Chapter 100
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 100
The foreign policy of the Akresia Empire was simple.
To the Empire, the Bellato Federation and the Kora Holy Nation were objects of a love-hate relationship—arch-nemeses one moment, partners the next. This was because they shared a common root: humans from Earth. Even in times of hostility, private-sector exchanges were never fully severed.
When it came to alien species, however, the Empire maintained a policy of absolute contempt and exclusion. Aliens did not enjoy equal rights with humans. Most were slaves or illegal residents. Only a select few, those whose utility had been recognized, were granted the barest of residence permits.
'Regardless, aliens are a rare sight in the Empire.'
That didn't mean the Empire hid information about alien species.
Quite the opposite. The Imperial Guard and the military went out of their way to provide intensive education on several of them.
'The Predo, the Saura, the Crawlers... and the Equesians.'
These were the names I knew well. They all shared one trait: they were so warlike, or so exceptionally powerful in combat, that they'd earned the label "combat species."
In other words, species the Empire was highly likely to encounter as enemies. And today, I faced one of them.
Whirrrr!
The Equesian before me leveled his spear, tracking my movements with its tip. Four fingers gripped the shaft, and a menacing light gleamed behind his mask. The stripes across his body glowed orange, venting the heat building up inside him.
'The mercenary race, the Equesians.'
That was what people called them. Equesian mercenaries were renowned for their absolute loyalty and good faith.
And that loyalty was being proven right before my eyes. Even here, on the outskirts of Akbaran, they operated within the Empire to protect their employer. As long as they were paid, they'd work even in a land rife with xenophobia.
'This one is a high-level warrior, even among Equesians.'
I knew it instinctively—this opponent was formidable. The energy shield he'd used to block my shock rounds was already unusual. His combat prowess would surely match the quality of his gear.
An alien operating within the Empire? That alone was proof of his skill.
Screeech.
I let the Crucis hang loose, its tip scraping against the floor.
'Fighting a non-human.'
I would learn something new here. Of that I was certain.
Whether I survived and grew, or fell.
That was what it meant, in the end, to be a warrior. The strong are born upon the deaths of others.
Click.
The Equesian moved first. His arms were so long that his fingers reached down to his knees. On top of that, he stood two heads taller than me.
'And his weapon has reach.'
I was the one who had to close the distance. Stay far, and I'd be held at bay before getting skewered.
'Evade the thrust, slip inside.'
My parallel thinking—split between combat and tactics—rapidly drew up a plan.
Whoosh!
I moved, eyes locked on the spear driving toward me like a needle. It grazed past my shoulder.
Swish!
I pressed forward, closing the gap. Now I was within reach of my blade.
Swing the sword diagonally to knock the spear aside, then slash across his torso.
The textbook approach. The textbook is called the textbook because it is always the most effective.
...And experienced fighters always lay traps for textbook moves.
Tsk!
I planted my lead foot to brake. Mid-advance, I stepped back.
The Equesian's left hand swept through the space where my head had just been. A blade the length of a forearm had sprung from the gauntlet wrapping his arm.
'Catching your opponent off guard with a hidden weapon.'
A veteran's trick.
Had I kept advancing, I'd have been gutted by that blade—or forced to block it, exposing an opening. Either way, I'd have ended up on the defensive.
'But I saw it coming. My turn.'
I held the offensive now. The Equesian's stance was crumbling. His eyes went wide behind his mask as he fixed them on me.
Slash!
My blade cut clean through his left arm. Thick bone and muscle parted like butter.
He didn't scream. He didn't so much as flinch at the pain. He simply stared, already transitioning into his next move.
A frustratingly magnificent warrior. Had he faltered from the shock of losing an arm, I'd have pressed the advantage instantly.
He'd lost that arm because he'd lost the exchange—yet he refused to panic. So now the initiative shifted back. My blade had swung wide to sever his arm.
My head and left shoulder were left completely exposed.
'With his bare hand?'
Judging it too slow to retrieve and thrust his spear, the Equesian boldly let the weapon fall. His remaining right hand shot out for my head—large enough to palm my entire skull.
He was confident, no doubt, that a single squeeze would crush it.
Shhhk!
I didn't halt my wide swing. Instead, I drove the blade's tip straight into the floor, riding the centrifugal force.
My Crucis is a high-compression heavy weapon—extraordinarily hard and heavy. With its tip anchored, my body vaulted upward as if I were pole-vaulting.
Whoosh!
I released the hilt and soared. In an instant I hovered directly above the Equesian's head.
Having thrown out his right arm, he was utterly defenseless, his back turned. The nape of his neck lay wide open.
I drew my dagger in a flash—the Grakken Boot. A symbolic treasure blade of the Equesian race.
...To think the first victim of my Grakken Boot would be an Equesian. Even with my dry sensibilities, it struck me as a cruel, ironic twist of fate.
Thuck!
Bearing my weight down onto his back, I drove the dagger deep into the back of his skull. The blade severed his central nervous system and pierced his brain.
Squish!
I twisted it, shredding what remained.
—If... all of us... fail... you do not... have to pay... the fee.
The translator's mechanical voice crackled and buzzed. His final words weren't for me, but for his employer, Bao Zakanan.
I rose and pulled the Grakken Boot free. As I flicked the blood off, the white blade gleamed as though brand new.
The dead Equesian lay motionless.
Moments ago we'd been trying with everything we had to kill each other, yet I felt no hatred toward him. He'd simply fulfilled his contract faithfully.
And the Equesian, I suspected, had felt no hatred or resentment toward me either. Not even in his final moments.
'So this is the mercenary race...'
If every Equesian mercenary was like this, then they were trustworthy partners—even if the bond was forged in coin.
I let my sharpened senses spread outward. My deliberately dulled hearing opened, and the commotion beyond the room snapped into focus.
'Iskan is still fighting.'
Two Equesians at once, by the sound of clashing weapons. My end was finished; I needed to help him.
But... there was something I had to handle first.
"Bao Zakanan."
I looked down at him. He let out a sigh, like a man who'd given up on everything.
"Fine. Take me in. Let's negotiate like nobles."
He still believed there was room for a deal. And true—had I been an ordinary member of the Custoria family, I'd have taken him in and wrung him dry.
But I was the Emperor's Watcher. I knew the grand flow of events, the plan beneath the plan.
To protect the Custoria family here... I had to kill Bao Zakanan.
"The assassination of Nikolaos came from the Empire's upper command, didn't it? That's why you contacted Nemesis to commission the hit. That's the truth buried beneath all this convoluted cover-up."
Bao Zakanan's eyes stretched wider than they had when his ugliest secrets were laid bare. His pupils dilated until they seemed to swallow the whites.
"How do you—"
That reaction alone was more than enough to confirm it.
Thuck!
I picked up the Equesian's spear and drove it through his head. The point punched through his forehead and jutted out the back of his neck.
Bao Zakanan was dead.
I didn't want the Custoria family to fall. I didn't want Jupe and Eva—who hated me—to die. And certainly not Heilas. Not Giselle.
'The Empire deliberately sowed chaos by killing Nikolaos Custoria. They almost certainly anticipated Heilas would react exactly the way she has.'
The unease that had hung over me like fog finally revealed its true shape. I hadn't wanted to see it. Every time it flickered faintly into view, I'd wanted to deny it.
I quietly bit my lower lip.
'The Empire is trying to destroy the Custoria family.'
And to do that, they needed a pretext. The ones at the very top wanted the Custoria family to turn against the Empire.
It was dangerous. Incredibly dangerous. For me, and for Heilas.
And then I understood—with painful clarity—why Akies Victima was a prerequisite for becoming a Watcher. Because even if you didn't want to know, you were forced to see all these tangled threads for what they were.
The mission the Imperial Family and Kinuan had laid upon me came to me on its own. They hadn't needed to say it aloud. I knew what they wanted.
If I wished to be recognized as an official Watcher, like Kinuan...
'I must help destroy the Custoria family from within.'
What a damnably cruel trial. What a test.
Yeah. Honestly? It's just fucking bullshit.
* * *
To put it bluntly, the combat ability of the Equesians we'd faced fell well below the average of the Imperial Guard.
I couldn't say where they stood among their own kind, but they certainly weren't weaklings. We were simply one of the most elite combat groups in the entire Empire.
Naturally... Iskan—who belonged to a high-ranking unit even within the Imperial Guard—had dispatched two Equesians on his own with ease.
"Did the target die in the skirmish? Can't be helped. Troublesome bastards anyway."
Iskan spoke while looking down at Bao Zakanan's corpse.
"I interrogated him before he went. Got most of what we needed."
"Hmm. A silver lining, then."
Iskan didn't seem particularly disappointed. He was carrying out this mission out of loyalty to Heilas; whether it went smoothly or not made little difference to him.
"Didn't expect him to keep Equesians as bodyguards. I'd only ever heard about them in class," I said, steering the conversation elsewhere. Nothing strange about a mere cadet finding alien species fascinating.
"Equesians have excellent stamina and endless patience—perfect for long-term escort work that involves a lot of waiting. Bao Zakanan had plenty of dirty laundry, so he kept them as personal guards. He's probably got an Equesian transmitter embedded in a molar. Alien comms use proprietary standards, so even the Empire has a hard time jamming them."
Iskan spoke like a senior Guardsman passing down wisdom.
Just as Bao Zakanan had implied, sometimes alien species with no stake whatsoever in the Empire made the most trustworthy allies. That was precisely why certain Imperial nobles kept dragging them into their covert affairs.
I organized what I'd extracted from Bao Zakanan and reported to Iskan.
"So this place was a source of funding tied to Nemesis, and that's how they roped him into cooperating?"
"According to him, he was blackmailed... but in my opinion, he leaked information to Nemesis now and then to feed his own perversions and desires. Even so, it seems he never handed over anything critical. If he had, he wouldn't have lived this long."
A report woven from truth and lies. I buried my deeper feelings, letting only my disgust for this place and for Bao Zakanan show through the occasional frown.
Of course, this establishment truly was monstrous. That part I believed with my whole heart.
"Head to where there's signal and call the Public Security Guard. I'll finish cleaning up here. There are probably more of them deeper inside."
"We killed a good number of nobles here. Is it really alright to bring in the Public Security Guard?"
"If we bury this, I'd have to kill every surviving victim with my own hands. I don't want that. You understand? Besides, the Empire won't question us for putting down trash like this. The families involved will smother the whole affair out of sheer embarrassment."
I suppressed a faint smile.
Kindness and goodwill can make a man look weak. But Iskan's kindness never did—because it was backed by the rank and the deeds he'd earned.
Iskan was a good man. Someone of his character was likely a rare thing to find, even within the Imperial Guard.