TWLPOD 27

That is not a story simply limited to labor.

Slice—!

It was an attack faster than the enemies aiming their laser pointers could perceive. Leap in, shoot, land, and cut.

He calculates the angle of the bullet’s trajectory by looking at the muzzle of the gun. ‘See and dodge,’ an act that sounds easy only in words, he performs it lightly. Strong, and fluid. He was like the personification of the word ‘sword dance’. Among Espers, there were plenty of people born with high abilities, but bringing those abilities to life on the battlefield was a story of a different realm. And Kay, with the ability he was born with and the skills cultivated by his environment, possessed skills worthy of the word S-class, more so than any soldier.

When not a single red dot pointing at him remained, he fired the last shot he had saved and threw the gun away.

“…Hah, haah…”

By a rough estimate, about a dozen people were dead. They were likely mercenaries used for an illegal auction, so they wouldn’t be expensive, but.

‘The problem is the bastards who will throw a fit if the full moon auction disappears.’

Sway, sway, sway. With the gait that had bothered Aran the most since he first saw it, Kay headed to the central stage under the full moon, to the emergency exit that had been covered by a tent. The thing that Kay, who had unhesitatingly gone down the stage contraption that even Aran hadn’t noticed, dragged out was….

“Hiek!”

The auctioneer.

“H-How…!”

The auctioneer’s voice trembled as he was dragged out, his mask’s hologram still incomplete as if he had hastily put it on.

“Why, why are you doing this!”

The fear that came belatedly, from the belief that he alone would be safe in hiding, crushed him.

“Is it because of money? Or an item? Tell me!”

The auctioneer, thrown down from the stage, scrambled backward on his butt, touched the corpse of a dead guard on the floor, and screamed.

“You… you think you’ll be safe after doing this? Do you even know how this auction house is run…!”

“Tell me.”

His crumbling vision brightened. Only after seeing the fallen mask fizzling did the auctioneer seem to realize his face was exposed, and he fumbled at his own face. Blood seeped from the skin cut by a blade.

“How is it run?”

“Gaaah… bl-blood…”

While fumbling, he, who had sold such cruel items and people, spewed out his fear at the sight of his own blood. Kay found that contradiction more disgusting than the human swarm he had seen.

“Tell me everything. How this place is run, who the ones turning a blind eye are, even the bastards who put items up for auction here. Everything. Tell me.”

Then I’ll know. Who, and why, sold my friend here.

“N… No. I can’t, I don’t know. I don’t know anything. So…!”

“If you’re going to make an excuse, make a better one.”

Not knowing is a sin in itself. As much as one was happy for not knowing.

“Or try begging a little more sincerely.”

As he readjusted his grip on the sword, which felt a little heavy from the successive battles, Aran stopped Kay for the first time.

“Killing that person won’t bring anything back.”

“Are you an idiot?”

It was such a stupid thing to say, he couldn’t understand it at all.

“It’s because it doesn’t come back. That’s why you get revenge.”

Struggling to escape from Kay, who was approaching, rejecting even the final attempt to stop him, he fell to his knees and began to recite. I didn’t do it because I wanted to. I had no choice. It was all because I was ordered to. They were heart-wrenching stories of how his life was unfair and unfortunate.

“Save me. Please.”

“Beg a little more.”

“I’m begging you. Like this. Please.”

As emotion gradually filled Kay’s eyes, which had been glinting with madness, the auctioneer, thinking his plea had worked, crawled over on his knees and looked up at Kay. And then….

“My answer is no.”

Kay swung his sword without any lingering attachment.

No matter how much time passes, no matter how many times it’s repeated, there are some things you can never get used to. One of them is probably the death of someone you know.

“Mr. Kay.”

As Kay turned, Jin was approaching.

“My condolences.”

In front of the tall, cube-shaped stone tablet. For him, who placed a hand on his chest and then removed it, was there also a name that looked particularly large and clear among the identically engraved names?

“And… as for the fact that we didn’t know the missing Espers were in danger in such a way… I would like to offer my personal apology.”

The Center, including the Espers who had been missing, announced the laboratory’s biological experiments and used it to demonize the enemy. The anti-android propaganda was successful, and it was a very effective card for establishing a cause and boosting morale ahead of the assault on the fortress in H-District. The way they thriftily recycled even the lives they had placed no value on was almost admirable.

“Don’t apologize for something so obvious.”

Kay looked expressionlessly at the person who did not understand his meaning.

“There’s a hierarchy to life. Always.”

“Are you criticizing me?”

“I just stated a fact.”

“…We can’t save everyone. Lympus… at least the Center. We made the best choice.”

“Then at least endure the criticism.”

If you made a choice, I wished you wouldn’t make excuses.

If you weigh someone’s life and death and then want to avoid criticism as well, isn’t that too cowardly?

The only time an excuse is acceptable, the only thing that can be forgiven, is the result of things for which you had no choice at all.

Kay turned his back on the memorial, which was densely covered with the names of the fallen, and walked away.

As if waiting for that, the next mission appeared on his bracelet.

That all lives have equal value is an ideal, but a non-existent consensus.

Reality is never on a tabletop, and for everyone, there is a disparity in life. A friend is more precious than a stranger. And self-defense, killing another to save myself, is also recognized.

[“Black hair and red eyes. Spotted.”]

As he swung his sword, he cut down the enemy in front of him. And the emotions that kept welling up.

[“Kay.”]

Simon’s voice overlapped with the machine-mixed name just before he died, and he hesitated.

[“It’s a match.”]

An android that had been rushing at him, aiming only for an opening, sliced through Kay’s uniform in that brief moment. Blood seeped from his forearm, grazed by the tip of the blade.

‘It hurts.’

Just because you get another wound on top of an old one doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt. However, his ability to cope with a loss he could never get used to had only increased.

—All the living can do is mourn.

But L.

Is there any meaning in hurting and grieving over a wound that won’t heal?

As he swung his sword wide in the deepest part of the large android formation that had launched an air raid on the residential area, the flame-wreathed sword aura cut through the air hotly. When he plunged his sword deep into the core of the bisected machine, a flying fragment cut his cheek.

When the wetly flowing blood wouldn’t stop even when pressed down with the back of his hand, and the metallic smell of blood filled the air….

“Are you all right?”

At the cautiously asked voice, he turned his head, and a familiar person flinched but did not avoid his hand and asked.

A man with light pinkish hair and round, hamster-like eyes. He was the Esper who had willingly sacrificed himself to find Simon. And yet, when he was rescued and came to his senses, he had lost the friend he had wanted to find.

“I…”

The answer ‘I’m fine’ did not come easily. But he had to be fine.

“I’m fine. What about you?”

Like an Esper who had steeled himself enough to throw himself into danger, he flinched as if frightened by the short, indifferent reply, but he nodded his head, holding a sword coated in green oil.

“I’m… all right too.”

Those words, resembling self-brainwashing and an excuse, served as a reprieve from death, covering the wound of loss.