I humbly write to you, Father and Mother.
Is it already summer on Earth? Over here, it has gotten so hot that it is hard to move around without short sleeves.
It has been over a year and several months since I was hit by a truck and dropped into this world.
I have joined an evil organization and am somehow making a living, but sometimes I cannot help but miss the days when I could act spoiled.
And so, having done my best to act and devoted myself to the organization—
“You should get up soon. It is time to wake.”
…For some reason, I am living in a prison.
The clothes I used to wear were confiscated, and being forced to live a regular daily life, I have been stuffed away in this underground cell for about three days now.
I wake up at 6 a.m., eat breakfast, wash my face, and brush my teeth… After that, I spend nearly half the day on interrogation.
“The goal of Silverdan is world conquest. Why would you put forward such an absurd ambition?”
“I don’t know either.”
Of course, I cannot lightly reveal things about the organization. Besides, there is no use asking a low-ranking grunt like me for useful information.
Instead, since I need to keep myself safe, I told them everything I could answer.
“Lunch.”
“…This feels fancier than the meals I usually eat.”
Anyway, I have more or less adapted to this life, so it has become manageable, and I was going to stay quietly until they let me go—
***
“What have you been writing so intently since yesterday?”
At the familiar voice coming from beyond the bars, my hand stopped moving the pen.
“Nothing, I just have nothing to do and I’m bored.”
A letter, you could say. Since I had nothing in particular to hide, I showed Ruri the messily scribbled contents of the paper.
“…You must have been terribly bored. Why on earth write a letter when there is no one to show it to?”
“I’ve spent three days underground without a single ray of sunlight. Do you expect normal behavior?”
“…….”
Ignoring my complaint, she silently read through it, then changed her expression as if something had caught her attention.
“I heard yesterday as well that you came from another world, but can I really believe that?”
“You must have combed through my personal information. There is a complete blank since a year ago, right?”
“Falsifying information is not that difficult. I am merely concerned.”
As if there were nothing more to see, Ruri left it at that and returned the letter to me.
And so another day passed. The fourth day of my confinement.
While I was dazedly passing the time, the exciting interrogation time rolled around again.
“I wasn’t specifically targeting your master. Our boss was trying to establish a Silverdan branch at Jewelry Academia.”
“That branch being Cafe Eclipse, which you run. I roughly understand.”
It was not exactly a bloody atmosphere despite being called an interrogation; it was simply to prove my alibi and clear my suspicions.
Since Ruri serves Dia, it would only be natural to preemptively eliminate anyone targeting her.
“Moving on to the next question. Are you aware of an organization called ‘Guardian’?”
“…Guardian?”
Isn’t that the English word for protector? Quite a random question.
“If you are asking me specifically, does that mean Guardian is the same type of group as Silverdan?”
“You may understand it that way. There was an incident where monsters appeared all over the city at once, remember?”
“Ahh, that incident.”
It was undoubtedly the incident from the day I went out with Chris.
They suddenly invaded the park where we were, leaving a deep impression.
“Given the circumstances, it seems that Guardian created those monsters.”
“I cannot say for certain, but at least that is what I believe.”
There are various evil organizations in this world besides Silverdan.
If they are an organization capable of causing that level of monster terrorism, I would have heard some mention of them eventually, but…
‘Maybe I’ll ask Ravi about it later.’
If it is him, he might know even about unknown organizations. After all, he saw through the fact that I came from another world.
Guardian, huh. If they are similar to Silverdan, the day will come when we clash eventually.
As the interrogation somehow ended and we were chatting—
“By the way, you have never once asked to be let out of here.”
“Would you let me go if I asked?”
I am a villain who disturbs the order of the world. If such a person approached her master, being wary would only be natural.
‘Though I think locking me up in an underground facility like this is going too far.’
I am someone who could just as well be locked up in a real prison, so sooner or later, if I continued my activities in Silverdan, I would have experienced something similar anyway.
So, as I was humbly accepting my fate, to my surprise, Ruri nodded and unlocked the handcuffs binding my hands.
“If you have no intention of harming Lady Dia, that is enough. We have obtained almost all the information we need, so we will negotiate with Silverdan to hand you over.”
“Huh? You are really letting me go?”
She released me more readily than I expected. I thought she would extract more information since she went through the trouble of kidnapping me.
‘She had the kind of image of someone who would not hesitate to use any means necessary for results.’
Is this what they call Stockholm syndrome? Despite being kidnapped not once but twice, I could not bring myself to think badly of Ruri.
I wonder if there was some serious reason for capturing me…
‘There is no use digging too deep.’
For now, I should avoid getting on her bad side so she does not change her mind.
“Is there nothing else you are curious about? Since we confined you for several days, I should at least answer your questions.”
“Not really—”
I was about to refuse when my junior’s face suddenly flashed through my mind.
“Ahh… I am a bit curious about how Amber is doing. Did she do well on the retest?”
She had stuck to me so desperately for tutoring. Eventually, Dia had joined in to help her study too.
By now, she should have barely escaped the swamp of supplementary lessons and be enjoying her vacation.
“Hmm, I am not sure if I should be telling you this, but…”
Her expression turned troubled, which was unusual. She had maintained a stern expression this whole time.
“…Don’t tell me something happened?”
My tone grew harsh without realizing it, but I had no time to correct myself. I had already assumed the worst possible situation.
If the guys who were jealous of Amber did not know when to quit and laid a hand on that kid, I could never forgive them.
“It seems she failed the retest.”
“Ah, fuck.”
I definitely became unable to forgive. Amber, that is.
***
Meanwhile, at Jewelry Academia, Class A, Year 2.
“…What the hell is this.”
“…….”
Amber flinched and trembled at Diamond’s expression, which she had never seen before.
In Diamond’s hand was the result of the retest held a few days ago—
[ Amber / Class A, Year 2 ]
[ 43 points ]
A score that fell disastrously short of the retest passing line.
Even Diamond, who could be called a saint, could not easily accept this result, and soon reached the point of taking a certain action to vent her frustration.
“Aaaargh!!!”
“Sorry! I’m sorry, so please stop yelling!”
At first, Dia had gladly taught her, but Amber’s pathetic brain gradually wore down her spirit.
She had thought that life would finally end when the retest day dawned, but what returned at that moment was the test paper with 43 points.
“…Why on earth?”
Amber’s downfall came from two factors. And they were mistakes commonly made by students.
First, she had beautifully fallen for the trap questions the teacher had prepared.
“Ahaha… The answers were just popping out, so I got carried away…”
Even if they looked like the correct answers at a glance, some required additional calculations, or the sign had to be reversed.
It was inevitable to fall for them if you rushed into the visible calculations without examining the problems carefully.
And the long-awaited second cause that drastically cut Amber’s score was—
“The front was fine, but I got almost everything on the back wrong. Was I unlucky?”
“No, luck has nothing to do with it, that is simply…”
The front side of the test—that is, the relatively easy parts—had a high correct answer rate because Amber found them interesting.
But because she neglected the difficult chapters as much, she got several high-point questions wrong, causing her score to drop drastically.
In other words, one could only conclude that she had not studied the latter part much.
“Sigh, I guess it can’t be helped.”
But Dia did not give up. Throwing aside a task she had taken on once did not suit her nature at all.
“Fortunately, the propositions and condition parts are fine as they are! If we study functions more, we’ll manage somehow!”
“Dia-chan… You’re so cool I think I’m going to get wet.”
“Seeing you say that, you seem more relaxed than I thought…”
Just as the two were stoking their passion and renewing their resolve, Amber’s smartphone began to ring.
“Ah, I’m getting a call from my senior.”
“Huh? From Jade?”
Jade had been hiding her whereabouts for the past few days, but Amber was too preoccupied with the retest to pay much attention.
Rather, her spirits only dropped at the fact that another study hell was about to begin.
She nonchalantly took out her smartphone and answered the call.
“Hello? Senior, where did you suddenly—”
[ I’m going to lock you up in prison and make you study from now on, so pack your things first. ]
“Huh?”
Amber’s vision went dark!