Chapter 138
Chapter 138
Irena's Case (1)
Marlon had to understand the trick to creating wind orbs and make it his own. That was Kairus’s current goal.
‘I don’t think it requires some kind of enlightenment.’
It was something you could just call a trick. Still, it was a skill clearly useful in the right situations. There was no way he could just overlook it.
Even Marlon, who was fighting Kairus, knew there was a gap in skill.
‘I can’t win.’
He was insane, but that didn’t mean he was a fool who couldn’t think. Kairus was an opponent Marlon had no reason to charge at in madness—and no chance of beating.
“Trying to run away?”
Kairus, seeing Marlon’s eyes darting around, spoke coldly as he swung his sword wide.
The moment Marlon kicked off the ground to escape, a fierce gust of wind struck him like a hammer.
“Kh…ugh!”
It was a blow meant only to hinder his movement. Kairus pointed the tip of his sword at Marlon and slowly approached as he spoke.
“You can’t run. You’ll be fighting here until I’m satisfied.”
Until Kairus grew familiar with the wind orbs Marlon created, Marlon wouldn’t be allowed to die—or to flee.
“Let me go! I’ve got things to do!”
Marlon’s shout rang with furious rage. One of his wind orbs disappeared, and an explosion of air burst from behind him.
He charged forward, swinging his sword wide. It was an attack with no thought of defense. The two weapons clashed, and Kairus stepped back a few paces to avoid a follow-up strike.
“Wow, even when you’ve lost it, you’ve still got your fighting instincts.”
Marlon was confident that Kairus wouldn’t counterattack, since he wasn’t aiming to kill him. In this situation, it was the right call.
Anyone could think of trying it—but actually doing it was something else. If Kairus did go for a counterattack, he’d die instantly.
“Diiiiiiiiie!”
Marlon chased after the retreating Kairus, wildly swinging his sword. One of the wind orbs swirling around his blade shrank, and a violent wind surged along the edge.
…
The two blades thrashed about, each one fighting to deliver victory to its wielder.
Their flashing clashes repeated several times in the blink of an eye. New impacts rang out before the previous echoes had even faded, the sounds overlapping.
The raging wind grew wilder under Marlon’s control, only to be drawn into Kairus’s grasp and subside again and again.
‘Just a little more.’
As blades narrowly grazed past his body, Kairus’s eyes never left the wind orb dancing around Marlon’s sword.
As the battle continued, the number of wind orbs gradually decreased—only three remained.
“At this point!”
It was no longer an option. Marlon sensed death approaching, broke into a cold sweat, and steeled himself. To escape death, he needed a drastic move.
‘All three at once.’
He had to use them all and flee. If he used the three wind orbs he had stored up at once, he might be able to escape this situation.
Having made his decision, Marlon unleashed all his wind orbs.
“…Huh?”
Only two orbs had been used. One had vanished. A wind orb he hadn’t used was gone. Marlon’s dazed eyes turned to Kairus.
A wind orb Marlon had never activated had disappeared. That could only mean one thing.
“In that brief moment….”
Still unable to understand what had happened, his blurry vision caught sight of Kairus swinging his sword.
The sharply vibrating blade grazed past Marlon’s limbs in an instant. It wasn’t fatal, nor would it leave him crippled—but it left him wounded enough to be unable to move properly for now.
Immediately afterward, Kairus snatched away the battle gear Marlon was holding and said,
“Break time’s over, Marlon.”
It was time to return to the correctional facility. Kairus kicked the back of Marlon’s head, knocking him unconscious, then fired a signal flare.
“Seriously, even the damn signal smoke is pink?”
Kairus muttered in disbelief as he looked at the rising pink smoke. The cleanup would be handled by the Lovers of Lumis & Wesson.
Guarding the unconscious Marlon to make sure he wouldn’t escape again, Kairus let out a small breath.
The air gathered into a single point and formed two wind orbs that hovered around Flicker.
“Don’t like the number of orbs.”
He had succeeded in creating wind orbs, but the number fell short of his expectations.
Well, he had just had an appetizer—you couldn’t expect to be full already.
Just figuring out the trick was enough for Kairus to feel satisfied for now. With more practice, the number of orbs would naturally increase.
“One more technique I can teach Irena.”
Kairus let out a soft tsk. Of course, teaching her would only be possible if Irena made it back alive.
‘Well, at least she has Nora with her.’
Even if she faced a deadly crisis, Nora would be able to save her. The enemy might be stronger than Irena, but there was no way they could handle both Irena and Nora at the same time.
“Now then, who should I beat down next?”
Come to think of it, unlike with other groups, there had been almost no contact with the Lantern Gang among the Operations Committee members.
‘Tapas Aiola.’
Just like Lukas was called the boss, and Cecilia was called the Representative, Tapas Aiola also had a specific title for her.
The Guide.
“Nothing wrong with making my face known.”
While Kairus dealt with Marlon and chose his next target, Irena wasn’t just sitting around either.
She had joined up with Lukas’s Children and was receiving intel on Colby. Of course, unlike Kairus, she hadn’t seized command by force.
“Colby’s a guy who uses a heavily modified battle gear.”
“Heavily modified? How much are we talking here?”
In response to Irena’s question, one of the members handed her a document.
“What the hell is this?”
Colby had embedded five dagger-shaped battle gears into his gauntlets, forming weapons that resembled claws.
“Just carrying five battle gears doesn’t mean he’s five times stronger. Is he playing a concerto or something?”
The members shook their heads at that remark.
Unless it was a concerto setup, there was rarely any reason to carry more than two battle gears. Especially not during combat.
Switching from one battle gear to another during a fight required disconnecting and reconnecting, which took time. Not long—but long enough to get your head chopped off in battle.
If the enemy attacked at that exact moment, you'd be helpless, unable to activate the power of the battle gear.
“His edge is how fast he can switch.”
He couldn’t use them all at once, but Colby could switch between them incredibly fast. That was his specialty—rapidly rotating through five battle gears to match the situation.
And with that skill, he had always managed to slip through the fingers of the police and the Security Corps.
“So, he’s got talent.”
To Irena’s question, Lukas’s Children shook their heads. If they knew where he was, they’d rush in and beat him down immediately. Whether it was Colby or Lukas’s Children, one of them would get wrecked, and that would settle things.
“Ever since these bastards got released, the streets have gone to hell.”
They were all a little crazy to begin with. Now the particularly unhinged ones were roaming the streets, causing absolute chaos—and the madness that had been lying dormant under the control of reason was slowly leaking out.
“Arson, robbery, rape, murder. I heard that stuff’s common in this city.”
Even if such incidents were common, there was still an average number per day. Right now, Bennett City was well beyond that average—thanks to the running stork and the chasing wagtail.
“Everyone’s busy cleaning up this mess. Damn bastards. When a robber hits one store, someone else sets fire to the shop next door.”
Aside from a few key members left in reserve just in case, most of the Operations Committee had poured both time and manpower into restoring order in the riot-stricken city.
No time to breathe. This job had to be handled quickly too.
“Nothing wrong with resolving this as quickly as possible. Do you know where he is?”
“He’s definitely operating underground in the city.”
Irena let out a soft “Ah.” She had a rough idea of how things worked in this city.
“If Lukas’s Children send a large group underground…”
One of the members scowled at Irena’s words.
“That’s far enough.”
She obediently held her tongue. Considering the mood before all the lunatics were let loose, it wouldn’t be wise for Lukas’s Children to send a large force into the underground.
It’d set off alarms at Areumdri Pawnshop. Going underground to catch some lunatic? Who the hell would believe that?
“This is one messy situation.”
Because of that, most of the lunatics had either gone into hiding underground or moved to the city’s outskirts.
“Some of those bastards are even grouping up, apparently.”
“What?”
Irena looked even more incredulous. Weren’t they the kind of maniacs who couldn’t possibly have social skills? One of Lukas’s Children explained.
“They spent a few years together in the same prison, didn’t they?”
“Ah.”
To survive for the long haul, you needed numbers. And to have numbers, you needed at least some people you could trust.
In the end, the only ones these lunatics could rely on were other lunatics who had been locked up with them for years.
So those who had gotten along, more or less, were now forming little cliques.
“This is… seriously messed up.”
Irena muttered as she rubbed her forehead and got to her feet.
“So Lukas’s Children can’t go underground after all, right?”
“Yeah. But you’re not one of us.”
Irena wasn’t a member of the organization. If she wanted to go underground, she could.
And given her current standing, along with Kairus and the other two, Areumdri Pawnshop wouldn’t bother picking a fight just because she went underground.
“I do have an idea.”
“Let’s hear it.”
Colby was the kind of man who got his thrills from kidnapping someone important to another person and using that as leverage to dominate them.
That sort of thrill only intensified when the victim held a high position.
“You all know who I am.”
“…Yeah.”
Daughter of Simid Kellogg, the Treasury Chief of the Empire.
“Wouldn’t I be just the type of prey Colby would like? Just leak the rumor.”
The rumor that Simid Kellogg’s beloved daughter was heading underground to capture Colby. Just that much—and Colby would come find Irena himself.
“Colby’s been living in seclusion. Will he even hear a rumor like that?”
“There are plenty of ways to spread it.”
You could persuade people nicely to gather intel. Or you could threaten them with a blade. The result was the same.
According to what they’d gathered through Lukas’s Children, Colby was picky when it came to choosing his prey, so he’d definitely be looking for information before deciding on a target.
“That said, it’s only fair that I claim the bounty… and maybe I can expect Lukas’s Children to be a bit generous, too?”
Irena wasn’t stupid. Doing this much and only claiming the posted bounty? That wouldn’t sit right.
“I’ll report it to the boss.”
“Please do.”
Irena slowly rose to her feet. She had already confirmed the key areas of activity and the entrances and exits to the underground from those points.
All that was left was the search.
‘This time, I won’t have to go too deep.’
Even if it was the underground, there was no need to dive in recklessly like during the Pontus search. Her target had to move between above and below, after all.
‘And I’ve got experience now.’
She knew exactly what to watch out for when going underground, and what to prepare.
Plus, Colby—her target—was living underground. If a person stayed in one place long enough, they were bound to leave traces.
She could do this. With that resolve, Irena made her preparations and headed into the underground.
“The smell.”
The moment she descended through the manhole, she was greeted by the familiar stench of the sewers. Wrinkling her nose briefly, she activated her Add-On to light up her surroundings and moved forward, scanning the area.