Time passed, and before long the sun was setting.
Anis had called him over for something simple: mental care.
Apparently, since he had killed one of his subordinates on his very first mission, she’d been worried about him.
“Five o’clock...”
And the conversation had lasted a full four hours.
He wasn’t usually a talkative person, but Anis was, quite literally, a master of words.
How could she talk so much? Did her mouth ever dry out? That was the real mystery.
“Stayed longer than I expected.”
Bill was on his way home now.
That said, the place he slept was still the dormitory.
He didn’t have a home.
He had some savings, of course, and he still hadn’t even received the reward for his first mission.
His bank account was practically scraping the bottom.
If anyone asked how he’d been living until now, the answer was simple.
He had somehow managed to get scholarships and used them for living expenses.
He hadn’t threatened anyone physically.
All he’d done was make use of his excellent physical abilities and get good grades.
He was grateful for the fact that they’d implanted an ID chip in his neck.
It was a little frustrating that they’d barely put any money in it for actual living expenses.
He assumed that whoever it was—probably Enikk—must not be very good at making independent judgments.
Still, separate from that, this was ultimately a necessary seizure if he wanted to survive.
Bill felt sorry about it.
“So why call me at this hour...”
He let out a long sigh and glanced at the message on his phone.
“Come to my office by 6:00 p.m.”
He still had about an hour to spare.
But once he factored in the walking time, it was cutting it close.
Anderson had probably taken the distance between the dormitory and his office into account when he said it, but today Bill’s luck was just bad.
“No, wait... is he trying to introduce me to some auntie or something?”
The “auntie” he meant was Ingrid, who was on friendly terms with Anderson.
But since all he had was a summons and nothing else, he could only guess at the reason.
Maybe he was building up the mood just to say he’d give him money or something like that.
“My son’s here. Huh?”
When he opened the door and stepped inside, a familiar face was waiting for him.
More precisely, it was someone he was seeing for the first time, and yet someone he already knew.
The one he’d expected: Ingrid.
“You had a guest?”
Anderson was seated at the narrow table.
The seat of honor belonged to the host, so it made sense for Bill to sit opposite Ingrid.
He flopped down on the sofa, but she didn’t say a word.
She only swept her eyes over him.
She was clearly assessing him.
But there was no need for him to do the same.
Bill knew Ingrid’s personality.
He also remembered the many secrets she kept hidden.
If he casually brought up the conversation with Anderson as if it had just come up by chance, she wouldn’t be able to keep her mouth shut.
“So why did you call me?”
He gave a small smile.
As if he had no intention of matching the current cold atmosphere, he continued lightly, “Just a bit of interaction. An old man’s judgment, based on the thought that you might not have enough support on your own.”
“That’s true...”
Anderson wasn’t wrong.
The direction was the same as what Bill had been thinking, and if anything, Anderson had been one step ahead.
But...
“Isn’t this a little too fast?”
That was the problem.
The current situation Anderson had created was faster than expected.
Even if Ingrid had secrets like Rapi’s, that was a different matter.
He had expected any disclosure to happen after proper discussion... but somehow, it had already come to this.
“Not at all. I only thought it was necessary.”
“No, I mean, it was necessary, but...”
Bill leaned back on the sofa.
The imbalance of information was still the same, and he had no reason to back down.
He might have been a threat in terms of existence, but the same was true of Rapi, whom Ingrid valued.
They were equal, or he was ahead.
It might be called underhanded, but that was simply how the world worked.
Besides, he wasn’t even a resident of this place to begin with, so a little cheating was fine.
“I can take you as an ally... right?”
He met Ingrid’s eyes.
He already knew she was strong-willed, but even knowing that, her gaze was terrifying.
As the CEO of one of the three major companies, she was far from ordinary.
“Yes. For now, at least, we’re allies. You can think of it that way.”
“For now, huh. That’s a lot of suspicion.”
“Of course. There’s someone walking around this place just fine, despite being impossible to explain by the Ark’s common sense. Wouldn’t it be strange not to be suspicious?”
“The Ark’s common sense, huh...”
He hadn’t expected her to say it so directly.
She was probably reminding him of his place.
Normally, that would have been the right answer, or at least the closest thing to it.
“Funny hearing that from the one who’s been hiding Rapi’s secret.”
Flinch.
Ingrid’s finger lifted slightly, then lowered.
Her eyebrow twitched, then stilled.
She was startled.
Within the Ark’s common sense, Rapi had no secret.
She was just a Nikke with a lot of combat experience, the sort you could find anywhere.
“What are you talking about?”
Ingrid played dumb.
But by now, anyone with any sense would know.
That she was hiding something.
“Rapi and I... I’m sure there’s enough here to turn the Ark upside down, so there’s no reason to single me out, is there?”
Ingrid’s agitation was only natural.
It was beyond a secret that should never have been known; it was as if he had been there in person.
It was a secret with a good reason for having everyone’s memories except his and Rapi’s erased.
This was him giving it back.
As she said, it was strange not to be suspicious.
“So you’re saying we both have a lot to lose...”
So this was what it was like to be someone important.
Bill was impressed.
Even just moments ago, her emotions had been leaking out, but now Ingrid was utterly calm.
She had complete control over herself.
It was enough to make him wonder how.
“Is this enough?”
Bill turned to Anderson.
The process wasn’t exactly what he’d expected, but it was clear that things had moved the way Anderson wanted.
As proof, Anderson was wearing a faint smile.
“A Rapture changed its priority during battle...”
Anderson stroked his chin and spoke thoughtfully.
Bill had thought this should have been mentioned sooner, but when he considered it, not much time had actually passed since that meeting.
“Impossible.”
But unlike Anderson’s relaxed attitude, Ingrid sharply objected.
Raptures, excluding Heretics, were nothing more than mindless monsters.
That had been an unspoken rule for a hundred years.
“Impossible, huh... If we’re talking about impossible things, there’s one right in front of us. No need to be so rigid about it.”
“If you put it that way, I have nothing to say...”
A change in priority was only a small shift.
But no matter how small, contamination was still contamination.
A single drop of liquid was tiny compared to an aquarium, but it could still cause serious damage to the fish inside.
That was what Bill was saying.
Even if ordinary Raptures didn’t change.
Just considering the possibility alone.
They had to account for a change in tactics.
“But we can’t announce this as it is.”
“I know. There’s no way we could stop it from spreading to the citizens...”
In the Ark, most negative information was refined or filtered out.
The spread of fear.
That declaration—that the Ark was safe and that they could still reach victory—could not be allowed to be denied.
Helplessness spread easily.
It had been exposed when Eternal Sky went out.
Even though the sky had merely gone dark for a short while, the suicide rate at the time had soared far above average.
Let alone something that shattered the current pattern, like a change in the Raptures... it was practically taboo.
—I know that all too well...
Bill had once been a modern man.
No matter how long he lived here, that foundation remained the same.
He still couldn’t fully understand it.
But what he couldn’t deny was the reason he knew that brutal past.
Nikkes were already dying.
The flames of life were being snuffed out by the wind.
But if that rumor grew and grew until it covered the Ark, then there would be far more deaths than just the Nikkes.
“I understand what you’re worried about. I also understand why you can’t accept it. But if the whole Ark starts to feel that way, then the tail will be wagging the dog.”
Ingrid said it firmly.
At the very least, she would not make this fact public.
There couldn’t be many people in Elysion who knew about it.
Probably just Absolute and Rapi. That would be all.
“The fact that I can understand it is... almost driving me crazy...”
A flower in a greenhouse was dangerous.
Because it was too safe, it was easily affected by outside stimuli.
That was the Ark.
That was the place he lived.
—Eight o’clock... already?
Before he knew it, a lot of time had passed.
They hadn’t exchanged that many words, but because there had been so much to think about, the evening had slipped by in an instant.
But Bill wasn’t thinking about ending the conversation because he was hungry.
Anderson.
The man in front of him would die quickly if he didn’t use a life-support device.
“All right, let’s call it a day.”
Bill stood up.
He covered his mouth and yawned exaggeratedly, as if he were tired.
Ingrid watched him with sharp eyes, then turned away.
“Then I’ll be going too. See you next time.”
Bill had been about to leave first, but Ingrid passed by him ahead of time.
When the door closed, the two remaining people faced each other.
“Take care of your health.”
“I will.”
Bill closed the door and stepped out into the hallway.
Anderson watched his back until he disappeared.
Last time too.
And this time too.
He was a mysterious person.
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