Chapter 87
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 87
I spent my time holed up in my room at the Custoria mansion.
Fitting for a military family, the room came equipped with training facilities. I gripped the pull-up bar with one hand and slowly hauled myself up.
Smoothly.
Without a hint of recoil, I lifted myself into a handstand using my left arm alone. My torso was still biological, so my abdominal and back muscles burned as though they might tear apart.
Soon my body and toes were perfectly perpendicular to the ground. I held the pose, freezing like a machine.
"Whew."
Counting the seconds in my head, I exhaled.
Tap.
I pushed off the bar with my left hand, tossing my body slightly into the air. In that brief instant, I tucked my left arm behind my back and reached out with my right to catch the bar. Now it was time to come down.
Using my rigidly extended right arm as a pivot, I lowered myself toward the floor like the hand of a clock. Even my descent was slow, as if I were defying gravity itself.
Tap.
My feet touched down cleanly.
Having verified my motor performance, I wiped away the sweat with a towel.
My condition was good today. My sense of balance and control were both excellent, which meant the synchronization of my nervous system and the level of signal feedback were both in fine shape.
Had my condition been even slightly off, I would have wobbled badly—or fallen flat on my face.
Make the prosthetic body like a biological one.
A person must be able to use a cybernetic prosthetic body as if it were their own natural flesh. That was the entire purpose of this training.
I dropped into a fighting stance and swayed my upper body side to side. Building momentum, I threw a punch.
Whoosh!
My heavy prosthetic arm shot forward. The intricate components that made up the arm received the signals from my brain, interlocking and responding organically.
Whir, whirrrr!
A cybernetic prosthetic body has far more parts and a far more complex structure than an android. That's precisely why it's so difficult to load an artificial intelligence into one. When an AI tries to operate a cybernetic body, it glitches out or breaks down almost immediately.
The reason for the failure is simple. Cybernetic prosthetic bodies mimic the human biological body, which means they can only be operated through a human brain's nervous system.
Artificial intelligence has made dazzling strides in specific fields, but due to fundamental structural differences, it still falls short of the human brain in terms of sheer versatility.
"For now, our brain is the finest computer in existence. And if there's a computer or an AI out there superior to a biological brain... then it isn't something we humans made."
Those, too, were words I'd heard from Ilay. The implication—that such a thing could exist, so long as no human had made it—was a subtle nod to the Arcane civilization.
Crack!
The marble floor split beneath my extended foot. Lost in thought, I'd let the output spike too high. That, too, was a mistake a computer or AI would never make.
"Well. That's enough for now," I muttered, steadying my breathing.
The one thing you must never do is skip your daily training. Combat capability doesn't just spike overnight. It's the culmination of steadily accumulated effort and sweat. You can't become strong in a single day simply because you decided to.
Even if you spent an astronomical sum on a superior prosthetic body, you couldn't wield it properly without training and effort. That truth had been proven countless times in real combat.
...And there was a reason I was rambling to myself like this today.
Jupe really is picking a pointless fight.
I slipped on my coat and left the room. Today's schedule flashed across my retinal display.
– Sparring with Jupe Custoria.
Twenty minutes from now.
Word is Jupe emptied his pockets to buy a brand-new, state-of-the-art combat prosthetic...
There was no reason to refuse—and if I did, people would whisper that I'd been too scared to face him.
A true combat expert would spot the gap between Jupe and me at a glance, but most people were laymen.
Jupe's a soldier too. Does he really not grasp the difference in our abilities? Or has he got something up his sleeve?
For me, sparring with Jupe was a minor affair.
"Ah, Young Master. You're up. I thought I heard some noise a moment ago..."
A servant passing my room struck up conversation.
"I accidentally cracked the floor a little."
"I see. I'll have it repaired."
The servant bowed deeply.
Walking down the hallway, I glanced toward Heilas's study. He didn't come out.
According to Barbara's intel, the one who colluded with Nemesis to plan and instigate Nikolaos's assassination is Bao Zakanan.
Bao Zakanan was a high-ranking official of the Empire.
His title was something like Chief Secretary of the Information Security Department. Lower than the Imperial Guard Captain, certainly, but a very high position nonetheless. Not someone I could simply barge in on and interrogate.
His head must be a mess right now. Especially since Heilas is such a cautious man.
There was also the possibility that Barbara's information was a lie.
And the Empire might already know Bao Zakanan is a traitor and simply be pretending not to. All for some grander scheme down the line.
Countless plans churned within the Empire that even Heilas knew nothing about. If Heilas confronted Bao Zakanan here and exposed him as a traitor, he might wreck a plan carefully laid by the upper command.
The Empire... everything is so intricately entangled that even the Imperial Guard Captain can't move as he pleases.
One reckless move, and he could be branded a traitor himself.
A chill crawled down my spine.
I am a cadet of the Imperial Guard and an adopted son of the Custoria family.
But I held another title too—an unofficial one. A sudden shiver ran through me.
Akies Domini, the Emperor's Watcher.
Sooner or later, I would have to report everything that had happened to Kinuan.
And the moment I report it, the private mission the Custoria family tried to hide from the Empire... reaches the ears of the Imperial Family.
I, too, was nothing more than a cog in the Empire's surveillance network.
The Empire sees and hears everything.
Perhaps they already knew every last detail of the deviations Ilay and I had committed.
...Honestly, the more I learned, the more terrifying it became. Had it been mere oppression through force and violence, I wouldn't have been half this frightened.
The Empire's ruling power did not stem from oppression and violence. It lay in thorough surveillance and control.
Ally and enemy blurred together. The one you trusted was a traitor; the one you opposed was a friend. Such information warfare and camouflage were everyday matters in the Empire.
The Emperor alone could see through the truth of every event unfolding within the Empire.
While I was lost in these heavy thoughts, a far more trivial matter presented itself before me.
I arrived at the Custoria family's training room. Jupe was already warming up, waiting for me, his followers gathered around him.
"Luka, thank you for indulging your older brother's unreasonable request."
"Unreasonable? Not at all. I've been wanting a session like this with you too, brother."
That wasn't just polite banter. I genuinely wanted to show him the clear gulf in our strength.
Thump, thump.
I lightly stamped my feet. The give of the synthetic metal floor felt good.
The Custoria family's training facilities were every bit as fine as the Imperial Guard's. The floor was metal, sturdy enough not to break even if I came down on it with everything I had, and the ceiling stood as high as a two-story building, so I wouldn't crack my head no matter how high I leapt.
Murmur, murmur.
People were gathering in the training room.
Among them I spotted my adoptive mother, Eva Custoria. She watched us in silence. Her eyes looked gentle, but the gaze buried deep within her pupils was always cold.
I found Eva deeply uncomfortable to be around. I felt no bond with her whatsoever. She was a distant stranger. By comparison, Jupe—who clashed with me at every turn—felt far more familiar, far more at ease.
Whir, clank!
A loud noise rang out. Jupe revved his output up and down, again and again, as if flaunting his new full-body prosthetic.
A combat prosthetic tuned exquisitely to the very brink of nervous system overload.
It had been fine-tuned right up to the absolute limit—a luxury only a wealthy noble could afford.
Clang!
Stepping forward, Jupe slammed his fists together. The artificial skin on the backs of his hands tore, spitting sparks.
"Luka. Ready?"
Jupe bared his teeth in a fierce grin.
"Whenever you are, brother."
I walked to the center of the training room. I'd already warmed up thoroughly. My nervous system was fully active, my senses honed to a razor's edge.
We took our stances and closed the distance. I studied Jupe.
Jupe uses a standard combat style, faithful to the fundamentals. He feels solid—consistent training, no doubt.
His stance alone told me Jupe wasn't lazy. He'd clearly put in the work, in his own way.
Whir!
Our limbs began to move. At first it was a light exchange of attack and defense.
His pacing is excellent, and his braking at the end of each movement is precise. At this level he can genuinely be called a soldier of the Empire.
I analyzed Jupe's movements coolly, without emotion.
Whoosh!
The exchange flowed smoothly, gradually gaining speed. Soon one of us would fail to keep the rhythm. It wouldn't be me, of course.
Whirrrr!
Jupe cranked up his prosthetic's output.
Clang!
A harsh metallic clash rang out every time our prosthetic limbs met.
Whoosh!
A punch came flying straight at my face. I snapped my head back, letting it pass.
Jupe was targeting my biological parts—my weak points. Unlike him, with his full-body prosthetic, my head and torso were still flesh. One mistake could mean instant death, or worse.
Smart, Jupe. No need to hold back just because it's a spar.
Only by fighting this desperately did his odds of beating me climb, even a fraction.
So he did have a reason to challenge me.
Jupe had the skill to easily overpower a first- or second-year Imperial Guard Cadet. Judging by the raw output and performance of his finely tuned combat prosthetic alone, he was on par with a cadet nearing graduation.
But that's all it is.
Jupe had one fatal flaw. He was hopelessly short on real combat experience. Throw him something irregular, something he'd never encountered before, and he'd crumble in seconds.
I've indulged him long enough.
The blade Jupe had painstakingly sharpened was, sadly... far too dull to ever reach my throat.
Time to teach this pampered young master a lesson in reality.
I stared into Jupe's eyes and feinted a punch. His shoulders twitched—bracing to defend.
But my real attack came low.
Thud!
Without even looking, I hooked his ankle. A basic trick: draw the opponent's gaze up, then strike from the blind spot below.
"Ugh!"
Jupe stumbled and went down. Because he couldn't fully master his prosthetic body, even a move like that was enough to floor him.
I waited for Jupe to get back up.
"Urgh."
He sprang to his feet, eyes wide. As if hardening his resolve, his full-body prosthetic let out a roar that was almost a scream, its vibrations visible to the naked eye.
I stopped playing along. Slipping past his attack by a hair's breadth, I rammed him with my shoulder. The instant his balance broke, I fired off a swift punch.
My fist slammed into Jupe's chest.
Crunch!
Nothing but metal fragments flew from the impact. My fist hadn't sunk in deep. Even I was surprised.
Guess state-of-the-art really is state-of-the-art.
The defensive capability was worth every coin he'd paid.
"Aaaaargh!"
Seizing the opening, Jupe grabbed my arm and tried to slam me to the floor.
Whirrrr!
In an instant, I moved faster than thought—a combat instinct carved into me through real battles and endless training.
Whoosh!
Few in that room would have registered what happened next. I spun behind Jupe and locked my arm around his neck.
Crack!
And twisted. No need for anything flashy. The sound of grinding components and a dislocated spine rang out. With a full-body prosthetic, a snapped neck posed no threat to his life.
Having wrenched his neck around, I stepped back. He'd collapse any second now.
But my prediction was dead wrong.
Whoosh!
Jupe's fist grazed past my nose. If not for my reflexes, my skull would have been pulped.
Shamefully, I'd let my guard down. Still a long way to go, Luka.
"Huff, puff."
Jupe stood there, neck bent halfway to the side.
"Hmm. It's got... a lot of features. Enough to make me want one myself."
I murmured in admiration. No sarcasm—I meant it.
Jupe's prosthetic body apparently had a mechanism to route nervous system signals through an alternate pathway, bypassing the artificial spine. A feature like that meant one more way to flip the script when the odds turned against him.
Creak, creak.
An ugly grinding noise leaked out of Jupe. The fact that he could still move didn't mean his snapped neck was going to slide back into place.
"I-It's not... over... yet, Lu... Luka."
The performance drop in his full-body prosthetic was painfully obvious. The auxiliary nervous system was nothing more than a stopgap.
The murmurs around us swelled. Even Jupe's followers had gone pale.
We are human by nature. No matter how mechanical our bodies become, no one enjoyed watching someone twist away from the 'human form.'
Jupe's refusal to yield only looked grotesque to the onlookers.
"Stop! That's enough for today, my sons."
Unable to watch any longer, Eva stepped in.
She gestured to Jupe's followers, signaling them to carry him off quickly. Fighting on in that state would only shred what remained of Jupe's reputation.
"Luka, seeing your skill in person—it's even more remarkable than I'd heard. Knowing you're lending your father such ability sets my heart at ease. He is getting on in years, after all..."
Eva said this as she approached. To my surprise, she pulled me into a deep embrace, her chest pressing against mine. On the surface, an affectionate gesture.
"...But this is as far as you go. No further. You're a clever boy, so I trust you understand what I mean."
Her sweet, cloying voice clung to my ear like syrup. It was a warning.
The reason I'd always felt that distance from Eva was simple. She didn't think of me as family. She didn't even regard me as a rival.
My father Heilas, the late Nikolaos, the jealous Jupe, Giselle—like it or not, every one of them counted me as one of their own.
But to Eva Custoria, my existence was nothing more than that of an outsider. She refused to acknowledge me at all.