Network

Three days had already passed since the Commander injured his leg.

Which meant only two days remained before Midir's attack.

A memory from the previous loop surfaced in my mind.

The time left had been so short that I'd been scrambling to prepare everything.

I'd been doubly frantic in particular, getting into character as the bandage girl.

Still, looking back on it now, it was a fond memory in its own way.

Feeling oddly sentimental about it, I checked the time on my terminal.

"…Time to head in."

Five in the morning.

They say it's darkest just before dawn.

The sky was certainly pitch-black, as if someone had painted it over with ink.

Not a soul in sight no matter which way I looked.

I pulled out the key I'd quietly lifted and unlocked the door.

"Pardon the intrusion, Commander."

The place I stepped into was the Commander's quarters.

A fairly large building erected by the previous Commander.

I slipped inside without a sound and pressed the switch on the wall.

The spacious living room filled with the soft glow of indirect lighting.

The floor space was roughly three times the size of my personal room.

The scene that greeted me was no different from my last memory of it.

It seemed he hadn't touched anything I'd tidied up the night before.

It wasn't particularly dirty — nothing that demanded cleaning.

But dust could have settled overnight.

I opened a window and wiped down the floor with a hand cloth, as quietly as I could manage.

"…You've snuck in again. What exactly are you trying to accomplish?"

I was pressing the cloth carefully into the floor when it happened.

The bedroom door swung open, and the Commander appeared.

Cast in a leg cast, he looked at me with undisguised displeasure.

Perhaps because I knew it was all an act.

I found his effort so endearing that I nearly smiled without thinking.

I managed to suppress the feeling and performed a suitably flustered shrink.

"Oh — Commander. I was just… cleaning…."

"I'm fairly certain I told you never to do this again. I suppose my words mean nothing to you?"

"No! That's not it at all…."

I'd been crouching on the floor, and I scrambled to my feet.

Then I bowed my head low, the picture of someone utterly ashamed.

"I just… wanted to be of some help, even a little…."

"Having to look at the face of the woman who wrecked my leg first thing in the morning… did it ever occur to you to consider how I might feel?"

"Ugh…."

I flinched, shoulders trembling, and pressed my lips shut with the cloth still clutched in my hands.

In truth, he'd injured his leg by tripping on his own — but neither of us was paying attention to that detail, both of us too absorbed in our respective roles.

The conversation died. A brief silence followed.

Then I lifted my head as though summoning courage, and looked at the Commander.

"Commander. Breakfast…."

"Don't bother. I'll manage on my own."

"…."

"When are you leaving? Looking at your face is making me lose my appetite."

His words were an unmistakable order to get out.

Last time I'd lingered instead of leaving promptly.

He'd actually abandoned his dinner mid-meal and retreated to his bedroom because of it.

In the end, I let my shoulders fall completely and bowed my head.

"I'll… see you later…."

The cleaning must have taken more time than I'd realized.

By the time I slipped out of the Commander's quarters, the sky was slowly brightening.

Once I'd put a decent distance between us, I stretched luxuriously.

"Heheh. As if that would work."

This was the dynamic between the Commander and me lately.

Me, trying every angle to get close. Him, refusing at every turn.

Like a husband who lashes out and the wife who keeps coming back, perhaps.

But the real fun was only just beginning.

I made my way with a light step to the Commander's office — empty at this hour.

I took out my terminal and pressed my finger against the charging port.

Without any further input, the screen lit up on its own.

And there, projected on the terminal's display, was the Commander.

[ "…Damn it all." ]

The screen was showing the Commander's bedroom.

A perfectly positioned angle that revealed his desk and bed in full.

He was sitting on the bed with his head buried in his hands.

Well. It couldn't really be helped.

The Leila I was performing had an obsessive fixation on the Commander, for reasons of her own.

And in his efforts to shake her off, his verbal cruelty had been escalating by degrees.

Of course, there was no way he actually meant any of it.

He was tormenting himself over having said things he didn't believe to someone who didn't deserve them.

"Mmm…. Commander…. You can't shake me off that easily…. I'm here on assignment from headquarters…. You can't remove me from the adjutant position…."

Watching the Commander suffer like this, I felt my brain beginning to melt.

It was like handing a knife to someone with a tender conscience.

The thrill and the transgression churned my thoughts into a complete mess, like overcooked stew.

I didn't even notice how uncomfortable it was to have both legs propped up on the narrow chair.

"Haaa…. Perfect. Saving this one."

Having thoroughly satisfied a particular craving, I saved today's harvest to the terminal.

My, I already had so many recordings I wanted to watch again.

It was almost enough to make me cry, knowing Regression would erase every last one.

Once I confirmed on the terminal that the Commander had left his bedroom.

I straightened my disheveled clothes and stood up from the chair.

I tidied up the rather compromised state of my seat and glanced up at the top of the cabinet.

'About an hour before the Commander comes in to work? Then I should go ahead and do that thing with this camera.'

I retrieved the camera I'd hidden on top of the cabinet in the Commander's office.

Then I pressed my fingertip against the charging port and fed electricity into it.

"Network access."

The camera I'd sourced from the black market had both recording and live-feed functions.

I wanted to be able to review footage of whatever happened.

But I also wanted to know what was happening in real time.

I had no intention of giving up either.

There was one problem, though.

Live transmission required a communication link.

Running a wired cable was impractical.

But using wireless signals risked leaving a traceable signature.

So live streaming was out of the question — or so it seemed.

I thought about it for a long while, and eventually found a solution.

It lay in my own ability.

'Honestly, I didn't think it would work.'

My unique ability was electrokinesis.

Five lightning bolts, each powerful enough to punch through a car.

A limited-use ability that was frustratingly middling — the very reason I was stuck at B-rank no matter how hard I trained.

But there was one characteristic even Leila herself hadn't known about.

Output and control were inversely proportional.

If I brought the output down to the level of the faint electrical currents running through the human body —

I could actually interfere with a person's bioelectric signals.

So could this ability be applied to communications?

Remarkably — yes.

"There. Another success."

I pressed my finger against the camera's charging port.

And carefully threaded current into it, just enough not to damage the device.

The current generated by my unique ability circulated through the camera's internals.

This way, I could interface with the camera from a distance.

"Seizing" the device was probably the most accurate way to describe it.

What I'd done earlier to peek into the Commander's bedroom was an application of this.

I had linked the camera and the terminal using my ability.

I decided to call this technique the Leila Network.

Of course, it wasn't a flawless technique without drawbacks.

My electricity had a consumable quality to it, in more ways than one.

The effect faded naturally over time.

To maintain the seized state, I'd need to inject electricity periodically.

'Even accounting for that, the performance is almost too good…. Leila's ability has way too much utility, doesn't it?'

Come to think of it, every technique I'd developed so far had been absurdly broken in its own way.

Trance, which induced all manner of pharmacological effects in the body.

Sentiment, which interfered with neural circuits to manipulate the flesh.

And now the Leila Network, enabling wireless communication….

Of course, aside from Trance, none of it helped in a fight.

My rank would still be floundering at B-rank.

But I had a feeling this wasn't the end of it.

If I developed this further, could I operate the camera without even using the terminal as an intermediary?

Well, I had absolutely no idea how to get there yet.

Either way, it warranted more research.

"Right, then — back where it belongs…."

I set the successfully seized camera back on top of the cabinet.

Now I'd be able to capture the Commander's every move without missing a thing.

With my objective accomplished, I slipped out of the Commander's office.

I'd been told not to come in to work this early.

My plan was to kill time somewhere nearby until the official start of the workday.

"Leila, morning!"

"Good morning."

"Good morning, Leila. You're here early."

"You too, Schüni."

Perhaps because it was that liminal hour between early dawn and proper morning —

Valkyries were beginning to drift through the branch's corridors.

Not many, of course — barely enough to count on one hand.

I exchanged morning greetings with each Valkyrie I passed, and then —

I spotted Anje and Dahlia and walked over to them with a smile.

"Oh — Anje. Dahlia."

"L-Leila! Good morning…!"

"Mornin'."

"Good morning. Are you two just finishing your shift?"

"Yes…. We had the early rotation today…."

"That's rough, being out this early."

Anje, who marched to the beat of her own drum, and Dahlia, who was quietly timid.

The two Dealers of the Rabbit Hole Squad.

It seemed they were wrapping up a morning shift.

Since I was exempt from patrol duty by virtue of being the Adjutant —

I felt a small pang of guilt about that.

Fortunately, neither Anje nor Dahlia seemed to have anywhere to be afterward.

We settled onto a nearby bench and chatted about nothing in particular.

Probably because we'd gone through that wall exploration together last time.

The way they looked at me held unmistakable warmth.

We wrapped up the conversation and I was about to head off when —

Dahlia grabbed my arm in a sudden rush.

"U-um…!"

"Yes?"

"Are you… okay?"

"In what sense…."

"Is he being mean to you?"

"Ah…."

For a moment I genuinely didn't understand what she meant.

But it didn't take long to piece it together.

She was worried I was being mistreated by the Commander.

That reaction wasn't strange at all.

The Commander's reputation was rock-bottom, the absolute worst of the worst.

And on top of that, they'd witnessed his most pathetic moments firsthand.

Their disappointment must have been considerable. I'd have felt the same in their position.

'Hmm… probably better to sidestep a direct answer here.'

If I had to pick a side, taking the Commander's would be more entertaining.

But that might cost me goodwill with these two.

I preferred to keep the wider picture in view.

Just then, I sensed a familiar presence.

Someone who had stopped just around the corner — close enough to hear voices.

That presence was… unmistakably the Commander.

'Hm. Why am I picking that up.'

I was puzzled by the sudden awareness.

Had the Leila Network somehow expanded my perceptual range?

Perhaps there were still aspects of my ability I hadn't discovered yet.

Either way — what a convenient coincidence. Might as well make use of it.

If the Commander was listening, this was the right answer to give.

"Thank you for worrying about me. But I really am fine. I'm sure he's simply afraid of something, still. I believe in him."

"Afraid of something…. I honestly can't see it…."

"Mm-hm."

"It's just a feeling I have. Strange as it sounds — that's the sense I get."

"A… feeling?"

But it seemed hard for her to simply accept my words.

Dahlia's expression said she found it utterly impossible to believe.

She glanced around quickly, then leaned in and whispered to me.

"B-but there are rumors going around…."

"Rumors?"

"Yes…. I don't know where they started…. But there's a rumor that the Commander tampered with the Core…."

"T-the Core…?!"

I was genuinely, slightly taken aback by Dahlia's words.

Because what she was describing had crossed into criminal territory.

The kind of thing that could warrant serious punishment.

The Core was the most critical piece of infrastructure in the city — bar none.

The central power generator that supplied electricity to the entire city.

If something went wrong with it, the city's entire system would collapse.

A catastrophe that could bring Lumia itself to ruin.

Even the extravagant previous Commander had never touched it.

And a rumor that he had was now spreading….

'I know exactly who did this.'

Having grasped the situation, I wrapped up my conversation with Dahlia.

Then I headed to the Commander's office, arriving as though I'd just shown up for work.

Perhaps because of the exchange that morning.

The Commander's demeanor was ice-cold.

He gave every impression of having no intention of even glancing my way.

Not long after I'd started on my work —

The door to the Commander's office burst open with force.

Standing in the doorway was a white-haired girl with a smile I'd never seen before.

"Excuse me."

"You are…."

"Inspector Lute, attached to Valhalla Headquarters. I'm here to investigate allegations of unauthorized tampering with the Core. I trust you'll cooperate fully."

She was, of all things, an Inspector — sent directly from Headquarters.