The Genius of Cloning in the Academy City

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“…So annoying.”

“Hey, wake up. I even let seven people gang up on me as a senior. And you still lost.”

“How pathetic. Aren’t you ashamed? Why are you even alive? If it were me, I would have hanged myself by now. Don’t you feel bad for your parents?”

“Don’t shout, I know you’re just whining. Injuries inside the Duel Arena barrier are just hallucinations. I definitely saw you listen to the explanation earlier, did these guys go deaf?”

“Hahaha! Look at you crying!”

“…Yes, yes, of course. If the Student Council tells me to stop, this lowly Chairman of the Management Board should stop. …You better be counting your lucky stars.”

“Remember the victory conditions? Hey, don’t cry. Who told you to come out? You guys challenged first, right? You want the unfair rules abolished? You need to know your place.”

“Oh? You’re here. Let’s go for parfait. Me? …Right. As you can see, I’m doing fine. It would be better if that violet-haired girl wasn’t around. She made all our members quit, you know. Not that the Management Board is going to disappear though.”

“What, running away? …Are you kidding me? I can’t possibly lose to that rookie girl. Ugh, it’s driving me crazy! She keeps asking for duels.”

“Who are you trying to provoke? Shut up already! …That spear-wielding kid. Honestly, it makes me a bit anxious. But still, if I don’t fight her, what can she do? Huh? I will win! I’ll squash her later.”

“Student Council President, um… no, how’s the President doing these days? They said they were busy and haven’t met me. So unfair. …Honestly, I’m better than the Vice President, right? I’m younger too. That Lera girl. I’ve never liked her. I should challenge her someday.”

“By the way, do you know where Martin went? I definitely called him here. Didn’t see him? Sigh… I guess that guy went to bother the underclassmen again.”

“It’s going to be problematic if he gets into trouble again. The President just told me to avoid any surprises for a while. …You guys? Aren’t you coming? Let’s go.”

<F.E. 25.09. Polaris Comprehensive Academy Duel Arena, recording of session 12 terminated.>

***

In the afternoon, I was waiting for Irene at a quiet café outside of school. After a short while, I saw a girl with a similar build walking towards me.

“Hey, Violet. I found something…”

“Right! I brought some information related to the Entrance Ceremony incident!”

I immediately took out my smartphone and played the recorded conversation. Irene’s violet eyes widened in shock as if they were about to pop out.

Barely containing her rising excitement, Irene opened her mouth.

“How did you get this? This voice, it’s the Chairman and Croscelle! How did you manage to record this?”

“It’s a company secret, can’t say. Hehe.”

“…Did you sneak into the Chairman’s office or the Board of Directors building? You didn’t, right?”

I struggled to reassure Irene.

She calmed down soon enough, and we continued our conversation.

“Yeah, just as expected. I still don’t know how they summoned the monsters though.”

“Didn’t I do well?”

Irene stared at my face intensely, then sighed.

“Next time, don’t do something so dangerous.”

“Got it.”

Before we got into the serious stuff, I ordered two cups of tea.

Irene ordered black tea, while I ordered milk tea with various toppings and whipped cream. Soon, our drinks came out.

I took a sip and felt the warm, sweet taste spread across my mouth.

“Not sweet? Drinking it like that will make all the flavor disappear.”

“Try it, Irene! It’s super delicious.”

Irene rejected my suggestion rather vehemently. Seems like she hates sweet things.

With some sugar in my system, I felt more relaxed. Now, we could progress the conversation a bit.

“…Those guys definitely used the expression ‘sorting the gems from the rocks.’ What could that mean?”

“It seems like they have their own criteria for what they need in this school.”

We shared our thoughts, but no answers came out.

“How about we just release this recording to the media and contact the investigation agency or the Inspection Bureau?”

Instantly, a rebuttal came flying back.

“That’s impossible. Last time’s report was brushed off as just an accident, and not even a single article was written. What about this ambiguous recording?

It’s useless. They’ll claim this recording is fabricated. Eventually, the evidence itself might disappear.”

After hearing that, I realized Irene was right.

Even in reality, it’s rare for a politician or a businessman to fall from grace due to mere recordings or minor evidence.

It was even more common for the accusers to be buried instead.

A villain falling apart from one accusation is a sight only seen in soap operas.

Let alone in this world where brute force supersedes the rule of law, it wouldn’t be surprising if stranger things happened.

“Moreover, summoning monsters artificially with a gate? Unless we can prove that method, there’s nowhere that will believe us. We’ll be labeled as conspiracy theorists or fake news.”

It seemed like it was a pointless claim after all.

Suddenly, her expression turned worried.

“Violet, you didn’t show this to anyone else, right?”

“No, I only showed it to you.”

“Well, thank goodness. Whatever you do, don’t carelessly release this data. You could be in danger.”

That was a given. I didn’t want any trouble myself.

There was a brief pause in our conversation. Irene had fallen deep in thought.

After a long silence, she seemed to come to a decision and met my gaze.

“Violet, thanks for helping until now. But let’s stop meeting from here on. I’d like you to quit this work.”

I was taken aback by her sudden declaration.

“What? Why? I’m doing this because I want to.”

“Thanks for getting the information, but it’s too reckless! What are you going to do if you get caught? More than anything, Violet, you’re a student.”

“But you’re a student too!”

“I’m doing okay. I have my parents’ reputation, plus the protection of the Helios Clan. But Violet, what will you do? I can’t guarantee your safety.”

“What if there’s a way to avoid danger?”

“Is there such a way? Oh, wait…”

I led her to an empty spot inside the building and summoned a clone.

“Tada!”

“Oh, your unique ability…! Wait, your clone can be controlled at long range?”

“Yep, my clone is a bit special.”

Irene’s face finally brightened a bit.

“You should have explained! I thought you snuck into some building like before when you eavesdropped on that conversation with the Student Council President.”

“Oh, right. I forgot to explain.”

“Geez…”

She looked at me with an expression that somehow seemed pitiful.

Why is that?

I felt a bit unfair.

“Again, don’t overdo it! I appreciate your help, but I’m also hiring someone separately to dig into things. You don’t have to help that much. Just your intentions are enough.”

“Don’t worry about it!”

After exchanging a few small talks, we quietly parted ways. Before separating, Irene said one last thing to me.

“By the way, Violet, I heard a rumor. Be careful of a guy named Martin Perian.”

“Perian? That name sounds familiar. Is he perhaps related to the Chairman of the Management Board?”

“To be precise, he’s the younger brother. It’s just a rumor, but he’s said to be a troublemaker who harasses female underclassmen. So be careful, and don’t forget to contact me if you’re in a pinch.”

I didn’t know there was such a person. I should be cautious.

As I was heading back, a thought suddenly crossed my mind.

‘Why am I doing this?’

What’s the reason behind risking myself to do this? I’m not someone who dreamed of being an apostle of justice, after all.

-Irene is an important character from the original story. If we get close…-

-What’s the point of getting close? I’m not even the leader of the Helios Clan yet. That’s a story for five years later.-

Maybe it was a realistic issue, but everyone had become a bit serious.

-True, thinking it over, Irene isn’t wrong. Actually, no one would say anything if we back out from this. We voluntarily jumped in to help, didn’t we? It’s not like anyone forced us to, so we can quit.-

-I agree. We haven’t forgotten why we’re still at this damn school, right? We came here because of our student IDs. Earning money is our top priority.-

Opposing opinions started to come out.

-Hey! Are we just going to let this school that kills people and conducts weird experiments lay around?-

-What’s it to us? That’s not our problem! Professor Albert said they were a bunch of low-lifes too. And it’s pretty much the truth. We don’t care about what happens to other guys.-

-What about people like Irene or Lucian? What about Daphne?-

-They’ll still be alive and attending Aegis Academy five years from now. Our roommate? I’m not that psychopathic narcissistic witch. So Daphne won’t get hurt because of me at all.-

More and more of us began expressing realistic claims.

Since it was a fairly reasonable argument, I honestly felt a bit attracted to it.

-Who knows when this school will collapse, but it’s clearly going to be a long time from now. It can hold on for at least another year.-

-To be honest, this spy game is getting a bit boring and annoying! Do you know how frustrating it is to go through vents and encounter cockroaches and Grim Reapers?-

-A game? Hey! Twelfth Clone!-

-Am I the only one who thought this? Wasn’t this just a game?-

At Twelfth Clone’s unexpected comment, we all froze.

Thinking about it, am I seriously taking this matter to heart?

Do I even have a sense of problem?

Am I doing this with a sense of justice?

-We’re too busy taking care of our own bodies. And what will we do if it gets revealed we were test subjects?-

-You don’t have to worry for a while. Just think about what the Student Council President said. They know absolutely nothing about us. They even have completely wrong information about our unique abilities.-

-Not at all! We were just lucky.-

That’s right.

Maybe, we just happened to be lucky.

I was a person without verified identity or proper immigration records. The bald lab director had hired a broker to create fake records for me.

Because of that, the Board of Directors wouldn’t know exactly who I was.

It wasn’t until I recalled the memories during possession that I realized I was smuggled into the academy city in a suspicious cargo hold. The name ‘Violet’ was given to me by the lab director.

If they were to dig a little deeper, while they might not figure out that I came from the lab, there was a high chance they would uncover that my records were fake.

-Anyway, Irene was right. We need to be a little serious…-

-…There really was a lack of a sense of crisis.-

Being serious, maybe we’ve all become numb to death and are seeking stimulation.

As my head started to throb again, I returned to the dormitory.

I was particularly craving something sweet today.