Chapter 149

The tarp used for cover is completely removed. He held the pistol in his right hand, aiming it at Kamael, and extended his left hand. Folding his fingers one by one, he counted the days.
“Kamael Rothfer. Almost a week?”
Today was not the day of the battle. Aside from the events at the border, the terrorism at Philstein Prison was widespread in the country.
Naturally, public opinion caught fire.
It was a controversial facility in the city. There were many citizens who recognized its usefulness but were reluctant to use it, not to mention various nonprofit organizations that were criticizing it.
In other words, if something went wrong, they were going to be ostracized. And then there was a terrorist attack. The dignitaries involved in the prison were almost forced to take off their clothes.
It was scrutinized.
We couldn’t turn a blind eye. There were a lot of suspicious things about this case from the beginning. How the Legion broke in. How the prison was opened. The timing of the raid.
The conclusion was simple.
“The city is in turmoil. There’s a Legion mole inside, high up.”
Kim gave him a pitying look.
“The blacksmith has gone out of his way to make up for lost popularity. We’ve had enough trouble without him, and now a man of sixty years of age is bowing down to us.”
Half true, half false.
It’s clear that the team is struggling, being hauled around by the Blacksmith, but Dustborn, unlike the rest of the Lab’s agents, is free.
We decided from the beginning. Let the lab take care of the external issues.
Dustborn was merely a collaborator with the Lab, and was under no obligation to help with non-operational tasks. Stopping the border raids and prison riots was enough to do the job.
So we’re all enjoying an untimely vacation, but hey.
Unfortunately, Kim was a bit busier than the rest of us.
“But what are you doing here, while everyone else is screaming?”
Kamael flinched at the light shake of the gun. Kamael stared at the muzzle, then carefully shifted his gaze to the body of a dead subordinate lying on the ground.
My throat is parched.
“……How did you know you were here?”
“What, you’re not going to deny it? I could use that as an excuse to say I was kidnapped by him.”
“If you make excuses, will they take you seriously?”
Kim gulped.
“No way.”
Again. Camael thought to himself. He didn’t know how far the investigation had progressed, but at least the man in front of him was certain. That the shadowy figure in this case was Kamael.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have killed his own men for nothing. Obvious answers are a waste of time. To survive, I needed to be smarter.
“What a surprise. How did you expect me to pass through here?”
“You’re talking again.”
He shrugged, the nemesis of the Legion by all means.
“I told you, it’s a coincidence.”
“I’m a rocket scientist, and I don’t like to talk about luck or chance.”
“Al Banya, you’re not obligated to tell me straight in the first place.”
It was easy to guess the omission.
I’m going to die soon, anyway.
Kamael instinctively realized this was his last chance. His brain picked out words. He wondered if he was getting old. It didn’t take him long to come up with a story that Kim would find offensive.
It was a secret history.
“……You’ve been a part of the Cellbrosics Labs for quite some time, Aoman.”
“It’s been about two years, which isn’t very long.”
“If I ask you, how well do you think you know Celbrosix Labs?”
The answer comes right back, but then it’s cut off. Silence. I took it as a green light.
“Have you ever questioned their origins, why a single research company would want to take on the Legion with a private army, who the director of the institute really is?”
“You mean you know?”
He took the bait. Kamael desperately swallowed a laugh.
“I’ve heard it from Meng Zhu.”
“Markus Dressner.”
“Yes, he was once a resident of the royal palace in Shalem.”
He had no intention of bullshitting. The facts would have to suffice, and in his judgment, Cellbrosics Labs was an organization that could never be called good.
“And the director of the Cellbromics Lab. Meng Zhu called the man Heinz, and remembered him as a close friend and mentor.”
“…….”
“That was it, so we don’t really know what their relationship was like.”
However, after doing and inverting.
“I’ll tell you up front, this is the unquestionable truth.”
After a big rush, Camael revealed the truth.
A secret that few on the continent know.
“Forty-four years ago. It was Heinz’s work that triggered a previously localized catastrophe to sweep across the globe. He didn’t act alone, of course, but the facts are undeniable.”
It came out like a sentence.
“He is a great sinner, and I do not know what persuasions he may have used to woo you, but in reality he is a hypocrite and a madman, and if you search the history books of the world, you will not find a more vicious slayer than he!”
Kim remained silent. I listened to Kamael’s ramblings and tried to put them together with the game’s setting. He may have been biased, but he wasn’t wrong.
The Emperor and Heinrich of Shiran. Markus and Heinz of Shalem. And the professor. The evidence of their crimes is etched into their flesh.
Ageless (不老).
“Hundreds of millions, billions of human beings have been killed by selfishness, and I have watched that hell with my own eyes, and I can never forgive him…! My mother’s body is still buried in my hometown, which was destroyed in a single day, and how can I not be furious……!”
Camael clenched his skinny fists.
“Meng Zhu is different. He is burning himself to atone for his sins. Sooner or later, the continent will once again face a great crisis, and we want to prepare for that day……..”
“Okay, I hear you.”
Kim held up his left hand as a sign to stop. Camael, who had been arguing with his throat craned up to his neck, shuddered and shut his mouth. But the ambiguous response was short-lived.
“If you have changed your mind, or if you hesitate at all, you may confide in me without reproach. I cannot undo what has been done, but I can understand.”
“I’m sure there are a lot more dead guys than you realize.”
“Heinz must have clouded your eyes, but I’ll let past graces slide.”
“Really?”
The words drifted out.
“Shadowdoor, Snowfield, Camellia, Mithril, Rags.”
Camael gulped at the names that came out of nowhere. The information about Kim’s involvement in the deaths of Shadowdoor and Mithril had been sketchy. Mithril hadn’t even known she was dead.
“I didn’t have a hand in it, but I guess you could say Mantra and Lasley are my influences, and.”
There was a short gap.
“You’re next.”
“Holy……!”
Camael spun around in a panic. But there was no way his aging body could dodge the bullets. His opponent was no novice, but a skilled hunter.
“Kaboom!”
A bullet from the back pierced his chest. Kamael lost his footing and fell to the ground. Inside him, his breathing quickened from the heat. His hands and feet, on the other hand, were cooling rapidly.
The footsteps were close.
Ta-da!
Smoke billowed from the silencer attached to the barrel, and the pistol turned into a ball of light and disappeared. Kim caught the silencer as it fell to the ground and stowed it in his pocket.
[ERROR!]
The message didn’t pique my interest.
I dropped my gaze, and two corpses looked right down at me. I sighed as I stared at them. It was depressing to have to deal with corpses while everyone else was playing.
“It’s my sale.”
It’s a tough world out there.
* * *
For the record.
The investigation uncovered numerous irregularities and irregularities involving Kamael. Once one blew up, it set off a chain reaction of dominoes.
The academy he sat at the head of had been dishonored. He was blamed more than necessary because the man who should have been responsible had disappeared.
But it wasn’t a case of resentment. It was a hotbed of corruption, with theft of theses, fake degrees, and more. It was a hotbed of corruption.
More than a week later, the investigation continued. Unless Kamael’s disappearance is dramatically resolved, investigators will be busy for a long time to come.
“I’m sorry, but you’re in trouble.
Maybe it was what they had been hoping for: a raid on a prestigious academy, a cartel in an ivory tower. The investigator’s authority was growing stronger by the day.
Of course, that wouldn’t put the police organization at the top of the Ishurad. The core of Ish’lahd is an ivory tower. I’m sure they’d be happy with that.
For Kim, it was a good problem to have.
His attention was focused on the flasks in front of him.
“You got all of this? Really?”
“It was more of a squeeze than a grab.”
The professor smiled wryly. Glaring at her, Kim turned her attention back to the box on the table. A square alloy bag filled with reagents. Each compartment was filled with flasks.
AP-116. a special solution that strengthens spells.
“Crazy, how many of these are there.
It wasn’t so rotten that I lost count. Twelve bottles in all. That’s a lot of food for a full stomach, even if it’s not enough for the agents we’re going to have.
Each one is worth a fortune. The two vials I got in Kilikia were a stroke of luck, but twelve? Even if they were stacked in gold bars, they wouldn’t be as valuable.
“My eyes are going to pop out of my head, Hyun.”
“Uh, uh. Hmm.”
The sound of giggles brought me back to my senses.
“You never cease to amaze me.”
“I think you’re more surprised than you realize.”
I’ve been surprised many times, usually in a bad way. I forced myself to disperse the scenes from the past that were playing in my head, sometimes with a wake-up call, but more often than not, a feeling I didn’t need right now.
“You got this from the ivory tower, right?”
“Yes.”
In the ivory tower, the operational teams were treated as more than state guests, they were national heroes. There may have been some politics involved, but it was nothing to be uncomfortable about. It was clear that they had saved the country from a national crisis.
The 12 bottles of AP-116 were an intuitive expression of gratitude.
“So I have to tell you something a little uncomfortable….”
“You go first.”
This is a discussion about ownership.
Labs and Dustborn are collaborative but fundamentally different groups. One cannot dominate the other, so a compromise had to be found. Kim wasn’t about to let up this time.
Soon, the professor spoke up.
“I honestly think it’s okay to give it all away.”
“……what?”
“It’s embarrassing, but it’s not like we’ve done much.”
I was dumbfounded.
What a bunch of bullshit.
‘You asshole. Are you still out of it?
He wasn’t an idiot who thought he and Dustborn could solve every crisis.
Increasing the lab’s power is a must. Moreover, there was a risk of a Chapter if it reached Kushan’s ears.
“But it’s not a decision you can make with your heart, and it’s not a pretty picture. It’s a formal delivery, so we’ll have to match the assortment, do you understand?”
“Of course, who’s an ass.”
Kim blew out a long breath.
“And you say you haven’t done much, but I don’t really think so, because you’ve been here since the beginning, and we don’t like being bothered.”
“Bothering you?”
“Tuning in with the big boys and stuff. Look at my kids, one gambling maniac, one nice but a little dumb, one just plain dumb, and a woman who doesn’t know what’s going on in her head. Do something with them besides fight.”
“Ah, hmm. Ahhhhh.”
He scratches his cheeks in frustration at how hard it was to defend himself.
“So how much do you want?”
“I don’t know.”
It’s valuable, but there’s no point in keeping it. If you sell it, you’ll make a lot of money, but you’ll have to clean up the mess. If you’re unlucky enough to be caught, you’ll be ugly.
“I have no choice but to use it.
Chelsea, who flowered her spell in an unusual way, is on hold for now. We don’t know what side effects it might have, so we need to be as careful as possible. We only have a limited number of them, even counting the people we’ll be bringing with us.
In contrast, the labs were full of people who could use the solution. West Creek alone. Spells will increase your detection range considerably.
After some thought, I gave him an answer.
“Half.”
I decided to accept it gratefully.
* * *
I can’t distribute the solution right away. Kushan is in charge of the lab, so you’ll need to talk to him as well. But as long as you’ve coordinated with the professor, it shouldn’t change the outcome.
‘Half is half. I’ll take it.’
Given Kushan’s picky nature, he may feel it’s not enough, but what can you do, he owes Dustborne a lot.
It was an unexpected harvest left and right.
The game also gives you AP-116 as a reward for the Ishurad episode, but apparently not 12 bottles. Maybe they’re more generous with it now that the country has more than enough.
This made me feel much more relaxed and in control of my plans.
It was a slow day, especially since Asterique was out with Chelsea. While he was ordering lunch from room service, there was a knock on his room door.
“…… I have a consultation. Do you have time?”
It was Echidna.
For a moment, I wondered about the unexpected visit. The troubled look on her face gave away the reason. Kim swallowed a sigh and answered.
“Meals.”
“I did.”
“I’m not there yet. Wait in the hallway.”
“What? Why. We can wait inside.”
“You’re the one who says I eat all day, you.”
I closed the door, leaving a dazed Ekidna behind.
“I hear they don’t even touch dogs when they eat….”
Well, I’m not a dog.