Chapter 37
Chapter 37
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 37
Chapter Title: A Strange Turn of Events - Interlude
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Three days had passed since the Nemesis terror incident.
And in that time, Nighthaven had been utterly consumed by the topic.
It wasn't surprising.
The hotel that served as Nemesis’s banquet hall was a skyscraper standing tall in the heart of the city.
For the entire building to suddenly lose power, followed by gas billowing from within?
That alone was enough to be front-page news, drawing police and swarms of reporters.
What’s more, it was a deliberate act of terror by an unidentified assailant, and the signs of battle near the rooftop were visible even from a distance!
Of course, it was bound to be a massive event, blowing up on social media and dominating the news.
And just as public interest peaked, the breaking news of Nemesis’s large-scale human experimentation plan dropped.
It was more than enough to turn the public’s rapt attention into shock.
“What? They were going to kidnap the poor from the underworld and force them into being test subjects? Are these people out of their minds?”
“Haa… And some people were already abducted. So the prosthetic arms were made from blood drawn from them….”
“Are you kidding me?! If you wear a prosthetic made by Nemesis, side effects are guaranteed to appear within a year?! I pre-ordered one of these!”
For those who had been tempted by the prosthetics for metahumans and had pre-ordered them, it was like getting hit over the head with a hammer, only to be stabbed in the back.
The fallout spread across the city in an instant, like a spark landing in a barrel of hot oil.
In the process, the focus shifted from a simple act of terror in the city center to the heinous plot Nemesis had been planning… It happened in the blink of an eye.
“Yes, we’ve been deployed. There’s an unidentified terrorist reported inside the hotel… What? You want us to detain all Nemesis personnel and ensure not a single one escapes?”
“Hmm, isn't that a bit too sudden, too harsh…? Huh? Are you asking if I have some sort of corrupt ties with them? O-Of course not! Right, these crazy criminals! Arrest every last one of them!”
“W-Wait! Weren’t you here to help us?! Aaargh! The police are harassing citizens!”
The police, who had surrounded the hotel to catch the terrorist, suddenly found themselves with orders from above to secure all the Nemesis employees, who had been the victims.
Some officers had cozy relationships with Nemesis through backroom deals, but with the corporation’s evil deeds laid bare for all to see, they had no choice but to sever those ties in a hurry to avoid being implicated.
“Mayor Tempest. As you commanded, I sent the Dragon Knights to the Nemesis corporation to ascertain the truth. It appears Nemesis was indeed secretly planning large-scale bio-experiments and had even reached the stage of gathering investors.”
“Good work, Lady Yeresa. Tsk, those damn Nemesis bastards! They knew I hated human experiments like the Nexus Project, yet they had the gall to pull that shit right in my front yard? I’ll tear them to shreds, leave not a single trace behind!”
Tempest, the great Dragon Mayor of Nighthaven, ground his teeth in fury.
Nighthaven was a city teeming with incidents of all kinds every day.
But even here, there were lines one did not cross, and one of them was getting on the Dragon Mayor’s bad side.
The Nexus Project was an experiment to cultivate psychics that had been conducted for years on tens of thousands of war orphans, slum children, and kidnap victims.
His failure to catch the mastermind behind that incident had been a major blow to his reputation. To him, a secret, large-scale human experiment was nothing short of a direct provocation, a slap to his pride.
“…Mayor. I understand your anger, but please try not to break your desk again. It’s a hassle to fix it every time.”
“Ah, ahem… My apologies for that. At my age, it’s become difficult to control my mana.”
But Tempest had to set aside his rage at his secretary Yeresa’s words.
Recently, due to the mana leakage common among old dragons, he had often found himself accidentally breaking things.
His sheer presence as a being was so overwhelming that finding someone capable of being his secretary was difficult.
If he needlessly inconvenienced her, he could lose a secretary who was immensely helpful to him.
“By the way. That young man who caused such a ruckus at the hotel… Ah, what was his name? Darren?”
“David.”
“Ah, right. David. I should thank that young man. Thanks to him, we found out what those rats were plotting. So… you know. Take care of it.”
“Given the public eye on him for causing a disturbance in the middle of the city, we can’t openly let him off, but if he uses some means to evade pursuit, you’re saying we shouldn't chase him to the ends of the earth and just let him go. Understood.”
“Er… yes. That’s what I meant. You understand me well.”
The police who had been pursuing David for the terror incident closed the case internally after confirming that he had erased his past records and identity and gone into hiding.
Since there were no significant casualties and the damage was confined to Nemesis, there was no real justification for passionately hunting him down.
Besides, with the public focus having shifted from the downtown terror incident to Nemesis’s insane city-wide scheme, no one questioned it.
In the meantime, the head of Nemesis and his associates were arrested and brought to trial one by one.
Their guilt was undeniable, and they were all sentenced to prison.
With the corporate leadership gone in an instant, the corporation known as Nemesis also faded into history.
For a single person to stand against and topple a corporate giant.
It was a miracle, brought about by some reckless romantic.
\*
While David’s case was being settled one way or another, I showed up for work at the Fixer Agency in my usual maid outfit and was greeted by a familiar group.
“Oh. The… fox, is that you?”
“…!”
They were none other than the trio of David, Reine, and Sabrina.
Was my work attire unfamiliar to them?
I naturally led the two, who looked somewhat bewildered, and the one who tilted her head, into the reception room.
When Raven asked what this trio, the hottest topic in the city, was doing here, he cleaned his ear as he listened to David’s reply.
“You came to express your gratitude?”
“Yes. You helped us a great deal before, so we came to say our final goodbyes before leaving the city.”
“Well… we didn’t do much. I think thanking our part-timer here is enough.”
“Yes. You’ve helped us more than words can express. Once again, thank you, deeply.”
*Bow.*
David stood from his seat and bowed his head deeply in a posture commonly known as a kung fu greeting.
Bowing to express gratitude was rare in Nighthaven, so I wondered if his eccentric kung fu master guardian had taught him that.
“…!”
I returned the gesture, pressing my fist and palm together as if to say it was nothing.
After all, he was the one who suffered and bled. What did I even do?
Perhaps because I accepted his thanks, the atmosphere became quite amicable.
“Let me reintroduce myself. My name is David. This is Sabrina, and this is Reine.”
“I’m Jin, the pink-haired one here is Alice. And our part-timer is Yuria.”
“So your name is Yuria. We just kept calling you ‘fox.’ That was quite rude of us.”
“Nah, well. She can’t speak anyway. She doesn’t really care about that sort of thing.”
After that, we exchanged simple introductions.
David nodded as if he’d learned my name, Yuria, for the first time.
Just then, Sabrina, who had been quiet with a serious expression, suddenly approached me and reached out her hand.
*Squish.*
“…?!”
Startled by the ticklish sensation on my chest, I quickly scrambled backward.
What is this, we haven't seen each other in a while!
Covering my chest with my arms, I looked at Sabrina in shock, only to see her mutter under her breath with a half-dazed expression.
“She’s… really a girl…. And she’s bigger than me….”
Huh. What’s that all of a sudden?
I glanced around to gauge everyone else’s reactions. David had his hand on his forehead as if embarrassed, and Jin was grinning as if he’d seen something amusing.
What’s going on? Am I the only one not in on the joke?
“It seems Sabrina mistook the fox… no, Miss Yuria, for a boy. I thought so as well until we came here.”
“Ah, well… she was wearing a suit back then. It’s an understandable mistake.”
“Oh my, how cute.”
Ah, so that’s what it was.
It wasn’t an impossible misunderstanding. The suit I wore was a boy’s suit, not a girl’s.
It hid the lines of my body, and with the mask on top of that, it was plausible to think I was just a boy with long hair… I guess.
‘But is it that shocking?’
Even so, I couldn’t quite understand such a devastated reaction.
If you just mistook a friend’s gender, wouldn’t you just go, “Oh, I was wrong,” and be done with it?
As I tilted my head in confusion, tears suddenly welled up in Sabrina’s eyes.
“Sob…! This is so frustrating!”
She covered her face and dashed out of the agency.
She was so fast that by the time I noticed, only the breeze from her hair remained.
“Pfft, kh, khahak…!”
“Haa… I am so sorry for the trouble she’s caused.”
“Is this… the pain of a broken heart?”
“Ahaha… She grew up without many peers….”
Jin, desperately trying to stifle his laughter; David, red-faced with embarrassment.
And Alice and Reine, whispering to each other.
I scratched my head, feeling utterly perplexed.
Ah, so that’s it? I feel kind of bad now.
“Mr. Jin, I’ll go after her, just in case. You all continue your conversation!”
“Yeah. Go on.”
Alice stood up, saying she would check on Sabrina who had bolted from the office.
Since she had been fast asleep from the sleeping gas during the incident, she probably figured her presence wasn’t needed.
With Alice gone, only Raven, David, Reine, and I remained in the reception room.
Then, as if a thought occurred to him, Raven stroked his chin and asked David.
“By the way, you said you’re leaving the city? That’s a shame. There’s no better place for a metahuman to live than Nighthaven.”
“Haha… As I was wrapping things up, I had to erase all my past records and my identity, so I’m effectively a person with no official status. It’s difficult to find work.”
*Swish.*
Raven’s gaze suddenly turned to me.
What. Why are you looking at me? Because we’re both illegal residents? Unbelievable.
“So the young lady Reine and your sister who just left will be going with you? That sounds tough.”
“No. The two of them have no issues with their identities. The plan is for just me to leave.”
“What? That… doesn’t sound like a good idea.”
“That’s right! I think so too! But this idiot is just so stubborn.”
“…Besides me, the other two have no reason to leave Nighthaven.”
“I’m telling you I want to be with you!”
Reine grabbed David’s head, telling him to stop being so stubborn.
But it didn’t seem to hurt him, as David maintained his posture without so much as flinching.
Neither of their positions was completely incomprehensible.
Nighthaven was a veritable utopia for metahumans.
Most outside cities, for instance, required metahumans to wear necklaces that restricted their mana, preventing them from using magic.
A place where you didn’t have to worry about such things, where you could even openly use magic on the streets, was truly rare.
Furthermore, decades of war against metahumans had made most of humanity hostile toward them.
Having experienced that firsthand while attending a university outside, David would naturally want Reine and Sabrina to remain in Nighthaven at all costs.
But Reine and Sabrina’s perspective was different.
They would rather face discrimination in an outside city with him than stay in a city without David. Because they’re family!
‘Still, if you had to choose, neither option is the right answer.’
Whether David left Nighthaven alone, or everyone left Nighthaven.
Either choice would only make things difficult for them all.
The moment one side starts feeling guilty toward the other, the relationship is bound to crumble eventually.
So what’s the solution here?
It’s simple. We have a boss whose heart is as vast as the Pacific Ocean!
“Hmm… Well, since fate brought us together, how about working for our agency for a bit? Information manipulation sophisticated enough to throw Nighthaven police off your trail… I happen to be in need of an employee who’s savvy with computers.”
“…Pardon?”
“Huh?”
Raven suddenly offered David a job.
Did he see some potential in him? Or was it simple pity?
Whatever the reason, Raven had made an offer that David couldn’t possibly refuse.
He simply wore a faint smile on his lips.