Episode 9. Rooting Out the Fake (4)
—Entered 「National Theater That Roots Out the Fake」.
—Discard every item except clothing, shoes, smartwatch, and in-ear device.
—Conceal your affiliation with the Bureau completely.
—This Special Zone has been seized by a Contaminated Person.
The stage curtain rose.
Before I could understand the situation, a bewildered voice came from a seat some distance away.
“W-What is this? Where are we?”
No, if he made noise here……!
Sure enough.
Flash— flash— flash—!
Intense spotlights converged on the person who had shouted.
“Aagh! Turn off the lights!”
Caught in the light like an escaped prisoner discovered by a searchlight, the person screamed.
But then.
Thwack—!
The confusion ended abruptly with an arrow flying from somewhere.
Thud—
I covered my mouth as the person collapsed helplessly.
His seat concealed his final moments from me.
But the person seated closer to him was not so fortunate.
“Huh……? A-Aaaagh!”
The spotlights focused again, and the same thing repeated.
Thwack—!
Another arrow—or, more precisely, a crossbow bolt—pierced a person.
Two people had died in an instant.
After that, the theater became silent as a grave.
Amid the suffocating silence, I found something.
A brochure tucked beside my seat.
It looked like an…