Chapter 39
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 39
There were many mysteries surrounding the Barbara's Curse incident.
Much of it remained unexplained.
But first, I had to survive.
I ignored the pain creeping up from my flank. Blocking out unnecessary sensations, I scanned for external threats.
An attack drone.
Drones were efficient weapons. They let you strike an enemy from a distance, safely and one-sidedly.
Whirrrr.
Tracking the direction of the gunfire and the hum of its motor, I pinpointed the drone's location. It was closing in from the north side of the garden.
Giselle and I ducked behind a marble pillar.
I don't have any weapons on hand.
I was practically empty-handed. My only weapon was a pocketknife barely fit to open cans.
Taking down a drone is child's play, but...
Now that I knew its position, I was confident I could dodge its fire. The drone's reaction time wasn't fast enough to land a hit on me. I'd only been struck earlier because it was a long-range ambush and I couldn't even sense which way the shot was coming from. In fact, if Giselle hadn't been here, I would've found a way to dodge it.
The problem is, moving at high speed might reopen my wound.
If there were more enemies, I had to pace myself. I didn't want to push my body too hard just to bring down a single drone.
Gunfire rang out, but the drone's muzzle had a silencer, so I doubted anyone nearby would notice. For now, I had to assume we were on our own for the escape.
I'm going to beat your face in until your nose is flat, you crazy bitch.
I steeled myself, picturing Barbara's face.
"Do you have a mirror?"
At my question, Giselle pulled a folding hand mirror from her inner pocket. I snatched it and used the reflection to lock down the drone's exact position.
Its matte black surface blurred its silhouette, as if it had melted into the night sky.
Focus, Luka.
I told myself, closing and opening my eyes slowly. As my senses expanded, my surroundings snapped into sharp focus.
Whoosh!
I spun and leaped out from behind the marble pillar. Using the centrifugal force of my spin, I hurled the pocketknife like a missile.
A silver streak shot up in a dead-straight line. The pocketknife flew at the drone like a guided missile.
Clang!
Sparks flew with a metallic screech. The blade tangled into the propeller, triggering a loud, grinding crash.
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
The drone sprayed rounds blindly in every direction as it plummeted like a bird with torn wings. I stayed low, shielding my head from any stray bullets.
I didn't bother checking the wreckage. A single pocketknife wasn't likely to have destroyed it outright, and approaching carelessly could get me shot. Still, with its flight capability gone, it couldn't pursue us anymore.
While I fought, Giselle—now composed again—was working her terminal.
"Is the comm function working?"
I asked. Giselle shook her head.
"No. Both internal and external communications are down."
My terminal was the same. The screen lagged like a decades-old model before flashing an error message.
Is this really something a mere student is capable of?
Absolutely not. There was more here that we didn't know. Barbara had backing of some kind.
Crackle.
Static hissed from Giselle's terminal.
—Giselle, Giselle, Giselle. I tried to protect you, so why did you betray me? And Luka...
Barbara's voice, warped by static, sounded even more chilling.
—I like you. So... I want you to despise me even more.
I snatched Giselle's terminal and crushed it in my fist. Tiny components crumbled to dust and slipped through my fingers.
"There's no need to listen to a lunatic. This whole thing is probably—"
I clutched my flank and shut my mouth. Daughter of the Imperial Guard Captain or not, Giselle was still a civilian. I shouldn't say any more.
Someone higher up than me is pulling the strings.
I recalled the Imperial Guard Captain's lukewarm reaction.
He used me—and even his own daughter—as bait.
The mismatched pieces were finally clicking into place in my head.
He may be my superior, but... how ruthless.
I got ready to move Giselle somewhere safer.
But standing at the garden entrance was a familiar face. Felix Eigen, a fellow Imperial Guard Cadet who'd been dispatched here just like me.
"Felix, is this an order from above?"
I asked the instant I saw him. He seemed to have come to back me up, armed with a sword and a pistol.
"Yeah, looks like you're the only one getting special treatment again. I didn't get a single word of warning about this operation," Felix said, shrugging with a smirk.
"I wasn't notified beforehand either. I only realized we were moving according to upper command's plan after everything went down."
The Imperial Guard was operating with a bigger picture in mind. Even though we were just low-ranking cadets, they moved with such secrecy that they kept us completely in the dark.
"W-wait a minute. Are you saying all of this is my father's plan?"
Felix and I were soldiers, so we accepted being treated as disposable tools. But Giselle couldn't swallow it so easily. And no wonder—the order had come from her own father. It was only natural for her to be shaken.
Felix paid more attention to me than to Giselle's reaction. His gaze locked onto the wound at my flank.
"Is it bad?"
"Bad enough that if I don't get treated soon, I'll be a corpse by morning."
"So you're still fine, then."
I let out a chuckle. Felix kept the sword for himself and tossed the pistol to me—the wounded one.
Then he pulled out his terminal to report to upper command. His seemed to be working fine.
"Currently, Luka and Giselle Custo—"
Felix never finished.
Bang!
A gunshot rang out. The bullet shattered his terminal and blew off his right hand along with it.
Felix didn't even scream. As if on cue, we split left and right, pressing ourselves against the walls flanking the garden entrance.
Whine!
I pulled Giselle behind me and slid my finger onto the pistol's trigger. Then I locked eyes with Felix, hunkered against the opposite wall.
An experienced opponent.
We'd been ambushed, yet we hadn't sensed the enemy's presence at all. Since we heard the gunshot the instant it fired, it wasn't a long-range shot either.
Which meant this new arrival was trained in stealth and assassination—skilled enough to slip past the senses of Imperial Guard Cadets.
Luka, cover me.
Felix mouthed the words. He meant to charge with his sword toward the source of the gunfire. If we concentrated, we could deflect bullets easily enough.
I nodded, steadying my breath.
"Hey! Let's talk. If I'd aimed for your heads, one of you would already be dead."
The attacker called out from the end of the path leading to the garden entrance.
He'd spoken deliberately, letting us pinpoint his location. Confident in his skills to the extreme.
Felix and I quickly traded hand signals and adjusted the plan.
While I keep the attacker talking, Felix flanks him and strikes from behind.
Forming the plan took a split second. Felix slipped off his shoes and began to move, footsteps silenced. I raised my voice.
"Talk? Do you even know who we are, to suggest that?"
Given how fast I answered, the enemy wouldn't suspect we'd already made a plan.
"Of course I do. Aren't you the cute little cadets? I don't have much time either, so I'll get straight to it. Hand over Giselle Custoria."
"Planning to kidnap her for a hefty ransom?" I stalled for every second I could.
"Our Princess wants that woman. I don't like doing this to kids either. But 'you' are a soldier too—you know how it is, right? Even if you don't want to, an order's an order."
As I listened, my eyes widened. Something in his words jarred me.
He said 'you'—singular. Not 'you two.'
The attacker knew Felix was flanking him!
Bracing to take a bullet, I leaned my head and shoulders out from behind the wall. I had to cover Felix, now.
Crack!
The instant I peeked out, the sound of bones snapping and dislocating reached my ears. It wasn't loud. A quiet, dull rupture, soft in the silence.
Felix is down.
I read the situation in an instant. The attacker held Felix by the neck. Having broken it with a single hand, he was staring right at me. Felix's limbs hung limp, twitching in stutters. The sword he'd been holding clattered uselessly to the ground.
I shoved the churn of emotion into a corner of my mind. Right now, all my focus went to the enemy.
Whirrrr.
The attacker wore a fully sealed combat suit—head to toe, no gaps exposed.
The surface shimmered, its colors shifting to blend seamlessly with the surrounding scenery. A combat suit equipped with camouflage tech.
No wonder we couldn't sense him.
He tossed Felix aside and turned to me.
Whirrrr.
Two pairs of optical sensors on his helmet glowed red. With camouflage no longer necessary, the suit locked into solid black.
Bang!
I aimed for his head and pulled the trigger—just to test his reaction speed.
The attacker tilted his head aside, dodging the bullet. Incredibly fast. Considering how effortlessly he'd dispatched Felix, I had to assume he was on the level of a full Imperial Guardsman.
This is going to be rough.
My lip twitched.
"Giselle, the moment I engage, run as fast as you can. Don't look back. I'll buy you as much time as I can."
"But I—"
I clamped my palm over her mouth.
"There's no time to argue. Do as I say," I growled, baring my teeth. It was the best option. Besides, the enemy wanted Giselle alive. If she bolted, it'd split his attention.
I stepped out from behind my cover.
"I really don't want to kill two juniors in one night," the attacker muttered, looking at me.
Junior?
My mind snagged on the word for a fraction of a second.
Whoosh!
He'd closed the distance before I knew it. His speed was terrifying. The red glow of his optical sensors trailed behind him like a rippling ribbon.
Crack!
I crossed my arms to block his kick, but the impact still sent me flying more than twenty meters through the air.
"Letting your senses get thrown off by a little thing like that! How adorable!" the attacker laughed brightly as he launched me.
Grit.
I bit down on my tongue in raw frustration. The sharp pain snapped me back.
This was an opponent I might not beat even if I threw everything I had at him. And yet, in a fight that demanded every scrap of my thought and nerve, I'd let myself get distracted. Pathetic, Luka.
The one saving grace—and the most infuriating part—was that he was underestimating me. He hadn't used a sword or a gun, nor followed up with a pursuit attack.
...He'd even given me time to prepare.
Click, click.
My right cybernetic eye spun rapidly, whirring as it adjusted—a motion impossible for a biological eye.
A flood of visual data poured into my brain. It felt like my occipital lobe, home to the visual cortex, was burning.
I rebuilt the incoming data into a 3D map inside my head, perceiving every object within a hundred meters. Like a house I'd lived in for decades, I knew the exact position of everything around me without looking.
Akies Combat Style.
Its essence lay in extreme analysis and insight, with utter disregard for the risk of brain damage. It began by expanding the five senses to dominate and perceive the surrounding environment.
My head throbbed as if with fever, heat radiating from my forehead.
Bang!
I fired at the attacker again and again.
Whoosh!
He weaved side to side, dodging every round. Yet still he closed in fast. For a split second, his gaze flicked toward the fleeing Giselle.
I threw away the empty pistol and moved. Running backward, I pressed close to the wall of the garden entrance. Then, without looking, I leaped and cleared it. The virtual 3D map in my head aligned perfectly with reality.
Mid-vault, I kicked off the wall to drive myself further.
There wasn't a single wasted motion in my movements. Even if I lacked raw speed, the sheer efficiency of my form kept the attacker from catching up.
I'll borrow your sword, Felix.
I landed right beside Felix's corpse. I snatched up his sword and spun it in my grip. As I pushed into high-speed maneuvers, the bleeding at my flank began to worsen.
"Just now—you moved and tracked the positions of objects without even looking. That's the optimization unique to Akies, isn't it?"
The attacker pointed at me, crouched atop the wall. I didn't bother answering.
Stroking his chin as if in thought, he went on.
"...Since you seem to have mastered Akies Victima, I won't kill you."
I raised an eyebrow and furrowed my brow. He wasn't even my superior, yet he carried himself as if he stood far above me. There were very few types of people I actually liked—and he was exactly the type I despised most.