The first condition for turning rock-paper-scissors into psychological warfare: someone tries to outguess the other player first.

The Regressor hesitated for a moment, trying to gauge my intentions.

'What? Is this a mind game? Hmph. What a pathetic trick.'

“Then I just have to throw paper.”

“Knew it. See? Wishy-washy as ever.”

“What?”

Before she could flare up, I hastily called out.

“Here we go! A match to decide whether Nabi lives or dies! How will it end?”

The second condition: the stakes are incredibly high.

Mix mind games with desperation, and rock-paper-scissors becomes a whole different genre.

'Dogs and cats are close to humans, and they have the largest beastkin populations of all. If those two are stable, the calamity to come will be far weaker than it would be otherwise.'

The Regressor focused on the match, eyes wide.

But the instant you started thinking, your defeat was sealed. Laughing underhandedly to myself, I shouted.

“If you don't throw, you lose! Ready? Rock!”

'He said he'd throw rock, so I'll throw paper... No, he might have said that so he could throw scissors. In that case... I'll pretend to throw scissors, then go back to paper!'

Hooked her, just as expected. And she even chose wishy-washy paper. Tsk, tsk. I could have beaten you even without mind reading.

Don't resent me too much, Regressor. The result was already decided when you agreed to play rock-paper-scissors against a mind reader.

“Paper!”

'Huh? Wait. There's no way he'd play fair, is there? Why was I assuming this would be a fair match?'

Heheheh. Of course it's not fair. It's too late to realize that now. With my advantage as a mind reader, victory in rock-paper-scissors is guaran...

“Scissors!”

'I almost fell for it again! All right. Don't play into his hands! I'll throw paper, then change it after I see what he throws!'

Huh?

What was that?

Wait, you lunatic Regressor. Why are you changing the premise of rock-paper-scissors itself? You're not changing the game's genre anymore. You're turning it into a contest of reflexes!

'Heaven-Reversing Realm, Counter Form! Make the move that beats whatever my opponent throws!'

You're even using energy arts?

Worse, the Heaven-Reversing Realm reflexively reproduces preprogrammed movements. It detects an opponent's movements through the energy spread throughout the body, making the interval between perception and reaction extremely short.

I'll lose at this rate. I have to stop this. But the Regressor and I had already put our hands out.

Damn it. She said she'd throw paper first, so I'll change my hand a little on the way and throw scissors...

'Rock.'

Fine. Just take the win.

The result: scissors for me, rock for the Regressor.

By the great laws of rock-paper-scissors, I had lost. My certainty that I would win made the defeat all the more bitter.

Damn it. I lost. And at rock-paper-scissors, of all things.

I wouldn't feel so cheated if she'd just changed her mind on a whim. I was winning until that cowardly Regressor overturned the entire game!

The Regressor's eyes widened as she checked the result.

“... Huh? What? I won?”

“Looks like it. Hooray. Victory goes to you, Shei. Thanks to you, Nabi gets to keep her life.”

'What? He didn't pull any tricks? Was he really going to play ordinary rock-paper-scissors?'

Rock-paper-scissors is rock-paper-scissors. What in the world is “ordinary rock-paper-scissors”? Why does a game this simple need the qualifier “ordinary”?

I gave the Regressor a look brimming with indignation. She'd cowardly turned this into a physical contest and stolen my victory.

The nasty Regressor relished my glare and openly mocked me.

“Heheh. I won, didn't I? What's this? You said real men throw rock, but you threw scissors yourself?”

“Apparently so. I really am no match for a true man like you, Shei. I concede defeat. Your manliness exceeds mine.”

'... Wait. Somehow this doesn't make me happy at all.'

While the Regressor briefly cocked her head, Tyr quietly signaled to me from where she'd been watching the match in the distance.

Her blood-red eyes shone with a warmth reserved for me alone.

“Hugh... If you wish.”

She was offering to dispose of Nabi herself if I wanted, even if it meant coming into conflict with the Regressor.

But I immediately shook my head.

“No. Rock-paper-scissors is a sacred contest. We have to honor the result.”

It was the most peaceful agreement humanity had devised to settle petty disputes. My defeat did not diminish its sanctity.

A winning gambler must know how to accept the occasional loss. That is what makes victory all the more valuable.

In that case, there was only one thing left for me to do. Make sure it would be safe to let drug-addled Nabi roam around outside.

Sigh. Just my luck.

“Azi. Give her a lick, would you?”

“Woof? Her?”

Azi tilted her head at me, then gave Nabi a low growl. I heaved a sigh and stroked her head.

“What can we do? If we're going to keep her alive, we'd better start treating her.”

“Woof... Don't want to. She's annoying.”

“It's okay. I'll make sure she doesn't attack people. If she doesn't attack anyone, she'll make a good friend for you.”

“Woof.”

Azi barked discontentedly, but after more persuasion, she reluctantly agreed. When she stood beside Nabi, the frightened cat let out a pitiful “Meooow.”

Azi looked over the wounds of the cringing, pleading Nabi, gave a small bark, then lowered her head and began licking them.

Nabi curled up, thinking Azi meant to bite her. Once she realized it wasn't an attack, however, she accepted the grooming without resistance.

“Woof, woof.”

Starting at Nabi's ankle, Azi's little tongue worked its way over her skin. The bite marks she'd left began to close, slowly but visibly.

“Looks like she didn't catch rabies. Well, Azi licked her, so she should be better now.”

The antidote to the curse on one's own teeth was one's own saliva.

It wouldn't heal her completely, but it would keep her from getting any worse. After cleaning the wounds on Nabi's calf, Azi gradually worked her way toward her thigh. Perhaps because her tongue was so small, licking just one calf took quite a bit of time and effort.

It couldn't be good for her to smell too much blood. Should I ask Tyr to clean off just the blood with blood manipulation...? Beast Kings were divine beings, though. Would it even work on their blood? While I was pondering that...

“Hugh.”

“Yes?”

Tyr called to me then.

When I turned, she clutched my sleeve with some urgency and began leading me out of the classroom.

“Out you go.”

“Pardon?”

She tugged insistently. The force pulling at my sleeve was no joke. I was dragged along helplessly.

“This is an indecent sight. You must not look upon it. Hurry.”

“No, that's just grooming.”

“... Must I truly resort to force?”

“But the air in this room does feel terribly heavy for some reason. I should go outside for a walk.”

As it happened, Callis was continuing her lightning offensive in the instructor's room at the far end of the corridor. There was nothing to gain by staying where I could hear the undying one's anguish, so I would take my leave.

The Regressor sneered at me.

“Hmph. Now you understand, don't you? I'm not the strange one. You're the strange one for accepting this sight without a second—”

“Shut up and come out too, Shei of the Iron Fist.”

“Wh-what? Why... Oh!”

'Right! I'm disguised as a man!'

I wished she'd get her head on straight. What did she think she could accomplish with that brain of hers?

Tsk. No, actually, it was a good thing she couldn't act. If she'd had a weaker sense of self, could she have stayed sane through all those regressions? Yes, better that it was you, really.

“We've got things to do together, remember? Hurry up and come out. I'll show you how to roll mana herbs.”

“I don't smoke mana herbs.”

The Regressor refused firmly. Her response was so reflexive that I wondered if she'd used the Heaven-Reversing Realm.

'If I rely on things like that, my resolve will crumble with every regression.'

How diligent.

“I'm not asking you to smoke them. Just follow me.”

I glanced back to find Tyr had summoned a mass of darkness and was watching me warily. Darkness already filled the area so completely that I couldn't see a thing, yet those red eyes continued to follow me.

Why so defensive? This was genuinely unfair. They might look human, but beasts were still beasts...

“... What are you looking at? Off with you.”

Those blood-red eyes, once warm only toward me, were now stern only toward me.

Fine. There was no particular reason to watch animals groom each other anyway. I left the classroom, all but chased out.

Bah. I was in a bad mood. Might as well beat up on the Regressor.

As I led her to my room, I broached the subject.

“You heard the gist of it, right? The King of Cats is hooked on drugs. Special mana herbs made from catnip and World Tree leaves.”

“Yeah. I never imagined that was how they controlled the King of Cats.”

“You can't get mana herbs in the bottomless pit. What were you planning to do?”

“... Can't she just quit?”

“So you hadn't thought about it at all. Understood.”

'Urgh...! I hadn't actually come up with a solution...! But still!'

The Regressor shamelessly made excuses.

“You can't get drugs in the bottomless pit anyway. Then she has no choice but to endure it, does she?”

“Use some common sense. Do you think an addict will sit quietly just because there aren't any drugs?”

“If worse comes to worst, we can subdue her by force... ”

“How are you any different from the Lords of Creation? Never mind. Follow me.”

Crestfallen, the Regressor clamped her mouth shut and followed.

As we walked, I showed her the mana herbs I'd gathered. These were the catnip mana herbs made specifically for Nabi that I'd scraped together by searching the lieutenant colonel's and colonel's clothes.

“Six cigars of Nabi's special mana herbs, taken from the colonel and lieutenant general. If we just hand these to Nabi, how many days will they last?”

“There are six, so if she's really careful and uses one every three days... eighteen days?”

“One day. No matter how many they have, an addict will use them all in a day if they're in their own hands. That's their nature.”

How could someone who'd never done drugs understand an addict's mind?

Lamenting that fact, I entered my room and opened a drawer. All eleven mana-herb cigars Callis had supplied were still there. I took them out, lined them up on the table, and spoke seriously.

“Even with careful rationing, it'll be hard to get her below one cigar a day. So what do we do now?”

The cigars were wrapped in leaves from the scent-absorbing incense tree.

I tore open the wrapper of a mana-herb cigar. The moment the leaf split, a refreshing, pungent fragrance escaped and roused my senses. The faint mana throughout my body responded to the herbs, flowing through my veins.

Enjoying the cool sensation, as though someone had opened a window in my head, I said,

“We bulk up the mana herbs.”

“You can do that?”

“Nothing in this world is impossible. The better the mana herbs, the easier they are to bulk up. To be precise, you can leave just a faint trace of their scent and create the illusion of a premium product. And Nabi's special catnip mana herbs contain World Tree leaves, albeit only a tiny amount... ”

The first Saintess, so often mentioned in the Holy See's scriptures, had supposedly performed the miracle of feeding a thousand people with a single sheep.

Right now, I was just like her.

I spread out some paper and scattered the thoroughly dried mana-herb leaves over it. Using the standard-issue mana herbs as a base, I coated them with the catnip mana herbs that contained World Tree leaves. Then I rolled them into a cylinder and folded the ends slightly to seal it.

Once I'd finished dividing them up...

“Ta-da! Mix two standard-issue mana-herb cigars with one of Nabi's special catnip cigars, divide them appropriately, and would you look at that! We have five special catnip cigars for Nabi! What do you think?”

Now that was magic. That was a miracle.

The cigars had multiplied as though they'd bred. Feeling thoroughly pleased with myself, I brought one to my lips.

“Hey. What good does it do if you smoke them?”

“Oops. My body moved on its own.”

Damn it. I could've made at least a hundred alke apiece selling these outside. And I had to give them to a cat?

My hands trembled. I barely managed to pry my fingers away as they kept trying to cling to the cigar.

While I unwrapped another cigar to continue working, the Regressor stared at the enlarged supply and made a suggestion.

“If I give you World Tree leaves, can you make more?”

“You have more World Tree leaves?”

“Yeah.”

“One or two won't do. How many?”

The Regressor immediately opened a rift in the air and thrust her right arm into her Pocket. Frowning, she rummaged around a few times before pulling it out again. In her hand was a small ginkgo branch lush with leaves.

A branch of the World Tree. With a whole lot of leaves attached.

“This much?”

No, this was absurd. The guardians of the World Tree would sell leaves, but never branches. How on earth had she managed that?

“What in the world do you keep in there?”

“Pretty much anything I need.”

“But that's not just leaves. It's an entire branch... ”

“Here. Take it.”

The Regressor handed it over without hesitation. Was her sense of money warped, or did she simply not care because she would regress anyway?

World Tree leaves were packed with vital energy itself. Properly blended, they could multiply the efficacy of any herb, without any side effects.

In other words, rolling them with mana herbs would produce a mana-herb cigar several times more potent.

World Tree leaves wouldn't dry through ordinary means, so I had to touch each one with my finger and draw out the moisture using the Aqus spell. As I roughly tore the dried leaves into long strips, I tilted my head.

“This isn't a cheap knockoff anymore...?”

For someone like me, who stuffed products with cheap filler to pocket the difference, filling them with something even more expensive was utterly unfamiliar.

Was this how the rich thought? Had I spent too long living as a small-timer?

In the end, we produced sixty cigars in total. Far from making you addicted, these seemed likely to make you healthier the more you smoked.

“Mana herbs made with World Tree leaves... Um, can I try just one?”

Each cigar was a precious resource that would keep Nabi from going berserk, but for a smoker, the temptation was irresistible. If I passed this up, I couldn't call myself a mana-herb smoker anywhere.

The problem was the Regressor.

“Go ahead.”

To my surprise, she readily agreed.

What had gotten into her? I promptly picked up a cigar and said,

“I'm going to smoke, so get out.”

“Huh? Why? I said you could smoke.”

“I don't want to blow smoke in front of a kid. Hurry up.”

“What? A kid?”

The brat with nothing but strength flared up at my words, snatched a cigar off the desk, and shouted.

“I can smoke mana herbs too, you know! What, want me to show you?”

Sigh. Of course. I set my cigar back down. What was I doing, trying to smoke mana herbs in a place this isolated?

They were expensive, and each cigar was as good as the King of Cats' life. Even if I kept one, I'd have to hand it over once Nabi's supply ran out. Regrettable as it was, I decided to set aside the smoker in me for now.

If any were left after we escaped, I'd steal one and smoke it then.

“Ah, forget it. An adult should set a good example.”

“I said, smoke it!”

Leaving the noisily chattering Regressor behind, I trudged outside.

'This run... I put everything else off to come here, intending to throw it away. But now I can't.'

'I've secured the King of Cats, the King of Dogs is fine, and Tyrkanzyaka is normal too. We even foiled the Lords of Creation's attempt. I still don't really know what changed from the last run... But now I have to find out.'

'How far this run can go. How much progress I can make.'