After a lengthy sermon, the teacher and I entered a state of cold war. There wasn’t a single wrong point in what the teacher said, but the problem lay in my unwillingness to let go of this relationship.
At first, the teacher thought I was secretly meeting with the two of them, but upon hearing the full story, she looked utterly shocked.
Well, I was dating three people at once. Of course, hearing that I had even received permission from my first girlfriend, Nagisa, would make anyone’s head hurt.
Since our thoughts on this matter were running parallel to each other, stretching the conversation further didn’t seem to promise anything good. The teacher also seemed uncomfortable about poking her nose into a matter that the parties involved were apparently okay with.
Maybe it was best to quietly bury this issue…
Inside the clubroom were Ayane, Serika, and Hoshino, who was sprawled out sleeping on the table. After a quick greeting with the new kids on this side, I introduced Hina to the faces that appeared one after another.
When the clock struck ten, thanks to the teacher taking care of Miyu, who almost slipped past unnoticed, we wrapped up the introductions and the real meeting began.
“From now on, we will start the 3rd emergency meeting of the Abydos Countermeasure Committee. And please, I would really appreciate it if you could raise your hands before speaking for the smooth progress of the meeting…”
As the number of attendees increased, it became quite a struggle to manage the meeting, and I could see Ayane sweating it out. Especially since more than half of the committee comprised unpredictable kids.
Anyway, Ayane suggested the rule of raising hands before speaking to avoid disrupting the meeting, and everyone agreed.
Who knows how well that rule would be followed.
“Today, we will discuss the significantly worsened desertification issue that we had postponed due to a lack of feasible solutions in the first meeting. We are grateful to the T-party host from Trinity for coming to help us…”
“Just call me Mika; it’s fine, Ayane-chan☆”
“Ah, yes. Thank you… Wait a minute! Even if it’s a trivial matter, please raise your hand before you speak!”
Wow, talk about strict. As a self-proclaimed rational person, I raised my hand in accordance with Ayane’s request.
“…Yes, Mika. Please go ahead.”
“Uh, come on, calling me by my title feels troublesome, right? I think you can just overlook that since it’s all for Ayane-chan.”
“…Phew.”
Huh, that sigh was loaded with so many emotions… such a deep sigh. I was trying to act considerate, but this reaction stung a bit.
…Wait a minute. I was the one who broke the rule less than a minute in, so it was only natural for Ayane to direct a slightly disapproving gaze at me.
“Anyway. Mika has said that you have gathered information that could be a solution for the desertification phenomenon, so let’s start from there. Mika, could you share the information you’ve gathered?”
“Ah, yes. So about that…”
Starting the conversation with dealings involving the Kaiser Corporation…
“Whoa, wait a minute. The Kaiser Corporation? Why are they—”
“Serika-chan… What did I say?”
“Uh, s-sorry…?”
Serika, who blatantly ignored Ayane’s hand-raising rule, shot her question. It was probably something everyone else was curious about too, so it felt awkward not to explain.
“Um, it’s a sidelined issue for now, but… Abydos has been under attack by helmet-wearing groups and delinquents under the Kaiser Corporation for a long time now. If I’m not mistaken, this has been going on for over a year.”
This time, Shiroko, who properly raised her hand, received permission before speaking up.
“Yeah… even after I enrolled, there were still such attacks, but they diminished almost entirely after the sandstorms started, so I had forgotten about it. So, the Kaiser Corporation was behind those attacks?”
“Right. Knowing that, I had been anonymously supporting Abydos for quite some time. Though I got caught by Hoshino-chan eventually… but that’s not an important story, so let’s skip it. The real important part starts here. Everyone probably knows about last year’s Kaiser Gate incident, except for the teacher.”
I expanded on this for the teacher’s sake. The retaliatory terror from the Kaiser Corporation, the people nearly caught in that incident, the attacks that began in response to those events, and their conclusion.
I tried to gloss over it as much as possible, but surprisingly, the teacher’s gaze towards me didn’t seem too bad. Thinking about it, given that they had aimed for the students’ lives directly, perhaps holding back on that degree of retaliation was “safe” by his standards.
“One of the revealed facts from the Kaiser Gate incident is that… the Abydos Autonomous District was essentially owned by the Kaiser Corporation. I’m talking about everything except the main building and surrounding land.”
“Wait?! That can’t be true!”
“Hold on. How could such a thing happen? Unless the Student Council directly sold the land—”
Clap!
Even Ayane was surprised enough to break her own established rule and interrupt, while Hoshino lightly clapped her hands to draw everyone’s attention.
“Okay, everyone calm down. I have a little more to add regarding this matter. First off, everything Mika-chan said is true. I heard that too last year. However… since the Kaiser Corporation lost a lot of influence and clientele after the Kaiser Gate incident, they could no longer maintain all that land. Thus, they decided to sell off a considerable amount of the land they owned in Abydos recently.”
“…Whoa, this is news to me too?”
“Uhe~ Sorry, Mika-chan. I believe that Abydos should resolve its matters independently, and I didn’t want to trouble you any further. You’re already a busy person, right? Well… since I’ve asked for your help like this, it might have been unnecessary stubbornness.”
“I get that, but still, it’s a bit disappointing. We’re friends, aren’t we? If Hoshino-chan had asked for help directly, not only I but also our Saori-chan would’ve stepped in. We may have had a short meeting, but we had a lot of talks.”
“…Yeah, well, it’s in the past, so it can’t be helped. Still, hearing you say that eases my mind a bit. Having a friend willing to help anytime is more reassuring than you might think~.”
“Hoshino-senpai, so what about the land sold by the Kaiser side now…?”
“Oh, that’s owned by Saint Nephthys.”
“Saint Nephthys…?”
All eyes in the committee turned to Nonomi. The RABBIT Squad, the teacher, and Hina had no idea what was happening, and normally, I wouldn’t either.
“Um… I’ve mentioned this before to all Committee members, but Saint Nephthys is, so to speak, my family’s business. However… my current situation is akin to a runaway child? Something like that. So, I have no idea what the headquarters is thinking by resuming the desert railway project. When, and why they acquired the land, I have no information on that.”
“If it’s not too rude to ask, why did you end up in this runaway situation?”
The teacher, who had probably lost half the meaning of the hand-raising rule by now, posed the question everyone was probably curious about. I had been dying to know this for quite a while.
“…Do you all know that the railway business led by Saint Nephthys contributed to the fall of Abydos High School from a long time ago?”
“…?!”
Only Hoshino maintained her composure regarding this part of the conversation.
“Back then, the railway business stirred the desert monster we now face. Moreover, since a railroad connecting the outside world with Abydos was established, there was a massive outflow of the population within the autonomous district… and the result is the academy with only five students and a nearly abandoned city you see before you. While desertification is the primary cause of Abydos’s current state, our Saint Nephthys also contributed significantly.”
“Just as Nonomi-chan said. While Abydos has local companies, having a backing like Saint Nephthys means Nonomi-chan could easily attend Trinity, where precious ladies like Mika-chan attend… and she actually wanted to.”
“Yes, I turned it down though♧”
Nonomi forced a smile, which was met with a bitter gaze from Hoshino, and the kids of the committee who were hearing all this for the first time were visibly confused.
“I wanted to correct the mistakes made by my family, Saint Nephthys. So I enrolled in Abydos, where there would only be one remaining student… and thanks to that, I was able to meet Hoshino-senpai. The problem is that my family doesn’t look kindly on me attending Abydos. That’s why my situation is akin to running away.”
Somehow, it felt like a puzzle was falling into place.
Even though Nonomi could repay the debt to Kaiser using her own cards, perhaps Hoshino stubbornly denied her because of this background.
If a sum of that magnitude was something she could borrow freely, Nonomi would have to comply with the will of Saint Nephthys, and that would mean saying goodbye to Abydos High School.
“Uhmm… I think I’ve deviated a little too much because of this old man. Mika-chan, can we return to the original topic?”
“Sure. To pick up where I left off, at the end of the Kaiser Gate incident, I made a deal with the Kaiser Corporation. I agreed to provide them with one piece of information in exchange for leaving their PMC and Kaiser Ron intact… Ah, Serika-chan? I’ll explain right away, so you don’t need to spill anything☆”
Serika, who had half-raised her hand, awkwardly sat back down, turning her gaze away with a pout.
More importantly, Ayane… the hand-raising rule you set is downright useless, huh…?
“To specify, this was something agreed upon with the Student Council President. I was given permission to tear the Kaiser Corporation apart in exchange for leaving a portion of them alive.”
On another note, this was also something agreed upon with the man in the black suit.
Looking at it this way, Kaiser had truly been naïve.
“The information I was supposed to receive in return for this deal was a method to reverse or resolve the desertification phenomenon… and just yesterday, I successfully obtained that information. So, in that sense, you can be happy for now?”
Seems like I just barely passed one of the five phases needed to resolve Abydos’s situation.
They say that starting is half the battle, but that’s a lie. I have to start about four more times to finally arrive.
