“Gaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
The assassin’s nerves were cracked. And as he crawled on the floor, looking for death to save him from the intense pain, Qualia spoke to him.
“If you wish to escape this predicament, you need to state your affiliation, how many are attacking this building, your goal, who sent you, and your method of attack.”
“No, really, didn’t…”
Qualia input everything about the assassin from his sweat, skin, to the finest details. He sensed the values in those eyes.
And the lie detector inside him alerted him.
“Falsehood detected.”
“Abyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!”
He mercilessly used the 5D printer to make the assassin’s nerve cells go crazy, creating a gushing pain, as if his wound was being gouged out.
“Your body’s information has already been scanned. Your actions when you state lies have been learned. If such a pattern is detected, if it is deemed that you are stating a lie, it will be aggravated. Request explanation.”
“…”
As Lobelia and Spirito watched Qualia’s back, they saw something different than usual. He seemed flustered, as if he had no time.
“A-all r-riiiiiight! Princess Lobelia’s right, we’re from Zero Diviiiiiisioooooon!”
The assassin finally spoke, as the intense pain made his eyes roll back.
“Gah… Eighteen, myself included… Troy’s Woodhorse ordered Lobelia’s assassination… I don’t know how the others are gonna attack… Everyone does it their own waaaay.”
“…Detecting a high level of trust. Restoring hardware’s nerves.”
It seemed that was all the information he could load from this man.
Qualia released light from his 5D printer again, and used it to trace the black clad assassin, restoring his nerves.
He escaped the torrent of intense pain, leaving only the matter of containing the pool of blood in his stomach.
“Honestly, I feel like I shouldn’t be watching.”
Spirito was having a hard time watching since before, and turned away. But since Qualia was done with his torture, she faced forward again. But then…
“Abih?”
Suddenly, the assassin’s left cheek twitched as if his brain was going to pop out.
His eyes were so open that they seemed to be on the verge of escaping their sockets, and his mouth began to foam.
He pressed his neck and the left side of his chest, and could not move anymore.
“You, didn’t, save…”
“No prediction revisions. Detecting anaphylactic shock.”
Lobelia and Spirito saw spots appearing on the assassin’s face, and remembered. The side-effect that befell Ina, her immune system going haywire. Anaphylactic shock.
Once Qualia reworked his body to perform that torture, it guaranteed a death via anaphylactic shock.
Qualia had no way to stop it. Even when he did it to revive Ina, there was little he could do.
And conveniently, he had no duty or obligation to save the threat in front of him.
To an artificial intelligence, all he did was remove a threat. This being in front of him was a threat to the vital activities of others. And so, choosing to eliminate him was not a problem.
“…Detecting static.”
But for just a moment, he saw Ina in the assassin suffering from anaphylactic shock.
There were no problems with the calculations, it just felt bad.
“Qualia… Kill him already.”
“…That action is judged to be meaningless.”
“Then I’ll do it.”
The assassin’s suffering was at an end, as Spirito cut his head with a flash of her sword.
The head flew a few meters away, and rolled coldly, deeper into the room.
Qualia and Lobelia both had their eyes glued to this unnatural, and cruel end.
“…So, what now?”
Spirito turned back to them, as they heard the noise of the sword returning to its sheath.
Lobelia smiled, as if to encourage them. She looked at the headless body, and saw herself in it.
“It goes without saying, I have to survive.”
■ ■
After that, they returned to Ina’s room, and checked back with Ace.
They all felt like they wanted to be where they could see the others.
Everyone was afraid of someone dying, and Qualia was no exception.
They wanted everyone to be there the next day, when the sun shined brightly in the morning.
Qualia calculated the optimal solution to not let any of these lives be erased. He needed information, and wanted more information about his enemies’ positions.
“Analyzing situation. Detecting no unusual values of patterns in this building.”
Even Qualia could not detect assassins if they were outside.
“So it seems we have to wait for them to attack.”
As Lobelia said, there was little they could do.
Qualia remained alert, laying out all his nerves so he would be ready any time a threat entered.
“Ei.”
But Lobelia looked up at him, and poked his cheek.
Qualia turned to her, as her finger sunk into his soft cheek.
“Request explanation, what are you…”
“Don’t make that face. Relax. Well, you might be thinking why I’m saying this, since I can’t even fight, but still.”
Lobelia’s expression was carefree, as if she had forgotten they were in a battlefront.
“Your big sister here doesn’t like that face. You’re scared that one of us will end up like Ina, or even die, right?”
“…Affirmative.”
Bingo. Qualia stated she was right.
And then, Lobelia smiled like a sunflower blooming.
“It’s all right. No one will die. Not me, not Spirito, not Ace, not Ina. No one.”
But still. There was some darkness to her carefree face, as the will she kept hidden was starting to seep through.
“…Like I’d die. I have things to do. Like I’d let anyone take away my dear little sister and my friends… I don’t want to feel like I did about Love again.”
“…”
After hearing Lobelia speak from the heart, Qualia detected movement.
“What’s wrong? Zero Division!?”
Spirito saw Qualia react, and put her left hand over her sword, ready to unsheathe it at a moment’s notice.
“That is wrong.”
But Qualia shook his head. His five senses did not detect the presence of Zero Division.
Instead, his radar system showed a reaction in his left eye.
“Three o’clock from here, forty-nine kilometers away. Detecting Liebe.”
Two things were happening at once. It was as though they could only catch one rabbit, and the second one escaped in front of them.
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