novelraw Chapter 121
Chapter 121
Chapter 121
“In what twist of fate did the man who ruined my life end up here?”
Lexus asked mockingly as he handed me a cup while I sat on the guest sofa.
He must have thought of me as a half-decent paying customer, since he went through the trouble of dropping a synthetic green tea bag into the water. But I didn’t put it to my lips.
Not because it was poisoned… but because the cup itself had chips all over the rim, and the bottom was stained with what looked like a thick, dried-up coffee mark.
There was no way this penniless man had been drinking coffee, a luxury good, so it had to be some other kind of residue. Even though poison didn’t affect me thanks to [Poison Immunity], I still had no intention of drinking from that.
“…Lexus Bane.”
I met my opponent’s eyes.
Lexus Bane was an elite.
Born in Sector C, he worked in the Special Division of the New Valhalla City Police Department for five years. After that, he was active for over a decade as a homicide detective before retiring.
His stellar career was recognized, and after retirement, the Stingray Group hired him. He spent roughly twelve years continuing to fight monsters.
Then, about seven or eight years ago.
When I, Aaron Stingray, was in my early twenties, he ended up crossing me. And for that, he was kicked out without even his severance pay.
“Do you still hold a grudge against me?”
“You ask the obvious. I’ve never forgotten that day for even a single moment. The reason I’m living like this is all because of you.”
It was only natural that he resented me. Still, I couldn’t help but feel a little wronged.
Not only did I have to clean up the mess the old Aaron made before I transmigrated into him, but truth be told, Lexus’s downfall was largely his own doing.
And above all else…
“You said you thought of me every single day? You lie so easily.”
It was only because I showed up in front of him today that those old emotions resurfaced. He hadn’t been living while thinking of me at all. The proof was plastered right on his face.
“From the looks of it, you had quite the enjoyable night, Lexus.”
“What? Ah…!”
There was a kiss mark stuck on his cheek. And he wanted me to believe that until just moments ago, his thoughts were consumed with me? Please, no. That was just disgusting.
“Ah, that’s… what was it! Right, ‘face painting!’ A cultural thing among us common folk that people from the heavens wouldn’t know about!”
“Hmm? Then what’s this here?”
“E-Evangeline, don’t touch that! It’s dirty! Dirty!”
Evangeline, who was sitting next to me, had tugged out a black cloth scrap from between the sofa cushions. Maria, horrified, quickly wiped Evangeline’s hand clean and pulled her into her arms to stop her from touching anything else weird.
I’d never seen Maria so pale before.
“……”
With Evangeline pulling out undeniable evidence, Lexus, his face slightly flushed, raised his voice defensively.
“Damn it, why’d you bring a kid here?! This isn’t a daycare! What are you even doing dragging a kid into a place like this? Don’t tell me she’s yours? You’re not married yet, so what—did you come here to ask me to take care of a kid born from a shotgun marriage?”
“……”
“W-What’s with those faces? Don’t tell me it’s true?”
“…No.”
I only wanted to cut down on this pointless, exhausting chatter and get to the main point.
Maria’s expression was simply one of disgust toward Lexus. She usually kept her face in check, but it seemed this time the revulsion was too strong.
Scratching his head awkwardly at my answer, Lexus muttered,
“What? And here I almost felt soft for a second. If you’d lied just a bit, you could’ve used me for free. Too bad, huh?”
“……”
“What’re you looking at like that? I may look rough, but deep down, I’m a man more delicate than a teenage girl, you know?”
“……”
Haah.
I let out a short sigh. I needed to cut straight to the point. If I let Lexus control the pace of this exchange, we’d waste the whole day bickering without end.
I flicked a business card onto the table in front of him. It was the one Director Patton had given me earlier.
“Joshua Patton asked me to help you return.”
“That bastard Joshua? Ha. What a pointless thing…”
“It’s not bad news. From the look of it, you’ve had a rough time these past years.”
“Yeah? And what makes you say that?”
To that, I simply jerked my chin toward him.
“Your face. It’s been a long time since you had anti-aging surgery.”
Lexus now had the face of a man unmistakably in middle age. Wrinkles were etched deep, and his hair and beard had begun to turn gray.
Anti-aging surgery lasted for several years, but without follow-up procedures, the patient’s body rapidly aged back to their real age.
Though Lexus appeared to have just entered middle age, his actual age had already passed sixty.
He must have started the surgeries in his early thirties, back when he was with Stingray, and received them regularly then.
But after being fired, he probably couldn’t afford the upkeep anymore—maybe only managing one more session in the early days of retirement.
Up until just last year, his face must have still looked fresh in his thirties. But missing that follow-up surgery meant he took the full brunt of aging all at once.
And that wasn’t the end of it.
“Your modules must be failing too.”
Combat modules, after all, were consumable equipment.
Just like a computer’s CPU or graphics card eventually wears out and needs replacing, modules too reach the end of their lifespan and must be swapped.
But Lexus, who had barely a dime to his name, couldn’t possibly have acquired new combat modules during that time. He was surely still using the ones from when he’d worked with Stingray.
Which meant he was running on gear nearly ten years old. Could that even function properly? Hard to say.
“You haven’t been receiving nanomachine OS updates either, have you?”
Naturally, the nanomachines in Lexus’s body hadn’t received any official updates.
When he was fired from Stingray, his nanomachine specs would have been downgraded to ‘civilian use.’ But to earn real money as a fixer, that power wouldn’t have been nearly enough.
To unlock the restriction, he would’ve needed either government approval with a special designation… or else—
“You had your nanomachine specs illegally adjusted by the Mafia.”
That would’ve cut him off from official OS updates. And of course, those scoundrels wouldn’t have done it for free.
“Which means you’re heavily in debt to them too.”
Since he had no means of repaying, he must have lived by handling the dirty jobs they didn’t want to deal with themselves.
But the more he dealt with such work, the harder it would be for him to receive any special government designation. The vicious cycle of being bound ever tighter to the Mafia repeated endlessly.
Thus, the life of Lexus Bane—
From elite, to the bottom rung.
What was amusing was that the Stingray Group hadn’t even lifted a finger in this. They had simply fired a troublesome Security Division employee “according to the law.”
But anyone who once tasted the sweet nectar Stingray provided would forever wander in search of that flavor again.
Had Lexus Bane not turned to the Mafia, and instead taken years to steadily build up a business from the ground, he would likely have regained his footing by now as a top-tier fixer, one officially recognized by the government.
But he hadn’t.
Because he had been too thirsty for his lost glory, and drank saltwater he should never have touched.
“…So you’ve done a fair amount of digging into me, haven’t you?”
“No. Just simple deduction.”
It was the truth.
I hadn’t asked Maria to investigate Lexus, nor was his life even given much weight in the original story.
He first appeared as an enemy to the protagonist’s party, cornering them in terrifying ways, only to be moved at the last moment by the protagonist’s eloquent speech—infamously called “Wind Release Talk-no-Jutsu”—and repent.
After that, as an ally, his life was only ever hinted at through offhand lines.
Not that it mattered here. What mattered was—
“You need money, Lexus Bane.”
“What an amazing deduction. Everyone else sees this office and thinks I’m some rich young master, yet you saw through me at a glance. As expected of the Crown Prince.”
Lexus sneered.
Then he leaned back deeply, pulling a cheap cigarette from his tattered shirt pocket. With a flick of his finger, his index knuckle bent backward, transforming into a lighter as a flame shot up.
“…Never mind.”
But just before lighting it, he glanced toward my side, grimaced, and shoved the cigarette back into his pocket.
No doubt conscious of Evangeline’s presence.
Haaa…
With a long sigh, he scratched his bare forehead and asked,
“How much is the job worth?”
“How much do you need right now?”
“Hm.”
Feigning thought, he sipped at his teacup and replied,
“About a hundred million… no, two hundred million Credits?”
“I’ll give it.”
“What!? Ku—khaahhh…!”
At my immediate answer, Lexus choked on his tea and burst into coughing fits. Swearing, he wiped his shirt sleeve across his mouth before narrowing his eyes at me.
That gaze was sharp.
“There’s no reason a Crown Prince would come to such a shabby place to tell lies. What is it you’re really trying to hire me for?”
“It isn’t a job. It’s a proposal. Joshua Patton asked me to bring you back.”
“Don’t lie. Since when have you been the type of boss to grant a subordinate’s request? Or what, did Joshua stab you with a heartfelt letter or something?”
“You still churn out unfunny jokes, Lexus Bane.”
“Damn it. The women I met at the pub last night thought it was hilarious. It’s your high-society sense of humor that’s broken.”
Lexus muttered, frowning again.
“You’ll have to tell me straight if I’m to take the job or not. Or what, you can’t tell me unless I accept?”
“No. As I said, I’m not here to hire you.”
“Figures. If it were you, you’d have gone to government-designated fixers instead. Still, there’s that… hope, you know? That maybe you’ve got a kind of work you can’t entrust to someone with government ties…”
“…Enough. I’ll be going.”
“W-Wait! I was wrong, sir! No—Chairman! Your Highness the Crown Prince!”
He looked about ready to prostrate himself on the floor, so I sat back down. Only then did Lexus cautiously follow suit, meeting my gaze once more.
“S-So? What is it then? Why are you here?”
“Do you know my position, Bane?”
“You’re the CEO of the Stingray Human Resources Development Foundation. You scout new talent across the city…”
“Then that should be enough.”
I told him clearly.
“I intend to hire you, Lexus Bane. Not for the Stingray Security Division, but as a private tutor at the Academy, to guide and manage my students.”
“…You want me to be a teacher?”
“And one more thing.”
I hadn’t originally planned to entrust this to him, but I decided just now. Since he kept doubting my intentions, I needed to toss him some bait.
“Whether you can pull it off, I don’t know. But if you succeed, I’ll pay you extra.”
“An additional job?”
“Yes.”
I nodded.
“I want you to block my marriage.”