EP.170 Fake News...?
'…There are many good things in this world.'
'Mornings are welcome, sunlight is warm, and the breeze is cool. Black tea is sweet, blankets are cozy, and cooking delights the tongue.'
'People live together. Leading bodies exhausted from labor, they sit across from each other at dining tables, sharing jokes to pass their weary days. They befriend people they've just met, return home to raise children, and fall asleep. On quiet nights, only the sound of their breathing can be heard. I have experienced all of this.'
'However, tragedy also exists in this world. Anna was severely injured in an attack, those who threaten even officers roam the streets, organizations claw at each other in the darkness, and some citizens, though they fell asleep just the same, failed to open their eyes come morning. In places I know not of, even more people must be dying.'
'There are unavoidable accidents, but there are also many preventable tragedies. Especially evil that spreads chaos must be swiftly eliminated. The Shadow of the Military Nation, and the Magician. Outlaws who disrupt society while hiding their true identities.'
'In order to fulfill my duty. For her and Anna's sake as well.'
'Before my orders expire, I will eliminate them.'
'…That was what I intended.'
Having returned home, the Captain placed stones upon her welling emotions.
Press, press. Hard and heavy sense of duty suppressed her heart. The mind that had swelled restlessly, ignorant of its master's feelings, gradually calmed, and the heat drained from her head as reason returned.
She seems considerably calmer now. Time to slowly clear up the misunderstanding.
"Captain, you're not sulking because I said things to weasel out of the situation, are you?"
"…."
"That Neru guy, maybe because he's a beast by nature, barks annoyingly if there's no meat in his mouth, so I couldn't help it. So please be generous and show some magnanimity—"
"Negative."
"Huh? Negative what?"
Without answering, the Captain looked around the room once.
Bed and sofa, lamp and lighting. The carpet covering the floor and even the bathroom door.
After casting her gaze over every item once, the Captain made a firm resolution and looked at me.
"I request your cooperation."
"Ah, right. You said you were requesting cooperation. But I'm someone who clearly separates public and private matters. Tell me. I'll hear your demands and the price, then make my judgment."
I once did work similar to a fixer. Cooperation? I'll do it. Provided you pay the appropriate price, that is.
As if she had expected my reaction, the Captain nodded without hesitation and spoke.
"I seek to find the criminal organization called 'the Shadow of the Military Nation' and the outlaw called 'the Magician.'"
"Pardon?"
Oh no. That won't do. I'm the Magician, you see?
Is it the instinct of a petty criminal? With an officer looking for me right in front of me, my body stiffened like a mouse before a cat. Uh, I can't help with this? To help, I'd have to put myself in a straitjacket?
But why suddenly?
"Why are you looking for them?"
"I am a soldier. What reason does a soldier need to monitor and arrest criminals?"
"Well, that's true, but…."
Weren't you on leave until returning to headquarters?
If 'return before two weeks pass' is the condition, naturally the virtue is to enjoy pleasures in society for two weeks and languidly return on the last day, isn't it? Why work during leave?
And work to catch me, no less!
"I need a collaborator who lives locally and is well-versed in the geography and current situation. Also, I must secure a contact who can relay information on my behalf should any unavoidable problems arise for me."
"You're telling me to do that?"
"Affirmative."
"I don't mind cooperating, but I don't work for free. No matter what the job, I collect the due compensation. Work as much as I'm paid—that's my motto."
In short, I'm telling her to pay up. The Captain accepted this without any particular objection.
'I know. You have always been that sort of person. Even in the Abyssal Pit, you would demand compensation for even the slightest request.'
Heh. So you do know.
This is why it's important not to be taken for a sucker normally. Because I've built up this image, she naturally considers the price.
"However, before that. I have one proposal for you."
Oho. You're initiating negotiations? Dare you, before a mind reader like me?
Now then. Let's see. How much have you looked into? Danger pay, labor, plus base provision fees. Hmm. Ordinary money won't cut it.
Should I read a little to see what proposal she's making? If she sets unreasonable conditions, I'll cut it off immediately.
It was around the time I tried to read her thoughts.
"Marry me."
"Pardon? What did you say?"
Pardon? What did you say?
The ability to read thoughts is no different from being deaf if you can't comprehend what you've read.
While I stood dumbfounded, the Captain held her removed hat to her chest and spoke earnestly.
"I am well aware that this is a sudden statement. However, please listen to my words slowly."
Unable to bear just listening, I was prepared to read her thoughts and dig through her memories too. What kind of thought process led to those words coming out? My first ever proposal turns out like this?
'As a signal soldier, my identity was discovered by you. I should have either taken my own life or shot you immediately, but while crossing half the Military Nation's territory, I took no action and merely observed. This is an inexcusable dereliction of duty on my part.'
Ah, this pattern.
"I owe you a great debt. You saved my life, provided me with residence, and accommodated me in every way. In contrast, what I have provided to you is…"
'Not killing you… cannot be considered providing compensation, I suppose. By rights, I should have taken my own life. Strictly speaking, thanks to your help, I merely gained a reprieve of a few days to mark the end of my death….'
"…nonexistent."
You do know.
Someone who knows that well suddenly what?
"It's impressive that you acknowledge it, but what does that have to do with anything? Are you saying I should marry you, be grateful, and serve you for the rest of my life?"
"Negative."
The Captain straightened her posture and raised her head straight. Her sky-blue and transparent eyes were so clear that I didn't even feel the urge to read her thoughts.
"Currently, in the Military Nation's District 10, suspicious criminal organizations and outlaws are running rampant. Even for your sake and the sake of those around you, I intend to restore order and eliminate them."
Someone like you…? Is what I'd like to say, but she's shown too much ability for that.
Without anything else, if she just went to the Signal Headquarters and leaked the proper information, the organization would be annihilated. With golems hidden everywhere tracking them, an ordinary criminal organization could never escape.
However, going to the Signal Headquarters with her identity exposed would only result in her suicide. She seemed intent on gathering as much information as possible before going.
…Or else. Dying while fighting the criminal organization.
"How noble of you."
"It is my bound duty. Henceforth, I will investigate outlaws who torment the Military Nation's citizens and use every means to eliminate them. However, the enemy are lawbreakers who wield violence even against officers. During the investigation, threats to my life may arise. Since they recognize neither law nor rules, I could be killed."
She still has no intention of living, it seems. The Captain even brought up her own death matter-of-factly.
"This is both a request for cooperation I offer you, and simultaneously a reward for helping me thus far. Should I die, I need someone to convey the information I possess and the fact of my death to the authorities."
"Ah. So that's it."
I'm starting to understand now. Why marriage came up from there.
"If you die on duty, death compensation comes out, so marry me and take that money that's going to disappear anyway?"
"…."
"Right?"
"…Affirmative."
'That is all I can give you. As I have no immediate family, it is funds I cannot receive, so I hope you will at least accept it.'
She's going to die regardless.
With this as the fundamental premise, the Captain intends to investigate and bring down the forces behind the attack on Anna and the citizens' terror.
In that process, her desire to repay her debt to me bounced along until it suddenly leaped to talk of marriage.
"It wouldn't be a bad deal for you either. If I publicize the fact that you actively cooperated with me from Tantalus onward, I could clear some of the suspicions hanging over you."
"The Military Nation will clear my suspicions? That's the least credible story in the world."
"It is an undeniable fact that you helped me return to Amitengrad. If I emphasize that fact, the higher-ups won't fault you too harshly."
"I'm a Level 0 nobody. Before being faulted, I'd just be arrested."
"No problem. Upon marriage to a Level 3 citizen, a temporary Level 2 citizen status is granted to the spouse. You can clear all suspicions while the Level 2 status is maintained."
I have no particular complaints about my Level 0 petty criminal life, but the exemplary Captain wanted me to return to the light.
"You will wash away all your sins and start a new life with sufficient assets. This is the compensation I offer you."
By marrying you, huh.
Uh, I appreciate the sentiment and honestly the money too, but isn't that a bit much?
"Um, do you absolutely have to die? Can't you just do it moderately and back off when your life is in danger?"
The Captain shook her head firmly.
"I must fulfill my duty."
The signal soldier's iron rule: keep one's very existence absolutely secret.
Having just witnessed the power a signal soldier holds, I understood to some degree.
Monitoring an entire district from where she sat, receiving all information at once and organizing it in an instant.
The synchronization magic that delivers state secrets or operations to other signal soldiers or units is modest on an individual level but tremendously powerful on a national scale. Sending headquarters' commands to distant locations without delay or cost means the entire Military Nation can move as nimbly as a single beast.
Long-distance communication, information control, surveillance and management.
Signal soldiers are the Military Nation's neural network. They must never be exposed.
If other parts take damage, only those parts suffer, but if problems arise with signal soldiers, the massive nation of the Military Nation staggers. Due to the nature of synchronization magic, a problem with one person spreads throughout the entire Military Nation, so the Military Nation cannot help but handle signal soldiers with care.
As such, the Military Nation drilled the importance and duty of signal soldiers into them like indoctrination.
Just like the Captain before my eyes now.
"So you're saying it's almost certain you'll die."
'Negative. Even if there is a possibility of survival, I do not intend to take it. Even if one has a spouse, the secrecy regarding signal soldiers must be maintained.'
The Captain conveyed different words from what was in her heart.
"Affirmative. It is that dangerous a matter."
I understand what you mean.
In the end, during the days we spent together, I showed you enough of life's joys, but that alone was insufficient to save you.
If that's how it is.
"…Captain. Won't they consider this a sham marriage aimed at death compensation?"
"That is an unfounded worry. It is an unwritten rule not to fault hasty marriages conducted just before an unmarried soldier is dispatched to a death zone."
The reason is simple. For morale boost.
If you die, death compensation is paid. In the Military Nation where one can't even leave an inheritance, the death compensation paid to surviving family is an excellent means to make soldiers resolve themselves for death.
Soldiers without resolve for death are a disorganized rabble. Therefore the Military Nation actively encourages marriage.
For population growth and military strength increase, and simultaneously to boost soldiers' morale.
"I am merely exercising that right."
I understand the intent. The resolve as well.
There's virtually no disadvantage for me. Just stamp the marriage documents and it's done. No children, and the wife will soon be gone, so only the death compensation gets paid. Isn't this responsibility-free pleasure?
This is the Military Nation. There's no Holy Emperor's Court either, so there won't be anyone pointing fingers if I divorce.
"The Captain's death compensation, plus a chance to cast off all suspicions. It's not a bad deal for me, but… I'm curious."
"Please speak."
Marry for show and take the compensation as payment.
Outwardly it seems like a reasonable proposal, but I have one question.
Did the sincere and exemplary Military Nation signal soldier Captain Abby make such a request purely for financial compensation?
Did the interview with Neru have some influence, or did she change somehow while meeting various people on the streets?
If I dig very, very deeply, I might be able to find out, but.
Not yet. The Captain hasn't obtained life.
Let me leave her be a little longer.
"This contract is just a contract, right? There's no meaning beyond the death compensation I'll receive?"
"Affirmative."
The Captain responded immediately. An answer without a sliver of hesitation, as if prepared in advance.
"Well, in my case I accept goods or promissory notes too."
I feel like accepting this makes me the worst scum in the world, but why should I care?
They offered to pay first. My only sin is accepting.
I extended my hand for a handshake.
"Alright. I'll cooperate. Captain."
"I look forward to working with you."
The Captain grasped my hand and smiled thinly.
'…It should be fine. To be a little more greedy at the very end.'
'I am a signal soldier, and I know all sorts of information. From secrets that must never be known to the recipe for canned beans. I know most of the knowledge and information accessible in the Military Nation.'
'Yet there is still so much I don't know.'
'The heartbeat felt when held in someone's arms, the embarrassment of a face burning bright red. The regret felt whenever I recall my death. And the longing for those I won't see again. I still don't know the identity of these things.'
'…Could I understand them if I marry? If something so dramatic changes a person, if it grants courage to soldiers heading into the jaws of death, would I change too?'
'I heard marriage should be with someone you want to spend your whole life with. If so, then I'm having quite a fine marriage.'
'He probably won't know my feelings. That's a relief.'
'There's no time left so I won't be able to have children, but still I… have even married before I die.'
'I will be the happiest signal soldier.'