Volume 1 Chapter 3.1
The Lie That Reveals the Truth, the Facts Filtering Through the Trees Part 1
Translator : PolterGlast
Nina was able to get out of bed before the alarm clock started ringing.
Her body felt sluggish all over, probably because she had hardly slept at all.
She had made the fatal mistake of arranging a <duel> with Jin yesterday in front of the fountain where she had snuck out of the party and headed to.
With no psychic abilities, she had no other way to survive except to ward off all kinds of battles by using a variety of fear-inducing stories and her sophisticated acting skills.
Surely, it was all because of that welcome party.
She somehow managed to get through it by mobilizing all her social skills, but the guilt of hiding her true self has always haunted her. The more people around her smiled at her, the more alienation she felt.
It was because she was suffering from such an irrepressible sense of alienation that she was unable to maintain her composure at that time.
However, that is no excuse.
The only thing she needed to think about now was a strategy to get Jin to leave the school.
Letting out her first sigh of the day, Nina finally started getting ready for the morning.
While she was fixing her hair and applying her makeup in front of the dressing table, she couldn't shake off her bad thoughts of being exposed for all the lies she had committed.
"Ugh.......... What should I do?"
What if my slow and steady-acting threats didn't work?
Or what if he attacked out of desperation?
Nina, who had no abilities of any kind, could no longer do anything about it.
She might only lose a mere 95 points.
But the cost of having her secret exposed would be far greater. In the blink of an eye, the Heiberg School would question her and expel her without excuse.
What awaits her after that is only a gruesome [punishment] by the Stingray family.
"Oh, crap!"
Subconsciously, her fingers trembled.
The next thing she knew, her makeup had become distorted all over.
There was still time, so she would have to wash her face once and start over.
While making sure no one was home and heading to the shared washroom, Nina kept desperately searching for a way to win the <duel>. She shrank back every time she heard the sound of the alarm clock from the other children's rooms, all the while shaking off the worst images of being torn to shreds and thrown away.
The moment she saw her own pale face in front of the mirror, a flash of inspiration flashed through her mind.
She checked the clock on the wall. There was still more than an hour until classes
"......Okay, there's still time!"
Nina stopped removing her makeup and hurried back to her room.
◆
It was a laughably difficult morning to wake up.
The sheets were soggy with night sweats even though it was not summer, and the joints of his body were creaking even though it was not the day after he had worked out. His legs wobbled when he got out of the hard bed, which was not funny, and he almost screamed when he stumbled over a bag lying at his feet.
Last night, between that fountain and his return to his dorm room, Jin berated himself repeatedly.
This disqualified him from being a con artist.
He had lost his composure and had ruined the elaborate plan that he had worked so hard to put together. He would not only never reach his final goal, but he would be the first of his classmates to drop out of the competition.
In a daze, Jin changed into his school uniform and headed downstairs to the cafeteria.
The cafeteria was crowded with boys from the same class whose names he did not know, and the hustle and bustle disturbed his eardrums. Apparently, a group had formed after yesterday's party, and there were only a few students who were eating alone and silently.
He had no appetite, so as he stood in line to get a glass of water, he felt a myriad of stares poking him in the back.
"He's the first one to drop out, huh?"
"...... Poor guy."
"It's wrong of him to pick a fight with such a monster. I have no sympathy for him."
"You can say that again, he's an idiot beyond saving."
With each whispers that he heard, which contained no intention to conceal them, Jin's expression changed to that of a sick person who has been told he does not have long to live.
Taking a seat in the corner with the glass he received, Jin once again cursed his mistake.
Certainly, in the search for the <shepherd dog>, it would be inevitable to confront Nina, the most likely candidate.
However, Nina is a monster who has been the subject of many sinister rumors, such as that she caused a landslide with her ability when she was a child, and that because she cannot control her ability, she has decided to only use it against people she is willing to kill. To make an enemy out of this monster at such an early stage would be a completely bad idea.
No matter how he looks at it, she is not an opponent that he can prepare a countermeasure against by tomorrow.
"...... Hey, you."
"Huh?"
A male student with a dubious expression gestured to Jin's hand.
When Jin looked at him fearfully, he saw that his hand holding the cup was shaking like a joke, and the spilled water had created a puddle on the table. The cup was now only about half full.
─Don't tell me, am I scared? Me?
The shiver grew worse as he became aware of his fear, and he felt a chill slowly creep up his spine.
"Well, you know. ...... Don't get killed."
With a benevolent expression, he placed a hand on Jin's shoulder and the boy backed away as if to run away.
"W-What's wrong, Jin-kun? Your face is so pale......"
As soon as he entered the classroom, Emma Licorice approached him with a concerned look.
She interrupted her conversation with her other friends to follow him to the corner of the classroom.
"Hey, you don't look well at all! Let's go to the infirmary!"
"I'm okay, no worries!"
"W-Where are you looking at, Jin-kun? You're looking at the wall!"
"I'm fine, really. Thanks for everything."
"Get yourself together! You're not the kind of person to thank others!"
As he regained control of his wobbly position, he looked around and noticed that the damned monster was nowhere to be seen.
He checked again and again just to be sure, but Nina was still nowhere to be seen.
W-What? Was it she who got scared and ran away?
Jin managed to regain his composure as he leaned on these faint hopes.
However, the gossip of the boys sitting nearby shattered his hopes.
"Come to think of it, I don't see Nina Stingray around. Has she gone absent early in the school year?"
"She's going to have a <duel> with that Easterner called Jin, right? I heard she's been holed up in the mountains to raise her spirit so that she can crush him thoroughly."
His vision almost went dark all at once, but Jin somehow managed to hold on through sheer force of will.
By the end of the afternoon class, Jin was beginning to regain his usual aloof demeanor.
Perhaps one of the reasons for this was that the lectures on the history of research on psychic abilities and the techniques of mental unification had been too boring.
What he needed to do was the same as before.
Just be calm and relentless and think of a deception strategy.
With skill, experience, and dense malice, he could simply overcome the predicament with ease. It is against the teachings of that person to get flustered when a plan goes a little awry.
"Jin-kun, may I have a word?"
He was called out at the same time as the chime sounded.
Emma Licorice waved at him with a smile and had a new friend by her side that she had made today.
She has striking red hair and imposing black eyes. Of course, this was someone Jin had never spoken to before.
It was the red-haired girl who opened her mouth first.
"Are you Jin?"
"......Yeah. And you?"
"I'm Kate. By the way, Emma told me about you. Are you really going up against that Nina Stingray?
Just in case, Jin decided to raise his alert level.
"Yeah, can you give me some advice?"
"Advice, huh......" The girl named Kate looked at Emma hesitantly. "We were just talking about that just now."
Emma opened her mouth, and took over the conversation.
"Jin-kun, let's go apologize to Nina-chan!"
"Huh? ...... Why?"
Of course, if he just wanted to get away with it this time, that might be possible.
The rule of the <duel> is that it cannot be carried out unless both parties agree to it and include it in their written oath, so it would be possible to withdraw at this point. Even if the apology is not accepted, the duel can be unilaterally canceled at this point.
But what will happen after that?
Once he is labeled as a coward, no matter what kind of deception he tries from now on, he will no longer have any persuasive power.
That will not do.
In order to complete his grand plan, he would have to convince everyone around him that Jin Kirihara is an extraordinary man of great ability. That is the minimum requirement.
"......Why are you being so stubborn?" Kate continued with a sigh. "It's better not to go against that girl."
"Why are you so meddlesome? It doesn't suit your looks. Are you trying to appear like a gap moe?"
"You act like you can handle it, but do you really think you can win?"
"Well, in the end, she's still just a young lady. She doesn't know what a real battle is. No matter how powerful her psychic abilities may be, they will be of no use on the battlefield.
"A mere fifteen-year-old, why are you talking like a veteran soldier?"
"I see. It's our first meeting, so you don't know me. Actually, I used to be a soldier in a frontier country a long time ago. Right, Emma?"
"Eh? I just heard about it for the first time! Is it true, Jin-kun?"
"Yeah, I guess I haven't told you. It's true that my past is too heavy to tell, that's why I've been hiding it from you."
"Stop making up stories like that and come over here for a second."
Kate stared at Jin, who was trying to dodge, with a look of dismay on her face.
"If you knew how scary she really is, you wouldn't be able to look so nonchalant about it."
Jin couldn't think of any particular reason to refuse, so he decided to follow Kate for the time being. They left the clamorous classroom and walked down the long corridor to the courtyard.
It seemed that Kate was looking for a less populace place. Jin wondered if leaving Emma in the classroom was also because she had something to talk about that she didn't want to be overheard.
As they weaved their way through the students hanging out in the courtyard, Jin asked as quietly as possible.
"Are you acquainted with Nina Stingray?"
"I don't really acquainted with her that well. And I don't think she has any interest in me. We were merely classmates in junior high school."
Naturally, Jin had thoroughly investigated Nina's background.
The Stellar School that Nina attended is one of the most prestigious schools for young ladies in the country, a world that is out of reach for Jin, who does not even have a formal education.
It was surprising that the girl in front of him had attended such a school. Just like the saying goes, [don't judge a book by its cover].
"......So, what information are you going to give me?"
"About how foolish it was to pick a fight with that girl."
Kate continued, her voice laced with sympathy.
"She's too powerful as a psychic. Most of the rumors are true. She was four years old when she used her psychokinesis to scrape a mountain slope, so we don't even know how much she has grown. It's just a local rumor, but there's talk that she's already been secretly recruited by the <White Knights>."
"If you want to talk about rumors, I know a guy who managed to split a sea in half with just his spirit."
"I'm seriously concerned about you, you know?"
"I'm serious, too."
"......You idiot."
A momentary hesitation flashed in Kate's dark eyes.
"What I want to tell you is that it's not that girl that's really scary, but the Stingrays themselves."
"......What do you mean."
"I mean exactly what I said. The Stingrays are famous for how many cases they've covered up."
The sky was filled with dark clouds and cold drops were pouring down from the sky. The students in the courtyard noticed this and gradually began to withdraw into the building.
With the sight of people disappearing like receding waves in the background, Kate continued with a sad expression on her face.
"I don't know whether Nina has any malicious intent or not. Maybe she really just can't control her abilities, and we can't rule out the possibility that it's all just a coincidence."
"Enough with the preface, just tell me already. What was the crucial thing that had happened?"
"I don't know."
"Huh?"
"...... I don't know what exactly happened, that's why it's scary. There were a number of incidents where the people who were causing Nina's problems went missing. The students were all too scared to do anything to her, so most of the victims were adults. Some of them were found looking like, you know, rags......"
"......No way."
"Even I can only hope it's just a bad rumor. After all, she's always been a polite and respectful girl at school, no? I can't imagine her killing a bunch of people behind the scenes. ...... Maybe she just genuinely doesn't remember anything."
Nina Stingray is unable to perfectly control her powerful abilities.
Such rumors suddenly begin to gain presence.
"I see, the Stingrays have covered up numerous of Nina's out-of-control accidents over and over again, huh."
"In every case, the investigation is terminated midway through because of pressure from somewhere. Naturally, it never appears in the newspapers. You didn't know this, did you?"
"The Heiberg School is a state-run institution. How can they use the same method used against the police and the journalist?"
"Have you forgotten? That girl was exempted from the entrance exam. Doesn't that prove that the Stingrays have close connections to the school?"
The rain was getting heavier and heavier, and even the sound of thunder could be heard in the distance.
Against the backdrop of a sky that seemed to be filled with the rage of beings beyond human understanding, Kate concluded with a somber expression on her face.
"Do you understand? That's why you shouldn't pick a fight with that girl."
"...... I understand very well. Thank you for telling me."
"No need to thank me. Just apologize to her tomorrow, okay?"
Jin smiled vaguely and slowly walked to the eaves of the wall.
Since this is a courtyard, there should be no need to take shelter from the rain under the eaves. They could just quickly return to the corridor.
Still, Kate could not seem to doubt the intent of his actions.
She naturally walked next to Jin, who was under the eaves of the building.
"By the way, may I ask you a question?"
With eyes as sharp as blades, Jin asked a decisive question.
"What on earth is your purpose, Nina Stingray?"
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