Vicious Darling

[66]

“I just don’t like seeing Northern Light succeed.”

Dahlia, who had been glaring at the floor, raised her head.

“So if you take that child, I’ll do whatever it takes to get her back. Do you understand me?”

Dahlia growled, baring her teeth.

“I said, do you understand!”

The atmosphere, which had been relatively mild until moments ago, froze rapidly.

While Chris tensed his body, only Luka remained calm.

“Even knowing you’re close to the child, that won’t result in any disadvantage for Dain.”

Dahlia’s shoulders, which had been completely stiff, slumped.

“…I wondered what a Guide was doing as a team leader in the Esper alliance.”

“Hmm. From now on, please call us Northern Light rather than Esper alliance.”

When Luka said this, Dahlia gave him a look that said ‘what do you want me to do about it?’, but he calmly continued.

“It’s a name that better fits our founding principles.”

“What does the name matter for an organization that will soon collapse?”

Dahlia sneered.

Chris, who had been quietly observing, casually threw in some kindling.

“Thorns Order seems to have an interesting plan.”

“You, how do you know that name…?”

“How? Haven’t they been committing various acts recently?”

“Hmph.”

“First, I’m sorry about your sister’s death. But there’s something you should know.”

Chris was about to speak but hesitated momentarily.

“…It was Rosenhauser who determined how Guides were treated in Northern Light. And Rosenhauser was the master of Thorns Order until his death.”

“Lies.”

Dahlia’s voice trembled.

“You think I’ll believe what you say while I’m tied up like this?”

“No. But there’s also no reason for me to lie to you while you’re tied up.”

At Chris’s words, she pressed her lips tightly together. Sensing that she somewhat accepted this, Chris continued.

“That man exercised influence over Northern Light until shortly before his death. He deliberately isolated Guides. Under the pretext of protection, he prevented them from building bonds with Espers. Even if they knew their treatment was wrong, they couldn’t appeal to the outside.”

Chris could see Dahlia clenching her fist tightly.

“That’s right. That’s why the Guide Welfare Team was established after Rosenhauser’s death—to prevent similar situations from recurring.”

Luka quietly affirmed.

“Rosenhauser said he was expelled from Northern Light. He said he only stepped up because no one cared about our rights in a society that rejected those with abilities. He said Northern Light’s leadership, who kowtowed to those who treated Espers like monsters, pushed him out.”

Dahlia muttered.

Her eyes became dull and sunken.

“So… he established Thorns Order just in case. He said it would be a bastion for Espers. That’s what he said, but why…?”

“Haven’t you seen the articles exposing Rosenhauser’s atrocities that have been broadcasting daily?”

“Of course they were propaganda.”

Her answer came without hesitation. But she couldn’t meet Luka’s eyes.

“No.”

Luka shook his head.

“It’s all truth without a shred of falsehood.”

“Ha…”

Finally, Dahlia dropped her head.

When Chris had said those things, she could still scoff. But when a Guide who had been quite friendly with her sister confirmed it too, her heart sank.

Her fingers dug into her hair.

“I can’t believe it. I don’t want to believe it…”

If what they said was true, it meant she had been working under the man who had done that to her sister.

She had spent her whole life struggling in emptiness.

She couldn’t bear to see Northern Light thriving despite the fact that those crazy people had destroyed her sister.

In this absurd and unreasonable reality, Dahlia had wanted to create a breakthrough somehow.

Even if it meant becoming a criminal.

In extreme situations, one had no choice but to resort to extreme measures, right?

She had rationalized her choices in this way all along.

She had even turned a blind eye to the drug production in this factory.

Thorns Order lacked Guides. Some Espers were getting by on drugs rather than guiding.

After Rosenhauser’s death, they could no longer meet the Guides who had been supplied periodically.

As the situation worsened, the members’ views became more extreme.

Disbanding Thorns Order.

Or bringing down Northern Light in revenge for Rosenhauser and taking their place.

The latter seemed to have better odds.

Since Thorns Order was an organization Rosenhauser had raised like his personal army, the majority were Espers with combat abilities. Their personalities were also quite aggressive.

Dahlia had never thought that was bad.

Even when she heard about Rosenhauser’s atrocities, she let it go in one ear and out the other. Sometimes she even agreed with colleagues who said Northern Light was pinning their own crimes on Rosenhauser, who had already fallen and died.

Dahlia’s world had been tilted long ago, and right and wrong no longer existed.

All along, all she had wanted was liberation from this anger.

“Northern Light will help Miss Dain.”

Luka stated plainly as he rose from his chair.

“Sounds like a notification.”

“It is a notification.”

“Then why did you come to me? To mock me?”

Dahlia sneered.

Though Chris didn’t think the same way she did, he was also curious why Luka had appeared here.

To put it bluntly, Dahlia and Dain weren’t even blood relatives. Wasn’t Dain’s presumed father also among those brought to work in the abandoned factory area?

At that moment, Luka spoke.

“I wanted to thank you.”

Luka, giving her a gentle look, bowed his head.

“Thank you for stepping up when no one else was helping Dain. And also for hiding the fact that she’s a Guide.”

“…Damn it.”

Dahlia turned her head and spat out curse words mixed with sobs. Seeing her shoulders heaving, Chris immediately turned his head away.

She probably wouldn’t want others to see her like this.

Luka signaled with his eyes that they should go outside.

After moving the chair to the side, Chris left the temporary detention room, leaving behind Dahlia who was crying silently.

A Northern Light agent who had been waiting outside approached Luka with a fuss.

“My goodness. The Spring Continent is too cold. I brought some warm coffee, please have a cup.”

“Thank you.”

Luka bowed his head slightly and accepted two mugs.

The agent, smiling brightly, quickly disappeared to the opposite end of the corridor.

“Is coffee all right for you, Chris?”

“I don’t want any.”

“I see. But if it’s all right with you, could you spare me some time until I finish this coffee?”

“…That much is fine.”

Chris nodded slightly.

Although he agreed because it was difficult to refuse, he wasn’t sure if it was the right decision.

Chris couldn’t help but feel awkward around Luka.

He remembered the subtle affection Luka had shown him in the past.

‘Of course, what he liked was Chris the Northern Light agent.’

Luka led Chris to one of the empty offices.

Holding the mug with both hands, he asked.

“I hope I didn’t interfere with the interrogation?”

“Not at all. The conversation I wanted was already finished.”

“I see. I’m glad I wasn’t a hindrance, even if I couldn’t be of help.”

Luka looked down at his cup. Steam was still rising from it.

In truth, Luka didn’t seem interested in drinking the coffee either.

After a prolonged silence, Chris hesitated before speaking.

“I never thought of you as the type who likes to take initiative. I’m surprised.”

At those words, the man gave a bitter smile.

“That’s because I saw, heard, and experienced things by your side.”

“By my side?”

Chris was somewhat taken aback.

Although Luka had provided guiding for Chris in the Winter Continent, they hadn’t had a close relationship.

“Among all the Espers I encountered at Northern Light, no one treated me like a human being the way Chris did.”

Luka shrugged.

“After entering that place, everyone valued my guiding more than me as a person. But Chris wasn’t like that.”

“That’s because I already had a Guide I was imprinted on.”

Chris had felt aversion not just to Luka but to all Guides he met at Northern Light.

After his memories returned, he realized it was because he had already imprinted on Yuri.

But Luka shook his head.

“You wouldn’t know. What it feels like when others determine your worth as a being before forming a relationship with you.”

Just as one suddenly becomes a Guide, what if one suddenly stops being a Guide?

What would happen to oneself?

He pushed himself into anxiety by imagining events that would never happen.

Because otherwise, he would have to face the empty present.

“Talking with you always felt like I could breathe. Without even knowing why… I found myself wanting to meet you again.”

“…Hmm.”

Chris lowered his eyes.

Unlike the time when he couldn’t understand the source of Luka’s affection, hearing a direct confession from his lips now gave him a strange feeling.

“After you went to the Winter Continent, everything was very confusing. For me. For those around me.”

His eyes were retracing the past.

“Rosenhauser fell, and several executives who supported him stepped down. The treatment of Guides changed, Espers’ attitudes changed… I felt completely unable to find my center.”

Suddenly, a small smile appeared on Luka’s lips.

“That’s when I thought of Chris.”

“Of… me?”

“You jumped right into the heart of enemy territory without any safety measures. In the end, you played the biggest role in Rosenhauser’s downfall.”

“I didn’t do anything that remarkable. I had amnesia and even forgot my original goal.”

At the time, when things happened, he felt lost and just got dragged along by the situation.

At least that’s how Chris perceived it.

“But you ultimately achieved what you wanted, didn’t you?”

Luka smiled broadly.

“That fact was a great inspiration to me.”

Just listening to his evaluation, Chris sounded like quite a decent person.

“So I jumped into the flow of changes happening at Northern Light. Although things are still very much in progress, the Guide Welfare Team has been established and I’ve become its team leader.”

Thanks to you.

Luka quietly added.

“I was so busy for a while that I didn’t have time to think about Chris, but I’m very glad to meet you like this.”

His respectful and gentle gaze toward Chris held a warm kindness.

It was a warmth that made one ticklish just by facing it.

Chris felt perplexed as he thought he understood that meaning.

What Luka harbored wasn’t simple goodwill but emotion.

And of a kind that Chris could never reciprocate in his lifetime.

“I…”

Just then, the office door opened with a click.

Chris turned his head in surprise.

“…I wondered where you’d gone after finally waking up.”

Yuri’s purple eyes slowly looked past Chris’s shoulder and stared at Luka.

“So you were here.”