Chapter 121
Chapter 121
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 121
Chapter Title: Bluebird (2)
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Yuri's face hardened as he took the note.
The words written on the paper clearly indicated a willingness to talk, just as he had hoped.
But what he hadn't anticipated was one part of the sentence.
‘Redner's Thunderclap?’
What did that mean?
Did they know he was connected to Johan Redner?
How?
Yuri's eyes narrowed slightly as various thoughts raced through his mind.
That was when it happened.
Rustle—thud!
Another note popped out.
【Come up to the 7th Star Level.】
‘7th Star Level?’
Yuri expressed a bit of doubt but moved as instructed for now.
The 7th Star Level facility he arrived at had its iron gate wide open, unlike usual.
Yuri stepped inside without hesitation.
What greeted him was a cracked ceiling and stairs descending from within it.
“…There were stairs here?”
He had entered the 7th Star Level multiple times, but he had never imagined it had an opening ceiling with a hidden space.
The craftsmanship and finishing of the mechanism were that seamless.
With that in mind, Yuri climbed the stairs with a hint of anticipation.
Clang—clang—clang—.
The sound of Yuri ascending the metal stairs echoed quite loudly through the narrow passage.
The incline was steeper than expected, and the stairs were quite long.
After climbing for a full few minutes, he finally saw an iron door at the end of the passage.
Yuri pulled it without hesitation.
Creak—.
What greeted him was a sound like thunder crashing.
Boom—bang!
Yuri immediately sensed the threat.
The iron door, which had cracked open slightly when the roar sounded, slammed shut like a ghost.
And then the sounds continued.
Boom—bang—bang—bang!
Yuri, gripping the door, gave an awkward smile at the stinging vibration traveling through his hands.
“Haha, are you really that mad?”
He didn't know what was happening beyond this iron door, but he realized full well now that he shouldn't open it.
‘Wow, attacking right away like that?’
He had figured they wouldn't have a nice chat.
Considering what he had done.
Still, he hadn't expected them to swing a blade the moment they saw his face.
‘It wasn't a blade; something weird came flying.’
It was a good thing he had prepared just in case.
Bang—bang-bang—!
After the roars and vibrations continued for quite a while longer and finally subsided, Yuri peeked through the door.
“Are you done?”
And an answer came to his question.
Bang!
…It wasn't over yet.
Sparks flew right in front of his eyes in an instant, and Yuri shrank back like a turtle, hurriedly slamming the iron door shut.
Bang-bang—sounds continued to ring out after that.
When silence finally arrived much later, Yuri peeked through the door again and shouted.
“Can I come in nowwww?”
No sparks flew this time, so Yuri cautiously opened the door a bit more.
The acrid smell immediately assaulted his nose.
Then, the sight beyond the door made Yuri's eyes widen.
‘Whoa……?’
Beyond the door was a fairly spacious area.
But it felt cramped due to the array of various mechanical devices filling it.
Hundreds of copper pipes.
Thousands of metal devices and thousands of strands of metal wires.
The space was packed with mechanical apparatuses whose purposes and identities were impossible to discern.
And in the center stood a man in his fifties.
He glared at Yuri with an irritated look, holding a bizarre lump of iron emitting gray smoke.
Seeing him, Yuri's eyes went wide.
‘Huh?’
What surprised Yuri was the man's appearance.
Thick limbs and a thick neck.
A broad face and scruffy brown beard.
But above all, what caught Yuri's attention was his height, which seemed barely 130 cm even at the most generous estimate.
As far as Yuri knew, there was only one race with such physical traits.
The race that inherited the blood of ancient dwarves.
Namely……
“Gol clansman?”
Of course, he could just be an ordinary person with unusual physical features, but Yuri was convinced the being before him was a Gol clansman.
He had no choice but to be.
‘Huh? Why didn't I think of that? With this level of technology, the Gol clansmen were the obvious choice.’
Metallurgy and alchemy were the skills that made the Gol clansmen famous.
Without them, creating and operating mechanisms this intricate would never have been easy.
As if to prove Yuri's thoughts, an irritated voice flew at him.
“What, first time seeing a Gol clansman?”
The voice was full of irritation, but the killing intent was gone now, so Yuri slipped through the door and entered.
“First time, yeah.”
The moment he stepped in while saying that.
Yuri flinched at the sight of the iron door riddled with holes like a beehive.
‘This… was more dangerous than I thought.’
An unidentified projectile that had turned a 10 cm thick iron door into this state.
He didn't know its speed, but its destructive power was certainly lethal.
Yuri glanced at the dark, smoky metal lump in both hands of the Gol clansman before him.
‘That must be the device firing those projectiles.’
Noticing Yuri's gaze, perhaps, the Gol clansman swung the projectile launcher aside.
“The power's garbage because I made it roughly. Tsk.”
Clicking his tongue as if dissatisfied, he glared at Yuri again.
“You the one? The damn bastard who's been tormenting me and keeping me from getting off work?”
“You the one? The guy who cussed me out first and wants to get off work?”
The man glared at Yuri, who fired back without yielding an inch.
“Hah, what do you expect from a Redner family brat, talking just as obnoxiously.”
It happened again.
Mentioning Redner upon seeing him.
Yuri said casually.
“Looks like there's a misunderstanding. I'm not a Redner family brat.”
The man snorted at that.
“Scamming so shamelessly with that face—yep, definitely a Redner family brat.”
“…I'm really not.”
“Do I look like I've got rotten, knothole eyes! Traces of Thunderclap are plainly left all over the mechanisms you smashed up, and here you are spouting red-hot lies!”
At the Gol clansman's shout, Yuri feigned slight surprise.
‘He recognized the Thunderclap?’
And not even from seeing it directly, but just from the traces?
Since entering the Cradle, he had used Cloudstep along with Thunderclap quite a bit, but no one had recognized it despite Johan's fame.
Even Theresia, who had encountered Thunderclap the most, was the same.
At first, he thought it was because the cadets lacked experience, but now he vaguely suspected it was more than that.
Yuri decided to test if his suspicion was correct.
“Traces of Thunderclap? What's that?”
“This punk denying it to the end! There are countless body arts that handle neural lightning, but is there another that leaves such unique traces! Anyone else might miss it, but you think my clan wouldn't recognize it!”
“So that's how it is.”
Yuri nodded.
Just as he had suspected.
The reason people couldn't identify Thunderclap.
It was simply because it was ‘common’.
‘Yeah, the traits of Cloudstep and Thunderclap… are pretty common.’
The traits of Cloudstep and Thunderclap were speed.
And that Thunderclap generated neural lightning?
Nothing else stood out prominently.
From the Gol clansman's words, it seemed there were more body arts with such traits than expected.
Of course, none probably matched the Redner family's in sheer power.
As Yuri nodded, the Gol clansman nodded along.
“Yeah, just as I th—huh?”
“Oh, it's nothing. Just like you said, it's Thunderclap.”
The man snorted with a ‘knew it’ look at Yuri's glib cover.
“Hmph, see?”
Yuri observed the Gol clansman's reaction a bit more closely.
‘If he can spot Thunderclap traces, that means deep ties to the Redner family…….’
For now, it didn't seem hostile.
He grumbled and cursed, but there was a hint of fondness in how he mentioned the Redner family.
Like reuniting with an old friend.
Yuri shrugged.
“But I'm not a Redner family brat; I'm Yuri Holland, a different kind of brat.”
“More lies from…….”
“Don't believe me, check later.”
At the boldness, the Gol clansman eyed Yuri suspiciously.
“Yuri Holland? Really… not a Redner?”
“I'm Holland, I said.”
“With your personality, you’ve gotta be Redner blood.”
“…….”
“Maybe your mom's a Redner? Or some distant ancestor from the family?”
…Was it his imagination? This felt familiar.
Yuri said firmly, a bit annoyed.
“Nope.”
“No way… no way that's possible? Then how'd that bastard's kid learn Thunderclap?”
The man muttered in confusion, as if his common knowledge had been overturned.
Then, as if he found the answer, his eyes sparkled, only to sigh regretfully soon after.
“Oh no, I heard the Redner family fortunes had declined, but…….”
“…….”
“Down to selling off family secrets? Tsk tsk.”
Yuri sighed at the tongue-clicking Gol clansman.
“Sigh, think what you want. Is ambushing someone who came to talk a Gol clansman greeting?”
“Think about what you did! You could've stopped at a reasonable point, but what grudge did you have against me to smash everything up—smash it all!”
“But… if I hadn't, you wouldn't have given me the time of day, right?”
“…Are you insane?”
“Fine! No beating around the bush. You made these mechanisms, didn't you, mister?”
“And?”
“Teach me the tech!”
“…What tech?”
“How to make mechanisms like these?”
“You're crazy.”
This guy wasn't just problematic in personality; his head was screwed up too.
The Gol clansman declared inwardly.
He said in a cold tone.
“Why should I?”
“What do I have to do for you to teach me?”
“No matter what you do, I'm not teaching you.”
“Come on, don't be like that.”
“You don't be like that. Would you teach your family's body arts if I asked?”
“I'm an orphan, though?”
“…Then would you teach me the body arts you learned if I asked!”
“I'd ask the old man first, and if he says okay, sure.”
“Old man?”
“The old geezer who taught me the body arts.”
“…I'm losing my mind.”
The Gol clansman waved his hand irritably at Yuri, with whom words just wouldn't connect.
“Enough, I don't want to talk anymore—get lost.”
“Aww, come on, teach me! Otherwise, I'll keep smashing them!”
Now Yuri was outright threatening.
The Gol clansman snorted.
“Do what you want.”
“…Really?”
“Why do you think I called you up here?”
“Dunno?”
“Before shifting duties, I wanted to give you a taste of my special gunpowder!”
In other words, it meant liberation from this lunatic now.
Even if he hadn't achieved his goal fully, unloading bullets had cleared his chest.
He grinned at Yuri.
“Not a pleasant meeting at all, so let's not meet again.”
Then the Gol clansman slammed his fist on a red button to the side.
“……?!”
Yuri flinched, bracing for another attack.
But no attack came as expected.
Instead……
Thud—!
The floor beneath his feet vanished.
‘…Huh?!’
In the slowing time.
As he sank slowly downward, the Gol clansman's mocking gaze looking down filled Yuri's vision.
Yuri shouted something.
“Shii……!”
But he couldn't even finish before plummeting.
Thud—.
The floor that had split and vanished returned to normal.
Looking at where Yuri had disappeared, the Gol clansman muttered softly.
“Shii……?”
* * *
Atop a cliff several meters high.
One wall, thought to be rock, opened, revealing a fairly large hole.
Grind—.
And from within came a bizarre scream that might or might not be a scream.
“…Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
The hole spat out the screamer and returned to normal.
Whoosh—!
Yuri slid down the sloped surface for a full few minutes before being tossed into the air again.
He immediately flipped in midair and landed cleanly on the ground.
Tap—.
The moment his feet touched down, he looked around.
‘Where's this?’
Confirming he was near the cliff, Yuri turned his gaze backward.
To find the trap he'd fallen from.
But the hole he'd emerged from showed no trace.
Just sheer cliff face.
The camouflage was perfectly flawless, twisting Yuri's lips.
‘A trap piercing straight through an entire cliff?’
It was more like an emergency escape passage than a trap, but the technology utilizing a whole cliff was impressive.
Greed flickered in Yuri's eyes.
‘This…….’
Yuri had always wanted to learn about mechanisms.
But now it was different.
‘I have to learn it!’
The desire to learn had gained a ‘have to’.