The Way to Love in the Place of Dead Chapter 29

The words burst out without passing through his head for the first time in a long while. Only after the sting on his aching hand faded did his surroundings come into view. The wrecked interior and exterior of the research institute, soldiers in uniform, and even Jin approaching.

“Are you both alright?”

Even asking that after seeing the traces everywhere of the building smashed by rampant gunfire and the powers of Espers and Aberrants— the question was so monotonous it made him laugh. Perhaps the laughter that escaped was louder than he thought, as Jin’s expression colored strangely, but he didn’t have the energy to care about every little thing. No, since they were people who didn’t even care about the likes of us, why should we have to care about them?

“You seem… to be alright. I’d like to hear the situation report.”

At the words ‘situation report,’ his ears went muffled again. As his ears went muffled, his body’s balance wavered, forcing him to put strength into his legs and stand straight.

“There were human experiments. The guy I just killed burned away, but…”

Kay turned around. In the long, stretching corridor, the non-human corpses he had killed were piled up.

As if the killing intent from just moments ago had been a lie, Kay continued speaking no differently than usual.

“Search. Not just the Espers, but the researchers too— half of them seemed to have had their bodies turned into androids.”

To Jin, receiving only the necessary information, Kay must have seemed unbothered, but Aran knew otherwise. Uncannily calm for the situation, he looked like a balloon about to burst.

“Is there anything else I need to do?”

When Kay asked, staring with his reddish-brown eyes, Jin shook his head.

“No. You may rest until you are called up for your next mission.”

Walking with shuffling steps, Kay called a name in a low voice.

“Aran.”

Aran, who had been about to provide additional information to Jin, turned his head at the call of his name.

“That thing you said, about if I cause trouble, keep it to something money can fix. Remember?”

“…I remember.”

“Is it still valid?”

Aran found Kay truly fascinating. He was fascinatingly full of vitality, and that was true even in moments like now when his emotions were suppressed. Like his ability, like his wavelength, he was always infectious with the feeling of being alive.

“Whatever you wish.”

So even if it meant paying a higher price than it was worth, he felt inclined to grant his wish.

Money. Even life. To him, those were far cheaper than the feeling of being alive.

Walking back the way he came without a word, Kay had a clear destination, and the place where he stopped was in front of a building.

At dawn, the very building where the full moon auction had been. Stopping in front of the stairs leading to the semi-basement, Kay asked.

“You’re following?”

“I have to protect my wallet too.”

Aran lightly joked, but Kay descended the stairs without a reply. There wasn’t even a moment to observe him, let alone stop him.

“Hey, this area is off-limits—”

When had he scoped it out? Kay pulled a gun from the chest of the guard protecting the first entry door, fired a single shot, and smashed the building’s door before the shell casing hit the floor.

“Kay.”

Calling his name couldn’t stop people from dying. The guard in front of the second inner door, and the employee at the spot checking invitations after riding the elevator down— all had bullets precisely lodged between their brows and their bodies slumped. The layers of security that could never be breached without an invitation were powerless before greater force.

Having melted the entire door, Kay now entered the auction house, desolate with no one there and no light entering.

“Is this revenge?”

“No. Venting.”

“About what?”

Dozens of laser pointers fixed onto Kay’s body.

“I don’t know.”

That all lives are equal. That a human life cannot be measured in money. There are things that never change no matter how long you shout the right words. Humans assign value to other humans, and buy that value with money.

That story isn’t limited to just labor.

Slice—!

The attack was faster than the enemies aiming the laser pointers could perceive. Leap in, shoot, land, slash.

He sees the muzzle and calculates the bullet’s firing angle. He lightly performs the act that only sounds simple in words: ‘see and dodge.’ Strong, and fluid. It was the very embodiment of the word sword dance. Among Espers, there are plenty born with high innate abilities, but applying that ability on the battlefield was a story from a different realm. And Kay, with his innate ability and skills honed by his environment, possessed a level of skill befitting the word S-class more than any soldier.

When there was no longer a single red dot pointing at him, he fired the one bullet he had saved for last, and threw the gun away.

“…Hah, hah…”

The dead numbered about fifteen by eyeball estimate. They wouldn’t be worth much, being hired hands used for an illegal auction.

‘The problem is the bastards who’ll throw a fit if the full moon auction disappears.’

Sway, sway, sway. With the gait that had bothered him the most from the first time he saw it, Kay headed toward the central stage under the full moon— the emergency exit hidden by the canopy. What Kay, descending the stage apparatus without hesitation that even Aran hadn’t noticed, dragged out was…

“Eek!”

The auctioneer.

“H-How…!”

His voice trembled violently as he was dragged out, the mask’s hologram still incomplete as if he had hurriedly found and put it on.

“Wh-Why are you doing this!”

Having believed he alone would be safe in hiding, the belatedly arriving fear crushed him.

“Is it money? Or the goods? Talk!”

Thrown down below the stage, the auctioneer scuttled backward on his bottom, touched the corpse of a guard dead on the floor, and screamed.

“Y-you… Do you think you’ll get away with this? Do you even know how this auction house is operated…!”

“Tell me.”

The shattered vision brightened. Only after seeing his fallen mask flickering with static did the auctioneer seem to realize his face was exposed, fumbling at his own face with his hands. Blood oozed through the gaps of his skin cut by the blade.

“How is it operated?”

“Kyaaah… B-blood…”

Stammering, he sold such cruel objects and people, yet vomited out terror at his own blood. That contradiction disgusted Kay more than the human bud grafting he had seen.

“Tell me everything. How this place is operated, who turns a blind eye to it, even the bastards who submitted items here. Everything. Tell me.”

Then I’ll know, won’t I? Who the hell sold my friend, and why, in this place.

“Ah…. No. No, I don’t know. I don’t know anything. So…!”

“If you’re going to make excuses, come up with a better one.”

Not knowing is a sin in itself. Just as much as you were happy not knowing.

“Or try begging a little more sincerely.”

As he adjusted his grip on the sword, which felt slightly heavier from the consecutive battles, Aran stopped Kay for the first time.

“Nothing comes back even if you kill that man.”

“Are you an idiot?”

It was a stupid thing to say that he just couldn’t comprehend.

“It’s because nothing comes back. That’s why you do something called revenge.”

Refusing even the last deterrence, as Kay approached, the man, struggling to escape, fell to his knees and began to recite. He didn’t do it because he wanted to. He had no choice. He did it all because he was ordered to. They were heart-wrenching tales of how unfair and unhappy his life had been.

“Save me. Please.”

“Beg a little more.”

“I’ll beg. Like this. Please.”

As emotion gradually surfaced in Kay’s eyes, which had flashed with madness, the auctioneer, thinking his pleas had worked, crawled on his knees and looked up at Kay. And then…

“My answer is no.”

Without lingering attachment, Kay swung his blade.

∞ ∞ ∞

No matter how much time passes, no matter how many times it repeats, there are a few things one can never get used to. One of them is likely the death of someone you know.

“Kay.”

When Kay turned his body, Jin was approaching.

“I offer my condolences.”

In front of a tall, cubic stone monument. As he placed his hand over his chest and lowered it, did Jin also have a name among those engraved equally that looked particularly large and clear?