Because Chris thought Yuri Sobolev was distributing drugs, it felt no different from an act of giving both the disease and the cure. However, once he peeled away one layer of prejudice, he found that actual addicted civilians were receiving separate treatment. Since Andrea had personally confirmed this fact, they couldn’t have faked even this.
It seemed too actively engaged to be just for saving face. It must cost a lot of money too.
Getting people addicted to drugs and then treating them? This doesn’t add up financially.
“If they’re drug dealers, they round up everyone regardless of age or gender. Once an addict enters the center and shows willingness to receive treatment, they don’t let them go until they can make a fresh start. If someone changes their mind midway and says they want to leave, they apparently tie them up first and wave the written pledge right in front of their face. If you’re really an addict, it’d drive you crazy.”
Nasthenka said this while shaking her head. Her tone of being dumbfounded seemed mixed with admiration.
“Then the mafia that got my father addicted…”
Chris opened his mouth tentatively, wondering if Nasthenka might know the name of some organization. But Nasthenka just shrugged her shoulders, showing she had no idea about that.
“Isn’t it remnants of the old violent organizations that Yuri Sobolev crushed like catching mice? People being monitored by that fierce mafia are desperate to breathe somehow, so what wouldn’t they do?”
‘Old’ violent organizations. This was a story Chris vaguely knew about too.
Yuri Sobolev seized control of the Winter Continent in just ten years. He’d heard that until then, all kinds of illegal activities ran rampant on the Winter Continent and it was practically lawless territory. Yuri Sobolev, who gained the upper hand in gang conflicts by putting forward Chris Danil, an S-rank telekinetic Esper, absorbed the forces of organizations he defeated and gradually grew bigger. And in that process, various rules were established and those who broke them were punished.
Simple and violent, but few methods could show results in such a short time. Public safety transformed so much that citizens no longer feared walking the streets in broad daylight. Thus the situation on the Winter Continent gradually regained stability.
Northern Light judged that Yuri Sobolev had merely changed organized crime into a more sophisticated method, and criminal acts occurring on the Winter Continent hadn’t ended. They said he made moves to avoid being easily removed by putting down deep roots in a way that closely adhered to local communities.
Chris wasn’t the type to rebel against upper management’s judgment, so he believed this completely.
‘But—’
Why does everyone he meets on the November Continent only talk about the good points of Yuri Sobolev?
The woman he met on the street recommended the re-education center sponsored by Yuri Sobolev as a last resort for homeless young men wandering the streets. Nasthenka, whom he met after entering the center, didn’t seem to think positively of Yuri Sobolev, but she was providing information completely different from what he’d heard at Northern Light.
And if Yuri Sobolev truly despised drugs, from whose hands did those Guiding drugs come?
There were more than one or two facts he couldn’t know when he was on the June Continent. Chris, who had lost his memory and was like an empty water bottle, unconditionally accepted knowledge transmitted to him from outside.
But now that he’d come to the November Continent, he realized that the knowledge he’d accepted contained the transmitter’s prejudices. The Yuri Sobolev in the words he heard here wasn’t absolute evil. Regarding drugs too, rather than proactively leading drug distribution as the upper echelon had told him, he was actually cracking down on it.
Of course, Nasthenka wasn’t affiliated with White Night, Yuri’s organization—she was an outsider. So Nasthenka’s words would mostly originate from rumors and inevitably have some gap from reality.
After the lecture ended, Chris blended in among people to find out their perception of Yuri Sobolev. Perhaps because this re-education center itself was a place receiving mafia sponsorship, people’s reactions were favorable.
Especially, there were quite a few people who had lost their foundation and fallen into the pit of poverty because of the violent organizations that existed before White Night was established. Being able to do even day labor was a relatively better case. If you fell out of favor with the organization, becoming disabled or dying while being chased was normal.
When Yuri Sobolev appeared, the order of existing organizations crumbled. Yuri Sobolev, putting forward Chris Danil, completely overturned the underworld that had been eating away at the Winter Continent. All attacks concentrated on Yuri Sobolev, and there were those who escaped and saved their lives in the meantime.
‘He’s a frightening person.’
Chris thought while trying not to harden his expression. The people of the November Continent were pretending otherwise but secretly admiring Yuri Sobolev.
The Winter Continent is a region with strong exclusivity. No matter how much Northern Light says the mafia is dangerous, there’s no way they’ll listen to the Esper Alliance that never once helped them during hard times. Rather, they’ll follow Yuri Sobolev who drove out the violent organizations that tormented them, cracked down on drug distribution, and established re-education centers to give them opportunities for self-reliance.
For now this might not be a very big problem, but looking long-term, the Winter Continent will inevitably separate from other continents. Northern Light probably took the drastic measure of isolating the Winter Continent to prevent Yuri Sobolev’s rise to power.
They wanted to redirect arrows of resentment, saying it’s because of Yuri Sobolev that they can’t receive benefits from outside.
However, the Winter Continent grew resentment not against the mafia but against Northern Light, which had only watched from afar. Even if they said it was because of Yuri Sobolev that free movement between continents was blocked, ultimately they were bystanders who had just watched with folded arms.
The beast that had been predicted to bite everyone’s throats was unexpectedly quiet… so it was inevitable that resentment grew toward those who built us up high and locked us in.
Northern Light’s policy is a failure. They turned a crisis into an opportunity to strengthen internal unity.
Isn’t it too fortunate for a mafia who secretly took control of the November Continent to stumble upon this situation while doing good deeds? In the end, all of this is Yuri Sobolev’s capability.
Northern Light said he came to dominate the November Continent luckily because he had the most vicious Esper, Chris Danil, but there were limits to what could be accomplished with just one capable person.
Chris’s mood became strange. Northern Light sent Team Crow all the way to the Winter Continent just to confirm one thing—the death of the hunting dog ‘Chris Danil.’ As if, if it’s certain they lost the hunting dog, Yuri Sobolev is an insignificant existence. However, the more time Chris spent on the November Continent, the more he discovered Yuri Sobolev had put down deep roots among the people.
Driving him out of the Winter Continent would certainly be a long and arduous war. He didn’t think Northern Light would fail, but it didn’t seem like they could secure an unshakable advantage either.
‘It’s troublesome to be influenced by the enemy.’
As he left the re-education center, Chris reported the investigation results to Yont. The content was that it wasn’t Yuri Sobolev but a third-party organization distributing drugs, and White Night was actually in the position of cracking down on it.
He had to try his best to be as objective as possible and exclude his feelings about Yuri Sobolev as much as possible.
Chris, who had absorbed Northern Light’s methods like a sponge, felt that he could also easily be colored by what he saw and felt on the November Continent.
<Good work.>
Before long, a reply from Yont arrived.
<Yuri Sobolev taking the lead in cracking down on drug distribution is probably to become the sole seller. Only by removing all competing organizations can he control the price.>
Chris pressed his lips together tightly. Yont’s words seemed reasonable. However, regarding one single drug, a contradiction existed.
Guiding drugs.
According to Andrea, the sole producer of Guiding drugs was Yuri Sobolev. It had a vertically integrated structure monopolizing production, transportation, and sales, and those who used Guiding drugs were Espers who would die without them.
The more he thought, the more questions led to more questions.
Did Yont not know this fact? Or was he pretending not to know?
Chris cut off his thoughts. In missions like this, distrust of superiors inevitably leads to disobedience of orders. In such dangerous areas, acting against the will of upper management brings results that endanger not just the mission but one’s life.
So he should bury it—
But he absolutely couldn’t swallow this question while pretending not to know.
Chris sent Yont a message saying he would track addicts from the re-education center while simultaneously searching for drug dealers in Aurum City.
The tracking mission he’d been clinging to until now was practically over. Since Gillian and Aparna’s tracks had ended at the abandoned port, there was a high possibility they’d been moved to another continent. After that, Northern Light dispatch teams from other continents would take over.
His mind wasn’t at ease, but Chris trusted Northern Light. The Esper Alliance had never abandoned colleagues. Before the existence of Guides was properly confirmed, Espers who had been ostracized because of Rampage had strong bonds. Though one generation had changed, everyone had experienced being treated as a ticking time bomb by civilians at least once or twice.
He wasn’t blaming people who had lost family or relatives to rampaging Espers. It’s just that their wariness, sadness, anger, and ostracism were factors that alienated Espers from normal life. No matter how much they served and devoted themselves to society, in others’ eyes they could only exist somewhere between monster and weapon forever.
The loneliness arising from this was a feeling all Espers shared. Even if you mixed in among people on your commute or during lunch breaks, when a situation arose where you had to present your Esper registration, how could you pretend not to notice when the other person smiled awkwardly or even showed undisguised contempt and turned their eyes away?
You just become numb to it.
If they didn’t have the name Northern Light backing them, Espers would still be mutations of the era, weapons of war, or harbingers of disaster.
Chris received a reply from Yont. It was approval to carry out the new mission.
Chris, adjusting his coat against the sharp wind, entered the street full of people. Despite his tall stature, a head taller than others, he had already mixed in among passersby and disappeared without a trace.
