There were screams and loud noises one after the other from several places in the capital.
Seventeen beast people had been neutralized, but that was not the end. There were clearly many threats. A hundred would be a very optimistic estimate, as there was a good chance that they reached a thousand.
Firstly, Qualia did not have enough information, so he attempted to receive it from a beast person writhing on the ground.
“Request explanation. Why are you carrying out this large scale act?”
“To take back our lives from you humans who think you’re gods!!”
The beast person responded while glaring, and pressing a wounded limb.
“We’re gonna kill you humans that only see us as slaves… And make our own country!”
“You are wrong. This behavior only decreases the level of trust in beast people. There is a high chance that this will be disadvantageous to your lives.”
“Shut up human! Stop blabbering like you know anything…”
“Request explanation. What does Qualia not know?”
“Like a human would understand our suffering!!”
“…Master Qualia wants to save people from that suffering regardless of whether they are beast people or humans.”
Ina jumped forward and stood next to Qualia, with a complex expression on her face.
It showed both sorrow about the violent actions of her fellow beast people, and resentment about her master being spoken to like a fool.
The beast person was about to respond, when he suddenly raised his eyebrows upon seeing Ina’s cat ears in her soft hair.
“Are you… A beast person?”
“Yes… I know your suffering. But this is just going to increase enmity towards beast people! It’s wrong!”
“How sad. What a shame. A sex slave grew attached like this.”
“No, I…”
The beast person spoke with a cruel tone, but Ina did not avert her eyes.
But in the meantime, Qualia…
“Threat detected.”
Three beast people approached from behind with weapons held high.
However, Qualia’s senses of hearing and touch saw through everything, and he fired beams at their arms and legs without looking.
“Gigaaaah…”
“Do you… Have eyes on the back of your head…?”
Qualia responded plainly with words that a normal human would struggle to say.
“You are wrong. Ina is not a slave. She is designated as Qualia’s family.”
“…”
“Request explanation. What kind of organization are you? What is the scale of your organization’s attack on…”
An unexpected error crept up on Qualia’s optimized solution.
It was far and between buildings, so Qualia could not see it. But the vibrations enveloping his body clearly did not feel human.
“Large threat detected.”
The rumbling on the ground erased all sound from the world, and the bright red light took away some vision.
The aftereffect of the intense blast sent a barrage of debris flying. It all happened in a second.
“Uwah!?”
There were one hundred and thirty-five pieces of debris, big or small.
All would cause fatal wounds, so not a single one could pass.
Qualia locked on to all of them.
He stood in front of Ina, who could not even react, and calculated the trajectory of the rain of debris without any margin for error.
“Calculating optimal solution. Calculating every trajectory.”
He held up both photon weapons, and fired continuously.
There were a hundred and thirty-five shots fired very quickly, and all crossed paths with the debris.
Every single piece was swallowed by the rays and vaporized instantly.
Qualia executed his calculations in less than a second, and as a result, there was not a single casualty behind him.
“T-thank you… M-Master Qualia, what…”
“…Analyzing situation. Concluding that in that direction, is the shop that made Ina’s hair ‘cute’.”
“Eh?”
Ina heard Qualia’s analysis, and reflexively tried to move towards the smoke.
But Qualia predicted it, and grabbed her hand.
“That action is not recommended. A large threat emerged that caused that blast.”
“But… Those flames…”
Static ran in the back of Qualia’s mind, as he seemingly sympathized with the panic in Ina’s face.
He recalled the woman’s big smile as she said goodbye to Qualia and Ina before.
“…Qualia will neutralize the threat and confirm the safety of the shop. That is the optimal solution.”
It should be, at least. But what was it that happened in his calculation circuits that almost made him run forward? Qualia twisted his face at this bug running in the back of his mind.
“Hey hey hey, who!? Who shot down all that debris? Do we have a street performer here?”
“Tch… It’s that crazy pyromaniac, Ghost. This isn’t a dungeon.”
After hearing the voice that was loud enough to not get drowned out by the flames, beast people spoke with annoyed tones.
From the flames emerged the dog-eared beast person Ghost, with a large non-humanoid shadow behind him.
It looked like a giant lizard covered in flames, and it stared at Qualia and Ina with its golden eyes as though it were sizing up prey.
This was the large threat Qualia detected.
“Ina, request explanation. How would this monster be classified?”
“H-hum… I don’t know… I can tell it’s being commanded by that beast person, but…”
Ghost smiled, and declared its name.
“Salamander. My best pet, that only lives in the lower levels of dungeons. It’s only fitting to bring something like this if we’re going to take away the humans’ hegemony, right!?”
“Situation understood. Monster, salamander. Designating as a high level threat. Taking action to eliminate it.”
Qualia held his photon weapons as he finished calculating his optimal solutions.
He drew the shortest path, not to take down the salamander, but to confirm the safety of that shop owner.
Join my patreon to support me and read ahead.
