Chapter 321 : You Are Real
Chapter 321: You Are Real
The place Miyu led me to after saying she had something important to tell me was somewhere I never would have expected.
I had imagined somewhere like a VIP booth equipped with a Sound-Canceling Device, or perhaps a secret hideout made by secretly remodeling a dorm room.
Instead...
It was simply my office.
Yes, Aaron Stingray's office.
“Why are we here……?”
“I-I’m…… I’m sorry. There really wasn’t any other place where everyone could gather and talk together…….”
“‘Everyone,’ huh.”
So the Vital Signs I had sensed from inside hadn't been a sensor error after all. As soon as I opened the door and stepped inside, every member of the Special Class was huddled together on the sofa.
Airi, Silence, Raina, Guardian.
Not just the four of them, but Maria, Evangeline, and even Ciel, whom I hadn't seen for quite some time, were all gathered in one place.
Ciel, in particular, had seemed as though we'd gradually lose contact unless it involved the Transmigrators' Alliance. Seeing her here was completely unexpected.
Who had called her?
No, more importantly……
“What’s going on, everyone?”
The members of the Special Class were using my office like it was their club room.
Personally, I didn't mind at all, but objectively speaking, it was rather rude.
And the fact that Maria—who usually cared so much about such trivial etiquette—hadn't stopped them this time was just as strange.
'She said it was something important.'
That's what Miyu had said.
But what kind of topic could possibly require this?
The moment that question crossed my mind—
“……”
—I realized that something was wrong with the atmosphere.
Normally, at least one person... Guardian, for example, would say something tactless and ruin the mood, or Raina would be trying to flirt with Silence.
But at this very moment...
It was unnaturally quiet.
Like people who had already received a death sentence.
While I hesitated for a moment, Maria quietly walked behind me and firmly locked the door.
At the same time, Airi grabbed my arm and led me toward the desk.
“Airi. What are you doing?”
“……Please sit down first.”
“……?”
I didn't sense any ill intent, so I quietly followed her lead.
She forced me into the chair, and immediately afterward, the rest of the group approached one by one, surrounding my desk.
Then—
“Mr. Chairman. There's something we want to ask you.”
As she spoke, Airi took something out from inside her clothes and gently slid it across the desk.
At first glance, it looked like a sheet of paper, so for about one second, I genuinely thought they were all submitting withdrawal forms together.
For that one second, I nearly went into full panic.
Why all of a sudden?
What did I do wrong?
Was this because I slapped them before?
Or was it something else?
But that misunderstanding lasted only a moment.
The instant I recognized what Airi had placed on the desk, I was shocked for an entirely different reason.
She looked at me and asked,
“You know what this is, don't you?”
“……”
Of course I did.
It was a Special Ticket.
I would have to inspect it carefully to know exactly what kind of effect it had, but judging from its shape, size, and color, it was undoubtedly a ticket that Transmigrators could purchase from the Point Shop.
“……Where did you get this?”
As I asked, I stole a glance at Ciel.
I knew the whereabouts of every ticket I had ever purchased.
The Hunting Ground Tickets I had bought most recently were still in my possession, and I had been planning to hand them over to everyone later so they could use them for training.
In other words...
That ticket wasn't mine.
Which naturally made Ciel the most suspicious person here.
After all, besides me, she was the only other Transmigrator capable of obtaining tickets.
But Ciel shook her head as if to say it wasn't her.
Then she looked at me with an incredibly complicated expression.
What exactly was that expression supposed to mean?
The next moment, Airi spoke.
“The Stingray Chairman gave it to us.”
“……What?”
I had tried my best to keep my emotions under control, but an agitated response escaped me anyway.
How in the world had that name come up here?
“Explain everything.”
“The Chairman—”
Maria opened her mouth with a trembling voice.
“The Chairman summoned us. He invited us to his secret laboratory and told us many things there. We received this ticket from him.”
“What exactly did that man tell you?”
“[About ‘Transmigrators.’]”
This time, Silence answered.
He had always been somewhat hostile toward me, but today his tone was even sharper than usual.
“[Souls from another world. People who steal another person's body and pretend to be its original owner. People who know many things about this world…… He said that these tickets are precious items that only such ‘Transmigrators’ can create through a certain method.]”
Next, it was Raina's turn.
“They had connected the brains of people called ‘Transmigrators’ to Mechanical Devices and were producing these tickets endlessly. They sent electrical signals into their brains to make them perceive a false reality, had them collect ‘Points’ inside virtual reality, and then pulled the ‘Tickets’ they purchased there into the real world. That was the experiment.”
Then Guardian spoke.
“This humble monk is ignorant in such matters, so I could not understand it completely. However, I could tell that they were committing terrible acts using human brains. We are incapable of understanding the principles behind it. However—”
Miyu picked up where he left off.
“T-the important thing is... Aaron showed us items exactly like this several times before…… And you never properly explained what those items really were, and……”
Finally, Airi spoke.
“No. None of that matters. There's only one thing I want to ask you, Mr. Chairman. Did you make us use items created ‘that way’? Items printed by imprisoning someone's brain inside a container and torturing it?”
“……”
“You didn't, right? You wouldn't. I know you're not that kind of person, Mr. Chairman. That's why this is a problem. Because if that's true... then only one conclusion remains……?”
Airi asked with a trembling voice.
“Mr. Chairman... are you really a ‘Transmigrator’?”
“……”
I had no idea how accurately Airi understood the word “Transmigrator.”
She might have completely misunderstood it.
But the moment I heard those words come out of her mouth, it felt as though a massive boulder had fallen onto my chest.
For an instant, my mind went blank.
Still, I forced myself to keep my expression under control.
“……A Transmigrator?”
But I had forgotten one thing.
Ciel was here.
A denial like that wouldn't work.
The fact that she was here meant they already knew enough.
“A-Aaron…….”
“……”
Seeing the expression on her face, I realized there was no point in pretending anymore.
I let out a quiet sigh before asking,
“Explain exactly what you think you understand. What do you know, and how much of it?”
“A-According to the Stingray Chairman…… this world is fake.”
Miyu answered.
“H-he said that, to ‘Transmigrators,’ this world is nothing more than the world inside a novel…… And that its readers were accidentally pulled into this world and became ‘Transmigrators’……”
“And?”
“I-if that's true, then it explains how Aaron knew so much about us. How you immediately found my workshop hidden in Sector E……”
“[Why you could openly confess crimes you were going to commit in front of the victim.]”
“How you immediately saw through this humble monk's hidden competitive spirit.”
“How you knew this body's name despite never having met this body before, and saved this body from 『The River』.”
“Why your personality suddenly changed.”
Miyu, Silence, Guardian, Evangeline, and Maria spoke one after another.
Finally, Airi looked at me with tearful eyes.
“And why…… you were so kind to us, even though we had never met before……”
She asked once more.
“Please answer us, Mr. Chairman. Is this world really ‘fake’? Were we nothing more than characters in a novel? A-all the kindness you've shown us until now... was it all……?”
“Fake?”
I let out a scoff.
“Who said you were fake?”
Perhaps anger had unconsciously slipped into my voice, because Miyu flinched.
But I paid it no mind and continued.
“Who gave anyone the right to decide what's real and what's fake? Do you yourselves believe that you're fake? That you're nothing more than fictional beings born from someone's imagination?”
“W-we're not saying that……”
“Then what about [Mystics]? Weren't they originally beings that existed only within humanity's imagination before driving mankind to the brink of extinction? Are they fake too?”
“Y-Young Master……”
“Does comparing you to monsters offend you? Fine. Then let's speak only about your own stories. Were everything you've experienced fake? Your experiences, your memories, your cherished moments—everything that makes you who you are—is all of it a lie? Do you truly want to believe that?”
“[No matter what we believe, reality is…….]”
“Tell them all to go to hell.”
I declared without hesitation.
“Who dares deny what I believe to be real and call it fake? Then am I merely struggling inside an illusion? Are the things I'm willing to stake my life to protect actually nothing more than meaningless phantoms? What an utterly disgusting idea.”
Clack.
I pushed my chair back and stood.
Then, once again, I declared with unwavering resolve.
“You are real.”
These people were fake?
The people I loved more than anything?
Don't make me laugh.
“I can do anything for your sake. I swore that from the very moment I first came to this world.”
Whether this world was real or fake.
What difference did that make now?
These people standing before me, breathing so vividly, showing countless expressions, carrying endless thoughts and emotions...
How could they possibly be nothing more than fictional characters?
Yes.
Perhaps, in the beginning, they had been.
Perhaps every one of them had originally been nothing more than fictional characters created inside an author's imagination.
That was why, as a devoted reader, I understood them deeply enough to predict even their thoughts and their next lines.
But not anymore.
Through countless choices and experiences that differed from the Original Story, they had become people entirely different from who they once were.
In a way, it wouldn't be wrong to say that the “Original Story's Airi” I once loved and the “current Airi” standing before me were completely different people.
But what did that matter?
Perhaps my affection had begun as nothing more than the feelings of a fan.
But now...
I genuinely cherished and loved the people standing before me.
To dismiss them with the single word “fake” filled me with a rage greater than having my entire life denied.
So—
“No matter what anyone says, I will protect all of you.”
“……”
“No matter what anyone says, I will protect this world.”
I looked every one of them in the eye as I made my declaration.
“That is the mission I chose for myself. So do not dare belittle my conviction by belittling yourselves. I find it deeply offensive.”
As I spoke, I reached out with both hands and gently patted the heads of Miyu and Airi, who were standing closest to me.
Feeling the warmth beneath my palms, the softness of their hair, and even the faint vibrations created by every living cell...
I became certain once again.
You really aren't fake.