Chapter 92
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 92
The night of the fake birthday wore on.
I flicked my glass repeatedly with my finger, tapping out an idle rhythm.
Gilda's singing was superb. Her clear voice soared without the slightest strain. Maybe it was the gentleness of the melody, but even the gang members drank in relative silence.
Giselle asked if Grace was my girlfriend.
I hesitated before answering. Not, of course, because Grace actually was my girlfriend.
But telling her Grace was my girlfriend... it felt like it might help me keep some distance between myself and Giselle.
"Grace is my..."
I stared at Giselle as I spoke. She was tracing the rim of her glass with a fingertip. For some reason, her fingers looked strangely forlorn.
"...one of my business partners."
In that split second, I changed my mind. It was a lie that would fall apart the moment Giselle decided to dig into it. It would only tangle things up for no reason.
"For a pair of business partners, you two seem awfully close, don't you?"
"She's a former Imperial Guard Cadet, so we're on the same wavelength. She doesn't grate on me the way you do, and she doesn't interrogate me either."
Giselle scowled at that. She emptied her glass in a single gulp, then poured a drink into mine as if daring me to refuse.
I didn't touch it.
"It's a birthday drink. From me. Drink it. Or is it just that you won't touch anything I give you?"
She looked as though she might burst into tears if I didn't drink. For a fleeting moment, the urge to watch her fall apart flickered through me—but I forced that dark impulse down and shut it away.
I tilted the glass back and drained it.
"So now it's my turn, right? Why did you suddenly throw this fake birthday party? What could possibly be worth going this far—worth lying about it?"
"I wanted to watch you squirm. But it wasn't as much fun as I expected. Turns out you're surprisingly sociable."
"Well, you half succeeded. I was pretty rattled at first. Is that really all? You lied and dragged me all the way out here just for that?"
I grumbled. At that, Giselle flared up and seized me by the collar.
"You lie to me all the time too! Why am I not allowed to lie to you? Fine—let's set aside the fact that you used me as bait. But afterward you didn't even bother to explain what was going on. It felt like... like I was just a tool to you. Something you picked up and used."
Still gripping my collar, Giselle bowed her head. Her shoulders trembled.
We let Barbara go.
Barbara was the root of Giselle's unease. The witch's obsession with her was chilling even to me.
But Barbara had to be released—for the Empire's sake.
I couldn't tell Giselle any of this. Which was exactly why she'd never understand why we let Barbara walk free.
"We're all someone's tool in the end. You, me, everyone. If you resent being used... then get strong enough to pay it back. Don't be the one who gets used—be the one who does the using. That's what I intend to do."
"That's not what I meant, and you know it."
"It's not so different."
I took Giselle's hand and peeled it off my collar.
"There's another reason you let Barbara go, isn't there? Something I'm not supposed to know."
"I gave you the reason back then. A deal was the best option. If we'd cornered Barbara, we'd have been in danger too. If she'd felt like she had nothing left to lose, she might have blown herself up and taken us with her."
I lied straight to her face, right to the end. This was for the best—if only to keep Giselle out of harm's way.
"Right. Aren't you just so noble and righteous."
"I'm not wrong, at least. Anyway—what were you and Gilda talking about for so long? It's your first time even meeting her."
I tried to steer the conversation elsewhere. And I really was curious.
Giselle turned her gaze toward Gilda too. Feeling our eyes on her mid-song, Gilda shot us a playful wink.
"We just hit it off while we were talking. Gilda has an incredible grasp of machinery and prosthetic bodies. She even understands design work. Her skills are so good it makes you wonder why she's still stuck down here in the Lower District."
I knew perfectly well how skilled Gilda was.
"She's here because she was born here. Mechanics of Gilda's level are a dime a dozen in the Upper District. Being 'pretty good' doesn't get you anywhere. To climb, you have to be exceptional."
I said it like I was dumping cold water on her enthusiasm. But it was the plain truth.
"Doesn't matter. I'm going to work with Gilda."
That made me frown.
"Work with her? A noble like you—with someone from the Lower District?"
"To formally start a business in the Upper District, I have to graduate the Academy and come of age first. But down here, all those complicated procedures don't matter. And if something needs legal authorization, I can just use Gilda as my proxy..."
Giselle calmly laid out the plan she'd been putting together. Listening to her, it sounded exactly like Gabriel and me. Now that I thought about it, this was the relationship between the Upper and Lower Districts in miniature.
"No matter what you do, the Lower District is dangerous. I can't protect you around the clock."
I warned her.
"I never asked you to protect me."
Infuriating. Whether she asked for it or not, I had to protect her. For now, we were family.
"What are you scheming? Trying to make my life harder?"
Even to my own ears, the words came out unbearably harsh.
"You're the one who said it. That claiming you can't do anything until you're an adult is just an excuse. So I did exactly what you told me to—I found what I can do right now."
Giselle countered with cold logic. Come to think of it, I had said something like that to her.
I searched my memory.
'I can't do anything until I officially come of age. Only then can I take on retainers, start a business.'
'To me, Giselle, that just sounds like an excuse.'
Yeah. We'd definitely had that exchange.
"I want to go back in time and sew my own mouth shut."
I raised the glass to my lips and drank. The instant it was empty, Giselle refilled it. She clearly meant to get me thoroughly drunk.
"I was looking for a partner anyway. Even if I hadn't met Gilda, I would've found someone suitable."
"And what exactly are you planning to do in the Lower District?"
"I'm going to apply the theories and technologies I've developed to the prosthetic bodies of the people here."
"So, human experimentation."
"I'm going to outfit their prosthetics with high-performance parts and modules they could never dream of getting down here. Any credit loss, I'll shoulder entirely myself. Unexpected problems are bound to crop up—and I'll gather that data ahead of time."
"So it is human experimentation."
My lips twitched into a sneer.
"I think of it as a fair trade. The people here are already running their prosthetic bodies with ticking time bombs strapped inside them. Or did you think I was doing charity?"
Giselle fired back.
I had nothing to say to that. I was the one who'd told her to be the user, not the used. I was the one who'd told her that waiting for adulthood was just an excuse.
This was a seed I had planted myself. I'd have to live with what grew from it.
"Fine. If you need anything, talk to Gabriel. He can handle small errands, security, that sort of thing. He may not look it, but he's quite capable in this area."
I listened to more of Giselle's business plans. Most of it was dense jargon from a world I knew nothing about. I just nodded along, pretending to follow.
"...By the way, Luka—when's your real birthday? I want to give you a proper present sometime."
Giselle spoke with a face flushed from the drink. I scratched my chin and shook my head.
"I don't really have one. I don't even know exactly when I was born. Honestly, today's the first time anyone's ever wished me a happy birthday."
"The first time?"
Giselle's eyes went wide.
"Nothing to be shocked about. It's pretty common around here."
I felt nothing much about it. A birthday held no meaning for me. In a world where just surviving until tomorrow was a struggle, what did the day of my birth matter? Celebrating anything was a luxury reserved for those with peace.
Giselle seemed to sink into thought. After a brief pause, she spoke.
"Then... why don't we just make today your birthday?"
"That's not a bad idea."
I said it evenly, and Giselle smiled.
Before long the party was petering out. Gabriel and his gang lay sprawled across the floor, dead drunk. Gilda tidied the place up a little, then headed upstairs to the second floor. It seemed she planned to sleep there. Given how late it had gotten, a sensible choice.
Gilda always knew how to look after herself. Then again, so did everyone in the Lower District.
"You should head back too. It's late."
I said it as I took Giselle by the arm. She swayed, clearly quite drunk.
"I know. Just walk me to the airfield nearby."
Giselle clung to my arm and leaned her weight into me. She seemed to have trouble staying upright on her own.
I made for the nearest public airfield. The Custoria Family's aerial vehicle I'd summoned would have already left the mansion by now.
I'm tired.
And yet it wasn't the irritated kind of tired—it was a pleasant sort of fatigue. Tonight, I felt like I could actually sleep in peace. For a little while, I'd managed to forget the worries pressing in on me from all sides.
If I was being honest, tonight had been fun. It hadn't gone the way I'd expected, but I'd enjoyed myself.
Whatever her real intentions had been, I felt a faint gratitude toward Giselle for arranging all this.
Step, step.
The streets were hushed. Giselle and I walked in silence. I could feel her warmth pressed against my arm.
The lights of the public airfield came into view. People drifted in and out—most of them wealthy types who'd come slumming in the Lower District for a bit of entertainment.
"Giselle. We're here."
I watched the Custoria Family's aerial vehicle descend.
"...Are you really going back to the Imperial Guard quarters? Why not sleep at the main estate tonight?"
Giselle slurred the words out.
It wasn't a terrible offer. But going to the estate meant being alone with Giselle in the aerial vehicle. That would be a problem.
"I've got Imperial Guard duty tomorrow too."
I answered flatly.
"Mm. I dragged a busy man out for nothing. Sorry."
"No. I had a good time too."
I gently eased Giselle off my arm. She flinched a little and stepped back.
"Then I'm glad."
The Custoria vehicle settled onto the airfield. Its door swung upward, waiting for her.
I watched Giselle walk toward it. Her steps were unsteady, but I didn't move to help her. I just stood there, waiting for her to make it on her own.
She stopped in front of the vehicle and looked back at me.
"This is where today ends, Luka."
"It is."
I answered curtly.
"Well then. I'm off."
I nodded without a word. Giselle held my gaze a moment longer before stepping inside. The door sealed shut with a soft hiss.
Whirrr.
The aerial vehicle rose, cut across the city, and vanished.
"Haa."
I let out the breath I'd been holding.
I already had more than enough problems on my plate. I had no desire to manufacture new ones. I wasn't a fool.
But today, I'd very nearly become one.
The time I'd spent with Giselle, Gilda, Gabriel—with all of them—had been nice. But that wasn't the world I belonged to.
Remember how you got here, Luka.
Sharpen your mind and body until they cut like a blade. Grow dull, and you die.
I closed my eyes, then opened them again as I descended the airfield stairs. Even the warm haze of the alcohol had drained away.
...My brief vacation was over.