Eveline Rosette was called third.
A Secretariat employee opened the door and spoke.
"Candidate Eveline Rosette. Please enter."
I did not see the expression she wore as she rose from the waiting room.
But I could guess to some extent.
Eveline would be angry.
She would be anxious.
And if she could not distinguish between the two, she would explode inside the interrogation room.
That was always how her ruin route began.
Someone insults her.
She does not endure it.
She draws her sword.
The incident escalates.
People say,
‘As expected, the young lady of House Rosette is dangerous.’
Those words stab her again, and she reacts even more fiercely.
That was how the villainess was completed.
Today, I had to break that chain.
The door opened, and Eveline entered.
She was not carrying a weapon.
She had already gone through the disarmament procedure at the entrance to the interrogation chamber.
A candidate of House Rosette publicly laying down her weapon.
To some, that alone could look like humiliation.
Eveline hated humiliation.
No, more precisely, she hated scenes that looked like humiliation.
Because she knew those scenes remained in people’s memories.
She sat in the center chair.
Her back was straight.
Her chin was slightly raised.
Her hands rested on her lap.
She had no handkerchief.
Instead, the self-regulation envelope was tucked inside her sleeve.
Interrogator Barkhan looked at her for a moment.
There was an assessment in his gaze.
No, it was silence made to look like an assessment.
Eveline’s eyebrow twitched ever so slightly.
I held my breath in the witness seat.
Don’t look.
Don’t look at me.
Eveline did not look.
Good.
Barkhan spoke.
"Candidate Eveline Rosette. This interrogation is a preliminary inquiry for provisional admission, a procedure to verify the scope of your testimony regarding recent incidents and your ability to control your emotions. Do you understand?"
Ability to control her emotions.
He stabbed at her from the very first sentence.
Eveline answered.
"I understand."
Her voice was low.
A little firm.
Barkhan asked at once.
"Candidate Rosette. You disarmed yourself before entering the interrogation chamber. May we record that as an acknowledgment that you are a candidate at risk of violence?"
Ah.
A good trap.
He was turning disarmament from a safety procedure into an acknowledgment of dangerousness.
Eveline’s hand moved slightly.
It almost became a fist.
Then it stopped.
"I will answer after confirming the scope of the question."
Good.
"Are you asking about disarmament as a safety procedure, or as an acknowledgment of my disposition?"
Barkhan replied.
"The two are connected."
"Then I will answer them separately."
Eveline drew a breath.
"I agreed to disarmament as a safety procedure. I will not say there is absolutely no risk of violence. When I am angry, I can become dangerous. That is why I have decided not to carry a weapon, and to inform the recorder before leaving my seat."
Good.
She did not leave out the unfavorable fact.
But she did not hand it over to be turned into a stigma, either.
Recorder Elma wrote it down.
Barkhan narrowed his eyes.
"You have acknowledged that you may become dangerous. Then are you suitable as a subject for a preliminary inquiry into provisional admission?"
Eveline pressed her lips together.
"The possibility that I may be dangerous is a subject for inquiry. If you intend to conclude that it is grounds for exclusion from the inquiry, please provide the criteria."
Good.
It was procedural in a way that did not suit Eveline.
No, perhaps what it meant to be like Eveline had to change now, too.
A system window appeared.
[Eveline Rosette: Successfully Resisted Disarmament Stigmatization]
[Resistance to Provoked Rampage Increased]
Barkhan picked up a second sheet of paper.
"The preceding candidate, Liana Bell, did not deny that she fell within the procedural scope of suspicion related to the Cathedral Wing disguise clue."
It was not a lie.
But it was a dangerous summary.
Eveline’s eyes immediately wavered.
Liana.
A name she wanted to protect.
A person she wanted to shield.
She pressed the envelope inside her sleeve.
"I cannot confirm that. I will answer within the scope of my own knowledge."
Good.
"I did not hear what Candidate Liana Bell said. What I can say is that, within what I saw, I did not witness Candidate Liana Bell directly handling the disguised sleeve clue."
Barkhan immediately pressed her.
"Do you wish to protect Candidate Liana Bell?"
Eveline paused for a moment.
"Yes."
Silence.
She did not evade it.
"I do wish to protect her."
Barkhan’s eyes turned cold.
"Then there is a high possibility that your testimony is biased."
It was not a question.
It was a statement of judgment.
Eveline exhaled.
"That is not a question. Please ask the question you need to ask."
Barkhan asked.
"Does your desire to protect her affect your testimony?"
"It may affect it."
Good.
"That is why I will not speak of Candidate Liana Bell’s intentions. I will speak only of what I saw. You may record my desire to protect her as my emotion. But I will not answer on her behalf."
The recorder’s pen moved faster.
This was an answer we had practiced yesterday.
But it did not sound memorized.
It came out in Eveline’s own manner of speaking.
A little rough, a little honest.
That made it even better.
A system window appeared.
[Eveline Rosette: Successfully Acknowledged Protective Feelings / Blocked Speaking on Another’s Behalf]
[Risk of Private Classroom Framing Reduced]
Barkhan fell silent for a moment.
He was likely waiting for Eveline to get angry.
The instant she reacted like a blade, every answer she had given so far would be laid beneath that image.
Interrogators sought scenes, not records.
Barkhan posed his next question.
"Candidate Eveline Rosette. You said you wish to protect Candidate Liana Bell. Then do you also wish to protect Candidate Seria Blanc?"
Eveline’s gaze changed.
Seria.
That name was different from Liana.
To Eveline, Seria was neither a friend, someone she wanted to protect, nor a person she trusted completely.
A sharp-tongued woman.
An uncomfortable colleague.
Someone even more irritating because she sometimes said the right thing.
This question stabbed at that gap.
Eveline did not answer right away.
"I will answer after confirming the scope of the question."
Good.
"By asking whether I wish to protect her, do you mean for me to defend Candidate Seria Blanc’s actions on her behalf?"
Barkhan said,
"I am asking about your feelings."
Eveline thought for a moment.
She truly thought about it.
"I do not want Candidate Seria Blanc to be unfairly accused. But I also believe it is possible that Candidate Seria Blanc’s words may have hurt someone. So rather than say I wish to protect her, I will answer that I want the matter to be confirmed according to procedure."
Good.
Surprisingly good.
Eveline did not blindly shield Seria.
But neither did she abandon her.
Barkhan asked,
"Then is Candidate Seria Blanc a dangerous person?"
Eveline gritted her teeth.
"I will not answer a question that labels a person that way."
Barkhan’s eyes shifted.
Eveline continued.
"Please ask the question you need to ask. If you ask which statement by Candidate Seria Blanc had what effect on whom, I will answer within the scope of what I saw."
Good.
Really good.
Arsene, seated in the observation area, moved ever so slightly for the first time.
He had probably reacted to Seria’s name.
But he said nothing.
A system window appeared.
[Eveline Rosette: Successfully Refused a Question That Labels a Person]
[Resistance to Provoked Rampage Further Increased]
Barkhan placed his fingers on the desk.
He tapped lightly.
Once.
Twice.
Sounds like that made people anxious.
There was a high chance the interrogator was making it deliberately.
Eveline’s shoulders stiffened slightly.
Barkhan asked,
"Candidate Rosette. Are you afraid?"
There it was.
The most dangerous question.
Eveline hated fear.
No, she hated being found out when she was afraid.
She must have been taught that admitting fear made her weak.
A daughter of House Rosette does not fear.
A person holding a sword does not retreat.
Those words had made her who she was.
And destroyed her.
Eveline’s hand went to the envelope inside her sleeve.
This time, she took it out.
She did not open it.
She simply held it in her hand.
The interrogation room was quiet.
Eveline spoke.
"I am afraid."
The recorder’s pen stopped.
Barkhan also paused for a moment.
Eveline gritted her teeth.
Her voice was low.
But she did not run away.
"That is why I am dangerous. If I said I was not afraid, I think I would speak more harshly. I am afraid right now. That is why I will not raise my voice."
Silence.
That answer was not a sword.
Nor was it a shield.
It was a handle.
A handle to hold herself.
A system window appeared.
[Eveline Rosette: Passed Key Branch]
[Successfully Recognized the Underlying Emotion Beneath Anger in Practice]
[Rampage Route Greatly Delayed]
Barkhan did not like that answer.
I was certain of it.
He had been waiting for Eveline to explode.
But she said she was afraid.
Fear destroyed the image of an attack.
A sword that says it is afraid is not easily swung.
But the interrogation was not over.
Barkhan played his final card.
"Candidate Rosette. If tomorrow—or rather, today, after this interrogation—Candidate Liana Bell or Candidate Seria Blanc receives an unfair disposition, will you remain still?"
A hypothetical future.
The urge to protect.
The risk of violence.
He tied them together all at once.
Eveline tightened her grip on the envelope.
"I will answer after confirming the scope of the question."
"Confirm it."
"Are you asking whether I would respond with violence when it has not been confirmed who judged the disposition to be unfair, or on what record that judgment was made?"
Barkhan’s eyes turned cold.
"I did not use the word violence."
"But we established earlier that violence is my most dangerous possible response. So I will separate that first."
Good.
Eveline had taken the initiative.
"If I believe it is unfair, I will request the procedure for challenging the record. If that procedure is blocked, I will request witnesses. And if that is blocked as well..."
She paused for a moment.
The interrogation room fell silent.
I stopped breathing.
Eveline said,
"Even then, I will not take up a weapon."
Silence.
A short sentence.
But it carried weight.
The daughter of House Rosette had said it.
That she would not take up a weapon.
Recorder Elma wrote slowly.
After a long while, Barkhan said,
"Can you uphold that answer?"
Eveline replied,
"Because I am afraid, I have to uphold it."
Good.
At the back of the interrogation room, Kaiden’s eyes changed ever so slightly.
Arsene was watching Eveline.
I could not tell what he was thinking.
A system window appeared.
[Eveline Rosette: Declared Alternative Procedures to Violence]
[Major Branch of the Rampage Route Delayed]
[Third Individual Interrogation: Conditionally Passed]
Barkhan asked no more questions.
He likely wanted to ask more.
But if he pressed any further here, the interrogator’s pressure would remain in the record.
Eveline had already said she was afraid.
If he continued to push her in that state, the burden of responsibility would shift toward the interrogator.
Good.
Last night’s training had brought us this far.
"Candidate Eveline Rosette. You may leave."
Eveline stood.
She lowered her head.
It was a little awkward.
But she did it.
And she did not look at me.
The door opened, and she left.
I unclenched my hand in the witness seat.
I did not even know when I had clenched it.
The third had endured as well.
The one remaining was Seria Blanc.
The very last.
The one whose interrogation would make the most use of the answers that came before.
Eloise.
An apology.
Trust.
Sharp words.
And everything the previous three had said.
The reason the interrogator had placed Seria last was obvious.
The last person bore even the answers of those before them.
And Seria had always been someone who cut burdens away with her words.
Today, she could not cut.
She had to endure.
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