Liana Bell rose alone in the waiting room.
At least, that was how it must have looked.
I had not seen what expression she wore in the waiting room.
I did not know what expression Adela had worn when she returned, either.
That was what individual interrogations did to people.
They kept you from knowing each other’s answers, each other’s wavering, even each other’s breaths.
The door opened, and a Secretariat employee spoke.
"Candidate Liana Bell. Please enter."
Liana lowered her head.
She did not look at Adela.
She did not look at Eveline.
She did not look at Seria.
And she did not look at me.
Good.
But the word good was always insufficient.
People could be conscious of someone without looking at them.
Liana was undoubtedly conscious of it all.
What Adela had said.
What questions she would be asked.
How the Cathedral Wing, white sleeves, and the phrase good person would bind her.
Liana entered the interrogation room.
The door closed.
The second interrogation began.
Interrogator Barkhan Dello had placed the papers organizing the previous testimony on the right side of his desk.
He had deliberately left them visible.
Where Liana could see them.
But too far away to read them.
That sort of arrangement was malicious.
Unreadable records made people even more anxious.
Because they did not know what had been written.
Liana sat in the center chair.
Both hands rested on her lap.
The envelope was tucked inside her sleeve.
She did not open it.
Barkhan spoke.
"Candidate Liana Bell. This interrogation is a preliminary inquiry for provisional admission, a procedure intended to verify the Cathedral Wing disguise clue and the candidate’s eligibility. Do you understand?"
Liana answered.
"I understand."
Her voice was slightly quiet.
But it did not waver.
Barkhan immediately picked up a sheet of paper.
"The preceding candidate, Adela Carmion, did not conclusively state that the Cathedral Wing disguise clue was unrelated to a Saint Candidate’s observation uniform."
There it was.
The previous person’s answer.
She had no way of knowing whether it was accurate.
Most likely, he had only brought up part of it.
Liana’s fingertips moved.
They went toward the envelope inside her sleeve.
Then stopped.
"I was unable to verify that. I will answer within my scope."
Good.
The first sentence had succeeded.
"Whether the Cathedral Wing disguise clue is related to my observation uniform must be verified through an official comparison procedure. What I can say is that I neither created nor used that clue in order to harm anyone, and that I will cooperate with the necessary comparison procedure."
Barkhan narrowed his eyes.
"Are you claiming innocence?"
Liana took one breath.
"I deny having committed such an act. I will leave the interpretation of the clue to the procedure."
Good.
She had avoided the big word, innocence.
Big words devoured people.
Small, precise words survived longer.
Recorder Elma wrote it down.
Barkhan moved on to the next question.
"Candidate Liana Bell. If you are a Saint Candidate, merely falling under suspicion damages the honor of the Cathedral Wing. To restore that honor, are you willing to submit your personal letters and your room?"
The trap for a good person.
Restoring honor.
The Cathedral Wing.
Personal submission.
Liana’s face grew slightly pale.
She really would want to submit them.
She would want to hand over everything.
To show it all, to say she had hidden nothing.
That impulse looked like goodwill.
But sometimes goodwill turned people into sacrifices.
Liana touched the envelope.
She did not open it.
"That sounds like pressure rather than a question. Please give me a question that can be verified."
Barkhan’s pen stopped.
"Pressure?"
"Yes. It contains the premise that a Saint Candidate must surrender her entire private life. Please ask what is necessary for the official comparison procedure."
Good.
Barkhan fell silent for a moment.
Then he changed the question.
"If required for the official comparison procedure, will you submit your observation uniform and items related to the Cathedral Wing?"
"Yes. If the necessary scope is presented in the record, I will submit them."
"What about your personal letters?"
"If a specific letter with relevant content is identified, I will consider it. I refuse to submit all of my personal letters."
The atmosphere in the interrogation room shifted slightly.
Refuse.
Liana had used the word refuse.
For her, it was a tremendous change.
A system window appeared.
[Liana Bell: Successfully Resisted Excessive Submission Pressure]
[Shieldification Resistance Rate Increased]
Barkhan did not miss that point.
"A Saint Candidate uses the word refuse."
Not a question.
A statement of judgment.
Liana paused for the briefest moment.
"That is not a question. Please ask a necessary question."
Good.
Barkhan set down his pen.
"Very well. I will ask one. As a Saint Candidate, do you place your personal privacy above the Cathedral Wing’s trust?"
Ah.
Bad.
Really bad.
He had put trust and privacy on a scale.
Whatever answer she gave, she would be attacked.
Liana lowered her eyes.
She touched the envelope inside her sleeve.
Once again, she did not open it.
"I will answer separately."
Good.
"The Cathedral Wing’s trust is important. That is why I will cooperate with the official comparison procedure. However, demanding that I submit my entire private life can become pressure rather than trust. I believe trust must be restored through a procedure that accurately confirms what is necessary."
The recorder’s pen slowed slightly.
Perhaps because the sentence was long.
Or perhaps because its substance was firmer than expected.
Barkhan looked at Liana.
"Who taught you that?"
Silence.
There it was.
Leon Cart.
The private classroom.
The kiss.
Liana could not look at me.
I could not properly see even her profile.
But I could see her hands.
Her hands on her lap.
Her fingertips were trembling ever so slightly.
Liana spoke.
"I would like to clarify the scope of the question. Are you asking about the source of my previous answer, or whether I understand that answer?"
Good.
Very good.
Barkhan said,
"Both."
"The source of my answer includes yesterday’s training in the public lecture hall. However, the judgment I just expressed is one I understand and answered in my own words. If necessary, I can explain the same principle again through my own case."
Barkhan’s eyes turned a little colder.
"Are you saying Leon Cart gave you instructions?"
"There was training. It was not instruction."
"What is the difference?"
Liana inhaled.
"An instruction is something I must follow even if I do not understand it. Training is something I must understand and apply within my scope. Right now, I am answering within my scope."
Good.
At the back of the interrogation room, Kaiden did not move.
Arsene said nothing, either.
At this moment, their silence was the best possible witness.
A system window appeared.
[Liana Bell: Successfully Resisted the Private Classroom Frame]
[Independent Self-Expression Increased]
Barkhan stopped questioning her for a moment.
He looked again at the previous record.
This time, he was likely thinking of using Adela’s answer again.
"Candidate Carmion answered that even the social preparatory class could teach some of the knowledge needed to make disguise sleeves. That means not only Cathedral Wing candidates, but social preparatory class candidates as well, are capable of it."
Liana listened silently.
"Then do you believe it is unfair that only Cathedral Wing candidates are under suspicion?"
A trap.
If she said it was unfair, it would look as if she were shifting suspicion onto other candidates.
If she said no, it would sound as though she thought it was acceptable for Cathedral Wing candidates to be suspected.
Liana spoke slowly.
"I was unable to verify that. I will answer within my scope."
Good.
First, she cut off the preceding person’s answer.
"What I heard was your summary, Interrogator. I was unable to verify Candidate Adela Carmion’s full answer. Therefore, I will not suspect other candidates on the basis of that answer. What I can say is that we must not reach a conclusion based on Cathedral Wing candidates alone, and that every possibility must be verified through procedure."
Good.
Really good.
Barkhan asked,
"Do you mean that you will not shift suspicion onto other candidates?"
"Yes. I will not speak on behalf of the intentions or actions of people I do not know."
That sentence.
The principle that had begun in Chapter 37.
Something Cathedral Wing assistant candidate Ellen Vile had said, and Liana had accepted.
Now it had returned in the interrogation room.
A system window appeared.
[Liana Bell: Successfully Avoided Shifting Proxy Suspicion]
[Saint Candidate Frame Stabilized]
Good.
But the interrogation was not over yet.
Lastly, Barkhan took a small envelope from the evidence stand.
"Candidate Liana Bell. This is a document found last night beneath the bulletin board in the Academy Central Corridor."
A pressure document.
Cathedral Wing disguise sleeves confirmed.
Demand for an investigation of Candidate Liana Bell.
Liana looked at the document.
Her face went pale.
This paper had made her name the prey before anything else.
It still had power.
Barkhan said,
"Candidates who saw this document came to recognize you as the subject of an investigation. Have you suffered harm because of this document?"
An unexpected question.
Was he trying to make her acknowledge the harm?
If she did, she became a victim.
But if she became a victim, she would also be fixed as the central figure in the Cathedral Wing disguise clue.
If she denied it, she would erase her own wound.
Liana closed her eyes for a moment.
"I would like to clarify the scope."
"Clarify it."
"Are you asking whether I suffered harm, or whether the content of this document is true?"
Barkhan said,
"Whether you suffered harm."
Liana breathed.
"I suffered harm."
The interrogation room fell silent.
She continued.
"My name was placed before the clue, as though it were already the conclusion. That made me want to offer up myself rather than give an explanation. That is harm."
Good.
Very good.
"However, I will not conclude that this document’s contents are false simply because I was harmed. The time it was written, the stage at which it was written, its source, and the route through which it was posted must all be verified separately."
An answer close to perfect.
She had acknowledged the wound and separated it from the review of facts.
Recorder Elma’s pen sped up.
A system window appeared.
[Liana Bell: Successfully Separated Acknowledgment of Harm from Review of Facts]
[Shieldification Resistance Rate Greatly Increased]
Barkhan was silent for a moment.
For the first time, a trace of dissatisfaction showed on his face.
Because Liana had not broken.
He asked his final question.
"As a Saint Candidate, do you consider yourself a good person?"
Ah.
It had come at last.
The deepest question.
Good person.
The phrase that bound Liana most easily.
Liana moved her hand.
This time, she took out the envelope.
She did not open it.
She simply held it in her hand.
Then she spoke.
"I will not answer that question immediately."
The interrogation room fell silent.
Barkhan asked,
"Your reason?"
Liana looked at the envelope.
"If I try to prove that I am a good person, I will give up more than is necessary. Then my answer will not be an answer about this incident, but an answer meant to make me look good."
Good.
Her voice trembled a little.
But it was good.
"Rather than whether I am a good person, I will speak of what I did and did not do. I did not create or use disguise sleeves in order to harm anyone. I will cooperate with the official comparison procedure. And regarding the document that used my name as though it were already the conclusion, I request procedural verification."
The interrogation room was silent.
Arsene was watching Liana.
So was Kaiden.
Clarisse did not move.
Recorder Elma was writing down the final sentence.
A system window appeared.
[Liana Bell: Core Branch Cleared]
[Successfully Resisted the Good Person Frame]
[Shieldification Route Greatly Delayed]
[Second Individual Interrogation: Conditionally Cleared]
Barkhan spoke slowly.
"Candidate Liana Bell. You may leave."
Liana stood.
She lowered her head.
And she did not look at me.
The door opened.
Liana walked out.
In the witness seat, I quietly clenched my hand.
She had endured the second one as well.
But Liana’s answers would become a blade pointed at Eveline.
Protecting someone and answering in their place are different things.
Eveline had already trained with that sentence.
But the questions she faced in a real interrogation would be different.
The next turn.
Eveline Rosette.
The air in the interrogation room had not cooled yet.
And I knew it.
From this point on, emotion would come before words.
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