Night Frost pinned the girl’s hands together with one hand. No matter how hard she struggled, she couldn’t break free. A flush spread across her face, and tears welled up again from her reddened eyes.

Night Frost looked slender and frail, yet the girl never expected her to be this strong.

Night Frost’s body pressed tightly against the girl’s. While the girl wasn’t paying attention, she leaned close to her ear.

“If you don’t talk, I’ll have to get a little more violent~”

Every word reached the girl’s ears. Fear rose in her eyes. Against Night Frost’s fierce assault, she had no way to fight back.

“I’ll talk… I’ll talk, okay?”

The girl sobbed. The flush on her face still hadn’t faded.

Night Frost pulled her hand back. It was wet with the sweat the girl had shed while struggling.

“You can’t even take a little tickling. You’re such a weakling~”

Under Night Frost’s relentless tickling, the girl finally gave up and confessed everything.

Of course, before making her talk, Night Frost had treated the girl’s wounds. Otherwise, she might have lost that arm.

“Thank you… My name’s Qian Qingqing. You can call me Qingqing, too. I’m the eldest daughter of Qian Corporation. I was the one who pushed for this protest…”

Night Frost briefly searched her memories.

Qian Corporation seemed to be a major company in the Fourth District. It controlled several industrial subsidiaries and had become one of the main targets of the Order Keeper’s suppression after its headquarters was established.

The current head of Qian Corporation was truly impressive. Under the Order Keeper’s overwhelming pressure, they had still managed to expand the corporation into one of the Fourth District’s leading enterprises.

“Wait. Why would the eldest daughter of Qian Corporation join a protest? And how did you end up like this?”

Night Frost didn’t understand.

As the eldest daughter of Qian Corporation, Qian Qingqing should have had bodyguards. Why was she alone?

Besides, what benefit could a protest bring her? Wasn’t she practically jumping into a pit of fire?

“Actually… I did it for a friend.”

“A friend?”

Night Frost’s eyes shifted slightly.

So there was more to this?

She remembered what Qian Qingqing had said during the day.

“Two new courses were added. One is called Faith, and the other is Physical Health.”

If Night Frost’s guess was right, those two courses were probably the reason Qian Qingqing had started the protest.

“If I’m not mistaken, those two new courses you mentioned are connected to your friend. Is your friend the missing person you mentioned?”

“Yes. My friend went to attend Physical Health, but she never came back…”

“She disappeared. I used every resource I could, but I couldn’t find her. It was as if she’d vanished from the face of the earth.”

Qian Qingqing vaguely remembered that day.

Her friend had told her she was going to attend Physical Health. The school had informed her that she needed a medical examination so they could tailor a training program for her.

At the time, Qian Qingqing had been busy playing an otome game and hadn’t paid much attention.

But when night came, her friend still hadn’t returned to the dormitory.

Qian Qingqing immediately went to find the teacher in charge of Physical Health.

That teacher was a Magic Maiden from Cantata Two.

The teacher told Qian Qingqing that Physical Health had been created specifically for the Magic Maiden training program.

Ordinary people shouldn’t have been able to enroll. The system would have rejected their applications outright.

Only Magic Maidens attended the course.

She had never seen an ordinary student there.

Qian Qingqing believed her.

She thought her friend had simply gone somewhere to have fun without inviting her. Maybe she had even found a boyfriend and was out meeting him.

But by the third day, her friend still hadn’t returned.

There was still no word from her.

Something must have happened.

Qian Qingqing reported the matter to the school, but the school only brushed her off.

Then again, what could she expect from those useless parasites? They couldn’t produce anything worthwhile even if they tried.

So she used her authority as the eldest daughter of Qian Corporation to investigate her friend’s movements over the past few days.

She found nothing.

It was as though her friend had vanished from the face of the earth.

The only time she had appeared was at school, when she enrolled in Physical Health.

“I believe something happened during that course and caused her disappearance. But I’m not the head of Qian Corporation. I don’t have much power.”

“My assistant suggested a pretty good method.”

“A protest?”

Night Frost narrowed her eyes.

If things were really as Qian Qingqing claimed, then this school was definitely hiding something.

The school had opened this course, hired a Magic Maiden from Cantata Two, and conducted medical examinations on its students…

There were still too few clues. It was difficult to connect everything.

“No. It was… public opinion.”

“We found out that the school had used various methods to suppress all discussion of the student’s disappearance. My assistant and I planned to expose it and create a public scandal.”

“Under pressure from public opinion, the school would have to explain everything. At the very least, they’d be forced to help search for my missing friend.”

Night Frost fell into thought.

The assistant’s suggestion wasn’t bad.

But since the school had established Physical Health and even invited a Magic Maiden from Cantata Two, could that mean a Magic Maiden stood behind the school?

No matter how powerful Qian Corporation was, could it really rival the Magic Maiden government that controlled all twenty-four districts?

Obviously not.

If the school had no powerful backing, public opinion might have been a good method.

But there was clearly an immovable force behind the school. Kicking that iron wall alone would only bring trouble upon yourself.

“I know the force behind the school isn’t ordinary. Anyone who thought about it carefully would realize that the Order Keeper stands behind them.”

“Public opinion didn’t have much effect. But my assistant came up with another plan.”

“He suggested that I organize a protest and expose the crimes committed by the school and the Magic Maidens.”

But Qian Qingqing wasn’t stupid.

If the eldest daughter of Qian Corporation secretly organized a protest to expose the Order Keeper’s “crimes,” and the Order Keeper found out, then all the effort Qian Corporation had invested in establishing itself in the Fourth District might be wasted.

“But my assistant said protests happened once or twice almost every week. At most, the Order Keeper would disperse the protesters.”

“Who would bother investigating the reason behind one?”

“He told me I only needed to give the protesters some money and have them hold one extra protest.”

“I thought it made sense. I didn’t even need to show my face personally, so I bribed the protest group and had them march today.”

Up to this point, Night Frost still hadn’t figured out the whole picture.

But two things bothered her.

Why had the protest been arranged for today?

And why had Qian Qingqing, the eldest daughter of Qian Corporation, appeared among the protesters?

Hadn’t her assistant said she didn’t need to show up personally?

“Actually, there was a reason I joined the protest today…”

“This morning, my phone received a message. It was from my friend, who had been missing for more than half a month.”

Night Frost sensed something strange.

Her friend had been missing for a month. How could she still send a message from her phone?

“I thought it was strange, too. But my assistant told me she could arrange guards for me.”

“She also said the protest would pass through that area. I could simply blend into the crowd…”

At this point, Night Frost was certain something was wrong with the assistant.

The assistant had arranged everything for Qian Qingqing.

Everything he did seemed designed to drag Qian Qingqing—and even Qian Corporation—into the game.

“That message definitely wasn’t sent by your friend. The guards your assistant arranged were fake, too.”

“He wanted you to die. The only question is the protest…”

“Why did he arrange it?”

“The protest… reputation… the conference.”

“What were your protest slogans?”

“I’m not completely sure. I didn’t choose the slogans.”

“But I stayed with the protest group for a while. Their insults were… pretty vicious.”

Night Frost seemed to understand something.

The picture was still blurry, but she felt her guess was almost certainly correct. Only a few details were missing.

A conference to discuss the campaign against the Mud King was being held in the next few days.

Most of the Cantata Three guardians would arrive at the Fourth District headquarters.

During this sensitive period, could that group’s banners and vicious abuse toward the Order Keeper provoke their anger?

They were Cantata Three—the strongest beings in the world, figures as powerful as emperors.

And they were notoriously moody.

The ears of Cantata Three were far sharper than those of Cantata Two.

With insults that vicious, wouldn’t some Cantata Three with poor self-control simply attack?

If they did, Qian Qingqing, mixed into the crowd, would certainly die.

At the same time, it could provoke open conflict between Qian Corporation and the Order Keeper headquarters.

The Order Keeper Tower operated under a presidential system.

If the president failed to fulfill their duties, they could be impeached. The Order Keeper responsible for injuring the protesters would be punished, and a new president would then have to be chosen.

Even if no one attacked, Qian Qingqing would still die.

As long as she went to the location and searched for her so-called friend, someone could still use the situation to stir up conflict between the Order Keeper and Qian Corporation.

That would completely ignite the hidden sparks within the Fourth District.

Without a doubt, Qian Qingqing was a chess piece.

A chess piece meant to drive humanity and the Magic Maidens into total opposition.

And someone intended to profit from the chaos.

That was probably what had happened.

“Those protesters… They’re all dead, aren’t they?”

After hearing Night Frost’s explanation, fear burst from Qian Qingqing’s heart.

She remembered the figure standing high above the tower.

That person’s face had carried a trace of helplessness. They had gently waved a hand, and most of the protesters had been crushed into a pool of flesh.

Qian Qingqing had been lucky.

Another Cantata Three had blocked the attack, allowing her to escape the protest group. She had then planned to go to the location in the message and find her friend.

“You really have nerves of steel…”

Night Frost rubbed her forehead.

Qian Qingqing had encountered something like that, yet she still wanted to search for her friend.

What kind of nonsense had that friend filled her head with?

Or was Qian Qingqing simply fearless by nature?

Maybe she had too much faith in those nonexistent guards.

“Then did you find your friend? Judging from your expression, I guess you didn’t.”

“I hadn’t reached the location yet when I encountered the two Magic Maidens who had been chasing me.”

“Before I could say anything, they fired magic bullets. That’s how my arm was injured.”

Night Frost guessed that the people at the Order Keeper headquarters wanted to suppress the incident.

They probably intended to capture everyone who had escaped from the protest.

“If they weren’t capable enough, most of them were probably caught…”

“They might even be dead.”

Night Frost looked at Qian Qingqing, who was slumped on the ground and repeating the same sentence over and over.

“It’s all my fault…”

“I understand the situation now. Get some rest. You can leave if you want.”