Chapter 32
“An ACU of Tier 6 or higher.”
Kael did not mince words about what he needed. There was no reason to, and anything else was worthless to him.
For a moment, silence fell inside Edrian’s office.
“That’s all I want right now. An ACU of Tier 6 or higher. Preferably undamaged. If that’s difficult, one intact enough for me to examine its internal structure will do.”
Edrian listened to Kael without a word.
“It would be best if I could take it apart and examine it. If I can’t understand it, I’ll obtain an opportunity to see a facility related to it.”
“A facility?”
“The place where they make them.”
Edrian’s eyes wavered slightly.
“What I need most to restore my mana circuit is inside one of them. It’s only a hypothesis, but I consider the possibility fairly high.”
At those words, Edrian merely stroked his chin slowly and did not answer immediately.
He hesitated for a moment before opening his mouth.
“I really hate to say this when we’ve only just begun doing business….”
He let out a quiet sigh.
“I don’t think that will be possible.”
Kael tilted his head.
“Why not?”
“Young Kael.”
Edrian gave a light cough.
“First, I think you need to understand how Magitera operates.”
“…Is it that complicated?”
“A little… it can be.”
“Just give me the point.”
Edrian looked at Kael for a moment, then smiled faintly.
“Very well.”
When he placed his hand on the desk, a hologram depicting Magitera’s vertical city structure quietly appeared.
Countless corporate logos were overlaid on top of it.
“Magitera has a market. It also has a city council and an Administrative Bureau. On the surface, it looks as though a city government exists.”
“It’s obviously just a facade.”
“Exactly.”
When Edrian manipulated the hologram again, the lines representing the city government faded, and a massive round-table-shaped symbol appeared above them.
The Hundred Council.
A small English abbreviation appeared beneath it.
[THC]
“The Hundred Council. The highest council where Magitera’s 100 largest corporations gather.”
“…So corporations rule the city.”
“They do.”
There was a hint of bitterness in Edrian’s voice.
“There are various committees under the Hundred Council: public security, energy, outer-ring resources, mana infrastructure, medicine, and communications. One of them is directly related to the Tier 6-and-higher ACUs you mentioned.”
A new name appeared on the hologram.
[HCAB]
[High Circuit Allocation Board]
[High Circuit Allocation Board]
Edrian said,
“The High Circuit Allocation Board. HCAB for short. It’s the institution that manages ACUs of Tier 6 and higher.”
Kael looked at the hologram and asked,
“So?”
Edrian raised an eyebrow slightly at his words.
“I’ve only just begun explaining.”
“Just give me the point.”
“I will.”
Edrian seemed to realize that a long explanation would have little meaning for Kael, so he folded away the hologram.
“Any corporation can make ACUs of Tier 5 or lower, provided they have the technology and permits. The quality varies, of course, but in principle, production and distribution are allowed.”
“Why aren’t Tier 6 and higher?”
“Because there’s a major difference.”
Edrian’s voice grew slightly lower.
“ACUs of Tier 6 and higher aren’t personal equipment. They’re classified as strategic assets. Everything from production and implantation to transfer is managed under HCAB approval.”
“You mean corporations can’t make them as they please.”
“That’s right. Seraph is no exception.”
Kael looked at Edrian.
“Seraph is one of the corporations that possesses advanced ACU technology, but it cannot independently own or distribute completed ACUs of Tier 6 or higher. It’s closer to receiving an allocation. This city doesn’t leave equipment of that caliber lying around on the open market.”
“Because it’s easier for those who share that power to control the market.”
Edrian was silent for a moment, then nodded.
“Well… unfortunately, that isn’t entirely wrong.”
Without leaning back in his chair, Kael asked,
“Did no corporation ever try to replicate them?”
“Many did.”
Edrian answered briefly.
“Most of the major corporations tried at least once. Seraph was no exception, of course.”
He continued,
“But they all failed. They can imitate them up to Tier 5. Starting at Tier 6, however, the structure is different. It’s not simply a matter of greater output. Circuit stability, neural synchronization rate, mana refinement, and the density of the spell-calculation unit. Everything changes.”
“Is it because of the core material?”
Edrian’s gaze turned toward Kael.
“How did you know that?”
“Just a feeling.”
“….”
Edrian’s expression suggested that he found the answer difficult to accept at face value.
Regardless, Kael added indifferently,
“So if you can’t give me an ACU of Tier 6 or higher, we have no deal.”
What he wanted was a single ACU of Tier 6 or higher, and without one, he had no reason to partner with a corporation.
Edrian thought for a moment before opening his mouth.
“I understand what you mean.”
“Then?”
“But it’s impossible to provide a completed Tier 6 ACU right away. Even Seraph’s allocated share is subject to HCAB monitoring. The user has already been designated.”
“What about one belonging to a dead user?”
“That’s the point.”
Edrian’s voice grew slightly lower.
“Pale was a traitor within Seraph, and his ACU was already classified as damaged during recovery at the scene. Besides, there was the justification that it was a reward for saving Lin.”
He continued slowly,
“I can’t give you an ACU of Tier 6 or higher directly, but I can help you procure one.”
“….”
“As you’ve probably felt, this city is flashy only on the surface. Inside, incidents and accidents erupt every day. Corporate sabotage, intrusions into research facilities, disputes over outer-ring resource rights, clashes between subcontracted PMCs, staged terrorist attacks, attempts to seize ACU users….”
He looked at Kael again.
“And at the center of every such clash, there is always an ACU user.”
Kael listened silently to the ongoing explanation.
“Of course, users of Tier 6 ACUs and above are rare. But they’re not nonexistent. Large-scale operations, defense of critical facilities, covert recovery missions, unofficial conflicts between corporations. People like that are sometimes deployed in such places.”
Edrian emphasized his next words.
“Then naturally, some of them must die in the process.”
Kael looked at Edrian.
“You want me to recover the ACUs of dead users?”
Edrian nodded at his words.
However, Kael narrowed his eyes at the proposal.
“So you want me to run errands for corporations.”
Edrian was silent for a moment before opening his mouth.
“People out there call that being a mercenary.”
He continued,
“If you don’t want to work solo, you could join a PMC. I can introduce you to a PMC affiliated with Seraph. As a member, it would also be easier to establish grounds for intervening in unofficial conflicts between corporations.”
“…Then I’ll operate solo.”
Edrian looked puzzled.
“May I ask why?”
“The others would probably just become dead weight.”
As Kael said this matter-of-factly, Edrian opened the drawer beside his desk.
When he placed his palm against it, a thin light passed over the surface, and a separate metal case slowly rose from inside.
Edrian took out the case and placed it on the desk.
A small object.
A black case slightly larger than a palm.
A wing-shaped Seraph Industries emblem was faintly engraved on its surface.
Kael looked down at it.
“What is it?”
“A dummy ACU.”
“Dummy?”
“More precisely, a circuit marker for disguise.”
Edrian lightly pushed the device toward Kael with his fingertip.
“It’s modeled after the latest Tier 5 ACU from Seraph Industries. It isn’t actually implanted; it attaches to the skin.”
Kael did not pick up the device and merely looked it over.
It was nothing more than an ornament without any of an actual ACU’s functions.
“It has no output function. It doesn’t absorb mana or calculate spells. However, it’s designed so that external scanners will detect the registration signal and thermal pattern of a Tier 5 ACU, along with some of its neural synchronization response.”
“A decoy.”
“That’s right.”
Kael looked at the device.
“You mean you’ll make me look like a Tier 5 mage.”
“At least to most scanning equipment.”
“Most….”
“It won’t hold up for long against precision analysis equipment belonging to a major corporation or HCAB’s official inspection devices. But it can fool street surveillance drones, ordinary mercenary equipment, and lower-tier corporate security networks.”
Edrian added,
“Above all, it will hide the fact that you don’t have an ACU.”
He raised one finger to emphasize his next words.
“Lea ValenCroft has already confirmed that you don’t have an ACU. That fact alone is dangerous enough. If Archeon approaches you again, they may try to verify it more precisely.”
“If I’m wearing this then?”
“At least any new scan will show a Tier 5 response. It will conflict with the previous result. I can vividly imagine how confused they’ll be.”
Even so, Edrian laughed heartily.
..
..
Kael and Edrian had just finished their transaction.
“Grandfa—”
The office door opened.
Before Elena could stop her, someone poked their head inside.
“Huh?”
At the familiar voice, Kael turned his head and saw a girl standing in the doorway with her eyes wide.
Lin Arclight.
The moment she saw Kael, her face lit up.
“K-Kael?!”
Then she ran straight inside.
“It really is Kael!”
Kael looked at her for a moment.
She was clearly the same person, unchanged.
But the Lin standing before him now was a little different from the one he remembered.
Above all, the speed of her speech…
“You look healthy! What happened to your hand? Are you hurt? What have you been doing all this time? Grandpa only told me you were in Grave Rock and didn’t give me any details. Are you all right there? No, of course you’re not all right. It’s Grave Rock. Did you eat? Is Grandpa Harun doing well? You haven’t gotten mixed up with any more weird people, have you…?”
“….”
The nonstop barrage of questions left Kael’s mind confused for a moment.
So he asked Edrian,
“Was she always like this?”
At his words, Lin’s face flushed bright red.
“W-What do you mean, ‘she’?”
Edrian chuckled softly.
“My granddaughter talks about you quite a lot. Please be understanding.”
Lin waved her hands in flustered denial.
“N-no, I don’t! It’s just… you’re my benefactor, so of course I’d worry about you! That’s common sense!”
Then she straightened her expression, cleared her throat, and spoke.
“You said this was your first time on the upper levels, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Then I’ll show you around.”
Kael narrowed his eyes.
“Show me what?”
“The upper levels.”
Lin put a little more emphasis into her words.
“Or at least the area around Seraph Tower and this neighborhood. Kael, you don’t really know how things work here, do you? You can’t judge the upper levels based only on Grave Rock. Of course, this place isn’t exactly a good one either… but there’s still a lot to see….”
Her speech grew a little faster.
Perhaps realizing it herself, Lin paused to catch her breath before continuing.
“I-I’ll show you around. Let’s go together.”
Kael looked at Lin.
Her eyes shone with anticipation.
However, he was not in the mood to entertain Lin right now.
“I have to go back soon….”
“Why not indulge her just this once?”
Edrian’s words cut Kael off.
“Is that a request, or a job?”
Edrian smiled gently at him.
“You may consider it both.”
Kael’s eyes narrowed further.
“And this will be good experience for you as well.”
“What good experience would sightseeing on the upper levels be for me?”
“If you’re going to start working as a mercenary, you’ll also have to perform no small number of VIP protection jobs in the future.”
While Kael remained silent, Lin blinked and looked back and forth between the two of them.
“Protection?”
Edrian looked at his granddaughter and gave her the news.
“Young Kael has agreed to cooperate with us for the time being.”
“Really?”
Lin’s expression brightened again.
“Then I’ll get to see you often? This is exciting!”
Faced with this unexpected situation, Kael let out a sigh.
“Haa….”