The Shield of Miracles

by Sakon Kaidou

“Hey, it’s nothing like that. I’m not the damn Lunar Society. This is about that,” he said as he pointed at a piece of paper on the notice board.

  [Every day of the month that is a multiple of 10 is for reading. If you read a book from the library and write a review, you will receive 100 of the gaol’s currency, jailir. Everyone is free to participate.]

  [Note 1: When reading, make sure to do it in silence. And those who aren’t reading, please make sure not to disturb those who are.]

  [Note 2: Reading enriches both mind and heart.]

  - [The Gaol’s Control AI, Red King.]

  “...Is this a school or something?” I muttered.

  And if 100 jailir were worth the same as 100 lir, that was just a miserable sum of money.

  Also... me? Reading books? Do you think I’m stupid?

  “Are the prisoners here that bored?” I asked. “If you are, why not just go stealing or something?”

  You’re all on the wanted list, so this place has to be crawling with thieves, right?

  “Most of us don’t actually care about the Red King and the guy’s good conduct and morality events,” he replied. “But you should still have a book, just in case. He is very passionate about this.”

  “‘He’?”

  “His name is Sechs. He’s one of the four Superiors here in the gaol. The man’s a model prisoner, and he’s pretty big on these events.”

  “...Huhhh?” I let out a confused sound.

  I obviously knew about the King of Crimes, Sechs Würfel, but... was I really supposed to believe he was a model prisoner enthusiastic about morality events? What kind of stupidity was that?

  Just think about the job name, “King of Crimes.” Why would such a person ever enjoy reading, writing reviews, and getting a little money for it?

  “So yeah, it’s better if you act like you’re participating in the event. It’ll reduce your chances of getting on his bad side and— GHEH!”

  I grabbed the well-informed shitty weakling by the collar and asked, “Where can I find this ‘Sechs’ person?”

  Using the info I got from him led me to a place that looked pretty clean, especially for something in the gaol.

  It looked like a café. Its white walls didn’t have any dirt on them, and it seemed to be taken care of so well that it felt like it belonged in Gideon.

  The place was called “Dice,” which was probably why it had a wooden die as its front-door decorative feature. After getting a better look at it, I realized that all the faces on the die had six dots each.

  Shouldn’t cheat dice be four-five-six?

  “Ah, now that I think about it...”

  When making up the cryptograms for the cards, I’d used characters from several languages, so I remembered a few words from them.

  If I recalled correctly, in German, “six” was “sechs,” and “dice” was “würfel,” which meant that “Sechs Würfel” was “six on a die.”

  Wait, so maybe the die isn’t a café feature, but his own symbol? But why is it in front of a café, then?

  “Maybe he uses dice to mark his territory?” I became a bit more cautious and opened the glass door leading to the café.

  I was greeted by a mechanical waitress speaking in monotone. “Wel-come.”

  It didn’t look like there were tians here in the gaol, so I could only guess that customers were served by these machine dolls.

  Does nobody break those things and take what they have?

  Also, this one was so well-made that I almost thought it was a person at first. All that made it obvious it was a doll were the spherical joints and the diamond-like gem buried in the forehead.

  I became curious, so I used Identification on it and found out that its name was “Diamond Slayer,” and that, according to the description, it was a “Prism Person.”

  ?! I realized. Wait... Forget about stealing what it has — the thing itself might be a crazy luxury good...

  Trying to imagine the market price of the doll made me all dizzy.

  “Is a-ny-thing the mat-ter, miss?” the doll asked.

  “...Huh?!” I quickly went back to my senses and did what I’d come here to do.

  “Sechs Würfel!” I shouted as I stopped the doll from trying to take me to a table. “Is the King of Crimes here?!”

  The customers sitting here and there looked at me like I was some weirdo, but I didn’t care. I didn’t know what Sechs Würfel looked like, so I couldn’t find him if I didn’t call for him.

  He should be here somewhere!

  “I’m Gerbera!” I shouted. “A member of Illegal Frontier! The clan you made! I came because I want to talk to you! Are you here?!”

  Yes, Sechs Würfel was the leader of IF — the secret organization I was part of. It was a clan that only allowed Superiors who were on wanted lists.

  I’d been picked up by the clan after he was jailed, but I’d heard lots of things about him from other members.

  That was why I’d targeted the King of Destruction. If I’d killed the one who’d sent our leader to the gaol, it would have proved to everyone else in the clan that I wasn’t to be taken lightly.

  Well, that hadn’t worked out and I’d ended up here myself, but I thought I should at least show myself to him.

  None of the customers came out to claim they were him.

  For some reason, they just sighed like they were relieved and began reading books.

  Yes — all of them were reading books.

  “What’s going on?! Is he even here?!”

  None of the customers were reacting, but right as I was about to assume he wasn’t here, someone spoke to me, saying, “Err, may I have a moment?”

  It was a plain-looking young man wearing an apron and black-rimmed glasses. He was probably the shopkeeper.

  And here I thought the gaol didn’t have any tians.

  “What?!” I shouted. “I’m not ordering anything! I just came here, so I don’t have a single jailir! Got a problem with that?!”

  “No, I did not want to ask for your order. What I want to know is, are you really a member of IF?”

  “I just said I am! So just bring the King of Crimes to me, and—”

  “That would be me.”

  “...Eh?” For a second, I couldn’t understand what he’d just said. But then I looked at the back of his left hand and saw an Embryo crest, making it obvious he wasn’t a tian.

  “I am the King of Crimes, Sechs Würfel,” he said. “A pleasure to meet you. May I call you ‘Gerbera?’”

  The plain-looking young man was nothing like what I’d imagined the King of Crimes to be.

  A few minutes later, I was sitting at the counter and drinking coffee he’d prepared for me. It kinda angered me that it was actually good.

  For some reason, the snack he gave me with the coffee was popcorn, and when I asked about that, he said, “A friend of mine has been absorbed in popcorn recently, so I tried my own hand at it, as well.”

  The KoD had a popcorn stand, too. Was it trendy or something? Honestly, though, I would’ve liked doughnuts way more.

  ...Remembering popcorn and doughnuts made me angry again.

  Damn you, Rook and KoD!

  Once he showed me his stat summary, I finally accepted the truth.

  “Wow... you really are our leader.”

  His name was clearly Sechs Würfel, and his job was definitely King of Crimes.

  His total level has to be some sort of glitch, though.

  “Yes, I am,” he said. “But I find it rather questionable whether I am truly the leader.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I only filled the position because Zeta and Rascal asked me to, so you might consider me to be a leader in name only. Also, I was sent to the gaol soon after the creation, so they are the ones doing most of the clan administration now....”

  Rascal was the Superior who’d invited me to the clan, and yes, he was the one operating it now.

  Uh huh, this man really is our leader, I thought. H
e didn’t act like it, and didn’t look anything like a “King of Crimes,” but it was definitely him.

  I’d honestly expected him to be someone violent and wild-looking, or like a mafia boss with a cat on his lap.

  “Why are you the shopkeeper of a café?” I asked.

  “I had a lot of free time, so I thought I’d get a hobby. I’ve become quite good at preparing coffee over the past half a year.”

  “If you’re this good without any skills, you should open a café in real life.”

  “Oh my, I didn’t expect such praise... Thank you very much.”

  He’s so... modest and soft. Is he really the King of Crimes?

  “By the way... all the customers here are reading books,” I said.

  “Indeed they are. This is a reading day, after all. They’re quite enthusiastic about it.”

  “Mhm...”

  I looked over the counter, saw Nightingale’s biography with a bookmark in it, and realized that he, too, was juggling work and reading.

  It was obvious that he was passionate about it, but this choice of book made him seem way too well-conducted. There was a limit to just how much of a model prisoner you could be. Once again, I could hardly believe he was the King of Crimes.

  ...I’ll just ask about it.

  “I heard you are a model prisoner,” I spoke up. “Why?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’re the King of Crimes, so I thought you’d be controlling the gaol from the shadows and raising hell.”

  “Oh no, that’s quite wrong,” he replied. “Criminals that serve their time are supposed to follow the prison’s rules. That is why I am doing just that.”

  “I see... Hm...?” It seemed like his words were strangely nuanced. Was I just imagining it?

  Because of Rook, I was starting to overthink a lot of stuff like this.

  “By the way, you talk to Rascal and Zeta by mail, right?” I said as I recalled reading something like that in a clan notice.

  “Yes. I have to rely on translation software a lot, though.”

  “Next time you send something, make sure to tell them about me. That I’m ‘escaping this place soon.’”

  “You intend to attempt escape?”

  “Of course. My Embryo is... probably not the strongest, but it’s suited for this kind of thing.”

  It hurt that I couldn’t say that my Embryo was the strongest.

  Damn you, Rook.

  “Then you should consider waiting a short while more,” he said.

  “Why?”

  “Candy... the King of Plagues is currently trying to defeat the Disaster Bioweapon. Once the preparations are done on that front, the three of us will definitely be able to escape.”

  I’d heard of the King of Plagues. That was the criminal who’d killed the most tians ever and come here after being defeated by the Superior Killer. I was pretty worried about that one because our compatibility seemed really bad, and... wait.

  “‘The three of us’?” I asked.

  “Yes,” he nodded. “Hannya’s term will soon be over, and we couldn’t make Fu’uta cooperate with us, so that only leaves us three.”

  Those were probably the names of the other Superiors here, but that wasn’t what I wanted to ask.

  “You’re escaping, too? Aren’t you enjoying your life here?” I mean, he even had his own café.

  “Yes. After all, felons obediently serve their time while at the same time trying to escape. That is why I will do just that.”

  There it was again.

  Something about his words felt weird, but I couldn’t really tell what it was.

  “Oh, speaking of escaping, why are you here in the first place?” he asked.

  “Well... I...”

  It was hard for me to speak the reasons and details about that, because it meant speaking about my failures using my own mouth.

  The “me” from before I heard those words would probably speak a tale of success, but as I was now, I really couldn’t do that, so I gave up and spoke objectively.

  From start to end, I told the leader about everything that had happened in Gideon. He silently nodded while refilling my coffee every now and then.

  Also, when we started talking about this, all the other customers read the mood and left the café. It seemed like they were used to this.

  “Then, I fought the KoD to prove my power... and lost miserably,” I mumbled.

  Talking about my failures made me very tired.

  “That must have been hard,” the leader said while nodding. “I understand how you feel. I, too, am here because I lost to Shu.”

  “‘Lost’? But I heard it was a draw...”

  “No. I lost, fair and square. I received my death penalty because he gave it to me, while he got his death penalty because of a side effect to doing that to me. It’s definitely my loss.”

  He spoke calmly while admitting his own defeat. It didn’t look like he was the least bit frustrated about it, and I couldn’t tell whether it was because he’d made peace with it while being here, or whether he had never been bothered by it at all.

  But... for some reason, it felt like he was talking about the KoD with affinity instead of hostility.

  “I must say, I do wonder how Shu noticed your Embryo,” the leader went on, pondering something for a moment. “He perceived Alhazred despite it being impossible to perceive, yes?”

  I’d already told him about Alhazred’s powers. The other clan members knew them, so I thought I might as well tell him, too.

  “Yes... and I still don’t know how,” I answered.

  “I see... Let’s test it, then,” he said as he walked out from behind the counter. “Please attack me.”

  “Eh? Wait, but... Eehh?”

  What kind of person just asks to be attacked? Is he a masochist or something?

  “There’s no need to hold back. It doesn’t matter where. Please, do attack me with your Alhazred.”

  “Don’t complain about it after that.”

  It didn’t seem like our conversation was going to go any further until I attacked him, so I gave in and did it.

  I made Alhazred move and stand next to him, and it didn’t look like he knew he was there. Then I made Alhazred swing his sickle-arm to slightly cut his upper arm, when...

  “Oh, we should also spread out some newspapers so that—”

  “Ah! Don’t move...!”

  A moment later, the mantis arm that was supposed to just lightly cut into his arm cut off his head instead.

  “AAAAAHHHH!” I screamed as his head rolled on the floor and hit the glass door.

  The Masters outside who saw it also screamed and ran away.

  “O-Oh no... Wh-What do I do...?!”

  I accidentally gave the death penalty to our leader! Wait, is this really my fault?! What if the other members think that I killed him just to prove my power?! What do I do now?!

  “The pain is still there, it seems.” I suddenly heard the same voice I’d been hearing until a few dozen seconds ago.

  “...Eh?”

  I looked and noticed that our leader’s headless body wasn’t turning into light.

  Not just that, but it was actually speaking, even though it didn’t have a head.

  “April,” it spoke again. “Sorry to bother you, but would you kindly pass me my head?”

  “Un-der-stood, my ve-ne-ra-ble ow-ner,” the doll next to the glass door — April was her name, probably — replied as she took the leader’s head and threw it towards his body, which easily caught it.

  “I figured it out,” he continued speaking without even connecting his head to his body... not like I knew if he could. “Your Alhazred doesn’t cancel pain.”

  “E-EEHH?! Forget about that! Your head’s clearly not where it’s supposed to be! Are you okay?!”

  “I am quite okay, yes. It’s normal for me to lose body parts or be blown to smithereens. Our clan member Emily is the same in that regard, no?”

  “She is?!”


  I didn’t know that! I’ve never seen her become like this!

  “A-Also, why are you talking without a head...?” I burst out.

  “Vocal cords and lungs aren’t in the head, after all,” his body said. “Isn’t it only natural to speak through here?”

  There’s nothing natural about losing your head and acting like it’s nothing! And wait, “pain?!” Did he really just say that?! He was being so calm despite having his head cut off with his pain set to on?! Excuse me?! Is he some sort of monster in real life, too?!

  “Allow me a moment to reconnect. I cannot even look you in the eye like this,” he said as he placed his head where it had been. A moment later, it reconnected and became as normal.

  The sight was more shocking than the decapitation. Pain and all that aside, though, as unusual as the scene was, it was probably possible if it was caused by an Embryo.

  “...Gross,” I muttered. “Is your Superior Embryo based on a Dullahan?”

  “Dullahans, you say? That’d be quite the cool concept, but no, my Embryo is based on something else.”

  Then what other kind of Embryo can let you stay just fine without a head?!

  “For now, let’s keep talking about your Alhazred. Just now, when you cut off my head, I felt pain, most likely because Alhazred cannot hide it. Shu surely knew about that.”

  “How could I have expected that?” I exclaimed.

  I mean, you’d have to be insane to turn on your pain. And wait, you turned on your pain and seriously asked me to attack you? Are you okay in the head?!

  “This time, attack me with your pain turned on,” he said.

  “Okay,” I replied as I prepared Alhazred. Swinging had resulted in disaster, so this time, I’d lightly pierce him, and...

  “Oh, about what part of me you should targe—”

  “I told you not to move!”

  The tip of the sickle was going for his upper arm, but then he turned around and it penetrated his heart.

  Come on, now, why does this keep happening?

  “I see. I understand now,” said the leader. Like before, he didn’t get the death penalty and actually looked pretty fine.

  Is he immortal...? KoD, just how did you kill and send this thing to the gaol? You seriously freak me out.