Vol 1 Chapter 3 (2/2)

Guh, how gross. She had to try and stay away from that guy now. For the time being, there was no way she’d go within a 3-meter radius of him. If possible, she’d rather not breathe the same air as that pervert, but since she had to go to school and experience the daily life to inherit the Foundation, she'd have to settle on 3 meters for the bare minimum.

“Do you think he’d be pleased if he was a normal boy?”

“Why? Are all men perverts?”

“Uhihihihihi.”

As Alice looked at her with a confused face, an uncute laughter came from Dorothy’s otherwise cute face.

“W-Why are you laughing!”

“It’s such a simple thing, yet you really haven’t noticed. Uhihihi, what a laugh.”

Alice’s body stiffened at Dorothy’s words. Something simple she hadn’t noticed? It couldn’t be...

“Rancourty was able to see your panties, Allie.”

“Gya~~hh!!”

Despite having been expecting that reply from Dorothy, Alice still screamed the same. The other members went like “Again?” and s.h.i.+fted their gaze to the girls.

“Y-You all, man your posts properly! I mean, get to work!!”

Alice scolded the staff with a bright red face.

“You too, if you notice that, tell me earlier.”

She got closer to Dorothy and told her in a whisper.

“Buut Allie, your battle uniform is like that too, I was so sure you liked flas.h.i.+ng them around.”

“I’ll be d.a.m.ned if I do!”

Alice shouted, giving a chop on her head to Dorothy, who was showing a lecherous smile.

Sometimes, when she performed some intense actions in her battle uniform, her panties might be completely exposed, she had to admit it. But that much couldn’t be helped, she needed to wear clothes with a design that could deal with her body expanding due to the Boost, she definitely had no hobbies like enjoying flas.h.i.+ng her panties. In the first place, the lower part of her combat uniform was no underwear. That was something Alice firmly believed in.

To think her pants were showing in her day-to-day school life...

“Uugh. It’s the blunder of a lifetime. I’ll have to wear bloomers so that no one can peek under my uniform next time.”

Alice hung her shoulders, crestfallen, and turned her back to Dorothy, who was now crouching and grabbing her head. She was unaware that her fas.h.i.+on choice would draw even more enthusiasts...

***

Four o’clock in the afternoon. Before the gate of the St. Labels Academy, crowded with students going home, there were a man and a woman.

“St. Label's Academy... here it iis.”

A girl holding a map wearing a red flare skirt, reminiscent of some stage clothes, that fluttered in the wind; a man wearing a hakama with a sword in the guise of a swordsman out of a period drama.[7] Both turned their gaze from the school gate to the school building. Though their appearance was highly conspicuous, even if the students pa.s.sing by their side looked in their direction, they showed no signs of noticing anything weird.

“Was this certain companion said to be here?”

“She iis. Guess you’re no good for thiis, Hi-pon, you're too serious, let's spread ouut.” [8]

The girl with the well-projected voice replied to the master swordsman beside her.

“I’m looking forward to it, then.” [9]

“I’ll go fiirst as a Tentacle Member to see the situation, Hi-pon, please stand by here properlyy.” [10]

“Acknowledged.”

The swordsman retreated one step, and his figure disappeared as if vanis.h.i.+ng into thin air.

“A shadow line technique at that, you’re quite skillful for a masteer.” [11]

Showing her admiration, the girl stepped towards the school building.

***

The Dorchester Pot. Found on 1852 in Ma.s.sachusetts, Dorchester. A metal pot resembling a bell-shaped vase, a floral design is exquisite inlaid in sterling silver on its side. From the excavated stratum, it was thought to be more than 100,000 years old. [12]

The Spear of Kus.h.i.+ro. An iron spear found on 1931 in the aqueous rock cliff on the coast of Kus.h.i.+ro, Hokkaido, j.a.pan. Since it’d have been created after the aqueous rock precipitated into the water and deposited itself there, the lowest estimates a.s.sume it was buried tens of thousands of years ago. [13]

The inheritances Dorothy brought were these two items that could be called first-cla.s.s OOPArts at the same level as the Salzburg Cube. Like the Salzburg Cube, they shared the common trait that the metal hadn’t corroded even after tens of thousands of years.

Besides, there were crystal skulls and dinosaur figures, the fossil of a trilobite stepped on by sandals, such OOPArts easily understandable by the commoners were displayed; they were taking tally of the replicas now. [14]

“Even so, I can't believe...”

Alice turned to the Dorchester Pot. At first glance it only looked like an antique vase so she hadn’t paid it any notice, but it sure looked magnificent when displayed at the club room.

“Since when is it here?”

“If you mean the pot, it’s been here since spring. Since the club room is so tasteless, I brought it to decorate it with some flowers, you hadn’t noticed?”

“I had not.”

Alice a.s.serted so flatly. Where in the world would you find someone fool enough to use OOPArts like this! Ah, standing in front of her, right?

“So, how will we lure those people?”

“You don’t need to worry.”

With a big smile, Dorothy held out her mobile phone's liquid crystal panel in front of Alice. On it was displayed an advertising blog about the activities of the literature club.

“Scarecrow said that, since they seemed to be monitoring our actions, there should be a reaction even if we scatter just a little bait around.”

A bit lackadaisical operation plan for Alice, who hung her head again. But, Mudhead there aside, Scarecrow could be trusted. It was also thanks to her subordinate that Dorothy could continue Treasure Hunting on a level similar to hers.

“You don’t mean that’s everything, right?”

“Of course. Based on our encounter at that Museum of the Soviet Army, Scarecrow made a detector.”

“A detector?”

“More accurately, it’s a sensor that receives the unique vibration waves the invisible tentacles emit.”

In the middle of Dorothy’s proper explanation, a vigorous music suddenly began playing from her mobile. It was quite reminiscent of the march of a military band, it really didn’t fit her style.

“This way, when it catches those guys’ natural vibration waves, it’ll tell us through a special melody and red flashes.”

The mobile in Dorothy’s hand blinked red once and again.

“It’s failing right away?”

“I don’t think that's the case, but...”

Dorothy violently hit the mobile.

“Ah!”

Alice was at a loss for words, but Dorothy continued impudently abusing her cell all the same.

“Father says that most machines get fixed if you hit them.”

“But, isn’t that bad for a precision instrument?”

“Uhihihi, Father’s words aren’t wrong.”

Dorothy hit the mobile with a firm confidence. However, the flas.h.i.+ng showed no signs of stopping. On the contrary, it was getting more and more intense. And there were more of them than before too.

“Won’t it get broken?”

“No, if it broke with just this much, it wouldn’t qualify as a tool for a Treasure Hunter.”

As Dorothy pouted, she showed off the mobile’s emblem to Alice. It was the mark of the communication company Metalcom, under the umbrella of the Baum Foundation. Its slogan was, “It won’t break even if pounded with a hammer:” it was a product from manufacturers that dealt with st.u.r.diness. It wouldn’t break with Dorothy’s strikes.

“So that means... it can't be?”

“Isn’t this too early?”

Alice and Dorothy looked at each other.

“Nyufufufufufu.”

At that time, following the familiar sounding laughter:

“Hee~lloooo~~~”

A well-projected voice echoed. A melody faintly reminiscent of a harp overlapped with the girl’s transparent voice.

“She really came.”

“She did come.”

Alice and Dorothy remained in the same posture they had when they were looking at each other, only their gaze turned to the entrance.

“I fancied a vii~~~siit”

s.h.i.+ning with a brightening expression, a girl in a fluttering red skirt was looking at them from the exhibition hall's entrance. There was no mistake. She was the one who had taken the Salzburg Cube from the Museum of the Soviet Army, the alleged ”Irukinuf’s Songstress.”

“Could I have a touur?”

“Yes, that’s okay. It’s not open to the public yet, though.”

Protecting Dorothy behind her, Alice stepped forward to face Lynn, Irukinuf’s Songstress.

“Thank you very muuch. Since I have something important to tell to you while I’m at iit, I wished the unrelated people would leeave.”

As Lynn was speaking, the staff cheerfully began getting ready to go back home.

“Well then seniors, we’re going ahead-“

“Oh? Isn’t it still too early?”

The hands on the watch were a little past four o’clock. It was a little early to go back home for all those members who liked to get caught up in useless debates until five at least.

“We don’t know why, but we want to go back.”

The staff answered Dorothy’s question.

“Yeah, it’s like we mustn’t be here.”

“Come to think of it, I’ve been hungry for a while.”

As they answered without free will, the members finished getting ready to leave.

“Allie, this is...”

Dorothy whispered. None of the members was looking at Lynn. They unconsciously tried not to catch sight of her.

“Do you understand why?”

“Yes.”

Dorothy’s mobile blinked again. A special sensor placed inside it was sensing some kind of waves being emitted beyond the human audible range. This was one of the features Scarecrow had prepared in response to the encounter from the other day.

“It seems that girl is able to control others with some sort of hypnotic wave.”

The guards at Moscow had been a little strange too, they probably had been manipulated in this same way. And she was likely making the members here leave with a trick of the sort. It seemed the other party wanted to reduce as much as possible dealing with the aftermath of involving innocents.

“But, why aren’t we affected?”

Alice shrugged her shoulders at Dorothy’s question, opened both hands and after answering with a zany “Who knows?”, she lowered her arms and lightly clenched her fists. What she was holding now was metal b.a.l.l.s of about 2 cm of diameter that had fallen from her sleeve and rolled into her hands.

Stun b.a.l.l.s. They were a non-lethal weapon that used a high-voltage current to give a strong shock and stun the victim. Lynn’s hypnotic waves probably had directivity, and were likely not to affect anyone but the victims they were aimed at. [15] If she aimed them at Alice, it was no problem since her familiar Kuranes who camouflaged as hair ornaments would neutralize it, but what would happen if Dorothy was the one targeted? It’d be tough if she got attacked from behind.

Should she stun Dorothy before it was too late? Since she was a friend, she had chosen the Stun b.a.l.l.s out of consideration.

“Just because we won't be here, don’t do naughty things with our senior Dorothy.”

Alice’s tension vanished at once hearing the staff’s words.

“W-Who would?! I am normal!”

Hearing Alice’s roar, the members went out of the exhibition room in small groups.

“Good grief...”

Dorothy, don’t worry. If you got manipulated by the hypnotic waves, you would attack in the same way as the guards from the Museum of the Soviet Army, and there’s no way Scarecrow wouldn’t have taken measures to prevent it.

Still, even if she said it herself, she had quite the high opinion of Scarecrow. Alice involuntarily smiled with some self-scorn.

“Nyufufufufu, having fun is the most importaant.”

Laughing with a smile, Lynn reached out to the heritages placed on the table.

“Hey there, don’t touch the exhibits without permission.”

“Aw~, stingyy.”

“Then, what did you come for?”

“You’re so impatieent. But, it’s good that you understaand.”

Lynn took half a step away from the table the exhibits were placed on, and theatrically spread both arms.

“I’ll be frank: become our comraade.”

“What’s in it for me if I become your comrade?”

Alice asked, hiding the Stun Ball behind her.

“If you meet the expectations of the Tentacle King Lord Swodar Nyarmain, you’ll obtain a life span of several hundred yeaars. And, you’ll remain youung!”

Alice reacted to the name Lynn spoke of. Swodar Nyarmain: the first discoverer of the Highlands’ megalithic structure. And the same man that might have been together with her mother Lewis, just before she went missing.

“What did you say just now?”

“A life span of several hundred yeaars~”

“No, before that! The Tentacle

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