"Why are you laughing? I just told you was raised to be a sacrifice!"

When I laughed, as expected, Marin raised her voice in bewilderment.

The bad image I had of her was crumbling.

Marin was surprised to see my human side, and I felt the same way.

Seeing someone's weakness helps you understand their humanity.

"I mean, if they're doing something that vicious, they can't complain if they get killed."

Thankfully, Marin gave meaning to my actions.

Deliberately putting an innocent person in an unfortunate situation, letting them accumulate hatred, and then killing them to use as a sacrifice.

Such evil deeds deserve to be judged.

"Our parents too. The people at school too. If they were doing it intentionally, there's no excuse anymore. Those scumbags deserve to die! You think so too, right, Marin? Right!?"

I was so elated my voice almost cracked.

In contrast, Marin's voice grew weaker.

"Even so, killing people is—"

"If you say it's wrong, then tell me another way. Persuade them? Ask for help? Try reporting them to the police? I already know all of those are useless!"

Because I tried them all.

Because I know no one will help me.

"Telling me not to kill is the same as telling me to die. This isn't a matter of possibility anymore. Because you yourself, Marin, just told me my life was meant to be offered as a sacrifice."

When I took a step forward and approached Marin, she took a step back.

Why? Even though our emotional distance had closed so much.

"Don't be so scared, Marin. Don't worry, I'm just happy I got your endorsement, it's not like I actually want to kill them to clear my grudge. Doing that would only leave me feeling empty."

I realized that keenly with Shudou kun.

I won't repeat the same mistake twice.

"If they become zombies, I have to kill them, right? When that happens, I just want to make them suffer a little bit. That's not bad, right? Since they're the kind of people who would use someone as a sacrifice, it's no problem if that happens, right?"

Moreover, I'm even showing consideration for the "common sense" that killing people is a crime!

This isn't a sin anymore, it's kindness!

Just clearing my grudge a little bit while putting them out of their misery!

"What does the justice inside you say, Marin? Is it still saying I'm completely wrong? Hey, hey, Marin! Don't run away, answer me, Marin!"

The closer I got, the more sweat beaded on Marin's temples, until she finally looked away.

It's my win.

Your justice acknowledged it, my correctness!

"That's enough, Erika senpai."

Here, Hiyami san intervened.

This time, protecting Marin.

"Oh, you're stopping me."

"We decided to cooperate, right? There should be no need to corner an ally."

"Sorry about that. I guess I got carried away talking to my sister for the first time in a while. I don't know how normal sisters communicate, you see."

I guess I got a little too excited.

My nose might bleed again, I need to reflect on this.

"Are you alright, Marin?"

"You're suddenly being kind."

"I want to see you clouded over, but my heart aches if you cloud over too much."

"...I take back what I said, you're not kind at all."

As usual, Marin seems to have no complete allies.

Hiyami san's presence is troublesome for both of us, really.

Marin placed a hand on her chest for a moment, steadying her breathing.

Then, facing me again, she opened her mouth with a hint of frustration.

"How pathetic. My justice tells me you are wrong, Erika, yet I can't think of any words to deny it."

Surprisingly, she easily admitted defeat.

Her gracefulness is commendable, I suppose, though it doesn't make me feel good.

"Justice kun is a wimp, huh."

"Perhaps. He's a child who can't even disobey his parents, after all."

Marin shrugged, making a sarcastic joke.

However, her complexion was still a bit pale, seemingly far from her usual self.

"Sigh... Ruka, I'm sorry, but may I return to the classroom alone?"

Marin pleaded with Hiyami san with coaxing eyes.

In response, Hiyami san returned a gentle smile.

I feel like I caught a glimpse of something like a trusting relationship between the two of them.

"I don't mind, but I'll probably catch up with you soon anyway."

"Guide Erika to that place, I want some time alone."

Saying that, Marin went ahead by herself.

It seems she intends to head straight back to Class 1-E like this.

"Did she come to hate me? No, she hated me from the start."

"You seem to think of yourself as a dropout, Erika senpai, but—maybe your talents were just allocated differently from Marin's."

"You think so? Talents that are useless in everyday life just like garbage."

She's probably talking about how I cornered Marin, but even that was only possible because of various preconditions.

This world.

This power.

Things that shouldn't normally exist are pushing me forward.

"By the way, where is 'that place'?"

"Wait a moment, we need to go 'inside', so I'll check the location so we don't get lost."

Hiyami san takes out her smartphone.

Looking at the screen, an image like a map, drawn in white on a black background, is displayed.

In the center is a blinking circle, which seemed to indicate our current location along with the shape of the map.

"What's that?"

"You don't have it? It's a production-type skill, 'Cartography'."

There was definitely a skill like that, I only know the name.

"So it automatically records it on your smartphone. I thought you had to draw it on paper or something."

"You can also confirm your party member's location. If you have spare skill points, it's good to get it early on."

I genuinely thought it looked convenient.

I immediately took out my smartphone on the spot and learned the skill.

[Remaining Skill P: 4]

[Cartography Lv. 1]

[Creates a map of places you have visited]

It adds another new screen and makes things cluttered, though.

I really want a manual or tutorial soon.

"If you have it, Hiyami san, does that mean Marin didn't acquire Cartography?"

"No, we often act separately, so we both acquired it."

"Hmm. So it's not shared just because one person gets it."

"Even though it's a Master and Slave relationship, they should do something like that."

Master and Slave—that's how Hiyami san refers to party members.

Compared to the terms Leader and Member, it sounded more stimulating, or rather, it emphasized the master-servant relationship.

"Marin hated that whole Master thing, but what is it's official name?"

"It's Leader and Member."

So that one was correct after all.

No wonder Marin hated it.

"However, I believe Master and Slave is more fitting. Have you checked the higher-tier recovery skills, Erika senpai?"

"I looked at them... Ah, do you mean Resurrection?"

The existence of that skill had caught my attention too.

Because its effect is—

"'Revives 1 target member', right?"

Something as outrageous as that.

"I don't really get it, but does 'member' mean party member?"

"That's what I think. In other words, even if a Slave dies, as long as the Master survives, they can continue living."

Using something like that, even though things are already inhuman enough, feels like it would push us even further away from being human.

"Then, what happens to the Slave if the Master dies? For example, let's say I die once and am revived by Marin, the Master. What state would I be in if Marin died after that?"

A state almost like a zombie.

Even with consciousness and free will, would it be the same as when they were alive?

I can understand the feeling of wanting to doubt that.

"It's not something we can easily test, so we don't know the answer. Honestly, I find the Party function itself suspicious."

"Then why did you become a Slave? It was your own will, right?"

"Because the thought of Marin holding my life in her hands excites me."

She's unwavering.

I thought an answer like that would come back, though.

"I'm not joking, you know? It's a rather serious matter. For now, Marin calls me a friend, but with perfect humans, you never know what they're truly thinking deep down. Isn't this an ideal way to keep her tied to me?"

"Do you seriously like Marin?"

"Foolish question."

Hiyami san answered immediately.

Leaving aside the fact that they are both girls for a moment, I think she has bad taste.

"I've already told my parents. That there is a woman I've decided on."

"What about Marin?"

"I haven't said anything."

"Are you even dating?"

"I've confessed in the quadruple digits and been rejected every time."

Not only bad taste, but a bad personality too.

Moreover, she seemed proud of it for some reason.

"But I've found a breakthrough. It's thanks to you, Erika senpai. No, perhaps I should call you Sister-in-law."

"I think Marin will slice you up someday."

"Hahaha, having her blade buried in my body wouldn't be bad either!"

She's really gone all the way.

Although, I say that, but I've also thought it would be okay to be killed if it was by Yumemi chan.

I even thought it would be easier if we just killed each other.

What about Rea?

Being with her feels similar to being with Yumemi chan, but I don't want her to kill me.

What's the difference?

"You're in love too, aren't you."

Before I knew it, Hiyami san's face was right in front of mine.

Her pointlessly well-featured face stared intently into my eyes.

"Huh?"

"You had that kind of look in your eyes. I look at my own face in the mirror often, you see, so I'm well-acquainted with the eyes of a maiden in love."

"No, it's not love or anything like that... My head is just a mess."

"So you don't even have the self-awareness of being in love."

"Come to think of it, I haven't told you about the survivor I encountered before meeting you guys."

I forcibly changed the subject.

Regarding this, Hiyami san, who wasn't listening, is at fault.

"From the way you say it, it doesn't sound like you brought them back to the infirmary."

"Because they got away."

"To give you the slip, Erika senpai, does that person also have some kind of power?"

"She was using something like magic. She was a weirdo claiming to be the Queen of the Adrasia Kingdom."

Even thinking about it again only makes me sigh.

What on earth is she?

"Her name is Nemushia Adrak. But her face looked exactly like Yumemi chan."

"Yumemi chan?"

"My former best friend who left this town."

"Former, huh..."

Perhaps thinking it better not to dig too deep, Hiyami san didn't press any further regarding Yumemi chan.

"A country named the Adrasia Kingdom does not exist in this world. So the theory that numerous worlds are mixed together is highly likely, after all."

"Even someone as smart as you, Hiyami san, comes to that conclusion."

"Even if it sounds absurd, there's no other way to think about it. The swallowed worlds have their earth rot, their life rot, and eventually return to nothingness. This is probably the phenomenon called Kaigyo's Gangrene."

"Kaigyo and Giraiguu..."

"I can't find any commonalities between those two. Although entities being identified as the same despite having different names is common in mythology."

But that's only because they share many commonalities that they are identified as the same.

Completely different things wouldn't be grouped together.

"For now, if I encounter this Nemushia person, I'll contact you. Could you give me your smartphone contact info later?"

"I see, so we can use them normally as smartphones."

"So far, it seems humans inside the school can contact each other without any problems. Well, if she has the power to fight, we'd like to protect her and ask for her cooperation as much as possible."

"She didn't seem to trust anyone from our school for some reason, so I don't know if we can reason with her, though."

Thinking about it now, the reason Nemushia suspected people affiliated with the school... could it be because she knew about Kaisei kyou?

Maybe she was chased or attacked by surviving teachers, or had some other circumstances.

"Well then, we've arrived at our destination."

While we were talking about various things, we had arrived in front of a strange wall.

It was clearly different from the white school walls.

What was there was a wall of red flesh, writhing as if it were alive.

"Is this... human...? The fact that cloth resembling our uniform is mixed in here and there means it's students from Hikarinomiya? And they were stretched out and turned into a wall?"

"Probably. And there's a high possibility it's a single person, not multiple people."

"It looks like there are several mouths, though."

Moreover, those mouths were not producing any sound, but continuously opening and closing as if trying to convey something.

"The shapes of the parts and the alignment of the teeth all match. Replicating things is easy for this 'Gangrene'. You saw it too, Erika senpai, that monster called Cerberus."

"It was disgusting and it bit me, it was the worst."

"Haha, we had a hard time with it too. By the way, this isn't just a wall. Look, you can see beyond it through this gap."

I peek through the gap Hiyami san pointed to.

"Stairs!"

"If we can break through here, we can escape this floor for now."

Conversely, this wall made of student flesh is blocking our escape to the second floor.

"Furthermore, natural light is hitting the wall of the landing. There's a possibility it connects straight to the outside."

"I wouldn't get my hopes up too much, though."

"Motivation is important."

"Not being afraid of betrayal is a privilege of people with self-confidence."

"That's one way to look at it. It's informative, I'll keep it in mind."

"By the way, can't we break this?"

"Marin and I tried attacking it with all our might, but it didn't budge. You should try it."

I unleash Power Stab and Spread Dagger in quick succession, attempting to destroy the flesh wall.

However, just like hitting rubber, the slashes were repelled.

"The blades don't go through at all."

"Right?"

"Am I simply lacking power?"

"Or is there another way to break through..."

If we could break through just by getting stronger, that would be simple and nice.

However, I somehow couldn't believe it would be that simple.

I observed the wall for a while.

Then, I noticed a white fragment sticking out in a certain spot.

"This plastic piece, is it a broken name tag?"

I tried pulling it out, but the flesh clung to it and it wouldn't budge.

It seems I have to read it based only on the visible part.

"The number 3... 3rd year? And this kanji is Shima..."

"Judging from the size of the margin, Shima is the first character of the surname."

At that moment, a name popped into my head.

Relying on that kanji, and connecting the lines drawn on the other fragments—it forms a four-character kanji name, although incomplete.

"Shimakawa Yuya..."

The cousin of Shimakawa Daichi, who defended Nanase san after her suicide and was bullied himself.

Suddenly, I remembered the eerie boy's voice I heard last night.

'Let me go home.'

'Dad, Mom, let me go home.'

'I want to go home.'

The movements of the mouths that had become part of the wall matched those words perfectly.