In the end, when Nico was cornered and reduced to a lump of meat, and just about the time the clock went around once, Dongrang spoke quietly.
"Then now... would you explain it from your side, Shurenne?"
Shurenne stared silently at Dongrang with a blank expression, as if she had forgotten how to make one.
Perhaps the thought that flashed through her head was something like: So even in a situation like this, that lunatic is still calm.
"When did you side with them?"
"...Amazing. You don't even bother pretending to be surprised.
Ha, employees who can keep getting back up without ampoules... that wasn't part of the plan... that's just too unfair."
We really were something else, weren't we. Immortal mercenaries— even the infamous back-alley cleaners probably weren't this stubborn.
As she gave a bitter smile at that realization, Dongrang answered in a composed voice.
"In the lab, when you said you'd follow us, you answered my question about why by saying, 'Three of my colleagues died.'
The number of people who died on our side wasn't three, but five. Three was the number of people who died in the Technology Liberation Alliance.
Ah, and I also checked your personal records."
"What... that was possible?"
"The privileges of an elite employee are too many to explain even if I stayed up all night."
"That damn elite, elite, elite..."
"You were exchanging a huge number of emails with the retired senior Ran. What were they about? You didn't even reply to the email inviting you to coffee.
Come to think of it... you admired Senior Ran ever since you joined, didn't you? Your password was even 'I miss Senior Ran,' wasn't it?"
...Are all researchers at K Corp insane?
Shurenne setting her password like that, and Dongrang knowing about it too...
"No, wait... seriously?
I don't understand. There's no research position more stable, better compensated, or more coveted than a researcher at K Corp.
And yet, why would you collude with such a terrorist group..."
Samjo's eyes darted around as if he truly couldn't make sense of it, while he muttered under his breath, "For someone like you, the future is overflowing. Not as much as Dongrang-nim, but..."
...Samjo seems normal for not being able to understand those people. Normally, not understanding them is the normal reaction. What kind of sane person joins a Wing as a researcher anyway...
I felt sorry for Samjo, but at the same time, I was a little envious. Sometimes it's better not to know. Didn't someone once say ignorance is a blessing? I agree with that. Knowing too much only makes things troublesome.
"Yes, Shurenne. Tell me yourself. Why did you choose to stand with them?"
At Dongrang's words, Shurenne fell silent.
With eyes that showed confusion and even a hint of regret, what she said was something no outsider could possibly understand.
...Maybe I could have understood it.
"Because the tears wouldn't stop. You... you'd understand what I mean, wouldn't you? I..."
Before Shurenne could even finish speaking, a new possibility appeared before my eyes. What was that, why was it appearing now... Driven by sudden curiosity, I looked into that possibility, and what I saw there was—
"...Hah."
...The Seven Association. Judging by the skill, at the very least Section 3, or perhaps even Section 2. Why here all of a sudden? No, more importantly, where... ah.
While my confused brain was sorting through the information, the moment finally came.
Slash.
"...!"
That was the first time I saw Dongrang look shocked. Even that shameless, unruffled man must have been horrified to see a companion die so horribly right before his eyes.
The color of the sword strike that split her body was unmistakably red. It had sliced through Shurenne at tremendous speed, so only Ryoshu, aside from the target herself, could have seen it... but my well-honed eyes caught it precisely.
A red blade was surely the weapon most commonly used by the Seven Association...
As that thought reached me, the red line running vertically across Shurenne's body began to split apart, and—
Thud.
Shurenne's body toppled forward limply.
"Hey... Shurenne..."
Gregor called out to Shurenne with a stunned expression. But... Shurenne's brain, cleanly severed along with the wall, was beyond the reach of even an ampoule, gray matter and cerebrospinal fluid spilling out with a sickening splash.
...Has seeing someone die in front of me become this unremarkable now?
Just as I was feeling a renewed sense of disillusionment with my weathered humanity, Ryoshu laughed as if amused and spoke.
"Hah, haha... shut up and don't move. Don't even breathe."
At the same time, fragments broke away from the split wall, revealing a hidden space behind it. And for some reason, I had the feeling I could guess who had ordered Shurenne's assassination.
...Probably a person from K Corp. At minimum, they knew about Shurenne's betrayal and the detailed structure of K Corp's Lobotomy branch. Otherwise they would never have killed her so precisely, and from a position even Dongrang didn't know about.
I couldn't rule out the possibility that it was someone from the Technology Liberation Alliance... but if that were the case, it bothered me that they had split her open right in the middle of a conversation only K Corp's key personnel would understand. The timing was far too coincidental.
"Those half-baked Fixers who move in the shadows... I'll even give them a special name. S.H.A.D.E., heh."
"...It looks like the Seven Association, and probably Section 3... no, maybe Section 2. Their skill is clean. ...I didn't expect to actually see an association specialized in assassination assassinate someone right in front of me, though..."
I swallowed the part about how it seemed like someone high up at K Corp had ordered it. It wasn't something a mere office worker could figure out, nor something I should be saying. ...And it wasn't something to say right in front of Samjo, who was muttering, "Shurenne, why on earth..."
After a little while, the presence that seemed to belong to the Seven Association vanished. Ryoshu, whose senses were absurdly sharp, noticed it immediately... and clicked her tongue lightly.
"Tch. They've already left."
"They were the kind of people who tracked Shurenne all the way here without making a single sound. They had no reason to fight us."
After that, the conversation ended with me summarizing the situation roughly.
Dante was making irregular ticking sounds as if they couldn't understand our conversation... but that was only natural. Aside from me, who could both see and hear it, no one else had noticed that presence except Ryoshu.
Then Heathcliff spoke up belatedly.
"Ridiculous. Internal conflict, huh."
It was a very normal remark, but coming from Heathcliff, who caused the most infighting of all of us, it felt strangely ironic. If I said that, I'd probably get punched, wouldn't I?
...Hm? Does Dongrang still have something to say?
"Senior Ran was Shurenne's mentor when she first joined. Seems like the two of them kept their connection for much longer than I thought.
Dante, you saw it, didn't you? Even among coworkers at the same company, collusion happens. Betrayal, division, participation. No matter the group, it's a recurring... unavoidable cycle."
"How much do you trust your prisoners?"
...Why is this crazy bastard picking a fight all of a sudden?
"In truth, you don't know anything, do you? Just as I didn't know everything about Shurenne. Isn't that right?
You don't even know who among us I had ties to."
...Dante had nothing to say and could only tick a few times. I, too, had no choice but to stay silent at those words.
My memory still wasn't complete, but there were definitely quite a lot of things I was hiding.
Even at this very moment, while the mission was still ongoing.
...Maybe the one who lacked trust wasn't me after all, a thought brushed past my mind.
Maybe it would be fine to trust them a little more from now on. But if too much information somehow caused them harm...
...I had one more thing to worry about.
We were heading deeper into K Corp's Lobotomy branch in search of the Golden Bough, toward the place where the killing machines had appeared earlier.
Then... I heard the sound of a ticking clock. Soon after, I heard the sound of someone translating it.
"It seems we're almost there. I can feel the Golden Bough resonating nearby."
"...It seems we've reached the vicinity."
"That's a relief. There should probably be photos or certificates I left there."
"And the research confidential documents too, Dongrang."
While the talk about the mission was going on, something strange suddenly caught my eye.
Yi Sang had picked up one of the ampoules Shurenne had dropped on the floor and was quietly examining it.
Dongrang noticed it too and spoke to him in a friendly tone.
"How considerate. You didn't need to pick it up."
"This regeneration ampoule... it bears the same serial-numbering rule as the 'collapse ampoule' that was forcibly injected into Saramago-ssi during the clash between K Corp's fighters and the machines earlier."
...Wait, what?
"That's called a serial number. It's the unique numbering system used to classify ampoules. If the first digit is O, it means original... wait, why am I explaining this."
Hearing the word original in Samjo's sudden explanation seemed to make Yi Sang's eyes brighten a little.
"Original... the 'collapse ampoule' injected into Saramago-ssi as well... was its essence not also no different from that of a regeneration ampoule?"
"This regeneration ampoule is, how should I put it... an unrefined stock solution. It's a little different from the mass-produced regeneration ampoules."
Stock solution... K Corp's regeneration ampoules are surely known to be made of nanorobots, but refinement... I suppose it could mean filtering out defective nanorobots, but if they didn't filter them out, why would it mutate people into insects? And the fact that someone named Ran kept going on about insects was strange too...
There's something here that I'm not supposed to know. Just a little more, just a little more and I'd reach K Corp's Singularity—
"What are you thinking about right now?"
I flinched, my whole body jerking hard. Fortunately, Dongrang was looking at Yi Sang, but... I couldn't shake the feeling that my thoughts had been seen through.
"Nothing."
After Yi Sang answered that, another startling question came from behind him.
"When did you notice me?"
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