Chapter 74
To sum up Carlos Beliatch in one phrase, he was an inefficient petty crook.
His first brush with crime came before he turned ten—he stole unattended luggage. Egged on by some bad friends at the time, he swiped a traveler's bag. The naive traveler, who was reasonably well-off, had a good sum of cash in the suitcase. Even after splitting it with his friends, the leftover spending money was enough to hook him on the taste of crime.
The boys continued committing petty crimes, but they never had the guts to join the local mafia. As he grew up, Carlos became a half-baked criminal, grumbling about his lot in life while scraping by on pickpocketing and small-time theft.
He had no idea what had caused the downfall of the planet called Earth. But one day, the world began to collapse at an accelerating pace, and before long, everyone left alive could feel the end drawing near.
Even then, Carlos struggled to survive while cursing his fate. He had already been barely scraping by before society collapsed, so it didn't affect his lifestyle much. Living apart from the desperate masses, he eventually heard rumors of a paradise.
The Port of the Ark. That was the name of the place he spent months walking toward. After barely surviving the journey, he finally arrived. On the day he boarded one of the first hundred thousand ships to soar into the sky, he thought for the first time that he might actually be lucky.
***
"......How did it come to this?"
"What's wrong, partner? Don't mope—go find some food. You don't want the boss to beat us again, do you?"
Carlos didn't reply to his partner Damian's jab and instead grabbed a beetle perched on a tree.
The place Carlos was sold off to for servitude wasn't that bad. At first, he thought he wouldn't last, but eventually he even considered spending the rest of his life there.
However, after drawing the attention of Tarlmache, the owner's business began to fail. Even knowing Tarlmache's bad reputation, the owner sold Carlos off. Though it was unfortunate, Carlos couldn't really blame him—he'd have done the same in that situation. At first, at least.
"Oh, not bad. I'll hold onto this one. Go get the next one."
"No."
"Huh?"
"If we don't get enough, you'll just claim it as your own and take credit, right? I'm taking this one. You go find your own, Damian."
"Tch... I said I was sorry about last time, didn't I? I won't do it again."
"......Yeah, right."
When he found out he'd been sold off as gourmet food for Tarlmache, he cried and lost his mind. His gratitude toward the place that sold him quickly turned into hatred. That was when he met Damian Sigmund, who shared the same fate.
At first, he oddly got along with Damian, who had a similar background. As they comforted each other while awaiting their fate as food, Carlos came to understand a fundamental difference between them.
Damian was evil. Far more than Carlos himself.
Even his apology just now was only words. If the same thing happened again, Damian would undoubtedly betray him again. And then offer another insincere apology with a smirk.
Even after being assigned under Segari Gug and forced to hunt Earthlings, it was the same. Damian skillfully promoted himself, and Carlos ended up as the lowest of the low.
Carlos, who was never good at reading the room, often got beaten when Segari Gug was in a bad mood. Damian always managed to dodge responsibility and pin the blame on Carlos. Just like his older brother, who once turned him in to the police for pickpocketing.
"No luck. Seriously, no damn luck."
"I really am sorry, okay? Hey—"
He realized that places of corruption were no different on Earth or in the universe.
Submission to the strong, cruelty to the weak, and never trusting anyone completely.
"Hey, how long are you useless bastards gonna take!? Where's the food!? If you don't bring it soon, I'll beat you all to death and feed you to the master!"
"Eek!"
"D-Damn it!"
Damian snatched the beetle from Carlos's hand and took off running.
"D-Don't take it personally, Carlos!"
"Damian, you bastard!"
He tried to chase him, but Damian was faster. Giving up quickly, he decided to search for another bug. After all—
"Is this seriously all you've caught!?"
"Gyaaah!"
Carlos knew all too well that when Segari Gug got that angry, he wouldn't calm down until he hit someone. He'd been beaten enough to understand.
***
"You knew, didn't you?"
Ignoring Damian's resentful glare, he continued collecting bugs.
Damian was the type to never forget even the smallest grudge. Carlos remembered him saying so once, while boasting about the first person he killed on Earth.
Even though he took it by force, he held a grudge when he got hit. If the roles were reversed, Carlos would've resented Damian too—so he didn't mind being hated.
What mattered most was not getting hit. Always maneuvering so that the damage didn't reach him. That was true for both Damian and Carlos.
Muttering complaints, Damian finally started gathering bugs again.
It was fine. As long as his own safety wasn't threatened, Damian wouldn't kill him. He might try to manipulate Segari Gug with words, but with the ship crashed, even that alien wouldn't kill him now.
"Once we get out of here, I'm definitely getting back at you. Remember that."
"We're both gonna end up as food for that damn alien anyway. You couldn't kill me even if you wanted to."
"Yeah, maybe. But hey, did you know?"
"Know what?"
Turning around at the suggestive tone, he saw Damian grinning wickedly.
"Tarlmache, you know, they say it's the kind that likes eating the same thing over and over. So once it decides to eat something, it keeps reviving it and eating it again."
"Revive?"
"You've heard of resurrection devices, right? They say it brings dead people back exactly as they were."
"Yeah. But that's just a rumor, right? I heard it's just gossip about some alien tech."
"What if I told you Tarlmache actually has one?"
"Huh?"
The nasty grin never left his face.
Carlos got the feeling that Damian believed the story to some extent. Maybe he heard it from Segari Gug.
"Tarlmache's a sadist, see. After reviving someone it killed, it shows them how it's cooking them. Like, 'this is how you looked alive, now I'll cook you like this'—and then eats them."
"Hey, cut it out."
"It makes you watch yourself being eaten, explaining the next method each time. Over and over, until Tarlmache gets tired of it."
"I said stop!"
Watching yourself get eaten? Again and again? Even nightmares are better than that.
Damian grinned at Carlos's discomfort, but then his expression turned serious as he made a declaration.
"You're going first. I'll make sure of it. No matter what it takes, I'll make you the one Tarlmache picks as food. I never forget a grudge."
"Shut the hell up."
The declaration sent a chill down his spine. He looked away and stood up. It wasn't because he was scared of Damian. He just told himself he needed to gather bugs before Segari Gug got angry again, and stepped away.
When Damian was finally out of sight, Carlos felt a slight sense of relief and bent down to look for bugs—
"Hey. You Carlos?"
The voice made him freeze.
Familiar Earth speech. Unlike Damian's, it was deep and low.
At first, he thought it was a hallucination. But he recognized the voice. It was the man he'd spoken to before the crash.
Turning toward the voice, he saw a tall, broad-shouldered man standing there. It wasn't a dream.
"Th-That voice. You're... Viper, aren't you?"
"Yeah. I came to get you, Carlos."
Seeing that honest smile, Carlos felt a sudden heat rise behind his eyes.
And yet. He felt deeply ashamed of the part of himself that still couldn't fully trust the man before him.