Chapter 261
“I could never do that again if you asked me to. It wasn’t my actual skill… it’s a kind of ultimate Secret Technique. That’s why my energy is so drained right now. It’s the kind of technique that draws out all my potential. It’s an ability that shouldn’t be carelessly revealed in front of others. Could you keep it a secret?”
“You saved my life once again, how could I not promise that much? I will definitely keep it a secret. I am someone whose lips are sealed. I didn’t say a word about what happened last time until the very end, though I have no idea how my father managed to find out.”
I looked at Alexandra with a suspicious gaze.
She might be confident in her own ability to keep a secret, but how well could a Noble Young Lady who knows nothing of the world really lie?
Even if I were Eugene Schneider, I feel like I would have immediately noticed she was hiding something just by listening to her.
“I guess I have no choice but to trust her for now.”
I don’t know, whatever happens, happens.
Even if additional information about my abilities reaches Eugene Schneider, he already knows that I obtained the usage rights to Kokuyōotto through unidentified means, so nothing worse could really happen at this point.
Fortunately, given the circumstances, it seems Eugene Schneider intends to use me to his advantage somehow rather than subjecting me to dissection or killing me, so I can only hope that trend continues in the future.
“Anyway, I truly thought you had mastered the ultimate secrets of karate, just like that Ninja said. The mysteries of Eastern Martial Arts brought over from Neo Tokyo, chakra, was a fluid movement that made me feel such things.”
Seeing through the opponent’s movement at a glance, and acting one step ahead as if foreseeing what’s to come, I thought I felt the presence of such an absolute master, but perhaps it was my misunderstanding.”
Alexandra pouted her lips as if embarrassed. However, it was an impression that quite accurately hit the mark.
Seeing through the opponent’s movement and acting one step ahead as if foreseeing what’s to come, wasn’t that the main way to utilize the microchip in a fight?
A sudden worry came over me.
Both Alexandra and the Communist Ninja thought this was only the skill of a master, never imagining it was a miracle brought about by a single microchip.
But would the higher-ups who hear the report from that mid-level Ninja think the same?
It would be a relief if they did, but if not, I might have made a truly huge mistake.
Should I not have let her live after all?
Alexandra spoke to me as I was regretting the past again out of habit.
She was chattering intimately, having grown closer than before after suffering together and having a frank conversation.
“I have one more thing I’m curious about. Why did you let that Ninja live? You said you were sparing her because you saw potential, but what did that mean?”
“Kuh-huk.”
She had pinpointed exactly what I was just thinking about, and on top of that, she recited a line that was incredibly embarrassing in hindsight, causing me to choke and cough involuntarily.
“Are you alright? I didn’t make a slip of the tongue or anything, did I?”
“Ah, no. That was just something I said. It seemed like that Ninja was misunderstanding me, so it was a bluff I used to take advantage of that.”
“Aha, I see. Then what about sparing her? You couldn’t have spared her just to bluff.”
At Alexandra’s joke, I smiled awkwardly and said…
“There was no special reason. It’s just… it’s true that it was inappropriate behavior for an escort, but looking closely, she seemed young. It doesn’t feel right to kill a kid, does it?”
At my answer, Alexandra smiled mischievously.
“Aha, is that so? And here I thought you only spared her because she was a woman.”
…?
“…I didn’t even know she was a woman. Isn’t she a man?”
I had seen the face, but with the androgynous appearance and how fast everything went by, I couldn’t distinguish the gender.
With such an uncurved physique, it was hard to tell just by looking at the body. He was small for a man, but I thought that made sense since he was young.
When I tilted my head, Alexandra spoke in a voice brimming with confidence.
“She is a woman. Unlike a dense man, a woman’s intuition like mine is spot on. She was definitely a young girl.”
Well, if the Noble Young Lady says so, it must be true. It doesn’t matter either way. I nodded and stood up.
“I think this is enough. Let’s head out again.”
My body still felt like waterlogged cotton and wouldn’t move well, but aside from that, my physical strength had recovered to some extent.
“I will take the lead.”
At my firm tone, Alexandra also stopped her chattering and followed behind with a stiff expression.
* * *
If we could go straight to the landing pad safely and quickly through the employee passageway used by the Dolls, there would be no greater luck.
And it goes without saying at this point, but such luck is not given to an unlucky person like me.
“Is there no other way?”
[There is none. The only path leading to the landing pad is straight ahead. There is a way to go around, but it is estimated to take at least an hour to travel, and there is no guarantee that a situation like this won’t happen again.]
“…That makes sense.”
I let out a deep sigh as I looked at the straight path ahead.
A passageway was one thing. The problem was that it was a narrow square passageway with sharp thorns sprouting densely on all sides.
Unlike the Dolls or ravers, we, humans with soft skin on the soles of our feet, could never pass through that path.
I was left wondering just what kind of important place this passageway led to for it to be designed like this.
If it were an impressive security device instead, I would try using the power of the System Assistant in my head, but since it was made physically impossible for a person to pass through like this, there was no answer.
“It seems we will have to go out.”
We had to leave the safe passageway and go through the Corridor of the Mirror Castle, not knowing what dangers might be lurking.
Left with no choice, I looked for a nearby entrance/Exit. Paying special attention to whether any sounds were coming from outside, I had the System Assistant open the door.
'There’s nothing outside, right? Open it.'
[Understood, test subject.]
Vwoom-
The Circular Entrance/Exit, which had a spiral shape resembling a snail shell, rotated and opened.
I, who was about to step out while looking at both sides, froze solid the moment I extended my foot outside.
“…”
A doll was looking down at me with a vermilion gaze from right in front of me. It wasn’t even just one doll, but a group of dolls.
The Dolls, easily numbering over ten, were densely packed together, casting a numb gaze in this direction as if inspecting spare parts.
It felt like my heart was going to stop. Cold sweat poured down.
The precautions I heard when I first arrived at the Mirror Castle came to mind.
[Entry into a restricted area is not permitted for a visitor.]
Was the passageway used by the Dolls a permitted area or not?
Would the Dolls view Alexandra and me, who had just come out of the employee passageway, as terrorists, or still as legitimate visitors?
I had thought it was a relief that we hadn’t encountered a single doll while using the employee passageway all this time, but how unlucky. To think we would run into a whole bunch of them like this!
The Lead Doll silently and gradually approached me. Even at that close distance, I still couldn’t decide how to act.
Should I fight? Against ten Dolls?
When I saw them fighting against the terrorists, they were shooting laser beams from the two lenses that served as eyes. If they just fired those at me all at once…
Should I run away then? What about Alexandra? Surrender? Would that even work on Dolls?
In the midst of my worrying, the Doll boldly reached out both hands. I was terrified, thinking a blade might sprout from those hands and stab me, and I tried to block it, but there was no need.
The Doll grabbed the arm I was trying to block with and threw me to the side. True to the nature of a mechanical robot, its strength was so powerful that I was flung away just like that.
Fearing a follow-up attack might come next, I quickly stood up and took an alert stance, but what soon caught my eye was the sight of it shoving its upper body into the passageway, dragging out Alexandra who was waiting inside, and rolling her towards me.
“Kyaaaak!”
Casually ignoring the messily screaming Alexandra and the dumbfounded me, it just went into the employee passageway like that.
Its attitude seemed to say its only purpose was to use the passageway, without the slightest interest in us from the start.
The other nine Dolls that followed were the same. What I thought were gazes directed this way were actually all looks directed at the entrance/Exit.
They all completely ignored us and swarmed into the employee passageway.
“…What in the world just happened?”
I could only give the answer, “I don’t know either,' to Alexandra’s bewildered question.
I was too flustered to notice earlier, but thinking about it now, the Dolls… seemed to have very urgent business. The way they cleared away the 'obstacles' blocking their path without looking back and entered the passageway was exactly like that.
What in the world made the Dolls move in such a hurry?
And…
'Exactly. What in the world is this? What the? Didn’t you say there was nothing?'
I had come out firmly believing only that, but there was no bolt from the blue quite like this.
Unless the System Assistant betrayed me, why on earth?
A long silence.
It only answered after I urged it several times.
It was a flustered voice that I never imagined I would hear from an artificial intelligence.
[…There really was nothing. At least, that was the case as far as this System Assistant could ascertain.]