Brock Renner stopped by the gambling hall as planned.
He enjoyed the game while betting the little money he had, and luck happened to be on his side today.
Before he knew it, his starting capital had multiplied twelvefold.
“What’s with all of you? Looks like your instincts are pretty lousy today.”
Renner collected his winnings with a smile full of greed.
This was enough to recover all the principal he had poured into gambling so far, with a hefty amount of interest on top.
This was exactly why he couldn’t quit gambling. That intense rush from one big hit!
He would probably keep gambling even if someone cut off his wrists.
“…….”
“Look at those miserable faces. I’m feeling generous. I’ll leave you enough to cover your expenses, so cheer the fuck up.”
Renner shoved several bills into his companions’ hands.
Yet these bastards still refused to relax their expressions.
“Did you all swallow antidepressants or something? Why the fuck are you acting like this? Did something happen?”
Brock Renner had deliberately kept a smile on his face, but it soon disappeared.
His companions, who normally laughed so loudly while playing that the entire gambling hall could hear them, were far too quiet.
What was wrong with them?
Their expressions were dark, and they looked anxious.
When no one answered, one of his companions let out a long sigh and poured himself a drink.
“…If we’d swallowed antidepressants, the depression should’ve gotten better.”
“Fine, you tell me. What is it? What happened? Don’t tell me… something happened to Boss. Did you get in touch with him?”
“…….”
The atmosphere grew even heavier the moment the word ‘Boss’ came up.
Renner asked with a sudden sense of foreboding.
“D-Don’t tell me… Boss actually died…….”
“We still haven’t been able to contact him, so don’t say ominous shit like that.”
“Right? He didn’t, right? Fuck, you nearly scared the shit out of me. …Then what is it? Stop keeping me in suspense and spit it out.”
“…….”
His companion downed the whiskey in his glass in one gulp.
He looked like he was about to say something, but stopped himself.
“Let’s just play. You seem pretty lucky today. Let’s see how long it lasts.”
His companion cleared the table and began dealing the cards again.
Renner couldn’t understand what was happening.
Come to think of it, had he even talked with them about anything related to the organization today?
They had barely talked at all, and even when they had, it had only been meaningless chatter.
Almost as if they were forcing themselves to keep the conversation going.
“…….”
Once that thought occurred to him, Renner gradually became aware of the rest of the gambling hall.
He had wondered why it seemed so quiet.
There was almost no one inside.
Normally, the tables would have been packed with customers making nuisances of themselves, but now they were practically deserted.
The place wasn’t filled with cigarette smoke either, and the music seemed to have been deliberately turned up to fill the emptiness.
Renner’s eyes moved quickly around the room.
Eventually, one of his companions asked.
“What are you doing? Aren’t you playing?”
“…….”
“Renner?”
“I need to drain some water.”
“What?”
“I said I’m going to the bathroom. If you don’t want to wait, play a round without me.”
Renner stood up.
Everyone’s eyes turned toward him, and one man rose as well, saying that he would go with him.
Renner frowned in irritation and shoved his hand into his trouser pocket.
“Why the hell are we all going together? You planning to unzip my pants for me?”
“…….”
“Otherwise, sit down and wait. I’ll be right back.”
Renner pressed down hard on the shoulder of the companion standing beside him.
But the man didn’t budge, and Renner let out a dry laugh.
He had figured everything out.
These men were no longer his companions.
“You bastards really don’t have a shred of loyalty.”
CRASH—!
Renner kicked the table over.
A sudden move.
At the same time, he pulled a thin flask from his pocket and hurled it to the floor.
It contained highly concentrated mana solution.
And a formula had already been prepared inside the flask.
FWOOSH—!
The gambling hall instantly filled with black gas.
Amid the chaos, Renner’s companions inhaled the gas and cried out in pain.
Someone shouted.
“Brock Renner is getting away!”
CRASH—!
Renner smashed through a window and escaped.
They were on the third floor, but he had decided that anything was better than getting caught there.
HONK! HOOOONK!
Car horns blared noisily outside the building.
Whether because he was skilled at escaping or for some other reason, Renner moved extremely quickly.
“Damn. We should’ve just taken him down. We waited to see if he’d spill any useful information and blew our chance. Cough, cough.”
Fabian had been waiting deeper inside the gambling hall for a chance to strike.
A revolver with one round already fired was in his hand.
Fabian watched his target escape from the ‘first trap’ with a hollow expression, then turned toward the criminals the police were restraining once again.
Then again, with Renner’s companions putting on acting that terrible, it would’ve been harder not to notice something was wrong.
‘What is this? They might as well be advertising, “We got caught by the Special Unit first and cut a deal with them—.”’
HISSSSS—!
Fabian used the steam from his Mobility Gear to drive the black gas out of the gambling hall.
He had lost the target.
He might have felt frustrated about letting his target slip away right in front of him, but he wasn’t worried.
After all.
How could someone feel anxious when the thought that the target might truly escape had never even crossed his mind?
HISSSSS—!
The sound of steam venting from Mobility Gear came from the rooftop of a nearby building.
Then something black plunged downward at tremendous speed, like an eagle diving upon its prey.
The team leader.
Han Augustus.
The black figure, which at first looked as though it were simply falling, suddenly seemed to become an actual bird as it shot after Brock Renner.
‘Hoho…. Mobility Gear shouldn’t have a gliding function.’
Several hours before they had been deployed on the operation.
The team members had practiced coordinating with one another, and Fabian had been left staring with his mouth hanging open.
During his time with the Covert Mobile Unit, he thought he had already seen every hotshot who claimed to be a master of Mobility Gear.
But Han Augustus.
Their Easterner team leader’s skill with Mobility Gear was on an entirely different level.
“If you chased me like that, even I’d be terrified.”
Fabian chuckled and soon let out another impressed “Ooh.”
In his eyes, Han Augustus flew freely between the buildings.
Fiercely.
Sharply.
Driving the criminal into a corner.
***
“Haah! Haah!”
Brock Renner fled while panting heavily.
Clutching the arm Fabian had shot, he ran for his life.
Yet he couldn’t shake the single Special Unit member pursuing him.
‘W-What the hell is that guy?!’
No.
It wasn’t merely that he couldn’t shake him.
For some reason, Renner felt as though he were being deliberately guided.
Was it because his injured arm had slowed him down?
He was obviously the one fleeing.
He was the one choosing which direction to run.
‘Then why does it feel like I’m moving exactly where that bastard wants me to…?’
The man pursued him by using the structures between the buildings as footholds.
Renner couldn’t shake the feeling that if the man had truly wanted to catch him, he would already have been captured.
‘No, I’m not imagining it…!’
After passing through several more alleys, Renner became certain.
Ever since the first moment he had fled, Renner hadn’t reached a main road even once.
His feet kept carrying him into narrow alleys that were difficult to escape from.
Routes with few pedestrians, where innocent people were unlikely to be harmed.
‘Damn it! Isn’t there anything I can do? At this rate, I’ll keep dancing to his tune until he catches me!’
If only he could at least take a hostage!
As Renner forced the muscles in his weakening legs to keep moving with that thought in mind—
‘I knew today was my lucky day.’
Renner’s lips curled into a grin.
He had spotted a girl who didn’t look old enough to be an adult.
She looked frail.
If he used magic on her or put a knife to her throat, she would surely tremble in fear and piss herself.
VZZZZT—!
Renner constructed a formula faster than he ever had in his life.
Was it the desperate struggle of a man trying to survive?
The speed was easily enough to match the Fourth Tier.
Using the formula he had completed in an instant, he hurled compressed black gas toward the man pursuing him.
FWOOSH—!
The gas erupted like a storm cloud.
It was more powerful than the gas inside the flask.
Its speed was high, but more importantly, the formula’s completion was excellent.
The moment someone inhaled it, paralysis would spread throughout their entire body and send them crashing down.
“Stay still if you don’t want to die!”
The warning was directed at both Han and the hostage.
Renner threatened the hostage with his uninjured arm and turned around.
But then.
‘What?’
The space between the buildings, shrouded in black gas, was silent.
If the man had fallen, Renner should have heard something.
‘Did he dodge it? When? Where?’
Renner hurriedly moved his eyes around, searching his surroundings.
His pulse raced faster than it ever had before.
Sweat covered his hand, nearly making him drop the knife he was gripping.
‘Where is he? Where?!’
The Special Unit required Mobility Gear to move at high speed.
Yet Renner couldn’t hear so much as the sound of steam.
It felt like he was going insane.
“Get this away from me.”
Was he in that gap over there?
Or on the rooftop of this building?
Or could he possibly be behind him?
“I said get it away from me.”
Renner searched everywhere with his pupils fully dilated, but he still couldn’t find him.
Where the hell was that man……?!
“Ah, bastard. You’re really getting on my nerves.”
THUD—!!
In that instant.
Brock Renner shot into the sky.
Thick blood sprayed from his mouth.
The hostage he had been holding was nowhere to be seen, and the only thing before him was the bright white full moon.
‘What the hell just happened……?!’
Renner had no idea what had been done to him, but one thing was certain.
‘This is dangerous!’
Renner had never learned advanced magic such as flight magic.
His body continued soaring higher until his upward momentum finally reached its turning point.
All that remained was the accelerating fall toward the ground.
A gruesome death.
But fortunately, if one could call it fortunate, Renner—
“—won’t die. Unfortunately, the Republic hasn’t permitted your death yet.”
White steam rose into the night sky like a towering tornado cloud.
At some point, Han Augustus had been propelled even higher with the help of Lara’s wind magic.
Bathed entirely in moonlight, he almost looked like a prince who had come to rescue Renner.
“…Though you’ll take a hit that stops just short of killing you.”
That was, if one ignored the ‘killing intent’ aimed at the criminal and the ‘Automatic Arm packed full of condensed mana.’
HISSSSS—!
Han’s left arm swung forward while releasing steam just like his Mobility Gear.
A single blow combining Han’s physical strength and magical power.
Han’s fist, carrying exactly enough force to stop short of killing him, slammed squarely into Renner’s abdomen.
BOOOOM—!
Without even a chance to resist, Renner plummeted downward with a sound like his flesh had burst apart.
The acceleration was tremendous, like that of a meteor.
Overwhelmed by the horrific pain, Renner lost consciousness as he crashed toward the ground.
***
Just as Han had said, Renner didn’t die.
Lara, who had already been prepared below, caught him perfectly.
“Wow……. At this point, dying might’ve hurt less.”
Lara had created a cushion out of water and wind.
Renner was suspended inside something resembling a gigantic slime.
She released the magic before Renner could drown.
If she left him like this, he would die before they could even put him on trial.
Once he fell out of the magic, Renner looked like a fish pulled from the water.
No.
Like a dead fish being sold at the market.
“The blow to his shoulder blade was your magic, wasn’t it?”
Han landed lightly on the ground soon afterward.
He spoke as though none of this had been his fault.
“So if he dies like this, we’re both responsible…. Is that what you mean?”
“I checked everything before striking him, so he didn’t die.”
At Han’s words, Lara lightly nudged Renner’s head with her foot.
Renner immediately coughed up blood and water.
Just as Han had said, he wasn’t dead.
“Wow, our Team Leader. You’re not just good at chasing people. You’re pretty damn good at beating them up too.”
Lara grinned mischievously.
Han raised his gaze toward the place where the black gas had erupted.
“None of the gas leaked out, right?”
“I formed a double wind barrier just in case, so you don’t have to worry.”
Lara compressed Renner’s magic, turning all the black gas into a small orb.
Then she proudly held it out to Han and bragged, “Here, look! Perfect, right?”
Han accepted the orb and examined it thoroughly before deciding that there was no problem.
“Well done.”
“Well, I am a once-in-a-generation genius. Anyway, this wasn’t bad for our first mission, right?”
Han nodded.
There had been a few uncertain elements, but in the end, they had successfully arrested Brock Renner.
Not only that, but they had also captured the members of his organization.
As a bonus, Han had gotten a measure of his teammates as well.
It was more than enough to call the operation a success.
CLICK—.
Han grabbed Renner’s wrist and locked Magic-Suppressing Silver handcuffs around it.
All that remained now was to deal with the aftermath and return.
“Come to think of it, I heard the rest of the team members will be joining us starting the day after tomorrow.”
“Ah, we’re finally going to see their faces? They took so long that I thought they’d quit already. ……Hmm. I hope they aren’t weird.”
“For example?”
“Someone like Fabian? Hmm, but dealing with someone mentally unstable or a coward might be difficult too. It seems like they’d be hard to work with on missions.”
“…….”
Han, who had been dragging Renner along, suddenly stopped walking.
Then, as though nothing had happened, he started moving again.
“…I think you’ll manage to get along with them in your own way.”
Han muttered so quietly that Lara couldn’t hear him.
***
Meanwhile, night had fallen over a luxurious mansion.
This elegant old mansion had been passed down since the days when the family still held a dukedom, and eagle figures symbolizing the family could be found throughout the estate.
Majestic statues that looked as though they might take flight at any moment.
The only place where no eagle had made its nest was the room of Violet, the third daughter of the Bradin Conglomerate.
“…….”
She placed the newspaper she had finished reading on the table.
The publication date was from five years ago.
“…So he didn’t lose only his parents and his left arm.”
A trace of sorrow could be seen in her eyes as they remained fixed on a small article in one corner of the page.
An article about Han Augustus.
It told the story of a pitiful Easterner who had lost one arm and both of his parents to a thrill killer, then vowed revenge and joined the Special Unit.
But there was a sentence she hadn’t remembered while aboard the passenger ship.
[Miss Han Anna (six years old at the time, younger sister) has been transferred to the Capital Hospital and remains unconscious.]
“Capital Hospital….”
Was she still there even now?
Violet murmured softly and remained there for a long time.