I was granted a single day off.
I thought it was far too short a leave to paper over that scene of human rights abuse, what with the overtime and pulling an all-nighter on top of it, but as the lowest-ranking employee I couldn't refuse.
......Well, that's all just a pretext.
The truth is that the sight of Ichi I ran into when I came back to reality was pleasant enough that I let it slide.
After dumping the unconscious Smith on the CEO, who had just arrived for work, I strolled down and found Ichi waiting in the lobby.
For someone who had personally blown Other Sides away to torment me, his expression looked awfully full of complaints, so I burst out laughing for real.
Isn't it fascinating?
The fact that that double spy had tried so hard to dunk me into the Other Side that he couldn't even keep his face straight.
It was enough to blow away every last trace of the sleep crowding in on me.
"Ah, refreshing."
Whether it was me radioing in that I'd changed the plan, or Ichi calculating out the possibilities and blowing the Other Side away by the optimal route.
Is "birds of a feather" the phrase you use at a time like this?
When I read the scenes of Ichi teasing Seo Mok in the story, I wondered whether it was worth going that far, and so this was the flavor of it?
On top of that, as a bonus, Chamel got to top up his nutrition, and I received a fat support payout from the company where the Other Side incident had broken out, so it was a profitable business.
"You were told to rest, and you are working?"
The one who brought out the coffee and the light sandwich I'd ordered wasn't the cafe proprietor but Ichi.
I had been on the terrace, taking a fairly chilly wind and indulging in a shabby sort of winter sentiment, and I curved my eyes into a smile.
"Come on, if I'm the only one goofing off, I feel self-conscious about it."
"Is this supposed to make me feel guilty?"
"Of course not."
There was no evidence of what Ichi had done anyway.
Ichi's Supernatural Ability was the type that couldn't be identified in reality, so it stayed thoroughly hidden.
Even the Ability Office didn't know about Ichi's ability at this point in time.
Probably only the "That Person" whom Ichi served, or the Styx affiliate who had dispatched Ichi here directly, knew about it.
So I handed over the report I had prepared in advance.
Take it and leave me alone.
"......It's neatly organized."
Ichi skimmed the report, flawless to the point of being unnatural instead, and let out a short sigh.
"This can be submitted as it is."
"Ah, is that so."
With that, I had his tacit agreement.
To burying it all for now, whether it was the threat to my safety or the investigation.
So it was meant to tell him to quit testing the waters and stop harassing me already.
......Apparently it had a bigger effect than I expected.
"You have many uses, Do Hae."
"Out of nowhere?"
"I even find myself thinking I would not mind keeping you on the same team for a long, long time."
"Are you confessing to me?"
"Haha......, you said you were in charge of information management, didn't you, Do Hae."
"I did, didn't I?"
Why...... is he laying bait?
Why is he saying it with that frighteningly half-enlightened smile equipped and his eyes fixed on the overcast sky?
"Until recently, I believed you were a government agent who had come to rob our Ability Office, or who had been dispatched to do us direct harm."
Hey now, isn't that crossing the line a little?
I'm a man who should count himself lucky if the government hasn't put a bounty on him.
Ichi wore a thoroughly unburdened expression, as though he had reached some conclusion on his own, and handed me a thin card.
Black-backed and engraved with layer upon layer of round gold-foil rings, it was an identity guarantee card that doubled as the Ability Office's Employee Badge.
The kind that, because Styx Company itself vouched for it, granted entry to Styx Headquarters—.
'Ah, no way?'
The very thing I hadn't received even after surviving the initiation and being formally hired, and he was handing it over now of all times.
What's more, that was an item the Captain crafted personally by hand, and the daze of seeing something I hadn't even hoped for made my reaction come out creaky.
"The Captain has told us to come out and greet them, so you have to come along too, Do Hae."
"A greeting?"
"Yes."
You mean the Captain who's over at Styx Company?
Then, right now, at Styx Company.......
"It is exactly what you are thinking."
Ah, damn.
That landed a solid hit, didn't it?
***
After realizing I had been possessed into a villain, the plans I laid out came down to two big ones.
1. Catch the Protagonist and kill him before he can grow.
2. Cure the incurable disease and escape my death sentence.
The smaller things, like evading the government's pursuit, collecting materials for the cure, or preparing for my interview with the Captain, were things I planned for constantly, so set those aside for now.
At the center of those first two plans, Styx Company could not be left out.
The Protagonist's uncle had formed a close relationship with Styx Company.
He was a former executive of the Resistance Army, and because he was on thick terms with Styx Company's earliest members, Styx Company had directly assigned personnel to guard the Protagonist at all times.
Last time the protection was commissioned through Ichi, and now, with his whereabouts unknown, they would have attached another guardian. A hotshot bastard vouched for by Styx Company, at that.
The problem was that there was no way of knowing who the attached guardian was.
'I did veer so wildly off the main stem of The Original Work.......'
I had to approach carefully.
Because if things went wrong, the one getting cleaned out could be me.
Hoping Chamel's power would recover soon came from the same line of thinking.
If I shoved them into the Other Side and settled it there, I could avoid prying eyes.
It was the bare minimum of a safeguard.
Escaping the death sentence? There's no need to even say more about that.
Making a cure was more than a single research file could manage.
From the start I had intended to use Styx Company's cutting-edge infrastructure, and that was the right call.
The relationship between the Ability Office and Styx, Styx's neutral character even amid the standoff between the government and the Resistance Army, and Styx holding more research data on the Other Side and Supernatural Abilities than anyone else. Where else would I plunder, if not Styx?
Thanks to conveniently disposing of the Laboratory Director and snatching his seat, I had drawn Styx's interest, and I had judged that if I simply enjoyed being watched by their spy, Ichi, an opportunity would arise naturally.
'Naturally? Haha, where else would you find a stretch like that?'
I had wanted moderate interest and moderate neglect. This kind of aggressive Styx intervention was not what I had wanted.
No, even if there was intervention, at the very least it shouldn't be now.
Is the Protagonist the only low-level one here? I'm low-level too.
I can barely pin down positions if I concentrate hard, my water manipulation amounts to lobbing sloppy blobs, if I try to make it rain I manage a shower at best, and forget direct strikes or attacks, my drying function is about good for making dried fruit, and right now—.
"Ha ha ha."
And I have to go to Styx Company now.
I spun the pitch-black card in my hand round and round, then tipped my head back.
The cool, dry winter air went deep into my lungs and scattered out as white breath.
While the hot coffee I had ordered cooled until it was full of chill, I let the time run out on pointless worrying.
Ichi, who had lobbed a bomb and vanished saying he was busy, could not possibly have been more infuriating.
I let out one heavy sigh after another.
"How were the politics over there these days."
In The Original Work, the reason the Protagonist ended up stuffed away in the backwater Ability Office on Rushiang Street was that his uncle was in no state to protect him right then.
It was also the period when Styx Company's CEO was being ground out of office, and with the government's research institute blowing up and the Resistance Army's stronghold being exposed layered on top of that, it was a chaotic time.
For hiding one brat under cover of the chaos, the timing was shitty.
"Could I ride along on it without standing out?"
Being chaotic also means, conversely, that it's easy to get in.
There was also the method of picking up whatever rumors happened to be drifting by and then coming back.
If I got through the interview with the Captain, it wasn't bad for lying low and then slipping out quickly, either.
"Ah......? That's really not bad?"
Digging into rumors about the Protagonist would be a bit dangerous, but for looking into the institute or the government's response, wasn't it fine?
As for the archives, the lower-Grade material might be possible if I coaxed Ichi.
Styx Company would keep watch on me, but now that I was an official Office employee they wouldn't interfere conspicuously.
The relationship between Styx Company and the Ability Office was, how to put it, close to a love-hate one, distant one moment, like family the next, then behaving like the bitterest enemies in the world.
Watched twenty-four hours a day, yet thoroughly protected by the Captain.
As welfare for the Ability Office's employees, that was enough.
"Hmm. Come to think of it, it's about time they contacted me......."
The last time I went through the shady channels to offload the Gold Bars, there was one extra thing I had requested.
They said it would take quite a while, but things had become more urgent than expected.
And I wanted the result in hand before I was dragged off to Styx Company, at the very least.
"Ah......, that dagger really was nice......."
The moment we came out of the last Other Side, Ichi had reclaimed the Frost Attribute dagger, so I was starved for that feel in my hand.
What a low-level guy still needs is gear power, isn't it?
DING!
〈We are contacting you to inform you that the item you commissioned has arrived today.
You must visit and collect it within thirty days at the latest,
and as it is a special commissioned item, we guarantee courteous assistance at any hour of the day.
We wish you a safe Other Side.〉
Did you time that on purpose?
That's a bit scary, isn't it?
***
I looked at the smooth black-and-white tiled floor, then over at the hulking guard on the far side.
The way he lounged on a small chair reading a book was itself silent pressure to cross over on my own.
"Hmm, the order that time was......."
I hadn't forgotten what I learned when I visited with Seo Mok, but it was complicated enough that I couldn't help doubting my own memory.
When I hesitated for a moment, the guard across the way closed the book he was reading and fixed his gaze on me.
It was a probing look meant to judge whether I was a problem bastard or not.
This was the same guard who had been busy avoiding our eyes instead when I came with Seo Mok, so it felt a little unfair.
"No, it isn't that I don't know it, it's just that this is my second time so I got confused. Really. I'm telling you, it's true. Hey, why are you getting up?"
Leaving the guard, who rose without a change in expression, to it, I stepped onto the tiled floor.
Only the first step was confusing. After that I pressed my way across the floor without hesitation.
When I stepped on nearly the last tile, I instinctively felt that I had entered the Other Side.
When I looked back, a solid wall with a single gloomy light fixture blocked the way, as if I had never crossed at all.
This place, no matter when I see it.......
"I'm here to collect a commissioned item."
"Code."
When I showed the commission code I had been issued in advance, the seated guard pushed the inner curtain aside and went in.
I still remembered stating my business this way and receiving the service I wanted when I came with Seo Mok last time, so I followed the guard without hesitation.
After passing through an intricately tangled maze, the guard stopped in front of an ordinary door and jerked his chin to tell me to go in myself.
Last time it had been a door trimmed in gold, and this time it was a door made of velvet.
It felt like I would leave fingerprints on it for nothing, so I opened it carefully, and a cozy little space that looked like somewhere astrology might be recited appeared.
A dim interior, lighting that lit only the round table in the center, an empty one-seat sofa for the client, and across from it an employee wearing a white mask.
As if to prove this was the Other Side. What pointless theming.
"Welcome, valued customer. Will you be collecting your commissioned item?"
"Yes. I got the notice. I can check the item first, right?"
"Of course. Please wait a moment."
The employee in the smiling-face mask went into the back and brought out a small box.
The box, likewise made of purple velvet, looked so expensive at a glance that I was reluctant to put a hand on it.
Somehow sensing that hesitation, the employee opened the box with white-gloved hands and turned it so the contents inside were visible.
"Ah......."
"I will now confirm the contents of the commission. This is a handgun operated by Supernatural Ability. Ability Rounds may be purchased separately, but you stated that you did not require them. We remind you once again that Ability Rounds are kept in stock by attribute at all times and may be purchased additionally when needed, and as this is a special commissioned item, we have attached a unique identification function."
The truth is that the explanation barely reached my ears.
The instant I saw the lovely weapon nestled obediently in the box, my gaze was stolen clean away, as if I had met a parted love again.
Gear power really is the best.