The Answer Only One Doesn't Know (5)
Inside the speeding vehicle.
A flat, mechanical female voice droned from the car's speakers.
《We bring you a news update for Platinum District residents. Reports indicate an explosion has occurred on the 'Sky-High Way,' the district's outer ring road. Law-abiding citizens residing nearby are advised to stay clear of the area.》
The blonde woman in the passenger seat, who had been sitting with a worried expression, turned toward the driver and spoke up.
"Branden, honey. Did you hear that broadcast? Something's happened. Is it really okay to keep going this way?"
"Oh..., Cindy. It's absolutely fi─ne. If not now, when the roads have cleared out like this, when else are we going to get to speed through here?"
The man, Branden, waved his hand dismissively, as if to brush aside her concern.
But only for a moment.
Perhaps because driving itself still wasn't entirely familiar to him, he soon gripped the steering wheel tightly with both hands again.
Branden kept talking, forcing a natural tone to mask his unease.
"Besides, we'll be late to the party if we don't take this route. You trust me, don't you? When I say it's fine, it's fine."
And even if some kind of problem did arise.
There wasn't a soul who could say a word against him—the fifth child of a sibling of the heir to the Mega Corp that ruled Neon City.
Branden acted as though he were deliberately taking it easy.
Once again, he let go of the wheel and swept his hair back smoothly.
He almost seemed drunk on the image of himself behind the wheel with his lover at his side.
"See, the road's completely empty t─."
The moment Branden resumed speaking.
A human figure appeared in the middle of the road.
"...Fuck!!"
Branden spat out a curse and slammed on the brakes.
It was a stroke of luck that the vehicle was a four-wheeler. He'd bought it out of vanity, but if he'd been flying low in an aerial vehicle, he never would have been able to stop.
"Kyaaahk!!"
- Skreeeech─!!
The vehicle screeched to a halt just before striking the figure.
'What kind of lunatic...!'
He wasn't used to holding back.
Branden, his temper flaring to the top of his head, threw open the car door and stormed outside.
"Hey, you crazy bastard! Are you on drugs?"
But his outburst was short-lived.
Branden froze in his tracks the moment he got a clear look at the person on the road.
The man's entire body was drenched in blood.
'Did I hit him...? No. I definitely stopped before making contact! Then what the hell is this? Fuck, Dad said he'd cut off my credits if I caused another accident...!'
Branden's thoughts tangled into a frantic knot.
A strange man who looked like an extra straight out of a third-rate zombie movie shuffled slowly toward Branden.
Blood dripped down with every step.
Terrified, Branden spoke to the man in a shaky voice.
"Uh, about the insurance—the company I'm with─."
"Sorry, but I need to borrow your car for a moment."
"......Excuse me?"
33. The Answer Only One Doesn't Know (5)
Natasha, the Boss of No Answer, carefully opened her eyes, a faint dizziness washing over her.
'......Where am I?'
Inside a vehicle.
But it looked nothing like the black SUV she had tried to get into.
If anything, it resembled a flashy high-performance racing car—the kind a chaebol family's youngest son would cruise around in.
Before Natasha's hazy consciousness could fully surface, the voice of the Mage she had hired came from beside her.
"Ah, you're awake."
"What on earth happened─."
Natasha stopped mid-sentence.
The state of Lee Si-woon, the Mage at the wheel, was nothing like the last image of him she remembered.
Uncharacteristically, Natasha found herself asking about that first, her voice trembling.
"......You're in unbelievably bad shape."
Everything Lee Si-woon's hands touched was coated in thick, vivid red, as if drenched in paint.
Blood was still dripping down along the steering wheel he gripped.
Perhaps because of that, Lee Si-woon's complexion looked noticeably ashen.
Natasha, who had field experience from long ago, could tell. The very fact that Lee Si-woon was driving at all in this state struck her as astonishing.
In truth, Lee Si-woon's breathing was painfully ragged.
He looked as though he'd just finished some grueling physical ordeal.
Natasha finished surveying the scene.
Now that she looked, her own arms and legs were covered in blood, too. But it wasn't from any wound. Nothing hurt, either.
Which meant.
It told her that Lee Si-woon had moved her while his entire body was soaked in blood.
'How on earth, with injuries like that.......'
Natasha looked at Lee Si-woon again, her eyes filled with worry.
"Ah, you mean this?"
But contrary to Natasha's concern, Lee Si-woon kept his eyes fixed ahead and answered in a perfectly calm tone.
"It's nothing. They're all just scratches."
There was no way that was true.
Yet Natasha found it hard to react to that answer.
Lee Si-woon himself surely knew better than anyone that his condition was critical.
But still.
What was his intention in deliberately telling her he was fine at a time like this?
"......."
Faced with that consideration toward her, Natasha found it terribly difficult to say anything at all.
She was simply mortified by the heat rising to her own cheeks—completely failing to read the room.
* * *
I'm seriously about to fucking die of exhaustion here.
I fought to keep the breath burning in my throat from showing on my face.
Securing a vehicle was incredibly lucky.
A working car just happened to pass by on the road.
And that car just happened to not be self-driving.
If it had been self-driving, I would've had to use magic to stop it, so it was a relief that a human-driven car was easy to flag down.
But.
The real struggle started from there.
Just getting the Boss—whom I'd briefly stashed in the bushes—into the car was an ordeal in itself.
- 'Keuuuk.... Fucking heavy.'
I tried grabbing her by the ankle and dragging her.
- 'Boss, wake up. Boss!'
Undignified as it was, I even resorted to slapping the Boss's cheek a few times to rouse her.
(That's why the Boss's cheek is red right now.)
Honestly, I really wanted to use magic to load her into the car, or to jolt her unconscious mind awake.
But that wasn't so easy either, thanks to that minor issue known as my control problems.
In the end, after enduring hardships I can hardly put into words, I managed to get the Boss (by dragging her) into the vehicle.
Anyway.
She'd been out so cold she could've passed for dead, yet the moment I sat her in the passenger seat, she came to....
.......
At this point, I couldn't help harboring the reasonable suspicion that she'd just been pretending to be unconscious the whole time.
As if she'd read my disgruntled thoughts.
The Boss was looking at me with a somewhat dazed expression. Seeing that she was still groggy, it didn't seem like she'd fully regained her senses yet.
Mm.
Anyway, the blood won't stop.
It's because of the traits that make up this trash body of mine. 'Tender Skin,' 'Slow Recovery,' 'Frailty,' 'Feebleness,' and so on.
It was embarrassing that just a few scratches made me look like I'd sprinted straight out of a war zone.
Of course, it was true that a situation of excessive bleeding could actually happen, but seeing the Boss—who'd been through the same wringer as me—perfectly fine kind of stung a little.
Anyway, the Boss was awake now.
It was time to start figuring out our next move.
I spoke to the Boss while keeping my eyes on the road.
"First, I've got two pieces of bad news."
"......Is your condition really that bad?"
"No, I'm genuinely fine."
She never believes a word you say.
I brushed aside the Boss fussing over my condition and pressed on with the explanation I'd meant to give.
"First, as you can probably guess from the fact that someone fired a missile at us, it seems the pursuit—specifically of you, Boss—isn't over yet."
Honestly, whoever launched that missile at us probably assumes we didn't walk away alive and well, but.
It's always right to plan for the worst-case scenario.
"......Missile?"
Ah, the Boss must not have seen it.
That was possible.
I shrugged my shoulders lightly.
"Yes, a missile. Honestly, I didn't expect to survive taking a direct hit from a missile either, so it's a relief I got off with just this much."
With that, I shifted to the next piece of news.
"The second piece of bad news is that it's become far more likely the city is involved in this attack."
I'd turned on the radio a little earlier out of boredom.
A broadcast was reporting on the missile explosion and the gunfire, trying to pass it all off as a simple 'explosion accident.'
Actually, it was strange from the start that the NCPD hadn't dispatched anyone yet, despite all that racket going on out here.
"So I think it might be difficult to get down to the lower layer through the access gates."
"...If what you're saying is true, then that would be the case."
It is true.
I was also a bit disappointed that this car I'd briefly borrowed wasn't an aerial vehicle.
If it had been an aerial vehicle, I could've just shaken off any pursuit drones while making our escape.
Well, anyway.
For now, the objective of getting back to 'No Answer' in the lower layer was clear.
Only after securing at least minimal protection could the Boss then handle things, whether through negotiation or some other route.
Of course, if the absolute worst-case scenario arrived, there was a potential escape method we could try.
But speaking of it might will it into reality, so I deliberately kept that method to myself.
And if she was the Boss of No Answer, she'd have some escape plan of her own anyway.
For now, it seemed like we could just find somewhere to hide and lie low for a while─.
【This is an NCPD Platinum drone. Stop the vehicle. We will verify your identity. We inform you once again. Stop the vehicle.】
.......
I turned my head toward the source of the mechanical voice.
A massive drone was flying alongside us outside the window.
It wasn't just one; there seemed to be multiple units.
...Already on our tail?
Without even knowing how we'd moved?
That didn't make sense.
Unless there was some other factor at play, this wasn't one of the scenarios I'd anticipated.
【Vehicle number RFT-A0421P, your vehicle is currently listed as a reported stolen item. Failure to comply with instructions may result in the use of force.】
"Ah."
The sound slipped out before I knew it.
So they came because it was reported stolen.
Fortunately, our attackers hadn't succeeded in running us down. Of course, now that we'd been spotted by a police drone, it wouldn't be long before they did succeed.
.......
【Final warning. Stop the vehicle.】
The moment I heard those words.
I turned to the Boss and said,
"Hold on tight."
And then I stomped on the accelerator as if to crush it into the floor.
* * *
At the Golden Smile Condominium, the stories rich with memories continued.
"That was probably the first and last time in my life I ever sped that fast."
"It was definitely fast."
"Still, it might sound a little strange to say this, but the driving was kind of fun back then. So much so that afterward, I actually went and got a driver's license—something I'd had zero interest in before─."
"......You didn't have a license back then?"
"Ah."
That was supposed to be a secret, too.
I once again averted my gaze from Natasha.