novelVolume 8, Stage 01 - Welcome to the Media Celebrity Life (2)
| ← Ch.090 | Ch.092 → |
Volume 8, Stage 01: Welcome to the Media Celebrity Life (2)
Kyousuke's self-analysis told him he may have simply not known how to handle the strange tolerance of a somewhat careless adult woman.
...Because it reminded him of someone who had vanished at the Queen's Miniature Garden.
Sinceria placed a slender hand on Kyousuke's chest and leaned toward him while making sure not to get in the way of her daughter who was clinging to his side.
"(Yes, and if waiting until Via has grown is too much for you, her mother can play that role in the meantime. Yes, as a mother-in-law who is generally perfect but just can't leave some things alone?)"
"Your Majesty."
"Hee hee hee. You can always use me as a sign of what Via's future holds and be honest with your desires. The world of royalty is still rife with complex family trees and concubine systems in this day and age, so you can leave the standards of commoners behind....Oh, no. This looks like trouble."
As Olivia stared blankly, Sinceria stepped away from him like a pendulum swinging back. A moment later, the crowd parted and a new person stepped up. She looked a little older than Kyousuke, so about college aged. The beautiful woman had red hair that fell to her shoulder blades, thin-framed glasses, an athletically-fit build, and an intellectual atmosphere....However, she wore a white blouse and longish wine red tight skirt with old-fashioned silver armor in places, so it all looked like a strange suite of armor.
The knight with a J-shaped metal staff at her hip had to be trained in etiquette since she was attending this diplomatic function, but she pointed straight at Kyousuke's nose with an index finger covered in jointed metal.
"You again, foolish mercenary!? You may be the hero who ended our civil war, but stop milking that one good deed for all it is worth! Know some shame and your place, you fool!!"
"Now, now, Rachel. Keep this up, and this will turn into a new type of badger game. Even if normal people forget all about us, we are the representative of Kingdom F and we must keep up appearances."
"...My queen, did you just confess that you were flirting with this nobody so blatantly that people would suspect it was a type of financial scam?"
Sinceria cleared her throat and faced the other way. Mother and daughter were much alike here.
Rachel Wormwood was the current summoner contracted with Sinceria. That meant she was Government Award 913 and held the position of the strongest of Kingdom F's knights. Wormwood was an old poisonous plant that's name could be found in the book of Revelation. As that name suggested, it was possible her family had not begun as knights. She may have come from a line of witches who had assisted the ancient knights who founded Kingdom F. That would explain how they had entered the world of the Summoning Ceremony.
Meanwhile, Sinceria was not going to remain quiet after what happened. While still facing the other way, she placed her index finger on her slender chin and her long ears twitched more than necessary.
"Hmm. But it seems Kyousuke has a contract with Via now, so I wish the two of you could be more friendly. You know, as the two summoners who protect members of the same royal family."
"And I am saying that very contract is a sign of his insolence!! There is a second and third ranked member of our knights and they all swallowed their tears when giving up the opportunity for a contract. So how can this outsider waltz in and gain a royal contract with no effort whatsoever!? Hmph!!"
"But merit is everything for the knights, isn't it? Rachel, you make it sound like you alone are safe, but if you don't put in more of an effort than Kyousuke, I will choose him for my contract instead."
"Kh."
Rachel's slender shoulders jumped like a scolded child's. Every single Kingdom F knight knew the severity and cruelty of that decision. Even the knight who had married the queen and had a child with her had been kicked out when he lost the position of the strongest. That was not to say there had been no love there. The locket at Sinceria's chest contained a photo of that three-person family and she adored her daughter Olivia. But to protect their kingdom, she had to demand top performance from the person standing by her side. The final defense for their people had to be the very best, not just the second or third best. The queen was not so weak that she would allow her personal feelings to influence that system.
Many knights had torn apart that royal family and created a deep rift between them.
And Rachel was the latest part of that.
Whatever she thought in her heart of hearts, Sinceria had smiled and accepted this female knight. So she would surely accept the next knight just as readily. No matter what emotions roiled in her chest.
However.
Kyousuke hung his head even more than Rachel and a dark shadow fell over his face.
"(Please stop doing that. I don't like being used as a threat to motivate someone. )"
"(Hee hee hee. Rachel is cute and skilled, but I know from experience that they will grow rusty if they lack an obvious rival. Please help me keep Kingdom F's strongest sword sharp. )"
...In other words, she did not dislike Rachel.
After straightforwardly training to build up her strength, Rachel had no need to feel bad about what had happened to her queen's husband. The wife had followed the system and the husband had failed to maintain his position as the strongest. It would be insensitive for anyone else to interfere in an attempt to change that outcome.
In fact, Sinceria liked Rachel enough to drag her around on official and personal trips across the globe. That was why Sinceria wanted to protect this contract in any way she could. But without bending the strict rules. Rachel had taken the top spot among the knights, but Sinceria did not want her to stop there.
Kyousuke sighed.
"Now, Your Majesty, we have gotten off topic, but would you be willing to tell me why you are...?"
"Not so fast, mercenary. How dare you speak like that to my queen? Have you forgotten how very, very, very, very, very, very bitter we knights are that you keep going over our heads?"
Rachel spoke in a low voice and finally drew the staff from her hip.
The end extended like a special police baton.
The nearly 2m silver rod was a Blood-Sign for the Summoning Ceremony. The J-shaped end suggested it was based on a battle hook that was used to grab at an armored enemy knight's neck or shoulders to knock them down or drag them off their horse. Choosing definite results over valueless decoration told Kyousuke this was the weapon of someone who had to protect their queen and did not see failure as an option. That was a perfect match for Rachel herself, so he quite liked the weapon choice.
But Sinceria sighed and gave a comment of her own.
"Oh, how disappointing."
"Gh!? M-my queen, what was that sigh for?"
"What a disappointing knight. It could have been a sword or a spear, but you go for a battle hook? Weren't those popular as a light weapon for revolting peasants who could not master the complex form of a halberd? Doesn't that mean a rebellious ideology has influenced Kingdom F's final shield into wielding a friend of the spade and the hoe? ...It just seems so unrefined."
"N-no. This has grown into a truly practical weapon!!"
"Uheh. You sound like one of those historians who have forgotten all about the romance and excitedly argue that a spiked metal ball on the end of a stick is more effective than a sword or spear against someone in full armor. It's just so...sigh. Well, if that's your preference, I won't stop you. Tch. I've also heard that the White Queen was killed, so maybe the world really is ending..."
"D-dammit, this is all your fault, foolish mercenary!!"
Rachel panicked and completely ignored cause-and-effect in her accusation.
Her long J-shaped metal rod must not have been as obvious a weapon as a blade or gun because the normal people in the party hall only gave them curious looks. They may have thought it was a specialized tool used to open a manhole cover or to remove the simple awning over a café entrance.
And another trial awaited her.
"Hmm. If you don't like Onii-chan going over your head, Rachel, then surely you'll explain everything. So give a simple and thorough explanation! For Onii-chan!!"
"Nghhh!?"
Olivia smiled and used her two extra sentences to drive further knives into Rachel's side, so the woman doubled over. Something must have broken when she did so because the battle hook visibly shrunk. The disappointing knight was trembling as she tried to bear with it, but then Sinceria gave a wicked smile and intentionally continued the attack. No, it may have been the merciful finishing blow to a servant writhing in pain on the battlefield. It was psychological euthanasia.
"My, my. That would save me a lot of effort? Rachel, you really are an excellent and faithful servant. So will you please do that? You will be speaking in our place, so make sure you avoid any filthy language that would damage the reputation of Kingdom F's queen."
"...Sinceria...my queen..."
"A mistake here would be an insult to the kingdom as a whole. That would require a greater punishment than when I tease you in bed, so keep that in mind."
The mother seemed to have casually mentioned something shocking, but Kyousuke decided to take that secret with him to the grave. Quite a few of Japan's Warring States commanders had participated in homosexual acts, but there was a theory that had less to do with preference and more to do with avoiding the risk of inheritance issues if mistakes were made in a casual relationship with the opposite sex. So could this queen be doing something similar...?
Rachel suppressed tears behind her intellectual glasses, bent her mouth into a lopsided frown, and glared at Kyousuke with all her might while her athletically-fit body trembled.
"...This is a request from my queen. It breaks my heart to do so, foolish..."
"Raaaachel?"
"Allow me to provide a sincere and whole-hearted explanation!! Ask me whatever you like!!"
She straightened up and saluted.
Kyousuke felt somber, but...
"Then let me ask again. I would like to know what Kingdom F royalty is doing on this ship. Since you are also a summoner and a vessel...could it have to do with that side of things?"
The Toy Dream Company was doing some unnatural things and trying to spread videos that created an argument for war. The development codename was Blue Film.
Lu Niang Lan of Illegal had suggested this was a result of the chaos following the White Queen's death and that professional summoners might appear along with the ship's normal security.
"Is that extremely contradictory statement meant to test me? I see you are as insolent as ever. If it would not place a shadow on my queen's countenance, I would purge you on the spot. In fact, it is a failure on my part that I cannot."
She simply could not hide her true character. Rachel was already irritated and tapping her armored fingers against the battle hook she had returned to her hip.
"Hmph. Count yourself lucky as you listen, mongrel. If you are that ignorant, I will remind you. In addition to creating original children's stories, Toy Dream has accumulated their massive fortune by making films out of their new interpretations of existing picture books and old stories. The royal palaces and silver mountains they have depicted were based on our picturesque Kingdom F. I am willing to praise their eye for aesthetics, but that is a problem in this case."
"Oh, I get it..."
"The Blue Film they are creating to push for war is a laughable bluff about a mineral vein being blackened by chemical fertilizer created from old shells, but they have used elements of Kingdom F in its creation. It depicts a kingdom torn apart by civil war. Thinking of the heroes who lost their lives in that conflict is enough reason to feel resentful of that, but the Silver Resource War they are supporting will take place in Eastern Europe and they have set the stage for the flames to first fall on our Kingdom F. We will be placed in the nonsensical category of the East Europe Axis." Rachel spat out the words."Once war breaks out, we will take direct damage and also have an influx of refugees from the surrounding countries. Not only are they taking advantage of our old wounds, but they are also seeking further bloodshed. That is a clear insult to our kingdom. It is unclear how much Toy Dream is being manipulated here, but it is only natural for the queen who protects all our people to be concerned."
Of course, the monarch could not immediately take action just because she was worried.
They carried the weight of an entire kingdom on their backs.
Kyousuke looked like he had figured it out.
"So has your kingdom's intelligence agency already taken action? They have already gathered what intelligence they can and you are using your diplomatic privileges to fill in the leftover blanks? ...You can slip right past normal guards since they'll forget all about you and you can question anyone you want with the full authority of a head of state."
"Wait. I must make a correction, mercenary. Our righteous and orderly Kingdom F has a proper order of knights, not a pack of filthy rats. What you refer to is not a public agency with a history and traditions born of a monarchy; it is more like a civilian think tank created by modern capitalism. Hmph. Learn something, you ignorant and pathetic nobody. It irritates me to no end that you would make such a careless misunderstanding in my queen's presence."
...Whatever the system, what they had to do was the same, but every country had their unique issues, like how Japan could not refer to their patrol boats and escort ships as "warships". It would be crass to press the issue.
The modern knight placed a hand on her hip.
"We plan to meet directly with President Toydream and determine his true intentions, but since you are here, I can only assume you have your own foolish plan. Hmph. If you intend to sneak around like the mercenary you are, then I will share one piece of information with you."
The knight breathed from her shapely nose and diligently did her duty despite how irritated she was. She pulled a notepad from behind her breastplate and showed him a photograph contained within.
"As a knight, I cannot publicly recognize my connection with you, so I cannot actually give this to you. Memorize the face here and now."
"...That won't be necessary."
"Hmph. I should have known a mercenary would know some unsavory people."
Rachel gave a snort of laughter and flicked her armored finger at the center of the photo.
"Illegal Award 999, War Criminal. This summoner stands at the top of one of the three major powers. And rumor has it that he is far in the lead when only looking at the number of people he has personally killed. He is the ultimate criminal. He has reached a level where an individual's actions can be seen as a war."
"..."
"I see. Looking at it that way, this summoner is the exact opposite of you, the king of not killing."
He silently denied that.
No matter what nice excuses he might make, Shiroyama Kyousuke was probably history's greatest killer when looking at the number of people he had indirectly killed. He had not forgotten everything that began with the Queen's Miniature Garden.
Whether she realized that or not, Rachel stole a glance at his face.
"His profile says he adores the White Queen's destructive power rather than her beauty or charisma, but who knows if that is true. Hmph. You have a bizarre history for a nobody, so I am guessing that look on your face means you have met him before."
"...You could say that."
That short answer held great meaning.
Kyousuke had supposedly taken out that summoner in a surprise attack five different times. But each time, the summoner had fallen from a dam, been swallowed up in a blazing abandoned factory, or otherwise caused even more damage than Kyousuke had expected and gone missing. Kyousuke had always lost track of him, so he had failed to force him to retire by taking an eye or an arm that were even more precious to a summoner than their life. And he had since been confirmed to have resumed his criminal activities all over the world. Kyousuke knew Lu Niang Lan had to be aware of it, but his view of the underworld was very different from that modified China dress beauty, so he could predict that she may have been silently accepting the other summoner's actions.
Would he perform another vanishing act?
Or had the Queen's death shaken him enough to fight to the very end?
Death always failed to fix War Criminal and Kyousuke would not change either.
"When he gets going, he'll kill enemy and ally alike, so he cannot work as a group with Illegal as a whole. Mercenary, hmph, that is good news for you."
That was what it meant for him to fight a war as an individual.
The top of Illegal did not wage war with a large army at his command. He himself was the phenomenon of war and he would bare his fangs against all forms of life within his reach. Once he got started, he would not discriminate between his own army and the enemy army. In a way, he was even more troublesome than Elvast Toydream, the former king of Government. There was still a possibility of War Criminal himself making an appearance, but since nothing he said could get Illegal as a whole to put in an effort, he could not really be taken at his word.
...This new generation of leaders left a bitter taste in Kyousuke's mouth.
The leaders of the three major powers he had seen at the Queen's Miniature Garden had been very different from the current ones.
Illegal Award 999, War Criminal.
That ruler of evil was always protected by as many bodyguards as a national president, but everyone knew they were essentially a suicide squad. He went through allies faster than anyone else. When that berserker awoke, it was every man for himself.
Illegal as a whole saw him as a thorn in their side and may have even hoped Kyousuke's attempts against their leader would succeed. That would explain why there had been no major attempts to retaliate.
Rachel sounded exasperated, either toward Kyousuke or that moral failure.
"Well, because he is so well known, this could be a false report, but there have been scattered sightings of him. We do not know just how deeply this War Criminal is involved in all this. Hmph. But be careful if you face him here. It does not matter one whit to me if you two opposites clash, but do not forget that Princess Olivia, the future ruler of our kingdom, stands by your side. If you allow her to shed a single drop of blood, I will remove your head. Listen, I, Rachel Wormwood, will follow through on that threat, so keep that in mind. Prioritize the princess's safety over your own silly principles. I am telling you to ensure her safety by killing when you have the chance to kill. Surely even a fool like you can understand that, right?"
Kyousuke did not nod or shake his head. He instead lost himself in thought.
He muttered under his breath to work through the information he had.
"...I see. If he is a gore lover who was attracted to the Queen's violence above all, then he would find it difficult to accept her death or defeat. It's like having an unbeatable monster that chases people around with an axe, but then it's killed by a hail of gunfire. His options are to find a way to prove the White Queen's superiority or to side with the Colorless Little Girl who killed her. It would make sense for War Criminal to have been shaken by this turning point."
"That's enough of that."
With a gentle smile on her face, Sinceria clapped her hands together in front of her large chest.
The silver locket buried in her cleavage shined brightly.
"We have shared most of our information now, haven't we? Kyousuke, I assume you know since you infiltrated the ship instead of blowing it up from outside, but there are a lot of unrelated tourists and crewmembers onboard. Keep that in mind when arriving at a solution to the problem."
"...What kind of person do you think I am, Your Majesty?"
"Oh? I actually find it unusual for the Kyousuke I know to hold back against the enemy. During our civil war, you used the Summoning Ceremony to take out a guard unit's laser railway gun and then used that to shoot down the Repliglass aerial aircraft carriers flying above the capital. And while ensuring they could all make an emergency landing, of course."
"They may have fallen into enemy hands, but all of that was Kingdom F equipment! You were overlooked due to my queen's kindness, but when counting the aircraft inside, each of those aerial aircraft carriers should have earned you a bill of 300 billion. And I am not talking about your yen here. I am talking about the euros trusted the world over! Oh, this foolish boy. Hmph. Whatever your principles might be, you take things too far!!"
Kyousuke could not stop coughing even though he did not have allergies.
That was a different issue from the one here, so Kyousuke had to do his best to change the subject.
"Anyway, Your Majesty. Kingdom F's official name is the Flanguild Permanently Neutral Kingdom, is it not? You seem to, um, have an awfully large stockpile of weapons for a name like that."
"Do not be silly. My queen has no need to defend herself here. Permanent neutrality does not mean that we will suicidally put up no resistance. It means we will not instigate an attack ourselves. If another country makes a military strike on our noble Kingdom F, we have not just the knights but also a universal conscription system for the rest of our citizens. Career soldiers who are always whining about money and people who refuse to fight to defend their country are not patriots."
"Um, uh, it is nothing as strict as that, " said Sinceria."As their queen, we have attempted to refuse, but they insist on protecting the kingdom and the royal family, so the universal conscription system is not actually written into law... And the Repliglass weaponry is not a product of our kingdom. Even after the eastern powers were broken apart by the Warsaw Pact as a NATO vanguard, America still wanted a deterrent against those eastern powers that wished to gain influence over the Western economies, so they pressured us to buy those weapons. No, it would be more accurate to say we are renting them. Possessing too many weapons causes the surrounding countries to view us as a threat, so it can be a pain to deal with. Honestly... And when Quad Motors sensed the approaching war, they stopped all maintenance and returned to their home country early, so none of them are functioning properly. They are entirely useless to us."
"This always happens... This is why you can't trust outsiders!! They are all such cowardly nobodies. Hmph. And that of course includes you, foolish mercenary!!"
"If we really are 'nobodies', should you really be getting so worked up over us?"
"Wait...you...why must you always catch me off guard and make a fool of me in front of my queen? Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!"
Doing everything perfectly was not always a good thing. Kyousuke had apparently changed the subject too far.
The sexy blonde woman separated her hands in front of her large chest and held out her palms to soothe the overly-serious glasses knight.
"Calm down, Rachel. You did well, so stand back for now. Even if you are both summoners who protect the royal family, if you keep showing off how well you get along, you might trigger an explosion of royal jealousy."
"Wha...my queen! Please avoid making such careless statements in public. No one can read your mind, so such jokes will lead to misunderstandings!!"
"I was not talking about myself. Via is pouting her lips and looking more and more displeased."
"Ugh, and her purity just makes this more of a pain to deal with...!! You are mistaken, princess!! I was merely fulfilling the task given to me by the head of state!! Not for a second have I felt any kind of affinity with this filthy mercenary!!!!!"
Rachel probably could not afford to make any more casual insults.
Olivia's cheeks were puffing out like rice cakes.
"If you say so, Miss Friendly. But I don't care. I'm taking Onii-chan to some dark place where you and mom can't see us. And then I'll make sure to gain an insurmountable lead. I can get as close to Onii-chan as I want there."
"Oh, going with them sounds like a lot more fun. I'll let Via handle all the pure parts of the relationship, but as her mother, I will make up for the parts she can't do yet."
The knight directed killer intent Kyousuke's way before he could get a word in edgewise.
She was snapping her teeth together so hard he thought sparks would fly from her canines.
"...Foolish mercenary. I hope you are not going to take that seriously."
"Can someone please rescue me from whatever is going on here?"
"Hmph. Fine, then. You might stand by her side, but do not forget that we live in a very different world from you. Honestly. This ship is enemy territory, so I cannot just ask you to end your contract with the princess, but why does it have to be this nobody of a mercenary of all people?"
"Sit. Stay. Onii-chan, Rachel is just showing off how friendly she is, so can we get going?"
"Your words hurt me, princess...!!"
The knight clenched her fists and worked to endure the humiliation, but Olivia seemed entirely oblivious as she linked arms with Kyousuke as if to show off.
And then something fell from the decorative buttons on her flat chest.
It was light and the floor was carpeted, so it did not make a noise....It could be easy to forget given the circumstances, but they had snuck aboard and Kyousuke did not want to leave anything behind. Without thinking, he reached down to pick up the dropped item, but then he froze.
It was one of those rubber products that used their thinness as a selling point.
The entire atmosphere froze.
He seriously considered trying to hide it under his foot, but when he looked up, he found that both Sinceria and Rachel had seen it. There was no time to recover from this.
"Oh, my."
"What in the...!? Foolish mercenary, is that...cough, cough!!!!"
Rachel started choking so badly Kyousuke began rubbing her back, but she simply glared at him.
"Foolish mercenary, allow me to ask again. Did you do this while aware what that item is for!?"
"Oh, my, my. Hee hee hee. Rachel, you take things too seriously... But I would like to hear this too. Yes, yes. I would like to hear Kyousuke himself explain it to us: what is that?"
"(No, wait. This is your time to shine, Kyousuke brain. Does the correct answer mean survival? Think carefully. What will a quick yes or no answer bring other than a pool of blood? I should base the odds of survival on that. So should I play dumb instead? Or I should I just remain silent...?)"
"Oh, my, my, my. So that's what you're going with? Hee hee. It seems Kyousuke the Expert is playing dumb so he can hear Rachel explain since she has already implied she knows the answer. He seems to want to see her blush and fidget while she explains the proper use of that item."
"Foolish mercenary!!!!!!"
"You damn queen! You're using your knight as a shield to throw oil on the fire from a position of safety, aren't you!?"
Meanwhile, Olivia did not seem to understand the gravity of the situation. She innocently picked up the dropped item.
"Oh, this is the toy from the leisure room Onii-chan took me to."
That sounded like an excuse, but it was no excuse at all.
Every last word of it was the worst possible.
She likely did not understand how the terms "leisure room" and "toy" sounded when used together like that.
"Oh, my. Then it seems her mother won't need to help out after all. That's too bad, though. Even if this is probably better in the long run."
Sinceria placed a hand over her mouth and smiled. She had to understand it had been a part of their infiltration mission, but she still poured plenty more oil on the fire.
And she did it all while feigning compassion.
"An ex post facto punishment might be unfair..."
And amid the multi-layer misunderstanding, the knight who protected Kingdom F gave one deep nod and made her announcement.
"But I believe I said I would remove your head if you allowed her to shed a single drop of blood."
The relationship between summoner and vessel came in all forms, but for Government Award 913, Noble Bride, the summoner held the Blood-Sign and the vessel held the Incense Grenade. That avoided any situation where a Material was summoned without warning, causing a panic.
When the knight grabbed her long weapon and began swinging it around, Sinceria nonchalantly tripped her and nodded to Kyousuke who took Olivia and left the somewhat panicked party hall. Since the head of state stuck her tongue out and waved, Kyousuke felt some sympathy for the knight who had tripped quite spectacularly in public. He decided it might be best to send her a gift.
Yes.
She could be a real pain in the ass, but that knight had done nothing wrong. There was something wrong when the world made a fool of someone so diligent. He had to make up for that.
In his dress clothes, Kyousuke grabbed a small briefcase from the cloakroom and returned to his search of the ship with Olivia in her dress.
"...This one could be tricky. Rye and corn cereal can have too strong a flavor for beginners. But rice is too plain, so it might not feel like she's really eating anything. Granola, acai, chia seed, quinoa... Those wouldn't work either. You need to be familiar with the fundamental spirit of cereal before you can appreciate those. Yes, it would be best to go back to the basics for a gift."
"Onii-chan, what are you muttering about?"
"If I take six small packages and arrange them in a paulownia box to look like a luxury item... Eh heh heh. I hope Rachel likes it."
Once they got started, it went quickly.
Kyousuke and Olivia returned to the commercial area full of restaurants and shops and they made their way to the small industrial elevator for the food carts.
"We're finally back on track..."
"Onii-chan, you sound like you just aged a whole bunch."
"And whose fault might that be?"
Much like a turntable parking garage for a multi-tenant building, they opened a vertically sliding door and climbed down the long shaft with a ladder. This allowed them to sneak into Toy Dream's giant VFX studio on the bottom level without passing through the security gates.
"Honestly, if only we could have done this from the beginning."
"Yeah, who would have thought we would run into my mom here? Maybe she gives off some kind of force that draws people to her."
Kyousuke could not argue with the idea that powerful people and rulers had a unique attraction. It was not an issue of logic. It would always remain a mystery to the sociology professors who envied that inborn talent and desperately worked to analyze how it worked. It did exist. Because the White Queen had the power to distort both worlds and she waited far, far beyond those other people.
After creeping out from the elevator, they found yet another new atmosphere. It was dim because the lights were intentionally kept low. But why? This was a VFX studio where workers were constantly staring at screens, so would outside light reflect off the LCD monitors and would differences in brightness cause their eyes to adjust unnecessarily when they moved between the room and the hallway? Was it meant to avoid any discrepancies in how different staff members saw the colors?
Swordsmiths used heating and cooling in a battle against heat to refine the quality of the steel, so the slight disturbance in room temperature from opening and closing a door could ruin an entire sword. In cutting-edge VFX production, color and light may have reached that same level.
That said, not every artist and illustrator that specialized in coloring would necessarily be that picky.
But Toy Dream would invest 30 billion in a single movie, so they would apparently go that far when it came to choosing a single shade of color. Ordering room service instead of heading up themselves would be a way to limit the number of times they reset their senses outside this specialized environment. The strict security gates may have mostly been a way to keep out any unnecessary light.
Kyousuke carefully observed the dim corridor before returning to the food cart room and opening his briefcase's latch.
"Olivia, it's time to change. It looks like our personal clothing would blend in better than a work jumpsuit. Let's return to normal."
"Yes, yes. But won't someone my age stand out no matter what I'm wearing?"
"I saw a girl of about 8 walking around with a cooling sheet on her forehead, so education and age aren't what matter here. Still, it's scary to think that was one of the top runners supporting films that cost 30 billion each..."
There was no partition here, so Kyousuke decided to change back to back, but once he removed his jacket, he realized Olivia was staring right at him. Amaterasu Kyousuke opted to retreat into the elevator shaft.
With the sun gone, Olivia spoke from beyond the metal door.
"Onii-chaaaan, I've learned my lesson, so come on out."
"I haven't heard any clothing rustling. I know you're waiting for me in the nude, so just get changed already."
"Tch."
After a while, she called out to him again.
"Onii-chaaaan, I'm all done."
Kyousuke opened the cave entrance to find Olivia in her school swimsuit, decorative collar, floral pareo, and straw hat. She was adjusting the swimsuit where it was riding up on her small butt. She would betray him in obvious ways, but she was an obedient child who would quickly change when called out.
"Hand your other clothes here. I'll put them in the briefcase."
"Okay."
A small piece of cloth was suddenly dropped into his hand.
At about the size of a small steamed bun, it was a balled-up pair of panties.
"Olivia..."
"You're the one that insisted I wear them back in the leisure room. This was your request, so you take care of it. Hee hee hee. They're still warm, aren't they?"
She had the look of a mischievous little devil.
He wanted to punch himself 30 seconds ago for thinking she was obedient. This may have been a sign that she had Sinceria's blood in her veins. All expression vanished from his face as he shoved the dress, panties, and shoes in the briefcase.
The silence must have been overwhelming because Olivia pressed her legs together and fidgeted.
"Huh? It didn't work?"
"It's time you learned that not everyone will be swayed by someone's charm. Even if you follow Sinceria's example."
He got back to work with that woman's daughter.
They were inside the "authorized personnel only" area located past security, so they could not rely on the map they had bought ahead of time. This entire area was blank on the map, so they had to do the investigation work themselves.
Unlike the higher levels, the corridors took labyrinthine paths here, so the layout must have prioritized the location of equipment over convenience of movement. The walls were generally made of glass, so they could see into the offices. A single staff member would be staring at several monitors spread out in a fan shape, using a pen-shaped device while also using keyboard shortcuts, or putting on VR goggles and turning their head every which way. Kyousuke recalled that the backgrounds made using System Atlantis were high enough quality for someone to walk around inside them.
If Kyousuke and Olivia could see them, then they could see the two of them. Since no one sounded the alarm, either their casual clothes were working or the workers had lost all interest in the real world after working so many days in a row.
Olivia pointlessly clung to Kyousuke's back to sneak around for no real reason.
"They're eating something weird. It looks like birdseed... Is that some kind of celebrity food?"
"Tch....They went for something more fancy without learning anything about standard cereal first?"
"I thought everyone who worked with videos would eat blueberries. To keep their eyes healthy."
"Is it even true that they heal your eyesight?"
At the very least, they had never been popular among summoners who placed a lot of focus on their physical eyesight.
Then the double blonde braid girl seemed to shift her focus from the glass-encased booths to the corridor they were walking down.
"What are those? They don't look like statues."
"Industrial clay. I think these are clay models made using 3D machine tools. They make a physical test model to make sure the product of their data doesn't have any mistakes. I've also heard that they make these when developing cars or Repliglass."
Kyousuke answered while they passed by a clay aerial aircraft carrier sitting on a rectangular pedestal in the center of the corridor.
...This kind of equipment had gotten a lot cheaper with the spread of 3D printers that used plastic, but when the quality had to be on the level of a car development model, a single mass of clay would cost several million yen. This was apparently another part of the production where they spared no expense.
The crank-shaped passageway took several right angle turns. Kyousuke and Olivia were after the original data for the war promotion videos, so those areas that stuck out unnaturally were exactly what they wanted to find. They passed by the occasional genius who staggered down the hallway like a zombie, but Kyousuke eventually used his multi-tool's knife to swiftly pry open a lock.
They found a room lined with what looked like refrigerator-sized tombstones.
The room was as mercilessly chilly as a supermarket's vegetable section and Olivia more or less only wore a swimsuit, so she held her shoulders and shivered.
White breaths left her mouth as she spoke to Kyousuke's back while he connected a cable to his mobile device and one of the machines.
"O-O-Onii-chan... Did you find what you wanted?"
"No, it looks like it isn't here. But wait...could this mean...?"
He pulled the cable out and checked a few more rooms while Olivia trembled. One room had a large metal sphere with thick cords attached from every direction, one had a latticework shaped like a fancy cookie that had tons of small processors inside, and another had a box submerged in a chilled pool surrounded by reinforced glass. No two devices were the same, but Kyousuke's expression remained clouded.
"O-ohhh. The fluctuating temperature is affecting my crotch... A-are you done yet, Onii-chan?"
"This is odd."
Kyousuke's comment made it clear this was going to take longer than expected.
And he gave no thought to Olivia's personal crisis as she fidgeted beside him.
"Looking at the machine specs, there's no way this has the processing power to support a 30 billion yen film. These have to be no more than terminals and relay points. It's more like an online cloud service. Is System Atlantis not actually on the ship?"
"How much longer is this going to take? If I was in a large pool, I would probably secretly let my spine tremble and enjoy the feeling of release..."
"But what other location are they communicating with? If they have a direct hotline to eliminate the risk of the signal being intercepted...oh, so that's it."
Kyousuke reconsidered the situation, came up with a new theory, and got to work.
Meanwhile, Olivia waved a hand in the corner of his vision, gave up on him, and snuck out of the machine storeroom.
And after a while...
"Yes, that is what's happening... Oh? Olivia, where did you get off to?"
"Sigh. So there's one of those in the disaster relief bag. I might need to take drastic measures soon."
They both had extremely serious expressions.
"This means the ship only carries the production staff and the screens needed to remotely control everything. System Atlantis itself is somewhere else. There are more computers here than a domestic company could ever hope to afford, but they're all used to relay the signal from somewhere else."
"Huh? But then why make the studio into a ship? Wasn't that to keep the studio moving so the supercomputer isn't fixed to one place? I don't know if it's in the jungle or the desert, but what's the point of the ship when someone can just attack the main supercomputer?"
"Yes, that's why they have a hotline set up, but the mainframe is still with the ship."
"...?"
Olivia looked puzzled and Kyousuke pointed straight down.
And he spoke.
"It's in a submarine. They exchange data with it using a geomagnetic field coil that can maintain high interference even in the water."
Olivia blinked silently for a while.
"Geomagnetic...field?"
"The concept itself isn't so rare. Anti-sub buoys can apparently detect one hiding down to about 1000 meters below the surface. They drop a giant coil into the ocean and use the disturbance in the earth's own magnetic field to locate the submarine. As long as neither side emits any dangerous EM or sound waves, that can be modified to detect tiny magnetic disturbances just by typing on a keyboard wired up within the ship. It's kind of like a modern form of telepathy."
She did not react much to his explanation.
She may have been unable to keep up with something on so large a scale.
"I imagine they would have just put everything on the sub if it would have fit. Compared to a ship floating on the surface, a submarine below the surface has to be made more compact....Well, technically they could build an extraordinarily large submarine, but once the sound of it parting the seawater passes a certain point, it might as well be announcing its location."
That was why they had hidden the valuable System Atlantis in the ocean and then built a separate ship for the staff workplace and living space.
...If they ran into trouble, they could sacrifice the staff on the surface and sneak the mainframe away to safety.
Kyousuke took a slow breath.
"It's lucky we used a small submersible to get onboard... Olivia, we have no more business on the ship. Let's find a way to get to the nuclear sub below here. That's where we'll find the original data we want."
Just then, a deep noise rang out and all the lights turned red. This alarm overruled the dimmed lighting meant to protect he staff members' eyes.
Their infiltration may have been discovered...but Kyousuke could not think of any reason why.
Which meant...
"Olivia, what did you do while I wasn't looking?"
"I-I-I-I-I didn't do anything yet!! There was a portable toilet in the disaster relief bag, but I didn't know how to open the package. I got distracted trying to open it and then I found I didn't need it as badly anymore. See, I can jump and hop around just fine. So I didn't do anything!!!!!"
Kyousuke did not know why she was arguing so insistently it made her red in the face, but someone must have noticed something out of place in the break room. Sensitive people would notice a single chair out of place at a long table or a slight movement of the salt shaker or sugar jar.
There were rules unique to infiltrating an indoor location, much like worrying about footprints or broken branches in the jungle. Simply put, leave no sign of your presence in enemy territory. That mostly meant not to touch anything unless you had to, but he must have failed to drive that point home with her.
He clicked his tongue, unhooked the cable, and lightly cracked his neck. It was time. If System Atlantis was not here, they had no further business on the ship.
Olivia had grown quite tearful and she asked a question in a barely audible voice.
"...What should we do, Onii-chan?"
"At this point, there are no safe and clever plans to rely on."
Kyousuke let out a short breath and reached for his back.
He pulled out his Repliglass Blood-Sign called Phosphorous and lightly patted Olivia's small head over her straw hat to comfort her.
"We break our way through and run away."
As soon as they opened the door, they ran into a security guard in a navy blue uniform who ran around a corner in the corridor.
He may have thought no one would see as long as there was no window nearby because he held a handgun customized for full-auto.
(Tch! So are we finally seeing the Illegal soldiers who are using the ship's uniforms!?)
But Kyousuke did not face him head on.
He adjusted the angle of the waterproof steel door just before the merciless rapid-fire attack began. A clay model worth millions of yen shattered atop its rectangular pedestal, but Kyousuke was not focused on the horizontal downpour of bullets. A door built to withstand powerful water pressure was enough to block those.
What mattered was the ridiculously loud gunshots.
That was the natural result of firing in a closed space. The guard was knocked out by the wall of noise he himself had created.
"Let's go, Olivia."
"How did you do that? Ricocheting?"
He had not done anything so dangerous. Summoners needed decent spatial senses to handle the White Thorns and Petals with their Blood-Sign. If he adjusted the locations and angles of objects with a focus on how and where the soundwaves would be reflected, he could focus the noise on a single point like gathering sunlight with a concave mirror. That transformed it into a powerful nonlethal weapon.
Whenever they ran across an enemy, he would open a nearby door, knock down the ceiling panels with his Blood-Sign, and otherwise interfere with the reflecting soundwaves.
Each time, the brawny guards would collapse to the floor with amusing ease. He would approach the enemy while their limbs trembled like a dying insect and he would kick their handgun far away before hurrying on.
When the pursuing enemy was using projectile weapons, they could not use the elevator shaft again. They would have nowhere to escape if the enemy fired down at them while they were climbing up the ladder in that narrow shaft. That meant they had to leave straight through a security gate. They really did have break through.
And the enemy seemed to have figured out his trick.
When he saw a guard wearing something like headphones over his ears and attaching a silencer thicker than the gun barrel itself, Kyousuke grabbed Olivia under his arm.
"Hyah!"
"Quiet."
He ducked around a random corner to avoid the muffled gunfire, opened a nearby switchboard, and messed with a fuse. A high-voltage current leaked out, he heard a loud sparking sound around the corner, and the storm of gunfire ceased. This was a production studio using the massive power produced by a nuclear engine. The excess power alone was plenty destructive.
Even after seeing the fate of the guard who had taken the lead, the enemy would only hesitate for a few seconds.
This was not a permanent solution.
Still holding Olivia, Kyousuke kicked open a nearby door. The sign had called it a "multi-purpose conference room", but it was really an entertainment room. A movie theater screen surrounded you with over-the-top audio and video while you pedaled an exercise bike to produce plenty of adrenaline and dopamine.
Kyousuke combated the gunfire by turning off the lights to give them the cover of darkness. Olivia did not sound all that nervous in his arm as she made a suggestion.
"Why not summon a Material and wipe them all out?"
"It is true those are Illegal, but they're still just normal soldiers. They aren't even Repliglass soldiers protected by thick armor. Doing that would kill them."
Kyousuke answered her while using a different exit to run back out into the corridor.
In addition to that, this was a windowless space located below the water level. The biggest threat would be if the enemy lowered some thick emergency shutters to cut off all escape and then flooded the area with seawater. The assistance of a Material and the protective circle only lasted 10 minutes, so they had no real defense against that tactic. He wanted to escape above the water level before the enemy came up with that idea like they had figured out how to use headphones and silencers to deal with his soundwave counterattack, so he wanted to avoid anything that would keep them in one place.
When restricting himself to nonlethal methods, the enemy always held the initiative. While making sporadic counterattacks to reduce the number of guards, Kyousuke and Olivia were driven from place to place.
(I see. So this is where we're headed. )
Kyousuke noticed something and actually let the enemy lure him in a certain direction.
He tackled open a thick soundproof door and found a large space with 30m sides. It was hard to tell with the red lighting, but the floor and wallpaper were pure white.
"The filming studio..."
They had reached the very back of the ship, so they were directly below that party hall.
The enemy was already waiting for them.
One was a sexy woman with short hair, a black leather jacket that left her navel exposed, and a tight skirt. Her outfit screamed "prison guard" so much it seemed somehow fake. The other was a little girl with wavy hair dyed purple. She wore a comical white and black striped prisoner outfit and had a ball and chain attached to her ankle. A criminal scent hung over them both, but that may have been because they were an Illegal duo.
The female prison guard puffed on a ridiculously-thick cigar and spun a tonfa in her hand. It extended into a Blood-Sign more than 150cm long.
Kyousuke knew of a high Award-earner that matched this description.
Illegal Award 887, Eisen Rosen.
Despite their flashy appearance, they must have been faithful to their job. After all, they had agreed to work as guards under Illegal Award 999's direct command even though he would attack enemy and ally alike.
Only two simple words left the mouth holding the cigar.
"Game on."
She held a unique Incense Grenade made by sticking a rolled-up yellow journalism newspaper in the top of a small liquor bottle. She then used the tip of the thick cigar to light a blue flame in the wet paper.
And she threw it.
Before it could hit the floor and break, Kyousuke flicked a glass pellet from his finger and fired it like a bullet with a horizontal swing of his Blood-Sign. That was a piece of food for Phosphorous. The Artificial Sacred Ground would be established as soon as the bottle broke, so that seemed like a wasted action. The sound of shattering glass followed.
But it was not wasted.
Kyousuke's pellet shot right past the airborne Molotov cocktail, ignored both the summoner and vessel, and broke through the wall there. No, it broke through the reinforced glass of the window embedded in the wall.
Once it hit the lever on the control panel there, a change occurred.
There were several loud crashing sounds overhead. The ceiling above separated this lower level area from the party hall above, but that split in two and transformed the two rooms into one giant space running vertically through the ship. Then a rumbling rose from below. The floor was really a fine wire mesh and there was a 30m propeller below that.
This was why Kyousuke had felt a creaking below his feet when he first stepped into the party hall.
An instantaneous blast of wind blew up from the floor.
Kyousuke and the others were freed from the bonds of gravity and flew straight up.
They flew more than 10 meters in no time.
The facility was built like a wind tunnel for testing the air resistance of cars or airplanes, except it was built vertically. It was actually a giant indoor skydiving facility that allowed them to film actors in midair scenes before adding in the high-quality VFX. To make the best use of the limited space on the ship, the single space could be divided up into multiple small studios or one large studio.
Of course, all of this also applied to the Molotov cocktail as it tried to fall to the floor.
As long as the small liquor bottle did not hit the ground and break, the Artificial Sacred Ground would not be established.
"Kh!!"
"You seem like the silent type, but shouldn't you be more surprised than that?"
Luckily, the party above had already ended and the tables and dishes had been removed.
With indoor skydiving that used a powerful blast of wind from below, controlling air resistance was everything. You could ascend by spreading out your body to catch the wind and you could descend by folding up your body to reduce the resistance. By changing how you positioned your right and left arms and legs, you could intentionally put yourself in a tornado-like spin.
The lack of footholds was irrelevant.
While rapidly rotating, Kyousuke swung his Blood-Sign toward the side of the female prison guard's head.
The summoner was still not used to this situation and had that weak point defenselessly exposed, but then a metal ball larger than a human head got in the way. Only after it deflected his attack did he realize what had happened. The girl in a striped prisoner's uniform was flipped upside down and spinning like she was using capoeira. That had sent her ball and chain into Kyousuke's Blood-Sign. Even after her defensive maneuver was complete, the girl with purple-dyed hair did not stop spinning. She was trying to break the palm-sized liquor bottle as it flew through the air.
"Oh, no you don't!!"
Olivia then dropped down like a shooting star. Sinceria had said the girl was taking a program for figure skaters, so she may have had excellent balance and known how to spin quickly. And her small hands held a blunt weapon as effective as the metal ball. She was using the thick chain to swing down the bag-sized padlock she normally wore over her shoulder.
"Kh."
The prisoner uniform girl avoided a direct hit by deflecting it with the metal ball, but she could not fully negate the shock to her body.
While Kyousuke caught Olivia in midair, the other vessel had no such safety. The momentum of the deflection remained with her and she slammed back-first into a nearby wall.
It was a stereotypical failure with indoor skydiving and it could even mean a broken bone.
"Fan!?"
The female prison guard shouted what seemed to be a name, but the striped prisoner girl did not respond. She must have passed out because she stared straight up with dead eyes with her limbs sprawled out around her.
And there was only one fate for a summoner who had lost their vessel.
Kyousuke grabbed the small liquor bottle with a yellow journalism paper stuck inside.
"You can have this back."
"Kh!?"
The enemy did not have time to prepare herself.
A corner of the palm-sized bottle was swung down toward the female prison guard's head and she was knocked out with the sound of shattering glass.
With a bluish-white flame that lacked any heat at all, the Artificial Sacred Ground belatedly appeared, so Kyousuke and Olivia ignored the intense wind and were sucked to the closest wall. Each level of the studio apparently had a monitoring room. Kyousuke carried the summoner in one arm and let Olivia carry the vessel as he fired a Repliglass pellet toward the reinforced glass that was now below their feet. That hit the lever and stopped the wind.
"This will only last 90 seconds. Let's retrieve those two and then escape from the studio."
He broke through the reinforced glass with his Blood-Sign and jumped into the monitoring room. Then the Chain state ended and the Artificial Sacred Ground vanished. If they had remained in the studio, they would have fallen several dozen meters.
They were in the top level monitoring room, so they had luckily escaped the lowest level.
"Now we need to get to the submarine hidden below this ship, right?"
"Right. Once we collect the things we left in the leisure room, let's head back to the submersible."
Kyousuke confirmed Olivia's understanding of the situation.
"That's when the fun really begins."
The intercom rang.
Each day, Aika the shut-in girl had visitors besides Shiroyama Kyousuke or Lu Niang Lan. During the afternoon, she would receive a delivery from an online store. During the morning, a caretaker would arrive to look after the 5m white liger.
Aika's luxury apartment kept enough frozen meat in stock to last the wild animal three days, but she still needed to resupply constantly.
Thanks to that, she could keep track of the passage of time quite well for a shut-in.
Despite being an apartment, there was a delivery entrance separate from the main entrance and a young woman in a work jumpsuit used that to push in a large hand truck like she was delivering the lactic acid product famous enough to support professional baseball teams.
"Good morning, Award 870."
"...Nn..."
"This is today's lot. I will carry away the waste boxes as usual."
Yes, the white liger ate several dozen kilograms of meat each day and all that food meant she also needed to use the bathroom.
The jumpsuit woman casually looked over the ferocious beast like it was an afterthought.
"No eye discharge or bloodshot eyes, teeth and gums look fine, base of the ears are fine, claws are fine, fur and oils are fine....Okay, everything checks out. She is still the picture of good health."
"...I'm keeping an eye on her too, so you don't have to worry..."
"Hee hee. You've gotten a lot better at brushing her teeth, Award 870. She is scheduled for some professional oral care to remove the tartar three days from now. The usual on-site checkup is scheduled for 2 months from now, but please contact us if anything is worrying you. We can provide stress care with aroma and temperature therapy or provide a full-body massage using shiatsu and low frequency vibration."
The white liger may have been receiving better care than your average businessman. It apparently took a lot for a wild animal to live in the city. Fighting over rare services like reservations at fancy restaurants or the best seats at concerts was what the common folk did. True celebrities like Aika-chan would carve out a new life cycle wherever they saw the need.
After watching the jumpsuit woman leave, Aika pulled a club-like hunk of raw meat out of the 2m cubic container that had the same structure as a refrigerator. It was important to note that one side of the container had been replaced with a thick scratching board. In other words, this would only last one day at best.
"...Here you go, liger. Your lovely meat-on-the-bone has arrived..."
The wild animal had been curled up on the floor like a small sofa, but now she slowly got up. Unlike a poorly-trained dog, she did not immediately jump at the food.
The meat was still cold from the refrigerated container, so eating it now would make her sick. Aika piled several raw meat clubs on a party-sized platter and warmed them a bit in an extra-large oven separate from the one used for human food. In the meantime, the striped bikini girl poured some animal-safe milk into a baby bottle and pressed it against the white liger's mouth to distract her....Of course, that baby bottle was larger than a 2 liter bottle.
In the world of classy wild animals(?), there were apparently a lot that would demand meat from animals of their natural habitat, like gazelles or gnus, but the white liger that lived with Aika was a crossbreed of a white tiger and a lion, so she was an extraordinary carnivore that could not be found in nature. Aika did not worry about that too much and had chosen lean Australian beef after monitoring her partner's responses to different meats. The white liger seemed to like that better than the fatty marbled kind.
The oven timer's bell sounded and the white liger's shoulders jumped. Her curious eyes darted back and forth between Aika's face and the oven door. She may have been imprinted with a Pavlovian link between the timer sound and food. Aika removed the heated meat-on-the-bone from the oven and walked with the liger to the giant dining room.
The animal did not eat the food yet.
The white liger used all her strength to restrain herself until she was given permission.
Aika slowly lowered the large plate to the floor and then took three steps back.
"...Okay, eat up, liger..."
The liger took a leap and then produced a veritable explosion of chewing sounds. Those hunks of meat were thick enough to stop a small handgun bullet, but she crunched through the bone along with the meat. Even if the liger meant no harm, Aika would have been knocked away if she had carelessly approached.
Aika meanwhile took a jelly drink from the fridge.
She used the small butt inside her bikini bottom to push the fridge door shut and then used both hands to turn the plastic cap.
The striped bikini girl could not cook her own food, so her diet was best summed up as "luxurious but tragic". Even when Lu Niang Lan made something for her, the recipe was generally designed for someone who exercised regularly, so it did not always give the shut-in girl a balanced diet. For that reason, she had gained a habit of using one meal a day to make up for the part of her diet she had missed out on. It was the same idea as giving the liger her vitamins and minerals through extra-large toy bones.
"Ahm."
(They're saying now is the time to eat more protein, but that doesn't really apply to me since I don't get any exercise other than rolling around on the yoga mat while watching the guide video. )
Aika sat directly on the table instead of in a chair, placed the top of the jelly drink in her mouth, and picked up a notebook-sized tablet from a stand on the table. She lived in a large apartment, so it would be a pain to have to walk to a specific location whenever she wanted to use the computer. Instead, she had computers and mobile devices all over the place and synced together so she could see the same data no matter which one she was using. She really was a wealthy shut-in.
The tablet's screen displayed some plain text.
Kyousuke had told her she was free to be a shut-in if she wanted, but that was not an excuse for failing to keep up with her studies. She somewhat agreed with that, so one box in her schedule was labeled "study" even though every day was summer break for her.
No matter what gap your life had fallen into, no one liked being called dumb.
A general world map was drawn on the tablet screen and red dots appeared on that. They covered the entire world, regardless of country or region.
And the question was as follows:
"As part of a philanthropic policy, a large civilian corporation provides economic assistance in order to revive cities around the world that have declined due to financial bankruptcy, declining population, environmental troubles, or rising crime rates. What is the name of the corporation that is leading this policy? Hint: The international revived cities are given the corporation's name!"
After a moment of silence, Aika removed her finger from the tablet's screen.
She also removed the jelly drink from her mouth and breathed a quiet sigh. She only had to look at the name of Toy Dream 35 to know the answer. That giant corporation that provided dreams to children the world over was a source of great trauma for this girl, but the name returned to her no matter how much she tried to avoid it. That was now ubiquitous it was.
"...Toy Dream..."
Her trembling fingertips typed in the necessary answer and then she closed the text app.
She returned the tablet to the table stand and finally reached for a different electronic device.
It was a character smartphone that Toy Dream had created by buying up a service provider and social media company.
...And this one was based on a heroine that should not exist, so it was probably the only one that still existed.
The phone used an app that was like a cross between an email and a chat service. It was known as Assort Message and it allowed you to attach one illustration or icon of a Toy Dream character to each message. The address book linked to that app had only a single group and a few different addresses registered within.
For a reason other than high-level security, the majority of the 7 billion people in the world would not even know this one address existed.
It was an email link for the members of a certain family that was envied by all.
It was a direct hotline that let one contact the personal mobile phone of the extremely busy president of Toy Dream without even going through a secretary.
Kyousuke and Olivia were making an external attack on the mobile base created from a cruise ship in an attempt to track down the truth of the Silver Resource War.
But there was another way.
Someone deep on the inside could make a direct attack on the president.
"..."
Aika toyed with the address book for a while and then heard a low growl.
Her partner, the white liger, poked her head above the table. The animal did not even need to climb up. With a 5m body, her head stuck above while sitting on the floor.
The white liger placed her chin on the tabletop and looked up at Aika where she sat on the table. The striped swimsuit girl giggled and placed her hand on the wild animal's head.
"Do you want seconds, liger? There's no helping you, is there?"
Aika lifted up her small butt and hopped down from the table, but she still held the character smartphone in her hand.
(It might be time I faced this war too. )
While walking to the refrigerated container that contained additional meat, the striped bikini girl placed her index finger on one part of the screen.
She gently touched one address.
She was a girl who had vanished from the human race's memories.
She was the granddaughter of a certain family. And Aika Toydream quietly took action once more.
Facts:
*Sinceria Highland has redone her contract more than anyone else in history. As a result, parts of her physical body have changed just like with Isabelle. But there is no sign of Sinceria's soul breaking or personality changing. The exact conditions for these things are unknown.
*It was revealed that footage of Kingdom F's civil war was used to produce the Blue Film that is meant to get the go ahead for the Silver Resource War. That is why Kingdom F's queen and knight chose to interfere in the incident.
*Award 999, War Criminal, the top of Illegal, was mentioned in connection to the defense of the Missing Princess.
*The System Atlantis VFX production mainframe was not located on the Missing Princess.
*Kyousuke grabbed and broke his enemy's Incense Grenade, but that counted as a belated detonation after being thrown by Eisen Rosen. An Incense Grenade's mixture pattern is designed to match a specific summoner, so using someone else's will not create an Artificial Sacred Ground.
| ← Ch. 090 | Ch. 092 → |