The carriage stopped where the road ended.

A parched wasteland without a single tree. With no shade to shelter them from the blazing sun, every living thing on the earth groaned in the heat. In that wilderness, where even the heaps of dirt seemed exhausted by the heat, exhaling shimmering breaths, a sign stood tall, declaring the end of the road.

Seeing the sign, the two officers realized they had arrived at the right place—and that it was time to get on with their next task.

The officers split up. While one approached the sign, the other headed for the rear of the vehicle, fingering the steel telescopic baton hanging at his waist.

The officer heading for the rear was tense, his only weapon, the steel baton, clenched in one hand. His sweaty palm kept slipping against it, but he had no time to worry about that.

Prison transports were generally used to transport criminals, and anyone bold enough to break the Military State's laws was bound to resist at the slightest opening. Until now, the officer had given such criminals a harsh taste of his steel baton, and he had been quite satisfied with the results.

But today, for the first time since donning his epaulets, he wondered whether that baton would be enough.

They had arrived at Tantalus, the prison of the bottomless pit. Only vicious criminals who could never be allowed to mingle with society were confined there—a legendary place that people entered but never left.

They said that if you wanted to learn about its prisoners, you would find them faster in a history book than a newspaper, and that even the Military State, with all its mighty armed forces, could do no more than imprison them. A land of sin where monsters with the fighting strength of a nation, kings of beasts, and warriors said to have defeated armies single-handedly walked about like ordinary residents.

And the person they had brought today was a criminal destined for that very Tantalus.

'Damn it. They definitely said he was a first offender. What heinous crime could he have committed to get sent straight to Tantalus?'

I wholeheartedly agreed with his thoughts. What crime could possibly warrant sending someone straight to Tantalus without so much as a proper trial? Someone as harmless and upstanding as me, no less. There had to be some serious mistake. There just had to be.

The officer took a long, deep breath, then pounded on the rear door with his steel baton.

"Get away from the door unless you want a beating!"

The Military State treated criminals much as it treated explosives awaiting disposal: with extreme caution and layer upon layer of wrapping.

Even the pettiest offender could expect to have all four limbs bound and a hood pulled over their head. Gags and straitjackets were added at the officer's discretion.

On learning that his charge was bound for Tantalus, the officer had used every restraint he was permitted. A blindfold, a hood, a gag, and even a straitjacket. It would have been no surprise if an ordinary person had suffocated under all that.

And since I was an ordinary person, I was having trouble breathing. Someone save me.

The officer remained on guard even against a prisoner whose lungs could barely perform their life-sustaining work.

He couldn't expect common sense to apply to this man. This was no ordinary criminal, but someone bound for the infamous Tantalus.

Given that the assignment had fallen to a low-ranking officer like him, the prisoner probably wasn't especially dangerous. Still, he couldn't afford to lower his guard. Not out of duty, but for the sake of his own life.

Well, in truth, he could have let his guard down without any trouble.

Forget a straitjacket—I couldn't even undo a properly tied rope.

"Opening up!"

The damn officer gave me no opening. After opening the rear door, he quickly stepped back. Every muscle tensed, he gripped his steel baton and pointed it at the criminal.

The rear door opened, and the accursed, vicious criminal appeared before the world once more...

Still trussed up in his straitjacket, rolling around on the floor, exactly as before.

Somewhat reassured to find the prisoner exactly as he had been when locked inside, the officer started to approach... then suddenly raised his steel baton above his head. Reading his thoughts, I let out an inaudible groan.

Ah, wait. Sto—

"Mmph!"

The steel baton slammed into my abdomen. The impact jolted me to my bones, and I let out a groan of pain, only for the gag to smother it. I was beaten without being able to offer the slightest resistance.

After bringing the baton down five or six times, as though making sure I was dead, the officer relaxed at my response.

'Fortunately, his restraints seem to be intact. No need to worry about an ambush.'

Now certain, the officer grabbed a strap on my straitjacket and pulled. My body, sprawled on the floor of the vehicle, bumped against one thing after another before tumbling to the ground. Watching me drag helplessly along, the officer grew puzzled.

'They said he was a vicious criminal bound for Tantalus. What's going on? Hitting him feels just like hitting any ordinary petty crook.'

Reading the officer's thoughts, I writhed, swallowing my mounting indignation.

Of course it did.

I wasn't some criminal who belonged in Tantalus, nor was I the terrorist of the century. Never mind crimes worthy of the history books—I only ran a few little scams in back alleys.

I was just a petty crook whose sole talent was reading minds!

* * *

I'd been playing cards with some suckers, with the deeds to their houses on the table, as usual.

The idea that gambling is bad is pure prejudice. If you have money, connections, or—in the slightly unusual case of someone like me—the ability to read minds, gambling is like sweeping money off the ground. The world is full of idiots willing to pay their entire fortunes for a momentary thrill, and I was the priest of a pay-to-confess confessional who understood their secret desires completely. Though instead of a tithe, I took only half the winnings.

As on any other day, I was in the process of winning myself a house off those suckers when a commotion suddenly broke out outside.

The old woman downstairs, who took a cut without ever joining the game, gave us the signal. One sucker, who'd been agonizing over cards that simply wouldn't come together, brightened and overturned the table. Postponing my dream of homeownership, I hid the evidence and waited. Then some unfamiliar military police kicked down the door.

Military police conducting a surprise inspection, gamblers who'd already cleared away their game. So far, nothing out of the ordinary. As always, I reached inside my clothes to give the military police their share as well.

That was when one of them caught my wrist.

["Under military law, you are all under arrest."]

The military police conducting the surprise raid beat everyone there and hauled us away.

The Military State was a far crazier country than I had imagined. I struggled desperately to defend myself, but they sent me to trial without evidence or witnesses. It took less than a full day to turn me into a felon. In a courtroom without a single observer, I was sentenced to hard labor in Tantalus, powerless to resist.

My ability to read minds was no help at all in that absurd courtroom. The military police insisted that we had been plotting something under the guise of playing cards, and the judge brought down his gavel despite knowing there was no solid evidence.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Guilty. While the wooden hammer that symbolized justice knocked its head three times in apology for its own injustice, not a single person raised their voice.

Logic? Principles? If they'd had any of those, the military government wouldn't have staged a coup.

I was flung onto the cold floor of a detention cell.

And then I was transported to Tantalus, the worst prison in the world.

* * *

Remembering the past while tied up only made me more miserable, but the officer dragged me along without any consideration for my plight. Thanks to him, I could feel the ground with my entire back. Every tug on the strap sent stony sand scraping across it.

Ah, Mother Earth. Your skin is a little rough. I really ought to get you some moisturizer.

After I'd spent a little while offering blasphemous prayers to Mother Earth and being rolled along like a piece of luggage, the officer standing by the sign looked worriedly at the one dragging me.

"Inspector, is that really all right?"

"What's the problem? He's a criminal anyway."

"No, I mean... He's bad enough to be locked up in Tantalus. Are you sure this is wise? If he escapes later and comes looking for revenge..."

"He was already blindfolded when the authorities handed him over to us. The bastard doesn't even know my face or my name."

The inspector jerked up the strap attached to my straitjacket, then let it drop. My body slammed into the ground. I shuddered at the impact that ran through my whole body.

I'm a mind reader, you know? Inspector Evian of Edelfight. Just you wait until I break out. You'll be the first person I find, and I'll have my bloody revenge.

"Besides, how's he going to get out once he's in Tantalus? Stop worrying over nothing and send the telegram."

"I'm only worried about you, sir. You heard there was an incident in Tantalus recently. If this bastard escapes too..."

"If he could escape from there, he'd have escaped from our transport carriage. Instead of wasting time worrying, hurry up and call whoever's in charge. Let's hand him over and get back. Even one visit to Tantalus is one too many."

"I've sent the telegram. We just need to wait for a reply..."

At that moment, the arrow on the sign began to shake. The two officers tensed at once, and so did I, reading their thoughts.

An arrow painted on a steel sign. Somehow, what was plainly no more than a picture was vibrating madly. Everyone watched the sign in silence. The painted arrow shook harder and harder, then spun as though an earthquake had struck—

And pointed at the ground.

CRACK!

Something shattered.

At that moment, the two officers couldn't believe the sight before their eyes.

Where there had been nothing but wasteland an instant before, a bottomless pit now yawned, with neither bottom nor end in sight.

The suddenly revealed pit was utterly out of place.

A vast wilderness. A flat, open expanse where scarcely a tree or blade of grass could be found, leaving an unobstructed view all the way to the horizon.

And there, for no discernible reason, gaped a hole with no visible bottom. It was too vast and deep to be a trap someone had dug, yet far too unnatural to be a natural formation.

The officers—and even I, reading their thoughts—briefly wondered whether it was a hallucination. But the endless darkness that only emptiness could produce, and the wind flowing inward, insisted it was real. Speechless, the officers stared down into the abyss.

Just as both were wondering whether they were dreaming—

[Confirmed.]

A flat voice came from the sign. While the two officers nearly jumped out of their skins at the voice of unknown origin, the sign continued in its mechanical manner.

[Mission execution confirmed. Please complete your mission by transferring custody of the prisoner to us.]

Overwhelmed by the sight, the officer saluted the sign. It was ridiculous, but both of them seemed utterly taken with it, as though the sign were some gifted individual who had created this bottomless pit.

"L-loyalty! Inspector Evian of Edelfight reporting. Where should we deliver the prisoner?"

[Your mission is to transport the prisoner to Tantalus.]

Tantalus.

The prison in the abyss, said to have been created by a god to imprison giants.

Of course, it had probably only borrowed its name from the myth, but it was easy to infer that Tantalus lay within that deep darkness. The officer peered down into the fathomless pit and gulped.

"D-do we have to go down there ourselves?"

[There is no particular need for you to accompany him. The method of delivery is at your discretion.]

Hey, sign. Hold on a second.

The officer smiled faintly. Send him down without accompanying him—he had grasped the true meaning of those words.

No, calling it grasping the meaning wasn't quite right. In truth, the officer had been intent on throwing me into the hole from the start.

The sign's words had simply given his plan legitimacy.

"Hey. Pick up that end."

Understanding what he meant, the subordinate officer hesitantly took hold of my legs.

"I-is this really all right? If he falls, there won't even be enough left to collect..."

"So what if there isn't? He's being locked up in Tantalus because he's irredeemable trash. Who gives a shit if he drops dead?"

Wait, hey, no—sir. Let's calm down.

I'll reform. I'll read fewer minds and run fewer scams from now on, so please, if you have to throw me in, could you at least tie me to a rope...?

"But even so..."

"If you don't like it, how about you and I hold hands and go all the way down there? Huh?"

Apparently unwilling to do that, the subordinate promptly lifted my legs. I struggled desperately, but with my body strapped tight, I couldn't offer any resistance.

Holding me at either end, the two swung me from side to side in unison. One, two. With every swing from left to right, I rose higher and higher before coming back down.

And on the third swing, just after I reached my highest point, whatever had been holding me disappeared.

A feeling of complete liberation enveloped my body.

... Ah.

And so I was hurled into the unfathomable depths of the bottomless pit.