The Evilus Corporation employees-only café.

Balancing a tray with two cups of coffee and two slices of cake, I approached the table. Beside me, Six cheerfully tagged along, flashing a grateful smile.

“Thank you! I can’t order these myself, you know.”

“…It’s nothing, really.”

“Come on—let’s sit down and eat!”

Six pulled a chair noisily and plopped down onto it. Given that no one else could see her, the fact that the chair moved on its own didn’t elicit any reaction from the people around us.

Was this because her ability went beyond simple presence suppression to something like cognitive alteration? Or was it just that this world was so used to paranormal phenomena that no one found it strange? I couldn’t tell.

Placing the coffee and cake on the table, I sat down, quietly observing her. She eagerly took a bite of the cake, beaming with joy as she savored the taste.

“Mmm! No matter how many times I eat this chocolate cake, it’s always delicious!”

“No matter how many times? If no one can see you, how do you even pay for it?”

“Pay? I just take one. I leave money behind, though. I’m not broke.”

“…Then why did you ask me to buy it for you?”

“Because cake always tastes better when someone else buys it for you.”

With that, she happily shoved another bite into her mouth, looking utterly content. Watching her from behind my coffee cup, I realized something unsettling: not only could no one see her, but they couldn’t even perceive her.

People didn’t even glance in our direction despite coffee and cake seemingly vanishing into thin air.

‘So it’s a perception-altering ability, similar to what the Queen used…’

After devouring most of her meal, Six began waving her fork around like a conductor’s baton. Then, as if suddenly remembering my presence, she froze and stared at me.

“Oh, right—you can see me! How embarrassing…”

“No, go on.”

“I’m not going to! Don’t you know anything about a woman’s heart?”

She pouted dramatically, her emotions so transparent that it became clear she’d lived like this for quite a while. Expressing herself so freely, without a filter, was behavior more typical of a child who hadn’t yet learned social norms.

Given that she had supernatural powers but wasn’t a beastkin, it seemed unlikely she had been deprived of an education. More likely, her prolonged isolation, invisible to others, had left her socially stunted.

Sipping my coffee, I regarded her again.

“So, care to explain?”

“Hmm? Explain what?”

“Who you are, why no one knows you, and why I can see you.”

Six paused, her expression thoughtful, before answering.

“I don’t know why you can see me. Honestly, I’d like to know too! No one else ever noticed me before.”

“I have no idea either. It just… started happening.”

“And as for why no one knows me… well, it’s kind of an accident.”

“An accident?”

“Yes, an accident.”

She gave a bitter smile and began explaining her ability in detail.

“My ability is ‘presence suppression.’ Back in school, it just made me less noticeable. But the more I used it, the stronger it became. Eventually, it reached a point where even if I touched someone, they wouldn’t notice.”

“That alone doesn’t explain why even the executives—and the boss—don’t know about you.”

“That’s it! I was scouted by the boss and joined the villain organization. So here’s the question: with an ability like mine, what role do you think I was given?”

“Spy?”

“Bingo!”

She clapped enthusiastically before resting her chin on her hand with a sigh.

“On the boss’s orders, I infiltrated various companies to gather intel. It was great, except… as I mentioned, my ability wasn’t this powerful at first.”

“You said it used to just reduce your presence.”

“Right. But it grew stronger on its own, without any training, until one day, it surpassed its limits.”

Six’s ability, originally just minor presence suppression, had become so powerful that it was hard to believe they were the same skill.

Superpowers grow, that’s a fact. The rate and extent of growth vary by individual, but the potential for development is always there.

In Six’s case, her growth was unfortunate. Her talent was so exceptional that mere repetition strengthened her ability to absurd levels.

“People began to forget me. They forgot I existed, forgot I was there, even forgot what I’d done to them.”

Even her parents and the boss who had hired her eventually forgot her existence.

“So… let me ask you again.”

A person abandoned by the world. Isolated from society. Forgotten by everyone.

The sixth executive of the villain organization, who had even abandoned her name to become Six in a desperate hope to be remembered, looked at me and asked:

“How is it that you can see me?”

Back in my lab, I first thanked my lucky stars that I hadn’t done anything embarrassing while thinking I was alone. Six had admitted she’d visited my lab a few times and found my focus on research “impressive.”

‘That was close…’

Had I let my guard down and treated the lab like my private sanctuary, I could have seriously embarrassed myself. Fortunately, that had never happened, and Six didn’t seem to linger around the organization headquarters all the time.

Though forgotten by her parents and the boss, Six remained the sixth executive of the villain organization, employed as a spy. While everyone else forgot her existence, the accounting and system records did not, so she continued receiving her salary.

True to her professional spirit, she kept doing her job, infiltrating other companies to gather intel.

“But sometimes, watching what our organization does, I feel like my work is pointless.”

“…Pointless?”

“While I risk my life sneaking around for intel, others just storm through the front door, smash everything, and take what they want. Recently, they’ve even destroyed cities. Why do we need spies…?”

It wasn’t hard to guess who she was talking about. This was a villain organization, after all. There were plenty of eccentric and violent members—people like Galm or Verara came to mind.

Listening to her complaints, I found myself wondering.

“Have you ever tried to control your ability? Intentionally suppressing it?”

“Can you hold your breath just by deciding not to breathe?”

“Ah, so it’s unconscious. I see.”

If she could control her ability, she wouldn’t still be living like an outsider. She’d have regained her position as an executive long ago.

It became clear that her ability had entrenched itself so deeply that simply turning it off wasn’t an option.

‘Why can I see her, though? It’s not like she’s doing it intentionally…’

Pondering the situation, I began retracing my recent activities. What could have changed to make me able to see her?

‘Let’s see… I planted the World Tree recently, dealt with Flower and… ah.’

One possibility came to mind.

An entity that doesn’t exist until someone acknowledges it. A creature that manifests when certain conditions are met, even if no one actively recognizes it.

A ghost of the extra-dimensional—a Beast.

If my acknowledgment of such a creature had altered the way I perceived the world, allowing me to see Six now…

“What are you staring at? It’s creepy. Stop it.”

“…”

“Hey! Are you ignoring me? Hello? Answer me!”

If that were the case, I might be able to bring her back into the world’s embrace.