Chapter 41
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 41
Whirrrr, whir.
I felt a vibration crawling up my spine. My pupils and lips trembled without my consent.
The android was removing the external spine embedded in my back. As it unfastened the securing screws anchored on either side of my vertebrae, blood trickled down my back.
"You will experience some discomfort and pain for the time being," the android said, laying the blood-stained screws onto a tray one by one.
My medical chart glowed on the wall display. I had suffered a fatal injury—a broken neck. This wasn't something willpower or grit could overcome, so for once, I hadn't pushed for an early discharge.
Crack.
I rubbed the back of my neck and rolled my head. The muscles surrounding my barely-healed cervical vertebrae were stiff.
I almost ended up living with an external spine for good.
External or internal, receiving a cybernetic artificial spine meant a long rehabilitation. It would take ages to reclaim my original performance with one. Even in full-body prosthetic procedures, the spine—where the nervous system is most densely concentrated—is the hardest and most delicate surgery of all.
I closed my eyes and felt the changes in my body. The nervous signals that had been detouring through the artificial spinal cord began flowing through my natural central nervous system again.
Because I'd grown accustomed to the external spine, my body initially felt like it wasn't my own. It was as if my brain and my flesh had suddenly bonded more tightly. My reaction time had actually sped up so much that I fumbled and dropped a water cup while reaching for it.
For an Imperial Guard Cadet, this kind of sensory mismatch was a problem that would resolve itself within a day or two. My brain would quickly auto-correct the errors and gaps.
After all, our brains have been modified to be optimized for cybernetic prosthetic bodies and combat.
I stood and slipped on my cadet coat. Then, at last, I stopped before Felix's hospital bed.
"It was good knowing you, Felix."
"Lu... ka. Are you... leaving?"
Felix was still lying flat, a neck brace fixed around him. He'd aggravated his injuries several times by moving around too much. His intellect had regressed to that of a toddler.
"...I have to go."
There was no need for me to worry about Felix's future. He belonged to a prestigious family—one that even ran corporations. They wouldn't let him starve to death simply because he was no longer useful. In fact, nobles of apparently high standing had already come to visit him.
"Luka."
Before I could leave, Felix forced out the words with everything he had. I turned around to see him straining to speak as clearly as he could.
"I... I wish you good fortune... in your future."
I simply nodded.
I would move forward. Felix's journey ended here. That was all.
But I would remember Felix. And all those who had died up to now.
* * *
The news of my adoption into the Custoria Family had not yet spread. According to the Imperial Guard Captain, it would take time for the paperwork to be formally processed.
"There are some strict elders in the family, you see. Well, nothing to worry about. A matter this small will pass easily."
The Imperial Guard Captain's words echoed back to me. Members of the Custoria Family retired as elders after serving on the family's front lines for forty or fifty years. For a house like the Custorias, an elder system made generational transitions relatively flexible and dynamic.
Many noble families saw no turnover of generations until the predecessor died. If long-lived, the Empire's nobles could survive over two hundred years. To me, who hadn't yet lived a single century, it was an unfathomable span of time.
I walked down the hallway of the Imperial Guard Training Center's main building, lost in thought.
The witch, Barbara.
I pulled up the profile list of the Empire's wanted criminals. Sorted by most recent, Barbara sat right at the top.
Barbara's bizarre behavior, her deviance, and the string of incidents known as her curse.
If the Empire had been pulling the strings all along, then the android rampage known as Barbara's Curse made perfect sense.
Yet it was impossible to say where the Empire's covert operation ended and Barbara's personal depravity began. It was precisely because of that gray area that Nemesis took the bait. They judged Barbara a genius hacker capable of making fools of even Cracia Academy, and recruited her.
But Barbara was an agent of the Empire. A spy groomed to infiltrate the very heart of the terrorist group Nemesis.
A plan spanning several years... no, perhaps over a decade.
I still didn't know what kind of entity Barbara truly was. She couldn't have been a mere Irregular from the Lower Districts. Perhaps she had been designed for this operation down to the genetic level.
The bizarre behavior I'd witnessed from Barbara wasn't mere acting. It was undeniable that she was a twisted human being.
...Either way, none of this was a coincidence.
During my time at the Academy, I had merely walked the path laid out by Upper Command. All the while under the illusion that it was my own choice, my own free will.
The more I learned, the more unfathomable the depths of the Empire became.
My meeting with Kinuan and learning the Akies Combat Style—those must have been part of Upper Command's design too.
Now I was certain. Just as Kinuan had said, this wasn't my free will. Upper Command had guided me, so naturally that I never noticed, into making contact with him.
One suspicion led to another. Everything began to feel wrong.
My rise as an Irregular from a Double-Digit Orphanage—perhaps I had never truly been an Irregular at all. Perhaps I'd possessed the aptitude to enter a One-Digit Orphanage from the very start.
It had always been strange. During my orphanage days, I felt like the only odd one out. I couldn't connect with the others, as though we were different species entirely. It was only after coming to the Imperial Guard Training Center that I felt any kinship with my peers.
So it wasn't that I overcame a harsh environment and poor genetics through sheer effort...
Perhaps I had been destined to be an elite soldier from the very beginning, and this grand design had encircled me all along.
Ilay's words came back to me. He'd said that Irregulars like me had to exist so that people would believe in the possibility of social mobility, and thereby accept the current system and structure.
Stop it, Luka.
I closed my eyes. My thoughts were tangling. I shouldn't think like a dissident.
...It was all just my delusion and speculation.
Perhaps the Imperial Guard Captain revealing the inside story of this incident had itself been a test. A test to see whether my loyalty to the Empire and my mindset as a soldier would waver.
An opportunity to change my life has arrived.
Luka Custoria.
This was a station I had seized with my own two hands. It was far too early to relax. If my grip loosened even slightly, it would vanish like smoke. I could not let go.
I walked on with my eyes shut, then stopped abruptly. When I opened them, I stood before Kinuan's office.
Hiss.
The door slid open onto a familiar scene. Kinuan seated within, a teacup at hand, books stacked about, incense smoke curling up from a shelf by the window.
"Ah, Luka. Did you enjoy your youth at the Academy?"
He said it so lightly, though he knew full well it had been nothing of the sort. I was used to his way of speaking by now.
"It was so enjoyable I nearly didn't make it back to the training center at all."
"What happened to Felix is unfortunate. He was an excellent cadet."
Do you really find it unfortunate? The question climbed to the tip of my tongue, but I swallowed it.
"I owe my life to your teachings, Instructor. For that, at least, I'm grateful."
"As I recall, you were furious—complaining that mastering the Akies Combat Style with so much effort would be useless the moment you wore a Legion."
"Well, my opinion on that hasn't changed much."
I said this as I took a seat. Kinuan poured out tea and handed it to me.
Mmm, still astringent and bitter. I still couldn't believe this stuff cost more than a day's wage.
I lowered the teacup from my lips and stared at Kinuan. I thought of the terrorist Rick Silva Nunez—damn it, let's just call him Rick Kaiser. It's easier. Anyway, that terrorist bastard who'd broken my neck.
"Rick asked me to pass along his regards, Instructor. He says he's doing well."
"Ah, Rick Silva Nunez? Yes, I'm glad to hear he's well."
Kinuan replied casually. Not even his eyebrows so much as twitched.
"Rick is a most-wanted criminal and a terrorist. He's the very man who broke my neck."
"You were unlucky. Or perhaps lucky? Since you survived an encounter with him. Then again, Rick always had a soft spot. It seems he hasn't changed."
I furrowed my brow. He spoke of a terrorist with such easy familiarity.
"You know him well?"
"Of course. We were peers in the Imperial Guard. We used to call him 'Rick Lapidus.' Lapidus means fast. True to the name, his reflexes were exceptionally quick. If his prosthetic body's performance could keep up, he could pluck flying bullets from the air with his fingers. These days, with the advance of technology, quite a few can manage such tricks—but back then, he was peerless."
The universe truly was a vast place. Kinuan spoke as though warriors of Rick's caliber were common as dirt.
"So you're telling me you're no longer in contact."
"You seem to be misunderstanding something. Though I'm retired, I still draw a stipend from the Empire. I'm hardly in a position to be trading messages with a terrorist. I take it you didn't mention Rick's regards to the Imperial Guard Captain?"
I paused a moment before answering.
"...Because it's the kind of information that could get you summarily executed, Instructor. I wanted to verify it with my own eyes and ears before reporting."
Half sincerity, half flattery.
"There's no need to be so considerate of me. If I were to be disposed of over something like this, it would have happened long ago. Still, I appreciate the thought."
"And in case you were to be disciplined, I wanted to learn more about the Akies Combat Style before it happened. I've heard various things about it."
"Haha—that sounds far more believable than claiming you were merely being considerate of me."
I sorted through recent events in my head.
"Users of Akies Victima are persons of interest—so much so that we keep a separate list of them."
Those had been the words of Investigator Jillian Campbell.
"Since you seem to have learned Akies Victima, I won't kill you."
And that was the reason the terrorist Rick Kaiser hadn't crushed my head entirely. He'd snapped my neck while leaving a margin for survival.
I had to find out exactly what Akies Victima was. It carried a significance far beyond that of a mere combat style.
"...So. What exactly is the Akies Combat Style?"
I didn't beat around the bush. I relayed to Kinuan exactly what Jillian Campbell and Rick Kaiser had said.
Kinuan gazed out the window and sipped his cooling tea. Then he smiled, as though he'd been waiting for this very question.
"You've reached this point faster than I expected, Luka Custoria."
"You've already heard, then?"
At my question, Kinuan kept up that ironclad smile. His information network seemed to reach even into Upper Command. He truly was an enigmatic man.
"Well, yes. You've drawn near the center now. You know too much for a low-ranking soldier. You understand what that means, don't you?"
"I understand perfectly."
If a single piece of classified information leaked from my mouth, I was a dead man. And regardless of what I did—if Upper Command decided to bury a certain incident and all its secrets entirely, I would be in danger then, too. The name Custoria would offer some protection, but only so much. That was precisely why the Imperial Guard Captain had rushed to have me adopted into the family.
"The history of Akies Victima runs far deeper than you think. We must go back to the era before the Empire ever settled on Planet Novas. And its creator..."
Kinuan's smile vanished. He went on, his face devoid of expression.
"...was Noel Mulrizka. The man who led the first rebel uprising in imperial history, in 3518. He was the leader of the Rebels, the creator of Akies Victima, and the one who first proposed the theory of the Meta Combat Style."
From its very inception, Akies Victima had been a subversive combat style.