Chapter 336: Murder! (Patreon)

While Geno was off on a smuggling run involving a certain "corpse," Caesar took Belle and headed deeper into the Hollow.

Belle sat on the motorcycle with her arms around Caesar's slim but muscular waist, but her mind was back at the dinner table and what had happened there.

"Um, Caesar... Geno might sound a little harsh sometimes, but he really doesn't mean it."

She'd seen how left out Geno looked today, and she felt she owed Caesar an explanation of what he'd actually meant.

Caesar's face went blank with confusion at Belle's words.

"What do you mean? What's wrong with Geno?"

"It's about what he said yesterday. That there might be a mole in Calydon."

As far as Belle could tell, the only reason Caesar had sent Geno off alone today, in a place like the Outer Ring where he didn't know the terrain or the people, was what had happened yesterday.

Caesar only laughed. "Ha, and here I thought it was something serious. Relax, Proxy. We never took it to heart. Calydon isn't some fragile little girl."

Her mouth curled into a confident grin. To survive in the Outer Ring, you needed a tough body, sure, but even more than that you needed an iron will and a resilient heart.

If a few sharp words from Geno could tear Calydon apart from the inside, they might as well disband now.

Of course, Lucy was the one who'd taught Caesar to say all that.

"Anyway, don't worry. We're not deliberately singling Geno out. It's just genuinely the best arrangement."

Hearing Caesar put it that way, Belle still felt a little uneasy, but she relaxed somewhat.

Soon the two of them reached the designated spot and got ready to set up the data stakes.

"All right, here's the deal. Setting up the data stakes might draw some Ethereals, so I'm counting on you when that happens."

Belle worked the controls on the data stake without looking back, asking Caesar to keep watch.

Caesar nodded, drew her sword and shield, and scanned the surroundings warily.

Before long, sure enough, a pack of Ethereals came charging in. To Caesar they were nothing but small fry, and she took them down in a few easy strokes.

"Okay, job done. Let's go find the others."

Belle wiped the sweat from her brow. They'd split up to place several data stakes around the Hollow at once, and because Belle was here handling the controls, their group was the fastest.

"Right, let's go."

Caesar put her weapons away, and the two of them climbed back onto the bike to head for the others.

But just before the engine fired up, a faint sound reached her ears.

"Watch out!"

Clang!

Metal rang against metal. A spark of light flashed on Caesar's raised shield, and then something dropped to the ground with a tinkle.

It was a bullet.

"A sniper! Damn it!"

Caesar seethed. Two days of one provocation after another had left every one of the Sons of Calydon furious, and now the culprits weren't even pretending anymore. They'd gone straight to bullets.

That made it even harder to swallow.

"You sneaky coward, lurking in the dark! If you've got the guts, come out and go three hundred rounds with me!"

Caesar thrust her sword at the sky and bellowed her challenge at the unseen attacker. No answer came.

Naturally. What assassin would walk out into the open for a duel?

After a round of venting that got her nowhere, she had no choice but to chalk it up to bad luck and ride away.

Not long after the two left, a black figure appeared beside the data stake. Rifle in hand, it stared in the direction Caesar had gone, a vicious glint in its eyes.

In the end, though, it swallowed its anger, turned its gaze to the data stake, and raised the weapon to destroy it.

"I'd advise against that. Otherwise you'll be paying for damages!"

The man hadn't expected anyone else to be nearby and nearly jumped out of his skin. He leapt aside on instinct, and a deafening boom followed.

The ground where he'd just been standing now held a huge crater, and the one who'd made it stood right in front of him.

The attacker found himself facing a man with a crystalline sledgehammer in his hands. A dangerous smile tugged at the man's lips, and the murderous light in his eyes looked ready to devour him whole. He looked every inch a fiend.

"Yo~ Finally caught you, you sewer rats!"

It was Geno, of course. Since Caesar had told him to act freely, that meant he could go wherever he pleased.

After finishing up with Nekomata's side of things, Geno had trailed Caesar and Belle all the way into the Hollow.

When Belle had nearly been shot a moment ago, he'd almost leapt out right then, but he'd held back to make sure he caught the enemy.

After all, judging from the last few incidents, the enemy seemed to have some way of manipulating the Hollow Fissures. That was probably why Geno had never been able to catch them before.

"Where are you going to run this time? I'm not giving you another chance to get away!"

As he spoke, the sledgehammer in Geno's hand swiftly changed shape, re-forming into a tachi, and he swung it at the assassin.

The killer flinched at the lightning-fast assault and scrambled to dodge, but how could he possibly match Geno?

A flash of steel, a line of blood arcing through the air, and a huge gash opened across the assassin's chest.

"Hiss!"

One strike was all it took. The assassin knew he was no match for Geno and tried to flee in a panic, but Geno anticipated his movements and cut him off.

"No way through here. Surrender quietly."

With that, Geno moved in to take him down. He never expected the man to turn his gun around and press the muzzle under his own chin.

Then...

Bang!

Red and white burst from the top of his head and spattered across the ground. Rather than be taken alive by Geno, the man had chosen to kill himself.

"Damn. That's ruthless. Whoever's behind this is even more vicious than I thought."

A man on a mission who chose suicide the instant escape became impossible was, without a doubt, what people called a death-sworn soldier.

It also meant that the trail Geno had been following had gone cold again.

Out of respect for the dead, Geno had no intention of leaving the assassin's body to rot in the wilderness. He decided to bury him.

But as he dealt with the corpse and looked at the rifle in the man's hands, a flash of insight lit up his mind.

"The model of this weapon... It looks familiar."

Geno studied the rifle in his hands. He felt like he'd seen this model somewhere, but he couldn't quite place it.

While he was lost in thought, a scream shattered the quiet.

"Ahh! Murder!!!"

A kid who'd popped out of nowhere had collapsed on the ground, staring at Geno with eyes full of terror.

Geno blinked blankly, then looked at the rifle in his hands and the body on the ground, and a headache started to build.

"Looks like... I've been misunderstood?"