Chapter 138: Information Gathering – Upper Management

Scatter money.

Scatter information.

I used the name value of being Doggy House’s Hound too, but the information itself was the sort that would spread fast even without that.

—Apparently, Hound got hold of information about the Monoz going berserk.

—They say he still has the source captured.

—Apparently, the source is an Abacus employee.

—Then doesn’t that mean Abacus is behind the Monoz going berserk?

—If that’s true, that company’s Monoz bodies are suspicious too.

Information I had released at noon went all the way around and returned to my ears by night.

I did not remember releasing the last two.

Apparently, while circling around like migratory fish, the rumor had eaten plenty of bait. It had come back nicely fattened, with a good sheen of oil on it.

Abacus, the urban legend that had surfaced as if matching the timing of the Monoz incidents. Everyone had already thought they were suspicious, and now the rumor claimed they were the source. Because of that, people seemed to be treating it as fairly reliable information.

In truth, however, Suen had said nothing.

The torture had been light enough to show good children.

At most, I had put a ballpoint pen between his fingers and squeezed his hand. 

E.B. had asked, “Huh? Does this really hurt?” so I did it to her too.

Now then.

It was a lie mixed lightly into the truth, but there were people who could not afford to ignore it.

Suen was an Abacus employee. So he knew, to some extent, what lay behind this situation. Whether or not Suen had talked was unknown. And there were people who would be troubled by that.

For whatever reason, they wanted to reject Monoz, and by extension, Tree Crystals.

And just as they were trying to sell that idea, I—someone with a certain level of recognition on the front—had exposed information. Worse, they had no way of knowing how that information might be processed from here.

Perhaps because they had spent so long hiding in the shadows, Abacus did not have much trust for an organization of its size.

Now then.

How would they move?

Ignore me?

Bring me in?

Remove me?

As I was thinking that, a visitor came.

The wasteland night was cold.

I was sitting around the campfire, sipping a sweet cocktail—something like an Irish coffee knockoff—when a shadow stretched to my feet.

It stopped.

I raised my face.

Standing there was a plump middle-aged man in a black double-breasted suit. Round glasses. A curtain of thinning hair.

“I apologize for visiting so late at night. My name is Shimamura, from Abacus Sales Department. Is this, by any chance, Hound Touji-sama’s tent?”

“It is… What can I do for you?”

“Ah, then you are Touji-sama?”

“Yes.”

“It seems my subordinate has caused you trouble, and for that—this is nothing special, but…”

One of the corporate warrior’s special moves: the formal apology bow.

As he bowed his head and offered a box of sweets, I saw the shadow of the warriors who had once supported my lost homeland.

“Ah, no, please, I should be the one…”

What exactly I should be the one doing, I did not know.

I did not know, but for the moment, I hurriedly set down my mug, bowed my head, and reached to accept—

“Don’t, dumb dog.”

—or tried to, when someone stopped me.

Mr. A.B., who had been sitting around the fire with me, was grinning for some reason.

“Keep your distance. He’s a puncher.”

He pointed to the hand holding the sweets.

The shape of the bones in that hand was a hand made for punching.

“…”

I moved back without really thinking.

Hand sign.

Open palm.

Fist.

Gun.

Point at Mr. Shimamura.

Tiger Unit and Boar Unit lined up beside me, and the Monoz scattered to surround Mr. Shimamura, guns leveled.

“…Haha. Well, this is troublesome.”

Mr. Shimamura gave an embarrassed little laugh.

A shiver went through me. Even in this situation, he would not lose.

He could survive.

That was the kind of creature he was.

“Um, may I take a pistol from inside my jacket?”

“…No. Obviously I’m not going to say yes.”

To that unbelievable request from such a creature, I gave the obvious answer.

No.

“Then, I apologize for the trouble, but would you please shoot me in the leg?”

“…?”

I did not really understand.

I looked at Rat Unit.

Rat Unit made a motion like tilting its head. It was probably checking whether there had been any error in the audio data.

Apparently, I had not misheard him.

Apparently not, but…

“Sorry, could you say that again?”

“Yes. I apologize for the trouble, but would you please shoot me in the leg? I—pardon the unpleasant phrasing—am capable of neutralizing everyone here and returning home afterward. Touji-sama, this distance is not yours. It is mine. By offering you my leg despite that, I demonstrate Abacus’s sincerity.”

“…”

Well, well.

What violent sincerity.

Thinking that, I pulled the trigger.

Gunshot.

“Thank you for the trouble.”

With not a bead of sweat on his cool face, Mr. Shimamura began stopping the bleeding and cleaning up.

“Hey, dumb dog. In situations like this, you’re supposed to invite him in without shooting, and show him how big your vessel is.”

A lecture from Papa-in-law.

“No, I don’t know about that.”

I let it pass.

A person who could become a threat had offered to let me neutralize him.

I chose safety over whatever size my vessel might be.

***

Even in the tent village at night, a gunshot stood out well enough.

We were about to move somewhere else, but Mr. Shimamura said, “In that case,” and suggested a place.

He led us to a room inside the fortress.

Nothing mysterious about it.

Most likely, bringing me here had been Mr. Shimamura’s goal from the beginning.

“…”

I had been had.

He was one or two moves ahead of me.

This was what I got for trying to gather information in a way I was not used to.

Not funny.

Ed-yan was there. When he noticed me, he lifted a hand lightly, as if to say, yo.

Two others sat in similar positions. Judging by the situation, they were probably representatives from Tatara Heavy Industries and the Craftsmen’s Guild. If Shinzo were here, he might have known. Unfortunately, I did not.

Mr. A.B. took a seat as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

His seat was the same rank as Ed-yan’s group.

Representative of the Tooth side, then.

With that, the four upper seats were filled.

What happened to “keep your distance, he’s a puncher”?

You were obviously in on this setup.

Glare.

I glared at him.

He gave me a wonderfully cheerful smile back.

This was probably payback for the time I had trapped him before, but still.

Shit.

“Touji-sama, this way.”

With that, Mr. Shimamura guided me to my seat.

Walking normally.

“…”

What was all that sincerity, you bastard?

…No.

I was the idiot for believing him.

First, let me be ashamed of my own immaturity in being trapped.

I gave up.

Accepted total defeat.

This was not my battlefield.

I told the Monoz who had followed me not to fight, and I myself sat down with the pistol still in my hip holster.

I surrender.

Please do not bully me.

That was the declaration.

Ed-yan and Mr. A.B. looked at me like they found that attitude charming.

Do not look at me.

To escape their eyes, I flopped forward onto the table.

It was cool.

There were coasters set out, so perhaps drinks would be served.

“I thought it was impressive that you reached this place on your own… but you were trapped, Touji?”

“More or less.”

A woman’s voice came from the seat beside mine.

Still red as ever.

Miss Henrietta was there—the woman who had become Sheepdog’s puppy for money.

“…And you?”

Why are you here?

I asked only that, without even turning my eyes toward her.

“My family prepared the sales routes for Abacus when they came into the open. We made a tidy profit.”

“That’s nice. By the way, may I have you repay the favor I did by introducing you to Abacus?”

“If you mean helping you escape from here, no.”

“…”

No good.

Useless.

Then next.

“No. Not that. Please tell me what this gathering is.”

“…You do not even know that? How did you get here?”

“I was trapped.”

Please do not make me say it.

It is embarrassing.

“You really were only trapped…”

Her eyes blinked wide in surprise.

Seen like that, Miss Henrietta was, perhaps, rather cute.

“No, excuse me. It seems I had slightly overestimated you, Touji.”

“Put me in the wrong place, and this is about what I amount to.”

And?

I asked with my eyes.

“Ah. Yes. This is where we listen to the aliens’ final notice.”

I do not understand.

“To put it simply, the Tree Crystals have given up on humanity—or rather, chosen the Insectum.”

I understand even less.