Chapter 20. Trojan horse
[165]
It was a cozy room.
But even before bringing his hand to the door, Chris realized the space beyond was distorted.
“Peter?”
Though he only spoke to the air, Peter appeared as if he had been waiting.
“Ah. You came quickly.”
Peter greeted him.
“Did you do something to the space beyond?”
“I had to. We’re dealing with a mental Esper, so we need to be cautious.”
He smiled wryly.
“Fortuna placed a ban and separately attached a control device, but since mental abilities aren’t visible, it doesn’t hurt to be careful, right?”
Chris agreed with that.
There are various types of mental Espers.
Some can simply show hallucinations or transmit their thoughts, while others can look into someone’s past or read emotions.
Powerful Espers can even read thoughts.
The problem is that even the lowest level abilities can control other people.
What would happen if you overlaid the image that it’s 8 o’clock on someone who goes to work at 9 AM every morning?
Even when the actual clock shows 9 o’clock, they see 8 o’clock, so they won’t move even after the time to leave home has passed.
“You’re being cautious.”
“It was Fortuna’s advice.”
Peter shrugged.
“I’m planning to go in.”
“…Hmm. Is that a good idea?”
His eyes narrowed.
He looked concerned that Chris’s judgment might be clouded because of Yuri.
Understandably so. If Chris were to be brainwashed by that mental Esper, it would become a big problem.
Understanding Peter’s concerns, Chris calmly said instead of getting angry or rebelling:
“There’s no point in just keeping her confined.”
“I know. That’s why I’m worried…”
“Let me help you a bit.”
Chris suddenly said.
“I’m already under the influence of Fortuna’s power.”
Peter gasped at those words.
“Are you crazy?”
Chris continued, undeterred by that reaction.
“So even in an emergency, I won’t become a slave to that mental Esper.”
There was a sense of determination that he wouldn’t become an enemy’s weapon no matter what.
But that was one thing, and this was another.
“Even so… if you’re subjected to interference from another mental ability while already under one, your personality might collapse.”
That was why Peter was reacting so violently.
Mental abilities work on the human mind. That’s why they conflict with other abilities.
In reality, if wind and water abilities collide, they’d just create a small typhoon. But the human mind is too delicate and fragile to handle conflicts between abilities.
“This is just a precaution for the worst-case scenario.”
Worst-case?
Peter was silent at that expression.
If Chris’s master suddenly woke up and looked for his dog, how was he supposed to explain this ordeal?
Though Peter was also an Esper, he didn’t commit such extreme acts as Chris.
“And if things go wrong,”
Chris stared at Peter and said.
“Please send the entire space to the frozen wasteland of the winter continent.”
“…And what, you plan to die from going berserk there?”
Peter sneered.
But Chris politely bowed his head.
“Please.”
“…Haa.”
Exhaling a somewhat dejected sigh, Peter said.
“Still, don’t you think you should at least see your boss wake up before you go?”
“He’s just temporarily away.”
Though he tried to choose his words carefully, his heart sank as soon as he spoke them.
Composing his breath, Chris completed his unfinished sentence.
“I don’t intend to wait idly with my hands folded.”
Shouldn’t he at least neatly package and present the ones who did this to Yuri?
That was Chris’s way.
It was also the way of life that Yuri had taught him.
Peter hesitated, but eventually opened the door.
“…Take care.”
Knowing it was the best dissuasion he could offer, Chris simply nodded and moved forward.
Beyond the door was a rather ordinary-looking room.
However, the positions of the floor and ceiling were completely reversed.
Chris took a deep breath and walked into the world where up and down were switched.
In the center of the room, with the bed pushed to one corner, sat a mental Esper in an iron chair.
With her eyes closed and a peaceful expression, if not for the control device on her wrist, she could have been believed to be meditating.
“You don’t seem otherwise uncomfortable.”
She looked down at her wrist and blurted out.
“I’m used to this kind of thing.”
The woman, who had appeared half-crazed when they first met, was now very calm.
‘Was she excited because she thought she had killed Yuri?’
Even while contemplating such a dreadful hypothesis, Chris’s face remained calm.
He observed her appearance.
His purpose was to gather information through observation rather than curiosity.
The colorless hair, like Fortuna’s, revealed that this woman had also lived while wringing her abilities to their limits.
‘Her nails are long. Her hair is long too.’
There were no calluses to be found. She didn’t look like a body accustomed to actual combat.
‘She doesn’t seem to have received any combat training.’
That means being pushed into that position itself was outside her normal scope of duties.
Considering the fact that she had placed all sorts of prohibitions on Thorns Order members and associates, it was surprising that she had directly come to the scene.
Either Thorns Order was that desperate, or they considered killing Yuri important.
After all, ability users who could deceive Chris’s eyes even momentarily would be rare.
“You seemed to hold quite an important position in Thorns Order. Is that a misunderstanding on my part?”
“Deputy leader. Kalmia. Kalmia Noxus.”
Kalmia readily revealed even her name.
Chris lifted the corner of his mouth almost imperceptibly.
He seemed to understand why Kalmia was cooperating so willingly.
‘…Does she think Yuri is dead?’
Clearly, that bullet had penetrated Yuri’s body.
Kalmia was immediately subdued, but Chris and those around him had made quite a commotion.
Moreover, Chris had come alone for the interrogation.
The fact that Yuri Sobolev hadn’t personally stepped forward would make it not too difficult to assume he was in a state where movement was impossible.
Though unintended, it’s a misunderstanding worth exploiting.
“For a leader to keep a mental Esper by his side, he must either be quite bold or trust you a lot.”
Chris opened his mouth slowly.
Though it wouldn’t sound entirely unpleasant to hear, Kalmia maintained a painted-on expressionlessness.
“But seeing how you were used as a discardable card, it seems it’s the former. What do you think, Ms. Kalmia?”
The Esper was silent for a moment.
Kalmia, who had been looking past Chris into empty space, slowly opened her mouth.
“You don’t know… what ideal we’re fighting for.”
“I’m willing to hear it.”
The other side let out a dry laugh.
“The complete end of Espers.”
Unlike her appearance until now, which resembled a lifeless jellyfish, her face was filled with madness, just like when they first encountered each other.
“A period. Terminus. Downfall. End. Call it whatever you like.”
A smile spread across her face as if the mere thought was ecstatic.
It was a chilling sight due to the discrepancy with her previous demeanor.
“Doesn’t that mean you die too?”
“I curse my ability.”
Kalmia responded to Chris’s question with a whisper-like, low voice.
“You? Don’t you?”
“…Not at all.”
“Born to a fate of being used, yet you don’t curse the world.”
Kalmia pulled up one corner of her mouth.
“Either you’re an unparalleled idealist, or a fool who thinks stone is gold.”
“I do get called slow-witted quite often.”
“Is that why you knelt down and submissively lowered yourself to that Guide?”
“Do you hate Guides?”
“Would anyone like a leash?”
Chris had never thought deeply about why they spread the guiding drug.
Such considerations were Yuri’s domain. Chris simply removed from this world what his master ordered him to eliminate.
But listening to that woman’s words, he thought that spreading the guiding drug might not have been purely malicious.
“Then the guiding drug…”
“We spread it so that those who had already received their death date could at least live comfortably until the end. That’s what the leader said.”
Her whispered addition revealed that this wasn’t entirely her own thought.
“Did you do this knowing it would affect ordinary people too?”
Kalmia smiled brightly.
“I did say I wish Espers would be finished, but I never said I hope other people fare well.”
“…Then is erasing all Espers from this world not for the sake of civilians?”
“It’s not for the sake of non-ability users. People like me.”
She looked down at her palm.
“It’s for the sake of Espers.”
“So that’s why you committed acts of terrorism centered on Northern Light and Baekyah.”
“Because that’s where the most Espers gather in one place.”
“You’re honest.”
Kalmia stared silently at Chris.
Those mute white eyes had ambiguous focus.
It felt like if you tried to gauge which direction that gaze was heading, you would eventually get lost in it.
“I have something I want to ask too.”
A thin smile appeared on Kalmia’s lips.
“What did it feel like?”
It felt as if that sound burrowed into his ears and directly seeped into his mind.
It was also careful, like the gentlest touch filtering through his hair.
“What are you talking about?”
Chris asked slowly.
The control device on Kalmia’s wrist was emitting a frantic blue light, which soon turned red.
Warning, and another warning.
The Esper whispered as if driving in a wedge.
“The final moments of your Guide.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
