Chapter 4
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 4
My right prosthetic eye was proving worth every credit. Expanding and absorbing visible light wavelengths, it mapped my surroundings. With light amplification and calibration active, my field of vision was as bright as broad daylight.
I spotted two Korains standing on the cliff. They wore loose garments with fluttering sleeves and hems. What must have once been white clothing was now so worn and faded it looked gray.
The two Korains pulled out cigarettes and slipped them between their lips. A lighter's flame flickered brightly, then vanished.
I blinked to extinguish the glow of my prosthetic eye and raised my hand.
I'll take the left, you take the right.
With a brief hand signal, we split our targets. Ilay and I would raid the outpost simultaneously from both flanks.
Whoosh!
I was the first to scale the cliff. Kicking off the ground, I gripped my hilt.
Slash!
I slipped between the two smoking men like a passing breeze. The cigarette butts they dropped fell, trailing red embers. A moment later, their heads rolled across the ground.
With my attack as the signal, the silent massacre began.
Swish!
The cadets and I swept into the outpost, slashing and stabbing every enemy in sight.
Weeeeee! Weeeeee!
Belatedly, the alarm spread throughout the outpost. The front of the base erupted into chaos. Guards stationed at the front came rushing toward our position.
"A-Akres...!"
Seeing our disciplined movements and uniforms, they recognized our identity instantly. And they were immediately terrified. At this rate, they were as good as defeated before the fight even began.
Bang!
An enemy gunshot rang out. It was a blind shot fired in sheer panic. None of us were fools enough to get hit by something like that. Everyone scattered on their own.
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
Rapid gunfire followed. I skillfully slipped out of the crossfire and flanked them. The other cadets temporarily took cover or used corpses as shields.
I closed in on the flank of a Korain firing a machine gun. He tried to swing his barrel toward me, but realizing he was too late, he scrambled to draw his pistol.
"Y-You... devil!"
The Korain screamed at me. I merely shrugged my shoulders and swung my sword.
Slash!
The Korain's head split horizontally along his temples. The red cross-section of his philtrum and jaw was revealed with unrealistic smoothness.
I kicked the headless Korain, pushing him to the ground.
...Easy.
It felt like just Ilay and I could have wiped out an outpost like this. It was only natural, of course. We were destined to become the Empire's elite soldiers.
I strolled through the chaotic outpost as if taking a leisurely walk.
"M-Mother... Mom, Mom..."
Hearing the voice, I turned my head. A Korain boy about my age was crawling on the ground. At first, I thought he had injured his legs.
He's just too terrified to move properly.
He couldn't even use his perfectly fine legs. Pathetic.
"Ah, ah..."
The Korain boy, who had been desperately calling for his mother, sensed my presence and looked up. I hesitated for a moment, locking eyes with him.
For the well-being of the Imperial subjects and the glory of His Majesty the Emperor...
I mouthed the words silently, trying to steel my resolve.
But a lingering sense of unease made me stay my hand. If only the boy had a sword or a gun in his hand, I wouldn't have hesitated. I would have slit his throat without a second thought.
...An unarmed non-combatant.
But my orders were to kill every Korain here.
Thud!
I drove my sword down. The blade grazed the boy's neck and embedded itself in the ground.
"Stay down and play dead. Then you might live."
I whispered as I pulled my sword out. Agitation and anxiety stirred in my heart. If another cadet noticed what I had just done, my own life could be in danger.
Yet, I had impulsively taken the risk. Immediately, a wave of guilt—something I hadn't felt even while killing—washed over me.
I can't do this, Luka. The Empire's orders are absolute. They must not be disobeyed.
I had to slit the boy's throat right now. Biting my lower lip, I glared down at him. The Empire's command was pushing my back and hands.
Right now, my body was trying to move not by my own will, but by the will of the Empire. I didn't like that.
I was hesitating.
Bang!
A gunshot rang out. The bullet pierced through the boy's head. He must have died before he could even register his own death.
Ilay?
I stared at the source of the gunshot. Ilay was standing on the roof of a building. Smoke drifted lazily from his pistol.
Ilay looked at me and gave a slight shake of his head. It meant he had seen everything. But since it was Ilay and no one else, I felt relieved.
If it had been any other cadet who saw me just now...
I would have had to silence them somehow. If persuasion and dialogue failed, then by the worst means possible.
Ilay won't report my hesitation to the upper command. Either way, I'm the fool today.
I snapped out of it. I realized exactly what I had been about to do. In trying to show mercy to some nameless Korain boy, I had almost put myself and my comrade in danger.
I looked back up at Ilay on the roof, intending to offer a nod of gratitude. But at that very moment—
Whirrrr!
The air distorted beside Ilay.
My eyes widened. Even my state-of-the-art prosthetic eye couldn't immediately comprehend the situation. It was a phenomenon that defied the laws of physics.
Boom!
An explosion erupted next to Ilay. It wasn't because some explosive had been thrown. The surrounding air had simply distorted and then expanded.
"Y-You piece of shit bastards!!!"
A harsh voice bellowed, echoing through the area. I hurriedly ran toward where Ilay had been.
Caught in the explosion, Ilay fell from the three-story roof to the ground.
"...Luka, there's a Force user. I let my guard down. My apologies."
Ilay was barely standing, leaning against a wall. He seemed to have survived by using his limbs to shield his head and torso from the blast. Bundles of wires and components protruded from his ruined limbs that had served as his shield.
"I'll handle it. You rest."
I stared at the open clearing in the center of the outpost. A commotion was breaking out there.
Force.
It was my first time facing it directly, too. I only knew of it through theory.
...A kind of supernatural power.
A Force user could cause phenomena that defied the laws of physics. The explosion that hit Ilay was one such phenomenon.
Did the Imperial Guard Captain know there was a Force user here?
If he had warned us beforehand, Ilay wouldn't have been injured...
I shook my head as I ran toward the clearing. Foolish thoughts. We should have been prepared for any situation.
Ilay was injured because he was careless. And his carelessness was partly my fault.
Because of my hesitation, Ilay got hurt.
For the first time in a long while, I felt disgusted with myself. Don't ever do this again, Luka.
In the clearing, a battle was already raging between the Force user and the cadets.
"This isn't a military base! It's a settlement! The people you killed were just... trying to survive somehow...!"
The Force user screamed in grief and rage. He looked like an ordinary middle-aged man, but a bluish aura flowed over his skin. His loose, characteristically Korain clothes fluttered as if defying gravity.
Boom!
An explosion erupted in the direction the Force user gestured. Swept up by his wrathful attack, the cadets were blown away in all directions.
Bang!
One of the fallen cadets fired his gun. The Force user was enveloped in a thin barrier, which wasn't penetrated by the weak pistol bullet.
This is a bad matchup.
With our current armament, he was a tricky opponent to deal with.
No need to panic.
It was my first time fighting a Force user. But I had already learned how to deal with them. Today was a day for practical application.
Though real combat rarely goes according to theory...
I dashed forward, gripping my sword in one hand and my pistol in the other.
Bang! Bang!
Even though I knew it was useless, I fired. It was to draw his attention.
I'll take this guy.
I sent a hand signal to the other cadets. We hadn't completely captured this outpost yet. Upon my orders, the cadets scattered to secure the rest of the base.
"W-Where do you think you're going, you bastards?! Fight me! Come at me!"
As the cadets scattered, the Force user actually looked flustered.
As I thought, this man was trying to act as a decoy by himself. No need to fall for his trick.
I focused on the Force user's arms.
Force abilities require a specific catalyst and action. I just need to watch for them and react.
The Force user's ability was explosion. And like a trigger and a bullet, there was a clear cause-and-effect relationship.
The Force user designated the direction of the explosion with a hand gesture. And just before the blast, the necklace wrapped like a chain around his hand glowed blue. That necklace was the catalyst for his Force ability.
Hand gesture, the catalyst's light reaction, and then the explosion.
There was a sequence. Now that I knew the principle, there was plenty of time to dodge if I paid attention. In fact, dodging bullets was harder. The other cadets had only fallen so easily because it was an unfamiliar, strange attack.
Boom!
An explosion went off beside me. I moved, accelerating only right before the blast.
Seeing my irregular acceleration and movements, the Force user frowned.
Boom!
Another explosion erupted. The radius was wider than I had predicted, so even I felt the shockwave. Staggering, I planted my hand on the ground and leaped to the side.
Kaboom!
The spot where I had just been exploded. The radius was continuously expanding, and the interval between explosions was faster than before. He, too, had devised a countermeasure to deal with my erratic movements.
"Ughhhhh...!"
The Force user was pushing himself to the absolute limit. Veins bulged prominently on his face.
But pushing myself to the limit was something I was doing as well.
I'd like to turn this into a war of attrition, but I can't maintain high-speed maneuvering for long either.
Even with high-output prosthetic legs, the rest of my biological body couldn't hold out for long. My hip joints were screaming from the sudden braking and rapid acceleration.
If this keeps up, I'll collapse first.
I had to charge while I could still maintain maximum speed.
Whoosh!
I dashed straight forward in a line. At the end of it stood the Force user.
Faster!
I ignored the pain. If my body broke down, the Empire would fix it anyway. As long as my head was intact, the rest could be managed somehow.
"Huuuup!"
The Force user caught his breath and thrust both hands forward. Watching the light of the catalyst necklace, I accelerated, anticipating the explosion. But the explosion I expected didn't happen.
My heart sank. The Grim Reaper's scythe was right at my throat.
A feint!
A beat late, the air in front of me distorted. The Force user knew how to use his ability with experience. Perhaps because of his rich combat experience, his adaptation was fast.
If I back away here...
My body had accelerated to a point where it was hard to control. If I braked and backed away now, my hip joints would shatter. Even if I survived this moment, I wouldn't be able to dodge the next attack.
Instead, I'll push forward with even more speed.
The decision was split-second. I might die from this judgment.
I didn't back down even after seeing the precursor of the explosion. I pierced through the distorting air with my body. My skin tore as if touched by hot thorns.
Kaboom!
An explosion erupted behind my back. A searing pain lashed across my back. In urgent situations, pain must be ignored.
I didn't even care about the state of my body. I only stared at the Force user.
...Finally, my sword reached him.
I extended my arm fully and drove the tip of my sword into the Force user's chest. The blade, tearing through the Force shield, sliced through his skin and muscle, plunging deep into his chest.
"Cough, cough!"
The Force user staggered and looked at me. Vomiting blood, he reached out toward me with the hand holding the catalyst necklace. The necklace glowed bluish. It was the precursor to a Force explosion.
A final attack?
I had no strength left to dodge his attack. I raised my head and looked at his face. He was looking at my face, too.
"L-Looking at you like this, y-you're... so young..."
The Force user muttered and lowered his hand. My eyes widened.
Whirrrr!
The Force aura gathered in his hand dispersed, brushing past me before evaporating. There was no explosion.
Thud!
The light faded from the Force user's eyes. His lifeless body collapsed limply.