At the moment he caused the trouble, Songha had worn an expression as though she would strike him.
But when they actually left the Pluto building, the captain unexpectedly did not get angry. Whether it was because there were eyes watching, or because she was thinking of something else, was unclear.
Odysseus quietly mounted the Air Bike after the captain, whose words had grown few.
"Captain. Are you angry?"
Silence like this was uncomfortable. At a development different from what he had predicted, the boy hugged the robot in his arms all the tighter.
"I'm sorry. There won't be anything like this from now on."
Had Captain Songha raged and broken things, in the manner of the habit that occasionally sprang out of her, he would have understood better. Insubordination and disobedience were among the things a holder of command hated most.
"I'll make sure no harm comes to the expedition team. I won't leave it either. I have no interest in Pluto to begin with."
Of course, when Songha invoked the order 'do not cause trouble,' he had been confident of asserting that this sudden action was not trouble. And he could have produced a dozen or so arguments for it if he set his mind to it.
If Songha, angry to the top of her head, handed down a disciplinary measure, he could accept that as it came. Naturally, since it was true that he had moved in disregard of a superior's authority, and true that the act was, depending on the case, a crime that could even warrant execution.
And being caught up in another's wrongdoing would be one thing, but slipping away from a crime he had committed himself was also not to his liking.
"I know that going over there would only get me used and then thrown away in the end—"
But this silence. This silence was hard to accept.
Odysseus' words grew gradually faster until they reached the point of being like a rapid-fire gun.
"Yul."
What cut that wave off was, astonishingly, Songha calling his name as though in sorrow.
Odysseus' words stopped.
"Do you miss Yun?"
What on earth was the intent of this question?
Odysseus mobilized all his wisdom and knowledge to grasp the implication of that sentence. No conclusion came. It was as though the blankness he had felt in the middle of the ten-year road home had come again.
He had always feared the things that could not be resolved by logic and reason.
"...No."
Therefore he shook out the truth without any ornament at all.
"I don't miss him."
Like that moment of begging forgiveness from an angry Penelope, like that instant of begging an irresistible fate to please show mercy.
"Because my brother would surely be sad if he saw me as I am now."
Yul went home with his face buried in Songha's back.
***
After the Sword Master and Expedition Team: Freedom left. Pluto's executive, Lucen Akiten, sank into deep deliberation.
"...I do rather covet him."
Judging by the reaction the Sword Master, Songha, had shown, the magician boy's statement had not been agreed upon in advance. And unless Songha had gone mad to begin with, there was no way she would have permitted such a thing from a magician under her command.
"You mean that kid?"
"Yes."
"True, the more magicians the better. Even one who can only do alchemy earns back the outlay—"
"Please, please stop with the stupid remarks. Does that child look like an ordinary magician to you?"
The way he had afterward turned around and persuaded Songha when she tried to block him, all while laying out the board so as not to end up used one-sidedly.
That was not something settled by the simple word shrewd. It was talent, purely talent. And talent of high value and great preciousness.
"What did you discover in that kid?"
"You were in the room with me and yet how— no, never mind. Get out. Get out and bring Zex. And send someone to Redwing too."
"M-my apologies. I will carry it out at once."
Wondering how that low-intelligence fatso had climbed as far as the security office, Lucen operated his device. On the holographic screen was the CCTV footage he had received earlier. The alley the camera showed was the one where Redwing sat.
"Hah, astonishing even on a second viewing."
The engagement in the footage was not long, but the boy's performance could be grasped to some degree.
In other words, it amounted to proof that the boy was not a magician who helplessly manufactured alchemical products in the rear but a being who could be sent into battle as well.
'His scheming alone is at a level anyone would covet, and if he can fight on top of that.......'
And the boy's combat ability was not on the low side either.
The nerve to snatch up a rolling bomb and throw it back, the technique to throw what was needed where he wanted it, the muscle to cling to a building and fire, and the ability to shoot dead the enemies inside without taking a wound.
'No, on the muscle side the odds are high he contrived it through magic-power enhancement rather than pure strength. If that is really so, he is no ordinary talent by any measure.'
Strong people were easy to find by digging through the back alleys. And using drugs or body modification, obtaining manpower of a certain level was not even difficult.
But the knack for handling and using magic power was different. That was not a talent easily obtained even through modification.
"What would be the reason for taking out talent like this only now......."
A good head, a talent for fighting, and a precious magician on top of it. Not coveting this would make one a fool. The problem was that Songha would hardly be unaware of it either.
"...Well, perhaps it is not greatly important."
Whatever Songha was thinking, he only had to bring the magician child over. Naturally, would the Sword Master really make the boy a spy and try to do Pluto harm? When one slip could mean a round with Pluto?
In the end there was nothing for Lucen to concern himself with. Because whatever the Sword Master's true intent, it would not be realized in the form of losing the magician to Pluto.
'At most it will mean: here is a magician like this, so invest a little.'
She would not openly take their money. But merely receiving a little consideration was profit enough for Expedition Team: Freedom.
Because once the rumor spread that Pluto favored Freedom's magician, everyone who watched Pluto's mood would begin showing 'consideration' to the boy and to Freedom. And more consideration than they did now.
KNOCK, KNOCK.
Just then the closed door of the reception room was knocked on. The one who soon poked his head in was Zex, a man marked by Ray-Ban sunglasses and clear-cut features.
"Lucen, I heard you called."
"In a week we will sweep away the riffraff bastards called Ironstick. Have things ready before then."
"Suddenly?"
Lucen did not explain at length. "Watch the footage." Zex's device chimed to announce the arrival of a message. Zex quickly switched on his device and played the footage in it.
"Oh... the Sword Master's skill hasn't died yet. Isn't she about the age to retire?"
"Don't you know yellows age late? She will be at it a few more years at least."
"Understood, in any case. But is there a reason you set it for a week from now? From a rough look they seem like half-wits we could sweep away today."
"No doubt. But this time there is one guest I have to take pains over."
"A guest?"
"Ah, and send the Sword Master a bomb alchemical formula in my name. Not some run-of-the-mill thing, a proper one."
"...An alchemical formula? A bomb, at that?"
"Yes."
Zex wore a flustered face, but Lucen paid no mind and added further instructions.
"Bring me research on the child in the footage as well. And arrange a place for him so he can take part in the subjugation of Ironstick."
"What? The child? Isn't he with Freedom?"
"He is."
"Why would someone with Freedom......?"
"He wished it himself. Judging by his wanting to take the Ironstick boss' head personally, he seems to have a grudge... what matters is making him feel like switching sides while he is with us."
"Oh... so that is what the alchemical formula was for. But it is unexpected. I didn't think the Sword Master would send a subordinate on something this meaningless."
"The kid pressed her and she gave in. Perhaps it is age; the Sword Master's temper has died down a great deal."
"I see. Well, fine either way. So is this child the only one coming from Freedom?"
"No, two more will come. Who they will be I do not know yet, but the Sword Master herself will not."
"All right. Understood. I'll bring the report before dinner."
Yes, this was competence. Lucen could not hide his satisfaction on hearing Zex's answer. After conversing with ignorant fatso sons of bitches, conversing with a bastard of some standard was refreshing indeed.
***
Word came from Pluto. It was a notice that the retribution against Ironstick would begin in a week, at 11 in the morning.
"The two who will go along... Flag and Migo, who both speak Gauri, will do."
"Me?"
"Will it be all right for Bro Flag to be pulled out?"
At the time of the agreement, the moment Songha judged she could not persuade Yul on the spot, she chose to send two more along as protectors and watchers.
Sending Yul alone left the board unpredictable, and trying to stop him by force amounted to giving Pluto a pretext to intervene, so there was no helping it. To her, the one human asset called Yul mattered more than two people's worth of manpower wasted for a week.
"We were going to run on two shifts for a while anyway, so Flag and Migo dropping out briefly does not matter... which is separate from the question of whether you have any standing to say that, kid."
"Don' pinch my cheek. It hur's."
Of course, the best would have been for Yul not to say such a thing there. But it had already happened.
Songha let out a heavy sigh as she looked at the child's cheeks stretching in her hand. If the best option was constrained, then the second best became the best.
"I will collect the price for the trouble you caused properly later. Understood?"
"Yeees."
"And you heard, Flag? Your job now is to keep Yul from causing trouble for a week."
"Is the difficulty not far too high......."
"That is why I am attaching Migo to you."
"Migo being reassuring is true, but......."
Migo was a guard permanently stationed at the Expedition Team: Freedom building and a combatant who stepped into the vanguard when trouble arose.
If there was any other distinguishing point about her, it lay in her being a Kentauri crossbreed. Which meant she too had the appearance peculiar to the Kentauros¹: resembling a horse, but with the upper body of a Teeming Folk where a horse's head and neck should be.
"Didn't Migo say a niece or nephew was born to her recently?"
"Yes. So it was decided she gets about four days of leave when the job is done."
"She agreed to take leave?"
"Because I said it would be counted as paid."
"Oh."
And among the Kentauros' racial characteristics was communal child-rearing.
Given the Kentauros trait of walking a day or two after birth, most Kentauri had one or two experiences of extreme child-rearing without fail. It was why she was suited to this job.
"In any case, I have already spoken with Migo, so do not worry. And you, Yul, do not cause any trouble."
"Ah, I said I won'."
"Hmph."
Songha released the cheek only after extracting an 'I will not cause trouble' one more time. Yul's reddened cheeks were pressed under his own palms. "My mouth nearly tore." Grumbling sulkily as though he had forgotten the trouble he himself had caused came as a bonus. A truly shameless brat.
"If you cause trouble this time as well......."
"I said I won't."
"Then I will make you stand in the corridor with your hands up."
"Wow! How old do you think I am, for a punishment like that!"
"You want to be pinched again, do you?"
"I will bear it in mind."
She could hear Yul muttering 'tyrant' and 'thug' behind her, but Songha decided to let it pass. Him acting like a child that way was far better to see than when he was pointlessly good with words and left her unable to argue back.
"Um, Captain."
"What."
"Then may I have leave too......."
"I will give you about two days of unpaid leave."
"Ah, why!! Why am I unpaid!!"
Separately, she did not want to see that Flag bastard's tantrum. Songha threw a pen at Flag's head. Struck dead center in the forehead with a crack, he let out a yelp.
"If you resent it, try working three months on a schedule with one day off a week yourself."
"That's a bit much."
She had known he would say that. Songha looked at Flag's straight face and beckoned to Yul with a finger. It meant: pick up the pen I threw.
WHIRL, TICK!
"...Your use of magic power has grown skilled."
"I'm practicing."
Defiance, or whatever it was. Yul did not pick up the pen in the usual manner either. He struck the head of the pen with magic power materialized at raised density, and then, with the pen floating at a tilt, shoved at its rear as though striking it, making it spring up.
'But... the color of that magic-power bolt seemed a bit dark just now.'
In the instant Songha's eyes began to narrow, a high voice peculiar to a child chattered. "Materializing magic power is the most basic of basics." Songha's train of thought broke.
"Yes......."
The materialization of magic power, one of the manipulation-class magics just as psychokinesis was. It was a technique, endlessly simple in one light, requiring only that magic power be clumped enough to be visible.
Of course, the simplicity in question meant only the principle, not that the difficulty was easy as well. Compared with psychokinesis, which had to be divided up and controlled piece by piece at a level invisible yet able to exert physical force, it was naturally easier, but the work of drawing up and compressing the magic power within the body was not something everyone could do.
"I mean to practice psychokinesis too if I can... but it isn't easy after all. I think I see why psychokinetics come at a high price."
In other words, what the boy had just done so calmly was something only 20% even among magic-power users could do. Considering his age, it would be fair to lower that to 5%, or even below 1%.
"Yul."
"Yes."
"Catching and killing the Ironstick boss is fine, but do not overexert yourself in the process."
"...Of course. Whatever anyone says, the most important thing is my own life."
"Good."
Had the dead Yun known of talent like this in Yul? Had he even anticipated that his own death would make Yul bloom so brilliantly?
"Living is best."
Songha suddenly recalled a child who had fallen at the tip of her blade. All of her regret, and the reason she had had to flee to this place.
"Do not die."
"Yeees."
It seemed she would have to drink herself senseless today.
¹Kentauros Κένταυρος
A race with the appearance of half-human, half-horse. The singular form is Kentauri Κένταυροι.