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Aftermath (3)

Mason Industries collapsed in an instant.

Every connection it had in the Imperial Palace and political circles was severed as cleanly as if cut by scissors, and right after that, the Sentinel Order stormed headquarters without a warrant and seized every core document.

Afterward, every power broker who had cooperated with Mason Industries, every company even slightly tied to it, and every house involved received a single sheet of paper.

[Sentinel Summons Order]

One after another, they were hauled to the Order and interrogated from every angle. The entire Order dug through all their hidden crimes, and some were referred to the Knight Court.

As those rumors spread in a flash, anyone willing to give Mason Industries "helpful testimony" disappeared.

"...Bastards should all rot in hell."

But Hector Mason had already prepared for the worst.

A massive slush fund. He scraped together every cash asset spread across dozens of borrowed-name accounts, and signed a secret pact to hand over all the core mana engineering technologies Mason Industries possessed to the Eastern Alliance.

His homeland had betrayed him first, so he would gladly do the same.

No, he would become an even greater enemy and burn the Empire down.

"Chairman. We're almost there."

Mason Industries' loyal private soldiers escorted Hector. They had been promised new wealth and glory in the Eastern Alliance, so they served him with full devotion.

Before long, the Adversaries from the East would join him at the rendezvous point too.

Bwaaaaaaa-

A faint ship horn sounded across the eastern Imperial port, where waves and darkness tangled together.

Hector looked out the car window. An old cargo ship sat docked in silence.

"We're here."

"Yes. No one is around. Please get out."

Under heavy guard, Hector stepped up onto the deck.

As expected, he had not been discovered. Of course not. There had been nine rendezvous points from the start. He fed Sentinel false information to shake pursuit, then slipped into this ninth point himself.

"Hoo..."

Hector took a deep breath. Now that he had shaken off the Empire, it was time to pursue the grand plan...

"...?"

Right then, a thick shadow flickered in one corner of the deck. A mirage-like haze that seemed to gather into shape. Hector frowned and stared at it.

-Tap.

A distinct footstep sounded, and the shadow took the form of a woman.

"...Nice to meet you."

Sea wind rushed along the hull. Her black short hair scattered. Her mist-damp eyes sank like obsidian.

Hector flinched and stepped back. His private soldiers closed around him, drawing swords and guns.

"Who are you? The owner of this ship?"

Hector asked first.

Even after seeing her face, he still had no idea who she was.

At that forgetfulness, Schatz smiled instead. She did not waver at all.

"My name..."

Like this, Maximilian kept the promise from their first meeting.

He had prepared the perfect stage for her.

"My name is Schatz Heizen."

Schatz stated her name quietly, and only then did Hector's eyes shake.

Heizen. At least that surname, he remembered clearly.

"...Arthur Heizen's daughter."

"Yes. That's right."

The moment she answered, she moved. Bzzzt! A blue electromagnetic surge burst from her.

Shrrrrrk-

Then she charged like lightning. In that instant, the private soldiers were all torn apart, and amidst the spray of limbs, Hector's eyes widened blankly.

"Mmm..."

Looking at him, Schatz thought.

What was the most effective way to torture a person?

Electricity, after all? Or the extreme heat born from electricity?

"W-wait! Wait!"

Hector hurriedly reached a hand toward her.

"How much, how much do you need?!"

Even in this situation, Hector still tried to buy his life with money.

"I'll pay whatever you want! No, better yet, let's work together. With your ability and my business sense, we can rise to the top in the East too! I mean it!"

To Schatz, the sight was indescribably vulgar.

A sight utterly different from 'that man.'

Even among nobles there were fakes and the real thing, but he was worse than a fake.

That was probably why he could never become a true noble.

Tap.

The moment Schatz took one more step.

"W-wait! It was a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding! Your father and I were close friends who once shared the same purpose! Do you know how much salary I paid Arthur?!"

Friend.

Schatz laughed softly and moved. Bzzzzzt! With a current-filled hand, she clamped over Hector's mouth.

If she lost her reason in anger at his tongue, the pain she meant to give him might lose its edge.

"Mmph, mmmph!"

"Listen carefully."

"Mmmph!"

"You will not die peacefully."

Killing intent settled in her eyes.

The most perfect revenge was torture.

Burning skin, shaving bones with pain that reached the edge of death, yet never allowing death, forcing the breath to continue and repeating the process without end. Giving pain greater than death itself...

If revenge felt vain and empty, that was not revenge's fault, but a problem of how deep that revenge was.

That was Schatz's creed.

"Mmmph, mmmmmmph-!"

The sound of skin burning. The smell of flesh cooking hot.

Through the sharp rising smoke, Hector's screams sank away.

* * *

A remote mountain village somewhere in the Eastern Alliance.

Karl May, son of Epen May and nephew of Hector Mason, Yuzen May.

His eyes were locked on the stacks of cash piled on the desk before him.

The sheer weight pressing down on that shabby wooden table left him speechless.

"Th-this is all..."

Imperial dollars and Lobrus currency. Cash from two states accepted across the continent, and bearer bonds too.

For a poor farmer who had lived in poverty his entire life, it was an astronomical sum beyond imagination.

"This amount is the principal Hector Mason stole and ran with forty years ago, calculated with compound interest added. And the rest..."

The visitor, Schatz Heizen, continued in an indifferent tone.

"...is compensation for reporting evidence of Hector Mason's bloodline."

Karl May stroked the bundles of money with trembling hands, then belatedly lifted his head to look at Schatz.

"Th-thank you! Thank you, truly!"

Ebenholtz treated informants clearly. Compensation could never be stingy, and even after information was provided, their protection had to be guaranteed thoroughly.

This was the "soil" Maximilian valued most.

Trust that if they cooperated with Ebenholtz, they would never be betrayed.

With that unshakable faith, Ebenholtz gained the ground to absorb all information and secrets of the continent without limit.

"Then I'll be going."

"Y-yes, yes! Thank you! Travel safely! Thank you-!"

As for Schatz, she was only thankful he had survived.

In the May family, everyone except the man living in this rural mountain village had died sudden deaths. Likely Hector's work.

"Will you return to the Empire now?"

Investigators from the Gennen branch office asked Schatz. She looked at them and thought for a moment.

Before she realized it, she had gathered quite a large force under her command too. Probably in the hundreds.

"...No."

She shook her head.

"I have somewhere else to go. You all return."

"Yes."

Schatz got into a car alone.

This time she moved by herself.

A final mission of her own, one she would report to no one.

The real reason Hector Mason had spared her instead of killing her in the past.

It was because of some "original" related to the Mana Engine that her father had hidden somewhere.

And that place was probably...

* * *

...Mason Industries was being quietly dismantled.

First, CEO Hector Mason was given summary judgment on high treason charges, and his affiliated companies were to be broken up in ways that would minimize shock to the western economy.

Quietly, as if nothing had happened.

The name Hector Mason disappeared from every Imperial record and history. It was replaced with ease.

"As the shield of the Empire, as His Majesty's sword, do you swear to devote your souls for the Empire's glory?"

Spring returned anyway.

The Sentinel Order entrance ceremony.

"The Empire will remember your loyalty and repay your devotion with honor. For His Majesty the Emperor..."

Commander Alberich's voice continued, now noticeably weaker than it had been three years earlier. Knights stood in line beside him, watching the rookie knights on the platform.

"Deputy Commander, look there."

Raynel, now promoted to senior rank, pointed somewhere.

Kairon looked as well.

"That rookie is Lucas of House Limperk."

Lucas Limperk. Son of former judge Klaus Limperk.

He stood at the very front of the platform, within the top three spots.

"Ah, that kid? The one Maximilian has his eye on."

Kairon smirked.

"Maximilian has his eye on him."

That was backing more solid than any halo.

"Yes. I checked his Empire Point scores, and he's definitely outstanding."

Raynel smiled faintly too.

"Looks like grades really are the deciding condition after all."

"Right."

To catch Maximilian's eye, above all else, your grades had to be good.

In other words, talent was required.

Lucas Limperk had stood out especially in descent training, engagement, and ideological studies, so word would spread around Empire Point now about what Maximilian valued most.

Admissions trends always changed according to the exam.

"Though..."

Kairon scanned the area and tilted his head.

"Maximilian isn't here today?"

"Uh, yes. You're right."

Raynel looked around too. Tiana, Leon, Hanna Usar, and the rest. Every first and second year knight was present, but only Maximilian was missing.

"Well, I guess he has something else to handle."

...

Somewhere on the Empire's outskirts.

A forgotten hometown marked on maps only as ruins, a place now describable only as "somewhere."

Schatz Heizen arrived on that lonely land.

The village had already lost all complete shape. Only traces remained.

"..."

The stream still ran clear, but the wash place where village women once gathered in laughter had vanished.

The sites of old homes had become part of nature and were covered by mounds of dirt, and wild brush swung freely, almost reaching her thighs.

Standing alone in that desolate scene, Schatz Heizen forcibly layered warm old memories over it.

My father's hometown. My mother's hometown. And my hometown.

Yet this place had been thoroughly trampled and burned by Hector Mason's private soldiers for one reason alone, that it was Arthur Heizen's hometown.

Schatz walked slowly through the overgrown entrance of the village.

Still, the thing she was looking for would not be in these ruins.

Hector Mason had already searched every inch of the area and failed to find it.

Only Schatz seemed to know where it was.

That secret place where she had played hide-and-seek with her father as a child.

Their hideout, far away from the village.

Schatz walked slowly and reached a small opening in the back hill.

"...It's here."

A smile spread across her lips without her realizing.

A narrow animal path made from tangled thornbushes. A tight passage that only opened if you bent deeply and pushed through.

Schatz lowered herself. When she was little, bending her knees had been enough.

Now grass and soil touched her belly.

Fsssss...

She crawled for a long time, almost prone, and at last the space opened wide ahead, revealing a small area like a resting place.

"It's... still the same."

In that instant, emotion surged. Her heart shook. Schatz gave a bitter smile, walked over, and sat by a tree in the distance.

The place where her father used to read fairy tales to her.

She dug where that memory pointed.

Push. Push.

It brought back old memories.

Like a mole, cupping her hands, letting dirt gather under her nails, push, push.

Push. Push.

As she dug down, she finally felt something hard.

Schatz pulled the box out.

Inside this was probably the "original" Hector had searched for so desperately.

"..."

But why had her father left the original instead of destroying it?

As far as Schatz could tell, it had been entirely for her.

Because if he left this behind, Hector could not kill her.

-Now... once the Mana Engine is complete...

Suddenly Falkenrat's voice flickered at her ear.

That eerie speech, chanting "Mana Engine" with a face drunk on ecstasy.

-In front of that temptation of overwhelming power, even Maximilian you serve will have no choice but to waver.

The Mana Engine, an infinite power source that could replace a human heart.

If this original truly contained its "feasibility"...

-He cannot help but waver. It is the ultimate technology that could permanently exterminate the filthy subspecies he despises so deeply from this continent.

Maximilian believed the Mana Engine was impossible to realize.

Because he believed that, he crushed Hector Mason.

-Schatz Heizen. That arrogant knight will choose the "power" we offer over the loyalty of one hunting dog like you.

But if the Mana Engine was truly possible technology.

If it could be realized at the cost of countless lives, and that power could be gained.

What choice would Maximilian make?

-In the end, he will become the same monster looking toward the same place as us.

Clutching her father's box, Schatz fell into agony.

Whatever was inside this box, it could never be brought into the light of the world. It could never fall into anyone's hands.

Even if that person was Maximilian-

-Rustle.

Then a tiny sound of someone stepping on brush behind her.

Schatz flinched and turned her gaze.

"..."

Her eyes opened wide. Shock filled her dark pupils.

"Why are you so surprised."

It was Maximilian.

He had walked through this thorn thicket, yet there was not a single wound on his body.

"If you move in the most natural way, even nature will not wound you."

That was how Maximilian explained his untouched state, and Schatz watched him while holding her breath.

-Tap. Tap.

Maximilian approached with a knight's expression.

Had he been tracking her all this time?

Schatz hid the box and stood up.

"...Schatz Heizen."

Calling her name like that, Maximilian held out his hand.

His gesture, his gaze, his empty palm.

Schatz knew far too well what it meant.

Her father's legacy. A silent order to hand over that original to him.

Whooooo-

Aimless wind shook the hem of Maximilian's clothes.

In the hideout filled with a father and daughter's memories, Schatz wrestled with herself for a long time.