Chapter 57
Blue Ash.
A criminal organization involved in various illegal activities, but primarily dealing in “special” drugs.
Under orders from Bram Coil, who oversaw the eastern district, a group was moving to find an idiot’s lost merchandise.
A man cursed as they passed through the market on Grayeblock’s outskirts and entered a narrow passage tangled with old pipes.
“Ah, fuck, this is seriously shitty. Why do we have to clean up that bastard’s mess?”
The man walking ahead answered as though he was annoyed.
“What else can we do? If they tell us to do it, we do it.”
“Easy for you to say. Searching Grayeblock’s back alleys at this hour is fucking miserable enough, and now we have to search inside trash cans too.”
“If you’re unhappy about it, you should’ve been born in another city.”
A snort came from behind them at those words, but the laughter did not last long.
Because they all knew.
Bram Coil was not the kind of man who would only kill the idiot who had lost the item and leave it at that. They knew better than anyone that if they failed to find it, they would meet the same fate.
The man who had sighed looked down at his wrist terminal.
A single blue dot blinked on the worn tracking screen.
“But is this really where the item is?”
“I told you it is.”
“I thought you said it was a different building when we heard earlier.”
“That was the last location. The signal’s coming from here now.”
“Could it be broken?”
“As if. Bram doesn’t spare expense on this kind of thing. If it were broken, everyone caught up in this would already be dead, right?”
They continued walking despite their grumbling.
But something was strange.
The alley only grew narrower, and there was no sign of anyone nearby.
There did not seem to be anywhere the item they were looking for could have ended up.
The man walking ahead stopped for a moment, then turned around and asked the other man,
“Hey.”
“What?”
“Are we in the right place?”
The man holding the wrist terminal irritably tapped the screen.
“That can’t be right… It definitely says the location is here.”
The blue dot still pointed directly ahead of them.
One of the men looked around.
“But there’s nothing here.”
“Could it be under the ground?”
“Did it fall into the sewer?”
“No way.”
It was then.
“…Ugh.”
When a short groan came from behind them, they all turned around at once.
One of the companions at the very back was kneeling beside the wall, slumped against it.
Beside him was a black-haired young man.
That was the last sight they saw.
***
Kael had deliberately left one of them conscious.
He looked down at the man kneeling on the ground, then crouched in front of him.
“Name.”
The man’s lips trembled.
“What…?”
Instead of answering, Kael picked up the pistol lying on the ground.
The man’s eyes shifted toward the pistol.
“Name.”
“J-Jek. Jek Roman.”
“Affiliation.”
“I-I don’t have one. We’re just….”
Kael aimed the pistol at the ground beside Jek’s knee.
Bang.
The gunshot briefly echoed off the walls of the alley.
Jek gasped for breath and nodded.
“Blue Ash! It’s Blue Ash!”
Kael did not lower the pistol.
“What is Blue Ash?”
“It’s an organization that deals in drugs. Awakening aids, sedatives, painkillers, suppressants, discontinued pharmaceuticals, things from laboratories… stuff like that. They don’t just sell street drugs; they deal in more unusual things. And I don’t know everything, either. We only distribute whatever comes down from above.”
Kael reached inside his clothes and pulled out the small cloth-wrapped bottle.
Etherlyn.
The word on the bottle’s label made Jek’s face turn even paler.
Kael slowly held the bottle up before him.
“Did you come looking for this?”
Jek swallowed.
“…Yeah.”
“Why?”
“That’s….”
Kael shifted the muzzle slightly, this time toward the top of Jek’s foot.
Jek hurriedly said,
“Because it’s expensive! Filthy expensive! It’s not just some bottle of medicine. There’s almost no stock left. Legal distribution ended long ago, and only stored supplies are circulating now. They don’t release it to just anyone, either. It’s one of the things Bram keeps separately locked up.”
“Who’s Bram?”
“Bram Coil. Blue Ash’s eastern district manager. He controls the logistics for eastern Grayeblock and the outskirts market. Not just medicine, either—neural stabilizers, stimulants, and goods for illegal clinics all pass through his hands. People at the bottom like us have to be careful even about being seen by him. He’s a crazy bastard who kills people depending on his mood that day.”
Just mentioning the name Bram Coil made Jek keep glancing toward the entrance of the alley.
The reaction of someone afraid that another person might be listening.
Kael rolled the bottle between his fingertips.
“What does this do?”
When Jek hesitated again, the muzzle of Kael’s pistol rose slightly.
“Tell me, and I’ll let you live.”
He looked up at Kael.
“Really?”
“If you tell me.”
“You’ll really let me live?”
“Yes.”
Jek drew a short, hurried breath.
“Etherlyn was originally a legal awakening aid. They advertised it everywhere, too. They claimed it relieved mana depletion and increased ACU adaptation rates… things like that.”
“But I heard it was banned.”
“There was an accident a year ago. We don’t know the exact details, either. All the records disappeared. The company that made it went bankrupt, several executives died or went missing, and the laboratory was shut down. But the rumors remained.”
“What rumors?”
Jek glanced at his fallen companions, then looked back at Kael.
“A rumor that someone used magic without an ACU.”
….
Kael said nothing.
“I didn’t see it myself, either. We all thought it was just nonsense. Magic without an ACU? That makes no sense. But after the accident, rumors like these started going around. Flames shot from one person’s hands. Someone else used telekinesis. Someone’s eyes glowed blue before they collapsed.”
“They collapsed?”
“I heard most of them died. Even those who survived either went insane, had their nervous systems burn out, or suffered damage to their insides. That’s why it was banned. Officially, they said it was because of the side effects, but….”
Jek swallowed.
“I heard the real reason was something else.”
“Tell me.”
“That Etherlyn may not be just an awakening aid. It might be something that lets people use magic even without an ACU. Of course, no one who used it has survived so far….”
Kael looked at the blue residue inside the bottle.
Using magic without an ACU.
If that was true, Etherlyn was not an ordinary drug.
Kael asked,
“Why is Blue Ash looking for it?”
“They’re not only trying to sell it. Bram is collecting every bit of stock he can find. Residue left in empty bottles, labels with manufacturing numbers, tags—everything. He can make money by passing it up to the people above.”
“Who’s above?”
At Kael’s question, Jek hurriedly shook his head.
“I don’t know. I really don’t. It’s a place Bram deals with directly. Whether it’s the corporations, illegal clinics, or the lower levels… we down here don’t know.”
Kael’s eyes narrowed.
“…The lower levels?”
Jek closed his mouth as though regretting what he had said.
But it was already too late.
“Keep talking.”
“There’s a route Blue Ash uses that goes downward. Not through the checkpoints—it runs through closed elevator shafts and drainage channels. Medicine and components are sent down that way, and things from the lower levels are brought up too. Another organization controls the route; Bram doesn’t manage it himself.”
“What’s the name of that organization?”
Jek squeezed his eyes shut.
“If I tell you that, I’m really dead.”
When Kael moved the muzzle toward Jek’s chest, Jek answered immediately.
“Rust.”
Kael committed the name to memory.
Jek hurriedly continued,
“We’re Blue Ash, and Rust manages the route. We’re separate organizations. Bram pays them a toll to send things down, especially drugs or circuit components that can’t leave a record. Some of the Etherlyn stock was moved along that route too. This shipment was supposed to pass through the market and then be returned to a recovery warehouse, but something went wrong in the middle.”
“Who gave the order?”
“It came down from Bram’s side. The order was to leave no one who had seen the item alive. That was all.”
Kael tilted his head slightly.
“Did you hear that yourself?”
“It was written in the recovery order. On the terminal.”
Kael picked up the wrist terminal lying on the ground, its screen cracked.
When Jek unlocked it, the instruction log opened on the screen.
Kael stared at the final line for a long time.
Eliminate witnesses and contacts.
….
Nia or Mira.
Anyone at Last Round could be brought in if they wanted to.
Kael turned off the terminal and put it in his clothes.
Jek asked cautiously,
“Now… is that enough?”
Kael looked at him.
“Where is Bram Coil?”
Jek’s face twisted again.
“I don’t know. I really don’t. We’re a retrieval team. We only receive contact through the terminal. The warehouse where Bram stays changes every time, and only certain people are allowed to go there in person.”
“Where did the last order come from?”
“An abandoned freezer warehouse three blocks from here. It was relayed from there. I don’t know if Bram is there himself. Still, it’s one of the places where Blue Ash’s goods are gathered.”
Unable to endure Kael’s silence, Jek spoke.
“I told you everything. I really did. So….”
He swallowed the end of his sentence.
Expectation and fear mingled in Jek’s eyes.
The hope that he could live—or perhaps the delusion that he wanted to live.
When Kael quietly rose to his feet, a little hope appeared on Jek’s face.
“Can I go?”
He picked up the pistol.
“Wait.”
When Kael aimed the muzzle at his head, Jek’s mouth fell open.
“You said you’d let me live if I told you.”
“I did.”
“Then why….”
Kael spoke quietly.
“If you go back alive, you could put the others in danger.”
Jek’s face twisted.
“No. I won’t tell anyone. I swear. I won’t say a word. Please, I only did what I was told.”
“You chose this.”
Jek looked as though he did not understand what Kael meant, but Kael offered no further explanation.
Bang.
With a single gunshot, Jek’s body collapsed along the wall.
After confirming that, Kael took the small bottle from inside his clothes and looked at its contents again.
Use magic without an ACU.
Kael turned those words over in his mind several times.