Chapter 17
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 17
The heavy silence stretching between Kinuan and me felt like a sharp blade pressed against my throat. It was a tense, suffocating situation.
Making any move of my own initiative was difficult. It hadn't even been a few days since I'd received orders from Imperial Guard Captain Heilas, and already I was tangled up in this mess.
"You've been given a mission, but since you know nothing, you can't even decide how to respond."
Kinuan remarked casually. I kept my expression blank.
Kinuan could pierce through a person's inner thoughts with the slightest word or gesture. His insight was practically mind-reading.
My solution was to give him absolutely nothing. But even that silence was a clue—a piece of information for him to dissect.
Having lost the initiative, I had no choice but to be dragged along. The information asymmetry was severe; I knew nothing about the current situation. Curses welled up inside me like a wave of nausea.
"Luka, I have no intention of blaming you. Obeying a superior's orders is only natural. In fact, your decisions are always correct. It's quite remarkable how you consistently choose the absolute best option from a limited set of choices. But..."
Kinuan, who had shown me only his back until now, turned his head to look at me.
Not wanting him to read my mind, I chose to close my eyes. This wasn't a particularly wise move either.
"...Because you only choose the 'correct' answers, your train of thought is incredibly easy to read. You possess excellent aggression and a strong drive to achieve. Yet you have the discernment and self-control to avoid becoming a headache for those above you. You are the very picture of the model soldier the Empire demands. Truly worthy of an Irregular who rose from a Double-Digit Orphanage."
It was by no means a compliment. That was how I felt.
I couldn't look into his eyes. I forced my eyelids to stay shut.
The eyes held too much information. The movement of the pupils in response to a casual remark could betray the direction of one's emotions, while their depth and intensity were laid bare by the trembling of an eyelid or the dilation and constriction of a pupil.
Kinuan spoke softly, his voice deep and smooth.
"Do not think all of this is coincidence. First, ask yourself whether approaching me was truly of your own free will. The higher-ups likely began preparing the moment you used Ballistic Control without an Auxiliary Computing Unit. After all, an Irregular like me—one with an aptitude for the Akies Combat Style—had finally appeared."
I couldn't hide my agitation. My body betrayed the sudden turbulence of my emotions.
...All of this was my own free will.
I had encountered a powerful enemy during a reconnaissance mission. I realized I needed more strength. So I searched through the instructors' records to find someone special who could help me train.
Every single one of these choices was mine. No one else had interfered. That was what I believed.
"I chose this," I blurted out, unable to hold back any longer as I opened my eyes.
"Luka, everyone in this world is someone's slave. There are only those who know they are slaves, and those who do not. Free will is nothing but a figment of the imagination—an illusion that you made a choice of your own accord."
Kinuan pushed himself up, hands on his knees, and reached out toward my shoulder.
Suppressing my combat reflexes, I allowed his hand to touch me. Permitting physical contact from someone I was on extreme alert against was incredibly difficult. That was how I had been trained, after all.
"Let us head back. If you wish to report this to Heilas, feel free."
I agonized over how to report this to the Imperial Guard Captain. Kinuan's words were cryptic, but one thing was certain.
He is highly subversive.
If I reported Kinuan's words verbatim, the higher-ups would undoubtedly subject me to another psychological test. To be honest, I wasn't confident I could score as high as I used to. I was shaken. And it wasn't just because of what Kinuan had said.
Ilay.
That bastard's influence played a part too.
I followed behind Kinuan. Neither of us spoke a single word on the way back.
* * *
Ilay was a subversive element.
Even if he was my friend, that was an undeniable fact. The old me would have kept him at arm's length.
Ilay occasionally questioned the Empire's system and raised objections. While I had no intention of reporting him, I had even less intention of agreeing with him.
The Empire recognized me.
It was thanks to the Empire's system that someone from the very bottom like me could rise to this height. No matter what anyone said, I was a beneficiary of that system—living proof of its soundness.
After all, not everyone could live in abundance. It was only natural that those who generated more value, and the elite soldiers who protected the Empire from external threats, should receive more.
Those with the skills the Empire required deserved better treatment. How could anyone possibly dispute that?
Still, it was true that I'd been negatively influenced lately.
"Sigh..."
I sat cross-legged and meditated, sorting through recent events. I replayed Kinuan's words in my head over and over.
Reporting what happened with Kinuan is the right thing to do.
Hesitating would only invite unnecessary suspicion. Keeping this to myself wasn't a decision I could make on a whim. I was a soldier, duty-bound to report everything I experienced to the higher-ups.
But they'll subject me to a psychological test.
There was no avoiding the suspicion that I'd been infected with subversive thoughts.
My score on the psychological test would definitely be lower than before. If my score hadn't been exceptionally high to begin with, it wouldn't have mattered. But a drop in score was never a good sign. It meant I was being contaminated by dangerous ideas.
It was a massive headache.
Did Kinuan plan for this too?
I was gradually beginning to understand the man named Kinuan. He wasn't some old soldier drowning in nostalgia and memories, nor was he a toothless, clawless beast.
Kinuan was a raging inferno, still burning fiercely. He was merely keeping his fiery mane flattened and hidden.
That was why the Imperial Guard Captain kept such a close eye on him—though I had no way of knowing the underlying reason.
For now, it's best to learn the Akies Combat Style from Kinuan. The efficiency might be terrible, but it's not useless.
It would take a long time to train to the point of causing brain dysfunction. If I noticed even the slightest sign of that, I would stop using the Akies Combat Style on my own, without anyone having to tell me.
If I'm going to report to the Imperial Guard Captain, I need to prepare to pass that psychological test.
My mind was made up. I opened my eyes.
"Ilay, I need some of your time."
I called him immediately.
* * *
Ilay was in the middle of simulation training. He wore a helmet draped with a tangle of cables, electrodes attached to his limbs and bare torso.
His body twitched intermittently, muscles spasming as if they were moving in real life.
He seemed to be fighting hard inside the virtual reality. Even a brief glance told me the training intensity was brutal. He'd be completely exhausted by the time he finished.
It's rare to see Ilay train this hard.
He usually had a habit of slacking off during training. Becoming a soldier had never been his goal in the first place; he simply made up for his lack of passion with sheer, innate talent.
Even if he'd grown up in a Double-Digit Orphanage, he still would have been selected as an Imperial Guard Cadet.
I'd fought tooth and nail to get where I was. That was why watching Ilay sometimes made me angry.
Pssssht!
Steam hissed from the seams of Ilay's simulation helmet. Hydraulic cylinders whined as the helmet lifted upward, and the electrodes attached to his limbs popped off one by one.
"Haa... haa..."
Ilay panted, his face drenched. Sweat poured like rain from his chin and hair. He looked as if he'd been running for hours.
"Drink this."
I tossed him a drink as I stepped into the training room. Without even looking, Ilay reached out and caught it. His pupils were unfocused.
I waited for him to come to his senses. It took time for a brain immersed in a virtual simulation to return to reality; it had to gradually re-register its physical surroundings.
Tricking the brain.
Entering a simulation meant tricking the brain. Returning to reality was the process of the brain realizing it had been deceived. Anyone who'd done it a few times knew it wasn't a pleasant sensation.
"Ah, sorry to keep you waiting."
Focus returned to Ilay's eyes. He stood up from his chair and wiped away the sweat with a towel. It had taken him less than a minute to snap back to reality. His recovery was two to three times faster than the average cadet's—a testament to his incredible mental resilience.
"Well, I'm the one who called you. Of course I can wait. It's nothing urgent, so go wash up," I said, watching him walk toward the shower.
Like all the other cadets, Ilay was well-built and muscular. The artificial skin on his prosthetic limbs blended seamlessly with his body, the seams almost impossible to spot.
A loud whirring echoed from the shower stall. It was an automated system that washed and dried you as long as you stood still.
Ilay emerged shortly after, pulling on his cadet uniform from the wall hanger.
"Haha, you coming to find me first? What's the occasion? This is as welcome as a birthday present."
Ilay pulled his shirt down over his chest. Judging by his grin, he'd completely shaken off the fatigue of the simulation.
"Let's talk outside."
I jerked my chin toward the door and led the way out of the simulation room. The corridor was quiet. Through the windows, I could see the junior cadets training on the parade ground beyond the boundary wall.
"The weather's nice," Ilay mused. "Maybe I should've asked a girl out on a pass."
He was just talking to hear himself speak.
"Ilay, I didn't know you trained on your own. I see you in a new light."
"Well, you absolutely thrashed me last time. It pissed me off quite a bit."
So that was it. I suppose Ilay was a guy after all. It was only natural to feel a sudden drive to improve after getting utterly crushed by someone you thought was your equal.
"You mentioned before that prestigious families manipulate the selection tests, right?"
I broached the subject. Two or three years ago, I never would have imagined myself bringing up something so subversive.
"It's an open secret," Ilay replied. "Though anyone who doesn't cut it gets filtered out during training anyway."
For the record, the selection process included a psychological test.
"How did you pass yours?"
I didn't beat around the bush; I asked him straight out. In a way, it was a question I shouldn't have asked.
It was practically an accusation: You rigged your selection test.
The psychological test wasn't so lax that one could simply lie and cheat their way through it. And I highly doubted Ilay had passed it through legitimate means.
Ilay narrowed his eyes, shifting his gaze to look at me. He didn't answer right away. He was likely trying to gauge my intentions.
Without waiting for him to respond, I spoke again.
"If there's a trick to it, tell me. I might need it soon."
I laid my cards on the table, openly revealing my own questionable motives.
"I won't ask why you're asking, Luka," Ilay said. "If you could tell me, you already would have."
"It might sound strange coming from someone asking how to rig a psychological test... but this is ultimately for the good of the Empire."
I wanted to make it clear that my loyalty hadn't wavered. I wanted to avoid any unnecessary misunderstandings.
Ilay paused, then spoke slowly.
"You project a patterned persona to the outside world, while keeping your true self-consciousness tucked away inside as a mere observer. That's how you bypass the psychological test."
I tilted my head, processing his words. A moment later, my face twisted.
"...What kind of bullshit is that?"
Ilay chuckled, as if he'd expected exactly that reaction.