Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? - Volume 13 - Chapter 2

Harumi and Alaia

Saturday, May 1st

Several days after Theia and Ruth departed on their voyage home to Forthorthe, Koutarou paid Clan a visit.

With the Theia and Ruth gone, Corona House’s defensive capabilities were considerably lower. Not only were they down Theia and Ruth, they were also down the support of their spaceship, Blue Knight. Though Maki and Harumi would make up for the lost manpower, only another spaceship could fill in for Blue Knight. So in its place, Clan had summoned her own spaceship, the Hazy Moon, from Forthorthe. The Hazy Moon had less offensive power than Blue Knight, but since it came equipped with proprietary Schweiger family technology, it was extremely useful when it came to stealth or search operations. Essentially, the two ships had their own strong points. Under the Hazy Moon’s protection, room 106 was just as well defended as it had been previously.

And there was one more important advantage that came with the Hazy Moon. Because it was outfitted with the Schweiger family’s most cutting-edge technology, its med bay had some of the most advanced medical devices in the universe. Thanks to that, the Hazy Moon’s presence was particularly reassuring for someone with chronic health problems.

Koutarou had come to see Clan to get more details on Harumi’s medical exam the day before. He wanted to hear Clan’s opinion on Harumi being able to control Signaltin like Alaia.

“Because this is very personal, I will omit any data regarding Harumi herself. Are you fine with that?”

“Yeah.”

Clan was sitting down at her desk and brought up the file regarding Harumi’s exam. She then started explaining its contents in a way that Koutarou could understand.

“Generally speaking, there weren’t any outstanding problems. She was born with a weak constitution, but I can assist with that using Forthorthe’s medical technology.”

Forthorthe’s medical technology was far superior to Earth’s. Though Harumi had been born sickly, with Forthorthe’s medical advancements, Clan could help her live a life much closer to a normal, healthy person’s.

“Because she’s involved with us now, the chances she’ll be targeted by our enemies in the future are much higher. But at the same time, now that I can treat her, the risks from her condition can be significantly mitigated, so overall, things might not be much different.”

“I see... Looking at it like that, I feel a little less guilty about getting Sakuraba-senpai involved with us.”

Koutarou was worried about the consequences of getting Harumi involved with their problems, but if she could get better medical treatment because of it, he felt like it wasn’t just all negatives.

“There’s a silver lining to everything,” said Clan.

With that, she stopped moving her hands operating the computer and seemed to look off into the distance. The eyes on the other side of the glasses looked gentler than usual.

“Even us meeting.”

“Now that you mention it...”

Koutarou and Clan had been enemies at first. They’d fought in battles so intense that it wouldn’t have surprised anyone if either of them had lost their life in the process. Needless to say, things had started off very badly, but that was different now. They treasured and supported each other, so ultimately good had come of their meeting.

“And good will come of this as well. Theiamillis-san may have parted ways with us, but she’ll get to meet her mother after all this time.”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

Though Theia had left her friends on Earth, she was going home to see her family again. From Theia’s point of view, it wasn’t all negative.

“Now then, moving on to the main topic...”

Saying that, Clan adjusted her glasses and began tapping away at the computer once more. The information displayed on the screen changed.

“I’ll start from the conclusion. The result of the psychological analysis says that Harumi is indeed Harumi.”

“I see...”

Hearing Clan’s verdict, Koutarou nodded his head once and exhaled slowly. He’d actually come in hopes of hearing her say exactly that, so he was relieved.

Recently, Koutarou had witnessed Harumi control Signaltin as if she were Alaia herself. It had made him suspect that there was some kind of connection between them. That’s why he’d suggested that Clan give her a mental examination in addition to her physical one. Those results were what Clan was sharing with Koutarou now.

“Harumi has Alaia-san’s memories, yes, but her personality has not been affected by it. Alaia’s memories inside of Harumi’s mind have perfectly overlapped with Harumi’s memories about her role in the play. As a result, there is a clear line between Harumi’s memories and Alaia’s, meaning that though the two coexist, they haven’t commingled.”

“Wait a minute, where did Her Majesty’s memories come from in the first place?”

“Magic is not my expertise, but... I believe they came from Signaltin.”

“From the sword?”

“That’s my theory. In order for Signaltin to manifest its true powers, it needs Alaia-san. But Alaia-san is no longer around, so Signaltin found a replacement.”

“And that was Sakuraba-senpai?”

“Yes. Harumi had a clear image of Alaia-san in her head thanks to the plays, right? She has a lot of what would, I assume, resemble Alaia’s memories thanks to that. So by inserting Alaia’s real memories over top of what she recalls from the plays, Harumi became able to use Signaltin without causing her any confusion.”

“So that’s how it is...”

Koutarou nodded at Clan’s explanation.

Like it had with Koutarou and Maki’s contract, Signaltin tended to avoid interfering with people’s minds any more than necessary. It might have inherited that proclivity from Alaia, the one had undone its seal.

In that case, when Signaltin sought someone to serve as Alaia’s replacement, it would naturally choose the person who would be the least affected by it. And it wasn’t hard to guess who that would be. In that sense, Harumi was convenient for Signaltin. Thanks to her work in the plays, she could easily imagine what it was like to be Alaia without it compromising her identity.

And conveniently, Alaia’s memories stored in Signaltin ended at what lined up with the final scene of the second play. Thanks to that, inserting Alaia’s memories into Harumi’s worked out perfectly. All said and done, there was no one else more suited to accept Alaia’s memories than Harumi.

“Her Majesty probably would have done the same thing.”

“Actually, there is one more possibility... Though it’s more farfetched than even magic, so I don’t think it’s really the case.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean the possibility that it was just a coincidence. That Harumi, who can do the same things Alaia could, just happened to be there. But that isn’t exactly scientific.”

“Yeah, I bet that’s hard for you to accept.”

“That isn’t something my pride as a scientist will allow.”

Clan had just referred to it as a coincidence, but she actually had a somewhat more complex theory drawn up in her mind.

Harumi is the reincarnation of Alaia-san, and by pure chance, she happened to be Veltlion’s upperclassman. And once Signaltin came into contact with her, it revived the memories of her past life... But such a convenient explanation has no scientific backing whatsoever!

As a scientist, it was hard for Clan to suggest something so fantastical. It sounded far too much like a fairy tale, and her pride wouldn’t allow it.

“Anyway, the bottom line is that Harumi is Harumi. She’s not Alaia-san.”

“Got it. Thank you, Clan. I feel better now.”

Koutarou had been worried about whether or not some part of Alaia existed inside Harumi ever since that day. Because of that, he hadn’t been sure how to interact with her, and all of their conversations over the past few days had been awkward.

But thanks to Clan, he now knew that while Harumi had Alaia’s memories, she was still herself. Learning that, he felt a little sad he wasn’t able to meet Alaia again, but was primarily relieved to hear that Harumi was Harumi.