Volume 2 Chapter 6.3
Inverted Reality, Nightmares Always
Have Beautiful Faces Part 3
Translator : PolterGlast
"So I heard the
truth from this guy. I know what you guys are up to, and I also know that Nina
...... you've been playing the part of someone with psychic abilities for a
long time."
"Well, to get her
to trust us, we have to disclose information to her."
"...... Is it
some kind of your strategy to go out of your way to mention such a
calculation?"
"Don't point your
knife at me now. What would you do if I were Aichmophobic?"
Her accomplice turned
a mischievous smile toward her, while shrugging his shoulders in dismay.
"......Well,
that's how it is, Nina. The only reason I haven't told you about it is because
I wasn't sure I could get Emma to join us."
Even as he explained
this, Nina was still unable to decide where to place her emotions.
So Emma is now
one of our accomplices?
However, Nina's mind
was still haunted by the intense murderous intent of the masked assailant.
─Perhaps Emma is still harboring a hatred toward me.
"Jin Kirihara,
there remains one problem. I still don't trust this monster."
Emma moved in closer,
still holding the knife that radiated a sinister pressure.
Nina's right to even
blink was sealed.
"Nina Stingray.
Your two older brothers were members of the <White Knights>, weren't
they?"
"......
Yeah."
"Many of my
compatriots have been killed by the <White Knights>. You won't find any
mention in the newspapers of the brutality they have endured."
Emma's eyes were
completely devoid of light as she said this.
Nina knew nothing of
the life that lay behind them. Nor can she even fathom the exact hell that a
young girl who was ordered to infiltrate an enemy country during the Cold War
has been through.
Among those killed by
her brothers, there might have been someone important to her.
"One of the
agents was found with every part of her body severed by saws. Next to the
limb-missing body were four buckets filled with chunks of dismembered flesh.
Later, a colleague examined the buckets and found that the combined weight of
the buckets was exactly half the weight of the agent.
A young agent, who was
about to get married, had been starved to death while embedded in the wall by a
psychic ability. Infuriatingly, a large amount of food was apparently piled up
under the wall. It is impossible to even imagine the despair she must have
felt, having food right in front of her and yet being unable to move until the
very end."
"...... I'm,
sorry. I don't know anything about it."
Thinking back, she
felt she had made a similar apology to Jin.
It was also Nina's
brothers who had killed his foster parent.
But it never occurred
to her that they had slaughtered them in such a cruel manner. Or perhaps her
mind refused to imagine it. She was not made to be an insensitive creature, to
be able to live with impunity after knowing such details.
In the first place,
the hell Emma has just described is probably just the tip of the iceberg.
Just how many people
had sacrificed so much to make her luxurious life in that mansion possible?
Just thinking about
it, she felt something boiling inside her heart.
"I would never
defend what my brothers did, saying that they had no choice because it was
their job. Because those people were indeed cruel ....... And perhaps the only
reason they joined the <White Knights> was because they could legally
hurt people."
"So? Are you
willing to take the blame for it?"
Nina stared back into
the dark green eyes that were looking right through her.
Half-hearted acting
would not do at this moment.
She must speak her
true feelings, which lie at the root of her being, without any lies or deceit.
Within no time at all,
Nina knew what she had to say.
"......Sorry,
Emma. That will have to wait a bit."
"What?"
"....... I've
been thinking about it. Do I have a strong enough will to accomplish my goal,
even if it means deceiving many people, even if it means carrying many
sins?"
Nina's soliloquy
continued, as if to connect her just-begotten feelings to the world.
"I couldn't
muster up the same level of resolve as Jin, who had his foster parent taken
away from him. Because of that, before I knew it, I found myself in a state of
half-hearted guilt."
Her vision, which had
been so cloudy, became crystal clear all at once.
It might just be that
her eyes have become accustomed to the dimness, but Nina has certainly found
her courage.
"But finally
...... I found the meaning of what I'm standing here for."
The reason why she
must move forward, even if it means deceiving someone, even if it means hurting
that someone.
A solid reason to face
her fate and not run away from her karma as a fraudster.
The reason for her to
lie.
Only now, Nina was
able to find the answer.
"I want to expose
the crimes of my two brothers in the <White Knights>. I want to defeat
them with my own hands before they cause anyone more suffering. I want to
expose the sins of the demons who killed Jin's foster parent and Emma's
compatriots."
"Are you prepared
to commit more crimes to achieve that? Are you willing to risk your life for
it? Answer me, fraudster."
"I'm ready.
...... I can't tolerate those people any longer."
A curtain of silence
fell over the hidden room in the attic.
Time passed for what
seemed like an eternity as they stared into each other's eyes.
Like sheep waiting for
the hour of judgment, no one said anything.
"...... I'm
relieved then."
It was Emma who broke
the silence.
She put away the knife
in her black coat and gently held out her right hand.
"Righteous
indignation, huh...... Well, that's not a bad motive. At least it's better than
some feeble reason like atonement for your sins. If you were to say such a
thing, I would have abandoned you."
"Emma, would you
please stop testing my precious accomplice?"
"We're not in
this for fun, you know. So what I did was only natural."
After saying this in a
discouraged manner, Emma suddenly whispered.
"...... By the
way, don't call me by that name. I've told you many times. I am not Emma
Licorice now.""
Nina, who was relieved
to be recognized by her new accomplice, couldn't miss what she had just said.
"...... Hmm? What
do you mean?"
"See, Nina is
confused because you say such confusing things."
"I'm just telling
you the truth. Emma and I are completely different personalities. Besides, Emma
is not even aware of my existence."
Although she was
supposed to be hearing a shocking fact, Nina was strangely convinced.
The normal Emma and
the girl in front of her seem so far removed from each other. It was definitely
not a level that could be managed by mere acting.
If she is a different
persona, then that is probably the truth.
"What's your
name, then?"
"...... I'm an
intelligence agent. I don't need a name."
"Eeh, that's kind
of a pain in the ass. Wouldn't it be too inconvenient not to have a name to
call you?"
"Wha-, what the
hell ......? "You catch an enemy nation's spy, and it's an inconvenience,
you say......?"
"Alright, for
convenience's sake, I'll call you Fake Emma."
"Just call me
Emma, then! Are you messing with me?"
An accomplice who
could draw even an enemy agent into his pace is indeed too dependable.
A chuckle
involuntarily spilled out from Nina's light-colored lips.
─A genius fraudster who was raised by a legendary
villain who made enemies of the empire.
─A monster who has two older brothers who belong to the
<White Knights> and whose name is known throughout the empire.
─And a skilled intelligence agent sent from the
Republic, which is in a cold war with the Empire.
If these three
dangerous individuals work together, they can turn any miracle into an
inevitability.
They can deceive this
world filled with lies with even more lies.
"Well, let's wrap
these emotional moments up. There is still work to be done."
Jin's dark eyes lit up
with a vicious light.
"Let's sort
things out for now. First, our common goal is to identify and capture the
<Shepherd's Dog>. He's been playing heavy-handed tactics to find the rat
that snuck into the school."
"You're the one
who led him to do that, are you not?"
The two of them seemed
to already have an idea of who the <Shepherd's Dog> was.
And Nina wondered if
it was the same person who had popped into her mind.
"Well, either
way, we won't survive unless we defeat Karen. Apparently, she's not going to
stop using her <Jolly Undertaker> until she sees our dead bodies."
"The current Karen
Ashby has every justification for eliminating you two. I'm sure she's not even
concerned that someone will suspect her connection to the headmaster after such
a bold rampage."
"W-Wait a second!
Karen is on a rampage because Satya, her maid, was attacked, right? If so, who
attacked Satya?"
"Oh, of course,
she made that up."
"That's
......"
You mean that
she attacked her own best friend just to create a good reason to attack us?
No, but ......
there was not the slightest hint of cheap lies from the Karen I just met with.
The first thing that
came to mind was a possibility that Nina wanted to deny.
Self-brainwashing.
It was the same method
that Nina herself had used to defeat Bennett in the past. By believing that it
was someone other than herself who attacked Satya, Karen was able to lie with a
high degree of accuracy. And it was easy to assume that she has a talent for
self-brainwashing from the way she practiced <conditioning> in the dojo.
Nina's arms and legs
trembled on their own.
Her throat felt dry, and
her vision suddenly blurred.
─I am going to fight with such a monster now?
"...... So, why
are you guys smiling? Do you even aware of our current sotuation?"
It was only after Emma
told her this that Nina realized she was not in the slightest bit in despair.
Fear and elation. Two
conflicting emotions, and yet Nina held them together without contradiction.
"Because, you
know, it's not every day you get to see such a fun turn of events."
Seeing the edge of
Jin's mouth lifted up in front of her, she remembered the golden rule she had
been told once.
─A truly elaborate lie is like a kind of art.
In Jin's mind now, a
grand scheme of lies is being constructed to defeat that monster.
Nina wanted to hear
the whole details as soon as possible. She wanted to join in on this ruse that
would deceive the entire world.
"Sorry Emma, I
feel the same way as he does."
When she said so, her
new accomplice let out a sigh with a stunned expression on her face.
"...... Did I
make a mistake in who I made an alliance with?"
Laughing off Emma's
sarcasm, Jin began to explain his next plans.
End of Chapter 6
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