Revenge in Kind
Leos stared at the Distance for a long moment. Nothing about the person claiming to be Enas sounded like a lie. Of course, this was an anonymous community — someone could easily be impersonating her — and he had taken that possibility into account. But there was no need to dwell on it. The reason was simple: he had no intention of holding a conversation.
He regretted, not for the first time, having thoughtlessly set his nickname to LEO. Then he wiped the thought away. This was an anonymous community. Unless he admitted who he was, there was no way for anyone to pin down his identity.
Even if I go around talking about Gates, it's not like I'm the only Gate specialist out there.
Even outside the Imperial Agency, the black market already peddled monster intelligence for staggering sums. The only thing unique about him right now was that he was supplying that information free of charge for points. Monster knowledge was nowhere near his exclusive monopoly.
And even then, it's only a fraction of what I actually know.
Whether it was Red Gates or mutant monsters, the information circulating on the open market was a tiny scrap of Leos's true knowledge. Someone else might offer a fortune for even that scrap — to him, it was worthless.
He weighed it all, then came to a conclusion.
I don't have the room to look after my old disciples anymore.
Just looking after Bendict and Herisia beside him was already more than enough. So why should he take back a disciple who had never trusted him, never once reached out, and only now came crawling with a message? Leos saw no reason at all.
She'll just want monster intel, if anything.
His teeth ground together.
Forgotten memories rose one by one, and he barely managed to force the swelling rage back down. Disciples who hadn't even managed a proper petition on his behalf. Disciples who never once said they believed him. Disciples who hadn't contacted him even on the day of his release.
On the day he walked free, Leos had made himself a promise: from now on, his old disciples no longer existed.
That was the end of the exchange with Enas.
"Master Leos, you look troubled. Is something wrong?"
Herisia tilted her head and came closer. Leos gave a slight shake of his head, lay back on the bed, and closed his eyes.
"Get some rest... You've been running all over the place lately. It might just be exhaustion catching up with you."
"Herisia! You're the one chirping nonstop and keeping Hyung-nim from resting! You're too damn loud!"
"Excuse me?! A person is allowed to be worried! What do you even know?"
"I don't know anything! But I know one thing — you're being ridiculously loud right now!"
"Y-you're louder!"
I looked at the two of them in turn.
"Keep it down. Please."
"Yes, sir!"
"Okay..."
Bendict immediately shuffled into a corner and squatted down. Herisia pattered off in the opposite direction. Moments later, Bendict's face started turning bright red.
"You lunatic. Breathe. Are you sulking because I told you to be quiet?"
"Pwah...! Hyung-nim said to be quiet, so I was just trying not to make any breathing noise. No other intention... Aaaagh! Hyung-nim! Hyung-nim! My ear! It got torn last time!!"
Bendict cradled his ear and stared at the floor with mournful eyes, mumbling under his breath.
"I was only thinking of Hyung-nim..."
The moment I glared at him, Bendict clamped his right hand over his mouth and switched straight into mute mode.
Haa...
Staring up at the ceiling, a sigh escaped on its own.
Lately more and more people have been looking for me. Belin reached out first, and then Enas.
When Belin had contacted him, there had been nothing but rage. Enas's message left him with a far more complicated feeling. In a way, the other disciples had simply been deceived by Belin as well.
But the reverse was also true: they had listened only to Belin and refused to believe him. Shared memories meant he had no desire to take revenge on them. Equally, though, he had no foolish intention of going out of his way to help them either. After he had insisted on his innocence so many times, after they hadn't even contacted him once — hadn't even sent a simple word of support — how was he supposed to risk his life for them again?
Too much time has passed for a conversation.
From imprisonment to release, three years had gone by. Counting the trial, he had been locked up even longer. Through all of it, he had been brutally alone.
No... more precisely, it was just me and this idiot.
When I looked over at Bendict, the man grinned and opened his mouth.
"Hyung-nim. Looks like your mood's improved a bit?"
"This bastard and his mouth..."
I started walking toward him. Bendict flinched and clamped both hands over his head — a fierce determination not to lose another ear. I rapped him once on the skull with a light flick and spoke as if the words were simply drifting past.
"Thanks. You've got plenty of shortcomings, but you always look out for me anyway. Looking back, you were the only one who believed me while I was locked up."
"Hyung-nim... are you about to take your own life? Aigoo, you can't, Hyung-nim! Please! Please don't die! They say people change right before they die— uuuuaaaaagh!"
Bendict looked down at his ruined ear and spoke through tears.
"Why do you keep hitting me while you're complimenting me?! If you're going to hit me, hit my body — the ear isn't even something you can toughen up..."
"If I hit your body instead, I can go all out. That fine?"
I made a show of raising a fist. Bendict answered with pure, obedient eyes.
"Haha! Hyung-nim, I'll take the ear-ripping!"
Herisia, standing beside them, shook her head.
"You used to go on about how a real man never bows his head no matter what. In front of Master Leos you can't do a thing."
Bendict gave an awkward cough.
"Herisia. You don't know this, but every single person who messed with Master Leos ended up dead... He killed hundreds just in prison... I don't want to join that list."
"M-Master Leos really did that?"
"I'm telling you. Some cell boss serving life crossed him a few times, and the whole room turned into a pool of blood..."
Bendict was spinning absurd lies, but Leos no longer had the energy to argue and simply let him talk. The shameless Bendict, and Herisia beside him listening with complete seriousness — watching them, he let out a short laugh.
Not bad.
He still couldn't forget how it had felt after he caused trouble in prison and was locked in solitary. Months spent in absolute silence, unable even to tell how much time was passing. That was when he first understood: he was someone who felt loneliness. Someone who needed another person nearby.
Protecting people wasn't for their sake. It was rooted in his own selfish wish that they wouldn't leave his side.
I'll protect them. No matter what happens.
These were people who, even after learning he was being hunted by the Empire, had chosen to stay rather than cut ties and run. He intended to take responsibility for them to the end. At the very least, for Bendict and Herisia.
Beep... beep...
While he was thinking that, life signals registered nearby. Instead of going outside to check as he used to, he immediately launched the high-grade artifact Spirel into the air and scanned the source of the readings.
People...?
About twenty figures, bodies covered in blood, were walking slowly toward the Safety Zone.
Enemies?
Leos studied them carefully. But for enemies, they weren't armed at all.
No — it's not that they came unarmed. They disarmed themselves nearby and are walking in like that.
Looking closer, he could make out dozens of swords gathered on the ground just outside the Safety Zone. Like defeated soldiers surrendering to an enemy general after a lost war, they trudged forward bare-handed.
Strange.
If they had approached armed, he would have bombarded them without hesitation. But their faces were strangers to him, and they were making their lack of hostile intent unmistakably clear. More than anything, their bearing and movement belonged to professionally trained soldiers.
Leos dropped the Spirel lower and addressed them through its speaker.
"Stop. Come any closer and I'll kill you."
As Leos finished preparing the Spirel's mana bombs for drop, one man stepped forward as if to shield the others with his body. The commander behind him laughed and spoke.
"Paron, don't. If anyone dies, it should be me first. What good does it do if you die ahead of me?"
"Lord Lacart..."
Lacart, leader of the Imperial Execution Squad, pushed Paron aside and walked slowly forward. To prove he carried no weapons, he had stripped off every outer layer, leaving only his underclothes.
Step.
Step.
The man advanced one pace at a time until he stood directly beneath the Spirel — a position from which a mana bomb drop would mean certain death, with no chance of escape.
Standing there, Lacart spoke.
"It's you, isn't it? Leos. I saw Interrunner. And I looked into your old records. There was only one conclusion. The only person who could build a Safety Zone and pull off something like this is you."
Crackling energy began to gather in the Spirel, ready to drop a mana bomb at any second.
Lacart spread his arms wide, as if it made no difference whether he died right then.
"Why don't you tear down the Empire with us? If you want, I can expose every last dirty secret of the Empire and whip public opinion into a frenzy."
"Why would I bother?"
"Because you can pay them back the same way."
"..."
"That bastard Empire framed you and made you suffer. With my help, you can give those garbage who left you rotting in prison for over three years the exact same treatment."
A beat of silence passed. Then Leos took up his chain sword and walked slowly toward them.
"Explain it properly. Lie to me or waste my time, and I'll kill you on the spot."
Lacart smiled brightly and nodded.
"One week. Give me one week, and I can completely turn the people of the Empire. Using this Gate crisis to do it."