Chapter 30
A room where darkness had settled thickly.
“Boring.”
“……What do you an by that?”
At Hughes’s quietly uttered words, Philia asked him back in a gentle voice, unlike during the day.
Then Hughes slightly lifted the head that had been buried in her arms, curled the corner of his lips upward, and spoke as if whispering.
“Isn’t this ti too peaceful?”
Philia softly brushed down Hughes’s characteristically curly light brown hair.
“Certainly, you must have felt it was a pity.”
“Yeah.”
She did not mind his manner of speaking, which capriciously mixed honorifics and casual speech.
If people who rembered her from the dayti had seen this, they might have suspected she had a split personality, given the affectionate touch and gaze.
“Ha-aam.”
Of course, Hughes rely continued his thoughts as if he did not care at all about how she looked at him.
“There’s supposed to be so fun in auditors fighting among themselves.”
The position of entrance auditor was not avoided for no reason.
Rather, this ti was the rare case.
Even now, thanks to diation by the Ministry of Defense and the various factions, bloodshed was rare, but just ten years ago, things had been different.
Fistfights were commonplace, and there had even been actual murder cases, so what more needed to be said?
Wasn’t it a pity?
He himself could do it if told to.
……Moreover, he had even t a suitable opponent.
For an instant, that unlucky, haggard face flickered through his mind, but he did not bother to reveal such inner thoughts.
“What can you do? They say the higher-ups ca to a good agreent among themselves.”
Saying that, Hughes freed himself from Philia’s arms where he had been buried for a long while and leaned his head against a pillow.
Then he gently brushed down her blonde hair, which shone even more under the dim lighting.
Srrrk.
There was clear affection in the touch that lingered at his fingertips before falling away.
But why was it?
A bitterness lingered at the corner of her mouth, as if that affection did not reach her.
“…….”
No, in truth, she knew.
She knew that the reason Hughes kept her by his side was not because he loved her, but because he was projecting soone else in her stead.
But Philia did not show it.
Rather, as if she intended to cover the longing for soone reflected in Hughes’s eyes with herself, she pulled him back into her arms once more.
“…….”
“…….”
How long had that warm silence continued?
Just as Philia could not overco her drowsiness, closed her heavy eyelids, and slowly let her head droop—
Knock knock-.
At the sound of soone knocking on the door of the quarters, Hughes raised his head and looked toward the door.
Following that, Philia, who had been just about to fall asleep with her eyes closed, also opened her eyes again and stared beyond it.
“Hm.”
Hughes turned his gaze to check the ti.
A little past 1 a.m.
At such a late hour, there was essentially no reason for anyone to co to the quarters of an instructor at a special service academy, who was treated practically as a semi-dignitary.
“This is troubleso.”
All the more so if it was an awkward situation of violating sexual discipline within the military.
With such banter, Hughes gestured for Philia to get dressed, then roughly slipped on the white shirt he had tossed onto a nearby chair.
Since he did not fasten the buttons, shadows were cast along the movent of his muscles, and behind him overlapped the shadow of Philia dressing herself.
“Who is it?”
As he asked that, a man’s voice standing on the other side soon ca through the speaker.
〔Planetary Defense Special Service Academy instructor. Rotten. I ca because there is sothing I need to discuss regarding the cadets.〕
He also glanced at the screen showing the area in front of the quarters door, and as the man said, it was the familiar sight of a lone instructor standing there.
On the surface, there was no problem.
Coming by late at night was rare, but still sothing that could plausibly happen.
……But why was it?
Why did murderous intent seem to seep in from outside the door?
“A discussion. Understood.”
Hughes nodded at Rotten’s words, while glancing back over his shoulder.
Philia had already thrown on so clothes at least, and after confirming that, Hughes opened the door without even thinking of buttoning his shirt.
“Now then, what is it?”
He opened the door and leaned his face out with a friendly smile.
However, what returned to him was not the instructor’s salute, but the blade of a spear thrust out precisely to pierce his neck.
Paaang!
In that split second, the only thing contained within the sharply extended spearhead was hostile intent (敵意) that was determined to kill.
“Kgh!”
Though it was an attack that no one could possibly react to, paradoxically, the instructor who had aid at him let out a cry close to a groan.
He had felt it instinctively.
That his attack had not worked.
Because of that, just as he was about to pull back imdiately—
Kkigik-.
A special weapon made of carbine alloy.
With the sound of its tip warping, his vision was dyed black.
“W-what?”
A question that surfaced like a death rattle, spat out in confusion.
That was Instructor Rotten’s last.
Thud-.
Rrroll.
A black shadow that had cleanly severed the neck quickly returned to Hughes’s side.
“Let’s see. The fact that an instructor from the Planetary Defense Special Service Academy intervened ans……”
In a low murmur, he spoke toward Philia, who had already finished her preparations and drawn her sword, without any intention of hiding the neatly split abdominal muscles beneath his shirt.
“After all, that would an a coup, wouldn’t it?”
And at that mont.
“No need to restrain them!”
“Kill them both!”
A group of special service officers rushed them all at once.
And at that sa ti.
Kwaaaaaaaaang!
Scattered explosions rang out from all around the colony.
Ordinarily, how many lower-gear special service officers were needed to face a higher-gear special service officer?
The answer was simple.
‘Unknown.’
A Gear was a virtual organ created within oneself to use ‘psionic energy,’ the very foundation of superhumans, more efficiently.
Naturally, using and operating it was entirely up to the individual.
In other words, even if it was the sa Gear, efficiency and output differed from person to person.
‘……Five Dual Gears. Two Triple Gears.’
Jin Crow maintained as much composure as possible as he swept his gaze over those surrounding him.
The adjutant had already quickly withdrawn, perhaps thinking his presence would be a hindrance, and among those remaining, one special service officer floated a dagger that looked like a special service weapon in the air and spoke.
“There’s no need for capture or conversion. We end this here.”
Those words were not directed at Jin Crow, but at the Defense Force special service officers surrounding him.
And imdiately after those words were spoken.
Kwaaaang!
Along with a thunderous roar, the dagger of the Triple Gear special service officer at the forefront surged forward.
“Don’t let your guard down! He’s at least a Quad Gear!”
What was contained in that shouted warning was hostility, along with resolve prepared for death.
Because of that, Jin Crow could not help but smile absentmindedly.
‘Who’s the one staking their life?’
Rather, the one who needed to stake his life was on this side.
Kagang!
Following a sword path engraved not just into instinct, but into the flesh itself, a jet-black blade blocked the surging dagger, but this was only the beginning.
“Keugh!”
Kwagwagwagwagwang!
“I won’t miss you!”
Vines that pierced the ground shot up and seized his ankle, while a special service officer who leaped while running along the tunnel ceiling brought down an axe in a single strike, aiming to split his body in half.
Had it been him just a short while ago—no, had he not gone through combat with Liberto—he would have suffocated under the surging malice and killing intent.
But…….
‘Cut the flank, twist the body to the left.’
Kkigik, kkigigik-.
Two gears rotating smoothly.
And a third, the Triple Gear, rotating with a creak as if rusted.
Psionic energy writhing along the circuits engraved within him aided his judgnt and movents, as if determined to keep its master alive, or to support his battle.
It was a heterogeneous sensation, similar to yet different from his forr unconsciousness.
“Keugh!”
“Keheok!”
He cut through the vines restricting his movent around the ankle, then kicked into the blind spot of the one charging while spinning his axe like a wheel.
Kwaaaang!
Thick dust covered his vision.
And in the next instant, a flash of light flickered before Jin Crow’s eyes.
“……!”
Feeling the killing intent pressing heavily against the back of his neck, he twisted his head.
And in that mont, the long-rotating blade of a dagger aid precisely at his neck grazed its edge.
Passt!
Blood sprayed, and Jin Crow slowly raised a hand to sweep across the nape of his neck.
What he felt through the leather glove was hot blood. Looking at the special service officer still glaring at him, he let out a hollow laugh.
“Let ask you just one thing.”
“……What is it?”
“Why are you going this far?”
It was an irritable murmur.
As if killing them posed no problem at all, yet he was simply curious about the reason.
Was it that they were unconsciously overwheld by that atmosphere?
Or was it because they wanted their pent-up resentnt to reach him as well?
“We know that the factions abandoned Rermal Planet. Do we need any reason beyond that?”
It was an answer spat out while biting down hard on his lip.
At that, Jin Crow gently closed his eyes, then slowly nodded.
“Yeah.”
The anger those before him felt was justified.
From their perspective, he too must have looked like nothing more than trash who consented to the harm, or an enemy.
‘There are no remaining possibilities to save Rermal Planet.’
It was not sothing he had failed to think over.
He also knew that the factions’ agreent was for their own convenience, not for the residents of Rermal Planet.
But he could not oppose it.
Setting aside the lack of power, he simply could not co up with a truly good alternative.
‘Then, should I die here?’
As if.
He shook his head.
Even if he had possessed a novel, he had not the slightest intention of becoming a hero who threw himself away to save everyone.
Everything was nothing more than a desperate struggle to sohow survive by moving this broken body.
Ssswk-.
He quietly opened his characteristic black eyes and slid a hand into his chest.
Soon, he took out a syringe filled with a heavy blue liquid and silently drove it into the nape of his neck.
“……Keuugh!”
It was none other than ‘Pentacle.’
His pale, haggard expression twisted as it was stained by pain, and the blood flowing along his tightly bitten lips mingled with the faint wound on his neck, soaking his white shirt red.
Veins stood out, and his pale skin turned even more deathly white.
His fingertips trembled, and a drop of cold sweat flowed down his cheek like a tear.
“……W-what.”
At that bizarre sight, the Defense Force special service officers did not move rashly.
No, it would be more accurate to say they could not move.
Jin Crow.
Though he himself did not intend it, the killing intent he had been half-instinctively suppressing until now burst forth in an instant and swallowed the tunnel whole.
‘W-what…….’
Whether Dual Gear or Triple Gear, whether ability-type or martial-type, it did not matter.
Before the overwhelming predator occupying the space could fully stretch, there was only one thought etched into the minds of the prey.
‘Run.’
‘W-we’re no match……!’
Fingertips trembling, they dropped the enhanced rounds they had been about to load.
“Hoo…….”
And finally, the mont Jin Crow fully suppressed the drug’s pleasure and exhilaration, pain and backlash, and opened his eyes once more.
“K-kill him!”
“Uwaaaaaaaaah!”
The special service officers who had beco prey scattered their final, near-instinctive struggle.
Kwaddeuk!
They kicked off the ground, tore at the tunnel walls, and swung greatswords larger than their own bodies.
Five Dual Gears, two Triple Gears.
The psionic energy they unleashed, each saturated with differing murderous intent and desperation, stretched out to tear Jin Crow’s body to pieces.
Kugugugugung!
At the very mont the tunnel collapsed from that impact, and tens, hundreds of tons of pressure ca crashing down upon them.
Jin Crow absentmindedly ford a killing-intent-laced smile that even carried a sense of rapture.
「National Army Swordsmanship No. 1.」
As if he had drunk blood, with lips split and bleeding, he murmured softly.
「Horizontal Slash.」
In that mont, the world of the enemies facing him was split cleanly in two.
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