“People don’t seem scared of you at all.”

“Why would they be scared?”

“I mean, aren’t you ruling over them through fear?”

“I’m doing what, now?”

Ever since their reunion, Liz had been saying things Zenos couldn’t wrap his head around. Now she was pressing her forehead, blabbering things like, “What the heck? This is so weird.”

They left the main street and took a turn into a mazelike network of narrow alleys. Perhaps sensing Liz’s distress, Lily tried to change the subject. “So, like, the orphanage where you two grew up was a pretty rough place, right?”

Zenos and Liz both nodded. “Yeah, it was pretty bad,” Zenos confirmed.

“It made jail look good in comparison,” Liz added.

“Yeah. At least the detention center in the city district feeds people. We had to fend for ourselves.”

Liz chuckled. “We were so hungry we even experimented to find out which bugs were edible, remember?”

“The more grotesque ones often tasted surprisingly good. Winters sucked, since there weren’t as many bugs around to catch...”

“But hey, at least we managed to get water by melting snow.”

As the conversation between the other two grew animated, Lily lowered her head awkwardly. “Um, I’m sorry for dredging up weird memories.”

“Dalitz, the director, was a real piece of work,” Zenos mused.

The orphanage’s director had been a slender man with a perpetually pallid face. His aura had made him look like death itself, and not only the children but the instructors, too, would tense up at the sight of him.

“By the way, Liz, how’s your memory?”

Liz stroked her chin with her fingertips pensively. “Right, that...”

Before she could say anything, however, a group of small children came running across the street, and one of them, too distracted by the excitement, stumbled and fell spectacularly. Clutching a bloodied knee, the child suddenly burst into tears, leaving the others unsure of what to do as they looked on.

“Zenos?” Lily called out.

“I guess running around like that is perfectly fine for a kid,” Zenos mused. He and Lily approached the child, and he said, “Come on now. You just took a little fall. No need to cry.”

“But it hurts!” the child protested.

With a shrug, Zenos crouched down and lightly touched the child’s knee. “There you go. All fixed. Be careful next time, all right?”

“Huh? It...doesn’t hurt anymore,” the child said, head tilting in confusion. The grazed knee had healed as though nothing had happened. With an excited, “Thanks, mister!” the child ran off with the others.

Liz, who’d been standing behind the healer, spoke up with a quiver in her voice and an expression of utter astonishment. “Um, Zenos? What was that?”

Zenos turned around, scratching his cheek. “Right, I never mentioned it. I actually work as a healer.”

“Huh?” Liz gaped at him, visibly shocked. “A healer? What do you mean?”

“A healer. Who heals people.”

“You’re not their leader?”

“Leader? What are you talking about?”

At a loss for words, Liz opened and closed her mouth several times before finally managing, “B-But you said you were doing something shady.”

“Well, it’s technically under-the-table work, since I can’t get a license, what with being from the slums and all.”

Finally, realization hit Liz like a sack of bricks, and her eyes widened. “S-So that’s why you operate in the ruined city?”

“Yeah. Less conspicuous that way.”

“And all those medical books and drugs were because of that!”

“Yep. So you saw them?”

Liz stood there in astonished silence.

“Liz?” Zenos asked, peering into her face. She was teary-eyed, not unlike the child from before.

“N-No wayyy...”

***

This was the worst. The absolute worst.

Zenos was no mastermind. He was just a healer. That was why the demi-humans adored him. No one had told her this! Well, more like she’d reached the wrong conclusion all on her own, but that was neither here nor there.

What a farce! she grumbled to herself.

“Liz, is something wrong?” Zenos asked, concerned.

Lily seemed worried too. “Are you okay, Liz?”

“O-Oh!” Liz exclaimed, shaking her head vigorously. “I’m fine!”

What had she worked so hard for?! She had felt like something was off, but knowing her efforts had been utterly pointless was almost enough to bring her to her knees. She’d thrown herself into what she’d thought was the lion’s den with a do-or-die attitude, dealt with a plethora of strange women, and even sacrificed her beauty sleep, pulling an all-nighter! And for what?! The man she’d been toiling so hard to ensnare was just an ordinary healer!

“Did you remember something unpleasant?” Zenos ventured, still concerned. “Maybe I jumped the gun a bit by bringing you here. Sorry about that.”

“O-Oh, no, don’t worry about it, Zenos. I’m grateful,” she said with a smile, despite sobbing internally.

Liz had attempted to injure Zenos in his sleep, but some sort of protective magic had kept him from harm. Then she’d joined him on this morning stroll, hoping to find an opening to try again, but if he wasn’t an overlord, then there was no point. In fact, the existence of a mastermind figure at all was now uncertain. The very premise of her strategy to control the slums was falling apart around her, making her feel a little dizzy.

Wait. No, wait a second, she thought, lifting her head. “Hey, Zenos, you can use protective magic, right?”