Chapter 20
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 20
I was wearing a helmet tangled with a mess of wires. The cables snaking out from it connected directly to the overseer's computer.
Metaphysical images and words flashed rapidly across the display projected inside the helmet. Occasionally, questions were asked, alternating between male and female voices.
The helmet, scanning my brain activity, emitted intermittent high-frequency hums.
No matter how many times I took the psychological test, I could never get used to it. It always left a foul aftertaste. My head throbbed. My breathing was shallow and my chest heaved, as if I had just woken from a nightmare.
"We are finished, Master Luka. Thank you for your cooperation."
The android said, flipping my helmet up. I gave a brief nod and got up from the medical chair.
My gaze lingered on the translucent glass window. Behind it, the medical staff and the overseer were likely discussing my test results.
There shouldn't be any issues.
I felt confident about this test. The reward the Imperial Guard Captain had subtly hinted at had deeply stirred my ambition.
To become the Captain's adopted son, a true member of the Custoria family.
It was more than enough to ignite my ambition. A fierce determination to succeed in this mission welled up inside me. That intense desire easily consumed any stray thoughts.
I will master the Akies Combat Style while keeping an eye on Kinuan.
I left the examination room. The medical staff and the overseer didn't show me the results immediately, but confident of a high score, I felt no anxiety.
Catching my breath, I pulled out my terminal.
Beep.
A few messages had piled up on the screen. One of them was from Kinuan.
Rest for the time being. Rest is also a part of training.
The message was brief. In other words, it meant I shouldn't bother him until he contacted me first.
Beep.
I checked the next message.
Luka, come find me when you have time.
It was from Ilay. He had helped me prepare for this psychological test. If not for him, I wouldn't have been able to act so boldly.
By recalling my past self, I had recalibrated my mental state, shearing away any lingering hesitation or weakness.
I must maintain this mental state as much as possible.
The timing was perfect. I wouldn't be visiting the Lower District for a while, and I had no contact with Kinuan. This was the perfect opportunity to completely discard any useless sympathy for the weak.
If possible, I wanted to minimize my contact with Ilay as well. He, too, had a softening influence on me. Until my mind was completely hardened and set in stone, I wanted to avoid him.
Yet, Ilay's message felt strangely urgent. I could read his anxiety and agitation even in that brief sentence.
Step, step.
Perhaps because my nervous system was exceptionally stable today, my footsteps felt light and rhythmic. I felt as though I could run for miles without losing my breath.
After walking a short distance, the lingering headache from the test vanished.
My mind and body were at their absolute peak. I felt invincible. If I underwent nervous system expansion training right now, I was certain I could break past my current limits. It was a premonition bordering on absolute conviction.
...Everything was falling perfectly into place.
* * *
CRASH!
The moment I stepped into the training room Ilay had reserved, a series of deafening impacts shook the air.
Ilay was relentlessly pummeling a heavy punching bag, alternating left and right hooks. Every strike unleashed a thunderous crack.
CRACK!
The heavy bag, weighing well over a ton, flew upward with every blow, nearly scraping the ceiling.
I didn't speak to him, choosing instead to lean against the wall and wait. Ilay was striking with reckless, desperate force, as if trying to purge his emotions through violence.
Whirrr, whirrr.
Beneath the synthetic skin of his limbs, overheated circuits glowed like neon tattoos, and steam hissed violently from his artificial sweat glands.
Ilay was pushing his cybernetic prosthetic body to its absolute limit. At the connection points between machine and flesh, his skin was tearing and bruising under the sheer force of the recoil, blood dripping down his limbs. The impact was so immense that the shock absorbers in his joints were failing to handle the blowback.
Thud!
Finally, the heavy bag slammed into the ceiling. Ilay, his eyes wide and bloodshot, glared at the descending bag.
Whirrrrr!
The motors in his legs whined at a high pitch. Spinning on his heel, he unleashed a devastating kick at the falling bag.
I instinctively covered my ears. The moment his instep connected with the bag, the air rippled as if from a shockwave.
CRACK!
The ceiling mount shattered, tearing away the tiles. The heavy bag was launched across the room, slamming violently into the far wall.
"Haa... haa..."
Having blasted the heavy bag away, Ilay panted heavily, bent over with his hands on his knees. His right leg—the one he had just kicked with—creaked loudly, the joint clearly misaligned.
Sweat-drenched hair hung over his face as he stared blankly at the floor. I remained silent, waiting for him to look up.
He was the one who had called me here, after all. If he had something to say, he would speak first.
Drip, drip.
A mixture of blood and sweat dripped onto the floor. It was my first time seeing him—usually the epitome of composure—this violently agitated.
Hiss!
Ilay jammed a syringe of coolant directly into his limbs. Hissing steam, thick with vaporized heat, billowed from his cybernetic parts.
"Huuu."
Only then did he tilt his head back, his breathing finally returning to normal. Sweeping his damp bangs away from his forehead, he looked at me.
"Did you pass the psychological test?"
"Thanks to you."
I gave a brief reply and pushed myself off the wall. Having cooled his limbs, Ilay began applying ointment to the raw flesh around his cybernetic connection points.
Ilay was the last person to engage in self-destructive behavior. For him to abuse his own body like this meant he was in immense psychological pain.
I wondered what could be causing him such agony. The first thing that came to mind was the death of his family.
"Ilay, if there's anything I can do to help, just say the word."
I offered the words casually, but Ilay stared at me so intently that it was clear he actually did have a favor to ask.
"I can't tell you right now. But..."
"But?"
I narrowed my eyes.
"Sometime soon... just once, do me a favor."
I couldn't answer immediately. If Ilay was going this far, it was no trivial matter. It might require me to risk my life and my career.
My greatest concern was... that it was highly likely to be something that defied the Empire.
It was rare for Ilay to make such an earnest plea. I suppressed the urge to nod. Had I not just fortified my mind through the psychological test, I might have agreed on the spot.
Ilay surely knew my current mental state. Right now, I was a cold, calculating soldier, more so than ever before.
And that is precisely why he is asking me now.
He didn't wait for a moment of emotional vulnerability or weakness. He made his request when I was at my strongest. How typical of you to play fair and square, Ilay Kartika.
"I'll do what I can, but I can't give you a definite promise."
My response was strictly by-the-book. He might find me cowardly.
"Even that is enough. Thank you, Luka."
Ilay smiled bitterly. I felt a heavy weight settle in my chest.
"Ilay, if you're ever in danger on the battlefield, I will save you, no matter how slim the chances. Even if it costs me my life."
"I know. I don't think you're a coward. If anything, I'm the shameless one for demanding a favor out of the blue without even telling you what it is."
Before I was Ilay's friend, I was a soldier of the Empire. I needed to make that clear. I closed my eyes and opened them again. My gaze must have looked as cold and lifeless as a machine.
"Is that all you needed?"
"Yeah. But you'll find out what it is soon enough. I only hope this is nothing more than my own paranoia..."
It would be a lie to say I wasn't curious about what he was going to ask of me.
But I didn't pry. Do not seek to know what is unnecessary. That was the virtue of an Imperial soldier.
* * *
For the next ten days, I didn't see Ilay. He seemed busy preparing something of his own.
I spent my days productively, free from the distractions of both Ilay and Kinuan. I even succeeded in expanding my nervous system, allowing me to equip a cybernetic body with a higher power output.
My progress with the Akies Combat Style, however, had plateaued. It was a style meant to be forged in real combat; self-study and simulation could only take me so far.
Gilda. Gabriel.
It had been a long time since I last saw either of them. Honestly, I felt like I would be perfectly fine if I never saw them again.
My heart was hardening. I buried my chaotic emotions deep underground like trash, packing the dirt tight so that not even a trace of their scent could escape.
Luka of the Custoria family.
The ring of those words wasn't half bad. It was the immediate goal right in front of me.
Another fortnight passed. I could feel myself turning into steel.
Yes, this was who I truly was. I had reclaimed my real self—the boy who had walked out of the orphanage and stood before the gates of the Imperial Guard Training Center.
It was a full month before I saw Ilay's face again.
The Imperial Guard Captain summoned every cadet of our class.
"Everything I am about to say is classified. Once you have acknowledged this, sever all external communications."
The Captain spoke from the podium. His eyes swept over the cadets, lingering on me for a brief second.
I met his gaze before looking around. Ilay stood at rigid attention, waiting for the Captain to continue.
"As of this moment, we are commencing a special military operation..."
The Captain's briefing was long, but the core details were simple.
First, a rebellion had broken out.
Second, the Imperial Guard Cadets would be deployed as infantry platoon leaders.
Third, among the noble families that had joined the rebels was the Ramones family.
The Ramones. The family of Lillian, the woman I had rejected. The family of Claude, who had died during my previous mission. They were now traitors to the Empire. Marked for purge.
How did I feel?
Absolutely fucking terrible.