Episode 133 – Lion Cub (2)

Lion Cub (2)

I descended into the basement of the museum. I was practically driven out.

In case of any unforeseen circumstances, the B-codes were assigned to monitor the solitary cells, and a strict no-entry order was issued to C-codes like me.

Disobeying the order would result in an immediate execution.

Ziiing-! Ziiing-!

In the basement, an excavator was digging the ground, and nearby, the lower-ranking masked men from D~F were digging to create stairs.

For reference, the codes are differentiated by masks. A large alphabet letter and number are written right in the center.

Wiiing- Wiiing-

Machines resembling trays seemed to detect magical waves rising from the ground, whining, and the researchers in white gowns were busily calculating while looking at their computers.

The prime time for artifact theft is probably within 4~5 days. A magical sandstorm is currently raging in the desert, so there’s still time, but whether the operation will succeed or fail is unknown.

“……Hmm.”

I fell into thought as I observed the site.

I only have fragmentary memories about the armed organization called [Night Moon]. It’s not an organization that traffics drugs in Edsilla. I just know that they’ve made quite a name for themselves among neighboring countries.

“……”

I’m not sure what artifact they’re looking for, but the radar of 「Treasure Hunter」 just activated.

─This doesn’t seem to be the correct spot. We will temporarily stop the operation of the excavator.

They are digging in the wrong place. The researcher is constantly modifying the path of the excavator while calculating the waves under the ground. Still, they are searching in the wrong area. I could help and finish it quickly, but for now, they are digging in the wrong spot.

“C03.”

Then two men approached me.

“You fought with B04 again.”

I casually looked at them and was surprised.

“No matter what, she’s a higher code. You should respect her during the operation.”

They were the two men who died three hours ago, having been stabbed in the neck while trying to untangle the electrical wires in the museum hall.

The corpses have come back to life and were talking to me.

“……Ha.”

I let out a hollow laugh. [Night Moon] had no intention of causing casualties from the start.

They only ‘acted’ as if they were killing people for intimidation.

On the other hand, I……

I felt a bit heavy.

“C03. Apologize to B04 later.”

What happened to the original owner of this face—C03.

To be honest, he’s dead.

I killed him.

His body will never be found. I buried it in the ashes.

“Ah. Yeah. Sure.”

C03’s real name was Dumas.

I don’t know about his family relations. The extraction of Memory from the 「Notepad」 organizes only the most recent and intense ones.

Among Dumas’s recent memories were kidnapping and murder.

I don’t hesitate to kill people, but I ‘hope’. I hope that the people I kill are deserving of death.

It’s a pitiful and cowardly wish.

─The probability that this point is also wrong is high. Let’s tilt the angle a little more.

The researchers are controlling the excavator while tapping on their computers.

I sigh at the sight of these clueless guys. When such ink-like guys hold the operational authority, it becomes unbearably suffocating.

If the work drags on, it won’t be good for me or for Elise, who is locked up.

“……Wait a minute.”

Suddenly, a thought crossed my mind.

What if I were to assist [Night Moon] here?

If I were to aid in excavating the relics and expedite the resolution of this incident.

Perhaps I could thwart Petra’s intentions of ‘abusing’ Elise, at the very least.

“Let’s give it a shot.”

It’s better than doing nothing.

With a shrug, I called out loudly to the ink-stained workers on the site.

“Hey! Over there!”

The researchers and masked men turned to look at me.

“You seem to be completely off the mark?”

“……”

The workers fell silent for a moment but soon blatantly ignored me.

“We’re adjusting the position of the excavator. Tilt it 0.83 degrees to the right.”

They quickly returned to their futile digging.

“0.83 degrees, you’re kidding me. I told you, you’re completely wrong.”

I snatched a shovel from one of the masked men at the bottom.

And then, on the exact opposite side of the excavator, at a point the workers hadn’t even considered, I jabbed the shovel in.

“I…C04 think it’s here, so dig here.”

In this group, everyone, including myself, is referred to by a codename.

It was a mistake, but fortunately, no one was interested in me. They seemed accustomed to ignoring my impulsive actions.

Thud!

I dug with the shovel.

* * *

Elise woke up from her sleep. Her throat and chest still felt constricted.

She tossed and turned, looking up at the ceiling. There was a wall.

She lowered her gaze. There was another wall.

Walls on all sides.

─Meow.

A cat’s cry echoed in the suffocating silence.

A tiny creature, nestled inside the product.

“It… wasn’t a dream.”

She had hoped it was all a dream. Elise pressed her trembling temples.

Suddenly, she realized her hands were free.

“?”

Her restraints had been removed. Elise sat up in a daze. She touched her hands, which bore the marks of the restraints, and thought.

“……”

What happened to Shion?

She would be relieved if he was imprisoned like her.

It would be terrible if he was being tortured.

The worst would be….

A knife lodged in the throat, the surge of blood.

The worst scenario that made her heart flutter just by imagining it.

─Meow.

Then the cat gave a weak smile.

As if to say, don’t worry, everything will be okay.

“But why… you seem to be in pain too.”

The cat didn’t look well either. It seemed to be suffering.

Should I try to dig the ground?

“Huh!”

Elise activated her telekinesis, but the floor didn’t budge.

Not only was her magic circuit not fully functional, but this place was an ancient mage prison. She could feel a force suppressing her magic.

Unbeknownst to her, the cat, Grawl, was also powerless due to this influence.

“……Ah.”

Elise staggered and fell.

Telekinesis didn’t work. It didn’t work at all.

─Meow.

The cat cried again. Was it worried? Elise held it in her arms.

“It’s going to be okay……”

It seemed to calm her a bit, but in reality, it didn’t. It just felt like it.

Her post-traumatic stress disorder was not that simple.

Claustrophobia, fear of solitude, various compulsions and traumas, and even a magical inhabitation were practically a curse.

Even with the help of the cat, she could barely cope, but this cramped space was more threatening to her than a sea full of razor blades.

“……Haah.”

She was already gasping for air, but she could endure.

No, she must endure.

Beyond enduring, she must escape.

She must endure stubbornly and find a way, any way, to escape.

Only then can she save Shion.

* * *

I spent the whole day digging with a shovel. The researchers initially ignored me, but my digging became a problem because it was too professional.

Compared to the excavator that seemed to modify its route here and there, I had confidently broken through one point and gone down, so I had dug deeper than the excavator before I knew it.

“C03! What are you doing!”

Because of this, some higher-up code rushed over, fuming.

“Who said you could dig the ground as you please!”

B01.

He’s not the mastermind of this operation. That crazy guy who likes classical music is A09. He’s probably listening to classical music alone in the museum director’s office now.

“I thought this point was correct. I’m digging alone, aren’t I?”

“Lunatic! What does C03 know?! Do you know Magic?!”

I ignored his raging voice as if I was deaf.

“Well, if you look at that dish, you’ll know. There should be artifact waves coming up from below here. I can feel it.”

“What do you feel, you crazy bastard!”

Just as B01 was about to slap me.

Click-

Someone grabbed his wrist. I turned to look.

It was B04. The electric manipulator who had subdued Elise.

“B01. C03 is under B04.”

…I see.

I was her subordinate.

Anyway, B04 protected me. B01, enraged by this, cooled down instead.

“B04. Are you also rebelling against the higher code?”

“If there is a mistake in the subordinate, the superior is responsible. Hey!”

B04 spoke to the researcher.

“Bring the dish.”

“…It’s not a dish, it’s a magic wave detection antenna-”

“Whatever!”

Then, the researcher brought the dish. I tilted it towards the hole I had dug and turned on the power.

“B04. Before you are his superior, there is the organization’s discipline.”

Meanwhile, magic was gathering in B01’s body. His anger was seething from inside his mask.

He’s quite strong. At least much stronger than Elise right now.

“A lower code rebelling against a higher code-”

“-Amplitude, amplitude detected!”

Then the researcher shouted loudly.

Wiiing─! Wiiing─!

The antenna detecting the magic wave also cried out like a siren.

“This is the place!”

Wiiiiiiing─────!

Wiiiiiiing─────!

The antenna, cursing loudly, shook the underground greatly.

“……”

“……”

B01 and B04 paused for a moment, and the rest of the researchers and lower ranks all rushed to the hole I had dug.

I shrugged my shoulders.

“I told you. It seems to be here.”

B04 and B01 looked back at me.

Among them, my direct superior, the electric manipulator B04, asked.

“…C03. How did you know?”

“Does that matter? We need to dig quickly and excavate. Count this as part of my responsibility, too.”

I picked up the shovel I had been using until just now.

“The rest of you, grab a shovel. What are you doing!”

I shouted at the lower rank masks with codes D~F.

“Dig the ground! Dig quickly, and let’s go home!”

* * *

Elise was digging into the earth. No matter how much she poured out her telekinesis, it was useless, so she dug with her own hands.

She dug the soil using her fingernails, raked it out with a piece of rock she found by chance, and when the rock piece broke, she used her nails again.

“———!”

While screaming out her feelings, as if she were about to burst, she felt like she was going mad.

She was digging into the earth.

All day long, she was digging into the earth with all her might.

Before she knew it, her hands were speckled with blood, her skin was peeling off, her nails were torn, her breath was blocked, her heart was pounding, she was nauseous, and even when she felt like maggots were flowing from her mouth, she continued.

She continued to dig into the earth.

But still……

There was no answer.

No matter how much she dug, she only went a little deeper, escape seemed impossible. No matter how deep she dug, it didn’t seem like she could get out of here.

“……Ah.”

Elise finally collapsed.

She lay flat on the ground, covered in dirt.

─……Meow.

Even this kitten approaching her seemed to have no strength left. It’s scary because it felt as if something were to happen to it before it happened to her.

Holding the creature in her arms, Elise murmured faintly.

“……I’m sorry.”

She thought of Shion blankly.

Is he dead or alive?

Is he dead?

Is he alive?

Is he dead?

Is he alive?

She felt her mind slipping, her thoughts growing fuzzy.

It’s strange.

Why am I here, and why were you here?

What the hell are we doing here?

It’s because of those damn masked people.

For a moment, her heart tightened. Her chest felt constricted.

The pain of feeling like dying but not dying. That time when she trembled under the unbearable pressure.

───♬.

A small sound flowed in. It was a classical melody.

At first, Elise, who was listening without any thought, suddenly perked up her ears.

Life seeped into her dried eyes.

“……!”

She quickly got up.

This music, with the piano melody echoing from the prelude, is…….

* * *

─One day and 16 hours.

Exactly 40 hours later.

“We’ve confirmed the entity!”

[Night Moon] secured the relic, and as soon as they heard the news, A09, the planner, came down to the basement.

B01 ran up quickly, saluted, and reported.

“A09. Excavation is a matter of time. We’re currently lowering the temperature of the external magic layer surrounding the relic.”

A09 nodded satisfactorily.

“Good.”

Then, suddenly, he turned his gaze towards me. He looked at me directly and laughed with a ha-ha chuckle.

What’s going on?

“C03.”

He called my code and approached.

“I’ve watched everything. C03, you led the operation and the way you dug the tunnel with momentum.”

Where did he watch from? Is there a camera?

“Despite not being a higher code, your drive to face failure, your belief in yourself, and your courage were indeed commendable.”

He put his hand on my shoulder.

“So, I had a conversation with Alpha Code.”

Alpha Code is probably the big boss of [Night Moon]. I have a feeling it is.

“C03. From now on, you are not C03.”

B01 watched with envious eyes.

A09 finished his sentence.

“It’s C01. A two-step promotion, the first promotion in three years.”

“…….”

A two-step promotion. I’m not sure whether to be happy or not.

The C03 in heaven would be grateful for this promotion, no.

Moreover, A09 seems to have more to say.

“C01. Do you have a favorite piece of music?”

Again, it’s about music.

He seems to be obsessed with classical music, but that’s possible. Especially if it’s related to the 「Spectrum」.

“There’s nothing in particular…….”

I was about to say – when suddenly, a piece of classical music popped into my head.

I asked A09.

“Can you play it throughout the museum? So that even the person trapped in the prison can hear it.”

“Of course. What’s the music?”

Music, classical.

The one I’m thinking of now is someone’s name.

The name of the person who is still suffering greatly in prison, not because of anyone else, but because of her own family – that person’s name.

“……’For Elise’.”

* * *

The flowing melody was familiar to Elise.

It was the classical piece she hated the most because it was familiar.

It was the music that the young nobles, full of jealousy and malice, used to mock her when she was still too young and weak.

“……Huh.”

But, strangely enough, she enjoyed listening to it now.

Her body and mind were already twisted and seemed about to tear apart at any moment.

But a smile formed at the corners of her mouth.

“He must be safe.”

She murmured and blinked her eyes. The tension was instantly relieved, and at the same time, she let go of her consciousness.

Perhaps it had been slowly wearing away for a long time.

And so, when she quietly fell.

──Screech.

The iron door of the solitary cell opened. A light like sunlight poured in. At the same time, many footsteps rushed in.

They were the masked men of the Order.

“Get her out.”

In the midst of the increasingly loud classical melody, they lifted Elise up. Elise was dragged out limply, and she quickly looked back into the prison.

She tried to find the cat that had been helping her all this time, but it was nowhere to be found.

It was not visible anywhere in the corner.

“……?”

Could it have been a hallucination?

Elise’s body was wrapped around the electric wire again. She was handed over to someone.

Elise looked up at him.

The alphabet marked on the mask was C.

Thump.

The number was not 03, but 01.

Shion is C03.

This man is C01.

Meaning he’s not Shion.

Disappointment.

Elise didn’t show it, but suddenly.

C01 pulled her close and whispered softly.

“From now on, I’m going to kidnap you.”

“…….”

Something, a voice that tickles the ear.

A voice that makes her eyes wide.

It’s Shion.

Elise looked up at him slightly. Then she quickly bowed her head again. She smiled while looking at the ground so as not to be caught.