Editing HEAVY OBJECT:MonicaSS (section)

===Part 4===

Apparently, a lot – a very, very lot – had changed while Quenser was gone.

“Wasn’t the Board Chairman a gray-haired old lady!? Why’d she de-age all of a sudden!?”

For the time being, they pulled the full food cart to the nearby high school gym which functioned as a student base. It was closer to dinnertime than lunchtime and the students there had barely had anything to eat, so after placating the rush of students with food, they asked what was going on.

The students inside the gym wore a variety of uniforms: basketball, hockey, tennis, squash, cheerleading, gymnastics, etc. Other than the thick hockey pads, there did not seem to be much of a logical reason for it. Maybe they were reducing individual anxiety by providing a sense of belonging or showing their team unity.

The meals they shared were sandwiches from Honey & Bread, a popular bakery just off campus which was a well-known battleground at lunchtime. That only increased the resentment toward the teachers for trying to steal the food.

Since the aproned young woman from the school store was in a gray zone outside either side of the fight, they had zip tied her hands behind her back, hung the personal alarm from her neck, and told her to walk out through the Academy’s front gate. They had of course already attached that GPS identifier to an email saying “I am a foolish turkey. Please do not shoot me.” Of course, this was not done out of kindness. They simply did not have the food or guards to spare for a prisoner and the more people they took with them, the harder it would be.

Finally, it was time to get down to business.

Allen sounded carefree as he grabbed a club sandwich.

“You’re thinking of the previous Board Chairman who had a stroke recently. It ended up not being life threatening, but she was replaced regardless. Now, the Academy’s Board Chairman has been part of the Champs-Élysées family for generations. Lady Elritta here was chosen this time.”

Quenser and Monica looked to the 10-year-old girl and exchanged a glance.

“Wait, wait. Allen, didn’t you say either the Board Chairman or Headmaster was involved in the misappropriation of funds? You’re saying this girl is the culprit? Don’t make me laugh. We’re not talking about shoplifting from a candy store here.”

“We can’t be so sure,” readily stated that awful friend. “The Academy is said to be the greatest educational institute for the sciences, but it’s come to light that its finances are actually in dire straits. The new Board Chairman would have had a bunch of problems dumped on her lap right off the bat, so she would have been desperate to find a way to pay off debts which had piled up for several generations. She didn’t make the debts, but they became her problem when the baton was passed to her. So if the devil began whispering in her ear, you can never predict what she would do. I mean, she could leave the actual financial calculations to her secretary or accountant. If she was told she could claim ignorance and get away with it, she might just agree and join the other criminals.”

“Wait, how little do you trust her?”

When Quenser asked that, Elritta (who had ended up sitting in his lap) tore a bite out of a fruit and cream sandwich with a sulky look on her face.

“That is not what happened,” she said while munching on the sandwich.

Any amount of spice must have been too much for her because she showed no interest in the honey mustard chicken sandwiches or the peppery BLTs. It was possible it was more the idea of spiciness she avoided than the actual flavor. The influence of people’s first impressions could be quite powerful in the culinary world.

“First of all, it is very odd that the Academy has split between students and teachers.”

“What? This isn’t some conspiracy theory about the Capitalist Corporations or Information Alliance infiltrating the Academy to sabotage our future Object development, is it???”

Monica sounded highly skeptical, but that was not Elritta’s point.

She had this to say:

“You have it backwards.”

“?”

“You think the teachers are trying to attack the students because they do not know how to deal with the financial malpractice and so you have to fight back, correct?”

“Yes. What about it?”

Allen sensed something ominous about that question, so he was very cautious in his question.

But Board Chairman Elritta gave a derisive snort and continued.

“That is backwards. The teachers are not behind this. The true villain is manipulating the teachers into attacking the students.”

The sandwich in Quenser’s mouth never seemed to reach his throat.

That premise – even as a hypothetical – was far too dangerous.

“Hold on. What does that mean?”

“The villain is not one of the teachers. You will never find a teacher who was involved in the financial malpractice.”

“Wait, wait! What are you-…?”

“What the true villain fears most is having the adults find the evidence of that malpractice. Not just childish complaints, but properly-researched adult testimony. So they split the Academy between students and teachers in order to get rid of the faculty members who were investigating the matter. You were unwittingly acting as the villain’s vanguard. To kill the very people who were revealing the truth.”

No.

If it was this much of a shock for Quenser, then how bad would it be for Allen who had been fighting this whole time based on a hatred he thought was only natural? He seemed to be having trouble getting oxygen to his throat.

He held his body in his arms, which produced a crinkling of paper from his stomach.

That was the script he had planned to submit to that contest.

Even if it was idealistic or self-aggrandizing, that was a product of his entire moral worldview.

“…”

Even when he thought at least one of the teachers was the villain, he would have felt some guilt.

But what if they were all innocent?

What did that make someone who had chased them around, beaten them, and shot at them?

How was he supposed to work through that guilt???

“I will explain it piece by piece.” Elritta sounded apologetic as she licked some cream from her fingers. “Let me get one important thing out of the way first. The misappropriation of funds for teaching materials does not exist. There was financial malpractice, but it was an entirely different matter.”

“A different matter?”

“This is a ‘royal’ academy that runs on public money, right? No matter how wildly it spends, that money is not going to dry up so easily. If its finances are in the red, there must be a good reason for it. And not something as insignificant as getting a kickback for purchasing unnecessary supplies.”

Then what was this about?

Elritta provided an answer to their question.

“War.”

“?”

“This is a different form of war.”

The Board Chairman’s answer did not explain much of anything.

She must have realized that because the red suit girl added more.

“Ahem. Objects are everything in modern wars. Even if you gather tens of thousands of puny foot soldiers, they will be slaughtered if just one colossal nuke-resistant Object is deployed. That prevents any simpler power games. If the other side has one Object and we have three, then we know the result before the fighting begins and we demand they withdraw. That is the ideal form of the clean wars.”

“So what? What does that have to do with the Academy?”

“Have you forgotten? Objects are nothing but technology and their development is influenced in large part by the subjects taught at the Academy. In fact, there are even rumors that an Object is being built in secret below the campus.”

“Surely that isn’t happening. We’re not talking about that Councilor Flide who the online news couldn’t quit talking about.”

“Yes, that part is not actually true.” Elritta grinned. “But it is possible to ''make it appear true''.”

They were approaching the crux of the matter.

“On average, constructing an Object costs 5 billion dollars. So if you have 5 billion dollars and the necessary technology, you can breed speculation that you are building an Object. And like I said, it is the number of Objects that decides modern battles. …So what if you could fake the money part? Couldn’t you scare the Capitalist Corporations or Information Alliance into withdrawing before actually fighting?”

“Ah.”

This was all about the technological power and brand name of the Royal Techno Academy.

They could also fake or rewrite shipment records so it looked like they were getting iron ingots, heat resistant reactive materials, the various rare earths used in semiconductors, the silicon pellets needed for manufacturing high-precision targeting lenses, the electromagnets used to seal the plasma inside the reactor, and other materials.

But the money was most important.

“So the Academy only had to make it look like the government was giving us money for a nonexistent secret project. For example, let’s say Person A buys a diamond from Person B online. What if they kept returning the money and diamond in the real world and repeating the online transaction? If you just looked at the purchase history, it would look like countless diamond deals going in just one direction with lots of money traveling from Person A to Person B. But since it was all misdirection using the same money and diamond, there would be no actual expenses.”

What if the same thing was done but to make it look like 5 billion dollars was changing hands?

Each time, it would look like there was another new Object there.

If it looked like 10 or 20 more cutting-edge Second Generations had been built, anyone would recognize the danger. And no matter how much the Academy denied it, suspicion would only grow that they had an Object construction base hidden below the campus.

A gold crown, a gold chalice, and a gold statue. Show them off one at a time and it might look like a pile of treasure, but that cost nothing if you simply melted down and reshaped the same gold each time.

“The actual flow of money is quite complex and there are also faked records for materials and personnel to give at more verisimilitude when the data is intercepted. That is the general idea. It moves from bank account to back account, from euros to dollars, and from cash to gold. Of course, the total amount does change slightly due to a variety of handling charges along the way. The talk of the Academy being in the red is meant to cover this up. …However, this caught someone’s attention.”

Monica clearly had a head full of question marks as she elegantly grabbed a sandwich while the foil sat next to her.

But the answer came to Quenser first.

“Oh, I get it. Someone increased the total amount of those handling charges and whatnot to line their own pockets. This is a secret project, so the government can’t exactly hold a public investigation even if some of the money is being stolen. I mean, they have to be so very careful to trick the other world powers. If they announce the data about the 5 billion dollars was all just for show and demand the thief return the money, it would cause the delicate balance of military power to collapse. The political circumstances prevent the police or prosecutors from acting. In other words, it’s the perfect setup to steal all the tax money you want.”

Elritta turned around in his lap and held out an egg sandwich.

It was apparently a reward.

“Say ‘ah’,” said the little Board Chairman. She waited for Quenser to eat it before continuing. “That was why we acted behind the scenes to have the Black Uniforms drag the villain into the darkness. They would likely be imprisoned in a ‘nonexistent camp’ somewhere. My most trusted faculty members were working to gather evidence, but then the incident occurred.”

Quenser thought for a second before answering.

“…The attack on the beautiful Student Council President?”

“That one gave me a headache. It happened late at night, so it was too late by the time word reached me. She was given a heroic spin to perfectly cast all the teachers as villains. And I couldn’t explain the situation since I couldn’t reveal the secret project behind it all. Exactly like the villain wanted.”

Then what about that large man who had burst from the burning armored truck?

He may have been able to argue his case if he had tried, but he had kept his mouth shut to the end.

When the Board Chairman had intervened, he had thanked her with some quick eye contact and then used her as a shield.

But that had not worked as intended and he had been forced to flee from the crazed students.

And he had ended up writhing in pain on the ground after being shot in the leg with a nail gun.

Had he been clenching his teeth to protect the truth the entire time?

“You’re kidding, right? So even that infamous professor knew what was going on?”

“No, he’s just crazy. Like always.”

She was very clear on that point. And it was all the more impactful from a 10 year old.

But one person could not keep up with their casual back-and-forth.

“————”

Allen.

He slowly shook his head.

“That can’t be true. In the Golden Lion Club, the President said she was going to save the teachers. She said she would work out who was lining their pockets with the misappropriated funds and safely end the conflict before a war like this broke out. That was our last hope, but the teachers rejected that peaceful resolution!!”

“Do you know what the villain called the high school Student Council President? Foie gras. She was fattened up for the slaughter. They had everything set up for her. Simply put, everything she had found was a school play script prepared by the villain.”

“I…we…! We shot at the teachers!! We hurt them! And now you’re saying they did nothing wrong and they were victims!? How am I supposed to accept that now!?”

“That is why I hoped to stop you sooner. This was not your fault. The blame rests with me for weighing politics against the students and hesitating to reveal the truth. Yet I should have known this would happen if I remained silent.”

Elritta seemed unable to even place a hand on agonized Allen’s shoulder.

He had to come to terms with what he had done on his own.

But redeeming himself for his crimes was a different matter.

“So who is it?”

“?”

“Who’s the villain? You made it sound like all the teachers are innocent and someone else is behind it all. I can’t just ignore that.”

“Oh, that.”

Elritta had the look of someone that was asked why one plus one was two and realized just how philosophical a question that was.

“That is obvious.”

And just like she was explaining that one plus one was two, she gave the answer.

“It is of course Headmaster Cliff French-Connection.”