Bounty Hunter (5)

The world of Hero Maker was built on a simple premise: the blessing of mana had descended upon the earth, and with it came awakeners—humans gifted with superhuman power.

Monsters had risen as a threat to mankind, and mana had spawned new diseases of its own. Even so, mana was still a blessing. It had solved the environmental collapse and resource exhaustion that plagued even twenty-first-century Earth. It had lifted humanity a full step up the ladder of progress.

And so this world was cursed.

The existence of awakeners only accelerated the old divides of wealth and class. The devastation wrought by monsters was more than anyone could bear—anyone except a handful of privileged factions. Awakeners themselves were walking engines of war, more terrible than any conventional arsenal, and the massacres they produced made Earth's two World Wars look like skirmishes. Snatching children who showed even a hint of awakening potential and turning them into soldiers was everyday ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠business. And when an awakener lost control and went berserk, entire villages and cities were reduced to rubble. This was no world worth living in.

That was why I had brought Elena to Hero City. Not merely for the hospitals. It was the one place where accidents caused by awakeners happened the least.

"I told you. Send the mermaids back."

I felt no pity for the villain in front of me. Child or not, it didn't change the fact that Mirzam had slaughtered people. What I couldn't stand was the world that had forced him down this path—this cursed world that had left him no choice but to become a villain.

"...I can't from here. The range is too far. I'd have to go outside to give the order."

"Don't play games with me. A ship this size, a simple retreat command is well within your reach. I already know that."

I brought the dagger a little closer. The blade was forged from metal steeped in high-purity mana; it would cut through even an A-Rank awakener's body without much trouble. I had no intention of going easy on him just because he was a child. This wasn't my first time facing a young awakener, either. You couldn't afford to let your guard down around an awakener, no matter how young. If the rank was high enough, even an infant who hadn't learned to walk could wipe a city off the map.

"That so? Well, I've already bought enough time."

He might look like a child, but inside he was a monster who had been crawling through battlefields since he was small. Even with me at his back, he was still hunting for a way out of this.

"Idiot."

"You're the idiot...!"

A mermaid's spear erupted from the floor with a vicious crack. I'd seen it coming.

"You dodged that?!"

Of course I did. Only a child would think of something that obvious. I leaned back just enough to slip the strike, then kicked his wheelchair and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sent it flying out into the open. Mirzam's shock turned into a scream.

"Aaaagh...!"

He smashed through the cabin wall and tumbled all the way onto the deck. An awakener's body wouldn't die from that. A few ribs might have gone, but even a C-Rank awakener had flesh as hard as steel.

"Hhk—ghh—you... what are you standing around for?! Kill that bitch already! Punch a hole in her, rip those damn eyes out, I don't care how!"

Mirzam's last desperate thrashing. I could feel the mermaids aboard the ship converging on this spot. The cabin was too cramped for a proper field of view, so I used the hole he had just made and stepped out onto the deck.

"I-I have to run..."

With nothing below the knees, Mirzam crawled across the floor in a pathetic scramble. He'd have been better off using a mermaid to move, but he had already ordered every last one of them to kill me. There were none left. Naturally, crawling wasn't going to get him away from me.

And a corpse still paid a bounty. The mermaids were in a frenzy far beyond their usual savagery, and that wouldn't settle until the one controlling them was dead. I raised the dagger and drove it down.

Thuck—!

"Ah..."

The blade punched halfway through the deck. Mirzam found the dagger planted in front of his face and looked up at me with those young eyes.

I didn't feel like going any further. The sheer terror had already broken his hold on the mermaids, and if I killed another living thing right now, I wasn't sure I could keep my mind together. There was a reason the original Capella had ended up a drug addict.

"If you want to live, figure something out with that. Lucky for you—or unlucky—your opponent's just an ordinary person when it comes to raw physical ability."

I set the dagger down and went back inside the cabin. Original objective complete. Time to head back.

"W-why..."

Why didn't I kill him?

I just didn't feel like it. Was that mercy? Or a whim?

Neither. I didn't kill him because I couldn't. If I finished Mirzam here, the thing coming this way would change its target to me.

"The mermaids are pulling back all of a sudden?"

Mermaids streamed past me. They weren't ignoring me because of anything Mirzam had done. They were coming out because they had instinctively sensed the threat approaching this place, and they meant to throw every last one of their lives at destroying it.

"I'm alive... wait, is that snow falling out there?"

"Right? It barely ever snows here, even in winter..."

If only it were snow. What was coming was a truly horrific monster.

"Hold on—doesn't the color of that snow look weird?"

The snow falling from the sky was gold.

"The ship—the ship's shaking!"

I was not interested in kissing a wall again, so I grabbed the railing and held on.

"...What are you people doing?"

Mirzam muttered it in an uneasy voice. As the golden flakes grew coarser, a colossal monster that had rammed the passenger liner revealed itself in all its staggering size. The ship lurched again. I had no idea by what principle it was standing in the middle of the ocean, but if it wanted to, that thing could have flipped this liner over without breaking a sweat.

The monster roared and lunged to kill whatever had already come right up in front of it. It swung a massive hand that would have been lethal on its own, swatting as if at a gnat...

A weak last stand, apparently.

Crunch—!

The monster's body was transfixed by a massive spear of ice. The sight brought back the corpses of the monsters I had seen lying outside the Floor C barrier.

"That voice... it can't be—"

That's right. The real thing had arrived. Something so genuinely, classifiably insane that it made the likes of me look like a cheap imitation.

The world knew her as the Golden Witch.

She looked for all the world like a beautiful golden-haired angel descending from the heavens. Her magic always shone gold—that was how the epithet had been born. And at the same time...

Even in Hero City, where countless awakeners gathered, the Golden ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Witch was a genuine monster occupying the rank of S-Rank Hero. He'd have been better off getting caught by me than falling into the hands of something like that.

I looked down at the deck with a bitter taste in my mouth. At the same moment, the Golden Witch looked down. For a witch who stood at the very peak of magic-type awakeners, identifying Mirzam as the cause of all this was hardly difficult.

"...All this, over one legless child."

The witch ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠descended onto the deck. The mermaids that had been standing as if to protect Mirzam were already dead, their bodies pierced through by the snow falling from the sky.

"Ah..."

"A weak, worthless, pitiful child without even parents."

His body wouldn't move, as if frozen. Mirzam rose slowly into the air, and the witch gazed at his right eye.

"Still... those blue eyes of yours are rather nice."

And the witch smiled a benevolent smile...

I couldn't bring myself to watch what came next.

"...!"

Then Mirzam's wretched scream. He dropped the dagger he had been clutching and groped for a right eye that no longer existed.

"The color reminds me of a beautiful winter sea."

The witch plucked out Mirzam's right eye and nestled it, as if it were something precious, into a golden case. The sight was so deranged it actually settled my reason. If I had killed Mirzam, I would have been the one screaming while she tore out my eye.

That was a real lunatic. And the more terrifying fact: there were at least five more beings of the Golden Witch's caliber in Hero City alone. Five S-Rank Heroes, and the gardener who tended their city.

"..."

Afraid of catching the witch's eye, I hurried to leave. Fortunately, those lunatics did protect the residents of their city. But this was outside Hero City, so I couldn't relax. In a situation like this, one more missing person wouldn't strike anyone as strange. A fake like me couldn't put up any resistance against something that real.

And yet...

Too late?

When I closed my eyes for a moment and opened them again, the Golden Witch was already blocking my path, a smile on her face.