"Eh?"
Himari looked puzzled. "We're not continuing the investigation?"
I shook my head and explained, "The key point of this commission is not whether the amusement facilities move on their own, but whether they hurt people. Although I am also a bit curious about how that jack-in-the-box works, since it has not shown any intention to attack, there is no need to investigate it further for now."
Himari still seemed hesitant. "But…"
"Rather than thoroughly investigating this right now, it would be better to first search this entire area. If we find nothing else, we can come back and take another look."
I added, "After all, that box is not going anywhere."
After this round of persuasion, Himari finally smiled and nodded.
"Hehe… all right. Since you have already gone this far to take my feelings into consideration, then let's leave this unknown for later and study it slowly."
Seeing Himari's expression, half smiling, half smug, as if to say, "I really can't do anything about you," I hesitated to speak.
Why was it that even though I had clearly succeeded in convincing her, I still felt like I had lost?
After thinking it over, it really had to be because she was just too much.
However, Himari's good mood did not last long.
After bypassing the jack-in-the-box and walking forward for a while, she suddenly frowned, as if she had thought of something, her expression subtly changing.
Even though she was only a projection, the gravity on her exquisitely beautiful face was still clearly visible.
"Speaking of which," Himari began without warning. Her tone was still gentle and composed, yet compared to before, it inexplicably gave me a sense of coldness. "I was wondering, in ruins like this that have been left unrepaired for so many years, wouldn't the air be filled with the stench of sewage rot?"
Momoi sniffed. "I don't smell anything at all."
Himari neither confirmed nor denied it. "Hehe, is that so. Sensei, what do you think?"
I did not answer, only sighing silently in my heart. Himari had finally noticed.
Although the reasons I had given so far were quite sufficient, with Himari's intelligence, combined with the other information she already possessed, it was enough for her to reach another conclusion, one closer to the truth.
My attitude toward this commission was not as conservative as I had described. Judging from my various actions, it was actually the opposite.
Whether it was playing unknown amusement rides with everyone, not stopping their rash counterattack after being startled, tacitly allowing her to have Momoi probe the mysterious jack-in-the-box, or decisively choosing to leave after discovering that the jack-in-the-box did not seem to retaliate.
All of these served as evidence of one fact. I was deliberately seeking out danger.
On top of that, I had invited her to assist, while also arranging other support forces outside.
The reason I was doing this was obvious.
I was using the commission as a pretext to deliberately test Arisu.
In other words, I did not truly believe in Arisu the way I had shown her.
In fact, Himari should have realized this much earlier.
It was probably because my performance during the confrontation with Rio had been too convincing, my past actions too flawless, and because Himari herself held feelings for me, that she had never thought in this direction.
Only now, with so much evidence laid out before her, was she forced to turn back and reexamine those doubts.
And so, she realized it.
Everything I had said to Rio had been nothing but hypocritical pretty words.
"Even though I can't smell it on my end," Himari said with dark sarcasm over the communication line, "I think that rotten stench, no matter how faint, must definitely exist."
"Could it be that it's being covered up by something, so it can't be detected for the moment? Like air freshener, perhaps?"
…After being quite literally killed once, even if I was only willing to believe in Arisu on the surface, was that still not enough?
I was quite annoyed, but I also knew that this was just how Himari was.
Himari, who could be considered the complete opposite of Rio, had always been thoroughly driven by emotion.
Rationally, Himari might be able to understand. Emotionally, she probably could not accept it.
And this girl had a terrible personality and a sharp tongue. After having her illusions shattered and feeling dissatisfied, it was only natural for her to throw a few barbs my way.
But in some respects, I was actually the same.
Understanding did not mean accepting.
At the same time, I felt a realization dawn on me.
The root of the existing conflicts between Rio and Himari, and between myself and the two of them, all lay right here.
However, I possessed one innate advantage, enough to completely mend these rifts, and even go beyond.
That was my world-shaking charm.
One day, I would conquer even someone as arrogant as the Seminar president and as willful as the Veritas SPTF president, making them all bow for me. I firmly believed this.
When that time came, these small conflicts would not be worth mentioning at all.
Looking back, although Himari did indeed mock me a few times, she stopped after that. It seemed she still intended to continue assisting my plan. What did that mean?
It must mean that Himari still harbored designs on me, fantasizing about becoming my girlfriend someday. After satisfying her tongue just now, she was probably already secretly regretting it, afraid of lowering my favorability. She simply could not bring herself to call me aside and apologize in private due to her pride.
Just like Rio, a fundamentally mutated tsundere.
Thinking this, the subtle displeasure in my heart immediately dissipated quite a bit.
I even started to feel that this, too, was a kind of amusement.
While lost in these thoughts, I continued moving forward together with the girls.
Unfortunately, aside from the jack-in-the-box in the plaza, even after we had explored most of the outermost area, there were no other noteworthy encounters.
Although, given Slumpia's vast area, we had not even explored a tenth of it, the time I had left was growing increasingly tight.
This commission actually had a hidden, one-time time limit.
Only after nightfall would abnormal phenomena appear in Slumpia, and from then until the students grew sleepy and had to return, there were at most only a few hours.
I could not possibly force them to stay up all night and carry out the commission overnight.
If things ended this way, completely uneventful from start to finish, even if Arisu maintained her current innocent and carefree demeanor until the very end, could I truly convince myself with a clear conscience?
Even if I forced myself to do so, there would probably still be a trace of doubt lingering in my heart, refusing to fade. Was it because AL-1S never found the right opportunity, and thus did not reveal its true face?
With such worries in mind, I activated [Listener of the Wind] again and again, trying to find some clue within the chaotic sounds.
The result was failure after failure.
In order not to show signs of fatigue in front of the students and be forced to rest and waste time, I also had to carefully control the duration and intervals of using my authority.
These attempts were dull, exhausting, and required me to constantly divert my attention to monitor and stay alert to Arisu's movements. Even more torturous was the uncertainty of how many more times I would have to continue, and whether there would be any payoff in the end, which brought an intense sense of frustration.
Yet aside from this, I had no other options.
However, at last, a turning point arrived.
Amid the complex sounds of the amusement facilities operating, I caught a special, faint creaking sound, one that seemed strangely familiar, as if I had heard it somewhere before.
Just like the movement of a stiff-jointed wooden puppet.