The education housemaster was looking at with a kind gaze.
I filtered out any questions that might sound like traps.
First, anything directly about the bride were off-limits.
– Hmm… It must have been considered rude. One of the people who ca in with us… had his mouth sewn shut with a crochet hook… as a form of ‘discipline’…
Questions prying into the school’s structure were also off-limits.
– Ah, soone once tried digging into who runs this boarding school got expelled. Officially listed as ‘missing in the forest’. There were rumors he got a bonus from the Research Team for asking that.
So I settled on sothing more personal, sothing a trainee could plausibly ask.
– Is it possible for a groom candidate to fail to stand at the wedding?
Lee Jaheon voiced my question.
And the education housemaster kindly yet sternly gave an answer.
However, I could not express it in plain words.
Though the response was delivered audibly, my mind perceived it not as spoken words but as a long, elegant prose entry, like a diary excerpt from classic literature.
It was a truly bizarre coercion, similar to when I myself had struggled to speak naturally and could only communicate in fragnted phrases.
Yet, in keeping with the the of this ‘Groom Lesson’, the education housemaster’s words entered my mind in an elegant, refined tone.
That…
In essence, all groom candidates, except for one, are eliminated.
‘…!’
– Then, what happens to the groom candidates who are eliminated?
The education housemaster answered kindly, as though soothing the anxiety of a trainee fearful of failing to beco a groom. The supervisor once again emphasized the generous motto of St. Anticus Boarding School.
Encouragent and assistance.
Even for those who are not formal trainees but rely applicants for the experiential course, the school does its utmost to teach the virtues of a groom.
And even now, though the groom candidate position has already been already filled, the education housemaster was graciously allowing the experiential trainees to continue their trial program until completion.
They too would attend the wedding.
The sa applied to the groom candidates who were eliminated.
No. Rather, according to the education housemaster, those eliminated candidates would actually play an even more important and honorable role in the wedding.
– May I ask what that role is?
The education housemaster readily described it.
They would beco wedding ntos.
Beautiful works of art symbolizing the groom’s growth, existing as part of that art, an essential component of the ceremony itself accompanying the wedding from beginning to end.
And once the ceremony concluded, they could be distributed to the guests as gifts of gratitude…
They will be eternal keepsakes to rember the wedding by.
……
……
– Thank you.
The education housemaster praised my polite expression of gratitude and asked the groom candidates to say their grace.
So, as the groom candidates who had just finished breakfast gracefully offered their congratulatory remarks, I thought to myself.
‘We’re fucked.’
So that’s how it is. Fail and you beco a souvenir, pass and you beco the groom.
Becoming the groom might be the better option, but honestly, I had a feeling people would still say, ‘It would’ve hurt less to just beco a nto.’
Either way, it’s the sa gutter…
‘Damn it!’
During the short break after the morning class, I urgently asked Section Chief Lee Jaheon to excuse himself to the restroom and spoke.
– If you can’t escape by the day of the wedding, would you consider launching a Sacred Fire bombardnt?
It seed like the clearest answer.
At this rate, everyone here was going to die anyway.
Better to rain down sacred fire and cause chaos. Maybe a few could even survive that.
Then we could head for the safehouse, couldn’t we?
But…
“Yes.”
…?!
– Other than the possibility of casualties, is there another reason?
“Yes.”
– Please explain.
“Yes. It is more economical for us to abandon the Lee Jaheon entity.”
– ……
Wait.
– When you say ‘economical’… what do you an?
“Currently, the place where Section Chief Lee Jaheon is isolated has lost its connection point to reality, making energy input difficult.”
……
“In this situation, if we were to locate the site and execute a Sacred Fire bombardnt, the cost would exceed the value of Lee Jaheon’s identity and body.”
In other words.
Since every route of entry to this place had vanished, it would cost even more than when I escaped from the Late-Night Talk Show Darkness…
But if that’s the case.
– Doesn’t Section Chief Lee Jaheon earn plenty from Daydream Inc.? Considering your future value, I an.
“We can substitute it with a cheaper alternative than a Sacred Fire bombardnt.”
– ……
What a bizarre judgnt.
These reptilian aliens—who collectively call themselves ‘we’—seed to treat Lee Jaheon, an individual that’s one of their own, rely a small part of their collective body…
Even Lee Jaheon himself seed to think that way.
Like a single honeybee in a massive hive, or a single cell in a vast living organism.
Was it because they shared all experiences and information?
[That’s what’s known as a hive mind, Mr. Roe Deer! Though it’s a concept born from twentieth-century science fiction, doesn’t it fit rather well?]
[Of course, soone as fascinating and multifaceted as you can’t be blad for failing to understand such creatures, Friend!]
……
I don’t know.
But still.
– Section Chief.
The one I want to rescue is you, Section Chief Lee Jaheon of the D-squad.
– You do want to live, don’t you? I’m asking about your will, not ‘ours’.
A mont of silence.
Then.
“Yes.”
Good.
– Then let’s do our best.
I desperately began piecing things together.
The information I’d gathered today: the trainees, groom candidates, the housemasters, the questions, the wedding, and ‘us’……
‘Us’.
That filtered field of vision when looking at the groom candidates.
– …Section Chief, it’s true that you’re relatively resistant to contamination, isn’t it? Compared to the usual employee of Daydream Inc.’s Field Exploration Team, I an.
“Yes.”
…Then maybe.
Sothing just ca to mind.
[Oh!]
It was an insane idea, but…
– If you’re unwilling to hand over physical control to , would you at least be able to follow my instructions exactly as I give them?
“Yes.”
– Thank you.
– Then first of all, starting tonight, don’t draw any more blood. And after that…
And then…
I continued explaining, feeling like I wanted to gulp down hard.
– Would you consider temporarily transferring physical control, not to , but to soone else?
“Who is this ‘soone else’?”
Well…
The thing is.
– …To the Late-Night Talk Show host, Braun.
[Oh?]
It sounded utterly insane.
But it was the best possible course of action.
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