Chapter 130
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 130
Giselle and I had made our decision, so there was no reason to hesitate. I would waver no longer.
"Mother, I must step away as well. An urgent matter has arisen," I said, going to find Eva.
As the Acting Family Head, if I stepped away, the next in charge would be Eva. She looked at me and nodded.
Eva did not panic. She merely stared at me with eyes as cold as ice, carrying herself with the dignity of a true matriarch.
"I do not know what it is, but I hope it is something that helps your father."
I nodded. But even I did not know who would ultimately benefit from my actions.
"And Giselle will be coming with me. I need her help."
This time, a brief silence fell. Eva bit her lower lip slightly before speaking.
"...If it is necessary, then it cannot be helped. Protect her, no matter what."
This, I could answer with absolute certainty.
"I intend to. Even if it costs me my life."
Giselle and I left the main estate and headed to the airfield. Giselle had prepared thoroughly; her clothes looked heavy. Inside her swaying coat, a pistol and personal gear were visible.
Whooooosh!
True to the Storm Era, the wind was fierce. Even standing still, it was enough to make one stagger.
Jupe?
Jupe was standing in front of the airfield, braving the wind. Seeing Giselle and me, he walked through the gale toward us.
"Luka, if there's anything I need to prepare, tell me. If the worst happens, what should we do?"
I stared at him quietly.
Honestly, I couldn't trust Jupe. It wasn't a matter of his character or personality; I simply didn't think highly of his abilities.
If I entrust it to him, can Jupe actually pull it off?
But right now, it seemed I had no choice but to trust him. At least he wasn't a man devoid of responsibility. He would do his best within his limits.
"Before the Storm Era ends... if Father and I do not return, or if you hear nothing from us, you'll have to prepare for exile, brother."
Emotional signals leaked from Jupe's robust frame. The unsteady focus of his pupils, the trembling of his fingertips, his twitching legs, the small self-harm of biting his lip. He was terrified.
"If we must prepare for exile... yes, so that's how it is. Father didn't give me a single hint until the very end. Was I really such an untrustworthy son...?"
Heilas's judgment had been correct. Jupe would be of little help in the current chaos. Worse, there was a risk he'd leak confidential information.
Yes—the biggest problem was that Heilas was right. He had made the correct call, even at the cost of deeply wounding his own child.
"Go, Luka. If Father needs your help, I'll protect this place somehow."
Giselle and I nodded and passed by Jupe.
We climbed into the aerial vehicle. Giselle, who knew her way around machinery, took the driver's seat and worked the controls. The startup thrum vibrated through the chassis.
"It would've been nice if Nikolaos were here at a time like this..." Giselle muttered.
Even she missed the dead Nikolaos rather than relying on the living Jupe.
Nikolaos had been a man who could understand and navigate through darkness and chaos. Even I, who had only recently taken up the name Custoria, felt the void his absence left behind.
It's not that Jupe didn't try. He's a hard worker—so much so that comparing him to Enrico Lagan almost feels like an insult to Jupe.
And yet, Jupe could not overcome the wall of reality. I pitied him. But even that emotion would be a wound to him, so I didn't let it show.
The fifteen-year-old Luka did not pity the weak. He despised them, looked down on them.
But the eighteen-year-old Lucaus Custoria understood the weak. He knew their pain and frustration were not entirely their own fault.
The fifteen-year-old me, and the me of now. Which is stronger, and which is weaker?
Sometimes the boy inside me blamed my weakened self. That boy, sharp as a blade, criticized how dull I had become.
The boy's criticism was right. When even running at full speed wouldn't be enough, here I was, meddling here and there. If I kept this up, my head would roll.
As the moment of decision drew closer, the contradiction inside me grew. I felt like I was going mad. It was unbearably painful. An unimaginably dark emotion filled me.
"Luka..."
Suddenly, Giselle called my name. It seemed I had been sitting in silence for a long time. She kept her eyes forward as she spoke.
"...Don't cry."
I hadn't cried. Probably.
* * *
From the very first week of the Storm Era, chaos rose like a gathering wind.
Robbery and theft ran rampant throughout the Lower District. Fierce shouts and gunshots echoed every few minutes. I crossed the Lower District, holding Giselle's wrist.
I deliberately chose a maze-like route. Fearing we might be followed, I twisted and doubled back, constantly sharpening my senses to read our surroundings.
"This is the place."
I stopped. A sign with broken neon lights hung above us.
We'd arrived at an illegal clinic at the very bottom of the district. If you asked what kind of procedures they did here, the answer was 'everything.' It dabbled in it all—bio-enhancement, cybernetic augmentation, nervous systems, full-body prosthetics. Naturally, there was no professionalism to speak of.
No sane person would entrust their body to a place like this. Only the lowest of the low came here, most of them with a do-or-die desperation.
Creeeeak.
We pushed the door open and stepped inside. The quadruple lock had been smashed. There was no dust on the broken surfaces—it had been broken recently.
Sssss.
Inside, a strange chemical stench mixed with the smell of blood drifted through the air. In one corner, industrial oil had pooled, twisting my stomach further.
Opening the inner door, I saw a woman sitting on an operating table, playing a hologram game. Dressed in a white lab coat, she beamed the moment she saw us. To be precise, she beamed at Giselle.
"Ah, you're here! Giselle! I missed you so much! It's me, me! Barbara!"
The woman calling herself Barbara rushed toward Giselle. I stopped her, leveling my service pistol.
"B-Barbara..."
Giselle's face twisted at the sight of the woman—at the sight of Barbara's condition.
Seeing Barbara's appearance, even I found it hard to suppress a gut-deep revulsion. I'd known she was insane, but this felt beyond mere madness—like something no longer human.
"Did you change your body again, Barbara?"
The full-body prosthetic Barbara was currently wearing had belonged to the clinic's doctor.
Someone else's full-body prosthetic.
A full-body prosthetic is incomparably more sophisticated than a prosthetic leg or arm. It completely mimics human biological organs. Only after delicate tuning and grueling rehabilitation does the brain finally recognize the prosthetic as its own.
Which is why wearing someone else's full-body prosthetic is madness. The brain collapses into confusion from the mismatch and alienation. In short—it means losing your mind.
And there's the full-body prosthetic Barbara wore before.
I looked at the prosthetic lying face-down beneath the operating table. It was male, and the upper portion of the head had been cleanly removed. A surgical trace.
It seemed she'd performed the operation here, alone.
"There's no better way to hide my identity and slip past surveillance, hehe. Giselle, Giselle! You know who I really am now, right? I'm not a terrorist—I'm a person of the Empire. So don't be afraid of me anymore."
Barbara pushed the corners of her mouth up with her fingers. That gesture alone made her unmistakably Barbara. Because the body was someone else's, her facial expressions didn't seem to obey her will.
"Barbara, don't misunderstand. I'm not afraid of you. I despise you. I loathe you."
"Oh, silly little lies don't work on me. And fear isn't always a bad thing. A moderate amount of fear actually helps a relationship. Don't you think so, Luka?"
This was what made Barbara terrifying. She was a lunatic, yet she reasoned rationally. She read people's minds, pinpointed their weak spots, and exploited them.
I ignored her question and got straight to business.
"Is data conversion possible in this facility? For the record—if you suggest relocating, the negotiation's off."
This place was extremely dangerous too. Before entering, I'd thoroughly checked for surveillance or ambushes.
"No need to bristle so much. I know your capabilities well, Luka. No matter how many traps I set, you'll just grab Giselle and run the moment something feels off. Come on, let's keep it friendly. I'm just happy to see Giselle like this."
Reading Barbara's inner thoughts was hard. Hard in a different way from Kinuan and Heilas.
Kinuan and Heilas didn't easily emit emotional signals. Even the emotions they did show were usually false.
Tzzzzz.
I narrowed my eyes and glared at Barbara, trying to read her with every sense I had.
Too many emotional signals are leaking from her words and movements.
That was why her true intentions stayed hidden. It was as if she'd wrapped herself in threads spun from false emotions. Because she flooded everything with excessive emotional signals, it was impossible to tell what she actually felt.
Clack, clack.
Barbara pulled out a heavy bag. When she opened it, inside was a computer terminal shaped like the bag itself. It looked like a considerably high-performance unit.
"Small as it is, it rivals the main computer of most research institutes. Giselle, can you help me? Drag that bundle of wires over and connect it. We used to work on things together like this. I suddenly miss it."
I moved to handle the wires instead of Giselle.
"I'll do it. You keep an eye on Barbara," Giselle said, stepping forward. I nodded and moved to Barbara's side.
"Barbara, I won't waste even a second killing you. Don't try anything funny. Do one suspicious thing, and that clever brain of yours turns into a lump of meat."
"How chilling. How thrilling, Luka. I really do like this side of you."
Barbara's shoulders trembled faintly as she spoke. I knew threats meant nothing to her.
Barbara connected the power bundle to the computer. As current sparked, the clinic's lights cut out.
Bzzzt! Crackle!
The computer drew so much power that the clinic's electricity briefly failed.
Whirrrr.
Complex numbers and symbols scrolled across the screen. There were dozens of security layers, but she cleared them in under ten seconds.
"You've gotten a lot prettier, Giselle. Did you get a boyfriend? Oh, if you did, tell me. Because I'll kill him," Barbara said, still working the computer.
"Boyfriend? He happens to be standing right next to you. Kill him if you can," Giselle replied flatly, checking the power meter on the wall.
Barbara tilted her head and studied my face. Her fingers never stopped moving.
"Hmm, I really do like Luka, but... that was a bit of nonsense just now. He's a psychopath who enjoys fighting more than women. You—can you even tell the difference between aggression and desire? They probably feel like the same color of emotion to you."
I didn't know who she thought she was calling a psychopath. In any case, Barbara didn't seem to know the real relationship between Giselle and me.
...And I did my best not to let the emotions leaking out of me show. Barbara's words were sharp. They jabbed at me from an unexpected angle.
Clatter.
I tossed the chip containing the restored data onto the table.
"Get to work, Barbara."
"Luka, just so you know—if you kill me the second the job's done... something unpleasant will happen. I didn't come here without a backup plan either."
I knew that without her saying it. Barbara was the same breed as Kinuan and me. She was the kind who carved out her own territory in the middle of chaos.
Honestly, I felt a certain kinship with Barbara. An unpleasant fact.
"I keep my promises."
"Same here. I keep mine too."
Barbara slotted the chip into the computer.