Returnee's S-Rank Management Guide

Chapter 116 : The Stirring of Evil (2)

The Stirring of Evil (2)

"Destination... Where could it possibly be?"

The other film crew reacted much the same as he muttered absentmindedly.

They had come to film knowing there were problems in Mexico, but now that something like this had happened, everyone seemed quite disturbed.

"St-still, we're quite far from here in Denver, so isn't there no need to worry?"

"Well, that's true, but..."

To begin with, nobody knew exactly where the monsters' destination was.

Of course, they wouldn't just blindly head north...

'The most important thing is, I don't see the King of the Demonic Zone.'

Unlike Ji Yeon-hwa, who was only incompletely eroded, this was a monster who had fully awakened as the 'King of the Demonic Zone'.

If the Demonic Zone's monsters were moving, the King must be moving along with them.

"W-wait, why is that person here?"

"Didn't he say he had something else to attend to?"

Lost in thought, I suddenly noticed a strange stir around me.

Turning my gaze, I saw a tall man marching straight toward us.

Eugene Garland.

He was now approaching me with a frightening air.

"Is this your doing?"

"Excuse me?"

Eugene came right up to me and asked fiercely.

"What are you talking about all of a sudden?"

I frowned at his sudden behavior, and Eugene looked me up and down for a moment.

"... Minerva has disappeared."

For a split second, I didn't fully process his words.

Minerva disappeared? Minerva wasn't something you could just steal—it was an enormous train. The biggest train in the world.

And now it had supposedly vanished?

"I'd appreciate it if you could explain exactly what you mean."

"Hoo..."

When I asked seriously, he let out a sigh and roughly raked his hair back.

"I must be losing my mind too. Right, there's no way you'd know anything about this."

"But coming to me means you have some reason to suspect me, doesn't it?"

"......"

He slowly nodded his head.

"It happened while I was with you at the Polaris Research Institute. In that time, it looks like someone hijacked the train."

"Does that make sense? Weren't the crew standing by? And if anything had happened, wouldn't you have been informed first?"

"They're all dead."

"What?"

"Anyone who noticed something strange and could have made a call—all dead. Station staff, train crew, security guards, and even hunters."

Eugene had just come back from the station.

Because Minerva had suddenly departed, the passengers at the station were shouting, demanding to know what was happening.

Minerva had just up and left without any sort of announcement.

"From what I gathered, it all happened in about two hours. Someone killed all the crew at the station and set the train in motion. ... I'm not sure what happened to the passengers and crew left on board."

Originally, Minerva was supposed to stop in Denver for about a week.

Minerva was basically a hotel on wheels. Many passengers were resting on board, and there were plenty of crew members, too.

All the station employees were found dead, but what happened inside is anyone's guess.

"Hunter Eugene, do you have any idea who could be behind this?"

"... It happened while I was guiding you there, so I thought you might know something."

"I'm only a manager. There's nothing I could possibly do."

"I suppose that's not really it, but it doesn't seem like you're involved."

He said that, folding his arms and falling silent for a moment.

"If there were any reason to target the train, there would be plenty. Polaris Research Institute's greatest research achievement was on board."

"And what that is... you're not going to tell me, are you?"

"Correct. Another important point is that Minerva was supposed to stay in Denver longer than scheduled."

"Because of the monsters that came over from Mexico."

"Minerva's original terminus was Los Angeles, after all."

Given the direction the monsters were moving right now, los Angeles was much too dangerous.

Eugene was probably slow to assess the situation because he'd been so distracted by the mass monster wave.

'They must have shut down the station and killed everyone who could get the word out.'

All this happened while everyone was preoccupied with the monster wave.

If I thought about it that way, there was no separating this incident from the other.

"The hijacking of Minerva and the monster wave could be connected."

"What a coincidence—I was just thinking the same."

Saying that, Eugene unfolded his arms and slowly turned away.

"And even considering how distracted everyone was by the monster wave, information about the station was far too delayed. This isn't something a single person could pull off."

"There were usually hunters protecting the station too; the fact that there was no commotion means someone capable of taking them all out at once was involved, right?"

You'd have to assume that at least someone on par with an S-rank Awakener was involved.

I was sure Eugene had realized that as well.

"Indeed. We'll know all the details once we get to Minerva."

"Do we have any way to chase Minerva?"

Minerva was a marvel of American science and magitech.

Of course, it was much faster than an ordinary train.

At my question, Eugene twitched an eyebrow as if to say, "What a stupid thing to ask."

"Run."

"......"

The simplicity—and absurdity—of that answer left me speechless.

But given the current situation, there was really no faster way.

"Oh, right."

Listening to the conversation in silence, an idea suddenly popped into my head.

"Let's bring Yeon-ji with us."

"What?"

"Come again?"

Eugene and Yeon-ji both looked at me, startled.

"She's petite and light, so she'll be easy to carry while running. And as you know, hunter Eugene, she may look like that, but she's an A-rank or higher, so she'll definitely be useful. Who knows who might be on Minerva, so I recommend taking her along."

Giving a bright smile, I saw Eugene's rare expression of fluster, while Yeon-ji's mouth dropped open as she grabbed my collar.

"What are you talking about? Why should I go?"

"It's always good to have an S-rank Hunter owe you a favor."

"Favor? What if something happens—a bunch of criminals just hijacked the world's biggest train!"

"Think about it carefully."

I gave Eugene a little wink and whispered in Yeon-ji's ear.

"The timing—they waited until Eugene Garland wasn't at the station to make their move. That means if he were there, the operation wouldn't have gone smoothly."

"... Ah."

"And, if you go, you'll get to see an S-rank Awakener fight up close, right?"

Even though Yeon-ji had utterly beaten him at arm wrestling, Eugene was a true S-rank Awakener.

The fastest hunter in America, famed for his speed.

"That's actually not half bad."

Finally, Eugene finished thinking and nodded slowly.

"You've got to be kidding me..."

Yeon-ji looked as if she wanted to insist she was just a kid.

Of course, that didn't work on me at all.

Knowing her true identity was Ji Yeon-hwa, she couldn't fool me by playing innocent.

Besides, ever since she beat Eugene at arm wrestling, he'd also erased any notion of her being a kid from his mind. A real meritocracy, through and through.

"And, I have one more favor to ask."

"Ah, now what?"

Yeon-ji sighed as if she didn't have a choice, and I handed her something I'd set aside earlier.

It was a camera.

"Isn't this Reporter Pyo Ji-yeol's?"

"Correct."

Yeon-ji immediately recognized it as Pyo Ji-yeol's camera.

"Why are you carrying around that expensive camera?"

"I borrowed it."

"... You really did borrow it, right?"

I felt unjustly accused by Yeon-ji's sour look.

Did she think I was some kind of thief?

Well, technically, I'd only borrowed it while Pyo Ji-yeol was distracted doing commentary for Challengers.

But thinking ahead to the footage it would capture, Pyo Ji-yeol would probably beg me for it later.

"It was all arranged properly."

Though, I suppose the arrangement was made with the future Pyo Ji-yeol.

Yeon-ji just gave me a sleepy-eyed look, as if finding all this hard to believe.

"I'll just have to hope so. So, what do you want me to do with this?"

"What else do you do with a camera? Take pictures."

"Take pictures of the train-jackers?"

Not that there'd be any harm, but I doubted it would be possible.

No way the person who hijacked the train would be ordinary.

"You'll understand when you get there."

"You're always saying things only you know."

Yeon-ji grumbled, but nodded as if she had no choice.

"Okay, what can I do? I just have to do as I'm told."

"Then, hunter Eugene, please take care of Yeon-ji."

As the conversation wrapped up, I pushed Yeon-ji, who had been waiting silently, toward Eugene.

"And what are you going to do?"

At Eugene's question, I shrugged my shoulders.

"I think I'll just rest."

"True, come to think of it, there's not really anything you can do."

"Well, there's that too."

I glanced toward the direction where Alencia had disappeared.

The door she'd exited through was still left open.

"But there are also a few things I want to check first."

***

"Hello, Alencia."

On the screen appeared a single woman.

Sarah Walker.

She smiled as if fully aware that the viewer of this film was her own daughter.

"If you're watching this video, Leon must have shown it to you. I'm sorry to burden him with so much."

This was something Alencia had never heard from her mother before.

Judging by how ill she looked, it must have been filmed on her deathbed.

"You must be wondering, Alencia, why did Mom leave a message like this..."

The smile she hadn't seen in so long was not the gentle one she remembered.

It was a smile that contained only sadness.

"Actually, there is something I never told you."

She paused for a moment, then looked straight out of the screen, directly at Alencia.

"Do you remember the stories I always told you about the other world? The story of the hero and the Saintess who saved the world."

Of course she remembered.

The story of the Saintess who was imprisoned for a thousand years and the hero who rescued her and saved the world together.

That hero, Alencia had met even to this day.

"There's something called the 'Stigmata' for a Saintess. As the chosen Saintess grows, a unique pattern appears gradually on her back."

At those words, Alencia instinctively touched her own back.

The pattern—surely, it must refer to the mark on her own back.

"Yes, just like the one on your back, Alencia."

Sarah said this and slowly closed her eyes.

"... I never wanted this."

No, she hadn't wanted this.

Sarah Walker desperately wanted Alencia to have a normal, human life.

Because she knew only too well what it meant to be a Saintess.

"Certainly, being a Saintess is something special. The power a Saintess possesses is the universal value of humanity in that age, and so she can only become a figure everyone desires."

But the will of the Saintess herself had no place in it.

"Do you remember the Saintess I always talked about? I told you she was imprisoned for a thousand years. Who do you think hid her away for so long?"

The world was ruled by demons, and the powerful humans were all in league with them.

And, the only living Saintess of that era was born with a truly unique power.

The ability to grant 'wishes'.

"In an age when all that humanity had achieved was taken away by the demons, people had only one thing left—to dream of vague hopes, to pray for wishes to come true."

Because people wished for it, the Saintess was born with that power.

Yet, ironically, it was humans themselves who hid her away.

The ones who first found the Saintess—those with power among humans.

They were the ones who imprisoned the Saintess for a thousand years.

-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=

Humans doing shitty things as usual.

【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】