Харилцан Хариуцлага

Three more people gone, and zero new clues were found. This time, the vanished were not Awakened. One was a mundane soldier, one was a scientist, and one was a member of the civilian support staff. They did not have anything particular in common, no thread that connected them together or to the first victim. All three vanished from different locations, and had been last seen at different times.

Sunny and Verne silently investigated their living quarters, the areas they had been known to frequent in the settlement, and their last known locations. They did not find anything.

In the process, both of them grew more and more somber.

...At some point, Sunny threw a suspicious look at the other Master. What did he really know about Verne? Verne was a local of Antarctica, a career serviceman with a stellar record, a competent fighter, and a leader that was loved and respected by his men. His Aspect centered around heat transference and physical augmentation.

Not exactly something that could have been used to dispose of bodies… but then again, who said that it had to be done with an Aspect Ability?

Almost at the same time, Verne suddenly glanced at Sunny with his usual stoic expression. His eyes, however, were cold and heavy.

"I heard that you have a spatial storage Memory."

Sunny looked at him darkly.

"...So what if I do?"

Verne held his gaze for a few long moments, then turned away with a sigh.

"This is not good."

Sunny had to agree.

If the two of them were already paranoid enough to suspect each other, then the rest of the installation residents had to really be on edge.

A bit of vigilance was never a bad thing, but with how pressured people already felt, one additional burden could become a spark that had the potential to cause a violent explosion.

He sighed.

"We have to… be ready to implement measures."

Verne gave him a sideways glance.

"What kind of measures?"

Sunny stared at him calmly… or coldly, even.

…He was so tired.

"Whatever kind that works."

The other Master remained silent for a while.

"I am confident in my people. Even exhausted and sleep-deprived, they will remain disciplined. The civilians, however… that might be a challenge. However, the best way to resolve this issue is to prevent it from happening in the first place. For that, we need to understand what is going on and stop more people from disappearing."

Sunny lingered for a few moments. Eventually, he shrugged.

"Yeah... let's hope that we will."

With that, they moved to the next item on the agenda, interviewing the witnesses.

Perhaps "witnesses" was the wrong word. This time, all three victims were mundanes. That meant that they had been assigned a partner by the updated safety protocols that Verne had established. They had not been supposed to remain alone at any point, not to mention long enough to vanish without a trace.

And yet, they had.

The interviews did not reveal anything substantial. The mutual responsibility partners of the three victims reported the same thing… the vanished had been with them throughout the day, but at some point disappeared, completely unnoticed.

The scientist and the staff member had been gone by the time their partners woke up, and the soldier seemed to have vanished while his comrade turned away to concentrate on servicing one of the wall turrets.

It was after the remaining soldier had reported his partner's absence that the fact that two more people were missing was discovered.

None of the three victims had been acting strangely or revealed any discomfort prior to their vanishing. There was simply nothing for Sunny and Verne to catch, no thread they could pull to unravel the whole mystery.

Their moods grew darker and darker.

…While they were interviewing the witnesses, there were two deaths inside the settlement. One was a scientist that had reported symptoms of being infected by the Spell a day prior, was confined to a secure room in the installation's medical center, and quietly passed away in her sleep.

Several Awakened monitoring the situation dispatched the Nightmare Creature that the dead scientist had turned into, preventing the repeat of the safe room massacre.

The other was a staff member that had been so afraid to fall asleep that he stole a batch of military stimulants from the same medical center. Inevitably, these stimulants, developed for Awakened soldiers, had put too much strain on his body. The man collapsed and swiftly died of acute heart failure in front of dozens of frightened civilians.

Sunny and Verne received the report about the deaths right after finishing the fruitless interviews.

A heavy silence settled in the empty room, where only the two of them remained.

Eventually, Verne gritted his teeth.

"...This is all a bit suffocating, isn't it?"

The local Master looked weary, but still composed and resolute.

Sunny leaned back on his chair, tiredly thinking of the soft bed that was waiting for him inside the Rhino.

"Yes. There are very few things that are more suffocating than powerlessness. You get used to it, though."

Verne grimaced.

"If the two of us feel powerless, then how do the rest of them feel?"

He was quiet for a bit, and then asked:

"Three days. That is when the ship will arrive, right?"

Sunny silently shook his head.

"Don't expect the Ariadne to arrive at the earliest opportunity. Naval navigation is not easy. It's better to plan for the worst."

…Soon, Verne made an announcement reiterating the importance of the updated safety measures and ordering all personnel at LO49 to follow them to the letter, as well as introducing stricter measures of mutual responsibility.

People were forced to always stay in groups, mark their comings and goings in special ledgers, share cramped living quarters, and were confined to areas of the settlement that had to do with their direct responsibilities. They couldn't even visit the bathroom on their own.

More soldiers had to leave their posts on the walls of the fortress to saturate the patrol schedule and stand guard inside the buildings. Every Awakened with an Aspect suitable for scouting was put to work monitoring the interior of the settlement. Verne himself oversaw what little of the observation system was still functioning. Sunny's shadows kept watch at key points of LO49.

But despite all that…

Throughout the next day, six more people went missing.