EP.187 Say You Want to Live - 3
Towards the Captain who asked sorrowfully, I declared.
“I don’t know.”
“…Irresponsible.”
“It can’t be helped. I’m not a prophet like the first saintess. No one knows how the future will turn out, including myself.”
I answered with a shrug.
“But I do know one thing for certain. To those who will lose something in this incident, the Captain’s actions will be more valuable than anything. No matter how radiant a tomorrow awaits, to those who will die today, it’s nothing more than sunlight shining over their graves.”
There was no answer. However, I could hear the answer in her mind.
From the beginning, she couldn’t turn a blind eye. If she could easily ignore someone she could save… she wouldn’t be like this.
Having made a firm resolution, the Captain looked me straight in the eye and spoke.
“This officer… no, I will fulfill my duty, not my mission.”
The mission received and the duty that must be done. The Captain ultimately decided that for herself. The military state’s puppet had regained her life.
The Captain looked squarely at the value she had created and spoke.
“It might be impossible. The other communication soldiers might have accessed information I don’t know, and they might have already grasped my movements. There’s more than enough chance that my attempt will be in vain.”
It might be the last decision of her life, but the Captain’s words were calm. Not the calmness of a businesslike tone, but the unwavering weight of someone resolved.
“It will be difficult.”
“Affirmative. Even so, I must do it.”
The Captain grabbed her hat and stood up abruptly. There was no time to delay now.
Whether the military state would detect the information the Shadow had spread, or whether the Captain would figure it all out a step ahead and block it in advance. It was a race against time.
The Captain, who was about to step outside the carriage immediately, stopped her hand right before grabbing the doorknob. She curled her fingers a few times in the air, then lightly clenched her fist and asked as if hesitating.
“However, please tell me just one thing.”
‘I have only received since the beginning. From when I was found in the box, until arriving here. I have received so much help from you…. My life was saved, and I was even given a duty. Both body and mind. I suppose I have been gifted them all by you.’
Even beasts know gratitude. Rather, humans full of doubt in their heads can be said to know gratitude even less.
Now you realize. How much I have given. A bit late.
To someone who had no life of her own, is there anything as meaningful as teaching them the meaning of life? I smiled a warm smile inwardly.
…This is how she’ll become my backing who will never betray me.
Sure enough. The Captain, holding her hat to her chest, asked me.
“…For you, is there something I can do?”
Good. This is it.
I answered as if it were nothing.
“As long as you stay alive.”
As long as she’s alive, I can use her somehow. As long as she can think and act, she’ll become my solid backing.
This communication soldier thing, I thought the title of Captain was just nominal, but it’s much more useful than I thought… and threatening.
Especially, if the military state uses communication soldiers for long-range surveillance, I have no choice but to be caught helpless. Even for that time, it’s reassuring to have a communication soldier like Captain Avi owe me a great debt of gratitude.
Military state. You must have guarded against this kind of thing, but… I’ll make good use of your tool.
Right when I was about to continue speaking.
“I see. Understood.”
“?”
Suddenly you understand what? You have to listen to everything before you go.
There’s a mountain of things you can do for me. Cutting off any investigation that might come regarding me, warning me with a golem when it’s dangerous, delivering all the news about the war or related matters. There’s a lot to do, you know?
‘It’s exactly what the Weaver said. You grant wishes. If that is your will… I, too, will give as much as I can, just like you.’
“Thank you. I will hurry now.”
The Captain, who bowed her head, opened the door and stepped outside. Left alone in the carriage, I could only nod my head in bewilderment.
It was then. I heard the Captain’s thoughts from beyond the door. As the Captain connected to the golem, she repeated a phrase in her mind.
‘You may not be able to see me. But I will always watch over you. Living the life I received from you.’
Uh, there’s no need to always watch over me… You only need to watch over me when I feel a threat to my life?
At the edge of the Captain’s vision as she was about to leave. A scene was reflected right in the middle of the window under her influence. The Captain, who was about to walk away, stopped her steps and was horrified to see the observed view.
‘The shelter’s veterans…! Annihilated?!’
Huh?
Those people?
The largest military academy in District 12. Its parade ground.
The place where the shelter’s veterans had caught the thugs and were giving them a piece of their mind, was now in a state of upheaval due to some sort of attack.
“Heok, heok, heok. Dam, damn it. If only I were 10 years younger….”
The shelter director Frontaine was bleeding all over his body. The blood flowing from his torn wounds trickled diagonally along his wrinkles and dripped down toward his chin.
Raising his qi throughout his body, Frontaine shouted at the unseen enemy.
“Where are you! Stop hiding from an old man and come out, Shadow!”
“I did not hide.”
A gloomy voice reached Frontaine’s ears. When Frontaine whipped his head around, he saw a single shadow walking out from the school entrance.
Frontaine shouted.
“You bastard, Shadow!”
“If possible, I intended not to reveal myself. That way, the military state wouldn’t catch on either.”
The gloomy voice, seemingly devoid of emotion, seeped through the cracks in the shadows. It sounded like a whisper in the ear, or perhaps like it was coming from far away.
Neither the veterans who were barely standing, nor the thugs who didn’t understand the situation and were just rolling their eyes, could figure out where the voice was coming from.
A bizarre ability, whether it was qigong or his own power, was unknown.
“Has time been that long? How impermanent. That place where a terrifying existence that cannot even be mentioned resides was a demon realm where one could not let their guard down for a single moment…. Everyone has grown old and weak in the peaceful city. Both the military state, and the Shadows.”
Ulfen spoke as if lamenting. Before long, his figure had reached the edge of the parade ground.
Facing him, Frontaine raised his cane above his head and charged.
“You bastard! Fight me head-on!”
If it turned into a prolonged battle, there was no chance of winning. Even now, they had already been sufficiently gnawed away.
The Leader of the Shadows, Main Shadow Ulfen’s surprise attacks were stealthy, swift, and fatal. Ulfen took down five in an instant and leisurely left. The enraged Frontaine pursued him, only to be counter-attacked and wounded.
While Frontaine was on guard for a moment, Ulfen disappeared. However, the veterans, who couldn’t figure out where he had gone at all, couldn’t move recklessly and held their ground.
And when Ulfen revealed himself again, the veterans, intuiting that this was their last chance, rushed him all at once.
As the few remaining veterans armed with their weapons charged.
Ulfen’s figure disappeared, and only his voice remained.
“The fight is already over, and your defeat has been decided. It’s just that you don’t know it yet.”
Slash. As he was approaching, the one-armed veteran was struck by an invisible blade and his remaining shoulder was deeply slashed. He glared without even having time to control the pain.
“I used… Bantan Qigong!”
“Do not blindly believe.”
The voice was heard right by his ear. The one-armed soldier aimed his iron flail at the direction of the sound, but the flail, which had the power to shatter concrete, helplessly sliced through empty air.
Stab. And once again, the sound of life draining away. The blade dug into his chest.
A deeply slashed chest, flowing blood. As the one-armed soldier slowly began to fall. He lit up his eyes and reached out to grab Ulfen’s clothes.
With a right arm that sprouted from his severed shoulder, which shouldn’t exist.
“Qi Arm?”
Ulfen reacted. Even he wouldn’t be able to shake off the hand grasped with qi.
Frontaine approached his side, having temporarily bound the shadow.
“I got him! You bastaaard!”
Ghost fires bloomed in his wrinkled eyes. Because of his lacking stamina, he had hoarded it, but this was the last chance.
The cane, fully charged with qi, vibrated. Even in the darkness, a flash of light struck. Frontaine’s cane fell like lightning.
The cane, wrapped in a storm behind it, was fatal just by grazing. If Ulfen dodged, it would explode its qi.
Holding the assassin down, striking down from above.
“…Heukjeong Gong.”
However, the darkness seeping from Ulfen’s body crept in between the flashes. The lightning was swallowed by the darkness in an instant. Ulfen, who had strangely inserted his qi, deflected Frontaine’s falling cane with a dagger.
The cane slid away in a soft arc. Despair lingered on Frontaine’s face, and at that moment, the shadow’s blade ruthlessly tore through the old general’s body.
How much blood could there be in a thin body. Blood gushed from the old general’s chest.
“Cough… Damn it….”
Holding onto his fading breath, the old general groaned.
Ulfen Penstein is an assassin. Since he specializes in delivering prepared strikes, he is weak in head-on confrontations….
“…That’s what I thought. Was that a miscalculation….”
“The reason I do not fight head-on is simply because it is efficient.”
Ulfen muttered with emotionless eyes. Frontaine retorted while vomiting blood.
“I know… too. That in this world… there are far more… outstanding people than the likes of me….”
And perhaps, one might even emerge from the children he raised. A child comparable to the Six Star Generals, surpassing the level of a general, could appear.
Like the Supreme Commander, who was recently recognized as the youngest Six Star General.
The children have infinite possibilities. It is the job of adults to let them bloom before that possibility fades.
That is why Frontaine left his last words before he died.
“We… never said a word about your identity…. Those children, don’t know your identity….”
The veterans he had called had all died. Even though they had already retired, they were still soldiers, and they blocked Ulfen’s path with a resolution to die.
They ended up being defeated, but still. Just in case, they had taken out insurance.
“There is… no need to… kill them to silence them….”
Saying that killing everyone wasn’t his goal, Frontaine protected the children until the very end.
Towards the old general appealing even as he was dying, Ulfen retorted with emotionless eyes.
“If that is the case.”
Since Ulfen’s goal was to spread the taboo anyway, he wouldn’t kill them.
It was unknown how the military state, having discovered the taboo, would act against them, but Ulfen had no reason to explain even that.
Whatever Ulfen’s feelings were.
Hearing Ulfen’s words, Frontaine closed his eyes in relief. His last sleep was longer than his life.
The old general died. Of course, Ulfen didn’t feel any particular emotion about it. He only looked at his next target with deeply sunken eyes.
Next is the Market. Ulfen’s figure melted away into the dark streets….
As Ulfen headed to the Market like that, a carriage drawn by two horses came into his view.