Chapter 13: Illegal Alien (11)
"They're assassins assigned to kill me."
"…"
Assassins.
It had been a long time since he last heard such an ominous word.
Then again, down in the undercity, calling someone an "assassin" almost felt too grand.
The bastards around here lived with the mindset that if someone rubbed them the wrong way, one of them was going to end up dead.
Compared to that kind of senseless violence, a paid professional was practically noble.
Kael shifted his gaze to Rin.
She was the granddaughter of a high-ranking executive at Seraph Industries, yet she was being chased by assassins disguised as bodyguards.
And the man in the black suit who had appeared in front of the stall earlier had been strangely eye-catching.
I've definitely gotten wrapped up in a troublesome situation.
But at the same time, another plan was taking shape in Kael's mind.
His original plan with Harune had been to use the salvage transport route.
Humans couldn't go up, but heaps of scrap metal could.
It aimed to exploit that tiny loophole and ride the flow of junk straight to the surface.
It hadn't been a terrible plan, all things considered.
Sure, it was dangerous, unpredictable, dirty, and guaranteed to dump him somewhere completely blind—but at least it gave him a shot.
However, the situation had changed.
The girl before him was a direct line to the Upper Level.
Granted, there was always a slim chance she had lied about her background, but judging by how aggressively her pursuers were digging around for her, that felt unlikely.
In that case…
Kael tapped his fingertips against the circuit board resting on the workbench.
"Tier."
Rin blinked twice.
"H-huh?"
"Do you know the tier of your bodyguards?"
Kael rested his chin on one hand, his gaze fixed on her.
"If you're their employer, you should have at least some information."
"…"
Rin clutched the edge of her mask with trembling hands, clearly terrified.
"…The person who threatened you was Security Chief Pale."
"Pale."
"Yeah. Head of Security for Seraph Industries. He's a Tier 6, which is rare even by the city's standards."
"Tier 6, huh."
"Mhm. And most of his operatives are at least Tier 4. Anyone in the security division meets that baseline. Some might even be Tier 5."
"Hmm."
So that's what a Tier 6 is like.
That was the extent of Kael's impression.
He replayed their brief confrontation outside the stall.
Since it was his first time coming face-to-face with a genuine mage of this world, he had intentionally provoked Pale to gather as much information as possible.
He had already spent plenty of time dissecting magitech hardware in Harune's workshop, examining the crude auxiliary gear and bootleg circuits used by bottom-tier workers.
But this was his first opportunity to observe a proper mage operating an ACU—and a Tier 6 user ranked among the city's elite, no less.
He realized that while magic here shared fundamental principles with what he used to wield, it possessed a distinctly different texture.
Mana in this world was maintained in a constant, pressurized state.
In Pale's case, it was refined so meticulously that it neither leaked outward nor caused internal feedback within his circuitry.
The architecture relied on a strict pipeline: refined mana was absorbed, the ACU structured the formula, and the user's neural network and external gear projected the final output.
In Kael's old world, mages drew mana directly into their own bodies and circulated it.
Handling energy was as natural as breathing, an instinct that required no one to teach them.
But here, the ACU took over that role.
How artificial.
Even though he knew everything in Magiterra was man-made, encountering artificial mana for the first time had still come as a shock.
Kael nudged the cracked circuit board across the workbench with a fingertip.
"Good info."
Rin raised her head and looked at him, bewildered.
"Good… info?"
"Yeah."
Kael spoke calmly without even turning his head.
"Now I know what a Tier 6 looks like."
Pale was a prime target to gauge just how strong this world's top dogs really were.
Besides, he was an opponent Kael would inevitably have to deal with soon anyway—at least, that was how he saw it.
Rin stared at him for a long moment before asking cautiously.
"By the way… can I ask you one thing?"
"Sure."
"What did you throw outside earlier?"
Kael looked at her and saw pure confusion written across her face.
Right before Pale stepped into the stall, Kael had picked up a small metal scrap from the workbench and hurled it out the window.
Rin had watched him do it, but she clearly hadn't grasped the intent behind the action.
Kael spoke casually.
"A small piece of scrap that absorbed your mana."
"?"
Rin stared back, her eyes going completely blank.
"My mana?"
"To be exact, the residual trace leaking from your internal circuits."
Kael picked up one of the broken circuit boards resting on the workbench.
"When you were scared earlier, your mana flickered a bit. It was faint, but enough that those guys' gear could have picked it up."
At his words, Rin's face went pale.
"T-then…"
"Yeah. You could've been caught even if you were hiding."
Once Rin caught her breath and managed to calm down, Kael set the circuit board back down and continued.
"So I threw out the piece of metal that held the strongest trace of your mana."
"Why…?"
"To act as a decoy."
Kael pointed a finger outside the stall.
"They're likely not tracking your physical body, but the unique signature your circuits give off. Toss a scrap coated in your residual mana into a junk pile, and their scanners can't tell a person apart from trash."
Rin slowly parted her lips.
"Is that… even possible?"
"It is."
"How?"
"Because your mana was clinging to that metal."
"When did I ever…"
At her words, he pointed to her mask.
"The mask strap you touched."
Even as Rin paused and fiddled with her mask, Kael explained nonchalantly.
"I replaced the latch inside your mask this morning. Maybe because your circuit is unstable, the latch absorbed the residue well. Since you pulled on it several times, it was natural for your mana to transfer."
Rin unconsciously touched her mask strap.
"…Did you know I had an ACU implanted?"
"Yeah."
"Since when?"
"Since you first came into the room."
Rin stared at him, lost for words, but Kael simply shrugged like it was no big deal.
She remained silent for a long moment, stunned by his casual demeanor.
"Why go that far…"
Kael met her gaze nonchalantly.
"We made a deal."
"…"
"I protect you. You give me knowledge."
His voice was utterly calm and detached.
"I was just fulfilling my side of the contract back there. Nothing more, nothing less."
"…"
Kael picked up the circuit board on the workbench again and fell into thought for a moment.
The value of this deal was proving far greater than he had calculated.
Originally, his plan had been simple: keep Rin hidden in exchange for baseline intel on the Upper Level—their transit protocols, citizenship registries, corporate hierarchies, and daily routines.
He had assumed that would be enough, but he'd set his sights far too low.
Played correctly, she could pivot his entire strategy toward something far more ambitious.
Rin was clearly more than an informant with surface knowledge; she was a key to breaching Seraph Industries—or at least gaining a solid foothold in the Upper Level.
He still thought the salvage transport route he had planned with Harune was usable.
But that route was high risk, high return.
Even if he made it up, there was no telling where it led, and a single failed checkpoint inspection could dump him straight into a waste compactor.
On the other hand, Rin was different.
Powerful people were actively hunting her, burning resources just to make her disappear.
Which meant her existence was enough of a threat to someone up above.
She's a target worth that much.
For now, that was enough.
The problem was what came next.
Kael rolled a scrap of metal across the workbench with his fingertips, deep in thought.
How should I deal with these pests?
Pale, Tier 6, Head of Security for Seraph Industries.
Cross-referencing Rin's intel with the presence he'd felt firsthand, Kael finally had a rough idea of what he was dealing with.
But Kael had never liked acting on guesswork alone.
Experience had taught him that the ones who lost their lives were usually the ones who believed they were smart.
Whether human or demon, it made no difference.
"Rin."
"Yeah?"
"Cast a basic spell."
The request caught Rin entirely by surprise, making her question him.
"Right now?"
"Yeah."
"In here?"
"Yeah."
As Rin nervously looked around, Harune immediately scowled and barked at Kael.
"Hey! After all that chaos we just went through, you're gonna have her cast magic in here?!"
"Keep it small."
"Small my ass…"
"It's a necessary step."
Swallowing his curse, Harune finally shut his mouth.
"Anything?"
"Anything."
"I'm… not very good at it."
"You don't need to be good."
Kael nudged an empty metal cup on the workbench with his finger.
"Just move this cup."
Rin hesitated for a moment before nodding.
She slowly raised her right hand, her fingers trembling with effort.
A faint blue spark flickered across her fingertips, making the metal cup on the workbench rattle.
After pushing it about half a palm's width to the side, Rin let out a deep breath.
"I-is this enough?"
Kael didn't answer.
He studied her in heavy silence, his sharp gaze lingering until the air between them felt suffocatingly thin.
Then, without warning, he reached toward her.
Rin flinched, instinctively pulling back, but his voice cut through her panic.
"Don't move."
She froze.
His fingertips traced a deliberate path past her trembling shoulder, coming to rest a whisper away from the nape of her neck, right where her collar parted.
"W-what are you—"
"Checking."
He held his hand suspended there, hovering so close that the radiating heat of his hand flared against her bare skin.
Yet he never made contact.
As the silence stretched and the suffocating tension coiled tight between them, his eyes narrowed.
"…"
Then, slowly, the corner of his mouth curled into a faint, satisfied smile.
It responded.
His mana circuit—dried up and dormant for over a year from the backlash of the catastrophic explosion spell he'd unleashed in the Demon King's castle—had finally stirred.
Get the latest chapter and best reading experience at www.novatls.com
Comments