Nothing Left to Lose
Dead Feredin. The Empire's foolish knights.
"I-If you kill me, you won't be able to handle—"
Feredin thrashed desperately to stay alive, but the rest of his words never came.
"You should've just begged for your life."
He was already a corpse, but as his former master I still offered my disciple one last piece of advice. Threats only work on people who still have something left to lose. I had already lost my position, my status, my reputation—even my place to stand in the Empire itself.
And now they expected me to become the Empire's obedient dog so they would clear every false charge they had pinned on me?
Fuck that. If they had ever been the type to do so, they never would have cast me aside after a lifetime of service. I recalled Feredin's words once more.
Aren't you afraid of the Empire? Why should I fear the Empire? They're parasites who can't even close a single Red Gate.
Clearing a Red Gate did not mean you could seal it. Until a gate was sealed, monsters would keep respawning and pouring out. They were the ones in a hurry—not me.
"Tsk."
I clicked my tongue at the blood soaking my clothes. The stench was thick enough that I wanted a change of clothes badly, but every corpse around me was equally soaked through.
The bunker had plenty of food, but no spare clothes. Naturally I hadn't brought any either, so I headed back inside just as I was.
"Are you okay? What happened?!"
Herisia, waiting inside the bunker, urgently checked me over from head to toe as she shouted.
"There were intruders."
"If people like that showed up, you should've told me! You said you were just stepping out for a bit—how can you come back this badly hurt?! Where's the medicine? I'll treat you right away!"
"Stop fussing. I'm not hurt."
When I stripped off my top, her face went bright red. Then she confirmed there wasn't a single wound on my smooth body and asked, bewildered,
"Wait... so all that blood is from the enemies? How many people did you fight..."
"Ten. My head hurts, so stop asking. I want to rest a little."
Herisia closed her mouth and said nothing more. She quietly picked up the clothes I had thrown aside, set them in a basket in the corner, then paused before turning on the faucet. When I looked over as if to ask what she was doing, she explained.
"There's... something like a rainwater tank artifact here! I sniffed it, and it doesn't seem usable as drinking water anyway... so I thought it'd be good for laundry or whenever we need water separately. You don't seem to have spare clothes, so I was going to wash these for you—is that okay?"
"Go ahead. From now on, you can use the bunker's resources without asking. If you're hungry, eat the food however you like."
"Still, that feels a bit like freeloading..."
I lay down without particularly caring about Herisia's hesitation. It would feel awkward now, but she would adapt with time. So I wasn't especially worried.
I reached out and began examining the weapons the attackers had been carrying, one by one. After searching even their pockets thoroughly: seven of the long-range intercept artifacts called mana cannons, twenty daggers, and exactly one Distance.
Bigger haul than I expected.
Two of the seven small mana cannons had burned out during the fight and wouldn't work, so I discarded them, but five still remained. They wouldn't have many charges left, but they would be useful in all kinds of situations. The pile of daggers could serve any number of purposes as well.
I stuffed everything into my inventory first, then checked the Distance Feredin had been carrying.
Encrypted so location tracking won't work.
Fitting for a Distance used by the Imperial Shadow Group—when I looked closely, encryption devices and mana-nullification formulas were slapped on every which way. Measures so that even if Feredin failed his mission and died, the information would never fall into anyone else's hands.
To properly access the data, you must channel registered mana.
Hoping I might still dig up Imperial Shadow Group intelligence, I pressed every button I could find and tried to access the internal data—but without Feredin's mana it was impossible. There was no way to channel the mana of a dead man, so this Distance was little better than stolen goods now.
Should I just ditch it?
As I was feeling the loss, she had somehow come up beside me and spoke with a startled expression.
"Whoa... this is a brand-new model? And it's loaded with security measures. Who set all this up?"
"You can tell?"
A Distance was basically a smartphone, Earth-wise. Just like back on Earth, people who didn't care about electronics only knew the expensive brand names. The fact that she recognized a Distance produced in such tiny numbers was surprising.
"Yes! Of course—I'm an artifact fanatic! I read books all the time, look things up online, dig through communities, take them apart—I've got tons of knowledge!"
"Is there a way to unlock this Distance?"
I was good at combat and fighting, not the internal structure of artifacts. Even in the novel, artifact structure only got a few short sentences, so Herisia being an artifact geek was a stroke of luck.
In the end, a Distance was just another artifact made with magic stones.
"Hmm... this one's... pretty tough. They designed it so nothing inside can be accessed unless you channel the previous user's mana. You could smash the Distance, but you'd never extract the internal data."
When I looked disappointed, she continued.
"But the devices inside are useful! It's packed with anti-tracking magic. Security-wise, this is top-tier."
"So what? I can't even use it. An artifact you can't use is trash."
"Huh? You can factory reset it. Just reset it and use it!"
"..."
When I stared at her without a word, she spoke as if I were being absurd.
"Wait, you were just going to throw this away? This precious thing? Why not reset it and use it instead?"
"It's a Distance the enemies had. There's a risk of being tracked."
"No! Absolutely not. Even the people who made this can't track it. It's a bit hard to explain, but physically tracking is completely impossible."
"I don't know how to reset it."
Unlike a normal Distance, Feredin's had the basic reset function locked. Probably so that whoever got their hands on it couldn't just use it freely.
"Don't worry—leave it to me! I can finally start earning my keep!"
Herisia beamed at me with a booming voice. I told her,
"Then I'll leave the reset to you."
"Yes! I've got the related artifacts in my bag, so just wait a bit and I'll reset it for you. I'm glad I'm useful for something. From now on, if you get anything like this, bring it to me! I'll tell you everything about it!"
Whatever had her so excited, Herisia practically bounced over to the corner and rummaged through her bag. I spoke to her quietly.
"You're not going to ask who I fought, or why?"
"...If they were near the bunker, they were probably looters. I didn't think I needed to ask. It's been weeks already since monsters started coming out of the gates. Even I ran into people who tried to pull something dirty, people who came at me with knives to steal the food in my backpack. That's how it is. When things get like this, humanity's ugly nature comes out."
Herisia's eyes grew cold and still.
Something seemed to come back to her; she shook her head with a look of disgust.
"Before this Red Gate incident even started, Leos, you risked your life closing gates for people without asking for anything in return. That was more than five years ago now... If someone who devoted himself to people like that fought someone that savagely, of course there had to be a reason."
"I never worked for free as a Gatekeeper. I took every bit of the pay."
I answered gruffly, feeling awkward at the praise. She gave a small laugh.
"You closed almost every gate in the country by yourself—of course you should get paid well. But you also helped people who got lost in gates, people hurt by monsters nearby, right? The mission was clearing and sealing gates. If you'd only been after money, you would've ignored those people. That's the unpaid devotion I was talking about."
"..."
Herisia had already laid out devices from her bag and was fiddling with them as she spoke.
"Do you know why I started posting on places like the Leos Gallery? I got help from you once, too."
"I don't remember."
It wasn't a lie. The number of people I had saved as a Gatekeeper easily topped thousands. Remembering every face from life-or-death emergencies was basically impossible.
"It's fine if you don't remember! What matters is that I do."
"Can you tell me what happened? If you describe the situation, it might come back."
She paused, then shook her head with a sad expression.
"Later. Remember it yourself, Leos. Okay?"
Looking into her sorrowful eyes, I said nothing more. Staring blankly at the ceiling, I heard the clatter of Herisia working her devices.
Must've been something bad.
I decided not to dig any deeper into her private business. Hearing that much put me somewhat at ease. She didn't seem to be following me for no reason.
Nothing was more frightening or suspicious than a human's unreasoned kindness. But if there was a reason, nothing was more welcome.
From Feredin's reaction, the Empire definitely doesn't know my exact location. I cleaned up the bodies thoroughly, and I confirmed he never contacted anyone on the Distance, so it'll take the Empire at least a few days to figure out what happened. Unless they call or text my old Distance, they have no way of knowing where I am. For now, better to stay hidden inside and watch the situation than move around and show myself for no reason.
Having finished my assessment, I told Herisia,
"I'm going to sleep for a bit. Wake me if anything happens."
"Yes! Will do!"
I looked up at the empty bunker ceiling and fell asleep.
The world had collapsed, but that night I slept more peacefully than ever. The burden that had always tormented me—I have to save the world, I have to save the people—was gone.
Keltazar, commander of the Imperial Shadow Group, spoke.
"Any word from Feredin?"
"None yet. The tracking seems to be taking considerable time."
"They say no news is good news. I'm looking forward to it—watching that parasite Leos dragged in with an arm or a leg missing. Once we bring him here, we'll make it crystal clear what happens when you abandon the Empire and run."
Belin, listening nearby, spoke to Keltazar.
"Commander. It's taking longer than expected to bring Leos in, so I think we need to at least temporarily re-establish the Gate Management Headquarters and start operating. The citizens are already heaping criticism on us for essentially abandoning the Red Gates."
"Ah, don't worry about that."
Keltazar answered, then gave a light wave of his hand. Personnel waiting behind him began to step forward one by one.
Knights in plate armor, every one of them radiating tremendous power.
"These are the new Gate Management Headquarters personnel the Empire has selected. They're volunteers from among the knights. That street-rat Leos managed to clear gates splendidly enough, so these men—raised from the start in the Empire's embrace, trained by the Empire itself—will smash the Red Gates even more brilliantly. Sealing can wait until we capture Leos. For now, clearing will be their job."
Keltazar addressed the man at the front of the armored ranks.
"Tepirion. Your mission is to clear the Red Gates. Can you handle it properly?"
Tepirion smiled thinly, as if the answer were obvious.
"I've heard the former Gatekeeper Chief Leos was a thoroughly inadequate parasite. There's a world of difference between a man who's only ever hunted monsters without ever truly setting foot on a battlefield, and knights who've fought countless wars and gained real combat experience. Even someone who's never killed a single person managed it—are you saying we can't? Even if we can't seal the gates, once we kill every monster inside, the place stays empty for twenty-four hours. I'll shatter ten Red Gates within a day and return."
Tepirion gripped his sword and continued.
"Without needing the help of some piece of trash who abandoned the Empire and fled, we will show everyone ourselves that our Empire stands firm!"
A grotesque crackling began to echo from a Red Gate.
Crack... crackle...
Immediately after, the system's warning message blared in every direction.