Chapter 200
There were several people in the Empire who had influenced my life. One of them was Ilay Carthica.
Ilay was born into a military family and possessed exceptional talent. However, despite his flawless background, he viewed the Empire and the Imperial Family with a subversive gaze. Whether he still did, I wasn’t sure.
Chiik.
Ilay took off his helmet. As the hydraulic pressure was released, synthetic blonde fibers spilled down. His blue eyes, which had been closed, opened—clear as glass. His eyelashes had an unnatural resilience to them. Despite wearing a high-seal combat suit, he wasn’t sweating.
…A full-body prosthetic, huh, Ilay? Well, as an Imperial noble and an elite soldier, that was to be expected.
I swallowed those words and simply stared at Ilay.
Pazik, pazik.
The man in Ilay’s grip was convulsing in his death throes. Intermittent currents flickered from the puncture wounds in his chin and crown. Judging from the fact that he had been accompanying Ilay, he was likely at least of the Imperial Guard’s caliber.
“You’re alive, Luka. Well, of course you are. Where else in this world would I find someone as persistent as you? I figured you’d still be breathing.”
Ilay smiled. It was the same bright, cheerful smile as always.
“I came here looking for Valek. You?”
Rather than exchanging pleasantries, I got straight to the point.
Considering he had just killed his own comrade without hesitation, it didn’t seem like Ilay had any intention of reporting my presence to the Empire.
“Valek? Ah, that guy’s here.”
Ilay opened a metal case with a handle. Inside was Valek’s head, submerged in a thick preservation fluid. His eyes were wide open in death. Blood, compressed by the dense liquid, wavered like mist.
‘As long as the brain isn’t damaged or decayed, they’ll be able to extract information somehow.’
If it was the Empire, such a thing was possible.
“So, you’re here to capture Valek too?”
“Luka, I’d love to catch up, but… I don’t have much time. Before long, the rest of my team will arrive. I can’t kill all my subordinates.”
I kept my grip on the Firelight Saber. Its glow softly illuminated the cave.
“Ilay. Francec has been exiled, Giselle is missing, and you’re out here carrying out some important mission beyond the Empire’s borders. You must have the Emperor’s trust. I entrusted you with assisting Francec. Naturally, I also believed you’d protect Giselle. Did you sell Francec out to Ivan?”
I didn’t dance around my words. I quietly observed Ilay.
But there wasn’t a single sign of agitation or emotion in his expression.
Ilay maintained a dry smile, as if he were a paused screen. Then, he let out a sigh and parted his lips.
“Luka, the situation is too complicated to explain here. It’ll only lead to misunderstandings. You know how tangled the Empire’s web is.”
“Then let me ask just one thing. Are you sure you did your best?”
For now, I had to let this go. I wanted to press a blade against his throat and demand answers, but that wouldn’t be the best course of action here. More importantly, I wasn’t confident that I could even subdue Ilay.
Be smart. Suppress your emotions. If I wanted to find Giselle, this was the best approach. Ilay’s cooperation was crucial.
“Maybe you could’ve done better. But for me, this was the best I could do. More importantly, have you encountered Valek before? Recently?”
“We had quite the fight. If you extract his memories, my face will be burned into them clearly.”
Ilay pressed his fingers against his brow as if dealing with a headache.
“Damn it. If the Empire finds out you’re walking around alive, they’ll come for you immediately. Ivan has a strange obsession with you. We really don’t have much time, Luka. I’ll give you a quick rundown of the situation.”
I waited for Ilay to speak.
“I’m on an imperial mission, leading a special operations team to track down Kinuan. I don’t know how you ended up here, but I assume you’re after Kinuan too. There’s no way our encounter here is just a coincidence.”
Kinuan again. Whatever the hell he was up to, I was dying to find out.
“And?”
“I’ll give you Valek’s head. You’re staying in Border City, right? There are plenty of ways to extract his memories there. Let’s meet again in a month to share information and catch up on what’s happened. I’ll also look into things that might interest you.”
Ilay shut the lid of the metal case containing Valek’s head and tossed it toward me. We quickly settled on a time and place for our next meeting.
Click.
As soon as he finished speaking, Ilay raised his gun, aiming it at Ragnata. I extended my Firelight Saber, blocking the muzzle.
“Ilay, what the hell are you doing? Lower the gun.”
I frowned.
“I’m taking a huge risk pretending I didn’t see you. Only you and I need to know about this. I don’t know what that old hag means to you, but she needs to die here.”
“She’s under my control. She’s not going to run her mouth to the Empire.”
“Luka, you’re too sentimental. It makes you hesitate when you should act. I like that about you… but that part of you is what led to your downfall. One nightmare like that is enough.”
Ilay let out a bitter smile. I scowled even more fiercely.
“I don’t want to say it twice. Get your finger off the trigger.”
“I killed my subordinate for you. He was a loyal one.”
I burst into laughter, twitching the corner of my mouth.
“Haha, I just remembered—killing your subordinates when things go south is your specialty, isn’t it?”
For the first time, Ilay’s face twisted. His voice carried emotion.
“Are you sure it’s wise to make an enemy of me right now? Without me, you have no way of knowing what’s happening inside the Empire. I want to help you. So trust me, just like before. Once you hear everything, you’ll understand.”
“Ilay, I already told you no. And you know better than anyone how stubborn I am.”
“This isn’t something you can refuse, Luka. Twelve years. Twelve years of work—you have no idea what I’ve done in that time. It could all fall apart. You are the only risk I’m willing to take. I don’t care about anyone else.”
I stepped in front of Ilay, blocking his line of fire.
“Same goes for me. I don’t care what you’ve done for the past twelve years. What matters is that the idiot who failed to protect Francec and lost Giselle is standing right in front of me.”
“Stop acting like a damn child. You have no idea how happy I was to see you alive.”
“I feel the same. It was good to see you, Ilay Carthica. But for my goals, I need that woman. This isn’t something I can compromise on.”
Ilay bit his lower lip, then scratched his head. With a sigh, he holstered his gun.
“I get it. Trusting me won’t be easy for you. So this time, I’ll back down. Consider it a show of faith. But from now on… trust me. Not anyone else—your friend.”
Ilay extended his fist toward me.
“Well, I can’t make any promises, but I’ll try.”
I lowered my sword and bumped my fist against his.
“You’re still as insufferable as ever. Anyway, like I said, we’re out of time. Get out of here before my team arrives. I’ll take care of the scene.”
I picked up Ragnata and Valek’s head case. Ragnata silently glanced between Ilay and me.
“Ilay, I believe you did your best. That much—I will never doubt. I’m sure this was truly the best you could do.”
I turned my back as I spoke.
Whoosh!
Ilay tossed something toward me. I simply extended my arm and caught it. It fit strangely well in my palm.
When I looked at the item Ilay had thrown, I burst into laughter.
‘Graken Vuth.’
It was the white dagger he had given me as a gift. Judging by its pristine condition, he must have kept it as a charm rather than for practical use. Well, if we were talking about pure performance, there were plenty of weapons better than Graken Vuth.
“You’ve been carrying this around all this time? Wasn’t it my possession to begin with?”
When I asked, Ilay shrugged.
“I set it aside. If I’d left it, it would’ve ended up in the Custoria family’s possession. Since you managed to crawl back from the grave, you might as well take it back. Oh, and for the record, Crucis is with your stepbrother—uh, what was his name? Right, Juppe.”
“Hmm, that’s a bit unpleasant.”
Juppe… Crucis was far too much of a blade for him. He wouldn’t even be able to wield it properly.
Leaving Ilay behind, I retraced my steps out of the underground cave. Ragnata, who had been silent for quite some time, finally spoke.
“Boys are always so fresh and youthful.”
“If you do the math, we’re thirty. Isn’t that a bit too old to be called boys?”
“Thirty is still young to me. Anyway, I didn’t expect you to be willing to make an enemy of your friend just to save me. If I were ten years younger, I might’ve fallen for you.”
“Ten? You mean thirty, right? And I didn’t clash with him for your sake. I was testing how much he’d be willing to give up for me. He’s always been a scheming bastard. I can’t just trust him outright.”
I spoke indifferently.
“…But that scheming friend of yours would do anything for you.”
I didn’t respond.
* * *
I entrusted Valek’s head to Jafa. She would handle it far more efficiently than I could by searching for a biohacker myself. She probably even had a go-to contact for this kind of job.
Of course, I told no one about my encounter with Ilay.
‘Ilay Carthica.’
I recalled our meeting place. We had agreed to meet in one of Border City’s countless generic bars. That would be the most natural way to make contact.
‘Before I meet Ilay, I need to extract the memories and information from Valek’s head.’
Honestly, a month was a tight deadline for this kind of work. If I had to do all the legwork myself, I probably wouldn’t make it in time.
‘But if I can’t even handle this much, I have no right to chase Kinuan.’
That was likely why Ilay had set the deadline at one month.
Kinuan was a monster that constantly shifted and evolved. The moment you took your eyes off him, he would turn up somewhere completely unexpected.
Anyway, I had a whole month of free time. Instead of investigating Kinuan further, I needed to plan how to deal with Ilay.
'Assume the worst.'
I wanted to trust Ilay. But reality never rewarded blind faith. Only fools believed the world wouldn’t betray them.
I had to consider the possibility of Ilay’s betrayal. He would be thinking the same. He would expect me to act unpredictably.
'Ilay gained experience while I was gone. As one of the Empire’s most elite soldiers, he must have carried out countless dangerous missions.'
Ilay was what people called a genius. The twelve years he had built up through talent and effort would be formidable.
Whirrr.
In the windowless room, only the ventilation fan hummed.
I was inside the training room set up within the corporate building. It was a private facility, but it was large and spacious. More importantly, the equipment was top-notch. Even at maximum output, the floor and walls wouldn’t crack.
Creeeak.
With my prosthetic limbs operating at increased output, I slowly extended my fist and swung my leg. Each movement took several minutes, deliberately slow. The force trying to push outward was instead trapped inside, pounding against my body.
Drip. Drip.
Sweat poured from my organic parts like rain.
“Does this even help? You’re not a prosthetic user. You don’t even have a proper understanding of cybernetic combat techniques.”
I muttered.
“You were the one who asked me to help with training, boy.”
Ragnata sipped her tea from her wheelchair. I let her move freely, but I had no intention of giving her prosthetic legs.
'I still can’t trust Ragnata. But I need her.'
Keeping Ragnata close was a decision driven by instinct. For my future objectives, she seemed like someone I would need. I hadn’t gone through all that trouble with Ilay just to save her for nothing.
'She’s right. I need a superior who can keep me in check.'
Fine, I could admit that much. I was an unstable person, and I needed a wise advisor. Even back in my academy days, that had been the case.
Jafa was a patron, not an advisor. The criteria for someone who could truly guide me were simple—yet difficult to meet.
Someone who surpasses me—or at the very least, possesses equal combat strength. Someone who has the experience I lack. And lastly, someone with the mental fortitude to uphold their will and convictions even in the face of death.
There are few who meet these conditions. I am a twisted person—if I do not acknowledge someone, I will not listen to them, even if they are right.
“Whether it’s biological, prosthetic, or exoskeletal… in the end, there’s only one thing that never betrays a warrior. The fundamentals, ingrained in your body through daily repetition. But once you reach a certain level, you start to overlook them. You repeat only the movements you frequently use, and forget the fundamental techniques you don’t.”
“In other words, optimization. You discard everything unnecessary and keep only the movements that suit your body. If you try to force an unfamiliar action in a moment where life and death are decided in an instant, you’ll die.”
I countered. Ragnata gazed at me leisurely.
“That’s a valid point. Especially in lower-tier combat, that’s often the case. But in high-level combat, where we stand, creativity is key. You should know this well, since you’re training in Akies Victima. But creativity isn’t just about inspiration—it’s the product of repetitive mastery. Only by becoming a master of kicks can you progress to slashing with the tips of your toes. To put it simply, train yourself to be capable of anything. Turn your entire body into a weapon.”
Ragnata snapped the string of her tea bag and placed it in her mouth. She chewed for a moment before spitting the neatly tied ribbon-shaped string into her palm.
“…What do you mean by that?”
I hesitated before speaking. It made me oddly uncomfortable.
“In my prime, I killed several people with my tongue. If you can use your tongue like a finger, you can do a lot.”
“That’s an assassin’s skill.”
“Is this really the time to be picky about methods? And besides, that was just an example. Akies Victima is a technique for the weak. To put it nicely, it’s a trick and a shortcut. To put it bluntly, it’s nothing more than a cheap exploit. Akies Victima alone won’t make you a true powerhouse, kid.”
If anyone else had said the same thing, I would’ve told them to shut the hell up and twisted their tongue until they stopped talking.
But because Ragnata said it, it held weight.