Chapter 204
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 204
I knew Kinuan, yet I didn’t know him.
He was a retired Imperial Guardsman, an instructor for the Imperial Guard, a retainer to the Emperor, and an Akies Domini. He was also the prime suspect in the Emperor's assassination. He was a spy for the Empire, yet also a spy for Nemesis. In Border City, he was Japa's advisor and his betrayer.
No social role could define the man.
'Neither status nor position can capture who Kinuan truly is.'
He could be anything, yet he was nothing.
When it came to describing Kinuan, only a single concept remained constant.
'Chaos.'
Kinuan wore chaos like a cloak. He was a walking tempest, leaving nothing but wreckage in his wake.
I watched the afterimage of Kinuan that lingered in Valek's memories.
"How exhausting," Kinuan said, catching his breath as he sank into a chair. "I suppose it's because I'm not what I used to be."
Even that simple act was a calculated move, designed to confuse. Deceived by such intentions, a young Luka had sometimes even pitied him.
'Kinuan delivered a message through Valek's death.'
And Valek had willingly accepted that role.
'Why?'
Countless questions and theories flooded my mind, but I set them aside. For now, I had to focus on Kinuan.
"You must have many questions," Kinuan continued, tapping his temple with his index finger. "Hearing what I just said, you might even wonder, 'Is Kinuan truly terminally ill and beyond recovery?'"
He leaned forward, clasping his hands. He raised his head and stared straight ahead.
"Let's talk about something primal. What is fear?"
I focused on Kinuan's every word and gesture.
'Every action is as natural as taking a stroll.'
The complete lack of incongruity was, in itself, incongruous. He was unnervingly calm. Was this really a situation where he could afford to be so composed? The Empire itself was hunting him.
"Well, I don't intend to make it complicated. Fear is born from anxiety and the unknown. For a living organism, feeling fear is incredibly important; it’s a fundamental survival instinct. Without fear, there can be no progress."
Kinuan pulled a palm-sized cube from his pocket. Where his fingers touched it, a blue light pulsed like a slow breath across its surface. The pattern, style, and shape of the light were ancient.
'An Arcane artifact.'
Its purpose was unknown.
"Many species, not just humanity, have used the tool of science to interpret the universe. The apes who grasped the tool of science had nothing left to fear. They had no doubt they could explain everything with it. And for a time, they did. The unknown ceased to be an object of terror and became something to be analyzed and conquered."
"That arrogant illusion shattered in an instant. To interpret the universe, we needed a tool beyond science. The Arcane civilization, the Force... the enemy. Once we ventured into the cosmos, we were confronted with phenomena and entities that science could not explain. There were things other than physical laws that moved the universe—laws that operated in a realm beyond our comprehension. It reached a point where the physical laws we so devoutly believed in felt like mere subordinate rules. By what principle does the Force defy physics? No one knows. Even its users cannot explain it."
Kinuan put the artifact away.
"Just as our ancestors looked at thunder and lightning and believed it to be the wrath of the gods, people had no choice but to have 'faith' when confronted with bizarre powers and incomprehensible civilizations. It was no surprise that new religions were born. When we cannot overcome our fear of the incomprehensible, we worship it as a god."
Kinuan stood up and walked toward me.
"Therefore, to become a god, you must be understood by no one. That is the first step of ascension."
He reached out and covered Valek's eyes with his palm. My vision went dark.
"If you wish to find me, seek out Mushir Al-Kashura. Start there."
With those final words, a dull thud echoed. He had knocked Valek unconscious.
From Kinuan's actions and Valek's loss of consciousness, my suspicion hardened into certainty.
'This isn't Valek's brain.'
Valek used a full-body prosthetic, which meant he could swap bodies at a moment's notice. He had placed someone else's brain inside this one and left it behind to pose as him.
'Valek abandoned the combat prosthetic he used for so long.'
Replacing a full-body prosthetic was no small matter. It placed a massive burden on the brain, and adaptation took a long time. Above all, a high-performance combat frame capable of matching me wasn't something you could buy off the shelf. It wasn't an item you could obtain just by having money.
'If Valek obtained a new combat prosthetic, there will be traces of it somewhere.'
I accelerated the simulation, checking the remaining memories. As expected, the owner of this brain had absolutely no connection to Kinuan. He was just some vagrant who had been kidnapped and stuffed into Valek's prosthetic body.
Screeech.
I pulled my consciousness back to reality. It felt like tearing through a shroud. Like waking from a dream, my senses gradually returned.
Twitch.
I opened my eyes, starting with my fingers. The interior of my helmet came into view. The light that guided me into the virtual world flickered and died. The unpleasant noise stopped.
"You returned sooner than I expected," Japa said.
"Well..." I trailed off, gathering my thoughts.
'Lying is pointless. Even if Japa can't view the memories directly, he can have someone else verify the simulation's contents.'
The atmosphere around Japa was different, too. His true nature was showing. He also seemed to be on an emotional high, sensing he was getting closer to Kinuan.
"...This wasn't Valek's memory. It was a vagrant using Valek's prosthetic body. Kinuan sent a message through this brain. He told us to find Mushir Al-Kashura."
I searched my own memories. Lapis had mentioned the name once before.
'Like the legendary mercenary, the one-man army Mushir Al-Kashura. I thought he was just a legend, but he actually existed.'
The word "legend" didn't just mean he was great. It meant he was an almost mythical figure, someone who seemed to belong only in urban legends or fables.
"Mushir Al-Kashura?" Japa repeated.
"Is he someone you can contact?" I asked casually.
Japa tilted his long neck. "Contact? You must be joking. Ah, you don't know much about Kashura, do you, Luka? I don't even need to explain... you'll find information with a simple search. In any case, was there no other information?"
"That was the important part. Kinuan is leaving us a trail to follow. It's not a good sign. It means we're moving exactly as he intends."
I stood up.
"But we have no choice but to follow it."
"Japa," I said, "in my experience, if we continue like this, we'll just be playing into his hands. We have to pursue him for now, but eventually, we have to move outside his expectations."
Japa looked at me and smiled, his forked tongue flicking fiercely. "That is precisely why I hired you. You are the dagger I have prepared. It's also why I grant you unlimited freedom and don't monitor you. If you were to move within the scope of my surveillance and understanding, you would never be able to catch Kinuan off guard."
I was slightly surprised. So Japa hadn't tolerated my behavior out of the goodness of his heart. I had wondered why he put up with nearly all of my erratic actions, and now I knew the reason.
Restraining me would only narrow my range of motion and make me easier to predict. To hunt Kinuan, he needed a free wild dog, not a leashed hound.
Japa understood the nature of an Akies Victima all too well.
'Which means he must also be thoroughly prepared for my betrayal.'
Be careful, Luka.
* * *
I had a dream. Realizing it's a dream means you're about to wake up. Once consciousness returns to reality, most of a dream is forgotten. It's nothing more than an afterimage brushing past the brain.
'Giselle?'
I saw hair like the night sky. Her deep blue hair looked like it would smell sweet. Beneath it, her naked body glowed softly. Even the artificial seams bordering her cybernetic limbs were alluring.
Giselle was walking ahead, her back to me.
Swoosh.
I reached out to grab her, but she drifted away like a mirage. My hand closed on empty air.
She didn't look back. She just kept walking.
'Huh?'
For some reason, Giselle looked tall. No, to be precise, my eye level had lowered.
Whirrr.
A mirror rose from the dark floor. I saw my reflection. It was my past self—the young Luka from my cadet days.
'I... never saw Giselle as an adult.'
Giselle had walked twelve years ahead of me. It was a span of time I could never close, no matter how hard I tried.
I stopped in my tracks. And with the mirror, the dream shattered.
My consciousness surfaced.
'There's no need to read too much into it.'
I blinked, staring at the ceiling. Soon, the memory of the dream would fade, leaving only vague fragments. I didn't keep a dream journal. If I forgot, I forgot. I had no intention of miserably recording a dream just because it was about someone I missed.
I had met Ilay not long ago. And though it was in virtual reality, I had also faced Kinuan. Those stimuli kept dredging up memories of the past.
'Giselle Custoria.'
I tried to probe my feelings for her. An emotion of a different color than what I felt for others squirmed within me.
'Ilay will return after investigating Giselle's disappearance.'
Today was the day I was supposed to meet him.
For this very reason, I had been steadily visiting various bars in Border City. That way, it wouldn't seem strange for me to head to one today.
'My condition is good.'
I pushed myself up into a handstand, walked a few steps on my hands, then landed lightly on my feet. Complex movements were a good way to check the condition of my prosthetic body and nervous system.
I recalled the information I had saved yesterday, pulling it up like a file.
'Mushir Al-Kashura.'
The clue Kinuan left. Would finding Kashura really lead to him? Doubting it was pointless. Either way, I had to make contact.
'The legendary mercenary, the one-man army. Quite the grandiose titles.'
I had already looked into Mushir Al-Kashura. The earliest records of him dated back to the early days of humanity's settlement on Planet Novas.
Naturally, that era was pure, lawless chaos. It was a time before security forces and administrative systems were properly established. They said one of the most active mercenaries back then was Mushir Al-Kashura.
'...So that's why he's called a legend. His period of activity is absurd.'
Mushir Al-Kashura's estimated age was well over two hundred years. Even the full-body prosthetic nobles of the Empire could barely exceed two hundred, no matter how well they maintained themselves. And even if they survived that long, active combat was out of the question.
'Even the great Agatha Custoria couldn't defeat old age. The same goes for Ragnata. In the end, the brain is biological. No matter how you care for it, it grows old and weak.'
From the early days of settlement to the current period of stability, Mushir Al-Kashura had appeared sporadically, at intervals ranging from a few years to over a decade. After more than thirty years of silence, everyone had assumed he was dead.
'But then he reappeared ten years ago and resumed his activities.'
I examined recent photos of him. They were taken on a battlefield engulfed in raging red flames, so the resolution was poor.
'Is he even human?'
He was a full-body prosthetic with the appearance of a pitch-black robot, only slightly larger than an average person. However, he carried a box as large as his own body on his back, forcing him into a hunched posture. His long arms dangled all the way to his knees, and his bizarre stance almost made him look dim-witted.
The conspiracy theories about his identity were diverse. Some said he was an ultra-high-performance combat android. Others claimed multiple people had inherited the name over generations. Rumors that he was a secret weapon of Bellato or Akresia also cropped up from time to time.
'Though unofficial records and fake information are mixed in...'
I examined the records of the battles he was said to have participated in.
'...Even if only a fraction of his achievements are true, his combat power is at least Legion-class.'