Chapter 147
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 147
Sight is our most important sense, but I was fighting the Shadow without it. The constant clash of battle provided all the sound I needed; there was no reason to produce my own for echolocation.
Clang!
A deafening roar echoed relentlessly through the space.
My brain was processing auditory signals as visual information. No matter how superior my cognitive functions were, this would have been impossible without my past auditory enhancement training.
It’s difficult to explain what I was seeing. It was like white threads gathering in the darkness, weaving themselves into shapes. With every sound and vibration, the threads scattered and repainted my surroundings in real-time.
Whirrrr!
My enhanced brain function made even the sounds seem to stretch out.
At first, I had been flustered. I assumed losing my sight would be a significant handicap.
But not even five seconds had passed before I could see sound as clearly as if with my own eyes. Only the colors were missing; the shapes were rendered with absolute clarity. An auditory vision as sharp as real-time radar.
This was the drug’s true power. My new vision was so clear it couldn’t be compared to the crude echolocation I’d used before. I no longer felt the inconvenience of being blind.
In some ways, this auditory vision was more three-dimensional than actual sight, revealing things the eyes would have missed—like the auxiliary arm stored in the Shadow's back.
Click!
The Shadow's back split open, and an arm emerged. It wielded its three limbs with complete freedom, the auxiliary arm moving with the same delicacy as its original ones.
Bang!
The Shadow's third arm, holding a pistol, aimed at me.
Ping!
I angled Crucis to deflect the bullet. The high-caliber round left my hands tingling.
‘This is as far as he goes.’
I had figured him out. The Shadow had pushed his capabilities to their absolute limit. The auxiliary arm must have been one of his last trump cards.
All that remained was my counterattack. Bracing the base of Crucis’s blade with my left hand, I prepared for a series of short, controlled strikes.
Swish!
Instead of my usual wide, sweeping arcs, I shortened my grip on Crucis and targeted only the narrowest openings in his defense.
Since I had completely read my opponent, large movements were unnecessary. I only needed to strike the right spots. A succession of short, precise thrusts and slashes followed.
With every strike, fragments of the enemy scattered. At first, it was just fingers and outer plating, but soon an arm was severed, and then a leg was sliced cleanly off below theknee.
Fzzt, spark.
The Shadow was now limbless. Its auxiliary arm lay discarded on the ground.
Crunch!
I stepped on the Shadow’s torso and pressed the tip of Crucis to its forehead.
“This is where you die,” I muttered.
He was an Imperial soldier, a former member of the Imperial Guard. I wanted to show him at least a shred of respect. The only reason we fought was that we stood on opposing sides. There was nothing personal about it.
“I… see,” the Shadow spoke, his voice a ragged, worn-out rasp.
“Your name, and any last words?”
“My… name?”
The light in the Shadow’s eyes was dim, clouded. He couldn’t even remember his own name.
I bit my lower lip. It might sound ridiculous, but I pitied the man pinned beneath my foot. How could the end of a loyal Imperial Guardsman be so wretched? Forgetting himself was one thing, but he had lost his humanity entirely, reduced to a mere mechanical part.
I knew the Empire and the Emperor had their grand cause, but too many had been crushed to dust beneath it.
Grit.
I gritted my teeth without realizing it.
“Na… me… Name… Name… Who… am… I?” the Shadow whispered.
I had hoped he would remember who he was, but it didn't seem likely.
And I didn’t have much time.
“Then farewell, nameless senior.”
I prepared to drive Crucis into the Shadow’s head.
“Se… nior?”
The Shadow reacted to the word. I decided to wait a moment longer. I could afford that much mercy.
“You must have been an Imperial Guardsman. Technically, that makes you my senior.”
I hoped some remnant of his human days still lingered.
“Ah… I… Yes… Ah… Ro… Rosen.”
My eyes widened.
I felt like I finally understood why Agatha believed in fate and superstition. Sometimes, things happened in this world that were too inevitable to be dismissed as mere coincidence.
The Irregular senior Grace had been looking for was right here.
“I will pass on your regards to Grace.”
“…Th… ank you.”
Gripping Crucis with both hands, I drove it down, crushing the Shadow's head.
Crunch!
His only remaining biological part, his brain, tore apart beneath my blade.
I had defeated a powerful foe, but I felt no joy. Only irritation. It was an unwelcome killing. And in a way, I had cheated.
* * *
Even after the battle ended, my vision did not return. It seemed to be a permanent loss.
But I felt no sense of loss. If I survived, I could simply get reconstructive surgery.
Step, step.
I climbed the stairs. My hyper-stimulated state had stretched my perception of time exponentially. A short flight of stairs became an eternal punishment. In fact, it felt as though days had passed since I injected the drug into my brain.
Yet, despite feeling like I had been awake for days, I wasn’t tired at all.
I had to meet Heilas before the drug’s effects wore off.
‘What do I plan to do when we meet? Give him Noel's memories? Share information?’
That had been the original goal. But now that things had escalated this far, I wondered if it even mattered anymore.
Since a Shadow had appeared, the Emperor likely knew the general situation. The faction I had barely managed to build around Fransek could easily crumble.
…As expected, the Emperor was the most powerful force. From the beginning, other factions stood little chance. If survival was my only goal, I should have aligned myself with him.
‘Perhaps all of this was within the Emperor's grasp…’
It was a possibility I didn’t want to entertain. Heilas's tribute, Ivan's erratic behavior, Fransek's popular uprising… and even my own struggles, all part of the Emperor's predictions.
Honestly, if that were true, I would despair. If all of this was just someone's scheme, then where was my free will? What meaning did my struggles even have?
I was in the twenty-one-story government office of the blockaded district. The interior was a mess, ransacked by rioters. But at the very top, Heilas and the military generals were waiting.
Step.
The stairs ended. I faced the entrance to the conference room.
Creak.
I reached out and opened the door. Through the echoes of sound, I could ‘see’ the people inside.
‘Twenty-four.’
I counted silently as I stepped in.
“You’ve arrived, Luka,” Heilas said calmly, as if welcoming me to his office. He sat in the middle of the conference room.
“I’m a bit tired.”
“Have a seat. There’s water, so wet your throat.”
I sat opposite Heilas, making my footsteps intentionally loud.
The conference room was quiet, but it was far from empty. The military generals, high-ranking officers, and several Imperial Guardsmen sat bound to their chairs. They were gagged, their prosthetic bodies seemingly paralyzed, their limbs limp and lifeless.
They had already fallen victim to Heilas’s scheme.
Whirrr.
Without turning my head, I scanned the room with sound.
Eight of the Emperor's Shadows stood along the walls. They were likely the same model as Rosen, men who had lost their sense of self, retaining only their combat capabilities and loyalty.
The Emperor must have dispatched the Shadows upon accepting Heilas's tribute. The deal between them was practically finalized.
“…You look pathetic, Ivan.” Though I couldn’t see, I turned my head toward him. Ivan sat in the seat of honor, his limbs broken.
Ivan’s shoulders shook as he chuckled. “Tell me about it. I secretly looked down on my father, but he’s no pushover. More importantly, the decisive factor in my defeat was that Heilas was a far more complex man than I ever thought. Oh, and…”
Ivan couldn’t finish. The Shadow standing behind him stuffed a gag into his mouth.
He had joined hands with Heilas, and now he was cornered. Though he was of imperial blood, his life was at risk. Furthermore, Ivan was not publicly known as royalty. He could be disposed of far more easily than Fransek.
In fact, Fransek would likely survive this incident. If he suddenly vanished from the public eye, public opinion of the Imperial Family would plummet.
I raised my head and directed my gaze toward Heilas.
“The water tastes good,” I said, taking a sip.
“I prepared it with care. I figured your day must have been incredibly exhausting.”
“No matter how hard it was for me, it couldn’t compare to you, Captain.”
“Don’t worry about me. I plan to go on vacation soon.”
A vacation from which he would never return, no doubt.
“I have a gift. It’s something that was originally meant for you, Captain.”
I pulled out the chip containing Noel's memories and slid it across the table.
“Did you come all this way just to give me this? Even after disobeying my orders so many times?”
There was a faint trace of anger in Heilas’s voice. His eyes were likely glaring at me in reproach.
“It’s common for children to disobey their parents.”
Heilas laughed. “I suppose that’s true. Well, your presence here must mean Paigon and Iskan are no longer of this world?”
It seemed Heilas had cut off contact with them to maintain secrecy. He must have set his final plan in motion after leaving his subordinates with only orders and guidelines.
“I have no excuses. That’s just how things turned out.”
“I underestimated you.”
“I wouldn’t have made it this far without this. It helped make up for my lack of experience.”
I tapped the chip lightly, letting the gesture emphasize its importance.
“Luka, I don’t know what you saw in that. And I only learned of your true identity through Ivan. I lacked many things, but above all, the lack of information was my greatest obstacle.”
I figured as much. And that was what made it so astonishing.
Heilas had come this far with so little information. He didn't know about the relationship between Noel and Agatha, nor did he know that Kinuan and I were the Emperor's Watchers. He had even deduced the Imperial Family's intentions on his own and acted accordingly.
Fumbling in pitch-black darkness, he had moved solely on suspicion and conjecture. He had been at the greatest intelligence disadvantage.
‘To Heilas, every circumstance must have been mere speculation.’
Yet, he didn’t show a hint of fear, acting as if he knew everything. In reality, he was the one who lacked information, far more than I did.
“I have no intention of blaming you for deceiving me or hiding your secrets. We were using each other. I cannot begin to imagine how desperately you, an Irregular, must have struggled to survive. Raised in a far better environment, I could never truly understand. And for that, I respect you.”
I flinched.
‘Respect.’
I had never imagined Heilas would look at me with such an emotion. For the first time, it felt like we were truly opening up to each other.
Perhaps the reason I had come all this way… wasn’t anything grand. I slowly looked deep inside myself.
“I wanted to talk to you before everything ends.”
Heilas pulled a flask of alcohol from his breast pocket. He emptied his water glass, poured the liquor, and slid it toward me.
“Have a drink, son.”
Hearing him call me “son” made me feel a bit guilty. I felt like I had to say this before we started talking.
“Just in case, I hope you won’t get angry after hearing this.”
“Even if you stabbed me in the back right here, I wouldn’t get angry. I’d probably find it amusing instead. Though it doesn’t look like you have a trump card like that left.”
I parted my lips. It was an awkward, yet necessary, confession.
“I like Giselle. Not as a sister, but as a man likes a woman.”
Heilas’s hand, which was pouring the liquor, froze.
“…That is a bit problematic. Keep that to yourself.”
Bracing myself to get hit, I continued.
“We’ve already slept together.”
Heilas tilted his head and stared intently at me. His silence was chilling.
Crumple.
The flask in his hand crumpled. Alcohol trickled down from his grip.
…Maybe I shouldn’t have said that.