Having suffered from a nightmare till he woke up, the sight of soone sleeping soundly infuriated Dante quite a bit. He walked over to the corner his employer chose as her bed and, not wasting a second, kicked her lightly.
"Get up already." He hissed.
Liliana twitched then raised her head, looking left and right for the source of the disturbance. Soon after her eyes fell on him, her face turned groggy.
"Fix your wig." He said. "We will be moving soon."
"Fine, I get it already." though she tried to keep her frown, the yawn that followed her words chased it away, if only for a second. "Just... stay away from ..."
"What did you just say?" Dante’s face twitched. "You are asking to stay away from you?"
After sticking to him like old oil till he agreed to help her, now she wants him to keep his distance?
"I can just leave if you want. You’re the one paying to stay with you."
Hugging her knees closer, Liliana turned away from him. Her silence lasted for a few seconds before she said in a low tone.
"I should just arrest you."
"Well, good luck with that." Dante scoffed.
Every ti he’s reminded of the girl’s ignorance, Dante’s patience decreases a little bit more. What did she think would happen if he got arrested? At most, he would spend one night in the holding cell then get released the next morning after he pays a fine.
If the police tried to convict every rando who happened to have a gun on him without a permit, the jails would soon be flooded. That’s why, unless it’s a shooting big enough to catch the dia’s attention, no one would bother doing anything about it.
"Get your ass moving already." After a couple of minutes of her just sitting there, Dante changed his tone. "You aren’t paying to put up with your bullshit so keep that in mind."
Liliana didn’t respond, but she still got up to her feet, the frown on her face remaining. Heaving a sigh, Dante turned back to his thoughts.
’Alright, Volcan. Give it to .’
[There doesn’t seem to be any pursuers in the area.] The AI replied. [Though I advise that you exercise caution. From what we previously gathered, it seems that Caligo employs a lot of seemingly ordinary people as their lookouts.]
’What about the drones?’
[The Eisenberg search party has moved sowhere else after investigating the old Satori plant. It seems they are following the traces found in that warehouse.]
’Good... can you keep an eye on them for ?’
[Yes.]
Sighing, Dante looked down at his clothes and accepted that he might need to get new ones soon. Thanks to the mask and beanie he had been wearing since they returned to Factory Town, he was sure the enemy didn’t get to see his face yet. So long as he wore sothing different, it should be possible for him to evade their search. The sa could be said for the rich girl accompanying him.
"Alright, let’s go."
Dante glanced at Ms. Hero then turned to one of the windows on the east side of the office. The two hadn’t used the front door when entering the building so they weren’t planning on using it not. Moving the shutters aside, Dante surveyed the alleyway right outside then opened the window.
Sa as the previous day, he grabbed onto pipes and used air conditioner units as platforms to climb down. That turned out to be as challenging as climbing up, making him wonder why they chose to hide on the third floor of that building. Once he was on the ground, he looked up to give his companion the signal only to see her jump out of the window.
That wasn’t good for his heart. He still has the one he was born with, and those were known to malfunction under monts of extre stress. He wanted to berate the rich girl for pulling that stunt, but neither of them was in the mood.
’Well, I hope so breakfast would cheer her up...’
But before that, they had to find other clothes to wear. Dante checked the map and found a clothing shop nearby so he made it their destination. Liliana kept her silence as they walked, which was a great boon since it allowed Dante to think of what their next move would be.
If he had to be honest, Dante wasn’t too enthusiastic about what was to co. Getting tracked the previous day dealt a great blow to his confidence and now he wasn’t so sure that he wanted to go after a gang like Caligo. Right now, he was nowhere near strong enough.
"If we don’t set a line that distinguishes us from criminals, how are we any different from them?"
Dante’s mind didn’t register the word at first, which is why he kept walking in silence. Just as they exited the alleyway, he ca to a halt and looked behind him, wondering if he had misheard it all.
"What did you just say?"
Raising her head, Liliana directed a glare at him.
"Those bikers, they shot at us without a warning." She said. "If you shoot back at them, that’s justifiable self-defense, but it still doesn’t excuse carrying a deadly weapon without a permit. That makes you a criminal as well."
Dante listened to her in silence, his frown deepening with each word.
"Again with that?"
He didn’t understand why she was so enthusiastic about a aningless topic such as that. Ms. Hero didn’t seem to share his opinion. Of course, she didn’t. That was the entire problem.
"If you’re fine with using a gun without a permit, what other cris have you committed so far?"
Staring at her for a couple of seconds, Dante pressed his lips into a thin line.
"Are we talking "cris" cris, or just so just BS cris like not having a gun permit?"
"Why are you treating this so lightly!?"
"? I never treat anything lightly. I don’t have a rich daddy to get out of trouble, you see. I must always make sure I won’t get caught."
Just like the ones tasked with enforcing it, laws are nothing but rules the haves invented to oppress the have-nots. Following them doesn’t make you a better person, and just because sothing is made illegal doesn’t an it’s wrong and immoral. After all, the people creating those rules rarely if ever follow them.
"I’m telling you this now," Dropping the sarcasm, Dante returned the glare Ms. Hero directed at him. "The next ti you bring up any of this bullshit, we’re-"
The rest of his words were swallowed by the sound of screeching tires. The situation was exactly the sa as with the bikers, only this ti it wasn’t as dark, and the thing that reached them wasn’t a motorcycle but a van. The door slid open just as Dante reached for his gun. This ti, however, he was unable to do anything.
Sothing slamd into his body, rattling all of his organs at once. His vision blurred, and his thoughts halted. The next second, everything went dark.
User Comments
0 comments from readers