Memoirs of the Returnee - Chapter 192



Only Krnovel

Episode 192

Internship (3)

In the middle of a mountain filled with trees.

I sat down on the rock and plugged the USB into Belmore’s laptop. I checked the information that the now dead Rencal, real name ‘Melsus’, had smuggled from the cartel.

[■■■■ ■■ ■ ■■ ■■■■]

It was full of codes.

“Hey, partner. Don’t you think he put a password on it? This isn’t the College Board. It’s not like that cradle that smells like powdered milk.”

Belmore sneered as if he had been waiting. I examined Malthus’ USB. It was plain in shape, but there was a panel that accepted magic power.

“It’s a magic password.”

The magic code can be easily thought of as a code similar to Morse code. Long magic letters are recognized as dashes (─), and short magic letters are recognized as periods (·), and the code is formed by combining these two types.

Therefore, digital hacking is impossible. It is a password that exists only in the owner’s head.

“Ha~ Right, I knew it. I knew it would happen. I’d never be able to open it again. Thank you, thank you.”

“No problem.”

I put my finger on the USB.

This USB contains the bastard’s memories. To be exact, the memories of the magic he used to decipher the password.

My “Notepad” can recall those memories. Like psychometry, which reads memories from objects.

Although it does consume quite a bit of magic power.

“Oh my. The kid is acting like he’s really smart and is causing a ruckus… … .”

I closed my eyes and let his words go in one ear and out the other. I recalled the memories buried in the USB with “Notepad.”

… … – · – ·

Slowly, a magical signal begins to form in my fingers.

The pattern of magic that Malthus breathed into USB is tactile.

– – · – – · · – · – · – – · –

I breathed the same magic into them in that order.

Click-

The USB is open.

“So, someone like you won’t be able to… … Huh? What is it? It’s open?”

Belmore’s eyes, still wide open, opened wide. I quickly scanned the file list.

“No, how did you open it? Is it your “Spectrum”?”

[Marcus Cartel Preparing to Make New Drug]

[Production process not yet determined. Seems like a large-scale deal with Trick City is planned.]

[Conversation transcript 1]

[Conversation transcript 2]

[Conversation transcript 3]

[Password stolen from the cartel]

[Location of drug raw material factory… …]

There are about a hundred files in total.

This was information he had collected over the past month. Belmore put a hand on my shoulder.

“Look. That’s a lot of information. Does that mean this guy is a double spy?”

“Yes. I am even more confident.”

“You’re not trying to justify cutting off your balls, are you?”

“There is no solid information. Specifically, there is no information that Libra can benefit from. There is only enough information that the cartel can give.”

“It’s frustrating… … Okay. Let’s say he’s a double spy, as you said. Even so, he’s still worth using.”

Belmore crossed his arms.

“If it were me? I’d let him be a double spy and feed him false information. That would cause confusion in the cartel. What about you?”

“I don’t do that.”

I shook my head.

“Yeah. You just cut off the ball. So what’s the reason?”

“Because I already betrayed Libra.”

At that moment, Belmore froze. His trembling lips froze.

I closed my laptop and threw the USB to Belmore.

“You can’t give a traitor a chance.”

Belmore accepted the USB without thinking.

I looked at him intently.

“once.”

He raised his finger.

“If you betrayed Libra even once, you are not worth living.”

This applies to me too.

You must not reveal your true colors.

With just one betrayal, everything must end.

“… … Okay, so stop looking at people with those eyes.”

Belmore stepped back, raising both hands.

“You really seem like a psychopath.”

I don’t know who said that. It was the guy juggling human skulls.

“Anyway, we’ll retrieve the body. We have to dissect it.”

He held Rencal’s head in one hand. Swish-swish- he threw it like a basketball and put the torso on his shoulder.

Is it a habit to play with people’s heads?

“Instead, you write the report and submit it yourself.”

* * *

… … All of Libra’s Chasers work in independent buildings.

In Edsilla, the underground is particularly secret. The underground floor has been renovated into a state-of-the-art facility, and it is an [Information Agency] that operates only for Libra.

“He was a dangerous guy.”

[Information Agency] Dissecting Room. Belmore, who had returned, laughed in vain as he looked at the severed head of Rencal.

“It’s funny when you say that. That damn Bellmore, the intern is in danger?”

A colleague cut open the corpse’s stomach with a scalpel. Belmore’s face turned cold.

“No. Seriously. That guy is a psycho.”

“Just because you cut off his neck?”

“There was no hesitation.”

“I said that you should kill people without hesitation. I’ve seen you being a nuisance to the interns. You have to live long to see it.”

Belmore glared at his colleague. He pretended not to notice and focused on the dissection.

“That’s not all, you idiot. That guy… … seemed really angry.”

“… …Are you angry?”

Belmore scrutinized every part of Zion, even the wrinkles on his face and the movements of his irises. His original purpose was to inspect the interns.

“Zion Ascal doesn’t know this guy named Rencal.”

Zion doesn’t know Renkal. He’s never seen him before, and he’s never met him before. It’s the first time he’s ever met him in his life.

“And yet… …Just because he was discovered by the enemy as a spy. So, just because of the guess that Rencal would be a threat to Libra.”

When Zion Askar kills him.

The moment when a human’s neck was cut off like a log.

Belmore looked into Zion’s eyes.

“That guy was really angry.”

Deep anger.

A burning hatred that cannot be condensed.

This guy must not be alive, his murderous intent.

“They treated me like the guy who killed my father. If it was Rencal’s fault, he only caused a tiny bit of damage to Libra… … Oh, really.”

Belmore chuckled without realizing it.

“Then it’s a perfect score. Isn’t that what chasers are supposed to do?”

As the saying goes, interns are usually not assigned to Chasers, since they are, of course, tasked with the dirtiest jobs at Libra.

It was possible because Zion Ascal was a human who had already received permission from the highest level, that is, the ‘direct line’.

“Or, if you keep him as your subordinate, he’ll probably become a machine that builds up your performance.”

“… … That could be the case.”

Belmore looked at the floor of the morgue.

“But… … I want to kill that kid.”

Simply because it is imaginable.

Like the cold iron floor here, the inorganic, sunken eyes of Zion Ascal. Those motionless eyes that had lost all emotion to anything but Libra, looking at himself, and the future that would cut him down like this headless corpse… … .

“Anyway. You’ll know just by looking into his eyes. He’s a psychopath who only works for Libra.”

“… … Hey. Bell.”

The hands of the colleague who was dissecting the corpse stopped.

“there is.”

“what.”

“… … Look. It’s heart-felt.”

He pulled a bizarre creature out of Rencal’s heart.

It was a bug.

HeartEater.

The ‘smallest monster’ mainly used by the cartel guys. A slave technique that causes immediate death if you do something against the cartel’s will.

“… … That’s right. Double spy.”

Belmore left the dissecting room immediately.

But there was a new intern right in front of him.

No, it was ‘Riley’, an intern censor like Belmore.

“I heard the news.”

Riley asked expressionlessly. Belmore scratched the back of her neck.

“uh.”

“How was it?”

Riley, who was my colleague at the same time as me. A crazy woman I once admired.

The eyes she looks at herself with are still cold.

“what…….”

This guy also has a scary-looking personality, but after meeting Sion Askar, he’s actually cute. To this extent, he’s cute.

Belmore said with a smile.

“I guarantee you, it’s a monster worse than you.”

* * *

Sagrak-

A one-person interview room at Libra Station.

Jin, the head of the HR department, turned the page of the report I had written. I looked at her side of head. How did she curl her hair like that, like an apple?

Bam.

She put the report down.

“Aside from this report, during the autopsy, a ‘heartfelt meal’ was found in the body. As the Zion intern thought, Rencal was a double agent. He was probably taken in by the cartel.”

At some point, she started using both formal and informal language.

“I understand self-judgment, but that’s the original role of the chaser.”

thud-!

She stamped some documents.

“Chaser’s duties are temporarily suspended. Zion interns will be assigned to security positions.”

My brow furrowed slightly. She tilted her head.

“Are you dissatisfied?”

“Yes. It’s disappointing.”

“Trust me, it’ll be better this way.”

Jin handed me the document. I looked at it quietly.

Phalang- Phalang-

“What are you doing? You’re not accepting it.”

She shook it like a cat toy. I took it and read it.

[Church ‘Blue Dayluneman’ security guard]

“… … .”

“Wouldn’t you like it a little more? Just going here is a privilege as an intern.”

“I don’t know what this is.”

“… … Zion intern. I think you need to build up some common sense. It’s a social gathering where only the highest class gathers. Libra’s direct descendants also attend.”

Direct lineage.

At those words, I quickly put the document in my pocket. Jin said, crossing his legs.

“Zion Intern. You said to Mr. Bellingham one day that you wanted to serve Miss Zia.”

“… … .”

Jin suddenly asked about Jia.

I looked at her in silence.

“Is that still the same? Or has your goal become higher?”

“It’s the same.”

“Why?”

Her eyes were sharp.

I shrugged.

“Do you need a reason?”

“It is necessary.”

“… … .”

“I need it.”

She said again. Maybe this is also a censorship process.

Because at this point, Jia is someone who is not even a rope in the first place, let alone a rotten rope that everyone in Libra avoids.

“As you know, I am from Libra Orphanage.”

I continued speaking in a voice as faint as a sigh.

“I heard the news of its abolition earlier this year. However, Libra said that if you spar with the mercenaries and win, they will keep the orphanage.”

Of course, the reason for wanting to serve Jia can be made up, but I’m honestly curious about this one thing.

“Miss Jia came on that day of the training. At that time, I didn’t know why she came.”

The HR manager kept taking notes in his notebook while listening to what I said.

“Our orphans were defeated in Dalian, so the orphanage had to be closed down.”

Square- Square-

The sound of her fountain pen was a little annoying.

“But when that day actually came, we heard different news. The orphanage was not being closed down, but was being ‘relocated.’ Thanks to that, the children were not separated, and we were able to leave the orphanage with a much more relaxed mind.”

“Is that a ‘prediction’ that it’s all thanks to Miss Zia?”

Jin asked back. I nodded with a small smile.

“It’s a very high probability prediction. Like catching Renkal today.”

“that’s right.”

Jin answered like that and slammed his notebook shut.

“Miss Zia asked me to not close the orphanage, but to move it to her land.”

Jin placed both hands together like a pedestal and rested his chin on them.

“But, is that okay? Serving Miss Jia would mean ending my career at Libra.”

I closed my eyes quietly.

It doesn’t really mean anything. I just thought it would make me laugh.

I tried to convey my intentions with a determined expression.

“If I had wanted things like wealth and fame, I would have given up long ago. I wouldn’t have been able to endure my illness.”

No one knows Jia’s true value.

That’s why I’m rather confident.

It means that Jia herself is hiding herself.

“I don’t want those things.”

This much is true.

I do not desire wealth, honor, fame, or glory.

“What I hope for is beyond that.”

“… … .”

Jin looked at me without saying a word.

It was like that for a while.

“hmm.”

Soon she leaned back in her chair, opened her notebook again, and wrote down a sentence that I couldn’t see.

“Okay. Go ahead, Zion Intern.”

* * *

… … Zion Ascal. Right after that special and unique intern left.

“Did you receive the video?”

Jin, the head of the HR department, called someone.

─… … Ugh.

A slurred voice. A voice that sounds like it’s just woken up and has eye boogers all over it.

This is Jia Libra.

─It was because of the daycare… … ? How strange… … .

“Sometimes, the good deeds you do can come back to you like a butterfly effect.”

Jin smiled faintly.

She serves Zia.

But no one outside knows that fact. Even Jia’s people don’t know who Jia’s people are.

Because it is a job for Jia in itself.

“I don’t think it’s for the same reasons as me.”

Libra’s direct lineage. Among them, serving the youngest is something that can only be done if you have no ambition at all, or on the contrary, have a very large ambition.

Jin is the latter.

She has ambition.

No matter how hard it is, you will survive and receive ‘all futures’ as a reward.

“I don’t think this intern is doing it for the same reasons as me. But that makes me more trustworthy.”

─… … No.

“yes?”

Jin tilted his head.

─Rather… … That’s why I can’t believe it… … . A favor, you know… … doesn’t have a price tag… … .

Haaaam──

Zia yawned. I could hear her rubbing her eyes.

─There’s no price tag… … It’s not that I don’t know the price… … It’s that there’s no price… … So I can’t buy it… … .

Gia continued speaking softly.

─Not being able to live… … ultimately means that there is someone you cannot have… … .

“I think it’s the opposite. Since favors don’t have a price tag, I can be Miss Zia’s forever.”

─… … .

Jia was silent for a moment.

Soon she whispered in a small voice.

─… … I’ll hang up. My brother came to see me… … again… … .

The older brother is probably Jade. He is the second son who takes care of Jia strangely even among the direct descendants.

“Yes. I will contact you later if I have anything to tell you.”

Jin hung up the phone. Then he burned the smartphone with his magic.

Hurrruk!

One smartphone, one call.

Although the price of devices is rising day by day these days, considering the value of Jia, it is a cost-effective product that is close to Hyeja.

* * *

2.

Javed Arkhne flicks his smartphone.

[Anti-depression medication]

： Are you suffering from depression? It’s not just depression. It will help you feel all the emotions you want. The price? It’s free!

[Release of Virtual Augmented Game]

：You can do whatever you want. You can be whoever you want. The membership of the virtual augmented game ‘Fellow’ is on sale soon! The price? It’s free!

All kinds of advertisements are filled on our smartphones.

It’s been a week since I started questioning these things.

But there has been no contact from Detective Victor yet, and Javed is just wasting time alone.

“… … something.”

He sank into the sofa, staring at his hands and muttering absentmindedly.

“I feel like I’ve forgotten.”

Suddenly, I find myself worrying about myself.

Why am I the only one in this apartment?

Was I alone from the beginning?

Or was there something more important?

… … more importantly.

Did I have a family?

At that moment, a voice spoke to Javed’s ear.

─You don’t know that this world is fake.

Is this world really fake?

Or maybe it’s just my depression.

“… … Either way.”

No matter what is real and what is fake, we cannot just sit still like this.

I have to go out.

You have to dig up the truth yourself.

“My sword… was under the sofa.”

Javed muttered as he reached under the sofa. Something hard caught his eye.

It was the dusty treasured sword of the Arcne family.