NOVEL WEB Chapter 169
“Why was I so buried in work?”
As I stared blankly at the sky, memories of why I was so absorbed in work began creeping back in, a thought I really didn’t want to have.
Now that I was lying here, taking a break, all those suppressed thoughts crawled up like ants trying to fix a broken anthill.
Ants, huh? I remember hearing there’s an infestation of ant-type monsters over at the abandoned gate quarantine facility in the west part of the city. I probably need to clean that up.
I meant to get up, but then I saw Justitia watching me from the sofa, and I hesitated.
She had said she would make me relax today, and here she was, perched on the sofa, keeping an eye on me as I tried to get back to work.
I wondered if she really needed to supervise me like that, but considering I was about to move, she probably felt justified.
But staying still was driving me nuts. I wanted to do something, anything—I’ll even settle for meaningless, trashy repetitive work. Please!
Wasn’t there any work to be done? Just as I was wondering about that—
A loud noise from my subordinate broke in, saying sorry for interrupting my break, but I needed to go outside and look at the sky.
Justitia looked a bit annoyed, questioning why they were shouting, but on the other hand, she seemed to feel that she couldn’t just ignore it. She told me to wait while she went to check.
“Okay…”
I was curious about what was happening, but I figured if I went outside, Justitia would definitely have more to say, so I stayed put and looked out the window.
Nothing outside; what was all the fuss about… oh wait…
“What’s that…?”
I couldn’t see clearly, but something was coming from the distant horizon.
Maybe it was a reconnaissance drone. But this wasn’t one of those self-destructing drones that occasionally showed up. No, this was definitely something huge.
Even as advanced as Heros Company was, we didn’t have anything like that. Such a massive aircraft belonged in the United States, not here.
But wait, how did it make it here without any attacks? Even if this city had fallen into the hands of the Liberators, there’s no way it would get here without a scratch!
That didn’t add up. If something like that crossed the Atlantic, it would’ve been shot down by the Arosos Islands or Madeira Islands in no time.
Even if it managed to slip past those two, it would have been engaged by the air forces of the UK and Morocco.
And if it really came from the United States, surely the Liberators would have gotten some kind of communication about it? It wouldn’t just be flying in unannounced!
But as it drew closer, it didn’t even feel like an aircraft. It was more like…
A giant boulder flying through the sky. That was what it looked like.
But that was even crazier. What kind of thing could do that?…
No way, right? Please tell me I’m wrong. Facing a Returner wasn’t even in the plan!
Justitia told me to stay inside, but this wasn’t the time to lounge around.
I had to rush to her.
When I stepped outside, I saw that it wasn’t just one of those giant boulders; there were several flying in from all directions.
Even if Justitia had eyes rolling around like a chameleon, there was no way she could keep track of all of them. And, quite frankly, I doubted whether anyone could manage that.
She could handle a collapsing building easily, but stopping a mountain flying straight at us would be too much even for an Awakener.
Why on earth were the Awakeners moving right now?
If what I thought was true, I had to get out of this city immediately. I didn’t know what was coming, but this city had no hope left.
It would definitely be wiped out, no question about it.
“Boss! Did you hear anything from America?!”
I kicked open the office door, and the boss asked me what in the world was happening outside.
It looked like he’d already gotten a rough idea of the situation.
“I don’t know, but you need to get out of here! Anywhere but this place! It looks like a Returner is heading our way!”
The boss’s face changed as he realized the seriousness of the situation. He agreed that we needed to flee immediately.
“Let’s go, Blanca! This is a strategic retreat! I thought the Returners would have turned their backs on Heros Company by now…!”
He said he had completely miscalculated and urged me to come along.
“…I’ll stay back and keep an eye on things! Someone has to verify whether it’s worth running away or not, right?”
I refused his offer and said I’d leave shortly.
The boss asked me what on earth I was talking about, saying if I didn’t get captured or killed, it would all be over, insisting that I was more important than this city.
That’s… really nice of you, but…
“I’m fine! You think I’ll go down that easily?! If I see trouble, I’ll bail! I can’t just run away like a coward, that would hurt my pride!”
I made my stance clear again. The boss seemed to see he couldn’t persuade me anymore and ordered me to retreat if I felt like it.
We’ve been pretty good at following orders lately.
“Of course, I’m not crazy enough to want to die!”
The boss said he’d wait in the shelter and crushed a crystal.
In an instant, he was swallowed by black fog and vanished without a trace.
…What about the documents? Should I burn them, or dissolve them? If my suspicions were right, I had to destroy the documents too.
Surely the Returner wouldn’t just show up alone. The Heros Company forces would be coming after them as well.
Heh. The soldiers must have already retreated. Just how was I supposed to burn all this paperwork alone?
A sigh escaped me.
I’ll think about that later. Right now, I needed to find out who would come down from those boulders that had drawn so close they were blotting out the sun.
– – – –
The original plan was simple.
Changwon and Lapiz would lift two massive rock formations and split the members in half to head toward the Liberators’ stronghold.
Even Justitia could stop only what was in her line of sight, and if it exceeded a certain limit, her abilities would overload.
If we literally hacked off a mountain peak and took it away, Justitia, no matter how strong, wouldn’t be able to handle it.
The well-equipped members would fight until Blanca showed up, and if she still didn’t emerge and things got dicey, one of the floating rocks would drop straight down to the ground.
If Blanca appeared, the plan for subjugation and extraction would be the same as if she hadn’t.
This was the original plan.
Ruthless but certain.
However, with Heros Company and her grandmother, the Hero Association came into play, the plan had changed a bit.
The number of large rocks to be lifted skyrocketed to eight. It wasn’t only kids participating; soldiers from Heros Company and Heroes, along with her grandmother, were involved.
Though, because of Lapiz’s insistence, her grandmother would only be helping lift rocks.
The location where we would drop the rocks during retreat would be limited to the military facilities or key installations of the Liberators.
It felt like we’d piled on a bunch of extra stuff.
But on the bright side, I felt more relieved. The more stuff we piled on, the weaker Lapiz’s erratic actions would be.
Although capturing Blanca might be a distant dream, to be honest, I didn’t expect to catch her in one go.
The Liberators had an Abilities User who could traverse spaces whenever they wanted.
As long as that kind of user was around, even if we cornered Blanca, she would escape in an instant.
This raid was never meant to be anything more than a taste.
I was curious how she would react when she saw us. Would she even consider coming back to where we were?
…Did she want to recover?
If she did, I was genuinely going to put my heart and soul into helping her.
If not, well, I’d deal with that when the time comes.
At the very least, I wanted to believe she still had a shred of good in her heart.
“We’re almost at the Liberators’ stronghold. Everyone, get ready. Expect some resistance.”
Lapiz said calmly, tightening her coat while instructing us to prepare.
“What if they all fled beforehand? I mean, if I saw those floating mountains, I’d be out of there in a heartbeat.”
Yeonhwa was already conjuring flames around Lapiz, predicting that they had probably already fled.
“Then that’d be a shame. On the upside, we could feast on the Liberators’ stronghold without any resistance.”
Jinhyeon didn’t seem to care whether they fled or not.
“It’d be great if we could catch her before she commits more crimes; the penalties would be a bit lighter that way…”
“Yeah, me too. Even though our fates are intertwined in a bad way… I still can’t bear to watch her go down a dark path.”
Ageha and Alice still seemed unsure about their stance.
“But keep your wits about you. Given how things have turned out, she won’t be an easy catch.”
“I agree. I don’t think she’ll just turn herself in peacefully.”
Seolhwa and Changwon also felt this wouldn’t be an easy fight.
Everyone’s thoughts were all over the place.
But there was one common thread connecting us all.
“…We have to catch her.”
“No need to say it twice.”
“Yep.”
Even if our intentions differed, we all wanted the same outcome.
“…We’ve arrived!”
It was time to descend and confront her.