Chapter 280
They say the arm bends inward; my suspicions leaned toward Eres Shore being the Helper and the Sedouforne Escort Team Leader being Zodiac.
But I couldn’t be certain. In reality, Eres Shore could be Zodiac, and the Helper could be someone else entirely.
[J: The second supply drop will be delivered soon.]
The Cyberwatch rang.
Another message had arrived from the Helper. Thanks to that, my mind became even more confused.
I was keeping a close eye on both Eres Shore and the Sedouforne Escort Team Leader. Yet neither of them showed any suspicious behavior.
Even if it were a neural interface, it couldn’t be used this stealthily.
But seeing as the Helper sent me a text this openly, is Eres Shore really not the Helper? Is he Zodiac?
Should I consider this message some kind of hint the Helper is sending me?
I bit my lip. If only I had just a little more information…!
“Mr. Maximus, have you been together with the Sedouforne Team Leader-nim since we first fell into the trap?”
Master craftsman unexpectedly answered my question without a counter-question.
“We met on the way.”
It was a short and concise answer. Damn it. As expected, it wasn’t easy to reach a conclusion.
Is it the Sedouforne Escort Team Leader, or Eres Shore? The odds were fifty-fifty, but I couldn’t just guess.
There was definitely a correct answer, and there had to be a way to find it.
How could the Helper be so sure that Phantom Thief Zodiac was hiding in here? Did the Helper know the Phantom Thief’s identity?
“What on earth is going on? At least say something.”
“I knew it! Those bastards from Schneider are conspiring together. They’re trying to kill us all by dragging for time like this!”
“Young Lady, please calm down. Everyone from Schneider, how about we get moving first?”
“Please wait a moment. There might be a way to track Zodiac. Aaron, do you need a little more time?”
It was noisy. With everyone chattering so loudly around me, concentration was impossible.
I nodded toward Team Leader Hank, then closed my eyes and shut my ears.
The noise turned into a mere buzzing background sound. Within the black screen, my mind, in extreme concentration, reached out from the inside to the outside.
What I needed at a time like this was the microchip. But I couldn’t use it.
However… was it because I was gradually getting used to the microchip?
'Click.'
I imagined flicking my tongue and turning on the switch.
Divine skill. My body reacted just from that.
My head grew hot from the load applied to my brain, and a thrilling sensation raced through my sharpened nerves like electrical signals.
It was only a tiny bit, but I had the illusion that the world had slowed down, or perhaps that I had gotten faster.
I opened my eyes.
Within the limited territory, I poured all my possible consciousness into the Sedouforne Escort Team Leader and Eres Shore.
If Phantom Thief Zodiac was one of them, it would definitely show. There would be something different.
I mobilized a level of observation capable of recognizing and distinguishing the shape of every single speck of dust, scrutinizing each one over and over.
Sedouforne Escort Team Leader. Black, left-handed, opportunist.
Wide glabella, dry and uneven hair. A clean head with no traces of disguise. A black and white suit and built-in bulletproof vest, a TC-4 Model Fully Automatic Pistol, a flash and smoke grenade, a well-maintained Super Vibration Greatsword, and a small locket that looked like a family memento.
…No.
Eres Shore. White, ambidextrous, a secretive surveillance watcher.
deep eye socket, a skinny frame in the 70kg range, an ultra-expensive prosthetic eye, deep wrinkles, and faintly remaining incisions - that is, traces of plastic surgery.
Drone Box, hacking deck, controllers, and communication equipment. A connection network with the outside, a suspicious red button he was fingering…
He was the most likely possibility. What was certain was that he was by no means a mere bodyguard. But I didn’t know if he was Zodiac.
As much as I wandered, my mind, in high concentration, gradually faded. Along with a feeling like something snapping, bloody water flowed from my nose.
If it wasn’t either of them, then who on earth was the Phantom Thief -
The clues blurred and faded away.
In the final moment, as my consciousness, focused on a single point, scattered, I barely managed to grasp the last remaining thread.
“…”
As I wiped away my nosebleed with a trembling hand, Alexandra spoke to me worriedly from the side, asking what was wrong.
“Is it cyberware? What information did you get? What about Phantom Thief Zodiac?”
Team Leader Hank asked sharply after seeing my condition.
Because my gaze had been piercingly fixed on Eres Shore at the very end, he scrutinized that direction with a suspicious look, wondering, “Could it be?”
Eres Shore took one step back with a slight startled look.
But it wasn’t him.
Eres Shore was not Phantom Thief Zodiac.
I was unsure until the very end, but the Phantom Thief was someone else.
It was a judgment based on intuition and instinct rather than the opposite sex. In the final moment, the deceiver my sharply honed senses had warned me about was someone else.
“…I figured it out: who Zodiac is.”
I gripped the pistol at my waist and silently pulled the gun slide.
Even if it was hard to believe, the last remaining possibility had to be the truth.
Setting aside all secondary factors, let’s make a judgment based purely on the circumstances.
Who was the one with Prezen?
If Phantom Thief Zodiac helped Prezen escape, who was the person capable of doing that?
I had to break out of my frame of thought. Only then could I catch the Phantom Thief.
I thought everyone was spouting nonsense, but if there was one person who had actually been telling nothing but the truth from beginning to end…
The past me had been completely wrong.
The one person I thought could never be the Phantom Thief was, in reality, the Phantom Thief.
Like lightning, I aimed my gun at Alexandra Amadeus Schneider and pulled the trigger.
BANG―――――!
The gunshot rang out, and the beautiful blonde young lady fell backward with a thud in surprise, thereby dodging the bullet.
No, she didn’t dodge by falling in surprise.
It looked that way on the outside, but in reality, she already knew the bullet was coming. And she was acting accordingly as if she had luckily evaded it.
“You son of a bitch!”
Team Leader Hank rushed in and tackled me in the blink of an eye.
As my aiming collapsed from the tremendous impact, I barely managed to pull the trigger one more time.
BANG!
By a stroke of incredible luck, the bullet flew exactly where I had aimed.
The fact that my shooting skill wasn’t that outstanding actually became a benefit; as a result, Team Leader Hank’s pushing the muzzle ended up helping me.
And.
Schneider’s Hell, Alexandra Amadeus Schneider, lightly tilted her head to dodge the bullet flying straight toward her forehead.
Because she had fallen on the Floor/Ground, she couldn’t stage a scene of 'accidentally' dodging like before.
“…My.”
A low sigh that didn’t suit 'Alexandra'.
She had realized she was caught.
No matter how outstanding Alexandra’s physical ability was, there were bound to be possible and impossible territory.
Reflexes that react to and dodge a bullet flying at supersonic speed? This wasn’t a joke; wasn’t this truly at a level where a bodyguard wasn’t needed?
It would only be understandable if the person standing here were Eugene Schneider, not Alexandra Schneider.
Team Leader Hank, who had snatched my gun, grasped the situation and, with coldly sunken eyes, aimed the muzzle at the seated Alexandra himself this time.
“You are not young Lady Alexandra. Who are you?”
“Team Leader Hank, what are you talking about! If I’m not Alexandra, then who is Alexandra? Stop saying such scary things―”
BANG―!
As expected of a real man, Team Leader Hank! As soon as he realized she wasn’t Alexandra, he fired straight away without a moment’s hesitation.
'Alexandra' sprang up from the Floor/Ground with astonishing speed and physical ability, dodging the bullet. She now looked like she had no intention of hiding it anymore.
“You, beggar to the young lady!”
Paying little mind to the enraged Team Leader Hank’s shout, she looked at me with an intrigued gaze and asked.
“How did you know?”
The biggest reason was the labyrinth I felt in that extremely concentrated trance state.
But besides that, there were several grounds to suspect Alexandra.
“The biggest thing was when you caught me.”
When she grabbed my falling hand and saved me, Alexandra couldn’t properly react to the joke I threw: “I saved you once before that, didn’t I? You still have more to repay.'
I didn’t think much of it at the time, but as I think about it now, the reason was obvious.
This 'Alexandra' didn’t know the past between me and Alexandra. So she naturally couldn’t answer.
Apart from being good at acting as Alexandra, that person wasn’t the real Alexandra.
When I asked to find Alexandra, the System Assistant in my head also said so.
“I will guide you to the person you call Alexandra.” At the time, I thought it used such bizarre vocabulary because of the artificial intelligence’s unique stiff tone, but perhaps the System Assistant already knew.
That from a certain point, someone else had been replacing Alexandra’s place. It just didn’t explain it in detail because I hadn’t asked.
Also, Matilda’s reaction was decisive.
I wondered why Matilda Sedouforne was so terrified and rambling… now I know the reason.
“Young Lady Sedouforne must have witnessed you letting Prezen go. That’s why a fight broke out, and while you were trying to kill them all to silence them, I came and interfered. Am I wrong?”
As if it were a satisfactory answer, 'Alexandra' laughed.