Something feels off.

“Kyahhhh!”

Aile tripped over absolutely nothing and fell to the ground, clutching her knee with a groan. I quickly approached, helped her up, and brushed the dust off her clothes.

“Are you okay?”
“Yes, y-yes…”
“You’ve scraped it a bit. Let’s head to the lab, and I’ll put some medicine on it.”

On the way to the lab, I stepped on something squishy. When I looked down, I realized it was dog poop. Could it be that Galm had finally lost control and started dragging his droppings around the floor?

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. In the distance, a combatant holding wet wipes and a plastic bag came rushing over in a panic.

“Sc-scientist, sir! I-I’m so sorry!”
“…What is this?”
“I’m sorry! My pet… it, um, went to the bathroom on the floor…”
“A pet?”
“Y-yes, is it not allowed? But I don’t have anyone at home to take care of them…”

The combatant nervously stammered excuses, claiming the rules didn’t specifically prohibit pets and that everyone else seemed to enjoy having them around. I smiled reassuringly, signaling it was okay.

Right, this was that kind of place. Not so much a haven for highly trained professionals fueled by vengeance against the world, but more akin to a social welfare facility.

In a past life, it might be comparable to a rehabilitation center for community service workers.

“Next time, carry a plastic bag with you too.”
“Y-yes! I’ll make sure to do that!”

After giving me a quick bow, the combatant hurriedly began cleaning the floor. I bypassed the mess, took off my shoes, and walked into the lab in just my socks. There was no way I’d let something like poop dirty my research space.

Once in the lab, I sat Aile down on the sofa and searched for the red antiseptic to treat her scrape. Strangely, I couldn’t find the medicine anywhere.

When I asked the AI about its location, it informed me that a burly beastkin had come into the lab and taken the entire medicine box.

The absurdity of someone walking off with the whole thing without a word left me speechless. To make matters worse, I realized I was out of ingredients to make more medicine. Total disaster.

‘What is this? A psychic attack?’

The sheer misfortune was almost too much to chalk up to coincidence. In the end, I treated Aile’s scrape with over-the-counter medicine and added a bandage. If it had been the medicine I made, she would’ve healed instantly without needing any of this.

“Th-thank you…”
“It’s nothing. By the way, Aile, have you ever thought your luck has been particularly bad recently?”
“Huh? W-what do you mean…?”
“Anything will do, just tell me something.”
“W-well…”

Aile began listing off a series of small, trivial grievances. She always got multiple-choice questions wrong when she guessed, failed every raffle for magical girl merchandise despite usually winning nine out of ten times, and recently, a dessert shop sold out of her favorite item just as it was her turn to order.

Though insignificant on their own, such incidents could build up over time and cause considerable stress.

“So, so— I tried summoning magical girls to relieve my stress, but the association head said it’s exam season, so I shouldn’t bother them…”
“Hmm, I see. But Aile, aren’t you also taking the same exams soon?”
“W-well, yes, but… it’s hard to study when you’re so stressed, right…?”

Smiling, I sent Aile off to study and cautiously settled in front of the computer. Booting it up, I started researching events related to our organization and, more broadly, Evilus Corporation.

It didn’t take long to find posts on social media about members of our organization or employees of Evilus and its subcontractors experiencing a streak of misfortunes. It wasn’t just one or two people—tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands, had encountered simultaneous bad luck.

Could this be a sudden wave of misfortune blanketing the entire city? Other cities weren’t experiencing anything similar, though.

A few obscure online news articles noted that something strange was happening in E City, but no one seemed to take them seriously.

‘Well, statistically, such coincidences are possible…’

If everyone in the world simultaneously stopped what they were doing and stared blankly at the sky for 10 seconds, it would seem like a supernatural event. But it could just be a coincidence, however astronomically improbable.

As low as those odds might be, anything with a non-zero probability is bound to happen eventually.

In this vast universe, even the collision of microscopic particles to form a planet the size of Earth, the emergence of life on that planet, and the development of intelligent beings capable of civilization—all are improbable yet occur.

Still, something about this felt… off.

But this wasn’t Earth, governed solely by physical laws. This was a world with fantasy elements like psychic powers. I couldn’t dismiss the possibility that this was an attack by someone else.

The next step was straightforward. Find out who could possess such an ability by searching through association and government databases, and further, analyze global communications to see if anyone harbored hostility toward Evilus Corporation.

With AI assistance, this task was both quick and efficient. Identifying the culprit was surprisingly easy.

“Riu Spirit… the CEO of a major company in S City.”

The culprit was Riu Spirit.
The head of the Spiritual Center dominating S City.
A self-made woman who rose to lead a major corporation.

‘Her profile says she venerates spirits or some such supernatural beings… and her psychic abilities are telepathy and thought transference?’

Her abilities seemed far too weak to cause this disaster. Telepathy? Something a phone could achieve? How could that inflict widespread misfortune on tens of thousands of people?

This wasn’t something a mere psychic power could accomplish. Such a feat would require a being of transcendent power, at least S-class or higher.

‘Could this so-called spirit actually exist?’

Turning to the peculiar details in her profile, I noted her devotion to these “spirits.” Back on Earth, I wouldn’t have believed in such things, but after arriving in this world, my perspective had changed.

In a world where fairies, magical girls, demons, aliens, elves, and dragons exist, spirits weren’t out of the question. If they did exist, it was plausible she achieved this with their help.

Alternatively, it could all be a trap.

The ease with which I identified her as the culprit made me suspicious. Could the information from the AI be wrong? Perhaps her entire existence was a decoy, and she wasn’t the true culprit.

This was entirely plausible. Evilus Corporation had countless enemies. Internet forums were rife with idle threats of bombings or other attacks against the company.

The AI had ruled out those individuals as culprits due to their lack of means. This meant Riu Spirit was simply the most likely candidate among those with both the capability and motive. It didn’t guarantee she was guilty.

That made me all the more doubtful.

‘There’s no way it would be this easy…’

Yet, Riu Spirit had boldly declared herself guilty, as if she didn’t care that her communication was being intercepted.

This seemed designed to provoke a reaction. Perhaps it was a trap to expose Evilus Corporation’s global surveillance or to provide justification for the world to unite against us if we acted.

“Damn it—is she dumb or brilliant?”

The logical part of me insisted this was a trap, yet my instincts argued otherwise, leaving me with a headache.

One thing was clear: she was the most likely culprit.

But I couldn’t attack recklessly. If this were a trap, it could jeopardize Evilus, and…

‘If she’s innocent, I’d feel unnecessarily guilty…’

This wasn’t just a matter of personal conflict. The lives of thousands, even millions of employees, could be at stake.

Thinking of the innocent people involved, I had no choice but to proceed cautiously.