The Villain’s POV in the Academy

Chapter 344: The Villain’s POV in the Academy

“No…… Not yet……!”

That can’t be.

Just a little, just a little more……!

Airi, who had been kneeling on the ground and sobbing, eventually staggered back to her feet and started running again.

She charged toward the enemies, smashed their heads apart with her fists, kicked through their waists and snapped them in half, and fired her gun to burst their hearts as she continued fighting.

After destroying several small colonies like that, she stopped in place, panting heavily.

The mercilessly clear sky did nothing to block the blazing sunlight. Airi’s mechanical parts had become scorching hot from the overload and the sun’s heat, while the blood coating her body sizzled and gave off a burnt stench.

‘What’s the point of doing this?’

It’s all over now.

With black smoke billowing from her body, Airi slowly turned and began walking toward the city. One step, another step…… As she trudged onward, she eventually reached the city limits.

She had no idea how much time had passed, but the sky had already grown dark. A distance that would normally have taken an hour by vehicle had taken her eight hours because she had walked the entire way in a daze.

When she arrived before Gate 58, the Defense Force guards let her through as though they had grown accustomed to seeing her.

Glancing up at the sky, she saw pitch-black storm clouds beginning to gather, perhaps heralding a summer shower.

“…….”

What the hell am I doing here?

I want to rest.

I just want to go back and rest already.

Those thoughts filled her head, yet for some reason, her body headed somewhere completely different.

She passed through the boundaries of each Sector in turn and boarded the elevator leading to Elysium.

Everyone she passed gave her suspicious looks because she was covered in blood, wounds, and dust, but fortunately, the guards at the Elysium elevator recognized her and let her through. They gave her sympathetic looks as though they knew something about her circumstances, but she had no room to care about that.

Even from there, Airi wandered aimlessly on foot until she reached Aaron’s mansion. Miyu and the others were frantically trying to contact her, but she blocked every single call.

She arbitrarily opened the front door she had become fairly accustomed to by now and strode into the living room without even thinking to shake the dirt from her shoes.

And…….

“A-Airi!”

“Hey, you……!?”

Everyone was gathered there.

Silence, Reina, Dharma Protector, Ciel, Miyu, Kalia, and Serena. Along with several others who had formed connections with Aaron…….

“…….”

“…….”

Everyone fell silent when they saw Airi’s condition.

At the center of them all, Aaron still sat with his eyes closed. He was not asleep, yet neither did he seem awake, giving off a strange impression somewhere in between.

Airi stared blankly at Aaron for a long time.

Perhaps out of consideration for her, the others quietly began leaving the room.

Then…….

“Airi Aliceval!”

As though she could no longer hold herself back, Serena rushed over and slapped Airi across the cheek. It did not hurt at all, but part of Airi’s skin armor, already left in tatters from her battle injuries, crumbled off.

Ignoring that, Serena shouted at Airi with tears in her eyes.

“Airi, what the hell were you thinking, only showing up now!? You got the message, so where the hell have you been and what have you been doing all this……!”

“P-Please stop!”

“[Hey, get that woman off her!]”

Dharma Protector and Silence hurriedly grabbed Serena by both arms and dragged her away, while everyone else also left the room, leaving Airi alone.

After waiting until everyone had left, Airi staggered toward Aaron.

She knelt in front of him and called out to him in a cracked voice.

“C-Chairman…….”

“…….”

“Chairman…….”

“…….”

“Aaron…….”

“…….”

“Aaron Stingray……!!”

“…….”

“Please……!!”

She kept calling out to him, but naturally, he did not answer.

At last, all the emotions she had suppressed burst forth, and she could do nothing but break down sobbing again.

“I…… I worked so hard……!”

“…….”

“I really worked so hard…… Why is this happening!? For you, I fought like my life depended on it…… Every time I felt like I was going to collapse, I gritted my teeth and kept enduring, so why…… why……!!”

“…….”

“Please, just say something! You’ve gotten through so many crises where you nearly died before! Why can’t you get up this time!? If you’re still in there, please answer me!”

“…….”

“Aah……!”

Unable to continue speaking, Airi held Aaron’s hand and began sobbing.

Even the head she had kept raised so she could look at his face could no longer remain upright and drooped downward. She clasped both of Aaron’s hands, buried her face against them, and spoke again.

“I…… I’m so tired…….”

“…….”

“Whenever I said something like this, you always helped me…… You’d show up with that annoying smile like you could see straight through my heart…… and then, like it was nothing, you’d solve everything……!”

“…….”

“Then why can’t you do it this time!? If I did something wrong, I’ll apologize! If you’re upset about something, then let’s talk about it!? Why do you keep your eyes closed and refuse to say anything……! When you’re awake in there……!!”

“…….”

“Get up! Get up!!”

“…….”

“You’re really going to die at this rate…… So please, get up! Please, please, please!!”

Please, please, please.

Airi repeated the word over and over again, pouring all her desperation into it, but Aaron did not so much as twitch.

Like a robot whose power had been cut, he simply remained there with his eyes closed.

“Uaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!”

Airi cried because he still refused to respond.

She cried because the world was cruel, cried because every wound covering her body from the fighting hurt, cried because she hated how pathetic she was, and cried because everything in the world had become something she wanted to curse.

Crying, and crying again.

She quietly brought Aaron’s hand to her cheek.

Then, in a voice that had gone completely hoarse, she murmured softly.

“……I liked you. And thank you.”

“…….”

“It was all thanks to you.”

With those final words, Airi’s vision suddenly plunged into darkness. Nearly a month’s worth of accumulated exhaustion forcibly shut her down.

Thud.

Airi collapsed against Aaron’s knees and fell asleep as though she had fainted.

It had not been intentional, but she still clutched both of his hands tightly, as though declaring that she would never let anyone take him away.

……And so, the final night of the two of them greeted the dawn amid a silence so deep that not even the sound of breathing could be heard.

And the next day.

Airi opened her eyes amid excruciating pain, as though her entire body were screaming.

At first, she thought she might be experiencing sleep paralysis, but when she properly checked, the situation was even worse.

“…….”

Her body would not move.

It was probably because she had pushed Modules she was not even accustomed to all the way to their limits while fighting.

Considering there was hardly a single intact part left anywhere on her body, the fact that she had been able to move at all until now was a miracle.

“…….”

Airi barely managed to turn her unresponsive head and looked through the living room window.

A cool breeze slipped through the slightly open window and gently fluttered the curtains. Dew reflected the light of dawn, sparkling brightly enough to dazzle her eyes.

It was an extraordinarily beautiful sight, yet to Airi, everything appeared only in shades of gray.

Gray grass, a gray sky, a gray window frame, a gray living room.

……I don’t really want to see it.

She did not want to force her exhausted eyes open just to look at a world like this.

Airi simply closed her eyes again and tried to fall asleep.

But…….

“……Huh?”

……There was something strange on her shoulder.

A small blanket was gently fluttering over her shoulders.

‘Who in the world?’

Was it one of the people who had visited the mansion?

At the same time that thought occurred to her, she noticed that someone had scribbled something on her palm.

The handwriting there was-

“………!!”

Her drowsiness vanished in an instant.

Milletech Grand Conference Room.

When Kalia entered the room, countless people were seated as though surrounding her place.

The attendees and even the arrangement were not particularly different from the previous G20 Corporate General Assembly, but the atmosphere was markedly different.

The moment Kalia entered the conference room, someone suddenly shouted at her without so much as a declaration opening the meeting.

-President Kalia. It’s all over now.

“Over? The contract is still-.”

-You probably thought you’d hidden it well until now, but it seems you underestimated our intelligence capabilities far too much. I understand that you wanted to rebuild your fallen empire by using Aaron Stingray’s name, but you should have known when to stop being greedy.

“…….”

-We have confirmed that Aaron Stingray became Overadapted and is suffering from symptoms of personality loss. Accordingly, our Biotech Corporation will terminate the contract and proceed with a lawsuit against Stingray Corporation for damages.

“……I have no idea what you’re talking about. Our corporation is extremely well aware of the danger posed by the power of the human weapon known as ‘Aaron Stingray,’ and as experts, we were merely exercising caution and regulating the timing of his deployment onto the battlefield. If you make such absurd allegations that Aaron Stingray is Overadapted, then we will sue you for defamation in return. And we can deploy Aaron Stingray right now to…….”

-Please, by all means. But even if you do, wouldn’t you merely implant a Behavior Control Chip in him and use him like a puppet? And naturally, if that happens, he’ll be incomparably weaker than his ‘original condition.’ In other words, you won’t be able to provide the ‘service’ you led us to expect.

“…….”

-Even if you successfully defend the city using that puppet, you won’t be able to avoid the lawsuit. Putting that aside, you truly are one vicious woman. Even if he became Overadapted and lost his personality, the very idea of mercilessly implanting a Behavior Control Chip into a man who was your own elder brother and using him as a puppet is, how should I put it…… so very ‘Stingray’ that it sends chills down my spine.

“……What exactly do you mean by that?”

-Exactly what I said. The reason the Stingray Empire survived despite committing all manner of atrocities throughout this city was because it possessed overwhelming power. But that empire has fallen now, and you, a Stingray to the bone, still haven’t broken that nasty habit. How long did you think you could keep threatening us and profiting from it? Hmm?

The corporate heads took turns pressuring Kalia.

Among them were even corporations that had once served as retainers of the ‘Stingray Group.’

But after being worn down by the Stingray Chairman and then by Kalia’s threats using Aaron Stingray as leverage, they had no intention whatsoever of going easy on her.

“…….”

Kalia tried to think of a way out, but nothing came to mind.

She had thought she could conceal the fact that Aaron was Overadapted and, if necessary, pump him full of a Behavior Control Chip or drugs, turn him into an obedient combat puppet, and make him pretend to be perfectly fine…… but now that the truth had already been exposed, that method would be meaningless.

-I wonder whether the current Stingray Corporation can even afford to pay all the damages we’re claiming.

-Well, there are endless ways to collect money in this city. If necessary, there’s always the option of making the president herself repay it with her body…….

-President Brian. There are ladies present. Please refrain from vulgar jokes.

-My apologies.

They had even begun exchanging horrific jokes about Kalia among themselves.

Of course, there were surely some among them who had no intention of letting that previous remark remain merely a ‘joke.’

‘What do I do……?’

Caught between a rock and a hard place.

Quite literally trapped with no way out, Kalia clenched her fist.

A single bead of sweat ran down her cheek.

They did not even seem willing to give Kalia enough time to come up with a scheme.

-Now, take her away.

At someone’s command, the private soldiers waiting inside the conference room approached Kalia from both sides and grabbed her by the arms.

Just as Kalia was about to be dragged away.

“Who are you calling Overadapted?”

Bang.

Along with a beautiful baritone voice, the conference room door swung open.

The instant ‘that existence’ stepped inside, a pressure on an entirely different level began bearing down upon everyone present.

Black hair and golden eyes, along with strikingly beautiful features.

A man bearing the distinctive traits of the Stingray family confidently approached the seat beside Kalia without the slightest trace of intimidation.

Kalia, who had been wound tight with tension, muttered in a voice as though she had just seen a ghost.

“E-E-Elder Brotheeeeeeeeeer!?”

Aaron Stingray.

He had returned.