Editing CubexCursedxCurious:Volume16 Chapter2 (section)

===Part 3===

Voices could be heard.

"It's locked."

"Just break it directly."

Then soon after, destructive noise was heard definitely.

Reduced by one layer of separation, the footsteps sounded even nearer than previously. Un Izoey held her breath and relaxed her toes that were holding the knife. Too much tension now would mean immobility when enemy attacks arrived.

"So, this is Sekaibashi Gabriel's castle huh...? Tsk, hey, look at this."

"Looks like the tasteless collection of this room's master. Do you think there are Wathes among them?"

"God knows. Although it feels like just a whole bunch of unguarded decorations, I can't say for sure. Anyway, let's just break everything first. Even if it's just a possibility, loathsome Wathes cannot be allowed to continue their wretched existence."

"Agreed."

After the voices conversed in annoyance, intermittent sounds destruction started the next second. Like fallen objects breaking, things crushed underfoot after falling to the ground, or swords slicing at the wall.

Un Izoey gulped. She had expected that they were not going to leave the superintendent's collection alone&mdash;In other words, the numerous pieces of junk and scrap metal that resembled Wathes, hanging on the wall.

Choosing this place was the biggest gamble. How was it going to turn out? Or perhaps in the next instant&mdash;

She glanced around. Shiraho, Sovereignty, Chihaya, Isuzu, Taizou, Kana, everyone was here but unable to move. Things would be over as soon as they were found. Judging from the voices, there were two enemies... Not to the point of being unbeatable, but Un Izoey had heard that the knights had been strengthened in power, which meant she could not guarantee finishing a fight unscathed.

"...I forgot to check. What about that door?"

"I'll take a look. You continue with the toys."

"Got it, be careful."

The door to the secretary's room could be heard&mdash;But there was no problem.

"How was it?"

"No one's hiding inside... That's what it looks like. Nothing unusual. I'll continue to search."

Probably coming from the secretary's room, a faint voice could barely be heard. The sounds of destruction of the superintendent's collection continued without stopping.

"...Hey, say something. Or else I'll assume you died in an ambush."

"You're too wary."

"Don't get careless. There are supposed to be people who were unaffected by Lady Taciturn's hypnosis."

The person apparently checking the secretary's room continued to converse with the knight who continued to break the collection. In any case, all Un Izoey's group could do was stay silent and listen to their dialogue.

"...To be honest, this is really a nuisance. If we could eliminate half of their numbers, the mental and physical effort to patrol like this would be halved as well."

"Hey hey, they're ordinary people after all. Eliminating half of them now would be too much... Although if necessary, there's no choice but to sacrifice them for the mission. Also, for the goal of founding the second Knights Dominion, now is the critical moment. As members of the organization, we must stay unified and not complain about orders from above."

"Either way, Lady Taciturn isn't inside this school. Thanks to «Auschwitz-Birkenau», no one can get in or out now. No need to worry about her hearing us, right?"

"If the squad leaders get wind of it, they might contact her. Like 'a certain misbehaving knight wants to take advantage of the situation, so please give him a makeover using hypnosis' or something like that. Because if something really comes up, they are the ones to report to Lady Taciturn."

"Hmm... But I'm thinking that the three squad leaders who came this time are the type who simply kill misbehaving knights on the spot if they encounter them."

"That's right. So let's do our job properly to prevent that from happening."

Not long after that&mdash;

"...Okay, looks like there's no one in this room."

"There! Now all the toys have been taken care off too."

The persistent noise of destruction suddenly stopped.

Un Izoey felt sweat dripping down her forehead and quietly exhaled. By this point, the knights had not shown any signs of discovering a certain something&mdash;It meant that the gamble had paid off.

The knights had not discovered the hidden switch under a certain mask on the wall. This mechanism's structure was not exposed directly, instead, part of the wall had been made into a lid to hide the switch beneath. So the knights had overlooked the lid's seams on the wall? Or perhaps they were simply swinging their swords at the masks on the wall, leaving residual fragments hanging, thus leaving the seams cleverly hidden? There were many possibilities, but anyway, the fact that the enemy had not noticed was good enough. How fortunate.

(Right, speaking of fortunate...)

Un Izoey narrowed her eyes and recalled the knights' conversation from just now. It felt like there were a few important points mentioned. She must record them to avoid forgetting. The cellphone still could not make calls at the moment but there might be a chance to transmit information to the outside world later&mdash;No, regarding this point, it felt like there was some kind of contradiction between what the knights discussed and their current situation&mdash;

Hearing the voices of knights again at this time, she suddenly turned her attention back to reality.

"Let's head to the next location. This place is done."

"Yeah. By the way, back to the earlier subject... If we find the Hunter from the Lab Chief's Nation and the others, dispose of them on the spot. But I forgot to confirm, what if we found other students who happened to be not hypnotized, what do we do with them? What are the orders from above?"


Then what they said&mdash;

With a genuine sense of foreboding, Un Izoey's slight sense of surging relief in hopes that "they might be able to keep up the charade longer" was completely buried.

"''It's fine to kill them, I think''."

"Understood."

The footsteps left the superintendent's office and gradually grew distant.

Listening to the departing footsteps through the wall, Un Izoey returned the knife on her foot to under her skirt. Once the footsteps disappeared completely, she turned around and moved away from the secret door where she had remained until now as a precaution.

This was a small and narrow room&mdash;In other words, the secret room next to the superintendent's office. Sovereignty had remembered this place in the nick of time, allowing all of them to hide successfully inside. In terms of timing, it was truly quite a close shave.

"Phew~ We're saved..."

"It's all to your credit, Sovereignty."

"Y-Yeah, but this place is very dear to the superintendent... So it's really forbidden to come in here without permission, and that thing must not be touched at all."

"I'm not going to touch it. Besides, this is a crisis concerning our chastity. I don't think that pervert can complain about providing a hiding place for us. Furthermore, I won't let him complain either. If he is unwilling to provide a hiding place, it will only develop into a lawsuit, meaning that, like a pervert, he wants to indirectly rob us of our chastity, that pervert."

Un Izoey glanced at what Sovereignty said "must not be touched at all"&mdash;in other words, the object lying on a stand in the middle of the room, covered by a piece of cloth&mdash;and pondered what was underneath.

(Right, I think I have heard this before...)

A fuzzy and half-understood unknown. The object that stood as Superintendent Sekaibashi Gabriel's goal. His former possession, the «Treason Piercer»&mdash;Its remains. This was the place for safekeeping those remains.

(Thinking back, there is no better hiding place than here. If the Lab Chief's clear thoughts had come up with this place, it would have saved a lot of effort...)

However, it was already hard enough to report the key points during that phone call earlier. Ultimately, they still managed to reach this place, so there was no point being picky.

Un Izoey swept her gaze across the people present in this secret room again.

Sovereignty, Shiraho, Chihaya in her gym clothes, the smiling Isuzu in her shrine maiden outfit, as well as&mdash;

"Kill us... Haha, that's a joke... right...?"


"I-I guess you're right~ By the way, there was so many thuds and crashes outside like a lot of stuff was getting broken, is that really okay? Although I don't find them very tasteful, the stuff there must be expensive, right...? But they broke all that stuff so they really are villains, right? Or they have no idea who they're dealing with..."

Kana and Taizou's faces were showing stiff smiles.

Having reached a safe hiding spot for now, they now had to think about their next move. If things had to be handled before proceeding with that, now was the only opportunity.

Hence&mdash;Un Izoey prepared herself.

"My statement: the time has arrived to turn your unknowns into knowns..."

Everyone's gaze gathered on her.

This moment was not meant to arrive originally, perhaps. If it were not necessary, if they had not noticed, it would have been a kind of blessing. Just like herself in the past, simply hunting in the jungle.

However, as soon as one realized the world was full of unknowns, as soon as one understood one's "total ignorance"...

Turning aside in an attempt to avoid it would only end up as a type of suffering&mdash;Probably.

"Although I'm not too clear on things... Please tell us. I will listen seriously to you."

"Me too. Anyway, if you've got something to tell us, let's listen first then think about it."

But at the same time, they might feel some pain after gaining knowledge.

Even so, Un Izoey still believed that they ought to know. It was at least better than suffering from leaving unknowns as unknowns. Giving them this kind of pain&mdash;This was surely her most irresponsible action, being the one who brought them here.

"So, perhaps you might not believe, but I will start explaining. First of all..."

Un Izoey gazed into those two's eyes.

With a calm voice, she began to speak.


"This is about what definitely exists in the world... So-called curses and cursed tools&mdash;"


These words, as well as those to follow...

Shall irrevocably change their world forever.

Perhaps this too might be a kind of curse&mdash;She thought to herself.