This House Has A Delicious Restaurant - Chapter 1 - Criminal Zerdan (1) - Part 4

The woman, who I thought was a corpse, was awake. Her eyes were clear as if she had been conscious for a while.

She twisted her neck left and right, looking uncomfortable from being dragged on the floor.

Seeing a woman I thought was dead alive… it felt strange, and I looked at her.

“Have you been awake since before you came into the room?”

“Yes. I regained consciousness just before coming in, so I didn’t see much of the way here. But that’s not important.”

Not important?

For a woman who had been kidnapped, she seemed surprisingly calm. She had long, curly black hair and black eyes, with an impression that looked both aloof and attractive. Her clothes didn’t look worn out either. An instinctive feeling crossed my mind that she wasn’t an ordinary person.

Watching her calmly look around the room, just as I did at first, I recalled the strange behavior of the man who had just left.

Could it be…?

“Was his strange behavior just now because of your ability?”

She looked slightly surprised by my question. Though she didn’t answer, the situation was fairly obvious.

The psychic the man mentioned in the hunter group was likely this woman in front of me. It seemed she had been intentionally kidnapped.

To use someone so easily with her ability…

Yet, despite having such a frightening power, she had always greeted me as a corpse each time the game was executed.

I cautiously dropped the ring I was holding near my feet. Whether she looked at it quizzically or not, I stepped on the fallen ring with my shoe.

The sound of it breaking was clear. Please, let it be anything that can protect my body.

I recalled reading that Zerdan instinctively realized his ability when he acquired it later in life.

As the ring broke, a small wisp of smoke rose and touched my toes. The woman’s eyes widened. She seemed to sense something unusual.

I too felt a strange sensation and instinctively knew I had gained an ability. It felt like the atmosphere in the room had dropped, and goosebumps rose all over my body.

“What did you do?”

The woman clenched her fist. Fearing she might misunderstand and use her psychic ability on me, I put on the most pitiful expression I could muster.

“I didn’t do anything. It’s just… I remembered my mother told me to break this ring if I ever found myself in a dangerous situation, so I did.”

“Did you call for help or something?”

“I’m not sure, but my mother told me it would bring me luck and left it to me as an heirloom. It’s a shame to lose it like this, but…”

The words flowed out of me as if I were reading a script, and she seemed slightly uncertain.

It made sense; in the enemy’s base, a suspicious woman suddenly broke a ring.

But when nothing significant happened after a moment, she seemed to believe my words to some extent and looked at me calmly again.

“For a ring that’s supposed to bring luck, it felt quite eerie when it broke. I felt my hair stand on end, like when our leader is about to use his power.”

“Is that so…?”

“No, don’t misunderstand me. I didn’t mean it in a bad way…”

When I couldn’t hold back my tears and they started rolling down my cheeks, she seemed quite flustered and hurriedly tried to explain herself. But her words didn’t reach my ears. It was because I had just realized what my ability was thanks to her words.

Yes, I instinctively knew it.

I can temporarily make all the hairs on the opponent’s body stand on end.

Realizing this, Moa Ablon couldn’t even cry out loud, fearing that Zerdan might come, and just let her tears fall like a chicken’s poop.

What kind of pathetic ability is this? After overcoming the ordeal where my fingers almost got cut off, to gain such a useless ability!

“Please, don’t cry. If our leader sees this, I’ll get in trouble for making a civilian cry. I’m sorry for being harsh about your mother’s heirloom. Don’t worry, I’ll bring you that luck. This is a secret, but our leader will come to rescue you soon.”

Who tells secrets so easily?

Even while crying, I nodded at the news that someone was coming to rescue me.

I must look more innocent than I thought. Both Zerdan and the woman in front of me were flustered just because I shed some tears. She looked aloof but was unexpectedly weak against a woman’s tears. Even though I still felt teary thinking about my ability…

Yes, let’s just think that I never had that ability. I did nothing. I was an ordinary person from beginning to end. Thinking like that, I felt a bit better.

I sniffled and looked at the woman in front of me. Suddenly, I became curious. She might be a woman who would die soon, but she had an exceptional ability. And she was also a beauty.

“Are you a spy?”

“… All right. There don’t seem to be any listening devices here, and you seem to be a kidnapped civilian, so I’ll tell you. Just as you thought, I’m pretending to be kidnapped.”

I see. I nodded again and asked an additional question.

“Is it the hunter group the man mentioned earlier?”

“They seem to call it that here, but there’s no official name. Our leader just gathered people with similar abilities.”

“Is your leader by any chance Obella?”

“How do you know that…!”

“I’ve been misunderstood as Obella’s spy here.”

“Oh, I see. You’ve had a hard time. The real spy is here, those fools.”

She clicked her tongue and mocked the people here. I looked at her and then glanced up at the ceiling.

I’ve never seen this leader called Obella, but the woman has no eye for people. She looks like a cat, but she answers everything without suspicion, just like a dog. If that’s also acting, she’s an incredible spy… But I don’t think that’s the case.

Maybe entrusting my life to this woman would be difficult, so I decided to find a more realistic alternative.

“When I send a rescue signal, he’ll come. But since we haven’t gathered enough information yet, I should meet the head honcho here. His ability is still a mystery, so finding out more would be crucial… Hm.”

“For now, sending a rescue signal would be best.”

“Huh? What are you saying? There’s no big danger yet…”

“If you send a rescue signal, will he appear before you in just one second? If he has teleportation abilities, I’ll stay still. But if not, why are you so confident?”

“Well… I understand your concern, but my ability is strong enough. Did you see that man earlier? He couldn’t move a muscle, completely under my control.”

Indeed, it’s a remarkable ability. But even with such an ability, why did she meet me as a corpse?

There must have been someone or some situation where her ability didn’t work.

“Are there any limitations to your ability? Situations where you can’t use it, or preparations for such cases? Right now, you’re tied up and unable to defend against any attacks.”

“Well…”

“If your ability was that strong, there would have been no need for you to be kidnapped here. You could have just taken control as soon as you met the organization. But there must have been a reason why you couldn’t.”

As I spoke, she hesitated for a moment, then nodded. After a while, she spoke softly. She can only control targets within sight, and at most, just two people.

Upon hearing that, I sighed. Ultimately, it meant she lacked proper defense against multiple enemies or surprise attacks from behind.

She seemed to notice my sigh. Despite telling me not to worry earlier, she was now looking at me.

“Send the rescue signal now.”

“Yes… Huh?”

She bowed her head and made a slightly flustered sound. She seemed hesitant and reached towards her chest area. More precisely, towards a long necklace positioned near her sternum.

No way…