[656] The Air of Life (5)
There is no cause, only consequence.
That was Hexa.
"I see."
Lupist propped his chin on his hand and drifted into thought.
He couldn't tell whether Anchal had kept his promise to share the information he and Shirone had gathered on Istas, but Lupist had already seen a report on Hexa through the "Order."
If Shirone was Hexa, he would be Ra Enemi's natural enemy, and there was no way they hadn't come into contact.
"And Shagal smelled that presence, too."
Brooks looked baffled.
"What on earth are you talking about? What incident? And who is Ra Enemi?"
Instead of answering, Lupist rose from his seat.
"All right. We're going to see Venetia now. Guide us."
"Wait a minute. Isn't this too much? Even if you're the Association President, you can't just demand someone hand over their property like that."
Radum was Tormia's biggest headache, and Venetia led the largest power there.
"Name your price and I'll meet it."
Brooks snorted.
"You underestimate me. I'm a businessman. I know that no matter how much visible money there is, it's still pocket change."
He had never tried to put a number on Venetia's true value from the start.
"This is urgent. If you have something to say, say it quickly."
Lupist was all business—smooth talk wouldn't work on him.
"You said earlier you'd shut down Radum."
Brooks asked, suddenly serious.
"That's right."
"I want to manage it."
"Hm."
"If you wipe out the terrorist cells, the kingdom will have to set up a special management department anyway. If you designate 'Brooks Mercenary Brokerage' as a private cooperating firm, I'll supply the mercenaries needed to manage the Ain."
Monopolizing Radum would open an entirely different game from his current businesses.
Rian recalled that Shirone had bought all the info cards at the Silvering branch.
"Everything visible is pocket change."
The same went for swords.
More terrifying than the sword in your hand was the countless possibilities contained within it.
Viewed that way, Ra Enemi was a sword pointed at the world.
"All right. Radum goes exclusively to Brooks Mercenary Brokerage."
"Deal."
Brooks downed the drink in his glass and headed for the door.
"Let's go. I'll guide you."
Venetia was being held in a punishment cell in the mansion's basement.
The tiny room—barely one pyeong—had no torch; she sat on a shabby wooden chair.
So this woman was one of the three-brained.
Shirone had pictured a three-headed monster and had been fairly tense, but the woman before them could pass for entirely human.
Her irises were a blue without any whites, and a teardrop-shaped gem—more an organ than an ornament—was embedded in her forehead.
"The head of the Spectrum, Venetia?"
Lupist's question lifted a corner of her mouth.
"You must be Lupist."
Lupist thought this was his first face-to-face with Venetia.
They spoke at the same time.
"How do you know me?"
Lupist fell silent, and Venetia continued.
"Simple. Short-term precognition. I analyze the present based on the past and predict the future."
That explained how she had united so many terrorist cells and shielded the Ain from the kingdom.
Rian asked, "Can you really predict the next thing someone will say?"
"That's because you think with a human mind. I analyze time, not events. Because I can distinguish past from present, I can also separate present from future."
Lupist asked, "When did you know I'd come here?"
"One minute ago, by your standards."
"So you know why I came, too."
"To discern Ra Enemi's intent."
"Did you meet him?"
Venetia frowned.
"That's a vague question. If I could be certain, I wouldn't have locked myself away."
Shirone stepped forward.
"Is it true that Ra Enemi exists only as an incident?"
Venetia blanked for a moment.
"Who are you?"
"I'm Arian Shirone—"
"No. When did you arrive here?"
Lupist's eyes brightened.
"You weren't foreseen?"
Shirone's Shibulsangpokmae destroys time and opens a perfectly revealed future.
It was only natural the three-brained's perception wouldn't register that.
"You came here because of me, didn't you?"
"No, I—"
Lupist cut Shirone off.
"Explain it in terms I can understand. What is Ra plotting?"
"Perhaps no one in this world fully understands Ra's intent," Venetia said, pointing to her head.
"The three-brained have three brains that perceive past, present, and future separately. Ra seems to be imprinting special present experiences into many people. Those experiences are real events, but they exist only in the past."
"So they're realities that have already passed."
"Yes. Humans who live inside the flow of time can't distinguish them. But my brain structure is different. In the brain that recognizes my past, Ra Enemi remains vivid. In the present brain, there is no information. The biggest problem is that my future brain still precognizes. Do you know what that means?"
Shirone said, "It means there is no present."
"Exactly. From the three-brained perspective, if the past—without being filtered through present analysis—can change the future, then I have no choice. Nothing in this world can be altered by our will."
Human will belongs to the present.
If humanity's present is stripped away, everything in the world will follow Ra's will.
This was precisely why Yolga had given his life to persuade Miro.
"All I can do is lock myself away so Ra can't use me. But Radum's other comrades can't do that. They're acting on the causality of events that did happen. In reality they move according to Ra's design, but they think they're deciding by their own will."
"What's happening in Radum?"
"The overthrow of the system."
Venetia spoke with a sad expression.
"The Resistance will fight for freedom. Ra has contacted countless comrades. He's injected hints into some, rage into others, and hope into still others. When all of them are unified by Ra's will, the Tormia Kingdom will be rebuilt as a nation of the Ain."
Shirone bit his lip hard.
Now the reason the Ivory Tower—so immobile even in the war against Heaven—had sought Ra Enemi became clear.
Ra was air.
Air that seeped into human life.
"Remember this. Everyone who contacts Ra will eventually be moved under Ra's special design."
"Now I understand," Lupist said, turning to Shirone. "You must have obtained information about Ra Enemi."
"Yes. I stopped by the guild and bought the info cards—"
"That makes things easier. The Association has also gathered a lot of intel. But none of it matched."
"I had the same experience. Some said he was blind, some said he was deaf."
"Yes. But that's not the real problem. Every informant the Association tracked is either dead or missing. Twelve of those cases are suicides."
"You mean they took their own lives?"
Shirone shook his head the moment the words left his mouth.
"No. I can't put it like that."
"Right. It's Ra's design. How he drove them to suicide is unknown, but he influenced them somehow—"
Lupist suddenly looked at Brooks.
"Where is Shagal now?"
At that question, a guard's scream rang out from the mansion's first floor.
The sudden downpour of screams stopped in an instant, and Brooks realized something terrible had happened. He bolted up the stairs with Lupist close behind.
"Shirone, stop Ra Enemi."
Venetia said this as Shirone turned.
"He is humanity's tragedy. Very few can critique Ra's incidents with a human brain."
It was a task no ordinary Karga could manage.
"But you are someone who has escaped the shackles of causality. Find a way. If you fail, the world will race toward ruin."
Shirone gave a short nod and led Rian up to the first floor.
The incident was already over; numerous bodies lay scattered on the floor.
Brooks stamped the floor and spat.
"Damn. It took less than three seconds to kill twenty-three people."
If the screams were the only testament, it wasn't an exaggeration, and these were far stronger than any band of thieves.
Is this Shagal's real ability?
Rian examined the corpses and confirmed the killer's signature.
Each had been stabbed; blood gushed from the wounds with higher-than-normal pressure.
"This bleeding is odd."
"Trademark of the Soksa Blade."
Lupist approached a collapsed body leaning against the wall.
When he slowly reached toward where the blood spurted, a translucent blade finally became visible.
"Is that his weapon?"
"I've never seen one either. The weapon Shagal uses is a dagger made of dozens of thin overlapping sheaths, like what you see now. Each time he stabs, a sheath comes off. With that structure, when the dagger sinks in and the muscles clamp, the sheaths can detach and let the core slip through, making it easy to land a flurry of strikes. But the real terror of this thin-blade weapon is something else."
Lupist held up the sharp tip of one sheath.
"There's a hole at the tip of the blade. The moment it penetrates, the pressure difference causes massive hemorrhaging. Anywhere you stab becomes a mortal wound. Schema abilities can control some bleeding, but—"
Lupist tossed the sheath aside and pointed at the body.
"If he stabs like this, there's nothing you can do."
Rian stared at the corpse, dozens of small wounds weeping blood.
Three sheaths were embedded in a triangular formation near the heart.
Shagal of the Soksa Blade.
Next time they met, they would have to forget about the skirmish in the underground canal.
Shirone asked, "Why did he leave? Is this part of Ra's design, too?"
"Probably. Shagal is a headache. If he'd been a typical psychopath, capturing him would've been simple, but he's an acquired killer. You don't get called one of the world's top hundred dangers just by following crude methods of evil. There has to be a thorough philosophy behind it."
"So Shagal isn't evil?"
"Of course he is."
Lupist nodded plainly.
"He's the worst of the worst."
"..."
"In any case, it's decided. Radum will be closed."
Brooks said, "But—his subordinates were wiped out, so we can't recruit mercenaries right away."
They couldn't simply deploy Association mages either.
"It'll be unofficial. That's how we handle Radum."
Lupist made his decision and turned to Shirone.
"Shirone, make a deal with the Association. If you help with this, I'll consider you even with the debt you say you owe me."
Judging purely by ability, he was probably a better choice than most Association personnel.
"All right. What do you need me to do?"
He had planned to investigate Radum anyway; their interests aligned.
"Form a mercenary unit of about twenty and fold them into Brooks' side. The Association will cover everything they need."
As Lupist headed for the front door, Shirone asked quickly, "What kind of people should they be?"
"You're the captain."
As Lupist closed the door behind him, he added, "Handle it however you see fit."