After a while, the noisy atmosphere settled down, and the prisoners' gazes turned to the pilot.
Now for the main point. It was time to stop the jokes and chatter and move the story along.
A quiet, heavy mood settled over the scene.
And then...
"Ugh... with so many people watching, I'm nervous..."
A light complaint drifted out.
Hmm. This might be the kind of thing that would make someone feel stifled.
"Spit it out. Now. Or else."
Yes, that frightening woman.
The prisoners, who had spent enough time with her to roughly understand her speech, gave a small shiver at the murderous intent bleeding through her words... but
the pilot, who could not, looked at her with a puzzled expression and asked back, "...? Huh?"
"...She says to hurry up and say it..."
"If you don't... she'll smash your head in..."
"Eek... th-thank you for telling me... I... feel so much better now... Because just then, you really sounded like the head of LCCB."
"Looks like you were treated pretty harshly..."
"Heh..."
LCCB department head, huh... sounds like a pretty strict person. Well, not information I need right now.
What mattered more was the full account of what happened, delivered through his mouth afterward.
After several hours of delay from the original schedule... only after a considerable deviation did we finally begin receiving the real information.
"So... it took us quite a long time to find the exact location of the Lobotomy Corporation branch with the Golden Bough... My squad and I were fairly thorough people, but... in the end, we got caught by those Double-Hook Pirate Crew bastards who were in charge of U Corp's Backstreets!"
Then he began recounting what had happened in the past, even acting it out as he spoke.
" 'So I'm telling you, this is really cheap at this price!' "
" 'What?! No matter how you look at it, that makes no sense! How can whale oil whose origin isn't even certain be this expensive!' "
Uh, uh... huh?
"Wait...! You guys were openly provoking them?"
"No, those bastards were trying to scam us right to our faces!"
"No... for the cost of extracting information, isn't that kind of trivial..."
Under Ms. Rodion and Mr. Gregor's successive questioning, the pilot panicked and changed the subject.
...Was he more incompetent than I expected?
"Anyway, after our before-team's thorough search, we managed to find the location of the Lobotomy Corporation branch over the Great Lake where the Golden Bough was."
"Was the Golden Bough safe and sound?"
"Yes, we even saw that famous... light that's dazzling, but not too dazzling. Seeing it in person, I think I understood what that meant. Deep within the Lobotomy Corporation branch, the Golden Bough's light was shining so brilliantly. After finishing observation and opening a route, we were going to write up the report and head back."
So if they didn't make it back safely, that meant something else happened afterward.
Just as I was trying to listen for what sounded like the real heart of the story, the pilot, as if he had forgotten some explanation, began rattling off another tale.
"Ah! Our before-team's job is a preliminary investigation to confirm whether the Golden Bough is really there. During that process, we might have to fight the remaining Abnormalities in the branch, and apparently quite a few teams have been wiped out."
"W-well, we kind of know that already, so could you tell us what happened next?"
"Ah, sorry. So... just as we judged that our successful confirmation of the Golden Bough meant the operation was complete, and we were about to return..."
"That's when those pirates got the drop on you..."
"The team leader on site said that during operations, hostile forces often ambush you like that. But..."
...This still felt a little short. If, as Mr. Gregor said, they'd only been caught by the pirates, there wouldn't have been a total wipeout.
I sensed that the next part would be the core of this past incident.
" 'I don't really care what you're doing in this creepy place... but this person was so curious, I ended up coming along. That okay?' "
That was the line, spoken in what seemed to be Sumi's voice. The moment it ended, fear surfaced on the pilot's face for the first time.
"At that moment, I heard the sound of the weapon slipping from the team leader's hand... Our team leader was someone with a truly high reputation in the field... Even though he was a strong-willed man who never knew how to give up... when I looked at his face, that expression was... despair."
"And he left a line behind, yes?"
"... 'This operation has failed.' That's what he said."
Failed... failed, huh...
At his deliberately suspenseful tone, Ms. Rodion cautiously asked a question.
"Who on earth did you see to make him react like that?"
" 'There shouldn't be a Middle executive here.' That's what he said."
"Hmm."
"...!"
...Ms. Ryoshu? Considering her usual ups and downs, that was quite a reaction. Does she have some connection to the Middle?
Ms. Rodion, who was currently describing the Middle's characteristics in front of me, did have some connection to the Middle, though.
"Was there... some heavily scrawled tattoo? And did it glow purple?"
"H-how did you know? The first thing that caught my eye was that... strange pattern... the tattoo glowing purple. But... but I still thought there might be a chance... Our Section 3 has good results, and there are a lot of amazing people..."
"As if."
Ms. Ryoshu cut off the pilot's naive words in one stroke.
Hmm... so that was the source of the bad feeling.
If, on the road ahead, we ran into a Middle executive... probably at least a younger brother or an elder sister... then
unless we got lucky, it would be a total wipeout. We were infinitely stronger than we had been on our first mission, but even accounting for that, it would still be far too little.
If Mr. Vergilius joined us, there'd be no problem, but he would only act when Dante was on the verge of death.
If I imagined the worst case, where we were far apart from one another... maybe the entire journey so far could collapse in one blow.
Well, that would truly be the worst of the worst. There was no way that would happen.
"...After that, my memory gets blurry... When I came to, my cheek was stuck to the floor... At first I thought I couldn't hear anything... If a bomb goes off nearby, your ears ring, right? I thought my eardrum had burst. ...But I quickly realized that what I was hearing was the nonstop mix of my teammates' screams and cries."
"Ugh..."
"Once I could tell them apart, I realized there was also some kind of... resonance beneath those sounds. A bizarre resonance, as if it was echoing from far away within the branch..."
"...Bizarre resonance?"
Bizarre resonance.
At those words, Ms. Ishmael's breathing gradually... gradually quickened.
The Middle was Ryoshu's concern; was that resonance connected to Ishmael?
"Yes, it sounded like an explosion. Ah, but I don't think I was the only one who could distinguish it. Even those pirates... suddenly grew uneasy, as if something was wrong. Even the one they called the Middle's younger brother seemed flustered."
"...Younger brother? You're sure you heard that right? So what the pirate first mate said earlier wasn't just bragging after all."
"Yes, I'm certain that's what he said. Younger brother."
"K... khh... ha! I'm curious whether those faces are still the same."
Wow, the two people who seemed connected to the Middle were both reacting in tandem.
More importantly, the part about the resonance that came next seemed important.
" 'We're only taking the ones worth money and getting out. That's one of the Five Calamities. We have to leave before we reach it if we want to live.' "
...Five Calamities?
"One... more thing I remember... is the team leader. Just before I lost consciousness... the team leader... pinned his employee ID card to my chest... while the pirates weren't looking... At the time, I didn't understand it. But now that I think about it... he was trying to raise the value of my body as the youngest member... to somehow increase my chances of surviving if I was found..."
As the pilot continued speaking, tears welled in his eyes.
...It must have been hard. Even more so for someone who seemed so fragile.
"So to summarize... all the LCCB members were either injured or unconscious..."
"A Middle that wasn't part of the plan got involved... and on top of that, some unknown thing that even those guys were scared of showed up..."
"And in the process, the pilot, who happened to be found by chance, was captured by the pirate crew and brought here... right?"
Mr. Gregor, Mr. Heathcliff, and finally I neatly summarized what had happened when the pilot entered the Lobotomy Corporation U Corp branch.
"Pilot, could you give us the branch coordinates?"
"Y-yes, of course."
The pilot handed Ms. Faust a heavily crumpled piece of paper.
"I wrote everything down carefully. I hid it away so they wouldn't find it, but I'm really glad I can give it to you like this."
"......"
As Ms. Faust took the paper and the story neared its end.
Ms. Ishmael cut into the conversation.
"Wait. About that 'calamity.' Did it have any other features?"
"...White..."
Ah, seriously, no way.
"It was definitely white... but all I remember is that it had this huge, pale presence, something like white and not white at the same time... And that... trembling sound... I'm sure I've heard it somewhere before... Ah! That U Corp Singularity, right? It sounded similar to the noise made when the spring clamps are joined together."
"...Right... we're almost there..."
Damn, so that was it. The source of the bad feeling wasn't a Middle executive after all.
Or was it both? Then that would be... no. Thinking about it now, it didn't matter.
"I'll go too! I might even be able to help guide you through the branch!"
"An operation alongside LCCB was already scheduled. Dante, what will you do?"
<......>
Dante fell into thought for a moment after hearing the pilot's proposal. Probably... he was thinking about the many people who had traveled with us so far.
Surely, if the pilot joined us, he'd be helpful in some way.
Like the many companions before him, he must have had his own abilities.
Still... like those others, it wasn't exactly unlikely that the pilot would meet a bad end too.
Then perhaps it was also inevitable that Dante would refuse.
"...Agreed."
"We're the ones who saved your life, punk! Hurry up and be grateful."
"Uh... th-thank you...?"
He really does it when told to. What a straightforward fellow.
"Pilot, please wait until the LCCA team arrives, then return to headquarters and file your report."
"Ah... so that means you've decided not to have me come along... As expected, just like I heard, all you can hear is the ticking of a clock..."
"Our generous Manager personally said he was grateful for your feelings. Make sure you remember that kindness when you return."
"Understood... Th-then... please take care of yourselves."
"Well, I've gotten what I came for."
As the time came to part with the pilot, Ms. Ishmael left without looking back.
"...Sigh."
"Uh... um... we've barely just met and now we're already parting ways. Please send my regards to Sword."
"...Please also tell her that I was truly grateful back then... I couldn't say something like that at the time."
"I will... definitely."
To the pilot, who was nearly in tears, Mr. Yi Sang offered a final word of comfort.
"Pilot. You endured well, at least."
"Oh... Yi Sang~ What a warm ending~"
"Someone had to say it."
"......"
Only then did the pilot burst into tears.
"Sniff... nghh... I miss my teammates... Everyone looked after me so much because I was the youngest... sob..."
"......"
"Maybe... there's a survivor from our squad still in the branch..."
"...We'll make sure to save them."
"Yes, we will. ...This time for sure."
I handed the crying man a handkerchief.
Along with clumsy comfort.
"...Don't cry too much. It wasn't your fault, Pilot."
"Yes, sniff... thank you... But..."
"And the LCCB Section 3 members would probably want you to stand up boldly and keep moving forward, rather than collapsing here and crying."
"Hngh... sob... heh, that's true. If they saw me like this, they'd probably have scolded me. Sniff... The last remaining member of the before-team's Section 3 can't afford to be weak either..."
After barely swallowing back his tears, the pilot stood up with a resolute look.
"Sob, this was a great comfort. Whether the others return or not... I'll become someone they can be proud of. Ah, the handkerchief..."
"That... later. We'll take it when we meet again. Think of it as a reminder of what happened today. You can consider it a souvenir if you like."
"...Yes! Next time, I'll come back as someone you can be proud of."
My gaze, as I patted the pilot's shoulder in comfort, naturally moved forward.
To where Ms. Ishmael had coldly walked off.
Ms. Ishmael was hiding in the container right in front of us, listening in on this whole exchange.
...Thanks to my eyes, I ended up learning something I didn't need to know. Now I can't stop thinking about it.
Why was she listening? Normally, with her personality, this was the kind of person she should have coldly brushed off and left behind.
Maybe she had once seen someone like the pilot. Or maybe she herself...
Thoughts bred more thoughts, gradually drifting farther and farther from the original information.
Still, that expansion came to an end not long after.
It was a leap. There were too many possibilities for any of it to mean anything just by thinking about it now.
But somehow... I had a feeling that the impulsive guess I'd made was not wrong.
My intuition tends to get strange things right.
If we keep going on this journey like this... maybe I'll be able to understand even the heart of Ms. Ishmael, who never shows what she's really thinking.
...I hope so.