【133】
“Family to me?”
Abigail answered in a stiff tone.
“I don’t have a family.”
“Your only remaining brother would be very sad to hear you say that,” Anong said with a smile, her eyes crinkling.
“Ah, I guess you do have parents too.”
Abigail gritted her teeth.
“…I don’t understand why you’re asking when you already know.”
It was obvious she had been thoroughly investigated.
Few people knew that Abigail Chung, the closest aide to the mayor of Babel City, wasn’t an only child but had an older brother.
Obl and she, with their significant age difference, had been quite close. Abigail liked Obl, who took better care of her than their parents did.
“It seems you lost contact quite a long time ago. Perhaps you found out he was an unregistered Esper?”
Abigail replied in a resolute tone.
“No.”
As if she wouldn’t know that. If it weren’t for that damned awakening, Obl would have had no reason to end up in such a place.
Her parents sold her brother as soon as he awakened. And with that money, they entered Babel City.
Into the heart of the April Continent, where even people from the prosperous Spring Continent found it difficult to cross the threshold.
Abigail was able to study as she wished, but she always thought about her brother. She firmly believed that he had gone to earn money and couldn’t come see his beloved sister.
As she grew older, she began to feel something was strange. No matter how far away Obl was working, he wasn’t the type to not write even one letter to the sister he cherished.
Still, she trusted her parents. And she trusted Obl.
To young Abigail, Obl was such an impressive person that she couldn’t even imagine anyone forcibly taking and suppressing him. Especially since family relations weren’t that bad.
But Abigail was clever, and by the time she came of age, she vaguely guessed the connection between her family environment and her missing brother.
Her parents merely slowly consumed the money they got from selling Obl without investing it, so Abigail gritted her teeth and studied hard. Thanks to that, she graduated from the academy with excellent grades while receiving scholarships, and didn’t hesitate to accept the recruitment offer from the city hall.
Then, by diligently bringing her first paychecks to her parents, she softened their vigilance and discovered that they had sold her brother.
After cutting ties with her parents, Abigail spent her days off searching everywhere for Obl. Despite not knowing how he had grown, she believed she would recognize him if they met.
That’s when the mayor extended a hand to Abigail. She didn’t know what prompted it.
“Is that so? Then what about him being a competitor in the illegal arena?”
Anong asked, still not erasing her smile.
“We parted when I was young. How would I know what he’s doing now or where he is?”
Whether the mayor thought her desperation to find her brother could be exploited, or valued her abilities highly, or found her semi-estranged family situation convenient—
Either way, through the mayor, Abigail learned about the illegal arena and discovered Obl there.
At first, Obl wouldn’t even meet with her. But she didn’t give up and continued to seek him out.
The fact that he used his real name instead of an alias was itself evidence that he had been waiting for her.
Evidence that he had been waiting for his family who had betrayed him and lived well off the price of his body.
‘…Fool.’
Come to think of it, her brother had been kind since childhood.
Obl’s price as a distinguished competitor in the Colosseum was no small sum.
Abigail desperately saved money.
While helping with the mayor’s dirty work, she pushed others—not her brother—into the mud.
‘I have no choice.’
When alone in the break room, she would remove her glasses and squeeze her eyes shut.
Then she would see the faces of those she had taken to “the site.” People who were neither Espers nor anything special, but were easy to mobilize.
Illegal immigrants.
They too would have families. Even if they didn’t, sending them to places from which they couldn’t return wasn’t something a human should do.
But for Abigail, the first scar on her conscience was the most painful.
‘I want to save my brother who sacrificed himself for me.’
Obl, who used to chase her away like cattle when she came, was gradually opening his heart to her.
Someday, if she could mend this tattered relationship, Abigail thought she wouldn’t regret anything she had done.
For Abigail, guilt was a luxury, a pretense. She was a person who had already determined what her top priority was.
“Then Investigator Abigail Chung doesn’t care what happens to him?”
“…What do you mean, ‘what happens’?”
Abigail struggled to loosen her stiffened lips.
“He’s an unregistered Esper participating in gambling-heavy competitions. He’s also diverted money from innocent citizens through match-fixing… and has hurt people on commission.”
“Ah.”
At those words, Abigail froze.
She hadn’t heard about match-fixing or hurting people.
Was it because she kept meeting her brother and urging him to leave together that he got involved in such dangerous activities?
‘That’s absurd.’
Should she have saved money by herself instead?
Managing her expression was now impossible.
She knew Anong was scrutinizing her closely, but couldn’t help it.
“What… making such claims without evidence.”
Abigail spat out whatever words came to mind.
She couldn’t succumb easily.
Mayor Martha Chafnil was a frightening person, and even more frightening people were backing her.
To be honest, she didn’t care what happened to herself. She had been prepared to some extent from when she began doing secret work with the mayor.
Abigail had sold her life and loyalty for money.
But if she spilled the mayor’s secrets, would she be the only one to sink?
Mayor Chafnil was cautious because she had skeletons in her closet. That meant she held all the weaknesses of her subordinates. If Abigail passed on some crucial information, Chafnil was the type of person who would create graves not just for her but for Obl too.
So she had to deny it. Just as her brother remained silent to ensure she wasn’t connected to the crimes he committed.
This much was easy.
“That’s right. No evidence.”
Anong shrugged.
“But… I can’t stop someone who wants revenge, even without evidence.”
“What?”
Abigail’s face turned pale.
“As the Colosseum grew and more money flowed in… investors from other continents got involved. You know that, right?”
Abigail kept her mouth shut without affirming, at those words.
Illegal arenas aren’t just used for making money but also for money laundering.
Martha Chafnil wasn’t the owner of the arena. But she needed personnel to cover up issues with facility safety inspections and related tax reports. Because of that, Abigail knew roughly how the arena operated.
“But it seems they lost quite a bit due to match-fixing.”
Anong shrugged and manipulated the screen.
A man with black hair and purple eyes appeared. If it had been just him, she wouldn’t have been this tense. But behind him stood a man with blond hair and blue eyes.
If seen separately, she might have thought they were just uncommon handsome men, but combining the descriptions of these two made them persons of interest.
‘No way.’
Abigail muttered, feeling like she’d been hit on the head.
“Yuri… Sobolev and Chris Danil?”
Due to the mayor’s insistence, she had some information about the mafia from the Winter Continent.
In Yuri Sobolev’s case, there was only one low-quality photo. She heard it was taken when he was almost sold at some auction.
But for Chris Danil, not even that existed.
All they had was a montage created by combining information heard from those associated with White Night.
What were such people doing here? And why was her brother there?
Her heart pounded with fear.
‘Match-fixing caused losses, they said?’
Would Yuri Sobolev really show mercy?
Rosenhauser, who had been his enemy, was torn to pieces despite being a high-ranking official of the Esper Union. Obl, who wasn’t even an enemy but just a passing ant, might be trampled to death.
She was about to lose a family she had already lost once.
This wasn’t just a simple loss.
‘And what about the things I’ve done?’
The crimes she committed by taking the mayor’s hand choked her.
She had barely managed to bear the weight of those crimes with the thought that she could save her brother someday.
But at this rate, Obl would die. Even if she saved her own life here, everything she had done would be in vain.
She wanted to cry if she could, but her tear ducts were dried up.
Her voice wouldn’t come out either, and whenever she moved her lips, only groans of “uh, uh…” emerged.
“Are you now thinking of telling what you know?”
Anong asked kindly.
“…No.”
Abigail gave her answer in a half-sobbing voice.
“I can’t, I can’t do that.”
But Anong noticed that Abigail was shaken.
Just a little more push. Just a tiny bit more.
“Distribution of unregistered Espers. Who do you think promoted that?”
Anong whispered in a sweet voice.
“It’s easy to take and sell a newly awakened kid who doesn’t know anything. But with an ability like your brother’s, becoming transparent, it’s hard to notice. So, who would know about it and suggest selling him?”
“…I heard my parents made the first contact.”
Abigail answered readily, perhaps thinking it was better to share her personal story.
“But they’re ordinary people. How would ordinary people know about a market for buying and selling people?”
It’s all about trust, and they don’t reveal it to just anyone. Especially if it involves human trafficking.
“…Ah.”
Because Abigail had accumulated quite a bit of knowledge on this, she understood the point Anong was trying to make.
“The seller got the information and came looking.”
“Then the person who sold that information is important.”
Abigail muttered.
“That’s right. But who are the people who are accumulating wealth by buying unregistered Espers?”
Anong poured poison into her ear.
“And who’s taking bribes to overlook it?”
Martha Chafnil.
As Abigail spat out the name like a groan, Anong smiled.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
