Chapter 80: The Verdict

"Alright. I am Lily, and you are Yuri. We need to act as if we are different people, right?" My clone said confidently.

The reality that I could create clones and now had to pretend to be myself was baffling. How did Guardians without clone abilities manage to keep their identities secret?

"Yes, that's right," I nodded, glancing at Lily—my clone—before turning to Felicia.

“There is no way we’ll be found out, Yuri. This disguise is perfect,” Felicia assured me.

“Well, if you say so…” I muttered, still unconvinced.

“Let’s go!” Lily skipped toward the school while humming.

I immediately rolled my eyes. “I’m not that cheery!” I nearly screamed but managed to hold my voice back.

“We just need to act a bit differently, right? Besides, this is Lily, not Yuri. Come on, no need to stress over the small details. It’s not like you’ve known Francesca for years—you only met her recently in Eden,” the clone reasoned.

“Well… if you put it that way,” I sighed in defeat. We walked side by side toward the student council room.

“Eh, was that a Magical Girl?” a student whispered nearby.

“Why is she with Yuri?”

“Ah, I know her. That’s Black Lily, the new Guardian who reached rank E last month. She’s famous for being a Black who attended an interview.”

“There’s a Black Guardian? I thought there were only Pink, Red, Green, Blue, White, and Yellow.”

“There is. The official name is Dark Guardian or Dark Magical Girl.”

“Never actually seen one outside of Sunset Rebellion. Blacks are usually strong, though.”

“Was she enrolled in this school?”

“I heard Lily was making a contract with Shirayuki.”

Ignoring the peanut gallery, I continued walking with Lily. She had dropped her playful act and now carried herself with a cold and calculating demeanor—the perfect image of someone who had braved the dangers of the Darklands.

“We are catching more eyes than expected. I wonder if Francesca would like this,” Lily telepathically messaged me. I turned slightly, instinctively searching for Felicia before remembering that Lily was my clone.

The door to the student council room opened from the inside, and the members of the student council bowed toward Lily. Inside, Francesca sat solemnly at a long table, her secretary standing beside her. The room was nearly empty—none of the other council members were present. Was she excluding them because she had invited a Magical Girl?

“Lily, Yuri, welcome. I didn’t expect you two to come together. Did you tell Yuri about our meeting?” Francesca asked.

“Well, you didn’t say it was a secret,” Lily replied smoothly.

“Of course. And I didn’t mean to. That’s why I invited you both here together.” Francesca gestured toward the chairs. “Please, have a seat. We can discuss everything over tea and snacks.”

Her secretary moved quickly, setting out a ceramic tea set as we settled into our seats.

Francesca took a deep breath. Her eyes glistened with unshed tears.

“Lily… our—my father’s verdict has been announced.”

A moment of silence filled the room. Even though I knew this moment was coming, it still took my breath away for a second.

“They’ve decided that he and four other board members from Enra and Newstar will be exiled from Eden.” Francesca’s voice wavered, but her expression remained composed.

Lily instinctively turned toward Felicia, and I nearly did the same before something about her words struck me as odd.

“Wait… weren’t there at least two hundred board members in Enra and Newstar?” I asked. Even Shirayuki had at least thirty people as its board members and investors. It was hard to imagine that two of the biggest corporations in Eden had only five people deemed responsible. I never expected all of the board members to be punished, but… five? That seemed far too few.

Francesca clenched her fists. Her frustration was evident.

“Those scumbags blamed everything on my father! They said that because Enra and Newstar were safe, we shouldn’t be greedy!” Francesca slammed her fist on the table. The delicate tea set rattled, but no one dared to stop her.

“I have read the verdict. Guardian Command and the UNH made it public, but they didn’t disclose it to the press, so there haven’t been many public comments on it. What Francesca said is roughly correct—Enra’s Chief Executive Officer, along with four other board members, has been accused of gross negligence during the Newlake incident,” Felicia explained.

“Hm? How can there be gross negligence when there were no safety standards in place to begin with?” Lily voiced my exact thoughts before I could.

“See! You get it! This is all a bunch of nonsense! They just wanted to find someone to blame!” Francesca fumed, slamming her hands on the table.

Clone Lily tilted her head and glanced at Felicia, prompting her to continue.

Felicia projected her voice, narrating the incident she had read from the official reports.

“Based on the statements of both the defendants and plaintiffs, as well as the testimony of 1653 VIP members from Enra and Newstar, the UNH and Guardian Command concluded the following:

‘Due to the lack of a Reality Enforcement Device, the Guardian Command of Newlake could not detect the Behemoth’s approach in time. As a result, when the Behemoth arrived, the fall of the city became inevitable.

'Guardian Command, along with the major stewards of Newlake, arranged for the evacuation of key personnel. Using an airplane provided by Enra, they successfully evacuated 300 VIP members from Newlake Airport. However, as the Behemoth advanced, the second evacuation plane was destroyed.

'The shockwave from the Behemoth’s attack then obliterated the airport, rendering it unusable. With the airport destroyed, the remaining survivors attempted to flee toward the harbor. However, the Behemoth reached the harbor before they could evacuate, completely annihilating the area.

'As a result, Newlake was lost, along with 30,000 people and over 100 Guardians. A similar incident also happened in Newhill. Behemoth came, it destroyed the airport, then razed the town.

'This is the official incident report compiled by the UNH and Guardian Command after conducting interviews with all surviving personnel and reviewing the final transmissions from the Guardians on-site.'" Felicia then continued on with her report.

"Now, we move on to the objections raised by the Zenith, Guardian Command, and the Union…

“The first objection came from the Zenith. The loss of 100 Guardians was a major concern for them. They questioned the UNH and Guardian Command’s decision to prioritize civilian evacuation. If the battle was unwinnable from the beginning, they argued, then the right course of action should have been to evacuate all Guardians first, preserving humanity’s combat strength for future battles.” Felicia said.

The cold and calculated reasoning from the Zenith took my breath away. It was logical, but I doubted that most Guardians would obediently follow such an order.

“The second objection came from the Guardians and the Employees' Union. They pointed out that nearly all major shareholders, board members, and their families from both Enra and Newstar survived. This led to accusations that the board directors had played favorites.”

“And?” I asked.

“The judge ruled in favor of the Zenith’s argument. As a result, the mayors of Newhill and Newlake, along with Guardian Command representatives who also happened to be a board member stationed there, were punished.

"However, the CEO of Newstar avoided blame entirely because he never answered the phone calls from Newhill during the crisis.

"In contrast, the CEO of Enra—Francesca’s father—did answer his call. According to testimony, he ordered rescuers to save as many civilians as possible.

"The union was dissatisfied with this explanation, arguing that there was much more that could have been done to save lives. But from the Zenith’s standpoint, his actions amounted to gross negligence. To them, Guardians were the future of humanity—the only hope against the Anathema. From their perspective, Guardian Command had just wasted 100 silver bullets that could have taken down hundreds of Behemoths in the future.”

I frowned. Francesca must have felt horrible. One CEO escaped blame simply because he ignored his phone, while her father was punished for answering his and prioritizing lives.

“What does the public think about all this?” I asked.

“They only care about the end result,” Felicia said. “They’re unsatisfied that only five members of the higher-ups were punished.”

I clenched my fists.

“The rest all got away scot-free?”

“Not really. From now on, all major companies will have at least one Guardian Command representative to monitor them. Moreover, the share prices of Enra and Newstar will be cut in half, dropping them down to tenth place among the conglomerates,” Felicia said.

That didn’t make me happy in the slightest. I never cared about Shirayuki’s rankings among the conglomerates, but I could imagine this news would bring a smile to Kageyama and Osamu.

“This is insane! Guardian Command now has control over all major companies. Even Shirayuki shouldn’t be too happy about this, right?” Francesca said.

Kageyama hadn’t mentioned anything about it. I wondered what he actually thought about Guardian Command infiltrating Shirayuki. Shirayuki was supposed to be a private company owned by the Shirayuki family, after all.

“That’s not entirely true. Guardian Command simply assigned one board member per major company. Their power is no different from that of a regular board member or investor,” Felicia clarified.

“So, what do you want to do? Even if you’re a Magical Girl, the verdict has already been passed. You can’t change it. Do you want to join your father in the Darklands? Life there isn’t so bad, you know. Especially if you’re a Magical Girl.” Lily asked.

I turned my head away, almost envying her for even considering living in the Darklands.

“Are you crazy?” Francesca asked, then quickly turned to her side. “Ah… I’m sorry.”

“Well, if you’re not a Magical Girl, then life won’t be easy. But you are, right?”

“Yes. As you suspected, I am a Magical Girl named Freya. Here is my familiar.”

A pixie in a pink dress appeared before me. She looked like a fairy straight out of a movie. It made me wonder whether I could dress Felicia up as well.

“I see.”

“Hmm? You’re not surprised?” Francesca looked confused as she stared at me.

“Hm? What do you mean?” I asked before realization dawned on me.

I had never met Freya before.

“Well, I’m sure you had your suspicions about me being a Magical Girl. But I never told you I was Freya, right? I’m an A-rank Magical Girl, you know,” Francesca said.

“Well… I didn’t care much about Magical Girls and Guardians. M-moreover, Lily had already informed me that you might be Freya,” I turned away, feeling ashamed. I even stammered.

“Well, I suppose I did a poor job of hiding my identity. Lily, you may be a new Magical Girl, but it’s rude to expose another Guardian’s identity, you know.”

“Well, you had already told her that you were a Magical Girl. But you never told me you were Freya. So the rule didn’t apply,” Lily glanced at Felicia.

“That is correct. Neither Freya nor Francesca ever directly told Lily their true identity. So, all of that was merely conjecture. As long as the conversation stays private and does not leak onto the internet, it does not breach the privacy law,” Felicia explained.

Freya sulked upon hearing the verdict.

“Well, I never intended to hide my identity from you anyway. As for your question—I plan to ask Guardian Command and Zenith to save my father.”

“Hm? How is that possible?” I tilted my head.

“First, I’m an A-rank Guardian. My words carry more weight within Guardian Command. Since the verdict has already been passed, my father will leave on a boat to exile the day after tomorrow. That’s when we’ll rescue him and smuggle him into another Sanctuary City!”

“Huh?! How can such a thing be allowed?” Lily and I widened our eyes.

“It is allowed. As long as nobody finds out. Ask your familiar,” Freya challenged.

Lily froze for a second before turning to Felicia, who confirmed it.

“... As long as the public doesn't know, the fate of five civilians is of no concern to Zenith. Unlike humans, Zenith does not focus on vengeance, merely on improving ourselves and defending our world. The system has changed. So, as far as Zenith is concerned, they are satisfied. They don’t care about the fate of these five civilians.”

I felt a headache coming when Felicia confirmed such loopholes existed. But when I tried to focus on the bigger picture, I sort of understood.

Felicia had said that Zenith did not wish to rule Earth. They only wished for humanity to defend itself against Anathema. Zenith never asked us to punish these people—the punishment came from the UNH and Guardian Command. All Zenith wanted was for us to fix the system that had allowed hundreds of Guardians to die in vain.

I promised myself that I would grill Felicia later about this. How could Zenith be okay with such a thing? Was there truly no punishment for wrongdoing in Zenith’s society?

Moreover, I doubted whether Freya’s plan could actually work. Felicia had made it clear—nobody could know. Where would she even hide her father? The internet existed in every Sanctuary City, and other cities were just as crowded as Eden. Francesca’s father had been seen by many through media and public records. There was nowhere to hide him. If people found out and raised chaos, Guardian Command’s reputation, along with Zenith’s, would be dragged through the mud. The punishment for that would not be light. It could extend to both Guardian command and the entire humanity.

Even though we were visibly disgusted by the loophole, Freya was beaming.

“Alright. Somehow, I get that Zenith doesn’t care about what happens to them. But that doesn’t explain why we were called here,” Lily said.

“I was just getting to that part.”

I knew those 20,000 points didn’t come for free. As Francesca prepared to share her grand plan, I seriously contemplated whether I should abandon the secret quest Zenith had given me.