episode_0093

Now that I’ve been staying here for a month,

I found out about a place that not many people pass by.

For example, this secluded park where I am sitting is like that.

The streets are noisy due to the summer harvest festival. A place where only my senior and I are sitting, ignoring the sound of laughter coming from afar.

The sword spirit looked like a pink-haired three-legged child and muttered.

“Wow—♪”

…

It was a surprise babble without any meaning.

But I could understand that feeling.

No matter how much you are a remnant of the legendary [Saint], even if you are an office worker who commutes… There are times when I feel like babbling unexpectedly.

‘I guess I just felt like doing it… ‘

The manager in my previous life also occasionally smoked a cigarette alone and I heard him babbling. I also used to babble unexpectedly when I worked overtime alone.

Modern people in the 21st century could not live without babbling.

‘A person who does not babble throughout life can be said to be a transcendent person with superhuman patience… No, you could almost say they are aliens.’

Even if Guan Yu, the hero of the Three Kingdoms, were to live, he would be alone, stroking his beard and cooing.

I nodded and filled my cup with black tea.

Squeak—

Amber liquid drips into a white porcelain teacup.

“… ”

Green grass, colorful summer flowers… It was perfect for sharing a cup of tea and talking about deep things in our hearts.

Pour two cups of black tea,

I take out the business carefully.

“Senior—☆ Can you tell me everything about what happened 1,500 years ago?♪ Can you give me a spoiler—☆ I want to understand that guy’s psychology faster than anyone else and make a cider pass—☆”

The relationship between me and ‘that guy’ could be said to be that of a test taker and a player of a defense game.

Unless you know everything about each other… You can never hit first on the defensive side.

The identity of the test taker.

There is a very high probability that ‘Prophet Kang Jin-su’ may be the same person as ‘past me’.

Considering Grafvolud and Ofnir’s remarks, his level of knowledge is based on the ‘unchanged original’. And there is a possibility that the other person will think that he has passed over ‘as a man’ like himself.

This difference in perception has become the basis for the winning streak so far.

Hehe, I have to spoil the original knowledge in advance! > Changed.

If another guy shows up, he’ll be a ‘transfer’ like me, right? > No.

‘Up until now, I’ve unintentionally made some good saves due to this difference… ‘

Since it has now been caught twice, the information may have been slowly updated.

Perhaps you may be considering the possibility of ‘possession’. If not, he might be babbling…

“… ”

no…

Now was not the time for bullshit.

I remembered Arbit’s gaunt face and took heart again.

‘Maybe if it was me… ‘

Let’s assume that the questionable original knowledge curveball was hit twice. Once I empathized, it was surprisingly easy.

‘The circuit will work like this, right?’

1. First, start collecting information from the moment you recognize the change.

2. They hesitate while trying to raid .

3. “If you get hit in the eye this time, won’t it hurt?”

4. Trace the order of changes from the original.

5. Investigate Clara, Hilde, Freya, and Eir in that order.

…

The problem started here.

‘If you know what abilities that guy has and what purpose he moves for, you can make the first move here.’

Hanamam ‘Kang Jin-su’ prefers to attack areas in which he is confident. They are so timid that they pretend to be bold on the inside but run away from areas they are not confident in.

“… ”

I could guess up to that point.

but…

“… ”

But now I couldn’t know anything more about him.

There was no record mentioning the existence of a ‘prophet’. At least the hints given by the [Golden Witch] and the [Sacrificial Virgin] were helpful.

‘Worst case… They’re going to hide and go into a meta.’

The distortion of the world tree due to the [Dragon Crouching in the Abyss] is becoming increasingly severe. If you were to leave everything there and passively hope for the world to end, there really was no way.

‘Then you lose the initiative in the narrative… Academy City, this world, everything, the problem is that it’s all blown away.’

However, Ha Namam ‘Kang Jin-su’ is faithful to himself. He was definitely not the kind of guy who would let everything go to ruin for no reason.

“… ”

anyway…

So I decided to ask my senior directly.

“Senior! Tell us about your past—☆”

“Dda, wudya—☆”

-I don’t know, I don’t know—☆

“… ”

Holy shit.

This was Pingchang’s passive.

If you think about it, Urd also suffered from quite a bit of memory confusion. I thought it was probably some kind of penalty you get after something big happens.

… Or not.

“… Phew—☆”

I also wanted to give it a try.

“… ”

I soothed my burning stomach with a cup of black tea. In the distance, I could feel the presence of guests from walking towards the stream.

Two tall girls walk leisurely carrying snacks.

Looking at that image, my junior here comes to mind.

‘I think Kara has finally finished repairing the pseudo-ghosts… ‘

In the end, I left my black tea and broke up with my senior and went to Kara.

“… ”

-It’s okay if things don’t turn out the way you want~ Paintings rarely turn out the way you want them to… !

Senior Frida’s words passed through my head.

“… ”

‘For now’, who remembers what she said… Also, the fact that I am the only one.

*

Two tall girls from who had come to visit the summer harvest festival were chatting by the stream. There was a lot of snacks in his arms.

Among them, a particularly large plate.

The sherbet served on a wooden plate was topped with lots of raspberries and fresh fruit. The opportunities to munch on non-frozen fruit in Academy City were few and far between, and they were quickly disappearing.

When I feel sad about snacks disappearing,

Bring up a new topic and make the story bloom.

The friend sitting next to the girl with horn-rimmed glasses started talking again.

“Hey, have you heard that rumor?”

“What… Rumors?”

“Our first grade. Since one person transferred to at the beginning of the semester, the number of first-year students reached 500, so 10 students were assigned to each class, right?”

“Yes. Even my seniors said it was amazing that the number of people was just right.”

In response to the horn-rimmed answer, my friend continues talking.

“So, do you remember how we always joked among ourselves that we were one of the 500 elite Gongsuni?”

“Yes. Even when the demons invaded, we said to ourselves, ‘Because we are 500 elite soldiers, one hundred per man—it’s okay even if 50,000 people invade.’ You laughed when I said that.”

A girl with horn-rimmed glasses nods while holding a spoon in her mouth. As she felt the bittersweet taste remaining on the tip of her tongue, she thought about what her friend had suddenly said.

500 first year students.

After one first-year student who was particularly disruptive at the beginning of the semester left for , the remaining freshmen at were evaluated as having good unity.

‘As the second year seniors held a lot of club events such as parties and festivals, we naturally became close friends… ‘

Thanks to their unity, they were active even in the turbulent times caused by the Eastern Alliance’s raids. They moved in a smooth manner following the instructions given by senior Maya of the Facilities Engineering Department, who had already returned from outside.

So, the current first-year students at had a very close relationship with each other. So much so that they travel such long distances as a group.

‘Only 50 first-year students could come, so there was a battle for invitations… ‘

Because they won the rock-paper-scissors contest 10:1,

I was eating a snack full of fresh fruit here.

‘But why are you bringing this up all of a sudden?’

Around this time, the girl with horn-rimmed glasses was thinking about their situation. The story continues as my friend ate another spoonful of sherbet next to me.

“But during the summer vacation, when the administration conducted another survey, they said that strangely, there was only one class with only 9 students. So I counted the number of people again, and there were a total of 499 first-year students.”

“… ”

“Isn’t it strange? I did 500, 500 all semester like that… Actually, there are 499 people?”

“… ”

“He said that a senior from the administrative department personally went and asked the children in the class, which had only nine students… ‘Has anyone in your class left school?’… Say.”

“But?”

“Then all nine people said, ‘No one among us left? ‘We all like it here,’ I answered.”

“… ”

The nine girls were close-knit.

Six months of being friends in the same dormitory.

They came to think of each other as sisters.

It was definitely not a situation where one person was left alone or ostracized.

“As evidence, they showed photos and records they had taken… ”

A happy school life for nine girls. In the record containing that appearance… There was one empty seat that no one could remember.

Next to them were rolling papers that they had left for each other. There were 10 pieces in total.

The senior administration official took it out and read it with trembling hands.

One piece…

One piece…

Finally reached the 10th and last page.

There was a message written one line at a time in the handwriting of nine people.

-Congratulations on the success of your research! I never thought I would miraculously get an idea while running an event… !

-□□, you had a hard time staying up all night! Can we play together now?

-Who is the most ace among us? > Of course □□!

-□□ will definitely do well outside… It’s really a technological innovation…

-A strong candidate for the next head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering (selected by me) □□.

-□□Hey, when you sleep, cover yourself with a blanket… Then I got sick.

-□□! Do you plan to stay in the studio in the second semester as well?

-Hey, □□. I’ll give up the top spot in my class.

-↑What are you saying… □□ If not, I would have failed the practical test.

Messages where the other person’s name disappears unnaturally.

And at the bottom of the paper was written:

-Mechanical Engineering Department 1st year class 11—Recording our ‘friendship of ten people’.

They were caught by a sense of discomfort and were embarrassed.

Why… Did you finally realize that there was an empty seat?

“… When everyone there suddenly looked to one side of the studio. They say there was a strange engine that someone left behind. As if it had been there from the beginning… Everyone didn’t know it existed.”

“… ”

“No matter how much you think about it… He said he couldn’t remember who made it, so he just decided to think there were nine people from the beginning.”

“… I see that… What happened to that engine?”

To my question, my friend tilted his head and answered.

“Well, I don’t know the details either. A bit different from the existing ether engine… What oil? Because it’s an unfamiliar form that moves in the same way… It is said that seniors collected it for safety reasons.”

“… I see.”

“… Yes.”

It was definitely a story that started out as an interesting story, but

For some reason, I got goosebumps and kept my mouth shut.

The friend did not bother to tell Hornte about the rumors that spread after the incident. I didn’t want to hear any more scary stories from my friend.

Therefore, the two girls were silent.

“… ”

“… ”

Ssaaaa—

The cold wind from the stream blew between the two silent girls. I felt like I was getting goosebumps on my arms.

“… ”

“… ”

In an attempt to shake off the awkward atmosphere, the two girls brought up a new topic again in a cheerful tone.

“Horns, horns! Now that I think about it!”

“Uh, yeah… !”

The content of the rumor that the two girls did not mention was as follows.

‘If you go against [fate], instead of being kicked out of Academy City, you may actually disappear all of a sudden.’

This happy city…

Maybe it’s a fragile illusion.

That was the rumor.