“Uh, um — could I trouble you to get off me for a sec?”
Saito stared at the girl now sprawled on top of him, who had abruptly slipped into deep thought, and suddenly found himself regretting why on earth he’d bundled up so thickly today.
Even though that was what was running through his head, Saito still kept both hands splayed wide as best he could — just so he wouldn’t accidentally touch anything he wasn’t supposed to be touching.
“Oh — sorry.
I got a little worked up just now.”
The girl climbed off of Saito, patted the dust off her clothes as if absolutely nothing had just happened, and then settled herself obediently back down onto the pile of tattered clothing across from Saito.
She hugged her knees against her chest, gazing at the dancing flames beside her, mulling over goodness-knew-what.
The girl’s sudden silence left Saito a bit at a loss.
As his initial wave of excitement gradually subsided, his head returned to a considerably more normal state of being.
Going by those miners’ corpses, this mine had clearly been through something deeply unpleasant — and yet the girl in front of him had been lying all alone in a snowdrift.
In all likelihood, she’d run into some extremely dangerous situation as well.
The reason her emotional state had swung so drastically before-and-after — that was probably the reason for it too.
“Um — are you, by any chance, someone from this mine?”
“No.”
The girl shook her head.
‘At least she hasn’t refused to talk.’
Saito gave a slight nod.
Before his transmigration, he’d once read in some book or other that girls who’d been through this kind of major psychological trauma would often display resistant, uncooperative attitudes; in more extreme cases, they could even become strongly aggressive.
The one in front of him hadn’t reached that extreme level yet, at least.
“And your name?”
“My…
name?”
The girl’s voice gradually sank lower.
Saito panicked in an instant — could he really have stepped right onto a landmine just by asking for her name?
“I’ve forgotten it.”
Oh-ho.
So this turned out to be even more extreme than the most extreme case.
That book had also said something about how, if the trauma was severe enough beyond a certain threshold, the patient might end up developing selective amnesia.
Watching the girl fall back into silence, Saito was doing his best to put together some kind of comforting words — but no matter how he tried to start, it always felt off somehow.
Then, at this critical moment, the dumbass alter-personality he’d worked so hard to suppress went and seized the wheel once again.
“How about I just go ahead and pick one out for you?”
The instant those words left his mouth, he was already regretting them.
How was this any different from rubbing salt straight into her wound?
Couldn’t he see that the girl in front of him had been left completely stunned by it?
“If I told you I genuinely have something wrong with my head, would you believe me?”
The girl reflexively nodded — that much was something anyone could see — and now it was Saito’s turn to fall silent.
Whatever.
Head problems are head problems, I guess.
“In my memory, everyone always called me Administrator.”
“Then I’ll just go ahead and call you Administrator too.”
Saito gave a small smile, putting in his best effort to convey goodwill to this amnesiac girl.
If at all possible, he still wanted to try and angle for this person to become his travel companion.
The Administrator gave a small nod.
Honestly, she didn’t actually care all that much about names — they were just code labels in the end.
If he felt like calling her Goo-Goo-Gah-Gah, that would honestly have been perfectly fine with her.
“So — do you have any plans for what comes next?”
Saito knocked open the layer of ice along the windowsill and peered out through the gap to observe the conditions beyond.
The snowstorm had gradually weakened by now.
Going by his two months of accumulated experience out here, in another hour or so it would have died down completely.
Earlier he’d taken a rough look around the mine — in all likelihood, this girl was the very last surviving person here.
And she really didn’t look the type to be able to survive on her own out across this snowfield.
If the two of them stuck together, at least they could keep an eye out for each other.
The Administrator was still sitting beside the fire with her arms wrapped around her legs, head lowered.
From Saito’s angle, there was no way for him to make out her face — let alone with that mask blocking the view on top of it all.
‘That’s exactly the line I’ve been waiting for!’
The corners of the Administrator’s mouth instinctively quirked upward — only to be smoothed flat again the very next instant.
‘Memory loss…
sudden arrival on an icy plain…
a special bodily constitution…
and on top of all that, the fusion with that extremely important Protocol Originium…’
All of this intelligence pointed toward one single possibility.
‘Could he be your research result?’
‘My past self…’
This was the one and only possibility she could think of — and also the most reasonable explanation.
‘However, as things stand right now, Saito has an intact personality, independent thinking, and even possesses a complete life and complete set of memories.
Acting rashly could provoke his hostility — I still need to learn more about him, and secure his trust first.’
After settling on her course of action for the next steps, the Administrator quickly adjusted her demeanor, putting on a look that came across as slightly dazed and conflicted.
“I…
I don’t know…”
Saito had clearly been entirely taken in by her superb performance.
After hesitating for a few seconds, he extended an invitation to her in a somewhat roundabout manner.
“This icy plain is extremely dangerous — having one more person at your side means one more share of strength to draw on.
If you don’t mind, perhaps we could travel together for a while.”
And from the angle he couldn’t see, the Administrator was wearing a textbook ‘all-according-to-plan’ expression.
But she couldn’t just agree outright at this point.
The memories of certain entertainment works floating around in her head were telling her this much: any relationship had to be built up gradually, step by step.
Agreeing too decisively would, on the contrary, only raise suspicion!
“I’ll…
only end up being a burden to you.”
As she said this, she shrank back a little, adopting a defensive posture.
From Saito’s vantage point, at the very least, the thing she was worried about clearly wasn’t only about being a burden on him.
And so he continued working on her — appealing to reason, moving her with feeling.
“You’re far too weakened right now, and there could still be hidden dangers in the area around this mine.
Leaving you here all alone would be no different from just watching you go off to die.”
“…”
Right about now should be just about enough.
After another several dozen seconds of silence, the Administrator judged that the buildup was roughly there, and stood up to give Saito a slight bow.
“I’m sorry — and also, thank you.”
In that very instant, both of them simultaneously broke into delighted smiles.
…
…
‘I’m finally not alone anymore.’
Standing once more atop the snow, Saito gazed at the familiar snow-white stretching out before him — and yet, his mood was now utterly different from what it had been before.
Behind him, the girl calling herself the Administrator was sitting atop that battered, cobbled-together sled.
Her petite frame was bundled up tight in the clothes Saito had lent her, and combined with the way she swayed slightly side to side, she resembled — to a striking degree — one extremely dopey-looking penguin.
“Hold on tight, Administrator.”
“Got it!”
The Administrator gripped the sled’s handle firmly, pressing herself snugly together with the supplies loaded on board.
“Then off we go!”
The instant Saito’s voice trailed off, he was already off and running — sprinting at full tilt, hauling the sled behind him.
The power of that piece of refined Originium was still coursing through his body.
The speed of man and sled climbed faster and faster, two tiny black dots tearing along toward the direction of the setting sun.
“Wooooo-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-ahhhhh-ahhhhh-ahhhhh-ahhhhhh——”
And the girl’s cry of astonishment echoed out across the skies above the Frozen Plains.
Today’s match: a win-win for both sides!