Chapter 214
An Unexpected Variable (1)
Amid the chaos, Irena was sohow barely managing to withstand Kairus’s relentless offensive.
“The airflow….”
At the sa ti, Irena realized that the air around the battlefield where she and Kairus stood was twisting in a bizarre manner.
“You’ve definitely improved.”
Most others would only notice and react after the distorted flow of air had already turned into turbulence. But Irena was different.
She moved at once, trying sohow to correct the manipulated airflow riding along the tip of Kairus’s blade. The sword Kairus wielded swung rapidly, carrying abrupt temperature changes and overwhelming force.
‘Fighting imaginary enemies really isn’t enough after all.’
There was inevitably a limit to fighting opponents that existed only in imagination. In that sense, having a sparring partner like Irena was enjoyable.
“You think I was just fooling around this whole ti?!”
Irena’s body slid smoothly backward. Then she shot straight toward Kairus. But the form of her movent was far from ordinary.
“She lifted her body.”
Irena’s feet were no longer touching the ground. Only slightly, but she was floating in midair. That ant friction from the surface no longer applied to her.
Instead of kicking off the ground to charge forward, she could maintain her original speed almost perfectly just by gliding smoothly.
“You worked hard on this.”
She only planted her feet on the ground at necessary monts. More specifically, only during the split second her sword collided with Kairus’s.
It was a feat impossible unless one could predict the exact instant of collision.
Kairus highly evaluated the value of the technique Irena had developed through painstaking research as he continued the spar.
“Ah, this…!”
Irena, who had been trying sohow to suppress the surrounding air, ultimately failed to achieve her goal. The wind began to swirl, then instantly transford into a violent torrent beyond her ability to handle.
“Ugh… aaah?!”
Caught in the raging current, Irena’s body lifted into the air. Unlike Kairus, it was impossible for Irena to move as she wished within this chaotic turbulence.
And shortly afterward—
“So annoying.”
The blade of Veil of Plud Mist touched the back of Irena’s neck as she lost her balance.
“At tis like this, you’re supposed to say, ‘Please spare .’”
Irena gave a bitter smile as she replied.
“Then will you spare ?”
“Since this is just sparring.”
“Fine. Please spare .”
Having heard the answer he wanted, Kairus withdrew his sword. With a schwing sound, Veil of Plud Mist returned to its sheath once more.
“We’ve definitely chosen different paths.”
Unlike Kairus, who focused on controlling the surroundings through turbulence, Irena concentrated on strengthening her own movents through Swift Blade.
“Your attacks are getting more and more fierce too.”
To be precise, it could be described as nothing but overwhelming ferocity. She focused on maintaining a tyrannical offensive without pause or rest, continuously pressuring her opponent.
“What, you think I should fix it?”
“Not really.”
Kairus shook his head at Irena’s question. There was absolutely no reason to change it. If she continued refining it, she would only beco more outstanding.
“You’re starting to resemble your knight captain.”
Irena briefly looked down at the sword in her hand before shrugging.
“She’s not our captain anymore.”
Irena was no longer part of the Scarlet Leaf Order. But the person she had always aid toward was Dana Watson.
Since the image she aspired to had already been decided, it was only natural that repeated training would shape her closer to that goal. After checking the ti, Kairus rose from his seat and spoke.
“I’m going to pick up my ID.”
“What are you disguising yourself as this ti?”
Kairus mid putting on glasses as he answered.
“A graduate student.”
It was a word that carried an oddly sorrowful resonance. This ti, Kairus and Irena were disguising themselves as graduate students sent to a factory under a professor’s orders.
Nora and Tanya were scheduled to receive their forged identities through a barge that would approach during the voyage.
“We don’t know anything about dicine, though.”
“That doesn’t matter.”
“Tanya has more than enough dical knowledge, so she can handle most questions. And if the docunts are perfect and we act naturally, almost nobody will suspect us.”
“The Empire’s administrative chaos is still ongoing.”
Docunts that had all burned to ashes could not suddenly reappear from nowhere. Every single docunt needed to verify authenticity had been destroyed.
“If you compare it to a restaurant, it’s like all the recipes burned away, so now nobody can tell whether the steak they made was prepared the sa way as before or not.”
There was a reason why the criminals of Bennett City were rapidly expanding their territory while simultaneously shaking up the Aylan Republic.
The Empire was currently leaving its doors wide open for criminals and waiting for them to walk in.
“Should I co with you?”
Kairus shook his head at Irena’s words.
“You should think over that spar from earlier.”
It would help her a lot. Irena could still beco stronger. Though the speed of her growth was, how should he put it, sowhat slow.
Still, it was far better than endlessly chasing after Kairus’s footsteps. Even if sowhat slow, she was walking the right path.
With that, Kairus headed toward western Bennett to secure the forged identities.
“Wish, huh.”
For a place where prostitutes poured drinks while making people pay absurd alcohol prices, then enforced paynt through various thods if they couldn’t pay, it had quite a cute na.
“Survivor-nim.”
As soon as Kairus slid open the door and entered, a man wearing a colorful shirt sprang to his feet as if he had already been waiting.
“The thing I requested?”
Imdiately afterward, a silver tray carrying forged identities for Kairus and Irena was carefully set down.
“These are genuine, perfectly clean goods. They’re clean enough to pass even if the Empire weren’t in such a ss.”
Not only was the wood used for the identity tags authentic, but even the engraving thod perfectly replicated the Empire’s system. The paperwork was flawless as well, convincing enough to make nonexistent people seem real.
“You worked hard.”
At Kairus’s words, the colorful-shirted man’s body stiffened instantly. It was the reaction of soone harboring hopeful expectations.
“Well, is there anything you want?”
When those words actually ca out of Kairus’s mouth, the colorful-shirted man instead recoiled in shock.
“I-I didn’t even do anything that impressive?!”
That was how lotteries worked. Sotis people who stubbornly chased after them received rewards, but other tis soone just happened to pass by and struck it lucky.
The other organizations that had desperately worked themselves to the bone over Kairus’s requests would probably feel terribly wronged if they heard this, but the world was unfair by nature.
“You don’t want it? Then forget it.”
“No, absolutely not!”
Now that the thing he had hoped for was suddenly right in front of him, he found himself agonizing over what wish he should make.
“Bring a drink.”
No sooner had the words left his mouth than a glass of outrageously expensive liquor was placed before Kairus.
“I’ll only wait until I finish this. If you take too long, you’ll get nothing.”
As Kairus slowly sipped his drink, the colorful-shirted man sank into deep thought.
“A bunch called Detente has been causing trouble lately.”
Kairus nodded.
“You want to cut off their heads, or smash up a few of their businesses?”
“Ah, just taking care of a few businesses will do.”
A napkin was held out before the man.
“Three places. Write the addresses.”
Before the expensive liquor glass beca empty, three addresses had already been written onto the napkin. Kairus pocketed the napkin and stood up.
“Keep up the hard work.”
“Thank you!”
He dealt with it simply on the way back. It wasn’t sothing that took long. It was about as easy as going to a restaurant and picking up a takeout order of stir-fried noodles.
After returning to the office, Irena and Kairus spent several days continuing their training while simultaneously investigating and preparing for their destination, San Paluche.
“San Paluche. A city with many disabled people.”
“It’s a city with a strangely high number of unhealthy people. The reason is mysterious, complicated, and at the sa ti simple.”
“Not just the river, but even the nearby sea.”
Everything was contaminated. During the drug manufacturing process, all kinds of catalysts and byproducts were dumped into the river.
The citizens, who lacked financial ans, relied heavily on fish caught from the sea and river as staple food sources, and every single one of those fish looked bizarre. So had strangely shaped gills, so had backs bent like bows, and others had multiple eyes.
“There’s no way the bodies of people who drink that water and eat those fish can remain normal.”
It was a city filled with sick people and deford children. The funny thing was that despite all that, people still did not leave the city.
“Because they provide treatnt.”
The citizens of San Paluche could receive treatnt at extrely low prices. Though in truth, it wasn’t treatnt but clinical testing for new drugs.
They administered all sorts of unapproved dicine to produce results, and the byproducts generated during the drug production process ended up making people sick again.
Perhaps the term perpetual motion machine existed precisely to describe San Paluche.
“I get the city’s situation. So what?”
If it wasn’t information that helped accomplish Kairus and Irena’s current objective, then it was all useless information.
“The Empire’s citizens know about it to so extent too.”
“So we need to hide our forged identities.”
Their forged identities as dical graduate students would help them enter the pharmaceutical facilities, but the city’s residents themselves would likely be hostile toward Kairus and Irena.
“We should send a telegram first.”
They needed to inform Nora and Tanya of this as well. Since they couldn’t place a phone call to a ship currently at sea, they had no choice but to send a telegram.
However, there was one thing Kairus and Irena could not possibly know.
“The rain is really intense.”
The ship carrying Nora and Tanya had run into severe weather. This wasn’t so light passing shower, but violent storm conditions with thunder and lightning running rampant.
“The ship isn’t going to flip over, is it?!”
Nora spoke with visible tension. But Tanya herself remained calm.
“It’s fine. I’m on this ship, aren’t I?”
There was no way a ship carrying her would sink in bad weather. Tanya declared it with certainty.
For soone to ask what gave her the confidence to say a ship wouldn’t sink in weather like this—
Well, Tanya Lysand’s life history up to now had simply been too extraordinary.
“I-I guess that’s true? If I stay with unni, then it should be safe.”
Even Nora herself was reassured after seeing how calm Tanya remained.
But.
Because of the storm, the telegram Kairus sent to the two won never reached the ship.
And the telegram system was not sophisticated enough to notify anyone whether delivery had failed.
Therefore, neither woman knew that Kairus had sent them a telegram, nor did they know what it contained.
“Once the ship arrives, I’ll contact Kairus, and he and Irena should get here within a few hours. Until then, unni, don’t go anywhere and stay right beside .”
“I will.”
The ship rocked violently amid waves that looked ready to tear it apart at any mont.
But even that storm ultimately failed to sink the ship Tanya was riding on. The voyage continued.
And at last, the two won arrived at the harbor of San Paluche.
Nora imdiately called Kairus to inform him of their arrival.
“They said both of them arrived. Let’s head out too.”
“Alright. I’m ready.”
He could have at least asked once, ‘Did you receive the telegram properly?’
Yet for so reason, Kairus did not ask Nora that question.
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