Chapter 264: To Move Forward (4)
Rodenbach’s highest-tier round table, where the「Final Nine」could be watched in person.
The VVIPs watched the match from here. It served both as proof that the house did not rig its games and as a courtesy extended to its most important guests.
“Honesty is our motto.”
With the game now in full swing, Gewalt held a champagne glass in one hand and wore a faint smile.
“Luck.”
He felt no anxiety, no matter how many hands Count Ilyich lost in a row.
“And intuition.”
Because he would win in the end.
“That’s all a gambler needs, and that’s our casino’s motto as well.”
Gewalt pointed to the table below the balcony.
“And the proof is playing out right there.”
Some nobody he’d never seen before, who’d crawled in from who knows where, was playing Heads-Up against Rodenbach’s strongest player, the ‘Count’. It was proof that the game was clean and unrigged.
“Then, please enjoy the match.”
Gewalt smiled gently and stepped away.
A one-on-one match that had already gone on for hours.
He watched the game leisurely alongside the honored guests.
─All in.
At one point, the Count went all in.
─Call. But…….
When the newcomer accepted the challenge, Gewalt was already certain of victory.
[ Q Four of a Kind ]
“Ha! A Four of a Kind for the finale?”
The moment he saw the Count’s hand, he could only grin from ear to ear.
“Stand by.”
Just as he called the staff over to prepare the champagne, cigars, and the cleanup afterward.
[ J Straight Flush ]
“……?”
Gewalt blinked. At first, he was not even sure what he had just seen.
J. Straight. Flush.
“What is that-”
But before Gewalt could react, Ilyich reacted violently. He sprang to his feet and slammed his fist into the table.
BOOOOOOM──!
A single punch caved in the entire floor. The table shattered as a shockwave burst outward in a circle. Marble shards, chips, and cards shot upward like a fountain before crashing back down.
“W-What the hell!”
“What’s wrong with that guy?!”
The spectators hurriedly leapt to their feet.
BOOM──!
Ilyich struck the floor again. Craaaaack. Fissures spread in every direction.
BOOM──!
Once more. The entire floor shook. Stone dust sifted down from the pillars, and people toppled over or dropped to their knees.
And then.
KABOOOOOOOM───!
With the final blow, the entire chandelier crashed down and shattered. The walls and pillars collapsed.
Shhhhhhhhh─
Into the darkness, shattered debris fell, glittering like stars…….
***
Pft. Pssss. Pssssssss──
The sound of stone fragments settling.
Veeeeeeeeee—.
A noise that sounded almost like welding.
“……?”
Agent Blake’s eyes fluttered open.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Footsteps moved back and forth around her, and she was trapped with her wrists bound.
“Damn, that fucking lunatic…… Maybe I should’ve laid off a little.”
Throughout the Heads-Up, Blake hadn’t stopped talking.
It was called trash talk, a technique for getting inside an opponent’s head.
─You look slow enough already, and you can’t even turn your cards over properly.
─Why do you keep squinting one eye whenever you show your hand? Is it broken?
Every time she won a hand, she had thrown out lines like those.
─Ah. Sorry. Not your eye. Is your head what’s broken?
─You love freebies so much you went bald~ Baldy, baldy, baldy~
─You fucking moron.
─Dumbass. Did you grow up getting pelted with rocks by the whole neighborhood…….
She had kept needling him little by little, right up to the final hand.
─Call. But…….
At Ilyich’s all-in, she too had swept every last chip she had onto the table.
─I’m betting everything I’ve got.
─Good. Show your cards.
Ilyich impatiently moved to turn over his cards, but before he could, Blake cut him off.
─No. You’re coming up short.
Blake grinned.
─……Can’t you count?
Ilyich’s eyes narrowed.
─I told you. I’m betting ‘everything I’ve got.’ You put up the same.
Blake tapped her own neck twice. Ilyich frowned.
─Do you think my life is worth the same as yours?
─Then put up enough extra stake to make up the difference. Otherwise, no deal.
─…….
The bastard looked at the dealer for a moment, then smirked, pulled a bundle of papers from inside his coat, and tossed them down.
─Bearer Bonds. About thirty million Imperial Dollars. More than enough for your head.
Only thirty million.
So he’d burned through the rest like a fucking maniac and this was all he had left. Blake finished the calculation in her head.
─Call. Show your cards.
Right after that, they turned over their cards, and she crushed his Q Four of a Kind with a Straight Flush. She was just about to rake in the pot.
ZOS PRAVENIC! ATU KOLSNAVA DOMIRE──!
The bastard suddenly let out a bizarre scream and shot to his feet.
Then he started drawing Mana into his fist─the Gauntlet disguised as skin!
And when she opened her eyes, she was here.
“…….”
She stared up at the ceiling.
The Gauntlet rampage had been the trigger, and it looked as though a vertical shaft had already been dug beneath this place from the start.
──Thud.
Just then, someone walked out from beyond the darkness.
A man wrapped in a robe.
“How are you feeling?”
The question was surprisingly courteous.
“……Who are you?”
“Caven.”
Then he calmly added.
“Ezenheim.”
Ezenheim…… That was far too little by way of an introduction.
“You must be an agent from Highland. I assume you came here because of those bonds.”
So the information had leaked. Blake suppressed a sigh.
Caven continued.
“First, I apologize. We needed the money too.”
“You’re awfully brazen about it. So, what did you spend it on?”
“Would you condone it if our purpose were just?”
“Your methods were far too extreme for that.”
At her reply, Caven fell silent.
He stared at her for quite a while…… then lowered the hood of his robe.
He had a surprisingly clean-cut face.
“……We’re going to build a passage.”
“A passage?”
“Yes. One that links various places beneath the Empire.”
He took one step closer as he spoke.
“You must know that Ezenheim are being persecuted. The entire continent must know. It’s not only the Empire. Everyone persecutes us while pretending they don’t. But the Empire wants more than that.”
“……More than that?”
Blake repeated the question without realizing it.
This man had a knack for drawing people into what he was saying.
“Yes. Not only Ezenheim, but countless other races…….”
Caven closed his eyes and finished with a single word.
“Cleansing.”
“…….”
From everything he had said, Blake grasped their intentions.
“……You’re building an escape route?”
“Yes. That’s right. This is for our cause.”
The cause of their people’s survival.
Caven lowered his head.
“So the money…… one day, we will repay it without fail. As long as we’re alive, we can always repay it.”
Blake revealed none of her emotions. She merely sharpened her gaze.
“Then is Ilyich one of your collaborators too?”
“……No. He’s a business partner.”
Blake understood the implication in Caven’s words.
“So there are factions even within your group.”
Caven gave a bitter smile.
Ilyich’s faction. And Ezenheim…… no, the Revolutionary forces.
The two sides were working together toward different ends.
“Yes. He’s simply a powerful man who wants chaos, and there are many around him who want the same.”
“Then it sounds like you two were always going to split eventually.”
Blake slightly raised her bound wrists.
“Why don’t you start by taking these off?”
“…….”
Caven hesitated for a moment, but approached and cut Blake’s restraints.
“……Naive of you. What were you going to do if I’d gone for you the moment you freed me?”
Caven answered her question with this instead.
“I’m from Highland too. I know one of my own when I see one.”
It was the Highland Language, spoken with a native Highland accent.
***
[Rodenbach Casino ─ Ground Level]
I was being held captive on the floor of the Rodenbach VVIP Floor. Both my hands were tied, but I’d made a small hole in my mask, giving me a clear line of sight.
─He’s simply a powerful man who wants chaos, and there are many around him who want the same.
The conversation between ‘them’ flowed into my ear.
─Then it sounds like you two were always going to split eventually. Why don’t you start by taking these off?
The Artifact I’d given the Black Agent had been a listening device from the beginning, an expensive accessory whose real function I’d hidden by wrapping it in layer after layer of the genuine Artifact 「Protection」.
Anyway.
[THE BLACK] definitely wasn’t a true story.
There had been another side hidden beneath the episode.
─Thud. Thud. Thud.
Right on cue, Ilyich walked onto the VVIP Floor.
Sure enough, the people there split into those who crowded around him and those who instead backed away.
Of those backing away, five out of ten were Ezenheim.
Among those crowding around him, there were none.
“How many?”
Ilyich’s side spoke in the Eastern Language.
“For now, there are 107 here. There are more outside.”
Their conversations came through clearly to my ears.
Language was both a key that opened doors to people and nations and a wall behind which they hid. People relaxed behind that wall and let their true thoughts slip out, just as those men were doing now.
That was why I’d learned so many languages over the years.
“Why aren’t you killing them?”
At Ilyich’s question, one of his subordinates answered.
“They say it’s more valuable to keep them as hostages. Those guys over there.”
“Bullshit.”
Ilyich glared toward the other side. The Ezenheim faction.
─Boom. Boom. Boom.
He approached the Ezenheim and lowered his voice.
“Explain. Why are these bastards still alive?”
Only then did he switch back to the Imperial Language.
The hostages flinched.
“The Base Conversion isn’t fully complete yet. Because you destroyed the place too quickly-”
“So it’s my fault?”
“……If you put it that way, yes.”
Ilyich smirked, then grabbed the man’s skull in one hand.
Pop!
The Ezenheim’s head burst. What a lovely sight.
“Don’t try any tricks. Finish the Base Conversion first. I’ll wait until the agreed time, and not a moment longer.”
Ilyich turned away menacingly, and just as he was about to disappear from view.
“……Bathroom.”
I shouted at the top of my lungs.
“Bathroooooom……!”
I made myself sound like an old man.
“Bathroooooooom.”
“Ugh.”
One guy approached.
He wasn’t Ezenheim.
“Old man. Just piss here.”
“Bathroooooom…….”
“What the fuck.”
The bastard pressed the muzzle of his gun against my chest.
I almost wished he’d shoot me. Playing dead wouldn’t have been a bad option either.
“Bathroooom…….”
“Ugh. Follow me.”
Unexpectedly, the bastard led me along without a fuss.
Tap, tap. Leaning on my cane, I made it to the bathroom.
“Hey, old man. Here.”
He stood me in front of a urinal.
“T-Toilet.”
“Ah, fuck. You had to take a shit?”
The moment he opened the stall door and tried to shove me inside.
Whip.
I shot out a hand, grabbed the back of his neck, yanked him down, and brought my cane down on him.
“Ghk!”
I stripped the unconscious bastard of his clothes. I gagged him and bound his wrists and ankles, left him in the stall, then put on his clothes and mask as a disguise.
The reason I didn’t kill him was that his bathroom escort had been decent enough.
Sometimes, the smallest kindness was enough to save a person’s life.
“Whew.”
I stepped out into the bathroom corridor. Just then, I ran into someone patrolling the place.
I cleared my throat.
“……Hey!”
I approached him first and asked in the Eastern Language.
“Where’s Ilyich?”
If he answered in the Eastern Language, right answer. If not, wrong.
“What? What do you want with the boss?”
Right answer.
“I’ve got something urgent to tell him. Hurry!”
***
[Rodenbach Casino ─ Underground]
──Thud. Thud.
The footsteps of two people walking through the passage echoed softly. Construction was still underway down here.
“Still unfinished, I see.”
Blake looked around with interest, and Caven answered.
“We were originally supposed to have a little more time.”
“……Did I throw your schedule off a little?”
“A little. But it’s fine. We’ve already secured all the resources we need anyway.”
Walking behind him as he smiled bitterly, Blake suddenly found herself wondering out of simple curiosity.
“Do you think it’ll work?”
“……We have to try.”
Caven pulled the Ezenheim Scripture from inside his robe.
“At least we still have our religion.”
It was the religion of Ezenheim, practiced by the Ezenheim, and its distinctive symbols were carved into every corner of the tunnels.
Blake gave a small laugh and sighed.
“……So Ilyich was bait from the very beginning.”
Caven flinched for a moment, but then nodded as though there was no reason to hide it anymore.
“Yes. I’m sorry. In fact, we were also the ones who planted Ilyich in the Intelligence Bureau.”
She had thought Ilyich, an Easterner, was an Intelligence Bureau spy, a double agent moving back and forth between Highland and Robrus…….
“You could have told us.”
“If we’d told you, would you have lent us one hundred million Imperial Dollars?”
No. I definitely wouldn’t have.
Caven smiled.
“But this much I mean sincerely. We truly will repay you.”
“Assuming your operation succeeds.”
“Yes. Once the casino above collapses and Ilyich is captured, bringing the incident to an end, no one will pay any attention to this underground area.”
“What about the hostages?”
“You saw them in the casino, didn’t you? Their empty ostentation, their corruption, their vulgarity.”
“…….”
Blake silently observed him.
The movement of his gaze. His heart rate. The pulse of the carotid artery visible along his neck.
As an agent, she possessed a rather exceptional talent for distinguishing truth from lies.
There was contempt in Caven’s voice now, but his expression wasn’t one of hatred. It wasn’t the face of someone who harbored that kind of emotion.
Blake quietly asked again.
“Even so, you have no intention of killing them.”
“…….”
Caven lowered his gaze for a moment.
As though trying to hide the shadow in his heart, he replied softly.
“We won’t cause needless casualties if we can avoid it. We’re not the Empire, so we don’t want to create that kind of cycle of malice.”
They were nobles of the Empire, people who had built their wealth by exploiting others. Even though people like them had persecuted his people countless times, he had no desire to kill them.
“However, our comrades will be sacrificed. They volunteered knowing that, and they were prepared for it…… but this is a secret.”
Caven glanced sideways at Blake.
“I can keep a secret too.”
‘If I ever end up writing a novel someday, I’ll leave this part out.’
That was when.
“──Caven!”
A ‘comrade’ came rushing over from the other side and looked back and forth between the two.
“……What’s going on?”
Caven shrugged and introduced Blake.
“She is a Black Agent from Highland. Here to recover the bonds.”
“What?”
The comrade’s face hardened, but Caven deliberately became even more shameless.
“The owner is here, so we should return the bonds.”
“That’s insane-”
“─There is one more option.”
Blake calmly cut between them.
“Completely sever the connection between the bonds and Highland.”
It was quite a radical proposal. Both men turned toward her with startled eyes.
“You’ve already spent seventy million of the hundred million. Even if we took back what remains, it wouldn’t solve anything. Instead, write us an IOU stating that you’ll repay it without fail. It will be a debt Ezenheim society owes us.”
“…….”
Caven stared at Blake, then shifted his gaze toward his comrade.
A look that asked, What do you think?
The comrade stared at her for a moment before clearing his throat.
“……What’s your name? I’m ‘Ezra’.”
Blake gladly clasped his hand.
“Blake. I’m an agent from Highland.”
***
[Rodenbach Casino ─ Ground Level]
─Yes. Once the casino above collapses and Ilyich is captured, bringing the incident to an end, no one will pay any attention to this underground area.
As the voices came through the eavesdropping earring, Ilyich fell silent for a moment.
I was a little worried because at some point, their entire conversation had switched to the Highland Language.
“……They’re going to use me as bait?”
Whoa.
Ilyich was much smarter than I’d expected. The bastard seemed to have a real gift for languages.
That was why judging people by appearances was a bad idea.
“Ha…….”
Grind. Griiind. Ilyich worked his jaw for a while with an expression that made it impossible to tell whether he was laughing or grinding his teeth.
“A few of you, follow me. Quietly. Don’t let them notice.”
Even this maneuver was discreet. He might have been bald, huge, and built like a mountain of muscle, but prejudice really could get a man killed.
“You. You. You.”
Ilyich suddenly began pointing at his subordinates.
“You. You. You. And…… you.”
Finally, he pointed at me, the one who had delivered such valuable information.
I tensed slightly in case he told me to take off my mask.
“You too. That’s all.”
Fortunately, intelligence and thoroughness seemed to be separate things.
The bastard didn’t even know their names and just kept pointing and saying you, you, so he probably wouldn’t recognize their faces even if they took off their masks.
“Follow me.”
I moved my lips slightly as I followed behind him.
“……Ha.”
A scoffing laugh escaped me as I remembered what that fucking Ezenheim bastard had said moments ago.
──We won’t cause needless casualties if we can avoid it. We’re not the Empire, so we don’t want to create that kind of cycle of malice.
Their tone and emotions were so convincing that anyone who heard them would have had no choice but to believe them.
It was enough to make me wonder whether they had completely ‘deceived’ even themselves.
……Deceived?
It wasn’t impossible.
The more I thought about it, the more plausible it seemed.
What if they blocked or sealed off parts of their brains with something akin to hypnosis, so that Ezenheim’s true nature emerged only at certain special moments?
Then they’d be able to fool everyone. They could resist any torture or drugs.
If they truly were deceiving even themselves into believing they were ‘real humans’, then what was the trigger that restored their true nature?
……Language.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Ilyich and his men strode ahead with long steps.
As I followed behind them, I confirmed that I could still sense the Longsword I’d stashed in the bathroom stall. It was well within range for me to call it to me and use it whenever I wanted.
──We’re not the Empire, so we don’t want to create that kind of cycle of malice…….
That bastard’s fucking voice echoed through my head again.
The Empire, the very axis of evil seeking to swallow this continent, and the resolve of those who sought to save their own people by standing against that great evil.
Good and evil.
When it came to appearances, it was a fight I could never win, but that didn’t matter.
I had never intended to claim the side of good for myself in the first place.
To move forward, I had simply decided to become an even greater evil.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
I blended into the rear of Ilyich’s group.
The greatest evil, the final boss, always appeared at the very end.
The kind of story those bastards wished for, where ‘the villain ultimately loses’, would not exist on this continent, at least not while I was still alive and breathing…….
~~~
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