“Wow… amazing. This is so unreal. How could they withstand that? They kept claiming to be the strongest in the Millennium… but it was all just hot air.”
I said it mockingly, but I was serious.
Do you know how confusing it is to wake up tied to what feels like a hospital bed after losing consciousness?
No matter how superhuman my powers are, if there’s no room to use them, I am utterly powerless.
From my wrists to just below my shoulders, I was completely strapped down like a mummy, so even trying to exert strength in my arms was futile. The situation with my legs wasn’t much better.
Neru’s treatment was even worse than mine, though.
At least I was lying down properly; in stark contrast, Neru was face down on the floor, limbs tied behind her back… Uh, yeah, that looks pretty unfortunate.
Anyway, the implication of this situation was clear. Despite my best efforts to deal with Aabi Eshuh, Neru couldn’t gain the upper hand against Toki.
However, listening to me, Neru seemed genuinely indignant.
“Ugh?! I didn’t lose! I didn’t lose! What do you expect me to do about Rion shoving all those tin cans at me right after I finally win?!”
“If it were me, I would have won.”
“…Kyaaaaaa!!!”
What on earth is she so upset about?
As I threw that loaded comment at her, Neru started flailing and screeching. I tried to cover my ears for the sake of my eardrums, but alas, my arms were bound, so my escape from reality was foiled.
“XX… You really need to do something about that mouth of yours—”
“Neru, quiet.”
That’s when Rion’s voice reached my ears.
Clack clack. Soon, footsteps followed.
Unlike the mess that Neru and I were, there was Rion, looking impeccably neat. The moment her gaze met mine, she hastily turned her eyes to Neru.
The way she blatantly avoided making eye contact with me made it seem like she was more conscious of me than I had imagined.
Even without her behaving like this, based on how she’s acted toward me today, I could kind of guess what was on her mind.
“…Ugh?! Oh, right! You! You just happen to show up! What the heck were you thinking? Last year, you made a fuss over me having a misunderstanding with Mika, and now here you are pulling the same stunt? Are you messing with me right now?!”
“Shut it. Toki, move Neru somewhere else.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Hey, Rion! You’re ignoring me—Wait, you’re not going to let her—?! Let her go!!!”
The sight of Toki picking up Neru was anything but dignified, even if I had to say it as a compliment. It looked like Neru’s claim of winning was, in all likelihood, true.
Congratulations, Neru, you managed to keep your pride as the strongest in the Millennium and uphold your dignity as a senior. Awesome.
It would have been nice if she had pushed herself just a bit more…
“Now that the noisy distractions are gone… I’ll take my time showing you what I’m going to do with you.”
Rion walked closer to me and lowered her head. Just a moment ago, she was avoiding my gaze, and now she was looking me in the eye? How strange.
“First of all, there’s nothing seriously wrong with your body. Just some minor injuries, and a day or two of rest will fix you right up. The only serious injury, your hand, will heal quickly with proper treatment.”
“…I see. Okay. So why exactly am I tied up like this?”
“Because it would be troublesome if you tried to interfere with me again. That’s all.”
“Hahaha, that’s right. Aabi Eshuh or whatever can’t be used for now, and it seems Toki has really put Neru in her place… If I had even a little bit of freedom to move, you wouldn’t have been able to stop me.”
“Let’s just go with that for now.”
Let’s just go with that? Does that mean there’s something else going on?
While I pondered that question, Rion’s hair brushed against my cheek. Her hand was now gently stroking the scar on my shoulder.
“Mika, you need to stay like this until everything is settled.”
“…Rion, are you really not considering future ramifications at all?”
“I’ll be stepping down as the Student Council President after this incident, so I can’t see you as someone who’d hold accountability in a Millennium without me. Was that just my misunderstanding?”
…She’s clever. If Rion is absent, holding anyone accountable in the Millennium means burdening Noa with tons of work. It’s highly unlikely I’d want that to happen.
“I don’t know, that might not be certain. Enough about that. What do you plan to do next?”
“…”
Rion paused for a moment before grabbing my right hand, which was wrapped in bandages while I was unconscious.
“I plan to call Aris here.”
“Okay. And then?”
“I need to talk to her. To lay everything out honestly…”
“And then?”
“And then…”
Rion withdrew her hand. She straightened her back and yet again avoided making eye contact with me.
“And then… I’ll have to tell Aris to die for everyone’s sake. To completely eliminate the possibility of destruction, you have to die…”
Rion bit her lip and fully turned her back on me, as if to say she wouldn’t allow me to try and persuade her.
But I wasn’t going to give up that easily.
This was a matter of Aris’s life and Rion’s humanity.
“Rion, do you know something? There’s a contradiction in what you’re saying.”
“…What?”
“You say you want to kill Aris, but why then. Why did you develop a weapon aimed at the Nameless Princess to confront Aabi Eshuh?”
“No, that’s wrong. That was meant to confront you—”
“At first, you said it was created to face the Nameless Princess, not me, right? So your words contradict each other.”
With my assertion, I could see Rion tremble slightly. I decided to press Rion further.
“Don’t say you created it just to prepare for the possibility that the Nameless Princess awakens after Aris dies. If that were the case, the right choice would be to fully trust Aris until the end and that would be the most rational option.”
“…That might be true. But even with that trust, if the Nameless Priests decided to make their move despite Aris’s will, what do you plan to do then? If, by any chance, Aris fully awakens as the Nameless Princess, all that awaits us is total destruction and ruin—”
“And that’s why we’re doing everything we can to prevent that from happening, right? And if, by any chance, Aris does awaken as the Princess… well, we’ll just have to come together and stop it.”
Seeing Rion remaining silent, I was confident that I had shaken her resolve.
If I continued to persuade her like this…
“No. We can’t gamble on a single chance like that. That’s just an absurdly pathetic thing to even express as something that can be described as unreasonable.”
“Rion…”
“It’s unacceptable to overlook something that can be sufficiently preempted while walking a path where even a single failure is intolerable… at the very least, we should assess what’s at stake. And in this situation, what’s at stake is the very existence of Kivotos, Mika.”
I realized that Rion’s unyielding words made her ears half shut to my pleas.
The saddest part is that there’s no flaw in her reasoning.
Rion’s argument fundamentally has a problem in that it assumes someone will have to sacrifice themselves, yet it still makes sense.
It’s absolutely reasonable—sacrificing one person for the greater good of the majority…
The weight of every life in Kivotos stands in stark contrast to that of a single life.
It’s meaningless to weigh whose life is more precious, but when the numbers difference is this vast, a single life becomes so small.
“Mika, think of the trolley dilemma. On your left, there are five people, and on the right, there’s one. If you can only save one side, which one do you choose? I won’t accept a response that dilutes the essence of the dilemma, like saving both.”
Rion still wouldn’t look at me. With her back turned, she pretended to be urging me to give up in my attempts to convince her.
No, maybe “pleading” would be a more appropriate term.
“…”
“The rational choice would obviously be to save the five, but making that choice isn’t as easy as it sounds. To weigh a person’s life with my own hands is like this. One against five, one instead of ten. Twenty, a hundred, a thousand, and beyond—nothing changes. In the end, what remains is just the fact that my choice led to someone’s death.”
If I could save everyone by sacrificing one person…
I chewed on that thought and inadvertently blurted out a response.
“I still won’t accept it. No, I can’t.”
“Mika, whether you accept it or not means nothing in this situation.”
“But—”
“…I hope you can think rationally. Mika.”
Hearing Rion’s words, I bit my lip. Think rationally?
Ahaha.
“If things go on like this, an innocent student who is beloved by those around them will disappear forever… and on the surface, it may not seem so, but another seemingly tough student will only be crushed by guilt and end up tearing their own heart apart.”
“You find me weak-hearted? How intriguing.”
“Hey, just because you say that doesn’t mean it’s not true, you know?”
“Let’s take a break from this, Mika.”
Ugh, how devious…!
Clack. Clack.
“Wait…! Ugh…”
I reached out to catch Rion as she walked away, but my restrained arms just mocked me.
…Ah. It’d be bad if I let Rion leave like this.
But how on earth could I persuade that stubborn girl?
I honestly couldn’t think of any possible way…
“…Oh. I’ll make sure to bring you simple meals on time, so you don’t need to worry about starving.”
Damn it. The important thing right now isn’t about my meal, you stubborn girl.
With that, Rion stubbornly ignored me and walked away.
Left alone in the sealed space, I let out a heavy sigh. Everything really went catastrophically wrong.
…Now what do I do?
