My Measurement: The Villain Desires a Satisfying Payback

For a while after revealing to the twins what my plans were, I felt a heightened level of confidence.

Sana and Sona.

With those two by my side, nothing can stop me, and I had no doubt that I would be able to claim the truth I ultimately wished for.

As I spent the vast majority of my time cooped up in the laboratory, making gradual progress on developing the Measurement evolution drug, I felt more comfortable leaving the twins to get on with their training or whatever else it was they desired at their own leisure and without pressure.

There was no need to keep them on such a tight leash any longer as I used to, and doing so wouldn't bring any benefits either way.

Being overly strict could only lead to the adverse of what I was aiming for, and having already confirmed the girls' utmost loyalty for me, there was no need to be so demanding of them; at this point, it was far more effective to allow them to take it easy since there was nothing I explicitly needed from them right now anyway.

Besides, I was already beginning to see the limits of their Supernatural Ability training; I foresaw that there was not much room for growth left for them without undergoing further enhancement of their powers, and so pushing them to train despite that, wouldn't garner results worth considering.

Speaking of which, artificially enhancing the twins' Supernatural Abilities myself was something I had seriously contemplated for a while in the past, but I eventually pushed it aside for later because their training was already going well by itself, and I didn't want to disrupt that with something overly ambitious.

There was also the fact that their frail bodies likely wouldn't have been able to handle it at the time; there was no need to take the risk, so I discarded the thought.

In fact, such a thing might still hold true even now since, not only were the girls very young even now, but the twins were also particularly small for their age, so, for that reason, I remained a little hesitant about it.

However, after this serum was finally completed, I contemplated working towards that being my next project, but it was still in the middle of consideration.

I wasn't even sure if I had enough time for that, anyway, so it might be an unnecessary worry.

For now, I should just focus on completing the serum.

After all, as I have mentioned before, once that is done, I don't think there'll even be a need for me to use any other petty tricks to attain strength in a quick and dirty way.

Once I take it, so long as it works, then that will be the end.

Because, if you think about it, what--

...No, nevermind.

I'm getting sidetracked.

In any case, it was difficult to manage my greed when I didn't know how much time I had left, and being unable to know what exactly my opposition might be plotting only intensified my concerns.

There was no way for me to know when they would make a move, what they would do, or how they would do it.

Nevertheless.

I had no choice but to act.

And I had to do it sooner rather than later.

It was not just silly organisations like the Order or the Wardens that we were dealing with anymore.

Monsters.

Araceli Arévalo and Azaki Kiryuuin.

Before those two freaks of nature―anomalies of the world that, frankly, shouldn't exist―would come after me.

Before then, I had to make a choice, and I had to act.

I don't know what exactly they are capable of, or to what extent they can predict my moves.

But, whatever the case, what I have to do remains unchanged.

A quick and dirty method.

The question I need to answer.

How do I go about uncovering the secrets of the world?

Somehow, I needed to find a way to sate my curiosity; I needed to do it fast, and it would be preferable to do it in a manner that carried low risk.

According to what my fate was foretold to be, as well as what everyone had said up until now, there was no doubt that I was able to do it.

Without uncertainty, it should remain absolutely true that I am capable of answering that question.

The question was, how exactly?

Of course, my Measurement of Truth had always been rendered useless when it came to Forbidden Knowledge, but that wasn't something I blamed him for.

The inherent cruelty of the world wasn't his fault, after all.

Anyway, the first possibility to pop into my mind was going to the Professor, Marcus Lynton, and interrogating him.

I thought that, if anyone could give me an answer, it would be him.

And, in a vacuum, that might be true.

Then, I immediately realised that he was not someone who would just tell me what I want to hear simply because I asked, and he was certainly not the type of person who would give in to whatever kind of torturous interrogation I subjected him to.

That man was a bona fide crazy person, more so than anyone else, and he wouldn't let something like mere physical pain get in the way of his ultimate goal of 'eliminating human curiosity' by satisfying every possible question humans could come up with.

The thought alone of such a thing was insane, and if you take into consideration that he was the person who started this entire mess from the very beginning, there was no way in hell he would tell me anything.

Even if I proposed to work with him, what he wants is my Truth, not me as a person; all he would do is deceive and try to capture me.

At that point, my end would be set in stone.

Marcus Lynton was just that kind of absurd and inexplicable person, and going to him would likely only accelerate my troubles than eliminate or solve them.

So, asking the Professor was instantly crossed off the list.

Needless to say, I also couldn't ask Araceli or Kiryuuin, who were the two individuals coming after me to stop me in the first place, so my only choice left was to locate and visit a third party who might know something.

More precisely, I needed someone who could help me to 'figure out' what happened.

Over the course of the next week or so, ignoring the call to go to school completely, I used the sparse time during my breaks of drug development and went through every possibility to find such a person.

And, eventually, I did.

It took a little longer due to restricting the search to people within the city as I didn't want to waste time travelling far―that would also carry immense risk, so this was the safest option.

Nevertheless, I found him.

Michael Guff; a person whose Measurement I named simply after hearing the brief description from Truth:

The Measurement of Invoked Memories.

A power that would call upon the target's dormant memories, experiences, and emotions, calling them and drawing them forth.

If there was anyone who might be able to not just tell me what happened on the day of my escape, but show me what happened, then it would be him.

As soon as I read the ability description, my heart pounded like never before; an incredibly rare occurrence.

Staring at his name and face plastered together on the document in front of me regarding his background information, I felt that this was it.

Michael Guff.

This person was my last hope.

If asked to explain why I hadn't done something like this sooner, I wouldn't know what to say.

To be completely honest with you, I don't remember anymore if I had once considered doing this.

That is, finding someone who could read my memories or who likewise had the ability to see or tell me what happened on the day of my escape from the Playground.

It's possible that I had never considered it, and it's just as possible that I had thought of it, but discarded the idea for one reason or another.

Or perhaps.

Perhaps it's that I was scared.

Maybe, after not being able to recall the details of what had happened and only knowing that I had escaped the Playground for the first time in my life due to some inexplicable event, I was frightened of finding out what the truth was.

It would make sense for an ordinary person, but I wasn't sure about myself.

Because, I don't think I would be afraid of something minor like that.

I also don't remember feeling afraid, but perhaps I had simply blocked that part out subconsciously.

In any case.

Whatever the truth was, didn't matter.

Because, now, the time had finally come for me to know.

To reveal the past that had remained hidden behind a veil of taboo obscurity for so long.

To catch a glimpse of the truth that lay behind all of this.

That's right.

Soon, I would make the big reveal, and then?

The truth would remain Forbidden Knowledge no longer.