EP.92 Is Actually Like Being an Outcast
『...The military nation plans to dispatch an investigation team.』
The golem calmly finished speaking.
Having heard the whole story, I tilted my head anew. The military nation's signal soldier had reported to none other than me, a mere laborer.
As if realizing that fact, the golem added as if making an excuse.
『Do not misunderstand. It is not that we entirely trust your opinion. The military authorities consider this situation to have occurred from a simple error to the end. This investigation team is to find the cause of that error. Also, conveying this fact to you is nothing more than a simple situation briefing for the information provider.』
"Of course."
『...If I may emphasize, do not do anything rash. The military nation is on high alert regarding this incident, and a general-grade officer is included in this investigation team. Lieutenant Callis is a soldier of the military nation. The evaluation of her actions will also be done by the military nation. Even if there are suspicious aspects in the lieutenant's actions, it is not your place to intervene, so I recommend you stay put.』
Even though I said I understood, the golem emphasized it to me several times.
Does he think I won't understand? The military nation, which hates useless things, has said it twice.
『If you truly wish to escape from the Abyss, serving your sentence faithfully according to the military nation's instructions is the only way.』
I said I understand, why are you so anxious to not leave me alone. Could it be?
"Are you perhaps worried about me?"
『Denied! I am merely speaking common sense! Because it would be ten times more realistic and constructive than aiming to escape from a land where escape is impossible!』
The answer was so firm that I was almost hurt. There was no need to say it like that. I nodded passively.
The golem, having shouted vigorously, continued speaking while controlling its breath.
『...Lieutenant Callis has requested canned meat supplies. Do you have nothing to request?』
"No. I'm fine. It seems like the lieutenant will personally distribute them this time anyway."
『...Understood. Then I will withdraw now. Good work.』
"Yes. Good work to you too, Captain."
Right after I finished speaking, the golem disconnected. Thud. The golem's body slumped powerlessly, and I sat it upright in a corner of the dining hall.
Rising to my feet, I muttered toward the empty air.
"With this, Lieutenant Callis is completely isolated. She has nowhere to rely on. How will she act now that she's been driven into a corner?"
No answer came.
What, when you're clearly listening. If you don't answer, I look like someone who mutters to themselves.
Unable to ignore it, I shouted toward one wall of the dining hall.
"Look. Isn't it great that we left one golem? If we had smashed them all, we wouldn't have been able to request supplies, and we wouldn't know what's happening. Do you finally realize that smashing everything isn't always the answer?"
The opposite wall shimmered like a mirage. The concealment technique dissolved, and the regressor appeared, leaning against the wall with arms crossed.
Even having heard the entire conversation between me and the golem, the regressor retorted as if still displeased.
"...If we smash the golem and kill that one too, there'd be nothing to worry about."
"They said a general-grade is coming. What are you going to do if you kill the lieutenant just like that and a general-grade personally comes down?"
"They're called generals, but not all of them are strong. If it's not one of the Six Generals, I can handle them alone. With Tirkanka, it would become much easier."
It was not arrogance. The generals are the peak of the military nation's pyramid, the strongest fighting force that leads the nation.
The regressor declared as if it were common sense that if it wasn't the Six Generals who possessed strength of a different dimension, she was confident she could defeat anyone.
It's impressive, but the problem lies elsewhere. I cautiously pointed that out.
"You know, right? From general-grade and above, they are key national figures. The moment you kill one, you'll be marked by the military nation, and you'll enter an adversarial relationship with no room for negotiation."
"Both you and I are already marked. Do you think they'll leave us alone after we survived the Abyss as we pleased? Even if we go up like this, we can't even dream of a normal life, so what are you worried about?"
Tsk. That's true.
Left with nothing to say, I grumbled needlessly.
"I'm anxious about you who would casually commit general murder."
"Noisy. From the guy who remained calm even when a blade was pointed at him."
"It's called a poker face. I was actually so surprised inside."
The regressor heard my words and snorted. It seemed she didn't believe my excuse even a tiny bit.
"You, a petty criminal? If so, the military nation would have fallen last night."
"No, I'm serious. Both the captain and the lieutenant say it in unison. That I'm a petty criminal."
"There's no need to try so hard to deceive even me. Perhaps we could become comrades."
'Just considering Azi and Tirkanka, there's enough reason to keep this one alive. She'll probably keep this one alive in the next cycle too unless there's a special variable. I want to know the truth in this cycle if possible.'
It's not an atmosphere where she'd believe me even if I said it.
But is there a need to correct it? I've secured survival not just for this cycle, but for the next one too. Be grateful, me of the next cycle. I've worked so hard for myself.
Anyway, since I've saved my life, let's move on. I shrugged my shoulders.
"So I understand even less."
However, unlike me with my broad mind, the nitpicky regressor couldn't just let her inner doubts pass.
The regressor asked me about what she was curious about.
"Is there really a need to keep that lieutenant alive?"
"Captain Abby just explained it. A general-grade is coming."
"No, I'm not talking about the situation. You had no intention of killing the lieutenant from the start. You didn't try to help the lieutenant either, but separately from that, it feels like the option of killing her never even crossed your mind from the beginning."
Sometimes the regressor's thoughts jump to strange places.
I'm not sure if that's because of the externally attached 13th-cycle thought process, or if it's her nature. While she mostly barks up the wrong tree, occasionally one or two of her points pierce the core surprisingly sharply. I suppose you could say it's like a cow catching a mouse while backing up.
Even as I smiled ambiguously, the regressor still interrogated me sharply.
"Why? Don't tell me she's your type?"
"Haha. That's impossible."
"Then?"
"Haa. Well."
Well, you see. What I felt while reading the officer's mind from time to time.
Truly, the human heart is amusing.
"Aren't you curious, Mr. Shei?"
"About what."
The officer's goal is to become a Level 4 citizen. She became an officer for that purpose, and took the hand of the secret society 'Apex of All Creation' that had secretly approached her.
Her progress was smooth. With their support, she received two medals and achieved ultra-fast promotion to lieutenant. She gained considerable fame, and people in the military nation began to recognize her.
At that time, an order finally came from the 'Apex of All Creation.'
Under the guise of a mistake, infiltrate Tartarus and obtain information.
The Abyss Tartarus. That place was a forbidden realm that one dare not approach, but... its danger level had greatly decreased after the prison break incident, and above all, the fact that the laborer sent down first was calmly alive was encouraging.
If even a mere petty criminal survived, what reason would there be for her, an elite of the military nation, to not be safe?
So the officer entered this place following their orders.
However.
"A land of complete isolation and helplessness. The Abyss where you can't rely on anyone's help at all. She rose to a fairly high position as a lieutenant, yet she fell here alone without any support. Pressured from all sides, she hasn't accomplished anything. She's even facing hostility from people she never thought would be enemies."
The dangerous individual, Shei, still displays a sharp attitude.
The King of Dogs has already formed a deep bond with the laborer, so no opening to squeeze through is visible.
What to do about that laborer—the progenitor who should be indifferent to humans is somehow protecting the laborer with all her might.
The officer used to monitor me all day to find a weakness. Each time, I pretended not to notice her gaze and showed her what position I held, how solidly we were united.
The more she saw, the more the officer was engulfed in despair.
A mission with no prospects. She bites her nails and tries to devise countermeasures that won't come. But in the isolated Abyss, a solution won't spontaneously pop up.
The officer must have realized it by now. The fact that... here, there is nothing she, a rolling stone, can do.
"She has no one to exchange a single word with, she doesn't know how much time is passing. Achieving her goal becomes increasingly distant while the end approaches. Her own life is no different from a mayfly."
Even if the officer seizes a gap and approaches Azi, if I ring the bell, Azi immediately runs to me.
Even when inside the building, when passing through shadows untouched by light, a sinister gaze is felt. That's because Tir watches her vigilantly.
Even the regressor before my eyes radiates killing intent every time she sees the lieutenant. At the rank of lieutenant, she can feel unrestrained killing intent, and thanks to that, she experiences death several times a day.
"Perhaps she'll die here. Without accomplishing anything, fading away like a dim candle without being remembered. Now she's worrying whether they, whose plans have gone awry, will abandon her."
Her goal is Level 4 citizenship.
The reason she wants to become Level 4 is to leave what she has to future generations.
But she actually has no family, no spouse. If she dies here, it means everything becomes bubbles.
Truly contradictory, isn't it. To risk her life for something that doesn't currently exist.
"In that rock-bottom situation, what kind of appearance will she show?"
What will she choose at the end of contradiction, she who has reached the end of her life.
"Aren't you curious?"
I was so curious about that, I wanted to ask once.
Perhaps naturally, the regressor couldn't understand.
"You caused all this because of that? Something this inefficient?"
"It's not necessarily just because of that. Anyway, you can't kill a living person. Since I'm saving her anyway."
Because I'm a telepath, I know that sincere answers only come when you're actually in that situation. Even people who swear they can give their lives for their country often run away when the blade actually approaches their eyes.
That's even when I read them and there wasn't a single speck of falsehood. They deceived even themselves.
Therefore, the lines written right now have no meaning. When that scene directly approaches before your eyes, when a situation unfolds that cannot be evaded with words, that's when the truly valuable sincerity genuinely emerges.
I just want to see that.
"...Truly."
The regressor calmly chewed on my words and, surprisingly finding them agreeable, added:
"Probably guessing by this. You must have been a truly bad guy."
"I told you I'm a petty criminal."
"Hmph. Sure you are. Anyway, separate from your words, definitely... it's worth trying."
'The lieutenant is a woman. So she's not that instructor the immortal mentioned. She's probably a puppet. Leaving her as is rather than immediately interrogating and disposing of her can dig up the truth more certainly... but I don't want to take even such a minor risk.'
Persuaded by my words, the regressor withdrew her killing intent toward the lieutenant.
She placed the Cheonaeng she had been gripping tightly back at her bedside, then fell into deep thought while stroking her chin.
'I didn't intend to do this kind of leisurely build-up in a cycle I'm throwing away... but since the situation has come to this. Should I change the plan?'
Reading that thought, I couldn't help but be dismayed.
I expected it, but was this a throwaway cycle?
Please don't do that. The telepath reading your mind is getting anxious.
Anyway. I turned my head again. Posing a question toward the officer beyond there.
What could the officer, having reached checkmate, be thinking?
Lieutenant Callis unbuckled the belt she had brought.
In the past, some time after clothing packets became commercialized. Leather that had lost its main use was frequently used for accessories or consumables instead of clothes.
Wallets or pockets, belts, bags, accessories, and so on.
For the military nation that abhors luxury, there was no reason to stop them when they wanted to dispose of the leather inventory existing throughout the country. Throwing it all away would be an even greater loss.
Therefore, a leather boom occurred very briefly, and it was quite popular until a certain incident occurred. Like flashy luxury goods, various variations came out.
Lieutenant Callis's belt was also a product that survived with a somewhat unique use after dozens of variations rose and fell.
A belt with the left waist strangely bulging. When Lieutenant Callis hooked her finger into that gap, a space cleverly hidden within the leather appeared. Lieutenant Callis took out three bundles from there.
'The three bundles that person handed over.'
She doesn't know the contents either. 'Apex of All Creation' emphasized never to open them until that situation arrives. So Callis tried to save them if possible.
However, now was not the time to be picky about means and methods.
'One for communication. Another for escape.'
It's not time for the communication one yet. This is on hold.
The escape one was given to use when there's no hope at all, when she needs to escape the Abyss. This is also on hold...
'Do I really need to hold off?'
Callis unconsciously reached for the escape bundle, then realizing what action she was about to take, clenched her hand tightly. She took a ragged breath and bit her lip.
'Not yet, not yet. I haven't accomplished anything yet, so I mustn't weaken already.'
Having barely gathered her wits, Callis pushed the escape pouch deep inside with trembling fingers.
Now only one remains.
'And the last one... this is for when assistance is needed.'
She doesn't know what's inside.
However, hope tends to swell more when it's invisible.
Callis took out the leather bundle with a sliver of hope.
The secret society that has taken root deep within the military nation, Apex of All Creation. Hoping that there would be something that could turn the tables, as it was their trump card they left behind.
'Please. Let there be something inside that can overcome this crisis...!'
With a desperate wish, Lieutenant Callis opened the bundle.