Once I finished the performance and returned to my original seat, instead of the usual indifferent looks, I was met with wide-eyed amazement and astonishment.

“…That was truly impressive!”

“Ah, it’s nothing special.”

“Nothing special? Can’t you see the eyes of everyone around you? You’ve skyrocketed your worth with that one performance!”

The first to speak to me was Rize, practically showering me with near-flattering praise. It was quite embarrassing, but it seemed I succeeded in misleading them about my true identity.

Assuming me to be a talented pianist, Rize asked curiously, “By the way, Raemon, what do you do? I have a pretty solid network in the arts, and I’ve never heard of someone like you…”

“I’m just an ordinary person. I get a bit of support from Chairwoman Regalia.”

“…Ordinary, you say?”

“Yes.”

Upon hearing that, Rize’s eyes widened in disbelief.

But I stood firm. What could she possibly do about it?

I was just an ordinary person, after all.

*

“─Then I’ll be seeing you next time.”

“Let’s make that happen.”

Regalia sighed internally after finishing her conversation with the corporate chairpeople and turned to approach the Scientist, who was chatting away nonchalantly after the piano performance.

She wanted nothing more than to rush over to him the moment he finished playing, but there were obligations as the chairwoman of Evil Corporation that she had to attend to. This party was part of her work engagement.

As she moved closer to where the heirs were gathered, they exchanged glances and subtly shifted away from her. To them, Regalia was both a familiar and distant entity. They were on the same age level, but she was a giant in motion, while they were still mere eggs.

“That semiconductor is going to be impossible to complete within ten years, isn’t it?”

“Hmm—then where do you think I should invest?”

“I mean, I’d say—”

The Scientist was casually chatting with the successors. That fact irked Regalia. Here she was, suffering at the hands of other entrepreneurs because of him, while he was ha-ha-ho-ing away.

With a slight frown, Regalia approached the Scientist. As the Scientist noticed her coming, he slowly turned his head.

“─Ah, it’s been a while.”

“Oh, look who decided to join us. How did you find today’s performance?”

The Scientist, seemingly oblivious to the daggers in her gaze, started his little act.

─Since when did he possess such talents?
─Why didn’t he say anything before just going off like that?
─Didn’t I tell him not to cause trouble!?

However, the Scientist seemed oblivious to her inner turmoil, offering only a nonsensical response.

“It seems you enjoyed today’s performance? That was a brand new piece I haven’t played for you before.”

“…Yeah. I was surprised.”

I felt like my heart dropped.

What made me step into the spotlight at that moment?

What would I do if I had made a mistake? What if my skills had fallen short and I received harsh criticism? How was I supposed to make excuses?

The Scientist didn’t consider such possibilities, or was simply too confident in himself to care, and stepped onto the stage again to showcase his talents.

Thanks to him, anyone who was curious about my identity had all but vanished. Instead, the number of people wanting to engage with him increased, much to Regalia’s annoyance.

“I might even want to hear that performance again when we get back.”

If I were to translate what I really meant to say to the oblivious Scientist—let’s settle this later.

*

The party ended.

As everyone returned to their respective cities, Rize sat in the car, closed her eyes, and reminisced about the sonata she had heard that night.

It was like the sweet melody of a full moon rising in the night sky, lingering in her ears. The performance she had heard once was stuck in her head.

She tried to hum it based on memory, but it came out a bit awkward. She wished she could find an album to listen to, but since it was an original composition, such a thing didn’t exist.

In other words, the piece she had listened to tonight was a song she could never hear again unless she brought the performer back to play it.

‘He was really something unique.’

Rize thought back to the performer—the partner whom Regalia had brought. He hadn’t easily fallen for her charms. If she considered that countless men were lining up to offer everything they had just based on her looks, it was astonishing.

Especially when she thought that her allure didn’t just come from her looks but also from her abilities—it made it even weirder.

‘How did he dodge my charms?’

Thus far, she had only encountered a few cases where someone was unaffected by her charisma. Either they possessed abilities far stronger than hers or were ancient and senile to the point of having no desire for intimacy. Or maybe they were gay.

Excluding those cases, nobody ever escaped her fascination. It even worked on other women—so the idea of straight men resisting her was preposterous.

Yet, he didn’t seem to fit into any of those categories. She remembered the heated gaze he had tossed her way, momentarily fixated on her décolletage. While he quickly looked away, it was a male gaze mixed with instinct.

‘He certainly didn’t seem to have any special powers…’

This was an exceptional situation that had never occurred before.

She found herself curious about this unexpected possibility.

‘I want him.’

As the successor of a major corporation representing a city, she, who had gotten everything she ever wanted, had strangely stumbled upon a treasure she desired that was out of reach.

Was this feeling akin to unrequited love, yearning for something unattainable?

Rize began humming the melody she had heard that night, each repetition deepening her feelings more and more.

*

Name: Rize

Ability: Fascination

Description: Ensnare and bind like a serpent. Once bitten, one cannot escape.

*

“─Scientist, do you happen to have two lives?”

“Pardon?”

“Why on Earth are you acting so brazenly—!”

Upon returning to the headquarters, I had to face Regalia’s scolding. Honestly, I couldn’t deny feeling a bit wronged, but she had a point.

“You could have just stood quietly by her side! Why on earth did you need to perform!?”

“Because if those people got curious about me, I couldn’t let that happen…”

“Then you could have just played something moderately famous, why go and play some unbelievable piece—!”

“It is a famous piece, you know….”

In Earth’s terms, it was something that nobody on the planet wouldn’t know about—hearing that, Regalia shot me a look of disbelief.

Feeling the sharpness in her gaze, I lowered my head to accept my mistake. Right, I probably shouldn’t have gone this far…

This aspect was the most frustrating one since coming to this world. The gap between Earth and this world. Neither  science nor the arts could just be plucked and thrown in without caution.

“Anyway, you. Is there anything else you don’t want her to know about?”

“Hmm… I can’t quite tell what you don’t know.”

“Just spit it out! Things like being good at drawing! Or excelling in sports! Just anything you do better than others!”

“I can’t draw, and I’m not good at sports. How am I supposed to compete with those who can run faster than cars?”

“Anything else? Please give me a heads up if you’re going to create any more trouble!”

Regalia stomped her feet, her voice rising.

While it wasn’t really the time to be thinking this, she did look kind of cute, like a kid throwing a tantrum.

But just as I thought that, the Boss suddenly radiated an aura of intimidation, peering down at me.

“─Focus. Is there really enough leisure in you to be distracted?”

“…Yes, my bad.”

“Hah—truly, I didn’t mean to pick up something I thought would be amusing…”

Scratching her head, Regalia left me with a warning before retreating to her room. The clock had long passed the hour when children should be dreaming sweet dreams. She likely forced herself to scold me to fend off the fatigue enveloping her whole body.

I knew well how tough it was to keep one’s eyelids up, and how hard it was for a child to overcome that exhaustion, so I felt a twinge of sympathy as I returned to my room.

I made a promise to be more careful from now on.

*

The next day.

On a day when it was pouring rain like there was no tomorrow.

Soaked head to toe, Aile whined as she stumbled into the laboratory.

“Seriously…! Scientist! Please make me a weapon!”

“…What are you babbling about suddenly? Why do you look like a drenched rat?”

“That’s because…!”

Aile explained that a crazy car sped past her, splashing water everywhere. When she tried to transform into a magical girl for revenge, it had disappeared from her sight.

Hearing that, I couldn’t help but answer incredulously.

“Come on, you’re going to take revenge because you got splashed?”

“Don’t say that…! Aren’t you angry!? A fellow coworker got soaked!”

“I’m not saying I’m not mad, but making a weapon to take revenge seems a bit excessive.”

But Aile was trembling with rage, as if she wouldn’t be satisfied unless she got vengeance herself. Each time she clenched her fists in agitation, water dripped from her skirt and hair.

I worried she might catch a cold if we didn’t send her to shower soon, so I urged her to change out of her wet clothes. Nevertheless, when she returned, she was still steeped in fury.

Bira, who had been listening to her from the side, suddenly exclaimed as if a light bulb went off in her head.

“That sounds like a villain!”

“A villain? Isn’t there a lack of villains in this city?”

“It’s someone who works from another city.”

Mospped.

A villain racing in a supercar, it seems.

He disregarded traffic laws, speeding recklessly because he was a lunatic.

I couldn’t help but ask incredulously.

“Wait, driving a supercar makes someone a villain?”

“He’s too fast to catch, you know. Rumor has it that his ability is driving.”

“How can driving be an ability…”

Every justification for becoming a villain and how he’d evaded capture till now was utterly absurd, but it seemed to resonate oddly with Aile. The fact that she had been victimized by a villain only fueled her fervent claims.

“Scien—Scientist! He’s a villain, a villain!”

“Yeah, I heard.”

“Being humiliated by a mere villain…! This is a disgrace for our evil organization…! Didn’t you say to uphold pride…!”

Aile threw back my own words from earlier, making me realize I had to watch my mouth around the little ones.

Otherwise, retribution was guaranteed. The old saying was true: the mouth is the source of all misfortune. I sighed and glanced at Aile.

What if I ignored her plea? She would surely ignore everything I said from now on. Children easily get upset over the smallest matters.

“You want revenge, huh?”

“Yes, yes—!”

“It’s okay if it’s not a weapon, right?”

“Yes, huh?”

“What’s the point of just beating up those kinds of guys with violence?”

As I heard, that villain was a speed maniac.

Those types of thugs couldn’t be taken down merely with brute force.

The only way to get back at them would be to—

“You’ve got to crush them in their own territory.”

However, there was one small issue.

‘It hasn’t even been half a day since the Boss told us not to cause trouble…’

Well, I doubted this would qualify as trouble.

After all—Aile was the one who was going to carry out the deed, not me.