Still, We Press On

“That was definitely... definitely Kagami-san!”

After the operation at Tamagawa failed, everyone spent another half day making their way back to the underground facility Noa. They had lost their weapons, making the journey more dangerous, but fortunately encountered only low-threat monsters. Every one of them made it back to Noa safely.

But some members of the Resistance had gloomy looks on their faces. They had missed their long-awaited chance to wipe out the Beastfangs, and reclaiming the world now felt one step farther away. Their anger and hatred toward the Ace, who had interfered with them, only grew.

The cost of this expedition had been high, and some of their people had been killed by the Cannibals. Of all of them, Balmung felt the most frustrated with himself for having paid such a price without accomplishing anything. After returning to Noa, he punched a wall and shouted, “Next time... for sure!” his anger toward the Ace plain to see. Then he left Merry and Yuki to show Takako’s group to their rooms and withdrew into his own tent.

Merry and Yuki led them to an area set aside for Takako’s group, with two tents for the women and one for the men. Once they had finished showing them around, they said, “We’ll come get you later, so rest for now,” and, apparently exhausted themselves, returned to their own tents without another word.

The others gathered in the men’s tent to talk. After closing the door so their voices wouldn’t carry, Tina, as if she’d been desperate to say it all along, leaned forward and insisted in a hushed but emphatic voice that the man in the hooded cloak was Kagami.

“There’s no way anyone but Kagami-san could come up with that god-awful cover story.”

“Yeah... Only Kagami-chan could come up with a cover-up that stupidly obvious.”

“That’s too harsh! I think Kagami-san was trying to be, um, humorous... You know what, never mind.”

Takako nodded as if agreeing with Tina. Alice puffed out her cheeks for a moment at their harsh words, but then she recalled the ways Kagami had tried to cover things up before and fell silent...