A short while later, I stood in the middle of the barn I first entered the facility through, still carrying the twins on my shoulders and in my arms.
"...Is he going to be okay...?"
"Will he make it out in time...?
Despite their expressionless faces, the girls appeared to be worried for the safety of Emir, who hadn't yet exited the facility.
Before I left him down there, I unfastened the manacles on his wrists and ankles and informed him of the route to escape. Of course, the route I gave him was the same one I initially entered through, and the one I was waiting outside now.
This way, there would be no excuse if he failed to make it out other than his own moral weakness.
"Whether he makes it out alive or not is entirely up to him."
Striving in vain to save all those he could, I could imagine the boy flusteredly racing around in hasted urgency.
I'd say... Give him about an hour to get out. Any longer than that, and the mustard gas will most certainly cause permanent damage in a variety of gruesome ways, leading to an inevitable early death.
That's not to say such a thing won't happen even if he does escape before then, though.
"I have explained previously that I will treat those as they are worth. Even if his Supernatural Ability might be something interesting, it doesn't outweigh that his preposterous idea of righteousness is nothing more than a detriment. You don't think I've been unfair, do you?"
Asking the girls such a question, I expected a certain answer.
""...No...""
―But the response I got was something different.
"Oh...? You think so?"
In unison, the girls nodded firmly.
"We like Emir because he protected us from the researchers..."
"...But, objectively, it wasn't a smart decision..."
"We already paid the owed debt by asking you to save him, and you did that..."
"...You gave Emir a choice which was fair with respect to our request..."
"We didn't ask you for help further than that; only to save Emir..."
"...As soon as you opened his cell, freedom became one of his options, so our request had been fulfilled..."
"It was Emir's decision to make from that point on, so..."
"...Whether it results in Emir joining us..."
"Or dying in that place..."
"...No matter what..."
""――We believe it was a fair choice.""
I soon found myself smirking as I listened to the twins' answer.
My goodness, these girls... I couldn't have asked for anyone more agreeable to bring to my side.
Reaching my hand up, I ruffled their hair.
"Well done, you two. I like your answer."
Turning my attention back to the staircase, the three of us waited eagerly for the hour to be over.
The fact I am interested in what decision he will come to is undeniable, but I will not spoil myself the outcome by asking Measurement of Truth.
That would take all the fun out of it, after all.
A long time passed in silence with nothing occurring, and then, just as I thought it was finally finished, I caught a glimpse of golden blond hair emerging from the shadows of the staircase.
"...Made... it... Please... help..."
Hearing words interspersed with great gasps of oxygen, I watched as Emir, with torn clothes and covered head to toe in innumerable burns and blisters, collapsed unconscious onto the ground immediately after making it off the final step.
Well, would you look at that. I never would've imagined a kid like that to end up sacrificing those people down there, but it was mere human nature to try and survive, after all.
Approaching him, however, I soon noticed something extraordinary.
With my right hand, I covered the disgust slowly forming on my face as I gazed at the boy's critically wounded body.
...So, that was his decision, huh?
===
***
===
Days later, and there were five days left until the 'duel' with the goon from the Order.
Though it couldn't be guaranteed that the fight would continue after my raid on one of their facilities last time, I thought that the possibility of it being called off was very unlikely since the person who challenged me was moving solitary in the first place.
It's doubtful that he would listen to a command to stand down, and they wouldn't kill him because he possesses a unique Supernatural Ability, so what could they really do?
Of course, I could confirm it somewhat with Measurement of Truth, but as far as the future goes, fate can always still be changed. Hence, I generally try to not rely too heavily on such clairvoyance.
In any case, a few things have changed around the house in these couple of days.
First of all, well, the house itself has changed―I didn't ask for it, but Minami is letting me live in one of her holiday homes. In reality, it's a mansion, but a house nonetheless.
I asked her for the reason and she straightforwardly told me that it was to keep me close, both to keep an eye on me so that I wouldn't do anything unpredictable, like I did a couple of days ago, and to be able to quickly reach me if anything dangerous happens.
She followed up by saying she isn't going to lie about her reasons because "You know everything anyway, right?" Which I suppose is true.
What was most fortunate about it was the fact that it was entirely her own decision, so this was not something I would owe her for, or that would decrease the value of our personal contract.
Secondly, we've been assigned some butlers and maids to take care of us and the new house.
Regarding that, Minami said, "I cannot trust a chaotic and villainous man like you to take care of and raise three children by yourself, so in addition to having the role of keeping an eye on you, they will make sure the children are properly educated―academically and morally, of course."
Apparently, their knowledge is somewhat skewed by passively picking up stuff that the researchers and guards were saying in the facility, so they already know some strange terms like 'quantum bio-engineering' and 'joint-detached psychical wavelength frequencies via genetic augmentation'.
―Whatever the hell those mean.
As for the other thing, I don't really care what she teaches them about morals because they're going to follow my orders either way, so, in my opinion, I think doing that is a waste of time, but it is what it is.
Whether they think what I'm doing is right or wrong, they don't have a say in the matter.
Thirdly, Emir remains hospitalised. He's been under emergency care in one of Minami's private hospitals ever since we took him out of the facility, but he seems to be making a decent recovery.
Temporary blindness in both eyes, various second and third-degree burns all across his body as well as around his eyes and in his lungs, pulmonary oedema, severe inflammation of his airways and lungs, high risk of developing cancerous cells, et cetera et cetera...
As expected of a mustard gas I created and modified myself; it's certainly potent.
When Minami worriedly questioned me about what happened in the facility for him to wind up in that harrowing state, I just told her that it was because of the whole 'human experimentation' thing that was going on there.
Fortunately, I think she was more concerned about giving him the treatment he needed rather than what the cause of his injuries was in the first place, so she didn't press much further.
What I found most interesting, however, was none of that.
No, it was the boy's decision in the end.
When he finally exited the facility, smothered in horrendous wounds both externally and internally, I thought he had given up after realising that saving everyone down there was impossible, but that wasn't the case.
You see, when I examined Emir at that time, I noticed a strange atmosphere from him―you could call it instinctual or whatever, but I asked the Measurement of Truth what happened, and it turns out that he in fact saved a good amount of people down there.
That was rather disappointing, because I wanted him to realise that being so conceited and bullish about his flimsy ideals and trashy sense of morals wasn't going to fly in the future, but it is what it is...
From what I gathered, he used his Supernatural Ability, 'Absolute Contract Creation', to offer an identical contract to every single person in the facility.
The contract was something like this:
- In this contract, the 'Contractee' refers to the Human Test Subject * 'name' and the 'Contractor' refers to the Human Test Subject * 'Emir'.
- In this contract, 'soul and body' is defined as a person's entire being, their consciousness, sub-consciousness, and unconsciousness, as well as the entirety of their physical body.
- In this contract, a 'safe place' is defined as a place with no anticipated danger to the Contractee, whether it be physical, mental, or emotional.
- In this contract, 'die' as a penalty is defined as the absolute erasure of the contract breaker's 'soul and body'.
- The Contractee yields the Contractor complete ownership of their 'soul and body' for the duration of one week as of the contract being signed.
- The Contractor will take the 'soul and body' of the Contractee outside of the Supernatural Ability Human Experimentation Facility.
- The Contractor will release the 'body and soul' of the Contractee in a 'safe place' before the duration is over.
- If the contract is broken, the contract breaker will 'die'.
As a result, almost 200 out of 250 people were saved.
The only ones who weren't saved were those who rejected the contract because it was suspicious and those too insane to communicate or reason with.
It was a lot simpler of a contract than it appeared.
Still, the fact it was a contract that couldn't possibly exist without the assistance of some kind of supernatural element was undeniable, what with the use of an indeterminable existence like 'souls' and such.
Originally, that boy was the type of person I disliked the most, but he certainly seemed to know how to apply his power to real-world situations on the fly.
This case piqued my interest as to what else he might be capable of.
I still predicted that he would become a setback in the future, though.
Fourthly, in any case, the twins have been adjusting well.
I think so, anyway; they're just as poker-faced as ever and not really expressing many emotions, but that was perfectly okay with me.
In fact, I definitely preferred it to someone who was overly emotional, like the other kid.
Usually that was because it indicated they were more prone to making rational choices, and I believed the twins to fit that bill quite nicely.
Finally, I've been conducting tests―not human experiments, mind you―with the twos' powers.
I believe I don't need to list the multitude of reasons why subjecting human test subjects to even more human experimentation would be counter-intuitive to my goal.
Of course, I already knew what their Supernatural Abilities were―that was the entire reason I went to collect them in the first place, after all―but I needed to know exactly what they were capable of at the moment so I could plan how to let them grow stronger―that is, getting them used to their powers and teaching them how to use their powers more effectively.
The individual Supernatural Abilities of the twins are―a secret.
The plan I have concocted for them is―also a secret.
What fun would it be to give everything away right now, after all?
Truth be told, I haven't even informed Minami about their individual Supernatural Abilities. Of course, she's aware that they have superpowers, and I didn't lie when she asked me what they were...
I simply didn't tell her the 'entire truth'.
What I will say is that the twins have both shared powers and individual powers. Information about the shared powers, presumed to be related to the fact that the identical twins share close to 100% of their DNA, is what I shared with Minami.
The shared Supernatural Abilities these girls possess involve Empathetic Telepathy, Telekinesis, and Location Swapping.
One point of interest is that all three of these abilities can only be used when the twins are in close proximity with each other.
Similarly, the Empathetic Telepathy and Location Swapping are only usable between themselves, meaning that, in reality, Telekinesis is the only shared ability they have which can affect an external entity.
Furthermore, the strength of these abilities is not so overwhelming that it would render an ordinary person equipped with a firearm unable to compete.
For example, the Telekinesis, which, as a reminder, can only be used when 1. The twins are together, and 2. When both of them have the 'will' to use it, can only go so far as to pick up about 50 kilograms worth of weight.
For something they would be able to reliably move around, we're looking at something along the lines of 35-40 kilos, and to be able to use it whilst multitasking, 20-25 kilos.
I imagine this value would decrease further when the twins are placed in a situation where the pressure is high and focus cannot easily be gathered and maintained.
For the record, the Location Swapping has been confirmed to have a maximum limit of 50 metres between the twins―any farther than that and it simply doesn't work.
But all of that was merely a side piece when compared to their true potential.
As for their individual abilities―I considered them to be the real treasure of the twins.
Sana, Sona... These two girls will become vital pieces for me in the future.
There are five days until the duel. Until then, I will make all the preparations necessary, and then some.
After all, it will be my very first time going against a genuine 'Superhuman'.
I cannot afford to prepare half-heartedly.