Excellent Means of Negotiation (4)
Sion's hand tightened around my throat, squeezing until the remaining space felt narrower than the eye of a needle.
"...Tell me."
"Flint. I'm serious right now. If you don't answer straight, I don't know what I'll do to you. How the hell do you know I'm looking for my little sister?"
"...Do it."
A muffled growl mixed with the rasp of metal. Sion furrowed his brow and shoved his face right up to mine.
"What the hell have you been mumbling since earlier?"
Boom—!
A heavy, beautiful, violent roar exploded at point-blank range.
"Dodge."
Cough, cough. Damn, this bastard really put his emotions into that chokehold. Clutching my throat and gasping ragged breaths, I twisted my lips into a smirk.
Sion's intel must not have been up to date.
"Sion, you can't let your guard down."
What I held wasn't just any shotgun—it was a Double Barrel. Two barrels, two triggers.
"Guhk...! Hack!"
Sion, struck dead-on by the second blast at close range, spewed blood as he crawled across the floor.
Click!
I snapped open the barrel, spitting out the two spent shells billowing acrid smoke onto the ground.
Clack.
Reloaded the Double Barrel. The dull metallic clunk sharpened my mind.
My dark shadow fell over Sion as he writhed on the floor from the direct shotgun hit. Aiming both barrels straight at his head, I taunted him dryly.
"How's that? Feel like talking all of a sudden?"
"F-Flint...!!"
A scream laced with resentment and murderous intent. Whoosh—!
In the next instant, Sion vanished into thin air. A desperate, sloppy escape, thanks to the shotgun's impact.
A potion cap lay in his place.
I didn't bother chasing him urgently. Even if he kept teleporting with that bleeding body, his limits were clear. Esper abilities consumed mental energy, after all.
The hunter and hunted had switched in this game of hide-and-seek.
Dropping the Double Barrel's heavy muzzle toward the floor, I muttered in a voice tinged with excitement.
"Hide tight now. Don't let a single hair show."
* * *
Hot blood soaked the floor without respite. I'd lost too much.
If I hadn't teleported in a potion at the last second, he'd have caught me right there.
To think a lump of metal could pack that kind of lethality. Flint—what the hell was that guy's deal?
"Hah, hah...".
Panting heavily, I dumped the rest of the potion into the gaping wound on my abdomen where the shotgun pellets had struck. Torn flesh sizzled as it began to knit, but healing the damage that had pierced muscle and organs would take absolute time.
...He doesn't plan to kill me, then.
Even amid the pain, my reason coldly replayed the situation. The shotgun blast had missed my vitals. That wasn't luck.
He'd aimed not to kill from the start, but to thoroughly break my will.
Why the hell?
Throb. A splitting headache hammered like my skull was cracking—the sign that mental drain from warping space had hit its limit.
Clutching my fraying thread of sanity, I calculated. How many more teleports could I manage? Three? Four if I got lucky.
As I tallied my jumps, his voice closed in like the reaper's whisper from above.
—Hide tight now. Don't let a single hair show.
A grotesque melody that made every hair on my body stand on end. A bizarre rhythm and lyrics I'd never heard before.
A scream nearly escaped my clenched lips. Just hearing it made me want to abandon reason and flee—utterly horrifying.
What kind of twisted mind could hum a devilish tune like that?
My already wrecked body struggled with basic breathing, and the choking fear only tightened the noose. Terrified my ragged gasps would reach his ears, I clamped my bloody hand over my mouth.
404. Back to my room.
That single thought was the lifeline holding my crumbling sanity together.
Whoosh—!
I barely tore through space to the second-floor stairs. A brain-scraping headache came free with it.
Just that short distance had drained my mental energy massively.
Dangerous.
Thud, thud. His footsteps climbing from below echoed unnaturally loud.
"Hah... whoo..."
—Sorry. Let's talk.
Lies.
Boom—!
Click!
Kyaahhh—!!
Every shotgun blast sent cadets in the dormitory screaming as they fled the building. How was that the attitude of someone who wanted to talk?
Hot blood kept seeping from my gripped abdomen, slicking between my fingers. But if I could just reach my room—404—reversal awaited.
Boom—!
Another spine-chilling gunshot reverberated. From blood loss, even pinpointing the maddening sounds was growing hazy.
Mion...
Flint knew about Mion exactly. An ultra-classified Empire Information Guild secret—not even the Guild Master uttered it lightly.
What the hell was that lunatic's identity? A new intel guild? Underworld?
Regrettably, no time to ponder his origins now. I bit my blood-soaked lips hard.
Pressing my wounds to avoid leaving a trail, I killed my footsteps completely and ascended silently to the fourth floor via the central stairs. Lungs burning like they might burst, I even swallowed my beastly pants.
......
But something was off. Moments ago, screams and gunshots had filled the air everywhere.
Quiet. No sounds.
No shots, no screams, no footsteps—gone.
A chilling air slithered up my spine. But no time to dwell. Teleport straight to the room—best choice.
Whoosh—!
Familiar scent and air. I dropped into the center of my room, 404.
Blood dripping steadily, I dragged my legs to the drawer. Inside: stockpiled top-grade potions and the ace up my sleeve to flip this shitshow in one go.
Pills. Grab those, and victory's mine.
I yanked the drawer open savagely, clutching hope.
"Hah... where the hell...?"
Trembling hands ransacked it, but only junk met my fingers.
Gone. The spot for potions and the pill case—empty.
My mind blanked white in shock.
Creeeak—.
Above my head, the wardrobe door connected to the dresser slid open on its own.
...Huh?
Acrid gunpowder stung my nose. My gaze drifted upward, entranced.
And there.
In the wardrobe's pitch-black depths, cramped with long legs awkwardly folded, a shadow stood askew.
Indifferent, cynical eyes glinted from the dark.
Flint, with his signature dry expression, held the shotgun and looked down at me.
As if this breathless chase had been a casual stroll, he met my eyes without a hint of tension.
"Surprise, motherfucker."
The massive shadow of his shotgun plunged mercilessly over me, sprawled on the floor.
Wham—!
"Guhk...!"
The heavy metal clubbed my head brutally. My brain rang like a bell. My mouth burst, flooding with metallic tang and hot blood.
Crazy bastard.
An engineer with knight-surpassing strength? Without guild toughness training, my jaw would be dust.
Through blurring vision, I glanced at the door. How had he gotten here first?
The 404 doorknob was shotgun-shredded to splinters. He'd brute-forced the door instead of teleporting like me—waited inside.
If I'd just walked in normally, no teleport...
He'd predicted my every move perfectly. Knew me to the bone.
Skull-throbbing pain. Gushing blood. Amid my flailing, Flint gazed down coldly, impassively.
No ragged breaths, no premature gloating. Just a hunter's dry eyes, observing prey whose windpipe he'd crushed, prepping the next step.
"Head ringing too loud for teleport now, right? Alright, let's have that real talk."
"......What the hell are you?"
To my boiling question, he replied with infuriating lightness.
"Don't you wanna know where your little sister's at?"
My rational thread snapped.
"Mion... Where's Mion?"
Arms barely obeying, I flailed and clutched his pant leg desperately.
"Mion, where...!"
"I know your sister's location."
"L-Lies..."
"Ophelia. The mining city Ophelia."
Mining city. That horrific word choked my breath.
Lips quivering, I chewed and swallowed the name.
Ophelia.
Whether Flint's words were cruel lies to toy with me or truth—irrelevant now. It was the sole lifeline tossed to my adrift life in this vast sea.
But first, I had to know. What did he know? Who leaked I had a sister? Who's backing him?
"How—how the fuck do you know that! How!!!"
Swallowing surging blood, I squeezed my last strength to topple him somehow.
But—
Wham—!
Massive weight smashed my face. Vision shattered rapidly.
In the thickening fog where even pain faded, I madly repeated one word to never forget.
Ophelia. Ophelia...
Mining city, Ophelia.
As gold flooded my sight, my consciousness cut out completely.