The Arms Dealer

chapter 4

I

“Wait a sec, you bastard,” Pikk said, he and Hiryuu trying frantically to keep pace, and when the narrow path took a turn to the right they finally caught up. The other two horses had halted, and D and Annette stared ahead without saying a word. It was strange the way they didn’t move a muscle.

“What is it?” the boy asked, but even before he’d finished the question a heavy odor prickled his nose.

The wind had changed direction. The stench carried on the breeze blowing their way now made Pikk cough, and even a grown man like Hiryuu held his nose. That Annette sat there without doing anything seemed most unusual.

“Wh-what the hell?! This smell—it’s blood!” Pikk said, advancing on his horse to Annette’s side, and that was when he finally looked ahead. “Wh-wh-wh—” was all he could say as he, like the other two, froze.

Behind him, Hiryuu said in his stead, “What the hell is this?” And then he too stopped moving.

Up ahead there spread a vast square. The square was stained with red. So great was the quantity of blood that Pikk got the feeling it’d even tinged the very air with vermilion. The cause was obvious. Monsters and supernatural beasts beyond numbering covered the cobblestoned expanse of ground. All of them were dead or dying. Though the chests or flanks of some of them still rose and fell, the breathing was so weak it would clearly soon be at an end, and such individuals were extremely few and far between.

Blood still ran from bodies of every conceivable hue, and it wasn’t always red. Apparently they were also of varying natures, with white, black, or even purplish smoke rising here and there, and on closer examination those bodies or exoskeletons were so dissolved by their powerfully acidic blood that almost no semblance of their former shape remained.

As the wind picked up it carried the stench, leaving both Pikk and Hiryuu covering their mouths. While D was another matter altogether, it was strange how Annette—just a regular person like them—kept holding her reins the same as always.

The supernatural creatures were facing their way almost in a straight row, but closer to the center of the square more and more of them were facing the opposite direction.

“At first they all attacked en masse, and then later they tried to run,” Hiryuu murmured in a deeply impressed tone.

A horrified look on his face, Pikk said, “Tried to run? Why?”

“The better question is, from what?”

“From what, then?”

“Whatever was in the middle of the square.”

“Huh?”

At the very moment Pikk furrowed his brow, from somewhere in the center of the square hidden by the mound of corpses a yellowish light began to rise magnificently, trailing white smoke behind it. After rising roughly fifty yards it lost speed and, leaving a graceful arc in its wake, began to fall.

“It’ll be close,” Pikk squeaked.

“Real close,” Hiryuu attested.

Suddenly, Pikk noticed something.

“Son of a bitch, the point of impact is right here!” Tapping Annette on the shoulder, he shouted, “Run for it!”

However, the boy didn’t try to escape. For Annette had slumped casually to one side.

“Did you just go and faint?!” Pikk said in disbelief, leaning over in his saddle to grab Annette by the collar and pull her upright again. “Hey, snap out of it!” he said, shaking her by the shoulder, and the girl opened her eyes.

“Head hurts . . . What’s wrong?”

“The sky’s falling. Get going!”

Not even leaving Annette a second to be surprised, he gave a kick to the rump of her horse and sent it after D, following along after at a gallop.

Are we gonna make it? He thought they were too late in getting their start.

The wind whistled overhead. It told them it’d fallen right behind them.

Pikk closed his eyes.

The sound of an explosion shook his eardrums. It was less spectacular than he’d expected.

“Huh?”

There was no rocking of the earth, no heaven-shaking boom. The explosion continued. Bang-ba-bang-bang!

Looking back, the boy saw a prismatic light bouncing around on the ground. Halting his steed, Pikk wheeled around.

“What the hell? Firecrackers?” he groaned.

D was beside him.

Did this big jerk know that’s what it was? If he did, who threw the firecrackers?

“Hello there!” a wrinkly voice called out from the center of the corpse-littered square. It was that of a woman.

Pikk and Hiryuu’s eyes went wide.

“Came after all, did you, D? I’ve been waiting.”

D said nothing in response to her friendly greeting. His dark eyes still reflected the countless dead.

Turning toward Pikk, the Hunter said, “Our employer’s racing off at breakneck speed. Better bring her back, and fast.”

“Well, I don’t take orders from you,” the boy grumbled, yet undoubtedly her safety was of paramount concern to him.

However, before Pikk could comply with D’s directive, Annette seemed to have gotten the situation in hand, riding her cyborg horse back with trepidation.

What halted her was the sharp rasp of a discharge. The wall of corpses was probably the only thing that’d kept it from spraying them.

From the other side of the wall a little old woman in a green and brown camouflage outfit was rising straight in the air. The silver box on her back must’ve had an exhaust nozzle somewhere to the rear where the group couldn’t see. Beneath her, the air churned and eddied.

“What the hell is this old lady?”

Pikk bared his teeth.

The old woman also showed her teeth as she grabbed a lever projecting out in front of her from the box.

“Is she coming at us?”

Though Pikk drew his firearm, the old woman still grinned as she started to climb, swiftly reaching an altitude of over a hundred yards, where she looked down at the people on the ground as if she were a glaring god.

“What the—?”

A tinge of turbulence shook her deeply wrinkled face. The hand grasping the lever moved feverishly.

“What’s the problem with Grandma—can’t she get back down?”

D raised his left hand.

“Push the left lever forward,” a hoarse voice called out. “Then a quick shove to the right. Make it snappy!”

It was a few seconds later that the old woman began a slow descent. Until she vanished behind the pile of corpses, her face was etched with a glum expression.

To the rear of the mountain of corpses a fairly wide path had been left, possibly as a means of escape. As for why it was so wide—in the center of a thirty-foot clearing was parked a metallic wagon. It wasn’t horse-drawn. There was a cylinder as long as two horses hitched end to end that had wheels attached to it, while the top—what would’ve been the horses’ backs—had white vapor rising from it. The holes in its top were arranged in two rows of six each, which discharged surplus steam generated within the cylinder.

This was something many a Frontier farmer coveted—a steam-driven wagon. As the vehicle to the rear was a covered wagon, they couldn’t see inside, but from the size of it, it seemed it could haul quite a bit of cargo and still have room to bed down inside it.

Having set down the jetpack she’d had on her back, the old woman flexed her shoulders and looked up at the four riders. “Welcome,” she said, holding the hem of her long, flowery skirt as she curtseyed.

“Why the big show and dance?” Annette asked D in a hushed tone.

“That’s how she greets customers.”

“Customers?”

“That’s right, and a good one at that—isn’t that right, D?”As she looked at him, her face, covered with wrinkles and age spots, melted with rapture. “And what business have you today? Why call Granny Gerheit all the way out to this dangerous place? If you’re looking for something cheap, you’ll feel my wrath!”

At her feet fell a single glittering disk. It made a hard metallic ching!

“A-ha, generous as always, I see.”

Bracing one hand on the small of her back, Granny Gerheit made a great production of picking up the gold coin. After a glance at it, she grinned and said, “A thousand dalas Aristocrat Coin—what were you planning on doing, starting a war or something?”

Hers was a daring smile.

D said, “First, I’d like you to implant a tracking chip in the girl.”

“Shouldn’t be a problem.”

“The rest we’ll discuss in private.”

D got off his horse. He must’ve had plans he wasn’t going to share with the rest of his traveling companions.

“Damn, that’s cold of him,” Pikk spat venomously.

Hiryuu clapped him on the shoulder. “We should dismount, too. My ass is killing me.”

As soon as he was down off the horse, Pikk asked the old woman headed to the covered wagon with D, “Say, Granny, did you take down all these monsters?”

“Must’ve been pretty hungry, eh?” she replied. “Came at me from all sides just to eat an old woman who’s nothing but skin and bones. Only they bit off more than they could chew.”

“How’d you swing it?” the boy inquired, his voice trembling with anticipation.

The old woman said nothing, but pointed down by the boy’s feet.

A weapon that looked to be an old-fashioned firearm had been unceremoniously dumped there. A tin box sat to its right, and a belt of ammunition was feeding into the top of the weapon. Pikk’s eyes went wide at the unusually large barrel of the gun.

“The safety’s on. Have a look at it if you like,” she told him magnanimously, and then the old woman ducked behind the covered wagon.

“An odd little group you’ve got there.”

“Hired on as a bodyguard,” said the hoarse voice.

Plainly knitting her brow, the old woman remarked, “Still got that thing stuck on you? Just go ahead and lop it off and throw it in the volcano up on Mount Ring, why don’t you?” she spat.

“One of these days,” D replied, seeming a bit amused.

“Hmph!” the left hand groaned, perhaps having decided that the Hunter wasn’t necessarily joking.

II

Throwing the cover back, the old woman invited the Hunter to clamber into the wagon.

“Go on, pick out whatever you like,” Granny Gerheit said as she pulled off the cloth covering a mound of cargo as if she were a robber stealing the very clothes off someone’s back. The smell of gun oil that already permeated the wagon’s interior assailed their nostrils with renewed strength. Most of the weapons revealed had a bluish sheen.

“You’re traveling in a hurry, no doubt. Tell me the itch you’ve got that needs scratching. I’ll pick something out for you,” Granny Gerheit said, slapping the palm of her hand against the barrel of a rifle.

“The girl needs an automatic weapon she can maneuver with one hand and fire without worrying about the kick. Plus a pair of little pistols she can hide up her sleeves, and the rubber belts to hold them in place.”

“Roger that.”

Slipping between two oversized pieces of merchandise, Granny Gerheit pulled out a slender gun. The foot-long barrel was attached to another eight inches or so of weapon, with an iron rectangular box set just in front of the grip.

“Oh, this is a good one. Way back when, I hear they called these submachine guns. Weighs roughly three and a half pounds, fires one hundred twenty rounds of 1.2 mm ammo. The muzzle’s small, and you can’t aim it long range like a rifle, but it’ll hit any target within fifty yards, no matter how small. Might take you a hundred rounds to do it, is all. As long as you’re pulling the trigger, bullets come out. I don’t care if you’re the worst shot in the world, you can probably kill thirty people before you empty the magazine.”

Seeing D’s nod, she lowered the gun, then held out a pair of pistols she’d pulled out at the same time, placing one on either palm of the Hunter’s hands.

“These two are the same model, only loaded with different types of ammo. The one in your right hand has armor-piercing rounds like the gun I just showed you, and the one in your left has explosive rounds. Thirty rounds in each. The armor-piercing one could cut through five normal people, or two people in the sort of class A armor your garden-variety warrior favors. On the explosive rounds, first you’ve got the outer layer—they’re covered with a ceramic coating which could get about four inches deep going through the armored hide of something like a mid-sized fire dragon. Once inside, how do I put this, they go off with as much bang as a large Merovingian grenade. That’ll put said mid-sized fire dragon out of commission, and a person—well, it’ll probably blow the sucker into four separate pieces.”

“Fine,” said D.

The hoarse voice shouted, “Watch yourself, the old lady’s a homicidal maniac!”

“Hush, you miserable squatter,” Granny Gerheit shot back. “Now, for the other two. Which one’s next?” she asked, giving the Hunter a smile.

D shook his head.

“Oh, don’t want anything, then?”

“That’s right,” D replied.

Weapons in hand, D was just about to get out of the wagon when it rocked violently.

“That’s gunfire! The enemy?” the old woman said, crouching down and reaching for a nearby gun, but D shook his head. The old woman nodded back. She’d figured out what’d happened.

The two of them got out of the wagon.

With the gun Granny Gerheit had shown him in hand, Pikk wore a perplexed expression.

“What’s going on here?” Granny Gerheit inquired with feigned anger, having already grasped the situation.

“I don’t know. I was just messing around with it, and all of a sudden bullets are coming outta it. What’s with this gun? It doesn’t make any noise at all when it goes off!”

The boy was the very picture of befuddlement.

“That’s a weapon I found in an armory in ruins so ancient they go back to before the Nobility. See, the barrel’s got this tube on it that kills the sound. Apparently in the ancient language it was called a ‘mufflerizer’ or ‘super-essor’ or something like that. Just the weapon for taking out multiple targets at range before they even notice you. Only this time, it proved a little dangerous,” said the old woman, seeming somewhat embarrassed as she looked around at the monster corpses.

“What was dangerous about it?” Pikk asked, intrigued.

“Well, a lot of monsters are pretty big cowards, and most are likely to run at so much as the sound of a gun going off. But this one’s silent, so even though their buddies were getting picked off, they didn’t realize what was happening. The attacks just kept coming and coming. It was only after two-thirds of them had been slain that the rest finally turned tail. And by that point, I’d got a taste for blood, you see. Damned if I was gonna let them monsters get away, and all that.”

Pikk didn’t say a word as he gazed at the agitated old woman. Ol’ Granny’s lost her mind, his eyes said.

Suddenly someone said what he was thinking.

“What a lot of savages you are. I can’t stand it any longer.”

Annette, who’d been sitting on a round rock by the steam-driven engine, got up, drawing the stares of all. D’s were emotionless. Granny Gerheit’s seemed intrigued. Pikk looked disgusted. And Hiryuu had a faint smile on his face.

“D, why must we come to such a filthy, brutish place? And is your business concluded?”

“It’s done.”

“In that case, let’s hurry up and be on our way. The stink is so bad I’m fairly suffocating!”

“Okay. But before you mount up, take these.”

“Huh?”

Annette dubiously eyed what D had tucked under his arm. He dropped the iron weapons at her feet.

“What’s all this?”

“Weapons for your own protection. I’ll show you how to use them.”

“You must be joking. I never had to carry anything so vulgar back in the Capital!”

“This is the Frontier.”

The girl stalled for a few seconds, trying to turn the situation around. And in that gap, she found a course that suited her perfectly.

“I realize that—but protecting me is your job, isn’t it? Telling me to do it myself is a dereliction of duty. It’s a violation of our contract. And you call yourself a Hunter?!”

“Yeah, unfortunately,” said the hoarse voice.

“Gracious. Don’t change your voice every time it suits you. Is that supposed to mean something special?”

“No.”

“Ohhhh,” Annette fumed, crimson with anger. You could say she practically ballooned with it. Body quaking, she shouted, “You, sir, are fired! I’m terminating you here and now—is that understood?”

“Fine,” the hoarse voice replied with what sounded like delight. “It’s an honor. But you’ve gotta pay me my wages through today!”

“I have to what?!”

“I have to what?! I have to what?!” the hoarse voice mimicked shrilly.

Granny Gerheit sputtered, and Pikk exploded with laughter.

Annette had gone beyond red, her whole body purple with rage as the voice continued, “It’s only fair. You had us working for you up till today, didn’t you? So, we’ll say we’ve gone a third of the way—”

“You must be joking. Who in their right mind would pay a worthless—”

It was unclear what Annette intended to say next, and they never did find out. For she had just looked over at Granny Gerheit.

The old woman’s face, staring at her with disbelief, was the product of fear.

“What is it? What’s wrong, Granny?”

It took the old woman a few seconds to respond to the girl’s query.

“I’ve never . . . Do you have any idea . . . exactly who . . . you just called ‘worthless’?”

Even having said that much, the old woman’s fear hadn’t dissolved. She’d just listened to a complaint about D.

Annette couldn’t understand the crone’s sudden, quiet madness.

“I know. Of course I do. I said it to him.” Her finger took aim at the icy figure of beauty dressed in black.

“Really . . . Frightening how little some folks know . . . D, sure you haven’t mellowed too much now? You’ll get into heaven when you die.”

Silence pressed in on them from all sides. A gust of wind stirred the air, leaving everyone but D holding their nose and coughing.

When that had finally died down, Annette declared, “At any rate, I have no intention of paying good money for lackluster work.”

Once more sounding delighted, the hoarse voice said, “Have it your way. So, you planning on making the rest of the trip alone?”

“No. I’ve already decided on my next bodyguard.”

“Oh?”

The expressions of all present said they shared this surprise.

Annette turned in the boy’s direction.

“Huh?” On Pikk’s face, surprise, nervousness, and expectation all intertwined.

“I’d like to ask you to do it, Mr. Hiryuu.”

“Me?” The drifter furrowed his brow. Looking at D, he said, “But—”

“You’ll take the job, won’t you?” the girl continued. “I promise you’ll be compensated. If you see me home safely.”

This wasn’t exactly a request but rather a declaration accompanied by a glare, and for a moment Hiryuu had an angry look in his eye, but he quickly came back with a smile. “I don’t know if I’ll be as reliable as our handsome friend there, but if you’re fine with me I’ll help you out.”

“Good,” Annette said, but she didn’t even smile. “In that case—you, give him your horse,” she ordered.

“What are you talking about?” Pikk countered. “The sheriff got this horse for me. You don’t get to order me around!”

“The condition for that was that I take you with me, wasn’t it? Hurry up and give him the horse. I’m elated at the thought of not having to breathe your stench any longer.”

“Listen to you run your mouth, you tramp!”

“What did you just say?!” Annette snarled, baring her teeth.

“Now, now,” Granny Gerheit said, getting between them. “No need to fight about a little thing like a horse. Just consult ol’ Granny Gerheit, the ‘Traveling Armory.’ If it’s a horse you need, I can fix you right up. Only I don’t have any cheap ones.”

“Any cheap ones? I don’t see any horses at all,” Annette said, an unsettled look on her face. Her expression seemed to ask, Why am I constantly surrounded by nothing but lunatics?

“Oh, I have them. I’ll set one up now. Just a minute.”

Her disturbing grin growing deeper, the old woman circled around behind the covered wagon.

“Hey, mister,” Pikk called back over his shoulder to Hiryuu. “You serious about seeing the girl home? She has some major issues!”

“Oh, now that sounds interesting. I may not look it, but in the past I worked as a bouncer in a saloon, and as a sheriff. I’m used to the rough stuff.”

“You really don’t look it,” the hoarse voice said. Indeed, the man’s unusually thin frame didn’t seem at all suited to “the rough stuff.” The hoarse voice continued, “Seemed like too much trouble so I didn’t ask—but what are you?”

“Just an ordinary drifter,” Hiryuu replied curtly.

“With a build like yours, you’ll wind up a snack for some monster before you’ve drifted too far on the Frontier. What kind of power have you got?”

“Power? None to speak of,” Hiryuu said, shrugging his shoulders.

Of course, the man was actually “the flying demon” Hiki, one of the Hunters hired by the mayor of Krishken—Annette’s father.

III

Having passed over Calico four days before his earthbound compatriots, Hiki witnessed D’s encounter with the Nobles atop the pass—and was continuing his surveillance when he was forced to do battle with a bizarre flying object launched by one of the Nobles on the ground. Though he destroyed his opponent, the “wind suit” he needed to fly was damaged, forcing him to drop a highly efficient bomb and level the entire hill.

Desperately trying to maneuver his out-of-control wind suit, Hiki managed a crash landing at the spot where D and the others later encountered him. His whole body was battered by the emergency landing, leaving him unable to move at all for a full day, lending credence to the story he spun about being a drifter whose horse had run off and helping to fool D and the others, although D’s indifference to the new arrival also played a large part.

Having easily gained permission to travel with them, Hiki’s phenomenal luck made him arrogant enough to think it would be a simple matter to abduct Annette. However, he soon realized why D could be so indifferent, and the man’s terror couldn’t be denied. Instinct told him that if he tried anything funny, he’d be killed. And it would come without a second’s pause to explain himself the very instant D became wise to him.

He immediately abandoned any plans of abducting Annette. At the same time, Hiki maintained his ruse of being an upstanding traveling companion, deciding to entrust his own fate to D as well. There were two deeply rooted reasons for this. First, for someone like him who traveled the Frontier with no blade but the dagger on his belt, he could wish for no greater bodyguard than D. Next, if by some chance D were slain, making off with Annette would become easy enough. Toward that end he’d need to repair his wind suit and reclaim his weapon. It would take time, but he needed to do it quickly and in utmost secrecy. In other words, without D suspecting anything was amiss.

And then the problem of D’s dismissal and his own promotion to bodyguard had presented itself. Like a game bird so foolish it doesn’t even know it’s only for sport and never notices the importance of the protection the hawk has afforded it, she had flown right into the waiting arms of the huntsman, but Hiki was at a loss. The reason went without saying. He, too, was now bereft of D’s protection.

Nevertheless, he’d instantly reconsidered because two days would suffice to repair his wind suit, and he’d be able to make off with Annette without any interference from D. While D was around, there was precious little chance of abducting the girl, but if Annette sent him packing, there’d be no problem at all. Those two days would be a dangerous time to weather, but fortunately they’d run into the arms dealer. If Hiki could get weapons enough to hold them for two days, the rest of the trip could be done by air. A normal person like Annette was too heavy to carry home in one day, but two days seemed manageable. Though the Nobles’ flying object worried him, he didn’t think they’d have many of those. At any rate, as long as Annette was away from D, he’d manage something. Hiki was sure of that.

“Step forward,” D told him.

Ice water raced down his spine. “What for?” he asked, and it was all he could do to keep his voice from trembling.

There was no reply. D was gazing at him. Rather than fill him with fear, those impossibly deep eyes stirred an action more dangerous than Hiki realized, and the man walked forward.

Before he could stop, a stark gleam made a horizontal swipe at him. Hiki didn’t say a word, but leaped a good ten feet to the side to avoid the deadly blow.

“Oh, that’s an unusual way of dodging you’ve got,” said the hoarse voice.

D’s blade was already back in its sheath.

Hiki dropped weakly to his knees. Anyone could well imagine what the result of a second slash by the Hunter would’ve been, and the man breathed a sigh of relief.

D said, “Get him a horse.”

“Yessir.”

Granny Gerheit walked over to her wagon. Not only relieved, she seemed positively saved. The young man known as D had the power to freeze the blood of even those who weren’t directly involved.

In no time at all, the old woman had loaded a bizarre item onto a hand truck and wheeled it back. It was a metal cylinder a foot and a half in diameter and about three feet long. When she stopped the hand truck, all but D were watching suspiciously, but the old woman smiled back as if they were showering the item with admiration.

“Well, here’s your new horse,” she said, opening a cover near the top of the cylinder and pushing the button within. A single motor-like sound came from within the cylinder. A moment later legs that were folded inside appeared, forming joints as they straightened out, while the front of the cylinder rose at an angle. Apparently that was the head.

On seeing how the top of the cylinder—its body—subsided, Pikk bugged his eyes and said, “It’s even got a seat! What more could you ask for?”

“Not a cyborg horse, but a completely automated mecha horse,” Granny Gerheit said, proudly slapping the barrel of the beast. “No different in speed or performance from your average racehorse, but a thousand times easier to handle! What’s more, you just need to gas her up once a month, and no feed bills. Only needs maintenance once every ten years, too. All for the incredibly low price of a thousand dalas.”

“I’ll take it. And pay in cash,” Annette said, raising her right hand.

“Oh my.”

“That’s highway robbery.”

All eyes turned to the source of those words. It was D.

“Wh-wh-wh—” Granny Gerheit stammered guiltily. “What are you talking about? That’s more than I have to take even from you!”

“I saw the same horse last year in the village of Calva. It was five hundred dalas.”

“Hmph!” Granny Gerheit backed up, murder on her face. Sweat pouring from her brow, the old woman said, “The price of everything shoots through the roof this time of year.”

“You ol’ swindler,” Pikk snarled.

Ignoring him, the old woman said, “Nine hundred dalas.”

“Too high. Five-fifty,” Annette replied. Here she showed herself for a daughter of the Frontier. Those brought up out there knew better than to waste money.

“Nine hundred dalas.”

“Six hundred.”

“Eight-fifty.”

“Six-thirty.”

“All right,” Hiki interrupted, sick of the whole business. “I’ll buy it. How does seven-fifty sound?”

Granny Gerheit folded her arms. For two or three seconds she maintained her scowl, then said, “Well, I guess I don’t have much choice, do I?”

“Oh, you had money on you?” Pikk said, staring at Hiki moodily.

“Yeah, I’m a reliable guy.”

“So, you’re a drifter hoping to open a dry goods store in the future or something? Oh, it’s so cold.”

“Nothing else matters so long as you can pay cash. Anyway, it’s sold. Anything else you might be wanting?” Granny Gerheit asked, her face breaking into a smile.

“Just one thing more.”

“Oh, just one, eh?” The old woman was visibly displeased.

“I want one of those personal-sized portable bunkers the Nobility used.”

Everyone’s eyes bulged. Except D’s. The old woman whistled, and Pikk made a disagreeable face. The man had crossed a line.

Sounding amazed, the hoarse voice said, “That’s a hell of a purchase—didn’t know he was so loaded. More to the point, does this wrinkly old bag even stock a portable bunker?”

“I don’t care what idiots say, you lousy parasite,” the old woman sneered. “Unlike you, I’m not so worthless I need someone else’s legs to get around. In there are weapons I’ve collected traveling all across the Frontier under my own power. All of them top-notch goods even a Noble would be glad to have.”

And five minutes later, a gleaming silver sleeping bag was tossed on the ground in front of the group. Quickly checking the circuitry and energy plate, Hiki gave a satisfied nod.

“It’s a nice one. I’ll give you three hundred thousand dalas.”

“Whaaaat?” Granny Gerheit’s jaw dropped. She’d just been ready to ask for two hundred thousand dalas. “Don’t kid me. Half a million dalas.”

“Three hundred thirty thousand.”

“Four hundred eighty thousand.”

Thinking, Here we go again with the pointless haggling, Pikk looked up at the sky. His expression changed. It grew tense.

“Something’s flying this way!”

Hinting at evening, the sky was heavy with a deep blue. To the east, a black spot was definitely visible. It was drawing closer.

Hiki was the first to recognize it. However, he couldn’t very well say that, nor did he have any intention of telling them.

“I’m not sure what it is,” said the man, “but I think we’d best haul ass out of here. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gone!”

“Nope,” said the old woman.

“Not gonna make it in time,” the hoarse voice said.

Hiki grabbed Annette’s hand and dashed toward the personal bunker. A clod of dirt that sprang up right in front of him halted his run.

“Your money first!” shouted the old woman, standing there like some angry temple guardian with a pair of revolvers she’d had hidden on her somewhere.

Even as he opened the saddlebag over his shoulder and pulled out a wad of bills, Hiki kept his glare trained on the sky above. The black flying object sort of looked like a toy that was no more than three wings strung together.

“D, what are you going to do?” the old woman asked as she moved toward her wagon.

“Take care of him,” he replied, pushing Pikk toward her, and then with a light kick off the ground D sailed out beyond the barricade of corpses.

Perhaps noting D as he jogged toward the center of the square, the flying object changed direction slightly.

Not even going for his blade, D halted at his destination—the center of the square.

“Here it comes!” the left hand that’d hung limply by his side said with apparent amusement. What was it finding so enjoyable?

The instant the black object passed overhead, a gleam of light shot from D’s back. And it definitely passed right through the flying object. However, instead of being cut in two as it should’ve been, the flying object went into a steep climb that swiftly reached the stratosphere.