"What a peaceful day~" I muttered to myself as I stare at the sky while eating the sandwich in my hand.
Since because of what happened with Takabana and me, the rumor of them doing 'nasty' things inside the old mansion will be replaced with the rumor of me sharing that rumor with the academy.
Because of that, it will be very uncomfortable for me to sleep inside the class since there will be lots of people looking at me.
With disdain of course.
So I'm currently sitting at the rooftop of the academy where there are no people since it's too tiring to go to the rooftop of the academy.
But well, I got what I aimed.
The rumor about the princess will be replaced with mine, while the annoying looks of the other students will be aimed at me as well. And the malice emitted from it will be transformed into dark mana and get consumed by my yokai subordinates. Hitting two birds with one stone, right?
I chuckled.
"What the hell am I making excuses to myself for?" I mocked myself.
*Sigh!*
"So here you are, huh?" A familiar voice of a girl suddenly appeared from behind me. I shifted my gaze and a girl with light blue hair entered my sight.
"What is the youngest genius hacker doing, talking to a loner like me? You'll have rumors talking about you in the back, Lapiz,"
"Boss, I mean Ray. I heard the details about the captured demon that was supposed to be the culprit of the serial murder case, but even though the demon that should be responsible for it got captured, there is still a murder case that appeared last night, huh?" (Lapiz)
"Yeah. Since Daoshou came from the China region, I thought it won't be surprising to see them use some kind of sorceries since even most of the yokai in Japan also know some sorceries... But it seems that the one who applied the spell in front of that abandoned mansion is not that demonized Daoshou nor the one who is hunting him. There is another culprit responsible for it,"
"Isn't it dangerous to let it roaming around here? Can't you just sense its presence with your power?" (Lapiz)
"My strength is not invincible. Even if I could spread my consciousness and my aura to the whole city, as long as the culprit hides his aura, I won't be able to sense him,"
"I see... How terrifying, to have such a murderer roaming around the city..." said Lapiz as she sits beside me.
"The onmyojis had spread their members across the city, and I've ordered our men to help the patrol as well. It will be difficult for him to take another victim since it will risk him getting exposed. But it's fine, it's just a matter of time,"
"A matter of time?" (Lapiz)
"Yes. It's just a matter of time before he'll show himself. We should just wait,"
"How could you know?" (Lapiz)
"I just happened to know, that's all," I answered vaguely.
"Geez... You're hiding things from me again... Even though I've helped lots of the agency's missions," Lapiz pouted.
"Fine, fine. The culprit is killing those victims, not for fun. The carving on their bodies are ancient spells, the sorcery it used meant that the culprit is familiar with the mystical world. There are several possibilities of the murders' reason, but sacrifice is the most likely one,"
"Why?" (Lapiz)
"You sure ask lots of things, huh, Genius hacker?"
"Stop teasing me and answer," (Lapiz)
*Thud!*
"O-Ouch! Is that even an attitude of someone asking for answers!?" I protested as Lapiz smacked my stomach.
"Hmph! It's your fault for teasing me, so why did you think that the most likely possibility is that the culprit is making sacrifices?" (Lapiz)
"It's not very plausible, but I couldn't think of any other benefit from carving the bodies of the victims other than for sacrificing the soul of the victims,"
"I see... It's impressive that you could narrow the possibilities to only one with only looking from the case pictures," said Lapiz as she sounded impressed.
"It's nothing. Live long enough at the underworld and you'll know it too. But it's not that my deductions are that accurate, it is just what I think most likely. I believe Rakuzan had arrived at the same conclusion as mine, but since he had looked into the murder location himself, he must have seen some other details that I didn't know. I'll just let that guy solve this,"
"Hm... Is that so...? It's rather rare for you to be so calm even though there is a murderer currently roaming around the city," Asked Lapiz.
"Well, there is an additional reason why the government forbid the media to share about the murderer case to the public,"
"An additional reason?" (Lapiz)
"Yup. The victims of the murderer case are government staff. I believe it's their problem and it seems that the murderer will only target those government folks. But since there is still a possibility of an uninvolved citizen got caught up in this, I ordered our subordinates to patrol the city. It's the government's business, but it'll be troublesome for us if the culprit didn't get captured soon,"
"Hm~ I see..." Replied Lapiz as she stared at me with a strange look.
"What is it?"
"Nothing. Why? Don't tell me~ You're embarrassed because I'm staring at you~," (Lapiz)
"I'm not," I retorted.
"Hehehe~ It's fine if you're embarrassed, though~," Lapiz continue to tease me.
"I'm not. By the way, Lapiz,"
"Hm?" Lapiz tilted her head as I suddenly called her name.
"If you're thinking of cheering me up because of what just happened with me and Takabana, you do not need to worry since it didn't affect me in the slightest,"
"Hm~ Why do you think I'm worried for you~ Ray is surprising a self-conscious guy, huh~" (Lapiz)
"If you're not then it's good," I answered indifferently as I disregarded her teasing.
"Teasing Ray is sure difficult, huh~" (Lapiz)
"If you're going to continue teasing me then I'll go find some other place, you know?"
"Hehehe~ I'm just kidding~ it's just..." (Lapiz)
"Just?"
"I know you won't get bothered at all by it. But you should know that some people are bothered by those bad things the others are saying about you. So since you don't need to get cheered up, you must take responsibility and cheer us who got bothered by those rumors, you know?" (Lapiz)
What kind of messed-up logic is that?
"W-Why the hell did it became my fault...?"
"It is. That's why you shouldn't play with people's heart, you know~" (Lapiz)
"I don't play with anyone's heart, though..." I said with a wry smile.
"Well. I know that it will be bad if I beat those who bad-mouthing you up so..." (Lapiz)
T-That's really no good, isn't it.
"So you should cheer me up just by staying here until the first break finished," (Lapiz)
"Is that a new kind of blackmail? Anyway, won't it be bad for you to be seen by someone?"
"Um... It's fine! I've put a sign saying 'under construction in front of the rooftop's door and locked it!" said Lapiz with a big smile.
W-Won't it gives us trouble if someone finds out that it's a lie!?
"What a nasty strategy you've used... So you knew that I'm going to go here since the beginning, huh..."
And to think that she heard about the thing that happened with me and Takabana and the princess's group already even though it just happened a while before, rumors sure traveled fast amongst students, huh...
"Of course! I know you well! And I could locate where you are since I put a marker on your glasses, after all~" (Lapiz)
Ah... I completely forgot about that...
"Just what kind of features did you put on this thing...? Should I buy another pair?"
"D-Don't! I won't be able to tap you and listen to what you're doing anymore if you do that!" (Lapiz)
Okay. I'll definitely change it.
"Don't trespass a person's privacy with such an advanced technology, you otaku hacker!"
"Hehehe~ It's fine~ It's just you, after all~" (Lapiz)
"What do you mean by 'It's just me', huh...? Am I not even worthy to get protected by the human's privacy rights...?"
"But I'm just using it since hearing what you're doing and looking at what you're looking makes me feel that I'm standing near you, after all~ But I don't tap you all the time, though! I just do it when I'm feeling lonely, that's all~ It's alright, right?" (Lapiz)
The words she's blurting out aren't something that could be taken plainly.
The meaning of her words is probably.
'I can't stand being alone, You're the one who I could trust. Being alone made me remember things I don't want to remember, so it's fine right?'
Lapiz Lazuli.
Just like my siblings and I, she's also an orphan. But she just became an orphan about two years ago.
This genius hacker is also a genius engineer acknowledged by the world.
The reason for her being an orphan.
Is because her whole family got killed.
By her sister, that got transformed into a demon.
"Do what you wish,"