Silence spreads.
Ichijō Mirai realized, "It seems I asked the wrong question."
"You did ask the wrong question," Belmode laughed smoothly, "but you were smart enough not to ask too many wrong questions, only the age of the chieftain-sama, not his name."
"Otherwise, I would have been in a difficult position."
Ichijō Mirai said lightly, "It seems that his age, like his name, is something that can give me certain clues."
And an iconic age at that.
Immortality, Japan, a ionic age, saying it out loud is almost the same as saying the name directly...
Combining these keywords in his mind, Ichijō Mirai thought about it, and ventured a theory: a famous person in history like
They have left traces in history, good or bad, apparently dead, but in fact not dead, have been hidden in the dark, living to the present after a thousand years, carrying the historical thickness of the force to pretend to be a low-profile, without moving to lay a dragnet against the protagonist.
It's the same old story.
...But Ichijō Mirai considers himself more of a villain than a protagonist.
"You misunderstand," Belmode laughed again, "When I say it's difficult, it's not because a name is a secret existence that can't be disclosed, and those who ask are not forgiven, that's true for others, but it's different for you."
"I say difficult, because it is difficult: I want to tell you immediately, or pretend to be confidential to tease you, and then tell you?"
Her tone was relaxed, her manner easy.
Soon, however, Ichijō Mirai heard a jumble of sounds, the sound of cats scurrying about, the sound of a weight hitting the ground, the sound of seven or eight weights crackling to the ground, the sound of two punches being thrown, and the sound of Belmode's very low intake of breath.
And then, in Belmode's no-longer-so-relaxed voice, "...Cow cats are not to be trifled with... I forgot... he's a psychopath... thank you for the reminder, my dear."
That last one was a bit of a breeze.
Deliberately breezy.
Ichijō Mirai :"..."
Belmode soon spoke again: "Karasuma."
Karasuma?
It was a less popular sounding name, not unlike the popular surnames of Inoue Kojima Yamano and the like, but Ichijō Mirai didn't know much about neon surnames, so he only twitched his eyes.
"If it were you, you could know the chief's last name, you could investigate the boss privately," Belmode's manner was very soft, "you could even say your last name is Karasuma when you use a pseudonym."
"In fact, to the boss, you are like his child even though you are not related by blood." She explained, "From the time you were born, you had some connection with the chief, and the potion's ingredients spread through your body like blood, a trace of the chief."
"In a macro sense, you are his child and he is your father."
"A child's desire to know his father, of course, is something no one can stop."
Ichijō Mirai's judgment: He really is a shameless man.
He had realized that when Belmode had complimented him on how well he fit the title 'Messiah'.
But in just ten minutes, 'Messiah', 'the organization pursues for the sake of all mankind', 'father', Belmode had already brazenly blurted it out three times, which was a bit too brazen for his own good.
Belmode's voice sounded like a soft whisper, inexplicably similar to the ghostly light that lit up the computer screen, "Karasuma Renya."
"His name is."
She repeated, "-Karasuma Renya."
There were actually two living people in the study, not Belmode, who was talking remotely through the computer - Ichijō Mirai and the researcher who was going to help with the injection.
But Belmode didn't even realize it, and said the secret in a very soft voice.
Ichijō Mirai was even more oblivious, not even glancing at the researcher who knelt with his head hanging down beside him, as if he hadn't noticed his trembling figure, but only staring in thought, repeating silently, "Karasuma Renya."
...A completely unfamiliar name.
Was it a famous person from Japan history?
Almost as soon as he pondered the question, Belmode's voice came again, "No more than a handful of people in this world who know that name and its meaning are members of the Organization."
No more than ten.
If they're all subordinates...there's a lot of them.
I don't know why, but Ichijō Mirai's first thought was, "Oh no, there's too many of them, so if the righteous warriors come to attack the dragon one day, the dragon won't be able to get away with it.
It was while this idea was running that the system suddenly prompted.
[You've obtained a confidential information about 'Mr. Karasuma Renya'.]
[Your knowledge of the mysterious organization has increased.]
Belmode was telling the truth.
Ichijō Mirai glances at the hint, confirms it, and thinks: no more than ten people.
If they're all subordinates...that's a lot.
His first thought: "Does Gin know?"
Belmode laughed softly, "No."
OK, so it's safe to assume that the members of the organization who do know are probably higher up than Gin.
There may be some members who are not higher than Gin, but only know about the organization because they are in charge of a special department, but not too many.
That means they're capable of... again, wait a minute.
"Does Rum know?"
Belmode paused for a few seconds, "Obviously, he doesn't know."
"But there are members of the organization who have served the organization since their fathers."
"Most of the guys in the organization are smart people."
She didn't say it directly, but it was pretty obvious.
Ichijō Mirai immediately changed her judgment: no, knowing the chief's real name or not was not to be used as a threshold of strength.
"Rum knew about the potion," Belmode added, "but not about this one."
"After the project was shut down, everything was stored cold, the materials were precious, not much was left, and this was the only potion the organization was able to debug."
"No one knows about it except that gentleman, you, me, no one."
"They only know that."
She lowered her voice, her tone taking on a more compelling tone, "that the Chief values you more than any other member of the organization, more than any other member of the organization, even to the point of being like an heir apparent."
It was a message: inject this potion, and you will be the heir to the organization.
Ichijō Mirai nodded again, judging: a shameless man.
It's the fourth time.
With a leader who can live forever, it's bad luck to be the heir... Is this really the best of all possible worlds, the lure of the coercion?!
"Well," Ichijō Mirai didn't object, only smiled, "one last question."
One last question.
Immediately, Belmode held her breath and listened with the utmost care.
She heard Ichijō Mirai's voice, word for word, with some genuine doubt, "Am I a fool to seek death?"
"Surviving and being able to 'Superman', OK, sounds great, but for me, it's all just a matter of time."
"With the archive, I can do almost anything."
"And the heir to the organization..."
He sighed softly, very softly, "I could just kill the organization."
"Is your theory that I'm going to inject the potion based on 'Ichijō Mirai is a fool looking for death'?"
...What?
Like a rusty, stuck gear, Belmode's mind spun with difficulty, and before he could finish digesting those words, he heard a sudden cry of alarm.
It was the researcher's cry, and he was shouting, "You?!"
"Wait, wait!"
What?
In a rush to stop him, Belmode slammed a button on his desk, and the computer on the desk in the third-floor study of the villa silently rotated halfway around, with the screen facing Ichijō Mirai.
At the top of the screen, a red light was on, indicating that the camera was in progress.
Belmode saw the scene in the study.
Ichijō Mirai was injecting himself.
He was sitting on the couch, eyes half-closed, holding the white injection in his hand, and in one gulp he pushed it all the way through, letting the cold liquid run down the syringe and into a vein in his neck.
"This is faster," He said, "curious, try it."