Episode 202 – Encounters (3)

Encounters (3)

I peered into the cave from the entrance. Bell Moore’s weapon was, as always, eight hatchets.

Whirrrr────!

Bell Moore hurled six of the hatchets into the air. They flew like trained hawks, slicing through the enemy.

──!

However, the opponent was no ordinary werewolf.

The beast deflected all the axes with its claws. Kwajik─! Kicking off the ground, it charged at Bell Moore. The sheer force of the wolf sent pebbles flying.

Chang───!

Bell Moore swung the axes clutched in both hands.

Chang Chang Chang───!

The clashing of claws and axes. The sound of metal splitting. Sparks flying in a beautiful arc.

They exchanged dozens of blows in an instant, but suddenly, the wolf stretched out its leg and struck Bell Moore’s stomach hard.

─Kuk!

As Bell Moore was sent flying, the werewolf pursued him with a simple leap.

Bell Moore concentrated his magic on his hatchet and fired it. The wolf crossed its claws and cut it down.

Kwaaaaaaaa───!

The hatchet exploded. Magic particles filled the cave for a moment, and a crimson flame ignited. A fog of intense heat scorched the interior and rose.

Thanks to this, I can’t observe the situation even with the SZX-9500.

Chang─! Chang─!

I could only hear the ongoing battle.

I rushed towards it.

I quickly reached the battlefield, but the situation had already ended.

Bell Moore had passed out.

The werewolf on the other side was also nearly exhausted.

If I don’t intervene here, Bell Moore will probably die.

It’s an opportunity to get rid of a nuisance without lifting a finger…

However, the death of a colleague is a demerit on my career. It’s half a mission failure.

“…….”

I looked at the fallen Bell Moore.

This guy still has value.

……Grrrrrrrr.

The werewolf let out a low growl.

“Why did you kidnap her?”

I asked the beast. The werewolf took a step forward without a word. Blood dripped from the ear that had been cut off by the hatchet.

I spoke again.

“……Your colleague is alive.”

The beast trembled at that moment.

“Do you want to kill your colleague too?”

───!

The beast roared and charged at me. I prepared the 「Severing Sword」. For the exhausted wolf, the ‘First Sword’ would be enough.

However, I didn’t draw the sword. I struck the beast’s body with the sheath.

Thwack───!

A dull cracking sound echoed. The werewolf, hit by the sheath, was thrown back and buried in the wall.

I looked at the beast.

“It doesn’t seem like there are any reinforcements. Was it just you and your colleague from the start?”

The beast replied with just one word.

─Kill me.

“Your colleague is under someone’s ‘orders,’ I hear.”

─…….

“If you don’t speak, your colleague will die.”

─……It’s just the two of us.

I nodded my head.

“Did you kidnap the branch member because she discovered your existence?”

“……Yes.”

Branch member Sonya.

The woman who would later be recognized as Zia’s second-in-command, is currently under the eldest son, Derek.

“How did you know that branch member discovered your existence?”

“…….”

Then the beast shut its mouth.

Probably heard it from someone.

An insider who disapproves of Sonya’s business, or a traitor who pities the werewolves.

─Kill me.

The beast closed its eyes, as if it wouldn’t say anything more.

I pondered.

Werewolves live in hiding. They know that human society fears them.

Their time in hiding has been so long that werewolves are now half-considered legends on the continent.

Werewolves resemble wolves. They are objects of fear to those who don’t know them, but in fact, they are more honest beasts than anyone else.

It was Libra who forcibly dragged them out, and Libra who forcibly accepted them.

“……There’s a hideout to the east. Inside the roaring waterfall at the edge of a cliff.”

At that moment, the werewolf’s eyes opened again.

─……You!

He moved his body almost convulsively.

“Don’t worry.”

I had pondered for a moment.

Was the one who killed me before my regression a werewolf named ‘Webler’?

Or was it the ‘werewolf’ tribe?

Or was it ‘Libra’?

“Only I know so far.”

There’s no right answer.

But it’s certain that the wolf tribe is not at fault.

“Do you want to live? With your tribe.”

I asked him.

He didn’t answer, but I calmly continued.

“There’s still a way.”

It’s probably an offer he can’t refuse.

* * *

The third-ranked Branch of Libra, Sonnet Reville.

Also known as ‘Sonya’.

The young woman in her late twenties is the merit who boosted Derek to the position of first successor.

She is the mastermind who designed and completed the ‘Libra Industrial Complex’, which allows various affiliates to work closely together by reducing the number of subcontractors to escape the inefficiency unique to Libra’s defense industry, gathering production factories in one place, and placing them nearby. She is also a businesswoman who submitted a plan to close the Libra Orphanage and transform it into an economic section.

Well.

Having achieved various feats, she is now running away with a broken leg.

“……fucking leg.”

She has already resigned from her position as the youngest board member.

Although it was disguised as a ‘new challenge’, in fact, it was due to Derek’s order to ‘leave the family and look for things that can be used as weapons’.

There will definitely be a violent clash at the end of the succession dispute.

It’s a damn way to treat a merit.

“Kuk…… Keuk.”

Thanks to that, she is going down the mountain, almost dragging her leg.

She’s trying to escape on her own, not knowing whether the Chasers will win or lose.

Then.

“Where are you going?”

“!”

A voice came from behind her in an instant. Sonya’s body trembled as if she had been electrocuted. She staggered and fell forward.

“……Cough!”

“Are you okay?”

She hurriedly looked back. She saw him through her mud-covered eyes.

A man carrying another man on his shoulder.

“I’m Shion Ascal.”

“……Phew.”

Sonya let out a sigh of relief.

“Just wait a moment.”

Suddenly, he lifted the ground with his magic. He created a tunnel-like structure. He placed Bell Moore inside it.

Sonya asked blankly.

“Is he dead?”

“No. He’ll wake up on his own if we leave him here. His injuries aren’t life-threatening.”

“Is it a 「Spectrum」?”

“First, get on my back.”

He bent one knee and offered his back.

“…….”

It was a bit humiliating, but there was no choice given the situation.

Sonya climbed onto his back.

“Let’s go.”

“Yeah, fuck. My leg won’t move. I’m already being teased for being a branch member, and now they’ll mock me for being a crippled branch member.”

“……It can be healed.”

“No. I know my body. I missed the golden time.”

“……But. More importantly.”

He asked as he descended the mountain.

“You knew about the werewolves, didn’t you?”

“Yeah. I discovered them recently.”

Werewolves are a significant force. If only they could be brought under Derek’s control, they could defeat Johanna with just three years of training, regardless of any balancer.

“I found them by chance. I’m not sure about their hideout yet…… but they’re a race that can be used as weapons. It’s important who gets them. Which side are you on?”

“I serve the youngest, Zia.”

“……The youngest? Zia?”

“Yes.”

Sonya let out a small smile.

“Are you a guy with no ambition, or a guy with ambition so big it’s unspeakable?”

He didn’t answer. His face was not clearly visible as she was riding on his back.

Thump─ Thump─

When they had descended the mountain to some extent, he opened his mouth again.

“Why did the werewolves-”

“Call me Sonya.”

“Why did they kidnap you, Sonya?”

“What else? The information leaked.”

As soon as Sonya discovered the werewolves, she reported to Derek.

Coincidentally, the werewolves attacked the very next week.

It means there was a traitor who leaked the information.

The most likely candidate is, of course, ‘Johanna’, the eldest daughter who is wary of the eldest son Derek’s power.

“Where are you from? What’s your name?”

“I’m Shion Ascal. From Edsilla National Magic-”

“No. Of course, you’re from a national university. I’m asking about your other background. If you’re a Chaser, you must have some connection with Libra.”

“I’m from the Libra Orphanage.”

“Orphanage?”

“……Yes.”

“Is that so?”

Sonya glanced at him. She made a slightly strange expression.

Just then, he spoke.

“Now we can see the city.”

They had left the border area, and a quiet city came into view.

“Uh… hey.”

Sonya nodded her head but then suddenly pointed somewhere.

“Over there. Let’s stop by.”

Where her finger pointed, there was a shop named [Candy Bar].

* * *

[Candy Bar]

As soon as Sonya entered, she began scooping up chocolates. I just watched her quietly. Somehow, she seemed like she would get along well with Gerkhen.

“Don’t you eat candy?”

Sonya whipped around to face me.

“Do you like that kind of stuff?”

“No. It’s all sweet, isn’t it?”

“I don’t. It’s not about the sweetness.”

She fluttered the edge of a chocolate wrapper in her hand.

“It’s this that I like.”

“Yes. We don’t have much time. The pursuit team might catch up to us.”

“Right, right.”

Sonya placed the chocolates on the counter.

“We need to find the insider quickly and deal with them.”

I didn’t show much reaction to Sonya’s words.

The traitor.

The insider she was thinking of would likely be ‘Johanna,’ as she suspected. Since Sonya had been instrumental in elevating Derek to the top spot, she would be an obstacle for Johanna.

However, Derek was surprisingly not proactive in rescuing her.

“Did only the two of you come?”

Sonya probably knew.

If he had been proactive, he would have deployed a balancer.

“Yes. Don’t worry. I will protect you.”

“……”

Derek dislikes being second best. So, outwardly, he might pretend to care, but inwardly, he’s probably plotting how to dispose of her.

In other words, he’s a dick.

Sonya, having been discarded time and time again, ends up joining hands with Zia.

“That will be 530 ren.”

The counter said.

“Uh……”

Sonya fumbled in her pocket. Naturally, there was no cash, and she sneakily looked back at me. I shrugged my shoulders.

“I don’t have any money either. Let’s use a promissory note.”

I took out a notebook from my pocket and tore out a page.

“Let’s do that. Hey. Got a pen?”

Sonya asked the counter.

“Oh, we don’t do credit…”

“It’s not credit. It’s Libra.”

“……”

Sonya snatched the pen hanging from the counter’s chest. She wrote a promissory note in the notebook and signed it.

Before she could hand it over to the counter, I took it first.

And……

[I, as the third bloodline of Libra and a resident of the Aerial Garden, guarantee the payment of 530 ren.]

[Sonnet Revil]

I 「Memorized」 her handwriting and signature.

I hope she becomes an outright enemy of Libra. I hope she gets bounced out of Libra.

Because you cannot be Zia’s second in command.

Because I must be Zia’s second in command.

Therefore, starting today, I will begin to plot.

I passed the check back to the counter.

“Please take it. You can cash it at the nearby Libra bank.”

The counter looked skeptical but reluctantly accepted it.

Click—click—

Suddenly, the lights went out. Fizz—fizz—a strange noise came from the filament, and beyond the window, the silhouette of a wolf appeared on the distant hill.

“It seems to be a tracker.”

“Ah, shit.”

Sonya frowned while snapping open a chocolate bar.

“Do you have a car?”

I asked the counter. The counter, sweating, replied.

“There is one, but…”

“Sonya, let’s just add the car fare.”

“Ah, fuck. Fine.”

Sonya scribbled another sentence in my notebook.

“30,000 Ren. Take it. Where’s the car and the keys?”

“In the back parking lot…”

The counter staff pointed towards the back door.

“And the car keys?”

“Here, here—”

I snatched the car keys the staff had pulled out. Sonya called out to me as I was about to leave.

“You need to take the chocolate too!”

“…Yes.”

I slung the bundle of chocolates over my shoulder, left the store, and opened the car door. I shoved the bundle into the back seat.

“Damn it! This piece of shit car isn’t worth 30,000 Ren, not even 10,000!”

Sonya, who had already climbed into the passenger seat, exploded in frustration as she surveyed the car’s interior, which resembled a junkyard.

“Let’s consider it a special circumstance. And.”

I lifted Sonya in a swift motion and placed her in the driver’s seat.

“Go ahead. I’ll hold off the pursuer.”

“…What?”

“We can’t avoid him with the car. That means I’ll buy us some time. Can you drive? If it’s manual—”

“I drive stick, asshole!”

“Good.”

I closed the car door.

Swoosh— I drew my sword from my waist.

“Go.”

“…Are you really going to be okay?”

Sonya looked at me through the window with a slightly strange expression.

“I’m fine. I only serve Libra.”

“I’m a bastard child, you know.”

“The same goes for me.”

“…What?”

Sonya looked at me with a slightly twisted brow.

“Even a bastard child, to me, is a Libra with Libra’s blood mixed in.”

“…That’s a dangerous thing to say.”

Sonya had probably faced discrimination as a bastard child. Not only Sonya. The bastard children of Libra are practically treated as slaves by the direct descendants, even worse than outsiders.

“Go.”

“…Alright. Let’s see each other when you come back. I’ve memorized your face.”

It was a threat disguised as a compliment.

Vroom—!

She immediately stepped on the accelerator and slid into the darkness.

Right after that.

Crash—!

A werewolf plummeted from the sky.

—Ugh!

Sonya’s dying scream drifted faintly from afar.

Her car swayed and sped away faster, and I thrust my sword at him. He blocked it with his claws.

Clang—!

The sound of our blades clashing. A loud resonance.

We looked at each other, weapons drawn.

—…

“…”

After about a minute of stillness.

—…So what do we do now?

The wolf asked.

I sheathed my sword and took a step back.

“Just pretend to fight.”

—Alright.

The werewolf accepted my proposal.

Up until now, it had all been a play to build ‘trust’ with Sonya.