Episode 83
Translator: RaidenTL
Episode 83
Lifting Elysia into his arms, he began to walk. His destination wasn't the exit, but somewhere deeper inside.
With a practiced ease, the man navigated the alleys, which were choked with the stench of garbage left by people who believed no one would ever pass through. At the end of the alley, a grim, abandoned building came into view.
The front of the crumbling building, which should have been deserted, was swarming with people.
A woman, who had been standing among the men loading boxes onto a wagon, muttering something with a smile while holding a long pipe between her fingers, spotted Cain and scowled.
“Ha, that crazy bastard. What the hell is that…?”
Tossing the pipe to a subordinate behind her, Alma entered the building, her long hair flying. The man saw her signal—a twirl of her finger as she climbed the stairs, telling him to go around—and headed to the back of the abandoned building.
After climbing a narrow, steep staircase, he found Alma leaning against the railing, looking thoroughly annoyed.
“You just show up at the front door?”
“I was carrying something. The back alley was too narrow.”
“What did you pick up and where… huh?”
Alma tilted her head as she got a look at Elysia’s face. Her expression seemed to say, I think I’ve seen her somewhere before.
Cain walked past the balcony, entered the room, and laid Elysia on the bed. He checked the gash on the back of her head, then gave a slight shrug and muttered.
“It’s not enough to kill her.”
In that case, there was no need to treat the wound. He touched the sticky blood with his finger once before stepping away and giving an order.
“Pack up. Get ready to move.”
“Again?”
“Now that this woman is here, it’s only a matter of time before we’re discovered.”
“What?”
Alma’s face crumpled in disbelief, and she let out a scoff. She slammed the balcony door shut, ran a hand through her hair in frustration, and ground her teeth.
“Then why did you bring her here?”
“I thought she’d want to come.”
“You crazy bastard!”
Unfazed, Cain sat next to Elysia and poked her cheek. He raised an eyebrow in curiosity, then lightly pinched it between two fingers. Softer than I thought.
He toyed with it a few more times with an intrigued expression before standing up. Then, he announced with a grin.
“Oh, I killed someone on my way in.”
His tone was as casual as if he were talking about what he’d had for lunch. Alma thought of someone who was supposed to return, pressed a hand to her forehead as if this was just another nuisance, and asked.
“You killed Kirk?”
“Was that his name? Anyway, yes.”
“You’re really getting on my nerves today. Why him? He was obedient and tight-lipped. I thought he was useful for a change.”
“He had the nerve to touch this woman.”
The man let out a lazy laugh and looked at her, his gaze a clear warning. Unlike his smiling lips, his eyes were ice-cold. He toyed with the gun Elysia had been carrying and continued.
“I’m sure you understand why I’m telling you this.”
Alma glanced at the woman he’d brought, her expression aghast. A cold sweat trickled down her back. This was a clear threat. The moment she displeased him, she would die.
As if sensing her tension, the man’s lips curved into an arrogant smile as he spoke.
“Killing her would be a problem.”
Faced with his chilling expression, Alma flinched and took a step back. He walked over to a bowl of water in the corner, wiped the blood splatters from his face, and continued.
“If you want to take your anger out on her, I won’t stop you. As long as you don’t cause any permanent damage, that is.”
“Isn’t she a woman you like?”
To Alma, who asked back in a baffled tone, Cain replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
“I brought her here because I like her.”
Alma was speechless. She wasn't exactly sane herself, but he was on another level. After that mysterious man had infiltrated their last base of operations, exposed the middleman’s price-gouging, and successfully escaped, they had anxiously moved their business to a new location.
Then they’d killed Hertz and moved again. Just when things were starting to settle down, they had to pack everything up and run once more. The man opened the door to the terrace, looked back, and added.
“Oh, when she wakes up, she’ll probably ask a bunch of questions. Just give her some vague answers. She worked so hard to chase us all the way here. It’s commendable, isn't it?”
“You fucking lunatic…!”
“When have I ever not been?”
The man casually ignored Alma’s blatant cursing and vanished.
The woman screamed, kicking and throwing everything in the room, then panted heavily. Arrogant son of a bitch. I hope he gets stabbed and dies… She ground her teeth and spat out every curse she could think of, but it didn't make her feel any better.
A way to feel better. With a cold expression, Alma looked down at the unconscious Elysia.
The woman rang a bell to summon her subordinate and commanded with a vicious smile.
“Bring me that thing.”
The subordinate bowed in acknowledgment and was about to leave the room when she stopped him with an irritable voice. She ruffled her hair and pointed at Elysia.
“And dump this in my room.”
*
It took a full thirty minutes to calm down the apothecary couple, who were pestering him with questions about which season they planned to have the wedding.
Despite his explanation that they weren't in a relationship, that they were simply a senior and junior from the same school, the couple remained thoroughly unconvinced. Their argument was, “Your eyes say it all, so what’s this nonsense?” and he couldn't refute it.
In the end, Evan just gave an awkward laugh, mumbled an excuse, and blindly rushed out the shop door.
“El, we have to get out of here—!”
Evan looked for her, only to realize the space in front of the shop was empty. The eyes that had been curved in a smile instantly turned cold. A terrible feeling weighed down on his entire body. His vision, which had narrowed in shock, widened again.
He regained his composure with frightening speed. His now-cool head began to work quickly.
If she disappeared so suddenly without telling him, she must have seen something. She’d been on edge all morning about the unsolved case, so she probably spotted something related to it.
Elysia’s face was quite striking. Her height, well above average, was one factor, and her sharp, distinct features made her easy to remember.
He slowly scanned the plaza. He needed to find someone who would have paid attention to every person passing through.
Before long, he spotted a boy wandering around with a stack of newspapers. He hurried over and asked.
“I want to ask if you’ve seen someone.”
Before the boy could answer, Evan took a coin from his pocket and held it out. After the newsboy politely accepted the coin with both hands, Evan gave him a brief description of Elysia.
“She’s a woman in a dark purple dress. She’s about a handspan shorter than me, with light brown hair that comes down to her shoulders. She has sharp features and gray eyes. Have you seen her?”
“Ah! I know her! She looked unusual, so I stared for a bit…”
The boy chattered excitedly, then stared intently at Evan. Seeing the expectant look that clearly demanded more money, he sighed and took out another coin.
After deftly tucking it into his bag, the boy took his hand and led him.
“It was the busiest time of day, so there were a lot of people. Maybe she met someone she knew? It looked like she was following someone.”
“Following someone?”
“She went this way, down the third street. I don’t know what happened after that!”
Evan walked in the direction the boy had pointed and, realizing where the street led, bit his lip.
The Old Downtown. It was a district that had once been heavily populated but had slowly fallen into decline as its buildings aged. Most of the structures here were either vacant, inhabited by those with little money, or illegally occupied by homeless wanderers.
He had a feeling that this was indeed where Elysia had gone.
He slowly made his way into the Old Downtown. Unlike the bustling plaza, the entrance to the old district was quiet. Evan calmly collected his thoughts.
The organization she was chasing produces and supplies illegal drugs.
He recalled the place he had searched with Elysia. It was a factory, an abandoned building that had been deserted for so long it was rarely visited. She had also said the building she’d infiltrated before, the one where she’d been shot, was old and spacious. If so, what he needed to look for was clear.
A map naturally formed in his mind. He was currently in the residential area of the Old Downtown. If he went deeper toward the outskirts, he would reach the district where the factories were located.
He calculated that the organization Elysia was likely following had recently abandoned one factory and fled, so they would have been searching for another. With that, he started to run.
The district hadn't been systematically planned, so the streets were a maze, but he already knew the geography around Minerva like the back of his hand. Finally reaching an alley, Evan felt a chill and turned his head to the side.
“Oh no…”
A man lay dead.
His heart sank, and his mind, lost, began to wander, searching for any trace of Elysia. He squeezed his eyes shut and gasped for breath. Be rational. Stay calm. I need to see the whole picture, not just look for signs of Elysia.
Clenching his fists, he struggled to regain his focus and finally managed to calm himself.
The man was dead, with bullets in his limbs and the back of his head. He remembered the moment he had examined a body with Elysia. He had seen it once, so he could learn.
Elysia checked the body’s temperature first. He slowly reached out to the corpse’s neck to check its temperature, then shot back to his feet.
Not much time has passed.
Perhaps it was due to the warm weather, but the body was still warm. It meant the fight hadn't happened long ago. He staggered as he looked at the bloodstains. They were splattered everywhere, making them difficult to distinguish.
Elysia would have figured it out in an instant.
He groaned and pressed the back of his hand to his eyes. Emotions kept invading the realm of his reason. It was only natural; to him, Elysia was a being who spanned both logic and emotion.
As he trudged aimlessly through the gruesome scene, he spotted something.
“…Bloodstains…”
They formed a trail.
Droplets of blood had created a path. The sheer amount of blood was obvious at a glance, and his face went pale.
Can she survive this? She has to. She’s strong. He had to believe she was safe, even if he had to invent reasons. If he lost even this last shred of hope, he didn't know what would become of him.
He followed where the bloodstains led. As he traced the path Elysia had left, a small question formed in his mind. Was this her daily life?
You said you were alone in that world. Just as I am now, you must have clung to the horrific traces of violence, pinning your hopes on them as you traced them back.
Then I must do the same.
Sensing the bustle of people just outside the alley, Evan quickly hid behind a wall. Peeking out, he saw workers swarming out of a large, abandoned building and loading something onto a wagon. He immediately ducked back into hiding.
The grumbling of the workers drowned out the frantic pounding of his heart.
“What’s with the sudden move?”
“Ah, fuck, how long has it been since we moved here? And now we’re moving again!”
“Why isn’t that woman anywhere to be seen? This is killing me!”
“Heard someone found this place. Don’t know if it was a guy or a girl… but they said they’ll be taken care of soon. Fucking hell, we’re the only ones suffering because of some weirdo! It’d be nice if they let us get high as a reward.”
The workers snickered as they grunted and carried strangely shaped glass tubes. Boxes followed. Confirming that the boxes were identical to the ones from the abandoned factory, Evan turned his head and looked up at the derelict house diagonally across from him.
He didn't like it, but it was the only way.