The next day.
I woke up Victoria, who couldn't get up at the appointed time, washed her, changed her clothes, and then stood her at the entrance.
And Morris took her along when he left for work.
Early dawn when the sky is still blue. There's a truck parked next to the mansion. Although I know it, trucks look similar everywhere.
It has wheels, a wide space to load things, and just a place to sit and drive.
There's room for two children to sit, but I gave up the front seat to Victoria and climbed into the back.
Seeing that there was no restriction when I got in the back, there must be no law against carrying people in the back. Probably not many people have died yet.
The car started, and I sat in the back as we went.
The car headed towards the center of Bern City. It's fortunate, if you can call it that, that there aren't many cars at this time close to dawn.
We could get to our destination comfortably without having to sit in the car for a long time.
On the streets, you can see passing taxis and vehicles, and office workers and laborers going to work with tired faces.
Of course, the laborers are not on the main streets but in the alleys away from the main roads. It means they're separated as if they're beings that can't come out to the surface.
In other words, there's discrimination.
It's a story I like.
Because it means that just by creating harvesters, people will kill each other on their own.
Hehe.
As I was enjoying the light and darkness of the city like that, the car arrived at its destination.
Getting out of the car, there's a huge company that requires an ID card to enter.
You can see a sign saying "Enchant Company" at the entrance of the building.
Is it a company with technology that uses magic to do something?
The company written on the documents Beatrice was writing wasn't named like this. The two of them must be working for different companies.
Well, you don't necessarily marry the person next to you, right?
Morris talked with the security guard and received something from inside, then put guest badges on Victoria and me.
Then he drove the car deep inside.
Behind the tall building. There's a building that looks like a factory. Morris parked the car in a place that's not a parking lot and took Victoria and me inside the building.
"Wow."
Victoria lets out an exclamation of admiration. As she does so, she explains in detail the names and uses of the equipment in front of her eyes. Listening to her, it seems these are hard-to-obtain equipment.
After looking around the place where there are no people yet, Morris took us to where he works.
It's not a room but an area divided by partitions, and various equipment is placed there. Looking at the materials hanging in one corner, Morris Bete's name and the position of development team researcher are written.
The location seems to have few opportunities to meet people as it's far from the equipment in the center.
Morris enthusiastically explains to his daughter about the equipment he made. The usual boastful story about how it's technically this and that, what purpose it was made for, how it's not efficient now but will be a great thing if improved.
Honestly, I'm not interested in technology.
For reference, the technology itself has some impressive aspects.
Especially the shining memory?
It's the Great Kraken. Well.
If human prices are cheap, you can make efficient equipment. In fact, you just need to combine the equipment inside.
In that sense, Morris is indeed an excellent person.
There's a problem in that this technology won't be recognized, given that there are no traces of corpses around.
The method is simple. After slightly changing the order from the blueprint Morris claims, you just need to implant the part that absorbs magic power into people instead of the atmosphere.
Humans are filters and catalysts? The memory flashes like that.
But do they need this?
While thinking like that and watching the father and daughter talk, it seems to have become work time as people start coming to work one by one.
Surprisingly, there doesn't seem to be gender inequality inside, as the ratio of men and women coming to work is similar. There's even a variety of races.
There are people with horns on their heads, people with long ears, and people with lots of hair and ears and tails of carnivorous species.
But one.
There's a problem.
The looks of those who come in towards here are very bad. Expressions of mockery or looking down, wondering why we're still here and not leaving.
They try to hide their expressions as soon as they see me, but it's impossible to hide expressions from me like that.
And among those people, I can see some who even show hostility and head somewhere.
A sensible person would try to take Victoria out of here at this point.
But I have no intention of doing that.
If possible, I want Victoria to do what she wants to do.
Feeling the signs of misfortune rushing in like the tide, I waited for someone to trigger the misfortune. It's a good moment for such a person to appear.
A little later.
A bleak-looking middle-aged man and a stern-looking young woman approach together. Judging by the young woman following one step behind the middle-aged man, she's some kind of secretary.
In other words, the middle-aged man is a high-ranking person.
He passed by me and walked straight towards Morris.
"You brought children to the lab on your own, Morris."
"Director!"
Morris hurriedly ran out and bowed his head.
A person with manners wouldn't swear at a father in front of his child here.
"Haven't you been working for a long time without making anything properly, just eating up research funds? Didn't I tell you to be prepared if there are no results by this week? And you even violated the company's rules. Did you forget this is a controlled area, Morris?"
But there are always people without manners.
Morris keeps bowing his head saying he's sorry, and Victoria behind him looks at Morris with a miserable expression.
The humidity in the factory is decreasing.
Power is impulsive.
There are many people who want the position in the lab, and he swears saying what are you doing when there are countless people who want to work even without sleeping.
And very harsh swearing at that.
There's no one watching around.
But I know they're pricking up their ears. I've made eye contact with a few people through side glances. People who are simply interested, or people who have expressions like "serves you right", people who are worried that the arrow might not come to them.
Of course, there are also people who seem worried about Morris, but the fear of the person who is the lab director is greater.
That's how companies are.
The lab director is just doing his job, and he can tell someone to leave if there are no results.
Common sense says the person who brought a child to this place, which should be important for security, is wrong.
It's a very good situation.
It's okay if Victoria crosses the line.
It's okay if Morris sells out Victoria.
Human lives change very simply. You just need to stray from the path once.
Very small theft, very trivial lie, very simple choosing of another victim.
They will inevitably live a life where they want to live as they please but can't.
Thwack.
The man called the lab director, who was shouting at Morris, eventually couldn't overcome the anger generated while speaking and hit Morris's head with the file he was holding.
"You, to Dad-"
"Victoria!"
Before the water could quickly strangle the lab director's neck, Morris shouted loudly.
"I'm sorry, Director. Victoria. It looks like I won't be able to show you where I work today. I'll take you to the entrance. Director. I'll take the children outside and accept the rest."
He spoke while wiping the blood flowing from his face.
And there's crying and lamentation, sorrow. And determination wavering in between.
Indeed.
Is this what it means to be a father, despite everything?
Or does it mean he hasn't rotted inside enough yet?
It seems like a situation where warmth would gather if he did something he shouldn't do lightly after rotting and crumbling a bit more...
But instead of making a choice that would gain recognition from the company, Morris grabbed his daughter's hand and went outside.
He made a small mistake of forgetting me while leaving, but let's forgive him since he must be flustered.
"Little one."
"What is it?"
As I was walking following the two who left first, the man called the lab director spoke to me. When I turned around, the man called the lab director stared at me for a while, then took a step back.
He stares at me blankly as if he's forgotten what he was going to say.
When the secretary next to him asked "Director?", he stretched out his hand and pointed at the entrance.
"Tell Morris Bete to write a letter of resignation."
"Understood."
It's a tool with many possibilities, but it's also lucky that it disappears like this. From the Great Kraken's perspective, it's very early-stage technology, but it's also the starting technology that leads to some technology.
It's efficient at the time, but as time passes and technology develops, it becomes mediocre and is discarded.
Using living bodies as fuel is much more effective when you use souls too.
I went outside.
I found the two as soon as they left the building.
Outside the door, Victoria is hugging Morris and crying loudly, and Morris is patting his daughter's head.
"I showed an unpleasant sight to both of you."
As I approached, Morris says to me with a bitter smile.
"The lab director says to write a letter of resignation."
Morris nods with a resigned expression.
Looking at him, I suddenly became curious.
"1473256?"
I said the most efficient form of the technology he had shown, thinking that if he didn't know, it would be fine, or it might become a malicious glimmer.
I changed the order of the equipment he showed earlier, with 1,2,3 on the left and 7 on the far right.
His expression hardened.
Ah, this is the expression of someone who knows.
"Even if you know, please act like you don't. That's technology that shouldn't come out."
"The company will own all the technology developed in this company."
"I know. But why would you want to dig up the technology of a person like this? And as I leave, I'll dispose of as much as I can without causing legal problems."
Victoria doesn't understand what we're talking about and looks back and forth between Morris and me. Morris grabbed Victoria and hugged her.
As if protecting her from me.
"You're a much scarier person than I thought."
"I'm a monster."
I corrected that statement and approached him.
If he achieved goodness despite being able to easily stray from the path, he should be praised. Most people can't make such choices, and instead, they're busy mocking others' good deeds, right?
"You did well protecting your daughter. I'll praise you."
So the monster does it instead. Because I know the value of what he accomplished from the opposite side.
And because I also know that the collapse of that value happens in an instant.
At my words, Morris smiled awkwardly and touched his head where blood had flowed and dried. Then he took out his wallet from his pocket and pressed some money into my hand.
"I ask you to comfort my daughter."
And he hugged his daughter once and went inside.
As I watched him, I suddenly remembered a certain fact.
He's a man with such extreme love for his daughter. If his daughter hadn't returned, what choice would he have made...
I stared blankly at another reality where Enchant Company would have been dyed in blood, then erased it, and took the hand of the sobbing Victoria and left the company.
Let's go sightseeing in the city.