Chapter 100
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“…How did you end up here?”
“Is it that strange that I came to the field?”
“Of course it is. Your assigned esper still hasn’t shown his face.”
“That’s exactly why I came. There’s no better bait to draw that man out than me.”
Charlize smiled faintly. Instead of replying, Adrien swept her gaze across the surroundings.
“Is this everyone who survived?”
“We don’t know. We were abducted for a while, and after we escaped, we didn’t encounter any defense force personnel.”
“Oh—Ensign Ricola Alvard was there! She locked us up in this place before we got out, so she should still be alive. That traitor.”
Behind Charlize, Lieutenant Jocelyn snapped angrily.
“…Lieutenant Jocelyn, Ricola is not a traitor.”
“…What?”
“She was a double agent. On our side.”
“W-What? Y-You mean Ensign Ricola really wasn’t a traitor?”
Peter suddenly rolled in from near the doorway, blurting it out. His eyes were so wide they looked ready to pop out.
Having used his abilities continuously for a while now, Peter’s voice carried far too loudly. Adrien barely managed to suppress a frown and nodded.
“Yes. So drop the misunderstanding. Everyone… are you injured?”
As she spoke, Adrien’s gaze settled on one man.
Samuel.
“We’re fine!”
“It’s thanks to you getting here so fast, Commander!”
The guides answered in an excited rush, giddy with relief at being alive. Adrien looked past them—to the one person who remained silent.
Samuel said nothing. He was lost in thought.
More precisely, his thoughts were on Ricola.
‘If Ricola wasn’t a traitor… then what was she trying to say to us at the end?’
Even as they’d fled the locked room, Samuel had felt something was off.
Normally, someone falsely accused would shout their innocence. But Ricola’s last words hadn’t sounded like that at all.
It felt like something they shouldn’t ignore.
‘She definitely said… something about us. That there was something among us.’
Information Ricola would have as a double agent. Information he needed to pass on. And something—or someone—among them.
Samuel snapped his head up.
“Ensign, why aren’t you answering? Didn’t you hear me?”
With her brow deeply furrowed, Adrien was walking toward him. Behind her stood the other guides, watching her.
A perfectly ordinary scene.
No—wait.
One of them moved.
Following behind Adrien. Carefully positioned so those behind couldn’t see, one hand concealed near their abdomen, gripping something.
Adrien, her attention wholly on Samuel, either didn’t suspect a thing—or simply failed to notice the person trailing her.
“Ensign, are you hurt anyw—”
“Commander! Behind you!”
The moment Charlize shouted, the guide raised their arm. A syringe flashed under the broken lights.
Samuel moved before he could think.
He wrapped an arm around Adrien and twisted, shielding her with his body.
Thunk.
A thick needle drove into his back.
“Samuel!”
“Gh—!”
The green liquid inside the syringe drained instantly into Samuel’s body. He felt it clearly—the exact moment it surged into his veins.
Starting from the injection site, every blood vessel in his body convulsed violently.
His vision flared crimson. His hands shook uncontrollably, cold sweat pouring down his skin. His legs gave out, and he collapsed.
“Ensign Samuel!”
“Commander, get away from him!”
The pain was like being burned alive. Samuel’s carefully restrained guiding energy unraveled completely.
Even now, as its owner was dying, the flood of guiding energy was drawn relentlessly into Adrien’s body.
The instant Adrien realized it, she shoved Samuel toward Charlize with trembling hands.
Samuel’s vision blurred as he watched Adrien stagger backward from him, sinking to her knees.
Sounds faded.
Charlize laid him down. Beside him, the guide who had stabbed him was tackled and restrained, face-down on the floor.
The guide was smiling.
A ghastly, inhuman smile.
Even though his vision barely worked anymore, Samuel forced his eyes to turn toward Adrien. In his sight, only the whites of her eyes remained.
“A guide taking the hit instead—damn, that’s lucky. Adrien Brillante.”
Yes. It was a relief that the commander was lucky.
Hearing the venom-laced voice through his dulling hearing, Samuel let out a faint smile.
“Break his jaw first!”
“Agh—he bit down!”
Charlize’s voice. Jocelyn’s voice. Someone’s finger shoved into the guide’s mouth and pulled out bloodied.
Everything blurred into nothingness.
All Samuel felt was his body burning.
After that—
He could no longer tell what happened.
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