Serena Moretti
Serena couldn't keep up with the situation at all. How on earth had she pieced together everything? It wasn't even a guess. From Soo's expression, it was clear she was half-convinced, speaking with certainty. Where could such information have leaked from? No, it couldn't have leaked. All info on Serena had been erased the moment she joined Luthien. Luthien had done it themselves. That was the condition of becoming a Luthien employee.
So Soo couldn't have just searched somewhere and found it. Salvador wouldn't have told her either. Even he hadn't figured it out—that was the trigger for Serena quitting as a mercenary.
"H-how... did you know... all of that...?"
"How I knew isn't important."
Soo stepped closer, whispering softly.
"What matters is what we do from here on out."
With Soo smiling so sweetly right in front of her, Serena couldn't utter a word. Fear and terror wrapped around her entire body, freezing her tongue solid. She'd prided herself on facing countless horrors before. As a mercenary, she'd suffered wounds bad enough to need a defibrillator, stared down enemies she couldn't possibly escape. Fear of people? The same. The vice president at Luthien HQ, Zailek's chairman, Neonic's president... Facing them had filled her with dread. One word from them, and her whole life would be ruined—she was certain of it.
But this ignorance-born fear? This was new. The terror of not being able to gauge the person before her—it was something she'd never felt in her life.
"You can't settle for just being alive."
Don't give up. Keep living. Her father's words before he "went missing." Back then, she'd thought it was just his usual nagging. But no. It was his last will and testament. He knew he was going to die. Yet he'd acted normal right up to the end. That was just how he was—stolid, emotionless, a stickler for principles.
Even on the day he vanished, he'd gone to work like always.
"You need to find it."
That "find it" hit Serena in complicated ways. Her father's body. The culprits behind it. Relationships with comrades lost in the past. Or maybe a real reason to live. Soo didn't spell it out. She never did. Always leaving it for the listener to think and interpret...
"I'll help you."
"Just... just answer this one thing."
"Yeah."
"How long... have you known?"
"Hmm... I thought something was off from the start."
Soo tilted her head, speaking slowly and deliberately.
"You were clinging to life way too hard, Serena."
"What do you mean...? Isn't it natural for humans to want to live?"
"Not for someone who used to run a merc team."
Merc work? Anyone could try it. But sticking with it? Not just anyone. Forget loving the job—you had to not give a damn about your own neck to survive as a merc. If you valued your life and feared death, go bodyguard one of Eden's overflowing celebrities. They traveled with twenty, sometimes forty guards. Jobs aplenty.
Even top mercs feared death sometimes. Meaningless death. That was the one all mercs dreaded most. Tibolt, the one she'd met before, probably too. If he hadn't run into Soo, he'd have feared it—despaired at being used, regretted it till the end.
But Soo and Enoch had been there. They'd remember his end. So Tibolt blew his own head off with a smile. Meaningless death. To avoid it, mercs used tip-for-tat strategies, cleared contracts to carve their name into the world. Die a legend or live forgotten. Those were the choices, or so mercs said.
For such a merc to build and maintain a team on blind trust meant she was ready to die for her comrades. Yet now Serena clung to life. Soo figured there had to be a reason. Then, learning about her old team and her sacrifices... it made Soo rethink why she fought so hard to live.
She feared meaningless death too. Wanted to leave meaning in this world. And that meaning wasn't as a Luthien exec—it was revenge as Serena Moretti.
It wouldn't be easy. Just like her father's "disappearance," going after them could drag her old comrades down too. So she'd hesitated, kept hesitating until everything emptied out, leaving only that desperate grip on life...
Or maybe, adapting to megacorp exec life had shaken her identity, made her lose sight of her goal altogether, Soo mused.
"If you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you." Nietzsche's words fit Serena perfectly.
"My father... why are you so sure it's my father?"
"You kept dealing with Grandpa even after thinking he knew your real identity."
You can't control a person's heart on a whim. Her head might know she should cut ties, but her heart wouldn't let her. Serena probably saw her father in Salvador, who'd helped her bit by bit since her merc days.
"...What the hell are you, really?"
One question, my ass—she was asking a ton. But Soo was in a good mood, so service with a smile.
"I'm Soo."
Soo wiggled her hips, and her plump tail slithered out, coiling around Serena's leg.
"A dragon."
"Ah?"
Serena blinked blankly. She stared at Soo's vertically slit pupils. Felt the tail's grip on her leg. Memories flashed: the chimera photos from Luthien's experiments. Not like the failed knockoffs. Luthien's finished product had a similar build to Soo... and a similar tail.
In that instant, conversations with Soo replayed in Serena's mind like a montage.
Didn't Luthien plan to betray you? Yeah, pass out.
"Ack."
Serena's eyes rolled back, and she fainted.
*****
Were Angela and Frey taking forever in the shower like normal girls? They still hadn't shown. Leaning against the car alone, smoking, Enoch spotted Soo approaching from afar...
"Don't carry people like luggage..."
He nagged first, ask questions later. He didn't get the situation, but hauling someone like that by brute force could snap their back. Especially someone slender like Serena.
"Serena's too long. Uncomfortable."
"...Tell people they're tall."
Soo carefully set Serena down from her shoulder. Enoch flinched. Serena's face was caked in mud.
"Wh-what happened to make her like this?"
"Held her with my tail."
What? Squeezed her body with the tail? But she looked fine for that. She'd be dead if true.
"Before that?"
"Told her I'm a dragon."
"...Y-you can just tell her?"
"Yeah."
"Why...?"
"It's cool."
"Then why not tell Elder Salvador?"
"Grandpa'd have a heart attack."
Enoch shook his head, gently wiping Serena's face with wet wipes.
"Don't say that stuff in front of him."
"Yeah."
"What happened before you told her you're a dragon?"
No signs of a beating. A slap from Soo would've dislocated her jaw, but it was fine. Just mud-covered, now cleaned off by Enoch. She looked like she was just sleeping.
"Guessed her past."
"Blackmailed a confession outta her?"
"I'm not a bad guy."
"Yeah, sure. You're a dragon, after all."
"Right."
Enoch chuckled, stubbed out his smoke, scratched his head.
"What was her past like to end up... mud-faced like that?"
"Didn't make her wash her face. She passed out and faceplanted."
"Figured you beat her till she fainted. At least you didn't kill her. Where'd you hit?"
"Curious? Wanna reenact?"
Shut up before I hit you. Enoch clamped his mouth shut on instinct.
"What... something tied to the Etherdams?"
"Ask Serena."
"How, when she's out cold? Even awake, doubt she'd answer."
"That's for her to say."
Soo's lazy gaze drifted to the fainted Serena.
"Right, Serena?"
Silence.
"I know you're awake."
Serena slowly opened her eyes.
"Are you going to kill me?"
"Nah. You're a teammate."
"...I still don't... get it."
Soo's tail emerged, and Serena shuddered hard. She bit her pale lips, forcing her eyes away from it.
"...Soo. Are you... trying to destroy Luthien for revenge? For what they did to you?"
Soo's tail, about to say no, curled into a question mark. The question felt off. Like Serena mistook her for someone else. Not some half-baked chimera. To confuse her with Soo, it'd have to be pretty complete.
Then...?
The question-mark tail twitched, pointing at Serena. No longer round and plump—scales bristled sharply.
"Serena."
Soo's eyes fixed on her too. Calm, clear. But unreadable. Too deep... no courage to peer into what lurked below.
"Among Luthien's test subjects, any go missing? Or get loose?"
"I—"
"Are there?"
"I h-heard there... were. Cough... Of course, just rumors..."
Krrrk— The tail scraped the asphalt. A nasty gouge, chunk torn out.
Whoa.
Soo wasn't angry or annoyed. Just excited. A near-complete one would have totally different magic from the chimeras she'd met. One wandering the world?
A walking magic pouch.
Excitement swelled her heart. Her tail wagged wildly too. Serena seriously pondered fainting again if it hit her.