-Guuuuuuung···.
After several hours of riding the bus toward our destination, passing the time with meaningless chatter, the bus eventually came to a leisurely stop with a low mechanical hum.
Unable to suppress my instinctive curiosity, I turned to look out the window—and what stood there was a building so tall I could exaggerate and say the top wasn't even visible... no, what am I saying. Holy hell, that's a K Corp branch. And not even a small one, judging by the size.
Just how big a shot is this company, to be taking requests from an employee of K Corp? Hell, if they had the authority to bring in outside labor like this, they'd have to be pretty damn high up the ladder.
A branch of a Wing, huh... It gave me a strange sense of déjà vu. My old workplace must've been just as huge. I couldn't remember clearly, though.
Still, that aside. A few of the prisoners were unexpectedly looking down in the dumps. Maybe they were being overwhelmed by the sight of a Wing's massive building.
Sinclair, sure, but seeing Ms. Ishmael and Mr. Heathcliff slouching like that was a rare sight indeed.
Some of them had their eyes wide open, scanning their surroundings with curiosity...
And some simply walked into the building as if this were the natural order of things.
If I had to sort myself, I'd probably fall closer to the latter. Yeah.
"Hehe, it seems we've gained some recognition. At last, we're being invited to places where ordinary people can live."
A Wing branch building is a place where ordinary people can live? That's some truly deranged sense of reality. I wonder how Hong Lu manages to live in that cramped bus.
"Let me make this clear... if the request and compensation are as absurd as last time, I'm out. Keep that in mind."
Mr. Heathcliff really does act like a freelancer every time I see him.
Isn't he even afraid of Mr. Vergilius?
No, maybe this guy really is on a free contract?
As we walked and carried on with our usual sort of conversation, by the time we were nearing the front desk of K Corp's headquarters, someone called out to us.
"Ah, as expected, you're a little late."
""
"That man is..."
"It's good to see you again. For the record, that isn't a business line—it's sincere."
A stern-looking man addressed us with complete composure.
His identity was, surprisingly enough, the same man who had bought us the request at that chicken shop last time. Mr. Samjo.
How could someone who vanished without even paying the reward for the request act so naturally friendly toward us—
...Well, we've got someone similar on our side too. Let's move on.
"...I'm going. I said, didn't I?"
""
"Let go! Do you know what it felt like to have nightmares about tangoing with raw chickens, huh?!"
While Dante was holding back Mr. Heathcliff, who was trying to shake free and storm off, Mr. Samjo gave us a sidelong glance and spoke.
"Actually, the previous request was a preliminary assignment meant to test your capabilities. You passed with an excellent score. Congratulations. That part is sincere too."
"Who gave you permission to test us and hand out scores?! This is..."
"That would, of course..."
"That would, of course, be my sharp-witted secretary, Mr. Samjo's decision. You people are... Limbus Company, I take it."
Before Mr. Heathcliff could answer, a man in a white lab coat appeared from behind and cut off Mr. Samjo's words.
Lab coat and name tag... probably a K Corp researcher. I'd guessed as much when Mr. Samjo started using a name tag with the K Corp logo on it, but so there really was a Wing behind this after all?
And that guy over there... somehow he looks like a decent person, but also like he's rotten to the core. It's rude to think that on first meeting, I know.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Dongrang. I've heard a lot about you from Mr. Samjo. I almost became a fan."
...A fan. It sounds harmless enough, but something about it feels off.
All Mr. Samjo could possibly know about us is that we beat up a bunch of chickens at a chicken shop.
For a Wing elite with a researcher's rank to bring up being a fan of some obscure company like this...?
Have all the bizarre things we've experienced at K Corp made me a little too sensitive? Maybe it was just lip service.
Hmm...
"A fan??? Did you say fan just now?"
"That's just lip service, Don Quixote..."
Right... probably. I was being too sensitive.
"To be honest... the idea of a preliminary test wasn't mine. You people aren't experimental chickens, you know. That's too much."
"Well, 'Limbus Company' is a mysterious new... and yet not entirely new, company with almost no known information."
So the request that doubled as a test was entirely Mr. Samjo's idea?
Still, a new... and yet not entirely new company, huh. A normal startup really wouldn't be able to build connections with a Wing even if it died and came back to life a hundred times.
What kind of company is Limbus Company, anyway?
"We couldn't just blindly trust Mr. Dongrang's word and take on a request while risking ourselves, could we?"
Mr. Dongrang seemed to be a pretty open-minded sort of researcher.
Otherwise there's no way he'd hand a request to a company of unknown origin.
...Unless he had some other motive.
"Ahem... so, about the request..."
Ms. Ishmael asked with a somewhat pleased expression, as if wondering whether they had directly commissioned us.
"Of course. Because you people are..."
You people are?
"..."
The man named Dongrang swallowed his words for a moment, then seemed to realize he'd misspoken and quickly changed the subject.
"Ah, rather than standing around here, why don't you come take a look at my lab? I've got lots of interesting things in there."
""
That was true, but there wasn't a single person among us with the guts to interrogate someone of considerable rank in a Wing so openly.
Well, maybe a few of them were more afraid of Mr. Vergilius than of the Wing itself.
"Huh? You're taking them to Mr. Dongrang's lab? These people?"
"Why not? You said they passed the test, Mr. Samjo. Besides, if they're skilled enough to handle an Abnormality just now..."
"Aha~ You knew? So the footprints left by heroes spread through rumor that quickly, do they? Hehe..."
"You knew?" Then why hadn't that fancy Mr. Siegfried stepped in? Wasn't he a Fixer under contract with K Corp too?
...That made the possibility that K Corp was behind what happened earlier weigh a little heavier.
Of course, it could still be a false lead... but Wings aren't exactly known for being clean.
"Haha, you speak in an amusing way. Ah, you're the manager... Mr. Dante, was it? Could I have a word with you for a moment?"
Ms. Faust seemed about to say something after hearing Mr. Dongrang's words, but by then they were already well ahead of us.
Those people are awfully impatient...
Dante looked as though he wanted to say something about Ms. Faust's unfinished reaction, but seeing that no one else was stopping them, he followed after them.
But why take them along if they can't even communicate?
"By the way, Saramago."
Hm?
"Yes?"
"You've been awfully quiet since earlier. More specifically... since the commercial district back then."
"Oh? Now that you mention it. Doctor, is something wrong?"
Ah, had it shown? I'd been deliberately keeping quiet ever since I spotted K Corp's filming drones.
"Ah... it's been a while since I visited a Wing headquarters directly, so I guess I'm a little tense."
"Hmm... really? That's surprising. You get tense too."
"...I do get tense like a normal person."
Well, the reason for my tension wasn't purely because I was visiting a Wing headquarters.
In fact, this felt more familiar than anything else.
What was bothering me was something that had been there since the third mission...
Though he'd ended up following Dongrang by accident, Dante still had a question that remained unresolved in his head.
"No... it's not a problem for me, since you can't understand what I'm saying anyway."
They couldn't communicate. It was a considerable obstacle to conversation, but Dongrang, as if it were nothing—or perhaps as if it didn't matter at all—began complaining with a slightly forlorn expression.
"Sigh... I was embarrassed, so I didn't bring it up, but one of your... employees is an old friend of mine."
"Oh, who is it?"
"But that person seemed embarrassed too, and wouldn't acknowledge me. I was very hurt, but it took so much effort not to show it."
"At that point, weren't they not really a friend...? ...Wait, can you hear my voice?"
How many ticking sounds had passed when Samjo finally seemed to signal something to Dongrang?
"Mr. Dongrang, this person cannot communicate normally."
"That's why I'm talking, Mr. Samjo. It's like I've gone back to my childhood, muttering my worries at a wind-up doll, isn't it?"
Of course, it didn't seem like Dongrang cared much about that.
""
"The reason I asked you people for a request was largely because of that friend. A familiar face is easier to trust than a stranger, after all."
"Do you see? This is why I can't let my guard down even for a second. You get swayed by sentiment..."
"So, Dante, please just... you know, cleanly and sensibly and with good taste... pretend not to know about me and that friend. All right?"
""
Dante's empty ticking cut through the air.
The conversation, which had never properly taken shape to begin with, simply ended as carelessly as it had started.
""
After letting out a brief complaint no one could hear, Dante soon began walking back toward the prisoners.