Libra’s Aerial Garden, the empty office.
Johanna terminated the spatial channel attached to Shion Ascal.
“This one has quite the story too."
How his mother died, how his father died—Johanna had no real interest in the details.
She was only interested in the fact that he was an orphan.
“...Mother.”
Johanna murmured, stroking her chin. Her own mother had died when she was young.
Now, she couldn't even recall her mother's face. Not even a common portrait to remember her by.
Knock-knock—
Just then, a knock sounded.
"Come in.”
The door opened, and the person who entered was Belingham Kantar.
Johanna's eyebrows twitched.
"It's been a while. What brings you here?”
"Ah. I’ve come to explain the candidates for the head of the Intelligence Agency team and to seek a vote.”
Belingham Kantar smiled briefly as he laid down the documents.
"Team leader candidates.”
"Yes. Currently, we have Dezherby, Pellington, Cynthia, and Bell Moore—four in total.”
Johanna had already made up her mind. One of the conditions she had proposed to Bell Moore when assigning him to monitor Shion Ascal was to support his bid for the team leader position.
"Bell Moore. Let’s go with this one.”
Johanna lightly checked it off with her fountain pen.
Belingham Kantar collected the document, nodding in thanks.
"Thank you.”
Then, instead of leaving, he continued to stand there.
Johanna looked at him with a peculiar expression.
"What? What is it? Is there anything else?”
“...No. It’s just that you don’t hold me back anymore.”
Belingham spoke as if he felt somewhat neglected. Johanna frowned.
"Even if I held you back, you wouldn’t come to me, would you, Belingham?”
"That's not what I mean.”
A somewhat joyful smile spread across Belingham’s lips.
"Lately, it seems someone has caught your interest."
“...Interest?”
"Yes. There’s a rumor going around inside Libra. You always look contemplative, and you're always plugged into something.”
Belingham pointed to the earphones connected to her laptop.
“...It’s nothing.”
Every night, it’s the surveillance and wiretapping reports delivered by Bell Moore.
She dissects every single word Shion Ascal says, contemplating them.
"Are you in love or something?
“Stop talking nonsense."
Johanna's face contorted with disdain.
“If you have nothing else to say, then leave?”
"Yes. But it's a relief. That Lady Johanna is showing interest in something else."
“It's not interest."
"Then what is it?”
Suspicion.
Johanna did not add more to her words.
"Then I’ll take my leave. I’ve heard there’s an important tenant moving in soon, good luck with that."
With a swish of his hand, Belingham waved goodbye. He left with a sly smile, walking backwards out of the room, and Johanna felt a nagging irritation.
“Interest?"
Interest. Johanna looked at her laptop.
In this file, there were photos of the bastard, recordings of his words, and not just his bank statements, but every single detail of his life, including his call logs.
“...Is my suspicion excessive?"
There was nothing suspicious about him.
He was cleaner than any other Chaser of Libra.
Even Johanna's Balancer ‘Vitro’ had given him a positive assessment
He only did things beneficial for Libra, and although it might be excessive, there was no doubt about his loyalty.
[Chaser Ascal is trusted by Derek, and even by Jade.]
If he had gained the trust of those two lunatics, Derek and Jade, it must be proof that he’s truly trustworthy.
“...Teh.”
Johanna closed her laptop. She swiveled her chair around and looked up at the ceiling.
Perhaps it was because she had been looking at Shion Ascal’s photos and listening to his voice for too long.
In the empty space, his face faintly emerged like a painting.
The reason I didn't kill Quantum Mechanic isn't grandiose.
Simply, could a villain like Jesco change? In his not-so-long remaining life, could he truly live in atonement?
I just want to accumulate data on that issue.
'Great work!’
Grawl’s voice flowed into my head.
‘But, there’s an inquiry from Zed!'
'An inquiry?’
‘Yes!’
[Zed] is [Jake]'s alternate account. It means Grawl is operating two informants, [Zed] and [Jake], at the same time.
Because of the rumor spreading in the Libra Intelligence Agency that ‘Jake is a close informant to Shion Ascal,’ he created another informant who has no connection to Shion at all.
'The target is Derek!’
‘...Derek?’
‘Yes!’
I nodded my head.
'It must be related to Vern.’
Vern and Derek are uncomfortable with each other, but their pride is too strong. So, they're likely to engage in a stubborn fight without backing down.
'Report the details to me.’
Before regression, Derek lost to Zia. He had all his corporate shares snatched away.
People he tried to control efficiently betrayed him, leaking information to Zia, and gaps appeared in the power structure he tried to maintain efficiently, becoming weaknesses. Derek's pursuit of‘efficiency’ ended up being his own downfall.
'The rest can wait.'
'Yes!'
But right now, that’s not the issue.
I made a call to someone. To the guy who must be having the most serious trouble right now, to dissuade him from his choice.
Elise stared intently at her laptop screen. Files of all sorts dyed her retinas blue.
Everything was ready.
Of course, she had no intention of sending such information to just any news agency.
Naturally, her father would block it. It would be stopped at the desk level.
That’s why her father pays an enormous amount of money to the press every year.
It’s an antiquated form of insurance.
“Times have changed.”
Her father might not know, might not even want to acknowledge, but the world has changed a lot in the meantime.
Now, in Edsilla, there is a power of the masses that cannot be stopped with the money, honor, or power of the nobility.
There is a platform far more lethal than the old-fashioned paper newspapers.
Elise planned to upload these files to the largest community site, popular social networks, and messengers.
Once she pressed this enter button, Petra's corruption would spread across the world.
—That’s when.
Elise’s eyes snapped open sharply. She had detected someone’s magic.
.Tsk.”
There was someone within a not too distant radius. It wasn't a familiar or intimate sensation.
Had her father already sent an agent?
Elise hurriedly placed her hand on the enter button.
Her fingertips trembled.
It was difficult to press down. As if some massive barrier had been placed between the button and herself...
Whirring—
"Huh!”
Elise flinched in surprise. She quickly looked at her phone.
Her heart sank for a moment
It was Shion.
Whirring— Whirring— Whirring—
She stared at the vibrating device, like a ladybug—and then slowly reached out After taking a deep breath, she answered the call.
"Hello-”
—What are you doing.
Shion Ascal’s voice came through first.
“. What am I doing.”
Elise found herself responding curtly without realizing it.
Had he not yet received that file?
Or was he seeing it and testing me?
—Don’t do it
It was quite abrupt, a strange sentence without a subject or object.
Elise blinked her eyes.
"What-”
—What you’re about to do right now.
Elise belatedly looked at her laptop. She saw her finger poised above the enter key.
Shion spoke as if he was in the same space as her.
—You don’t have to go through with it.
Thanks to that, Elise had an intuition.
.You’ve seen it all.”
"Don't be mistaken. I am.
She paused for a moment, choosing her words while staring into the void.
She couldn't figure out how to combine the words into a sentence.
“I am
What should she say next, how should she deal with him, is it okay for me to continue this conversation, she wondered in the moment
His words dropped heavily.
—I knew.
Elise froze in place.
Her mind went blank for a moment.
—How my mother died.
Slowly, her eyes widened.
Her cheeks trembled with the sudden surge of emotion.
—Why I never once saw her face in person.
Elise’s breathing quickened. Her breath flowed like mist.
Shion Ascal said.
—Still, it’s not your fault
It’s not your fault.
Those words seemed to shake her soul.
—Elise.
When he called my name, my vision blurred.
My heartfelt painfully constricted.
—You’re not Petra, you’re Elise.
Elise lowered her head. She bit her finger for no reason.
Shhhhh...
The sound of rain on the window. The rough wind wrapping around the abandoned factory.
The storm.
She said nothing for a while, then quietly asked.
Since when?”
Just one sentence, asking how long he had known.
Shion was silent for a while, but then he chuckled.
—From the beginning.
His laughter-filled voice echoed in her ears.
It shattered something inside Elise.
A spray of emotions welled up.
I see."
She chuckled too.
Thanks to this guy, she gained certainty.
"Thank you."
Father always said the family was the most important thing in the world.
It was a lie.
There are values far more important than that in the world.
In fact, there are infinitely many.
Therefore, no one has the duty or right to prosper their family by killing people.
Thus, Petra must now be reborn anew.
“It’s thanks to you.”
Elise pressed enter.
An unnamed seashore. Yael was delivered to the dock, bloodied.
Ken Petra had become aware of his betrayal.
“. Well, this is something.”
Yael looked in the direction of the voice with half-dulled eyes. A man was looking at him, wearing an awkward smile.
"Young master.”
The man who called himself the young master.
"Do you perhaps remember me?”
Yael smiled silently. It was someone he actually knew.
“I know. The son of the elder I killed."
His face hardened. Yael just raised an eyebrow.
“I remember.”
Before being trapped here, Yael had killed countless people. Not only his own grandfather but also many of Petra’s shadowy elders, all those he had murdered.
To prevent them from harming Elise.
"You’re aware, I see.”
The man frowned his lips and with a thud, dropped a corpse beside him.
It was a journalist who had dared to demand money from Petra.
“...Yeah. Of course, I remember. I keep a memory of everyone I’ve killed."
"Ha.”
He let out a disbelieving chuckle. His face flushed red as he lifted one leg.
Crunch!
He pressed down on Yael’s head.
"At least you're lucky. You'll die here, you filthy murdering bastard.”
Thud, thud, thud.
As he methodically stomped down, Yael was suddenly struck by a thought.
"Aren’t you committing murder right now as well?”
“I’m exterminating vermin. You killed an innocent father."
Innocent.
They always say this.
If there’s no visible crime, if they haven’t been to prison, if they haven’t been judged by the law, then they’re innocent
That’s why Yael never regretted his killings.
“Shouldn’t you be thanking me, then? Your father's death put you in his place.”
The man clamped his mouth shut. His anger must have reached its limit.
Sssshing—
A sword was drawn from his waist. Yael looked at it and smirked.
Well, this kind of death isn't so bad.
It’s actually a good death.
There was a time when he had nightmares of being killed by Elise.
"Die, you vermin—"
A flash of lightning split the air. A sharp sonic boom tore through the space. The split air bled in all directions.
But Yael was unharmed. His eyes were drawn somewhere.
Right beside him, on the ground.
The head of a man, rolling around—the son of an elder he had killed.
“...What are you doing?"
A voice came from above. Yael looked up.
There was a man.
Someone he never imagined would come to this place, as unlikely as a bald man growing hair.
"Get up.”
Shion Ascal.
He smiled at Yael.
"You need to go to your sister. There's big trouble.”
He then showed a smartphone.
Even with unfocused eyes, Yael read the messages.
[Community, SNS simultaneously exploding with Petra family’s corruption...]
All sorts of Petra’s dirty laundry were bursting like firecrackers.
However, among all the revelations, the one that garnered the most attention was:
[Shock! The son of Senator Ken Petra, declared dead over a decade ago, is actually alive...]
It was Yael himself.
“Fascinating, isn’t it?"
Shion extended his hand to him and said.
“For a politician, a scandal involving their child is far more lethal than a few murders.”
“...You can say that again.”
Yael grasped his hand. He struggled to steady his wavering body and stand up.
The two men stood side by side, looking at each other and smiling.
