Ch.96Episode 5 – Journalist, Diplomat, Soldier, Spy

Flames erupted in the hallway.

The activated rune stone emitted light, rolled along the floor until it hit the wall with a soft thud, and a flame bird sprang from it, soaring with powerful wingbeats.

Of course, being in a hallway with a ceiling, it couldn’t fly into the sky.

The flame bird shot up to the ceiling and flew through the corridor, drawing trajectories of fire. And as is always the case with fire, it spreads to its surroundings in an instant.

The flames caught on the carpet on the floor and the wallpaper and other interior decorations. The flames weren’t particularly large, but fire naturally rises upward, so the ceiling was the first place the flame bird’s wings touched.

Eventually, the ceiling light exploded with a loud bang.

“Shit!”

An urgent curse echoed through the hallway. It was Kiyenese. As I expected, the assailants were from the Empire.

The attackers shouted in confusion, and I seized the opportunity to throw myself into the corridor.

I had a pistol in my right hand.

—! —!

There was no need for aimed fire. The muffled gunshots rang out through the silencer, and the assailant standing just to the right of the door collapsed after taking a bullet to the abdomen.

Pain surged through me as my left shoulder hit the floor. I could taste blood at the back of my throat.

Gritting my teeth, I twisted my waist backward and fired the pistol rapidly. The standing assailant fell backward with a hole in his chest, and the one sitting against the wall toppled sideways.

He must have been lucky enough to take a bullet to the head.

“Ugh…! Shit…!”

I was about to get up to confirm if they were really dead.

At that moment, an ominous premonition flashed through my mind. Sure enough, the premonition soon became reality. Far away, the iron door to the emergency staircase was opening.

I thought the rear guard had arrived, but my body was already lying flat on the floor.

Of course, I was using the body of the assailant with a hole in his chest as a shield.

Using the fallen assailant as both shield and support, I lined up the rear guards rushing into the corridor in my sights. Only after several more gunshots rang out did the shooting stop.

Just as I was about to get up from the floor,

-Twitch!

The fallen assailant on the floor moved slightly.

—!

…

…

…

Now he’s not moving anymore.

Episode 5 – Journalist, Diplomat, Soldier, Spy

It seemed someone had reported the incident, as an ambulance arrived shortly after, its siren wailing.

Apparently, a hotel guest had witnessed the fire and reported it. There were only a few police officers, but a truckload of paramedics and firefighters.

Thanks to the silencer, or perhaps because the commotion happened on a floor with no guests, it seemed no reports of gunfire had been made. The handful of police officers were merely controlling the scene to allow the fire trucks access.

I stood on the terrace looking down at the road and thought:

So much for cleaning up the scene.

“…Are you alright?”

“Ah, yes. Yes.”

Fabio Verati nodded, adjusting his broken glasses. He looked quite pitiful sitting in a single chair with his disheveled suit and soot-covered face.

“…You should go downstairs instead of staying here.”

“…Aren’t you coming down?”

“Go down first. And take this with you.”

I handed Fabio Verati a pistol and sent him downstairs. It was the gun that one of the dead assailants had been carrying.

In truth, he wouldn’t need it anymore. No operative would remain at the scene after such chaos without fleeing. If things had gotten this bad, even I would have already fled.

Fabio Verati carefully walked around the bodies and went down the emergency stairs. He left behind the assailants and the representative office staff lying on the floor.

They were already dead, so it was only natural. From the assailants’ perspective, retrieving the bodies was out of the question, and the same applied to Fabio Verati.

I understand. I’ve been in similar situations.

On the terrace overlooking the city.

Leaning against the railing, I let out a deep sigh as I watched the people crowding the streets below.

“…Hoo.”

The police had arrived, so I needed to clean up.

I went back to the corridor to pick up the rune stone, then entered the adjacent room I had reserved under an alias and retrieved all the recording tapes.

I stuffed all the equipment into a bag and shoved it into a utility cabinet. I could retrieve it later myself or send someone. Or I could have it recovered through the hotel staff the intelligence officer had connected me with.

I had gathered most of what needed to be collected.

I rubbed the rune stone, which had regained its light, and summoned the flame bird again.

The flame bird soared with powerful wingbeats once more, drawing trajectories of fire.

“……”

I put the rune stone in my pocket and stepped into the corridor.

Soon everything would burn away.

The room where I had stayed,

The room I had reserved under an alias,

The blood stains on the floor,

The objects I had touched,

The towel I had wrapped around my shoulder,

And the bugs I hadn’t managed to retrieve.

The police would find nothing.

*

Unfortunately, there was no one waiting to greet me.

Nor was there anyone to detain me.

Blood on a black suit doesn’t show much on the outside, and the blood on my face and hands had been washed off enough not to be noticeable, so hardly anyone stopped me.

The police and paramedics did try to detain me. They wanted witness testimony to determine the cause of the fire and to provide emergency treatment if needed, but I showed my diplomatic ID and brushed them all off. Looking for Fabio Verati, I found him in the hotel lobby making a phone call somewhere.

I turned and disappeared into the crowd.

I didn’t receive emergency treatment. If you pour a potion or receive healing with a bullet still lodged inside, the wound heals over it. Then you have to cut through healthy flesh again to remove the bullet fragments.

If this were Abas, I would have gone to a hospital or gladly accepted emergency treatment from paramedics, but unfortunately, this was Matap.

Gunshot wounds, as well as stab wounds, incisions, and lacerations treated at hospitals, are reported to the police.

There might come a time when I would have to appear before the police to testify about the shootout, but right now, the Matap police couldn’t know I had been shot. If the police found out, others might get that information too.

Like the Imperial intelligence agencies.

If I asked Lucia, there would be “almost” no security concerns, but considering that the Inquisition was circling around Lucia, that wasn’t a good option either. No matter how good our relationship was, or how good the relationship with the Military Intelligence Bureau was, I needed to be cautious for the time being.

In the end, I stopped by a pharmacy and bought a load of medical supplies—potions, antibiotics, painkillers, gauze, IV fluids, syringes, burn ointment, saline solution, medical forceps, medical scissors, medical thread and needles, bandages—and trudged back to the hotel.

Of course, to avoid encountering anyone else, I entered through the underground parking garage and took the emergency stairs. The experience of climbing more than ten floors with gunshot wounds and minor burns was not particularly pleasant.

Only after sneaking back into my hotel room could I finally relax.

“…Ha.”

I dumped the contents of the bag onto the table. Sitting in a single armchair, I used my uninjured right hand and teeth to open all the packaging.

The first thing I did was disinfection. I poured saline solution into a newly purchased plastic cup and soaked the suture thread, needle, forceps, and scissors. Then I opened a bottle of painkillers, put them in my mouth, stuck my head in the sink, and swallowed the painkillers down my parched throat.

The pain still didn’t subside, so I took a few more painkillers before I could start emergency treatment.

I poured saline solution over the burned skin to clean it, slathered on burn ointment, and then applied potion on top. I had to do it this way because these weren’t the kind of potions that heal wounds instantly when drunk.

Such high-performance potions are prohibited from pharmacy sales, and as soon as they’re produced, they go first to public institutions, government agencies, and emergency medical facilities. There aren’t many companies that can produce them in the first place. It’s no wonder people here go to churches rather than hospitals when they’re sick.

After roughly treating the burns, I still had to deal with the gunshot wound. Minor wounds could be resolved by drinking the remaining potion. As the medicine began to take effect, I tried to remove my blood-soaked shirt.

But it wouldn’t come off easily. In the end, I had to cut the shirt off with medical scissors dripping with saline solution.

Having fully exposed the wound, I gathered a few items and went to the bathroom.

I placed a plastic cup, gauze, antibiotics, and a syringe next to the dry sink and began treating the gunshot wound while facing the mirror.

There didn’t appear to be any foreign objects visible to the naked eye, so I went straight to removing the bullet.

“……!”

I dug into the wound with forceps, grabbed the bullet, and pulled it out with force.

Despite taking several painkillers, excruciating pain washed over me. It had been a while since I’d done this, and I dropped the bullet a few times, causing me to needlessly gouge the flesh.

How much time had passed? By the time my shirt was soaked with sweat and blood, I finally succeeded in removing the bullet that had been lodged in my shoulder, tormenting me.

Clunk.

The bullet, covered in blood and flesh, rolled onto the sink.

I thoroughly disinfected the wound with saline solution, stuffed a wad of gauze into the wound to stop the bleeding, and injected antibiotics to prevent infection.

Now I just needed to cover the wound with gauze and lie down with an IV until the bleeding stopped. Suturing would come after that.

“…Ha.”

Regardless of everything else, I needed to restore my body to be able to handle all of tomorrow’s schedule. Whether that meant tracking down the bastards who shot at me today or finding Fabio Verati again.

After finishing the emergency treatment for the gunshot wound, I applied potion to the minor wounds, sutured the larger wound, and drank all the remaining potion to prevent possible organ damage and worsening of injuries. Of course, along with a few more painkillers.

Sitting on the bed, everything was wrapped up by contacting people through a secure terminal instead of my shattered communication device.

Clevins.

Military Intelligence Bureau.

Defense Attaché’s Office.

Project 73.

Pippin and Jake.

After sending messages to everyone I could reach, I lay down on the bed and stared at the ceiling.

I had done everything I could.

Thinking that, my eyelids grew heavy.

“……”

Time to rest now.

*

The call from the representative office came just as Pippin and Jake, returning from their errand, were looking for my room.