"Aaargh!"
The blond thug's agonized howl had barely begun before Roland cut it short with another kick.
"You're a man, aren't you? If this little bit of pain has you crying like that, how are we supposed to get through what comes next? The pain I endure is who knows how many times worse than yours, yet I still work hard to keep up appearances. You really ought to learn from me!"
Roland held out his hand for the blond thug to see. Beneath the diffuse light, his nails grew at a visible pace, slowly but steadily, like freshly watered shoots.
"Unbelievable, isn't it? I only trimmed my nails yesterday, and they've already grown another three centimeters today. But there's nothing I can do about it. With all the customers I see every day, I'm bound to meet a few who suit my tastes. Every time I watch them walk away, I instinctively want to follow."
Roland spread his fingers, displaying his long nails. They were the clearest proof of the stress building inside him.
"I don't know how many times I've worked it all out in my head. Follow them home, stay out of sight, force my way inside, then do what I do best. Finally, get what I came for."
"But I've held back every single time. To compensate for those restless urges, I've had to spend my precious money on custom hand models first, like some kind of pervert. Now I still haven't found a new place to live. If that ends up drawing attention, it'll go completely against the principles I live by."
Roland lowered his hand and stared coldly at the blond thug, who could no longer even howl, before stomping down hard.
"Because I believe this is a trial. To grow, you have to overcome your past self."
"But scum like you just have to waste my precious time and make me expose the emotions I've been holding back. How are you going to repay me for that?!"
Losing some of his composure, Roland roared out an incantation that drowned out every desperate plea and cry.
"Killer Queen: First Bomb."
Amid the fiery explosion, Roland crushed the human-shaped ashes before him underfoot. He took a moment to catch his breath, then summoned his Stand without expression and began cleaning up the remaining traces.
With Killer Queen, what should have been a tedious task became remarkably easy.
His nails finally stopped growing as well. Although this scumbag's hands were not remotely worthy of becoming trophies, Roland had still felt a long-forgotten sense of relief during what he had just done.
Beyond the Contract Spirit's influence driving him to eliminate potential threats to a peaceful life, his need to relieve stress through this kind of release came from within. Today's incident had merely been an unnecessary trigger.
A person's life did not belong to them alone.
Before obtaining the Key of All Spirits, back in his original world, Roland had lost both his parents in a traffic accident when he was around middle-school age.
During that period of grief and loss, Roland had suddenly realized something else that terrified him.
He no longer had anyone to rely on. Although he had no troublesome relatives to contend with, and the inheritance his parents had left would still leave him with plenty to spare after reaching adulthood, the sense of crisis he felt back then as he watched the numbers shrink every day was unimaginable.
To survive better, to keep himself from being left helpless by some sudden disaster in the future, he had to carefully examine the consequences of every action he took.
Traveling to another world was a miracle countless people longed for, even dreamed of, and many would have traded everything for it.
But traveling to another world alone was clearly a gamble with one's life on the line.
With no one to rely on or trust but himself, Roland had spent this entire time under intense mental strain, exhausting far too much of his energy.
He had suppressed himself too much during this time to keep the Contract Spirit from influencing him. But only now had he realized that his reason had been suppressing not just the Contract Spirit's influence, but his own heart as well.
In the end, the Contract Spirit merely gave him additional traits. He was still the one who made the decisions, and naturally, he was the one who defined how to maintain a peaceful life.
The Key of All Spirits had made it perfectly clear: he was the Contract Spirit's master, the one holding the chain.
Until now, Roland had been trapped in a misconception born of his own preconceptions. In the original story, the peace Yoshikage Kira desired was utterly undisturbed. To maintain that persona, his first response to an abusive boss or a pestering thug was always to give ground, so Roland had unconsciously imitated him.
But that was not the kind of peace Roland wanted. He did like the idea of a stable life, but he had no intention of making himself suffer for it.
"What a joke. Doing it for a greater goal would be one thing, but hesitating even over scum you can find anywhere, forcing your pride to bow to others, passively waiting for disaster to strike before deciding what to do whenever something happens-that doesn't qualify as peace at all."
After recognizing the contradiction in his own behavior, Roland felt his heart fill with joy for the first time since arriving in this world.
"Well, that really was a long way around..."
He looked up at the dark yet clear night sky, feeling extraordinarily relaxed and at peace.
Until the next Contract Spirit appeared, until he had fully assimilated Yoshikage Kira, he would keep living this peaceful life. Go to work, come home, stay alert and avoid trouble, and decisively eliminate anything that made him uneasy, no matter who it was.
In short, anyone who disturbs this peace, anyone who makes me uneasy, has to die!
Stepping past the ashes that had long since scattered, Roland finished removing the bloodstains and all other traces, then walked over to where the blond thug had been drinking alone. Just as he was about to dispose of the contents of the bag as well, a document envelope among the beer and assorted convenience-store drinking snacks caught his eye.
"What's this? A property deed?"
Roland took out the documents and quickly leafed through them with his fingers. The information on the old house was quite comprehensive, apparently because it was being put up for sale.
The residence consisted of an extensive cluster of Japanese-style rooms, with a Tool Shed and a spacious garden. It stood in a quiet area, was unoccupied, and had already been given a basic cleaning. Although the garden was somewhat overgrown, there would be no problem staying there temporarily.
Several key details in the description had already piqued Roland's interest. When he saw the floor plan, he laughed aloud.
Just when he had been most at a loss, worrying about finding somewhere to stay in the Old Capital on the limited budget left after buying expensive hand models, an opportunity had immediately appeared.
Was this Great Fortune at work?
Roland remembered the ability he had overlooked. It seemed he really had underestimated it. Yoshikage Kira had escaped danger time and again through coincidences and luck. In fact, if he had been able to accept leaving Morioh, he would never have met such a miserable end.
So this was what it meant to be lucky. Lucky people did not avoid crises altogether; rather, whenever a crisis arose, they always managed to escape the danger unharmed and gain something in the process.
Putting the deed away again, Roland headed deeper into the alley without a backward glance. With this in hand, he would no longer need to spend time noting down suitable rental listings on his way home today. Although he had wasted a little time along the way, on balance, he would still be able to get plenty of sleep tonight.
"Well, I thought everything had been going wrong these past two days, but in the end, luck really is still on my side."
With a smile, Roland walked toward his new life.