Chapter 174 - My Lady

The Military State's Shadow was a ragtag rabble.

Even if ordered to start disturbances simultaneously, they might lose their nerve when the time came. No, they probably would.

An ordinary thug, steeling himself for death and launching a suicide attack on a designated facility? If that were possible, the Military State wouldn't put its soldiers through such brutal training.

Everything they had done so far was merely crime.

What came next, however, would amount to rebellion. With death—or a hard-labor sentence lasting until death—on the line, would they readily act, no matter how firmly they had resolved to?

Far from starting disturbances, they might hide even deeper out of fear of having disobeyed their orders.

... But what if Wolfen had intended even that?

“... Those outlaws calling themselves the Military State's Shadow. They were wedges planted throughout Amitengrad, meant to make the Military State tear this city apart.”

Wolfen had only wanted one thing from the beginning.

Mutual destruction.

“He intends to spread the Military State's taboo at the same time he starts the disturbances! To turn the Military State's guns on everyone who encounters or hears that truth!”

The Family and the Market. Two of the few organizations that existed in Amitengrad, where the Military State's grip was so strong.

He would incite delinquents, including orphans from the Shelter, to fight those two organizations, drawing the military police into the sudden unrest.

Then he would spread the taboo. Secretly, hidden in the shadows.

A deadly poison that seeped into you merely by being heard, merely by being encountered. A lethal poison in the guise of information.

The Military State's taboo would spread among them.

And then...

“The Military State will eliminate everyone suspected of having encountered that taboo...!”

The Family, the Market—even the Shelter, with its former general—would not be safe.

Faced with a taboo that could shake the Military State's foundations, everyone involved with any organization, large or small, would be swept away.

'In the process, Anna, Smen, or even you are certain to be hurt!'

When you pull up a weed, the soil clinging to its roots comes with it. Not just Anna and me, but all the lower-class people connected to us would be uprooted together and thrown onto the trash heap.

We'd be lucky to be dragged off to a labor camp. We might go straight to the incinerator.

Facing the utterly certain communications officer, I muttered uneasily.

“That must be quite a taboo.”

The captain abruptly raised her head and spoke urgently to me.

“Forget about it. Do not wonder what it is. You must never, ever learn of that taboo. Nor must you ever let anyone see that you know!”

'Please, I beg you. Even encountering that incident is dangerous. No, even knowing that such a taboo exists! If only you would simply forget what I just said...!'

Her feelings were so heartfelt and desperate that I wanted to oblige.

But what could I do? I'd already read it.

... An incident in which as many as 162 secondary military school students had been massacred—if that was the word—by “someone”?

No, Captain. I wanted to learn about the Shadow's plot threatening the backstreets. I didn't want horrifying information that could get me killed just for knowing it.

I'm a victim too. A victim of mind reading! My mind reading did this all on its own!

Sigh. This had gotten wildly out of hand. I scratched my head and said,

“... Honestly. I was only trying to make some easy money through marriage fraud, and now I might end up in an actual grave. Marriage really is life's grave. It doesn't let you off easy.”

The captain flinched at the mention of marriage. I gave another sigh, this one with a different meaning, and looked at her.

She had been so agitated over the taboo, but now, feeling a slightly different kind of heat rising from her heart, she avoided my gaze. The neck visible beneath her straw hat had flushed red.

I spoke casually.

“All right. I'll try to forget about it. Anyway, wasn't there something we said we'd do that we've kept putting off?”

“Well... Affirmative.”

“We agreed we'd do it if we saw a government office while I was helping with the investigation. But somehow, we haven't seen one anywhere along our route. Honestly, what a coincidence.”

“A-affirmative. An astonishing coincidence.”

As she stumbled over her words, I drew mine out in a leisurely question.

“You're not feeling shy, are you, Captain? You said it was just a sham marriage so I could receive compensation.”

“Of course! This is solely to pay you legally for your services. I have pursued no personal interest whatsoever!”

Her voice rose about half an octave, carrying as much heat as when she'd mentioned the Military State's taboo. Startled by her own words, she covered her mouth.

'What do I do...! Perhaps I have, in fact, pursued a personal interest in this...! Danger, danger! That makes this a false report! It means I have lied!'

What's wrong with lying? I chuckled and pointed down the street.

“Then shall we stop by a government office first? I'd rather not get cheated out of my pay.”

“A-affirmative...”

Her voice grew quieter.

As we walked down the street, her heart split in two directions.

Hostility toward the Shadow, who sought to use the Military State's power to overturn the peaceful backstreets.

And excitement at the prospect of registering our marriage, however simple the formalities.

Though she knew this marriage was unlike an ordinary one, her heart fluttered with excitement no differently from a new bride's.

'Am I really going to...?'

She glanced at me briefly, then pulled her straw hat down low.

'It is all right. All we need is consent and signatures. That is all... but. Even for a moment, I will be able to call him my spouse, won't I? Surely I can at least pretend, however briefly? My spouse. My man. My... dear husband.'

Hiding her burning face, she trembled briefly with embarrassment. Yet the moment she confronted the soft, happy feelings in her chest, the moment she saw them swelling, she smiled bitterly.

'Now I understand. Why I need a Windowless Room.'

When she had served as a communications officer, confined in the Windowless Room, she had viewed the world through golems.

A communications officer's world appeared only through golems. Captain AB had seen the sky's color without being able to gauge its height. She had perceived the wind's strength without feeling its coolness ruffling her hair. She had spent time with people without feeling their warmth.

The world had been before her eyes, but it was scenery beyond a pane of glass. She could not live within it.

Yet in the few days she had spent wholly in her own body, her heart had undergone an enormous change.

Taste, smell, connection, emotion, life and death, joy and sorrow. Pain, and happiness.

The warm sunlight offered by moments spent with others had blossomed in her chest. She felt a sunlike warmth spreading in every direction from the center of her heart.

Along with more happiness than she deserved.

'When you wish for something small, you begin wishing for something a little bigger. Gradually, you grow greedy even for things you must never reach for. In the end, you will crave everything in the world. I must not desire any more. I must stifle my feelings and fulfill my duty.'

The Military State's taboo and the Shadow.

The information she had acquired was no trivial matter either. Simply passing it to headquarters would allow the disturbances to be quelled several times faster.

But without finding the Shadow, that would be only half a success. She had to find them before the taboo spread.

The only way to find the Shadow before things happened... was to offer herself, an officer, as bait. The Shadow would surely consider an officer the perfect opening signal for their uprising.

'That is enough. I am the only one who can do this in the first place. The Military State's taboo, Hamelin. As a communications officer, I already know that story... so encountering it will pose no problem.'

Her resolve firm, she closed her eyes and clenched her fists. Her heart no longer wavered.

'I have decided. Once we have filed the registration and finished the formalities, I will give him this information. Then I will contact headquarters immediately and tell them to follow me.'

With her mind made up, all that remained was to find the way. She spread her mana again and connected to the golems.

'Window connection.'

Intangible strands flowed throughout Amitengrad. Before long, the golems' views appeared in her eyes.

What appeared now was the street we were on. In a narrow alley with little foot traffic, only the captain and I were walking side by side. Beyond that street, on the main road, stood the government office. There, she would hold a very simple wedding to mark the end of her life...

The captain and I walked down the street.

And several cloaked people, who had been watching us from a distance, quietly followed as we walked.

The captain abruptly turned her head. Through the golem's vision, she met her own eyes. Shock filled her face.

'We're being followed?!'

Huh? Followed? I hadn't sensed any hostility.

As I started to look back, the startled captain pulled my face toward her without breaking her connection. Her whisper reached my ear.

“... We're being followed.”

“Followed?”

While living in Amitengrad, I didn't spread my mind reading far.

This alley might look quiet, but the building right next door alone was a medium-sized residential block housing over two hundred people. Using mind reading indiscriminately would leave me overwhelmed by the flood of thoughts, so I kept it somewhat suppressed.

Still, I should have detected any hostility or fear directed toward me immediately. How strange.

“Let's see.”

I spread my mind reading wide. The embankment crumbled, and countless thoughts poured in. Filtering out the miscellaneous ones, I traced thoughts about me back to their owners. My mind reading reached the cloaked group watching me.

And I blurted out stupidly,

“Huh. Why are you...?”

Just then, the captain grabbed my wrist and broke into a run.

“There's no time for this! Get out of here first!”

“Huh? Uh, okay.”

Still not understanding what was going on, I ran after her. As though we were eloping in the dead of night.

Even as she ran, the captain maintained her Synchronization with the golems.

Viewing yourself in the third person was an extraordinarily strange sensation. She checked the next turn in advance, then synchronized with a golem in the next alley. At the edge of her vision, the road continued. At its far end stood two cloaked pursuers.

She gave a small groan as she ran, then turned and headed in the opposite direction. A view of the opposite street rose before her eyes.

“Tch! They're systematically blocking our way! This coordination...! They're completely different from the ones we've seen so far!”

Uh. They would be.

They were different people, after all.

Though I still didn't know why they were pursuing us.

The cloaked figures were moving specifically to target the captain and me. Even their movements in her field of vision made that clear.

Moreover, from the thoughts I'd skimmed, they were plainly moving with us in sight.

“Captain, I think we're getting hemmed in.”

“I am... sorry...! I let my guard down for a moment...!”

'This is why I should never have wished for enjoyment! It would not matter if it were only me, but to think I would drag my man into this as well...!'

Only our urgent footsteps echoed loudly through the narrow alley. Running desperately, she spoke as though making a vow to me.

“Leave this to me. Whatever happens, I will at least keep you alive!”

'Even if I must use the golems, I swear it!'

Use them to save yourself. Stop trying to use them to save other people all the time. Why didn't her protective instincts ever apply to herself?

Having a rough idea who our pursuers were, I took a considerably more relaxed approach to our escape than the captain.

“Bee. More importantly...”

I pointed behind us. The cloaked people were merely approaching slowly, not running after us. As though they didn't care if the distance widened.

I pointed that out.

“Doesn't it feel a little like we're being herded somewhere?”

“...!”

The captain fell silent and looked around. The alleys we had passed through appeared in her eyes.

As I'd said, we were now being forced toward a single option. Just as building an embankment made a river flow only in the other direction, unseen hands had herded us to the main road without our noticing.

'I noticed too late! And they're herding us toward the main road, not into a corner...!'

If we had gradually been cornered, she would have noticed something was wrong. Everyone was wary of corners.

Instead, we were being driven toward a broad main road wide enough for four motor carriages to travel abreast.

'But why would the enemy aim for the main road...! Could it be to make everyone witness this incident? To think they would act already...!'

But we had already been herded as far as we could go. A main road also meant plenty of escape routes.

The captain clenched her fists and thought,

'I'll force my way through!'

As she drew up her mana, her eyes gleaming with the golems' views, I ran out onto the main road a step ahead of her. The narrow alley ended, and the broad road opened before my eyes.

The first thing I saw was not a motor carriage, but a real horse-drawn carriage.

Two horses tossed their red manes, snorting as they stamped the ground. Their vigor was fierce enough that they seemed likely to shatter it, but horseshoes made of high-level special alchemical steel smoothly absorbed both impact and sound.

And behind them stood a huge carriage, perhaps twice the size of an ordinary motor carriage. Its design was simple, but its luxury was second to nothing in the world.

As though it had been waiting for me all along, the carriage door opened the instant I appeared on the main road. First, an immaculate shoe emerged.

It belonged to a young woman in neatly tailored suit trousers, a bright red shirt beneath her jacket, and a formal scarf. Her vivid sky-blue hair was tied to one side and hung down.

“It's dangerous! Get back!”

The captain, who had run out after me, fell silent upon seeing the woman's face. Her eyes widened.

“You are...!”

“It's all right. I know her.”

I waved a hand to reassure her.

My oldest connection, dating back to just after I had begun living in Amitengrad. And my most successful investment.

Before me stood my former pupil, my backer, and an excellent source of money.

With the mindset of a con man facing a gullible investor, I waved with a flattering smile.

“Well, it's been a while, Sephi. Have you been well?”

In response to my casual wave of greeting, Sephier Bakia placed a hand over her chest and bowed deeply.

“Have you been in good health, Master? I have eagerly awaited seeing you again.”

'Are my messages jerky or something? Must you keep chewing through them without replying? Do I have to hear every damn scrap of news about you from someone else's mouth, you layabout?'

Wow, that mouth. No, those thoughts. They'd gotten a lot rougher than before.

Looking at the young company president, whose language had grown foul while we were apart, I gave an awkward smile.