“Uwaaaah! Beast people from Azure Skies!”
Screams and sounds of fighting echoed through a section of the lower area close to the upper area.
And Qualia ran through, using the information that reached his ears.
“Analyzing situation. Recognizing values that differ from the normal in that voice data.”
With that issue in mind, Qualia finally reached the place.
“W-wait! Please… Spare me…”
But what he saw was a beast person sitting on the ground, and a magic doll activating a skill.
“Lightning. Reverse.”
Lightning turned into a sphere, and gathered above the magic doll. Being hit with it would go beyond killing someone instantly. The overwhelming energy would evaporate them.
“Yes! Do it! Kill the rebel!”
And the humans who were screaming earlier showed no fear. They stood behind the magic doll and cheered.
They were excited to see the magic doll execute the criminal.
“Type GUN MAGNUM mode.”
Qualia blew away the lightning sphere with a stream of charged particles, along with that mood.
“Performing hacking.”
By the time the magic doll noticed, Qualia already had the palm of his hand on the magic stone.
Accessing Lightning magic stone.
Learning magic doll.
Neutralizing.
The linear process was completed.
“An abnormality has occurred within the instructions given. Please input instructions again, master.”
“That is something for you to calculate.”
After checking the empty shell that really was just a doll now, Qualia turned his eyes towards the beast person that was still too scared to move. Needless to say, any will to fight that once existed was gone by now.
“Request that you return to the location where you were being kept captive.”
“Yes, yes, yes.”
The beast person responded with tiny nods.
The location where beast people were being temporarily kept was close, so this was not a big detour. But just as Qualia was about to escort the beast person there…
“Wait! Are you just going to let that beast person live!?”
“We can’t stay with those rampaging beast people!”
There was a downpour of ‘not tasty’ voices from the humans positioned around them. Most appeared to be nobles from the way they acted, or at least wealthy.
Everyone wished for the death of the beast person. They seemed to have become very sensitive to danger.
Qualia moved his eyes all around, looking at everyone.
Analyzing.
“They should all die! How many people do you think died yesterday because of…?”
“Your voice data matches.”
“Eh?”
The abuse did not resonate with Qualia, who simply continued his analysis.
To be more precise, he was looking for a voice that matched that of the person who appeared to have been the first to find the beast person. The one who yelled ‘Uwaaaah! Beast people from Azure Skies’.
“Eh? What?”
Qualia approached this person, and pointed his monochrome gaze at him.
“There was an abnormality in your scream when you found the beast person.”
“What are you talking about!?”
“Your scream was not a human reactionary response. Did you really, unintentionally, scream out of fear of the beast person?”
“Well, of course.”
He responded, but immediately after, a chill ran down his spine, and he stepped back.
Those two eyes staring at him had that much power in them. Those eyes watched, observed, and inferred his values.
Gadgets that could detect lies were created around the same time as the birth of machines. So of course, there was no way Qualia could not see through them.
“You are giving a false report.”
“W-what are you…”
“Type GUN.”
A very thin beam was shot, but it hurt no one. It passed just a millimeter away from the man’s ear lobe.
“Wah! Hyaaah!?”
“Warning. The next false report will damage you.”
The man fell back and sat down, as the jet black muzzle that fired the beam was pointed at him.
“A-all right! All right! I’ll tell you everything!! I’m a shill!”
The cowering man finally started speaking sincerely, and without contradictions.
“Ddos is a powerful man, and he paid me in advance… He said if I waited here, beast people would come… And to scream when they did… And then to take the side of the ones beating the beast people…”
Qualia recognized the word shill.
Basically, he was supposed to rile up people around him about the dangers of beast people, and solidify the magic dolls as the good ones in this situation. People were still scared due to the incident with Azure Skies, so this was meant to portray the beast people as demons and magic dolls as heroes.
And even if said beast people were not actually a part of Azure Skies, the recent incident meant that it could be written off as a misunderstanding, and no one would blame them.
Qualia had not fully judged what Ddos’ objective was, but he could say one thing.
“You are wrong.”
“…”
“Your actions are detrimental towards beast people. Worst case scenario, they will lead to the cessation of vital activities.”
“I-I mean, it’s just beast… Ah.”
For a second, Qualia moved his finger, and it seemed he was going to fire his photon weapon.
The shill’s consciousness was taken by the shaking photon weapon. He feared for his life.
For just a second, Qualia really did move to eliminate him.
“…Error. These actions are producing feedback.”
It was the same as when Mind was killed. The same rampage unfitting for a machine that he directed at the man who killed him.
“A-ah…”
The shill was not the only one who was afraid. So were the unrelated humans who were riled up by him.
So many ‘not tasty’ expressions, created by Qualia.
Qualia did not hold this situation in high regard. At the very least, he wished to input his emotions into the people in front of him.
“You fear cessation of vital activity. You fear damage.”
“…”
“Beast people also fear cessation of vital activity. Fear damage. Then you can also reach that conclusion. Harming beast people who offer no resistance is of little value. Therefore, request that you stop aggressive action.”
He learned something from Ina and Lobelia. Something to chant when you were being fully sincere to someone.
Qualia made the photon weapon disappear, and purposefully put out his empty hands.
“Please, understand, what, I feel.”
People then left quietly, looking like they could not bear to stay.
Qualia did not know if it was transmitted properly. Currently, he could detect lies, but could not see through people’s real feelings.
Qualia delivered the beast person back to custody, who did not resist, and simply said thank you before disappearing after walking deeper.
Qualia then walked outside again.
There were fewer screams from beast people than he expected. And he could not see movements from magic dolls either.
Did the magic dolls stop their activities already? But just as he was thinking that…
“Magic doll detected. Judged to be Ace.”
He found the one magic doll whose name he knew, Ace. It seemed she had not found any beast people yet.
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