Chapter 167: Nehru the Black Cat
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 167: Nehru the Black Cat
The back alleys of District 14 were always filled with acrid smoke.
The wind blew from west to east, and the humans swimming through the air were not free from its current. The stench, the dust, and all the indescribable filth that people exhaled flowed with the wind, eastward and outward.
The massive incinerator in District 14 was the final destination for all that refuse.
When large automaton carriages, laden with trash, rolled in, they followed the road and dumped their contents into a giant pit. Then, laborers, their appearance no different from the trash itself, would approach. They burned what needed to be burned and packed what needed to be buried into containers, sending them off on the Meta Conveyor Belt.
Occasionally, a decaying corpse would turn up in the heaps of garbage. The laborers would gag, but they sent it into the incinerator all the same.
The reason was simple. Corpses burn.
About forty-five minutes later, the smell of grilling meat would mingle with the jet-black stench.
A single, clear drop of liquid would form on the lips of a laborer who caught the scent. Was it saliva, or stomach acid?
It was the rough exhale of the massive city, the harsh cigarette smoked by a storm-weary Amitengrad.
In a building with a clear view of the incinerator, where the once-brilliant glories and glittering dreams of the past were impartially and cruelly scorched…
The Umbra, Wolfen, sat in a chair and muttered grimly.
“…I have seen true darkness.”
Wolfen Fenshtein.
The evil of the past, hidden within the shadows of the Military State, was murmuring in an even more melancholic tone.
“Be humble. We are shadows. The light is our enemy, and true darkness will swallow even the shadow. We must know our place and be cautious.”
At his words, the Seventh Penumbra shot to his feet and shouted.
“Umbra! How can you, who are meant to lead us, be so frightened!”
Wolfen looked at the Seventh with dull eyes. The Seventh Penumbra spoke, his ears and tail held ramrod straight.
“In your absence, we suffered from internal strife. Because your heart had not stopped, we lost our center. We could not unite, and instead scattered into hiding, slowly withering away! Now that you have returned, you must reward our patience!”
“And how do you wish for me to reward you?”
“Gather the Penumbras. Make a plan and restore our former glory! Umbra, this is something only you can do, and something only you must do!”
The resounding shout echoed loudly through the empty meeting room.
Was it a direct criticism, a loyal remonstrance, or simply a release of frustration from years of waiting? The Seventh, having spoken so forcefully to the Umbra, was panting heavily.
Yet Wolfen showed no anger or agitation, merely staring at the Seventh with his dull, sunken eyes.
“Seventh. Have you seen Tantalus?”
“…I have not. But it is, at best, a prison made by the Military State.”
“No. Tantalus is not merely a prison.”
The Seventh shivered as he met Wolfen’s emotionless gaze.
In his days as a Shadow of the Kingdom, Wolfen had been a heartless demon.
As the tyrant of the back alleys, he would slaughter entire families without a change in expression. He had once assassinated a renowned knight simply for breaking a contract.
But no one could stop him.
Wolfen was a shadow. When night fell and the kingdom was cloaked in darkness, he was nowhere and everywhere at once. The Penumbras never dared to doubt his power and obeyed him without question.
After he was captured by the Military State and imprisoned in Tantalus, that fear had weathered with time, but…
“That place… it was an arena of demons, a collection of beings that could not be contained by anything less than the Abyss itself. My blood was not my own, and the darkness was not on my side. Power, weapons, life, will. Even faith betrayed me… It was a horrific place where common sense was twisted and power was entangled.”
He now seemed like an enlightened man, and the Seventh felt a fear born from that dissonance.
It was not terror, but a fear and awe for a being who had been reborn into something unknown.
“There, I was able to reflect on myself. How insignificant and pathetic this existence is compared to the real monsters. You could say I learned my place in front of them.”
His eyes, at a glance, seemed clear and transparent, as if all the malice and venom had settled during his twenty years in Tantalus.
But it had only been separated, top from bottom. Deeper in Wolfen’s heart, a stickier, thicker malevolence was churning.
“The red-haired devil asked me to go with him. He offered me a chance to change the world. But I… chose to be the head of a cat rather than the tail of a tiger. I refused his offer and returned here… I will be content as the ruler of this trivial city.”
The Seventh could bear it no longer and slammed his fist on the desk.
“Umbra! Watch your tongue. Are you saying we are cats?!”
“Less than that, Seventh.”
The Seventh flinched.
The voice that had, just a moment ago, come from the chair at the head of the table was now whispering right beside his ear.
Startled, the Seventh was about to raise his arm when a jet-black blade shot out, tearing through the darkness.
Thwump.
The blade that emerged from the shadow tore into the Seventh’s chest. It made a dry, simple sound. The Seventh’s eyes flew open.
“Seventh. It seems much time has passed. Where is the body that was withered with hatred? All that’s left is a fattened beast… How is it? Did your family welcome you back?”
“Gah…! Wh-why?”
Wolfen answered him.
“I discovered that you had joined the Family. What, are you worried about them? Afraid I might attack those things that are not quite human? Did they truly become your family?”
The Seventh’s eyes widened. At the same time, his ears and tail shot up stiffly, his entire body betraying a terror that went beyond pain and fear.
“N-No way. Umbra, you… me…”
“A full day of tailing was enough…”
“N-No.”
“There is no ‘no.’ Nothing is impossible in this world. Impossibility is just a line arbitrarily drawn by those in power. There is no reason for us, the shadows, to follow it.”
Squish.
The sound that had been dry when the blade went in was now wet as it was pulled out. A splash of red stained the darkness. The Seventh stared at the wound in his chest and staggered back.
His strength finally giving out, the Seventh swayed, about to collapse.
But just as he was about to fall, he shone with the Star of the State and suddenly lunged at Wolfen. He moved with a ferocious intensity, as if he didn't care about the blood pouring from his chest.
“Graaaaaaaah—!”
Sharp claws tore at Wolfen. Not stopping there, the Seventh, having unleashed the Star of the State, swung his arms again and again, as if to rip Wolfen to shreds.
The chair caught in the trajectory shattered, and the desk split and collapsed. An overwhelming, powerful force tore through the meeting room.
However.
“Beasts. So foolish.”
The blade reappeared, protruding from the Seventh’s chest once more.
Perhaps it was a fatal wound, or perhaps it was because his all-out attack had been for naught. The Seventh Penumbra put up no further resistance, only coughing up blood from the hole in his chest.
A stealth technique that could deceive even a beastkin, renowned for their keen senses.
Wolfen pulled out the dagger. This time, the Seventh truly fell to his knees. Wolfen, who had melted into the shadows, reappeared before the Seventh and murmured.
“Fade away, Seventh. Do not worry. The shadow’s blade will not harm your family…”
Muttering this, Wolfen left the meeting room without so much as a glance at the Seventh. Though he walked on the hard concrete floor, his footsteps were as silent as if he were walking on a carpet.
“…Because this nation, its Taboo exposed, will crush them in my stead.”
Creeak.
As the dead man’s life flowed out, the door closed with a metallic groan.
*
When the Kingdom fell and the Military State rose, the beastkin held great expectations. A hope that the evil customs of the old era would vanish and that they would be treated as equals made their ears perk up.
But it only proved that changing people’s perceptions is harder than changing a nation.
Even as the remnants of the Kingdom disappeared and the Military State extended its power, discrimination against beastkin remained. People still shunned them, and their crime rate was higher than that of non-beastkin.
Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Did they lose trust because they committed crimes, or did those who were cornered for no reason have no other choice but to turn to crime?
Whatever the reason, the beastkin banded together to fight the oppression.
That was the background behind the formation of the beastkin organization known as the Family.
“…The brother we sent to infiltrate was found as a corpse.”
Jet-black hair, with ears and a tail to match. Dark circles were settled heavily under one of her eyes. She wore a patch over the other, which, combined with her distinctly black-cat-like features, emphasized a decadent air.
Even among the beastkin-only Family, she had inherited the most beastly traits. She was the leader of the action team and the face of the organization, their representative.
The editor-in-chief of ‘Black Cat,’ one of the few private magazines in the Military State, a paparazzo who dug up nothing but gossip. And a loyal informant to the Military State.
Nehru, wearing a one-piece dress, sat across from me, sipping fruit juice.
“He was one of our stronger brothers, too. Hmm. Such a shame. What do you think, darling?”
So, she’s saying the asset they had hidden away was discovered and killed. Right.
My mind was made up.
“Wow. Scary. I should run. See you.”
“Darling, where are you going?”
The moment I made to stand, Nehru instantly extended her claws and grabbed my clothes. Above the table, a hole was torn in my sleeve; below it, sharp claws pulled at my pant leg.
Is this an interview or a threat?
“Darling. If you’ve heard the information, you have to pay the price, right?”
“I never asked you to tell me.”
I read your mind the moment you sat down.
Your comrade, who was part of the old Kingdom’s Shadow and joined the Family after the Kingdom fell, was killed by a bad guy.
Reading your thoughts, I see that comrade was a master who had even achieved Heaven and Earth. And he was killed without being able to put up a fight?
Just how strong is this Tantalus escapee, Wolfen? What kind of monsters were living in Tantalus?
Tsk. I don’t want to fight. I’m weak in one-on-one fights.
For the record, I’m a complete novice in one-vs-many fights, and my pride won’t allow many-vs-one.
Therefore, there’s nothing I can do.
I was about to flee out of fear, but Nehru held on tight and wouldn’t let go.
Nehru replied with a faint smile.
“I know that. But, magicians don’t exchange information unless you do this, right?”
“You call this an exchange? This is force-feeding me and then making me puke it back up.”
“We call that an exchange.”
These guys are definitely a factor in why beastkin have such a bad reputation. Especially me. My beastkin-hate meter is rising again today.
In any case, I was also in a position of using the Family, so I couldn’t just push them away. I sighed and sat back down.
“Honestly, I don’t know anything. It’s only been three days since I got back to Amitengrad.”
I’m on day three in Amitengrad. My knowledge level is no different from that of a newborn baby born three days ago…
That was my meaning, but Nehru’s one eye sparkled with interest instead.
“Ah, that’s another one of our Family’s shared questions. Darling, how did you get caught by the Military Police? Did the monkey fall from the tree for once?”
“You pretty much know. That bastard Anton betrayed me. I was captured without being able to lift a finger.”
“That’s not what I mean. It wouldn’t have been easy, but with your skills, couldn’t you have slipped away somewhere in the middle?”
What a joke.
Two military policemen guarded me at all times, and I was usually in a straitjacket. The only times I was out of it were in a courtroom packed with soldiers.
Even if I can read minds and have some sleight of hand, my physical specs are those of an ordinary person. I can’t get out of a straitjacket on my own, and I don’t have the strength to beat down all those soldiers. My capture was inevitable.
But if I tell her the truth, she’ll look down on me, and being looked down on is an act of shortening my own lifespan.
I put on a full display of bravado.
“If I broke out, I’d immediately be wanted as a major criminal. Life gets tough when you’re a major criminal, so I just figured it was bad luck and decided to do the labor.”
“Wow. A magician really is different, huh?”
‘Huhu. A big shot is a big shot. He talks as if escaping would be easy if he just put his mind to it.’
If I could do it just by putting my mind to it, I’d have done it a dozen times over. You think that’s possible?
Even escape artists aren’t asked to perform with their hands tied and blindfolded. Magicians are people, too. It’s not that I’m incompetent; the Military State was just too much.
Was it because I bluffed too much? Nehru, full of hot air, praised me to the skies.
“Did you know? Right when you were captured, there was a jailbreak at Tantalus. When I first heard the news, I thought the Military State had finally lost its mind and thrown you in there. I couldn’t think of anyone else who could incite the prisoners of Tantalus to escape.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. The timing doesn’t even match.”
“Huhu. That’s right. You were captured after the Tantalus jailbreak. It’s a shame, but the chance for you to put on a Tantalus escape show is gone.”
“I wouldn’t wish for it.”
That was from the heart.
I tried escaping once and almost died. Do you know what a battle where the ground flips, the sky splits, and a mountain of corpses collapses is like? If I did that twice, I wouldn’t have a life left to live.
‘Hmm. I guess flattery doesn’t work well on him?’
It’s not flattery, it’s the wisdom of experience.
Just don’t go to Tantalus in the first place, please.
“So. Is that all you wanted to ask?”
“Of course not. That was just the appetizer. The real question… is this.”
Tap.
Nehru placed a short memo on the table. A short phrase was written on the corner of a small handkerchief, like embroidery.
-Taboo of the Military State. They intend to stir it. Investigation needed.
“This was his last message. We lost contact right after this, and when we checked, he was found dead in a building in District 14.”
“My condolences.”
“Thanks, but could you offer your condolences in the form of a monetary gift? I’ll make a special exception and let you pay with information.”
Tch, she didn’t fall for it.
“What information?”
Nehru asked with a captivating smile.
“The Taboo of the Military State.”
“The Taboo of the Military State?”
“How about it. Know anything, darling?”
“Well…”
I drew out my words.
Because I didn’t know? No, because I knew too much.
This damn country has so many taboos that just last night, a walking taboo slept in my house. A taboo so secret that the person in question was obligated to commit suicide the moment their identity was known.
Even the Abyss was part of a taboo. I think they planned to use it as some kind of war trigger. That’s why they were so serious about information control.
Knowing too much is also a problem. Even if she says ‘taboo,’ I need to know which one she’s talking about to answer.
The information broker’s dilemma.
“Haa. You don’t know either?”
“It’s hard to pick just one.”
“I’d prefer it if you told me everything.”
“Then the math doesn’t add up for me.”
“So stingy. Are we like that?”
“Oh, right. We weren’t close, were we? Come to think of it, I don’t need to offer condolences. Bye.”
Whoosh, thwack.
This time, I anticipated the hands and feet Nehru would extend and brushed them aside. I twisted my arm to push away the back of her hand and gently stepped on her rising foot a half-beat early.
Having done that, I quickly stood up, intending to leave without any lingering attachment. I had read everything with my mind-reading, so there was no more business to attend to.
You guys are all tapped out.
That is, until I heard her words.
“Darling, I hear you’re living with an officer these days?”
When I slowly turned my head, Nehru was beaming, like someone who had just found a weakness.