Garbage truck?
It was a statement he couldn’t understand. What would they use broken Espers collected for? Moreover, listening to what Yuri was saying, he seemed to detest that garbage truck more than the trash.
He didn’t know well the side effects of being intoxicated by Guiding drugs, but since they fundamentally couldn’t replace Guiding, in the end each one was no different from a time bomb on the verge of Rampage.
“Is someone taking addicted Espers to exploit their labor or something?”
“If it were only that much, it would be cute. Espers and such, whether they’re exploited or not isn’t my concern.”
Yuri clicked his tongue.
“It would be troublesome if your memory took your intelligence too…”
He could feel that he was genuinely troubled. Chris, who had been one of the promising agents even when at Northern Light, felt a bit wronged.
“It’s because I’m confused by the information being given one after another.”
At the sight of him even clenching his fists and speaking as if making excuses, Yuri raised the corner of his mouth slightly.
“Think carefully about which organization is drooling wanting to enter this continent.”
“If it’s Northern Light, they can’t even set foot in the November Continent because of your organization.”
“Then how did you come from the June Continent to the November Continent?”
Chris was momentarily speechless. Not only had he obtained entry routes through Northern Light, but he’d actually experienced firsthand how smuggling into the November Continent was being carried out.
“The one who issued the blockade order wasn’t me but Northern Light. I’ve never blocked people from coming and going. I’ve just killed off every single vermin from the Esper Union as I found them.”
Emotions seemed ready to overflow from Yuri’s words, rippling.
“Rosenhower blocked the November Continent and winter continent from communicating with other continents as retaliation. He must have thought that if he blocked logistics, all the humans living in such barren land would starve to death.”
Between the lines of sharp words was hidden the meaning that if you wanted to enter the November Continent, there were ways.
Northern Light was collecting addicted Espers? Why on earth?
‘I’ve never met an Esper who looked like an addict at Northern Light.’
He didn’t have authority to access secret sections and such. But hadn’t even Andrea, who was several years his senior, said Guiding drugs were close to an urban legend?
If the Esper Union was really taking addicts to treat them and make them join Northern Light, there was no way the story of Guiding drugs would be this secret.
The more the story continued, the more suspicious it became. The problem was that the suspicious target wasn’t Yuri Sobolev but Northern Light.
[Northern Light, Protecting a More Valuable Future.]
Northern Light’s logo that had passed across the screen with the teal aurora flickered before his eyes.
Yuri and Northern Light were in fierce opposition, so there was no way they’d say good things about each other. In the end, he had no choice but to believe the information he found out by running around himself.
“Then who on earth is distributing Guiding drugs?”
“For a detailed explanation about Guiding drugs, get an explanation from Jessica. I think I should get going soon too.”
So saying, Yuri led Chris to one of the medical staff. The other person greeted Chris at his approach.
“I’m Enhancement-type Esper Jessica O’Neill. I’m in charge of this ward.”
“Nice to meet you. I’m also Enhancement-type.”
“I know you have telekinesis. You appeared with the boss with that shining platinum blonde hair, so at this point it’s hard to pretend not to know.”
Jessica seemed to be a person with a bouncy personality quite different from the dark atmosphere of the ward.
“I’ll be going now. You show him around the ward and answer his questions. Security level… up to level 2 would be appropriate.”
“Understood.”
At Yuri’s words, Jessica took a disciplined posture and answered. She felt more like a soldier than a doctor.
“Where should I show you first?”
Jessica manipulated her earpiece and brought up a hologram. The names of the rooms lined up along this corridor were written. Patient room, rehabilitation room, exercise room, staff break room…
Everything that should be equipped seemed to be equipped. However, seeing that the end of the corridor was marked in red, it seemed access to that side was blocked altogether.
“I’d like to know about Guiding drugs. I heard I’m allowed up to security level 2, can I hear about it?”
First, he wanted to properly know about that urban legend called Guiding drugs. Though he couldn’t get the information he wanted from Andrea, he thought White Night, which found and treated addicted Espers, would have different information.
“Hmm… It seems you’re more curious about the cause than the result. We can’t do that here. Let’s go to a private room first. Ah, before that we should find shoes for you.”
Chris suddenly recalled that he’d come here without even shoes. Jessica went around the inside of the patient room once and came back to hand him patient slippers. Chris pushed his feet into the slightly small slippers and followed Jessica to her office.
As soon as she entered, Jessica O’Neill rummaged through her desk and pulled out some round object.
“This is the treatment record of one of the patients. In principle, it shouldn’t be leaked, but I designated it as material to use in an internal seminar and got consent for disclosure. It’s gone through voice modulation and face mosaic, so feel free to watch it.”
It was unexpected that even as a doctor belonging to the mafia organization White Night, she maintained ethics regarding patients. It came across even more strangely because he’d heard from people around Northern Light, almost to the point of brainwashing, that there were only outlaws in the November Continent.
“Shall I play it?”
“Please.”
As Chris nodded, Jessica pressed a button.
A hologram appeared and the video began to play.
A woman was crawling on the floor. Looking at her strong shoulders and hands digging deeply into the concrete-paved floor, you could tell she was a considerably powerful Esper.
[Medicine, please give me medicine. Anything, I’ll do anything.]
She gripped the floor so hard that even the scars on the back of her hands turned white.
[Even if I have to kill someone?]
Chris flinched at a voice that sounded like Yuri’s. This side had no voice modulation at all.
[Who should I kill?]
[The man you saved a week ago.]
[Ah, but he, that person…]
[I know. He had severe bleeding but you barely managed to suture him and he regained consciousness. I heard it was a difficult surgery because he even developed hand tremors from addiction, but I was surprised the wound area was relatively clean.]
[…That person has three children. Three of them. He barely survived.]
[Children he fed by working as a drug courier.]
Yuri’s voice commanding her to kill a head of household was ice cold. He continued to press.
[Didn’t you say you wanted the medicine? If the person you met a week ago is more important than that, you should give up. There are plenty of people who want this besides you.]
Yuri tossed something in front of the patient. It was white pills in a plastic bag.
She brought her hand to it almost lunging, but a black shoe that appeared to be Yuri’s stepped on the medicine bag. She nearly had her hand stepped on too, but without backing away she tried to pull it.
Even though she had the strength to crush the floor, she trembled without being able to apply force, worried that the pills in that bag would be crushed—it couldn’t be more incongruous.
[Will you do it?]
The woman nodded frantically.
[I, I’ll do it.]
[Cut off the child’s finger as evidence. If the parents are alive, they won’t let the child get hurt.]
[Okay.]
The Esper burst into tears.
Only after those tears subsided did Yuri in the video open his mouth.
[Now, what do you have to do?]
[Kill the patient I treated last week.]
[The evidence?]
[The child’s finger.]
[It’s okay. You don’t have to feel guilty. I’m the one who ordered it all… Right?]
[You, ordered it.]
The woman’s voice gradually became mechanical.
It was creepy. It felt like watching a perfectly normal human being worn down. The woman in the video clearly felt guilt and even begged that the patient had children. But the moment she saw the medicine, her thoughts became hazy and only her obsession to get that remained, repeating what the other person said.
Yuri watching that scene without moving seemed more like a demon than anything he’d vaguely imagined.
