My 'Trash Skill' Called Observer's Eye Could Actually See Everything - Observer's Eye, Fully Activated

A drop fell onto the stone floor of the platform. Kusano Kei saw it. Only now did he realize he was crying. (…How pathetic.) The laughter from the gallery still echoed faintly in the distance. But within his Observer's Eye——the numbers from that ledger copy floated with crystal clarity. The witness's trembling right hand. The periodic pattern of senior adventurers' gazes turning toward the right entrance. The ledger pattern hidden among the interrogation documents. It all connected. He could see it all. He wiped the tears away with the back of his hand. His face lifted. "…Whether this skill is fake or not," The moment Kei opened his mouth——the laughter from the gallery stopped, just slightly. "I'll prove it right here," His voice was quiet. Not shouting. Not yelling. Just facing straight ahead. That stillness pierced through the courtroom in an odd way. The laughter gradually grew smaller. The senior adventurer group on the right side of the gallery whispered "What's he saying?" One of the interrogators started to say "Calm down, an F-ranker trying to——" But Kei didn't move at all. He simply stared straight at the witness in silence. For several seconds, the courtroom fell into an eerie quiet. (My head's just gone blank from nerves. Honestly, I'm still organizing what to say next.) That's what Kei thought internally, but from the outside, he apparently radiated an unfathomable composure. One of the senior adventurers whispered to his neighbor, "…Isn't this getting bad?" His Observer's Eye picked it up. "Your pulse is approximately one point five times normal," Kei spoke quietly toward the witness. "Your right hand is trembling faintly. Someone's threatening you, aren't they?" [[Pulse: Estimated 1.48x normal. Right hand fingertip micro-vibrations: Detected. Perspiration levels rising.]] The witness's face went pale. "W-what basis do you——" "The blood vessels in your neck are swollen. Also, you've checked the right entrance of the courtroom three times now at the same intervals," The witness's mouth stopped. [[Gaze pattern confirmed: Right entrance referenced at 13-second intervals. Behavior consistent with waiting for a signal.]] Unable to say anything, the witness began trembling violently. The image of Kei standing calmly on the platform while the witness crumbled spread through the courtroom. "…" "Yes!! We did it!!" Riko shouted in a small voice from the middle of the gallery. Sophie beside her clenched her fist while holding her bandaged shoulder. The interrogators exchanged glances. The laughter from the senior adventurer group had vanished. ──── "Next, I'd like to confirm something about you all," Kei turned his gaze toward the right side of the gallery——the senior adventurer group from the Karren branch. His Observer's Eye processed information one after another. [[Target A: Longsword "Mithril alloy, estimated value 80 silver coins." Purchase impossible on C-rank monthly income (40 silver coins monthly, disposable equipment budget less than half).]] [[Target B: Armor "Forsena royal capital manufacture, custom-made, estimated value 3 gold coins." Purchase impossible on C-rank solo reward.]] [[Target C: Gloves "Dragon leather material, estimated value 60 silver coins." Similarly impossible.]] "Your equipment can't be purchased with just C-rank quest rewards," Kei read off matter-of-factly. "A mithril alloy longsword. Eighty silver coins worth. Custom-made armor from the Forsena royal capital. Three gold coins worth. Dragon leather gloves. Sixty silver coins worth," "…You've been receiving illegal distribution payments from the Guildmaster, haven't you?" The senior adventurers' complexions changed one by one. From red to blue. The faces that had been laughing "despite having a trash skill" were now twisted in fear. That contrast spread through the entire courtroom. One senior adventurer started to stand up and was held back by his neighbor. The sound of a chair nearly toppling. Voices overlapped saying "Sit down," "Don't run." Chaos erupted in the tense atmosphere. One of the interrogators ordered, "Clerk, record this." The sound of pens scratching filled the courtroom. The mood had clearly shifted. ──── Kei picked up the stack of interrogation documents. He pulled out the ledger copy. [[Karren branch ledger pattern match——Accuracy: 100%]] [[Quest reward discrepancy: Approximately 20% unaccounted for——15 years of accumulated records confirmed.]] "A copy of the Karren branch ledger is mixed in here," Kei began reading. "Twenty percent of quest rewards have been skimmed off over fifteen years. High-difficulty quests have been distributed under the table to specific adventurers only. Over eighty adventurers judged to have weak skills have been deliberately excluded," Amounts. Dates. Quest numbers. One by one, specifically. The murmuring in the courtroom grew louder. The gallery became chaotic. Nearly two hundred voices echoed off the stone circular chamber in waves. All five interrogators simultaneously grabbed documents. Confirmation voices flew back and forth. One of the senior adventurers tried to flee from his seat and was grabbed by the arm by his neighbor. "Where are you going?" "Let go." "If you run, it'll only get worse." The whispered exchange was somehow clearly audible. Riko watched the scene and muttered, "Those people are destroying themselves…" ──── That's when it happened. The courtroom doors burst open. Heavy footsteps. The air changed. A muscular but pot-bellied giant strode in. Thinning gray short hair. Deep wrinkles between his brows. Cold gray eyes pierced through Kei on the platform. The intimidating presence of a former A-rank adventurer——the man carried it with him as he stepped forward. Dolku Heizen. The former Karren branch Guildmaster. "You brat!" A voice that resonated from the depths of the earth silenced the courtroom in an instant. "Don't spout nonsense without evidence! What's an F-rank exile doing spouting off in an interrogation courtroom!" The gallery fell silent again. Dolku's overwhelming presence pressed down on the entire room. Several of the senior adventurers reflexively looked relieved——they thought this man's arrival would fix everything. Kei didn't retreat a single step. "If you want evidence," He said quietly. "I can see it all right here," [[Dolku Heizen: Paper fragment shape near right pocket. Soot residue. Estimated partially burned paper product.]] "The ledger copy you tried to burn at your inn this morning——the unburned remnants are in your right pocket, aren't they?" The courtroom froze. An expression of "impossible" crossed Dolku's face. Just for an instant. A mere moment. And then. His hand reached for his right pocket. Reflexively. That motion——said everything. Two hundred gazes concentrated on Dolku's right pocket. His face shifted from bright red to pale blue. The interrogator's voice rang out. "Guards. Search that man's pocket," Two guards approached. Dolku took a step back. Then another. The wall was behind him. ──── A crackling sound. What the guard pulled from the pocket was charred paper. The edges were blackened and burned away, but the numbers remained distinctly visible. The courtroom fell completely silent. A profound, absolute silence. The next moment—— "Kei's Observer's Eye is genuine!" Sophie stood up, holding her bandaged shoulder. Her golden eyes faced straight ahead. Her face was slightly twisted with pain, but her voice didn't waver at all. "I've been saved by it countless times!" "Sophie, your shoulder——!" Riko started to stand up in concern, but she stood up anyway. "Without Kei, we would've died so many times!!" Her voice was tearful. But her shout resonated straight through the courtroom. The interrogators began verifying the ledgers. Voices flew as documents were cross-referenced. "It matches," "This one too," "The dates and amounts——" Confirmation voices overlapped one after another. Dolku tried to flee. The guards grabbed his arms. He tried to shake them off and was pinned by another guard. "Let go! Do you know who I am——" "Valtheim Adventurer's Guild, Karren branch, former Guildmaster Dolku Heizen. You're under arrest," The senior adventurer group finally went completely pale. Some tried to flee, some froze, some covered their heads——their various reactions mixed chaotically. Kei stood on the platform as if in a daze. Was it all over? The moment Sophie and Riko's voices reached his ears, his eyes reddened. He tried to hide it by adjusting his glasses. Probably didn't work. ──── That's when something shattered. A sensation——there was no other way to describe it——occurred within Kei. The relief of hearing his companions' voices, the excitement of fifteen years of fraud being exposed to daylight, the desire to share what he'd been seeing alone with someone——all of it overlapped in a single moment—— [[Skill《Observer's Eye》——New function unlocked.]] [[《Information Sharing》: The user can share visual information they perceive with trusted targets.]] "…What?" "Huh!?" Sophie suddenly looked around. Glancing about as if she could see something. "I can see the world Kei's seeing! Everyone in the courtroom's gaze direction is shown as arrows——!" "Numbers are floating in my vision too!!" Riko's eyes went wide. And she shouted. "That interrogator's pulse is fast!!" It was loud. The people in the surrounding gallery began murmuring. "Huh?" "What just happened?" "What's that girl seeing?" New confusion was added to the chaos still surrounding Dolku's arrest. Kei looked between Sophie and Riko alternately. "Wait, is this…being shared?" "It is!!!" "I'm getting a huge amount of information flooding my head," "Isn't it too much? Like, the interrogator's heartbeat and stuff?" "…That's probably unnecessary," "It's totally unnecessary!!" In the still-chaotic courtroom, the three of them looked at each other. And they couldn't help but laugh together. The Valtheim Adventurer's Guild——an organization with one hundred eighty years of history——in its interrogation courtroom, as guards led Dolku away, as the gallery people tilted their heads in confusion. The three of them laughed. ──── The chief interrogator stood up. "Regarding Kusano Kei's Observer's Eye skill, this interrogation confirms its authenticity. The recommendation for permanent revocation of adventurer status is hereby withdrawn," A murmur ran through the courtroom. "Regarding the illegal activities of Karren branch's former Guildmaster Dolku Heizen, the Guild's Inspection Division will commence a formal investigation. The Karren branch will be dissolved and reorganized," The senior adventurer group completely fell apart. Kei stood quietly on the platform. Behind his glasses, his deep brown eyes slowly closed. Then opened. (It's over.) His Observer's Eye continued streaming information to Sophie and Riko. He still didn't know how to cut it off. It would probably keep flowing for a while. Sophie was tilting her head saying, "Kei, I can tell that guard over there is a bit tired, but is this information actually necessary?" Riko was saying, "Like, I can see the gaze direction of all two hundred people in this courtroom right now and I'm getting a little dizzy." Kei answered quietly, "…Sorry, I'm figuring out how to cut it off now." It felt like the three of them had just discovered their biggest challenge. Before the S-rank exam even came up, they first had to figure out how to control this information sharing, or Riko was going to get genuinely sick.

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Episode 6

Name: My 'Trash Skill' Called Observer's Eye Could Actually See Everything
Author: Novelia

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