The bus was normal for a while.
Just the usual bus where the people who always fought kept fighting, and the people who wanted to have fun kept having fun.
We even got into a few battles now and then. More or less, that was how things went.
Then, as time kept passing...
Yuri suddenly raised a question.
"Um, but..."
"I have the map, but... how are we supposed to know where we're going?"
Good question.
...
No answer.
Could it be we were heading in the wrong direction right now?
Considering that the bus's guide was Mr. Vergilius...
Mr. Vergilius, this is dereliction of duty!
Just as that thought reached that point, Charon answered.
"That is..."
"By feeling. Charon's feeling."
...Huh?
"Whaaat?!"
Yuri, who had always seemed so calm, made an expression of utter shock and said that.
So she could make a face like that too.
Anyway, once Yuri realized we were going the wrong way, she held up the map and thrust it in front of Charon.
"Pink hair, why are you blocking Charon's view with that weird piece of paper?"
"Because we keep going in weird directions! Look at this map. The way we're headed is southeast..."
Charon gave the map a quick glance and said, "Where the heart points. There lies the true road."
"Well said! We must all advance toward where our hearts point!"
"Miss Don Quixote?, I think this is a slightly different matter..."
...My words didn't get through either.
"...So you're just a hopeless direction idiot who can't even read a map."
"I had no idea you'd say exactly what I wanted to say."
Yuri and Ishmael both pressed a hand to their foreheads.
Anyone watching would think they'd rehearsed it.
"Oh! Our little knight, did you make a friend?"
Rodion said that in a bright voice, apparently pleased to see the two of them huddled together.
"Pink hair keeps chattering. I know the way."
"No, I mean the direction is wrong..."
"There's another obstacle ahead. Vroom vroom, should Charon?"
"No, Charon. Wait a second."
Bang!
Something struck the side of the bus.
"Hey! That bus looks pretty damn nice! Let me ride it too!"
More attackers?
I didn't mind attackers coming, but they kept picking fights with the same lines and the same tone, so it was getting stale.
Was there some kind of back-alley rat academy somewhere?
"...Looks like it's Mephistopheles's dessert time."
"Don't get off... I still need to feed it some more."
I said to Yuri, who looked exhausted.
"Miss Yuri, it's easier if you just give up."
I'd already given up.
As long as they didn't do anything to me, whatever. Was it such a big deal to get the direction a little wrong?
Yuri looked like she had a great deal to say, but she didn't say a word and got off the bus.
Combat is boring.
No, to be more precise, it had become boring.
How could there be any tension when the same kinds of people in the same kinds of outfits kept charging at us?
After feeding Mephi without incident again today and climbing back onto the bus, Yuri once more approached Charon with the map as the bus was about to depart.
I was curious how she'd teach Charon, so I went over and listened in.
"Charon, is this east or west?"
"Ah, Miss Yuri, even so, that's..."
"Charon only knows two directions. The front of Mephi and the back of Mephi."
I held my head.
No, what kind of bus driver doesn't even know that much?
"How did someone who doesn't even know directions drive a bus until now?"
I couldn't help but sympathize with Yuri's words.
"Indeed..."
"Charon... so, the side where the sun rises is..."
Sinclair was teaching Charon directions at her eye level.
No, what exactly had that man Vergilius been doing if he hadn't even taught her this much?
Apparently the sight of the bus's three children huddled together was adorable, because Rodion said to Don Quixote,
"Pfft... kiddo~ shouldn't you be in there too?"
"How rude! I am no child! Nor am I a kiddo!"
Don Quixote said that while waving her hands furiously.
She was a kiddo through and through.
"...Yuri must've had some pretty bad experiences from a young age."
"...It's not like I was especially young either. There was a Nest where if you could hold a sword, they'd send you straight into the war."
...A heavy conversation drifted from behind me.
As Mr. Gregor said, Wings are cruel.
A corporation that can use any person for its own profit.
Once I thought that far, the sympathy I'd deliberately buried deep inside me for Yuri raised its head.
How much hardship had Yuri gone through, with her rich emotions—emotions that seemed appropriate for her age?
How much pain had she endured after the Wing she worked for suddenly collapsed, then spent her whole life wearing that mark, until she finally grew numb to the humiliation and oppression that followed it?
The inside of my mouth turned bitter.
...I shouldn't be thinking useless things.
"Did that sort of thing happen often?"
"Not exactly never."
"...Manager, do you seem to have a lot of questions about war?"
"Ah, it's less that I'm curious and more that I'm trying to gather information a manager ought to know..."
Dante's words were cut off.
Rather than intentionally interrupting, maybe he'd been left speechless by the sight of Mr. Gregor staring into the distance with an empty look in his eyes.
"I'm not saying that posture is a bad thing, Manager. If anything, isn't it a good one? I'd say it's the model of a superior."
Then Mr. Gregor took out a cigarette case and slowly continued.
"Still, personally, I think not knowing something when you can is a chance in itself."
"Once you know it, you'll never be able to not know it again."
And then he said no more, lighting his cigarette.
"No, you should've turned right just now!"
"I-It's okay, Charon. If we go a little farther and turn, we can still get to the right road."
"Ahh... the life of a knight is arduous."
"Well... what matters more right now seems to be knowing the way to our destination. Isn't that right, Manager?"
Mr. Gregor lightened the mood after hearing the trio up front.
What did war mean to him?
...Probably, in terms of timing, the only war Mr. Gregor could have taken part in was the most recent Wing war, the Smoke War.
Had he participated in that war?
The thought didn't last long.
"Enough bickering. Enemy ahead again."
Right. Another battle, damn it.
"You bastards stuffed my friends onto the bus! Have you lost your minds?"
"I won't let this slide! I only wanted the bus, but now I'm killing all of you too!"
What incredible loyalty.
They must have watched their friends get cut down in an instant, and yet they still came at us.
"Verg, the fuel's being noisy. Charon gets dizzy when more than two people are noisy."
"No need to worry, Charon. They'll be quiet from here on out."
"Everyone off."
Could I maybe rest? I'm really tired.
Of course, I didn't say it out loud. I didn't have that kind of courage.
Battle, and battle, and battle again.
I know they weren't fighting just for the sake of simple violence, but when ambushes come this constantly, it wears you down.
I'm exhausted. I'm tired, damn it. I'm a person too, a person!
Unlike me, already old and sick and worn down by everything, Yuri went straight to Charon as soon as the battle ended and started teaching her how to read the map again.
"Now, let's look at the map again."
"......"
Ah, she's not listening.
"Charon, I told you not to tune me out."
The yellow chick's immediate restraint.
Hang in there, Sinclair! You're teaching Charon how to read a map!
As I watched the three of them with those pointless thoughts in my head, I heard the now-familiar sound of a clock.
"This bus was made exclusively for Limbus Company, right?"
"More precisely, it should be called a bus made just for us."
Interpreting Faust's words, did that mean this was a bus used only by this branch of Limbus Company?
"It seems you think that's what it means."
"...How strange. I didn't think I was going to put that into words."
Dante seemed not to understand.
Fair enough.
"You don't need to tick tock to figure that much out."
"Faust knows nothing."
"In any case, if it's exclusive, then it must have taken quite a while to make. That... 'mouth' attached to the side of the bus too."
"It only took as long as expected."
"......"
"......"
The conversation stopped.
Anyway, Faust's way of speaking that leaves people speechless really is something.
With that self-important tone of hers, any answer usually circles back to "because Faust is a genius."
"Faust is a genius. Faust knows everything in the City."
See? It comes back around like that.
"Hey, if you're that exceptional, why don't you go up front and find the road for us? Those idiots have been so noisy I can't sleep."
"Faust is not a busybody. Faust answers what is asked, but does not speak of what is not asked."
"And besides, it is one of the most delightful things for humans to ponder deeply in order to realize something. Faust does not wish to spoil the punchline."
"You'd have to have actually pondered something deeply to sympathize."
I could see Heathcliff's hand tightening at Ishmael's sarcasm, but...
"Tch..."
He was easily suppressed by Vergilius's gaze alone.
And I shut my eyes tightly.
"Why is he so twisted..."
"Hah. Looks like you and I get along pretty well, Manager."
"Well, there can be people like that. Not that I'm fond of it."
With Mr. Gregor and me snickering to ourselves, the bus started moving again.