Blood continued to drip, and Qualia walked in a straight line while stepping on it.
His eyes were glued to Backdoor’s back, who tried to escape with a ragged breath and an arm missing.
He stared blankly, but his bloodshot eyes had too many lines in them.
“Apprehending… Eliminate… [N/A]… Deviation from definition of role, apprehending.”
“Guah…”
Just as they were approaching the main street, Backdoor stumbled and crouched, and Qualia drew closer.
“…Uu…”
Qualia heard shuddering voices from people around them, which he judged to be over Backdoor holding a knife.
He detected some values of shoulder’s stiffening and eyes glaring at him, but those could be ruled out as measurement errors, and there was no further calculation required.
“Q-Qualia… Wait, calm down… How about you give me a try…”
Backdoor extended his arm to try to stop Qualia, as he fell. But like a quiet killing machine, Qualia drew closer step by step.
“I heard you’re with that Princess Lobelia… But look at the political world. King Wirgin’s bad news too, even worse than that evil Queen Route… From my estimation, this country is going to be ruled by her. And even if King Wirgin survives… It will be the same. Princess Lobelia doesn’t have a future as things stand.”
Even after losing his left arm, even with this overwhelming being before him, Backdoor continued to try to talk his way out. He then released the clincher, as if pleading.
“Think about it. I can be your consultant in any way you want. I was the one who brought Azure Skies up to that scale!! If you use me, your Hello World will…!!”
“Your words carry no degree of trust.”
There was the sound of a shutter closing.
Qualia was not listening. Backdoor was in his sights, but he was not really looking at him.
He was simply looking down at a detestable being. Looking down with an ice cold monochrome stare.
(Try to communicate dammit… I really have no way out but killing, you primitive…!!)
There was no point in negotiating from the start. And once he realized this, he began kneading magic energy.
“Phishing Lure.”
He copied Ina.
“…Mister Qualia.”
A lot of static ran through Qualia’s nerves, and he clenched his teeth so hard, it felt like they would break.
That voice, posture, appearance, everything was like Ina.
The cat ears, the brown hair, the cardigan she always wore as a maid, it was all there.
Qualia’s eyes were wide open, almost as if his brain was gone, and Backdoor smiled victoriously. All he had to do next was swing the knife in his right hand.
If he was close to Qualia, it also meant Qualia was close to him.
(How’s that!? You’re not gonna attack this…)
“Type GUN.”
Ignoring calculations, he pulled the trigger, hitting the thigh under the skirt.
“Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!”
He detected Ina’s writhing face and her groans.
“[N/A]”
That just made his anger white hot and scorched his heart.
“G-guh…”
The disguise was gone, revealing the pile of static that was Backdoor.
“You… Princess Lobelia… This cat girl… You hurt people important to you like it’s no big deal…!”
“You are not Lobelia or Ina. You spread static in Qualia. Detecting biggest threat.”
That threat assessment did not come from calculations of artificial intelligence. It was pure bloodlust being vocalized as is. Qualia realized this, and stopped again.
“Error… Error… Abnormality in designation of threat level… Qualia’s role…”
The static was not something he could ignore.
The function to analyze situations was not responding. The calculation function was not responding. The function to calculate optimal solutions was not responding. Some functions that went beyond his internal memory and performance were frozen.
He wanted to slaughter that Backdoor being.
He knew he should not, and that they could still draw information from him if he lived, but something pulled Qualia.
Kill Backdoor.
Make him feel what Ina did.
Let it go.
Follow your heart.
Pull the trigger and blow his brains.
Something other than calculation circuits pushed choices that could not be called optimal solutions.
“…Ku…”
Meanwhile, Backdoor looked around for any possible escape. And he found a beast girl that fell and was seemingly unable to move.
He took advantage of the opportunity given by Qualia fighting something inside him, and dragged his leg with a hole in it to grab the girl.
“Hey Qualia!! Don’t move.”
Qualia was finally done analyzing the situation.
Backdoor grabbed the beast girl’s arm behind her, and pointed the knife at her.
“H-hihihi… Don’t move… Girl…”
“No…”
“[N/A]”
Qualia remembered this sight. A sharp object being pointed at the throat of a hostage paralyzed with fear.
A knife pointed at a neck.
A beast person holding the blade.
Mind did the same thing.
But there was a difference.
Mind kept apologizing to the hostage. Backdoor showed no such reluctance.
“If you don’t want this girl dead, shoot your head with that thing that fires beams…!”
He made an outrageous demand to Qualia, confident in the turning tide of this battle. This was also something Mind did not do.
But inside Qualia, he saw Mind pointing a blade at a crying hostage.
…And his head being cut.
“Still… You’ve got a nice face, girl.”
“A-ah…”
“The more beautiful… The more I like seeing it twisted by death…”
The beast girl rapidly lost ‘tasty’.
She could do nothing as the knife passed back and forth from the neck and chest as if he was picking floors at a store.
Qualia was learning this sight too, and pictured the moment Ina was stabbed.
“Haha, that’s the face. Both Qualia and this girl, that’s the face!!”
“…”
“It was the same with that Ina… I wanted to have more fun too… If I had more time, I would’ve really had my fun with her. I wanted you to see more. And that Liebe too. How her lungs were crushed and she suffocated…!!”
“…”
Qualia could not understand Backdoor’s words as he slowly turned pale due to blood loss. His detection function was starting to break.
Instead, something else was injected and ran through him.
His heart swelled, and then Backdoor spoke with a heartfelt smile.
“…This is why misfortune is so tasty. I can’t quit it…!”
All calculations froze, and Qualia broke.
“Execute Teleportation.
[N/A][N/A][N/A][N/A][N/A][N/A][N/A][N/A] eliminating.”
Qualia teleported, and his right hand landed in Backdoor’s face.
“Buh.”
He passed by the girl torn away from Backdoor, and straddled him on the ground.
He did not calculate any optimal solutions, as his circuits were frozen. Qualia just followed his broken heart.
It was not enough to stop the vital activities of that static.
“W-wa- bufuh, wa, bufuha!”
There were breaking sounds as fists hit cheeks.
Qualia stayed on top of him, as the fists kept raining down.
The one-sided violence that was not an optimal solution began.
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