A short while later, Aile and Galm returned after pursuing the escaping beastwoman.

"We lost her." "She was faster than we thought... I'm sorry." "Lost her? The two of you?"

I was quite surprised that Galm, who ruled the land, and Aile, who ruled the sky, had failed to catch a single person. But recalling what Levi-tan had said earlier, I nodded, understanding it was possible.

Levi-tan had told us that the beastwoman who appeared earlier was named Hani, the only successful outcome of the L Project. Although, calling her a "success" might be a bit misleading.

To be more precise, Hani was the reason the L Project was initiated. She was the first beastperson to ever acquire superpowers.

'Looks like I’ve shaken them off.'

At the border of O City, Hani, who had been running from Aile and Galm, noticed that the sound of their pursuit had faded. She slowed her steps and eventually stopped.

Who would have thought they’d call their comrades together so quickly? Shivering at the thought of those chasing her, Hani recalled the two individuals. One was the terror of H City, a magical girl of evil who had persisted even after the enemy of the world had disappeared. The other was an S-class villain settled in E City.

Both were notorious villains belonging to the evil organization. The fact that Levi-tan knew such people? She was undoubtedly in a terrible situation.

'That man… They called him a scientist. So that means Levi-tan is…'

Hani imagined Levi-tan, as she had seen in Z City, now captured by the evil organization and subjected to some horrific experiment. Unlike the other executives, whose affiliations with the evil organization were openly known, Levi-tan, who had once been a civil servant, hadn’t been publicly revealed as part of the organization.

Given that situation, Hani, who had once been an experimental subject herself, couldn’t help but think of the worst possibilities upon hearing of Levi-tan’s involvement with the evil organization.

'What are the heroes and police even doing?! An S-class villain has entered their city!'

After a brief moment of cursing the negligence of the Hero Association and the police, Hani began thinking about how to rescue Levi-tan.

First, she needed firepower. She couldn’t do it alone.

Though confident in her own strength, she knew it wasn’t enough to simultaneously take on S-class villains and several executives to save someone.

'No other choice. I’ll have to use my head.'

Just as she came to that conclusion, a vehicle approached. Seeing it, Hani stepped directly in front of the car.

Screeeeech-! The long sound of brakes echoed as the car came to a halt right in front of her. The window rolled down, and the driver stuck his head out, shouting.

"You crazy bitch, are you trying to get yourself killed—?" "—Excuse me, would you kindly lend me your car?"

"Huh, wha…?"

Hani calmly placed her sword against the driver's throat. The driver, sweating profusely, quickly nodded in agreement.

A moment later, the driver slowly got out of the car and began to run off. Watching him flee into the distance, Hani climbed into the car.

'This is way too easy.'

When you point a sword at someone’s throat and ask nicely, they always comply. It was a trick that had never failed her since escaping the lab, and the reason she carried a sword in the first place.

As she started the car, Hani recalled a memory from long ago—how she had gotten her name.

"I'm a rabbit, so I'll be Rabbit... But Rabbit is too cute, so I'll go with Levi-tan. What about you?" "I'm... Hani." "Hani? That's a cute name! Not as cute as mine, though!"

The cheerful voices of children, once locked away together in a cage, dreaming of the world outside, echoed in her mind like a phantom.

Pushing those echoes to the back of her mind, Hani slowly drove out of the city.

Boom!

"Oh…"

Not long after, Hani crashed the car into the guardrail, scratching her head in frustration. Driving was a nightmare for her poor vision.

Having no choice, Hani abandoned the wrecked car and crossed the city's border on foot.

The next day.

After Regalia and Birana woke up from their sleep, we all gathered for a strategy meeting.

"So, this Hani person threatened the scientist, you say?" "Not me, exactly. It seemed like she was targeting Levi-tan."

"Hmm… Levi-tan. Do you have any idea what her goal might be?"

Regalia asked, and Levi-tan slowly shook her head.

"I didn't even know she was still alive… I was sure they had all died back then."

"I see."

Levi-tan responded, momentarily forgetting her usual speech pattern. Regalia remained silent for a moment before nodding, as if coming to a decision.

"Then, nothing changes. Enjoy your vacation."

"Boss, are you sure about this?"

"Is there a problem? She ran from both Galm and Aile. Surely you’re not afraid of such a weakling."

The boss’s words were rational enough. After investigating Hani's background, it was confirmed she wasn’t a notorious villain or a famous superhuman.

It would indeed be strange for an S-class villain organization to be intimidated by an unknown rookie.

In the end, we resumed our vacation as if nothing had happened, although we did stick to a two-person team for safety.

"Hani…" "Missing her already?"

"It’s not that I want to see her, it’s more like… seeing an old task I’d long forgotten about. So long ago that I barely remember."

"Want me to track her down? See what she's up to?"

"…Thanks."

Aside from Levi-tan, who remained downcast, the rest of us returned to our vacation.

However, that vacation barely lasted a day before it was shattered.

"—Excuse me, police."

Suddenly, the police arrived. I opened the door and looked at the officers, puzzled as to what this was about.

However, the officers silently scanned the room before quickly bowing.

"Apologies. We’ll be leaving now…" "Wait, what’s this about?" "It’s a classified operation. You don’t need to know." "I’ll be filing an official complaint." "Please do."

As the police moved to the next room, I frowned and filed the complaint right away, then hacked into the police database to find out what they were really up to.

It wasn’t difficult to uncover why they had shown up. As I dug into the database, the police revealed the reason themselves.

"—T-there really is someone here! This is P-1, I repeat, this is P-1. We've found the suspect. Requesting immediate backup from heroes…!"

"Huh? What’s going on?"

"Hands up, you villain scum! You’re under arrest for conspiracy to commit terrorism in O City—"

Someone had filed a false report, claiming the evil organization was planning a terrorist attack in O City.

Even though it was clearly false, the police had to follow procedure, and when they arrived, they stumbled upon Galm, who was indeed an S-class villain.

After assessing the situation, I sighed and reported the matter to the boss. The boss let out a laugh at the absurdity of it all.

[They think we’re here to commit terrorism… Do they really believe such nonsense?] "Well, since we're villains, whether it’s true or not, they’ll try to arrest us..." [Unbelievable.]

While Regalia was still digesting the news, the forces arrived to arrest Galm. The hotel was surrounded by heroes and special police units, so we slipped out quietly.

Galm stayed behind to fight the heroes. Watching the chaos from a distance, the boss ground her teeth in anger, sending a deadly glare at whoever ruined her vacation.

"Scientist." "Yes, boss?" "You’ll find out who’s responsible for this, won’t you?" "—Of course."

It was a situation where I had to say I could do the impossible. I nodded firmly, and Regalia looked at me with an expression full of wrath.

"Find them. And punish them." "Understood."

Whoever they were, they had terrible luck messing with the boss. I thought as I began tapping on my pad, starting my search for the person who had made the false report.

The caller had used a public phone in a secluded area, and naturally, there were no cameras around.

But that didn’t matter. So what if there were no CCTV cameras? We lived in a world where space exploration was already well underway.

'There should be a satellite passing through that area at that time...'

I hacked into a satellite and obtained footage of the area during the reported time. Enhancing and zooming in on the image, I caught sight of the person who had made the call.

Upon confirming the identity of the caller, I chuckled to myself and looked over at Levi-tan. She met my gaze, confused.

"Yes?" "Oh, it’s nothing—"

Without a word, I passed her the pad. On the screen was an image of a beastwoman with rabbit ears, who looked exactly like Levi-tan.

As Levi-tan stared at the sight of the rabbit-eared woman with a larger chest than her own, her expression stiffened.

Captured on the screen was the very person she had been searching for—Hani