Chapter 126
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 126
"Ah, it hurts, ugh, it hurts so much. The—the blood won't stop."
Enrico lay sprawled across the sofa, whimpering. His woman fetched an ice pack and pressed it gently against his cheek.
"Babe, are you okay?"
"I'm dying here. Oh my god, I—I've never been in this much pain before. What if... what if I die like this?"
What a goddamn drama queen. Even Enrico's woman couldn't hold it in, letting out a soft chuckle.
"People don't die from something like this. So don't you worry."
Displaying thorough professionalism, she pulled him into her embrace. Nestled against her ample chest, Enrico seemed to settle down, closing his eyes and dragging in ragged breaths.
"Luka, you... seriously... after hitting me like this... you think you'll get away with it?"
Enrico tried to threaten me out of sheer habit, but the moment he registered his current predicament, his voice trailed off into a pathetic crawl.
"Enrico, you don't seem to grasp it, but you were about to be beaten to death by that mob out there."
I stared out the window, arms crossed. Beyond the glass, a noisy crowd milled about.
This is a La Vie en Rose safehouse.
It was where Enrico and I had holed up. From the outside, it looked like an ordinary middle-class home. But the cupboards were stocked with hard-to-find medical supplies—enough to perform minor surgery.
Because of Enrico, the crowd from the Lower District had chased after me as if worshipping a hero. Just then, Grace had appeared and spirited the two of us away to this safehouse.
While Enrico and I caught our breath inside, Grace was out there cleaning up the mess on our behalf.
"Did you contact Grace?"
I asked Enrico's woman. True to her standing as a professional working for La Vie en Rose, she'd apparently called Grace the instant trouble started.
"Ah, yes. In an emergency, if we press the pager, Lady Grace comes rushing over in no time—just like a prince from a fairy tale. We always carry one on us when we entertain nobles in the Lower District."
Her tone was completely different from when she spoke to Enrico. The ditzy demeanor was gone. It seemed she'd been playing down to Enrico's intellectual level this whole time.
"Good work," I muttered.
Without Grace, threading my way through that crowd alone would have been a real headache.
"It feels strange, being praised by the famous Sir Luka. You do know you're the talk of the town right now, don't you?"
The woman said, radiating goodwill toward me.
"Most of it's exaggerated. I'm not the person they think I am."
At my words, the half-dead Enrico chimed in.
"Exactly! He's a guy whose fists fly before his mouth even opens! Typical gutter trash. Look at me—he practically half-killed me."
If I'd actually meant to half-kill you, you'd already be a corpse...
While we were talking, a figure passed by outside the window. It was the eyepatch-wearing woman. Grace.
Step.
Grace pulled back her hood as she stepped inside.
"I had a subordinate of a similar build to Sir Luka lure the crowd away. You should be able to move in about twenty minutes. As for Sir Enrico, I'll escort him safely back to his residence."
Grace laid out her explanation as cleanly as she handled everything else.
"Ugh, I'm not setting foot in the Lower District for a good long while! I'm sick to death of these savages."
"Smart choice, Enrico. If you want to live a long life, best you don't come back down here."
I said it flatly. But in the end, Enrico hadn't pulled the trigger. He was a fool and an idiot, but he didn't have the stomach of a truly evil man.
I crossed my arms and looked out the window. I planned to move once the crowd thinned out.
"You're a far bigger deal than I first thought, Sir Luka. Or perhaps it'd be more accurate to say you've become one?"
Grace said, stepping up beside me. She leaned her back against the wall and squinted at me, a faint smile playing on her lips.
"Are you the type to get swept up in silly rumors too?"
"Where there's smoke, there's fire. Even if it's not to the extent the rumors claim, you must have killed a fair few noble lords."
Hard to deny. Rebels though they were, I was the one who dealt with the Ramones family. I was also the one who killed Bao Zakanan.
"Those were all missions. I had no other intentions. I never wanted to be some hero of the Lower District in the first place."
"But that's exactly how you're behaving now. With this incident, you've become a hero who saved children from noble tyranny. Ah—Sir Enrico. I'm not joking; you really mustn't come down here for a while. Even La Vie en Rose would find it difficult to protect you under these circumstances."
Grace stressed the point to Enrico once more.
"I said I'm not coming down!"
Enrico bellowed.
"There's got to be someone in the Lagan family with a functioning brain, so they'll probably ground Enrico anyway."
I added. Enrico scowled and snapped his head away.
A brief silence fell. Grace watched me, as if trying to pry into my thoughts. For once, her presence felt uncomfortable.
This time, I played along with what the public wanted.
It was about building symbolic power. The Imperial Family cared about public sentiment in the Lower District.
They won't be able to dispose of me so easily now that I'm popular down there.
The milk was spilled either way. If hiding myself had become impossible, then exposing myself further was the safer play.
Noel...
A chill crawled down my spine.
Noel Mulrizka. He, too, must have won support and popularity primarily from the lower classes—just like me. I couldn't help wondering how closely my current path mirrored his.
I needed to learn about Noel's actions and the history of that era. Not some one-line summary, but detailed records.
Agatha's chip must hold the records of that time.
I reached into my pocket and felt the two chips. One was Agatha's old chip; the other, the one with the restored data.
Grace's single eye gleamed briefly. She was communicating with someone.
"...I have a message from Diva. If there's anything you need, La Vie en Rose is willing to support you in any way. They believe you're going to become quite an important person. Consider it an early investment."
My stomach turned. Even now, Martina Diva was quick to angle for a piece of the action.
"Well, that's the best news I've heard all day. Though I can't imagine how much help a mere street gang from the Lower District can actually be."
I said, one corner of my mouth twitching. Long since used to my sharp tongue, Grace didn't so much as blink.
"We might not be much use in terms of raw force, but we can assist in other ways. I understand your nerves are frayed, but there's no need to turn an ally into an enemy with reckless words."
Calm, sensible advice. Grace was too fine a person to waste away in La Vie en Rose. There was a reason she'd been chosen for her aptitude for the Imperial Guard.
"You should wrap things up and leave La Vie en Rose too. You've repaid your debt to them by now."
"Whether the debt has been repaid is for me—the party involved—to decide, not others."
Well, she had a point.
I felt my head cooling. This was what I liked about talking to Grace. Reason always came first. Probably because she kept such a rational attitude.
The emotions inside me stilled. Rational thoughts began to spin rapidly. I closed my eyes, then opened them.
"Grace, how good is your marksmanship?"
"I'm more confident with a gun than in close-quarters combat. I was top of my class in marksmanship during my cadet days."
Just as I figured. As a rule, those with calm temperaments excel at shooting, while close-quarters combat suits the hot-headed types.
Swish.
I drew the Shock Pistol Ruina from inside my coat. Grace's eyes widened. She must have recognized it as a product of the Imperial Workshop.
"I'll entrust Ruina to you for the time being. I'm sure you'll be able to help me when the critical moment comes."
I was placing a chess piece through Grace. Whether I'd actually use this move later, even I didn't know.
But now was the time to look at the bigger picture. To fight monsters, I had to be this bold, this far-sighted.
"I'm not the type to covet another's sweetheart... but this is rather alluring."
Grace took Ruina and examined its specifications. She caressed the gun gently before tucking it into her coat.
Creak.
After handing over the spare ammunition, I opened the door and checked outside. It looked safe to leave now.
"Do you truly think it wise, entrusting this to me? I'm not Gabriel. You and La Vie en Rose are merely cooperating out of mutual interest."
Grace said, watching me as I prepared to go.
"I know. That's exactly why I'm entrusting it to you, Grace—not to La Vie en Rose."
She flinched, seemingly at a loss for words. I gave her a brief nod and stepped out of the safehouse.
I intended to exploit Grace's feelings. Even if it was a dirty trick, I had no choice. I had to use every tool within reach.
* * *
Three days had passed since the incident with Enrico.
The way people looked at me had changed. Even at the Imperial Guard Headquarters, more and more of them whispered whenever I passed.
The symbol of anti-nobility—Lucaus Custoria.
The label clung to me. If this was the atmosphere within the Imperial Guard, then the number of people wary of me across noble society at large must be climbing fast.
The Custoria family, who had taken me in, surely found themselves in a rather awkward spot too.
Is he really on our side?
People seemed to look at me with that exact question in their eyes.
If I weren't a Custoria... I'd probably have met a grim end by now.
The only reason I wasn't subjected to open insults or interrogation was the protective shadow of the Custoria family.
It was difficult to interrogate the adopted son of the Custoria family over whether he was the vanguard of the anti-nobility movement. To do so would be to cast doubt on the Custoria family itself.
I was making full use of the family's protection. Long live Heilas, long live Custoria.
...I was indulging in these idle thoughts when I ran into Ilay in the lounge.
"Well, if it isn't the Noble Hunter himself. Whoa—don't glare at me like that. It's scary."
An absurd joke, perfectly in tune with my idle musings, tumbled out of Ilay's mouth.
"What does everyone say about me when I'm not around?"
I cut straight to it. Ilay dropped the playful tone and scanned our surroundings.
"Our classmates and those close to you don't really care. They know what you're like."
"That's a relief. What about the others?"
"They're using you as drinking-table gossip, cursing you out as an ungrateful gutter orphan who bit the hand of noble society after it took you in. They act like they were the ones who showed you charity."
"About what I expected. If it's just talk, I can live with it."
"What in the world was Prince Fransek thinking, dropping you into this mess? Did you screw up big-time somewhere? The funny part is, right after that, you saved His Highness from an assassin. Hmm."
Ilay was thinking fast, too. But with limited information, seeing the whole picture would be hard for him.
"Forget it. More importantly, how's the atmosphere in your family?"
"It's a mess because of the Catacomb Mine issue. A few of our elders are actually thrilled their pensions went up..."
Ilay trailed off, staring at me. He must sense that the mood in the Military was strange. The Kartika family had plenty of high-ranking officers, after all.
"...Luka. Diverting the Catacomb Mine's profits to the Wounded Soldier Fund—that wasn't the Imperial Family's idea, was it?"
It wasn't much of a secret. The key figures in the Military already knew. Given Ilay's position as the next head of a military family, it was something he could easily piece together.
"The Military made a subversive move."
"I used to think I was the only rebellious one... funny, isn't it. Now that I think about it, the Imperial Guard Captain knew what we did at the Arcane Fortress, didn't he?"
Ilay's reasoning had reached that far. I'd been hoping he wouldn't figure this part out.
"Yes. He knew and let it slide. He said it'd be a waste to dispose of you and me over something like that. A tolerable deviation within the Imperial Guard, he called it."
A dark smile flickered across Ilay's face. Beneath his twisted lips, the veins in his jaw bulged. His fingertips trembled.
"Ha, haha. Right. Maybe Lillian..."
"Calm down, Ilay. It's in the past. It was the best decision anyone could've made at the time."
As if to render my words meaningless, Ilay swiftly reined in his emotions. He clasped his hands together, stilling the trembling.
"I know. It's all in the past. Soon, chaos will sweep over Akbaran. You think so too, don't you?"
"Probably."
"And this chaos is an opportunity for us. An opportunity for you and me to rise."
The word "rise" had come out of Ilay's mouth. Normally, that was a word for mine.
Once, I'd hoped Ilay would abandon his rebellious streak. But seeing him now—seemingly falling in line with the Empire's order—felt strangely unfamiliar.
As if reading the meaning behind my gaze, Ilay leaned back against the railing and laughed.
"Don't look so glum, Luka. I still think the Empire is twisted. This is a broken society. But to change it, climbing to the top is the only way, isn't it? I'm still the Ilay Kartika you remember."
"I'm not tearing up, idiot."
Ilay smirked. He hopped down from the railing and waved a hand at me.
"Take care of yourself, whatever you do, Luka."
I watched Ilay disappear.
...Well, I should get moving too. Kinuan had summoned me today. It seemed the time had come.