Chapter 106

"L-Lieutenant, you really don't need to take any of it to heart. I mean it. I don't know what happened, but I'm sure he didn't mean—"

The management team employee had insisted on escorting Erabelle all the way to her door again and was still fretting over her.

"He didn't do anything."

"Pardon...?"

"He only asked me a few questions."

The employee looked as though he wanted to know why she was upset, then. Erabelle had no answer she could give him. How was she supposed to explain that seeing Dezeb healthy had been such a relief?

"Anyway, about the Class A center. I still don't see why it would be impossible. Can't you arrange something?"

"What? Absolutely not."

That expression... It looked remarkably like the one her doctor had worn when she'd asked him to inquire about renewing her identification tag for her.

They were always full of reassuring words, but nothing ever came of them.

"Absolutely, absolutely not. Please go inside now."

She didn't particularly want to.

When she was at home, she thought too much. Come to think of it, why had she been so dutiful about going home every day? She hadn't even done that as a student.

"Yes, all right. I'll see you next week."

Erabelle dismissed the management team employee with a perfunctory farewell, turned, and trudged toward the center.

Seventy-nine.

Erabelle stared at the score, which hadn't changed by so much as a single digit. Then, without much reaction, she started training again.

Lately, she practically lived in the training room.

There had been a time limit, but after she began leaving only to visit other centers around the capital, the management team employee finally arranged an extension. He had called her and come to see her, making quite a fuss, but words alone weren't enough to overcome Erabelle's stubbornness.

She shut herself away in the training room, cut off from the outside world.

She ate and slept there, too, and the intervals between her departures grew longer as she got the hang of it.

If only she were getting the hang of the training as quickly....

...Ah.

Distracted, she had failed to check her shield gauge. A round punched through and struck her. The first stage might only be a simulation, but this was a Class A center—one run by the Dogs aboard their flagship.

That meant it was based entirely on real conditions.

She frowned at the hole in her side, then froze.

What is this...?

The wound was closing at an unbelievable speed.

"What?"

She was so bewildered that she lost focus, and this time the back of her hand was grazed. She had half meant to let that happen.

Again, the wound healed quickly.

"What the...?"

To be sure, she turned her shield off altogether. A round tore through her shoulder, destroying half of it. But that, too, healed in an instant.

Flesh joined to flesh, and shattered pieces of bone fitted themselves back into place.

"Could this be...?"

Was it because of Dezeb's blood?

She had received a large quantity of it, and she still took a concentrated pill every day. Perhaps °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° it had given her something like a superpower.

She would know for certain after speaking to her doctor. The management team would naturally receive a report, too.

She still didn't understand what was happening, but perhaps this was it.

A way past seventy-nine.

"......"

The effectiveness of every military weapon in this world depended on the user's physical level. Even with the same weapon, performance could vary enormously.

Erabelle's physical level was only 2, and her SPD capacity was inefficient. She concentrated it on vital areas such as her head and heart, then began clearing the training exercises by charging straight in.

She cleared not only the first-stage simulation test, but the second-stage practical test as well.

"Dezeb...."

Ol watched his master with a grim expression.

It had begun with a small hole in his side. Then his shoulder, his hip bone, his thigh... His body kept bursting open. Naturally, Ol was more worried about his master's reaction than the injuries themselves.

"I'll make her stop."

Drops of blood fell beneath the chair where Dezeb lay sprawled.

The blood seeped into the shadows, so there was no permanent loss. But their bodies were fundamentally human. Using one this way would produce noise.

"Leave her alone."

Once again, Dezeb told him to let her be.

"I want to see how far she goes."

He was curious.

Every time this nauseating body burst open, he was reminded that the woman was sitting right above his head. He very much wanted to know how he would behave if it kept happening.

The noise from his rupturing body mingled with his arousal until his mind drifted in and out as though he were drugged.

Even as his body tore apart, imagining himself forcing his cock between her legs and thrusting into her made him feel close to coming.

For that reason, Dezeb almost welcomed the tearing. He was tired of gripping his cock and masturbating alone, too.

He held a toxic cigarette at a crooked angle between his lips and let his foul mood spill out.

"I hope she tries something stupid."

She could stab him in the back, or she could seek out the Prince she'd called his gay lover and conspire with him. Ah, no—the Prince was already being used as a test subject.

"...What?"

It wasn't long before he learned what Erabelle Vermilion had done.

"The conflict zone?"

"Yes. She applied to return to the conflict zone immediately after completing the Class A center. It appears she intends to finish the platform she began building two years ago."

"...The conflict zone."

He could hardly believe it.

"You mean the place where we herded all those rifts before?"

"Yes."

Whether she had the nerve to stab him in the back or not, she certainly had a talent for pissing him off.

After he recovered his divinity from the Prince, every rift produced by the distorted balance had closed. But the monsters that had already emerged hadn't simply vanished.

The conflict zone was still at war with the monsters that had begun to propagate there.

"What... should we do?"

"Send her."

He spoke with a fierce scowl.

"If she wants to go, we should let her."

As Erabelle stepped off the shuttle, she hunched against the conflict zone's familiar cold and kept walking.

"Ugh, it's cold...."

It was cold, but... much less so than before. At worst, it felt like a chilly day in early winter.

Erabelle stopped for a moment and looked up. The mass of the dead had disappeared completely, and white sunlight filled the sky. It was as clear as the sky over the capital.

A knife-sharp wind still whipped through the place, making her wonder what purpose its four stars served. Even so, it was much brighter now. Support seemed to have improved considerably, too.

Perhaps because most of the nearby units had gathered here, she saw nothing that looked particularly makeshift or neglected.

"...You."

When she entered the office, still hunched against the cold, the company commander glared at her.

"Have you been well, sir?"

"You!"

Damn, he startled her.

Shouting the moment he saw her, as usual. His depression seemed to have grown steadily worse while she was away.

"Why are you—"

The company commander pointed at her, his hand trembling.

"Why are you here again? Why—!"

Then he suddenly clapped a hand over his mouth and turned pale.

"C-Commander!"

Bright red blood was streaming between his fingers. Startled, Erabelle quickly grabbed a towel nearby and held it out, but he recoiled. Had she picked up a cleaning rag instead...?

"What is this now...?"

He muttered through the hand over his mouth, sounding bewildered.

"What did you do...?"

He was talking to himself, so his condition really did seem to have deteriorated badly.

"I'll call the infirmary."

"...Just stay away from me."

Well, she was used to hearing that.

She had washed her hair only two days ago, and this time she wasn't the one spilling something from her mouth.

Blood was worse than vomit. It cost more to treat, too. Had he developed some illness while she was gone?

"Crazy bastard. As if the leash weren't enough, you put a prohibition on her too?"

There he went, talking to himself again. She was wondering just how bad his condition had become when he abruptly asked,

"Do you even know what situation you're in?"

He was glaring at her as though he wanted her dead.

"Do I know...?"

This hardly seemed the time to worry about her situation.

More and more blood was pouring from him. Fortunately, the medical officer arrived before the company commander could collapse from blood loss. The officer had a somewhat sharp manner.

"My, Lieutenant. It's been a long time, hasn't it?"

Erabelle faced the welcome medical officer, who had appeared without being called, with an awkward look.

"Yes. Have you been well too, Lieutenant?"

"Very well, apart from someone persistently ignoring my calls."

"I can explain everything."

"Never mind that. How did you get here?"

"I was assigned here. And Lieutenant, I really did have a reason. A very good reason. Please let it go this once. I'm begging you."

Erabelle clung to her, and Camillia recoiled.

Some of the 41st Division personnel who had come to the conflict zone after the wave erupted in Moln City were still stationed here. Camillia was one of them.

"All right, just let go of me!"

She swept her pretty red hair back roughly.

"Why are you really here?"

"I've returned."

Sensing that Camillia might forgive her, Erabelle gave her a sheepish grin and pointed at the company commander.

"He doesn't seem to be in very good shape."