The Answer Only One Doesn't Know (4)

It was a good thing I'd confirmed the Boss's location ahead of time.

I thought as I cut through the darkness.

If I panicked over a blackout and failed to protect my employer, I might as well hand in my mercenary badge.

(Not that a physical mercenary badge actually exists.)

In the span of a few heartbeats, my mechanical eye implant registered the darkness and switched to night vision.

I wasn't the only one, it seemed—others nearby lit up their own optical implants and began sizing up the situation.

But.

I didn't slow my sprint.

I'd pulled off surprise attacks using the same playbook plenty of times, so I knew incidents like this rarely ended with just a blackout.

Ominous premonitions were never wrong.

I grabbed the Boss, who was watching the entrance warily. Carrying the momentum of my sprint, I threw myself forward as if collapsing.

- Kwaaang!!

You could tell just from the sound.

The ceiling had collapsed.

A dazzling beam of light shot down through the hole in the ceiling.

A light output that had to be hundreds of thousands of lumens flooded the pitch-black party hall once more.

A blackout, then light.

It was a classic but effective method for neutralizing most eye implants.

I didn't bother turning around to confirm the attackers' appearances.

More pressing than that—

- Tududududu!!!

—was blocking the hail of bullets.

I grabbed the Boss by the nape of the neck and pressed them flat against the floor. The startled Boss let out a small groan, but it was immediately swallowed by the thunderous gunfire.

In a life-or-death moment, there was no time to worry about etiquette.

Behind us, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I'd already shaped a small defensive barrier from mana.

It wouldn't hold up against most standard bullet types, but since there was always the chance of something unexpected, minimizing our exposed surface area was ideal.

The attackers' target was apparently everyone in the party hall.

Screams erupted from all directions amid the thick clouds of dust and smoke, but the gunfire that followed showed no sign of letting up.

- ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Ting, ting.

I heard bullets ricocheting behind me.

A chill shot down my spine before I could stop it.

Making money in this cyberpunk world was this damn hard.

Eventually.

Had a few minutes passed by my reckoning?

The storm of bullets gradually began to subside.

Yeah, if they'd fired that intensely, they'd have to go through a cooling cycle at least once.

I slowly finished preparing to cast magic.

33. The Answer Only One Person Doesn't Know (4)

"...Cyber Force, Riot Suppression Team."

"That's what it looks like."

The circumstantial evidence suggested as much.

From the drones that fired intense beams of light, to the bipedal robots capable of sustaining concentrated firepower over long periods—

Groups capable of deploying assets like these weren't common, even in this city.

I carefully looked around.

Besides us, no one else seemed to have survived.

"......."

The Boss appeared lost in contemplation, gazing down at the Riot Suppression Team robot I had destroyed.

Honestly, speculating about the forces behind this right now was pointless.

There were too many possibilities.

The robot system could have gone berserk, or someone could have hacked it and taken control. It was even possible that the city itself had orchestrated this because they wanted the brokers gone.

The Boss, who had been staring down at the broken robot, now moved to check the bodies of the people around us.

"...No matter how detestable I found them, these weren't the kind of people who deserved to go like this."

To be honest, I didn't know any of these faces, so I couldn't really say.

Still, it was hard to see the man who had greeted me just moments ago—someone I'd at least exchanged brief pleasantries with—lying there dead.

I forcibly cut off those feelings and spoke to the Boss.

"Let's move for now."

"...We should."

The Boss started walking toward the exit.

I stopped them in their tracks.

"Hold on."

"...Hmm?"

The Boss looked back at me.

"What's wrong? If we're going to escape anyway, it's best to leave together with the security personnel stationed outside—ah."

And then the Boss stopped mid-sentence.

Looks like they'd caught on.

Perhaps it was because their life had been threatened.

I could see their composure was visibly shaken.

I pointed at the floor and spoke.

"With this kind of commotion breaking out here, they're probably not in good shape out there either. And if they were, they'd have already entered the party hall."

I cautiously speculated that the earlier blackout must have been the signal for the operation.

"...Then what do we do?"

"Getting out of this room is the priority."

"How?"

I raised the finger that had been pointing at the floor and redirected it toward the hole in the ceiling.

The blue night sky was visible beyond it.

"Through the ceiling."

Any mercenary worth their salt had to be able to think fluidly. A hole had been punched in the ceiling, so escaping through the ceiling was the correct move.

"......How?"

This time, the Boss's muttered "How" carried a different weight than before.

Given that this was a space used for parties, the ceiling was very high. A considerable distance.

I nodded lightly, as if to tell them not to worry about a thing.

Never expected to use the magic I'd honed by flinging alleyway scavengers into the sky in this way.

"You don't have acrophobia, do you?"

* * *

As it turned out, the Boss of No Answer did not have acrophobia.

"......."

Still, they seemed dissatisfied with the speed, I suppose. I had tried to go as slowly as possible.

I could feel a glare boring into me from behind.

No matter how well I could use mana to control the wind, making someone float in the air as if hovering was nearly impossible.

It absolutely wasn't because it was too difficult and I couldn't pull it off.

...They aren't thinking I deliberately whipped up a whirlwind and sent them flying, are they?

It worried me for no good reason.

"Over here."

At the Boss's words, I changed direction. I moved slowly, keeping my back close to the building's wall.

I'd thought we might get lost since the mansion grounds were incredibly vast.

But the Boss said they'd brought the mansion layout map in a data module. Thanks to that, there was no pointless wandering around the grounds.

It would have been ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠nice if we could at least call the police.

But because this was a situation where the city itself might be involved, I didn't even attempt it. It could just end up giving away our location for nothing.

Speaking of which.

I turned around and asked the Boss.

"Did you try contacting your subordinates?"

"...In the Upper Layer? No way."

Well, that made sense.

That was why I'd left behind the rescue signal emitter Drex had given me, too.

Though, honestly, if it were those guys, they'd probably smash through every last city security force standing in their way to come rescue me.

And that, in its own way, was something I wanted to avoid.

In the end, I had no choice but to escape using my own strength.

Thankfully, we didn't run into any other forces while crossing the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠mansion grounds. This was one area where the mansion's vastness was actually a blessing.

Just then, the Boss stopped in front of a massive perimeter wall.

"It's here."

"Here?"

"If we get over this, we'll reach the parking lot."

Oh.

But still, just in case.

I surreptitiously placed my hand against the wall.

I gently drew up mana.

Closing my eyes, I roughly mapped out the signals outside, like a sonar pulse.

"...No people. I think there's a vehicle, but from a rough scan, it doesn't seem to be an aerial one."

At my words, the Boss nodded.

To the Boss, it must have looked like I was simply placing my palm against the wall, but they showed no sign of suspicion.

"Heave-ho."

Once again, I used the wind to scale and cross the perimeter wall. It really did seem like there was no risk of thieves breaking into the Upper Layer. Just how many meters high was this damn wall?

The parking lot was incredibly vast, but in stark contrast, only one vehicle was in sight.

Something felt a bit unsettling.

But I didn't pay it much mind.

We followed the holographic parking lines and quickened our pace.

We stopped in front of a black SUV.

"But can you drive? It doesn't look like a vehicle you arranged in advance."

"Hacking chip."

The Boss said, pulling out an unfamiliar device from inside their jacket.

You've got the makings of a grand car thief, I see.

There were no signs of people around, so it looked like we could just get in the car and get out of here.

"......."

But why was I so uneasy?

"Um—."

I tried to call out and stop the Boss as they were about to get in the car.

Just then.

I saw something flying in from the sky.

In an instant, time slowed down for me.

Thankfully, there was some distance.

We'd avoided the worst-case scenario.

Just like when I first learned magic, I urgently gathered mana without a thought for the danger.

Would I die from my mana bursting, or die from getting hit by a missile?

The outcome was the same either way.

I grabbed the Boss as they were trying to get in the car. I wrapped myself around them, shielding them in my arms as I threw myself to the ground, then used defensive magic to envelop both our bodies entirely.

From here on, it was in the hands of the heavens.

The Boss looked back at me with a bewildered expression, but even that appeared in slow motion.

Sigh, fuck.

- Kwa──!

My vision was dyed pure white.

An impact that rattled my internal organs shook the earth.

This is seriously insane.

- ─Aaaaaang!!!

* * *

...Huh.

Am I alive?

.......

I am alive.

I gingerly raised my head.

I checked that all my limbs were still attached and functioning properly.

No idea how far I'd been blown, honestly.

Was this the greatness of magic? It felt like I'd flown at least several dozen meters.

It seemed I'd rolled across the ground dozens of times too—my body was covered in scratches everywhere. Still, nothing looked broken.

The Boss, who had been in my arms, thankfully looked in even better shape than me.

Honestly, if it weren't for a negative trait like Tender Skin, I probably wouldn't even have any scratches myself....

Anyway.

The Boss appeared to have briefly lost consciousness.

I could understand that.

I never expected to get hit by a missile in my life either.

Still, we had to move.

I ignored the bone-rattling pain and stood up from where I was.

The missile that had just flown at us confirmed it.

The attack from someone targeting the Boss wasn't over yet.

Either way, the good news was that the missile had come from further away than I'd thought.

Had they perhaps discovered the Riot Suppression Team robot I'd neutralized? I could sense a note of caution behind the missile they'd fired.

First, let's get away from this spot.

I moved my creaking machine joints and tried to lift the unconscious Boss up.

.......

To be precise, I tried to lift them up.

"Ah."

This was a problem.

I couldn't lift them because they were too heavy.

* * *

"So that's what happened back then...?"

"Ah."

So I hadn't told them this part.

At Natasha's question, I averted my gaze.