TCWGRF 38

At that, he couldn’t help but picture the Superintendent General changing his expression coldly and trampling on his own adjutant.

No matter how much he cried that he was sorry, the man would not have batted an eyelash, and would have made a person this much of a mess until his anger was appeased. Because he was a man who was merciless even to the adjutant who looked after his private life up close and served him with loyalty day and night.

“It was dizzying when I got hurt, but I’m okay now. Haha….”

It was a shame that his humane smile and his warm-looking brown eyes were hidden by the swollen flesh. Soon, fingers moved by clumsy sympathy drew near the bruised eye.

But the hand could not reach the wound. It was because Walter shook his head, caught Isaac’s hand, and slowly pulled it away from himself.

Belatedly realizing that trying to touch him carelessly was a mistake, he conveyed an apology with the words, ‘I’m sorry,’ but instead of scolding Isaac, his counterpart quickly changed the subject to the reason for his visit at a time that was not for cleaning.

“There’s a place you have to go today.”

Going somewhere else. It felt as if he had heard a story from a fantasy world that could never exist. For example, like the ground splitting in half, or a horse with ten wings flying outside the window, or a person walking on a rainbow.

“……Pardon? There’s a place for, for me to go… you say?”

At such an unrealistic notice, Isaac was so dumbfounded that he had to repeat Walter’s words, mulling them over one syllable at a time, to see if he had heard correctly.

“The Superintendent General has been invited to the residence of Mr. Beres, the Chairman of the Privy Council, and he needs a partner to go with him.”

“But why me….”

Even after hearing the general situation, he could not understand it at all. To think he would take him out of all people. There must be a bevy of gorgeous beauties around him who are more than qualified to be his partner. Wasn’t there that red-haired man from that time, or the woman he was having a tryst with in the archives?

Toward Isaac, who was still unable to grasp his intentions with a puzzled look, Walter added a single, magical sentence that would make him have no choice but to agree and be cooperative no matter what.

“Your friend is there. Probably.”

Isaac had never dreamed that the Superintendent General would be paying this much attention to finding Asel.

According to Walter, Asel was in Sector 19, on the opposite side of Sector 28 where Isaac had been. He had only passed through there once or twice when he was a patrol officer, but Isaac secretly breathed a sigh of relief at the fact that it was a much more livable place than Sector 28.

In any case, since he had entered the city by stealing an identity, from the Public Security Bureau’s perspective, the boy was a serious criminal who could easily be linked to the rebels. So they could have put out a wanted notice openly, but the Superintendent General ordered Walter to find him as secretly as possible.

As soon as a report came in that there was a person who perfectly matched the description, Walter rushed over, but Asel was already gone. It turned out that ‘Beres,’ who held the second-most power in the city, had taken a liking to the boy and taken him.

Having been dragged away, he did not know what kind of treatment he was receiving. Just in time, they received an invitation to a gathering held at his residence, so this was a perfect opportunity to check out the real situation.

“It might not be Asel, and we might not be able to get close. But we have to check once, don’t we?”

“……”

“If it is him, the Superintendent General will take care of the rest.”

After the detailed explanation of the circumstances was over, Isaac recalled the words the Superintendent General had said to him.

That his friend was alive, that they would meet soon.

At that moment, he had considered it purely false hope, but looking back now, it turned out that he had been sharing the progress of the search quite faithfully.

For that alone, he should have expressed infinite gratitude, yet the more he mulled over the circumstances, the more unexpected and puzzling it was.

The Superintendent General had no obligation to grant Isaac’s request with such dedication. This wasn’t a promise or a deal; it was a trivial request that was naturally ignored, something to be granted if he had the capacity or felt like it.

“Why, why… is he doing all this for me.”

The suspicion that had begun to rise could not be erased and popped out of his mouth. Walter, who hesitated for a moment while puckering his injured lips, mentioned a fact that Isaac had forgotten.

“…The Superintendent General also told me to find ‘Luke’ for you.”

“Ah….”

“I’m not sure if that’s a sufficient answer.”

Walter was right. The man had tried to find his friend even knowing he was fake, and he had given him a chance to correct it. Isaac’s face, flushed with shame for having rashly doubted him first, was at a loss for words.

In the end, it was right to believe that the Superintendent General was finding his friend out of goodwill, despite all the trouble. He too had a human side that would grant a small favor, and perhaps he wasn’t the cold-blooded man he had seemed to be all this time.

He had to let the pain he had suffered in the basement or here be washed away into the past and be genuinely grateful. He felt he should fall prostrate before him right now and say thank you. It was a promise he had already made to the point of exhaustion, but it wasn’t enough to repeat the promise to do whatever he wanted a hundred, a thousand times.

He still did not know why he was keeping him around instead of killing him or sending him to the basement, or why he was personally making a move to find even Asel, a sinner who was not just insignificant but worthless from the city’s perspective.

Still, in any case, he could finally achieve the purpose for which he came to this city, something he had only considered an impossible dream. …Because he could completely shake off the guilt of having sold that boy to survive. He had to be satisfied.

“Do you need any more explanation?”

That was all Walter told him voluntarily, and Isaac did not ask any more about it. The moment he started prying, the answer he would get was obvious. This is all I can say. Ask the Superintendent General for the rest.

So, all he had to say to Walter right now was this.

“What, what should I do?”

---

Isaac’s role was the Superintendent General’s hidden lover, paramour, whore. A partner he was so infatuated with that he put shackles on him for special amusement and had even stopped his nightly escapades, which he used to indulge in almost every day.

It was a role unbefitting his station, but if it was to meet Asel, he had to pull it off somehow. Even if he wasn’t skilled, a rough imitation should be enough, right?

“If anyone asks you a question, don’t answer, just smile. And you must never be separated from the Superintendent General’s side.”

Walter’s mouth poured out an endless stream of cautionary words. He listened intently so as not to forget, and engraved each one in his mind, but in the end, he missed a few the moment he heard them and could never remember them.

“Change into this.”

Walter brought out a set of clothes he must have prepared some time ago, and unlocked Isaac’s shackle with a key hanging from his waist.

“You have a scar on your ankle.”

“Ah, I got hurt when I was so young I can’t even remember….”

Ashamed of the skin that had lost its original color and turned dark, and the ugly gash that stood out on it, Isaac hid his ankle by stepping back. Walter did not ask further and immediately handed him the clothes that had been hanging on a hanger.

“I tried to pick something that would suit you. It would have been better if we had more time.”

The outfit Walter had prepared for Isaac was the kind that high-ranking people would have worn at events like the Superintendent General’s inauguration ceremony.

A beige-toned jacket and vest, crisply ironed trousers, a shirt with a slender tie as a set, and even long socks that moderately covered the ankle stained black by the shackle and shoes that fit his feet perfectly. It was the first time in his life he had seen such expensive-looking clothes.

“Try it on right away.”

His body, temporarily freed from bondage and feeling much lighter, was now burdened with the weight of clothes that were several times heavier.

“Ah, I’ll put it on in the room and come out….”

No matter that he lived his life in a single shirt, and no matter that the person in front of him knew full well what the Superintendent General did to him every night. He was not thick-skinned enough to strip naked and get dressed in front of him. There were marks left by the Superintendent General under the shirt, and he was also naked.

‘What is this used for.’

Isaac, who had returned to the room and was putting on the clothes in order, faced a new problem. No matter how complicated the clothes were, they were usually not difficult to put on.

What stumped him was a single belt whose purpose he could not figure out. There was no way he could figure out the purpose of the awkwardly shaped belt that fit neither his waist nor his shoulders by pondering it alone for a hundred days.

“Are you all dressed?”

knock, knock, knock Walter urged Isaac, who had been quiet, from outside the door. He had said they had to leave before the siren sounded. Seeing the red-tinged sky through the small window of the back room, it seemed that curfew was not far off.

“There’s no time. Quickly.”

In the end, Isaac had no choice but to go outside with his unsolved problem and ask for help.

“I don’t know what to do with this.”

“Ah, that’s.”

This time, it was Walter who was perplexed. It was natural that Isaac did not know how to use items permitted only to a few. He just needed to explain how to use it, but Walter’s gaze kept drifting to the empty air.

“It’s, it’s a belt to hold your shirt in place so it doesn’t come untucked from your pants.”

“…?”

“So, haa….”

But with just the explanation, he could not understand how to wear it at all. How in the world could a round elastic band and the clips attached to it hold a shirt in place?

“Stay still.”

Walter, who judged it would be faster to do it himself than to explain it to his partner one by one, knelt down and began to unbutton Isaac’s pants and take them off.

“Wh-what are you…!”

“We have to hurry. He’s probably already waiting outside.”

Befitting an adjutant who took even the Superintendent General’s promiscuous private life in stride, his hands were indifferent and quick, separate from the embarrassment Isaac felt.

The belt of unknown purpose was to be worn by slipping the elastic band onto the leg and pulling it up to the thigh, then pulling the shirt taut and clipping it. He wondered if it was an invention for the rulers of the city. Or was it something that had been used in the past but was completely forgotten on the outside?

“I, I’ll do it.”

“No.”

Isaac, who finally learned how to use it, tried to insist that he would do the rest himself, but Walter did not even give him a chance and finished the remaining side in one go.

That was not the end of it; he was so kind as to put the pants that had fallen to the floor and lost their volume back on him, pull them up, and fasten the button before he got up from his knees.

He felt as if he had been treated like a much younger brother or a small child, so a sense of bashfulness preceded any shame or humiliation.

“The outfit looks quite plausible, though.”

As if there was a part he was not satisfied with, Walter crossed his arms and scanned Isaac’s figure up and down, who had his head bowed low, unable to shake off the awkwardness.

“Your hair is really not good. It might look okay with a little styling.”

This time too, without giving him a chance to do it himself, he skillfully swept his hair back, creating a plausible style in an instant.

He was called an adjutant, but wasn’t his aptitude actually in taking care of someone?

“This should be enough.”

His current distance from Walter was so close that his breath reached him. A cheerful smile, no different from usual, hung on his lips, but the scars on his face that turned even that into a bitter smile were certainly a tragedy.

“It must have hurt a lot….”

His inner thoughts leaked out without him realizing it. He had no intention of returning to a topic of conversation that made the other person uncomfortable, so he hurriedly trailed off his words as if he were talking to himself. Walter pretended not to hear, took his hands off Isaac, and moved away.

“All done. Shall we go down now?”