What caught Chris’s senses was an old ventilation duct. Though the entrance was fixed in a high place, it seemed he could climb up if he pulled over the chair and used it as a foothold.
The problem was that he couldn’t know where this led and that being made of metal, it might make noise when he fled.
‘I should escape through an appropriate place connected in the middle.’
He was grateful for at least this one thing since his body was lighter than usual. Since coming to the November Continent—no, since waking up at Northern Light on the June Continent—his body had been the lightest.
Chris, who had tried to lift the chair, discovered it was fixed to the floor. This was why the chair hadn’t tipped over even when he’d leaned back when Yuri approached. Frowning in difficulty, Chris tried moving the chair.
Rattle.
‘Huh?’
Whether due to his struggling on it many times, or because his body was in better condition than usual, the chair’s screws had come loose. After carefully unscrewing and removing them, Chris stepped on the chair and opened the ventilation duct.
His gaze briefly turned toward the closed door. But soon there was no more hesitation on Chris’s face as he stepped on the chair, jumped up, and hung from the ventilation duct.
Using only arm strength to pull his body up and settle inside the ventilation duct, Chris began groping his way forward through the darkness. The sensation of something cool and metallic and the texture of accumulated dust touched his skin. Holding his breath as much as possible, Chris crawled stealthily through the ventilation duct.
Though his knees hurt, he couldn’t put strength in his feet to avoid making noise as much as possible. If he accidentally struck down with a thud, that resonance would spread far through the ventilation duct. Since Yuri wouldn’t have taken him to just any place, there might be Espers somewhere in this building.
It would be troublesome if an Esper caught his tail. Deceiving their senses was nearly impossible. If another Esper in this building could see even half the world Chris himself maintained, they could chase him with even the shallowest breathing sounds.
‘I need to get into a crowded place as quickly as possible.’
He didn’t know how much risk Yuri would take to get Danil in his grasp, but from the last experience, he’d confirmed that he had a principle of not causing disturbances in places crowded with many people. His subordinates couldn’t recklessly break rules their boss had set, even if Yuri himself might.
Chris pushed forward doggedly. In the direction where wind sounds were closest.
However, at the first crossroads, he had no choice but to stop. The ventilation duct passage that seemed close to the outside was too narrow for Chris to crawl through.
In the end, the direction he could choose was virtually predetermined.
Swallowing a sigh, Chris carefully crawled along the ventilation duct. As it was the widest passage, it seemed to penetrate through this building. Chris resumed his search while paying attention to signs of people.
The sensation of sweeping through the ventilation duct with his whole body was by no means pleasant. Moreover, every moment was a series of tensions. It felt like Yuri, who had returned to pour out guiding, might discover his disappearance and chase after him at any moment.
Then, moving to a passage that seemed somewhat tight but where he could still extract his body, he glanced below.
Seeing marble tiles laid out, it was a bathroom. Though water stains had accumulated, it seemed to be consistently maintained.
Opening the ventilation duct, Chris descended below. The bathroom had a window leading outside. He’d come down seeing this.
‘Damn.’
Chris, who had tried to open the window, entered a bathroom stall and closed the door at the signs of people he felt from outside. Someone was grumbling as they entered.
“It’s freezing to death. At this rate even my piss will freeze.”
He was alone.
Wondering if he was an Esper, Chris quietly pulled down his shirt sleeve. After pressing the lever to flush, Chris went outside. He could see a man standing at the urinal adjusting his waistband.
At that moment, Chris, passing by his side, grabbed the man’s back of the head without hesitation and struck his forehead against the upper part of the fixture. With a dull sound, the man couldn’t even let out a scream. He gripped the neck of the person who couldn’t resist due to the sudden pain and applied moderate pressure while choking. When the oxygen going to his brain was cut off, he didn’t last long before passing out.
Chris dragged the man’s body into a stall. He could just leave him, but it would be troublesome if he came forward as a witness. More than anything, he needed the outerwear the man was wearing. Walking around in just a shirt in this weather would make him stand out.
After sitting the man on the lidded toilet seat, Chris stepped on the pants he hadn’t been able to pull up yet, making them catch at his ankles, then took the other’s outerwear and put it on.
Something was bulky in the pocket, so he took it out and found an ID card with an identification chip embedded in it.
‘I’m lucky.’
Instead of eliminating a witness, he’d acquired a useful item for escape.
After confirming that the man was breathing evenly, Chris hooked the string attached to the card onto the clasp, came outside, and pulled on it.
The door didn’t open on its own, whether it had locked properly or not. Before anyone else entered the bathroom, Chris opened the window and threw his body beyond it.
Fortunately, since it was about the height of the first floor, there was no need to use any grand tumbling technique. Chris surveyed his surroundings.
He could see familiar barbed wire beyond. Chris could immediately tell where this was from that familiar scenery.
‘District 13’s abandoned factory zone.’
Both the unusually wide ventilation duct and that empty warehouse-like environment fit together.
Chris had once swept through this area in wolf form. At that time, he’d kept a close watch on the passages cars used, but he’d also kept in mind where people came and went.
Gauging his current position and the direction he needed to go from the outside scenery, Chris moved without hesitation like someone who had come and gone here many times. The most important thing in this situation was a nonchalant attitude.
Thinking it fortunate that there were many people with light-colored body hair on the November Continent, Chris blended in among the people moving about.
Before long, the exit was right before his eyes.
Being careful not to glance around too much, he observed the guard. Certainly, though entry was strictly monitored, the exit side was less so.
The person who moved ahead took out something similar to the ID card Chris had and held it up to the terminal on the exit side.
If he hadn’t stolen the outerwear, getting out would have been more troublesome.
Soon it was Chris’s turn. He naturally took out the ID card and brought the identification tag to the terminal.
Even during that brief moment, Chris was making numerous calculations. He was gauging what to do if this didn’t work. First priority was to throw his body toward the guard’s direction and secure the weapon he was holding. If he succeeded in knocking down the guard, top priority was to steal the card from someone trying to leave, use it to go outside, then blend among people.
He knew which direction from this entrance had many people. Being a familiar place where he could gauge the general geography was no small fortune for Chris.
From when the beep sounded recognizing the chip until the exit door opened, Chris tensed his body. Not so much from fear but to move his body immediately in case of emergency.
[Edgar-ssi, confirmed.]
The door opened so easily it felt anticlimactic after preparing so much. Chris moved his steps. Thinking that even now five or six gazes might be stuck to his tail, he walked pretending to be relaxed.
He couldn’t show strange behavior near Yuri’s lair in the abandoned factory zone and get dragged back in. Until he joined up with Northern Light, this escape wasn’t perfectly successful. He’d only just taken the first step.
This time he couldn’t become a beast and travel along mountain ridges. There was no guarantee he wouldn’t be tailed along the way, and he had no money and no terminal.
However, Chris didn’t despair. If you keep possibilities open, there’s always a way.
Though slow, his steps that moved without hesitation soon arrived at the most bustling street in District 13. A place close to the tram station and crowded with shopping districts and pubs.
Whether the time was quite appropriate, there were many people roaming the streets. Though not as packed as District 4, it was enough to blend in appropriately.
Chris strode along and then moved his hand swiftly the moment he passed by a couple. Though the other person wouldn’t have felt any sensation, between Chris’s index and middle fingers was a rectangular wallet.
How to pickpocket wasn’t a skill he’d learned at Northern Light. His body just naturally knew it.
The other person walked down the street focused on conversation with their lover, not noticing Chris’s brief contact, let alone that their wallet had disappeared. Wallets usually contained identification, so the moment he joined up with his team, he’d send compensation to this person.
‘Until then, I hope they think they forgot their wallet and don’t cause a commotion.’
Though it was an unavoidable situation, committing pickpocketing couldn’t be pleasant. Chris swallowed a bitter smile and moved his steps.
Having solved even the immediate money problem as soon as he escaped, Chris’s steps were much lighter.
‘First take the tram and get off at District 7, then buy new clothes and change. Then walk to District 6 and……’
Even while planning the route, his gaze was scanning the surroundings without a gap. If there was a most dangerous moment in the upcoming flight, it was right now.
It was close to where the enemies gathered, and it was easy to let one’s guard down thinking he’d just escaped.
Containing the heart trying to become anxious, Chris blended among the people.
***
Yuri lifted the cigar cutter. He properly cut off the end of the cigar he held in his other hand. Lighting a match, he delicately singed the cut surface of the cigar.
