Chapter 186
I recovered my strength and ditated in the safe house. When I opened my eyes, Anguis Regina was feeding the assassin with a spoon.
"She tried to kill you. You don’t have to take such care of her. Just put the food in a bowl, and she’ll probably shove her face into it like a dog."
Leaning against the wall, I blinked my bloodshot eyes. In battle, the second most fatigued organ after the brain was, without a doubt, the eyes. I had been pushing the limits of my cybernetic vision every ti.
"But she’s still pitiful. It’s not like I have a personal grudge against her."
An absurd sense of sympathy.
"If that woman were a young man, would you still feel the sa way?"
"That kind of assumption is aningless. What’s in front of isn’t a young man but a dying old woman."
Anguis Regina didn’t respond to my provocation. The assassin let out a rough, tallic chuckle.
"You’re wandering because you have nowhere to stand, kid."
She spoke as she struggled to swallow her food. I tilted my head slightly, arms crossed.
"Just because you’re old, you’re trying to act wise? You’ve actually gotten stupid. Your brain function and cognitive abilities have deteriorated."
"That’s also true. But being smart doesn’t an everything you say is right, and being foolish doesn’t an everything you say is wrong. People like you, who wander without a center... either crave excessive love or seek to be excessively hated. You need to be crushed under extre emotions just to feel certain of your own existence."
"And there are those who babble pretentiously, thinking it makes them seem impressive."
"You used to struggle endlessly yet still sought the right path. You moved with an internalized belief of your own. Even if it was a candle flickering in the storm."
I shouldn’t respond. I knew that, and yet I kept talking to her.
"You’re the one who said there’s no such thing as right or wrong."
"But you boldly replied that there is—at least for yourself."
"If you want to lecture people so badly, why don’t you beco a teacher instead of an assassin?"
"I already am. Assassination is just a side job."
For the first ti, personal information slipped from the assassin’s lips. Rather than being surprised, I sharpened my focus, fishing for more.
"Did you use your dirty money to build a school and teach kids? How touching. Very noble of you."
"The way Akies Victima speaks is always amusing. The mont you think you’ve extracted information from , you subtly prod at the next piece, trying to guide the conversation in your favor."
"I thought Akies Victima was so kind of incredible secret art, but everyone I et seems to know about it. Kinda kills the excitent."
"It’s not common, but it’s not exactly rare either. In this field, the only thing you could truly call rare are Force users."
I agreed with that.
"So, all I have to do is find a school run by an old woman and utterly destroy it? Since I know your face, it shouldn’t be too hard."
The assassin only laughed at my threat.
"You won’t even be able to find it, and even if you do, you won’t go through with it."
"I can do it."
The wrinkles at the corners of the assassin’s mouth deepened.
"My na is Ragnata Anima. I was born a wandering nomad, belonging nowhere. And now, I run the Anima Traveling School. It’s a school that accepts any Nomad who wishes to learn."
I had gathered more information. But it was hard to hide my extre displeasure. Frankly, I would have preferred not knowing this at all.
"Sounds like you’re eager to watch your precious students die one by one."
"You frowned the mont you heard what I said. Drop your pathetic pride, child. You’re not the kind of person who kills the innocent on a whim just to vent your anger. You need proof and a reason that justifies their death."
The assassin, Ragnata, scraped at my nerves. And soon, I realized her intent.
’Damn old hag...’
I felt like I had walked right into a trap.
Let’s say I lost my temper and killed Ragnata. That would only make think about the traveling school she ran. If I ever had spare money, I might even feel compelled to fund it.
After all, Ragnata was already in my hands, her future uncertain. As an assassin, her skills would only decline from here. It would be difficult for her to provide further financial support for the school. Rather than clinging to her own life, she must have decided it was better to gamble with it, planting a sense of debt in .
’And if I don’t kill Ragnata or take revenge on her school... then I’d just be proving that I’m all talk, a weak-willed idiot who only knows how to make empty threats.’
I knew it. This was nothing more than a pointless battle of pride. And yet, I had already lost. I didn’t have the stomach to wipe out the Anima Traveling School.
I searched for a way to change the subject, looking for a way to strike back.
"So, I guess I finally understand why you didn’t kill back then. No matter how much you dress it up with fancy words, in the end, I must have reminded you of one of your students, huh?"
"That’s right. There are a lot of kids like you at our school. I just couldn’t bring myself to kill you with my own hands. So I ca up with a reason that I could accept and left you alive."
She admitted it so easily that I had nothing left to say. Ragnata was even willing to acknowledge her own weaknesses.
...It seed she hadn’t lived all those years for nothing. At the very least, she was more of an adult than I was. Well, considering she was much older, it made sense.
My mind cooled down. I stopped wasting energy on emotions and checked the situation outside through my terminal. There was still no contact from Jafa.
Looking at the terminal, I saw the news broadcasting live coverage of the attack. They even had comntary, as if it were so kind of sports match. Every ti I saw things like this, I was reminded of just how frivolous—no, downright vulgar—Border City’s culture was.
-Unbelievable! Jafa Trading! The building is holding up without collapsing! Only the outer walls have been damaged and set ablaze by the explosions!
-It’s like an impenetrable fortress! Could they have been prepared for a day like this? It looks like nothing short of a full-scale bombing could bring it down.
-Ah, there! The unidentified attackers are in view. We see Equessians, Crawlers, as well as Saura and Fredo. It’s practically an all-star team of combat species. Ah, but of course, there are plenty of humans, too. Humanity can still hold its own in battle!
The situation was exactly as described in the broadcast. Ard rcenaries of various species were attempting to storm Jafa Trading’s headquarters. But Jafa wasn’t sitting still. Gun barrels erged from the building’s windows, firing relentlessly at the intruders.
’A siege battle in the middle of the city... how ridiculous.’
This wouldn’t happen in any other city. Even in other cities within the sa federation, things wouldn’t escalate to this extent. If a situation got this out of control in Akbaran’s lower districts, the military would have already intervened to suppress it.
"Looks like it’ll be settled with indoor combat. Even in Border City, if the damage spreads too much, outside forces will step in."
Ragnata shrugged and laughed. At this point, it didn’t matter to her anymore.
I thought for a mont before grabbing Ragnata by the scruff of her neck and stuffing her into a duffel bag. I heard the sound of a few more bones breaking, but that wasn’t my problem.
Ragnata must have realized what I was planning. Anguis Regina, standing beside , looked at with confusion.
"I’m heading to the headquarters to support Jafa. I can’t leave this woman here with you, so I’ll take her with . If necessary, she can serve as a human shield against bullets coming from behind."
I slung the duffel bag over my back. From inside, I heard Ragnata chuckling.
"Jafa will hold out sohow..."
Anguis Regina spoke as if trying to dissuade .
"If you just sit back and watch and Jafa ends up dead, then I’m in trouble too. I told you earlier, didn’t I? I owe Jafa a debt. And close-quarters indoor combat favors people like ."
It wasn’t Anguis Regina who responded to my words, but Ragnata.
"And your body must be itching for action. A young man burning with heat wouldn’t be satisfied with just ."
...It was true, but the way she put it was a bit off-putting.
* * *
I walked a long way after leaving the safe house.
"Getting sympathy from your assassination target? If it were , I’d have bitten off my tongue and killed myself. Though, biting your tongue to death is harder than it sounds."
I spoke to Ragnata as I walked through the streets. She was peeking her head out from inside the duffel bag. True to Border City’s nature, few people paid us any attention.
"Do I look like I’m in a position where I have the luxury to feel sha? More than that, Anguis Regina was more rational than I expected."
"She just pretends to be. That woman harbors her own monster."
"The ones without inner monsters are the real monsters. It ans they can survive in this insane world without needing to create one."
It seed difficult to beat Ragnata in a battle of words. The way she spoke, her taphors, and her choice of vocabulary all suggested she wasn’t bluffing about being a teacher. She had definitely read a fair number of books.
Carrying Ragnata on my back, I made my way toward Jafa Trading’s headquarters. The morning sun had risen, but the sky remained dark with acrid smoke.
The closer I got to the headquarters, the more spectators there were. Individuals and companies alike were broadcasting the event, filling the area with noise. Many bystanders had gotten caught in the crossfire and were lying wounded, while corpses littered the ground.
"If you’d succeeded in assassinating Francec, there’s a high probability a war would have broken out. You’re a terrible person, Ragnata."
"For Nomads like us, war is an opportunity. The current political landscape is too stable for our liking. The three major powers are maintaining a delicate balance of cooperation. Listen, kid, to rulers and politicians, peace and war aren’t things to be pursued as ideals or convictions—they’re just tools to be used depending on the situation. Regardless of my actions, when the ti cos that war is needed, Planet Novus will be set ablaze."
"You’re dodging the point. I criticized you for putting your finger on the trigger of war, not for the nature of war itself. Don’t inflate the discussion with grand talk to obscure the real issue."
Ragnata fell silent for a mont before smirking and speaking again.
"...You’re surprisingly kind, little berserker. You kill people, yet you still want to save them. That’s an incredibly painful path to walk."
"I never wanted to save anyone..."
I reflexively responded but shut my mouth midway. That wasn’t true. In fact, it had happened quite a lot. There had been plenty of tis when I saved people even when there was no benefit to ... quite a few, actually.
The duffel bag trembled. Ragnata was laughing even harder.
Thud!
I struck the duffel bag with my elbow and kept moving forward. With no police or military forming a barricade, no one stopped from walking straight into the danger zone.
Creak.
I pulled out a mask from my coat and put it on. Too many eyes were on . It was about ti I started managing my identity.
"Soone is going inside! He’s got a strange old person strapped to his back. Is this a lunatic trying to commit suicide with his grandmother?"
They really spouted nonsense without a second thought. Ignoring the reporter with the microphone, I stepped into Jafa Trading’s headquarters.
The intruders I saw on the news had already broken through the lower floors. They were climbing upward like scaling a tower, heading for Jafa at the top.
Sizzle.
The entrance of the building was still hot from heavy weapon fire. The frawork and debris still radiated intense heat.
But the interior was relatively intact. Other than the external walls and decorations shaken by the impacts and vibrations, the structure itself remained solid. It was impossible to guess just how sturdy this building had been constructed. It had durability surpassing most military facilities.
The intruders were using various routes to ascend. Naturally, the elevators had been shut down long ago.
"Jafa."
I attempted to connect to the building’s internal communication line.
Static. Crackle.
The connection wasn’t easy. It seed like signal interference had been deployed throughout the entire building.
Well, it didn’t matter. The mont of liberation had finally arrived.
The grotesque monster inside , one that could swallow even my troubled thoughts, was raising its head.
"You’ve finally found people you’re free to kill as much as you want, boy."
Ragnata added her comntary.
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