"Five thousand Pi."
"Let's go with two thousand Pi. It's a nuisance that won't sell anyway."
"I'd rather not sell at all."
"Then three thousand Pi."
"Four thousand."
"Three thousand."
"Three thousand seven hundred. No more than that."
"Fine."
He had beaten it down to nearly half, so this was no loss. Odysseus gathered the arrows he had picked out into his arms. Songha and Flag looked down at the boy with peculiar eyes.
"No manners at all. Sword Master, raise the child a little better, would you?"
"Who knows. He seems to be growing just fine on his own."
Songha cracked open another of the beers she had wrangled from Miniweaver as she took the bullets and arrows. The as-yet-unpurchased goods rolled up onto the counter.
"Is that all you're buying?"
"No. I will look a while longer."
"Look quickly and get out."
Old man Buff plopped into the chair behind the counter and gestured. His demand that they hurry up and get out was indeed full of nothing but sincerity.
"Are you buying something else, Captain?"
"I have to replace the equipment we lost this time."
"Ah."
But this side's purchase was not yet done. The captain headed for the rack of specially modified guns. It was full of guns that all required both hands.
"Fascinating?"
"Well, they're all things I'm seeing for the first time."
And what was a taser with its output limiter removed? This was no longer for subduing anyone.
Odysseus gauged the uses and power of the weapons by comparing Yul's knowledge against the descriptions in front of him. Perhaps because it was an illegal arms dealer, every one of them was astonishingly dangerous.
"This is a filter."
"Yes. One of the things you make and deliver day and night."
"Are the ones Horn and I made here too?"
"No. Ours are sold elsewhere."
The filter in question meant the one fitted to a gas mask when going out on expedition. For an expedition team with a magician, it was something obtained as essentially as the method for making magic bullets.
"Hm?"
But then, wait. One item caught Odysseus' gaze. It was a small machine in the shape of a puppy. Made, roughly speaking, for those who could not keep a pet.
The brown fur laid over it and the brown eyes called to mind something he missed keenly.
"What are you staring at?"
"Ah."
The boy startled and jerked his body back. Since he had been bent forward at the waist, he did not lose his balance or fall. Standing bolt upright, the boy's back turned away from the machine doll on the lowest row.
"There was a product with quite a different air from the things around it, so I wondered what it was."
"Air? Ah, this?"
But Flag finding and picking up the machine doll was faster than his retreat. The robot, quite similar in appearance to the dog Odysseus had once kept, was hoisted up dangling.
"Let's see... by the look of it this seems to be Exter's W series... oh, it's genuine?"
"Why did you pick that up?"
"What's the harm. But do you like this sort of thing too?"
"Not particularly. I just looked at it."
"Hmmmm."
At Odysseus' answer Flag stroked his chin lightly. Then he suddenly broke into a grin. Somehow ominous.
"Captain!! Let's ring this up too!"
"Ah, Bro!"
"What use is a pointless thing like......."
"Our little Magician says he likes it."
"Bro Flag!"
"Hah. Do as you like."
Sure enough, Flag ran toward the counter with a cheeky swagger. Where he had sold off the instruction never to leave his side was anyone's guess. Even granting that he was not the one who had said it, had he forgotten it already?
"Argh, honestly."
"Never mind, come along. I am paying now."
In any case, it seemed she had chosen everything she meant to buy. The captain called them over. On the counter were several firearms, ammunition cans, body armor and the like.
"Found it well enough. Even I had forgotten that item."
"It was on the display rack."
"What business have I got looking at the display racks? Unless some bastard starts stealing."
"Just ring it up."
"Let's see... hand over fifty thousand Pi."
"Hah, it is plainly an early-release series, and you mean to gorge on fifty thousand Pi for it? It is not even for combat."
"Then don't buy it."
"No, I don't have to buy it, you know."
"Kid, you stay out of it. Forty thousand Pi."
"Fifty thousand."
"Forty-five thousand."
"Fine."
"Piece of shit."
"No... I really don't need it."
"Never mind, take it. Flag, carry it."
Perhaps the payment for the rest had already been settled; the captain handed the goods over at once. A few ammunition cans were slung on Flag's shoulders and two rifles on his back.
"...I really don't need it."
"Heh heh. Just take it. The captain bought it for you."
"Hah."
And the robot was forcibly foisted into Odysseus' hands. It was truly absurd. This time it was not acting the child but a feeling welling up in earnest. Truly absurd.
"Well... I'll accept it gratefully, since you bought it. So is this all I carry?"
"Mmm. Good. Try carrying this too. Can you manage?"
But it was already paid for. Odysseus swallowed his sour feelings and took the remaining goods. Captain Songha, having packed the bundle of arrows and the sniper rounds into a bag, put a cluster of flashbangs into his free hand.
It was the moment Odysseus' hands were filled, one with a machine doll the size of a head and the other with a cluster of flashbangs.
"Why flashbangs?"
"Because there is no rule that luck like this time's will repeat."
When he asked about the flashbangs' sudden presence, that was the answer that came back. Presumably the captain had been bothered by one fly raking the Air Boat's deck with bullets. Judging by her pressing on him a bundle of things that flashed a few seconds after the button was pressed.
"That will be all for today."
"Piss off. And don't ever come again, Sword Master and kid."
"Yeees. I'll see you next time."
In any case, whatever old man Buff said, Odysseus let it wash over him. The man seemed all the more irritated by that, but he did not much care. The other side was a merchant, and a merchant would take a customer in the end.
TATATATANG!
"......!"
But when they were halfway up the stairs, the sound of glass shattering and gunfire came overlapping from outside. It was then, too, that the captain's head ducked hurriedly and she released magic power in all directions.
Scattering magic power in an instant to form a physical barrier was a knack possible even for a non-magician, so long as one could handle magic power and had enough of it. Tidik, tik. Bullets that struck the magic power ricocheted in every direction.
"Flag! Get down there!"
"Oh, shit!"
An ambush? Odysseus grasped the situation quickly and reversed his climbing steps. Dadadak. When the customers who had left came bursting back through the door, old man Buff's eyebrow twitched.
"What is this horseshit?"
"Some idiots have broken the code."
The 'rules of the bottom.' Rules of the lower lives, formed tacitly by expedition teams and illegal organizations that did not want to get tangled up with the public order corps or the military.
The most representative among them was not starting a fight in an arms dealer's territory. If a crackdown came because of a fight, those hauled in included not only the fighters but the arms dealer. And the moment one arms dealer was hauled in, weapon prices across the area shot up and the organizations connected to him were thrown into chaos as a bonus.
But in a place where even the laws the government put forward went unkept, was everyone going to abide by an unwritten rule of the very bottom?
Captain Songha, the last to come down, shut the door and pressed her body flat against the wall.
"Rotten! What fools dare do this in my front yard!"
"Judging by the number of bullets that flew in, at least five. Since there is no presence approaching, they seem to have no intention of striking here directly."
"Well now, lucky they have that much brain. If the bastards steeled themselves for bloody reprisal and just rolled one grenade this way, we'd all be buried and dead."
Flag set down the ammunition cans and raised his newly bought rifle. Clack. The sound of the magazine seating was brisk.
"Yul, take out your pistol. You remember the rules of engagement I taught you?"
"Yes."
"Aran, can you hear my voice?"
Captain Songha too readjusted her grip on her gun and pulled up the headset hanging around her neck. The tactical headset, thin enough to be worn around the neck, spat sound into her ear.
—Received. What has happened?
"Some pieces of shit have launched an ambush. Current position is Redwing. Judging by the firing angles, they seem to be deployed on the first and second floors of the building across from Redwing. Confirm whether there are additional enemies."
—...Confirmed. I will send support at once.
Fortunately the signal got through. "Idiots. If they were going to target us they should have blocked the signal first." Flag, beside them, sneered.
TING, TING, TING, TING.
Just then the faint sound of something rolling came from beyond the steel door. It sounded like something not very heavy, small in size, and probably round in shape.
"Both of you, get clear!"
At the same time the captain threw her body parallel to the wall but away from the door. CRASH! Along with a vibration that jolted their backsides, the steel door crumpled.
"These plague-ridden bastards!"
Old man Buff, hiding behind the counter, spat curses. They were the curses of a man who knew well how the products filling this shop would react if that grenade finally punched through the door and went off inside.
"...Ugh, I take back what I said earlier. They really do mean to bury us."
Old man Buff was not the only one to notice that fact. Flag's lips trembled as he looked at the slightly bent door panel.
"You worm-like Freedom bastards! Come out!"
"......?"
"Come out quietly and we'll spare everything below the captain!"
Then a booming voice came from outside. Apparently, when the grenade failed to paint the scene they had expected, they had turned toward compromise. Though what idiot would believe that bullshit.
"Aran, not yet?"
—The Redwing building is in sight. Please wait.
In the meantime a transmission came in from Aran.
—Enemies found so far: three directly in front of the building, four on the first floor of the building ahead, two on the second. I also saw people going up to the upper floor of the building where Redwing is located.
"Can you snipe the second floor?"
—I will attempt it.
—For pieces of shit who rampage without even knowing where they are, lead is the answer.
"You need not kill them. Just keep the bastards from poking their heads out."
Captain Songha added an instruction to Aran's and Karna's words. What picture she was drawing was not yet clear.
BOOM!
Just then another grenade went off. BANG! The steel door bent further than before. There was no problem for now, but it seemed it would hold at most three or four more times.
—Updating the second floor of the building ahead to four. I will shoot them dead as fast as possible.
"No need. I will kill them before that."
Captain Songha raised the body she had rolled and looked Odysseus straight on.
"Yul! Flashbang to Flag!"
"Yeees."
"Flag! Set it to five seconds and throw it as you open the door on my signal!"
"Yes!"
He pulled one from the cluster and tossed it over, and Flag caught it and set the timer.
"Do not forget to shut the door immediately after I go out."
"Of course, Captain."
"Yul, if you are enhancing your hearing, turn it off and cover your ears. Your eardrums will go."
"Understood."
Gun in her left hand and sabre in her right, she pushed a display rack aside to make space for a running start. Run in a straight line and the path would collide with the door.
"Now!"
And the moment she took her first step, Flag forced the crumpled steel door open and threw the flashbang. Neon light stretched long behind the flying flashbang. Songha's body raced up the stairs like a beast.
BANG!
BEEEEEE—!
The sound of the door closing and the flashbang bursting overlapped faintly. Odysseus' body clung to the door, which had a gap left open from being forced shut. His ears stung a little, but thanks to the advance warning it was not unbearable.
Odysseus' eyes examined what lay beyond the gap.
"Aagh, my eyes!"
"Fuck!"
TATATATATANG!
"Aaagh!"
Because of the stairs there was little to see visually. But he could guess the developments from the sounds coming through.
Songha had thrown the flashbang before reaching the top of the stairs to blind the enemy, shot them dead in that opening, and crossed to the building opposite. Considering the structure of the building he had seen before entering, she had probably kicked off the wall and gone in through a second-floor window.
The first floor's outer wall was a full glass window, and since he had heard nothing resembling glass being stepped on after she went out, it was certain.
"...Hmm."
At this rate, would Captain Songha kill them all one by one?
"Vice-Captain Aran, do you have any idea why those bastards are targeting us?"
—...Chatter during engagement is forbidden.
"We're not doing anything anyway. And you're in no position to join a street fight either, Vice-Captain. Just tell me this much."
—Haah. The bastards have Ironstick marks on their forearms. That should be enough?
"...Ah, I see."
Odysseus quietly savored the gunfire and screams drifting over from Songha's direction.
"Y-you! Stop right now or we'll put more grenades in there!"
"Stop unless you want to lose your subordinates! Stop—aagh!"
He could not stay still after all.
"I'll go out."
"What?"
"Right, here I go."
Scratching up a sore when he could simply stay put was not much to his taste. But leaving a battlefield with his own life at stake entirely to others suited his temper even less.
Barring special circumstances, those who led always had to be excellent warriors and men who fought at the front.
Odysseus pushed the unnecessary items into a corner, jammed his fingers into the gap in the door, and forced it open. His enhanced body left finger marks in the steel door.
"No, insane, Yul......!"
TING, TING, TING.
And as he ran up the stairs he snatched up the cluster of grenades that had just rolled in.
The detonation time of the grenade thrown earlier had been five seconds from the moment it hit the first step. In that case there was time enough.
The boy's hand sent the grenades back out into the space beyond the stairs. They hung in the air along a parabola and went off with a bang around the time they reached the outer wall opposite.
BOOOM!
The first caught up in the bundle of grenades was the very man who had come down from the second floor to pitch them in. Taking the fragments with his whole body, he lay on the ground turned bloody.
"Aaagh!"
"Haaa, haaaagh!"
Not only that, the humans on the first floor of the building opposite drew out screams as well. The already shattered glass window broke apart with a crash and fell upon the bastards along with the grenade fragments.
One unlucky bastard, perhaps grazed in the eye by a fragment, was scattering bloody tears and shouts together.
"This is Yul. Throwing a flashbang toward where the captain is. Prepare yourselves."
—Wait, what?
"Four, three, two, one."
The boy who had staged that grisly scene pulled the flashbang's pin from a safe place. That was thanks to his predicting the fragments would scatter and not stepping a single pace off the stairs.
The flashbang thrown into the second-floor room where the presences were gathered spat out light and noise at once. Beeeee. Had he not clumped magic power physically to block his ears, Odysseus too would have been somewhat affected.
TUDADADADANG!
Gunfire ran riot after that. It was Songha's, who had had a hard time of the abruptly announced warning but had managed to prepare. Two or so of the presences gathered near her went out.
Then it was his turn now. Odysseus called out as he emerged from the stairs.
"Give me some backup so I can get into the second floor of the Redwing building. Just keep them from poking their heads out, like you did for the captain."
—Wait, you......!
"I'm counting on you, Bro, Sis. You know I die if you can't?"
In truth, even without backup he was not going to die by gunshot. He said it anyway simply because he did not want to invite suspicion.
Having played it up like that, Odysseus' gaze swept the street he had just stepped onto.
On the road, three bastards shot dead, one killed by the grenades. Beyond the glass window of the building in front, two still writhing feebly in the aftermath of the grenades.
The dead bastards could be ignored, and the writhing ones could be killed now. Odysseus' finger pulled the trigger.
TATANG, TATANG!
Odysseus put bullets swiftly into their foreheads, then calmly whirled his body and kicked off the wall of the building where Redwing stood. His body, up to second-floor height in an instant, hooked hand and barrel over the second-floor window ledge.
TATATATANG!
The boy pulled the trigger of the gun he had set to automatic. A heap of bullets was poured into the second floor.
"Kugh!"
"Kuhak!"
Two groans followed. Odysseus' hand gripped the window ledge hard enough to make it crack and hauled the boy's small body up.
He saw one bastard already a corpse and one dying with a phlegm-rattling sound.
SCRRK.
He knew there were no presences, but just in case he took cover behind an obstacle. Odysseus quickly checked the room, then slid in beneath a desk. From the room across, connected by the corridor, came the sound of someone cursing fuck over and over.
"Are the sons of bitches in the next room dead too? Fuck, this is exactly why I said we should shoot them when they came out onto the street!"
"Shut up! What was I supposed to do about those bastards coming out earlier than expected!"
"...Goddamn it, what the hell did the bastard who went down even do!"
The second floor of the building opposite seemed to be getting cleared smoothly. The evidence was that only enemy screams came over Songha's transmission and Songha said nothing.
As for the first floor, well... considering the state he had seen earlier, it seemed there was no need to give it further thought.
"Goddamn it, because of the sniper I can't give any help—"
In that case it was right for him to clear the remaining two here.
At the end of that judgment Odysseus aimed his gun toward the corridor.
"Quietly, quietly......."
TATATATATANG!
Idiot sons of bitches who cannot hide a single presence. If you are going to come quietly, should you not at least shut your mouths?
Morons who could not do what warriors four thousand years ago had done; at this point one had to wonder whether there was something wrong with their intelligence.
Thinking that, Odysseus released the trigger he had pulled. Two breaths went out in an instant. No further presences could be felt.
Sweeping the room he had first entered again, moving into the corridor and sweeping it, and finally peeking into the room where the dead bastard lay, it was the same.
"This is Yul. Second floor cleared."
—...You.
"Heading for the stairs."
Odysseus changed his magazine as he walked carefully toward the stairs. BANG! And, seated with his body pressed to the wall to reduce his surface area as much as possible, the boy flung a lump of magic power at the door. It was primitive magic, too crude and brutish to be called psychokinesis, but enough to open a door.
TATATATANG!
DRRRK!
The instant the door opened, bullets poured from both directions. And the victor who survived that merciless shower was Odysseus.
It was possible because his opponents' guns raked an empty floor while Odysseus had pinpointed their positions and drawn a line straight from groin to skull.
"The stairs are cleared too."
With that, the building on Redwing's block was clear as well. The boy's lightened steps came out through the stairs into the alley.
As it happened, the enemies opposite were all dead as well, and Captain Songha came striding out coated in blood. The sabre in her hand was full of crimson blood.
Gunpowder, the reek of blood, and the stench of garbage filled the slum alley to the brim.