“Who are you referring to?”
Has this man’s vision finally gone as well?
Raimund pulled the woman who had been standing behind him to his side. She didn’t know what was happening and looked back and forth between Friedrich and Raimund.
But Raimund, without taking his eyes off Friedrich, added, “She’s involved in this. We have to take responsibility and get her out.”
“So who?”
“There’s no time for jokes. Can’t you see she’s terrified? Get her out of here right now.”
The woman gripped Raimund’s hand tightly.
Yet Friedrich’s gaze remained indifferent and alien, as if he couldn’t understand a word Raimund was saying or thought Raimund was lying. Then a sound came from the display on Raimund’s wrist.
– Beep.
He panicked and tried to dismiss the alert, but Friedrich, watching him, suggested, “Check it.”
“Now? In a place like this?”
“Precisely because it’s a place like this.”
Raimund felt uneasy. Friedrich’s emotionless expression, and the idea of checking the device handed out by the Foundation Union in front of a frightened civilian who knew nothing—it all felt wrong. Twisting his body so the woman couldn’t see, Raimund checked the screen.
Several unchecked alerts were piled up. All of them were warnings.
[Warning: Pay attention to the erosion rate.]
[Warning: Pay attention to the erosion rate.]
[Warning: Pay attention to the erosion rate.]
[Warning: Pay attention to the erosion rate.]
[Warning: A certain time has passed since entering the anomaly.]
[Warning: Pay attention to the erosion rate.]
After deleting them one by one, the last screen appeared. Friedrich spoke to the silent Raimund: “How high has it gone? The erosion rate.”
Raimund couldn’t take his eyes off the bright red numbers, which continued to climb even then.
[Heart rate – 123 bpm]
[Vital signs – within normal range]
[Anomalous erosion rate – 49%]
When he entered, it had barely risen. How had it climbed so fast? How long had he been in the anomaly? Thirty minutes? An hour? Or more? Friedrich’s dry voice pressed him, “There’s individual variation, but sensory disturbance usually becomes noticeable once erosion passes 35%. I’ll ask again: Who were you talking to?”
“……”
Raimund couldn’t answer. Only the red numbers, soaring upward, imprinted themselves on his jangled mind.
No—it couldn’t be. He had met that person long ago, and though he wasn’t entirely sure, the erosion rate then must have been far lower.
His creaking neck slowly turned, and his gaze met the woman who looked like Anais—or maybe didn’t. She stared at Raimund with an expression of confusion, then—
“Ha.”
She suddenly laughed. Her eyes narrowed and her lips half-covered, she shook off his hand and ran into the darkness.
Raimund tried to give chase but a strong grip seized his shoulder.
“It’s a hallucination. There’s no point chasing.”
“But—”
“Nietzsche said if you gaze into the abyss long enough, the abyss gazes back. This is what interfering with an anomaly looks like. Once you start to interfere, the anomaly interferes with you. It’s the rule.”
Raimund looked around. He was in the middle of a dark maze walled by foliage. Was he even sane? Doubt made him wrench free of Friedrich’s hand. Friedrich simply nodded.
“Humans perceive the world through the five senses. Once those senses are corrupted, you must doubt everything.”
“I…”
“Right now you probably can’t even believe I’m here. So listen: Don’t rely on your senses. Cover your eyes, ears, and nose. Think of nothing. Walk straight out. Even if you hear a voice, catch your foot, or brush against a wall, keep walking. Simple, right?”
“And you?”
“I’ll stay and handle the mission. I came in after you, so my erosion is slower.”
Friedrich said no more and tried to step past Raimund into the maze. But something grabbed his arm.
“T-take me with you.”
“What did you say?”
“Take me with you. It’s only at forty-nine percent. I can hold out a little longer.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. How do you expect to complete the mission with someone halfway eroded? If I told you to abandon it, it wasn’t wounded pride—”
“It’s not about pride!”
Raimund shouted. Friedrich, momentarily speechless, looked down at Raimund clasping his arm as if for dear life. With senses scrambled, he should barely be standing, yet he gripped Friedrich’s hand with all his strength.
“It’s not that—pride isn’t the issue….”
“Then what is?”
“If I just leave now,” Raimund chose his words, “I’ll go on not knowing anything.”
“That doesn’t matter. Even if you don’t work, I’ll deal with the anomaly. Shelter safety will be ensured.”
“I borrowed money from the Foundation Union.”
“I know. It must be a hefty sum, or they wouldn’t have pressed you into an outside contract.”
It might only have been a few hundred thousand credits, but Raimund had no means to repay such a debt. Of course not—how could a Sector 5 pickpocket hauling shady goods afford that? Friedrich inwardly sneered, but stopped at Raimund’s next words.
“Thirty million credits. I borrowed a tremendous amount.”
What? Friedrich replayed that in his head.
“How much?”
“Thirty million credits.”
Not three hundred thousand, not three million, but thirty million? Are they insane? Does the Foundation Union have endless funds? Stunned, Friedrich opened and closed his mouth a few times before regaining his composure.
“You borrowed an amount that would take five hundred residents years to earn? Why?”
“I had my reasons. If I can’t take missions after this, I can’t repay. I can’t back out of my first assignment.”
“I sympathize, but that’s not my concern—”
“I need the money.”
Raimund exhaled without pause. The orphanage director’s payment, the family who’d die without him, the debt he owed the Foundation Union, their investment in him—all distilled into that one phrase.
Only then did Friedrich fall silent. Raimund’s hand slipped away. Sweat—not from heat—ran down Raimund’s face as he knelt on the grass.
“Please. Just take me this once. Next time, I’ll go alone. I won’t bring trouble to Number 36’s poster again. If you wish, I’ll move to another residence.”
His bowed blond hair was matted with sweat. Raimund was no stranger to bowing his head. In Sector 5, you couldn’t survive without swallowing your pride, apologizing even when you weren’t sorry, promising things you had no intention to keep.
But he had never been so desperate. He would face anomalies from now on, complete missions, earn money, repay it all, and return. He would do anything for that—even crush his pride, kneel before someone who always clashed with him.
He felt dizzy, nauseous. Though seated on grass, he felt as if floating. Yet he endured, looking down until Friedrich spoke.
After a moment came a click of disapproval.
“Kneeling won’t solve everything. Especially in cases like this.”
“…”
“But there are points worth considering. I don’t want you hindering me every time an anomaly occurs.”
“You mean…”
“Just this once. Pay attention and learn. I’m not sure I can teach someone whose erosion rate is rising, but we’ll try.”
That was all he needed to hear. For once, he could still think clearly, and he was determined to remember everything Friedrich taught him. With permission granted, Raimund struggled to his feet—he owed Friedrich a thank-you for this favor.
What he hadn’t anticipated was that as his senses failed, his inner ear spun him into violent motion sickness.
“Th-thank you-o-o-ooo!”
Friedrich looked horrified as Raimund collapsed onto the grass, retching. Gratitude…?
“I’ll wash that handkerchief myself when we get back.”
“Don’t bother. It offends me. Throw it away.”
Raimund mumbled with Friedrich’s handkerchief pressed to his mouth, but Friedrich’s refusal was absolute.
Did he really expect to vomit like that out of nowhere? Raimund pressed his hands to his face to guard against any further mishaps.
“How did you plan to investigate here?”
“I made observations before entering. Don’t you have a Replica? El Draco’s telescope?”
“Yes.”
“This anomaly begins at the park entrance. It’s expected to fill the entire area, so I contacted the nearby police station and requested they seal off the park.”
“You contacted the police?”
“We can’t have shelter residents wandering in. Coordination between the Foundation Union and civil authorities is essential.”
“I don’t recall that in the guidelines.”
Raimund muttered, and Friedrich snapped, “Do you want to die by following only the guidelines? If you don’t know something, say so!”
“But you told me to handle it alone earlier!”
“What does that have to do with asking for help? If you’re going to make excuses, give it up.”
Raimund glared at Friedrich in silent protest, but Friedrich continued.
“Every anomaly is different. You can’t say exactly how it will be, but patterns emerge with experience. For example, this maze shape is a device to trap interlopers. Actually, it’s more accurate to say the anomaly assumed a maze form for that purpose.”
“I understand.”
“Most anomalies don’t want to let intruders escape. Why, I don’t know. They may force a long, convoluted exit, play on complex psychology, break your mind, or at extremes try to kill you.”
“That’s…”
“So an interloper must constantly analyze—from observing the structure to assessing danger.”
“It’s like a giant puzzle.”
“If you want to compare it, yes.”
Investigating an anomaly gets absurdly complicated. Raimund felt embarrassed recalling how simple the guidelines had seemed.
“So once you observe and enter, figure out the structure, you can complete the ‘Confirm Anomaly’ mission?”
“Exactly.”
“And how do you perform classification?”
“By judging danger. This maze alone wouldn’t harm an ordinary person, so it’d rank from Safe to Rupee on our isolation scale.”
“Could we then just leave?”
“Only if it really were just a maze. What if something’s inside? You must search thoroughly.”
Ah—that’s why we have to go deeper. While Raimund nodded, Friedrich explained further.
“We’re the canary in the coal mine, or the navigators. We map the anomaly roughly and hand off data to the field team, who secure the phenomenal object itself.”
“You mean the anomaly’s source?”
“Ideally we’d locate and capture it ourselves, deactivating it. But depending on the object’s nature, that can become a complex, delicate procedure.”
Deactivate. He’d heard the anomaly’s source could take many forms. When he’d played vessel, Cozet and the other operatives had carried firearms. Did they not use Justitia?
“Um, is there—”
Raimund began to ask if there was another way to deactivate the source, when a faint sound echoed overhead. A great, beastly roar reverberated through the foliage. Was it another hallucination? Friedrich had warned him not to trust his senses. Yet when Raimund looked at Friedrich, the man’s calm face was shadowed by something new.
Could it be…
“Mr. Friedrich, what’s wrong?”
“I need to correct what I said earlier.”
“Yes?”
“I described this as a maze anomaly, but it doesn’t seem to be a maze after all.”
“What do you mean?”
If this tangled, blocked path isn’t a maze… what is it? Raimund asked, and the night air split again with that cry. It drew nearer, very slowly.
Friedrich looked up toward the sound and said, “It means we have walked of our own free will into a labyrinth.”