Chris realized anew that Yuri was quite tall, though he hadn’t noticed because his impression was slender and delicate.
“How have you been sleeping until now? On the floor?”
“If I bring a chair and put my feet up, or lie diagonally, it’s fine.”
“…Diagonally?”
With a face like he’d heard something he shouldn’t have, Yuri asked back. His expression was strange. Chris, who’d thought it didn’t matter much how he slept, nodded.
“As I sleep I toss and turn, so when I wake up my shoulders are stiff, so I thought I’d just buy a new bed.”
Yuri gazed at him quietly, then answered.
“Leave the bookshop, turn right, and at the third block turn left. There should be a furniture store there. If it hasn’t gone out of business, that is.”
Yuri particularly emphasized the part “if it hasn’t gone out of business.”
“Thank you.”
Chris bowed his head in greeting. Yuri’s face watching the back of his head as he left was slightly reflected in the glass door.
Since it wasn’t a mirror, there would be some distortion, but it looked like only one corner of his mouth had risen.
As if mocking him.
Having left the bookshop, Chris headed in the direction Yuri had told him. There really was a furniture store there, and he was able to get a fairly large bed at a cheap price. It was thanks to them planning to close soon and selling even items from the warehouse.
Thinking he needed to change the bed anyway, he paid. Perhaps because customers of this size were rare, the furniture store owner personally drove a truck and delivered it to the apartment. Since there was no elevator, Chris, who’d been moving the mattress and frame to the fourth floor together with the furniture store owner, suddenly realized something.
“Ah… Damn.”
Caught on the narrow stairway railing, nothing could be brought up to the room.
Since it wasn’t an assembly type but an integrated frame, unless they broke this, it couldn’t be moved inside. The mattress would barely make it up the stairs if folded in half. Or the best option would be to find a forklift and bring it in through the window.
“Can I… get a refund?”
***
In the end, Chris’s new bed became a thing that never happened.
The furniture store owner shook his head several times, sighed several times, then accepted Chris’s refund request with the condition of moving it back to the furniture store instead. Having returned to the furniture store, Chris carefully set down the bed, picked out a piano bench of appropriate height, and came back. Having moved it well to the end of the creaky bed, he flopped face-down on the bed.
Though he hadn’t even eaten dinner yet, feeling somehow fatigued, he had no motivation to prepare a meal.
Today especially, the first letters of the titles of Iliad and On Liberty he’d bought from Magnolia bookshop stood out more vividly to his eyes.
I-D-I-O-T
And he recalled Yuri’s seemingly mocking corner of the mouth reflected in the door.
His device vibrated at just that moment. Chris thought being busy was rather fortunate as he operated the screen.
When the encrypted document was decoded, the contact from Yont he’d been waiting for had arrived.
<Scene secured through police. Weapon used was a Glock. Broker’s electronic device handed to recovery team, but even with psychic-type Esper’s psychometry, serial number cannot be determined. Tracking illegal factory.>
Chris sat up straight at that text. He was surprised there was an illegal factory producing devices.
Chris hadn’t even thought the device’s appearance was particularly unfamiliar. Because the exterior was exactly the same as devices distributed on the June Continent, he’d naturally judged they could obtain clues through this and sent it to Yont.
What kind of secret did that drug dealer have to act this thoroughly?
Also, had they formed their own communications network, worried that using the network Northern Light built would get their tail caught?
Where did the technology and capital for that come from?
<Abandoned factory zone in District 13. Confirm if any locations still operating.>
<Yes.>
Having sent a reply, Chris buried his body in the bed again.
The November Continent that the June Continent and Northern Light spoke of was a place that had become backward because reconstruction couldn’t be done in time, where residents had it hard. He’d confirmed several times through mafia-related reports the sight of Silvermine, called the second city, destroyed mercilessly. This was further used to inform people of the danger of unregistered Espers.
But the November Continent Chris had directly come to see and experience wasn’t that serious. Certainly there were no buildings that looked newly built, but they used existing old buildings and apartments, keeping them clean and tidy. Riding the tram and moving around, there were many people with decent jobs, and several self-employed people he discovered on the way back and forth investigating.
Why did Northern Light, when mentioning the November Continent, say it was a hopeless and desperate place fallen into that state due to mafia rule?
While thoughts followed in succession, Chris’s eyes gradually closed.
Drowsiness poured in.
***
1) Taxi
Chapter 3. Reeducation Center
When he woke up in the morning, Chris realized he hadn’t dreamed of Yuri and swept his chest in relief. Going into heat for reasons even he couldn’t understand wasn’t a very pleasant feeling, even if it was a dream. Moreover, the other party was Yuri, with whom he’d only exchanged words a couple times.
He thought he’d needlessly worried about what would end up being a one-time happening.
Resolving not to be conscious of Yuri Magnolia anymore, Chris moved to District 13 where the abandoned factory zone was, as Yont had instructed.
Unexpectedly, it was a place with quite a few passersby. If the factories had truly gone under and had no workers, there wouldn’t be this level of floating population. The restaurant district near the factories also showed signs of being fairly active.
If he used Beast Transformation, finding clues would be faster, but even on the November Continent where all sorts of things happened, the sight of a wolf going around various places in the city couldn’t help but stand out. Chris raised the collar of the old coat he’d found in the used clothing collection box at his apartment building, pressed down his cap, and moved his steps leisurely.
He looked like someone who’d lost their job and was wandering the streets.
“Oh my. A young person already.”
Passing by a middle-aged person clicking her tongue, she grabbed Chris.
“Haven’t you been to a reeducation center or something?”
“Re… education center?”
At the pleasant low tone flowing from Chris’s mouth, the woman looked surprised, then answered haltingly.
“You know, that thing. If you explain your situation, they take you in, feed you, house you, give you technical education, and later even connect you to a job.”
Because speaking while facing him, the blue eyes sparkling beneath the cap pulled low were surprisingly beautiful.
“Is it… run by the government?”
He wondered who ran something called a reeducation center in this place without Northern Light’s activities. Then what he barely recalled was that the November Continent still had a government.
“Government, what. Besides collecting taxes and licking Northern Light’s soles, what do those bastards know how to do.”
Chris was a bit surprised. This was the first person so negative toward Northern Light.
“Why, it’s an open secret.”
The woman lowered her voice.
“Yuri.”
At the whisper light as a feather, Chris froze.
“Yuri Sobolev?”
The woman nodded, then eventually took a step back and said.
“Though they hide it discreetly, those who know all know. People who don’t know might feel aversion, but if it weren’t for that person, the Winter Continent would have been abandoned and completely collapsed.”
Chris nodded as if agreeing while clicking his tongue inwardly.
No matter how notorious a mafia, it seemed he was putting considerable effort into the place he’d made his base. Seeing how he spread rumors like this while pretending to secretly provide charitable work.
When in reality, the reason Northern Light couldn’t set foot on the November Continent, the reason they couldn’t begin full-scale reconstruction, was because the mafia called Yuri Sobolev stood guard like a gatekeeper.
It wasn’t a bad method. To someone who’d lost their job and was wandering the streets, how sweet would a new opportunity come? Perhaps through that thing called a reeducation center, Yuri Sobolev was selecting workers who would be loyal to him.
Those who were desperate, with no ground to stand on.
Chris recalled himself on the June Continent. Actually, immediately after he first ‘awakened,’ his own situation wasn’t much different from others who would have ended up at Yuri Sobolev’s reeducation center.
He remembered nothing besides his name, and couldn’t find anyone who knew him at all. All Chris had was his body.
The police who appeared after receiving a report took him, who’d been homeless on the streets, to a welfare center established by the Esper Union, and there they gave him food and a place to rest. As soon as Chris recovered his strength, he could transform into a wolf, and could immediately enter Northern Light as a new recruit.
Chris, to whom even the fact that he was an Esper was unfamiliar besides his name, language, and common sense, gained a sense of security by belonging to Northern Light.
Unlike the early days when he only received help, he thought it fortunate that he could use this strange power for other people.
