[166]
The vision of a dying Yuri was etched into Chris’s retina.
The unpleasant noise that tore through the air.
The crimson stain spreading across Yuri’s chest as he stood beside him.
That moment of despair that crushed Chris, as if everything had stopped.
Chris’s shoulders twitched.
It looked like a recoil from suppressing the impulse to spring away at any moment.
Kalmia watched him with dry eyes.
‘Phase one is over.’
Whether Yuri Sobolev’s assassination failed or succeeded, they couldn’t go back to the previous phase.
So proceeding with this phase targeting Chris Danil was the mission that remained for her.
‘A throwaway card?’
No, she was a martyr.
A warrior who willingly sacrificed herself to bring an end to the arduous life of Espers.
“It will be painful. It will be difficult.”
Chris’s face was completely distorted.
Though restrained, the indescribable sadness, despair, and anger were palpable precisely because of that restraint.
Even with the control device on, she could easily inject illusions and plant her whispers in his mind.
Was Chris Danil the only Esper with ‘non-standard’ powers?
“You’re watching him. Watching Yuri Sobolev die. But you can’t do anything. Your power may be adept at destruction and killing, but it can’t save people.”
Isn’t that right?
A twisted smile settled on Kalmia’s lips.
Kalmia was the same. Even when she reached out to help others, the moment she interfered with their minds, she ultimately destroyed them.
When she was young and couldn’t control her ability at all, she turned everyone who approached her into idiots.
The greatest misfortune was that Kalmia didn’t know this fact.
People who contacted Kalmia were always smiling, kind, and empty.
She thought that was what normal people were like.
Classified as dangerous, Kalmia was scheduled to be disposed of.
That’s when Rosenhauser appeared.
He knocked Kalmia unconscious with a long-distance shot and approached. When Kalmia regained consciousness, she was wearing a control device and could interact with ‘others’ for the first time.
At first, she was happy without even knowing what it was. The sensation of being able to communicate was close to a thrill.
Kalmia smiled even at Rosenhauser’s cold gaze as he always watched her from beyond a glass window.
She smiled even when she saw researchers in white coats approaching her.
Even when needles were stuck in her arms. Even during harsh training.
A child overjoyed by the first warmth she had ever encountered.
And then Kalmia met Gabriel.
‘Perhaps because the mission is nearing its end, I’m becoming unnecessarily sentimental.’
Gabriel shattered Kalmia’s ‘world’ in the worst possible way.
‘Do you really think they care about you?’
Pulled from her cozy shell, Kalmia wailed.
She was scheduled to be disposed of after rampaging in hatred of everyone.
The research facility treated Kalmia like an untamed beast. Only after falling to the status of an animal did Kalmia realize how thin and fragile her happiness had been.
At the moment when death was before her eyes, Gabriel saved Kalmia.
He revealed that Rosenhauser had established this research facility and was gathering Espers with special abilities.
Most of the test subjects swept up in the madness of that crazy old man who acted as if he could dissect even death itself had died.
Those who survived became part of Rosenhauser’s royal guard.
Thorns Order.
Knights, gathering slaves serving a master they couldn’t defy in one place.
It was truly in bad taste.
“So that’s what happened…”
“Hmm?”
Kalmia snapped out of her thoughts at Chris’s murmur.
But his blue eyes remained clouded with dark turbidity.
‘I must have misheard.’
“Yuri, Yuri…”
The man’s low murmur sounded like a sob.
Kalmia looked at Chris with a cold gaze.
Everyone envies and fears Espers with abilities.
But in Kalmia’s opinion, they were born slaves.
Despite having such strong power, they end up being bound to just one Guide.
Bewitched by false saviors, they are bound, oppressed.
They are exploited while possessing these supposedly great abilities.
An unfortunate life born to willingly offer even their hearts.
Even Espers not yet bound to Guides couldn’t enjoy complete peace.
They lived with the anxiety of not knowing when they might go out of control, never free from the pain that consumed them.
“Good, yes. That’s it…”
Kalmia whispered kindly.
“I can pull you out of that pain. Only I, only I can.”
Blood vessels appeared in her white eyes that had seemed calm.
The control device on her wrist heated up, carving pain into her skin.
She needed to remove the device that was trembling as if about to burst.
‘Then, more clearly… I can take control…’
Despite going this far, he showed no signs of breaking.
He only groaned in pain. Without even showing signs of wailing, he endured and endured.
Chris Danil was truly a monster among monsters.
‘…Should I increase the output?’
Even an Esper’s brain would melt at that level.
But if she could get hold of Chris Danil, wasn’t that risk worth taking?
Narrowing her eyes, Kalmia made her decision.
Beyond simple illusions, she began to imbue them with a greater sense of reality.
Beads of sweat formed on her brow from the intricate work.
“Ah…”
Kalmia frowned at the pain in her wrist. She looked down at the control device on her wrist.
It was a newer model than what she had encountered at Thorns Order, but she thought it wouldn’t be a problem. However, it was so sensitive that when she tried to draw out more of her ability, it acted up like heated coal.
Kalmia’s lips twitched.
Being treated like livestock wasn’t particularly new. And for the greater cause, she could sacrifice a wrist.
The problem was that an alarm would sound if this broke.
A feature common to all Esper control devices.
‘Tsk.’
“I’ll give you a reality where he’s alive. You’ll be able to see your Guide breathing properly again.”
“Yuri. He’ll come back to life?”
Light seemed to return to the man’s eyes for a moment as he muttered intermittently.
Kalmia leaned back against the chair casually.
“Yes. If you come with me, you can meet him for the rest of your life.”
This was as good as having him completely won over.
Now that she had obtained the ‘key,’ she could open that frozen research facility.
With Yuri Sobolev dead or in critical condition, Baekyah would be disoriented and in disarray.
While they mistakenly thought Thorns Order’s target was the city or Baekyah’s headquarters, the ‘knights’ would search the winter land.
The last legacy of the ancient humans that Rosenhauser ultimately lost. They needed to go to the ‘Ark.’
And in the Ark, the leader would plan for the end of Espers.
‘If the Ark is even half as true as the records suggest, then the guiding drug is just a toy in comparison.’
Raising her head, Kalmia looked at Chris.
Complete clarity had already returned to his blue eyes.
“So what you’re looking for is the Ark. There’s probably research data related to Espers there…”
The more the man spoke, the more shocked Kalmia became.
“By the way, I’m the ‘key,’ eh? You planned to open the way to the Winter Continent, and incidentally break me down and brainwash me like this.”
Chris exhaled with a “ha” and closed his eyes, then opened them.
“Right. You certainly weren’t just a throwaway card. You came all the way here deliberately with another purpose.”
But Chris also had another purpose.
“Thank you for the kind testimony.”
He deliberately touched the fountain pen in his chest pocket.
With a click, Kalmia’s own voice played:
[So proceeding with this phase targeting Chris Danil was the mission that remained for her.]
Her fingers trembled at her inner thoughts flowing out like a monologue.
The owner of that voice was undoubtedly Kalmia herself.
“How, how is this possible?”
Kalmia asked, stumbling over her words.
Those thoughts were definitely kept to herself.
Kalmia hadn’t worried about this situation even as she threw herself directly into the midst of enemies.
Her resolve wasn’t shallow enough to be swayed by persuasion. Moreover, she was confident she wouldn’t reveal the truth even under intense torture.
What was this situation where Chris Danil seemed to be looking into her mind?
“Illusion injection.”
Chris said with an expressionless face, his legs crossed.
“It’s something our Espers can do too.”
His appearance was very similar to his master who was currently unconscious and not waking up.
“…What?”
Kalmia looked behind him with an astonished face.
What she had thought was just a wall rippled like a heat haze.
When she focused, widening her eyes, she could see a white-haired woman with pale pigmentation, much like Kalmia herself, standing there.
Kalmia instinctively realized that this woman had entered with Chris.
“I’m Fortuna. Pleased to meet you.”
It was a casual greeting as if they were just having a chat at a coffee table.
“I’m a mental-type Esper from Baekyah.”
In contrast, Kalmia’s insides were in turmoil.
If that woman had been here from the beginning.
That meant she had been under Fortuna’s influence the entire time.
She hadn’t sensed any presence or existence.
“How on earth…?”
Kalmia groaned.
Though her ability was restricted by the control device, her mind was a kind of labyrinth.
That meant any stranger who entered would only get lost.
Yet that woman had infiltrated in a way Kalmia couldn’t detect at all, and even managed to exit unscathed.
“I had the opportunity to know you first, one-sidedly.”
Fortuna added in a modest tone.
“Let’s just say I had plenty of practice opportunities.”
For months, how much she had struggled to complete the ‘homework’ that woman had given.
At the time, it had been unbearably frustrating.
She had devised all sorts of methods to bypass the prohibition placed on Thorns Order members.
Thanks to that, she became able to look inside Kalmia’s mind.
“It was a great help.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
