Chapter One / 09 : 15 / Attore

“—This is the worst,” Marie muttered sullenly as she stepped off the gangway of the cylinder train.

Even with her necktie loosened, the sultry air was still terribly unpleasant. The sensation of her blond hair sticking to her face from all the sweat felt equally intolerable, and the suffocating stench of raw garbage made her want to vomit.

Marie took a look around the platform through her sunglasses.

The floor was sticky from unidentifiable filth. The walls were covered with obscene graffiti and flyers. The illumination from the ceiling lights was dim, and the station sign dangled unsteadily from above, its text blotted out.

Despite looking like an abandoned station that no one was maintaining, the platform was jam packed with people who had just disembarked from the cylinder train that had arrived just a short while ago.

“The absolute worst,” Marie repeated as she tore off her sunglasses. What the shaded black lenses had kept hidden that was now exposed was the insuperable scowl she had on her face.

“—So a city that looks like trash apparently smells like trash, huh. But of course. This is the worst, the absolute worst! It’s making me feel queasy, goddamnit. —How about we just burn it all to the ground?”

“Oy oy, that’s the first thing you have to say, Missy? This place is the world’s hottest tourist destination, you know? Can’t you say somethin’ a lil’ more cheerful than that?” someone said from behind to try to pacify her.

Marie turned around and stared right at Vermouth, who had a cynical smile on his face.

He had the look of a glamorous blond beauty—but his voice was frivolous and deep like a man’s. He was a bizarre existence whose expression, voice, and gender didn’t match with each other whatsoever.

Marie said, sounding fed-up, “Tourist spot? A trash dump’s more like it. Or a cockroach den.”

“—Sure, you could say that. But aren’t you forgetting that from the world’s perspective, we’re also a bunch of creepy-crawlies? —And extremely big ones at that,” Vermouth said, curling his lips. He then took a nice, deep breath and slowly exhaled it out, savoring the taste of his cigarette.

“—Ahh~, this stagnant air that smells like it came from the sewer... How nostalgic~ Just breathing it in calms me down~”

“Before that.”

The one who interjected was Naoto Miura. It appeared that the roar of the cylinder train had hurt his ears quite a bit, for he had a pained look on his face.

“Would someone mind telling me where this is already, please?”

“Well, for starters... It’s a place where you can get changed into something that doesn’t make me want to puke,” Marie said coldly, giving him the stink-eye.

Naoto was wearing a colorful traditional garment made of many layers of cloth that hid the contour of his body—which was normally worn by women.

With his short stature and voice that hadn’t fully dropped, he looked just like a real girl wearing it.

Of course, it wasn’t that crossdressing was a hobby of his—

“Are you serious? I’m a wanted terrorist whose face is known—and not just that!!”

Naoto unrolled the piece of paper that he’d been holding with one hand and shoved it in Marie’s face.

“You’re the one who told me to disguise myself so that we wouldn’t be identified, since we made a huge ruckus at the naval base right upon landing!!”

The piece of paper that Naoto had unfolded was from a tabloid written in English.

On the page was a photo of the Thai destroyer docking at the harbor and a flashy headline sprawled in large font.

“Hijacking a Destroyer and Destorying a Thai Naval Base, 2nd・Y Strikes Again!!”

It was a news article on the global terrorist group still at large that had one-sidedly wrecked a Thai naval base and repelled the local military and police with nothing but brute force, thrusting the Thai people into the depths of fear—Second Ypsilon.

Marie slapped the news article down, growling, “I told you to disguise yourself—I didn’t say anything about becoming a drag queen!”

“Master Naoto, there is no need to concern yourself with the outbursts of the lower class.”

The one who interjected with a cool, calm voice was the automaton RyuZU. She had stepped forward to defend Naoto.

“It is only natural that you should feel inferior when comparing your own looks to Master Naoto’s, who scores far higher on the attractiveness scale than you do beyond gender lines. To try to cover that sense of inferiority up with anger is the last right of those who are the very embodiment of mediocrity and foolishness. I beg of you, Master Naoto, please, do not take that very last right of hers away from her—”

“You’re the one who made him wear this! That was directed to you as well, you piece of junk!”

“—Hey, princess.”

The one who interjected this time was the cyborg Halter. The giant man made the door look small as he bent down to get off the train, upon which he sighed and said, “That’s enough, yeah? Or do you plan to put on a comedy act right here on the platform?”

“Tell that to this piece of junk first! She’s the one who makes a giant mess out of every little thing! Shall I tell you how many times I’ve been cursed at in these last two weeks?!”

“My, are you bragging that you can count above ten? Well then, far be it from me to take that accomplishment away from you—”

“Sixteen times!! All! Because! You keep making a scene!” Marie shouted, glaring at RyuZU.

It was two weeks ago now that they had hijacked a destroyer that had tried to arrest them as they were sailing in the Indian Ocean and used it to dock at Phuket Naval Base.

The plan had been to take a land route and stay on the down low while on the move, but they had ended up being chased around everywhere by police, military, and even the media, sadly enough.

Every time a gun—or rather, anything even remotely suspicious was pointed at Naoto—RyuZU would respond automatically, as befitting of an automaton, by cutting it down regardless of whether there was any actual malice or murderous intent behind it.

And so—this was the result.

Every time they attracted even the slightest attention, there would be a disturbance.

And that’s how their pursuers would find them.

So, they had to continuously change their destinations to lose their pursuers, taking them on an aimless journey.

They had gone from Chumphon to Bangkok, then Pattaya. At one point they had even briefly gone into Cambodia before re-entering Thailand through Ubon Ratchathani. They had then headed north to Khon Kaen, then Nong Khai.

They had made their rounds through nearly all the major cities of the country and slipped their way into Laos before finally arriving at this station without a name plate.

During that time, they got into trouble a total of sixteen times.

If they could have just stayed on the down low, coming here shouldn’t have taken them more than just three days with free use of the local transportation systems. Yet, it ended up taking them nearly five times as long.

As for why things turned out that way—

“It’s all because you punks draw way too much attention!!”

“...But you know, princess. I’m afraid I have to say that trying to move undercover with these members was a tad hopeful to begin with, don’t you think?” Halter said in a conciliatory tone.

To which Marie fell silent.

Even with her blood boiling, she had to admit that Halter had a point.

Halter and Vermouth weren’t a problem whatsoever. Marie and Naoto in drag could also pass as teen foreigners here for tourism.

But the problem was RyuZU. Her beautiful, well-proportioned face and radiant silver hair were simply too bewitching to be concealed.

On top of that—

“Hey, Father? Where are we?”

“Oh, hey AnchoR. Sorry~ Daddy doesn’t know either because that shitty old hag— Shoot, I said a bad word in front of AnchoR—that blond walking landmine won’t answer me.”

The one that Naoto had replied to in a fawning voice was the automaton AnchoR, who had the appearance of a young girl.

Her black pupils wavering in unease, her plump, soft-looking cheeks, her pink lips—all these adorable features, plus her waddling about due to the fact that she still needed further repairs, stirred up a fierce instinct to protect in the hearts of those who saw her.

As Halter said, it was probably impossible to begin with to try to move around undercover with this group, but—

“You! Don’t try to brainwash AnchoR with your lies!”

“Mother, where, are we?” AnchoR asked, tilting her head.

To which Marie instantly beamed at her, despite having the sulkiest of faces just a moment ago, and said, “We’re in Chiang Mai Grid, AnchoR.”

“You’re not wrong, Missy, but no one else calls it that these days, you know?” Vermouth teased with a smirk.

Marie frowned in protest. “The official international name for this city is still Chiang Mai.”

“But even Thailand, the state to which it originally belonged, no longer uses that name in its official documents. Its nickname is pretty much its official name at this point, isn’t it?”

Naoto asked, looking perplexed, “...? What nickname?”

“People call this place ‘paradise,’” Vermouth replied.

To which Naoto furrowed his brows as he looked around him and said, “...A city with a beat-up station like this?”

“There’s nothing that isn’t sold here and nothing that you can’t buy here. Arms, weapons, automata, everything from illegal clockwork parts to drugs—even humans and their human rights if that’s what suits your fancy. For criminals, terror syndicates, armed groups, extremists and the like, it’s absolute paradise. And so, this place became known as,” Vermouth grinned, then said, “the crime capital of the world—Shangri-La Grid.”

●

Chiang Mai—a city that had once been the next biggest city in Thailand, after its capital.

It used to be a landlocked city a thousand years ago, but after the planet had been remade with clockwork, the city boundaries were adjusted to fit the grids. It had obtained access to a harbor that was connected to the open ocean, and had since developed as a port city.

However, when Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar, Vietnam, and Bangladesh had signed the treaty to set their new borders, the city of Chiang Mai had declared independence from Thailand in opposition to the treaty.

On the surface, the city had declared independence because it wanted to liberalize its international trade, and complying with the treaty would have meant establishing tariffs.

However, the truth behind the city’s opposition—was quite simply that multiple crime syndicates and armed groups had wanted to create an enormous black market for themselves.

As a result, Chiang Mai turned into a capital of vice that permits all activities that would typically be illegal anywhere else.

And so—

“—No one knows who first coined it, but people began calling the city Shangri-La Grid. The name comes from a fictional utopia in one of Hilton’s later works, Lost Horizon. A place where you can get anything there is in the world; a paradise for villains. Quite ironic, eh.”

Marie shrugged her shoulders cynically as they exited the nameless station and passed through Tha Phae Gate, an ancient castle gate made of brick, heading towards their hotel.

The central marketplace of Shangri-La Grid was enclosed by this castle gate which, by tradition, must never be closed. Said marketplace was currently under sweltering heat and filled with clatter.

In the midst of the all-engulfing tropical heat, a large number of people were walking each and every way.

There were both men and women of all kinds of ethnicities, as well as—quite noticeably—cyborgs and automata, which would be rare sights in normal cities.

Garishly colored parasols and sunshades, flyers, and link wires used for transmissions could be seen everywhere.

The enormous throng of people made the visibility exceptionally poor, yet the pulled rickshaws, auto rickshaws, and pickup trucks adapted into minibuses were somehow nimbly weaving through the mess. There was virtually no distinction between the road and the sidewalk, so it would hardly be surprising if an accident were to happen; however, no one was bothered by this.

“—So basically, there’s no such thing as the law here. That would be far too civilized for this place—a lawless city where anything goes, including but not limited to human trafficking, drug dealing, the illicit manufacturing and smuggling of arms, and automata with prohibited mechanisms.”

“Oy oy, aren’t you forgetting the best part, Miss? Maybe you just don’t want to say it, in which case, I’ll say it for you,” Vermouth cut in. “To add to what she said, the docs here’ll do anything from illegal organ transplants to body modifications. As long as one pays up, even a wrinkly old grandpa can turn into Cinderella over a single night. For example, that booth over there’s sellin’ all sorts of fresh human organs for transplants.”

“...You’re kidding, right?” Naoto asked with a pale face.

Marie sighed. “Think of all the illegal activities, all the inhumane deeds you possibly can in your mind—all of it, bar none, are being sold as souvenirs here.”

“Hahah! There’re only two things you can’t buy here,” Vermouth said with a wink. “A conscience and character. Unfortunately, those two things are very hard to come by here, though everything else is easily accessible. It might sell for a high price here if we import some, y’know?”

“That’s a great idea—if you ignore the fact that there’s no demand for them, that is.”

“Sorry if I’m asking the obvious, but... is this really acceptable? What do the police, militaries, and IGMO even exist for, then...?”

Marie answered with a scowl, “Of course not... IGMO and the UN security council have already taken all possible sanctions against the city, aside from military intervention. So you know, the situation here is always discussed in every international summit as a threat to world stability.”

“It’s ironic to hear you say that, considering that nowadays, y’all are the ones at the top of that list.”

Ignoring Vermouth’s snide comment, Marie continued, “Even so, no one will lift a finger against this city—rather, they can’t.”

“...Why?”

Marie raised her index finger as she answered lethargically, as if she didn’t want to admit something, “The first is that both the core tower and the clock towers here are actually governed more strictly—than the five signatory countries of the border treaty.”

“What? ...I thought this city was a lawless place.”

“It’s true that this place is lawless and doesn’t have any form of government. Instead, there are countless mafia gangs and armed groups continuously fighting for turf here... At present, the three top syndicates here are managing and maintaining the core tower and the twelve clock towers. ”

“...Why do criminal syndicates have that kind of technical capability?”

“Because—the fact that you can do anything you want in this city, unrestrained by any laws, draws tons of technicians and researchers from all over the world.”

In the first place, the supreme duty of a nation atop this Clockwork Planet was the maintenance of city mechanisms.

If the core towers weren’t properly taken care of, it would lead to a world crisis. To that end, things like a sound government or human rights were simply secondary—that was the true stance of international society.

Because of that, even if a national government were formally recognized by other countries, should that government be deemed incapable of managing its grids, their only choice would be to accept technical support from a group like an IGMO affiliate or Meister Guild, either willingly or by force.

“It isn’t just human resources that this place is rich in This city is overflowing with so much money from secret slush funds and its black market that the IGMO trade sanctions don’t even put a dent in its economy. Plus, its borders with the surrounding countries are as full of holes as a colander, so enforcement of the sanctions is basically impossible.”

“That ain’t all of it, y’know? ‘Just imagine what’ll happen if you thoughtlessly use force and aggravate the hoodlums who reside there. Only heaven knows just how much damage that would cause to the core tower and the surrounding countries.’ —That’s the argument from industries and small nations who use this city as their base for money laundering when they pressure IGMO not to take armed action.”

“So, does that mean...”

“Savvy? You can get your hands on anything here. In other words, for any given product, there are producers, sellers, and buyers here,” Vermouth said with his lips curled and a wink.

To which Naoto inadvertently stared up at the sky, then buried his face in his hands and sighed deeply, “Politics really is over my head...”

“Well, to each his own, but personally I don’t dislike this city, y’know? The clever fool who asks himself, ‘I wonder why killing people isn’t acceptable,’ will find a straightforward answer here. Keke,” Vermouth snickered sardonically. “There ain’t any police or any lawyers in this city. They won’t give you something so easygoing as a trial here. There ain’t a single thing that’s forbidden in this city. That’s why the rule is simple—if you go too far out of line, you’ll be killed. Troublesome crap like due process is omitted in favor of lead in your head. It might seem paradoxical, but precisely because this place is lawless, the public order is strictly preserved. Screw lawyers and their pretentious sophistry. There’s nothing easier to understand than a country that permits even murder. That’s why I like this place.”

“In short, a hangout for degenerate savages.”

Marie summarized sharply, then went on,

“Degeneracy! Evil! Moral compromise! Misinformation! Deceit! This city’s like all the shit I hate stuffed inside a pot and boiled down to concentrate. Ugh, God, the stench here is so bad I feel like it’s going to stick to my clothes permanently. I know purging is never the answer, but shouldn’t we make an exception for this city? I’m serious. Hasn’t it been enough? Let’s forget excuses like proper grid management and purge this filth to the bottom of the Earth, yeah?”

“Princess, I know you’re joking, but purging a city based on personal feelings is plenty evil as well, y’know?” Halter muttered in exasperation.

Vermouth nodded with a smug face, “Yep, that’s right. This place simply supplies what people demand. Well, I suppose it’d be just like an extremist terrorist to try to eliminate something because she doesn’t understand it or she doesn’t like it.”

“—Sh’the hell up. There’s a limit to everything!” Marie scowled, clicking her tongue.

To which Vermouth suddenly stopped smiling. “...Say, little princess. I have some serious words of advice for you: I’ll give you some change, so find yourself a male prostitute for a night. Once you let out tears and piss from the ecstasy of climaxing while high on drugs, you’ll understand intuitively with your womb that we noble humans are really just beasts like any other animal.”

“If you continue with that unfunny joke a single line further, I’ll dismantle you down to your screws and sell you off as spare parts,” Marie said, her body emanating a chilling aura.

However, Vermouth persisted with a straight face, sighing, “You don’t get it, do you? If I were just joking, I’d ask if you wanted to get it done with me. Sure do wish you could figure out by yourself whether I’m serious or not.”

“If it’s a joke then it’s in poor taste, and if it’s not then it’s absolutely abominable.”

“I’ve thought this for quite some time now, but you’re too damn prudish. Typically, dirty jokes bother men more than women, y’know? Yet, the way you overreact to them negatively shows that...”

“...What.”

“It’s backlash from your self-suppression—yeah? If you’d like, I could show you the place that my past colleague Strega favored. Rest assured—they guarantee that with one of their pros, even a virgin with sexual arousal disorder will turn into a nympho in one night or your money back.”

“I’ll say this one last time, Vermouth,” Marie said slowly, enunciating each syllable, before finishing with a sweet smile, “—Shut up or I’ll kill you.”

Sensing true murderous intent from her words—That probably wasn’t the only reason, but in any case, Vermouth raised both hands up as if to say, “Alright, alright, I give up.”

Marie snorted as she took her eyes off of Vermouth. She then turned towards RyuZU and asked, “I guess this kind of talk doesn’t bother you?”

“—What? Are we talking about humans? The same animals that even insects would object to being grouped together with? Whether a human puts on or takes off their clothes does not change anything on the inside. It is my firm belief that humans who are aware that they are beasts and act along those lines are far more respectable than imbeciles who pretend to be civilized, unaware of their own stupidity. As such, I don’t really have any opinion on your exchange on human sexuality just now, nor does it bother me in any way—so long as Master Naoto doesn’t harbor any carnal desires for animals such as yourself, anyway.”

“Huh? Me? Feel any desire for that lump of protein and noise?”

“Rest assured, kid, this city’s got people like you covered too. Got any interest in the super erotic techniques that the state-of-the-art dutch wives in this city can do that would never be even remotely possible for real humans?”

“Wha?”

Naoto stiffened. He clearly imagined something for a moment before catching himself and shaking his head in a fluster. “—N, No, that’s a bit... I mean, I-I-I’m underage to begin with.”

“Don’t you worry, there ain’t such a thing as underage here to begin with. Ain’t no problem if you want to walk yourself to a brothel with the same legs that came out from your mom’s crotch.”

“But, well, I mean...”

“—Master Naoto?” RyuZU said in a chilling voice.

“Eek!” Naoto gulped with a start. “I, I’m not considering it at all, you know?! Not at all! Not even a little! I’m not interested in playing with dangerous thrills like that in the slightest! I wasn’t thinking that ‘Well, maybe I would like to try it seeing how much you recommend it,’ at all!”

“Is that so? I am sure it is,” RyuZU said as she wrapped her arms tightly around Naoto from behind, like a snake constricting its prey. She then caressed Naoto’s face with her smooth, pale hands. “—Incidentally, Master Naoto. Allow me to give you a strong word of advice. Being young and healthy is one of your few merits, but allowing yourself to be easily swept up by the impulses of youth would be equivalent to voluntarily lowering yourself from your position as one of the few intelligent lifeforms on this planet. Should you plea that your urges are simply too difficult to suppress with self-restraint, then I propose that I help by surgically pulverizing the source of your urges—how does that sound to you?”

As she said so, she stretched one hand in front of Naoto so that he could see it and tightened it into a fist violently before opening it back up, as if to demonstrate how she would crush a certain something.

“Eek, that won’t be necessary, I think!”

“Is that so? —That would be for the best, I’m sure?”

After repeating herself to make her point, RyuZU slowly released Naoto.

She then shot Vermouth a sharp gaze. “And you, Mr. Junkbot. If you keep luring Master Naoto with odious temptations, I shall deem your existence as undesirable and take the liberty of disposing of you, so mark that in your head that going forward.”

Vermouth raised both hands flippantly as he apologized. “I get it, I get it. I was wrong, forgive me.”

“B, By the way... should we do something about that?” Naoto asked to change the topic.

“By ‘that,’ do you mean—the guys who’ve been monitoring us for some time now?” Marie asked as she quickly surveyed their surroundings.

One, two, three— The pedestrian who passed them by earlier, the auto-rickshaw driver driving on the other side of the street, and the worker selling juice at a nearby stall. By paying just a tiny bit of attention, she was able to quickly find people who were paying an awful lot of attention to them.

And this was just from Marie’s eyes, plus she hadn’t taken any professional training. If the pros who were used to this kind of work were to look around, who knows just how many people in this area they would discover secretly monitoring them...

RyuZU’s expression turned cold. “If they are a nuisance, shall I clean things up?”

“Leave them be.”

The one who stayed her was Halter.

Though he himself was surely aware of all the piercing gazes of surveillance coming at them from all directions, one wouldn’t be able to tell that from the relaxed manner in which he walked.

“The group that tried to sink Tokyo has entered their own turf. It’s only natural that the local syndicates would send an observer or two to monitor us. It isn’t anything to get all up in arms about.”

Naoto tilted his head, a blank expression on his face. “In that case, shouldn’t we disguise ourselves after all?”

“Nah, we’re fine. The syndicates here aren’t stupid either. They surely have no intention of giving the military or the police of the neighboring countries an excuse to meddle in Shangri-La’s affairs.”

Vermouth nodded in agreement. “Yep, that’s right. As long as we remain respectful guests, simply feigning ignorance about us being here to the neighboring countries will work, and there isn’t anyone stupid enough to disrespect that pretense and stick their meddling hands into this city to arrest us, either.”

Halter sighed. “But, if we cause any needless disturbances— Well, let’s just say that being sold as hostages to the neighboring countries would be the best conclusion we could hope for.”

To which Marie asked, perplexed, “...There are groups that can actually beat us here?”

Those who were well informed already knew—that Ypsilon members included two Initial-Y Series automata and two clocksmiths who were skilled enough to seize control over an entire grid—so Marie was wondering if there really was anyone who would actually pick a fight against their lineup.

However, Halter and Vermouth exchanged a glance before shrugging at her. “Oy oy, Missy, you still have much to learn about the world, don’t you?”

“I don’t want to say this, princess, but aren’t you getting a bit full of yourself lately?”

Repudiated in stereo sound, Marie became quite blatantly offended.

“What, are the syndicates here that dangerous?”

Vermouth didn’t answer her; instead, he turned towards RyuZU and asked, “Question, Miss Doll. How many of the Initial-Y Series can you win against?”

“If the question is which of the other Initial-Y Series I can win against—then the answer would be all of them,” RyuZU answered readily, “If I make the first move and activate Mute Scream, no one can counter that. That’s true for any of my sisters, even the strongest in raw combat among all of us, AnchoR.”

“Oh, I see. Then, let’s say you can’t or fail to make the first move. If you end up having to fight straight up against any of them in a contest of strength, how many would you lose to?”

“......Though holistically, none of my younger sisters surpass my capabilities,” RyuZU began before continuing, “—The answer is all of them, as I am the most humble one in the Initial-Y Series in terms of strength.”

The problem was the nature of Mute Scream.

Once RyuZU entered Dual Time, not even AnchoR, the strongest Initial-Y, could deal with her.

If RyuZU rent AnchoR in half in Dual Time before AnchoR could activate Bloody Murder, AnchoR would be helpless even if she were in perfect condition.

However, if it were a straight up one-on-one fight, then it was just as she said—she was the weakest Initial-Y.

Vermouth nodded, then turned back towards Marie with a flippant smirk. “—Hear that? Should the worst happen and we get attacked by an Initial-Y that’s brainwashed like the little pipsqueak was, would you still be able to keep up your complacent attitude?”

“...Are you saying that Omega’s hands may reach as far as this city?”

“Is there any reason to think that isn’t possible?”

“It’s a simpler problem than that,” Halter said sharply. “If there’s someone out there that truly wants to eliminate us, then things like combat or technical prowess don’t mean a damn thing—there are any number of ways someone could use to eliminate us.”

Halter’s speech was even, neither overbearing nor threatening. His attitude was simply that of a teacher who was gently warning a rebellious student—which made his words feel all the weightier.

Feeling that the mood had become a bit solemn, Naoto sighed. “For now—is this place really safe? From what I’ve been hearing from you guys, it seems pretty dangerous.”

“Don’t worry,” Halter said as he shifted the luggage on his back, “so long as we remain nice guests, the local groups won’t do anything to us. Of course, there’ll be a million eyes on us at all times, and a rash underling here and there might try to make a move against us, but—in any case, the local groups here aren’t so anal as to make a fuss over a few cannon fodder-tier dimwits being disposed of.”

“In the first place, they’re in the same business as us... there are swarms of real terrorists gathered here. No one will mind a few more joining the party at this point. Besides—”

Vermouth paused, his feet coming to a stop. “There are strange things here, like hotel rooms that come with full-scale workshops, y’know?”

●

Pandora’s Inn could reasonably be called a luxury hotel.

At the very least, it was a building that looked somewhat out of place in the messy streets of Shangri-La.

That said, one shouldn’t even bother comparing it with a five-star hotel in a developed country. But in the context of this city of villains, it certainly passed the mark of luxury.

Naoto and friends entered the hotel. There was a café on the first floor that shared the front counter with the hotel’s reception. They walked up to the shared counter.

Halter said to the receptionist, “I’d like to book one regular room and one that comes with a workshop—if possible, as neighboring rooms located near the emergency staircase.”

Upon which the young receptionist from some Asian country showed them to their rooms.

Just as Halter had requested, the rooms were located near the emergency staircase and came with a workshop. The room’s interior was spacious and well-designed. Marie and Halter went to check out the workshop.

“How’s it look, princess? Are we good?”

“It’s sufficient.”

Though the machine tools and facilities of the workshop were slightly dated now, all of them had once been the best models on the market. If one wanted access to a better workshop than this, then the only choice would be to use a lab at a university or a research facility.

Halter nodded in response, then gave a generous tip to the receptionist and drove him out of the room.

After the receptionist left with a beaming face, Marie immediately got down to business.

“—So Halter, mind explaining what this is all about?”

“What do you mean?” Halter answered calmly.

Marie furrowed her brows sharply. “You need me to say it?”

“Don’t even have the slightest clue what you’re referring to.”

“Oh, is that so. Then I’ll kindly inform you, so listen carefully.” She paused for a breath. “Why! Am I! Sharing a room with Naoto——ngh!!”

Marie’s bellow shook the air as it rippled through the room.

RyuZU shot Halter a grim look as well. “Though it pains me deeply to agree with Mistress Marie on something, I would also very much like to hear an explanation for this. No matter how I try to interpret it in my mind, I can only think that this is an elaborate suicide plan of yours.”

Being stared down coldly by both the blond-haired girl and the silver-haired automaton, Halter sighed, “Right, well...”

As Halter was thinking of what to say, he opened the window of the room.

Humid air blew in from outside. As he looked out at the filthy streets of Shangri-La Grid, Halter continued, “First—you wanted to share a room with AnchoR, right princess?”

Marie nodded. “Yes, that’s right. Of course. I’m the one who’s gonna fix her, after all.”

“And Naoto stated that he wouldn’t budge on sharing a room with RyuZU and AnchoR.”

“Obviously.”

“But of course.”

Naoto and RyuZU nodded.

Halter nodded back. “Right. And AnchoR has to stay within a certain distance of Naoto—in addition, she expressed her wish to share a room with mom and dad.”

AnchoR nodded deeply several times.

“And finally, there’s only one room with a workshop on each floor that one can book for a longer period of time in this hotel—so, taking all that into consideration, was there any other way?”

“There sure was. Isn’t it obvious? You could have just ignored Naoto’s nonsense and given AnchoR and me a room to share.”

“Yes, I do believe there was. You only had to reject Mistress Marie’s indiscreet demands and grant Master Naoto’s wishes.”

“—And if I were to say no to one of you?”

“I’d beat you to death, of course.”

“I would dismantle you then, naturally.”

“...Right. By the way, I imagine that this is news for both of you, but I don’t want to die yet,” Halter said. He then turned around and used his chin to point to Vermouth, who was smirking in a corner of the room enjoying the drama unfold. “Also, though I’m not happy about it, I’m sharing the room next door with this greenhorn. If you’re envious, you’re welcome to join us.”

“Oy oy, are you implying something? Geez~ you’re not as uptight as you seem after all. Well, it’s true that right now I’m in a body that can answer your wishes, but—” Vermouth jested.

“Greenhorn, if you don’t want to be slaughtered then shut the hell up,” Halter growled in a low voice.

Meanwhile, Marie pouted in displeasure. “But, hey... doesn’t this room only have one bed?!”

That was, in fact, true.

This room was only meant for two people. And though the interior was spacious, most of that space was taken up by the workshop—and for some reason, a king-sized bed. So, the living space was quite constricted.

However, Halter simply shrugged. “Even if you tell me that, there’s nothing I can do. There isn’t any other room available, so you’ll just have to deal with it.”

“What are you suggesting that I do?”

“It’s not like you’re a little kid. Decide where you’re going to sleep by talking it out with your roommates, like any civilized person would,” Halter replied as he left the room with Vermouth.

Having been left behind, Marie stared at the door resentfully for a while, but eventually dropped her shoulders with a sigh. “...Well, guess it can’t be helped.”

It’s not like the number of beds will increase if I keep complaining like a brat.

In the first place, Marie was exhausted, both mentally and physically.

Even though she had the protection of Halter and RyuZU, she never managed to get a good night’s sleep while she was on the run.

Whatever the case, she was now in a proper bedroom. With her dusty baggage finally off her shoulders and a soft bed in sight, she wanted nothing more than to drop down and sleep like a log.

“Argh...! I’ll be using the shower first. I feel strangely tired today, so I’m gonna sleep right after I finish my bedtime routine.”

Naoto blinked, looking confused. “—Eh, you’re gonna sleep now? In the morning? I mean, I’m tired too, but...”

“Whatever we decide to do, it’s easier to act at night.” Marie raised her index finger towards Naoto and continued, “Shall I guess what you’re thinking? —You’re thinking that, despite everything we’ve said, it’s a rather peaceful city, aren’t you?”

“Well... it doesn’t look that different from the places we’ve been to up till now to me.”

The sticky, hot air. The dust everywhere. The lurid and congested streets.

Indeed, if one only took those qualities, then it might not be so different from the many other Southeast Asian cities that they’d passed through up to now.

Just then.

—A gunshot rang out.

Loud enough that one could hear it clearly from where they were, even without Naoto’s superhearing.

“The... Oy, what was that just now?” Naoto rushed to the window to take a look outside.

Marie replied, “Just some fireworks.”

“Yeah right! That was clearly a gunshot just now, you know?!”

“Gunshots are a dime a dozen in this city. Don’t bother yourself with them. If you hear bombs exploding, then let us know.”

“How are you able to be so calm about this, Marie...?”

“Hah... Let me tell you something, Naoto.”

Marie let out a sigh. Her emerald eyes wandered upwards, as if she were seeing a scene that was faraway in the past.

“—Though there are exceptions from time to time, like Japan, for the most part there are only two kinds of places that Meister Guild is dispatched to.” She sighed. “Those that are so poor that they can’t even properly maintain their own grids—and warzones without a functional government. Try doing an emergency repair job over two or three consecutive all-nighters. You won’t care about a gunshot or two after that. Though admittedly, there aren’t many places I’ve been to that were as rotten as this city.”

She tossed her backpack away, then took off her summer coat and hung it on a hanger. She then pulled her necktie off, and was just about to undo the buttons on her shirt when she stopped. “By the way, if you look my way right now, I’ll murder you.”

“Are you dumb? What demand is there for a scene of you changing? You don’t have to tell me, I wouldn’t look anyway. To begin with, I already have RyuZU—”

“Rest assured.” RyuZU nodded with a chilling expression. “On the off chance that Master Naoto tries to turn his head around, I shall kindly and swiftly return his neck to its resting position.”

“Eh?” Naoto said, taken aback.

Marie tilted her head, also looking perplexed. “That’s pretty unusual of you, RyuZU. What’s gotten into you?”

“Nothing—it is simply that I cannot allow Master Naoto’s precious eyes to be dirtied from seeing the seedy disappointment that is Mistress Marie’s naked body.”

“Oh, is that so?”

The vein below Marie’s temple popped out.

Meanwhile, Naoto sprung up excitedly—

“—Hell yeah, RyuZU’s jealous! Did you see that, AnchoR? The expression on my wife’s face when she’s worried about me cheating on her, even though that would never happen—!!”

“...Big Sis, so you make those kinds, of faces too...” AnchoR muttered quietly.

Seeing the disappointment in AnchoR’s eyes, RyuZU furrowed her brow. “Master Naoto, could I ask you to keep your delusions within reason? I did not say that to Mistress Marie out of any such base emotion. It is natural that, as an assistant to my master, I should act to prevent any danger from happening to you—”

“Yeah, uh huh, right. I know. I believe you—”

“...Hmm, I wonder what this is? It seems that errors of unknown cause are building up in my behavioral algorithm. If I had to put it to words, I would say that I feel ‘extremely irritated’ right now.”

As Naoto jumped about in joy with a smirk on his face, RyuZU’s mood worsened ever faster.

—Go ahead and keep that circus act up your whole lives, you idiots, Marie muttered internally.

As she took off her shorts and undid the clasp of her skort, she said, “AnchoR? If you watch them, their idiocy will infect you, you know? Come over here and take a shower with Mom. I’ll wash you.”

“Ah, coming~”

That instant, Naoto forcefully turned around all of a sudden and yelled, “Stop right there, Marie! I won’t allow you to strip AnchoR-chan without my permission!”

What he saw was AnchoR with her arms up, in the middle of taking off her top—and Marie in her underwear, her fair, soft skin of a maiden fully exposed.

“—Eeeeeeeeeek?! Stop looking, you punk!”

“Master Naoto.”

“Ah— No wait, RyuZU, I was just— Gueh.”

RyuZU sandwiched Naoto’s cheeks with her hands and forcefully twisted his head back to face forward.

That was when Marie, whose face was totally flushed, landed a powerful back spin kick on the back of Naoto’s head.

●

When Naoto regained consciousness, Marie and AnchoR had already finished taking their shower.

As he tried to enter the bathroom while rubbing his head and neck, which were throbbing with pain, RyuZU followed him casually, as if it were only natural.

Then she said, “Please sit over there and take off your clothes.”

Naoto didn’t defy her. He sat by the edge of the bathtub and took off his feminine top—which he had been wearing to disguise himself—just as he had been told, exposing his upper body.

—His body was covered in bandages. Protective sheets were wrapped tightly around the entirety of his upper right arm and back, and were kept in place firmly with medical tape and bandages.

RyuZU was carefully removing them one by one.

—Upon which, severe burn wounds became visible.

There were large patches of melted skin and burnt flesh. His entire back was purple. It must have been as painful as it looked, for he recoiled as RyuZU unwrapped his dressings. These wounds were from when he’d carried RyuZU in Akihabara.

The nanomachines he had been injected with had prevented his wounds from festering and were continuing to heal him, but...

RyuZU remained silent as she felt one of his wounds gently with her finger.

There was a healing membrane stretched over the wounds. The flesh underneath was still a mess. Disturbing the membrane even just a little bit should cause unbearable pain and itching, yet Naoto didn’t make a single noise.

—These wounds wouldn’t be able to heal completely.

At least, without a transplant of either real or artificial skin, it wouldn’t be able to return to its original state.

His flesh had been pressed tightly against an object that had been hot enough to melt construction materials. He was lucky he hadn’t just died. That it didn’t disable him was close to a miracle.

Naoto addressed RyuZU solemnly, “Don’t let it bother you.”

“...That is not possible.”

“It’s not your fault. It’s something I did by my own accord. So—”

“That is not it,” RyuZU said as she offhandedly grabbed Naoto’s head and thrust his face into the sink.

“Uwahh?!”

Ignoring Naoto’s cry of alarm, she turned the stopper of the pullout shower. She then added some shampoo and vigorously scrubbed Naoto’s hair and scalp.

“Wha, RyuZU—”

“To put it bluntly, you stink.”

“Hahh?!”

“Your burns may be one thing, but having a master who smells like a sewer reflects poorly on my dignity as well, so...”

“No way, I smell that bad right now?!”

Shocked, Naoto stopped resisting as he was left speechless.

Thankfully, RyuZU had soaked a towel with hot water, with which she now wiped his entire body thoroughly, but also meticulously so as not to irritate his wounds.

She then applied ointment on top of his burns and redressed his wounds with new protective sheets, then set them in place with bandages and medical tape.

“—Are you done? Has my stink gone away?” Naoto asked, concealing the pain he was feeling.

RyuZU nodded. “Yes, though the usual body odor that is stuck to Master Naoto is still there, the sewer-like stench has gone away. With this, you should be nominally presentable again.”

“I see. In that case, it’s your turn now, RyuZU. Take off your clothes.”

“...Oh?” RyuZU tilted her head in confusion for a bit before nodding. “How embarrassing. Of course, how did I not realize? Considering that, even under normal circumstances, you are already oozing with lust, you must have a lot pent up within you right now. Plus, we are alone here, so there is no need to worry about AnchoR catching us either—this is what you are implying, yes?”

“Wrong,” Naoto replied crisply as he turned RyuZU around so that her back was facing him. He briskly stripped off her clothes, which were made of gear fibers and picked out a flat jar from the bag with bathing products that he had brought with him.

On the lid, the words, “Repair Kit (Cream Type)” were printed in English.

It was an artificial skin restorer.

The artificial skin used for high class automata was made from shape-memory polymers that auto-regenerate from trauma up to a certain point. However, if the damage exceeds a certain point, the built-in nano gears would run out and would need to be replenished.

“Man, I’m really glad I can finally mend your artificial skin, RyuZU. I would’ve never imagined that a hotel room could come with a workshop, much less an item as upscale as this. Old man Halter doesn’t disappoint, does he?” Naoto said as he opened the lid of the repair kit while humming happily.

He scooped out some of the milky-white restorative cream and applied it broadly onto RyuZU’s skin.

—Ever since I awoke to my abilities in Kyoto, I’ve had to push RyuZU too hard too many times to get through the messes I’ve found myself in. Though I repaired her after each time with Marie’s help, if I look closely at her skin under a bright light like this, the tiny little chafes in her artificial skin become quite apparent.

I really want to be able to give her some proper care soon. —This had been on Naoto’s mind for some time now.

His fingers traced a circle as he spread the cream on RyuZU’s back gently, attentively. He didn’t use much force. After he spread the cream out sufficiently, he began to rub it in with the palms of his hands.

As the milky-white cream permeated her skin and became indiscernible, her skin became smooth and springy again. Forget merely being on par with human skin, her restored artificial skin was far more pleasing to both the touch and the eye.

“—Master Naoto, I demand an explanation for this act of utmost disrespect,” RyuZU said suddenly, sounding sullen..

To which Naoto uttered with a blank expression, “Huh, what’d you say?”

Offended, RyuZU objected, “It is simply splendid that you appear to be having a grand old time, Master Naoto, but for my part, to have my clothes stripped away, yet not get any sort of response is a bit—no, it is in fact considerably baffling. I cannot imagine that it is due to some imperfection in my beautiful form either. The only explanation I can think of, Heaven forbid, is that you have a bodily dysfunction—of the male kind?”

Naoto’s eyes popped out as he yelled, “That’s not it, you know?!”

“I must say, a good number of things make more sense now... Like how, even though you are always jabbering on about how I am your wife, you have never targeted me with your beastly passions. They say that one can get one’s hands on anything in this city, yes? Perhaps you should seek treatment to restore your male functions in addition to your burns—”

“Wait, don’t jump to conclusions, Ms. RyuZU! Would you please notice just how hard I’m trying to restrain myself... nggh!!”

●

—Would you shut the fuck up already, Marie muttered threateningly inside her head as she clicked her tongue loudly.

Even from where she was in the workshop, the commotion in the bathroom was loud and clear. Marie didn’t need Naoto’s superhearing to understand the gist of what was going on.

A wife who, unsatisfied with how her husband wasn’t doing anything despite stripping her naked, was expressing her discontent and a husband who, mindful of their child—AnchoR—was trying to calm his wife down.

Love talk and lovers’ spats had never interested Marie—frankly, they never bothered her before because she cared so little about such things—but despite that, the current situation was enough to make her think irately, Yeah, go ahead, keep clowning around like that your whole lives—just keep it away from me.

Concerned about the angry click of the tongue she heard, AnchoR raised her gaze anxiously. “—Mother?”

“Ahh! Don’t mind me. Everything’s fine, so just stay still and don’t move, okay?”

Marie formed a smile on her face in a hurry as she returned her attention to the work cut out in front of her.

Before her—AnchoR was lying on her back naked, having taken off her clothes, on a workbench.

What Marie was doing for AnchoR was the same thing that Naoto was doing for RyuZU—mending AnchoR’s artificial skin.

What was different, though, was that unlike RyuZU, who needed only some restorative cream to be applied, AnchoR needed something closer to full-on grafting and replastering.

The artificial skin of an automaton served two purposes.

It acted as both a case and coating for the internal mechanisms.

As far as its function as coating goes, there wasn’t much need for it—if Naoto heard someone say such a thing, he would probably fly into a rage in protest, but in the end, the coating function of artificial skin was just a question of aesthetics.

One could go so far as to say that if that were its only function, artificial skin wouldn’t be a necessary component for automata.

The issue was its function as a case.

Though it might be obvious, the joints for the moveable parts of the complex mechanisms that automata and cyborgs were equipped with—like legs and arms, necks and waists—were inevitably vulnerable.

If a maker tried to cover them up, they would have no choice but to add more plating on top of the artificial skin and as a result, greatly limit the range of motion, in which case the automaton would be unable to move naturally like humans do.

However, if the joints were fully exposed, there would be enough space for foreign particles like dust and dirt to penetrate the mechanisms, which, in clockwork that used fine parts on the scale of nanometers, could ultimately lead to a malfunction.

Because of that, a highly durable and elastic material—basically, artificial skin—was needed to protect those joints.

Because Marie understood that, she had no intention of objecting to Naoto’s wish to repair RyuZU and AnchoR’s artificial skin as fast as possible—even if his motivation for it was questionable.

And, as AnchoR was already barely moving right now due to the patchwork state she was in, Marie wanted to prevent any further functional impediments.

—However.

Looking down at AnchoR, Marie let out a small sigh.

When it came to materials for artificial skin that could endure the full extent of AnchoR and RyuZU’s capabilities—the candidates were considerably limited.

Materials of that grade—weren’t something one could casually pick up from a hardware store. Its price matched its rarity, and handling it required technical expertise.

—Yet, such materials were in fact available in this rental workshop.

And so, the logical conclusion was that there was demand for such materials—which, in turn, would suggest that the main users of these rental workshops were illegal high output artificial bodies and automata, and the back-alley clocksmiths who deal with them.

It wasn’t just the material for their artificial skin that was rare—any spare parts that could endure the full capabilities of an Initial-Y automaton were all rare and difficult to obtain items.

All the more so for ones that fit AnchoR, who was a child-sized model.

It was difficult to scale down automata and cyborg bodies even without any special goals.

As for why, it was because even the adult-sized ones were, in fact, already “scaled down” to human size. It was incredibly technically difficult to use clockwork to replicate the complex system of mechanisms that was the human body to begin with, so the more compact someone wanted to make one, the harder it was to make.

As such, the child models of automata and cyborg bodies typically sacrificed output and functionalities relative to their size.

There would normally be absolutely no need to make one that was the size of a child if what one wanted was power.

Yet, to deliberately and forcibly make one both as small and as powerful as AnchoR—

“The only explanation I can think of is that ‘Y’ was either trying to disguise AnchoR’s capabilities, or that he was simply a hardcore pervert—either way, only a criminal would think of doing so.”

“Mother...?”

“Oh, it’s nothing. I was just talking to myself.”

●

Just as Naoto had finished with RyuZU and Marie with AnchoR, and sleep was on everyone’s minds—another quarrel sprang up.

Marie was standing in the dead center of the room, while Naoto was sitting on a sofa several meters away and facing her.

Marie pointed to the gigantic bed, of which there was only one in the room and said, “‘Once boys and girls reach the age of seven they should no longer eat together.’ I do believe that’s how the saying goes, yes? And we’re not talking about just eating, but sleeping here.”

She was dead serious.

However, Naoto replied to her contention, with as cold a gaze as he could muster, “Look here, I’ve got no idea what exactly you’re wary of... I mean, I guess technically I get what you’re implying, but why does my presence worry you in the first place?”

Okay, so as a budding girl, you’re uncomfortable with the idea of sharing a bed with a boy of the same age. Naoto thought.

I get that.

Of course you would. Makes sense, I agree.

But, in the first place, I’m not even the slightest bit interested in real human girls. Not only that, I’ve publicly proclaimed myself as RyuZU’s husband many times now, and proudly so at that. I’m a married man, so to speak.

Not to mention—if, though frankly, I can’t see it happening even if the universe somehow turns upside-down—if—I were to make a move on you, isn’t it obvious that none other than RyuZU would immediately stop me with overwhelming violence that is both absurd and unstoppable by anyone in the world?

Actually, considering that you’ve got enough CQC skills to easily KO a well-trained soldier, if anyone’s in danger, isn’t it me, not you—?!

RyuZU narrowed her eyes threateningly. “...Mistress Marie? I understand that the desire to conceive with outstanding genes is the instinct of all females, so it is only natural that you would be conscious of Master Naoto, the finest male specimen there is on this planet... However, could I please ask you to discern your place? Because if not, I would be forced to settle this dispute at its core. That is to say—a dead man needs no bed.”

“Look here, now... I can swear in the name of God and my late mother that I’ve never looked at this punk as a man for a single second up to now, and never will. Even if hell froze over, such a thing would never happen.”

“Then what’s the problem?” Naoto asked with a shrug. “It’s not like I’d be interested in a clump of flesh that isn’t even loaded with a single mechanism myself.”

To which Marie replied with a serious look on her face, “You see, Naoto, the issue here is rather that I genuinely find you, from the bottom of my heart—repulsive. That’s all it is. You understand where I’m coming from, right?”

“Hey now... do you think that I don’t have feelings or something?”

“Just desserts for someone who calls a girl a ‘clump of flesh,’ don’t you think?”

The two of them glared at each other briefly, then sighed at the same time. Naoto slapped his hand on his forehead. “...Well, whatever. I reluctantly agreed to share a room with you since it was AnchoR’s request, but now that I think about it, you’d have to be a total freakazoid to do something like sleep together with a clump of flesh.”

RyuZU nodded with a refreshing smile. “I am glad that the problem appears to have been resolved. Now then, Master Naoto, please, make yourself comfortable on the bed. A clump of flesh surely needs no bed. Any old hanger should be more than sufficient for its storage.”

“‘On the other hand, automata do need beds,’ huh...? Yeah, you don’t have to say it, I can see it written on your face,” said Marie.

“...Fuwahh, AnchoR is sleepy...”

“Oh, you’re welcome on the bed you know, AnchoR~? Come now, over here with Papa ♪.”

However, Marie would have none of that, taking AnchoR by the hand, leaving the sleepy-faced automaton looking lost as to what to do.

Meanwhile, RyuZU sat down on the edge of the sofa, then called attention to her thighs by slapping them. “On second thought, Master Naoto, all things in life are a matter of perspective. A bed that a clump of raw flesh has touched can no longer be used unless it is first decontaminated and disinfected. As such, though it would not be as comfortable as the bed, how does making do with my lap pillow sound?”

“Making do with?! Feels more like getting a bump from a standard room to a suite, if anything!” Naoto scrambled right onto the sofa without a moment’s hesitation, then rested his head on RyuZU’s lap.

“—But, what about you, RyuZU?”

“Automata do not require sleep nor feel any fatigue, so I would say that this is not a problem at all.” RyuZU paused, putting a hand on her cheek. “...Normally, AnchoR would not need to ‘sleep,’ or more accurately, recalibrate either if it were not for the misalignments of the nerves in the limbs she is currently using, which heavily taxes her artificial intelligence to manipulate.”

“Nnuuhh...”

Torn between Naoto and Marie, AnchoR looked back and forth between the two of them as she rubbed her eyes, then asked, “Mom, Dad... can’t we all sleep together?”

Even as she was clearly flustered by the upturned gaze of AnchoR’s round, adorable eyes, Marie still shook her head. “...E, Even if you’re the one asking, AnchoR, that is the one thing that Mom can’t do, sorry.”

“Sorry, sweety. It’s unfortunate, but humans have troublesome conventions that arise from our nature as organisms.”

“...In that case, I’ll sleep here... okay?”

AnchoR laid out a blanket on the floor between the bed and the sofa then flopped right onto it.

It appeared that she had adopted the compromise measure of remaining between her parents despite not sleeping with either of them.

Both Naoto and Marie were unwilling to sleep on the floor, but AnchoR refused to move. Before long, AnchoR was sleeping peacefully, and so the lights were dimmed gradually until they were off.

“......”

However, even as she lay on the bed that she had fought for, Marie found that she just couldn’t fall asleep somehow.

It wasn’t that the commotion outside on the streets particularly bothered her. She was in a safe place, and the bedding was of excellent quality as well. The cushions were soft, the sheets were clean... There was nothing to complain about. Above all, her body was thoroughly worn out, her head felt slightly numb even, and she could feel herself losing focus.

But... there was still so much space.

The bed was simply too wide.

Sure, Marie was on the small side, but there was still plenty of room left even with her stretching her arms and legs out to their maximum reach.

To be precise, the sizing standard of the bed was called “extreme ultra king size,” as much of a joke as it sounds. Of course, like most people, Marie had never heard of such a thing before.

—Why does the bed have to be this big in the first place? This is supposed to be a room for two, right? No matter how you look at it, there’s easily enough space for three, even four people to lie down simultaneously...

Getting the hunch that she would reach an unpleasant conclusion should she keep thinking about it, Marie decided to stop.

That said, compared to how uncomfortable it felt trying to sleep in the corner of a freight train while holding her knees together as she was jolted constantly by the movement of the train, there shouldn’t really be any problems in having too much space now, but... she just couldn’t relax somehow.

The vast amount of unoccupied space that remained even when she stretched out her body made her feel anxious. It felt almost as if, in this whole wide universe, Marie were all by herself. That’s the kind of loneliness this bed was making her feel.

...Rolling over to her side on top of the sheets, Marie poked her head out from the edge of the bed and took a look.

She saw AnchoR on the floor and Naoto and RyuZU on the sofa.

AnchoR’s location was indeed right about in the middle of where Naoto and Marie were, but...

“......”

Marie saw AnchoR clasping Naoto’s hand, which was hanging down from the side of the narrow sofa.

...What’s up with this? Isn’t there something weird going on here? Yes, AnchoR’s sleeping in the space between the two of us, but isn’t she closer to Naoto than she is to me? Wait, aren’t I the only one sleeping alone in this arrangement? Am I the only one being left out?

Crouching on the bed with only her face sticking out, Marie said, “Hey... RyuZU, you there?”

RyuZU was still sitting on the sofa with Naoto’s head in her lap, which she was affectionately stroking with a smile. “—What is the matter? Is it something important enough to disturb my lofty duty of watching over Master Naoto’s sleeping face from when I wish him good night to good morning?” RyuZU replied, a gentle smile still on her face. However, that smile was directed at Naoto, not Marie—she hadn’t even turned her gaze one millimeter towards Marie.

If anything, it sounded like what she was really implying between the lines was, in plain speech: “You’re a nuisance. Just shut up and die.”

That lovey-dovey behavior only made Marie feel all the lonelier.

“Umm... I’m sorry. I was in the wrong... so you see, uh, I’m fine with taking up just a small part of the bed... really, just a tiny little snippet is enough for me, so could we all sleep together with AnchoR between me and Naoto? —Dammit Naoto, you’re such a cheater!!” Marie yelled out, even tearing up a bit.

Just then.

AnchoR, who should have been sound asleep, instantly sprang up and transplanted herself entirely onto the bed, blanket and all.

Then, after settling down around the center of the bed, she said fawningly, “Umm, Big Sis, Father... Let’s, all sleep together?”

And so, with no one objecting to that last call to sleep together, Marie finally managed to fall asleep.

●

When night came, Naoto and Marie woke up naturally.

After getting changed, they went down to the first floor with RyuZU and AnchoR, upon which they found that the hotel restaurant had become like a tavern, almost unrecognizable from how it was during lunch hours.

Under the dim lighting, the scent of tobacco smoke and pungent spices, along with the boisterous calls of the waiters, filled the room.

It had fully lost the sliver of respectability it had had during the lunch hours as boorish, fierce-looking men and prostitutes wearing gaudy makeup had filled the seats and were talking up a loud hubbub.

In the midst of that were Halter and Vermouth, sitting at a large table near the stairs.

“Yo, did you guys get some sleep?” Halter asked as he held up his beer mug for a sip.

Naoto answered absentmindedly, “Well, to some degree, I guess... Say, isn’t the atmosphere of this place completely different from how it was at noon?”

Marie answered as they both sat down, “Didn’t I tell you? That when night comes, the true nature of this city will manifest itself. This is the true face of this place.”

“If you’d like, you can sit at one of those seats over there and a sexy lady will pour you a drink,” Vermouth said with a smirk on his face.

With a jerk of his chin, he pointed at the table near the entrance where a bunch of prostitutes were sitting, and added, “So how it works is, you stuff some money down their cleavage. If they’re satisfied with the amount, then you can go right on up to a room with her and receive some lovin’—this place’s a paradise, right?”

“More like hell,” Marie spat, looking deeply unamused.

Seeing that the rest of the two cyborgs’ party had arrived, a hulk of a waiter came and asked, “May I take your orders?”

“A khanom chin and a sai ua for me. I don’t need a drink. How about you, Naoto?”

On the other hand, Naoto, seeing not a single dish that he recognized on the menu, was at a loss.

“I don’t really know what any of these dishes are... could you order something that probably isn’t too spicy for me?”

“Ratna. It’s basically the Thai version of Japanese gravy noodles.”

“Okay, I’ll have that, then.”

Having finished taking their orders, the waiter left for the kitchen.

As she followed the waiter with her eyes just because, Marie asked, “...So, does it look like you’ll be able to get us the information we need?”

“Yep, don’t worry. Though I expect that you’ve got the money to spare to treat us to a round of drinks to loosen our friend’s lips, right bitch?”

As she turned back around, Marie suddenly noticed that there was another man sitting beside Halter, a stranger.

It was a middle-aged man wearing a polo and jeans. His appearance was plain and inconspicuous.

He’s someone who you wouldn’t remember for long, Marie thought.

Though he’s sitting right in front of me, I still can’t tell around how old he is or read his expression. I get the feeling that if this man got up and left right now, I’d forget his face in less than five minutes.

More than likely, he’s deliberately being as inconspicuous as possible.

—An informant, huh.

Marie nodded. “I do. —However, I don’t have even a penny to waste on treating you, Vermouth.”

“Oy,” Vermouth moaned pitifully, “give me a break, man. I’m an ex-underling who’s currently out of work, you know? Not only that, my previous company is so amoral that they don’t even have unemployment insurance. At least have the mercy to treat me to some drinks—as well as a new body, you damn elite.”

“Please, I’m sure you’ve got one or two hidden assets somewhere anyway—no? Well, if you’re so incompetent that you can’t even manage your own finances, then wouldn’t you be better off dead?”

“Allow me to deliver the breaking news to you, bitch! I’m already dead!”

“Then let me return the favor. Are you aware that the damn elite that you’re referring to is also dead already? What a coincidence, huh. —Your shamelessness is sickening.” Marie delivered a scathing retort with a sweet smile. She then looked towards Naoto and asked, “By the way, not that I’m expecting anything, but—how much money do you have access to right now?”

A disheartened look appeared on Naoto’s face.

“...Isn’t it obvious that I’m broke? If only I could access my Japanese bank account though, there should be a lot of money in there that RyuZU somehow mysteriously made for me.”

“Well, it’s to be expected that your assets were frozen—”

RyuZU cut in, “No, please rest assured, Master Naoto. Before we departed from Kyoto, I transferred your full balance to the Bank of Geneva in Switzerland.”

“Gueh?!”

RyuZU’s swift and casual reply caused Marie to have a coughing fit.

Naoto’s eyes widened, his face blank from surprise. “Wha...? Uh, whose name is that bank account under?”

“Yours of course, Master Naoto. What about it?”

“Uh, wouldn’t it have been frozen already, then?”

“Rest assured, Master Naoto. The Bank of Geneva claims permanent neutrality and absolute secrecy for its clients. ‘Even terrorists are customers as long as they have an account with us,’ is its motto, which—”

“W, Wait a sec, what? The money it takes simply to keep an account open with the Bank of Geneva is enough to build a palace, you know? Just how much money did you deposit in there?!” Marie demanded, looking flustered.

To which RyuZU replied with a sour face, “Are you suggesting that you have the right to know the balance in Master Naoto’s bank account, Mistress Marie? Could it be that, Heaven forbid, you have taken AnchoR’s figment of imagination seriously and now fancy yourself to be Master Naoto’s wife? Please tell me this is not the case.”

“Absolutely not!” Marie yelled, then sighed, seemingly worn-out and shook her head. “......Meh, fine. At least tell me how many digits there are, then.”

Instead of immediately answering, RyuZU looked towards Naoto for approval.

Naoto himself seemed a bit shaken up, but he nodded. “Umm... A part of me is telling me that I probably don’t want to know, but well, I guess I really should.”

“Understood,” RyuZU said as she raised both her hands palm up.

She wasn’t surrendering, but rather, expressing the number of digits in the bank account with her fingers.

—So a billion at the very least. While feeling a dizzy spell come on, Marie followed up by asking, “What currency is it in?”

“What? The key currency of our time, of course.”

“...So, how much is it in yen?” Naoto muttered dumbfoundedly.

Marie answered with a deep sigh, “At the current rate... Let’s see, it should be roughly a hundred twenty billion yen.”

Halter whistled, laughing. “Wow, Naoto. You could buy two hundred cutting-edge heavily armored automata with that kind of money, y’know?”

“No no Boss, you could buy double that number at what it’s going for in this city, y’know? Holy balls, I sure wish we were friends, Naoto. I really could use a sugar daddy right now, y’know?” Vermouth whined, putting on a repulsively coquettish air.

“...By the way, RyuZU, could I ask you where that moneys came from—?” Marie asked, messing up her grammar a bit, presumably due to her shock.

However, RyuZU replied with a composed face, “What is there to say, really? Capitalism is but a game called ride the bubble. Before we left Kyoto, I had foreseen the mayhem that would occur in Tokyo, so I used all of Master Naoto’s assets and maxed out his credit limit to buy stocks for short selling. Is it really so surprising, then, that Master Naoto’s worth would grow to this amount?”

...I see. Marie almost nodded in understanding before she stopped herself and groaned, “No no, for a terrorist to make a killing by manipulating the markets with her terrorist actions... It’s totally a one-man insider show that you put on there.”

“I fail to understand what you are saying. The one who caused Japan’s stock market to crash is not me. As such, I do not think that my actions constitute insider trading. Would you object to that?”

—That’s not the problem here.

Marie buried her face in her hands and groaned for a bit before pulling herself back together, upon which she said, “...W, Well alright. Though it isn’t even a tenth of that amount, there’s my hidden account as well. So I guess we won’t have to worry about funding our activities for the time being.”

Naoto retorted with his eyes half-closed, “So you’re doing the same thing yourself.”

“What are you talking about? Hidden accounts and off-the-book transactions are the obligations of a large enterprise.”

“Apologize to all honest taxpayers in the world right now. Got it?”

“It’s not like I made money off it; I simply sold off the stocks I owned before they would lose value. Of course, I would secure the necessary funds for our next moves. —I’m sure Halter has a hidden account or two, too.”

Being called out, Halter responded while curling his lips impishly, “Oy oy, I only put enough in there for my beer money, y’know?”

“Oh, reaaally now?” Marie snorted. “You must drink some pricey beer... So, how ’bout you?”

“Oy oy, what are you expecting from an ex-underling spy? Unlike you damn elites, I’m one of the working poor, y’know?”

“Halter?”

To which Halter fiddled with his smartphone for a bit, then laughed. “Seems like the pay at the Audemars is quite good, huh, Mr. Ex-Underling Spy.”

Seeing his hidden account being displayed on the screen of Halter’s phone, Vermouth yelled in a fluster, “Wha, hey Boss! That’s what’s called an infringement of privacy, y’know!”

“Oh? Lemme see... Huh. Looks like you’ve got quite a bit stashed away, eh? Ain’t that a blessing. You could easily buy yourself a new body with this much,” Marie teased maliciously.

To which Vermouth responded, “Now look here, I was a pitiful low-level worker who could have been discarded at any time, y’know? What’s wrong with me saving up with some side jobs for some extra security? Can’t you just overlook the hidden stash that someone like me saved up by pinching pennies along the way? Gosh, you really take me for a scoundrel, don’t you...”

“How could I possibly trust you? You’re perfectly situated to earn a hefty bounty by simply informing international authorities of our location right now.”

“Wow, what a bitch you are. Even though I helped you guys out so much, this is how I’m treated? Oy Boss, seems to me this twat doesn’t understand the concept of honor.”

“Ooh, then tell me, was this money earned through your respectable primary occupation or something you made from a side job, punk?” Marie asked as she pointed with a finger at a section of the screen.

“Geh,” Vermouth groaned quietly.

“Looks like your side income has increased quite a bit these past two weeks, huh? You’ve received a total of eight deposits from Suvarnabhumi Logistics—if I recall correctly, isn’t this company a front for the Thai military?”

“Huh? Don’t tell me—” Naoto started to say.

“......Yes, how very interesting.” Marie smiled sweetly at Vermouth. “While we were being chased around, you received eight deposits from the Thai military? What side work were you doing for them? Pray tell, I’m terribly curious.”

In contrast to her smile, her gaze had the chill of absolute zero.

On the other hand, Vermouth’s countenance was the very picture of a petty scoundrel who just had his crimes exposed. He sighed deeply. “—Let me off the hook, would you? We would have been found sooner or later anyway. Given that, isn’t the smart choice to take as much as we can get by informing them ourselves from the beginning? It makes their moves more predictable as well. C’mon, I dutifully helped you guys in driving them back, didn’t I? This is the epitome of a win-win relationship!”

Marie said, throwing her chest out, “Haah? How is it win-win when you’re taking all the money for yourself? How about you show some sincerity by at least giving me my share of the pie?”

To which Vermouth clicked his tongue sharply and said, “Tch... fine, I get it. You sure are greedy for a rich kid. —How do you want to split it?”

“Nine to one, I’d say.”

“What? You’re okay with just that? Guess you’re not that greedy after all.”

“Right, nine for me and one for you—how fair and considerate of me, right?”

“Are you the devil incarnate?!” Vermouth shouted as he glared fiercely at Marie.

“...? Hey Father, what are they talking about?”

AnchoR looked puzzled, seemingly unable to follow the conversation.

Naoto shook his head deeply so as to console her. “In short, there’re a lot of people in the world who don’t make an honest living. You’re a good kid, AnchoR, so you mustn’t mimic them, okay?”

“Forget an honest living, you don’t even work at all. Could you not act like you’re above us when you’re just a kept man leeching off his wife like a parasite?!”

“The most work a normal sixteen-year-old kid can do is a part-time job! And who’s the one who made it so that I can’t even do that?!”

“Haah? Don’t you start whining to me now this late in the game!”

—An uproar ensued.

As vicious abuse was flung back and forth, Halter sighed, “...Sorry about all the noise.”

As he apologized, he took out a stack of bills from the inside pocket of his suit and presented it to the man sitting next to him.

However, after the man took the money, he then split the stack of bills roughly in half, of which he tied one half back with the strip of paper it came with and returned the rest to Halter.

“This is enough for me.”

“Really? ...That can’t be enough, though.” Halter furrowed his brows dubiously.

Upon shifting through the half stack he was given back, Halter found the greater vast majority of the information he had asked for in a note. While Halter did pay him more than market price for his services, him taking only half flipped it right back the other way, dropping the payment way below market price.

Seeing Halter’s suspicious eyes, the man simply said, “I couldn’t believe it myself until I saw them with my own eyes, but... this group of brats really is—the infamous Second Ypsilon, huh.”

Suddenly, the tavern fell dead silent.

Whether it be the drunkards who had been clamoring, the prostitutes who had been soliciting, or the waiters who had been welcoming customers boisterously, everyone in the tavern had all fallen dead silent.

Everyone had shut right up and was now looking intently at Halter’s table.

—Guess I was too optimistic, Halter groaned internally as he reached discreetly for the pistol at his waist.

It isn’t that I complacently thought that this city was safe or anything. I simply didn’t expect someone to make a move on us with this timing. Guess I misjudged the level of danger in this city...

Halter could tell from the corner of his eye that Marie and the rest had now realized the situation a second late as their whole bodies stiffened up along with their faces.

What should we do?

It’d be a piece of cake to escape from this hotel, but then what? If the enemy’s reach is faster and longer than expected, then even the backup hiding place I prepared might not be absolutely safe...

The informant quietly stood up in the midst of the tense air. He wasn’t holding a weapon.

After surveying all the faces at the table, he extended out his hand—

“—I’ll give you a bargain on the information fee. In exchange, won’t you shake my hand?”

“......”

Wha?

“If possible, I’d also like to ask for a commemorative photo together. —Alright?” the man added with an embarrassed smile on his face.

●

In the end, Marie was badgered into a signature on top of a fervent handshake and photograph together.

After the gleaming informant had left... their table unsurprisingly remained the center of attention just the same. As she pierced the sai ua that had been brought to their table with her fork, Marie muttered, “...By the way.”

“Yeah?”

“I get the feeling that I shouldn’t even ask, but who was that just now?”

“You should obey your instincts, princess. —You’re better off not knowing. Knowing you, you might have left him at death’s door then and there.”

“Somehow... mmm... I can’t help but feel like I’ve seen him before somewhere...”

Marie tilted her head as she stuffed the food into her mouth.

Somehow, she got that feeling ever since that middle-aged man, who practically seemed like a shadow with how unmemorable he was, threw away his best interests, professionally speaking—and showed a human side to himself.

Marie knew she had seen him before somewhere, but she just couldn’t remember where. It gave her an uncomfortable feeling, like having something stuck between one’s teeth.

“—Want me to take a guess?” Vermouth interjected with a smirk. “The ringleader behind President Parham’s death who is said to have died six years ago, right?”

Marie’s expression immediately turned grim. She glared at Vermouth. “—Hold it there. The entire region of Central America was driven into an economic depression due to that incident, you know? Do you even realize how many people were driven to suicide because of that?”

“Princess,” Halter said calmly, “there are tons of people alive who are considered dead officially—just as is the case for someone sitting right here at this table.”

“That’s—”

“No one here has called you out for being the daughter of the Five Great Corporations, have they? —The underworld has its own unspoken rules. Don’t stick your nose too deeply into others’ business, a’ight?” Vermouth said.

Marie replied with a surly face, “So what, that terrorist not only related to me but also felt a sense of kinship with me? —How absolutely humiliating.”

“That’s what you wished for, isn’t it? Then you can only act out the part you’ve given yourself as the most vicious terrorist group in the world. Ain’t that right?”

Marie almost retorted reflexively to Vermouth’s snide remarks, but she ended up keeping her mouth shut.

He’s absolutely right.

—We’ve become terrorists.

In order to force through our own will, we’ve kicked justice to the curb. If there is something that could be said to be different in what we did versus what that man did, then it’d be our motives. Had he done it for money? For a doctrine? For an ideal? ...Or for fun?

Indeed, Vermouth was absolutely right.

In the end, they did it for their own sakes. As she was right now, Marie had no right to judge others on that one point if nothing else—

“I know that much myself. So I’ll bear with it... as much as it irks me.”

“Relax. It’s true that you guys are infamous and the center of attention right now—but it’s not like we’re the only terrorists in town. If you’d like, I could gather those in the same line of business who have clout everywhere in the world and hold a mixer.”

“No thanks,” Marie said as she stabbed the next piece of sai ua deeply with her fork.

“Alright, well, I think I’ll explain a little bit about this town’s circumstances now. Lend me your ears as you eat,” Halter began, changing the subject. “As you know, this city is teeming with countless crime syndicates and extremists and has no such thing as a government. Nonetheless, this city’s questionable denizens have their own system of hierarchy and way of keeping the peace—and three principal organizations have evolved into the leaders.”

“Evolved?” Marie asked with a question mark written on her face.

Halter nodded. “The organizations with those names today are entirely different from the original organizations. Of course, the original organizations were led by some other dudes from elsewhere, but after countless violent struggles, breakups, and merges, traces of the original organizations are all but gone now.”

“The names of the three organizations are simple and plain,” added Vermouth, “as there isn’t anyone who would name their organization something pretentious here. Nor is there any language not spoken here, as the wealthy are the best customers here and they come from all over the world. And so, the three organizations are known universally in all languages as—”

“Market, Restaurant, and Arsenal.”

Halter gave a rough explanation: “Market is the financier that holds the keys to commerce and information here; Restaurant is the pimp that manages drug dealing and sex trafficking; Arsenal’s the militant with weapons of all scales and advanced clockwork technology under their control—straightforward, right?”

Naoto tilted his head. “...Leaving Market aside, wouldn’t it be confusing when someone wants to refer to a normal arsenal or restaurant?”

“No? There isn’t any arsenal here that isn’t under the management of Arsenal, nor is there any restaurant that isn’t affiliated with Restaurant.” Vermouth smiled bitterly. “So? Well, I think this goes without saying, but it’s not like these three organizations are buddy-buddy with one another. That’s obvious, right? All organizations do business, and if you want to sell things here you need bouncers, and bouncers need weapons to do their jobs. Of course, they eat, fuck, and get high as well.”

“In short, their domains overlap,” Halter said. “That’s why they see each other as eyesores, but even so, they keep things smooth on the surface. That’s the weird thing about this city... but anyways, for now just keep Arsenal in mind; you can forget the other two.”

Naoto tilted his head. “...Why?”

“Because by tomorrow, they might become different organizations altogether. It’d be a waste of time to try to keep track of them all,” Halter replied.

Vermouth expanded on his answer, “Boss mentioned this earlier too, but the three organizations didn’t start how they are now. They’re groups that consist easily of gangsters in the triple digits that receive assistance and meddling in internal affairs from overseas, and are even related to terrorist groups. Those who stand at the top of these groups at any given time are simply those who won the last round of infighting, where anything goes. If the head misses even one step or gives others any excuse at all, then it’ll be a different head leading the group five minutes later. Aside from Arsenal, that is.”

“Only Arsenal still hasn’t had any shuffling at the top since its inception as six years ago now—that’s quite a feat, you know?” Halter said solemnly. “The boss’s name is Kiu Tai Yu—he’s the de facto ruler of this city. He single-handedly oversees the entire business of selling weapons, ordnance, artificial bodies, and automata and their parts. Not only that, he makes sure that all the Meisters in town only work for him, and has control of the core tower with their help.”

“While we’re at it, he was the key figure in sealing off any excuse IGMO could use to intervene in this city, not only by showing a big stick, but also by speaking softly behind the scenes. Quite the son of a bitch, right? That he’s survived for six years at the top is proof of his ability and achievements. The guy who lasted the longest after him only lasted eight months, so he’s first by a long shot.”

—Even if I were to take what Vermouth’s saying with a grain of salt, that’s an accomplishment that you’d need an extreme level of resourcefulness to achieve.

Marie gulped unwittingly and asked, “...Who is he?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know anyone who’s interested in knowing, either.” Halter shrugged. “Well, strictly speaking, there probably are those who’re curious, but those who would dig into someone’s past don’t live very long in this city. Are you so curious that you would risk your life to know whether Arsenal’s boss really once worked as a pizza delivery guy or not?”

“...I guess you’re right.”

“All in all, you just have to know that he’s a closer. I’d imagine that, as long as we don’t bother him, he isn’t someone who’d make a pointless pass at us,” Halter said as he produced a notepad from his inside breast pocket.

He wrote something, then tore off the note and handed it to Marie. “Regarding what you asked of me earlier, you’ll find the guy in question if you go to that address. You should pay him a visit after you finish eating.”

“...? You aren’t coming with us?”

“I’ve got a special type of ‘immigration inspection’ that I need to take care of. Don’t worry. You’ll be safer off than coming with me, as long as you don’t do anything stupid. RyuZU’ll be with you as well, after all.”

“Roger—and what about you?” Marie said as she shot a sharp gaze at Vermouth, who had tried to casually step away from his seat.

To which Vermouth broke into a smirk and said, “What, you want me to come with you, bitch? I get that you’ll feel lonely without me, but—”

“So the bastard who was just proven to have sold us out is now shamelessly trying to skedaddle off elsewhere? Hmmmmm. —I’m telling you to tell me where you’re going, you shitbag.”

“Oy oy, calling a bald man bald is just a description, not an insult, y’know, so what’s the point in calling me a shitbag? Or are you asking me for verification?” Vermouth responded flippantly.

To which Halter rebuked sharply, “—Greenhorn, do you think I’d let you go cruising around this city on your own? You’re coming with me.”

“Hahhah! Sorry Boss, I’m the type that likes to visit the red-light district by myself.”

“I didn’t ask what you’d prefer,” Halter said coldly.

That instant, Vermouth’s expression changed— Correction, it didn’t really change. He was still smirking flippantly as always.

However, the meaning behind that smirk had decisively changed.

“—Hey Boss, I respect your skills as a mercenary from the bottom of my heart. I’d even dare to say that I’m a big fan of yours, but—”

Vermouth paused and snapped his fingers—immediately after.

“We all have our strengths and weaknesses.”

Those words sounded from every direction.

All the customers in the restaurant had spoken the same words at exactly the same time.

“...gh?!”

Astonishment, wariness, and recognition over what had just happened—for just one moment, Marie, Naoto, RyuZU, AnchoR of course, and even Halter had a small lapse in their awareness.

And, not leaving that small lapse to waste, by the time they regained themselves, Vermouth was gone—he had disappeared without leaving behind any trace of himself, in terms of both sight and sound.

“—That guy!” Marie stood up, her eyes flaring, but it was already too late.

The other customers in the restaurant had returned to their original clatter as if nothing had happened.

The sight of that felt all too surreal to Marie, leaving her frozen on her feet.

Because this meant that Vermouth had hired everyone in the restaurant right now to help him escape.

...When did he have the time to set this up? Considering that he’s been under the constant watch of Halter since we’ve arrived at this hotel, it’d have to be before we entered the city?

“That bastard,” Halter growled, baring his teeth. “So, you think that you can hold your own against me if you make me play hide and seek with you, huh—you’ve got some nerve, greenhorn, I’ll give you that.”

●

Nighttime in Shangri-La Grid was even more of a bustling confusion than it was at noon. Garish street stalls and signs illuminated by neon gears lined the streets.

While being enshrouded by the heat, which didn’t let up even after sunset, and some weird stench that seemed like it could be from food but just as likely otherwise, Marie was walking along while holding AnchoR’s hand.

Naoto and RyuZU were walking right behind them.

Perhaps some on the streets recognized their faces, or perhaps their group simply stood out in this crowd, but now and then, there’d be people who would stop upon seeing them and give them a suspicious gaze. Still, it didn’t seem like anyone was going to make a move on them, for now at least.

“...That doesn’t mean that we can let our guard down, though,” Marie sighed as she mumbled to herself.

There are three reasons why we we’re here in Shangri-La Grid:

The first is to find replacement parts for AnchoR’s repair.

As things are right now, we can’t fully repair her. In the first place, considering AnchoR’s insane capabilities—there’s no way that we could easily get our hands on parts that could withstand her full output.

Even if we assume her parts to be about the same structure as RyuZU’s, we’d still need premium materials that only the manufacturing plant of an international research institute could synthesize.

However, though we’ve done what we can to fix her up along the journey, forget being combat-ready, she might even be less capable than a real child right now.

Both her autogyro and shock absorbers have been totaled, and her frame is still bent way out of shape. That said, at least her spring, a critical component for automata, is still in good shape.

A good analogy for her current state would be like if a high output engine of a fighter plane were fitted onto a tricycle for kids.

As is, she can barely even walk. If we don’t fix her up now so that she can move properly at the bare minimum, her body might break down before we get to France.

The second is, the only way we can make it past the many great countries in the way, like the Commonwealth of China, India, the Arab Union—and into Europe—is through the unique smuggling route that runs through this city of criminals.

Sure, we might have RyuZU with us, but even so, trying to cross the Eurasian continent while taking on full-fledged military battalions one after the other simply isn’t realistic.

They weren’t looking to fight in the first place right now. It might go without saying that Marie and Naoto wouldn’t hold up through many large fights, but even Halter wouldn’t hold up as he was, now having lost his original artificial body. Engaging in fights right now would simply lead them to suffer injuries needlessly.

And the third is—

“So, where exactly are we headed right now? You still haven’t told us,” Naoto asked, seeming to have lost his patience.

Marie replied, “We’re going to order a new main frame for AnchoR right now.”

The main frame for an automata was analogous to the spine and pelvis for humans.

It enclosed the main cylinder, which was more important than the spring for automata, as well as sheathed the nerve wires which were finer than spider silk into bundles and connected them to other critical components—it’d be fair to say that it’s the pillar of support for automata and cyborgs.

During the fight in Tokyo, AnchoR had had her main frame broken— Correction, bent.

“Unlikely as it is, even if there is a broken part in AnchoR that we could use a common spare part for, there’s no world in which a mass-produced main frame could replace her original one.”

AnchoR’s design was simply too unique. Though it may be obvious that her compatibility with typical replacement parts would be limited as a designer model of automata, calling her compatibility limited would hardly do it justice. Only an insane main frame could hope to support the parts that bear the brunt of her ultra-high power output while maintaining her reaction time in a form factor that would fit inside her.

So insane, in fact, that it’d probably be easier to design a scaled down version of a heavyweight race car to that of a palm-sized toy car while keeping its full capabilities.

Naoto thought for a bit, then said, “Is there no way that we could make it ourselves?”

“That’d be difficult.” Marie shrugged. “First, the main frame itself isn’t a moving part. That means that we can’t rely on your ears to inspect it, but—well, even if you could, do you think you can explain its structure to me in proper engineering terms?”

“Well, I mean... not if it’s a one-of-a-kind custom part, but...”

“Are you thinking that you’d be able to tell when there’s a problem if we tried connecting some main frames? But if we connect main frames that end up being incompatible to AnchoR’s body over and over again, that’ll eventually take a toll on the rest of her body, you know, as resilient as her parts are.”

Unlike the arms and legs, the main frame wasn’t a part that could be casually replaced just because. It goes without saying that it’s left untouched during regular maintenance, but it usually wasn’t taken out, even in an overhaul, which might be done every few years.

Normally, if an automaton’s main frame broke, the entire automaton was disposed.

However, Naoto frowned. “Okay, so it’s something that even you and I can’t make, right? Then just whom are you planning to order it from?”

“...Yeah. It isn’t something that a proper clocksmith could make. But,”

However, if there were a clocksmith that might be able to make it happen—

“Giovanni Artigiano,” Marie declared, “He’s an overclocker who is said to exceed the technical capabilities of even the Five Great Corporations when it comes to main frame design.”

“—An overclocker?”

Marie replied, “An overclocker is someone who mix-and-matches automata parts of different formats and connects them together adroitly.”

To which Naoto tilted his head and said, “...Is that really as hard as you’re suggesting?”

“Of course. Normally, it would be unthinkable to try to replace the parts of an automaton that isn’t conformed to a standard model type. It’d be like trying to give a man the ability to fly by transplanting the wings of a bird onto his back. That’s how absurd it would be normally.”

The output power levels of the parts might not match. Or the material strengths. Or the capabilities. To begin with, they might come from completely different manufacturers.

“Putting incompatible parts together and making them function normally is just as hard and intricate as it sounds,” Marie asserted.

That was precisely why any clocksmith that had undergone proper training would never deliberately do such a thing.

After all, it’d be quicker to design a new replacement part from the ground up than to figure out how to interface two incompatible parts.

However, in this city—there’s unending demand for just that service.

Illegal weapons, knock-off goods that naturally weren’t labeled with the name of their manufacturers, and modded articles made of parts that were intended for different models—getting such things to work required the skills of an absolute top-notch overclocker.

“I could copy what they do to some extent, but my work wouldn’t even begin to compare to the work of an absolute top-notch overclocker. Those guys can even coax out capabilities that exceed the original design of a part somehow. Their skills are godly, to put it mildly,” Marie continued as Naoto’s eyes widened. “As for whom we’re going to visit right now, people call him—Maestro Finite. They say that no matter how incompatible the parts are that you take to him, he’ll design the optimal main frame for them and build something whose capabilities exceed that of the original parts... and that he has absolutely no interest in anything else whatsoever. An eccentric, no doubt.”

“...Such an amazing clocksmith is in this city?”

Marie nodded. “I’m not too sure what kind of person he is though, myself. But, I hear he brushed aside countless scouters, including those from the Five Great Corporations, to open up an independent workshop here in Shangri-La Grid.”

“Wow...!”

“Well, I’m sure that his skills have been embellished to some extent.”

Naoto’s face turned blank. “What? So it could be all lies? Man, I was just thinking how cool he must be, too.”

“I mean, after all, how can you create a mishmash of parts from designer items that exceeds the capabilities of those items? Theoretically, it should be impossible.” Marie laughed bitterly. “Well, that said, even taking the stories told about him with a grain of salt, he’s definitely got skills. That he can fit parts together no matter how incompatible they are—may be deceptive advertising, but there’s no doubt that he’s one of the world’s foremost main frame designers. He’d surely be able to make something much better than any old replacement main frame on the shelves, or what we could make ourselves.”

Having departed from the central marketplace, they now passed the Chang Phuak Gate in the north of the city.

Upon leaving the chain of street stalls that ran along the canal and water fountain, the feel of the surroundings changed greatly. The flashy flyers and garish lights, as well as the crowd of people moving about, were all suddenly nowhere to be seen. To the west was the entertainment district managed by Restaurant, but it was far enough away from where they were that the noise from the district wasn’t very audible.

Instead, they now found themselves in a downtown residential area, where the houses were made with blocks and panels from scrap materials. One could tell from the ambiance that they were the quarters of the permanent residents of the city, rather than the visitors who were only here on business trips.

The public order in this area was particularly bad; not that it was good anywhere in the city.

However, Marie stepped right into it without hesitation.

While holding tightly onto AnchoR’s hand, she opened up a map of the area with her other hand as they walked through the dimly lit streets.

And so, after some time, they came across a decrepit two-story building.

It was the independent workshop of the clocksmith in question; it stood sandwiched between gray apartments that had a lifeless feel to them.

“...Such a great clocksmith works here?”

“That should be the case—well, seems like he isn’t a very conventional guy, to say the least.”

I can see where Naoto’s coming from, Marie thought.

The building was simply too dilapidated.

To begin with, despite being a workshop, it didn’t even have a sign. It appeared that the pavement leading up to the door had been swept clean, but the walls had myriad little cracks in them and looked like they might collapse altogether any second. The surrounding buildings were quite run-down and unkempt themselves, but the building before them was on a whole other level.

It wouldn’t be surprising if it turned out that this building actually went all the way back a thousand years ago, before the modern era. If anything, that would be more believable than otherwise.

However, this was unmistakably the address written on the note that Halter had jotted down.

Marie knocked on the door cautiously and nervously, afraid that she might cause the whole building to collapse if she were to use too much force.

They waited for a while. Just when Marie was considering whether she should knock again, the door opened.

“Si— May I ask who’s visiting?”

The voice was clearly the synthesized voice of a robot.

Then, a maid automaton wearing a classic-looking apron that hinted at an owner with retro tastes and with a face like that of a bisque doll, showed itself.

Compared to the mainstream automata these days that looked very close to real humans, it was clearly an old model of automaton, much less RyuZU or AnchoR.

Looking right back at the blue eyes that one could tell were made of glass marbles from a glance, Marie introduced herself,

“I’m Marie, and this girl is AnchoR.”

“...Ah, I’m Naoto.”

“My name is RyuZU.”

“Si— Thank you very much. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Nono Figlia, the automaton in charge of welcoming guests at this workshop,” the maid automaton—Nono—said as she took an elegant bow.

As her eyes widened from seeing how incredibly smooth its movements were, Marie asked,

“To confirm, is this Giovanni Artigiano’s workshop?”

“Si— Would it be correct to assume that you’ve come here to order something from Master?”

“Yes, there’s a job that I must ask of him. Could I ask you to let me speak to him directly?”

“Si— Understood. In that case, please come this way.”

Upon stepping into the workshop at Nono’s invitation, Marie gaped as she looked around.

The interior of the workshop was drastically different from its shabby exterior; every nook and cranny inside seemed to be well taken care of.

They were immediately hit by the smell of kerosene. The space indoors was fairly wide, but most of it was buried in various instruments for work that were clearly well-used. The shelves that rested against one side of the room were stuffed with countless parts, materials, and a great number of books and documents.

Though at first glance it looked like no care was taken to keep things tidy and everything had just been thrown around carelessly, in actuality there wasn’t a single speck of dust.

The walls had most likely been soundproofed, as the noise from outside was completely inaudible. Instead, the overlapping sound of countless gears turning could be heard from everywhere inside.

Yet, it was quiet enough that one could still make out the sound of a needle falling onto the floor.

In the far back of this mysterious space was the single light source in this workshop buried in darkness.

There, an old man sitting hunched over in his work chair was found.

—It’s almost like he’s a magician from the land of fairy-tales, Marie thought.

The image of an aloof sage who had continuously polished his wisdom in a secluded hovel away from the rest of the world, and would offer deep advice to youngsters who would seek it before undertaking difficult trials, surfaced in Marie’s mind.

...The rumors may be true after all.

At the very least, I can’t help but feel from seeing this workshop, and now the man himself, that he’s a clocksmith that’s reached an incredible height.

Marie gently called out to the man from behind as he continued working silently, “Pardon my intrusion—but are you Signore Artigiano?”

There was no reply.

“Excuse me for intruding upon you at night, but there’s a job I must to ask of you. It’s probably something that only you can do—could you please hear me out?”

The old man started from surprise, then turned around and slowly raised his head.

He gazed upon his guests with his peaceful, amber eyes for a bit—then cupped an ear with his hand, looking rather confused—

And said, “............What’dya say?”

●

...This might be hopeless.

Despite falling into despair for an instant from the old man’s response, Marie tried again in a louder voice. “Umm, Segnore—”

“Honey, didn’t you eat earlier already? Are you spacing out again?”

“Who’s your honey! You’re the one who’s spacing out!” Marie shouted reflexively in anger.

Grabbing Marie by the shoulder, Naoto said, “Oy Marie, you’re dealing with a grandpa here, so be a little more forgiving.”

“Y, Yeah... you’re right, I lost myself for a moment there...” Marie said, then took a deep, slow breath to calm herself down.

The old man tilted his head and said, “...Marie? Oooh, are you the beautiful Queen Antoinette?!”

“Hah? What the heck are you even saying... In the first place, Marie Antoinette is someone that lived over a thousand and two hundred years ago.”

“Ahh, yes indeed, and she had huge knockers too... Oooh, pardon me! You can’t be her after all.”

Marie immediately covered up her chest with her arms and shouted yet again despite herself, “Where do you think you’re looking!”

The old man gazed up at the ceiling and let out a deep sigh, “Yeah, Adelina. I too miss the sound of that canzone. Let’s visit Amalfi again and drink some limoncello while basking in the sea breeze, shall we?”

“Adelina who?!” Marie cried out in exasperation.

To which Nono replied, “Si— Mistress Adelina is the Maestro’s granddaughter.”

“Listen to me! I’m neither your wife nor your granddaughter nor Marie Antoinette! I’m telling you that I’m a customer!” Marie screamed.

From behind her, RyuZU whispered quietly, “Mistress Marie, aside from the fact that he correctly identified your bosom as being as barren as the national treasury of France was during its revolution, it seems clear that this senior does not have his wits about him. Yet, you were saying that you want to commission an extremely important part for AnchoR from him? ...To put it bluntly: Have you lost it?”

“I’m deep in regret right now over that...!” Marie whispered back painfully as if she were coughing up blood.

“Well, now.... so that’s what an Initial-Y looks like, huh?” The old man snickered as he continued, “I’m guessing that you came to ask me for a replacement main frame for the little one with you?”

“Wha—” Marie stared with wide eyes, flabbergasted.

“There’s nothing to be surprised about, really. I may be a recluse, sure, but even I at least read the news.”

The old man—Giovanni—laughed like a kid that had succeeded in his prank. “I believe your group’s name was Second Ypsilon, yes? For your group, which possesses two Initial-Y automata, to visit a workshop on the outskirts of town like mine with the main frame of one of the Initial-Y’s bent... Anyone could put two and two together in this case, not just me.”

Yeah, he’s probably right. Or rather, he would be, if a small detail were left out.

—That he knew AnchoR’s main frame is bent.

That he could assert that AnchoR’s main frame, an internal component which there should be no way of knowing the status of unless one opened her up and checked inside, was neither broken nor had damaged connections, but that it was bent. Just as he said, anyone could know all the other premises that led to his conclusion.

Marie shivered as she became convinced. This old man’s skills are the real deal.

That aside—

“...Uh, what was that about just now, then? I thought you had gone senile.”

“No? I guess I may not look it, but I actually pay a lot of attention to my health. I get a check-up once every week, and I’ve never had the doctor bring up cognitive problems with me. —Isn’t that right, Nono?”

“Si— The Maestro has a few health issues that come with old age, but no observable signs of cognitive impairment, memory deficit, or disorientation.”

“Then what was that just now?!”

“Well, see, usually the ones that visit are all grim-looking gangsters, so I thought I’d mess with you a bit for fun. That’s all.”

—This shitty geezer.

Marie felt the veins by her temples pop out, but ultimately managed to stifle her anger.

“W... Well fine, I guess. If you have your wits together, then that’ll save me time explaining. To repeat what I said at the beginning, there’s a job that I want to request of you.”

“Indeed, saving time can only be good for us both—I decline. May I ask you to leave now?”

His reply was immediate.

His answer had been so abrupt and unexpected that Marie was left standing still for a while, dumbfounded.

She then blinked a couple of times and asked, “...Err, may I ask why?”

“I’m all booked for the time being, unfortunately. There’s no room in my schedule for your request,” Giovanni said with a shrug. “If you’re willing to wait, then I don’t mind accepting, but—can you wait five years?”

“Of course not!” Marie yelled. She nearly lost herself to anger, but held out in the end. She took a deep breath to calm herself down then continued, “I’m aware that my sudden request might be an inconvenience to you! But five years is way too long to wait. I’ll pay the appropriate price in light of that, so could you please be just a little more flexible?”

However, the old man laughed bitterly and said, “My, my. You really don’t mind asking the impossible of others, do you, Missy.”

“...”

“You said that you get that your request would inconvenience me, but you actually don’t get it at all. Just what do you think this place is? My customers are gangsters who would devour anyone who crosses them down to the bone. If I’m even a second late to turn in my work at the agreed-upon time, forget paying a penalty fee, I might have my entire workshop demolished, you know?”

“That’s...”

The old man shot a cold gaze at Marie, who was stumped. “And to begin with, don’t you think that trying to force others to follow your will by throwing stacks of money at them is a little crass? Did they not teach you this thing called social etiquette at the Academy?”

Marie couldn’t refute any of what he had said.

Placing her hand on her chest, she proposed, “T... Then, could you let me help you as an assistant? I’ll prove that l can shorten the amount of time it’ll take you to fulfill your current orders, so would you consider fulfilling mine in the time that I’ll open up for you?”

—The moment she finished speaking.

The old man not only gave Marie a cold look, but was clearly sneering as he said, “Sorry, but a little amateur wouldn’t be able to help me with the work I do.”

“A—mateur?!” Shocked, Marie had trouble even getting her words out.

For a moment, she couldn’t even understand what she had just been told. Never had there been any clocksmith who had shown her such disrespect.

Upon regaining her senses, Marie began indignantly, “W, With all due respect, I’m actually—”

“I’m well aware. You’re the prized daughter of the Breguets, yes?”

“?! You know who I am—?”

“I might have heard a rumor or two about you.” The old man laughed bitterly.

“Y, You called me an amateur—knowing who I am, and knowing that I’m a Meister?”

“Yes, and?”

Marie’s hands were made into fists and trembling as she stood frozen to the spot.

The old man called me an amateur.

Knowing full well that I’m the younger daughter of the Breguets, that I’m a Meister, and that I’ve served as the head of a division in Meister Guild—he still called me an amateur.

...I’ve never let my accomplishments get to my head. Never. But—

“Whether you’re a Meister or the prized daughter of the Breguets makes no difference to me. You’re still an amateur in my eyes. What, so you got out of your diapers earlier than most do. Is it really something to be so proud of?” The old man sneered as he rested his head in his hand.

“If you consider yourself a professional, if you pride yourself on being a true clocksmith who’s pushed the boundaries of her field, then I think there’s something you should do before you come crying to a half-retired dotard like myself, wouldn’t you agree?”

—Snap.

Marie heard the sound of something tearing inside her. It might have been her temple vein, or it might have been her last thread of patience. Or perhaps she had hallucinated the sound altogether.

Whatever the case, Marie was at her limits. With all of her patience depleted, she yelled, “Well then, sorry to have bothered you! Please, by all means, keep living healthily and peacefully in solitude inside this shitty city until you kick the bucket! Farewell!” Marie turned around and glared at Naoto. “—We’re leaving, Naoto! Staying here any longer would just be a waste of time. Let’s think of another way.”

Making a complete main frame would be impossible for them, in consideration of both the equipment and time restraint that they had.

However, it’d probably be possible for them to repeatedly tune AnchoR with her main frame’s distortion in mind so that she wouldn’t break down, though it wasn’t an ideal solution.

—At the very least, that’d be more productive than trying to coax this disagreeable old man into helping us.

However, Naoto shook his head at Marie, who was already at the door, and said, “Take AnchoR and go back to the hotel first, Marie.”

Marie’s eyes widened.

...That surprised me.

Both the fact that he entrusted AnchoR to me, and that he thinks there’s reason enough for him to stay here that he would go so far as to do that.

“Sorry, but I’ve—got a little more that I want to discuss with this grandpa.”

Naoto’s dead-serious face as he said this also surprised Marie.

You’ll just be wasting your time— Marie almost said aloud, but stopped herself.

She didn’t believe that she truly understood Naoto Miura.

But at this point, she already knew from the bottom of her heart that doubting his intuition and judgment was meaningless.

If Naoto’s telling me this with such a serious face, he must be seeing something that I don’t... That should be what it means.

She clicked her tongue.

That she couldn’t see what he was seeing irritated her above all else—

“—Is that so? Fine, then by all means, take your time with this senile old man! I’ll probably have AnchoR all fixed up already by the time you get back, so prepare to cry like a baby!”

●

With violent footsteps, Marie exited the workshop with AnchoR in hand.

After seeing them leave, the old man returned his gaze to Naoto and shrugged with a sigh. “Goodness me, what a feisty Missy you’ve got with you.”

Despite his sharp tone, there was a faint smile on his face.

RyuZU asked, looking puzzled, “—Master Naoto, I do not mean to agree with Mistress Marie, but it seems to me that staying here any longer would just be a waste of time. What are you planning to do? I mean, I cannot think that it is that you have so much unconditional love for humanity in you that you have awakened to the joy of caring for the elderly, but it is the only explanation I can come up with.”

“I stayed because I want to see how this grandpa does his work.”

“Sorry, kid. If you’re just lookin’ to kill time, please leave. As you can see from this hovel of mine, I’m struggling to make ends meet as is, so I don’t have the luxury of teaching a third-rate apprentice who hasn’t even been weaned off his diapers yet.”

“—Dear me,” RyuZU said in a piercingly cold tone, “is that my auditory mechanism malfunctioning or that you have a linguistic disorder? Actually, I suspect it is simply that you have gone senile after all. For a plebeian like yourself to speak so rudely to someone whom you should not even be allowed to look—”

“RyuZU, stop,” Naoto interjected as he reached his hand out and covered RyuZU’s mouth.

Meanwhile, the old man continued flatly, “What’s wrong with calling a third-rate what he is? It’s merely the truth—so you disagree, but it seems to me like the one in question is rather aware of it himself?”

“...I am sorry to bother you, Master Naoto, but could you please explain? What valid reason could this senior have to look down on you? —To be more specific, what reason could there be for me not to knock his skull a bit right now and return his lost brain to its proper place?”

“I mean, there’s nothing to explain, really. As the grandpa said, I’m just a third-rate apprentice.” Naoto smiled bitterly. “But still, grandpa, you’re kinda twisted.”

“...Oh?”

“Despite everything you’ve said, you never said that you couldn’t do it, while understanding perfectly well that AnchoR is an Initial-Y as well.”

Indeed, he had never said it.

Even in AnchoR’s current condition, she should still be a unit far more advanced than what modern clocksmithing could replicate; yet, this old man showed no signs whatsoever of being daunted or hesitant when he had been asked to make a new main frame for her.

Forget being astounded by her intricacy, the face the old man made when he had said that AnchoR’s main frame was bent was such that—

—There was no way anyone could miss it.

It was as clear as day what he was thinking.

—So this is one of “Y”’s masterpieces, huh. What a disappointment.

Unconvinced, RyuZU said, “Is it not possible that he is simply a presumptuous old man with Alzheimer’s?”

“A senile old man wouldn’t be able to create this,” Naoto said as he looked at Nono. “At first glance, she looks to be an outdated automaton. But anyone who would judge his skill as a clocksmith by that is nothing but a fool. If you take a good look, it becomes apparent that she’s been flawlessly maintained and that the technology used inside her is something else.”

“As I said earlier, I don’t have time to waste. I can’t be dealing with fools who can’t even tell the difference between what quality is and isn’t.”

Nodding to those words, Naoto continued, “Marie realized that much as well. That’s why she deemed that you’re a clocksmith and tried to commission AnchoR’s main frame from you. But, it seems that she didn’t notice the interior of your automaton.”

Naoto smiled bitterly.

He then looked at Nono—who looked like nothing but an outdated automaton through and through—then checked her out from top to bottom with an intense gaze and gulped. “An outdated model? —Unthinkable. This one’s a work of art worth more than any number of run-of-the-mill automata put together... I mean, really. How do you even make mechanisms like these?”

RyuZU asked uncertainly, “Master Naoto, unlike you, I am no expert, but is this unit really so outstanding?”

“Yeah.” Naoto nodded. “The parts it uses are merely consumer ones that have been slightly tuned. The raw materials used to make its parts are also a level below what was used for yours or AnchoR’s. —Yet, she’s an amazing piece of work.” He paused for a breath. “As far as basic maneuverability goes, what this unit is capable of—is no less than what you are capable of, RyuZU.”

RyuZU was left speechless.

“—Kaka.”

The old man sneered.

—Just like that, the atmosphere in the room seemed to dramatically change. The old workshop they were in began to feel like a murky cave of demons. And the one before them began to feel less like just another old clocksmith, and more like an unbelievable monster that had reached an inhuman level of mastery.

The old man said happily with a smirk, “Oh? So you’re the rumored second coming of ‘Y’, huh. Rumors can’t be trusted, or so I figured, but it does seem like you’re not a complete blockhead, at least.”

It seemed like the old man’s transformation made even RyuZU eat her hat, as she remained speechless.

On the other hand, Naoto curled his lips, muttering, “So, you’re finally showing your true self.”

The old man ignored that comment, and instead reached for the mug that was on his work desk.

After drinking a mouthful of the mug’s contents with ease, he continued, “I’ll admit that you’re a first-rate dilettante. However, it looks to me like you mistakenly believe yourself to be a first-rate critic as well. Or is that just my imagination?”

“Even a mere dilettante can see how magnificent this composition is.”

“—I see. It seems like you aren’t conceited about your abilities,” the old man said as he relaxed his eyes and nodded, upon which the atmosphere in the room relaxed just a little.

Immediately after, RyuZU shot a sharp stare at the automaton standing right next to her and said, “Nono Figlia.”

“Si— What is it?”

“Excuse me, but I’d like to confirm something.”

The moment RyuZU said that, black shadows flashed forth for an instant.

Her skirt fluttered elegantly as her pair of black scythes rushed out from underneath towards Nono in a lethal attack that would dismantle just about any target, even a heavily armored military automaton, instantaneously.

—However.

Nono Figlia was able to deal with her attack without breaking a sweat.

She pulled out a brutal-looking knife, seemingly out of nowhere—but it had actually been from the inside of the hem of her maid uniform—and casually parried the pair of black scythes assaulting her from left and right. At the same time, she crouched down and closed in on the automaton with beautiful silver hair faster than the eye could follow.

The shrill ring of metal clashing sounded as sparks flew from the blades chafing past each other.

They assaulted each other with slashes, thrusts, and blows from both the front and from blind spots that exceeded the speed of bullets.

Both of them stood their ground as their blades locked against each other over and over again in this contest of close quarters combat. They naturally transitioned their attacks into parries and vice versa.

“RyuZU!” Naoto yelled out chidingly upon processing the situation.

On the other hand, the old man sounded pleased as he said, “You can stop now.”

“Si—”

Nono obeyed the order and withdrew her knife, abruptly ending her flurry of combat movements.

As she returned to standby, Naoto checked to see if she had been damaged in the fight—and sighed a breath of relief upon seeing that she hadn’t.

Then, he scolded, “RyuZU, that was way out of line! You need to apologize.”

RyuZU obediently bowed as she put away her black scythes. “Please forgive my transgressions. Indeed, I see that some of this unit’s basic capabilities rival mine, so it might take me a little longer than usual to dismantle her if I had to.”

“Allow me to say it as well, I’m sorry for what happened just now.”

...Despite the lack of sincerity in RyuZU’s apology, Naoto joined with her and bowed anyway.

However, the old man shook his head with a faint smile. “It’s nothing to worry about. It was a rather entertaining little show, actually. I would have been perfectly fine with letting it continue, you know? I’d very much like to find out how long one of my prototypes can keep up with one of the fabled Initial-Y’s.”

—...?

“Prototype... uh, er.”

“Yep, she’s one of my prototypes,” the old man repeated. “She’s something I made by fiddling around after I took a break from work to refresh my senses. Nono Figlia—Ninth Daughter—my naming system is simple, right?”

“gh...! Are you serious...”

This time, Naoto stared at Giovanni with true awe and fear as shivers ran down his spine.

“Now then,” the old man said as he stared right back at Naoto. “What is your name, boy?”

“Naoto— My name is Naoto Miura, Maestro.”

“I’m Giovanni Artigiano. The deadline is close, so I don’t have time to explain this or that to you, but if you just want to watch me at work then do as you please.”

Naoto straightened his back and said in a tone of utmost respect, “Thank you very much, I’ll do just that.”

●

Upon walking through Suan Dok Gate—the west gate of the town castle in ancient times—Halter found himself no longer inside the central marketplace area, but on Restaurant’s turf.

On the surface, it looked just as what one would expect from the pleasure capital of the world: a bustling entertainment district, where one could drown himself in alcohol, drugs, and women. Lurid neon lights could be seen everywhere and the streets were crowded with drunkards.

The establishments that lined both sides of the boulevard Halter was on were all either pubs, brothels, or both.

I’m glad I didn’t bring Marie along, Halter thought as he chuckled, “I can just see her squealing in of disgust at every establishment we pass. It would have been a huge headache.”

Well, that or shout angrily at them.

As he continued walking, Halter rolled up the sleeves of his jacket, loosened his necktie, and opened up his vest. Just by doing that, the bald-headed giant blended right in with the resident population.

Right after, Halter turned onto a dimly lit side alley. The alley was so narrow that if one weren’t paying attention, one wouldn’t even notice it was there in the first place.

The moment he turned onto the side alley, the atmosphere instantly changed.

Even though he could still clearly hear the lively guffaws of the drunkards and the shrill voices of the women, they now seemed distant somehow.

Practically none of the regular patrons of this district walking on the main street noticed this side alley. Even if they did, however, they probably wouldn’t even bat an eye.

Halter continued to walk through the alley in silence—past people in cages.

Humans were just casually out on display in front of a shop, which, unlike those along the main street, had neither a sign nor any flyers posted. Inside the steel cages were people of all ages bound in chains, staring into nothingness with dead eyes.

However, Halter knew that they still had it good, for now.

...At the very least, they still looked like humans right now. Even if it was only temporarily as “raw materials” that would eventually be “processed” down the line.

To those who lived in the light, the stores along the main street were plenty deplorable already, but this filthy, festering alley full of depravity and wickedness really took the cake. Human trafficking, body modifications, transplant surgeries... It was a place where the nastiest of all the nasty businesses managed by Restaurant operated.

Despite his aversion and repugnance to such things, Halter made sure it didn’t show on his face as he continued to walk deeper into the alley.

Shortly after, he stopped in front of a store with a thick, dirty door that was falling apart.

Halter placed his right hand on the gun he had at the side of his waist as he pushed the door open with his left hand, upon which he was welcomed by poor lighting and the sound of muffled clamor.

It was the atmosphere of a pub.

The interior was surprisingly spacious, though it was hard to see things inside because of the darkness; also, the walls were stained pitch black with soot. Despite these conditions, there was a good number of customers inside.

There were customers of all races, ages, and genders; there were those who were here by themselves, and those who were in groups as well. However, unlike the pubs along the main road, there weren’t any drunkards racketing up a commotion here. That said, it wasn’t exactly an authentic bar where one would go to quietly enjoy some fine wine, either.

If there was one thing that could be said about this pub, though, it would be that the community here appeared to be tight-knit—and any new faces would be judged by regular patrons. It had that kind of unique atmosphere.

The moment Halter stepped inside, piercing gazes were immediately shot his way.

However, Halter paid them no mind, and walked through the pub as casually as a regular patron would and sat down at the bar counter.

The middle-aged bar owner with the scar of a past deep gash on his face asked brusquely, “What’ll you have?”

“Do you serve Macallan’s here? One that’s been aged for at least eighty-eight years would be perfect.”

“We don’t serve such pretentious drinks here.”

Halter laughed bitterly. “...Is that so? There should be at least one bottle lying around somewhere in the wine cellar, shouldn’t there?”

Paying zero effort to make his morose demeanor more amicable, the bar owner looked back down at the glass he was polishing with a cloth.

He then jerked his chin towards the door at the side of the room. “The cellar’s over there. Go find it yourself.”

“Thanks. Well then, excuse me.”

Halter promptly stood up and headed towards the worn-out door at the end of the counter. Upon opening the door, he found a long, poorly lit spiral staircase beyond it.

He walked down all the way to the bottom, upon which he found himself in front of yet another door.

Beyond which was yet another pub that was such a mess that it made the pub on the first floor look like a classy bar.

...Wait, no. It wasn’t even a pub, actually.

Upon entering the room, Halter was immediately greeted by the sweet aroma of some kind of pink smoke.

It wasn’t tobacco smoke; it was the smoke of opium, a terrifying, vicious narcotic that, should one inhale it directly—would make one unable to live without it.

At the same time, the smell of alcohol and body odor of men and women covered in grime assaulted his olfactory sensor mercilessly.

There weren’t any tables or chairs inside the room; instead, filthy sofas and mattresses filled up most of the space. There had clearly been some depraved partying going on here—there were beer bottles, glass cups, syringes, bits of food, and torn clothes all over the floor.

In the midst of all that were half-naked men and women covered by cushions and lying on the sofas and mattresses who looked almost dead. In fact, some of them could easily pass as a true corpse.

There were those who were partying as of right now as well, spanking each other and cackling hysterically as they crawled around on top of crumpled sheets and bodies.

A woman who looked barely conscious raised her body halfway up and poured alcohol over her head, upon which the men who had been lying with their faces down nearby rose up like ghosts and swarmed around the woman.

Unfortunately for them—they wouldn’t just die like this, thanks to advanced medical care and cyborgization technology. Or rather, they weren’t allowed to die, as the ones that profit from their addiction would always help them out with a smile. They couldn’t have their precious customers dying on them, after all.

And so, to finance their medical fees and continued drug abuse, these addicts would end up selling away their body parts one by one.

The “merchandise” on display in front of the store were how the people in this room would ultimately end up, with their minds breaking down before their actual bodies died.

—One might say, perhaps, that...

Everyone here was both a consumer and a product—a slave.

Or perhaps, it was even simpler than that. They were just—commodities.

...Thank goodness I didn’t take Marie with me, Halter thought. If that pure-hearted, squeamish girl saw this room, she’d either report what she saw to IGMO without thinking of the consequences or even just purge this place with fire on impulse.

If it were that greenhorn, though, I’ll bet he’d feel right at home here...

In the back of this room of ultimate degeneracy, there was a parlor-like area demarked by a beautifully decorated folding screen, where there was a man reclined against a posh leather sofa with the air of a king.

It was a young black man who had an afro that was as puffy as a balloon. He was looking up at Halter through his gilded sunglasses, with one hand around the scantily clad woman by his side.

The man said in an excited, high voice, “—Heya, welcome! Are you Mr. Oberon?”

“Yeah. I take it you’re the agent?” Halter asked.

The man rubbed the breast of the woman next to him with his left hand as he laughed in good spirits. “—The name’s Lodge. Well now, have a seat. Let’s get along, shall we? I know we might not look too fancy, but we’ve actually got a pretty good selection of both women and drugs here. Are busty blondes much your type? Or how about a brunette?”

“I’ll pass on the women and drugs. But yes, I guess I’ll take some fine wine, if you’ve got some,” Halter replied.

Upon which the man—Lodge—looked a little displeased. He pouted, “Well, that’s quite a shame, y’know. I wanted to give you the best welcome possible, so I prepared some first-class stuff ahead of time. Are you really sure you’re good with just plain old wine?”

“I said fine wine, not plain old wine,” Halter pointed out.

Lodge tilted his head in confusion. “You’re a full-body cyborg, aren’t’cha? Is mere alcohol really enough to satisfy you?”

“What’s the point in living if you can’t get drunk?”

—As a matter of fact, full-body cyborgs that could enjoy eating and drinking were rare.

That was because it would not only obviously require a taste sensor, but also special work done on the brain pod of the body to recreate the experience.

Not only that, but to reproduce the physiological effect of getting drunk by drinking alcohol, the artificial body would have to be equipped with yet even more superfluous mechanisms.

Consequently, full-body cyborgs typically ingested “drugs” which were really liquid suspensions of nanogears as an indulgence rather than alcohol, but—

“To begin with, my brain pod isn’t equipped to be affected by those kinds of drugs inside this body. Instead, I insisted that they give me the ability to taste alcohol. And,” he added, “My current client is rather strict, you see. A real-life Mrs. Grundy, if you would. If I were to return with the scent of a woman’s perfume on me, she’d give me hell, alright.”

“Oh? Guess it can’t be helped, then. Okay, let’s treat you to some fine wine— Oy,” Lodge said as he let go of the woman.

Upon which, the woman stood up, taking the opportunity to flaunt her half-naked body.

“—Okaaay,” she replied with a syrupy voice.

Her skin had been tanned golden-brown, and she was wearing tremendously daring underwear. Her features were clearly defined and well-proportioned, and her waist-length hair was a brilliant silver, while her eyes were like glistening amethysts.

Her voluminous chest and her butt looked awfully cramped by her underwear, while her waist was magnificently slender. She had the exceptional proportions of a model. A true beauty that would incite lust in any man.

...But, Halter thought, Whether it be her skin, her hair, or her eyes, I’m sure that none of them are what she was born with. Just like the underwear she’s wearing, I’m quite sure that her beauty has been designed for the sole purpose of enticing men.

The woman shook her hips as she disappeared into the backroom briefly before returning with a silver wagon in hand. Inside the wagon were ice and a cocktail set—stuff like wine bottles, glass cups, and bar spoons.

She parked the wagon right next to Halter, upon which she bowed deeply and said, “May I take your orderrr?”

“...Well, this is a surprise. You’re gonna make my drink for me, Miss?”

“I am the bartender here, you knowww, even if only in name.” The woman laughed frivolously, breaking into a smile. “But the customers who come here would rather have drugs and sex than delicious wine, sooo... I neeever get to do my thinggg. Yours is the first order in a long time, so I’m gonna go all out, ’kayyy?”

“Hah, Shirley, you say that, but you prefer having your insides stirred up over alcohol as well, don’t’cha?” Lodge jeered obscenely.

To which the woman—Shirley—puffed up her cheeks. “That’s not true, I like them both about the sameee.”

“Sure you do.”

“Urghh, shush now— Sooo, what should I maaake?”

“Good question...” Halter said as he reclined against the sofa. He then looked up into space, stumped. He was feeling the urge to drink, alright, but couldn’t think of any drink in particular that he wanted, for whatever reason.

“As long as it’s good I’m fine with anything, but... hmm, I guess I’ll have whatever you recommend.”

“What I recommend?”

“Yeah. So what’ll you make for me?” Halter asked.

Shirley placed her fingers on both her temples and rubbed them.

“Mmm.” She thought aloud with her head facing down, then suddenly looked up and asked, “Mister, is Oberon your real naaame?”

“Certainly not.” Halter laughed bitterly. “Someone just arbitrarily decided to call me that and it stuck. It’s like a nickname for me.”

“I should have knooown. Ehehe,” Shirley laughed. “There’s actually a cocktail that’s associated with that name, you knowww? How does that sound?”

“Yeah, sounds good.” Halter nodded.

Shirley began to mix the cocktail while humming happily.

First she poured vodka into a shaker to use as the base, then she added several different wines and juices and a splash of rose liqueur. Lastly, she added some egg whites, then proceeded to shake the glass vigorously.

She was shaking the shaker while practically naked, so naturally so her voluptuous breasts jiggled about vigorously as well in front of Halter with only the wagon between them.

After some time, she poured the cocktail into a coupe glass and held the glass out to Halter.

“Here you gooo— It’s called the ‘Fairy Lady.’”

“...Looks like this cocktail’s an awfully cute one, huh,” Halter groaned as he rubbed his bald head.

What filled the glass was a vivid cocktail with pink and orange shades that looked sickly sweet, like a cocktail that women would enjoy.

“I’m sure you’ll like iiit. It’s actually one that I try to get more men to try, you knowww?”

“Oh? Even someone who looks the way I do?”

“Do you know whom ‘Fairy Lady’ refers tooo?”

“Titania, right? The Queen of Faeries and Oberon’s wife as written in the play.”

“Right, she’s your wife,” Shirley said, then licked her lips as a suggestive smile appeared on her face. “She’s feisty, haughty, and doesn’t listen to what Oberon says at alll. But, she’s verrry passionate. If you’re Oberon, then you’ve gotta discipline her.”

“By drinking this?”

“Subdue herrr,” Shirley said spurringly while wriggling her body in an excessively tempting manner.

Amused by her shenanigans, Halter chuckled. “I get it, I get it. I’ll drink it with gratitude.”

What am I doing, shrinking away from a cocktail. In the first place, I’m the one who asked her for her recommendation.

Halter took a sip of the cocktail, upon which his eyes widened.

It’s sweet—it’s sweet, but it burns. The acidity gives it a refreshing taste, but if it weren’t for the egg whites, I think I might have just ended up spitting fire and fainting. And it seems like there’s some kind of spice as well to accentuate the flavor with some peppery spiciness.

Far from a cocktail that would suit the taste of women, it was so strong that even men might end up smashed after having just one cup of it.

“Wow... this thing’s something else.”

“I know, riiight? Titania may be the pretty wife of King Oberon, but she’s also a queen who’s powerful and proud, no less so than her man by any means.”

“I see, so that’s why it’s so strong.”

Though it looked sweet and tasted smooth, a weak man would definitely be blown away by it.

With his pride as a man at stake, Halter calmly finished the whole cup, upon which Shirley clapped merrily like a fairy who had succeeded in her mischief.

“Shall I make another cup for youuu?”

“Yeah, I guess I’ll have another. Man, I really didn’t think I could ever drink a cocktail like this.”

“Ehehe, it’s an original recipe of mine, you knowww?” Shirley laughed as she began to make a second cup.

Upon which Lodge, who had been keeping quiet for a while, razzed, “Really, Shirley? You read stuff like Shakespeare?”

“Is something wrong with thaaat? Having a library of stuff to chat about with customers is part of a bartender’s job, you knowww?”

“I thought that the only things you’d read, if you read at all, would be porn magazines. Aren’t you the intellectual, surprisingly enough.”

“I read porn magazines too, you know,” Shirley said, puffing up her cheeks in dissatisfaction that seemed a bit misguided, somehow. She then asked Halter, “Misterrr, have you read A Midsummer Night’s Dream beforrre?”

“Hmm... no?” Halter replied, tilting his head. “I just realized that I’ve never actually read it before, now that you ask. I do know the gist of the story, though.”

“What a shame. It’s a great read, you knowww,” Shirley said as she held out another cup of Fairy Lady to Halter. “King Oberon has a quarrel with Queen Titania, then the fairy Puck smears an aphrodisiac all over Queen Titania and a bunch of humans, and in the end, all the characters have a giant orgy together through which the royal couple make up.”

“......Was that how it ended?” Halter questioned dubiously.

“Yessireeee,” Shirley affirmed in a sing-song tone, then continued, “‘Now then, fairies, I want every last one of you to pump your hips like dogs in heat going at it in the bushes. As for what to sing, just follow me. We’re gonna pump pump pump to the rhythm of the song.’—”

“Wait a second now, oy.”

“And that’s when Titania badgers Oberon for it, saying, ‘Show them how it’s done, honey.’”

“...I think you’re thinking of a parody porn flick, not the actual story,” Halter said with a dubious look in his eyes.

Shirley chortled at Halter’s response, then poured what was leftover in the shaker into a different glass and drank it herself in a single gulp.

“~~~ngh, ahhhhhhh!”

It appeared that she was unable to withstand the full brunt of her own cocktail, as her body began to spasm. All the while, she laughed. “That’s the kind of king Oberon is, you knowww? He’s haughty, inconsiderate, stirring up all kinds of hilarious trouble and chaos for those around him! Buuuttt...” She paused for a breath, then continued her delirious raving, “—In the end, he brings everyone together in happiness. That’s the kind of king he iiis.”

As her voice trailed off, Shirley’s eyes drooped down. It was clear from her heavily flushed face that she was on the verge of being knocked out drunk already.

“I get it, I get it.” Halter laughed bitterly as he took another sip. As he enjoyed the burning sensation in his throat, he shrugged. “Though I must say, I’ve been thinking for a while now that the name Oberon doesn’t really suit me.”

“That’s not trueee,” Shirley pouted. “I’m really happy nowww, because you ordered a drink from meee, Misterrr. Super happyyy... Keke, eheheheee...”

Hearing Shirley’s words becoming more and more muddled, Lodge barked threateningly, “Oy Shirley! The hell do you think you’re doin’, getting drunk on your own when we’ve got an important guest to take care of!”

“Ywes!” Shirley replied as her body cowered reflexively upon being yelled at. She said with a muddled voice, “Oof, sworry. Bwuuuttt, I feel so happyyy... I feel happy?”

She tried to stand up, but failed. As her consciousness was fading away, she looked up at Halter with her glistening, amethyst eyes and said, “I’m happy... Huh, I’m happyyy? Want me to turn on your happiness switch?”

The light of reason could no longer be found in either her eyes or her words at this point.

It appeared that her heart and half her consciousness had already drifted off to the world of dreams.

“...Thanks, Miss. Your cocktail was delicious,” Halter said gently. “I’m very satisfied. You’re a good girl, so you deserve a good rest now.”

●

“God, I always tell her not to drink during work too, ’cause she can’t hold her liquor worth a damn... Sorry ’bout that.”

“Don’t worry about it. More importantly, shall we get down to business?” Halter said as he helped Shirley onto the armchair next to his before turning to face Lodge. He picked his glass back up for a sip, then said in a dispassionate tone, “First—should I begin by thanking you guys for all your help in arranging our stay in this city? As a matter of formality.”

“Oh, c’mon, don’t stare at me like that,” Lodge said as he raised both hands into the air in a needlessly dramatic fashion. “It’s true that we charged you guys double the market price, but sheltering big fish like yourselves ain’t easy, y’know? I actually think we gave you quite a good deal, all things considered.”

“...Well, that’s probably true.” Halter nodded, agreeing rather readily. It didn’t seem like he cared to take this issue any further. Considering that they were wanted all over the world, with an enormous bounty on their heads—they were lucky that there was any organization at all that was willing to take on the job of arranging for their safe travel and accommodations.

“So, what’s the deal? Still got somethin’ else you want us to help you with?”

“Yeah, could you take care of this for us?”

Setting his glass on the table, Halter took out a piece of paper from the inside pocket of his suit.

Upon looking it over, Lodge’s face immediately puckered up.

“Hmm... The two sixth-gen military cyborg bodies should be doable, but you also want stuff like a Galvorn plate and the complete catalog of all main cylinders made of frosted glass from Leng? Those are quite hard to find...”

Most of what was written on the memo was the list of automaton parts that Marie had asked for.

Parts that weren’t all that special could easily be found in the markets here, but it would be extremely difficult to obtain parts made from rare materials and with the latest technologies without a middleman like Lodge—

Halter glared at Lodge through his sunglasses and said, “Finding things that are hard to find is precisely your job, isn’t it? If they were things that could be easily found at a hardware store, then I wouldn’t be here in the first place.”

“Yes, you’re quite right.” Lodge sighed deeply, then flicked the note with his finger at a particular item. “But these are things that are hard to find, even for us. Especially this S200 Ether Nerve Wire here. To begin with, they aren’t even sold individually.”

“Yes, but I believe that a heavily armored automaton made in Spain called El Primero uses them. Get one of those and salvage the wires from it, if you would.”

“...That’s gonna add to the fee, y’know?” Lodge said. He then gave Halter a quote for a sum shocking enough to make an average person’s eyeballs pop out.

They would have to cough up nearly half of the funds in their secret bank accounts. Even taking the rarity of the items being requested into account, it was clear that Lodge was jacking up the price because he could tell that they needed these things badly—yet, Halter still nodded.

Because as difficult to find as the items on this list were, they were all parts that were absolutely necessary to repair AnchoR, for which there could be no substitute.

They were all things rare enough that they could never be found in any honest city, so if there was an opportunity to obtain them simply by paying the right price, then that was all one could possibly ask for.

Halter may have readily accepted Lodge’s price, but at the same time—

“Very well. I won’t bother negotiating on the price. In return, you better make sure to have everything ready by the due date. Should there turn out to be some shoddy knockoff mixed in with what you give us...”

—He made sure to drill into Lodge’s head that failure was unacceptable.

Sensing the ounce of murderous intent that Halter deliberately mixed into his voice, Lodge ducked his head in fear. “O, Of course, reputation is key in my line of work, y’know.”

“I hope that’s true.”

“Yes... so, is there anything besides the stuff on this note, or is this it?”

“This is it. A client of ours is going to look for the remaining odds and ends that we need in the markets here. There’s no need for me to tell you what those odds and ends are, is there?”

Strictly speaking, they couldn’t order all the necessary parts from Lodge, as Naoto couldn’t explain them to Marie clearly enough for her to identify what they were.

“Of course not. That’d fall under Market’s jurisdiction, and I wouldn’t try to get in the way of a client to begin with,” Lodge said. He then let out a sigh of relief as he dialed a number on the wired phone.

After finishing the call, he pushed up his gilded glasses and nodded, saying “Thanks for the business. I explained things to the subcontractor just now. Your order should be delivered to the hotel you guys are staying at by tomorrow.”

“What about the payment?”

“A different subcontractor will go to collect it. In cash, please.”

This was how this city worked.

The one who takes the order, the one who fulfills it, the one who delivers it, and the one who collects the payment—all belong to different organizations, so that no one person knows all the details of the transaction. Service providers and their clients avoided direct dealings with each other in this city.

“I simply listed some things that someone else wanted. I simply gathered some goods. I simply picked up some stuff that someone had forgotten about. I simply accepted the payment for someone else.”

“I coincidentally lost my note, coincidentally found this receipt, coincidentally found these packages delivered to me, and coincidentally lost my money somewhere.”

“It was mere coincidence that something resembling a transaction took place.”

The transactions in this city were built upon that facade.

Of course—in the end, it’s nothing but a facade.

Seeing that business had been taken care of, Halter emptied the rest of his glass.

“—I’ll be going, then. Thanks for the drinks,” Halter said as he stood up from his seat.

Just then,

“Oh, could you wait a sec actually?”

Being unexpectedly stopped, Halter furrowed his brows in perplexment and said, “—What?”

While rubbing his hands together Lodge asked, “You just placed such an expensive order. Your wallet must surely be feeling a little lonely right now, no?”

“...Even if it is, what does that have to do with you?”

“Well, I thought you might be interested in a good-paying gig, you see.”

“—Oy.”

“To tell you the truth, my boss has something he’d like your group to take care of for him—”

That moment, the air froze.

Something fundamental inside Halter changed gears with a clank. He casually pulled out his gun from the holster by his waist and shoved the muzzle right into Lodge’s afro.

“Wait, d—”

“You’re not an agent are you?” Halter said in a low-pitched tone.

“W, Wha...?” Lodge said, his eyes wide open in fear.

“At the very least, you’re definitely not the one I was originally in contact with. Was the only thing you stole from him our business? Or did you kill him and take his place altogether?”

“W, Wait a sec, you’ve got it wrong—I swear!”

“I see, so you were bought off, huh? Well, it doesn’t matter—”

Halter clicked his tongue vehemently as a chilling sense of impending danger crawled up his back.

You god damn idiot, Vainney Halter. There’s no excuse for this pathetic display. And you were telling Marie not to get carried away, too.

He wanted to bash the living hell out of himself for letting up somewhere along the way without even noticing, and in this kind of city at that.

Transactions in this city are no big deal. They’re just money and goods exchanging hands.

But a commission for a job—is most definitely bad news!

The biggest problem of all is that merely killing this guy wouldn’t be enough to resolve the situation. The situation is already dire.

—What do I do.

—What should I do?

Halter’s heart was burning with anxiety. Unable to immediately figure out how he should respond to the situation, he simply froze, speechless.

Immediately after, a gunshot rang out.

●

A boisterous gunshot rang out from upstairs through the entrance to the room, followed immediately by the agonizing scream of someone who had suddenly been placed before death’s door.

Astounded, Lodge yelled out, “W, What’s goin’ on?!”

“The cleanup crew’s here, dumbass. Damn it,” Halter cursed, clicking his tongue and clenching his teeth.

...Their response is way too fast!

...Or is it more that we were way too slow—

The next moment, the sound of a shotgun’s shot rang out, and the one and only door of the room was blown entirely away.

“Hyaah! H, Huh?!” Shirley shrieked as she got up in a fluster, having been rudely awakened from her drunken slumber.

At the same time, cyborgs donned in black mobile suits burst into the room through the now-doorless entrance, one after the other. With well-trained control, they immediately began to barrage the floor without warning with the heavy machine guns they had ready.

In those few seconds, the scenery in the room took on a whole new look.

Feathers from the sofas and the mattresses that had been punctured full of holes were dancing in the air like snow. Below that, the men and women who had been entangled with each other like living corpses turned into real ones—sinking into a literal bloodbath as their bodies were torn apart by the machine guns.

“A, A, Ah...” Shirley stammered as she choked on air and peed herself. She had evaded the fusillade probably because she was right next to Halter and Lodge.

With perfect coordination, the cyborgs in mobile suits pointed their machine guns at Halter’s group.

“Eek! Uh... S, Save me...”

“Miss, if you don’t want to die, then sit tight and pray,” Halter warned quietly.

Upon which— Clonk.

A footstep sounded.

Someone was coming down from upstairs.

“Ah, how sad—how truly sad...”

The one who turned up was a terribly gaudy-looking and lanky Asian man. His hair was dyed crimson and kept short. He was wearing a double-breasted suit made with the dazzling cloth that was traditional here. His age was difficult to ascertain, however. Technically he could pass as middle-aged, but his spunky eyes looked like that of a young troublemaker.

At a glance, he appeared to be a gangster—and despite his wimpy appearance, he had the scent of someone far more dangerous than all the cyborgs around him.

“K, K... Kiu Tai Yu...! ” Lodge muttered in a trembling voice with his teeth clattering.

The man—Kiu—pinched his nose with a silken handkerchief as he walked towards them with repose.

“Ahh, how sad... It’s a real shame, Lodge...”

“P, Please wait a second, Mr. Kiu!”

Panicked, Lodge staggered a few steps towards Kiu despite all the guns pointed at him by the cyborg soldiers, not to mention Halter, as if Kiu was the only thing he could see. He stumbled and fell down before him.

“I beg you, listen to what I have to say! It’s a misunderstanding. It’s all a horrible misunderstanding, I tell you!” Lodge yelled out desperately in a pained voice.

“Ahh, how terrible. Say, don’t you think it’s terrible...?” Kiu replied with a gentle smile, “We had agreed that none of us would get involved with them during their stay in this city... Am I remembering wrong? Tell me, Lodge, am I?”

“W, Well, no, that’s...”

“Breaking a promise is terrible, isn’t it? Truly terrible. I’m truly saddened by this turn of events... So, you sought to destroy the balance of power between us by employing them... did you now?”

Out of nowhere, Kiu fired.

He had drawn a pistol in a flash and shot out both of Lodge’s knees.

After letting out a scream that was overlaid with Shirley’s shriek, Lodge fainted in agony on the spot.

“Gah, GAHHHHHHHaaaaHHH?!”

“Say, Lodge... There’s only one rule in this city. One that’s as simple as it gets. Can you remember what it is? Shall I say it for you? Yes?” Kiu said calmly as he gently placed his foot on Lodge’s head—

“Ready? Alright then. Make sure you don’t forget this time, got it?” He paused for a breath; immediately after, his gently smiling face instantly turned into one that was twisted by rage as he shouted while stomping rhythmically to his own words: “—Keep! Your! Promises! Or you’ll! Be fed! To the dogs! Can’t even remember one sentence, you empty-headed birdbrain?! Ahn?!”

He cursed vehemently, chewing Lodge out, as he lifted and stamped his foot over and over and over again, caught in a frenzy like a child throwing a fit. “Hey! Are! You! Listening?! Give! Me! An answer! You shitty trash bag! Imagine! How I feel! To be manipulated! By worthless monkeys! Like yourselves! Who can’t do anything but shit on the floor! Won’t you?! Huh?! HuhhhhHHHH?!”

He stomped on without any mercy or compassion.

The sound of bones breaking rang out several times throughout the stomping. Crushed between the hard floor and the sole of Kiu’s shoe, Lodge was already completely silent at this point; however, his body would still spasm a bit every time he was stomped on.

“T, This can’t be real! Please, save me!” Shirley cried out, unable to stifle her terror any longer. “Look, Mr. Lodge is already—”

“Quit the chit-chat!” Kiu shouted as he turned and fired immediately.

Blood splashed into the air as a 4.5 mm bullet pierced right through Shirley’s head, and just like that, Shirley collapsed on the spot like a puppet that had had its threads cut. She had died instantly.

“Why bother bringing up the obvious? Do you think I’m so stupid that I wouldn’t know that?! That I’m dumber than this sack of shit?! —Aw shucks~ my shoes have gotten dirty... Geez...” Kiu said as he took his handkerchief, then turned towards the cyborg soldier standing right next to him. “Oy.”

“Yes sir.”

“Bring this shitbag’s— Hmm, what was his name again? Well, whatever. Take everyone related to him, from his family to his friends, to my estate and offer them a most sincere welcome. Make sure not to kill any of them, got it? I’ll be personally slaughtering them later— Now, then.”

In a complete turnabout, Kiu showed Halter a refreshing smile and gave a slight bow.

“Sorry for the ruckus... Oy, clean up the trash over there. It stinks like hell in here.”

“Yes sir, we’ll be right on it!”

The cyborg soldiers laid out the body bags that they had brought and began to stuff all the corpses in the room into them.

Kiu put his gun away, then walked around the armchairs and the table in the center to sit down on what had been Lodge’s sofa in a relaxed manner, facing Halter.

He smiled and said, “—God, it’s always rumbling in this city. Sorry about that. Well then, allow me to reintroduce myself. I’m the one who runs Arsenal, Kiu Tai Yu... Welcome to Shangri-La Grid. We’re happy to have you.”

“......”

Halter let out a sigh.

He had intently watched Kiu’s rampage in full from the sidelines, silently and with stone-cold eyes.

As he sat back down on the armchair that he had been sitting in until just several minutes ago, Halter said, “May I ask two questions?”

“Of course! Please, ask away!”

“Well then, for one—should I take it that pointing a gun at a customer’s head is Arsenal’s way of welcoming its guests?”

“What!” Kiu uttered in shock with widened eyes before narrowing his eyes sullenly. He promptly drew his handgun and fired.

The cyborg soldier who had been pointing his machine gun at Halter from behind fell silently to the ground.

—It looked like a scene from a comedy. Someone had died just like that for a totally trivial reason.

Kiu set his pistol on the table then said in a pained voice, “That was completely out of line... I apologize from the bottom of my heart. I had ordered them to mind their manners, but... it appears a monkey who doesn’t understand language somehow slipped into our ranks. There are all too many beasts pretending to be human in this city, you see. Please, forgive us.”

Halter nodded. “That’s fine—so, my second question is: Was it really necessary to massacre all the customers here?”

“Customers?” Kiu parroted with a blank face as he tilted his head exaggeratedly to one side. “Were there customers here? That’s strange, I thought I only saw worthless sacks of shit in here... Just to be sure, you’re not counting those sacks of shit as customers, right?”

“Okay, I see. Let me rephrase my question... Why did you kill this woman?”

“Woman?” Kiu parroted yet again before looking down at the lying sprawled on the floor. He then asked, “Hm? Was this female swine important? Oh, were you in the middle of foreplay with her? And now you’re stuck with a boner? Well, that’s a problem. Shall I bring a cum dump with similar looks over?”

“She was a fine bartender who could make cocktails that fit my taste.”

“Oh, my... I’ve done something terrible, haven’t I.”

“In addition, that cocktail was an original of hers apparently and she hadn’t told me the recipe yet either. It was such a fine cocktail, and now I’ll never be able to taste it again—how will you make up for it?”

“Oh, Jesus! I can’t believe it! This must be the greatest tragedy of our time! I’ve never felt so sorry before in my life! My tears are simply overflowing!”

Aghast, Kiu stood up with his head in his hands. As large tears streamed down his face, He picked up the pistol on the table and fired—at Shirley’s corpse, again and again.

Each time she ate a bullet, her tanned body would jump a bit and spray out blood.

“You! Because of you! The legend himself, Mr. O~~beron, is in a bad mood! How will you make up for it?! Ahhhn?! Ahhhhhhhhhn?! Where’s your reply! ......You’re dead?! Oh, dear lord!”

Click click click.

After pulling blanks several times, Kiu sighed. He tossed the emptied pistol away with a fling of his hand and sat back down.

“Whew, that felt great ♪—Now then, let’s talk business, shall we?” Kiu said cheerfully.

As Halter stared at the man who had been in a tempestuous fit of rage just moments ago with stone-cold eyes, he became convinced.

Well, one thing’s for sure.

—This guy’s a madman.

●

“I take it that you understand the situation, yes?”

“If you’re referring to how that agent was a clueless moron, then yes.”

“Yeah, you’ve got that right. When idiots make a mess, adults have to clean up after them. Man, I’m left in a real bind now—a real bind indeed,” Kiu said, sounding fed up. “‘Weren’t they just tourists? They left after blowing some cash and picking up some garbage as souvenirs. That’s about all I know. Unfortunately, our borders aren’t very secure, you see. We don’t have something so civilized as an immigration bureau. What, that was Second Epsilon?! Such fiends tricked us into welcoming their stay in our city?! Luckily, not much harm came to the city during their stay, though. Praise be to God for this good fortune!’ —We would have been good to go with that.”

Halter nodded.

...Well, though the truth may differ—

With that excuse, they would have been able to lie their way through.

But now—

“We know your true identity. We’ll sell you some goods, so could you help us out a bit too? —This is bad, isn’t it. Yeah, of course it is. Yet... that impudent sack of shit! Spraying his brains everywhere when he shouldn’t even have had any and dirtying my shoes!” Kiu said, his voice rough from agitation as he stomped on the floor in rage.

The next moment, he calmed down as abruptly as candlelight burning out and said, “Morons who have shit for brains are always giving me a real headache... with the public sentiment as it is at the moment, should anyone get involved with Second Epsilon—or even assist them, they won’t be able to evade the heat turning up regardless of how many big-shots they’ve got in their pocket.”

Halter sighed. “IGMO might send its investigation bureau and set up a naval blockade on the Thai coast—in the worst case, they may even resolve to send in ground troops as part of a limited military sanction.”

“I feel so blessed to be able to talk to someone sensible for once... Can you imagine how it feels for me, having to deal with monkeys who don’t even understand that much all the time?”

“Isn’t exploiting idiots like that until you’ve consumed them for all they’re worth your job?”

“I get sick of it sometimes, though... thanks to a greedy virgin getting a full hard-on and cumming prematurely, we can no longer weasel our way out of having ‘assisted’ you guys. Obviously enough, I’ve already received notice. It’s but a matter of time before our dear neighbors find out as well—so, with that said,” Kiu said as he raised two fingers before Halter, “we only have two choices.”

“...”

“The first is to claim innocence by handing you guys over to the authorities. The second would be to brazenly admit to getting involved with you guys and offset the reprisal by really having you guys do some work for us... What do you think?”

“Isn’t there another possibility?” Halter said with a glare. “How about the former—but instead of successfully arresting us, you end up getting annihilated by us instead?”

“Ahh, splendid! By all means, please do just that.” Kiu nodded, his face all smiles. “Frankly, that’d be the best option for us. Should you rampage around killing and plundering to your heart’s content, we’ll simply become the victims. After all, forget the Thai military, we’re talking about the group that easily crushed Tokyo’s security force. What can mere punks like us possibly do? However, you guys won’t do that—you don’t want to do that. Am I wrong?”

“......”

“As such, though I’m not happy about it either, I’ve no choice but to pick the latter. I’ll shelter and give you guys all the support I can—honestly, no matter how big the payoff may be, it could never match up to the colossal risk... That’s why I’d like you guys to put on a grand performance for me—that about sums things up.”

Halter didn’t reply; he simply continued to vigilantly observe Kiu’s expression with a gaze of cold steel.

Is this pretense, or does he mean it? If he does, how much of what he said is true? What are the facts? How do the risks and rewards balance out? Where’s the break-even point? What’s the action we should take based on all these factors?—

“I’ll say this again: I don’t like this situation any more than you do. Know that the ideal scenario for this city would have been for you guys to have gotten your butts right out of here after you finished your shopping, okay?”

“...Indeed,” Halter admitted.

At the very least, he’s not lying right now.

“...I’m not one for high risk, high return deals... If I could have, I wouldn’t have even let you guys into our city in the first place, you know? I knew that something like this might happen from miles away. Though, I imagine the same goes for you guys.”

“Actually, we expected that if anyone could keep the situation under control it’d be Arsenal’s boss, given the stories we’ve heard about you.”

“Please give me a break with the jokes. If I could monitor and keep every single monkey in our ranks in line, then I might as well be God. Would you like to offer a prayer to me?”

“Alright, so to recap,” Halter sighed as he leaned back against his armchair and raised his right hand, “both of us may have gotten the short end of the stick, but we still share equal fault in things coming to this. It’s terribly unfair, but that’s just how the world is. Complaining about it won’t help.”

“Yeah, I’m glad we’ve come to a consensus!”

“Do you want to toast to that or something? —Spare me.” Halter shrugged. “Get to the point already. What do you want us to do?”

“I want sovereignty over this city, over Shangri-La Grid,” Kiu promptly answered. “To achieve that, I want you guys to do the same thing that you did in Tokyo and Kyoto. Modify the core tower here so that you can manipulate it at will, then hand control of it over to me—simple and easy, right?”

“...I don’t know if I’d call it ‘easy,’ but in any case, you’ve got quite the ambition, huh?” Halter muttered cautiously.

To which Kiu smiled and said, “Are you disappointed? Do you see me as a worldly man now?”

“Not really. I simply don’t understand. If you attain sovereignty over this city, the neighboring countries won’t leave things be. It’d even give them the pretext to conquer the city by force. I can’t imagine that you don’t realize that.”

“Of course, that’s a possibility. There’s no doubt that what I seek involves high risk.”

“Even so, you still want to rule over this city?”

“Yeah—I do. Very much so.” Kiu nodded fervently.

Halter narrowed his eyes and said, “So, what do you plan to do once you gain control of this city? Invade the neighboring grids?”

“What? Invade the neighboring grids?” Kiu parroted with a blank face. “As if. Why would I do that? Hm? To start a war? What?”

“Well, you don’t look like a pacifist to me.”

“How rude. I’m absolutely opposed to war—but if others want to wage it, I’m happy to sell weapons to them,” Kiu said as he twisted his lips into a sneer. “You should study history better. Rather than mine for gold yourself, it’s more profitable to sell jeans to the miners. Have everyone work for you by selling them what they want. Candy to slaves, lies to women, and dreams to the masses—ain’t that Business 101?”

“Sounds like the worldview of a swindler.”

“Businessmen are all swindlers. The only difference is merely that some consider the interest of others as well,” Kiu countered smugly, then shrugged. “What I seek are profits and self-preservation. Wars and conflicts? No thanks. If I had control of the core tower, I could deliberately make it malfunction just a teensy weensy bit and make it look like it was some other cartel’s fault, doesn’t really matter which. And just like that, the monkeys would crush each other for the sake of unprofitable things like pride and reputation and grudges, because they’re monkeys. Meanwhile, I’d enjoy the spectacle from above while raking in the dosh from selling both sides weapons. That’s the plaaan... Do you understaaand?”

“...You want to manage conflicts between syndicates as a business. You figure that controlled violence will bring about greater safety and stability, and along with that greater prosperity to this city. Is that it, more or less?”

“Not a bad idea, right? With your help, my day-to-day will be managing and maintaining the core tower and running the city in an appropriate manner. As I exterminate the insects, I’ll be able to stabilize this powder keg of a city and grow the economy at the same time— Uh~huh! A brilliant idea, if I may say so myself!”

“......”

“Ah— Don’t worry, I know what you want to say. ‘That’s a pitiful justification.’ —Indeed, you’re riiight. But is there any other way? If you refuse, that’s fine too. I’m saying this for your own good... Trample all over this city and take everything you want. It isn’t too late to choose that option. So long as you don’t kill me, that’ll actually be more profitable in the long term.”

Halter snorted, then grumbled, “In short, all’s good as long as you’re saved?”

“Hah? What are you even saying—isn’t that obvious?!” Kiu yelled, springing up from the sofa. “I treasure my own life more than anything else! I don’t care if a hundred or a thousand shitty worthless monkeys have to die for me to live; if anything, it’d feel refreshing! —I’m not scared to go around shouting that on the streets above, you know? Want me to prove it?”

“I’ll respectfully decline,” Halter muttered with a sigh, then continued, “I get your point. Well, there are several things I’d like to say, but I’ll admit that you haven’t lied to me, and also that your suggestion is the best compromise for both of us.”

“That’s great to hear. I take it we’ve come to an arrangement, then?”

“No, there’s a problem.”

“What kind?”

“I’m willing to bet that neither my boss—Marie—nor Naoto would be willing to accept this compromise.”

Kiu raised an eyebrow and said, “Why is that? Isn’t this the best way to minimize losses for both of us?”

“Because they’re kids.” Halter shrugged. “We’ve got a squeamish brat and a geeky runt. —‘If things go on like this, we’re gonna be in quite some trouble, so lend a hand to this bad man. Thousands of villains will end up killing each other as a result, but that wouldn’t be your fault; plus, many times more people than that will be saved.’ —Man, I can just see how they would respond already.”

Indeed—the two of them would never accept such a deal under any circumstances.

To begin with, Naoto and Marie had made enemies of the whole world with the childish reason of “I do what I want,” so even if one told them something like, “It’ll save more people in the long run, so bear with doing a little dirty work for the time being.” —They’d never accept a compromise or concession like that.

“...I see, so they’re children,” Kiu said. “But this is hardly something that we can let go to ruin due to two children throwing a tantrum. So, I have an idea. How about you hand one of them over to me?”

“—What kind of joke is that?” Halter said with his eyes half-closed.

“I don’t have time to waste on jokes, unfortunately. It’s simple. ‘If you don’t want to get hurt, then do as you’re told’ —I’ll simply force one of them to do work for me using an exceptionally primitive educational method like so. ...Ohh, rest assured. I don’t plan to actually hurt them. I promise I’ll treat the one you give me with respect and release them once they’ve finished their work—I guarantee it.”

“...Why should I trust you?”

“?! Isn’t that obvious? If I kill any one of you guys, the next one dead will be me! I only kill those who are weaker than me so that that doesn’t happen, obviously!” Kiu yelled, his eyes practically popping out of their sockets. Making a show of his excessively trembling hands, he continued in a doleful voice, “It’s no different right now. Just look at how my hands are trembling before the legendary Oberon... I can’t stop shaking. To be honest, the sack of shit that pointed his gun at you made me scared to death. If that had provoked you and I ended up dead because of it, then how would he have taken responsibility? Good grief...”

Kiu’s theatrical gestures and lines were beyond fishy.

Yet, Halter smelled truth in his words.

—I don’t have a basis for it. If I had to say, then it’s only my intuition, but...

As Halter ramped up his thinking speed, he cautiously said, “...I see. However, even if I really do hand either Naoto or Marie over as you wish...” He paused for a breath and continues, “Have you forgotten about the Initial-Y Series? If you take Marie, then wherever you take her, Naoto will pinpoint her location and come charging through. If you take Naoto, on the other hand, it’d be even more disastrous. Two enraged Initial-Y Series will level this entire city as they knock down every single building one by one to find him.”

Halter’s warning had been half-genuine, yet Kiu shrugged exaggeratedly and laughed mockingly. “I’m hurt—I’m hurt to learn that you thought a lie would work on me, Mr. Oberon! Of the two Initial-Ys, one’s out of commission, no? —How about you revise your statements by starting there?!”

“Even if that’s true, does it change anything? I’m sure that the First is more than enough to smash Arsenal to pieces.”

Kiu answered with a smile, “Yeah, no doubt about that. But there’s no need for you to worry.”

“—Say what?”

“At 13:00 in two days, a guest will be coming to meet them... Well, she’s someone who works for an old acquaintance of mine. I’ll be taking advantage of that window of time.”

That instant, the internal alarm inside Halter began to blare at maximum volume.

Halter correctly understood what Kiu was hinting at.

“—Are you saying you’ve got connections with ‘Omega’?”

He confidently asserted that RyuZU’s combat strength would be “no problem”—which should be impossible, unless they have their own Initial-Y to fend her off.

And, as for someone who could actually possess and maintain an automaton beyond the bounds of reason like that—the only one I can think of is the guy who’s still fresh on my mind, “Omega.”

However—

“Uh~uh! Unfortunately—that’s wron~g. Well, it’s true that I had expected that he would become a big customer of mine, though? But! It appears to be the case that he has no need for the level of commodities in circulation here, whether it be funds, resources, or talents. While it’s a true shame, that’s just how it is.”

...This doesn’t seem like a lie, either.

Halter joined his hands and whispered in a low-pitched voice, “...You said that you have no intention of harming us, as you don’t want to make enemies of us, no? Should I take it that you weren’t including the Initial-Y misses when you said that, then?”

Kiu Tai Yu exploded in laughter.

“Hahahah! No no, should I tell it to you straight?” he said as his black, clouded eyes took on a menacing glint. “I’ve never thought even for a second that you guys would lose to someone like ‘Omega’... So long as my guest can slow the First down for a little while, I’ll be able to have either Naoto-kun or Marie-chan do their work for me in the meantime. Once that’s done, by all means, go wherever you wish! Heck, I’ll even pay for your travel expenses! How does some aroma oil sound as a souvenir?!”

●

Meanwhile—near the eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal to the south of Myanmar, there was an old cargo ship en route to Shangri-La Grid.

The cargo containers piled on the vast deck of the ship were labelled with tags like wheat and clothing. However, one look at the personnel guarding them, and it was obvious that the tags were a lie.

None of them were even wearing a uniform. It was as clear as day that they were outlaws. They all had worn-out assault rifles holstered by their waists, and some of them were even manning machine guns and rocket launchers.

Their defensive capabilities were much too excessive for an honest logistics company.

In reality, they were probably carrying things like smuggled weapons, arms, and/or drugs—which, honestly, would be pretty reputable commodities in the context of their destined market of Shangri-La Grid, considering that they might just as well be carrying living humans—or human parts.

The fact that even the guards themselves didn’t know what was inside the containers only proved the point all the more.

Even if their curiosity itched occasionally, they wouldn’t try to find out. If one of them heedlessly found out what they were carrying, they could very well be shot on the spot by a superior.

That’s the sort of work they were doing.

That was why, even if the guards heard shouts or sobbing, or smelled something offensive coming from the cargo, they would just ignore it.

...Or, they normally would, but—

“Say, Boss... What’s up with that annoying cargo?” a young guard with a bulging belly asked.

“You don’t need to know,” his senior, a lanky man, answered coldly. The man’s eyes were like that of a famished wolf as he glared sullenly at the sea.

“But Boss—”

“You don’t have to know things you’re better off not knowing. —And I don’t know what’s in there myself, nor do I have to to know that whatever it is, it’s obviously bad news. Ignore it.”

Left unable to respond to the aloof attitude of his boss, the underling looked behind him at the black container labelled “machine parts.”

What he was curious about was its contents—as for a while now, what sounded like a teenage girl had continued to ramble on and on from inside.

“Hah— It has been a long time, sisters. I understand that you chumps are still bound by that ancient oath. Today is the day I shall prove once and for all who the greatest masterpiece among the Initial-Y is—!! ...Mmm, that doesn’t sound quite right... Oh, and maybe I should introduce myself first after all... Yes, I really should. If someone were to say, ‘Uh, who are you again?’ after I made my dashing entrance, I wouldn’t be able to recover...”

The underling, who was still looking at the container with his head turned, stiffened up and muttered, “...Umm, Boss, what was that about just now—”

“What was what about? I didn’t hear anything. Forget what you heard—you don’t want to die either, do you?”

“But Boss!! If we die because we ended up knowing some info we shouldn’t have because some girl babbled it out all by herself, that’d be total bullshit, man!!”

The senior guard cupped his ears as he shouted angrily, “Shut up already! Ignore her with willpower!”

He had not only heard the drivel coming from behind him as clear as day, but also understood that it was extremely sensitive information...

The secured handoff point was prearranged, so we can’t just move as we please. Should we carelessly go anywhere besides the handoff point, then we truly might get shot. That said, asking for a change of location because the “cargo” blurted out a bunch of classified information would just be asking for trouble.

Even as the senior outlaw and his underling were trembling from how unreasonable life was, the voice behind them was still rambling on in full force.

“Sound the funeral bells! Prostrate yourselves as you hear my name! I am Temp, both the noble lady of darkness and the greatest masterpiece among the Initial-Y—!! ...Hmm~ This is not bad, but it just feels like there’s something missing. I wonder why...”

The underling whispered secretively to the cargo behind him, who seemed to be troubled for some reason, “...Umm, if I may, aren’t you going too far with the persona you’re trying to assume?”

“—Hah?! S, S, Shut up! What I seek is an aura of majesty! I am rehearsing something very important right now, so could I not have pigs butting in?!” the girl shouted in a shrill voice.

“Oh, right, sorry...” the underling replied meekly, ducking his head. He turned his head to face forward again, upon which he saw his senior glaring at him as if to say, “Don’t stick your nose where it doesn’t belong.”

...And so, silence fell.

But, a short while later,

“...So, do you have any other thoughts?”

“Huh?” the underling replied without thinking.

Irritated, the girl urged impatiently, “I am asking you what else I can do! I, My Majesty, am telling you that I am willing to at least hear you out, for what it is worth, so answer me already, you dullard!”

“Uh, uhmm....” the underling replied as his body stirred. He looked up at his senior, hoping for help, but his senior was cupping his ears with a face that read, “None of my business.”

“C’mon, Boss...” the underling grumbled to himself, then said, “Er— ...Well, how about you begin by landing a blow on them, instead of a goofy proclamation?”

“Haah? That wouldn’t serve as an introduction, then.”

“I mean, if you beat your adversaries up first, anything you say after will sound cool.”

“H, Hmm... I see that you have barbaric taste. I had thought of such a basic tactic already myself, but I had decided against it, as it felt too much like a cheap trick!”

“...That so.”

“Well, Elder Sister is a dummy with terrible taste, so perhaps a barbaric approach like that would be easier to understand for her! Rejoice, for though it irks me to no end, I shall take up your suggestion!”

“Oh, right...” the underling replied, then hung his head down.

...I’ve gotten involved with someone troublesome, haven’t I.

The girl seemed to keenly pick up on his thoughts, for she shouted angrily from inside her container, “Hey, what kind of response is that! You sighed just now, didn’t you?! Awfully uppity for a mere pig, huh? —Wha, OWW?! What was that, are we being attacked?! Oh, crap! There’s a smoking hole in the container...”

“Boss...”

“I hear nothing, I hear nothing, I don’t hear a damn thinggg!” the senior outlaw yelled desperately, his voice echoing throughout the dark deck of the ship.

A certain tragic fate was awaiting these two outlaws upon landing... and though they themselves correctly sensed that it was coming, there was nothing that they could do anymore to help themselves at this point—