In the bottomless pit, night was announced not by the setting sun, but by the flickering daylights. When the Military State’s standard clock struck six in the evening, the artificial lights that stood in for the sun turned red, imitating a sunset.

An imitation was inevitably bound by the form of its original. Once the daylight slowly sank from top to bottom, like the sun setting beyond the horizon, the faint nightlights scattered throughout the bottomless pit illuminated the building’s interior.

An imitation always showed its seams, and the nightlights fell short of the evening sky in every way. Instead of a dim indigo sky painted by the remnants of daylight, dingy lamps lit the bottomless pit. Unlike the shimmer of moon and stars that seeped in like mist, this was an unpleasant light that cast shadows even in the dark.

Though what wouldn’t pale beside the blessing of a sun that shone upon the whole world?

When the daylights went out, the corridor lights dimmed as well. The shard of mirror I had positioned in the gap of my door now reflected nothing but darkness. The light entering my room had vanished too, leaving me unable to continue working. I stopped what I was doing and rose from my desk.

Fifty-two cards lay on it. I had spent the alchemical gold coin the Regressor gave me, along with my entire day, making them.

I was a magician—and an alchemist who transmuted cards and suckers into money. A deck of cards was my weapon.

I swept one hand across the desk. The fifty-two cards strewn haphazardly over it obediently gathered into my hand with a single gesture. Rectangular, stiff, springy. Their familiar feel welcomed me back.

I split the facedown deck in half and shuffled. The supple, resilient cards slipped into one another’s gaps. I shuffled, flipped, twisted, and shuffled again.

TAP

I set the shuffled deck on the desk.

“Ace of diamonds.”

I turned over the top card. The ace of diamonds. Of course it was. I had shuffled it that way.

I hadn’t held a card in days, but my skills hadn’t gone anywhere. They had simply been waiting deep within me. Casually, I picked up the ace of diamonds. A single pointed red symbol occupied the whole face of the card as though it owned it. Holding the card between my index and middle fingers, I flipped it over with a flourish. When I opened both hands a moment later, the ace of diamonds was nowhere to be seen.

The cards were good, and I was in decent form. I let out a deep breath and steeled myself.

“All right. Shall we?”

I almost hoped Azi really was stealing the food. But if she wasn’t...

I ought to bring a weapon of my own, even if only to help me escape.

I carefully opened my door without making a sound.

The darkened corridor seemed to have swallowed even sound itself. During the day, quiet as it was, it had at least a little life to it.

Now, however, it was gloomy and silent, befitting the name Tantalus.

I headed down the long corridor. It felt as though even footsteps were forbidden in that dark, silent passage, and I found myself walking on tiptoe.

It didn’t take long to reach the dining hall. I concentrated, checking for any hint of someone’s thoughts inside.

Not the slightest mental noise came from within. At the very least, that meant there were no humans currently thinking in there.

Whether that meant something wasn’t thinking or wasn’t human remained to be seen.

I slipped inside and settled into a corner of the dining hall. All I had to do was sit quietly and arrest Azi the moment she went for the pot. If a ghost appeared instead, I could run away immediately.

Hunting was, after all, the art of waiting. Behind every glorious hunt lay patient endurance. I held my breath and stared fixedly toward the pot.

Boring minutes crawled by. My concentration waned, and my head began bobbing up and down like a needle stitching. How many minutes had passed? I heard someone outside.

Caught you.

See? An intruder, just as I thought. Someone already inside? What nonsense. I wasn’t buying an unprovable conspiracy theory like that.

I tensed, waiting for the perfect moment, for my prey to spring the trap. Once they touched the pot, there would be no wriggling out of it. That was when I would rush out and pounce...

The shadow that entered the dining hall swept the room with gleaming golden eyes.

“What are you doing over there?”

Then she walked straight toward me.

Reading minds didn’t exactly make me good at hiding. I rose and pointed at the Regressor.

“So it was you. I expected as much.”

“Expected what?”

“If you were that curious, you could have asked for a bite. Did you really have to sneak in here in the dead of night to steal food? Your transgression has sown distrust among us! Distrust is an evil that eats away at society. An obstruction that creates friction and noise, like rust caught between turning gears! Do you understand what a terrible thing you’ve done?”

“What are you even talking about?”

The Regressor ignored me and looked away.

“If you have nothing to do, keep quiet.”

“They say the one who farted is the first to get angry. You’ve taken a shit all over Tantalus, and now you’re playing innocent!”

“What the hell is that vulgar nonsense?!”

After that reflexive retort, she looked at me in disbelief.

“Don’t tell me you actually think I came here just to steal food?”

“Until a moment ago, yes.”

“Well, in that case—no! Until a moment ago? Did you think I was on the same level as the likes of you?!”

Of course we were. We were both stuck here, weren’t we?

At any rate, I had just read her thoughts. Unfortunately, she hadn’t come for the food. The presence she had sensed just before leaving the dining hall had bothered her enough to bring her back tonight.

I scratched my head and asked,

“Then there really is something hiding in here?”

“Probably. I’m not certain, but it can’t hurt to look.”

“Ah.”

I began gathering my things. Getting to my feet, I gave her a small nod.

“Good luck with that.”

“... Where are you going?”

“To run away. I’m scared.”

She questioned me again, looking dumbfounded.

“Weren’t you the Instructor responsible for managing and supervising us?”

“Ghosts aren’t trainees.”

“What about me? I’m about to investigate the prison, and you’re just going to let me?”

“Did anyone ask you to investigate? And would you stop if I told you not to? If you’re going to do it even if I object, what purpose would my involvement serve?”

“Wow.”

‘Still as infuriating as ever. More importantly, what’s going on? Is he serious? No, surely not. Could he be planning something?’

Forget plans. If it really was a ghost, if I couldn’t read its mind, there was nothing I could do. Against nonhumans, I was less than a bug.

I headed for the dining hall door without looking back.

“Well, I’ll be off. Don’t forget your after-action report. Submit it with a sample if possible.”

“If you want that, why don’t you stay and watch?”

“Sorry. It’s lights-out, so I need to sleep.”

“Stop arguing and stay there and watch.”

“What? Why?”

‘Someone strong enough to deflect my sword is acting wary... Is something truly powerful hiding here? Or is he trying to distract me? Whatever his intentions, I’ll interfere for now. It’s not because I’m scared... or anything. Keeping him in the rear just in case should be fine.’

Fear was contagious. Seeing how thoroughly frightened I was, the Regressor raised her guard accordingly. Enough to consider keeping me at her back, despite regarding me as a potential enemy.

Having finished thinking, she offered an excuse.

“Whatever’s hiding in there, living like a parasite, could be an intruder, couldn’t it? In that case, eliminating them is your responsibility as this prison’s administrator. You should watch too.”

“That’s a fair point. Check it out, and if it’s an intruder, deal with it first and report afterward. I’ll be in my room until then.”

Good luck. I’m out of here. Just as I was stepping through the door—

‘Hey! I told you not to leave! Tch, I’ll throw Sky Cherry Blossom for now!’

Don’t do that. You’ll kill me.

I spun around and came back inside, then tucked myself close behind her.

Appalled by my abrupt change of attitude, she asked,

“What are you doing?”

I couldn’t tell her I had come back because I was afraid she would actually use force.

And really, if there actually was an intruder, as she suggested, perhaps staying with her was safer than being alone.

Azi was angry with me right now, and the vampire wasn’t particularly interested in this affair—perhaps because she was a ghost herself. Aside from the Regressor, the only person I could rely on to protect me was me.

Hardly reassuring.

“Come on, lead the way. Let’s go vanquish that ghost! We can’t let some mere ghost threaten us!”

“You...”

‘W-well, having someone behind me is reassuring, at least. Tch, the problem is that it has to be him...’

In any case, leaving me behind her, the Regressor began scanning her surroundings with fiercely shining golden eyes.

The third of the Seven-Colored Eyes: the Golden Eyes. Fiery Eyes of Golden Sight, which revealed the unseen. With eyes like those, ghosts wouldn’t be frightening.

What could I do? Nothing. Just watch from the sidelines and munch popcorn.

Oh, should I cheer her on?

“You can do it! Ghosts are just remnants of mana left behind after death! Don’t be scared. Onward! Your sword can cut down ghosts too, Trainee Shei!”

“... Could you be quiet? You’re so loud I can’t hear anything.”

“You’re only looking with those flashy eyes anyway. Focus on your vision.”

“I’m listening too, you know?”

The Regressor slowly scanned the dining hall, then looked toward the storage room adjoining the shelves farther inside. She tilted her head, puzzled.

“I can’t see anything. Nothing at all.”

“Oh, come on. So there was nothing here after all.”

“That can’t be right. In my experience, when my instincts tell me there’s definitely something there, there usually really is.”

Those instincts didn’t seem very reliable. They hadn’t seen through my bluff.

Still, since those same instincts had kept me alive, I had no room to complain.

“If even those flashing eyes can’t see anything, I think we can safely say there’s nothing here.”

“That’s strange...”

“Give it up already. There’s nowhere else to hide in this tiny dining hall. Two tables and a closet-sized storeroom—that’s all there is. Where else are you going to search? Unless they can walk through walls.”

“Walls?”

I had obviously meant it as a joke, but my words sent her deep into thought.

“Right. The walls. There was that space. The Military State’s concrete is thick. If something hid inside, I wouldn’t have noticed.”

This was a severe case of conspiracy fever. I sighed and waved a hand in front of her face.

“Hello? What are you planning to do? Smash the walls? That’s destruction of property, you know.”

“I won’t smash them.”

‘I’ll just cut them apart.’

Lifting her chin, the Regressor raised a finger and jabbed it into her eye.

The fourth of the Seven-Colored Eyes: the Green Eyes.

Those eyes, glowing an ominous green, could see through objects. Metals, especially lead, were difficult to see through, however.

But “unable to see through” meant they occupied a pitch-black patch of her vision. That made the eyes exceptionally useful for finding metal.

I used my mind reading to steal a look through her eyes.

A black-and-white view appeared. The world was a mixture of light and dark, as though someone had drawn it by tracing fine threads over and over. Her penetrating vision could see inside objects, and when her gaze reached me, I saw the white bones within my body. Being seen naked was embarrassing, but strip away the skin too, and there was no shame at all. How peculiar.

Her gaze turned to the wall. The concrete looked like white cardboard, with the mesh of steel reinforcement embedded inside clearly visible. Slowly sweeping her gaze along it, she discovered something.

In one section of the wall was a small, doll-like silhouette. Anyone looking might have thought a doll had accidentally been dropped into the concrete when it was poured.

But that doll was actually...

“Found you. So you were still here?”

A small-model Military State magic golem.

The Regressor reached behind her head. Sky Cherry Blossom settled into her hand. At that moment, her sword might as well have already struck.

A flurry of slashes shaved a thin layer off the wall. Concrete split like the bark of an old tree, peeling away in a curling scroll before crumbling to dust from its tip. A cavity lay exposed.

She drew the magic golem out of it, impaled on the tip of her slender sword. The golem’s chassis spasmed.

『I strongly request that you cease this destructive activity.』

A flat voice issued from the golem. It was the same voice I had heard when I first descended into Tantalus.

Captain AB, was it? A Military State communications officer. The state’s emotionless mouthpiece.

The Regressor snorted at the request.

“You could have made that request before you hid like a rat and spied on me.”

『Given your destructive and sensitive disposition, I judged that this unit would have been destroyed even had it revealed itself beforehand. That judgment remains valid. Furthermore, this unit suspended operation whenever you were deemed to be nearby. There is room to interpret this as not having spied on you.』

“Right. Right. Your judgment, your request, all perfectly correct. Just like the Military State. Always so rational. So...”

She raised her sword again. Sparks flew from its tip. Part of the circuitry burned, and the golem crackled as though screaming.

“I’ll break you. Goodbye, farewell. Hiding in the wall was fairly original.”

『Cease this destructive activity immediately. Severing communications causes inefficiency.』

“Oh? Getting desperate. Is this about the last golem you have left? Well, a few more wouldn’t make any difference. From now on, I’ll search every wall with my Green Eyes active.”

Tormenting the golem, the Regressor looked happier than she had in quite a while.

So I couldn’t read its thoughts because it was a golem. That explained it. Whew, what a relief. Not a ghost, just a golem. Its unreadable mind made it just as uncomfortable an opponent as a ghost, but the Regressor would destroy it, so that didn’t matter.

I would simply stand by and watch. Just as I was relaxing into that thought—

『I repeat my request. Cease this destructive activity immediately. Your actions will render the transmission of information and notices regarding supply distribution impossible. I repeat my request...』

Supply distribution. That stray phrase caught my attention.

Trapped here, we would run out of supplies sooner or later. If Azi kept helping herself to food as she pleased, our stores would be empty in no time.

The Regressor, with all her treasures, might be fine, but I needed supplies...

Wait, I couldn’t let her destroy the golem!

I hurried up behind her.

“Repeat. I really hate that word. But I can do this as many times as it takes.”

So absorbed in tormenting the golem was she, so wrapped up in her delight, that she didn’t even notice me approaching.

“Destroying a golem won’t do anything to your real body. But if it inconveniences the Military State even a little, that’s enough for me.”

『Warning. Hostile action will—』

“Goodbye.”

TWANG

A slight flick of Sky Cherry Blossom sent the little golem into the air. The Regressor sheathed the sword, preparing the storm of slashes that would follow. She crouched low, the power compressed within her poised to erupt.

Approaching from her blind spot for fear of being stabbed, I reached toward her.

“Wait! Hold on a moment!”

It happened just as my hand touched her shoulder.

Something surged up from the bottom of my vision. Before I could react, I felt everything lurch. Something enormous was coming toward me.

No, the other way around. The world had flipped, and my vision was spinning.

What had surged upward was none other than me.

Heaven-Reversing Realm. Reversal.

Heaven Flip.

Huh?

A counterattack?

A counterattack ingrained in muscle memory, without even a thought passing through her mind?

By the time I read what it was, my body was already falling toward the floor.