Chapter 102

[I want to show a face that won’t shame my homeland and comrades.]

The third quest he had cleared.

Checking his inventory just in case, Yuseong nodded upon confirming the name “Brant Republic Research Lab #53 Close Combat Armament Prototype.”

‘So it really was the same world. Should I start remembering the Civilization Classification and grade too?’

Laughing dejectedly, Yuseong shook his head.

‘What are the chances of an unofficial secret organization’s agent coincidentally getting caught up in an accident on another country’s cruise ship?’

The empty cell next door, the circus troupe leader with the secret agent, Shapiro and his companions arrested on charges of colluding with the Republic, and explosions occurring at regular intervals.

One might be dismissed as coincidence, but multiple repetitions could no longer be called chance.

‘…I think I get what’s going on here. The circus troupe leader was caught by the Empire for being a spy or something similar, and the Republic dispatched the Security Bureau to rescue him?’  

Sinking an entire ship just to save one person made no sense, so there must be some other hidden reason, but this was all he could guess with his current information.

And honestly, the reasons didn’t matter either way.

What mattered was that the Security Bureau was here now and he might be able to use them.

‘Should I approach them first? Or make them notice me and come to me?’

He would have chosen the latter with more time, but right now they were in an urgent situation where the ship could sink at any moment.

Having made his decision, Yuseong grabbed a nearby railing and approached where the agent was.

“Director! Director!”

“Hm? Sha-Shapiro? How are you here?”

“I escaped from prison so of course I’m here. But rather, I should be asking you that. How are you here, Director? When you weren’t in prison I wondered, but did you really escape alone and abandon us?”

“W-well…”

Faced with this unexpected situation, the director stammered and began glancing at the agent beside him.

However, the agent was equally at a loss.

He had no idea how to explain that they had planned to extract just one person while leaving everyone else to drown in the sea.

Seeing the agent’s gaze turn toward him, Yuseong slowly and deliberately moved his hand behind his back.

[Spending 30,000 karma points to withdraw Brant Republic Research Lab #53 Close Combat Armament Prototype(C+).]  

The agent, who had been wearing a tense expression, froze upon seeing what Yuseong held out.

Yuseong, who had been prepared for the possibility that the agent might not recognize the plasma axe, inwardly sighed in relief and said:

“I’d like to talk for a moment.”

“…Mr. Harold, could you wait here for just a moment? It won’t take long.”

“Ah, alright.”

The director nodded with a sour expression, sensing the unusual atmosphere between the two.

With gunshots, screams and curses making it hard to hear even someone right next to you, there was no need to find a quiet spot.

Moving a short distance away, Yuseong whispered in a low voice to the clearly flustered agent.

“You’re Security Bureau, correct?”

“How did you…?”

“I could tell from your shooting stance and movements. I’m Security Bureau too, so you don’t need to be tense.”

“…Honestly, I find that hard to believe. Do you have anything else to prove your identity?”

“An agent on a secret mission wouldn’t carry such things. Would showing you Shadow Moon Style 16 convince you?”

A man trained in special equipment and martial arts given only to Security Bureau agents.

But precisely because of that, the agent could only be more confused.

“As far as I know, there aren’t supposed to be any agents on this mission besides me and my colleagues.”

“I didn’t know there were other agents besides myself either. Seems they limited information for security, since we’re apparently on different missions.”

“Different missions in the same area while limiting information to field agents? What if something went wrong?”

The agent’s expression, which had been mixed with trust and doubt, quickly tilted toward doubt.

However, far from being intimidated, Yuseong maintained a confident expression and said.

“I find it absurd too. But what other explanation is there?”

There was no way to immediately verify the truth, nor clear evidence that he wasn’t Security Bureau.

If he brazenly pushed forward with a straight face, doubt would remain just doubt.

Finally, the agent let out a small sigh and said.

“Fine. I assume you didn’t call me over just to greet a fellow agent, so what’s your reason?”

“To get out of here, obviously. We’ll all drown if we stay.”

“Do you think people are staying because they don’t know that? What can we do when there’s no way out?”

The ship had been equipped with enough lifeboats.

They could have escaped normally without any need for conflict, but the nobles’ erratic behavior had disrupted the plan.

Yuseong spoke calmly to the angry agent.

“There is a way out.”

“…What?”

“But I can’t do it alone. You mentioned colleagues earlier – how many of you are there total?”

“Including myself, fourteen.”

Fewer than he’d thought, but better than none.

After calculating something involving the ship’s sinking speed, number of people in the hall, and their movement speed, Yuseong nodded and said.

“It’ll be close. Do they all have weapons? I mean axes, not guns.”

“Of course they all have them.”

“Good. Then let’s go make a hole.”

“…Where?”

“There’s only one place, obviously.”

Yuseong’s finger pointed upward.

* * *

Ratatattat!

Dozens of gun barrels spit fire and bullets.

However, not a single shot hit anyone.

Partly because the severely tilted ship made it hard to aim properly, but mainly because the shooters weren’t actually trying to hit their targets and were deliberately firing elsewhere.

“Damn it, how long do we have to keep this up?”

“Until the Duke escapes.”

“Haah…”

Even for soldiers strictly trained in following orders, firing guns at fellow Imperial citizens on a sinking ship rather than a battlefield could hardly be comfortable.

However, no one refused the orders.

There was good reason for that.

“There was an assassination attempt on Duke Dominick! Since assassins might be mixed in with the survivors trying to escape, don’t let anyone onto the deck until the Duke reaches safety!”

Duke Dominick.

Head of one of the Empire’s three greatest noble houses.

The value of that one man far outweighed all the Empire’s citizens combined on this ship.

If Duke Dominick died or was seriously injured, everyone present would clearly be held responsible for failing to protect him, so no one dared try to stop this madness.

The subordinate who heard the captain’s explanation gave a bitter smile and pointed somewhere.

“But that Duke isn’t escaping.”

One lifeboat floating not far from the ship.

On it, Duke Dominick was gesturing and shouting something.

Looking at the Duke’s lifeboat, neither moving away from nor approaching the ship, the captain spoke in a heavy voice.

“He must be heartbroken about leaving alone, being such a family-loving person.”

“Someone who knows how precious their own family is doesn’t know how precious others’ families are? What kind of nonsense is in his head…”

“Enough. I understand how you feel, but that’s insulting nobility. Just shut up and shoot.”

“S-sorry.”

The subordinate, belatedly realizing his mistake, closed his mouth and silently started pulling triggers.

However, less than a few minutes later, his mouth opened again.

“Uh, Captain, isn’t something strange?”

“What now.”

“It seems like there’s no return fire from over there?”

A moment of silence.

The captain, who had been halfheartedly aiming toward the exit and pulling triggers, only now realized something was wrong after hearing his subordinate’s words.

“Cease fire! Cease fire!”

As soon as the captain’s words fell, the gunfire stopped as if everyone had been waiting for it.

Everyone equally disliked shooting at innocent civilians.

“What are you doing! Shoot! Shoot now!”

In the middle of the sea where silence had fallen after the gunfire ceased, only the Duke’s voice rang out.

The captain ignored the Duke’s orders and quietly stared at the exit.

Though people should have peeked out of curiosity when the shooting stopped, no one showed themselves.

At first he thought they might be out of ammunition or too scared to come out, but even then, the complete absence of any sound was strange.

Shouldn’t there at least be cursing or crying?

“Are there any other exits to the deck besides here?”

“You know there aren’t. Everything else is flooded.”

“…This makes no sense. Is there some exit we don’t know about?”

“Come on, even if there was another exit, one or two people might slip through, but all those people escaping under our watch is impossible.”

The subordinate’s words were plainly true.

But it was equally clear that no one remained beyond there.

‘Even if they got outside somehow, jumping into the sea with nothing is nonsense. They’d definitely need lifeboats…’

The captain unconsciously looked up.

There was no particular reason.

He simply followed his train of thought to look where the ship’s only remaining lifeboats had been.

“Hm?”

On what had once been the ship’s port side.

A person was standing there.

A bizarre sight – one hand extended forward as if measuring distance, the other holding something glowing purple.

The captain tried to quickly send a warning upon realizing the person’s hand was pointing toward Duke Dominick’s lifeboat, but the man’s throw came before he could open his mouth.

“Wait…”

The plasma axe that traced a purple arc through the air effortlessly pierced through Duke Dominick’s chest and the lifeboat itself.

And when the high-temperature plasma mass hit the sea, a massive steam explosion occurred as huge amounts of water instantly vaporized.

BOOM!

“…”

“…”

The Duke and lifeboat vanished, leaving only messy debris.

Seemingly oblivious to the shocked people, Yuseong muttered in a casual voice.

“Why make an easy quest difficult?”