Editing Unlimited Fafnir:Volume 10 Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 4===

"...I've caused everyone trouble. I'm honestly really sorry."

Inside the underground passage with exposed pipes and wall damage from the wake of the battle, Ariella bowed her head and apologized to all of us.

The young soldiers of Sleipnir were collapsed nearby without any signs of waking up. During Ariella's transformation, they looked like they were in pain and apparently fainted.

After checking their condition, Mitsuki sighed lightly.

"Destroying facilities, leaking information... Ariella-san, you have broken these two of the school rules. These two violations cannot be forgiven lightly, but since no one was harmed as a result and your hand was forced, after consideration of extenuating circumstances, as your classmate, I would like you to write and hand in twenty repentance essays."

Speaking in a student council president's tone of voice, Mitsuki informed Ariella of her punishment.

"Umm... That's all?"

Shocked, Ariella asked in response. Mitsuki threw a glance at Kili.

"It is fine. Rather—compared to what Kili-san did in the past, Ariella-san, your violations are much 'cuter.' Kili-san, since you will be living as a Midgard student henceforth, please hand in a greater number of repentance essays than Ariella-san."

"W-Wait, stop bringing up the past! The statute of limitations has already passed for those! Besides, there isn't any evidence left behind either."

Suddenly in the hot seat, Kili argued in a panic, but Tia cornered her even further.

"No, Kili has to write repentance essays properly! Kili injured Lisa that time!"

Confronted with Tia's direct stare, Kili slumped her shoulders in resignation.

"...I got it, okay? Fine, I'll write them."

"Yes, if that's the case, Tia—will forgive you, Kili. Those who've been punished must be forgiven... That's what Lisa said."

These words caused Kili to hold her breath. She must have realized that the forgiveness brought up by Tia included more than just about Lisa's incident.

"Tia..."

After Kili showed mixed feelings in her expression, Tia looked shyly at Ariella.

"Because of that, Ariella, you don't need to apologize after writing the repentance essays. Tia won't be angry with you anymore. Tia won't feel troubled... Tia is just very worried about you, Ariella."

After Tia finished, Iris nodded firmly and agreed.

"That's right! We only came to help because we're worried about you, Ariella-chan! That's why, how should I put this...? It feels quite different from apologizing?"

Was she unable to articulate her thoughts properly? Iris waved her hands anxiously.

Then after gazing at Ariella silently the whole time, Ren quietly spoke up.

"Onee-chan... Say thanks."

"Huh?"

Ren's seemingly angry expression and voice made Ariella tilt her head in puzzlement.

"Even if you apologize... No one will be happy. That's why, say thanks instead."

After Ren forcefully repeated herself, Ariella's expression brightened up.

She smiled mildly in wryness, took and deep breath then looked at all of us in turn.

"—Thank you, everyone."

Instead of apologizing, Ariella thanked everyone.

Next, Iris and the girls smiled naturally. The atmosphere at the scene eased up.

"Mm."

After Ren nodded approvingly, tears finally began to fall from her eyes nonstop. She threw herself at Ariella's chest.

"Onee-chan, you're such an... idiot."

Ren hugged Ariella tightly and said in a trembling voice.

"Yeah—You're right. I'm really an idiot."

Ariella stroked Ren's head while answering with a wry smile.

"Mm."

Ren leaned against Ariella's chest and nodded, her slender shoulders shaking.

Seeing them hugging together like sisters, I felt relieved and took out a piece of fabric, carefully folded in my shirt pocket. It was Ariella's most precious treasure, the green ribbon she had always wore on her hair.

"Oh..."

Seeing that, Ariella inhaled lightly.

"—''You dropped this''. Don't lose it ever again."

Saying that, I extended the ribbon towards her. Ariella reached out hesitantly but she stopped the instant just before her fingertips touched the ribbon. With serious eyes, she stared at me.

"Mononobe-kun... You protected the principal."

"Yeah."

Seeing me nod without any hesitation, Ariella bit her lip. To her, this was probably what she found impossible to accept.

But having conversed with Ariella in the mental world, of course I could sense something.

"However—If Charl were to choose a wrong path, I will stop her. Naturally, it'll be a method other than killing her."

"—Huh?"

Ariella stared at me in surprise.

"You mentioned earlier, right? Charl probably hopes for someone to stop her. If that's true, let me take on this duty as her friend."

"Mononobe-kun..."

Ariella looked at me with moistened eyes.

"I will talk to Charl again after driving NIFL away. What needs to be done will be decided then."

After I voiced my thoughts, Ariella smiled and accepted the ribbon.

"—I understand now. No matter what choice you make, Mononobe-kun, I will follow you. Because... I've already... become something the same as you."

Ariella spoke in a half-joking tone before tying on the ribbon.

Ren looked up at Ariella, who was wearing her usual ponytail, and made an expression of delight.

"Mm... This hairstyle is best for Onee-chan."

Saying that, Ren looked at me as though seeking agreement.

"Yeah, that's right. Ariella is the most attractive like this."

I nodded and shared my opinion, causing Ariella to blush suddenly.

"N-No need for flattery! I know I'm not very girly, okay!"

"Huh? That's not what I think. You've got a great figure, and—"

I was about to point out the location of Ariella's charm, but immediately stopped myself. Mitsuki was staring in my direction. I could sense it without even looking back.

"And?"

"Uh—Sorry, Mitsuki's gonna be mad at me for sexual harassment if I actually say it out."

Realizing the danger in following the usual pattern and getting scolded, I sighed.

"Sexual harassment... What the heck were you going to say? Now that you've said this much, I'm very curious."

However, Ariella glared at me with dissatisfaction.

"Even if you say that..."

After I hesitated under Mitsuki's gaze, Ariella reached out and pulled me to the side.

"Then tell me secretly in a voice too quiet for Mitsuki to hear. Don't worry, I won't get mad."

"...Sure."

Since she said so, I leaned in close to Ariella's ear.

"—Ariella, I find your legs particularly pretty. During the battle, I had a really tough time trying to keep my attention away from them."

After I said that, Ariella went totally red to her ears.

"W-What—What are you saying to a girl!? I was right, you're too lacking in delicacy!"

Red in the face, Ariella looked very flustered. Watching the situation, Mitsuki said to me coldly.
[[image:UnlimitedFafnir v10 141.jpg|thumb]]

"Nii-san, although I do not know what you said, please write ten repentance essays regarding the subject of sexual harassment."

"T-That's so unreasonable..."

I slumped my shoulders. Making a fist, Iris cheered me on.

"Do your best, Mononobe! Do your best together with Ariella-chan and Kili-chan!"

"Writing repentance essays for Mitsuki is such a pain. She'll get mad again if you hand in a slipshod job."

Tia muttered with annoyance. She looked at me compassionately.

"...How much do I need to write again?"

Kili murmured quietly in worry.

The mood in the passage was very relaxed, but at that moment, Mitsuki's expression suddenly tensed up while she placed her hand over her earpiece.

Mitsuki was the only one here wearing a communicator. We had refrained from equipping everyone with communicators out of concern for eavesdropping over the airwaves. Communications with the command center were essentially conducted over dedicated circuits. Hence, a message sent via communicator implied quite a serious emergency.

"——Understood. We will return immediately."

Mitsuki answered simply with a grave expression. Then she looked at us.

"A request for aid from the ground surface. The situation is quite unclear since their explanation failed to capture the key points... In any case, it seems to be quite urgent."

"Then let's go. Can we just leave things as they are?"

I pointed to the collapsed young soldiers and the destroyed partition.

"Tie them up then let the staff retrieve them. Ren-san, could you transmute something to block the passage? We will use that to replace the partition for now."

"Mm."

Ren nodded. Separating from Ariella, she generated her hammer of a fictional armament.

"Then I'll do the tying. It'll be very dangerous when they regain consciousness, so Iris and Tia should stay away. Ariella, can you give me a hand?"

"Yeah, sure."

Ariella nodded and joined me in tying up the young soldiers.

I used transmutation to create a rope while I tied up the young men one by one. Meanwhile, I asked Ariella:

"So Ariella, these guys and you were clearly acting strangely... Did Major Loki do something?"

"—All I did was swallow a capsule he gave me. It contained dried and processed blood that was made into a powder."

"Blood?"

I gazed questioningly at Ariella while my hands continued to work. She shrugged.

"Well, it could be mixed with other stuff too. After swallowing the capsule, I could feel murderous intent spontaneously flowing out from within my body—It's hard to describe clearly, but it feels something like 'the power existing to kill humans' expanded while my own consciousness was suppressed..."

"Then for these guys, who were in a similar state as you—"

Ariella nodded at me.

"Yeah, probably, they ate it too. But it's probably fine now. After you touched me, Mononobe-kun, the irrepressible impulse and the stuff clouding my mind were all cleared out."

"Well, but that's only for you, Ariella, right? Why do you say they're fine too?"

When I raised the question, Ariella scratched her cheek, slightly troubled.

"Hmm—How should I put it...? Until just now, we were completely synchronized. Like eight people as one body, our vision and senses were shared. I could also generate dark matter using them as starting points. That's why I think that my transformation must have spread to them to a certain degree."

"The transformation spread to them, don't tell me—"

A disgusting image surfaced in my mind while a chill ran through my body. Seeing me react that way, Ariella smiled wryly.

"Ahaha, I don't think they'll turn into your mates, Mononobe-kun. They're not Ds, so there won't be changes to the physical body. However, their minds might be affected."

"I-I see... Oh well, it's also a good thing for these guys to regain their sanity."

Relieved after listening to Ariella, I tied up the last guy.

Ren had also summoned a large amount of dark matter and plugged up the passage completely with a metal wall.

Our next task was to hurry to the ground surface, but I felt vaguely ill at ease as I looked at the young soldiers lying on the ground.

If what had driven Ariella and them was Code Lost, then this scrapped authority ''must have gone somewhere now''.

In Ariella's case, her capacity as a vessel might have increased as a result of transforming into "my kind." But beyond that—if the young soldiers regained their sanity, then the only conclusion was that they had lost the authority.

However, Iris had not lost Basilisk's authority when she transformed from touching me. If that was the case, it would be quite strange if an authority was lost because of the "same-kind transformation."

—Speaking of which, Ariella had said that contact with me caused "unnecessary things inside her to grow faint."

In other words, in her case, the power obtained through the capsule was perhaps a foreign entity that did not belong to her. In that case—

"Nii-san, let us move out."

Since I had stopped walking, Mitsuki called out to me.

"...Yeah."

While I nodded and started walking, what flashed through my mind was that sneering face of Major Loki—the "son of the hero."

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