Chapter 64

We left the storage room—which had felt more like Rose’s private hobby space—and headed for the next room. However…

“This is the chemical storage room. Now, let’s head up to the third floor.”

Rose walked straight past the door without stopping.

“Wait—hey, hold on a second!”

Kirio, whose eyes had lit up at the mention of “chemical storage,” voiced her frustration.

“Let me see inside. I won’t go in!”

“No. From here on, I will only be introducing the rooms. Entering is forbidden, and so is looking inside.”

“Strict, aren’t we?”

Neitz remarked with a voice that was half-impressed, half-exasperated.

“Is there something in there so sensitive that it can’t be seen?” Ray asked, his eyes flashing coldly.

“Oh? Would you prefer I reveal everything to the group then? My research results, conducted with the cooperation of Pace—should I show them to everyone?”

At Rose’s provocative tone, Ray fell silent and clicked his tongue.

We continued up to the third floor.

“This is the equipment room. This is the spare parts room.”

Her introductions were now nothing more than passing glances as we glided by the doors.

Kirio was bursting with curiosity, and Neitz seemed quite interested herself; they bombarded Rose with questions about the layout and the items stored inside, pleading for even a tiny peek.

Rose, remaining a Noh mask, let their requests roll off her like water off a duck’s back.

I had relatively little interest in the storage closets, and since Ray had been quiet for a while, the two of us ended up falling behind the leading trio.

“Um…”

“What is it?”

Feeling somewhat left behind together, I decided to speak to Ray.

“What do you think is going to happen with this case?”

It was the question that had been weighing on me most.

“I suppose you’d be concerned, given you’re the one being treated like a criminal,” Ray muttered. He didn’t ignore me or brush me off; instead, he thought for a moment before continuing. “No one knows which way things will fall. However, I know what I must do, and I know Pace’s objective.”

“And that is?”

“The elimination of Django. He will be removed for the crime of concealing a Holy Relic. That is the consensus of my country, and it is my duty.”

I was stunned that Ray would speak of something so monumental so casually. I instinctively looked around, but the three women ahead of us didn’t seem to notice.

“Is… is it okay for you to be telling me that?”

“It’s something everyone has suspected. Django has gained too much power—fame, capability, and information. That power only invites more power. Django is bottomless. He didn’t know how to stop. Or perhaps he felt that if he did, he would be erased. That the only way to avoid being erased was to use his power to seize even greater power.”

Ray used both hands to mimic the shape of something expanding rapidly.

“He has reached critical mass. Anything that continues to expand must eventually burst. Even within Pace, which was once split between those who wanted to use Django and those who wanted him gone, everyone now views him as a danger. The situation is likely the same for other nations. As for me, the circumstances are perfectly aligned to settle this, so I have no complaints.”

“But if you do that, wouldn’t that mean I—the person Django identified with his Holy Relic—really am a member of the Blue Wolves?” I asked, touching on the part that worried me most.

“Handling Django, a dark stain on our nation, is already enough of a handful; I have no desire to start a problem with the country of Shark. However…” Ray’s eyes narrowed. “If you truly are a member of the Blue Wolves, I won’t let you escape on a personal level.”

“N-no, I’m not. But if the story becomes that Django possesses a Holy Relic, then that implies I’m a Blue Wolf, right?”

“Not necessarily. Even if what he holds is a Holy Relic, there may be holes in its rules. You needn’t worry about it too much. My goal—Pace’s goal—is strictly Django.”

“Then… what happens if it turns out that compass isn’t a Holy Relic?”

Ray let out a cold sneer at my suggestion.

“True, in that case, I would lose my justification for eliminating him. But that won’t happen. Our investigation has already confirmed that he possesses a Holy Relic and has been using it for his investigations. Besides, if that weren’t the case, he wouldn’t have risked his life to avoid my previous inspections. And, in the unlikely event that it isn’t a Holy Relic, but just a mere imitation…”

“What then?”

“Possessing a Holy Relic and using it to catch criminals with absolute certainty—that rumor is undoubtedly a pillar of Django’s power. If that vanishes, the power goes with it. In that case, I wouldn’t even need to eliminate him. Even our intelligence department can’t keep track of how many enemies that man has across the globe.”

“You mean… he’d be killed?” I asked, taken aback.

“Django lived his life like a tightrope walker, balancing between those who wanted to protect him for his utility and those who wanted to eliminate him because of it. If that balance breaks, he’ll be forced to cough up every piece of information and every cent he owns. He might buy his life with trade-offs, but that’s it. He’d never stand on the world stage again; he’d be forced into a meager retirement under constant surveillance. For a man like him, that’s as good as being dead. No… it might be worse.”

While we were talking, we reached the end of the hallway on the third floor.

“This is a storage room. You may enter this one.”

Rose unlocked the door.

“What’s so fun about going into a storage room? Honestly!” Kirio grumbled.

Neitz, on the other hand, didn’t seem to care as long as she could go inside. As the door opened, she peered in. “Let’s see, then.”

Lured in by her, Kirio and Rose followed her into the room.

Ray and I cut our conversation short and followed the other three inside.

The room was dusty, as if it hadn’t been opened in quite a while.

“A-choo!”

Neitz coughed, a look of annoyance crossing her face.

“I suppose it’s about time for a cleaning. I’ll have to ask Lirina,” Rose muttered.

Rows of shelves lined the interior, each covered in a thin layer of dust.

“Is all this stuff kept on these shelves?” Neitz asked while pressing her hand over her mouth and nose.

“Yes, but it’s truly only junk that’s kept here. The reason this storage room is at the very back is because it’s meant for things we never use. Since we rarely need to come here, it was placed at the furthest point.”

Rose ignored the shelves entirely and headed toward the back of the room.

“Here we go.”

There was a ladder attached to the wall. Looking up, I saw a hatch in the ceiling at the top of the ladder.

“You can get out onto the roof from here.”

Rose climbed the ladder, unlocked the hatch, and swung it open. Instantly, the glow of the setting sun poured into the room through the opening.

“Ah, the sun is already going down,” Rose said as she stepped out onto the roof.

The rest of us prepared to follow. Before Kirio climbed up, she glared at Ray and me with a look that could kill.

“Don’t you dare look up while Neitz or I are climbing.”

“Understood.”

And so, Ray and I were forced to stand there like idiots, staring at the dusty floor together until we heard Kirio’s voice call out, “Okay, you can come up now!”

I was surprised that Ray looked down without a word of protest, but he probably just didn’t want to waste time arguing.

Once we received Kirio’s permission, the two of us finally emerged onto the roof.

“Whoa.”

The word escaped my lips involuntarily.

Even in the heart of the Dark Forest, the rooftop of the three-story building allowed glimpses of a crimson sunset filtering through the gaps in the trees. It made the surrounding dark woods look as if they were burning red.

The rooftop was sparse—simply the top of the building with no safety railings installed. Feeling a bit uneasy, I made sure to stay away from the edges.

“Wait, what’s that?”

Despite my caution, something caught my eye and I found myself unconsciously drifting toward the edge.

Visible from the roof was a single-story structure standing right next to us; it looked like a shrunken version of the main building. I remembered noticing an annex-like building earlier.

“What’s that one?” Neitz asked, pointing at the structure.

“Ah, that’s the Treatment Wing.”

Rose was brief, sounding as if she didn’t particularly want to talk about it.

“Oh, look, that one has a window,” Kirio remarked.

Squinting as I followed Kirio’s gaze, I saw a small window, about thirty centimeters square, on the wall of the “Treatment Wing” facing us.

“Even though this main building doesn’t have any windows at all…”

As Kirio voiced her curiosity, Rose explained:

“Well, without a window, the smells would get trapped inside, wouldn’t they?”

At first, the meaning didn’t register, but as my mind instantly connected the various experiments Rose was rumored to perform, the term “Treatment Wing,” and the mention of “smells,” I stopped myself from imagining further. I felt like I was about to lose my appetite for dinner.

“Well then, shall we end the tour here?”

Rose clapped her hands, glancing sideways at me as my face paled slightly.

“I still need to show you all to your respective rooms, and Rick will be preparing dinner soon.”

Rose toyed with a strand of her long, beautiful hair.

“His cooking skills are top-tier. Though he’s nowhere near my level when it comes to research.”

“I look forward to it,” Ray replied, his expressionless face making him sound entirely uninterested.

With that, we left the rooftop.

As I climbed down the ladder, the image of the burning forest remained burned into my mind.

That beautiful, grand, and utterly ominous scenery.