Double Play
After the round of laughter died down, Jun spoke.
"Tatsu, I get what you're saying, but I'm still going to do the broadcast."
"You sure? Your full strength's going to be out in the open."
At Tatsu's concern, Jun simply flashed a quiet grin without a word.
Let them see it if they want.
How much of his true power could possibly be packed into a clip that didn't even last ten full seconds?
What the broadcast would clearly show was nothing more than a door marked with the boss-room sigil, a flash of brilliant blue light, and a form that had been there one moment and gone the next.
Even if that short footage somehow let people gauge a portion of his strength, it didn't matter.
Strictly speaking, Fortuna and Dohwa were each one facet of Jun's power.
Until someone could fully account for those two, any assessment drawn from the video would capture only a third of what he was truly capable of.
Having the existence of the Railgun revealed was a little unfortunate, but not enough to make him reverse the decision.
Even if someone knew what it was, could they really stop a bullet that outran sound itself? Jun was certain they couldn't.
"That smile of yours says you've got something up your sleeve. Guess I was fretting over nothing."
"You're being creepy, so quit sulking, big brother. More importantly, Oppa's video is going to be amazing, right? I can't wait to see it!"
After scolding the whining Tatsu, Emili's eyes immediately lit up as she stared at the Observer resting on the table.
As if the heavens themselves had answered her anticipation, Carol emerged from the door marked "Staff Only — No Entry" and hurried toward them with quick steps.
"I'm so sorry, Jun. You've been waiting a long time, haven't you?"
"...I was just talking with Tatsu and Emili, so it's fine. More importantly, Carol—are you all right?"
Jun asked as he studied her face carefully.
Heavy makeup still failed to hide the dark circles under her eyes, and the whites were shot through with blood vessels as if she hadn't slept in days. Her usually immaculate clothes were faintly wrinkled, and her hair still carried a slight dampness, as though she had only just washed it.
She looked exactly like an office worker who had been crushed under deadlines for days and then rushed out to a meeting.
No matter how he looked at her, she was in no condition for a meeting.
Just how long has she been working? Carol's a Green-rank powerhouse—her body and mind are far tougher than any ordinary person's.
The question lingered only a moment before Jun quickly told her to forget the meeting and go rest.
"I'm fine. Please don't worry."
"No, Carol, you really don't look fine at all."
"He's right, Carol-unnie. Oppa says it's okay, so go rest already."
"I told you I'm fine. At times like this..."
Whoosh! Smack! Smack!
Carol gathered holy power into both hands and slapped her own cheeks twice.
Then she pulled a water bottle from her handbag and gulped down the contents. A faint sacred energy rose from it—holy water, clearly.
"There. That fixes it."
...Unfortunately, it fixed nothing whatsoever.
"Haaah... If that's what you insist, Carol, then fine. Let's start the meeting right away."
It was obvious Carol had no intention of resting until the meeting was finished.
Jun resolved to wrap it up as quickly as possible.
"Thank you for your consideration. And I'm truly sorry. I failed to manage my staff properly. The employee who carelessly blabbed about your achievements—I'll take personal responsibility for their punishment and re-education."
"...Please do."
That was all Jun said.
One look at the razor-sharp light in Carol's eyes told him further words were unnecessary.
If anything, he felt he ought to caution her not to go overboard.
While he was still debating whether to speak, Carol swept a glance around them, then asked with a deeply worried expression,
"By the way, Jun—where are Fortuna, Dohwa, and Rebecca? Did they perhaps take injuries during the expedition and are resting at home?"
"Th-they're not injured. They just said they were exhausted from the accumulated fatigue of the expedition and are resting at home."
The truth was that they had celebrated finishing the expedition by spending the entire night in unrestrained, scorching pleasure and were now collapsed from the aftermath—but he could hardly confess that to an office lady currently buried in work.
"I see. That's a relief."
"Hm? Carol, is something going on? You seem more worried than usual."
"Actually..."
Carol trailed off, checking the people around them.
Jun, catching on at once, snapped his fingers and raised a soundproof barrier around them.
The casting speed was practically silent chanting; Emili exclaimed, "Whoa! That's insane!" in pure admiration, but Jun was too focused on Carol's reaction to acknowledge it.
Once she confirmed the barrier was up, Carol settled into a deliberately casual posture, as if merely chatting, and opened her mouth.
"Ever since the day you entered the labyrinth, the party that clashed with you and the other party that clashed with the three of them have been making suspicious moves."
"...In what way, exactly?"
"They shifted their area of operations from the central district here to the west. And as you know, the guild in the west is..."
"The one managed by the Merchant Coalition. A den of the worst sort of scum, too."
For a long time the Merchant Coalition had been stretching its claws toward the guilds. After a protracted shadow war, they had seized administrative control of the western branch.
From that point on, every staff member had been replaced with Coalition people, and gradually the worst kinds of individuals had taken root.
Naturally, the influence of both the guild proper and the Church had withered.
A bare handful of priests still remained for the maintenance of the divine statues and the treatment of the wounded, but they were the sort who had been demoted for various crimes—no better than the rest of the scum there.
As a result, the West Guild was rife with drugs, blackmail, rape, and every other kind of crime.
In other words, the perfect place to hatch a conspiracy.
"Do you think they'll try something?"
"High probability. There are certain people they meet with frequently, and those people appear to belong to a group the guild and the Church have been watching carefully for a long time."
"A group? What kind of people are they?"
"They're extremely secretive, so we still don't know for certain. All we know is that they're heretics who worship a god other than Bright, and that several promising adventurers have lost their lives because of them."
"Ah!"
At Carol's words, Tatsu made a sound as if something had clicked.
"Tatsu, did you hear something?"
"Yeah. There's a Stigma holder named Tyson—you haven't met him yet because the timing never lined up. That hyung once warned me that some cult is desperate to kill Stigma holders. I think the group Carol's talking about and the cult he mentioned are the same."
"It almost certainly is the same group. The ones who first uncovered their existence were Tyson and the other Rankers."
So this Tyson was a Ranker, then.
Curiosity stirred, but Jun set it aside for the moment and voiced the question that actually mattered.
"Carol, how did the Rankers discover them?"
"They say they stumbled across them by chance on the highest floors that have only just begun to be cleared. Be careful, Jun. Somehow—we still don't know how—those people seem able to move freely between floors. No matter how fast your clearing speed is, if they decide to target you, you will run into them."
"...And if they come looking for me, those women will be with them, won't they?"
"..."
Carol gave no answer.
Jun let out a sigh heavy with regret.
They were good women, too.
The women he meant—the noble young lady, the female mage, and the elven archer—might fall short of his wives, but in both looks and ability they were women who would never be outclassed anywhere.
Knowing that those same women were now mixed up with such shady characters because of him filled Jun with both pity and guilt.
"Jun, if they do come after you..."
"I know. I won't go easy. I'll fight them ready to kill."
That was all there was to it.
Even if he had been the catalyst, the choice had always been theirs. If they came for him alongside those people, Jun would face them with everything he had.
"Is it all right to kill them?"
He meant it—he would kill them in earnest.
"Yes. Once they have joined hands with heretics, the only future awaiting them is death. Do not hesitate. Kill them."
Carol delivered their sentence without the slightest delay, like a judge pronouncing a death sentence on a condemned prisoner.
Her voice was so flat it seemed drained of all emotion.
Yet somehow Jun felt endless rage and contempt seething beneath it.
He was not the only one who felt it; silence settled over the table.
Clap! Clap!
"I've given you sufficient warning, so shall we move on to the main business? Jun, what matters did you intend to handle today?"
"...First I want to submit the footage in this Observer for broadcast use. After that I'll visit Pirbyon to lend him Firmus and place an equipment commission. Finally I'll go see Uncle Lawrence to take over the workshop I commissioned. Ah—and while I'm at it, restock the consumables I used up in the labyrinth."
Belatedly realizing the atmosphere, Carol clapped her hands to clear the air.
Jun rode the shift and laid out his errands.
"Not many, then. Once we're finished, I should be able to rest a little."
"Wait—you still have more work? What on earth has piled up so much?"
When Jun asked with a look of pure exhaustion, Carol answered with a bitter smile.
"In the fourth year, second semester of the Imperial Academy, grades are replaced by practical training. Around this time the fourth-years are dispatched to places where they can fully display their strength."
At her words Tatsu and Emili muttered, "Already that season again," and "Tch, more annoying pests are going to swarm in."
That was enough for Jun to catch on as well.
"So they're being sent here too."
"Yes. The world is peaceful, so the only place left to use real power is the labyrinth. They come in droves."
"And we're the ones who suffer for it. They swagger around like crazy just because of their rank. Even though the class system doesn't apply inside Lemumni."
"They constantly try to force their way into our parties or demand we join theirs, and they give completely ridiculous orders like 'be our porters' or 'be our meat shields'! And those losers have the nerve!"
"Losers?"
Jun tilted his head at the word Emili had tacked on at the end.
Tatsu stepped in to explain in place of his sister, who was still visibly seething.
"Almost everyone who ends up here has no real backing or no real skill. The ones who do have both get into noble houses or knight orders and just coast, sucking up the easy life."
"Ahh. But Carol, if this happens every year, shouldn't the procedures and paperwork already be more or less standardized? So why... ah!"
Jun cut himself off and let out a soft groan.
Mid-sentence a single piece of information had suddenly surfaced, and with it he could deduce exactly why the workload had ballooned.
I completely forgot about that.
Because that person was there, he must have unconsciously sealed away every related scrap of knowledge.
Jun turned the reason for the increased work over in his mind, then quietly muttered,
"Maybe I should leave for somewhere else for a while."
He could smell an incident coming.
And it reeked horribly.
At that same moment, before the main gate of the Imperial Academy—the most prestigious academy in the Empire—two women in travel attire stood facing each other.
"President, Vice President—are you truly certain it's all right for just the two of you to go?"
The golden-haired, blue-eyed young man who had come out to see them off asked with a deeply worried expression.
In a mere half-year this handsome youth had become the reason every woman in the academy—and throughout the capital—lost sleep at night. For him to show such concern would normally set any woman's heart racing, yet the two women remained utterly unmoved, not so much as batting an eye.
One of them—a tall woman with an enormous bust, pure-white hair, and golden eyes—spoke with a faint smile.
"Secretary Leon, do not worry. We are not so weak that you need to fret over us."
"But... at the very least, please take a horse or a carriage."
Even after the President's words, the first-year student-council secretary Leon could not hide his anxiety.
The other woman—who had been watching him with open displeasure—a short woman with an equally enormous bust, ocean-blue hair and eyes—began to grumble.
"Hey! You're weaker than we are, so why keep sticking your nose in? You think we're the same as those empty-headed greenhouse flowers who just giggle all day?!"
"...How could I not stick my nose in, Vice President? The two of you are far too beautiful to simply be allowed to leave alone."
"Again! Again with that disgusting talk! Hey! I told you not to say things like that! You think my words are a joke? Huh?!"
The Vice President flared up and swung her tiny fists—fists as small as her stature—through the air.
It was an utterly adorable gesture, yet Leon, who had personally experienced the power those fists contained, could not see it that way at all.
"Secretary, the send-off is finished. Go help the treasurer. And stop worrying about us. Should anything happen, we will draw these at once."
The President restrained the thrashing Vice President as she spoke, then drew the sword at her hip a bare fraction from its scabbard.
From the exposed portion dense holy power and a radiant light spilled forth.
As if answering it, the same phenomenon occurred from the cross-shaped rosary hanging around the Vice President's neck.
Seeing that, Leon could no longer keep the two women any longer.
"...Understood. Please travel safely."
"Hmph! Worrying is a full-time job for you, isn't it."
The Vice President scoffed at Leon, tucked the rosary inside her clothes, and continued,
"There isn't a single person in this world with guts big enough to lay a hand on the Daughter of God and the Hope of Humanity."
With those final words the two women set out on their journey.
Watching their retreating figures, Leon considered telling them about the childhood friend who would be waiting at their destination—yet in the end he never opened his mouth.