The one who had ordered the beheading of our Manager, Mr. Dante's head, continued speaking with shameless composure.
"Then you are untainted, and your journey shall suffer no disadvantage."
"Of course, you must also leave that filthy vehicle behind."
"Listen here, what kind of nonsense is that? Hey, no matter how much we might look like easy marks, you think we'd just go along with that?"
The irritated Mr. Heathcliff was the first to abandon the role of harmless traveler.
"Heathcliff... to think you'd look at me that way..."
"You worthless lot, tsk. Who do you think you are, telling me to kneel?"
"······."
Wait, at this rate, a fight was about to start immediately.
I had no intention of avoiding combat, but when the other side had shown no hostility yet, there was no need to begin a righteous brawl like this.
"Hold on a second, Mr. Heathcliff."
After finishing my thought, I stopped Mr. Heathcliff, and I could feel him staring at me in disbelief.
Of course, once it had started, I had no intention of stopping it now.
"So, uh... Mr. Inquisitor? What you want from us is for us to cut off that clock-headed thing's head, right?"
I slowly walked forward while tossing out a suitably casual line.
"That is correct."
"And then you want us to kneel and offer our contribution."
"That too is correct."
As I dragged the conversation out and approached, I was soon close enough that if I lunged at the self-proclaimed inquisitor, my attack would land.
"...What is your intent in approaching so closely?"
"That would be..."
He must have sensed what I was about to do, because he raised the weapon in his hand and took a defensive stance.
That was a mistake.
Possibilities overlapped, and new experiences began to surface little by little.
At the same time, I threw my whole body into a tackle against the man wielding the weapon, just as I had done to that K Corp employee.
Thud!
He clearly hadn't expected someone with a spear to come crashing in with their entire body, and his stance collapsed as expected.
The moment I saw that, I violently jabbed the spear into the open eye slit of his helmet and tore into his head.
Krrrk—
"People who spout nonsense always seem to like having it corrected one by one. So, how's that for an answer?"
The inquisitors lined up behind him, unable to keep up with the sudden turn of events, only then took their stances as if preparing to attack.
"I see clearly now. You are heretics."
"All units, prepare for combat!"
The battle signal rang out from both sides.
First, I should give the necessary instructions before the fight.
"From the look of it, those guys are weak to blunt force. Focus on smashing them rather than cutting them."
"···?"
The prisoners seemed rather uncomfortable with my changed demeanor and looked at me with dubious expressions.
Still, did it matter?
What I cared about now was what kind of movements they would show, or what unusual attack patterns they would use.
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Men armed with weapons that looked suited for piercing things, and men armed with weapons that looked suited for hammering things, moved as though they were one body.
Just by glancing at them, I could roughly predict their behavior patterns.
They drive in nails and strike with hammers.
And since the company's name was also Nail and Hammer, it was a fairly credible guess.
And that guess was exactly right.
The ones in the vanguard, gripping sharp spears, rushed in first.
Clang!
"Damn it...!"
Thwip—
Then the ones with blunt weapons came in and delivered heavy blows to anyone who staggered even slightly.
Wham!
Just like that, Heathcliff's stance was cleanly broken.
If we left him like that, he'd die.
He wasn't weak, exactly, but how should I put it... he got hit a lot because he kept acting out.
He had a short temper, so he often charged in first and got hurt for it.
Anyway, now that I had roughly grasped their behavior pattern, a countermeasure also came to mind.
In the end, the ones dealing the main damage were the hammer-wielders.
If we took those guys out first, a fight that would end quickly would end quickly.
But then we'd be short on teaching material, wouldn't we.
If I wanted to savor their combat techniques precisely, and to the very end, digging into their weakness like that was out of the question.
That said, it would be troublesome if our side got pushed back, so I'd have to balance the ratio between the two groups so the fight didn't drag too far in either direction.
Having decided on my course of action, I immediately put it into practice.
After finishing a satisfying battle and boarding the bus, I saw Mr. Vergilius leisurely raising a hand toward us.
"Was your opponent a little troublesome this time?"
"I keep saying this, but if you helped, it'd end much faster~"
"I keep saying this too, but my help would be meaningless."
Surprisingly, he was pretty good at taking jokes and banter.
Come to think of it, that was probably why I could be a little more relaxed around him.
"Those people... they called us heretics. What exactly did they see?"
"At first glance, it looked like they saw me."
"Nail and Hammer... a Wing that says experience is the most important value."
Mr. Meursault murmured something strange.
"Experience?"
"Humans are determined so that they may undergo experiences and actions suited to their own value... That is how they speak of experience."
"Those things. They told us to hand over the Manager's head."
"Which means..."
"...They've come again. They didn't forget. They came all the way here, and..."
"Mr. Sinclair? Take a deep breath. You're safe here. So..."
I'd been soothing him this whole time, but Sinclair's anxiety showed no sign of improving.
At this rate, he was going to have a seizure or something...
"Berg. The noisy box is loud."
"...Looks like we've gotten contact from the advance team."
Was that Mr. Epi and Ms. Sword?
The thought of hearing their familiar voices made me feel a little lighter.
"-Kssshh———- This is... -kssshh-"
"-Kssshh——- Sword is... -kssshh-"
"Give it here."
"Epi, this is the bus. What's the situation there?"
"...You will bear all sins here and be purified."
"Epi?"
A sudden, heavy, and chilling voice froze the bus in an instant.
My body, which had been expecting that sly voice of Mr. Epi's, froze just the same.
"Was that just now... really Mr. Epi's voice?"
"No, more importantly... was that even a human voice?"
"A whistle..."
"Sinclair, what are you talking about?"
"I heard a whistling sound! At the end... faintly..."
Damn. Had he gotten to the point of hearing hallucinations? This was seriously bad...
"I did hear something like that..."
"That bastard is here! At last... he's come to kill everyone in our village too..."
There was a faint killing intent in Sinclair's voice.
It was a completely unfamiliar expression, unlike his usual self, as if his earlier trembling had been a lie.
"Calm down, Sinclair. What whistle? And who is that bastard?"
"He's waiting for me. That was a message calling for me!"
As Sinclair said that, tears mixed with fury were pouring down his face like crazy.
"Wait, up ahead... the same people as before..."
"Go back..."
"What?"
"Can't we... just turn back? I don't want to go. Please, let's go back. Turn the wheel now, even now..."
"Kid... what the hell is wrong with you? What's up ahead?"
"We can't go. Everyone will die. Go back."
"Emil Sinclair. Stop saying useless..."
Wham!
Ms. Otis suddenly struck Sinclair in the stomach and casually brushed her hands off.
"I merely applied enough force to the abdomen to render him unconscious for a moment."
"That was well timed, you. I was about to step in."
Wait, what?
Mr. Vergilius had been talking about timing at the end of the first mission, hadn't he? Was he still holding a grudge over that?
...Maybe I should rein in my tendency to act out a little from now on.
As he said, it seemed like he really did hold onto things for a long time.
"Cowards aren't needed on the battlefield. Can't we just leave him outside the bus like this?"
"That's a bit... too harsh, I think."
"...If the Manager says so."
With a displeased expression, Ms. Otis looked down at the collapsed Sinclair.
Sinclair... he was timid, but he had never once complained.
What on earth was waiting ahead that had driven that fragile boy to this state?
I wanted to ask him directly, but he didn't seem to be in any condition to answer.
...There was clearly something wrong with Sinclair's past, but getting no progress at all from that was maddening.
As much as I wanted to stay by his side until he woke up, the enemies would not wait for him to regain consciousness.
"Everyone off. Get down quickly."
At Mr. Vergilius's urging, I got off the bus with a sour feeling in my chest.
Please let this be okay...
Fortunately... or perhaps not, he joined us sooner than expected, together with Mr. Dante.
What bothered me, though, was his gaze, that empty, hollow look so cold there was no trace of life in it...
It flew into my heart like a sharp dagger and lodged there.
But after that, there was no time to think, because the fighting kept going, and I had no choice but to fold those stray thoughts away neatly.
His vacant eyes, glimpsed in passing throughout the battle... I couldn't quite bring myself to ignore them completely.
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