Thud!
The door slammed shut as a bead of sweat trickled down my cold spine.
'Didn't know I would get a chance for that'
Them diverting their attention elsewhere to some squabbling quite literally was a god-sent miracle.
Thump!
Thump!
Outside, fists banged on the door like rain crashing into the window sill.
Staring at my hand that had smacked the emergency safe lever down.
"Huuuu~"
A sigh of true relief escaped me.
Tak!
Metal grinded against the floor and bumped into miscellaneous items scattered onto the floor and on a bent table.
Footsteps soon came sounding behind.
"How the hell did you get in here?!"
The voice of a woman rang in like a shriek.
Crash!
The metal pipe crashed into my arm, her face turned to one of astonishment when I didn't even react to her strike.
"There is still more where that came from!"
Leisurely blocking her strikes, my other hand locked the door that held it for dear life.
Click!
Hearing the click, another slow exhale flowed out as the room was observed in scrutiny.
"Haa...Haa"
Surprisingly, seeing the woman before me. I peeked at a photo in my bosom.
'She is also a target of my mission. Though from a slightly differing reason from the last'
Looking back at her, my features expressed a frown.
'Never thought I'd see her here. The client said she wasn't a priority and could leave if I could not carry it out'
But if she was right here, packaged up neatly...
"Haaa!!!"
Rounding up another swing, she rushed at me. Movement sloppy and clearly unexperienced in using any kind of weapon.
Clank!
Metal pounded on the metal part of the glove.
Bang!
"...Ukh!"
The cloak, hiding an arm from plain sight, made way for my fist that cleanly crashed into her chin. Clearly rumbling the insides of her cranium.
Falling down on the ground, she tried getting up again but failed to do so.
She kept on tripping on her long messy mane of hair.
Rattle
Moving and pushing the useless garbage that were sprawled on the ground, a thin metal wire soon met right before my very eyes.
Grabbing it, and walking to the still struggling woman, the tightly knotted wire bound her squirming body in place.
Tugging her hair, she yelped and resisted, but my pull was far stronger than the pitiful resistance she put up.
Seeing the long table before me, I raised her head and placed her chin neatly on the white table.
"Tell me everything in here, paths that could be activated, information, anything"
The woman frowned at the sudden questions.
"Huh? you think I'll tell ya just cuz you asked?"
My head creaked towards her, an emotionless gaze pierced straight into her.
"Yes"
"...?"
She raised a brow this time. Confused by my confidence. Her eyes silently widened in a realisation that I couldn't even care to guess right now.
"O-kay...I'll tell you everything, but how about telling me your name first? Is that not common courtesy?"
Her voice cracked under fear, but still managed to get the message across.
Leaning forward, my shadow loomed over her entire small frame.
A scornful glare directed right to her.
Deciding that it wouldn't matter much telling, words flowed like a river out of my mouth.
"I am a mercenary"
She gaped, not believing my words at all.
"...Ha?"
Her face grew even more in perplexity.
"I am here on a client's request and"
I leaned in close to her head, softly whispering my words to her reddened ear.
"That client"
Patting her quaking shoulder, eyes directed themselves in my direction. Unable to tear away.
"Requested me to kill you, his abuser"
"...?!?!"
Immediately, she began flailing around. Backing away from the table and trying to get away from me.
"Riria Leze, 16 and soon to be 17 years old. My client whom I will not disclose due to matters of privacy has requested for your optional killing"
"Ha..Ha?"
Her breaths turned to a dumbfounded panting.
"Now then, I heard of your heinous crimes, but reading those documents splattered on the floor might give me a better idea of what to do with you"
Picking up a random document, I began unsealing its contents and read. Riria's face paled every second the document laid open to the world.
*
*
*
*
"..."
Reading all the documents on the floor. The file shut with a flutter of the document.
I was at a loss of words, amazed by the sheer volume of war crimes she committed and in such a short period of time too.
"Disgusting"
She shuddered at my words.
These words undermined how truly of a disgusting human being she really was.
"How could you be so shameless, do you have no respect for human life?"
Tossing the document back on the messy floor, my glare only intensified the more her innocent interior deluded the sound judgement of morals and basic ethics.
"You enjoyed it a lot though, right? the documents kept repeating how much joy you felt from deceiving men with your sly innocent tongue to walk into your experiments"
Taking an office chair from the long table, sitting right in front of Riria and rocking back on it filled my buttocks with continuous relaxation, threatening to shut down completely.
"Still, you could never make a male subject as successful as miss Asfip here"
Stealing a glance at the 'product', her face contorted in frustration.
"Either they became disfigured or just exploded due to how incompatible they were"
She looked back at me, her lips pursed as she kept on listening to my words.
"You could not find the fine difference and balance that was needed to make your experiment work, so you instead got an abundant amount of test subjects in hopes of succeeding"
Fingers drummed on the table, the sound of tremors above grew more pronounced as time passed.
"All of them failed"
"...."
Her head drooped low.
"The fine balance was so precise that not a single one of test subjects aside from miss Asfip turned successful"
They had merely been successful once due to a stroke of unreproducible luck.
"Well, are you satisfied?"
"...?"
Tilting my head to her scowling words, I nudged her to elaborate.
"Mentioning my failures must have brought some sort of satisfaction, right?"
Good observation, but still wrong.
"No? why would I feel satisfied? When you take out trash and throw it in a dumpster do you feel satisfaction from doing that?"
Especially if it stains your clothes.
"That's an odd way to say it"
"So you say, not like I care though"
Resting my hands on the armrests of the chair and leaning more on it, the ceiling and its lightbulb flew into my view.
"Why do it?"
"...?"
"All of these things, why do it? what meaning is there in doing something as pointless as this?"
Taking a sharp breath, I corrected any misunderstanding before it festered.
"Is what my client wanted to know from you"
"...."
She turned utterly silent, so silent that people would call me crazy if I said she swung a metal pipe at me in a fit of panic and rage at the sight of me like I was a pestering bug.
The silence pressed on, a clock in the distance ticked slowly, chirping away as Riria pondered on what to say. Finally, as if saying 'screw it' she spoke without hesitation stamping down her voice.
"Greed and Lust"
"....."
Those were the only words she left behind.
No more elaboration and no useless excuse. This was what she truly desired, uninfluenced by any external power.
I raise myself up from the chair, stepping coldly towards her.
Her eyes shook, she wanted to plead mercy but knew that my movements would not halt like the carriage stopping and nudging her to cross.
"Your words"
I spoke. A cold gaze continued falling onto her shrinking figure.
Fingers gripped and grasped her head and—!
Bang!
My knee crushed her skull, instantly killing her.
"Will be passed on to my client"
Fingers twitched as my lips parted in two quiet murmurs.
"Target. Eliminated"
Spotting a sharp knife in the distance. I beheaded her and threw it onto a sealed bag coincidently found in the staff room.
Keeping the evidence of my bounty close to me.