Episode 132 – Lion Cub (1)

Lion Cub (1)

Still, the museum was filled with the resonating sounds of classical music. The bodies of the two men who had tried to resist the villains were removed, and the rest, trembling in fear, held their breath.

──Just. All you need to do is stay here. That is your role.

Elise suddenly looked at her wrist. There were small pebbles on the spot where Shion had grabbed her, arranged like letters.

[I’ll explain later. Just stay still.]

After reading, she shook her wrist, and the pebbles scattered.

──As before, pointless courage and resistance only lead to meaningless slaughter. So, please rest comfortably.

The man obsessed with classical music left. His place was taken by a female masked figure. The woman who had attacked her. She approached the mages tied with electrical wires and gestured with her chin.

“Get up.”

The other masked figures forcibly stood up the mages, including Elise. Some resisted, but they were suppressed by the crackling—! high voltage current.

“Take them away.”

Elise glared at the masked female figure. It was essentially a threat. Remember my face – she seemed to say.

The masked figure didn’t flinch, and Elise was dragged away.

It was a prison.

There was a prison in this museum. A prison that had been restored for viewing, which had actually been used in ancient temples.

“…….”

Elise scanned the doors lined up in the long corridor. Each one was a solitary cell.

Her heart tightened for a moment.

Creak—

The female masked figure stood Elise in front of a solitary cell and opened the door.

“Go in.”

Elise instinctively resisted.

“……Go in.”

The masked figure pushed her hard. Elise shook her head. She struggled with all her might.

The masked figure sighed lightly and grabbed the back of her neck.

Crackle-!

The current ran, and with her strength drained, she was finally pushed inside.

Bang-!

The door closed.

─The door closed.

──The door closed.

Elise looked around the inside. It was all dark and completely blocked off.

“…….”

Her mouth was dry. Her breath was short. Her breathing was not continuous.

Crackle-! Crackle-! The pain from the electrical wires, which she could bear until now, suddenly felt as if her whole body was being drilled with an electric saw.

“Haah…… haah…….”

Just when her mind and body were about to give out.

Swoosh-

The sound of something opening.

Then, a slight light seeping in.

Elise quickly lifted her head.

A small square window attached to the iron door of the solitary cell. The observation window that the jailer had opened to monitor the prisoner.

Behind it, a masked man was standing at an angle.

Sssssssss…… Pebbles flowed in through the window gap and formed a shape.

[Are you okay.]

Elise just stared at it.

[It seems like these guys really don’t intend to harm the hostages. I’ll stay by your side, so hang in there.]

She slowly regained her senses. She stood up her drained body.

[You saved me before, too. So, we’re even.]

Thanks to that, her mind calmed down, and at the words ‘we’re even’, a faint smile formed on her face.

Elise leaned against the iron door, quietly sensing him beyond the wall.

“Pfoooh….”

A sigh of relief slipped through the tape-wrapped seams of her mouth.

“Thank you.”

She even managed to whisper a few words. Shion let out a low, hollow laugh.

But then.

─C03.

There was a presence approaching. Elise jerked away from the iron door.

It was that damned masked woman.

She shoved Shion aside and alternately looked at herself and Shion inside the cell.

─Why did you open this window on your own?

─……

Shion didn’t answer, and the masked woman, grinding her teeth in anger, asked in a furious voice.

─Who are you?

At that moment, Elise felt a strange stomachache. It was a pain as if her intestines were being cut off.

─Take off the mask.

Bang-! The window closed.

She was plunged into darkness again.

“Ugh!”

She wanted to shout no, but her mouth was already sealed. No, doing so would only advertise that he was on her side.

So, there was nothing she could do.

“……”

Elise leaned against the iron door.

What will happen to Shion now?

He’s not on their side, so if he’s exposed, he might…

Be killed.

…Because of me?

She closed her eyes, her lips trembling. Her dry eyelids became damp.

In them, certain illusions spread.

Dark blood. Intestines strewn on the floor. A torn throat. Dead people.

She was suffocating.

Even though she was breathing, she couldn’t breathe.

It felt as if her lungs had hardened like fibers and lost their function.

Elise looked around the space.

It was blocked on all sides.

Blood droplets sprouted like mold from the tightly sealed walls. The mold hatched bugs.

Bubbling. Rustling. Those horrible things quickly multiplied, fluttering their wings and exoskeletons, sticking to her……

Meow-

“……?”

Suddenly, a small voice flowed from somewhere.

Elise turned to look in that direction.

It was a cat.

From the corner of the cell, a cat was walking out.

Is it a hallucination?

No.

It’s the one I saw before.

A white and black cat.

The cat came up to her and rubbed its cheek against her.

─Hang in there. Hang in there.

It said in a childlike voice.

It’s not a hallucination, but it is a hallucination.

“……Haah.”

Is it thanks to the hallucination?

Her breathing slowly returned.

The mold, blood, and bugs had also disappeared without a trace.

She looked at the cat snuggling in her arms. The child comforting her. Looking into its eyes that sparkled like jewels, worrying about Shion, who had just been taken away, she fell into a sleep close to exhaustion.

* * *

“C03. I asked why you opened the window.”

Meanwhile, I was being interrogated by the masked woman.

“You. You’re not C03.”

C03 is my undercover identity. The masked woman standing in front of me is B04.

She’s an elite agent of the armed organization [Night Moon] that has occupied the entire museum.

“I won’t ask twice. Take off that mask.”

She cornered me against the wall, her aura flaring menacingly. I let out a small sigh.

“Give me 3 seconds.”

Crackle- Crackle-

She charged electricity in one hand, while clutching a knife in the other.

“3”

As she began the countdown.

“2-”

I immediately took off my mask.

“Is that enough?”

“……”

B04 stared at me in silence. The threatening current crackling in her hand gradually subsided, and she put away her knife.

“I don’t understand why you’re suddenly acting up.”

I said, looking at the glass window on my right.

There, reflected, was not my face but someone else’s. It was the face of ‘C03’, whom she had just mentioned.

I glared back at B04. She scrutinized my face, from my eyes and nose to my ears, but it would have been identical.

“What’s the problem?”

“……”

The inside story of this phenomenon and situation is…….

Let’s rewind back to three days ago.

──Three days ago.

I used the 「Notepad」 to recall the memory of Elise’s abduction. However, the information was limited.

The news stated that Elise Petra was kidnapped in the desert─ the act was committed by an armed organization [Night Moon]─ they were hiding in a base camp in the Arahall desert─ that was all.

Therefore, I was busy searching for the hideout, and thanks to Grawl’s geomagnetic radar, I was able to detect it in time.

It was a natural cave formed underground in the desert.

I approached the place in stealth.

There were dozens of members of [Night Moon] in the cave. As the number was too overwhelming for me alone, I first dispatched Grawl, who informed me that they were planning to raid a museum called ‘Partium’.

──Two days ago.

I searched for a member of [Night Moon] who matched my physique as closely as possible.

I could change my face, but not my body.

I finally found one.

He wasn’t particularly strong, but he didn’t seem like a mere foot soldier either. His height and weight were roughly similar to mine.

I waited for him to stand guard at the cave entrance.

─Meow.

The bait was Grawl.

‘…What’s a cat doing here?’

He frowned at the sight of a cat meowing at the entrance of the cave.

‘Get lost.’

He threatened by kicking a stone, but under Grawl’s feet was a mana stone. It was a temptation that a human couldn’t resist.

‘…Huh. Lucky me.’

We subdued him as he approached with a grin. Grawl formed a rock barrier to isolate the space, and I strangled him.

‘Kuh, kuhhh——’

I grabbed the unconscious man’s face. I memorized every feature, from his skin to his facial features. Following Akane’s advice, I faithfully manifested it onto my face, even the ears.

In addition, I utilized a relatively new feature of the 「Notepad」. I ‘extracted’ some memories from the unconscious man’s mind.

‘C03.’

His codename was C03. He was insolent and didn’t bow to his superiors.

Having absorbed his memory, I pretended to be C03.

I didn’t know where and how they would kidnap Elise, so I stayed in the cave, waiting for an opportunity.

──One day ago.

[Night Moon] finally briefed their operation. They planned to dig under the Partium Museum. They had detected some sort of ‘ancient artifact’ vibrations beneath it.

Their plan was to take the museum visitors hostage, steal the artifact, and then make a smooth escape.

──6 hours ago.

I found Elise at the Partium Museum. She had already been knocked out by B04, and when she woke up, she seemed to be trying to resist with the help of other mages, but [Night Moon] was too much for Elise to handle at the moment.

I approached her before she could do anything foolish or suffer unnecessarily. I firmly grabbed her wrist and took off my mask.

‘……?’

Elise’s expression at that moment was quite something. Her dumbfounded face was so funny that I unknowingly smiled and put a finger to my lips.

Shush.

──Present.

“Why are you suddenly acting up?”

I confronted B04. It was a behavior based on C03’s personality.

“……I misunderstood. Put it back on.”

B04 shrugged her shoulders. I grumbled as I put the mask back on. B04 asked in a somewhat softened tone.

“Why did you open the surveillance window?”

“I just looked because the face seemed familiar. B04. Don’t you know who that person is?”

“Shush.”

B04 put a finger to her mask’s lips.

“I know. The negotiation is already over.”

“You know? You’re holding her even though you know?”

“……Petra’s daughter. We’ll secure her as a hostage once we receive the promised money. Then we’ll abandon her in the middle of the desert.”

It was a crazy talk about making the entire Petra an enemy.

“And if she dies? You’re going to turn Petra into an enemy?”

“No.”

B04 glanced around subtly. It seemed like a matter not yet disclosed to the lower ranks.

“We’re saying we’ll kidnap her if we get the money from them.”

“So what does that mean…….”

I suddenly stopped talking. My head was spinning.

If we receive the ‘promised money’, we’ll kidnap.

Not extorting money after kidnapping, but ‘if we receive the money’, we’ll kidnap.

Receiving ‘money’ as a reward for kidnapping.

For some reason, those consecutive words in my ears…… sounded as if they were ‘doing a favor’ by kidnapping.

Something’s strange.

Either these guys have a screw loose, or they misspoke, or.

Or.

I slowly tilted my head. I looked at B04.

“……I also received the information in a hurry. If you understand, don’t make a fuss about it. We’ll get our fair share.”

At that remark, a certain person comes to mind.

Elise’s father── Ken Petra.

I knew him well.

A body as solid as diamond and a face resembling a lion.

He was already a ‘complete’ human being.

That’s not necessarily a good thing.

He was someone who wouldn’t allow anything other than his own beliefs to interfere. A man who could not be stained.

Someone who could never, ever be persuaded.

He was a knight like a furnace, relentlessly pursuing what he believed to be right, and infinitely fulfilling his own ambitions.

“Ah……”

Somehow, it was strange.

The more I thought about it, the more it seemed so.

Elise, for a child of the Petra family, was oddly involved in many incidents.

She had been the target of too many crimes.

She had been kidnapped, even had an entire passenger plane she was on hijacked, and had been the target of bomb terrorism and attempted assassinations at least half a dozen times.

Elise changed through these countless incidents.

She became a monster greater than Ken Petra, growing the Petra family’s stature into a giant without regard for means and methods.

Beside such a complete monster, there was a father who was satisfied.

To such Elise, Ken Petra willingly left all his inheritance.

“Go back. Leaving her alone is ‘their’ intention. We are thorough in negotiations.”

“……Just in case, I’ll stay by the door.”

“Permission granted.”

B04 stepped back, and I walked down the corridor of the solitary cell.

I stood in front of the place where Elise was imprisoned.

I stared at the tightly closed iron door.

Grawl is inside, so it should be fine. The worst situation won’t happen.

“……”

But, my heart feels a bit strange.

Is this sympathy, compassion, or a ‘Eureka’ moment after fully understanding Yael’s intentions?

I leaned against the iron door. Looking at the ceiling, I murmured softly.

“You too……”

Ken Petra probably made contact as soon as Elise got involved with [Night Moon].

But instead of rescuing her, he would have demanded a different ‘situation’.

“It must be hard, huh.”

A lion drops its cub off a cliff.

Even if the whole world condemns it as lunatic behavior, at least the lion would think it’s doing the right thing…….