> As I walked towards the stage, I raised my voice and spoke to the entire venue.

“No, I’m certain that you knew it. You knew that the Slasher is the person who created that doll, and that the hair was from one of his victims.”

That hair, which happened to be mine.

“Now, listen closely. Maybe you lot think that you’re innocent because you’re just purchasing the items, but the instant you purchased these dolls you are guilty of the same crime. No, the instant you set foot into this venue, you became guilty of the same crime. This is a crime that deserves death.”

With a loud footstep, I stepped on to the stage.

“The culprit is probably here, in the crowd. They are the kind conceitful person who takes great pains to make beautiful dolls and then go to the effort of putting them up for auction, after all. So I’m certain that they are here, waiting to see what kind of price their doll will fetch.”

After saying that, I lifted that doll up by its neck.

“However there are a considerable number of people in this place. There are likely a few hundred people here. Finding the culprit among all the people here would be a daunting task—and that being the case, I gave the matter some thought.”

I thought about how to catch the criminal.

However, despite that, I could not find any answer. More accurately, it is impossible to do. And to be frank, I stopped thinking about it halfway through.

“I’m sure there is only one culprit, but all of you here are accomplices, right? A person who steals hair from other people, uses that to make dolls, and then sells them without so much as batting an eyelash is of course a sinner, but you people who want to buy them even knowing about that are also equally sinful.”

And so.

“That makes me very angry, and I want to do something to get rid of this anger, so I have decided to send everyone here to the afterlife. As for how, well, it will probably be something like this.”

The doll’s neck broke with a loud sound.

“As for the rest—it will be something like this.”

Once more.

The doll’s hair cleanly came out of its head.

“And then—maybe something like this as well.”

The doll’s four limbs were separated from its body and the pieces fell to the floor.

“Right then, who wants to get erased from existence first? Are there any volunteers? Ufufu.”

Hearing my voice echo throughout the venue, I realized that the venue was bigger than I had imagined. I also realized that the other people present had all gone silent.

I waited a little while, and then I waited some more, but nobody said anything.

Do they think they can get away by remaining silent? They are taking me lightly indeed.

“Ei.”

I stepped on the broken doll, and then continued to slowly grind my heel into it.

“I see the culprit is staying silent. Well then, let’s start one person at a time from the right side, you will end up with the same fate as this doll. ”

Right after I said that,

“How could you do something so horrible?”

I heard a voice, coming from somewhere in the venue.

It was the voice of a woman.

“That doll belongs to me, you know? Do you understand what that means? It’s vintage. It’s not something that you should be handling so roughly.”

It sounded like that woman was quite angry. With long strides, she walked from the customer seats and up to the stage.

“Hmm? Have we met somewhere before?”

Her face looked familiar.

“Ever since you came to my shop yesterday, I’ve been thinking only about that hair of yours.”

“......”

Now I remember.

This person is the owner of that doll shop. She’s the owner of that doll shop that gave me nothing but bad vibes.

“Your hair is very beautiful and rare. I’ve never seen such wonderful hair, so I couldn’t resist taking a little for myself. Are you angry?”

“......”

I continued to grind my heel into the doll, to show her how I felt.

“Oh my! You look wonderful even when you’re angry!”

The lady was wriggling her body around like a young maiden in love.

“Why do you insist on putting real hair on dolls?”

“Isn’t that obvious? It’s because I want to make these beautiful and wonderful creations even more popular! When you put real hair on a doll, they become so much more lifelike. That’s why, in the beginning, I cut my own hair and put it on dolls. But after a while, I started to want something more, and I started using hair from other people. I manipulate the dolls from a distance and have them cut hair from girls. The expressions of despair and anger that girls make when they lose their long hair are really wonderful! At some point, the very act of cutting the hair became so much fun that I couldn’t stop! Ah, such a wonderful feeling!”

“Uhh, okay.”

I felt disgusted.

I drew away from her in disgust.

My poor hair is so unfortunate, being cut off for such selfish reasons.

“Right then, Magician-san. Are you going to give into your anger and attack me? Just so you know, I’m a witch. Do you know what that means? We witches stand at the top among all magicians. You have no chance of defeating me. Are you going to give in to your anger and attack me, in spite of that?”

“......”

Umm, I’m a witch too.

Since I had taken off my brooch before entering her shop, she probably misunderstood that I am just an ordinary magician.

“Come on. Hey, come on. What are you going to do? Show me how your face looks when you are overtaken with rage!”

The woman just continued to get worked up by herself.

I just gave her a pitying look and said one thing to her.

“—Unfortunately, this is the end of the line for you.”

Immediately after I said that,

A cage just large enough to hold one person dropped down from above and trapped the woman. Her hands were bound with special handcuffs that had chains to restrain the fingers, to make it impossible for her to grip her staff.

The whole process took only a second.

In just one second, the woman who was ranting by herself on the stage turned into some kind of freakish exhibit.

“Hey there. Thanks for the help, Elaina.”

Sheila-san’s voice echoed from some place within the venue. By the way I saw a coil of smoke rise up as well, but after an announcement over the PA that smoking was not allowed inside, the smoke disappeared.

The cage was created by Sheila-san’s magic, to capture the criminal.

“....Huh?”

Taken by surprise, the woman banged on the bars of the cage with her hands that were forced open by the handcuffs.

“What are you doing? What do you think you’re doing? You’re angry, right? Are you satisfied with such a dull ending? You should be more angry!”

“......”

I couldn’t tell what made her so angry.

I couldn’t understand why she would use human hair to make dolls, but her desire to see the despaired and angry expression of girls was even harder to understand.

Even so, it gives me a bad feeling.

People like her really don’t understand anything.

I put the biggest smile I could on my face, and told her one thing.

“Obviously, I’m putting forward my best effort to do the thing you hate the most, precisely because I’m extremely angry with you.”

○

Let me give you a brief account of what happened after that.

The incident was safely resolved.

And so, having safely recovered my lost hair, I immediately used magic to repair it and turned my hair back into its usual silky and glossy long hairstyle. Welcome back, my hair.

Also, we managed to capture the criminal. Oh wait, I guess you already know that.

Her modus operandi, in brief, was to use magic to control dolls from a distance. If she wanted to, she could have probably operated that doll that was on the stage as well, but since I smashed it to bits without wasting any time, she had no choice but to put in an appearance herself.

After being captured, she was taken out of the country by Sheila-san—to a nearby branch of the Administrative Bureau of Magic.

Once there, she will be dealt with appropriately.

“I recommend that she be given a death sentence.”

Sheila-san, who was escorting the criminal, furrowed her eyebrows when she heard me say that.

“Unfortunately, the only thing she did was to cut people’s hair, so I don’t think she will face very heavy charges. At the very least, there is no chance of her being given a death sentence.”

“That is not acceptable. Please execute her.”

“Don’t ask for the impossible, you idiot.”

“She should pay for her sins against my hair. So an execution is appropriate.”

“But your hair is back to normal, isn’t it?”

“Then I’ll cut it off again right now.”

“What is driving you to go so far..?”

Well, if I had to put it shortly, it’s the anger I feel for the criminal?

Even while Sheila-san and I were talking, that criminal was saying things like “Fufufu” and “How nice...” while drooling. She’s not repenting for her actions one bit.

I’d love to give her a good beating with all my strength, but I get the feeling that it will just make her even happier. So troublesome.

Hmm..

“You look like you’re thinking pretty hard about something.”

Sheila-san slumped her shoulders as she said that.

“Well, don’t worry about it. Once we reach our destination, she probably has a more harsh punishment than execution waiting for her.”

“....? What do you mean?”

“Oh, I don’t know. What do you think?”

After trying to pass it off with a vague smile, Sheila-san levitated the cage with magic and got on her broom.

“Well then, I should get going. I’m in a bit of a hurry.”

“I see.”

“Let’s meet again, Witch of Ashes-san.”

She is a witch of the Administrative Bureau of Magic. And I am a traveling witch.

I doubt that we will ever meet again, but sure, why not.

“See you around, Witch of Midnight-san.”

Once again, I put a wide smile on my face.

●

And now, for some further facts about what happened later.

The 『Witch of Midnight』, Sheila , hung the large cage from the handle of her broom and flew away over the grasslands to the nearest country that had an Administrative Bureau of magic branch.

There are branches of the Administrative Bureau of Magic all over the world, so the Slasher was on her way to a branch the very day after the incident was settled.

Once Sheila reaches a branch office, submits a report, and hands over the criminal, she will receive a fairly sizeable sum of money from the branch office.

This is how those magicians who wander from place to place while resolving problems live their lives.

“Ah! I was wondering who it was, so it’s you, Master!”

By the way, there are many such magicians who wander from place to place while resolving problems.

Sheila’s student was also one of them.

“Oh, so you were here?”

“I just got here. I’m a little short of money, so I wanted to check if there were any jobs available.”

With her black hair waving slightly, Sheila’s student looked at the cage that stood beside her.

“....If you’d like, I could take that job off your hands.”

“What are you, an idiot? The job is pretty much already done.”

“Which is why I wanted to take it off your hands.”

“......”

Sheila let out a sigh.

“What did this person do? Her eyes are sparkling strangely.”

The woman in the cage looked exhilarated at the sight of the new person.

“Ahh.. So cute! I’m sure she’d be even cuter when she’s angry!”

She was saying things like that, but luckily those words didn’t reach the student’s ears.

“This one? Umm, well you see...”

Sheila thought for a bit about whether it was okay to tell her the details and then,

“This woman here is the Slasher who went around cutting off people’s hair.”

“Hou.”

“Not only did she go about it in a pretty horrible way, She was even vicious enough to cut a traveling witch’s hair, so I captured her and was about to deliver her to the branch office here.”

“Oh? She cut a traveling witch’s hair?”

“That’s right—”

Sheila suddenly gave a bright smile.

“It was a witch with beautiful ash-grey hair.”

“A traveling witch with beautiful, ash-grey hair? Hmm....”

“Also, she was wearing a tricorne identical to yours.”

“A tricorne identical to mine? Hmmmm..”

“Oh, and she was also wearing a necklace identical to yours.”

“Oh, really? I see.”

Sheila felt that with every sentence she said, her student’s smile started to get more and more eerie.

She also heard the cage next to her leaking words such as “I don’t know what’s going on, but I can see that she is angry!” in a tone filled with anticipation.

The student spoke with a smile still fixed on her face.

“Could you tell me more about that, in detail?”

By the way, the student’s name was Saya.

Afterwards, the Slasher found out.

She found out just how lukewarm the despair and anger of girls who had their hair cut off was in comparison.