4
A little while after he got back to the tent, Enju came back from the outdoor classroom along with Tina and Kisara. “I have returned!”
“How was school?” Rentaro asked.
Enju couldn’t contain her excitement and flapped her arms. “Today was fun, too. Kisara wasn’t popular at all.”
“Huh? Kisara?”
Tina looked confused. “Big Brother, you are very popular. When President Tendo said you were off today and that she would be teaching all day, there was a lot of booing…”
When he looked at the woman, she turned away in indignation. “Miss Kisara is not popular at all!” she parroted.
“Well…I like Miss Kisara?” he offered.
“Stop trying to console me.”
Then what am I supposed to say?
As Rentaro floundered, a voice interrupted them with, “Ma’am.” It was Tamaki. “While you were gone, a strange man came by and brought this—” He pulled out a sealed manila envelope from his chest.
“Oh, that was fast. They finished looking into it, huh?” Kisara gave Tamaki a curt “Thanks” and took the envelope, unsealing it carefully.
“Kisara, what is that?” Rentaro asked.
“Remember, Satomi? You said yesterday that maybe there was a problem with the Monolith, right? I got someone to look into it.”
Kisara twitched as she read over the few pages of materials in the envelope. She crumpled the papers in her hand, and her fingers trembled and turned white.
Rentaro could tell something was strange. Wondering what was going on, he snuck a look at Kisara’s face—and he almost died from shock. “H-hey, Kisara…?”
“I’m going outside for a minute.”
“Hey!” Rentaro’s words were left behind as Kisara quickly turned and left.
He had no time to hesitate. Stumbling, Rentaro quickly pulled on his shoes and rushed outside the tent, looking around. He didn’t have to look for long to find Kisara walking in front of him, heading toward another party that was sitting around a campfire. Without saying a word, she threw the documents into the fire.
The people sitting around the campsite looked up in surprise, but their intruder walked away without a word after making sure the documents were aflame.
After it was obvious she wasn’t coming back, Rentaro ran to the fire pit, pushing the people around it out of the way. There it was. Without a moment’s hesitation, Rentaro stuck his right arm into the conflagration. He hadn’t thought to cut off the pain sensors in his arm, and he gritted his teeth in pain.
Even so, Rentaro’s arm remembered what it had to do. Sticking his arm into the depths of the brightly burning flames, when he finally passed his limit and had to pull his arm out, his smoking artificial arm was grasping a half-burned piece of paper.
“H-hey, what are you guys doing?” Ignoring the bewilderment of the neighboring party, Rentaro apologized silently to Kisara and unfolded the scrap of paper.
He groaned involuntarily and staggered a few steps. What is this? Why…was this name…? Rentaro followed Kisara’s back with his eyes, and seeing that she was far away, looked back at the scrap of paper that now sported blackened edges. It appeared to be the end of the document.
AS STATED ABOVE, MONOLITH 32 APPEARS TO BE A YOUNG MONOLITH BUILT NEAR THE END OF THE GREAT GASTREA WAR. THE ORDER FOR THE MONOLITH TO BE BUILT WAS PLACED BY THE PARTY OF THE CURRENT VICE MINISTER OF LAND, INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORT AND TOURISM, KAZUMITSU TENDO…
Kazumitsu Tendo. The grandson of Kikunojo Tendo and one of Kisara’s much older brothers. In the past, when Rentaro had lived in the Tendo residence, Kazumitsu had also still lived there, so Rentaro saw him many times.
Why was Kazumitsu’s name here?
It was hard to deduce the rest of the document’s contents from the excerpt. However—
Rentaro’s shoulders shook. In the back of his mind, he recalled the profile of Kisara’s face he had seen earlier in the tent. She had been sneering. She had on her revenge face, one that she would never show in front of the girls.
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