Olga Marie gaze was so piercing that even Mami noticed it. Lancer, the primary target, definitely felt it, but he was baffled. Why was she looking at him like that?
Facing Lancer questioning look, Olga Marie let out a cold snort and turned her head away.
Lancer didn't believe for a second that she was jealous of Mami, so he finally asked.
"What's wrong?"
"How did you carry me last time?"
Last time? Singularity F?
"On my shoulder. Why?"
Lancer was genuinely confused. But when he noticed Mami—still in his arms—looking at him with a complex mix of disbelief and relief, he finally realized what was going on.
"Didn't you say that was unladylike? Since there are no enemies right now, I figured I'd carry her like this... What?"
Mid-sentence, Lancer noticed the grumpy Olga Marie looking down for some reason. He leaned in to see what was up, but she shoved his head away with her right hand.
"I just used too much mana! Let me rest!"
Olga Marie sounded exasperated. Lancer was certain it wasn't a mana issue—he provided more than enough to sustain a high-intensity battle. But his "instinct" told him it was better not to dig deeper. Besides...
"Um, could you please put me down now?"
Mami, blushing as she noticed Madoka and Sayaka staring eyes, interrupted the "interaction" between Lancer and Olga Marie.
"My bad."
Lancer realized and put her down immediately. As her feet hit the ground, Mami felt a pang of disappointment, though she recovered quickly.
Her desire for Madoka and Sayaka to become Magical Girls stemmed from her loneliness and longing for "companions." Though she didn't want to admit it, being held against Lancer strong chest and looking up at his jawline had given her a sense of security she never felt. It was hard not to feel a bit let down.
She masked it well, however.
"I'm sorry, Madoka, Sayaka. For letting you see me in such a pathetic state..."
Mami was cut off as two soft bodies crashed into her.
"Mami-san! Are you okay? Did you get hurt?"
"Yeah! Mami-san! Dr. Lancer was carrying you—are you injured?"
Looking at the two girls who cared so much for her, Mami wondered if she had been mistaken. They weren't Magical Girls, but weren't they already her companions?
While the three girls shared their warm moment, Kyubey wagged its massive tail and walked toward Lancer.
"Mr. Lancer, I am truly grateful for your help~ If you hadn't arrived in time, Mami might have perished."
Kyubey sounded like an ordinary person relieved to see a family member survive, but Lancer gave it a long, searching look.
Was this really just a coincidence?
Was the appearance of a Witch ever that simple?
It had only been twenty minutes from the time he left the hospital to the moment Zero lost contact due to the Barrier. It felt as if the incident occurred right on his heels.
But there was no evidence. Without evidence, anything he said was just speculation. Even knowing Kyubey nature, Lancer couldn't expose it yet. At the very least, the creature wouldn't take extreme measures until it was fully exposed.
"It's fine. It was on the way. Besides, my goal was this."
Lancer opened his palm to reveal the Grief Seed. He watched Kyubey intently, trying to catch even a sliver of emotion on its face, but he found nothing.
"Mr. Lancer, I don't mean to take your spoils, but as I said before, a Grief Seed is extremely dangerous. Whether it's the influence it has on humans or the possibility of it 'hatching' into a Witch again..."
Kyubey acted like a tireless storyteller, trying to explain the dangers of the Grief Seed to Lancer, but Lancer waved him off.
"I don't know about the second one, but I'm well aware of the first."
"In that case..."
"How do you guarantee that nothing will go wrong once I give it to you?"
"At the very least, no Grief Seed has ever been lost from my care. I keep them all. Mami knows this well; once a Grief Seed is used, it never appears before her again."
Kyubey was the name it gave itself, but its true identity was an "Incubator." It was a "Salvation Machine" created by a powerful civilization to prevent the universe's entropy from increasing and stave off heat death. It chose to harvest the energy of despair from the transformation of "Magical Girls" into "Witches" because its creators had built a machine that could convert "emotion" into "energy." Unfortunately, that race lacked emotions, so they sent the Incubators to find suitable hosts.
Ultimately, it found the adolescent girls of Earth. It discovered that girls of this age had incredibly rich emotions, and the energy produced by the despair of falling from "heaven" to "hell" was immense.
It truly didn't believe it was doing anything wrong. Its creators understood the technology of emotional energy, but lacking emotions themselves, they couldn't grasp the cruelty of their actions.
It never forced a girl into a contract; instead, it used information asymmetry to lure them in or strike when they were vulnerable. It would even deliberately withhold certain information—like the true price of becoming a Magical Girl.
Right now, it was telling Lancer the truth, but it left out key details. For example, that it was the culprit behind everything, and that the "seeds" it used were Soul Gems collected from Magical Girls in other cities...
Unfortunately, no matter how silver-tongued it was, it couldn't convince a man who didn't trust it from the start.
"I refuse."
Lancer answer was as resolute as ever. Kyubey simply shook its head and didn't push further.
"I hope you will change your mind next time."
With that, it said nothing more, walking away with steady steps and its tail wagging, heading toward Mami and the others...