"Is this the limit of justice…"

Crepes·Clair murmured deeply with a meaningful tone.

"?"

Although Ryuto felt puzzled, his thoughts were quickly interrupted.

"I'm very sorry for asking you such a question at this time, after all, this is my personal issue."

"Ah, it's no big deal."

"Alright, the time is almost here, I wish Mr. Amagi all the best."

"Okay…"

You're really talking nonsense without thinking…

Just as Ryuto was mocking silently, he suddenly saw a few figures in his field of vision.

Is it those people?

So Ryuto adjusted his posture again.

Well, it's more like maintaining the pose of aiming the gun at the hostage.

By the way, my hand is really sore, terrorists really can't be amateurs at this, huh?

In the blink of an eye, those people approached.

They were four young men dressed in identical black attire.

Damn, is this the standard uniform for terrorists?

One of them took the lead to speak as they got closer.

"Ah, you've worked hard."

Casually greeting, Ryuto naturally responded.

"It's nothing."

Anyway, he should act like he's very familiar with them, even though he didn't even know their names.

"Huh...?"

But upon hearing Ryuto's reply, the man immediately sounded puzzled, shifting his gaze from the hostage to Ryuto.

Of course, Ryuto noticed this too.

At the same time, Ryuto was full of confusion. Has he been found out? Shouldn't be a problem, even though he himself thinks he lacks social skills, at the very least…

This should still be passable.

"Who are you? Why don't I recognize you? Your voice doesn't sound like the person I talked to last night, right?"

The leading man questioned Ryuto with a serious expression.

"…"

Well, it's normal that he doesn't recognize me. I don't even know him, and, it wasn't me who talked to him last night. Although I really want to say that, the reality doesn't allow it, it would probably mess things up.

So Ryuto forced a wry smile and said, "Ah, well, it's like this, it was my younger brother who talked to you last night."

"Your younger brother?"

"Yeah."

Ryuto couldn't help but nod. It's better not to answer, with this reply, the man stepped even closer, and his gaze became more fierce.

"You said it was your younger brother?"

The man confirmed once again.

"Yeah, is there a problem…?"

"But the person I talked to should be older than you."

"Huh? Really?"

"Ah, of course, do you think I misheard? And why are you the only one here?"

As he said that, the man glared even more fiercely, and even the people beside him assumed a guarded position.

"…"

Didn't expect to be exposed so quickly?

It seems I really don't have a talent for acting; I'll have to rely on hard work now.

"Ah... I remember now, maybe that person was my older brother."

"My older brother? Don't you know who your older brother is?"

The man clearly didn't accept this explanation.

So Ryuto had to come up with more lies.

"I actually wasn't here at that time."

"Not here? That could explain it, but where did you go? You didn't have any other tasks at that time, right?"

At this point, Ryuto suddenly put on a pained expression.

"I actually went to visit my mother."

"Your mother?"

"Yeah, actually, my mother suddenly fell ill yesterday, and the three of us brothers coincidentally got a kidnapping assignment, so, I had to go visit my mother alone…"

Well, that's about all I can think of, after all, it's impromptu. But even I feel it's so fake, the timing of this illness is just too perfect.