Chapter 19: Illegal Alien (17)
—And now, today's top story.
—Last night, a massive earthquake shook all of Magiterra! Did you folks feel it too? That's right, I'm talking about that exact moment when your desks were shaking, glasses were shattering, and your boss said, "We still have to meet our quotas!"
—Magiterra's Department of Urban Security announced that the earthquake was merely a 'controllable, temporary reaction!'
—If it was so controllable, they haven't quite explained why everyone had to dive under their desks, but hey, if Urban Security says so, who are we to argue?
A high-pitched beep rang out, followed by the sound of a video playback starting.
—According to official announcements, the earthquake was caused by a pressure imbalance in the mana pipe running through certain sections of the Lower Level!
—Just your run-of-the-mill incident! So what if seventeen prominent corporate buildings triggered emergency defense protocols?
—Completely normal! Just as normal as your paycheck not going up for six straight years!
The host paused for a beat, dropping their voice to a whisper.
—However, dear citizens… Magiterra's proud conspiracy theorists are already spinning a different tale…
Click.
Kael turned off the ancient radio.
As the host's static-laced voice cut out, silence reclaimed the room.
LL-20, Room 1409.
Kael leaned back in his chair and looked down at his hands to check his condition.
His fingertips were still trembling.
Things weren't looking good on the inside of his circuits, either.
This was the payback for shattering multiple Tier 4 ACUs in a row last night.
It would have been a miracle if he had come out unscathed after forcefully re-igniting his dried-up mana circuits.
I thought I controlled my output.
Kael let out a short sigh.
It had been a while since he last used magic, so he must have gotten a little overexcited.
For the first time since the subjugation of the Demon Lord, his circuits had responded to his will.
Even though he had relied on a fleeting spark snatched from destroying someone else's ACU, and even though the flow of mana hadn't lasted more than a few seconds…
The sensation was still vivid in his hands.
That was probably why he had gone a bit overboard.
He looked at the Tier 6 ACU sitting on the desk.
It was the unit he had torn off of Pale.
Though parts of the circuit were scorched from the overload, the core remained intact.
Perhaps this could be the key to awakening my own mana circuits.
Kael lightly tapped the outer casing of the ACU with his fingertips as the thought crossed his mind.
It seems to have made quite a stir on the Surface Level.
If news had reached even trashy broadcast stations, it meant the corporations up there were already fully aware.
It was unfortunate that what he had done wouldn't end as a simple disturbance.
Kael closed his eyes to reflect, then opened them.
"…Whew."
What's done is done.
He just needed to be careful going forward.
More important than that was the information gained from this fight.
Kael carefully wrapped the Tier 6 ACU in a cloth and turned his head.
"Hey, Rin."
A faint sound came from inside the bathroom.
"Are you ready?"
A moment later, a white-haired girl emerged from behind the worn-out curtains.
"Y-yeah."
Rin was still wearing the battered coat Kael had given her.
"So why are you still here?"
Harune, leaning against the wall while inspecting his beat-up shotgun, glared at Kael.
"Where did you go last night?"
When Kael didn't answer, Harune narrowed his eyes.
"You specifically asked me to watch Rin for a bit. You never said anything about running off to do… whatever you did."
"I had urgent business."
"And did that urgent business involve turning the Lower Level upside down three times?"
Harune spoke carefully.
"You know what I'm talking about. The mess ya made with those high-and-mighty suits above. They have been pitching a fit about it on the news all morning."
Even though Harune spoke with a grim expression, Kael remained entirely unbothered.
Clicking his tongue at Kael's attitude, Harune asked him point-blank.
"Was it your doing?"
Kael paused briefly before speaking.
"Who knows."
Harune let out an exasperated chuckle.
"You really have a knack for driving people crazy."
He didn't pry any further.
Anyone who survived long enough in the Lower Level knew how to distinguish between what they needed to know and what they were better off not knowing.
Harune surmised that Kael had done something major, but kept it to himself.
Instead, he quietly checked the chamber of his shotgun.
Clack.
"So, what now?"
Kael pointed at Rin and answered.
"We're expecting company."
Rin's shoulders flinched at that.
"Seraph…?"
At her words, Kael nodded and gave a brief overview of the current situation.
After Pale had died, the tracking chip left inside Rin's body had reactivated.
Until then, Pale had used his Security Chief authority to block the signal.
Now that he was gone, the tracking chip implanted inside Rin had automatically begun transmitting her location back to the corporate network.
It was a clear signal that the granddaughter of a high-ranking executive at Seraph Industries was not only alive, but down in the Lower Level.
Which meant Seraph was headed straight here.
"I just hope they're people we can actually reason with this time," Kael said.
* * *
Seraph Industries.
A top-tier MegaCorp even by the standards of Magiterra's Upper Level.
From ACUs to magitech medical equipment, and even bio-circuit compatibility improvement tech, Seraph Industries stood at the absolute center of the city across all sectors.
And at the apex of that corporation stood one man.
Adrian Arkwright.
Director of Seraph Industries, and the current head of the Arkwright family.
A man who had led Seraph for decades.
Countless executives, politicians, and researchers across the city's Upper Level bowed their heads at his single word.
He was endlessly generous to his allies, and utterly ruthless to his enemies.
And that same Adrian hadn't slept for days, for one reason alone.
His granddaughter, Rin Arkwright, had vanished.
When the initial report came in, Adrian hadn't thought it was a kidnapping.
After all, the person who had disappeared with Rin was Pale—Seraph's Chief of Security and a Tier 6 ACU user.
A man Adrian had personally handpicked and placed at her side.
Pale had worked for Seraph for a long time.
He had been assigned dangerous missions, tasked with handling dirty work, and entrusted with Adrian's own life on multiple occasions.
That was how Adrian completely trusted him.
Rin was a child carrying the blood of the Arkwright family, someone who might one day inherit the name of Seraph.
Because of that, his granddaughter would always live exposed to danger.
He had assigned Pale to protect her from that danger, and yet…
Adrian stood in the center of the director's office, staring at the massive screen taking up the wall.
[Rin Arkwright Tracking Signal: Lost]
[Security Chief Pale Authentication Signal: Inactive]
[Last Known Location: Near Upper Level Transport Conduit 7]
He stared at the screen for a long time without saying a word. Sensing his obvious rage, the secretarial staff barely dared to breathe.
Adrian finally spoke.
"And Pale?"
His voice was raspy.
"Still no response?"
A secretary answered immediately.
"Yes, sir. His personal terminal, the security network, and emergency authentication channels are all unresponsive."
"What about Rin's signal?"
"The tracking chip's response has cut off completely as well. It appears an external jammer was applied after the final transmission."
Adrian began slowly tapping his fingers against the armrest of his chair.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
"An external jammer."
He muttered to himself.
"How many people even have the authority to block Rin's tracking chip?"
The secretary hesitated before answering, terrified that saying the wrong thing might draw his wrath.
"You, sir… the Security Oversight Board, and…"
"Pale, right?"
"…Yes, sir."
Adrian wiped his face with both hands.
Rage.
Everyone present could feel it boiling up slowly from deep within him.
"Put all security personnel on standby."
"Yes, sir."
"Isolate everything tied to Pale's direct line. Account privileges, armory access, operation logs. Don't leave a single thing accessible."
"Understood, sir."
"Get the audit team on it, too. Every external account Pale contacted over the last year, unapproved communications, fund transfers—everything."
The secretary bowed his head.
"I will handle it immediately."
Adrian turned back to the screen displaying Rin's photo.
White hair and blue eyes.
Truly a beautiful child.
A child who looked so much like his daughter, as if she had been reincarnated.
His granddaughter had been stubborn since she was little.
Once her curiosity was piqued, she would pursue it to the end.
Adrian had liked that about her.
He thought it made her a true child of Arkwright blood.
That was why he had tried to teach her so much, and Rin had absorbed that vast knowledge like a sponge.
How a corporation operated, how people lied… or what every tiny clause in a contract truly implied.
He had taught her things like that.
However, he had never taught Rin about the Lower Level.
No, he had never intended to teach her.
Never.
* * *
Several days had passed since the tracking signal had gone silent.
During those few days, Adrian had hardly eaten a thing.
He cut meetings down to a minimum and canceled all external engagements.
It got to the point where rumors circulated within Seraph Industries that the director's health was failing.
Strictly speaking, those rumors weren't wrong.
He was caught between fits of rage and bouts of anxiety, after all.
And finally…
A report came in suggesting that Rin Arkwright might be dead.
It wasn't definitive, but the report indicated a high probability.
A signal matching Rin's vital signs had cut out below the Upper Level transport conduits, and residual traces of Seraph-exclusive circuit signatures were detected in a wastewater pipe leading to the Lower Level.
The Lower Level.
The moment that phrase appeared in the report, Adrian couldn't say a word for a long time.
That night, he pulled out a bottle of liquor he normally wouldn't touch.
A gift he had left sitting inside his display cabinet.
Adrian sat alone in his office and poured a glass.
It burned down his throat as he drank, but he couldn't taste a damn thing.
On the screen was a photo from Rin's childhood.
A tiny girl sitting in a conference room chair, holding a data pad larger than herself.
"Grandpa, why is this person smiling while telling a lie?"
Back then, Adrian had answered her promptly.
"People like that are the ones you must be most careful around."
He had been the one to teach her that lesson.
And yet, knowing he was the one who had assigned that very threat to her side was driving him insane.
"Pale."
Adrian muttered to himself.
"If you were behind this…"
His voice sounded cracked, whether from the alcohol or the rage boiling inside him.
"Dying won't be the end of it for you."
Just then—
The door burst open, and an employee from the security analysis team rushed in, catching his breath.
"D-director!"
Adrian slowly raised his head.
"What is it?"
The employee was still breathing heavily.
"Coordinates just started transmitting from Miss Rin Arkwright's tracking chip!"
Adrian's hand froze mid-tilt over his glass.
His eyes trembled violently.
"Say that again."
"The tracking chip has reactivated. It's currently transmitting coordinates. A weak vital sign has also been confirmed."
Adrian bolted up from his seat.
His chair scraped harshly against the floor as he pushed it back, but he didn't care.
"Location?"
As the employee operated his wrist terminal, the central display in the director's office shifted from the city map to the Upper Level.
Then from the Upper Level, past the checkpoints, down to the Lower Level.
And further down…
A single red dot was flashing.
[Signal coordinates confirmed]
[Magiterra Lower District, 7th Industrial Zone, Block D-12]
[Near LL-20, Room 1409]
"LL-20."
"Yes, sir."
The employee seemed baffled by the revelation as well, but he continued his report calmly.
"The coordinates are transmitting from the Lower Level."
Adrian stared at the screen.
The Lower Level.
That was a place Rin was never supposed to be.
It wasn't a place she could go on her own, nor was it a place where survival came easy.
Which meant someone had taken her.
"…"
Kidnapping, protection, leverage.
It could be one, two, or all three.
Adrian's gaze darkened.
"And Pale's signal?"
"Still nothing, sir."
"What about security?"
"Following your orders, all personnel directly under Pale have been isolated. We are currently reforming a temporary security team."
"Do not use the existing security staff."
He spoke with cold finality.
"Not a single person connected to Pale comes with us."
"Yes, sir."
"Form the new team strictly with personnel who passed the audit team's verification. Two from security analysis, one from medical, one circuit stabilization tech. And two Tier 5s or higher."
The employee jotted it down rapidly.
"I will have them ready, sir."
"No."
Adrian grabbed his coat.
"I'm going personally."
At those words, the subordinate raised his head in panic, trying to talk him out of it.
"Personally, sir? That is far too—"
"Rin is alive."
Adrian set down his glass.
"Which means as her guardian, I must go."
"But it's the Lower Level. There's no guarantee for your safety…"
The moment Adrian's gaze landed on him, the subordinate shut his mouth instantly.
"Safety?"
An icy voice cut through the air.
"My granddaughter has been down there for days."
He turned away, taking slow, measured steps forward.
"And now you talk about my safety?"
The employee could only bow his head.
"My apologies, sir."
"Prepare for transport."
"Yes, sir."
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