Chapter 22 Part 3: Commission – Innocent

‘…Ella-ssi.’

“What?”

“What exactly is love?”

Haran asked, looking at the leaving client’s back as if she couldn’t understand at all.

“Is it right to ruin another person’s life just because you didn’t accept the love… Can that be called love?”

“Why are you asking me that?”

“…That’s right. Sorry, I’m just frustrated.”

She closed her eyes tightly as if she was bitter.

It seems that the client’s story was quite impressive.

“Why? Do you sympathize?”

“I guess so. The previous incidents… To be honest, they felt like a bit of a pie in the sky story.”

“It’s like that if you’re not used to it. If you see people around you die or suffer from drug addiction, you would have felt the previous incidents similarly?”

“That’s… I don’t want to understand.”

“That’s the best.”

It’s difficult to draw sympathy from ordinary people for dreary stories like drugs or murder. It’s because they’re in a non-daily stage.

Let’s say that you hear the story that someone died on the news one day.

People usually click their tongues and curse the criminal, and then forget about it a few days later.

That’s not because people are indifferent, but because it’s hard to sympathize.

Even in Neo City, murder was a frequent occurrence, but even so, there were quite a few people like Haran.

There were also some people who lived buried in the thought that it wouldn’t be me, I’ll be okay.

“You better get used to it. You’ll continue to see people like that in the future.”

“But if I answer your question… Well. I don’t know well. I’ve never been in a relationship.”

“Huh? …Ella-ssi, have you never been in a relationship?”

“What’s with that reaction. Do I look like I’ve been in a lot of relationships?”

“Yes. You lived in a place like that, so I thought you would have played around a lot.”

“That’s prejudice, prejudice.”

There were a lot of guys who did drugs and had s*x in Neo City, but at least I had never done that.

I’ve seen it a lot. When I go in to kill a target, there are cases where they’re playing with each other.

“What can I do when there’s no one to have s*x with.”

“E, Ella-ssi. Please watch your words….”

“What? If I don’t call s*x s*x, then what am I supposed to…”

“Waaaaaack!”

“…Tch. Okay, there was no one to be in a relationship with.”

It was a natural thing in a way.

No matter how sexually open Neo City is, most of the residents liked the opposite s*x.

Homosexuals were only a minority.

Naturally, most of the guys who approached me after seeing my appearance were men.

“Hoo, hoo…. So, why is that?”

“Did you forget? Before switching to this body, I was originally a man.”

“OTL.”

It will take several decades for prostheses of this level to be commercialized.

Because I was certain of that, I decided to use this prosthesis, even preparing to live as a woman for the rest of my life.

It was too overwhelming in performance to give up with just one minor problem like gender identity.

It was more profitable to switch to a woman’s body and become much stronger than to die living as a man.

But vowing to live as a woman and dating a man were different stories.

“……Um, then is your sexual orientation by any chance a woman?”

“I don’t know. Maybe?”

“What do you mean you don’t know?”

“Because I’ve never dated.”

I had to kill one more person instead of worrying about gender identity or whatever.

Because that was the only way to survive.

When I had settled down, those minor things didn’t matter at all.

So I don’t really know who I like.

“Ah, there’s everything that you need if you were a woman even though the person who was going to use the prosthesis was a woman. Even though there’s no need to go to the bathroom. Isn’t it amazing? Should I show you?”

“…I don’t need it.”

“Is that so? It’s really amazing.”

Well, if she says she doesn’t need it, there’s no need to show her.

When I looked at Haran, she seemed like she wanted to change the subject of the conversation no matter what.

Her face is completely red. Is it because she’s not used to sexual conversations?

It was fresh and nice to see.

“Th, then! What are you going to do?”

“Ah, revenge?”

“Yes!”

“Well. I have to follow the client’s opinion.”

The client didn’t want the target of revenge to die.

What he wants is for her, who ruined his life, to have a similar experience.

In other words, he wants her to be wrongly accused and go to prison.

“Is that possible?”

“It’s possible. There are a lot of ways.”

“No, that’s not what I mean. There are a lot of ways, but if that happens, the perpetrator will be released. That’s a bit….”

“Ah, that? Don’t worry. Because there’s a way.”

“…A way?”

Haran, who seemed to have come to her senses at some point, expressed her doubts to me.

If you put the blame on someone, the criminal will inevitably get away with it.

It was a reasonable question.

“I’m going to cover up the murder.”

“Yes? Is that okay…? As I said before, the criminal won’t be caught.”

“It’s okay. Because I did it.”

“Yes?”

Haran was looking at me as if I was saying something crazy.

It was as if she thought that I was going to kill an innocent person and put the blame on that person.

“Su, surely you’re not going to kill an innocent person and…?!”

“No, that’s not what I mean.”

It wasn’t as if it was that, it was actually that.

What kind of way is Haran evaluating me?

I want to listen, but I also feel like I don’t want to listen….

It was a bit of a complicated feeling.

“There are a lot of corpses already. Don’t you remember? What happened when we came here?”

“Ah?”

“You can take out the corpses you buried and use them.”

“Wasn’t that because you roughly buried them so it’s hard to figure out whose body it is…?”

“That’s good. I can pass it all on. Right?”

“Hiik….”

I was already wondering how to dispose of the corpses.

Even if they’re criminals, they’ll have family, and after a long time, a missing person report may come in.

It’s the perfect timing to carry out the request and pass on the troublesome baggage.

The weapon I used to kill those guys was the revolver that I stole from them.

So the work will be much easier. Unlike weapons like knives or spears, if you use the revolver’s weaknesses.

What is that, you ask?

It’s simple. Guns leave traces when they kill people.

“Traces?”

“Yeah. When you shoot a gun, those traces remain on the bullet. It’s the same with the bullets that are stuck in their corpses.”

It’s what’s commonly called rifling marks.

It’s characterized by being a bit difficult to investigate and difficult to confirm after a long time, but…….

It’s a groundbreaking thing that lets you know which gun the bullet was fired from.

“If I use this, I can make our client a serial killer to the point where he’s surprised too.”

Of course, he’ll strongly deny it….

It wasn’t that difficult to make sure that no one believed it.

Ring-ring, ring-ring.

The sound of a phone rang out in the peaceful police box.

I hope it’s not something that will happen again today.

I hope it’s not just someone drunk from broad daylight.

With those hopes, the police answered the phone.

“Yes, this is the police.”

“Um, the stench around my house is too bad.”

“…A stench?”

“Yes.”

Haa.

The police sighed and overcame the urge to hang up the phone.

Damn it, the police aren’t slaves either. To think that someone is reporting that there’s a stench around their house?

But apart from being annoyed, he couldn’t just tell her not to talk nonsense and hang up, so the police suppressed his anger as much as possible and opened his mouth.

“I’m sorry, but we can’t do anything about the stench in your house. You should call a cleaning company or something….”

“No, it’s not that…. The stench is coming from next door.”

“In that case, all we can do is mediate, would that be okay with you?”

Is it another conflict between residents?

The police felt like their head was starting to throb.

It was always the police who suffered when they dispatched in this kind of situation.

If I ask them to refrain from it because a reporter’s complaint came in, I get cursed at by the neighbor who has the stench, and if I say there’s nothing I can do, I get cursed at by the reporter.

A situation where it was obvious that I would get cursed at no matter what I did.

So the police put negative opinions in their mouth to avoid dispatching as much as possible.

Even if I do this, most of the time they want me to dispatch, so it was a small act of resistance even though I knew it wouldn’t be useful.

But, the reporter’s answer was far from his expectations.

“It doesn’t seem like just a stench.”

“It doesn’t seem like just a stench?”

“What should I say. Um, corpse… Should I say it smells like a corpse rotting? That disgusting smell….”

“Yes?”

The eyes of the police, who were leaning back in their chair and sitting languidly, widened.

It’s not impossible that the reporter delude could have made a mistake. (I couldn’t find the right translation again, but it’s something about being confused/mistaking something)

The number of people who have smelled the smell of rotting corpses has increased since before the gate incident, but even so, a significant number of citizens have not had that experience.

But, on the other hand, that means there’s a good chance that her story is true.

“What’s the address there? I’ll be there soon.”

“Ju, just a moment. This is….”

“…Thank you for reporting. I’ll dispatch soon, so please wait a moment.”

The police confirmed the address that the reporter called several times, and then called the other police who were handling the complaints.

“Hey, stop and come out. You have to prepare for dispatch.”

“What? What are you talking about? Can’t you see that I’m receiving a complaint right now?”

“A complaint came in. They said the stench of a rotting corpse is vibrating.”

“…What?”

For a while, the voice of asking for understanding from the reporter echoed in the police box.

And a moment later.

The police, who were heading to the address that the reporter called, were very nervous and prayed while stroking the gun in their arms.

Please let the reporter be mistaken.

If it wasn’t a misunderstanding, please let the gun work on the opponent.