Ch.279[Chapter 279] Repayment

“If you understand what I’m saying… Father, leave this place right now and never show yourself before me again.”

Wangi spat out words that would hurt Mister Wang.

“That is, if you don’t want me to become a sinner who killed his own father.”

Wangi and Mister Wang stared at each other like that.

One glared sharply as if to kill, while the other looked on with bitter, sad eyes.

After staring at each other for a while, Wangi was the first to look away.

He ordered the pilot to turn around and faced Sir Dominic.

“Next time you oppose me, I won’t let you off so easily, Sir Dominic!”

Wangi shouted at Sir Dominic once again with an arrogant and haughty attitude.

As if he were the victim, with clever wordplay.

“…Of course, that doesn’t mean I’m letting this incident slide.”

I’m sorry, Father.

Wangi muttered his final words in a voice so small that even he couldn’t hear himself.

While Wangi glared at Sir Dominic and muttered, the flying vessel carrying him slowly began to soar into the sky.

As the hangar door where Wangi had revealed himself began to close, gradually concealing his figure, just before the door closed completely, Wangi pressed a red button hidden in his sleeve.

“Pay the price for this incident, Sir Dominic.”

And the result of pressing the button was immediately reflected.

The self-destruct system had been activated throughout the entire secret base.

[Warning! Warning! Self-destruct system activated!]

“…What?”

Sir Dominic was startled by the warning message that rang out along with the painful siren sound.

Red warning lights throughout the base were flashing, indicating that the current situation was an emergency.

[Self-destruct system countdown. Time remaining. 15. Minutes. 3. Seconds.]

The choppy warning message had the effect of sending chills down the spine of anyone who heard it.

Sir Dominic was startled by the sudden situation, but soon collected himself and shouted at Mister Wang.

“We need to get out of here!”

However, Sir Dominic’s cry did not reach Mister Wang.

Mister Wang was currently in such a state of shock from Wangi’s words that he was not in a mental state to hear Sir Dominic’s words.

“…Where. Where did it all go wrong?”

“There’s no time to be dazed! We need to get out of here quickly—”

Sir Dominic urgently shouted as he tried to run toward Mister Wang.

Then he suddenly remembered General Joseph, who was crouched on the sofa, criticizing the tanker.

Although General Joseph had become an enemy, it was clear she had been abandoned, as Wangi hadn’t even mentioned her.

Sir Dominic thought for a moment, then sighed and hoisted General Joseph over his shoulder.

No matter that she was an enemy, it didn’t sit well with him to leave a defenseless woman behind.

Sir Dominic approached Mister Wang, grabbed his shoulder, and shook him vigorously, shouting at him to come to his senses.

“Snap out of it! If we stay here, we’ll be caught in the explosion. You said if you die, you’ll be banished! You need to survive to see your son again!”

Sir Dominic began persuading Mister Wang according to his train of thought.

Due to his rapid flow of thoughts, there were some omissions here and there, but the point was that they needed to survive to have any hope for the future.

At Sir Dominic’s words, Mister Wang seemed to come to his senses and nodded.

“Yes, that’s right. I need to stay alive to at least explain myself to my son.”

Mister Wang gathered himself and shouted toward Sir Dominic.

“The exit is this way! It said 15 minutes, so we should have enough time to get out—”

[3. Minutes. 22. Seconds. Remaining.]

“…?”

“Good heavens. Was there a catch?”

Sir Dominic questioned the time passing faster than expected, while Mister Wang wore an expression of horror as if he understood why the time was flowing so quickly.

Wangi was truly cunning.

Thinking that it would be cheaper to build a new secret base than to maintain and repair the current one, Wangi activated the self-destruct device to deal a blow to the intruders.

And that self-destruct device was equipped with a time acceleration mechanism to deliver an additional hit to the intruders.

It was a blow designed to immediately panic those who might have sighed in relief at the seemingly generous 15-minute timeframe.

A spoonful of deception added at the very last moment.

It was the kind of vileness befitting a top executive of Mountain Bridge Marsh.

“At this rate, it will explode soon! There’s no time to escape!”

At Mister Wang’s cry, Sir Dominic wore a troubled expression.

The siren continued to sound at regular intervals, but Sir Dominic’s heart beat faster and faster.

And then—

…

In the air above the secret base, inside the flying vessel carrying Wangi.

Wangi brought a wine glass to his lips, savoring the taste and aroma of the wine.

It was an attempt to change the mood with an elegant and refined hobby after his mood had been spoiled.

But as thoughts of Mister Wang came back to him, Wangi immediately threw the wine glass away.

Immense anger consumed him.

“How, how could he have the audacity to appear before me? After cutting off contact for decades?”

Wangi tried to suppress his anger while breathing heavily, then picked up a remote control and turned on the monitor installed inside the flying vessel.

The monitor showed a view of the secret base, though the image quality wasn’t very good as it seemed to be filming from some distance away from the secret base.

Wangi glared at the monitor.

With eyes burning like flames.

“Father, I cannot forgive you.”

After staring like that for a while, Wangi looked at the clock installed inside the flying vessel.

And when the time came, Wangi muttered softly.

“Goodbye, Father.”

A booming sound was heard from far away.

It was the sound Wangi had been waiting for.

The secret base on the monitor was still intact, but soon after that explosion sound, the secret base on the monitor exploded.

Perhaps due to the poor image quality, it wasn’t clearly visible, but it was such a powerful explosion that something seemed to be ejected from the top of the secret base.

The secret base melted into the pit like ice cream melting in the flames of the explosion.

Wangi watched until the end and then used the remote to turn off the monitor again.

He deemed there was nothing more to see.

“…If you survive from there.”

Wangi took out a new wine glass.

And poured new wine into it.

“Then, I will forgive you, Father.”

Wangi raised his glass high.

It was a toast for his father who would be engulfed in flames.

…

On the outskirts of the burning base.

The base disappeared into the pit like melting ice cream.

It had transformed into a single massive metal lump, filling the pit created by Remi’s special technique and then some.

If the exterior was like that, what need was there to speak of the interior?

Obviously, those inside would either be trapped awaiting death, or already dead.

So what happened to Sir Dominic?

Was he trapped inside the building?

Or had he died and been resurrected?

Considering Sir Dominic’s stats, defense, and damage reduction, it was hard to imagine that Sir Dominic had died and been resurrected.

So was he trapped inside the building?

Of course, that wasn’t the case either.

Sir Dominic was now looking down at the melting secret base from above the pit where the melting secret base was located.

Along with Mister Wang and General Joseph.

“…I want to eat roasted sweet potatoes.”

General Joseph, who was sitting with her knees pulled up to her chest on Sir Dominic’s left, spoke to Sir Dominic as if she had somewhat recovered from the shock.

She was still talking nonsense, but at least she wasn’t denying reality anymore.

“I don’t understand.”

Mister Wang, who was sitting cross-legged on Sir Dominic’s right, sighed and said.

“I still don’t understand why my son, whom I haven’t seen in a long time, is so hostile toward me.”

Mister Wang also seemed unable to escape from the shock, continuing only to sigh.

Sir Dominic listened to the two people’s laments and then stood up.

He turned around and bowed his head.

“Thank you, both of you.”

And there stood Sir Dominica and Unryu Hime.

…

Just moments ago, in the private room that was about to collapse due to the self-destruct, Sir Dominic had essentially given up on escape.

Obviously, there wasn’t enough time for Sir Dominic to carry both of them out alone.

[60. Seconds. Remaining.]

Sir Dominic thought that all he could do in the mere minute left was to prepare his mind to face death.

Until an airship appeared above.

Sir Dominic stared blankly at the airship through the hole that had been opened.

An airship? Here?

At that moment, Sir Dominic’s phone rang.

Sir Dominic answered the phone immediately.

“I’m coming to rescue you now, so get ready!”

Sir Dominic recognized the voice on the phone as Sir Dominica’s.

And ropes of incredible length began to descend from the airship.

A shadow nimbly descended along those ropes, then stopped in front of Sir Dominic and extended a hand.

“Sir Dominic, I’ve come to rescue you.”

It was Unryu Hime.

…

Hime tied one person to each rope, and then pulled the last rope to signal.

The rope was too long for a weak pull to transmit the signal, but with Hime’s technique learned from the kunoichi vision, the signal was properly transmitted.

And so Sir Dominic’s group was rescued as the ropes pulled them up.

“Thank you for coming to rescue us, Lady Hime.”

Sir Dominic, tied to the rope as he was being pulled up, looked at Hime who was holding onto the rope right next to him.

“It’s nothing. Helping each other is natural between us, isn’t it?”

Sir Dominic was a bit concerned about the phrase “between us,” but he soon erased those words from his mind.

[Self-destruct system, activating.]

Finally, the self-destruct system had activated.

Deep underground, the enormous amount of explosives and flammable materials hidden in the foundation of the secret base began to explode.

Naturally, the explosion couldn’t escape the narrow pit and began to surge up through the hole that Remi’s orbital bombardment had created.

“…!”

“We, we need to go up faster!”

Hime shook the rope more vigorously as if signaling to pull them up faster.

Thanks to the kunoichi’s secret technique, the signal was properly transmitted and the speed at which the rope was being pulled up increased.

Even so, the explosion from below was tickling Sir Dominic’s nose bridge as it flickered.

Fortunately, Sir Dominic’s group wouldn’t be caught in the explosion.

Before the explosion completely burst through the hole, Sir Dominic’s group was able to board the airship.

Sir Dominica, who was on the airship, immediately left the area as soon as everyone was aboard.

The debris from the explosion that Wangi was watching on the monitor was actually the airship that Sir Dominica was piloting.

…

Sir Dominic looked bitterly at the still-burning pit.

Then he turned around and headed somewhere.

Sir Dominica and Hime approached Sir Dominic.

“Where are you going?”

“I have no more business here. I’ve achieved my goal of dealing a blow to Mountain Bridge Marsh. However—”

Sir Dominic looked at the sunset sky in the distance.

It was the direction Sir Dominic had been walking.

“We still have problems to prepare for.”

Sir Dominic turned around again.

“I’ve repaid my debt to Mountain Bridge Marsh, but there’s still much left to do.”

After saying that, Sir Dominic continued walking.

Sir Dominica and Hime silently watched Sir Dominic’s back for a while, then began walking in the same direction as Sir Dominic.

In the distance, the evening sunset was dyeing the sky yellow.