Editing The Unexplored Summon Blood Sign:Volume5 Chapter1 (section)

===Part 8===

“You’ve gone too far.”

That was the first thing said by Shigara Masami, one of the adults, whose long black hair was held in a ponytail with a scrunchie. In a soundproofed reception room, she sat across a glass table from a man far too skinny for his thick work jumpsuit.

That man was a legend on the same level as Madam Professor.

He was known as Blasphemous Inspiration.

“Akura-san, I know you know the Miniature Garden’s purpose. In fact, it’s strange that a hired-hand like me has to correct you. The White Queen might only appear by accident during the Summoning Ceremony and the conditions for her appearance might be as unexplained as the formation of a tornado, but she is only a stress test for the 15. She is a problem they must face to see if they will stay together as a family instead of breaking apart in the face of trials and disasters. So this is straying from that.”

“I have plenty of counterarguments, but let me hear everything you have to say first. I want to avoid having to repeat myself.”

“We don’t have to achieve it.” The woman in a tight suit and lab coat toyed with the silver whistle hanging at her chest. “The White Queen is best left just out of reach. No matter how high people stack the stones, they can never reach out and grab the sun in heaven. But the attempt will lead them to build an incredibly tall tower. Isn’t that where the Queen’s purpose lies? We still can’t predict what will happen to the comatose Jabberwock after her consecutive defeats. The same is true of the vessel Iris after being buried alive in rubble. And thanks to the battle with the Hatter, Humpty Dumpty herself is near the breaking point mentally.”

“…”

“What is the purpose of the Miniature Garden? If it is to destroy the stated intent of bringing about world peace and bringing mankind together, then shouldn’t we cast aside that detour right this instant?”

Shigara Masami ''never thought the Fifteen Siblings Project would succeed.

Whatever the plan was, it was the 15 children cut off from the world who were on the chopping block.

She only had to show the other adults that their theory could never be accomplished and then retrieve the children who were no longer needed. That way they could be given a second “proper” life instead of rotting away as the world left them behind or being crushed as the failed project collapsed around them. That had been her intention when she joined the project.

The system was coldhearted and lacked kindness, so she would give it some. She would become the component that did so.

So what was this?

Those ignorant children had been brought into the Summoning Ceremony and made into summoners who would be forgotten by normal people once outside their field of vision. Not to mention that they were being made to seek the uncontrollable White Queen and to attack each other in this closed space.

“What is the main plan and what is a detour?”

But she did not get through to the man named Akura Taisaku, aka Blasphemous Inspiration.

They simply viewed the world and approached the problem in two fundamentally different ways.

“Everyone has their own outlook, but I think conflict is one form of communication. They do say rain hardens the ground, after all. And if they are too afraid of conflict to act on their desires, can we really call that a true family?”

“…”

A clash of opinions sounded all well and good, but was that still true when it came down to family members wielding deadly weapons against each other?

“Also.” Akura Taisaku chuckled at Shigara Masami who no longer even tried to hide her displeasure. “On a more fundamental level, I think our methodology concerning the White Queen is not wrong at all. I am not just saying this and I am not just pretending to understand the formation of a tornado. I truly intend to take control of the Unexplored-class’s peak.”

“…Are you serious?”

“The Unexplored-class exceeds the gods of legend and that Queen reigns supreme above even them. She is the perfect symbol. Such a perfect symbol that she can bring together 6 or 7 billion people. So it is not wrong to use those 15 to find a way to control her. After all, the Miniature Garden exists to monitor those 15 for the good of all humanity.”

“It isn’t possible… No, you mustn’t do it!”

“Normally, no. But if you have a perfect foothold, you can climb a vertical wall. Have you peeked inside the Inner Circle’s gallery?”

That space was often visited by the Queen of Hearts of the 15. It was filled with paintings, sculptures, and other materials related to the White Queen her costume was based on.

But it made no sense to have that much material on the White Queen when she could not be recorded with cameras or sensors and had never been directly witnessed by anyone. Someone would have had to see the Queen, experienced her enough to record her in the medium of paint or stone, and possessed the skill to accurately include the Queen’s symbolism.

Just one of those documents possessed as much information as the scriptures or sacred texts that ruled entire nations or continents.

Shigara Masami squeezed out a low voice.

“You mean someone donated them? You had a patron?”

“It was a person known as the Colorful Museum. They are more interested in collecting out-of-place artifacts and holy relics than in battle, and that collection apparently extends to human beings as well. As long as the divine resides within them, even a human being is a relic.” The jumpsuit man chuckled as he gave his carefree answer. “They also wanted a large testing ground. After all, the pacifists keep too watchful an eye when it comes to the White Queen. Without a cover story like this, we would receive nothing but criticism once the research began.”

“That’s crazy! Are you saying you didn’t just hijack this project for your own purposes…!?”

“Well, you see…”

Akura Taisaku tapped his fingers on the top of the glass table.

He was drawing attention to Shigara Masami’s phone that she had placed there.

“I am sick of letting ''these things'' rule humanity. I want to take action before they entirely cover the world. I just about jumped for joy when I first learned that summoners and vessels inside an Artificial Sacred Ground vanish from all cameras and sensors, but that is still not enough. Man must grow even stronger. Before ''these things'' cover the world and we become mere hunks of flesh that only pretend to think.”

“…”

“15 is not enough. Extracting useful data from their pretend family won’t be enough. It will provide us with a large fortune, but ''these things'' will cover the world before we can bring the benefits back to humanity. I will do anything to prevent that. I will dirty my hands in any way. After all, this facility was made to consume those 15 in order to save humanity from the ruin we have long seen coming.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the entire Miniature Garden shook.

It was like a duplicate of the last time. As an unpleasant feeling built in Shigara Masami’s chest, the madman in a jumpsuit finished his rant.

“Alberto the Hatter is my greatest masterpiece. So he will reach the peak of the peak. This Miniature Garden only needs to be an egg waiting to hatch.”

“Even though you know you will be swallowed by the cracks when the shell is broken?”

Akura tilted his head at that.

And Blasphemous Inspiration answered.

“Is that supposed to be a problem?”