Chapter 185 - Say You Want to Live - 1

A teacher’s grace is as boundless as the heavens, but a true teacher’s job is to make their disciple accept that maxim as truth. In that sense, I was a very true teacher indeed.

Seeing Sephi come in person to help her master, who had ventured out alone, moved me to tears.

“Wow. I really did pick a good disciple. Look at you, rushing straight over when your master’s in danger.”

Devoting my youth to raising her had been worthwhile.

You needed at least one connection to survive in the backstreets. The world was too tough to get by on mind reading alone, so the moment I arrived in Amitengrad, I joined a host bar to build a network.

Meeting the heir to a holding company there had been a real stroke of luck. Pretending to be Sephi’s private tutor, I flitted back and forth between her and her godfather, Alexei, milking the arrangement for all it was worth.

Then, when I saw signs that Alexei was headed for ruin, I quickly cut my losses and sided with Sephi.

Ah, even now, I have to congratulate myself. See? Mind reading really was useful when you put it to work like this.

Anyway, perhaps I should at least say something nice to the disciple who had come all this way for me.

“I’m truly touched. To think you cared so deeply for your master... All that effort I put into raising you really paid off.”

“Surely it pales beside your concern for me, Master.”

'Concern, my ass. You ran off without a word, just assuming I’d follow on my own. You never spare even a speck of thought for the people you leave behind.'

Her words and thoughts were still wildly at odds.

But words were part of her thoughts, too. The fact that she was still being pleasant meant I had some goodwill left in the bank.

Anyway, if she had brought Seamless Heavenly Garments’ forces, I wouldn’t be in any dan—

Huh?

“I don’t see anyone behind you, though. Where are the rest of the troops?”

“Troops? We’re a holding company. We’re only permitted to hire specialist workers for skilled labor. Peto here is the only one who could even put up a semblance of a fight right now.”

Sephi pointed at Peto and spoke matter-of-factly. Incredulous, I asked,

“You’re telling me your entire fighting force is a clothes hanger on a horse?”

My senior, abruptly demoted to a clothes hanger, retorted,

“How can you call someone a clothes hanger to his face...?”

“Yes. That clothes hanger is all we have.”

“President, you... No. I am a clothes hanger.”

He really was nothing more than a clothes hanger. Anyone who could swing a weapon in armor without falling off the horse would do. This was simply a case of the equipment being stronger than the person using it.

“What the hell? Then you’re not much help at all.”

“I’m sorry I can’t be of greater assistance. If the Military State had mercenaries, I would have brought some.”

'After Alexei’s downfall, the rules were changed to stop holding companies from employing what amounted to private soldiers. You tore it all apart yourself. Don’t play dumb.'

I thought you were the sort of girl who would break the law for your precious self and your revered master. Find some mercenaries, or hire a powerful soldier on a short-term contract, something like that. Apparently, that was asking too much. Your master is disappointed in you.

Tch. Now I wasn’t completely safe. Peto alone wasn’t exactly reassuring against a threat like the Shadow.

But that was all right. I had another, slightly different connection in reserve for emergencies.

A captain of the Military State.

“Oh, Sephi. I need a word with the captain. Could you give us a moment?”

Normally, she would have agreed at once. This time, her answer came late, as though something had caught hold of her words.

“... After squeezing so much out of me and pushing me around however you pleased, now you’re openly keeping secrets? Do you have no conscience, Master? I never expected a fair exchange where I received as much as I gave. But if I’ve given you something, shouldn’t you give me something in return to preserve at least the pretense of a transaction?”

'I’ll step aside, so you can talk in private. I’ll just have to wait outside all alone in the meantime.'

Something was wrong. Had her words and thoughts switched places?

“Sephi. Did some of your true feelings just slip out?”

“Not my true feelings. A reasonable demand. I kept the captain here as you wished and supplied the equipment you needed, yet neither you nor the captain will tell me a single thing about yourselves. Is that how you intend to play this?”

'Not at all. I’ve never lied to you, Master.'

The goodwill I had banked was draining away in real time. Resentment showed on her face, along with doubts about whether she should keep following me.

Before my Sephi points ran out, I hurried to explain.

“It’s not because of me. It’s because of the captain. She’s carrying out a classified operation.”

“And what does that have to do with me?”

“She says she’ll die if the secret gets out.”

The mention of death had clearly shaken her a little. Sephi flinched and cast a sidelong glance into the carriage.

Before long, she regained her composure and answered.

“... Understood. I’m sorry for raising my voice, Master. I’ll step aside, so the two of you can talk in private. I’ll just have to wait outside all alone in the meantime.”

With that, Sephi leaned against the side of the motor carriage. I gave her a small nod and stepped through the open door.

Inside, the uniformed captain was waiting for me, sitting stiffly with both hands on her knees.

I shut the door, then closed the little window facing the driver’s seat as well. It was already a quiet night, but closing everything brought an even more stifling silence.

The captain said nothing when she saw me. She simply stared steadily at me.

'In truth, it was strange from the start. A life too affluent for anyone to believe he came from District 15, that easygoing attitude, his extensive connections and ability to handle all manner of situations. Why didn’t I suspect him from the beginning?'

Well, then.

'Or perhaps I did not want to suspect him. Perhaps I wanted him to be an ordinary person, so I could enjoy a little more of that everyday life. I am a failure as a soldier.'

Time to face the captain.

'But that ends now.'

She had finished her thoughts, and I had chosen my words.

The captain spoke first.

“Are you the individual known as the magician?”

“Oh, that? It’s just a silly nickname.”

I confirmed her suspicion with a vague smile. At this point, there was no helping it. Better to pretend I was someone of consequence than offer the excuse that the person behind all this was an insignificant petty criminal.

Even if that alias was nothing but empty bluster.

The captain swallowed and began questioning me.

“Your actions are plainly illegal. After several days of investigation, I have uncovered indications of criminal activity that I suspect to be your work.”

Still talking so stiffly. This was the trouble with sticklers for the rules.

You had to fight them with their own rules. I shrugged.

“Do you have proof?”

You might expect such a brazen demand for proof to make her hesitate, but the captain remained just as sharp.

“Magician. There is an abundance of circumstantial evidence identifying your actions. If even a tenth of the rumors about the magician are true, you will never finish serving your sentence.”

“A Military State captain is going to lock someone up on rumors alone? Come on. Not even the Military State should go that far.”

“There is testimony as well. Three days ago, there are indications that you took it upon yourself to punish the criminals who attacked Anna.”

“I said bring me proof, not indications.”

As I shamelessly picked at my ear, the captain narrowed her eyes and pressed me.

“My testimony as a captain constitutes evidence. I witnessed a death firsthand. The man had spices inside his stomach and spoke of the magician until moments before his death. If you are the magician, there are strong grounds to suspect your involvement in causing his death.”

“What? All I did was recover the stolen spices.”

As if I would stuff something that expensive into his stomach. I pulled the golden spices from my pocket and gave them a shake. The sight left the captain speechless.

“Those are...?”

'But they clearly spoke as though the spices were inside their stomachs...'

What was she talking about? There was no way all of that would fit down a struggling man’s throat. I had merely played a little trick, scaring him with a card rolled into a tube.

The only thing he had swallowed was a beer bottle cap.

“Don’t tell me he cut his own stomach open to save the spices and died? Surely he wasn’t that stupid.”

“...”

“Whoa. What? Did someone else cut his stomach open?”

Wait. Seriously? How did anyone even think of cutting someone’s stomach open? How utterly heartless.

'Thinking back, he was clutching his stomach... Not because he had swallowed the spices, but because he had been stabbed...'

Ugh, how horrible. For someone as sensitive as me, it was a gruesome sight I didn’t even want to imagine. A person wasn’t a wrapper. How could anyone think of cutting one open to get something out?

'A simple prank...? Or did he engineer the situation to induce that outcome? What was his true intention...?'

“Oh, right, Captain. There’s something far more important than that nonsense.”

Enough about things that made me look bad. Let’s talk about things in my favor.

The captain gave me a questioning look, and I declared confidently,

“You should be thanking me. I took care of something the Military State couldn’t handle.”

The captain was at a loss for words. Since she still didn’t seem to understand, I kindly explained.

“Thanks to you going around trying to stop the Shadow, I got a general idea of who the enemy was and what they were after. And wouldn’t you know it? People I had connections with were in danger! So I had no choice but to act first. I infiltrated their ranks and made them think today was the day of the operation. Then, while they launched their unprepared attacks, I warned my acquaintances.”

A surprise attack lost much of its effectiveness when it was no longer a surprise. Without a force like the Shadow deliberately intervening, their attacks would end as mere disturbances. Just like any other ordinary incident.

My prediction had been right. Most of the groups that had gathered after being egged on were crushed before accomplishing even half their objectives.

“And this is the result! Thanks to me, peace in the backstreets has been preserved! Today’s events will go down as nothing more than a minor incident! All thanks to my hard work!”

On the way here in the motor carriage, the captain had gained at least a rough picture of the situation through surveillance golems. The Military State’s backstreets were unusually noisy, chaotic, and unsettled tonight, but the disturbances had not reached the scale she had expected.

Noisy, but not so serious. If things ended here, the whole affair could easily be swept under the rug.

“... However. The situation is not over.”

Yet the captain’s expression remained grim.