Chapter 92

Anyway, we are completely lacking in information.

If I go to the police station in this state where so many of my imposters are appearing, I'm likely to be turned away as soon as I state my name.

Well, I could probably get them to believe me if I show them magic, but it would be better to resolve the lack of information first.

I passed by a group arguing in front of the middle school, went through the side of Akane Cloud Park, and turned right at the end, opposite the police station.

At the end of this road, right after entering the park, there is a library.

Of course, it's not open at this hour, but I used shadow movement to get inside.

It would be awkward if I were caught on security cameras, so I moved through the shadows inside and decided to read in the shadows as well.

"Mr. Kent, the number of books is amazing. Is this a royal library or something?"

"It's a library where residents can freely read."

"Really...?"

There were books in Volzard too, but it seems they weren't printed in such large quantities, and they were still considered valuable.

"Mr. Kent, what are you going to look up here?"

"Newspapers and weekly magazines from when we were summoned."

First, I looked up the situation of the middle school when we were summoned, but the damage was much greater than I had imagined.

Forty-eight deaths, 152 seriously and lightly injured, 207 missing.

These 207 people are the classmates and teachers who were summoned.

At first, it was thought to be a building collapse due to a construction defect, but as the large number of missing people became known, the possibility of a large-scale terrorist attack or an abduction by a certain country began to be whispered.

As the investigation progressed, it was discovered that the third floor of the school building had completely disappeared, making it difficult to provide a scientific explanation, and the public quickly began to accelerate occult stories.

There were claims of a modern-day kidnapping by the gods, an accident caused by an experiment in instantaneous movement, and of course, those who claimed it was a summoning to another world.

In the midst of this, an assault case occurred.

My mother, upon receiving news of the incident, attacked my father, who had returned home after a long absence, with a kitchen knife.

Fortunately, my father's injuries were not life-threatening, but he had over twenty cuts and stab wounds.

This incident was picked up by weekly magazines.

With a child missing for unknown reasons, the media reported that the cause was a love affair, leading to a stabbing incident.

I didn't know about it and didn't even want to know, but it seems my father was living with his lover and their child in a tower apartment in the bay area.

While following the progress of the incident, I found a shocking article.

"No... That can't be..."

"Mr. Kent, what's wrong?"

"My mother..."

My mother had committed suicide in the detention center.

It seems that criticism of my father increased, and as a victim of the assault, his identity was also revealed, and he probably received harassment.

It seems that my father disposed of the apartment around this time.

"When my father used to come home regularly, my mother was kind... "

My father stopped coming home when I was in third or fourth grade, and from then on, my mother's life deteriorated, and the atmosphere at home became tense.

I was afraid to approach my mother when she was in a bad mood, and I relied on my grandmother, which, looking back now, might not have been a good thing.

"Are you okay, Mr. Kent?"

"Yeah, I don't really feel it yet, and I've decided to be independent, so I'm okay for now."

My father, after his personal information was exposed online, moved out of the tower apartment and disappeared.

Around the time the fuss seemed to be dying down, the first of my imposters appeared.

My imposter appeared at the police station in a mud-covered uniform.

He said that he had been suddenly transported to an unknown world with the school building, and while searching for civilization with his classmates, he fell off a cliff and woke up back in Hikarigaoka Park.

When it was reported that a missing middle school student had appeared, the media went wild again.

My imposter looked like me, and the police believed it was me and conducted multiple interrogations and even a psychiatric evaluation.

Even if they looked alike, my father should have known it was an imposter if he had met him, but it seems he left the response to his lawyer to avoid being found by the media.

As a result, it took over a week to confirm that it was an imposter.

Of course, the boy who played the imposter was criticized, but the police, who had been fooled for over a week, and my father, who didn't come to see the missing child, also faced criticism.

Then, to mock my father for his infidelity and the lack of progress in the investigation, it became popular to play the role of an imposter of me.

There were various patterns, from those who played the role convincingly to those who played the role obviously, but the common point was that they all claimed to be me.

The library also has computers, but I thought it would be awkward to turn them on, so I didn't look at the internet, but since it was written in weekly magazines, there must be a lot of videos uploaded, right?

And it seems that the area near the middle school has become a kind of low-quality pilgrimage site.

In this situation, if I just come forward, I will definitely be thought of as an imposter.

"So, what do you think we should do?"

"Hmm... I might have to storm the investigation headquarters. If I show the Dark Shield and appear in public, they will probably believe I'm the real deal."

"Right, magic doesn't exist in this world, does it?"

"Yeah, but it's probably too late to go to the investigation headquarters now, so I'll come back later."

"Are you going back, then?"

I returned to Volzard from the library, but it seems I spent more time researching than I thought, as the lights in the cafeteria were off.

When I peeked into the dormitory, all my classmates were writing letters in their rooms.

In Mr. Oda's room, Mr. Kato was there, and they were having a meeting.

"Mr. Oda, is it okay?"

"Kento, how did it go?"

"Yes, actually..."

I came out of the shadow world and reported on what happened after I returned to Japan.

When they heard that there were 48 victims, they both looked up at the ceiling.

When they heard that my imposters were rampant, they looked puzzled, and when they heard the reasons, their expressions turned somber.

"Kento, are you okay?"

"Yes, I read the article, but I don't really feel that my mother is gone, so I'm okay. I might be shocked later, but that's probably inevitable..."

I was surprised that I could answer Mr. Oda's questions normally.

Mr. Kato patted my shoulder.

"If you feel down, don't hesitate to say so."

"Yes, thank you. By the way, I'm thinking of going to the investigation headquarters directly tomorrow. Mr. Oda, can you collect the letters that have been written and bring them here?"

"Got it. You should go back and rest."

"Yes, I will."

Before returning to the dormitory, there was something I needed to test.

I went to the training ground in the Forest of Magic for the first time in a while and gathered all my subordinates.

"Okay, let's try it with Reinhardt, Basten, and Fred. Everyone, bring a magic stone."

I gave them five magic stones from the higher-level goblins we collected during the Great Occurrence, and we performed an enhancement for the first time in a while.

This time, however, it wasn't to enhance physical abilities, but to enhance language skills.

Since I might have to operate in Japan in the future, I wanted them to be able to understand Japanese.

I tried to transfer my knowledge of Japanese through the link with me.

"Okay... can you read this?"

I wrote "Kento Kunitomi" in kanji on the ground with a stick.

"Yes, I can read it, Mr. Kent's name."

"Then, this one... Fred."

"The name of the Holy Maiden... it's unusual, and the characters have meaning..."

"Then, this one... Basten."

"The name of the Lord, hmm, so this is how it's written."

It seems they can read both kanji and katakana.

The next step is to see how much they can understand when we go to Japan.

After that, I enhanced Zae and Alt in turn.

With the increase in numbers, I got quite tired.

After enhancing everyone, I returned to my dormitory room, where Maisa was sleeping on a bed made of boxes.

It's hard to tell whose room it is anymore.

But on a night like tonight, when I want to be alone but also don't want to be alone, it's really helpful.

I told Malt and the others not to wake Maisa, and I also got into the bed made of boxes.

Even though I thought she was sleeping soundly, she immediately hugged me when I got under the covers.

Does she have some kind of special sensor?

Well, it's warm this season, so I have no complaints, as long as there's no drooling or bedwetting.

Even though I'm mentally and physically exhausted, I can't fall asleep.

The article about my mother's suicide is weighing heavily on my mind.

It must be true since it was in the newspapers and magazines, but I haven't seen the body or attended the funeral, so it feels like it happened to someone else.

What shocked me even more was that I couldn't picture my mother's recent face in my mind.

All I could remember were her smiling face when my father was still at home and her sad face when he stopped coming home.

When I thought about it, I hadn't had a proper conversation with her in months, and I couldn't even remember the last words we exchanged.

"Mr. Kent, can't you sleep?"

"Hey, Reinhardt, am I a heartless person?"

"Of course not. It's not your fault alone. You were living a normal life, so it's only natural that you couldn't remember her face if you didn't see her."

"Yeah, maybe... but I feel like I could have done more..."

"If you feel that way, then it should be a lesson from your mother to be used in your future life."

"Yeah... I'll do that."

Talking to Reinhardt made my heart feel a little lighter.

"Mr. Kent, do you need to write a letter?"

"Huh? I can come back anytime, so..."

"Have you seen your father much?"

"Oh... yeah, I should probably write one."

Even though it's partly my own fault, it's difficult to meet my father in the midst of the commotion, and I don't want a dramatic reunion, so it might be better not to meet for a while.

But when I prepared paper and a pen, I didn't know what to write.

I don't really remember talking much to my father even when he used to come home.

The first thing that comes to mind is "study harder..."

I had a habit of dozing off since elementary school.

No matter how hard I tried to stay awake, I would get sleepy and only half of the lesson would stick in my head.

Naturally, my grades were poor, and the issue of dozing off was always mentioned in my report card.

My father would leave for work before I woke up and come home after I was asleep, and he often went out for company golf on weekends, so I don't remember playing catch or anything.

When we did meet, his first words were always, "Are you studying properly?" and I would shrink back and couldn't talk well.

At the time... yeah, I wanted to talk about the popular games at school or anime and manga.

So now