Chapter 27
Chapter 27
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 27
Chapter Title: Interlude
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As soon as quitting time arrived, Alice shot out the door like a bullet.
Her destination was none other than the Western Labyrinth, the last place the Rag Ghost had been seen.
To be pursued so relentlessly, without even a day's rest after yesterday's events, was an obsession that Yuria herself would have found quite troublesome.
But in truth, Alice hadn't intended to go this far.
While Raven, at Victor's request, was leading the investigation by focusing on those directly involved with the ghost…
…she had only been assigned the minor role of gathering rumors and information circulating in the back alleys.
Since Alice was little more than an empty shell who knew nothing but how to fight, the wisest choice was for her to tactfully stay out of the way and avoid becoming a hindrance.
Though she wasn't brilliant, she was far from stupid.
However, that was all true until yesterday.
To have lost the ghost so pointlessly when it was just a stone's throw away!
Alice was so frustrated that she forgot all about the diet she'd recently started to worry about her belly fat and ate half a bowl more rice than usual.
'I don't think they're a bad person… but they really got one over on me. I can't just let it slide.'
Of course, she was already half-convinced the ghost wasn't a bad person.
What kind of villain would fight so fiercely against a vampire, bleeding all over in the process?
But the fact that the ghost wasn't evil and the irritation of losing them right under her nose were two separate matters.
Her pride properly scratched, Alice couldn't bear it unless she taught the ghost a lesson.
'Just you wait, Ghost. I'm going to rip that white sheet off with my own two hands!'
Alice was quite competitive.
No, to be more precise, an Alice who wasn't distracted by cute things was a very troublesome person.
When she hit a limit, she was the type to struggle even harder, to keep trying until she broke through the wall blocking her path.
Of course, she only ever showed her clumsy side in front of a certain silver-haired girl, but that was just a way to relieve stress.
When she was serious, even Raven couldn't stop her stubbornness and would be left shaking his head in disbelief.
Unfortunately for the ghost, it had been targeted by someone incredibly persistent.
'For now, I'll go a little deeper. The Black Beast Society, the ones who put a bounty on the ghost, are what's bothering me.'
Thus, unlike her usual self, Alice walked without hesitation into the depths of the Western Labyrinth.
Someone with her good looks was prone to getting into trouble in the underworld, so she usually avoided walking around so openly to avoid annoying entanglements.
"Hey, look over there. It's the pink-haired swordswoman."
"Is that really… the monster who endlessly slaughtered zombies yesterday?"
"Ahem, best not to mess with her. Not that I'm scared or anything."
It seemed the rumors of Alice's conspicuous performance during the Night of Blood incident had spread properly.
The underworld thugs couldn't bring themselves to approach her, and thanks to that, her steps were completely unimpeded.
"Excuse me. Can I ask you something?"
"Y-Yes...! W-What is it...?"
"Do you happen to know anything about the ghost? Anything at all, no matter how small."
And so, she approached everyone she saw, gathering every scrap of information about the ghost.
What time they usually appeared, what the victims had in common, what role they played during the Night of Blood incident, and so on.
Of course, most of the stories she gathered were things she already knew or weren't very helpful.
The ghost was an expert at covering its tracks.
Even among those who lived in the underworld, aside from yesterday's incident, you could count on one hand the number of people who had seen the ghost with their own eyes.
'Listening to the rumors, it's like they're a real ghost. If I hadn't seen them with my own two eyes, I might have thought the stories were exaggerated.'
To this day, no one knew what they looked like under the sheet, let alone the sound of their voice. People lost consciousness for unknown reasons just by being near them, and sometimes, they'd even lose all their belongings.
Her worries deepened at the meticulousness of their methods, how they left no trace behind.
"Sir. Do you happen to know anything about the ghost?"
"Hmm? Young lady, are you a bounty hunter?"
"Uh... something like that."
"Tsk, give up on the ghost. The Black Beast Society will be dropping the bounty soon enough."
"They're canceling the bounty?"
Alice's eyes widened at the news from the old beastkin.
She'd thought the Black Beast Society would give up on the ghost eventually, but she never expected it to be right after the incident.
After all, they were one of the top beastkin factions; withdrawing a bounty so easily was no different from damaging their own prestige.
But as she listened to the old man's story, she realized there was a good reason for their decision.
"Their funds are already strained from paying consolation money to all the bounty hunters who were furious about the zombie corpses disappearing. And now it turns out the vampire the ghost practically took down alone was a noble-class? With that kind of skill, the Black Beast Society was never in a position to handle them in the first place. If the ghost were hot-headed, the Western Labyrinth would've already seen a bloodbath."
"Hmm, that's... certainly true."
Alice nodded in agreement with the old man's words, recalling the events of yesterday.
By the time she had arrived, Drakel was so severely damaged he didn't even have the leeway to regenerate his severed limbs.
A Noble Vampire, no matter how weak, was a powerful being that required an opponent on par with a Double-Number Fixer.
In that case, the ghost must possess skills at least on the level of Victor.
It was no wonder the Black Beast Society was startled and quickly tucked its tail between its legs.
"And public opinion in the Labyrinth has shifted in the ghost's favor. So many people clearly saw them take down the zombies and the vampire."
"The ghost... you say?"
"That's right. I don't know what they have against zombies, but it was chilling to watch."
The old man described the scene he had witnessed with his own two eyes to Alice.
A mountain of zombies with broken necks piled up behind the ghost as it rushed forward like a white wind.
Then there was the vampire, its body twisted and impaled on iron skewers, pinned to the wall, and the corpses of ghouls with their heads rolling on the floor.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say they had ground up the most zombies and vampires in this incident.
'...But why did the ghost go that far?'
Listening to the old man, Alice suddenly felt a sense of unease.
When she thought about it, she couldn't come up with a good reason for the ghost to fight so desperately against the vampire.
Did they just hate vampires that much?
No, that couldn't be it. The ghost was the one who first revealed the vampire's existence, and back then, they had only subdued it lightly.
For someone trying so hard not to reveal their identity, this incident was a bit excessive.
They had almost been caught by her, their identity nearly exposed.
'Could it be... the ghost really is a psychic born from horrific human experiments, just like Victor said?'
As her thoughts continued, Alice suddenly recalled her last image of the ghost bowing to her.
A small, delicate, and scarred hand that was hard to believe belonged to someone with such incredible skill.
If they were really just a small child, as Victor said, how could they have fought Drakel so fiercely?
Perhaps the ghost knew the agony of pain so intimately that they desperately wished no one else would suffer as they had.
She couldn't be sure, but at this vague inkling of the ghost's thoughts, she quietly bit her lip.
'A kind child. …I'll find you, no matter what.'
With a newfound feeling, different from before, Alice made a small vow.
That she, the most persistent and troublesome person in the world, would definitely find the ghost.
And if the ghost truly was a child who knew pain yet could still embrace others without hesitation…
…then she would become someone who could share warmth with that child.
Because there is no flower in this world that doesn't deserve to bloom.
"…?"
Of course, to Yuria herself, who was currently tumbling about absentmindedly in Greg's warm shop, this was all utterly baffling.
From her perspective, she had simply lashed out in annoyance because the vampire had picked a fight with her first.
Devastating, agonizing pain and all that... it was a story from another world.
The misunderstanding grew.
*
At the same time, at the Crowley Fixer Agency.
Raven sipped his whiskey, the view of Nighthaven beyond the window serving as his side dish, and thought.
'That Yuria… is she the ghost after all?'
A deduction so sharp that if the subject herself were present, she would find it impossible to hide her emotional turmoil!
The reason he came to this conclusion was simple.
No matter how he looked at it, the pieces fit together too perfectly.
In fact, Raven had already grasped far more detail about the ghost than Alice had investigated.
From the consistent testimonies of witnesses, the ghost had a very small build, around 130 cm.
From those who had been helped and had seen a part of the ghost's body, he also knew that the ghost was undeniably human, and a child at that.
The timing of the ghost's disappearance coincided perfectly with when Yuria started working at Greg's shop.
And then there was the fact that Yuria was a Jane Doe, with no known identity or face.
Honestly, with this much circumstantial evidence, it would be stranger *not* to connect Yuria to the ghost.
'However... she has an alibi.'
But all of this was merely speculation.
There were still too many unanswered questions.
If the ghost was truly related to psychic powers, why appear now, so long after the Nexus Project had ended?
How could someone survive experiments with a survival rate in the single-digit percentages, bordering on decimal points, and still be physically and mentally healthy?
And crucially, how could the ghost, who was reportedly left bloodied by Drakel, be perfectly fine just a day later?
As long as luck and coincidence existed in this world…
…he couldn't confirm Yuria was the ghost until he caught the culprit red-handed and pulled off the sheet himself.
In truth, it wasn't something he needed to decide in a hurry.
One way or another, Yuria was fated to work at his agency for a month. He had more than enough time and opportunity.
And for Raven, the important part wasn't whether Yuria was the ghost.
Was Yuria truly a psychic born from the Nexus Project?
And did she have any information that could lead to his sister?
Putting everything else aside, these two facts were what mattered.
'No need to poke the hornet's nest recklessly. I'll wait patiently and look for an opportunity.'
Of course, Raven was already half-convinced by intuition that Yuria was the ghost.
If he hadn't been, he never would have let her return alone to the incredibly dangerous Nighthaven.
Even if he was the type not to offer a hand to those who didn't need help, he wasn't so cold as to turn his back on someone he'd been asked to protect.
"Hm? An email..."
How long had he been sipping his drink with the night view as his companion?
Suddenly, an email arrived on his computer.
The contents of the email were as follows.
An invitation to a party hosted by Nemesis, a company specializing in prosthetics, for you, a Fixer.
The invitation stated that he could bring up to two companions, and all expenses would be covered by Nemesis.
Raven, who had survived countless battlefields, smelled something fishy.
This was a death trap, luring its prey with a sweet scent.
He had a premonition of some dirty scheme, a hidden ulterior motive.
'This smells dangerous. How delicious.'
Raven grinned.
The most fun thing in the world was to thoroughly torment those who did bad things.
It seemed it was time for him to indulge in his hobby after a long while.
*
Somewhere in Nighthaven.
A small, dark space filled with the whirring of fans and a faint beeping sound inaudible to the human ear.
Amid countless computers and a dizzying number of monitors.
A man, buried among keyboards as if trapped, stared at a blinking screen and muttered to himself.
"…Found it."
His profession was a Code Runner.
A hacker of this era, active in the Cyberspace, the new generation's internet.
As if he had been waiting for this very moment, the man stood up and approached the window.
Reflected beyond the window was a skyscraper, soaring high as if to pierce the neon-lit night sky.
He gazed at its peak, higher than the clouds, and spoke with grim determination.
"Reine, I'm coming for you."
On the dimly lit monitor screen, the word "Nemesis" blinked incessantly.