Ah, shit, shit, shit, I did it...
Dongrang must have heard that, right? He definitely heard it, right?
Am I fucking insane? Why was I blabbing about such dangerous information when my head was already spinning!
I need to fix this habit of lashing out the second I lose my head. I'm going crazy. Ah, am I already crazy?
Usually, there aren't many people who leave a Wing. No, maybe it would be more accurate to say there are almost none.
After all, they're not going to just let someone who knows about a company's Singularity loose in the City. Even if they go through memory erasure procedures, if you pry open the brain, the information might still come out, so most of them end up vanishing without a trace.
And what? He knew everything? What the hell—
"Kuh, kehk..."
"....."
"W-wait..."
Thud.
"...Ah."
The fishy scent of blood splattering across my face brought a little of my reason back. Right, I was in the middle of a fight.
Feeling the creepy sensation of my neck bones being ripped out, I pulled the spear free and looked around with what little reason had returned to me.
Three corpses around me, and the overall battle was gradually turning in our favor. Nothing too serious, then.
Just as I was marveling at the fact that I'd killed three people despite being out of my mind, my vision suddenly spun.
Even as I staggered, my brain kept working, and I guessed the cause was the release of that extreme state of concentration... and the backlash from the "eye."
Come to think of it, even if I'd been controlling it during this mission, I'd been using it periodically for quite a long time without any rest. It wouldn't be strange if my head started complaining about its limits. No enemies were sticking to me either... maybe I should rest for a bit.
By the time I'd moved my swaying body enough to slump down onto the ground, Ms. Ryoshu had finally severed Maril's neck with her scabbard and turned to look at Mr. Yi Sang before speaking.
"Hey."
"...You called?"
"That one clinging to you like your friend. What is your relationship."
"As you can see, a bond that was cut long ago."
"I hate interfering, and I hate long explanations even more, but... that Dongrang bastard's smile is so disgusting when he acts like he knows nothing that I'm telling you this."
...I had figured that by now, Dongrang, or maybe someone from K Corp, would point out how suspicious everything was. I just hadn't expected it to be Ms. Ryoshu.
That woman is surprisingly sharp. What kind of life did she live before...
"That conspicuously empty desk, all neat and clean and therefore even uglier. Your name tag was under it."
"....."
Mr. Yi Sang let out a low breath at Ms. Ryoshu's words. Really? ...When did she even see that? I never would have imagined that.
No, wait... the weird one here is Ms. Ryoshu for checking under the desk in someone else's company lab.
"Are they plotting some kind of headhunting operation I've only heard about? Isn't that a violation of corporate ethics or something?"
At Dante's words, Ms. Ishmael added a remark.
Headhunting, huh... well, there were too many things that didn't add up for it to be that simple.
"Out. Rage."
"...What are you abbreviating now?"
"I'm not abbreviating anything. I said it because I'm enraged.
Orange hair, was it? You said you'd been at sea a long time? As a Fixer? Your fantasies about Wings and companies are far too excessive. Have you been floating on the Great Lake so long that you threw common sense away as fish bait? To talk about ethics and propriety in this world... as humor, it's rather amusing."
That much was certain. Ms. Ryoshu definitely had an unusual background. Normally, people would think along the same lines as Ms. Ishmael.
Judging by her behavior and the way she speaks... maybe a high-grade office, or a PMC run by a Wing, or if not that... some high-ranking Finger member?
Otherwise, an Association... but judging by her temperament, that didn't seem likely. I couldn't think of anything else. People who know Wings so well and also understand the back alleys aren't exactly common.
"Talent scouting and transfers between companies are carried out according to profit and efficiency."
"Heh, you're no different from some country bumpkin. No, wait, a boat bumpkin?"
"Profit..."
For once, Mr. Heathcliff landed a clever blow on Ms. Ishmael. ...I actually think being a little more innocent is better. If you know too much, it only gets unpleasant.
"Do not concern yourself. The heart is a rather shabby thing. I am quite accustomed to a life of being mounted and preserved."
As if it were nothing at all, Mr. Yi Sang slowly closed his eyes while speaking, and Sinclair jumped in surprise.
"You say not to concern yourself? Mr. Yi Sang, the reason you joined this place was... weren't we all... given the same offer?"
dUtYUkRWQzE5OTM0M1d3WVJkdmxqZUZLNVl4WXhCSlI1S3V6azhLVXdQVzNYVlBQb2F0UENhekJjWnY4U2FjaQ
Same offer... if you can call a promise to grant each of us the thing we desperately wanted the same offer, then that wouldn't be entirely wrong.
An offer that would make you nod along as if bewitched the moment you heard the words.
"If you join this company..."
"Then..."
"What you've been desperately wishing for..."
"What you've repeated to yourself every night before sleeping..."
"Yes, the thing you thought was impossible..."
"We said we could make it happen. Clearly."
Faust finished the recollection that had run through Sinclair, Mr. Yi Sang, Ms. Ishmael, and Mr. Otis in turn.
To regain the "eye" that had gone blind... yes, I might desperately want that too. In the City, knowing too much means becoming that much more dangerous. For someone who planned to leave the company and spend the rest of his life at ease, it was far too much power.
Living a life where you might one day be kidnapped by some organization and have your brain torn open is not exactly pleasant. Whether it's this "eye" or that "eye." Maybe back then... I just wanted to forget the time when everyone had gone blind.
It had been a memory I'd forgotten until recently, but the freedom of oblivion was never granted for long.
In any case, the Sinners showed all kinds of reactions.
"....."
Ms. Don Quixote, avoiding my gaze with a creepy smiling face frozen into blankness, or
"Just how thoroughly did you investigate us?"
Mr. Gregor, looking disgusted, or
"Ha... that fairy tale about granting wishes I read earlier? So it was here, not somewhere else."
Mr. Heathcliff, sneering with an expression of disbelief. ...I'm really starting to wonder what kind of contract that man signed. Why can he walk out so confidently? I'm getting curious enough to go insane.
"In truth, even that wish was nothing more than a vain desire."
"So you're saying you weren't that desperate after all? Then why did you join this place?"
"Simply..."
Mr. Yi Sang dragged out his answer for a moment at Mr. Heathcliff's question. He was probably recalling the past, the time when he came here. After a brief silence, what he said was rather modest for something he had supposedly desired so desperately.
"My feet hurt too much from all the walking. And then the squall came. The bus before my eyes looked quite comfortable."
"Ha, that can't have been all of it. We all..."
Ms. Ryoshu looked dissatisfied and was about to snap at Mr. Yi Sang, but...
"That's enough. Among the employment rules is a prohibition on leaking the specific contents of the employment contract."
Faust, who had been observing the conversation among the Sinners from a suitable distance, neatly cut off Ms. Ryoshu's words.
Employment rules, huh... she definitely explained them to us before. There wasn't anything I needed to worry about, so I'd half-listened and let it pass.
As I was once again recalling the time I first boarded this bus, Ms. Ryoshu shot Faust a glare with a fiercely agitated expression I'd never seen on her before.
"Putting on airs alone despite being in the same situation. Disgusting."
"....."
At Ms. Ryoshu's words, Faust let out a faint breath. Was that her personal reaction, or something related to her—more precisely, to Faust...
"Let us proceed."
Cutting off the thought before it could deepen, Faust calmly suggested to Dante that we move forward.
...What secret was she hiding? Where did the knowledge possessed by the City's greatest genius come from? I'd normally have brushed it off, thinking I'd find out when the time came, but the thought kept branching and branching.
I even wondered if looking into that deep possibility might reveal something—but then
I suddenly remembered why I'd left my old job and stopped that line of thought. Knowledge doesn't always bring only good things.
The moment I used the eye's power to pry open all of her enormous secrets, I had an instinctive certainty that I would never be able to turn back.
Only after finishing that foolish chain of thoughts did I realize once again that the eye's power was not a blessing.
It was never easy to endure while gripping the hilt of the blade that could solve one's curiosity, all while being unable to suppress that curiosity. The eye that kept forcing that painful torment on me was closer to a curse than a blessing.
I always wanted to know more, and yet I didn't.
If I trace back when I started thinking this way... yes, it must have been back when I was still working at my old company. Around then, maybe.
"....."
Today is a day when my thoughts grow unusually deep. Just like when the notice from my old company arrived. No, when the de facto order arrived.
Back then, foolishly, I didn't resist that sweet temptation, and all of that karma came back later to press down on me.
Once again, I recalled a memory deeply rooted in my head from when I quit.
"Do not dig too deeply into the City's secrets."
When I took the hand that rose up from those depths, when I willingly abandoned the eyes of an ordinary City citizen and chose to take theirs, I still regret that moment.
When, not long ago, before joining Limbus Company, I once again took hold of that cursed abundance for some reason, I must have despaired then too.
The reason for joining, which I had forgotten and could no longer remember, finally rose to the surface.
...To forget all those curses and live a peaceful life.
Only then could I feel the thick sin coiling around my body.
That faint chill that used to rise up my spine every time Dante's clock turned.
Even as I felt my consciousness sink deeply into that sensation, I... no, we pressed onward into even deeper places.
To fulfill what each of us desired.