Chapter 241. The Immortal (9)
A chill shot through his spine as if ice had been poured down it, and Enoch narrowed his eyes, staring at the back of the Guard Captain walking ahead.
"Information control — what do you mean?"
"Let's talk inside first. This doesn't seem like something to discuss openly out here."
With that, the Guard Captain shut his mouth.
Enoch glanced around. He didn't know exactly what the man was about to say, but if it required this level of caution, it was surely no trivial matter.
The more he connected it to the current situation — a decisive battle against the magical beast army looming — the worse the premonition felt.
Crossing the building-ringed empty lot and descending the stairs into the underpass, a long gray tunnel stretched out before them.
The iron railings on either side were chipped of paint, and here and there vines crept out from cracked walls as the corridor's scenery slid past.
The interior of the underpass was fairly bright, perhaps running on a separate generator from the city's buildings above.
Glancing up, Enoch saw a long row of pale LED lights along the high ceiling walls, their elongated glow dimly illuminating graffiti designs painted on the walls.
As they rounded the corner opposite the green-glowing [EXIT] pictogram's arrow, the girl in the loose robe who had been leading the way cried out.
"This way! This is our hideout!"
She then approached Lily and April with a bright expression, took each of their hands in hers, and pulled them along.
Lily, unsure what to do, was led forward, while April followed with an awkward smile. Behind them, Enoch and the Guard Captain walked several paces back.
Thanks to the girl volunteering as a guide, the mood had lightened somewhat among the three women, and the irregular click-clack of their shoes on the marble tiles echoed through the passage, lit by the white lights of the corridor.
When the girls had pulled slightly ahead, the Guard Captain glanced at Enoch and continued in a low voice.
"The specifics of the information control are as follows."
"……I'm listening."
"News has spread across the entire 19th Outsourcing District that the freelancers are strategically retreating to annihilate the enemy and will soon achieve victory. It's the same across the various Outsourcing District community boards."
At the absurd claim, Enoch glanced at him. It was blatantly at odds with the actual war situation.
"That's odd. What's the source of the rumor?"
"Our Underground informants investigated. To put it bluntly, the origin of the rumor is a Victoria officer. A man called Shepherd."
Shepherd. At that unexpected name, Enoch snapped his head around to look at him.
Come to think of it, since returning from the solo mission, he hadn't heard what Shepherd — the very man who had given him the order — had been up to. So he had been pulling strings like this behind the scenes.
"Then could the reason the Outsourcing District feels strangely peaceful right now also be because of that?"
Suddenly, something Nano had said before crossed his mind.
She had said the people of the Outsourcing District were "staying because they had hope." But the current situation had gone beyond what that alone could explain.
Sure enough, the Guard Captain nodded.
"As you guessed, the peaceful atmosphere in the Outsourcing District right now is also a product of that information control. The war reports being delivered to the citizens have been fabricated."
"That's hard to understand. If Shepherd really is spreading such rumors and controlling information, what's the reason?"
"Most likely, he feared that if the people inside the Outsourcing District sensed defeat was coming, uncontrollable incidents would break out. So he disguised the war situation. The citizens of the Outsourcing District are the sort who, in extreme circumstances, are capable of anything."
"Well, either way, this is a lie anyone would see through quickly."
Enoch rejected the possibility outright.
It was hard to accept. After all, just climbing any slightly elevated terrain inside the Outsourcing District — a hill or a building — was enough to see the entire freelancer defensive line with the naked eye.
"Maybe not right now, but the moment fighting starts, the fact that the freelancers are losing will be exposed immediately."
To begin with, if the surviving freelancers shared what they had experienced with the Outsourcing District's citizens, the truth would come out — a flimsy ploy.
Shepherd surely wasn't unaware of that, so why was he running such a sloppy operation?
The stark white ceiling lamp gave an ominous crackle and flickered once.
The white lamplight cast a checkerboard pattern of squares across the darkened tunnel floor. Feeling as though he were walking across a chessboard, Enoch slowly raised his head.
"On top of that, the front line has moved close to the Outsourcing District wall, so once the battle starts, having lied about the war situation up to now will only backfire."
"Right, since the battle will be broadcast live right under the citizens' noses, the truth will be laid bare. I couldn't make sense of that part either."
The Guard Captain walking beside him added, "However," and shrugged.
"It wasn't an incomprehensible measure."
"Not incomprehensible, you say."
Just as Enoch was turning that strange remark over in his mind, the corridor rounded a corner, and suddenly, before his eyes, the panorama of a vast underground plaza revealed itself.
Victoria's 19th Outsourcing District, non-mage residential zone.
The Underground.
Looking over the railing, the corridor they had followed turned out to be at roughly the height of a tenth floor relative to the underground plaza below.
Thanks to that vantage, the entire cityscape was visible from here.
Buildings lined up side by side like an underground shopping arcade, iron ladders, and cargo boxes storing all manner of goods were spread out across the subterranean city.
Neon signs and LED billboards glowing here and there — the clean, orderly atmosphere of the cityscape was awe-inspiring in its sheer scale, even on a second look.
"W, wow. I've never seen a place like this……!!"
Lily, who had arrived first, was sparkling with wonder beside him. The Guard Captain, with practiced ease, turned his upper body and gestured to Enoch with a look.
"You must be curious about what I said earlier — that it wasn't an incomprehensible measure. Follow me. There's something I want to show you."
Following him down a side path, a small facility came into view not far away.
Lily tilted her head beside him.
"Hm? Is this a hospital?"
"Yes! That's right, it's a place where they rush injured patients from outside to treat them! This section is where kids around my age are gathered!"
It was the girl in the loose robe who answered her question. Lily widened her eyes in surprise at that.
"Come in."
Following the Outsourcing District girl and the Guard Captain inside, the place did indeed look like a medical facility.
In the wide interior partitioned by curtains, children lay in white beds or wandered about.
Amid the sharp smell of medicine, Enoch noticed children passing by with bandaged arms, then turned to the Guard Captain.
"Why are these children injured? If this is a facility caring for people hurt outside, then they must have been harmed by someone on the surface of the Outsourcing District."
"Freelancers."
"What?"
Suddenly, the image of the freelancers harassing the girl from earlier flashed through Enoch's mind.
Did that mean what had happened to the girl just now — freelancers threatening and causing a scene — wasn't a one-time occurrence?
Checking the severity of the children's injuries, it was clear that unlike the girl they had just seen, other members of the Outsourcing District had suffered considerably worse.
As Enoch was digesting that fact, the Guard Captain continued walking deeper inside.
"Whether there's an ulterior motive behind the information control, I don't know. But from our perspective, it wasn't incomprehensible. As you can see, the freelancers who know the real war situation are turning into unleashed hounds, broken by despair."
In other words, the freelancers remaining to fight in the Outsourcing District were becoming an increasing problem.
As Enoch paused to gather his thoughts after hearing that, the girl who had been guiding Lily suddenly noticed her nun's habit and tilted her head.
"Excuse me, that outfit. Are you a Healer from The Order, by any chance?"
"Y, yes, I am!"
"Then, could you maybe heal just the ones among my friends who are hurt the worst?"
Lily immediately looked over at Enoch, exchanged a glance to receive his silent approval, and nodded, her eyes lighting up as she turned to the child before her.
"Yes, I'll do my best. Will you show me the way?"
"Yes! It's further inside!"
The young girl took the lead in front of Lily and guided her toward the inner ward.
Watching April follow behind Lily with a slightly worried expression — acting as her chaperone — Enoch turned to the Guard Captain and asked,
"So you're saying that controlling information and maintaining daily life is actually better for quelling the chaos in the Outsourcing District?"
"That's right. The Lantern Festival preparations have been significantly scaled down, but the fact that we're continuing them at all is in that same vein. The problem is we made far too many with only two days left."
"The Lantern Festival, huh."
Enoch repeated it, then noticed something.
The children in the beds, bandages wrapped around parts of their bodies, sat there cradling sky lanterns as big as their upper bodies, diligently crafting them.
Glancing out the ward window, Enoch looked up at the sky of the underground city and was momentarily speechless.
Countless sky lanterns hung in the underground sky.
Handmade lanterns, crafted by the people themselves, dangled from lines strung across the darkness of the Underground's corridors.
They seemed to be drying the paste that way.
Looking closely, the finished sky lanterns resembled small hot-air balloons — a combustion device at the bottom, and atop slender ribs, a large rectangular sheet of cloth.
Idly thinking that if all those devices took flight ablaze it would surely be a magnificent sight, Enoch turned his gaze.
"They've certainly made an enormous number. But if the event in two days has been scaled down, then most of these will……"
"Probably be discarded. If the war hasn't ended by then, launching sky lanterns en masse could provoke the magical beasts. A modest ceremony is the most they can manage, I'm told."
As expected, the Guard Captain said it matter-of-factly.
"These lanterns were the hope and the prayer of us non-mages. The will to live, held by those unrecognized by this society."
After saying that much, the Guard Captain glanced at the innocent faces of the Outsourcing District children lying in their beds, and let out a deep sigh.
"……But it seems, this time, these lanterns may never shine in the night sky."
Enoch, too, silently watched the children lying and sitting in their beds.
Sky lanterns destined to be discarded in the darkness, never to take flight — the Outsourcing District's children held them tenderly in their arms, stroking them.
The Guard Captain stepped closer and said,
"Forgive me for going on so long. The Lantern Festival is the only event that we non-mages can participate in, so it holds great significance — that's why everyone prepares for it so passionately."
He shook his head.
"In the end, to you outsiders fighting on the battlefield, the festival preparations themselves must seem galling."
"Well, I don't particularly think preparing the Lantern Festival is wrong."
Enoch shook his head as he replied.
"It's not as though materials already being used to make lanterns could suddenly be repurposed as resources or fire support for battle."
The Guard Captain froze in place as though struck at the core, staring at Enoch.
Then he slowly shook his hooded head.
"Honestly, I'm surprised. At first I didn't trust you much, but now my mind's changed."
"Why's that?"
"I've heard everything about this battle. If the Direct Lineage of Elsyde had wanted to run, there would've been ways. But you, Direct Lineage — you stayed on this wrecked battlefield instead."
He looked Enoch straight in the eye and added,
"I never expected you'd still be willing to fight here even after things had deteriorated this far. And for that, from the position of those you're protecting, I'm sincerely grateful."
Before Enoch's quiet gaze, the man respectfully bowed his hooded head.
"If you've come looking for me, it must mean you need the latest intelligence on this Outsourcing District. If you wish, I'll provide everything I know."
"I appreciate the goodwill. But I'm not here to ask a great many things."
There was no need to ask much to begin with, but there was one thing he wanted to hear clearly. Enoch raised his head and fixed his gaze on him.
"What's the overall mood among the freelancers who've returned to the Outsourcing District?"
"As you can see, cases of freelancers — whether those evacuated to the rear with injuries or those who've returned from the front for resupply — committing violence against the Outsourcing District's citizens are increasing. There have been casualties."
He added gravely,
"As I said before, they're a pack of stray dogs on the verge of running wild with their leashes off. The irony being that these same people are the ones protecting us right now."
"You're remarkably well-informed."
He leaned back and spread both arms wide in a gesture as if to say, look around.
"As you can see, we're residents of the Underground. As non-mages at the very bottom of the Outsourcing District's food chain, if we aren't sharp with news and information, we can't survive."
Enoch suddenly recalled scenes from when he had been working as a freelancer. Indeed, at the time, the Underground's network had kept a keen eye on the freelancers' movements.
"Don't you resent them?"
"I won't deny it. But there's also compassion."
The Guard Captain looked up at the ceiling. The lamp on the high underground ceiling cast stark white light over his hooded face.
"We citizens of the Underground, cooped up in this sunless place underground, have many who are psychologically unstable. There are many who need treatment for depression."
"……What are you getting at?"
"That we understand frustration and despair better than anyone — that's what I'm saying."
"……"
"And that's how I can tell, Direct Lineage. The freelancers too have lost all hope through these battles. That's why they're all floundering."
The Guard Captain lowered his gaze to Enoch.
"Someone must become their hope."
"Hope, you say."
"I'll be blunt. Direct Lineage, the freelancers on the front line resent you, I'm told."
Resent. At his sudden words, Enoch tilted his head. The Guard Captain shrugged.
"Even if they're mercenaries…… freelancers accustomed to being expendable, they didn't expect that someone of Direct Lineage from a Main House would so openly drive them into a death trap."
"Are you saying they're no longer willing to carry out the commission?"
"Exactly. They're bound by contract for now, but if their lives truly start feeling precious, frankly speaking, a mutiny wouldn't be out of the question."
Enoch nodded. It was exactly what April had said back at the hotel. That the freelancers might not follow his lead.
The wretched state of the Outsourcing District's current defensive line came back to him anew.
Granted they had been fresh recruits, but Victoria's regular army unit had been wiped out at the start, and since then the freelancer corps had also suffered devastating losses.
On top of that, the enemy moved in organized formations like an army, and their leader was an unprecedented foe — an Experimental Subject magical beast that hurled magic of 13th Rank or higher.
Honestly, this entire affair had far exceeded what the Outsourcing District's freelancers could handle collectively.
Lives cannot be traded for money. Above all, the risk-to-return ratio of this incident was absurdly poor.
When the Elsyde Main House had hired the Outsourcing District freelancers, they had backed a no-small sum as promised compensation, but weighed against the enemy's numbers and strength, even ten times that might be a losing deal.
"Given the situation, it's only natural for freelancers to spit out their advance payment and walk away from the commission."
"That's right. However, despite all that, one thing is certain."
The Guard Captain declared,
"Direct Lineage. If you don't rally the freelancers who remain here, you will lose. Without question."
"……"
"Even I, a non-mage, knew it the moment I heard the war reports. If you can't unite the remaining freelancers and lead them, you simply won't be able to hold against the tide of enemies."
Enoch couldn't deny that. But even as he pondered whether it was possible and asked himself, no answer came.
Just then, he felt someone tugging at the hem of his shirt from beside him.
Turning his head, a girl was standing there.
About the same age as the child who had guided them here. But the white bandages wound tightly around her arms and legs made it all too easy to imagine what she had been through.
Yet unlike Enoch, who was momentarily at a loss seeing the bandage-covered girl, she hugged her sky lantern tightly, gazing up at him with bright, sparkling eyes.
"Excuse me, I heard you're the big brother who saved my friend before? She said a super strong freelancer big sister and a famous big brother helped her."
"I think that's probably right."
"Um, I have a favor to ask!"
She held the sky lantern up in both hands, raising it to hide her face, and cried out,
"I want to see the Lantern Festival! Is that possible?"
At the pure sincerity of the girl who had come all the way here to ask, Enoch knelt on one knee before her, met her eyes, and quietly nodded.
"Sure. I promise. You'll get to see it."
"Wow! Really? Ehehe, I'm so glad!"
The little girl smiled with relief at those words and scurried off.
Beside her, other Outsourcing District children ran past, clutching the sky lanterns they had been making, fluttering the curtains hung beside the beds.
Enoch, still kneeling, silently watched the children running about around him. Then, from behind, the Guard Captain placed a gloved hand on his shoulder.
"I beg of you, Direct Lineage. What happened to these children is only a warning. Far more brutal things are sure to come. Someone must stand up and face them."
Enoch stared straight ahead, expressionless.
He could understand what the man was saying, but whether it could truly be done was another matter entirely.
To begin with, he was a non-mage — a tragic genius blessed with sword talent unrecognized by the Empire, who had fought merely to survive.
He had never had the luxury of becoming some hero who saved people without reason, and that was still the case now.
But the Guard Captain, too, was a non-mage.
Like Enoch, unrecognized by society, he — even as his own people were being unjustly sacrificed — had not been consumed by resentment or grief. He had simply told him to do what needed to be done.
……And as it happened.
What Enoch himself had set as his objective for this mission was not so different from what the Guard Captain had said.
Just then, a tap on his shoulder made Enoch turn his head. Beside him, April had approached, wearing her ball cap pulled low.
"What is it?"
"Ah, well. I just got a message from Nano, and?"
April seemed to weigh her words for a moment, then turned the terminal screen in her hand to show him.
"Direct Lineage, this. I think you should see it."
Checking the terminal April handed over, a message from Nano had arrived.
[Nano: Miss Freelancer! Are you with the Direct Lineage-mka? Urgent contact just came in — the magical beast horde is showing signs of advancing toward us-mda!]
[Nano: Calculating from the distance of the enemy's retreat and their movement speed, observation results estimate one day until arrival-mda!]
One day.
A chill ran down his spine. A gust of wind suddenly swept in from somewhere. The breeze coursing through the underground passage fluttered the hem of Enoch's shirt, not strongly, just once.
He returned the terminal to April, raised his head, and organized his thoughts.
In the end, what needed to be done hadn't changed.
What was about to unfold here — overturning the tragic conclusion that was supposed to happen according to Official History.
At the end of this long mission, only a single decisive battle remained. Tomorrow, the magical beasts' total offensive would begin. If they failed to hold them back then, this side — unable to sustain the severe attrition — would be breached and the Outsourcing District overrun.
Then, as expected, there was a need to strike Anarchilon — the last entity commanding the magical beasts.
It was beginning. The final decisive battle. The day of the ultimate showdown.
Treading upon the land of Victoria, where countless soldiers and freelancers had died and even non-mage children of the Outsourcing District had been sacrificed, Enoch walked forward without looking back.
Images overlapped in his mind.
Enoch recalled the brilliant figures of his squad members, who only moments ago had been laughing and chatting brightly inside the hotel, and slowly walked on.
He reaffirmed one more objective.
At the very least, within his reach — he would not allow a single person to meet a tragic fate.