before to complete missions requiring seduction. The problem was that the perfume was consumed every time, thus resulting in a limit on the number of uses. Due to the vastness of the gym space, affecting everyone with the perfume would probably require using all of the perfume. However, once this mission succeeded, she should be able to open up the path towards becoming a proper knight, so Laurica believed it was worth the costs.

By using that perfume, which would be diluted to some extent due to the vast space, virtually all the male students present should be charmed enough to write down her name on the ballot paper. In conjunction with the social relationships she had cultivated in a down-to-earth manner, the majority of first-year girls would also vote for her.

After such meticulous preparations, there was no reason for failure at all. Definitely, absolutely, assuredly&mdash;None.

However&mdash;

(Fear-in-Cube, Demon Blade Muramasa, Yamimagari Pakuaki's sister, I never expected them to participate as well...)

Had the goal been discovered? Did those girls enter the contest because they learned about the Wathe, «Râmnicuešč Village Rulebook»? This possibility seemed quite likely. Although they probably did not know everything, at least they already caught on to the fact that winning the school beauty pageant would make it possible to learn Nirushaaki's true identity. Those girls intended to take first place for themselves in order to prevent this from happening.

But calm down&mdash;Laurica whispered to herself.

Do you have any reason for losing? Impossible.

The perfume's power could be considered a trump card. Some variation was inevitable, but combining all the boys with the first-year girls, the votes should pretty much tally more than half. It might be possible for the opposing side to discover her during the instant when she used the perfume Wathe, but so long as she evaded capture, there would be no problem. Laurica was going to delay until the last second to use it, then hide somewhere and wait for the voting to finish.

She had neither any reason to meet defeat nor any intention to lose. In other words, she was not going to lose.

Carefully without letting anyone see her, Laurica clenched her fist.

Accompanied by pain in her lower abdomen, Laurica recalled the face of her idol while vowing firmly in her mind.

(Lilyhowell-sama... Please believe in me and wait patiently. I will definitely win!)



But no, this was too difficult.

After serious consideration, Lilyhowell Kilmister reached a conclusion. She believed that Laurica was facing too high a risk. Regardless of Laurica's capability. Lilyhowell disliked uncertainty. Suppose something unexpected caused the plan to fail, then the situation might be unsalvageable.

But confirming once again would not be meaningless.

"Is this the truth?"

'&mdash;If you have any doubts, just go there and see for yourself. You can also phone the one who infiltrated the school.'

"I am not doubting but confirming. Fear-in-Cube's faction has noticed and entered the contest. Is that correct?"

'Correct.'

The owner of the voice on the telephone&mdash;the "collaborator" in this operation&mdash;did not show any signs of hesitation. Although  produced through a voice changer, the mechanical voice did not seem to be lying.

Lilyhowell was using the speaker phone to allow others nearby to hear the person's voice. Neto was occupying the sofa selfishly, laughing loudly:

"Heehaha! People have appeared to get in our way!? Yeah, I never believed that such a boring plan could have gone smoothly from start to finish!"

"This is merely a possible hindrance and does not equate to failure yet."

"But that means failure is possible later, right? Heehaw!"

He was right. That was the same conclusion Lilyhowell had reached after much consideration.

"&mdash;Indeed. Perhaps victory cannot be assured. But we of the 87th Knight Squad «Lilyhowell Neto» have no need of any victory except assured victory."

"After all, everything is pointless if we fail. Heehaha!"

'...Do you have any solution?'

Lilyhowell did not trust the other side even as a collaborator. Having confirmed a number of times, for the moment she could conclude that the other side "possessed information of a highly trustworthy nature and that there should not be any risk in making use of that information at the current stage." Regarding the collaborator, all they knew was that this person bore a grudge against Nirushaaki just like the Knights Dominion. Hence, Lilyhowell's answer was naturally&mdash;

"Yes. As much as I am reluctant to employ it. However, I cannot tell you what it is."

"Is that so?'

The collaborator gave up on the answer so readily that Lilyhowell suddenly felt suspicious. Perhaps this person already knew what they were planning to do. Nevertheless, what needed to be done could not be changed.

"Have you said everything? In that case, we must begin the operation at once. Thank you for the information you provided."

'Same here. Well then&mdash;I look forward to your success. May Nirushaaki get what she deserves.'

The line was cut with a beep. Lilyhowell put down the home telephone's handset and sighed. After hearing that name from the handset, Neto's face suddenly lost all expression and started exuding the sharp and cruel aura as the avenger. But this time, it only manifested outwardly for an instant.

"So not funny at all... No, this is definitely funny, it's killing me with laughter! Heeheehahaha! Squad Leader, oh Squad Leader! Now that Fear-in-Cube's faction is out to meddle with us, we can't leave the entire mission to "Trash" alone, so what can we do? We're gonna use the method that you dislike?"

Neto was asking rhetorically. Lilyhowell buried her displeasure into the depths of her heart.

"&mdash;I will use what was prepared for emergencies. It has apparently been delivered safely from our home country. In other words, I shall rely on that thing and you, Neto."

"Heehahaha! It's that butthole gas, right!? That thing called the disabling gas, right?"

"That is correct."

Correct in name&mdash;She added in her mind. That type of gas was able to cause rapid unconsciousness but also left behind serious aftereffects and other problems. This gas was once used to deal with a large-scale terrorist act. Among the hostages, numbering over nine hundred, roughly one tenth of them died as a result.

"Heehaha! In other words, first we'll fill that gym with gas to put all those bastard butthole students to sleep, then I shall use the opportunity to load my gun with this photo of 'pain' caused by that butthole bitch a long time ago then stab every one of these students. Because I have the kind of body that feels extreme pleasure when returning pain to the one who inflicted the original wound, I'll surely orgasm once I stab the bitch who may be lying down among the fainted students! Once I find her, I can make her butthole climax directly! Heehaw~!"

Lilyhowell disliked it. She extremely disliked it.

The gas risked leaving aftereffects or even causing death. In order to find the enemy, Neto had to hurt people with the bayonet as well. She originally wanted to remind Neto to avoid vitals as much as possible, but whether Neto would listen would depend on his mood at the time. She imagined Neto going "Oops, my hand slipped, heehaha!" while stabbing people in the face, breasts or genitals. He was the kind of man who derived pleasure from such acts.

Lilyhowell absolutely believed that this was not the right path. However&mdash;

(I am neither a member of the clergy nor a paladin.)

She was just a simple knight. A knight who wished to destroy Wathes. Everyone was mad and most likely, she was mad too. She was self-aware. And this self-awareness of hers was very likely akin to madness as well.

Indeed. At least she wished for herself&mdash;to be mad in an orthodox manner.

Hence she asked herself. Was this right?

Both right and wrong at the same time.

The road ahead carried the both the significance of avenging her fallen comrades and ultimately, the significance of destroying contemptible Wathes.

Since the direction she ought to follow was not wrong, she must proceed with it. Even if ordinary people might be harmed. But currently, there was no time to turn back and find a new path.

"Order all members to assemble. Prepare yourself as well."

"Understood. Heehaha~ Looks like this will turn in a delightful butthole festival!"

While walking to her room (or rather, the bedroom serving as her room in the Kagidou house), Lilyhowell saw Neto jump up from the sofa from the corner of her eye. While walking to her room, she had already started unbuttoning her shirt. Even she found this such behavior too impatient, but it could not be helped.

Because as the squad leader, it would be utterly unsightly to arrive late due to spending too much time putting on formal attire.



"&mdash;May Nirushaaki get what she deserves."

Closing her cellphone, she heard a voice from behind.

"I knew it, I still can't get motivated. This is going in a far too roundabout manner."

"It can't be helped. There's no point if this incident concludes during the school beauty pageant. Whether the «Nest Parasitoid» plan... ''Or the other plan'' that cannot be opposed due to orders to assist coming from the higher-ups."

Looking back at Fourteen, Ontenzaki Satsuko spoke with a slightly wry smile.