Keeping my emotions nailed down, I glared at Karatena.
Her lips twisted into a vulgar little smirk, and she stuck out her tongue where Stella and Whip couldn’t see.
Ah. I get it now.
That infuriating way she had of dragging at my heels, that petty, needling malice…
She was just like Fuankilo.
She’d heard all about me from Fuankilo while she was still alive.
Then Fuankilo had died in an “accident,” and Karatena had started doubting that story and decided to throw suspicion at me. That was probably how we’d gotten here.
There was a fire burning in her eyes, carrying a will too tangled to describe in a single word.
“There’s no evidence whatsoever,” I said flatly. “You’re making this up from nothing.”
I shrugged as I spoke, then twisted the knife.
“I’m just as heartbroken over Fuankilo-sama’s death as anyone else. Unlike some people.”
I watched the gray-haired woman’s face flush a furious shade of red.
“However,” Karatena snapped, jabbing a finger at me, “we do have Celestia-sama’s testimony.”
The moment she said it, I knew she was lying.
On the day I killed Fuankilo, Celestia had been off inspecting facilities at a nearby base. Someone like Pawk might’ve been able to monitor things remotely, but Celestia had no such ability, and more importantly, that girl had absolutely no reason to suspect me.
To her—and to most people—Oakley the heretic looked like a flawless, devout believer.
Furthermore, Celestia had snuck into my room before Fuankilo’s death and watched me the whole time. If she hadn’t been able to solidify any suspicion of treason from that, then her impression of me should’ve already been tilting in my favor.
Poor Oakley, being falsely accused by Fuankilo like that…
That was probably where she’d landed.
And yet Karatena had just declared, “We have Celestia’s testimony,” like it was fact. On every level, that was problematic. She was leaning too hard on the fact that Celestia wasn’t here to contradict her.
I watched her slowly realize how badly she’d messed up. A strained look crossed her face, and a bead of sweat trickled down her temple.
This woman… She’s speaking purely out of anger and momentum. She hasn’t earned Whip or Stella’s trust at all. No groundwork, then?
That careless line came back to bite her immediately, and the mood shifted. One extra sentence, and it had the exact opposite effect she’d wanted.
To make things even worse, that was when Joanne and Alex, who clearly hadn’t read the room, wandered over, drawn by the sound of voices.
“What’re you guys talking about?” Alex asked.
“Ahh, so here’s the thing,” Whip chimed in. “Karatena-chan here is saying Fuankilo-chan didn’t die in an accident. She says Oakley-chan killed her instead!”
Whip answered Alex’s question with a sunny tone, but her sparkling eyes twitched faintly, unable to fully conceal the contempt in them.
She’d recognized the claim as nonsense.
I turned my gaze to Alex, silently begging, Well?
I still didn’t fully understand what Alex really was. For all I knew, he might actually be an enemy, a die-hard Aros loyalist pretending to be a colossal idiot. A chill ran down my neck as our eyes met.
Then the blond man barked out a laugh.
“Oakley-senpai, kill Fuankilo-sama!?” he said, almost choking. “Hah! No way in hell. That’s impossible!”
A cheerful, unequivocal answer. I swallowed a mouthful of spit and realized I’d just understood one more thing about Alex.
For now, it seemed he was willing to act on my side. His motives were far too unstable to trust completely, but still, he was facing the right direction.
Backing up Alex’s words, Joanne lobbed in a follow-up shot.
“Before that fire broke out at the smelter,” she said casually, “I’d been going at it with Oakley so hard we were practically melting together.”
Someone let out a strangled noise.
“What?”
Between me, Karatena, and Whip, it was hard to tell which of us it was. Either way, everyone except Stella was stunned by just how wildly off-base this “support fire” was.
“That day, there’s no way he had any stamina left,” Joanne went on, face utterly straight. “I drained him completely.”
Half of what she said was true.
She’d attacked me relentlessly, given me a piece of her own ego, and wrung my sanity dry. And yet somehow, that same man had gone and fought another woman to the death?
Even now, she had no idea where I’d found the strength for that. That was what it felt like she was implying between the lines.
In the end, Karatena clicked her tongue and stalked off at a fast pace.
Whip scratched the back of her head and mumbled, cheeks puffing slightly.
“I mean, it’s not like I haven’t heard some rumors along those lines,” she said, “but… that was full-on taking her anger out on you, huh?”
As we watched Karatena’s retreating back, something like a storm warning coiled up in my chest, a sense of coming turmoil I couldn’t quite name.
After we split up with Stella and Whip, the real weight of the situation finally sank in.
Stella and Whip weren’t the main problem. Right now, Karatena Wallmix was the one I needed to treat as a top-priority threat.
Fuankilo, you left one hell of a parting gift…
I stepped outside to explain the situation to Joanne and caught sight of Alex trailing after me.
I tried to wave him off, but he just threw up a hand, all cheer.
“Hey! I, for one, can’t wait to kill Karatena!” he said brightly.
“What are you talking about? Don’t,” I snapped.
A cold prickle ran down my spine as I brushed off the blond man’s words.
Instead, Joanne spoke up.
“Listen up, Alex. We’ve gotta crush the Aros Temple Cult slowly and surely. We need to kill carefully—bold when it counts, cautious when it matters. No pointless flailing.”
“Mm, yeah, that makes sense, I guess!” Alex replied, as if they were talking about chores.
The way Joanne dropped that bomb so smoothly—and the fact that Alex didn’t even blink at it—short-circuited my brain. My heart froze over. It felt like all the warmth had been drained from my body.
“Ah… huh? Joanne, what… what did you just say?”
It was slipped in so naturally after everything that had come before, the fatal line just… slid past my defenses. And then the next thing out of Joanne’s mouth knocked the breath right out of me.
“This guy’s been on the Oakley Faction’s side for a while now,” she said. “You can relax.”
“Yes, ma’am!” Alex beamed. “I was, like, super shocked when I heard about your plan with senpai, but I’m really looking forward to helping out! Let’s smash this cult together!”
“… I haven’t told him the core details,” Joanne added calmly. “But our ideas lined up. He’s pretty much the same as you.”
“…”
“Alex is going to be your guard from now on,” she said.
“’Preciate it, senpai!” Alex chirped.
For a moment, my thoughts just stopped. Goosebumps ran over every inch of my body.
Joanne’s actions were so unthinkable that my mind could barely keep up.
W-wait. No. Come on… You’ve got to be kidding me.
You told him? You told him?
Joanne, you seriously blurted out our ideology and our goal just like that? That thing we’d guarded so carefully, the secret the two of us finally managed to share, after everything—how could you hand that to this shallow clown of all people!?
I was furious.
Her carelessness pissed me off in a way I couldn’t even fully put into words.
How did Alex even get close enough to become her ally in the first place? She was so extreme that getting on her good side was incredibly difficult; the power imbalance was completely in her favor.
I couldn’t see any reason she’d take the risk of telling him anything, let alone welcome him in, when she had so much more to lose than he did.
Reality failed to load properly.
Moving like a broken robot, I slowly turned my head to look at Alex.
He grinned wide, showing gums, all sunshine and friendliness.
“Hehe! I’ll do whatever Joanne-sama and Oakley-senpai say!”
I had no idea how I was supposed to respond to someone radiating that much suspicious energy. In the end, all I could do was keep my mouth shut.
Was this his way of worshipping Joanne? Or just the self-destructive enthusiasm of a man with a death wish?
Like with Stella, trying to understand Alex’s operating principle felt like a waste of effort.
Damn it, there’s too much to think about.
“So, Oakley-senpai,” Alex said, tilting his head, “why can’t we just kill Karatena? If she’s in the way, we should just get rid of her.”
“Right. Well, given how things are now, Karatena dying would be a serious problem.”
I forced myself to pull it together—though in truth, I wasn’t together at all—and restarted the discussion.