Chapter 426
Chapter 426
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 19
Chapter Title: Hide and Seek (7)
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“Pablo—Pablo, now clad in those soiled fine clothes.”
Of course, the goosebump-inducing nickname “Pathfinder” wasn’t something Hyde had chosen for himself.
“There are two paths right in front of you now.”
“I don’t need your cheap pity—”
Crack!
“Argh! Gaaah!”
“That’s not it, you idiot. It’s purely personal. You’ve just gotten so irritating that I can’t just stand by and watch, so I’m dealing with you.”
Contrary to public opinion, Hyde prided himself on being an intensely personal person. Whether it was work, making money, exploration, or even helping others along the way—it was all for personal reasons.
Usually, it was things that bugged him like a hangnail on his fingertip or a single crooked button....
The problem was, as he’d told Pablo, his “observation skills” were abnormally sharp.
‘Well, it’s only natural, really.’
From the moment he’d started walking, he’d been plagued by restlessness and anxiety. Unfamiliar voices in his head constantly urged him to search, and even sitting still made his heart race so hard it felt like his face was blooming with fever.
After learning through experience that pretending to search eased the symptoms, observation and exploration became as essential to Hyde as breathing. Just like he’d feel suffocated without air, he felt uncomfortable without something to seek out.
That’s how he’d lived for 28 years.
“The first path is to come with me from here.”
“...?”
“Yeah. You’ve got sharp eyes, you’re quick on your feet, and at your age, you’ve even got plenty of experience with premeditated murder—you’re a promising sapling! But you’re still faaaar too lacking to keep up with me, so I’ll take you along.”
“It’s the path to freedom. Away from this hellish city, its even worse people, the squalid hostage-refugee camp.... We’ll leave this chicken coop of a city behind and head to the soft lands brimming with madmen, backbreakers, and freedom—oh, cursed be they.”
“Leaving the city, out into the world....”
“Free from everything that’s bound you. Forget it all and start fresh. It’s not an easy opportunity. Your shattered heart and blood-soaked memories? A few years of hardship will dull them nicely. This is from experience, so you can trust it.”
In the observations that had become part of his life, what Hyde observed most was people themselves. Because counting every brick in the city or watching constellations shift in the sky would eventually end, but people—even just one—changed endlessly. For someone who had to keep searching like breathing, young Hyde, who’d already memorized every inch of the temple orphanage and outpost, had no other choice. If “searching” was like breathing, then the “search target” was the air he needed.
So Hyde read people well.
Very well—beyond what the word “observation” could describe.
And that was the problem: he saw too much.
The calluses standing out on a passerby’s palm, the hollow-eyed woman’s sigh, the shadows hidden in the city’s bustle—things others would overlook piled up as information before his eyes.
They stacked so high they stopped him in his tracks.
[Mister, don’t waste money on the mercenary guild. Go to the city laborers’ union.]
[What....?]
[Dragging it out as personal fights will never end. Pay the union a fat fee and ask them to enforce repayment—they’ll probably do it. It’s mostly toothless now, but that’s what they were originally for.]
[K-Kid, can you explain that in more detail? You’re from the temple! If it works out, I’ll donate big to them!]
[Oh.]
His worsening anxiety made him irritable enough already, and seeing obvious solutions ignored while people whined frustrated him into speaking up. That’s how it started.
Like a sighted man among the blind, he just pointed out visible solutions to those who caught his eye. Purely for his own mental peace. No need to get deeply involved—just enough to soothe his discomfort.
Years passed like that, he left the city, and kept casually pointing out the obvious to whatever irritated him, earning the weird nickname “Pathfinder.” He’d show the way but never walk it with them.
“The second path is to just turn back here. To the city, the refugee camp, your usual life. Right back to everything that’s held you down so far. Good intentions wear out with time, you know? A few years of crying and drinking, and it’ll get easier. Hunting people will feel normal too. Wigen’s specialty: Shard Hunter Hunter, ‘Pablo the Fancy-Clothed.’ Heh, not bad either, huh?”
Hyde looked down at Pablo, who stayed still even after he released the twisted wrist.
‘You don’t know. Which is better. Or rather, which is worse.’
Pablo’s state was no different from a tantrum-throwing child. Knowing it intellectually but unable to accept it emotionally—“Waaah!”—ending up frozen in indecision.
“The third path is this one.”
“Th-the paths are clearly two....”
“That’s just what your pathetic eyes see. You’re sitting there because you hate both, right? Watching you rot like this would give me a headache every time I’m near Wigen, so I’ve gotta clear you out somehow.”
Step. Step.
Clank—
Hyde walked past the seated Pablo and reached for the handset hanging in the head car’s corner.
“Ah, this is Line 2-2, Wigen regular magic train. Station front gate attendant, right~?”
.
.
.
Hiss—
A faint connection noise, then a panting man’s breath, clanking sounds, and muffled raised voices came through.
=========
[Huff, huff, Wigen Station, night front gate manager here, huff, what’s, the matter?]
“Ah, nothing big, just wanna ask something. Sounds rowdy outside? Reporters? It’s not morning, and this late goes against protocol....”
[Don’t get me started. These guys must’ve all taken drugs or something—they swarmed in demanding entry to check something....]
“Poor you. Mind if I listen? It’s so loud even inside the station, got me curious. Who knows? Maybe I know why they’re making a fuss.]
[How embarrassing, engineer sir. I’ll hand the handset over.]
=========
Hiss—
Noise cleared, and the commotion from the handset sharpened.
“Let’s see, connecting to the train’s internal speakers.... This one?”
-Click!
『We’re just checking and leaving! Have we ever broken a promise before? Have we! Huh!』
“Ah, there it is.”
The shout boomed through the car the moment he flipped the switch.
“Hey, ‘Pablo on the Edge’ sir. Recognize that voice?”
“No way.... B-Boss? Why’s the boss here....”
“Exactly. When I hopped the station fence earlier, I heard that uncle yelling from the opposite front gate. Newspaper ‘Big Mouth.’ The workplace you chose to gather murder intel. You civilian wouldn’t have heard, but an Aura Knight’s ears are different.”
The name “Pablo” stood out too clearly in the yells to ignore.
=========
『One of our newsboys definitely went inside! He got official permission from Hyde, that Pathfinder bastard, and left this morning! And he still hasn’t returned!』
[Hyde.... You mean the Aura Knight just put on the wanted list in the city? He’s supposedly being tracked in the back alleys—]
『That’s why we need to check! If our Big Mouth employee was kidnapped by that criminal bastard, if he’s on the run with him, or if he’s still inside! You, you don’t know me? Daring to lure and imprison a Big Mouth employee! If you don’t let me in, I’ll dig up every dirty secret of yours and plaster it across all Wigen!』
[Like I’ve said a dozen times, that newsboy never entered—]
『That’s why we need to confirm, you thick-headed idiot!!!』
=========
Waaah—
Clank clank!
“Hmm~ A reputable paper indeed. Information’s lifeblood is freshness, so even the boss himself comes chasing a non-returning employee same-day. So, your thoughts on your boss throwing a fit to find you?”
“N-No, why.... Ruining relations with station staff will cause problems for future work....”
“Obviously, he values confirming your safety over any fallout from this. A true merchant who spares no effort for company assets—exemplary.”
Pablo looked like he’d been punched. An unimaginable situation with an impossible person.
The potbellied boss who constantly called him useless, yelled, scolded till tears welled—
Me?
Why?
“Pablo. Know the biggest mistake people make?”
“....?”
“They all think the world revolves around them. Just because you’re stuck in the past doesn’t mean your surroundings are. But you still think your world’s frozen on that day long ago.”
Whoosh!
Pablo felt a hand snatch his collar, his body lifting.
Thud!
“Ow!”
“The third path, recommended by the Pathfinder.”
Go back.
Not to the nightmarish, blood-stinking city in your head, but to your home, stamped with your every footprint.
Not to your parents’ empty spots, but to your grandfather’s side, who silently joined even your insane plan because he understood you too well to stop you.
To the people who filled your empty seat while you were blind with revenge.
“Since you didn’t drop the gun, I won’t toss this notebook—I’ll keep it.”
Hyde stuffed the boy’s grudge-filled notebook into his cloak.
“Scram, newsboy. Subscription canceled.”
Dropped on hard stone floor—it should hurt, but the boy stared up blankly.
‘Acting all-knowing, but in the end, just an eleven-year-old kid.’
Hyde judged Pablo’s state as mental “drifting.”
An immature child who’d lost his parents—his nest and life’s center. Without an anchor, he’d clung to emotions that would fade with time.
After revenge.... Knowing no other way to live, he’d reignited fading vengeance to keep going.
Hyde had just turned the boy’s head slightly. While you clung to the past, life had piled up enough roots on top. Unaware his own roots were planted, he’d tried to uproot and drift away—so Hyde grabbed his collar.
This was the extent of Hyde’s “non-intrusive” involvement.
Regrettable he couldn’t watch till the end due to time....
『Let go! Let me gooo! Touching a journalist! I’ll get you bastards for—!!!!』
“....Someone’s dragging you to the third path kicking and screaming, so whatever.”
No need to worry more.
Creak—clank!
Hyde closed the train door with a light heart and pulled the engine lever.
Vrooom—rrrrumble!
Clank.... clank....
The train began moving slowly, the station garage doors opening to the dark tracks.
And,
Hiss—
[Stealing not just any train, but the city’s official power line support train. Ballsy or brainless, I can’t tell, Pathfinder.]
“Hey, Stone Knight! Why’s a half-inanimate old man like you out again? You pulling overtime too?”
[Thanks to fending off blindfire from allies in the dark. Felt like moving for the first time in ages.]
The deep voice over the handset, and beyond the open city gate, another massive stone wall.
“Fitting for the fame of guarding a metropolis alone, you rockhead.”
Hyde opened the sole regular maintenance item from this mess—Pablo’s notebook.
Detailed entries on various Shard Hunters, edited with the depth of the boy’s grudge.
Strong Shard Knights inevitably killed for shards, so info on Tachellum was there too.
Wigen’s guardian, Stone Giant Tachellum.
Owner of the colored shard “Gray Declaration” from a past 6th-circle mage, plus dozens more. At least Master Knight level.
Exceptional as a knight, but his ability to unleash over 100 4th-circle spells simultaneously without casting was killer. Weakness—
“Typical high Shard Knight numbness and fatigue. As a non-mage using shard magic, destroying cast spells hits him with severe exhaustion.... Nice.”
Snap!
Hyde closed the new notebook and climbed to the train roof.
Thud thud thud—
Psh! Psssh—
Atop the train accelerating to max speed, Tachellum’s stone wall loomed through the night air, glossy—not mere rock, but metal-infused, befitting Wigen’s guardian.
“....Tch. Consider it an honor, rockhead.”
....Click.
Hyde’s hand went to his scabbard.
Shing.
Stance low. Feet pushing the ground heavily to brace.
Breathing like through veins, syncing breath and heartbeat,
Lower,
Even lower,
Thump—thump—
Huff—huff—
As breath slowed, heartbeat raced, heat rising in his body.
‘One cut. Resolve it in one cut...!’
Just before the rock wall met the train, flames burst from his scabbard.
No Aura, no Shard Knight power—just a gorgeous blade, sparks flying from friction with the scabbard’s flint.
Drawing released stored mana from internal mechanisms; the all-mana-stone sword—from hilt to tip—repelled the scabbard’s mana flood, unleashing it all in one go.
Hyde’s asset No. 1, supplementing the Aura-less Aura Knight’s firepower.
“Hah!!”
—Slash!
A picturesque cut, a light ray crossing the rising stone wall in the night.
....Craaaack—
The massive wall split absurdly easily, and
Boooom—!!
A delayed massive mana slash followed the blade light.
....Thud!
Hyde collapsed to his knees, carefully lifting his sword with both hands.
“Huff, huff! Y-You okay? You’re okay, right? Right?”
Not from exertion, but terror numbing his scalp, he panted, staring at the blade.
What terrified him wasn’t the metal wall rising at a gesture or the alarm bells and gunfire.
His sword. The one he eyed like licking in the dark.
Delicate magitech, top-grade mana stone for that output in small size, unmelting mana stone requiring raw crystal for a full-piece sword—all a set.
Extreme durability limited it to once a day, needing long self-repair in the scabbard after.
Its one-strike mana rivaled a Master Knight’s Aura—terrifying constraints birthing terrifying power.
Magitech era’s mad product: surpassing all with magitech.
Anti-Aura Sword.
“Please be okay, please be okay.... If you break too, I’m really....”
....Crack!
“Nooo! No, nooooo!!!!”
Nicknamed “Capitalism’s Demon Sword.”
In Hyde’s hands: magitech’s infamous failure chronicled in history books. Its insane durability earned infamy—two swings bankrupt the owner—dubbed the horrific “Ruin Blade.”
Hence, Hyde slept hugging it, haunted by nightmares of the shattered “Ruin Blade.”
Deep night, train crossing the bisected rock wall echoed Hyde’s anguished cry, but the earless train left its sole passenger’s tragedy behind, heading north.
Carrying a Pathfinder who couldn’t find his own way, to the old Lordric region.
Once called the land of knights.
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