I opened my eyes once again today in a world falling apart at the seams.

“…”

The sunlight streaming through the crack in the window was unusually blinding. No matter how tightly I shut my eyes, the radiant light source was so intensely hot that I felt I would go blind if I just stayed still.

Who on earth was the genius who decided to install the dormitory window facing east? If I ever met them, I felt like gouging their eyes out. Of course, in a world where I couldn’t even know their name, let alone whether they were alive or dead, I simply let out a sigh and pushed myself up.

“Haa…”

Would another aimless day stretch out before me as always? It was only after sighing that I remembered I had decided to go to the Academy today. Naturally, my head began to throb, and all the strength seemed to drain from my body.

Still, I couldn’t put off what I had decided to do. I immediately began fumbling around for my backpack, which should have been strewn across the floor, to prepare for going out.

But no matter how much I moved my hands, the backpack remained elusive.

“Um…?”

Feeling puzzled, I raised my head, and only then did the backpack hanging on the wall catch my eye. Come to think of it, there had been a nail hammered into that spot. Back when the Academy was still functioning normally, I used to hang it there dutifully, but lately, it had been too much of a hassle, and I had long forgotten its existence.

Only then did I turn my head to look around the room. It wasn’t just the backpack’s position that had changed. The windowsill, which had been covered in a thick layer of dust, the floor stained with food and blood, and the desk cluttered with all sorts of objects—all of it had been thoroughly cleaned.

It looked as though a hidden fairy had paid a visit. But since I wasn’t suffering from dementia, I knew this wasn’t the work of a fairy. There was only one possible candidate.

“Saya?”

“Ah, Lope.”

As I called her name, a pair of pointed ears peeked out from the direction of the bathroom. I tilted my head at the bizarre choice of positioning.

“What are you doing there?”

“I know it’s rude, but a spider was clinging to the ceiling… Wait. I’m almost done.”

“A spider? But the ceiling is high. If you can’t reach it, you don’t have to force yourself.”

“No, it’s not that I can’t reach it… Ugh!”

Boom!

“Saya?”

“Ah…”

A light explosion rang out, followed by Saya’s deflated sigh. After wrestling with something inside for quite a while, she finally emerged from the bathroom.

Saya looked astonishingly no different from yesterday. Without a single hair out of place or a speck of sleep in her eyes, she was as flawlessly neat as the day before.

If I had to find a flaw, it would be the soot smudged on her right hand. Even that, she hastily hid behind her back when I stared at it.

“There shouldn’t be any more spiders clinging up there now. A bit of soot formed on one side of the ceiling… but it’ll disappear soon, so you don’t have to worry.”

“Ah… yeah. Thanks. But what were you doing?”

“I woke up a little early. So I thought I’d do some tidying up.”

“…You cleaned the room?”

“It seemed like the room got a lot messier after I came in. So I cleaned it… but maybe I shouldn’t have? Are you angry?”

“It’s not that. It’s just…”

Trailing off, I looked around the room once more. No matter how I looked at it, it was impeccably neat. It was a given that when someone else organized a space, it always looked cleaner than if you did it yourself.

“…It’s just the first time someone else has cleaned my room.”

“It’s my first time cleaning someone else’s room, too. But I suppose that goes for everyone?”

“Yeah… I guess so. Did you do this because you were grateful to me?”

“I thought it was simply something I ought to do. It’s not like there’s much else I can do for you.”

…

Even if I tried not to, I couldn’t help but compare. I fell silent, unable to continue speaking.

“Lope?”

“Ah… sorry. Anyway, do you want to eat breakfast? Aren’t you hungry?”

“You don’t need to go out of your way for me. I think this will be fine for a while.”

Saya beamed, holding up the bread she had eaten yesterday. I tried my best to ignore the damp lip marks on one spot.

“I see. Anyway, I’m planning to head to the Academy. As I mentioned yesterday, I want you to keep an eye on this place while I’m gone.”

“To the Academy? Is something happening?”

“I’m going to see if there’s a way off the island. And… there are some people I need to meet.”

“Are they perhaps your precious people?”

“I don’t know that yet.”

I could only leave an ambiguous answer to that question. I hadn’t even decided how to use these marks yet. To put it extremely, I was even considering using them for bartering, just like the goods I had been trading all along.

How would Saya react if I used the miracle she had gifted me like that? Looking at her with worried eyes, she was still wearing a pure smile.

“I’m sure you’ll be able to find it, Lope. So you don’t have to worry too much.”

“I’m not worried about that… but thanks anyway, Saya. For saying that.”

“Hearing you say thank you makes me feel guilty.”

“Ah… haha.”

Not knowing how to react to that either, I simply offered an awkward smile. I felt that staying face-to-face with Saya any longer would only make things more awkward, so I quickly picked up my backpack.

“Then I’ll be back, Saya. Like I said yesterday, guard this place while I’m gone. Never open the door for anyone but me. Got it?”

“Yeah. I’ll remember your words.”

“If you get hungry, you can take some from over there. Start with the ones on the outside. Okay? Then…”

“Can I ask when you’ll be back? I just thought it would be good to know.”

“I don’t know yet. I might be late.”

“Is there anything else I should know? Things I shouldn’t do, or…”

“I’ll tell you more when I think of it. For now, just wait until I get back.”

“Ah… yeah. Sorry. I understand.”

The mute girl I had reunited with in the deep forest was more of a talker than I expected. I felt that if I kept indulging her in conversation, I would lose my way and slip into a strange world, just like people bewitched by fairies. Falling into an illusion like Saya in times like this seemed dangerous.

“I’ll be back soon, so just hold down the fort until then.”

“Yeah.”

Perhaps feeling that her chatter might have been a nuisance, Saya clamped her mouth shut and looked at me. Even so, her twitching lips bothered me so much that I eventually had to look away.

“Huu…”

Only after stepping out the door, suppressing all sorts of urges, could I finally exhale comfortably. Only then did the familiar smells of the world seep into me.

It felt like I had returned to where I belonged. I calmed my mind and recalled what I had to do today.

First off, I suppose I should look into the boat schedule.

Ultimately, that was the most fundamental problem. A way to get off this island. As far as I could remember, the last person to mention it was that professor. He had talked about contacting the Empire to receive supply shipments.

Fortunately, he was someone whose whereabouts were easy to predict. Without a doubt, he would be screwing around at the main gate again. I spat at the foul prediction and began to walk.

“Huu…”

As I approached the main gate, the scent shifted, and I let out a natural sigh. Perhaps because I had grown accustomed to the scent of forget-me-nots yesterday, I found myself even more sickened by it today.

On top of that, the familiar noise from yesterday began to drift over. It was an everyday scene that never grew tiresome to them.

Thwack. Thwack. Thwack.

“Aheu… ah… euk…”

“Heuk… euheukheuk… heuk…”

“Ahu… u…”

“Heuk… aheuk…”

Thwack. Thwack thwack.

“Ah…”

“Heuheuk…”

“…”

The sound of flesh slapping against flesh. The lethargic moans of a man. And the sound of a female student crying. These three elements blended together, faintly lingering in front of the main gate. It was a sound that would invoke nightmares in young children, lust in pubescent boys, and nostalgia in the Academy’s rapists.

But I felt none of those three things. I just wanted to get it all over with quickly.

“Professor.”

“Haa… aheu…”

When I subtly called his name, a groan came back in response. I stepped closer and called out to him irritably.

“Professor. Are you not working?”

“Ah… ahah…”

“Professor…”

“…”

At that moment, a different scent suddenly seeped in. It was a bizarre smell, distinctly different from the fishy stench of semen that usually lingered. It was a scent as if the metallic tang of iron and the smell of blood had violently intertwined.

And it was a scent that had no business being here right now. I tensed my shoulders and approached the thicket from yesterday. The closer I got, the more vivid the smell and sounds became.

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

“Eoeuk! Eo… ah… euk…”

“Heuk… euheukheuk…”

Thwack! Thwack! Crack!

“Ah… ahaek… ahaeeok…”

“Aheuheuk…”

Crack!

When a rupturing sound rang out that could no longer be mistaken for flesh slapping, I saw the professor’s face revealed through the bushes. And next to him, the figure of a girl crouched down, streaming with tears. Both of their faces were splattered with bright red bodily fluids, but there was only one owner of that blood.

“Fuck.”

“Ah…?”

As I spat out a curse, the professor looked this way blankly. And in that instant, a crowbar plunged down from above, crushing the space with the same rupturing sound as before.

Crunch!

“Kkyaaak!”

“…”

With a precise strike, the professor’s pathetic skull caved in, and one of his eyeballs popped out with a squelch. It then rolled through the bushes before dropping behind the screaming girl. Startled, she stumbled backward, only to crush the eyeball under her own hand, and let out another scream.

At the scene of that unfunny comedy, I turned my gaze toward the owner of the crowbar. The man who had sent the professor to his death without so much as a battle cry turned his head, panting heavily, and looked my way to ask.

“What are you looking at?”

“I had business with that guy.”

“Why, fuck. You got business with my woman too?”

My woman. Was he perhaps talking about that girl? As the man and I both cast our gazes at her, the girl shrank back with a sob. Seeing that, I replied bluntly.

“I doubt it. No matter how I look at it, she doesn’t seem to be your woman.”

“You little son of a bitch…”

“Hey! Lope!”

The moment the man spat out a curse, a familiar voice rang out from behind. Turning my head, I saw Heiter rushing over in a hurry.

“What brings you here two days in a row? I’m thrilled to see you. Is something up?”

“I had something to ask. But the guy who was gonna answer ended up like that.”

“What? Ah… so it finally came to this. Just bear with it. If you’re done, go cool your head. Today’s an important day, you know.”

“…Right.”

At Heiter’s words, the man grabbed the girl by the hair and dragged her away toward the Academy. The professor’s blood trail stretched wetly across the dry ground. Heiter nudged the dead professor’s head with his foot and shook his head.

“Must not have been a pretty sight. He really smashed him to pieces.”

“Watching a melodrama at a time like this. What happened?”

“Hmm… rather than a melodrama, it was a theft. The professor stole his stuff without permission. Anyway, what did you want to ask?”

“It’s about…”

Instead of answering right away, I scanned Heiter’s appearance. Unlike usual, he was wearing thick layers of clothing and had various weapons hanging from his waist, looking as if he was preparing for something. Moreover, Heiter himself rarely came down to the school gate, so it seemed certain that some incident was about to occur.

He had also mentioned earlier that today was an important day. It seemed I had picked the wrong day to come.

“…You know how the professor said something before. About contacting the Empire to get supply shipments. I was curious about that.”

“Ah, that.”

“You guys must be running low on things too. Aren’t you preparing for it?”

“Of course… we’re keeping it in mind.”

Seeing him keep dragging out his answer, it seemed he was scheming something. It was definitely not a good sign.

“As it happens, we have someone on our side who can contact the Empire. We’re looking into it through them.”

“You have someone like that? Who is it?”

“Well… maybe it’s someone you know too. Or maybe not.”

“Stop beating around the bush and answer me. Who is it?”

“More importantly, Lope. About the proposal I made yesterday.”

Sure enough, Heiter subtly changed the subject. Then, in a sly voice, he asked.

“So, have you decided what to do? Can I hear your answer?”

“Is there a need to decide so soon? You said three days later. I can take my time thinking about it.”

“You’re right. But the plan has changed. We decided to move the date up a bit.”

“You moved it up? To when?”

“Tonight.”

“What?”

I frowned at the sudden news. But Heiter spoke with a somewhat excited expression.

“Come to think of it, I felt like there was no reason to drag it out. Honestly, waiting just gives them time to prepare. So I figured it’d be better to just get it done quickly.”

“But didn’t everyone know it was three days later? If you suddenly change the schedule, it’ll cause confusion.”

“That doesn’t matter. It’s not like we have some grand plan anyway. And I thought, if there was a spy on our side, they would have told them it’s three days later. But if we do it today, they’ll definitely be thrown into chaos. Right?”

“A spy? What’s that based on?”

“No. But you can’t be sure there isn’t one, can you?”

“…”

It was an ignorant argument with absolutely no logic. In such a tiny society, there was neither reason nor room for a spy. No matter how I chewed on it, it sounded like a delusion only a pubescent student could come up with.

Or, did he perhaps think I was leaking information to the other side?

Just in case, I subtly gauged his reaction, but I didn’t think he was stupid enough to believe that. He just seemed to be drunk on sudden power and wanted to play war. I didn’t want to humor him, so I returned to the original topic.

“I’ll have to think about it first. Anyway, where is this person you mentioned? Knowing that would help me decide.”

“Haha… Lope. It’s all connected, you see. That person will obviously be participating in this raid too. So they’re already preparing at the site. Since they have a heavy role, you’ll only be able to meet them after it’s all over.”

“Is there no way to see them now?”

“It’s hard for me to just tell them to come and go either. Well, if you really want to meet them, you could just see them at the site today. Wouldn’t that be simpler?”

“…”

Damn it.

Foolishness that crosses the line is sometimes packaged as cunning. Or vice versa. Either way, Heiter was currently trying to give me no room to hesitate. If it was intentional, it was clever; if not, he was lucky.

Regardless, it was equally troublesome. I wasn’t ready to meet her yet.

But as Heiter said, putting it off wouldn’t do any good. It was something I had to do anyway, even without conditions. Now that I had the justification of the marks, even more so.

At least, that’s what I was thinking up until now.

…

Saya would worry.

I shook my head. It seemed like today was going to be a tough day.

“…Alright. I’ll join in. But I have one condition.”

“I knew it. What’s the condition?”

Heiter beamed and nodded. He acted as if a long-standing worry had simply vanished. But I had to hesitate a bit before answering that face of his.

Damn it, it was definitely going to sound strange at this timing.

Knowing that, yet still having to say it, was sometimes too cruel.

“The gloves you gave me last time… do you have any spares?”