The Deal (2)
The Silver Divine Cult.
Feeling stifled by her lack of progress, Virdel stepped out of the training chamber for a breath.
And it was right then that—
….
The Leader of the Murim Alliance? Who? Was there some fool left who still needed killing?
Ah….
She managed to dredge the memory up, barely.
She made her way toward the main hall, where the reception room was.
Descending from the training chamber perched high on the snowbound peak, she was greeted by a landscape utterly transformed from what she remembered.
Whooong— click—
Cult warriors soared through the air riding flat metal plates. In the training grounds that flashed past below, sparring matches crackled with sparks from glowing beam sabers, while off to the other side, marksmanship drills were in full swing.
Peew— peew—
Peew— peew—
"Hmm…."
Is this right? I have no idea.
All she had done was release a small portion of the Juddak's support into the cult.
"It should be fine."
He had granted it knowing full well what it would be used for.
And so the Silver Divine Cult was growing by leaps and bounds.
Mass-producing a futuristic mechanized infantry force… would that be the way to put it?
Murim folk, it turned out, were ideal material(?) for being thrown straight into the grinder.
The truth was, she had no idea what she was doing either. She had merely realized that she had zero talent for managing an organization.
It was only running smoothly thanks to the Juddak's support. She had already handed the bulk of the Silver Divine Cult's administration over to her Vice Cult Leader.
Ah…. right, he was the one Namgung Jin had recommended.
In fact, she had been so skeptical about expanding the sect at all that she'd seriously considered scrapping the whole thing — and that was when Namgung Jin had recommended this man, telling her to work him like an ox.
He'd supposedly been framed on false charges and cast out of his clan….
Yet this was a man who divined what she wanted with uncanny precision, took every tedious chore off her hands, and was expanding the Silver Divine Cult on his own initiative.
She didn't particularly demand loyalty from him, but he at least seemed unlikely to betray her, so she'd kept him on.
Well… if he did turn traitor, that was a problem she could deal with when it happened.
When she arrived at the reception room, Namgung Jin, clad in dazzling metallic armor, sprang to his feet. Perhaps it was a property of the armor, but a faint halo shimmered around him.
She had told him to tone it down, and he had toned it down. Presumably.
"You honor us with your presence! I, Namgung Jin, greet the Great Deputy Administrator!"
….
Accustomed to his theatrical flourishes, Virdel gave a perfunctory nod and settled onto the sofa.
"Mm. Your business?"
"Haha! I came to pay my respects to you, noona, but I also have a matter to report."
Knowing she despised empty ceremony and prized bluntness, he cut straight to the point.
"It seems the Bureau has begun to grow suspicious again."
"I seem to recall telling you to handle that yourself."
"Indeed. Of course."
The cult's explosive expansion had drawn wary eyes from the Bureau.
But this had been anticipated. Namgung Jin had publicly played up the hostile rivalry between the orthodox sects and the Silver Divine Cult, steering the Bureau's tiresome attention elsewhere.
Apparently even that had its limits.
"Why not just sweep them all away?"
At Virdel's flat, matter-of-fact remark, Namgung Jin flinched.
"Th… that—!"
This person before me would absolutely do it if she said she would…!
Looking back on himself, Namgung Jin no longer clung to grand convictions about upholding justice or practicing chivalry.
B-but still, that was going a bit far.
It wasn't that he thought he could oppose her. He simply believed that if another path was available to him, seeking it out was a human being's basic duty.
"Haha…. After all, they too are talents who will one day come under the Silver Divine Cult's banner, are they not? Allow me to handle that part personally. I will never trouble you with it, noona."
….
"I have come merely to report today as well, so please, trust me!"
"…Fine."
Only at her answer could Namgung Jin finally breathe easy.
Excellent. Today, I have saved the Jianghu.
Of course, the perceptive Namgung Jin let none of this show, offering only a crisp, composed farewell.
"I shall call upon you again when word arrives!"
"There's really no need to—"
Namgung Jin strove to show not the slightest lapse of care in how he treated her.
And he, too, understood without being told: in her eyes, he had not yet entered the ranks of 'her own people.'
To her, he was probably only marginally better than a pebble on the roadside.
Even though he occasionally visited to receive her personal instruction in the martial arts.
"Then I shall see you again soon, noona!"
One day she will open her heart to me!
Though naturally, his own self-preservation mattered just a bit more to him than the duties of the Jianghu.
"Is something the matter, noona?"
"…No."
After seeing off a puzzled Namgung Jin, Virdel returned to the training chamber.
[What's going on?]
[Where am I?!!]
[Kyaaaaah! My source… it's being pulled out!!]
Despite the voices ringing shrilly in her ears, Virdel said not a single word. She simply moved on in silence.
The one in a hurry wasn't her, after all — it was that voice.
Only after returning to the Cult Leader's private training chamber did Virdel speak.
"What are you?"
[Urk..!]
At Virdel's merciless, glacial response, bewilderment seeped into the woman's voice embedded in the armor.
Normally… shouldn't she be startled at this point, or curious? Not frightened, perhaps… but at the very least, interested?
Instead, that inhuman, mechanical voice exuded a bone-deep indifference and cold.
[I… I am a member of the Great Sephiroth.]
….
[But ever since I became bound to this place, something has gone wrong, and beyond that I can barely remember.]
….
[I believe it's this armor's fault somehow. Is there nothing to be done about it?]
"Why are you asking me?"
[Th… that's….]
As if she'd have an answer.
The response was even colder than she'd anticipated, and the woman's words caught in her throat.
[I sense a familiar aura from you! Surely you can feel it too?]
….
[It seems we are not bound by ordinary fate!]
"So you're telling me you're useless."
[Wha—?!]
I see.
So that's the kind of personality this girl has.
The woman managed to grasp a sliver of the girl's essential nature.
She had no idea how she had fallen into such a state, but it was equally clear that to escape it, she needed the girl's cooperation.
[N-no, that's not it! That can't be it!]
The girl seemed to sort people by their usefulness. If so, there was only one answer.
[I can decipher the script carved into that stele you've been staring holes into!]
All I have to do is prove my usefulness.
The woman had shrewdly noticed that the girl could not properly read the characters on the stele.
"Hmm…."
A response noticeably different from before.
Joy welled up in the woman at the girl's reaction.
But the joy was short-lived.
Virdel gazed at the stele in silence for a time, then took up her sword and resumed her training.
The woman knew at once that she had failed.
[Uuurgh!]
This girl could be stabbed with a needle and not shed a single drop of blood.
The woman's mind spun at fever pitch.
What do I do… what do I do… what do I do?
It's not as though I'm fated to spend eternity buried in this armor!
Drastic measures were required.
First, offer information and build up trust!
[This is unmistakably script used by the members of Sephiroth. Sacred script, if you will. And it is absolutely impossible to decipher by sight alone!]
….
Well? Tempting, no?
But still no reaction.
[Tch!]
In the end, only after spilling even more information could the woman pry open the door of conversation.
[This is… unquestionably something left behind by our kin. Although… whoever it was doesn't seem to have been particularly gifted. Or am I wrong? Could someone not of our kin have devised a way to use it? Though in the end, it all came to nothing. Fufu.]
Virdel stirred.
The woman allowed herself a smile of victory.
"Came to nothing?"
[That's right. In the end, no one outside the kin could ever read it or master it — what would you call that, if not failure?]
A voice that carried both scorn and pride.
"Hm…."
[You seem interested in it too. So — how about it?]
"How about what, exactly?"
[Will you not make a deal with me?]
"A deal?"
[Yes. Fufufu. We'll both come out ahead.]
….
Whee— whee—
Virdel had already begun swinging her sword again.
The woman was dumbstruck.
Back to square one. Again.
[Kyaa! I don't know what's what anymore — I'm sorry, it was my fault!]
….
She's not even a ghost who died mid-training!
The moment her interest flickered even slightly, the girl shut her eyes and ears and simply swung her blade.
Whee— whee—
The sound of iron cleaving air was pushing her to the edge of neurosis.
And then—
> Forced Ether Synthesis Progress: 0.03% → 0.04%
"Kyaaaaaaaaah! Get it out!!"
"S-stop it!!"
"Kyaaaaaah! P-please, spare me!!"
The essence steeped within the armor — her very nature, her source — was being forcibly siphoned away.
Naturally, that pain could not have been small.
It was the agony of one's very existence being ground away.
Only then did Virdel drive her iron sword down into the floor.
"A deal, was it…."
[Haaah, huk, huk….]
"A deal is a word that applies between equals."
Whee— whee—
After that, Virdel said nothing more. But her meaning was unmistakable.
A deal?
Do you honestly believe you qualify as a bargaining partner right now?
Did you think you could fudge your way through with such a half-hearted attitude?
[!!]
She hadn't been merely indifferent.
She simply, clearly, knew she held the advantage.
Ah… ah….
The woman understood at last.
She was no green girl who could be sweet-talked and fooled.
This was not a situation that could be papered over with clever words.
And deep within the woman's senses, she glimpsed it — a small blue flame burning in one corner of the girl's being.
….
Even if it meant surrendering The Fruit as the prize, the woman understood, once again, that she would have to give up a great deal more.