“Th-thank you so much!”
Beta carefully slips the scrap of paper between her breasts and makes a mental note to head to the lab at once to get it analyzed.
The MCA has mobilized a huge number of men and sent them looking for John Smith.
However, they haven’t been able to find so much as a trace. Also, owing to the size of the search party, they’ve been drawing a whole lot of unwanted attention.
The existence of counterfeits hasn’t been made public, but anyone with a sharp enough intuition is beginning to notice something’s afoot.
There isn’t much time left.
The crisis is almost here.
“Halt right there! We’re conducting a search of this carriage.”
Deep in the night, a group of men stop a carriage from leaving the capital.
They belong to the Garter Corporation’s private army, and they’ve been going after every carriage that looks even slightly suspicious.
Now, they don’t have permission to do so, and their actions have no legal basis behind them. However, most merchants wouldn’t dare cross the MCA, so they have no choice but to comply with the investigation.
Just like the others, the carriage complies and comes to a stop.
The Garter men reach up and violently grab at the vehicle’s curtains.
“…I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
“What?”
Hearing a deep voice from somewhere, the soldiers stop and look around.
“You’ll regret it.”
“Hah, bite me.”
Scoffing at the warning, one of the soldiers throws open the curtain.
He sees a mountain of gold coins inside—and his head immediately goes flying off.
“Wha…?”
“I told you you’d regret it.”
With a spray of blood, the beheaded soldier crumples to the ground. A masked man wearing a black suit appears from behind him.
“Wh-who the hell are you?!”
The rest of the soldiers surround him and draw their swords.
“My name is John Smith. I am the man who destroys it all and starts from scratch—”
“I-it’s John Smith! Don’t move, you, just drop your weapon…”
Several fine threads shine in the moonlight.
However, nobody notices their glimmer.
Their heads go flying off in unison.
Knowing nothing and noticing nothing, their lives instantly end.
As their blood rains down on the surroundings, the gold coin–laden carriage starts moving again.
It gradually accelerates and vanishes into the distance, leaving only John Smith and the corpses behind.
He jerks his fingers as though playing the piano, and the myriad threads extending from them twitch in turn.
He calls out to the empty air.
“—I know you’re there.”
His steel wires slice through the darkness.
Something stirs.
The next moment, a woman clad in a black bodysuit emerges from the seemingly empty gloom. A mask covers her face, but her blue eyes are visible beneath it.
She’s Alpha, the Shadow Garden’s most powerful slayer—and she’s here for revenge.
“Hello, John Smith.”
Her voice has the beautiful tenor of a bell ringing. Her platinum blond hair flashes in the moonlight as she bows.
“And—good-bye.”
Without pause, her ebony sword cleaves toward him…but even though it slices straight through him, there’s no tactile response.
“—That was an afterimage.”
Hearing his voice behind her, Alpha whirls around.
John Smith is standing there, unharmed.
She levels a frigid gaze his way as she readies her sword again.
She’s fighting a foe that was powerful enough to put Delta down. She came in knowing he’d be strong. However, the skill he showed in that last exchange far exceeded her expectations.
“Moving at high speeds by compressing magical energy… That requires incredibly precise control and magic circuits able to withstand a tremendous burden. How did you learn to move like that?”
John Smith offers no answer. His fingers twitch, and countless white lines whiz through the darkness.
—Steel wire.
This corroborates Number 664’s report. Alpha calmly analyzes their movements and looks for the real ones lurking among them.
Twing—a small noise echoes out as the thin wires are sliced in twain in midair.
“You hide your real, thinner wires in among decoys… I already know your tricks.”
“Oh…?”
Alpha makes her move.
After closing the distance in an instant, she slices at John Smith with her black blade. The attack is aimed straight at his throat, and the timing is such that it should be impossible to dodge.
With the smallest tilt of his head, however, John Smith manages to do just that.
“—!”
Alpha’s movements…stop.
Her eyes go wide, and John Smith’s wires bear down on her.
“This…can’t be…”
Alpha watches the wires, slices them away with her sword, then goes in for a counterattack in the space between their strikes.
It’s fast and nimble—the perfect slash.
This time, there’s no way anyone could avoid it.
And yet…
“But why…?”
John Smith’s dodge is just as perfect as the last.
The sword’s aim is unerring until the last possible moment. It practically slides over his skin. That technique, where he uses the smallest possible movements to dodge—
Alpha puts a wide gap between them, effectively abandoning combat altogether.
“What are you doing here…?”
She takes off her mask. Her beautiful elvish face comes into view.
“Why are you…?”
Her eyes flash with certainty.
“…Shadow…”
John Smith meets her gaze for a moment, then takes off his mask in turn.
“I’ve abandoned that name…”
His face is one she knows all too well.
“What do you mean, you’ve ‘abandoned’ it?”
“Exactly what I said. I’m John Smith now. Nothing more, nothing less.”
“But why are you John Smith…?” Alpha’s voice sounds almost desperate.
“Because it was the best option…”
“The best option for what…? That isn’t enough to understand what’s going on.”
“You’ll know once this is all over.”
“And what about Delta? What did you do with her…?”
“Delta’s off on a long journey…”
“That doesn’t tell me anything…”
Alpha’s anguished cry echoes through the night as the force of her overflowing magic shakes the air.
“I’m dumb, so I don’t understand all the things you do. I’m weak, so I can’t do all the things you can. But still, even so… I want to understand, so I can support you. You saved me, saved all of us, so I want to do whatever it is I can to help.”
Alpha’s voice becomes quiet.
“But you’re always going forward on your own, leaving us just gazing at your back…”
She squeezes her sword tightly as she looks down.
“Do you not need us anymore…?”
Tears start dripping from her sapphire eyes.
“I’m doing what needs to be done,” John Smith replies.
“…”
The raging magic swirls down and coalesces on Alpha.
“I…I’m not just going to be a burden forever.”
And with that—she vanishes.
Surprise makes its way across John Smith’s face for the first time.
Her raging magic, her ebony sword, her body—every proof that she was ever there has completely disappeared.
All that’s left is a red mist.
Then A
lpha appears out of the fog and tries to rip into John Smith from behind.
Her blade is a dark red.
John Smith whirls around and tries to dodge with the smallest movements possible.
Just like always.
“—?!”
A thin wound carves its way across John Smith’s cheek.
Without any warning, the dark crimson blade extends.
Alpha vanishes, and the red mist blankets their surroundings once more.
Another slice flies out of the mist.
It tears John Smith’s suit, lightly splattering his shirt with blood.
By the time he’s ready to strike back with his wires, Alpha’s body has already transformed back into fog.
An instant later, she attacks him again from behind.
The speed at which she emerges from the mist and the speed she turns back into it are both incredible.
Her one-sided attacks seem to defy the concept of space, and her unfair defense bends the laws of physics.
She vanishes, then appears.
Appears, then vanishes.
The slashes bear down on John Smith without pause, and his suit is ripped to shreds. By manipulating his wires and relying on three-dimensional movement, he’s able to avoid suffering any lethal wounds.
However, the fact that he uses wires to keep his distance matches up terribly against Alpha’s ability to override the concept of space altogether.
“—Ngh!”
His suit suffers another tear.
It seems the red mist doubles as a sensory organ of some sort, as Alpha’s able to completely sense the wires’ movements.
It looks as though John Smith has no cards left to play.
Alpha’s voice comes out from somewhere in the mist. “I’m not just a burden anymore. I’m strong enough to support you, to understand you… So please, I’m begging you…”
“Mistform, huh…? It’s an interesting technique, but it’s lacking in mass.”
As the words leave his mouth, his ebony sword materializes in his hand.
Devastating quantities of magic gather around it.
“If I blow it all away, you’ll be helpless.”
He swings his sword in a wide arc.
The released magic and wind-force combine into a massive tornado.
“This can’t be—”
The mist disappears, and Alpha reemerges.
“Good choice. If you’d stayed as mist, it could have ended poorly for you.”
Alpha looks up and sees that all the mist above them has been completely blown away.
She also sees a merciless strike bearing down on her.
“You’ve become strong.”
The ebony blade crashes into her.
“Ah…”
The force of the blow causes her to start losing consciousness.
“—Don’t worry, I hit you with the flat side.”
His footsteps start to withdraw.
“Once all this is over, you’ll realize this was for the best…”
Despite her rapidly fading consciousness, she frantically tries to reach out.
“Please… Wait…”
However, he doesn’t stop.
Little by little, slowly but surely, he’s growing distant.
“I’m begging you… Don’t leave me…”
Her voice doesn’t reach him.
Epilogue
The One to Destroy It All and Start from Scratch—with Fake Bills!
The day is finally here.
The underground facility that once served as the counterfeit factory has shut down. Only a few employees remain, and all of them are working on teardown.
The factory has served its purpose.
“Mr. John, please take a look at this…”
As John Smith, I do as Yukime says and open the large iron door.
Inside, I find a mound of gold coins piled all the way up to the ceiling.
“It’s magnificent…”
“We’ve liquidated almost all of the counterfeits. Satisfactory, no?”
The room at the bottom of the facility, which was once a prison used to confine my sister, has been transformed into a massive vault.
My heart sings upon seeing the nigh-uncountable mountain of glittering coins.
Nobody’s found us yet.
Mitsugoshi and the MCA seem to have made it as far as the Lawless City, but I’ve been playing hooky at school so I can spend 24-7 keeping them from getting any closer.
Now that we’re done, there won’t be anything linking the Lawless City to our location.
“Now all we must do is liquidate the real MCA bills I’ve prepared and the deed will be done. The MCA has nowhere near enough funds to make the exchange, so the credit crisis shall begin.”
As Yukime was trading the counterfeits for gold, she was also stockpiling authentic bills.
Once we trade them in, the MCA will go bankrupt.
After all, they’ll be out of reserves. When people find out about that, they’ll go nuts.
“That it will. The amount of money in circulation’s increased, so the value of goods has begun rising as well. At the moment, the inflation rate stands at…”
I rattle off the numbers Beta told me. The goal is to impress Yukime with how knowledgeable and good at gathering information I am.
“To think, Mr. John, that you investigated it to that extent…”
“Heh… Child’s play.”
“Once more I find myself verily glad to have joined forces with you. Without you, this plan could never have come to fruition.”
“Hey, it wasn’t all me. You did good work, too.”
Yukime grins. “You flatter me.”
We extend our hands at the same time and exchange a firm handshake.
“Now then, let us put this to rest. Would you be so kind as to patrol the area between here and the Lawless City?”
“Consider it done,” I tell her.
“In the meantime, I shall go exchange the real bills.”
“—Huh?”
That doesn’t sound right.
“What reason is there for you to go in person?”
Surely it would be smarter for her to send someone else in her place.
“There is…meaning to the act.” Yukime averts her gaze.
Ah, I get it.
Well, I guess everyone has their own personal aesthetic they like to adhere to.
“Perhaps it’s time for you to hear my tale…”
And with that, Yukime starts narrating.
“Earlier, I told you the story of my mother and me. But that was not where the tale ends. When my mother went out to hunt, our village was attacked by a hostile tribe. Besides my three-tailed mother, most of the villagers had no ability to fight, so they fled. I hid under my bed, trembling. But my door was soon kicked down, and a group of men came into the room I was hiding in. They dragged me out, and oh, the vulgarity in their eyes… The moment I thought I was done for, another man came crashing through the window and cut the cruel men down. The man, who had sleek black ears and tail, was part of the reinforcement from our allies the Great Wolf clan. He introduced himself as Gettan, then held me tight to quell my fear. I was fourteen at the time, and he was seventeen…”
Yukime’s clear eyes seem to gaze off into the past.
Gettan was Yukime’s first love.
After the attack, the Great Wolf clan helped rebuild her village.
At the time, the great hero Shiva had just fallen, and the therianthrope lands were rife with conflict. The stronger clans were terrorizing the weaker ones, seeking power in order to succeed Shiva.
Owing to the circumstances, it was only natural for people to want to form alliances to solidify their positions.
As a result, it was decided that Yukime, daughter of the village’s sole three-tail, and Gettan, son of the Great Wolves’ patriarch, were to be married.
Given her admiration for Gettan, Yukime agreed in a heartbeat. Her mother approved of him as well, in
part because he’d saved Yukime’s life, and Gettan held a great deal of affection for the fair girl, too.
Although everyone gave the betrothal their blessing, the formal marriage was postponed until Yukime turned of age at fifteen.
Until they were officially married, they weren’t able to live together.
Despite their living in different villages, however, Gettan came to visit Yukime all the time. The days they spent together were irreplaceable treasures for them both.
They were the happiest days of Yukime’s life, and although she was looking forward to the wedding, she also wanted them to go on forever.
But peace has a short shelf life.
There was a conflict between the major nearby tribes, and the Spirit Foxes and the Great Wolves got wrapped up in the conflict.
Yukime and the others were all forced to choose a side.
Whoever they allied themselves with would forcibly conscript them, and whoever they made enemies with would retaliate. There were no good options. The Spirit Foxes and the Great Wolves talked it out among themselves, then came to a solution.
They would make neither allies nor enemies of any of them.
Their decision to fence-sit was made at the last possible moment. However, it was a foolish choice, one that utterly failed to take into account the cruelty of war.
The Great Wolves were blessed with strength.
The Spirit Foxes were blessed with wisdom.
They’d thought that by joining forces, they could ride out the war.
Reality, however, was not so kind.
Both the Spirit Fox and the Great Wolf villages were annihilated in a single night.
The ground was wet with blood as they burned.
Gettan, the Great Wolves’ strongest soldier, fought valiantly. In the end, all he was able to accomplish was escaping together with his fiancée.
As the morning sun rose, the two of them stared out over their blackened villages.
“If only I was stronger…”
“Gettan…”
Gettan hung his head, his body covered in wounds. Yukime nestled close to him.
“All I needed was power, and they wouldn’t have been able to take everything from us!”
“It wasn’t your fault.”
“Shut up!”
Yukime’s fox ears drooped and quivered at Gettan’s enraged cry. “…Sorry.”
“It’s okay…” Gettan continued hanging his head as he spoke. “I made a proposal to the others. I told them that with this power, we’d be able to ride out the war without having to ally ourselves with either side…”
The Eminence in Shadow, Vol. 3 (Light Novel) Page 18