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At first glance, it looked like just an ordinary energy booster, no different from a common recovery drink. Even after giving it a quick taste, it didn’t seem to be anything special flavor-wise.

What kind of hidden secret was packed into this potion that it managed to restore Galm to his heyday? Determined to uncover the truth, Regalia gulped down the potion in big swigs.

There wasn’t much in the vial, so it didn’t take her long at all to finish it with her small mouth. After downing the entire potion, Regalia smacked her lips at the refreshing lemon flavor, but she tilted her head, feeling no particularly special effects.

Nothing’s happening?

If this was the potion that restored Galm to his prime, she thought something impressive should happen when she drank it too. Maybe she’d feel as powerful as a hero, at least not quite as strong as Galm.

However, curiously, she didn’t feel any effects whatsoever. Wasn’t it just like drinking an ordinary energy drink?

While pondering that she might have been duped by Galm and Eight, Regalia decided to ask the company’s researchers to analyze the potion. Surely the ingredients must hold some kind of secret.

“─Chairwoman? Here are the documents you need to sign.”

“Hmm— bring them over.”

After that, Regalia dived straight into her work without giving the potion another thought. She did notice that she felt refreshingly awake and hardly fatigued, but she chalked it up to just having chugged an energy drink.

It wasn’t until that night that she started to notice something strange.

After dinner, a quick shower, and some light exercise, she flopped down onto her bed right at 10 PM, just like every other night. You see, kids need to sleep early and wake early to grow tall and healthy, and she never strayed from that routine.

So tonight should have been like any other. She should have drifted off to sleep as soon as her head hit the pillow, yet instead, her body felt as wide awake as ever, refusing to surrender to slumber.

“…This is bad.”

Realizing sleep wasn’t going to come easily, Regalia simply closed her eyes and started to count sheep to kill time. By the time she hit around 28,000 sheep, she noticed the sun was already rising.

She hadn’t slept at all.

Regalia went to work that day wide awake.

That night, she counted sheep again.

By the time she finally fell asleep, she had counted a million sheep.

*

“Whoooooa—!”

“The fatigue… it’s all gone!”

“I could probably stay awake for three days straight…!”

The energy boosters made by Eight were distributed to all members of the organization. They took the potion whenever they felt tired or just before jumping into battle.

The effects were astounding. Just like Regalia, a kid who didn’t feel any fatigue after staying awake for three full days, the normally drained bodies of the members were now brimming with vitality.

For the fighters, they could now unleash even more strength than a good number of lower-tier heroes. Considering their normal weapon skills had barely matched that of an average, well-trained individual, it was quite the leap forward.

Of course, the one who benefited the most was Galm. The potion had been tailor-made for him, so it was only natural that he reaped the most rewards.

“Hahaha—! Come here, you rookies!”

Galm swung his weapon while facing off against the heroes. Those who remembered him as a beat-up beastman barely able to take on rookie heroes stood stunned at the sheer raw power he now wielded.

“Why is that brat beast suddenly so strong—!?”

“I dunno! But hey, Red! Calling him a ‘brat beast’ is just plain racist!”

“Is this really the time to worry about that!?”

“You seem to have a lot of energy left! Then I’ll crank it up another notch!”

“Whoa—! You crazy mutt—!”

Galm didn’t bother explaining that as a tiger beastman, he was actually closer to a cat than a dog. Instead, he just swung his weapon with reckless abandon, silencing their protests.

A battle-hardened hero of war, Galm’s weapon techniques had reached the mastery level. If you looked solely at the fact that he could kill someone, he was probably better than most masters out there.

After a short while of harassing the heroes with his weapon-swinging antics, an alarm started blaring from within his clothes. Hearing that sound, Galm abruptly stopped mid-swing.

“Hmm— time to clock out. I’m heading out.”

“What the…!? It’s only 3 PM, you villain!”

“The heroes’ working hours are none of my concern. I’m leaving now.”

With that, Galm retreated, taking the downed fighters with him. The heroes wanted to pursue but lacked the guts. Even in a straight-up fight, they had failed to overpower Galm, and it felt like he had been holding back just a bit. It was as if he could have easily killed them but chose not to.

Chasing after someone like that could lead to even bigger troubles. It could mean losing their lives. Heroes are supposed to subdue villains, not throw their lives away.

The heroes blankly watched the fleeing villain organization before finally returning. They vented their frustrations back at headquarters.

“Ugh—! Director! Can’t we just catch that beast?!”

“No.”

“Why not!?”

They knew who Galm was, which villain organization he belonged to, and even where that organization was located— so why the heck were they being told they couldn’t arrest him?

Couldn’t they just wait until he was resting and then storm the organization’s base in a group to capture him? That’s what Red thought.

But there was a reason it couldn’t happen.

“Even the president can’t freely enter there.”

“What? Not even the president can go in?”

“That entire city is private property of Evilus Corporation. Everything, from the buildings to the vehicles on the streets, belongs to Evilus. The citizens living there are essentially renting everything from Evilus.”

“…But they’re villains. They might hurt the citizens.”

“Villains who announce the exact date and time they plan to attack? And most of those citizens are either employees of Evilus or subcontractors? And don’t forget that when evacuation orders are given, a lot of those citizens rejoice because they don’t have to work?”

Upon hearing that, Red felt his breath catch in disbelief at the unbelievable reality. What kind of situation was this? It felt like…

“That’s just… like a child’s playtime…”

“You better not say that out loud, or they’ll think you’re spoiled.”

“Why…?”

“Because it’s better than dealing with cities where villains rampage, plugging bullets into heroes’ families, or facing monsters from other worlds that can’t even communicate. Or do you want to be transferred to one of those cities?”

“…N-no, I’m sorry.”

Red offered an apology at the mention of being transferred to a place where he could really experience his hero play. Sure, he couldn’t fully agree with it, but he could understand. It was better than dealing with villains running wild and killing people indiscriminately, right?

When you think about it, this kind of villain wasn’t so bad. They were creating a sort of rule to operate within this city. Telling everyone how to conduct themselves here. Otherwise, they’d end up making enemies out of everyone else.

In fact, the fatality rate due to villain-related crimes in that city was less than one-tenth of that in others.

“What you need to do is not ponder such strange thoughts, but to subdue and arrest them on-site. Fortunately, they don’t seem to have an issue with that.”

“…About that. Didn’t that beast just get ridiculously strong all of a sudden? Was he always that powerful—?”

“Red.”

“Ah, sorry. I meant the villain.”

At Red’s question, the director nodded, indicating that it was possible, and pulled something out of his pocket. Red looked at the object as if to ask what it was.

The director shrugged lightly and explained the identity of the object.

“This is a new product from Evilus Corporation. An energy drink.”

“And why…?”

“Our scientists found that this product was diluted to about a millionth of its original concentration, yet it vastly outperforms any existing energy drink. They said it’s an outrageous level of performance for the price.”

An energy drink produced by a company run by a villain organization.

And a suddenly empowered cadre from that villain organization.

If you didn’t suspect a connection between these two, you might as well wonder if what was perched atop your neck was actually a hat rack.

“─We need to find the scientist who created this.”

“…And if we find him?”

“We need to somehow bring him over to our side.”

Though the director said that, neither he nor Red truly believed it was possible. No matter who had created it, there was no way they could offer conditions better than the global giant, Evilus.

*

“─Achoo!”

“Ugh, are you alright…?”

“Oh, yes. I just suddenly got the chills.”

I rubbed my nose and looked at Ayle, who had come to my lab. In such a short time, I had realized that this gloomy girl struggled to express her opinions, so her arrival in my lab must mean something special was going on.

And I was right in my assumption.

“I heard from the boss. Eight is going to make something for me…”

“Yes, that’s right. Do you have anything you usually use?”

“Uh, no. I just… joined the villain organization because I wanted to meet magical girls…”

“Hmm. So should I just make something up?”

“…Is anything okay?”

Ayle’s eyes sparkled as she asked. She was rarely this expressive of her own opinions. I nodded lightly, and to my surprise, she spoke confidently without stuttering.

“─I want to become tentacles.”

“…What?”

“Tentacles. Don’t you know? They come up a lot in magical girl doujins.”

Well, I mean, I know what they are.

I stared at Ayle in disbelief.

She met my gaze with unwavering seriousness.

My head was already starting to hurt.