Editing Sorcery Hacker:Volume3 Phase02 (section)

===Part 12===

“Bwah!! That’s it! I’m strangling you!! I know this was the only option, but I never should have trusted a dangerous individual like you!!”

“Ha ha ha! A nicely roasted girl is a wonderful thing. Miss Henrietta, you look so sexy with your skin flushed pink and decorated with beads of sweat. If you lewdly climb onto me and place your soft weight atop me while giving off so many pheromones, your warmth and sex appeal might just overpower me. Oh, and did you forget you are wearing a tight skirt? A very short one, I might add.”

“No, don’t hold me back, Mamilis! I’ll be doing the world a favor by killing him!!”

Ayato’s group lay sweatily on the floor after stripping off their space armor.

They were in a small room.

The steam pipe provided a shortcut to all 101 floors, covering every zone from I to S and even the top floor.

They were now at the very top of the gem tower. This was probably the steam management room.

The Student Council Office was on the same floor. The risk of encountering the elite members of the Council was much higher now, but they had effectively bypassed all of the Academy Towers’ security. They had to make use of this chance.

“The Guidance Teachers should be rounding up and confining the members of the Rocket Club by now. Since they helped us, we need to cause enough trouble for them too.”

“Coach, will they be alright?”

“They get called in for questioning twice a month-group anyway. They’re used to weaseling out of punishment, so they’ll be free again in no time.”

They held that discussion while walking carefully down the hallway.

However…

“…”

Teleria stood a step back from the others. She couldn’t bring herself to walk in step with the party.

A heavy feeling was gathering in her chest.

(Thank goodness.)

That was the natural feeling. The Student Council’s countermeasures had failed and the others were still smiling. Everyone was safe, so what more could she hope for?

However.

One thing didn’t make sense.

(Ayato.)

He had said they would be using a rocket. And he had indeed used two rockets, both capable of reaching space, as decoys. He had not told the girls his true plan. He may have noticed something at the last second and changed plans, but he couldn’t have switched over so smoothly unless he already had multiple plans in mind. An unplanned detour wouldn’t have succeeded. He had needed to lay out the separate path in advance for it to work.

So what had Ayato noticed?

What had made him give up on both rockets and use the steam pipe?

Or to put it another way…

(''Does he not trust me''?)

He did not give himself a sanctuary.

He questioned any information that came his way, whether it came from an enemy or an ally.

That was how Sorcery Hackers were supposed to do things.

And his nose had sniffed out the truth. Whatever her reasons, Teleria was in fact leaking their information. Without Ayato’s sharp senses and decisiveness, they might have all been killed in a fiery explosion.

She knew it was selfish.

She knew it was her own fault.

Nevertheless…

She felt a small crack had formed. And now that she was aware of it, she could feel the strange draft it let in.

Her betrayal had been prevented.

But a bud of malice had taken root in her heart.

And this time, the President had not given her an order she was powerless to resist.