In a dimly lit basement, Akane Nishino was tied securely to a chair, warily scanning the darkness around her.
"Click!"
A switch snapped on in the darkness, and the interrogation lamp directly in front of Akane Nishino flooded her face with harsh light. Behind the lamp sat a silver-haired Elf and a golden-haired Cat, both with their hands clasped beneath their chins as they stared at Akane Nishino with grave expressions.
"No. 712, we know what you did!"
Determined to seize the initiative, Beta slammed both hands onto the table and shot to her feet the instant Akane Nishino opened her eyes to adjust to the glare. She pointed at Akane Nishino with a fierce expression.
"Ptooey!"
Far from intimidated, Akane Nishino merely spat contemptuously at the bastard in front of her. She had once kindly taken Beta in, only to discover that she was a spy who had gotten her kidnapped and dragged into another world.
"You..."
Seeing that Akane Nishino was not only unafraid but openly treating her with contempt, Beta's fierce expression froze. Enraged, she was about to go over and cut down the damned traitor.
"Enough. I'll handle this."
Zeta stopped the furious Beta with one hand. Given an excuse to back down, Beta was more than willing to take it. She made a show of cursing a few times before sitting back down with a thoroughly displeased expression.
"Attacking Beta and Eta, seizing the Alexandria Treasury, betraying Shadow Garden, cooperating with the Cult of Diablos, and nearly destroying the world..."
As Zeta listed her crimes one after another, Akane Nishino merely yawned and let her thoughts wander, acting completely indifferent.
She felt no guilt whatsoever about doing those things to the evil organization that had kidnapped her.
Only when Zeta reached the charge of "cooperating with the Cult of Diablos and nearly destroying the world" did her expression show the slightest change.
"Blame yourselves. If you two hadn't blocked my way, I would've escaped from that place called the Cult of Diablos long ago. You bear most of the responsibility."
Akane Nishino had very clear boundaries when it came to right and wrong.
Shadow Garden might have committed an unforgivable crime by kidnapping her into another world, but the ordinary people of that world were innocent.
She did feel somewhat guilty about nearly dragging an entire world into destruction.
"Fine. Let's say Beta and I bear most of the responsibility."
To Akane Nishino's surprise, Zeta actually nodded and accepted her completely unreasonable attempt to shift the blame.
Akane Nishino immediately gave up thinking about it.
As far as she was concerned, after causing a disaster on this scale, punishment was almost inevitable.
Zeta's willingness to accept the blame might simply be their way of showing her some mercy before putting her to death.
Back when she was still with Shadow Garden, Akane Nishino had already figured out the nature of this evil organization.
It was basically a fanatical religion built entirely around a cult of personality, with most of its members being orphans who were especially easy to manipulate after being driven into desperate circumstances.
The so-called Seven Shadows were the privileged class directly beneath Shadow.
Aside from the "God Shadow" sitting at the very top, those seven could essentially do whatever they pleased.
Having been born in a country that had already suffered a notorious terrorist attack by a destructive cult, Akane Nishino possessed perfectly normal values.
Even while dependent on Shadow Garden for shelter, with her life effectively in their hands, she wanted nothing to do with them beyond what was necessary.
She had no intention of letting herself be brainwashed one day and sent back to bring disaster upon her own world.
At one point, driven by pure malicious suspicion, she had even wondered whether the Cult of Diablos might secretly be a branch of Shadow Garden, created specifically to play the villain and funnel new recruits toward them.
Of course, after personally witnessing what had happened a few days ago, that suspicion had vanished.
Could Shadow Garden actually be... the good guys?
"Hey, Zeta! What are you saying?!"
Ignoring Akane Nishino's blatantly obvious train of wild thoughts, Beta stared wide-eyed at Zeta beside her.
Her own teammate had just stabbed her in the back.
Was that really something they could admit?!
"I'm not interested in the charges against her or what she did in Alexandria. Besides, I don't acknowledge myself as a member of the current Shadow Garden anyway."
Zeta ruthlessly tossed those words at Beta before narrowing her catlike eyes and staring directly at Akane Nishino.
The intensity of her gaze placed tremendous pressure on her.
"I only have one question. Why did you go looking for the Cult of Diablos?"
Akane Nishino answered with silence.
By now, she could tell that Zeta and Beta did not seem to intend to kill her.
But instead of reassuring her, that only made her heart tense after she had already resigned herself to death.
When something was this abnormal, there had to be a reason.
Akane Nishino knew full well how serious her mistake had been. If they executed her on the spot, she would not have found it strange.
If she gave in now, perhaps what awaited her later would be something even worse than death.
But if she refused to cooperate, the consequences were equally obvious.
"...I want to go home. I want to see my missing friend. I don't want to spend the rest of my life imprisoned and studied by you people."
She spoke frankly.
She did not spell everything out, but she had effectively laid her cards on the table.
"You want to go home... Just about what I expected. Then prepare yourself."
Zeta exhaled and, with no intention of continuing the interrogation, gave Akane Nishino an order so vague that it left her completely confused.
"Tch. I never should've asked a traitor like you to help with an interrogation. That's not how negotiations work. Even Gamma is better than you."
Beta grumbled resentfully.
Zeta ignored her.
Beta gritted her teeth, but since she could not beat Zeta anyway, she forced herself to swallow her irritation.
Then she turned toward Akane Nishino, who still had no idea what was going on, pulled out a photograph, and slid it across the table.
"Take a look."
Akane Nishino frowned in confusion but obediently examined the picture.
It showed a dilapidated city.
"Is this another picture you took a year ago that you never showed me?"
Trying to gauge Beta's intentions, Akane Nishino could not tell what the two of them wanted.
During the year since she had been captured, it was not as though she had never been brought in and questioned about the photographs Beta had taken.
"Wrong. It was taken yesterday."
Beta shook her head and gave a simple answer.
"Huh?"
One thing had to be made clear.
When Fenrir threw Akane Nishino onto the altar to serve as a signal, she had lost consciousness.
By the time she woke up again, she was already in this basement.
Other than knowing that she had nearly destroyed the world once, she had absolutely no idea what had happened in between.
"Congratulations, No. 712. Your wish came true. Your world has been pulled over here and fused with ours. The planet's surface area has increased by at least one-third. We'll have to wait for the various factions to finish their surveys before we know the exact figure."
A faint smile appeared on Beta's face.
She calmly watched Akane Nishino's utterly bewildered expression and began explaining what had happened that day, along with the events of the past few days.
After a while, Akane Nishino finally managed to accept the fact that her entire world had been dragged over here.
She raised her head and looked at Beta and Zeta.
Their three gazes met.
"What do you want?"
Akane Nishino's face turned pale.
She was not happy in the slightest.
She did not think World Fusion was a good thing.
Why?
A few years ago, supernatural forces had descended upon her world.
The military forces in every region, weakened by long years of peace and complacency, had been completely crushed by the monsters that fell from the sky.
At this point, the Human faction in her world was arguably in an even worse state than during the darkest period of its collapse.
"What else would we want? If that newly arrived world had even the most basic preparations in place, then even if it were more backward than ours, the major factions here would probably still be willing to show it a reasonable degree of respect."
"But if there isn't even a single large faction capable of standing on its own..."
Beta stopped there.
She did not need to continue.
Akane Nishino already understood what she meant.
Beta's words immediately made her think of America's rise to power, and her face went even paler.
Unlike Akane Nishino, however, Gamma, who had been placed in charge of this matter, was delighted.
A world in the middle of rebuilding, with no central authority and nothing but scattered survival bases barely making it from one day to the next.
The opportunity had practically been placed right in front of her.
If she did not seize it, someone else would.
Resources, technology, talent.
She wanted all of it.
And whether intentionally or unintentionally, when Shadow carved up the worlds, World No. 3 had suffered the least damage.
World No. 3 had also gained the most additional surface area and resources.
"What do you want me to do?"
Akane Nishino asked emotionlessly.
Beta gave her exactly the answer she had expected.
"We'd prefer to make this look legitimate. So help bring your world onto our side."
"But you'll need to move quickly. Just thinking about the Cult of Diablos organizations in other countries getting their hands on those resources feels worse than losing them ourselves."
"I can't help you."
Akane Nishino expressed her refusal in the simplest terms and closed her eyes.
"Think carefully. The humans in your world are nearly gone anyway. You might as well work with us."
"We consider ourselves fairly reasonable. At the very least, we recognize human rights."
"Other factions have already sent people in, and it isn't as though we absolutely need you. We're simply giving you a chance to make up for what you did."
After laying out the situation, Zeta copied Akane Nishino and closed her eyes.
She believed Akane Nishino would make the smart choice.
"I don't have that kind of authority. Besides, I'm only from the Eastern Region. The Federation has already been destroyed, and there's no one in charge anymore. I don't know anyone in the Western Region either."
"That's fine. You only need to act as a lobbyist and lead the surrender faction. They're all intelligent people."
"Heh."
Beta smiled confidently.
Seeing Akane Nishino's gloomy expression, she offered a few words of comfort.
"Look on the bright side. With us there, the survivors in your world won't have to worry about suddenly getting eaten by monsters the next day or living without knowing whether they'll survive until morning."
"You're being too optimistic."
Akane Nishino immediately contradicted Beta.
As far as she knew, her world still contained several beings capable of taking a direct nuclear strike without suffering any damage whatsoever.
Some could destroy an entire archipelago with a single attack.
They were suspected of having come from another world, and they might even have been the source of Magical Power appearing in the first place.
Those monsters were also the reason the Federation that had once ruled the entire world had collapsed so quickly.
"...Tell the people we sent over earlier to be careful. There are several places they absolutely must not touch. Don't let them get careless and screw everything up."
Beta hurriedly gave orders to the subordinates beside her.
Afterward, she turned back and stared intently at the expressionless Akane Nishino.
"You hid that pretty well."
"You never asked."
That short exchange alone was enough to show just how helpless Beta felt about Akane Nishino withholding information.
Still, it was partly her own fault for being careless.
Fortunately, it was not too late to fix the problem.
"Well then. I look forward to working with you."
"...Likewise."
Akane Nishino hesitated for a moment before finally sighing.
With a resigned expression, she casually broke free of the handcuffs binding her, stepped forward, and took the hand Beta extended toward her.
"Is there anything else?"
"Thanks. No, that's all. Gamma can handle everything from here."
After leaving the room where Akane Nishino had been interrogated and negotiated with, Beta answered Zeta's question honestly.
She trusted Gamma to make full use of Akane Nishino's information and thoroughly outmaneuver everyone else.
"Mm."
Zeta nodded.
She knew she had asked an unnecessary question.
Among the Seven Shadows, Gamma had always been the best at this sort of thing.
On the surface, Gamma also wielded the greatest authority.
"Since everything here is settled, I should leave too. The Beastman Kingdom still needs me to direct things."
"Still, after going through so much trouble to come here, we didn't manage to save even one person?"
Zeta spoke regretfully.
Originally, she had thought that with so many lives involved, even the Cult of Diablos could not possibly be insane enough to kill every last one of them.
Reality had proved that she had overestimated the Cult of Diablos's limits.
"I think it makes perfect sense. The sun brings warmth to the world, but for sewer rats who don't dare step into the light, even the pressure that comes with that warmth is enough to drive them insane."
After exchanging a few more words, the two fell silent.
They continued down the street until they reached the entrance of a café.
"There's something I've never understood about you."
"Delta was too immature and ran off to play. Epsilon is a two-faced little schemer."
"But what about you, Zeta? Why did you leave? And why were you able to sever your ties with us so easily?"
Beta suddenly spoke.
She knew perfectly well that Zeta was the quietest of the Seven Shadows and the one who spoke with the others least often.
Even so, Beta could not stop herself from making one last attempt.
"The reason?"
"Probably because... I've always been a free, untamable cat."
"To me, Shadow Garden without Master is like a dark room after its only light has gone out."
"If that's the case, then I see no reason to force myself to remain there."
"In fact, for someone like me, being alone is better than remaining tied to all of you."
Zeta paused for a moment and glanced at Beta before answering openly.
"But that was the home we built together!"
Beta's voice rose uncontrollably.
Ever since Shadow-sama left, Alpha had secluded herself in Alexandria and ignored everything happening outside.
Zeta had silently withdrawn and started her own organization.
Epsilon had acted mysteriously for a few days before becoming a traitor.
Delta had run off and beaten a group of brainless idiots into submission so she could make them her followers.
Eta had only been stopped halfway through leaving because no one could afford to leave her unsupervised, for her own sake or the world's.
Otherwise, they probably would not even have bothered stopping her.
Looking around now, the only ones still properly working for Shadow Garden were Beta and Gamma.
Beta could barely imagine who the next traitor to leave Shadow Garden would be.
No.
Wait.
That was wrong.
She herself was absolutely loyal to Shadow Garden.
Which meant the next one...
If leaving meant receiving a share of the assets, then Gamma's share would unquestionably be the Mitsugoshi Company.
In other words, after Gamma left, Beta would be responsible for supporting the thousands of people in Shadow Garden.
She would die.
She really would die.
Even if she stopped eating and sleeping and wrote ten books at once, she still could not afford to support that many people.
Beta's thoughts raced.
Then she looked at Zeta with burning intensity.
The first step was always the hardest.
If she could persuade the first one to return, she could persuade the second.
Once she got started, bringing everyone back would only be a matter of time.
"Natsume-sensei, you too... Huh?"
Just as Zeta was about to reject Beta's delusion, another voice suddenly rang out.
Both of them instinctively turned around.
Beta saw Cid standing behind them.
Zeta saw Christina, wearing an equally stunned expression.