# Chapter 32
After receiving confirmation, Boss shifted his gaze to me.
“The objective is to rescue Alice. Don’t forget that.”
This was a warning. A warning not to do anything reckless. Boss was right. ‘Alice’ wasn’t an agency pursuing good; it was a criminal organization.
All we needed to do was rescue Alice; there was no need to worry about anything else.
But despite this thought, the images from that time kept flashing in my mind. People writhing in pain. People dying.
Even though thinking about it wouldn’t change anything I could do, those memories clung to my mind like shadows.
“Understood.”
I barely managed to speak through my tangled thoughts. I kept making myself focus, reminding myself of my purpose.
My only task was to rescue Alice. I shouldn’t forget that.
* * *
As the sun set, night gradually fell. I walked through the headquarters enveloped in cool silence. As usual, I raised my hand and knocked on the door.
Knock— knock— After the dull sound of knocking on the wooden door, Boss’s voice came through.
“Come in.”
Though I hadn’t made a sound, he must have mistaken me for someone coming to report. After taking a deep breath at his casually dropped voice, I opened the door.
“Boss.”
It was the first time we’d met alone since that day. Originally, I had planned not to see him during my remaining time. But after Alex’s words, I changed my mind.
Forcibly suppressing my trembling voice, I called out to Boss.
“…What is it?”
Boss’s voice lowered as he belatedly recognized who I was. The brief silence before his words probably meant he had sensed my mood.
Realizing I hadn’t come for work, Boss raised his head. I could clearly see his eyes, which I hadn’t been able to see that time.
Saying this would make things difficult for him. After all, I was someone he would have to continue facing.
But my resolve hadn’t changed. Though I knew it would cause him trouble, I had no hesitation.
“I like you.”
The sentence formed more comfortably than my previous confession, which had been suppressed by tension. It was a simple sentence that didn’t need to be pondered over word by word.
If before I could only say those words because I was overwhelmed, now I intentionally didn’t add any follow-up sentence for a different reason.
This was my small selfishness. The selfishness of hoping Boss would give meaning to my confession, hoping he would think of this moment and consider my feelings.
“…”
Boss responded to my confession with silence, just like before. But that fact didn’t make me sad. As long as he didn’t answer, I could confess to Boss as many times as I wanted.
If he answered with silence, I would confess once more. Until Boss gave an answer to my confession. That was the only way I could be remembered by him during the little time I had left.
* * *
Melia muttered as she looked at Kay’s unusually flushed face.
“You seem… happy.”
Kay’s range of emotions wasn’t very wide. But for someone sensitive to others’ energy like her, it wasn’t difficult to notice.
Kay touched his own face as Melia spoke, observing his slightly upturned lips.
He didn’t realize it would show on his expression. Certainly, as she said, his mood wasn’t bad. Rather, a fluttering sensation swept through him.
It wasn’t nauseating or unpleasant. Instead, it was a pleasant fluttering.
“I… suppose so.”
After briefly exploring that sensation, Kay carefully opened his mouth. Melia’s glass-like eyes stared directly at him.
“It’s good to be happy.”
This was better than Kay’s recent dark complexion. Whatever made him happy, it was fortunate. Thinking this, Melia walked toward the harbor.
Though her words were dry and monotone, Kay knew they were meant for him. Following Melia, who was walking far ahead, with quick strides, he gently patted her head.
A subtle smile appeared on Kay’s lips. It was a smile he only showed when dealing with Melia. Until Zenon joined, Kay had been the closest in age to Melia in the organization.
Perhaps that’s why he particularly showed a relaxed side in front of her. The same was true for her.
After receiving his light but affectionate touch, Melia quietly opened her mouth.
“Kay shouldn’t die.”
His hand stopped at her incomprehensible words. Kay was about to ask the meaning of her words, but at that moment, Melia activated her ability.
She dropped a playing card—the two of hearts—to the ground. And the moment she stepped on that card, a stormy wind began to emanate.
Melia, who had stepped on the card, used the wind to rise to the top of the factory in one go. Because of this, Kay, who had barely been blocking the swirling gusts, missed his chance to speak.
Kay activated his werewolf form as she looked at him as if urging him to come up quickly. Though he wanted to ask Melia, there was something he had to do now.
He could ask later. Deciding this, he reached her side with a single leap.
“There…”
After crouching down and looking around, Melia slightly gestured with her eyes. Following her, Kay also shifted his gaze. Then he could see men in black suits gathered together.
Today was the day of ‘Knock’s’ drug trafficking. ‘Knock’ was a new organization that mainly dealt in drugs and was characterized by trying to solve everything through force.
That’s why Fenil had chosen ‘Knock’ as bait. The simpler they were, the more easily they’d be deceived.
Seeing the members surveying the surroundings, perhaps before the deal was finalized, Kay whispered to her.
“I’ll hold their feet.”
Melia’s ability activates when she touches the opponent’s body. Since there were limits to binding opponents’ feet with cards, someone with combat ability would often capture the opponent in such cases.
“Okay…”
She nodded as she looked at the cards. At Melia’s signal that she was ready, Kay immediately charged at them.
Killing wasn’t allowed. He just needed to handle them enough to make them unconscious. His brown eyes began to glow in the darkness. The beast’s eyes, now golden, stared at its prey.
Eight people. Weapons: guns and knives. After assessing the situation, Kay started by destroying their weapons first.
With his single strike, the members’ weapons were instantly split in two and rolled on the ground.
“Wh-what’s going on!”
The members who belatedly realized this looked around, but it was already too late.
Each time Kay moved, people who had their vital points attacked fell one by one. Someone who had been unceremoniously slammed to the ground with a single attack rolled his eyes, not knowing what was happening.
“Y-you!”
Something caught this member’s eye. It was a mark attached to the attacker’s clothes. There was no way he couldn’t recognize that symbol.
It was the symbol of Peace, the organization’s powerful enemy. With widened eyes, he tried to lift his stuttering neck. He needed to know how Peace had detected them.
And Kay wasn’t one to miss this. He coldly looked at the one member who hadn’t fainted and was still grasping the situation.
But Kay merely looked at him without attacking him again.
It was natural. If he were to faint too, the meaning of this operation would be lost.
Disguise as Peace and raid ‘Knock’s’ trading site. Then show it to ‘Knock’s’ member. By doing so, they could disguise what happened in the operation as something done by ‘Knock’ out of grudge.
Of course, just raiding might not be enough to make them attack Peace, so a stronger measure was needed.
Melia was the person needed for that. Kay signaled to her when the situation was roughly settled.
Then, Melia, who had descended lightly from above, took out a card while avoiding the member’s eyes. She then began to place a playing card on each of the unconscious members.
As Melia placed the cards, a bright light burst forth from them. That light instantly consumed the people, and then their figures disappeared without a trace.
In the space where only black and white cards remained, she leisurely collected the cards. The fact that they had turned black was evidence they were well-preserved.
The member watching this scene felt such terror that he even forgot to breathe. His fellow members suddenly disappearing? He had never heard of or seen such an ability.
Kay turned his gaze away from the member who was just staring blankly while trembling.
With this, the mission was complete. Enraged that their members had been captured, they would approach Peace by any means.
It was the creation of a perfect bait.
* * *
Time had passed, and there was only one day left until the operation.
Even that was stretching it, since it was already past midnight.
Who would have thought that two weeks could be so short? They say you don’t realize the value of something until you lose it.
Normally, I wouldn’t have looked back on the time that had passed, but now I feel regret for the time that had flown by so quickly.
As time passed, death was drawing closer to me. If my lifespan could be converted to sand, perhaps only a handful of sand remained.
There was no pain, nor was I suffocating. But I’m going to die. Death was destined to come to me without any hope.
That fact still terrified me. No matter how many times I thought about dying, I could never get used to it.
However, it wasn’t as shocking as the first time. Perhaps at some point, without me knowing, a moment came when I accepted death.
If I’m going to die anyway, rather than being bound by death, I wanted to do what I needed to do. Even if I shouted that I didn’t want to die, even if I withered away by refusing to eat or drink, death would still come.
In that case, wouldn’t it be better for me to use this remaining time to eliminate regrets? Though when I say regrets, there weren’t many to begin with.
“I like you, Boss.”
