Let's get to the main point!
Perfect timing. I'd just remembered the identities of those personality cards I'd gotten without paying any price.
Pretty sure they were called the Zwei Hander Office.
From the circumstances, they seemed to be Ms. Olga's people from quite a while back, not the present.
Anyway, [Night of Walpurgis]...?
I have no clue at all. You'd need to have even heard a term like that before for it to ring a bell.
"Mm, based on those personality cards the Manager obtained without paying the price of madness, one could explain Mephistopheles' extraction function as having an unpredictable characteristic due to uncertainty."
"What are you even talking about..."
"That which you designed is subject to uncertainty..."
"Correct. This engine advances on [Enkephalin] as fuel, but in its extraction and reconstruction functions, it uses chaos... or, to put it simply, a kind of possibility as fuel. The extraction range, which as of now remains within a margin of error of three years into the past and future, will expand to a range of ten years, perhaps even more, when [Night of Walpurgis] arrives."
Ah~. So that's basically what it means.
In theory, it just means personalities from a wider range than before can appear, right?
Still, ten years or more? Feels like it starts somewhere around the Smoke War. Lobotomy Corporation also rose to a Wing after that war.
"T-Then! Could even the personality of a Fixer who made a tremendous name for themselves in the past...!"
"In theory, yes. But [Night of Walpurgis] has an independence unique to that time, so it likely won't be able to extract every possibility without limit."
"G-g-g-g-g! T-then. The legendary strongest Fixer of the past... the, the [Red Gaze] too...?"
"...The possibility is very low, but I won't deny it outright. The range would be worlds that were inevitably intertwined for this world to exist... for example, the time period before Lobotomy Corporation's headquarters, before 'White Nights and Dark Days,' would be a representative case. In a sense, that was a very pointed question, Don Quixote."
...Wasn't the [Red Gaze] definitely related to Lobotomy Corporation?
Ah... or maybe not? My memory's fuzzy. That's the kind of memory I'm not supposed to recall anyway.
And White Nights and Dark Days too... I only know the broad strokes.
Am I more useless than I thought?
I really don't know much of anything. During White Nights and Dark Days, I got swept up in a major incident before long, and most of the information from roughly ten-odd years ago to a few years ago is locked away.
Ugh...
Just as I was about to seriously start worrying about my own competence, Mr. Vergilius tapped the papers and brought the situation into order.
"To summarize, this alert does not indicate any urgent situation."
"That is correct. You could call it a festival that comes around from time to time... for now."
"A festival. Exciting. Charon is excited too."
So that means... we're still waiting? I expected as much, but it doesn't seem to be the signal we were waiting for.
"I don't understand everything, but... this isn't the signal we were waiting for?"
"Correct. The wait remains as it is."
"Tch."
When Mr. Vergilius answered, sighs of exhaustion rose from all over the bus.
Well, of course. We'd been spending nearly two weeks in boredom on this desolate open sea with nothing to stimulate us.
"Then... when does that noisy green light turn off?"
"It will turn off automatically once extraction is performed from the engine. Rest assured."
"All right, everyone disperse at a reasonable pace. Manager, you should hurry and perform the extraction so that alarm will shut off."
Hah, so that's the end of this event too...?
Not much happened after all.
"Even if something new shows up, they'll just go poking around the back door anyway."
"Still~ when else would we get to lounge around like this?"
"Blessings come to those who wait."
The prisoners, each voicing their own thoughts to Dante, headed off to their respective places.
Some to their rooms, some staying in their seats, some to the signboard where the increasingly boring lake was featured.
As everyone was leaving... Ms. Otis approached Dante.
...Should I eavesdrop for a second?
"Manager. Doesn't this concern you?"
""
"That eccentric scientist said 'for now'... which means there's more to it. I could investigate further."
""
"...Understood."
After bowing politely, Ms. Otis returned to her seat.
Well, nothing much after all. The [Night of Walpurgis] stuff too... I'm sure it'll be revealed naturally when the time comes.
"......"
That's it? That was all?
The alarm blaring overhead would soon stop now that Dante had gone to perform the extraction, and then everything to do with [Night of Walpurgis] would disappear too.
...Maybe I should just go to sleep. There doesn't seem to be any point in staying out here anymore.
By the feel of it, it was probably about time for the next mission to begin too... and the scattered problems would likely start showing signs of resolution after a bit more time.
Then I'll go sleep.
I don't particularly welcome the infirmary, where just being aware of the silence feels like it might drive me mad...
But when all I'm doing is sleeping without thinking, there's no better place.
*
"Hkgh..."
Before dawn, headache, wake up.
...A pattern I've long since gotten used to.
As always, I look for the mirror placed in one corner of my room.
The room is dark, with no lights on, but for some reason I felt like looking ahead wouldn't be much of a problem.
And then, as I held the mirror, I gazed into the vast abyss within my eyes.
A world of infinite possibilities reflected infinitely inside it.
That feeling that if I looked too closely, something would break.
In front of that mirror...
Bang, I slammed my head straight into the table.
It was an action I couldn't understand myself, but for some reason my body had taken it on instinct.
Immediately after, as some of my reason returned, I realized my body was drenched in cold sweat.
Again... again.
...Why is it always me? Should I ask Ms. Faust for a detailed explanation about this thing called synchronization? Or ask Mr. Yi Sang for help? Or maybe Mr. Hong Lu, who gives off something vaguely similar?
...No, no.
First, I should wash up and think.
Objectively speaking, I need time to sort out my muddled head.
It feels like something, something I can't grasp at once, just happened...
Wait, hold on. Just a little time... other thoughts later.
Let me catch my breath first.
......
Right after showering.
Only after I finished sorting my thoughts and sat on the bed, slowly combing through my mind, could I begin to guess what had happened to me.
...First.
The blurry memories from the distant past had become a little, just a little, clearer.
And second.
The overall performance of my eyes seemed to have improved a bit.
Range, distance, depth, all of it.
Lastly, third.
I opened the drawer beside the bed.
Inside it was... a pair of scissors.
"......"
I closed the drawer containing those scissors, familiar to an almost alien degree, once more.
Of course, closing it wouldn't change anything... but a brief escape should be fine, shouldn't it?
...Because for now, I didn't feel I was mentally prepared for it myself.
Those scissors I had once used sank back into the depths of my psyche.
Of course, when the time comes, I'll be able to take them out whenever I want.
Though I'd rather that not be now.
Ah, then does that mean I'll start getting E.G.O related to other Abnormalities from extraction now too?
...I should discuss that with Dante.
Wasn't it about time for the regular counseling Dante conducts to be my turn? Probably if I bring it up then, there won't be any major problem.
Good. Then for now, problem solved.
The time... 5 a.m. I could go back to sleep, but after washing up, that feels a bit pointless.
I should go out first and give them a heads-up.
- Clunk.
Only after finishing my long train of thought did I leave the room...
And outside, there was no one.
...Ah, come to think of it, we don't even stand night watch here anymore.
Well, the reason for night watch was to account for intruders and the like, so I suppose that's only natural.
What kind of lunatic would sneak onto a ship in the middle of the Great Lake's shoreline?
Hmm... but going back into the room feels a bit awkward.
Since I'm up early anyway, maybe I should just get some sea breeze.
When I stare blankly out from the deck, unnecessary worries tend not to come to mind.
There's probably no better way to kill time without thinking.
And then, after a day, two days, maybe a week passed like that.
While the prisoners were dozing in the cabins without any intention of going back to their rooms.
Suddenly, I had the thought that the peaceful time steadily winding down would soon come to an end.
In a way, maybe I'd read the flow without even realizing it.
One thing was certain: it wasn't just intuition.
Right after that, Ms. Faust suddenly stood up from her seat.
"......"
She passed the prisoners sleeping however they pleased and headed toward the bus's controls.
"Ms. Faust."
"Yes, the signal has come."
And with Mr. Vergilius's words, we finally heard the answer we had been waiting for for so long.
Hah. At last.
Now we can actually do something.
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