Two-Person Galactic Journey: Earth Was Destroyed While Imprisoned in Space Prison Chapter 74

Chapter 74

To sum up Carlos Beliatch in one phrase, he was an inefficient petty crook.

His first brush with cri ca before he turned ten—he stole unattended luggage. Egged on by so bad friends at the ti, he swiped a traveler's bag. The naive traveler, who was reasonably well-off, had a good sum of cash in the suitcase. Even after splitting it with his friends, the leftover spending money was enough to hook him on the taste of cri.

The boys continued committing petty cris, but they never had the guts to join the local mafia. As he grew up, Carlos beca a half-baked criminal, grumbling about his lot in life while scraping by on pickpocketing and small-ti theft.

He had no idea what had caused the downfall of the planet called Earth. But one day, the world began to collapse at an accelerating pace, and before long, everyone left alive could feel the end drawing near.

Even then, Carlos struggled to survive while cursing his fate. He had already been barely scraping by before society collapsed, so it didn't affect his lifestyle much. Living apart from the desperate masses, he eventually heard rumors of a paradise.

The Port of the Ark. That was the na of the place he spent months walking toward. After barely surviving the journey, he finally arrived. On the day he boarded one of the first hundred thousand ships to soar into the sky, he thought for the first ti that he might actually be lucky.

***

"......How did it co to this?"

"What's wrong, partner? Don't mope—go find so food. You don't want the boss to beat us again, do you?"

Carlos didn't reply to his partner Damian's jab and instead grabbed a beetle perched on a tree.

The place Carlos was sold off to for servitude wasn't that bad. At first, he thought he wouldn't last, but eventually he even considered spending the rest of his life there.

However, after drawing the attention of Tarlmache, the owner's business began to fail. Even knowing Tarlmache's bad reputation, the owner sold Carlos off. Though it was unfortunate, Carlos couldn't really bla him—he'd have done the sa in that situation. At first, at least.

"Oh, not bad. I'll hold onto this one. Go get the next one."

"No."

"Huh?"

"If we don't get enough, you'll just claim it as your own and take credit, right? I'm taking this one. You go find your own, Damian."

"Tch... I said I was sorry about last ti, didn't I? I won't do it again."

"......Yeah, right."

When he found out he'd been sold off as gourt food for Tarlmache, he cried and lost his mind. His gratitude toward the place that sold him quickly turned into hatred. That was when he t Damian Sigmund, who shared the sa fate.

At first, he oddly got along with Damian, who had a similar background. As they comforted each other while awaiting their fate as food, Carlos ca to understand a fundantal difference between them.

Damian was evil. Far more than Carlos himself.

Even his apology just now was only words. If the sa thing happened again, Damian would undoubtedly betray him again. And then offer another insincere apology with a smirk.

Even after being assigned under Segari Gug and forced to hunt Earthlings, it was the sa. Damian skillfully promoted himself, and Carlos ended up as the lowest of the low.

Carlos, who was never good at reading the room, often got beaten when Segari Gug was in a bad mood. Damian always managed to dodge responsibility and pin the bla on Carlos. Just like his older brother, who once turned him in to the police for pickpocketing.

"No luck. Seriously, no damn luck."

"I really am sorry, okay? Hey—"

He realized that places of corruption were no different on Earth or in the universe.

Submission to the strong, cruelty to the weak, and never trusting anyone completely.

"Hey, how long are you useless bastards gonna take!? Where's the food!? If you don't bring it soon, I'll beat you all to death and feed you to the master!"

"Eek!"

"D-Damn it!"

Damian snatched the beetle from Carlos's hand and took off running.

"D-Don't take it personally, Carlos!"

"Damian, you bastard!"

He tried to chase him, but Damian was faster. Giving up quickly, he decided to search for another bug. After all—

"Is this seriously all you've caught!?"

"Gyaaah!"

Carlos knew all too well that when Segari Gug got that angry, he wouldn't calm down until he hit soone. He'd been beaten enough to understand.

***

"You knew, didn't you?"

Ignoring Damian's resentful glare, he continued collecting bugs.

Damian was the type to never forget even the smallest grudge. Carlos rembered him saying so once, while boasting about the first person he killed on Earth.

Even though he took it by force, he held a grudge when he got hit. If the roles were reversed, Carlos would've resented Damian too—so he didn't mind being hated.

What mattered most was not getting hit. Always maneuvering so that the damage didn't reach him. That was true for both Damian and Carlos.

Muttering complaints, Damian finally started gathering bugs again.

It was fine. As long as his own safety wasn't threatened, Damian wouldn't kill him. He might try to manipulate Segari Gug with words, but with the ship crashed, even that alien wouldn't kill him now.

"Once we get out of here, I'm definitely getting back at you. Rember that."

"We're both gonna end up as food for that damn alien anyway. You couldn't kill even if you wanted to."

"Yeah, maybe. But hey, did you know?"

"Know what?"

Turning around at the suggestive tone, he saw Damian grinning wickedly.

"Tarlmache, you know, they say it's the kind that likes eating the sa thing over and over. So once it decides to eat sothing, it keeps reviving it and eating it again."

"Revive?"

"You've heard of resurrection devices, right? They say it brings dead people back exactly as they were."

"Yeah. But that's just a rumor, right? I heard it's just gossip about so alien tech."

"What if I told you Tarlmache actually has one?"

"Huh?"

The nasty grin never left his face.

Carlos got the feeling that Damian believed the story to so extent. Maybe he heard it from Segari Gug.

"Tarlmache's a sadist, see. After reviving soone it killed, it shows them how it's cooking them. Like, 'this is how you looked alive, now I'll cook you like this'—and then eats them."

"Hey, cut it out."

"It makes you watch yourself being eaten, explaining the next thod each ti. Over and over, until Tarlmache gets tired of it."

"I said stop!"

Watching yourself get eaten? Again and again? Even nightmares are better than that.

Damian grinned at Carlos's discomfort, but then his expression turned serious as he made a declaration.

"You're going first. I'll make sure of it. No matter what it takes, I'll make you the one Tarlmache picks as food. I never forget a grudge."

"Shut the hell up."

The declaration sent a chill down his spine. He looked away and stood up. It wasn't because he was scared of Damian. He just told himself he needed to gather bugs before Segari Gug got angry again, and stepped away.

When Damian was finally out of sight, Carlos felt a slight sense of relief and bent down to look for bugs—

"Hey. You Carlos?"

The voice made him freeze.

Familiar Earth speech. Unlike Damian's, it was deep and low.

At first, he thought it was a hallucination. But he recognized the voice. It was the man he'd spoken to before the crash.

Turning toward the voice, he saw a tall, broad-shouldered man standing there. It wasn't a dream.

"Th-That voice. You're... Viper, aren't you?"

"Yeah. I ca to get you, Carlos."

Seeing that honest smile, Carlos felt a sudden heat rise behind his eyes.

And yet. He felt deeply ashad of the part of himself that still couldn't fully trust the man before him.