“Hello. May I ask if you are Commander Bill?”
Right after Bill stepped out of the elevator, a Nikke asked him cautiously.
There was only one reason she would do that.
Come with me.
There’s someone who wants to meet you.
Of course, the extreme tone was only his imagination, but from his perspective, that was how it felt.
“Oh... My... God...”
He had a pretty good idea who had called for him.
There weren’t many people who would make such a polite request.
Normally, the only person who would summon a Commander like this was Andersen.
The difference was that Andersen had called him over the comms before, but that didn’t matter now.
The important thing was that he’d been called.
“Can I run away?”
“Pardon?”
She hadn’t said anything, though.
Bill was already letting his true feelings slip out.
It was a pain.
He wanted to hurry back to his room and collapse onto his bed.
Something this trivial could easily wait until tomorrow.
And yet the Nikke’s expression was tense, her fingers trembling slightly.
She knew exactly who had summoned him, and that only made the pressure worse.
What fault could the messenger possibly have?
Even in the past, it had been proper etiquette not to lay a hand on envoys.
That was generally the case, even during war.
“Who is it...”
He was still rubbing his eyes from exhaustion.
The Nikke found his completely relaxed attitude strange even in a situation like this.
As if he already knew who had called him.
“But if you’re only asking me, does that mean those two are going separately?”
Bill pointed his thumb at the two behind him.
He was probably going to the other person’s room, while the two of them would head to the simulation room.
“Yes, I’d appreciate it if the Nikkes would go to the simulation room. As for the Commander...”
“Let’s go.”
He already knew it would be Andersen anyway.
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“Welcome.”
When he opened the door and stepped inside, a familiar face was waiting for him.
A strikingly handsome man, even by Bill’s standards, with a dignified bearing.
He was impressive enough to make Bill silently admire him as the deputy commander of an entire world.
But he still didn’t know why he’d been summoned.
If he understood the man’s intentions, there would be no need to stay on guard like this... but caution never hurt.
“I hear you... took down Black Smith with those Nikkes?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
That was why Bill chose a strategy.
Don’t lie.
Instead, kill his emotions and answer faithfully.
Showing his true self could wait until he was sure it was safe.
That was more than enough to do after confirming the situation.
He could keep this up until someone else got tired of it first.
What was the point of exposing his hand from the start?
Bill wanted to test just how capable this Andersen was.
The man who’d supposedly lamented that if he had been there, Crow’s terror attack would have been suppressed in no time—Bill wanted to see that skill for himself.
“Your answer is awfully stiff. There’s no need to be so guarded.”
Perhaps sensing the rigid mood, Andersen immediately asked him to relax.
For something that sounded like it would be a big conversation, he seemed remarkably calm.
“Sit down first. This looks like it’ll be a long story.”
Long... story?
“Don’t worry. That will depend on your attitude.”
Andersen sat on the sofa and looked at him.
Sharp. Piercing.
It felt like if Bill let his guard down even a little, the man would tear straight through everything inside him.
But while communication had been cut off, there was no way to know what had happened.
Even if he repeated the simulation over and over, all it would produce were meaningless results. He would never uncover the truth of that day.
That was what he believed.
Until just a moment ago.
“Let me ask again. This Rapture... was it you who took it down?”
Andersen asked the same question.
But there was one small difference.
The word “together” was gone.
And when he finished speaking, the corner of his mouth lifted slightly.
The important thing wasn’t the emphasis in the question.
It was that tiny change in expression.
It was a provocation, as if telling him to read between the lines.
When Bill saw that, he realized his plan to test the man had been wrong.
He already knew.
He couldn’t tell what he had seen, but that much was certain.
There was no need to keep up the act any longer.
Bill raised both hands high and waved them like a white flag.
“I surrender.”
He really did live up to his reputation.
He must have read Bill’s intentions too.
“A wise choice. I don’t want to drag this out either. I’m a busy man, after all.”
He looked satisfied.
Now he had the expression of someone thinking about what to gain next.
Bill couldn’t stop that.
He had lost one round, and that was an unchangeable fact.
But he hadn’t come here to be beaten down.
He wouldn’t dwell on a loss.
He would seize the next chance.
If possible, he wanted the initiative.
That one line rose from such petty feelings.
“I’m sure. You probably aren’t in any condition to be acting normal.”
It was less revenge and more like a child’s contest of wills.
The attitude of a loser trying to prove his superiority.
“What did you just say?”
Andersen’s gaze sank slightly.
The air in the room, which had been relatively warm, seemed to turn cold.
Easy to read.
Easy to see.
He had only said something that laid his emotions bare.
The Andersen he knew wouldn’t fall for a provocation like this.
Given his delicate, sharp personality, it would normally be the kind of thing he’d just laugh off.
The reason this kind of provocation worked so well was simple.
Because it was the truth.
“You... know about this?”
Andersen glanced down at his left side, then slowly lifted the hem of his clothes.
A round mechanical device for attaching a plug was revealed.
“You’re not the only one who knows things. There’s quite a lot in here too.”
Bill tapped his temple with a finger and smiled.
Seeing that, Andersen wanted to laugh out loud.
He had seen plenty of people whose outside and inside didn’t match, but this was a new kind altogether.
He possessed an unknown power that could beat Black Smith down with his bare hands.
He also had information that could not be known from the outside.
And yet he was young.
Far too young in his thinking.
It wasn’t so much a lack of maturity as it was the type whose emotions overwhelmed his reasoning.
A dangerous personality.
He was likely to make a huge mistake someday.
But then Andersen thought of someone for no particular reason.
There were people who were serious when they needed to be, and playful the rest of the time.
There was no need to think too hard about it.
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“I have no idea... at all.”
With a thick cable attached around his waist, Andersen organized the information he had heard from Bill.
There were far too many incomprehensible details, like the fact that he had awakened near a park or that an identification chip had been implanted in him.
That wasn’t all.
The address in his possession was completely his own, and it even had enough credits loaded to cover his living expenses.
There was only one being who could orchestrate something like this.
“There’s no one but Enikk.”
The AI that managed the Ark.
Enikk.
“Still, the question of ‘why’ hasn’t been answered yet...”
Bill immediately objected.
Enikk was obviously the culprit, and that was exactly why it was strange.
She managed the Ark, and at the same time, she was a being not controlled by emotion.
There was no reason to single anyone out.
If there was some reason for her to do so...
“Am I... Enikk’s son?”
“What a joke. If you were an AI, maybe, but that’s not the case, is it?”
“Right?”
Even he thought it was a stupid theory.
Bill discarded it immediately and began looking at the matter from another angle.
But in the end, nothing came of it.
“Well, if it comes to that, I can just ask her directly someday.”
If Enikk really had planned this, then asking a question wouldn’t be the end of it.
It was still only a possibility, but if it was true, he might even be able to obtain information within the Ark.
Then he would not be outmatched in the information war inside the Ark.
“Don’t trust it too much. It could be a trap.”
“Hmm... if it’s a trap, then... it’s not exactly sweet enough to be one.”
“That’s exactly why I’m telling you to be careful. The Ark is not on your side. It may not be able to harm you directly, but it could choose something even more cruel. Keep that in mind.”
He knew that already.
Bill nodded silently.
It wasn’t a confirmed fact, but these were the same people who had even abandoned the Goddess for power.
Much less someone weaker and nameless like him, who could be erased even more easily.
Andersen’s concern was, in a way, only natural.
“I think it’s about time we wrapped this up.”
“Did the test results come in?”
“Correct.”
Transparent data appeared in front of him.
There was information on Rapi and Anis, along with the results of their combat evaluation.
C and D.
The Ark used the same classification system he knew, so he didn’t even need to see Ingrid’s expression to know what it was like.
She was probably wondering if this was really all they had.
That was why he burst out laughing.
“The tactical auntie must be furious.”
“Ingrid is a wise woman. She wouldn’t get angry over something like this.”
“The results are way too different, though. Maybe she just came home and said they did okay. Even so, this is a little...”
Rapi’s result could be considered decent.
She was deliberately controlling her power within the limits of a Nikke.
That made sense for a C, and besides, Rapi already knew Ingrid, so there was no issue.
But Anis seemed completely unmotivated.
Her best record was barely a dozen low-grade Raptures.
That placed her at the very bottom of the evaluation rankings.
“You should get up now. You must be tired too.”
Bill drained his teacup and slowly stood.
Just as he was about to leave the room, waving a hand and saying they should talk again next time, Andersen’s voice was thrown at him from behind.
“Are you all right, mentally?”
It was almost certainly about Marian.
There was no way he was all right.
He had only managed to steady his heart after clinging to a sliver of hope.
And even during the entire return to the Ark, that final moment had kept flashing before his eyes.
“Of course not. See you next time.”
Click.
The door closed, and silence returned to Andersen’s room.
He closed his eyes and recalled the faces of his former comrades.
Just like the one before him now.
The children he should have been responsible for.
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