Chapter 24: The Rat

“…Is…it okay?”

“…Yes? Ah! I’m fine! Probably?”

Since that day, my schedule has been fixed: knocked out in the morning, training or sparring at the Justice Task Force in the afternoon, and guarding the Tea Party panic room at night and dawn.

Naturally, my body’s condition gradually worsened.

“…Are…you taking a rest?”

“I’m sleeping for about 4 hours…”

“Don’t go to afternoon training from tomorrow. Or reduce it a bit…”

“…Yes…”

Even if a fire has been lit in my desire for improvement, if it gets to the point where it interferes with the reason itself, it becomes nothing, so I had no choice but to accept it.

Still, I have to finish today’s guard properly, so I was staying up all night with the caffeine from the black tea provided in the panic room.

Thankfully, they allowed me to use black tea and a tea set, saying it would help to keep me awake, so I brew and drink it myself.

Incidentally, I also give a cup to Seia and Nagisa.

“…No…this time it would be black tea…”

“Fufu… Nagisa, are you still worried about that time?”

“Yes… It’s like a kind of deja vu…”

“…I’m not looking at myself so poorly that I would do that to Nagisa in my current state…”

“Certainly, it seems that you need it a little more than me.”

Ever since I put Nagisa to sleep with lavender tea, not poisoning! Nagisa flinches slightly every time I give her tea.

At that time, Nagisa’s work was excessively overloaded, so I had no choice but to put her to sleep, so I had no intention of doing it since then.

My body seems to be a little sensitive to caffeine.

Otherwise, it would be impossible to hold on for so long with just one cup of black tea… Or is it? I think I definitely held on without anything yesterday…

While I was having such trivial thoughts, I felt a familiar sensation on my left wing.

-Rustle…rustle…

“…Seia?”

“Fufu… Didn’t you start it? It would be good to get used to it now. And… I like to keep my body temperature a little high. Are you going to refuse?”

“Well… I don’t mind…”

Since I’ve been wrapping Seia with my wings to guard her, Seia has been using my wings like a blanket lately.

No, why is everyone so obsessed with touching my wings? Mika or Seia…

It’s a familiar sensation, and it’s definitely the safest from a surprise attack, so I don’t have any particular complaints.

I hope she won’t do this after the Eden Treaty is over.

“Phew… The problems that come from the Pater faction are the most difficult to deal with…”

I was told that the matter of the Eden Treaty was transmitted to some Pater faction members, including Mika, after that day.

In the end, it’s a treaty that the future of Trinity is greatly involved in, so they said that they couldn’t avoid involving the Pater faction, which hates Gehenna, in this matter.

“It’s not simply a matter of saying we can’t get along with Gehenna. It’s from the fact that Trinity couldn’t completely unite in the past, or that we should first unite with small factions that are marginalized.

And there are also opinions with reasonable content, such as the fact that Trinity still has an anti-Gehenna tendency, and that the social atmosphere is not yet sufficient to accept Gehenna… So it’s impossible to simply ignore them…”

“There is also an opinion that there are many things to be concerned about diplomatically, as it was revealed to the general public or externally until it was finalized.

Even if they have negative thoughts about this treaty, they are quite capable and outstanding people. As such, sharp points are coming out, so it’s a bit difficult….

Moreover, they are not openly expressing hostile opinions about the treaty. They are saying things like now is not the time. More time is needed, so they didn’t protest against the treaty itself…”

Night and dawn work generally consisted of reviewing various opinions, including those of the Pater faction and other factions,

and revising the content that was judged to be impossible to realize without the General Student Council President in the process.

Fortunately, as the days went by, the amount of paperwork was clearly decreasing.

“…(Nod…nod..)”

Seia fell asleep, unable to overcome her fatigue.

I naturally lay Seia down on the sofa and cover her with my wings as a blanket.

“Certainly, it’s a difficult time for Seia.”

“That’s right. It must have been a forced march for Seia…”

“I’m worried… I can’t help tomorrow…”

Due to the Eden Treaty, which is finally taking shape again, Nagisa said that she would take a separate rest tomorrow night because she had to discuss it with the sand Gehenna again.

“Still, the workload is gradually showing its bottom, so there will be no big problems.”

“…That’s right… Sora… Please take care of Seia tomorrow…”

So that day also passed.

-Trinity, ???-

Somewhere inside Trinity, in a dark and damp basement, one person who didn’t fit in at all and two people who were wearing hats and masks so that their faces couldn’t be confirmed were talking.

“Yeah☆ So you’re saying it’s impossible except for tomorrow.”

“I see… Certainly, the only day when only one person remains is tomorrow. But out of 87 panic rooms, infiltration routes have been secured for only 15.”

Only 15 out of 87 panic rooms may seem small, but the panic room is one of the most strictly managed places in Trinity.

It’s amazing that they have identified 15 of them, and even then, it’s an infiltration route that was created due to the deterioration of the building, so there’s no other way.

“Yeah, I was planning to do something about that part separately, but fortunately, the change pattern matched well, so it’s room 67-17 where the infiltration route has been secured~”

“I see… I’ll send a signal to the squirrel to infiltrate at 0200 hours in the coming dawn.”

“No… It would be better for Saori to go directly. If possible, have Hiyori on standby.

Recently, the combat power of the child who is always next to Seia as a guard is quite unusual. It’s not as much as me, but even Saori would be quite overwhelmed.

Also, as there are guards, it would be bad to show Azusa’s appearance. Unless that child is completely retired, we’ll be caught.”

“Use code words here… No… But is that guard personnel that strong…?”

“Yeah, at least except for me, she can’t be defeated one-on-one.”

“I understand. We will proceed after recruiting related personnel and designing the operation. We will secure the Sanctus faction leader in the coming dawn.”

From the shadow of the gradually forming ark, the beginning of malice began.

Coming dawn. Today, I came to the guard duty after taking a sufficient rest.

Nagisa was absent, and only Seia and I remained in the panic room, conducting work.

-Thump……-

“The work will be completely finished in the near future. Then, Sora, you can also return to your original life.”

“Well… That’s right. I thought it would be impossible to rebuild, but somehow it was possible under the leadership of the two of you.”

Seia and I were chatting and helping her organize documents.

It was convenient for me to be attached to Seia to some extent for guarding, and incidentally, I could also help with work, so it had its own advantages.

-Thump…thump…-

“More than that, Seia… Are there rats in this panic room?”

“I thought there wouldn’t be because it’s being continuously managed… But it’s an old building, so there might be. At least when I came to this panic room last year, there weren’t any.

But since I’m hearing sounds little by little, I’ll tell the manager to check…”

“No… I’ll…go out for a moment…”

“Sora….?”

I calmly take the bayoneted Type 99 and the weapon case containing the Evolys and leave the panic room.

Daedalus is always carried in my pocket, so I didn’t need to worry about it.

The sound was heavy for a rat.

It could be a slightly large rat, but the interval between the sounds was long for a rat.

It was as if a person was crawling somehow.

In the meantime, I tried to minimize the sound as much as possible, so the sound was small for a person, even if it was large for a rat.

Therefore, the irregular interval and size of the sound made me sure that the protagonist of this sound was a person.

I go out into the hallway and slowly move to the source of the sound.

It was not the ceiling directly above the panic room, but the ceiling of the hallway a little distance away.

“… “

-Click, bang!-

I take out Daedalus and fire a shot at the ceiling.

“Why don’t you come down? I already know you’re there.”

I throw a number with words, provoking or probing, and take out only the empty cartridge from the cylinder of the Daedalus that I just fired and insert a new bullet.

“…Ha, you’re sharp, unlike the other guys who are soaked in peace.”

A woman wearing a hat and a mask breaks the ceiling tiles and comes down.

I put Daedalus in my pocket and check the opponent’s armament.

A SIG Sauer rifle and… The type is holstered, so I can’t confirm it, but is it a general pistol? The firepower is superior on my side.

It’s a hallway with no cover, so the conditions are also advantageous for me.

“Well… I don’t think you’ll tell me even if I interrogate you about who sent you, but I’ll ask for courtesy… Who sent you?”

“You know well. Will I tell you?”

“I see… Then…”

Because I received a refusal answer, I take out the Evolys from the weapon case and declare.

“Don’t think you’ll go smoothly.”

Two different muzzles pointed at each other.