[81]
Chris was puzzled.
He thought he had shaken them off quite well, but his Esper senses still detected pursuers.
He had changed directions several times to conceal their destination. He had swapped clothes and even pretended to board a vehicle only to exit from the opposite side.
Nevertheless, the pursuers were persistently following them.
‘This will never end at this rate.’
Chris pulled January into an alley and gestured.
“Stand here please.”
Chris manipulated the device on his wrist and placed the sensor tip against January’s body.
“Why, why are you doing this?”
“I find it suspicious that they keep following us… I’ll just check something quickly.”
Although he had been secretly using telekinesis, at this rate, it was only a matter of time before his identity would be exposed.
“O-okay.”
“Have you ever had any major surgeries?”
“No.”
“Any wounds?”
“None at all.”
January shook his head emphatically.
If that was the case, then the place to check was predetermined.
‘A place hidden by clothes or hair. A place the person can’t see themselves, and where their hands don’t easily reach.’
Chris moved the device slowly.
Beep. Beep beep.
Beeeeep.
Just as he’d suspected. It was one of the locations he had initially anticipated.
Without hesitation, Chris pushed back January’s hair to examine his nape and discovered a vertical scar.
Chris spat out the words like he was grinding them between his teeth:
“Tracking chip.”
As long as he had this, escape was impossible.
For Chris, removing an invisible chip would be easy. The problem was its location in the head.
‘If I touch it wrong, it could be damaged.’
He was an important witness. Plus, Chris had promised January.
He said he would help him.
Transactions always needed to be precise.
This was one of the rules Yuri had first taught Chris.
“Tracking chip?”
January fumbled at the back of his neck. His hand jumped as if burned when it touched the thread-thin scar.
“I, I don’t remember getting this wound…”
With a pallid face, he looked desperately at Chris.
“Please believe me. I truly had no idea…!”
A tracking chip?
When on earth did this appear?
‘…When I first took the drug.’
To verify if he was compatible with this special drug, he had been administered it in front of the manager. He had momentarily lost consciousness then.
He had thought he’d fainted because the drug, which he was trying for the first time, had hit him too strongly. They had said it was no big deal and happened often.
It must have been implanted then.
January was gripped by fear as he finally understood why former colleagues who had tried to escape from the manager had been recaptured.
“I believe you.”
Chris firmly gripped January’s trembling shoulders.
“Ah!”
The pain seemed to bring him back to his senses.
It felt like even the lingering effects of the drug were fading away.
As January steadied his swaying body, Chris asked:
“How do you feel?”
“It hurts.”
January, answering somewhat gruffly, rubbed his eyes.
Though not a single tear had fallen, his hand moved automatically.
“There are two options.”
Chris counted on his fingers.
“First. We knock everyone down and escape.”
Though the Spring Continent was Thorns Order’s stronghold, there would be limits to the manpower they could mobilize.
“Wouldn’t that be dangerous? It seems physically demanding too.”
Chris couldn’t bring himself to say that such concerns were unnecessary. So he continued speaking as if he hadn’t heard January’s words.
“…Second. We neutralize the tracking signal.”
“The second option seems better.”
At those words, Chris took out a round object as if he had been waiting for this moment.
“This might sting a little.”
“…Me?”
“Yes. This is… a device that interferes with signals exchanged by mental-type Espers. Since it emits a slight electrical current, you’ll feel a tingling sensation where it’s attached.”
His face was so nonchalantly adding ‘it’s not harmful to the body’ that it was rather disconcerting.
“Why on earth do you carry such a thing around?”
Before Chris could answer, January found the answer himself.
“Well, I guess it’s not strange for an agent of Northernlight to have such an item.”
It was an item Chris Danil of Baekyah carried around.
But since he couldn’t tell the truth, Chris kept quiet, pretending not to know.
“Please do it quickly.”
As January closed his eyes and exposed his nape, Chris moved his hand.
At first, he expected to feel skin, but he felt metal first.
“…It’s cold.”
January shuddered.
The slight tingling sensation wasn’t a lie. But it wasn’t painful.
“Is it very bothersome?”
“It’s fine.”
Above all, January thought he shouldn’t linger here too long.
He was already a burden. He didn’t want to trouble Chris any further.
“Let’s move.”
Chris strode forward. For now, there were no visible trackers in this street.
The enemy would soon realize that the signal was cut off here.
So they needed to put as much distance as possible between them while the chip was deactivated.
‘It would be good if we could borrow the locksmith’s help.’
Yuri had said he wouldn’t intervene. So they couldn’t mobilize Peter Garrett.
“This way.”
The two moved through alleyways several times. They deliberately entered specific buildings only to exit through different doors, and sometimes crossed from one building to another via the rooftops.
This was possible because the buildings in the Spring Continent were similar in height and built close together.
The pursuers who had been following them all disappeared.
“You… you have a good sense of direction.”
January gasped, expressing admiration. Though they seemed to have moved chaotically while escaping… gradually, familiar buildings came into view.
Chris had been continuously moving toward the destination January had initially indicated.
‘He’s like a person with a built-in compass.’
“I’ve been constantly checking the sun’s position. Fortunately, the weather is clear.”
Even if the weather is good but it’s hard to determine direction, one can use landmark buildings as markers.
“Is your neck okay?”
“I do feel a tingling sensation intermittently.”
January answered honestly.
He felt like Chris would immediately know if he lied and said it didn’t hurt.
“But… it seems you’re not planning to take me to Northernlight.”
“That place has many watching eyes right now.”
January looked puzzled at this answer.
“You know that Northernlight has sent agents to the Spring Continent, don’t you, January?”
“That’s because where I work is special… Ah!”
If January knew, it meant the manager knew too.
“If I, who has disappeared, show up at a place where Northernlight agents are staying…”
“They would attack.”
“Even though I don’t know such important secrets… why?”
“Some people want to avoid situations where secrets might be exposed.”
January’s shoulders trembled slightly.
Come to think of it, Espers who claimed to be Chris’s seniors had visited the establishment.
What if those two, who had recognized January’s face, handed him over to the manager?
“It’s getting darker and darker.”
Chris shrugged.
“I plan to go to a quiet place and contact my direct superior. Before that, I’d like to hear about the place you mentioned.”
“It’s a shop where I used to work. It caters to people who came from the Winter Continent… the owner was quite a good person.”
“An illegal immigrant?”
“That… I’m not sure. I think I heard that his deceased wife was from the Winter Continent.”
January mumbled.
“Is this person unrelated to your current workplace?”
“That’s for sure. When I started this job, I couldn’t go to Susanna’s pub anymore.”
“I see.”
“You’re not asking why.”
“If it was a problem you could talk about, you would have told me.”
January smiled bitterly.
For someone who had readily promised to help, Chris was remarkably straightforward.
The line the other had drawn was almost visible.
“…Susanna doesn’t deal with drug users. Her wife died at the hands of an addict.”
He was somewhat reluctant to mention that he used drugs.
However, Chris had already seen January under the influence. It would be ridiculous to deny it.
‘It will be exposed soon anyway.’
Susanna had an uncanny ability to identify drug users. Once or ten times, it was all the same to her.
“Ah. That seems like quite sensitive information, is it okay to tell me?”
“Anyone who knows Susanna’s pub knows this story. It was originally run by her wife.”
“You said she doesn’t accept people who use drugs… is it okay for us to go?”
At Chris’s question, January hesitated before nodding.
“I deliberately didn’t go after starting the job. So Susanna still doesn’t know what state I’m in.”
He might get beaten up just for crossing the threshold, but January was cornered anyway.
If it weren’t for this situation, January wouldn’t have sought out Susanna either.
A weak laugh escaped him.
“Why are you laughing?”
“Nothing. Just…”
January chuckled and said:
“I was just thinking what if I had gone to Susanna before starting this job. It’s funny how I only think about putting aside my pride when things have gotten this bad.”
It was pathetic and amusing.
January thought that Chris’s gaze would be filled with contempt, but the man’s eyes looking back at him were simply calm.
“Well, it’s fine.”
January muttered “Here it is,” and opened a door leading to the basement of a building.
Warm yellow light streamed out.
“Welcome to Pub Safe Haven.”
January murmured as if talking to himself, then led the way down the stairs.
Perhaps because it was still early evening, there were no customers yet. A middle-aged, robust woman was cleaning dishes and glasses behind the counter.
“We open in two hours. Get out.”
She barked without even looking up, apparently sensing their presence.
“Susanna.”
At January’s call, the woman who had been wiping a glass with a dry cloth looked up.
Discovering his face, Susanna frowned deeply.
“…January. You know the rule about drug users, and you brought someone too.”
Susanna noticed Chris standing next to January and opened her mouth.
The glass slipped from her hand with a scraping sound and shattered.
“Chris Danil!”
The scar below Susanna’s eye twitched violently.
The pub owner reached under the counter, immediately loaded a gun, and aimed it at him.
“Have you finally come to take my life?”
Chris, who had just recognized her, sighed deeply.
“Susanna Godrin…”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
