Chapter 15
Living with a man who seemed to have forgotten his age was truly exhausting.
Though the fight had temporarily ceased because they could no longer shout, the undercurrent of cold war still flowed between them.
Raimund had no choice but to clean one of the rooms on the third floor and take up residence there, so the only
space where the two of them crossed paths was the first floor.
But that manāFriedrich, was it?āwhenever he saw Raimund, he’d walk past with an expression as if he were looking
at a giant cockroach.
At first, Raimund couldn’t understand why he deserved such treatment and felt angry, but as days passed, the emotion of anger gradually dulled.
Instead, Raimund had been pouring all his energy into the task of transforming the house into a livable environment,
and only recently had he been able to produce results he could be fairly proud of.
—
“I’m finally done.”
Having finished cleaning the refrigeratorāthe biggest headache of allāRaimund sat down on the kitchen floor.
The garbage bag next to the refrigerator was filled with dead rat carcasses, rotten food from the kitchen, and packaging materials.
He closed the now spotless refrigerator, stood up, and looked around.
The place was so clean it was hard to believe that just a few days ago, it had been filled with sources of contamination.
He had pulled up all the carpets and scrubbed the floorboards with soap, and he’d torn off the strange scraps of
paper stuck to the walls and pinned them together in one spot.
He’d washed the curtains twice and rehung them, and had even cleaned the sink and cupboards thoroughly.
The cushions and sofa, once covered in pale gray dust, had regained their original fluffy brown color.
Now, he figured, he could receive any visitor without embarrassment.
As Raimund surveyed the comfortable and clean environment he had created, a creaking sound came from the stairs leading down from the second floor.
—
“You’re noisy enough to kill a man, even in the morning.”
Ugh. That irksome man.
He came down holding a cup that looked like it hadn’t been washed in ages and entered the kitchen.
Raimund found it repulsive to share a space with him and was about to slowly pick up the garbage bag and move away whenā
Friedrich stopped abruptly in front of the empty dining table.
“Where did what was here go?”
“What?”
“The newspaper headline that was on the table.”
“I organized all the paper and put it on the table in front of the sofa.”
Friedrich whirled around in shock.
“Why would you touch that without permission?! I had it arranged a certain way!”
“That’s what happens when you leave things scattered around. The dining room is a shared space, you know.”
“I spent so long this morning assembling that in the proper orderā”
“Oh, so *you* were the one making all that noise at dawn? I thought a giant mouse had gotten in. Do that kind of
‘personal work’ on the second floor, please. The dining table isn’t your desk.”
“Did you take down what was on the living room wall too? Are you insane?”
“The insane one is your idea of organization. Don’t just arbitrarily pin things to the living room wall. I nearly stepped
on a pin that fell out four times, you know. If one gets stuck in my foot, will you take responsibility? For your
information, I *will* collect on the medical bills.”
“You’re impossible to reason with!”
Friedrich burst out in frustration and tossed his cup into the sink.
He gathered the scraps of paper and materials stacked on the living room table and stomped back upstairs.
Raimund forced himself to swallow the sigh that welled up.
Judging by that behavior, he might as well be a brat with a worse temper than Jessica. Had he never lived in a group setting before?
Just as Raimund washed the dirty cup and placed it on the drying rack, the doorbell rang loudly from the entrance.
Raimund wiped his hands on his pants and slowly made his way over.
“Yes, this is Poster 36.”
In contrast to his indifferent tone, the always-cheerful voice on the other end greeted him.
-Good morning, Mr. Geppert. How are things lately? Has your relationship with Friedrich improved?
“Hello, Ms. Cosette. Relationship? I’m currently planning how to drop him out a window without getting caught as the culprit. Would you like to hear it?”
Puhaha. Cosette on the other end started laughing heartily again.
-Just don’t let me find out. He may not look it, but he’s quite capable, you know. It’d be a shame if he died like that.
“I wonder. I’m starting to think capable people have a bias towards being dirty. Is that why you called?”
-Oh, of course not. I wanted to let you know that supplies from the Foundation Alliance will be arriving today. And I might be able to pass on a light request to you soon as well.
Ah, a request.
Raimund was reminded anew that he was under contract with the Foundation Alliance.
He was still afraid because he didn’t fully understand things yet, but to pay back the enormous sum of thirty million credits as soon as possible, refusing work was out of the question.
“What kind of supplies?”
-To put it simply, equipment you’ll use on the job. There’s also the minimum protective gear needed to enter anomalous phenomena.
“They even provide this kind of thing?”
-Well, since you don’t have any track record yet, we can’t give you anything too fancy, but if you keep at it, you might even be able to get a Grade 4 image. The Foundation Alliance values talented people, you know.
Raimund knew from Yokanar that the Foundation Alliance was always short-staffed.
But speaking of “images”…
“By the way, what exactly is the loupe or safety grade…?”
-Ah, the delivery person will explain that in detail. I’ve got a call coming in right now, you see? So hang in there, and if you have any other questions, ask Friedrich. Well then, bye!
*Click.* The line went dead.
Raimund stood there holding the receiver, dazed.
Ms. Cosette always comes and goes like a storm, doesn’t she.
If she had to go because of a call, there was nothing to be done, but… she must be busy.
As Raimund mulled over his faintly disappointed feelings and turned to goā
*Knock, knock.*
A low knock came from the front door.
Who could it be at this hour?
Approaching the door, Raimund peered through the peephole.
Standing there was a person in a black suit, carrying a large messenger bag.
Who could it be? Should he call Friedrich?
As he hesitated for a moment, a well-mannered query came from beyond the front door.
“Is Raimund Geppert there?”
The only people who knew he was here now should be Ms. Cosette, Friedrich, and people from the Foundation Alliance.
When Raimund cautiously opened the door, the visitor offered a polite greeting.
“Are you Mr. Geppert?”
“Uh, yes, that’s me.”
“Hello. I’m from the Foundation Alliance. This is my ID, and I’m visiting with authorization from Code Name Cosette. The purpose of my visit isā”
“H-hold on. Let’s not do this out here; please come in first.”
Raimund stepped aside and held the door open, but the visitor only looked at him with a puzzled expression.
They stared blankly at each other for a moment, and then the visitor let out an “Ah.”
“I heard you recently signed an external service contract. I also understand you have absolutely no prior experience in this field. Is that correct?”
“That’s right, I’m a complete novice.”
“Then I understand. From now on, when admitting outsiders who don’t reside in this house, please don’t let them in so defenselessly. Be sure to verify their certificate, their Foundation Alliance ID, and that their visit follows proper procedure.”
“Excuse me?”
What is this all about… Just as Raimund was about to ask back, something came to mind.
The family annihilation case Cosette had told him about.
Had that case also occurred because one of the family members carelessly opened the door?
Somewhat deflated, Raimund let the visitor inside. The visitor walked into the living room as if familiar with the place and immediately sat down on the sofa.
Thank goodness he’d cleaned the sofa quickly.
“Can I get you something to drink?”
“No, thank you. I’m fine. More importantly, I should properly introduce myself first.”
He reached into the inner pocket of his suit jacket and pulled out something, holding it out to Raimund.
The glossy plastic card featured an expressionless ID photo and the logo Raimund had seen in the lobby of the Foundation Alliance building.
“Nice to meet you. My code name is ‘Yona.’ It means dove, so feel free to call me Yona. I’m in charge of delivering supplies to the second residential district, including Poster 36.”
“I’m Raimund Geppert. Nice to meet you.”
“First, on behalf of the Foundation Alliance, congratulations on signing the service contract. The Foundation has high expectations for you, Mr. Geppert, regarding the securing of anomalous phenomena.”
There was that word again: anomalous phenomena.
At this point, he felt he should know exactly what it meant. But was it okay to ask?
The Foundation Alliance people talked about “anomalous phenomena” as naturally as breathing.
Noticing Raimund’s hesitation, Yona kindly spoke up first.
“Though my role is delivery, I can also answer any questions you might have about the Foundation Alliance, within the scope of my knowledge.”
“This is really my first time with all this, so it might be a stupid question, but… what exactly is an ‘anomalous phenomenon’?”
“Oh.”
He was silent for a moment.
Just as Raimund was about to blame himself for asking, Yona, who had maintained his characteristic neat posture, opened his mouth.
“An anomalous phenomenon is an anomalous phenomenon.”
“…Excuse me?”
“That’s the only way I can put it. To elaborate a little, ‘anomalous’āmeaning abnormalācould be seen as referring to a phenomenon that doesn’t follow the logic of the world we normally perceive using our sensory receptors.”
“Doesn’t follow logic?”
“Let me give you an example. Why can humans stand on the ground on this planet? It’s because of gravity. If I drop an apple in midair, the apple will hit the ground due to the law of gravity.”
“Right.”
“If that’s the logic and rules of the general world we recognize, then an anomalous phenomenon may or may not ignore those laws. Within an anomalous phenomenon, if you drop an apple, it could fly up into the sky, roll sideways, or simply disappear. Or it could turn into a banana.”
“That’s completely chaotic.”
“Anomalous phenomena appear within a certain range. That range is anomalous, and it’s impossible to know how
large a range a given phenomenon will have. A dangerous anomalous phenomenon doesn’t necessarily have a wider
range, nor does a safe one necessarily have a narrower one.”
“That’s also all over the place?”
“Yes. To put it a little more extremely, some anomalous phenomena manifest as something as small as the tip of a
needle, while others can appear large enough to engulf an entire city.”
“The size varies more than I thought.”
“The Foundation Alliance, for convenience, judges that a phenomenon from 3.3 square metersāabout 3.9 square
yardsācan affect humans, and suppresses anomalous phenomena to secure images.”
So they’ve set a minimum range for anomalous phenomena that could endanger people.
Raimund timidly raised his hand a little.
“Why do anomalous phenomena occur? Rather than chasing down each one as it appears, couldn’t we eradicate the
very cause of their occurrence?”
He knew that to get rid of the ants infesting a house, you had to destroy the anthill.
So surely, he thought, you could trace the cause of anomalous phenomena and eliminate them. That would be simpler.
But Yona shook his head at the question.
“Impossible.”
“Eh? Why?”
Looking at the bewildered Raimund, Yona gave a simple answer.
“Because to eliminate anomalous phenomena, you would have to eliminate this planet itself.”
