“So, what do we do now?”
After the chaos, fear, and absurdity subsided, the Violets, who had somehow calmed down through certain measures, allowed No. 1 to finally speak.
In front of No. 1, one Violet lay collapsed on the floor.
It was No. 2.
Just moments ago, No. 2 had placed a self-defense pistol in her mouth and pulled the trigger.
Thanks to that, all of our heads cleared up.
Golden magical particles scattered, and No. 2’s corpse disappeared.
“…I didn’t think this would work.”
The regenerated No. 2 shook her head.
Once a negative emotion was generated and surpassed its threshold, it would sweep through the network of our minds, growing colossal in the process.
This amplified flame of emotion would then explode in a chain reaction, akin to nuclear fission, engulfing all of our minds in one fell swoop.
In this state, no matter how much we wanted to calm down with reasonable words or positive thoughts, it would be impossible.
To regain our composure, we needed a shock even greater than the emotions overwhelming our minds—something physical, for instance.
No. 2 raised her hand calmly and began explaining in a soft tone to the rest of us.
“Now, calm down. It’s just three months. And you know, right? We don’t die. All that’s changed is that we might have to leave the school a little sooner than planned. For now, maintaining the status quo seems like the right move.”
No. 7, who had been sitting with her arms crossed, glared at No. 2. To be precise, No. 7, who was in the school, sent the sensation of glaring at No. 2 through mental transmission.
“Idiot! Polaris is a massive petri dish! We’re just microbes cultivated on top of it. It’s no different from that secret lab we used to be in…!”
At the mention of “lab,” our minds, which had barely settled down, began to quake as if struck by an earthquake.
A lab? Oh, right.
That place where they electrocuted us on the necks every day, fed us disgusting baby food, and beat people up whenever they felt like it—that wretched place.
A pseudo-psychiatric ward where you couldn’t see the wind, the sun, or even dirt. And that sinister Ponytailed Woman!
I don’t even want to remember it.
That place holds nothing but terrible memories.
If it weren’t for Kalia, we wouldn’t have made it out of there head-on.
And…ugh, my head. My head is throbbing again. What is this blank memory that causes pain just from trying to recall it?
Moreover, aside from the psychological burden, there were also practical dangers remaining.
“They say it’s three months, but it could happen sooner. What about October? Or November? What if some researcher or scientist suddenly shouts, ‘Eureka!’ and finishes the plan in just a day or two?”
“They seemed to be planning something with ether waves. What if we turn into ghouls? We also need to consider the possibility that our unique abilities could be neutralized.”
Faced with this unexpected point, No. 2 fell silent, unable to think further. Taking advantage of the pause, the other Violets, who had been quiet until now, burst out.
“Yeah, let’s run! Didn’t we kill those researchers and escape for freedom?”
“That’s right! Three months, my foot. It could happen much sooner!”
“Let’s get out of here quickly! We’ve got money, don’t we? There’s nothing holding us back! We can get the Hunter Certification later!”
“Freedom! Freeeedoooom!”
As the excited Violets shouted one by one, the inside and outside of our collective minds became truly chaotic.
Before long, the discussion devolved into a waste disposal site, filled with meaningless emotions and garbage.
Amidst the chaos, No. 21, who had been clutching her head and leaning against the wall, suddenly remembered something and sprang to her feet.
“Hey, what about the others?”
“What do you mean…? Oh, them? Who cares if they live or die? Professor Albert said the same, didn’t he? This place is full of trash.”
Some of the Violets reacted indifferently, while others scoffed.
Having only seen the worst sides of this school, our affection for it had long since plummeted through the basement floor.
Evil schemes and impending tragedies objectively seemed bad, but I don’t know.
I just can’t find a reason why I need to be the one to stop it.
I just happened to fall into this world by chance, didn’t I?
And our goal is to lead a peaceful and comfortable life.
Sure, the shadows of Rustlum, the Academy City, are filled with sinister plots and various black operations, but if we close our eyes and live in the light, we could live a fun and easy life as long as we have enough money.
Saving the world?
Upholding justice?
That’s the task of a Scholar five years from now, not ours.
Most importantly, the enemy plotting schemes at the school right now is like a combination of a notorious private military company and a mega-corporation, capable of advancing a thousand kilometers toward a nation’s capital.
If we recklessly go up against them, the best-case scenario would be sipping bluish tea before the end.
The worst-case scenario?
We’d end up fighting against private armies from clans that hunt people down as persistently as exterminators dealing with cockroaches.
In such a case, we’d barely escape with our lives. Barely.
Seeing our horrific imagination play out, No. 21 waved her hands dismissively.
“I know! I’m not saying we should suddenly become champions of justice. But…”
No. 21 trailed off under everyone’s gaze before taking a deep breath.
“What about Daphne? What about Irene? Are we just going to leave them? I don’t know how they lived in the original story, but with us as variables, who knows what’ll happen now?”
No. 21’s words snapped us back to reality.
That’s right.
Those two are good people.
Forget about their roles as important characters in the game or the original story; none of that matters.
What matters is that they’re people who’ve had some interaction with us and even helped us before.
Just abandoning them didn’t sit right with our conscience.
“Then, if we feel the situation has gotten worse, let’s just get those two out. It’s not like we’re running away immediately, right?”
No. 35, who had remained silent throughout the conversation, dug something out of her memory and presented it to us.
“What about that girl who thanked us with a cake? And that big guy who carried me to the infirmary when I was passed out from a hangover?”
“Their names were…Levi, and, uh, what was the other one? Granite? Fine. We see them in class sometimes and say hi, so let’s get them out later too.”
With that, our discussion came to an end.
Everyone dispersed and went off to their respective workplaces.
Well, most headed to their beds rather than workplaces since we hadn’t done deliveries or hunting in a while.
Although we had a calm conversation with each other, making things a bit better than before, a corner of my heart still felt unsettled.
Is this the right thing to do?
Most of the people at the school are strangers, and we’ve seen plenty of bad sides.
Even so, there must be a few innocent people among them.
Even if some of the culprits aren’t outright terrible, it still feels off letting them die or turn into ghouls.
I couldn’t explain it, but knowing that an unprecedented disaster was coming and just standing by felt wrong.
What would the Scholar have done?
Suddenly, the protagonists of this game, the siblings Saiges and Sophiel, came to mind.
I thought that since they were the protagonists, they must have somehow resolved things by gathering students and allies.
‘Ugh, I don’t know.’
Before I realized it, I was hungry.
Now that I thought about it, I hadn’t even eaten breakfast.
I needed to resolve that quickly.
-Thud!
Huh, there was a noise coming from the corner of the storage room.
It was the sound of something hitting the floor and breaking.
Did one of us make a mistake? But no one seemed flustered.
The source of the noise came from one side of the room.
「That room…weren’t we using it earlier? Now that I think about it, the person we captured…」
Bang!
The man kicked the door open and bolted out.
Caught off guard by the sudden situation, all our gazes turned to him.
At the same time, we collectively twisted our heads to look at him.
“Freedom!…Wait, what?”
Ulric, who had rushed out with a spirited cry, stopped in his tracks. His eyes widened as big as lanterns.
It was only natural. Reflected in his pupils were more than ten identical girls.
“Huh…what…again…the same girl…clones?”
Ulric seemed to forget his escape plans and froze in place. His hands trembled as he pointed at us with a dazed expression.
It looked like he was stammering in shock.
「Oh right! We forgot to dispose of that guy while we were having our discussion. It’s about time the sedatives wore off.」
「What?」
The Violets were startled.
Wait, that man. Did he just see our faces?
Our thoughts aligned at the speed of lightning, and we charged like a thunderstorm.
“Catch him!”
“Charge! Charge!”
“Ahhh! AAAAAHHH!”
The man finally came to his senses and tried to run, but in the blink of an eye, he was tackled to the ground by the Violets.
It turned out he had freed himself from the ropes by breaking a chair in the room.
The chair must have been old, so he had smashed it against the floor and used the fragments to loosen his restraints.
“Mon…monster! A clone army! Save me! Someone, please sa…mmph! Mmph!”
He screamed at the top of his lungs, so we covered his mouth first.
I had thought he was just an ordinary scholar, but seeing him escape and attempt to flee, he was much more resourceful than I had expected.
And now, he had seen our faces. There was no way we could let him go.
“What should we do? Kill him?”
The man flinched, and his face turned pale at one of the Violet’s murmured words, despite the gag in his mouth.
For now, we knocked him unconscious with a blow to the back of his head.
We deliberated over how to deal with the unconscious Ulric.
「Kill him? Are you insane? He’s an innocent man!」
「But he saw our faces! If our unique abilities are exposed, we’ll be in trouble!」
「We already looked into this man. He’s lived an honest life without doing anything bad. If we can’t release him, let’s at least lock him up in our home! We even have a spare room and some restraints we acquired when planning that old kidnapping operation.」
「What? Are you seriously suggesting we drag him to our hideout?…Hmm, that does sound plausible.」
Killing an innocent person was undoubtedly wrong. However, now that he had seen our secret, letting him go was not an option.
If rumors started to spread about a group of countless identical girls, the advantage of Violets being able to appear anywhere would vanish.
Until we came up with a better solution, keeping him under our supervision was the safest course of action.
「Look at this, the screen is full of text messages. They’re from Professor Sturgis.」
Ulric’s smartphone was filled with messages asking for his participation in a project. One contact was saved as ‘Advisor,’ and the others were unknown.
We had already extracted all the important data.
We destroyed the smartphone immediately, gathered the fragments, and planned to burn and melt them completely later.
「Team at the hideout, clean out one of the unused rooms and bring some locks. We’re heading up now.」
In the end, we decided to detain this Ulric for the time being.
Looking at the unconscious man, I felt a bit sorry.
He was going through unnecessary suffering because of us.
「Since this is our fault for capturing him, let’s make sure he gets the best treatment, including meals and other amenities. We should even pay him a salary.」
「Agreed.」
We securely restrained Ulric with ropes and handcuffs, loaded him into the back of a truck, and prepared to head to the central district.
We had also cleaned up all traces, so there was no need to worry about being tracked.
Just as we were about to start the engine and leave, an emergency signal came from one of the Violets at the school.
It was from the Violet stationed in the underground facility.
「Hey! Guys! Listen up! This is bad! Right now…!」
Suddenly, a powerful psychic shockwave swept through us.
“Kyahhh!”
My vision went black.