Chapter 160
Chapter 160
This Is Quite the Coincidence
First, I should approach her as a fan and win her favor.
That was the resolve Raphaela had made before going to the performance, but what she found there was an insurmountable wall. She realized there was a sky beyond the sky.
─Please put 「love」 into it.
The use of that ability was so sublime that it sent shivers down her spine.
Even while telling herself she should view it as nothing more than a tool, she found her own excitement strangely unfamiliar. Had she not possessed a similar ability herself, she would have been swept away by that tidal wave of emotion for quite some time.
Compared to that, the fact that Sakuya was a Meta-human was an utterly trivial matter. Simply sharing the same secret as her did not suddenly create any attachment.
If anything, it gave her a reason to proceed more cautiously. One careless mistake, and their positions could be reversed in an instant.
Changing her approach, Raphaela decided to slowly erode Sakuya's mind instead. Given how stressful her profession was, cracks were bound to appear eventually.
Moreover, her ability was Engraving. It was not difficult to induce "that kind" of behavior in someone who already had "that kind" of inclination.
If she could turn Sakuya into her puppet and manipulate her into attacking Ga-on, the humiliation she had suffered would disappear as though it had never happened.
Having drawn up her blueprint, Raphaela spun her web and waited for the right moment.
Sakuya was a beautiful flower everyone desired.
There was no way Raphaela was the only bee captivated enough to fly toward her.
As expected, after several encounters, she managed to separate the wheat from the chaff.
Unlike herself, who had a clear objective, there were two beasts driven by blind desire.
After much deliberation, she selected those two kindred spirits.
***
"Two of them?"
Hearing the report Dobby had brought, Ga-on unconsciously asked again.
[There were a few others who matched the conditions you gave me, but there are two who are extremely suspicious.]
"Why do you think that?"
[There are no records of them entering the broadcasting station, yet there are videos showing them there.]
Had it not been an actual social media post uploaded by someone on that specific date, he would have overlooked it. The data left in the system had been altered that skillfully.
[It's the same as what happened at the lodging. If I hadn't known beforehand that it had been tampered with, I never would have noticed.]
"I see. What do we know about them?"
Information immediately arrived through his device.
"Henry Bauer and Henson Bauer... They're brothers?"
As he scrolled down, their histories seemed endless.
It was the story of success.
The older brother, Henry, owned a lodging business, while the younger brother, Henson, was a major landowner who operated a large farm in District 35.
The reason they had amassed such wealth at such a young age was simple.
They had inherited the fortune built by their parents' generation.
On the surface, they looked like ordinary model citizens.
"They don't look like professionals."
[I thought it was strange too. Their methods are amateurish, but the results go far beyond that. It's like someone erased everything with an eraser. They must be using some kind of specialized tool, but I can't figure out what it is.]
"An eraser..."
Dobby even owned personal satellites.
For someone like him to describe it that way was highly unusual.
Come to think of it, Steven's death had also been suspicious. There had been traces suggesting an ability had been involved.
What if the Bauer brothers were accomplices?
What if they had divided the work between them?
And what if the foundation that made all of it possible—
'Was the fact that they were Meta-humans.'
Everything fit together perfectly.
Most striking of all—
"They both have low empathy?"
[They were only tested once when they were kids, but I guess the numbers were unusual enough that the medical records were kept. You know how much trouble I went through to dig this up?]
"Good work."
Without a sense of shame, they could push forward without caring about public opinion.
And with more than enough money, they could afford even the most inefficient methods.
They were undoubtedly prime suspects.
"Give me their address."
***
Being away for long periods while working as a manager was out of the question.
Planning to return before sunrise, Ga-on ran through the dark back alleys.
Eventually, he arrived in District 41.
Curiously enough, despite being well into adulthood, the Bauer brothers still lived together instead of separately.
"I guess they never needed to."
The mansion before him was enormous.
It was so vast that they could roam freely without ever crossing paths.
Naturally, that also made it an ideal place to infiltrate.
The house's security system was operating on its own, but how could commercially available products possibly stop him?
Tap—
Entering a deserted hallway without even a single maintenance android in sight, Ga-on placed his palm on the floor and focused.
But he sensed no presence.
He had worried they might be prepared for him, but it turned out to be needless concern.
It seemed both Bauer brothers were away.
He casually brushed his index finger across a nearby table.
The layer of dust on his fingertip was neither thick nor thin.
Just enough to suggest it had been left untouched since around the time the unfortunate incident had occurred at Mystic.
The untidy state of the house made it look as though they might return at any moment.
Yet it also felt as though the brothers had already made up their minds long ago.
Wondering if there might be any clues, Ga-on headed toward the master bedroom.
Then he abruptly stopped.
A presence he had failed to detect earlier was now coming from beyond the wall.
Silently reaching for Polar Night at his waist, Ga-on kicked the door open at almost the exact same moment the man inside raised his gun.
Both aimed at each other simultaneously with flawless precision.
Yet neither pulled the trigger first.
It was a standoff born from both recognizing exactly who the other was.
The moment Ga-on looked into those fox-like smiling eyes, it felt as though his breath had stopped.
"What a coincidence, Mr. Ga-on."
“Mr. Jin Geon?”
***
Picking a chair at random, Ga-on sat down and crossed his arms.
The arrival of the Emergency Disaster Response Unit.
That was a very bad sign.
It meant Jin Geon was on the verge of uncovering the truth behind the case.
The problem was that if Ga-on wanted to find out how much Jin Geon knew, he would have to pay an equivalent price himself.
After rummaging through the cabinet for quite some time, Jin Geon finally turned around with a refreshed expression.
"You're not going to look around too, Mr. Ga-on?"
"The ones I came to find disappeared a long time ago."
"Ah, you mean the Bauer brothers. Somehow they managed to slip past even our surveillance and vanished. Which makes me rather curious."
Before he knew it, Jin Geon had taken the seat opposite him and quietly met his gaze.
Though his eyes remained narrowed into slits, hiding his pupils, the intensity of his gaze felt as though it were piercing straight through him.
"Why exactly are you pursuing those two, Mr. Ga-on?"
"Why would a fixer move? Because of a job."
"Would you mind telling me the details?"
If he wanted to lie, he could do it a hundred times over.
But Jin Geon worked for the municipal government.
Verifying one person's movements would be as easy as cross-checking records from his seat.
So Ga-on explained.
Only enough for him to grasp the general outline.
"I see. So that's what happened."
"What about you?"
"I've been recovering the Eden that's still in circulation."
As he spoke, he flicked a package into the air with his thumb before catching it again.
It was a coin-shaped portable storage device.
Ga-on was quite familiar with that format.
It had obviously been found in the cabinet.
"I thought all of it had disappeared."
"Production has stopped, but the amount that made it onto the market was enormous. It's still sold at high prices in the underground market. I hear it even appears on the Black Market from time to time."
The Emergency Disaster Response Unit existed solely to eradicate Meta-humans.
As a rule, they did not interfere in unrelated matters such as Eden.
Then why was Jin Geon here?
'Could it be...?'
A horrifying possibility suddenly crossed Ga-on's mind.
He tried to dismiss it—
"Weren't you only tracking Meta-humans?"
But Jin Geon calmly presented the reality before him.
"In a sense, that's still true. Research has shown that Eden causes infection. We don't know the exact mechanism yet."
It was the very hypothesis Croft had reached on his own.
There was no way the municipal government—the repository of humanity's knowledge—would have failed to notice.
If anything, they were simply too competent, and that was what irritated him.
"This is classified information, but there shouldn't be any secrets between a sheriff and an advisor."
Jin Geon smiled pleasantly.
For some reason, though, it only made him seem even more irritating.
"And I also wanted to tell you so that you wouldn't accidentally use it out of curiosity. Though I suppose it's already too late for the Bauer brothers."
"The Bauer brothers?"
Ga-on frowned once before letting out a quiet groan.
Jin Geon had personally come all the way here to dispose of Eden.
There was no way that single package was the only one in the mansion.
Most likely, there was some anywhere within arm's reach.
It seemed the public image of the Bauer brothers had only shown a tiny fraction of who they really were.
"They were buyers?"
"They were sellers. Because the Public Enforcement Corps' large-scale investigations made distribution difficult, we believe they consumed their entire stock themselves before awakening. They also haven't shown up at their businesses for several Solweeks."
So this was how all the pieces fit together.
Ga-on felt like smacking his forehead.
The Emergency Disaster Response Unit was currently hunting the Bauer brothers.
And he had just told them their last known destination with his own mouth.
Sure enough, Jin Geon's eyes seemed to gleam.
"Your report is quite interesting, Mr. Ga-on. We expected they'd commit crimes once intoxicated by their abilities, but stalking? That's a new one."
Ga-on let out an exaggerated, incredulous laugh at such shameless ignorance.
Only then did Jin Geon cross his legs and speak in a low voice.
"So, it was Mystic, wasn't it? Coincidentally, we've already received a report suggesting that one of the members may be infected. Enchantment? Fascination? It seems to be that sort of ability."
"..."
Sakuya had used her ability repeatedly in public.
Unless the Emergency Disaster Response Unit's surveillance network was full of holes, they were bound to have noticed something.
Fortunately, they didn't seem to have identified the individual yet.
But that was hardly reassuring.
The blade was already at their throats.
"At the time, we dismissed it as mere speculation. But if the Bauer brothers targeted her, then it's a different story. The speculation becomes fact. The unfortunate part is that Mystic has suspended activities, so we have no way to verify it..."
After pondering for a moment, Jin Geon glanced at Ga-on.
"Come to think of it, you were with Miss Sakuya once before. Wouldn't you happen to know anything?"
Forced Command was an ability that left no outward signs.
The reason Ga-on had remained undiscovered for so long despite being immortal was because its effects were difficult to observe unless the target actually died.
No matter how far above the law the Emergency Disaster Response Unit might be, they couldn't simply kill anyone they pleased.
The same applied to Forced Command.
Unless the ability was imbued into the user's voice, there was no way to detect it.
That was why Jin Geon was trying this approach.
"The moment an old guy like me starts asking about the members, they'll start questioning my motives."
"I see. Then, could you at least help us identify the infected individual? As it happens, you've infiltrated them as their manager, making you the ideal candidate."
It seemed Jin Geon had no intention of letting him go.
Then again, Ga-on would have done the same.
Jin Geon stepped closer and extended his hand.
"I look forward to working with you."
After staring at it for a long moment, Ga-on reluctantly shook his hand.
"...Fine."
Fuck.