When the teacher first opened their eyes in Kivotos, the D.U. downtown, which couldn’t fulfill its function at the time, looked like the chaotic beginning of an apocalypse—crash boom bang.

However, the city the teacher was now exploring with three students resembled the later stages of an apocalypse rather than the beginning—whoosh whoosh.

The moment the teacher confirmed that there were robots scuttling about, they realized how wise it was not to send Miyu back. If they had sent her back, instead of leading the attacks like now, Miyu would have been running away from the robots—beep beep.

“Th-thank you for covering me,” the teacher stammered.

“Wow. Wow! Doing close combat with an SRT? Amazing! Maybe we just found the makings of a great bow user, Midori!”

“With the teacher’s leadership added in, these ominous robots are no match for us. This is the skill of a Shalle student…”

“More than a Shalle student, Miyu is part of the SRT special academy. She’s quite something.”

“If you praise me like that, um…”

In the cheerful atmosphere while they triumphantly broke through the ruins, the group couldn’t help but moan when the robots began to swarm in—ugh….

Just the number of robots approaching was over forty.

Even with Miyu there, her essence was that of a sniper. Breaking through this many enemies up close was impossible due to magazine issues, and mindlessly taking them out upfront only complicated things further with extra magazine worries.

Thus, it was only natural that the group set foot into a nearby abandoned factory to evade the robots—thump thump.

As they heard a mysterious voice granting entry qualifications, the group plummeted to the lower levels of the factory—whoosh.

There, they encountered a robot girl resembling Aris, now named due to Momoi’s mistake, named [AL-1S]—ding.

*

Ruins.

As the name suggests, this area located near Millennium was filled with the unknown, resembling a city turned to ruins. The Student Council deemed it too dangerous to even control access to, and following the disappearance of the Student Council President, proper control was no longer in place.

Even so, not many knew that access to the ruins had been relaxed, and even fewer were those who’d dare venture into such a dangerous place.

What kind of place was Millennium anyway? Unless the ruins held something beneficial for their research or inventions, these workers wouldn’t be interested.

Thus, three students and an adult stepped into the ruins, a place so perilous it rivaled the volcanic zones of Gehenna and the underground catacombs of Trinity.

This sight was captured by a drone released by Rion and transmitted to her, informing her that the teacher was up to something. This got passed onto me.

[Exactly 1 hour and 27 minutes ago, the teacher led the Game Development Club into the ruins… now an unidentified group has joined the teacher, who is returning to the Millennium campus. The fact that an unknown group has increased in the ruins means they are most likely not ordinary students.]

“That sounds plausible, Rion. But, can I ask why you brought this up with me instead of directly telling Himari? I mean, even though we cooperate, it’s strange that you’d bring this up with me.”

[You’re the only one with a connection to the teacher. I thought it might help to speculate on how the teacher ended up in the ruins with those students.]

“Aha. Well, those students must have known about the ruins. The teacher hasn’t been in Kivotos long, so she wouldn’t know much about it. At least, she wouldn’t have had enough time to get acquainted with dangerous secrets like the ruins or our Trinity catacombs.”

[I was already sure of that.]

“…Rion, is this a problem? I just want to help, but if your clever mind interferes with my intentions, I feel really small.”

There was a brief silence on the line.

[Sorry.]

And then, out of the blue, she apologized.

“Huh? No, it’s not something to apologize for, so please don’t! Now I feel bad…”

[Well, I actually wanted information suitable for gauging the teacher’s psychology.]

“Like her tendencies or something?”

[Exactly.]

“Hm. The teacher’s tendencies… This is somewhat predictable based on the teacher’s activities. Yeah, the history isn’t that long, so it’s unavoidable. If the need for my insight based on my interactions with the teacher is what you need…”

[To be precise, Yuuka isn’t completely disconnected with the teacher either, so it’s just a matter of simple cross-verification.]

“Rion, wouldn’t it have sufficed to just ask Momotalk about this? Calling me just for that… Oh, I see. You wanted to hear your friend’s voice! Ahaha! Rion, you’re actually kind of lonely, aren’t you?☆”

[…Mika, are you intentionally beating around the bush?]

…Wow, quick on the uptake, aren’t we?

“Uh, can you keep this a secret? I just slipped out during rehearsal, pretending to take a crucial call.”

[Wasn’t there still about three hours before your debut?]

“True, but rehearsals aren’t just for us, right? Anyhow, I admit I dodged the topic a bit but… I also wanted to talk to you a bit longer. So actually, I might be the one who’s kind of lonely.”

[It doesn’t really sound credible when you, surrounded by people, say that.]

“Ahaha, back to the topic.”

Redirecting the conversation gently, Rion seemed willing to let it slide.

Continuing this talk wasn’t just for me; it was for Rion’s benefit.

When the moment of choice eventually came, I wasn’t sure how much influence I could have on Rion’s decisions, but building some rapport with her could still slightly change the outcome.

…Above all, I lacked the confidence to convince Rion through logic.

“The teacher is an adult.”

[…? There’s really no need to highlight such an obvious point.]

“No, it’s important. You know what it means to be an adult, right? The teacher is one of the closest to adulthood, so her choices are mostly… probably all geared towards altruistic outcomes, especially concerning students. After all, she’s an educator.”

[So, the fact that she didn’t stop students from heading into a place like the ruins and chose to accompany them meant this was something beneficial for those students?]

“Yeah, that’s about it. Perhaps Yuuka might have said something similar?”

[Your description is clearer and more trustworthy than Yuuka’s report. She was too filled with sentiment.]

“Hm… Yuuka is sentimental, but she seems like the type who can differentiate between work and feelings.”

[It wasn’t obvious, but I was able to glean her emotional state simply from her choice of words.]

So, Rion managed to intuit Yuuka’s psychology without her openly revealing it…

[Well, that’s alright. If you believe that, I can conclude the teacher’s tendencies in that direction as well.]

“Wow—Rion trusts me this much. Now, I feel a bit touched.”

[Why such a big deal out of something so trivial?]

“Ahaha…”

[More than that, I have something to request from you… No, it’s a formal commission.]

“…Wow, Rion today is breaking all my predictions. Should I be pleased about this? I guess it’s something worthy of joy?”

[Quit the fuss and listen. The group you mentioned earlier, Gematria, and the prophet of Decagramaton. It’s also necessary for the Anomalous Phenomenon Special Department to investigate that. Since the prophet of Decagramaton was subdued and is held in Abydos, it’s reasonable to think that the best approach would be through you, who has ties to that side. So, just see this as an official request to the external consultant of the Anomalous Phenomenon Special Department.]

“Hm. Well, that’s true. I got it. I’ll contact Abydos soon to discuss that and arrange a meeting with the Vice Student Council President. Is that okay?”

[Yes. If anything noteworthy arises, I’ll get in touch again. Noah will provide the communication device this week.]

“Oh, that too… Wait, if that’s the case, isn’t this conversation something we shouldn’t have even had?”

[The risk of your call being hijacked has been blocked on my end. There isn’t much in what you said that could lead to serious exposure. Probably just the mention of the ruins, but I plan to restrict access to them following this incident.]

“Ahaha… That’s so typical of Rion. So,——”

“Mika-chan, if Neru-senpai doesn’t come back in three minutes, she’ll flip the stage over♪”

Oh, Neru, it’s you again?

“Uh, Rion? I think I’ve got to go now. It was nice to hear your voice after a while. Let’s talk again later.”

[Yeah… I didn’t mind it either, Mika.]

click.

“…Huh?”

I stared blankly at the phone screen that had just hung up, trying to process that unexpected comment from Rion. Was my hearing playing tricks on me?

Oh, is this some kind of April Fools prank? But April Fools isn’t until next week, and I can’t imagine Rion being the type to pull such a joke…

“Mika-chan~?”

“Oh, sorry!”

Noa suddenly waved her hand in front of me, snapping me out of my thoughts.

Even as I returned to the stage, Rion’s words left me with a strange feeling.

If things continued like this, persuading Rion might not be completely impossible after all.