“Wh-What are you doing?!” Mari yelled as she took my wounded arm.

My vision became clouded. Nausea overtook my senses as blood gushed onto the floor. I’d never seen this much blood at once, never mind my own. The only thing stopping me from panicking was Mari’s gentle hand stabilizing my arm.

As she placed a palm on my wound, a sharp pain ran up my arm. The gash was filled with something cold. It was like putting shards of ice inside the cut. But the pain began to subside and the blood slowed to a crawl before eventually stopping.

Mari helped me to a sitting position on the floor before moving on to Tanada who’d been bleeding for far longer than I had.

After taking in a few breaths, I looked down at my wound, only to find—nothing. It was like there had never been a wound there to begin with.

As she finished dealing with Tanada, Mari stood and place both hands on her hips. “Elsgn, you can’t just go doing that to our guests,” she puffed out her cheeks.

“Do the thing now,” he ignored Mari’s words.

She sighed before kneeling in front of me. Once again, she took my arm, the one that’d been wounded a few seconds ago, and did the same things from before. This time, instead of there being nothing after heat and cold, the same swarm came from the center of my forearm, creating the same screen that’d popped up for Mari before.

Having her put her palm against it sent a shiver up my spine. My breathing became heavy before she finally let go.

“That’s…weird…”

“What did you find?” Elsgn asked.

“Nothing particularly worrying in the way that you’re thinking,” Mari said. “But their bio readings are not ones I recognize. It’s like they’re not from…here…or something…” She kneeled in front of me and put a hand on my shoulder. “Hey, um…are you okay?” she worryingly asked.

By now I was coming to, stabilizing my breathing after that sudden shock. I already didn’t know how to feel about the guy, Elsgn, but now I really didn’t like him.

“Y-Yeah…I’m good,” I said with a deep breath. Looking up, I stared directly into Mari’s delicate eyes. They scanned me as if to make sure I was telling the truth before nodding.

“Okay, then, can you touch the panel for me?” she pointed at my arm.

With a nod, I did as she said. The screen blinked to life, displaying nine sequential zeroes.

“What is this?”

“Your level.”

Like some video game, I was tempted to ask, but I wasn’t fully sure they’d get what that meant. Instead, I looked at the numbers over again. “I’m at zero? I’m guessing that’s not good.”

“Under normal circumstances. Even little kids have a few levels by the time they turn three,” she explained, bringing my confidence level even lower. “Anyway, can you press the button on the top right?”

I dejectedly did as she said, preparing myself for another blow against my pride…

“Hm?” Mari pulled my arm closer to her. “That can’t be right…”

“What is it?” Elsgn asked as he got closer.

“His points…”

“What about them?”

“Look,” she turned my arm in a way for him to see. For the first time, I noticed some semblance of emotion coming from that man. His eyes widened as his head recoiled.

“Is something wrong?”

Ignoring me, Elsgn said, “Check the girl.”

After doing so, Mari answered, “About the same.”

I pulled back my arm and looked at the screen. Displayed on it was a series of options, stats for the most part. From top to bottom, it read:

—Level Gain

—Strength

—Stamina

—Magical Skill

—Magical Capacity

—Magical Strength

—Resistance

The options were quite rudimentary, especially keeping in mind the similarities between this and video games. It wasn’t difficult to understand any of these concepts, but you’d think there’d be more of the classic options available.

Either way, the top left of the screen displayed what I believed was the reason for Mari and Elsgn’s surprise. A single number read: “61,727,261”

I had no context as to what this meant, but all I knew was that a million of anything was a lot. Whatever this number entailed, it was either really good or really bad.

Elsgn crossed his arms before turning to Mari. “Keep them here. I shall inform the Queen of this.” As he said that, he walked towards the door. Once he exited, Mari let out a long sigh.

“Sorry about all of this.”

“No need to apologize. It’s not your fault,” Tanada said as she stood and I did the same.

Mari looked off to the side, “It’s not like I’m helping either. Elsgn isn’t much of a friendly type, but I wished he wasn’t so much of an asshole either.”

“Will he not get angry if you bad mouth him?” I asked. My worries about him had only grown with every moment I spent with him. I wouldn’t want a nice girl like her to be punished for expressing her feelings to two random people.

“It’s fine. That guy is always in his own bubble. As long as you don’t stand out, he will forget you exist,” Mari turned to her desk and picked up the book from before. She opened it and held out her hand in the air. A pen suddenly popped into existence, and she began writing something inside the book.

“Is that a diary?” I decided to ask.

“Huh?! Um, n-no it’s just…um…”

“Tsuji!” Tanada hit my arm.

“What? What did I do?”

“Don’t you know that a diary is a girl’s most treasured item? You can’t just ask about it out of the blue like that.”

“I don’t think that’s true.”

No matter how I looked at it, I couldn’t see that as true. Neither before nor now, diaries may have been embarrassing for some to have, but to say it was the most important thing to anyone, not just girls, seemed a bit farfetched.

“You have to vent to something, right? Diaries are good for that! Right, Mari?”

She nodded, “B-But this isn’t a diary…really…”

“Exactly! It’s not a diary,” Tanada crossed her arms.

Now I felt like I was truly lost. I had just asked to make conversation, not for my brain to be thrown in a loop.

I slumped my shoulders.

“B-But,” Mari suddenly said, “I was wondering…” She put down the book and walked to me. I took a step back before she put her hand against my chest. “There’s something odd about you—both of you.” She closed her eyes as she concentrated.

My heart beat hard, a fact I’m sure she’d notice. Her hands moved across my chest as she brought her face ever closer to my own. By the time she opened her eyes, she was close enough that I could see every small detail of her skin.

Her face flushed red as she jumped back, “I-I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to get that close!” She took off her hat and covered her face again.

“You’ve been pretty lucky today, huh?” Tanada elbowed me on the arm.

“I…wouldn’t call it that.”

And it hadn’t slipped passed me Mari said there was something weird with us. That isn’t something that you like to hear. There shouldn’t be anything weird going on—granted, this whole situation was weird, but if something was weird with our bodies too…now that might be a bigger concern.

Mari composed herself before stating, “Your mana levels seem…different. I can’t tell without the proper equipment, but…hm...” She put a finger on her chin as she started mumbling. “Maybe I could ask Vilo about it, but I doubt she’d resist and might end up killing them. But if I restrain her enough, maybe I’d be able to—”

The door slammed open.

“Did someone call for me?” a familiar voice blurted out.

Mari’s eyes snapped open. She grabbed the book from her desk again and held it out. With a flash of light, the book morphed around her hand, creating a metal gauntlet. With one hand, she pulled Tanada and me back and pointed her open armored palm toward the intruder.

“What are you doing here?” Mari’s voice was hard. Her eyes were sharp as she questioned. “Who allowed you out of your cell?”

There, with both hands in the air, was the same naked girl from before. Her pale skin shone golden from the light of the room, but her mischievous smile glowed far brighter than anything else. She licked her lips as she said, “Elsgn let me out for a bit.”

“Elsgn?” Mari questioned, lowering her hand ever so slightly. But before she did, she shook her head and aimed her hand once more, “No, you’re lying! He wouldn’t do that for no reason!”

The girl tisked, “That’s the thing, there was a reason.” She pointed behind Mari, towards us.

“What about them?”

“I’m sure you sensed it already.”

“…Their mana.”

“You. Got. It~” she playfully sang.

Mari turned to us, a worried expression on her face.

While I wondered why Mari was being so aggressive against this girl, I couldn’t say I wasn’t thankful. She was the only thing between me and that OP girl from tackling me to the floor I’m sure. I kind of wished I had one of those gauntlet things. Apart from being kind of cool, it would make me feel safer while wandering this place.

“Hey, Mari,” Tanada started. “Is she dangerous by any chance?”

“Dangerous…that would be a light way of putting it.” She turned back to face the naked girl. “Vilo here absorbs mana from any living creatures—mainly people. That in itself is dangerous, but not only does she need it to survive, but the amount she needs is also enough to kill anyone who tries to give her mana.” Mari furrowed her brows. “Just being too close to her can drain your mana. Effectively killing you silently.”

Tanada bumped my shoulder. “Geez, guess you’re lucky I saved you from her, huh?”

“Saved?” Mari asked. “Have you come across her before?”

“Come across?” Tanada laughed. “This guy was tongue-deep with that girl like ten minutes ago.”

“T-Tongue…” Mari’s face turned red.

I was going to point out Tanada was also “tongue deep” with her, but I decided that keeping Tanada on my good side would be for the best while we figure out our situation.

Mari shook her head, “W-Wait, are you saying that she kissed you?”

With a sigh, I hesitantly answered, “Yeah…not willingly though…”

“…and you lived?”

“Should I have not?”

That’s not something you just throw at someone. Why should I not have lived after that? I might’ve never kissed a girl before, but that girl, Vilo I guess is her name, didn’t kiss so good that I’d die from it. I might be pathetic but I’m not that pathetic.

“Vilo takes mana by proximity, which is already bad enough, but she also does it by kissing, biting, and…th-through other, um, sexual means.”

“So she’s like a succubus?” Tanada, surprisingly mentioned.

“I’ve never heard of that term before so I can’t confirm nor deny that…but having any sort of interaction, especially kissing, should’ve killed you within seconds or at the very least left you so weak you wouldn’t be able to walk.”

“And yet they’re both fine—don’t you find that exciting?” Vilo excitedly said, jumping a little in place.

“But it shouldn’t be possible.”

“But look at me,” she spun in place, “I haven’t felt this full…ever!” she threw her arms in the air.

It was hard to ignore the fact that she was still fully naked. I wondered why Mari wasn’t saying anything about that, but maybe this was just what was expected of Vilo. In that case, I had to learn to keep my thoughts in check. My eyes kept wandering across her exposed body.

 “Also, can you stop pointing that thing at me? It’s not like it’ll do anything to me at this point.”

Mari gritted her teeth but started pulling back her weapon. But before she did, the door burst open behind Vilo, bringing Elsgn back into the picture.

“Good, you’re here too,” he said to the naked girl.

“Of course! After a good meal, I’m ready to serve!” she pumped her fists.

He nodded and addressed the rest of us. “Mari, you will be joining us to meet with the Queen.”

“Huh?” Mari flinched. “I-I…have to…meet her…?”

“Yes,” he said bluntly. “But first—you two.” His eyes shifted to Tanada and me. Without a word, I felt a suffocating feeling attack my chest. It was like I’d been tightly tied with an invisible rope. Next to me, Tanada was making a similar reaction. “We are going elsewhere first. If you survive, you’ll meet the Queen…otherwise…well…” trailing off, he walked out of the room. Our bodies floated and followed after him.

My first look at magic at play—and it had to be with me being sent to my possible death.

Just great.