novelraw Chapter 63
Chapter 63
Chapter 63
Breaking through the creatures that had surged in wasn’t that difficult.
It wasn’t because there were fewer of them, or because the bastards were weak.
It was simply because they tossed them the corpses of the dead Red Hand soldiers, and while they happily gnawed, tore, and tasted, they slipped away.
“…….”
The purple-haired woman took a sip of liquor as she walked in front, and the injured men and women each silently followed behind her.
The sight was like that of a defeated army.
In truth, that wasn’t wrong, either.
They were all former Rermal Planetary Defense Force, idiots who had staged a coup and then been betrayed by the Red Hand.
“……Will it be okay?”
“…….”
“What about the kids, Ran and Kanae……?”
Beatus, who had already been tipped off by Baek Hwi-young, muttered with a face that couldn’t gauge whether it was right to follow them, but Famille and Miel, following at the very rear, couldn’t help but worry more about Dokgo Ran and Hino Kanae who had been taken than about who these people right in front of them were.
Especially Famille—despite grumbling like that, maybe they really were friends—bit down hard on her lip with a dark expression.
It was only natural.
Hadn’t Baek Hwi-young said it outright?
That it was the Red Hand.
They didn’t know much about them, but unless they were idiots, they couldn’t think the Red Hand had kidnapped Ran and Kanae to treat them gently.
How long had they walked like that?
The remnants of the Defense Force going ahead, and the cadets following behind.
That strange companionship ended when, in the middle of a dense forest, they arrived at a two-story concrete building cleverly hidden by giant trees.
“It’s a place we set up temporarily. Come in.”
Satra. Her words weren’t, of course, directed at her subordinates in the same situation, but at the cadets who had followed.
Naturally, everyone’s gaze turned toward Baek Hwi-young.
They weren’t idiots, either.
If they had taken in the sight of Baek Hwi-young in the battle just now, it would be stranger not to suspect he had something going on.
And of course, Baek Hwi-young was also measuring their changed gazes and every word he had let slip.
“……Let’s go in.”
But he knew, because he had lived through it over the past time.
If he showed others a side of himself different from usual, it was wiser to just keep his mouth shut.
They would piece it together on their own, and estimate a past that fit the most plausible chain of logic.
Wasn’t humanity an animal of imagination, after all?
“Yeah.”
“……If you say so.”
In the first place, now that they had already followed them, they didn’t really have another choice.
Now that they even knew that once-kind resort was in on it, where else would they go?
As they followed behind Satra into the building, she quickened her steps a little, took up a water bottle, shoved a painkiller from her chest into her mouth, and swallowed it.
Gulp-.
Then, as if she had finally calmed down, she at last sat down and fixed her gaze on the ash-gray–haired man, Baek Hwi-young, who was staring straight through her.
“Looks like you’ve roughly guessed who we are.”
“Captain Satra, who joined hands with the Red Hand and staged a coup. Is that correct?”
“……Well, I guess it’d be stranger if you didn’t know.”
With a smile mixed with a sneer, she took off the hat and mask she had kept pulled down until now.
And what was revealed was quite shocking: one of her eyes had been replaced with a prosthetic, a faint sheen of light leaking from it, and a long scar was carved across the bridge of her nose.
That wasn’t all.
The faint mechanical sound flowing from one of her shoulders made it clear why she had taken a painkiller.
Of course, as if she was quite used to such looks, she calmly bit down on a cigarette and recited self-mockingly.
“I’ll introduce myself properly. I’m Satra, who cooperated with the Red Hand and, with a childish choice in the name of the planet, drove many people to their deaths.”
“Wait, but Satra……. Weren’t you dead?”
Famille, who belatedly came to her senses at her recitation, muttered, but what came back was only Satra shrugging one shoulder once.
“I’m not dead—like you can see, I’m in this state.”
Of course, it wasn’t a particularly pleasant sight.
Just as the mood was, in its own way, beginning to loosen.
Baek Hwi-young looked around, then pulled out a folded metal chair and opened it in front of her.
Then, as if it were nothing, he took out the cigarette he had gotten from Beatus, put it in his mouth, and spoke to him.
“Beatus, a light.”
“Uh, sure.”
Beatus personally lit the end of his cigarette, and watching that, Satra’s eyebrows twitched. Soon she let out a snort of laughter and opened her mouth.
“……Right, you must have a lot you’re curious about. I’m willing to answer enough. But before that, I’ll ask just one thing.”
“What is it?”
“Cadets of the Special Service Academy. Am I right?”
Her words were clearly a question, but what was contained within them was certainty.
Baek Hwi-young nodded, and as if she had expected that, she poured the remaining liquor from the hip flask into her mouth, then slightly lifted her chin with a faintly flushed face.
Catching on that this was her answer that it was fine to ask questions, Baek Hwi-young took a deep drag from his half-burnt cigarette and opened his mouth.
“Why are you here? And why did you help us?”
“How much do you know about me?”
“……I know at least that you attempted a coup, and that it failed.”
“Why did I stage a coup.”
She recited it as if recalling her own mistake.
“The Composite State was planning to abandon Rermal Planet, and at that time the Red Hand approached me with an offer. They said they had collaborators inside the 17th Fleet, and that if I helped occupy Atla Colony, they would support a planet for relocation together with the evacuated residents of our planet, and after the revolution that would soon be achieved, they would retake Rermal Planet for us.”
“Hah.”
A revolution, a revolution.
Hearing that word, Baek Hwi-young let out a hollow snort as if it were absurd, and Satra was much the same.
“I knew it wasn’t realistic. No matter how much they expanded their influence, I thought facing the Composite State head-on was impossible. But after talking with Regchap, I realized.”
Before the instructors from the Special Service Academy even arrived, she had barely escaped Rermal Planet and reached Atla Colony. With an operational plan for retaking the planet, she went to see Lieutenant General Regchap, commander of the 17th Fleet, but the answer she received was effectively a refusal.
–Let’s wait and see for now, Captain Satra. The sacrifice your father showed was truly heroic. Should we turn that sacrifice into a dog’s death?
The bastard moved his thick, fleshy jaw and disgustingly put her father in his mouth.
As a bonus, he swept his eyes over her body in an unpleasant way.
The fact that, the moment she caused an incident, she rushed over and physically supplemented the iron in his head was a healthy revenge mixed fifty-fifty with necessity and personal resentment.
“……And then I even heard him say that, aside from the leadership of the 17th Fleet, they would take the rest as prisoners as much as possible and negotiate with the Composite State through humanitarian procedures, and I nodded along as if possessed.”
But in the end, this was the result.
At her bitter expression as she spoke that far, Beatus and Miel, who had been listening in silence, looked at her with sympathy. But just then—
“So, that’s why I asked what exactly this situation is right now.”
In her voice, which had until now only listened quietly, there was no trace of sympathy.
Rather, there was even a strange chill, as if to say to cut out the emotional appeal, and Baek Hwi-young nodded at those words.
“……Right.”
Satra smiled bitterly, as if inwardly regretful, but she made up her mind to do as they asked.
These were things she had intended to tell them from the start.
Why hesitate?
“The Red Hand captures creatures and hands them over to the Free Planet Alliance, and in return, they kidnap superhumans and take them away. And the purpose of those two is…….”
Having thought that far, she bit down on a cigarette with slightly trembling fingertips, lit it, and then mentioned the conclusion they were most curious about.
“The Free Planet Alliance plans to control the creatures and trigger a war between the Empire and the Composite State, and the Red Hand intends to use that chaos to stage a coup.”
Even though he had expected it, the thing he had desperately hoped would not be the case came crashing into reality.
At her words, Baek Hwi-young slowly closed his eyes.
Then, drawing deeply on the end of the cigarette that was almost burnt out, he thought—
‘Should I just kill them all?’
It was a rather serious consideration.
……After all, he had already turned several planets entirely into ashes before.
“So, what happens to those who were taken?”
What cut off his chilling train of thought was a single question from Beatus.
Satra fell silent for a moment, as if thinking, then answered.
“As far as I know, they’re dragged to a factory called a collection hub, neatly packaged, and sold off to the Red Hand.”
“Then the answer’s decided.”
There was no need to hear any more.
Baek Hwi-young stood up, tossed the cigarette that had already reached its end onto the floor, crushed it underfoot, and said,
“Where is that factory?”
“Then, we just kill them until they’re dead.”
At Jin Crow’s words, no one dared to sneer.
Of course, aside from Tita Genorua, no one really knew Jin Crow well.
But the instincts they had honed surviving in the shadows over the years were telling them.
That man wasn’t spouting empty words or bluster right now.
How could Tita Genorua, of all people, fail to feel what the subordinates felt?
“…….”
In the silence, her 고민 deepened.
How long did the silence continue?
Jin Crow couldn’t help but think to himself, ‘Was I too impulsive?’, but it wasn’t something he had said without any calculation.
‘Stero Mer.’
As far as he knew, that bastard would screw Baek Hwi-young over if it meant doing so until the work was finished—he was never the type to become some kind of collaborator.
So how did it end for him again?
He couldn’t remember clearly, but he was certain it wasn’t good.
‘And now I know they’re planning to mess around with creatures, too.’
Of course, playing dirty tricks with creatures was something happening all over the galaxy even now, but once it had caught their eye, they couldn’t just let it slide.
Bluntly put, why were they going through all this hell?
It was to prepare to stop the creatures that would soon come flooding in.
But if everywhere was full of bastards doing nothing but trolling, then shouldn’t they knock down what needed to be knocked down and start the fight?
“……Yeah, that is the most ideal option.”
Perhaps Jin Crow’s thoughts had gotten through.
At last, a quiet assent escaped Tita Genorua’s lips as she continued pondering in silence. She tapped the armrest of her chair lightly as if thinking, then raised her watch and called someone.
Tturu ru-.
A classic ring tone echoed through the basement.
And soon, the voice that answered the call was a truly familiar one.
〔Oh my, calling my personal number. Did you like the proposal I made last time?〕
Light and youthful, the voice of a young man.
“Geum Kang-hyeok, I’m adding one more condition.”
〔Yes, go ahead. Haha.〕
Jin Crow twitched his eyebrows at that somehow familiar voice, but Tita Genorua, busy holding her cigarette, failed to notice.
However, at the single line that soon flowed from her mouth, the person on the other end couldn’t help but be flustered as well.
“Stero Mer. I’ll be taking that bastard’s head, too.”
〔……Pardon? Have you lost your mind?〕
And hearing that voice, Jin Crow, too, finally became certain.
“So you said you were Min-su, but damn it, there isn’t a single trustworthy bastard in this world.”
The half-elf who had claimed to be Min-su.
That bastard was none other than Geum Kang-hyeok, the second son of the Geum Young Group.