When I gave chase immediately, I was fortunate enough to find Philie-san right away. In the estate's hallway just up from the basement, she was stumbling forward with unsteady steps.
"Philie-san!"
"Walker... kun..."
Philie-san gazed at me with lifeless eyes.
"What is real, and what is a lie? What... am I? Who... am I...?"
"Philie-san, let's get out of here first."
"Wasn't that magic sword supposed to be unusable by anyone other than me? Explain it to me, Walker-kun."
"It's all right, just calm down."
Philie-san stopped dead in her tracks.
"What is 'all right' about this?"
"Ah, no..."
"How can you say something like that? You saw it too, didn't you, Walker-kun? What did that look like to you?"
This was no time to be discussing that.
Regardless, securing Philie-san's safety was the top priority right now.
I could no longer expect sound judgment from her in her current state.
Even if I had to force her, it would be better to carry her out of here.
"In the first place, how were you able to read those letters, Walker-kun? What do you know?"
This time, it was my movement that ground to a halt.
Her hollow eyes locked onto me without a twitch.
"Could it be that you're trying to deceive me too, Walker-kun?"
"No."
"Are you going to lie to me just like those people did—just like Master did?"
"Of course not."
"Then tell me honestly! Who is that woman?! You know something, don't you?!"
Tell her honestly, she said.
How was I supposed to explain it?
From where to what extent?
I didn't really know anything either.
"Is what he said just now the truth?"
"..."
"It's nonsense, right? Hey, Walker-kun."
"..."
"...Why won't you say anything?"
The phenomenon where no one else could use my magic sword.
If that was due to some kind of aberration unique to clones, the pieces fell into place.
The old man's dying words, my research findings, and the sight I had just witnessed. They all connected.
"When I heard the explanation, I thought about it."
Quietly,
Philie-san began to speak in a slow, murmuring voice.
"I thought that, indeed, if such technology existed, it might be possible to create humans without meiosis... Because reproducing the maternal environment was only deemed an ethical problem, not an impossible technology."
Even after hearing that explanation, it hadn't really resonated with me.
Although it hadn't been technologically impossible in my former world, it felt like being told a sci-fi story.
But Philie-san had somehow understood—she had been forced to understand.
"...Your goal was to become a fine medical mage and save lots of people, right, Philie-san? Don't take a guy like that seriously."
Even as I said it, I thought it was a terribly tactless line.
Honestly, I didn't know what words to offer her either.
No, none of that mattered.
I had to get Philie-san to a safe place quickly——
"It wasn't that I particularly wanted to become a doctor."
"...Eh?"
"I only became a doctor because I thought I had no other choice."
I didn't understand what she meant.
The outline of Philie-san that I usually pictured in my mind blurred.
"What do you mean by that...?"
"I mean, isn't it obvious? If an orphan from Temcha like me wanted to succeed in Gleefia's society, I had no choice but to become something like a doctor."
The motive Philie-san shared was far too simple.
"Yet, when I told people I passed the Magias exam, my classmates and teachers in Temcha called me a traitor. And after entering Magias, people whispered behind my back that I was someone from Temcha."
I hadn't known about either of those things.
Had she always been smiling in the midst of such suffocating ties?
"Walker-kun, did you know? During the extracurricular lesson, some of the parents were pointing at me and laughing, you know? Do you know what they were saying?"
Imagining that scene, I was struck speechless.
I was frustrated with myself for not being able to say anything.
If it were Amae-san, she probably would have had something to say.
"Even so, I didn't let it bother me until now. I had prepared myself to some extent, and my classmates were all wonderful people. I thought that if I kept working hard like this, even a nobody like me could become someone truly useful to society. That's what I believed."
A beat.
"That is why I endured."
Tears streaming down her face,
"I kept enduring. Enduring, enduring, and enduring."
Before I realized it, her tone had turned vehement.
"All this time, ever since I was born, I worked so hard to carve out a place for myself in society! And now you're telling me that place never existed from the start?! Then what on earth was I supposed to do?!"
I finally understood right now that this raw figure before me was the true person named Filiestra Adinson.
I had to say something.
I had to say something to comfort her.
"...Philie-san. I understand how you feel."
At my stupidly shallow words, Philie-san knit her brows.
"What do you mean, you understand?"
"No..."
"There's no way you could understand, Walker-kun!"
...She might be right.
To me, whether I was an artificial human or not wasn't all that important an issue.
"Your grandfather was a great hero, and you're a proper Gleefian."
"...Philie-san, listen to me."
"You have a home to return to, and you passed the Magias exam so easily!"
Easily, she said.
No, I had desperately struggled every single day too.
Why would she say something like that?
The rebuttal that rose to the back of my throat was something I had no choice but to swallow down right now.
"A magic coefficient of 6500...? Why is there such a huge difference between us? I worked so hard too... Just what is the difference between you and me, Walker-kun?!"
...She had been thinking about that?
"On top of that, your aunt is an Archmage..."
Philie-san screamed with a voice loud enough to echo throughout the entire hallway.
"How could someone who was born with so many blessings——ever understand how an artificial imitation like me feels?!"
Only then did Philie-san seem to snap back to her senses, as if realizing what she had just done.
"Ah, n-no."
Shaking her head slightly, the light vanished from Philie-san's eyes.
"No. That's not it. I don't really think that. I'm sorry. I'll apologize. I'll apologize, so please. Hey, I'll apologize."
A broken apology.
I didn't know what to say anymore either.
However.
However, if I backed down here, it would end up just like it did with Mercedes.
I didn't know if I could convey it well, but at the very least, toward Philie-san, I wanted to be honest.
"Philie-san, to be completely frank, I'm probably an artificial creation just like you."
"...Eh?"
"As a result of investigating why you were able to use my magic sword, I realized that possibility by chance. But because I had no concrete proof, I couldn't bring myself to say it. No, that's not it—it was because I thought harm might come to me if I spoke up."
Philie-san let out quiet sobs, yet she silently listened to my words.
"For my own self-preservation, I withheld information I should have shared with you. Throughout the investigation, right up until things turned out like this, I couldn't bring myself to say it. I wanted my hypothesis to be wrong."
"...Walker... kun..."
The moment the dragon vein appraisal turned up negative, I should have at least dropped a hint. Had I done that, Philie-san might have judged the situation more calmly and simply gone home when I tried to stop her. No, she might never have suggested coming here in the first place.
That things had devolved to this point was my fault for underestimating the situation.
"...Still, please believe that I am on your side, at least."
Even to my own ears, it sounded like an arrogant thing to say.
My voice trembled, preventing me from speaking smoothly.
My tongue wouldn't roll as easily as usual.
Even so, I knew I shouldn't look away.
"Let's get away from here first. After that, we can take our time thinking about what to do."
"I don't know what I'm supposed to do."
"Then we'll think about it together."
"I'm terrified of everyone finding out."
"Of course you are. If you want, I'll stay quiet forever. I was doing the same thing, after all. It's not weird at all."
"I wanted to have a father and mother."
"Me too."
"I wanted to be born as a normal human."
"I did too. But I don't hold a grudge against anyone."
No matter what happened, I was still myself.
I was Brendan Walker.
"You don't have to force yourself to decide who you are right now. But it's wrong to deny the person you've been up until now just because of that guy's words. You don't have to invalidate everything you've built up so far, do you?"
"...I'm scared. I can't... think that way."
"Pull yourself together. Are you really going to let that bearded bastard have the last word?!"
There was no way in hell we could let that slide.
That bastard said whatever he pleased.
Knowing it would come to this, he deliberately laid it all bare.
"I'm taking back what I said earlier. We can't just leave that guy on the loose. Once we regroup, I'm definitely throwing him in a cell. Settle the score together with me."
"How can you look forward even after knowing everything, Walker-kun...?"
...How, exactly?
Come to think of it, why was that? Why had I been able to remain normal even after learning I was an artificial human?
Now that I thought about it, I had never really pondered it.
It wasn't supposed to be such a simple matter.
"I..."
"Filie-chan! Bren-kun!"
At that moment, a familiar voice echoed from the depths of the hallway.
When the two of us turned toward the voice, an out-of-breath Amae-san was standing there.
"...Amae... chan? Why are you here?"
"I was worried, so I came. Sure enough, things look pretty bad. But I'm glad you're safe."
Wiping the sweat from her brow, Amae-san let out a sigh of relief. No, I was pretty sure I had told her to remain on standby at the orphanage. Why was she here?
"This place is far from the station, so it took a while to get here..."
Amae-san slowly approached Philie-san.
Safe?
What did she mean, safe?
Philie-san was weeping this hard right in front of her.
How could she call that being safe?
"Philie-san, get away from her."
Drawing my sword, I stepped forward to shield Philie-san.
In that instant, the thing shaped like Amae-san leapt, its eyes bulging wildly.
A flash.
By a mere fraction of a second, my attack failed to reach.
Dodging my sword strike with a movement speed that far surpassed Mercedes, it stabbed something into my abdomen like a counterattack.
My vision tilted abruptly.
"Walker-kun!"
Philie-san's scream rapidly faded into the distance.
Was what pierced me a blade?
Because the disguise was so exquisite, I had been a tempo too late.
However, I should have reinforced my body and stopped it just before my internal organs.
This sensation—poison?
My vision melted, and my body was pulled toward the floor.
I couldn't maintain consciousness.
Losing consciousness right here would be fatal.
"Whoa, that was close~. How'd you figure it out, big bro?"
The face of Amae-san looking down at me contorted unnaturally.
Standing there was a person with an androgynous face that could be either male or female.
Dressed in a gentleman's suit, they would look like a man; dressed in a gown, they would look like a woman. That was the kind of person they were.
They had grey wolf-cut hair, appeared young, and were probably younger than us. At least, that was how they looked to me.
Disguised as Amae-san?
Who the hell was this?
"Don't tell me... you're..."
"You're cautious, big bro, but you leave your loose ends untied. No matter how frantic the girl is, you shouldn't follow a suspicious person so blindly."
Saying so, the person placed their right hand against their cheek.
With a sickening crack, the androgynous face warped.
In less than a second, the transformation of the face was complete.
Not just the face—the entire body had become someone else entirely.
A woman with platinum-blonde hair.
The woman who had introduced herself as Celestia was standing right there.
"That's why you get tricked by bad adults."
As they spoke, Celestia's appearance reverted to that of the original grey-haired youth.
So this person was the one playing the role of the mother?
Just what about these people was actually real?
"Walker-kun!"
"Ah— big sis, don't make a fuss."
When the grey-haired youth snapped their fingers, rings of light bound around Philie-san's body, pinioning her arms.
They had effortlessly immobilized Philie-san, whose output was higher than that of your average mage. Just like with their movements earlier, they were clearly no ordinary mage.
"Oswald."
Dragging his leg, Zectromeo emerged from the depths of the hallway.
...Damn it, so everything was going according to his plans in the end.
"Oswald, you saved me. You have my gratitude."
"You better know this counts as an extra fee, got it?"
"Who cares about the reward? The key has returned to my grasp like this. Our goal is already achieved. The contract with Arcadia will soon expire."
"I'm telling you, that's completely beside the point."
Oswald?
This kid was the servant recorded from seventeen years ago?
He was just a brat.
"Ah, also, some black-haired chick was wandering around, so I caught her."
In the direction Oswald pointed, a black-haired girl, bound tightly, was being dragged along by a man in a tailcoat.
Niko-senpai?
Why in this estate?
Don't tell me she followed us after that?
"I-I have n-nothing to do with thiiis! I j-just came to r-return a dropped iteeem...!"
"Ehh~? But you look like a mage too, you know~?"
"I-I have absolutely no relation to these people at aaall!"
"Is that so?"
"Y-Yes, that's right~! S-So please let me gooo~! I'll be late for my promise with Rina-chaaan~!"
"What should we do, Zectromeo?"
"Let me gooo~!"
Listening to their exchange, Zectromeo gave a "Hmm" and nodded.
"Kill her."
"Wha-?! Eh-?! Wh-Whyyyyyyyy?! That's crazy! That's crazy, that's crazy!"
"Dump that man in the disposal yard. He will draw his last breath soon enough."
My consciousness sank deeper and deeper.
There was no longer any strength left in my fingertips.
Was this pathetic state how my first job, which I had accepted with full responsibility, was going to end?
The only saving grace was that, just to be sure, I had made advance arrangements with Amae-san.
"No, let me go!"
"Big sis, I'm against violence, so don't struggle too much."
"Let me go! At this rate, Walker-kun will...!"
I could no longer tell who was saying what.
This sensation was bad.
I'm going to die.
Seriously, I'm going to die.
"Walker-kun! Nooo!"
That was the last voice I heard before losing consciousness.