Checkmate
Time kept slipping away. I refilled my cocktail glass several times, savoring the taste of alcohol without a moment's rest.
“In the end, it’s all just speculation, isn’t it?”
“Even speculation becomes impossible to ignore when it piles up this high.”
“Are you saying it’s a consistent testimony? Did the laws of the world change while I wasn’t looking?”
Or perhaps I’d gotten drunk on nothing but Lady Killer cocktails without realizing it. As I’d suspected from the start, Carlos was clearly a lightweight when it came to alcohol. To possess such a blessed physique and yet be unable to handle a few measly drinks—God truly was a spiteful entity.
“What’s with that look?”
“What look?”
“You’re looking at me as if you’re pitying me.”
“I’m just looking at you the same way I always do, Captain.”
“Like hell you are.”
Carlos’s sentences had become noticeably clipped.
“Are you drunk, by any chance?”
“No, I’m the same as always. If anyone has changed, it would be Inspector Nera.”
“I’m exactly the same as always.”
“Is that so? At least for me, this is the first time I’ve seen the Inspector talk so much.”
“That’s because you keep asking questions. I’m just desperate to clear up your suspicions.”
“For someone so desperate, you haven’t given me a single proper answer.”
I suppose, in a way, the situation itself was just amusing. I couldn’t hide the smile that tugged at the corners of my eyes, so I let it show.
“That’s for me to know and you to find out.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“To begin with, why are you chasing after Abyss, who doesn’t even let herself be caught?”
There was no way I’d let myself be caught by someone as sloppy as Carlos. He’d be better off chasing someone else.
“Ha, so you’re saying you’ll tell me about a different target?”
Clearly drunk, Carlos had started using informal speech without hesitation. But I was feeling very generous today. I could let this slide.
“Health issues have been emerging as a major social problem lately.”
Perhaps it was a bit out of the blue, as Carlos’s eyes narrowed into slits.
“In particular, the lower-level agents of the Hardliners have been complaining of frequent headaches.”
With Doppelgangers walking around in broad daylight, one had to assume that most of the Hardliners had already fallen into the Doctor’s clutches. To someone like me, who had already lived through this story once, it was painfully obvious.
Honestly. I hadn’t intended to tell him this much. I was only saying it because I was afraid that if he kept barking up the wrong tree like an idiot, he’d end up triggering a ‘Blood Fountain Day’ in the sector, just like I did.
“Do you expect me to believe that? To me, it just sounds like you’re changing the subject out of nowhere.”
“Then there’s nothing I can do. The choice is yours, Captain.”
It didn’t matter if I didn’t move. If it came down to it, I could just trigger a ‘Blood Fountain Day’ specifically for the Doctor myself.
After drinking ten more cocktails, I slipped out of Bastion. I could honestly say that the sweet alcoholic beverages sliding down my throat were delicious.
“So, how far do you intend to follow me? Weren’t the questions all finished?”
“I said you might clear your suspicions if you answered my questions faithfully.”
“Am I still suspicious to you?”
“Well, don’t you think so?”
“No.”
“Then you can just keep staying as you are. I’ll keep following the Inspector.”
“At this rate, you’ll be sharing a bed with me, too.”
“I’ve already booked the room right next to yours.”
What is this? When did he even do that?
I stared at Carlos. Carlos stared back into my eyes.
This man is truly shameless. Should I call this putting up a wall, or should I call it making a move?
One thing was certain.
“You aren’t exactly normal either, Captain. Or perhaps, you really are drunk?”
While I was drinking cocktails, he had been downing high-proof alcohol bomb cocktails on top of that, after all.
“I don’t know who you think you are to talk about being normal.”
“Truly.”
I quickened my pace. Naturally, the stalking pervert who poured all his obsession into me sped up his pace as well.
“Is there even any meaning in chasing me around like this?”
“It’s productive enough.”
“What kind of productivity, exactly?”
“Isn’t suppressing the movements of the most suspicious person a major achievement in itself?”
“In the end, it’s just speculation again. What are you going to do if a huge incident that catches you by surprise happens while you’re doing this?”
“Unless the Doctor moves personally, that won’t happen.”
He wasn’t wrong. The chances of the Doctor moving right this second were low. But there was one thing. The Doctor could move whenever he wanted if he chose to. It was just that it would end with a bit of a commotion, so it wasn’t worth the effort.
If the preparations to overturn the sector were complete, the Doctor would move at any time. So, this wasn’t the time to be so relaxed, was it?
“That, too, is for me to know.”
The orange sunset began to sink slowly in front of our path. By now, the heat of the day had vanished, and only a cool breeze lingered in the air. Carlos, who had been throwing nothing but suspicious questions my way, followed silently behind me. It seemed his claim about booking the room next door hadn’t been a lie.
We arrived in front of the hotel amidst the voices of people chatting idly. I thought to myself: Wouldn’t it be nice if a big commotion happened somewhere? I can’t get any rest with this obsessed man stuck to me like this.
Had God heard my plea? Suddenly, the number of people crying out in pain began to increase everywhere. People were vomiting blood, screaming, and running away in a blind panic.
“Wow, a commotion has started?”
“……I see.”
“What a shame.”
Sleeping with a pervert in the next room vs. ending my vacation like this. It was a battle of the century that couldn’t be easily judged. Though, the situation ended before I could even choose.
Carlos drew his Finisher and began to dispose of the people turning into Cadeva one by one. No, it would be more accurate to say that the Cadeva were pretending to be human in the first place, rather than turning into them. As for the other people…… well, they must have touched something wrong and caught a disease. Still, the sector was full of various vaccines and cures, so there was no need to worry too much. They might have to live on medication for the rest of their lives if things went wrong, but that was better than dying.
What was that? It wasn’t such a big deal, was it?
With a joyful heart, I wore a faint smile and watched Carlos.
The city of Alba, which had been peaceful until just a few minutes ago, was engulfed in chaos. Several people had been infected with the P.V Virus and started coughing up blood, and the Cadeva that had been holding their breath in the midst of it all had awakened. In this situation, the only option left for Carlos was to protect the residents so the damage wouldn’t spread.
He had chased Inspector Nera around all day, but he hadn’t gained much. Just the fact that she was definitely connected to the Doctor. And the unsettling piece of information that the lower-level agents of the Hardliners were suffering from headaches.
To say she had expressed it indirectly would be an understatement; it was practically a direct order to investigate the lower-level agents of the Hardliners.
The problem was that Carlos and Director Hugo weren’t sitting still because they didn’t know the Doctor and the Hardliners were suspicious. The high-ranking officials of the Hardliners were hiding behind the massive shield of power. That was no different for the lower-level agents.
Furthermore, those called lower-level agents of the Hardliners were usually the children or close associates of high-ranking officials. Even if they looked like mere underlings on the surface, they were, in reality, the very veins of the Hardliners. Investigating them was no different from making the entire Hardliner faction his enemy. The moment he touched them carelessly, the Hardliners would take it as an attack. If things went wrong, they would end up slaughtering each other within the sector.
Neither Carlos nor Hugo wanted such a situation. Perhaps even the high-ranking officials of the Hardliners felt the same. They suspected each other, but they couldn’t pull the trigger first. At a distance where even a graze could be a fatal wound, everyone was simply keeping their fingers on the triggers.
In such a situation, he couldn’t move based solely on the words of Inspector Nera. But the symptoms appearing before his eyes did not lie. The bloodshot eyes, the bulging veins, and the incessant coughing of blood. It proved that the Doctor’s atrocities had already reached this place.
It meant that the Hardliners had already lost control over the Doctor. The reason they insisted on researching the P.V Virus, even at the cost of sacrifice, was to protect themselves by using others as offerings. Naturally, the calculation of offering their own children and associates as research material did not exist in their minds.
There were two things he could think of in the current situation: either the Hardliners hadn’t noticed the Doctor’s atrocities, or the Doctor had already seized all the actual power of the Hardliners. Either way, the situation was at its worst. In the end, it was only a difference in degree.
Right now, only Nera’s smile floated in Carlos’s mind. That smile, which was somehow relaxed yet permeated with an arrogance that seemed to look down on others.
Checkmate.
If he tried to lance the tumor too late, the poison would have already spread throughout the entire body. Yet, if he ignored the massive tumor, he would quietly stop breathing. Whichever path he chose, the board had already collapsed.
Compared to the bullets flying without hesitation, Carlos’s spirit sank endlessly.