The Otherworlder narrowed his eyes in thought. He considered himself to be a little smart but was no genius. He couldn’t make dozens of scenarios flow through his head like frames on a cassette. In fact, the more he thought about making a plan, the less of a plan he could make.

‘Do I have no choice but to use that?’ the Otherworlder thought to himself.

‘LAD!!’

A spiky stinger poked the Otherworlder’s shoulders. He flinched in surprise and turned to see an enormous cockroach staring down at him.

‘Wh-what!!’ he screamed in his head. Again, a strange sensation touched his shoulders, this time much longer and closer than before. He shivered and turned to Cockarista with a vengeful gaze. ‘What in the world are you doing?’

‘I was calling you out!–Halt! What is that strange... um, contrivance on your shoulders?’ Cockarista pointed at the Otherworlder with his limbs.

Still feeling the sensation not only on his shoulder but all over his body, the Otherworlder mechanically turned his head to his side.

A long protrusion extended from his coat, flowing all the way down his shoulder and to his back. The metallic green object had dozens of marks and lines running through it. Carefully, the Otherworlder grabbed it with his hand and pulled it out of his coat. Embedded all over the mahogany threads was a chain of thin and sharp metallic wires that he hadn’t noticed even once.

Cockarista and the Otherworlder leaned towards the wires, squinting their eyes to see what was up.

‘It is covered with magical engravings. This wire would conduct mana almost a fourth as well as my carapace.’

‘Where did it come from in the first place? Wait, what’s with that insult, cockroach?’

‘Insult? No way, it is great praise for the quality of this thing.’ Cockarista clamped its jaws and extended his forelegs to take the wire off of the Otherworlder's hands. As compared to a mere human, a superior species like the cockroaches had much better senses. Even without mana, his eyesight could see things in ten times more detail than the Otherworlder.

Cockarista fiddled with the wires before stopping at one end. ‘A late gift. Stay safe no matter what. Vera..... What could these words mean?’

‘AH!’ The Otherworlder’s eyes widened into two giant orbs as realization kicked in.

Back when he had visited Vera’s place, he had almost left his coat behind. She took that chance to place this wire into his coat. Along with the realization, a splendid plan brewed in the Otherworlder’s mind as his mouth twisted into a small smirk.

The Otherworlder left the cockroach behind and walked towards the bars of the cell. He took a deep breath and spoke in a low voice.

“Hey, Princess.”

Cockarista looked toward the Otherworlder in surprise.

“I just told that girl what you’re trying to hide.”

‘Lad...’

“You wouldn’t want it to be heard out in the open, would you? Let’s have a talk.”

Pretenses were over. The Otherworlder had begun his counterattack.

┈ ┈ ┈ ⋞ ⟨ ⏣ ⟩ ⋟ ┈ ┈ ┈

“Let’s have a talk.”

A soft sigh.

-Tap.

The sound of long heels clicking against the floor.

-Wooosh.

A chilly breeze.

-Gulp.

And the sound of nervous shivering.

“Haha...”

A laugh as sweet as nectar and as sharp as roses faintly spread through the air. Taking small regal steps with eyes akin to the depths of the abyss, Amelia smiled at what she had just heard.

“A talk, he says. A talk. Hahaha...”

“M-my lady...” Pulling all the courage from deep within his guts, Raeran somehow managed to call out to the princess. Never in his life had ever thought of, let alone seen, the princess in this state. Her dark eyes and twisted smile took away her facade of an angel and left her looking like the greatest demon in all of hell.

What else could it be, though?

Someone knew of her greatest secret.

Someone knew of that which she had only told those she had tied the lives of.

Even he could only learn of it after being cursed with death for as much as imagining of mentioning it.

Such a secret, someone knew.

“What?”

“A-are you goi–” Raeran immediately shut his mouth as the princess slowly turned her gaze towards him. Her eyes made him swallow his words but urged him to say something. Raeran racked his brain left and right to think of a question.

“A-a-that, that cockroach. Why didn’t it kill him... yet...?”

Amelia let out a deep breath as she turned to face Raeran. Her stupid dog was drooping its ears at her anger. “Heh. It’s because that man didn’t attack it first. The cockroach is too pacifistic to kill someone unprovoked.”

“A-ah... I... see–”

"-Hahaha! HHAHAAHA!!”

Raeran’s eyes widened as Amelia broke into a great laughing fit. Without sparing her dog a glance, Amelia laughed louder and louder with each second. Her position was being threatened, her ability was discovered, and her very personage had been challenged all by a bastard she had thrown into the prison.

So why?

Why was she feeling so excited?

Why was she looking forward to what was ahead?

And why was she so unbelievably furious?

“Raeran,” she called out, taking her steps back towards her throne.

“Y-your command, my lady.”

“Go to that otherworlder bastard,” she said, slowly taking her seat back on the throne.

“I-I’ll bring him here at once.”

“Bring him here? No.” Amelia’s palm settled on the arms of the chair as her left leg gracefully lifted and crossed over the other. “I don’t chide the dog that dares show me its fangs. I simply twist its neck... Don’t bring that bastard here, Raeran.

Kill him.”