The girl who had formally become a member of the assassination unit had it better than she had as a trainee.
Even if she never received a name, she was paid a fitting price for her loyalty, and she no longer had to endure brutal tests or get beaten to the ground day after day.
In recognition of her first mission, [Roku] was also given a reward of 20 sacks of rice.
"This is the price of your lives."
The lonely sacks of rice seemed to say as much.
Two dead friends. Twenty sacks of rice. Converted, that came to 10 sacks per person.
That was the value assigned to children discarded like insects.
Wretchedly enough, the rice cooked from that very grain was heartbreakingly delicious.
After that, it was one struggle after another.
It was a time when she had talent, but was still immature and could not even choose her own path.
Day after day, she survived, killed someone, tailed a target, stole something. Even as the days blurred together, filth kept accumulating in the girl’s delicate hands.
Her memories of that dry, colorless time were so faint that even now, when she tried to recall them, they would not come clearly.
12 years old, 13, 14, 15.....
Six years of time had already turned the girl known as [Roku] into a proper woman.
It was enough time for a mere squad member to become a squad leader, and for a squad leader to become a captain.
Even as countless people above her died off, [Roku] survived.
Along the way, she learned that the name of the [clan] that had taken her in was Fujiwara, and that the "important person" who had faced her directly was a direct descendant of Fujiwara.
They had never met again after their first encounter, but she still suffered from the feeling that the unpleasant touch from that day was clutching at the back of her neck.
Too sticky to be called "light," too brazen to be called "darkness." To [Roku], Fujiwara was a contradictory existence.
Whether she knew of those impious thoughts or not, her promotion was swift.
She had already stood out quickly, and in the Heian era, people died and were replaced by successors all the time.
The captain of that era, who had long served Fujiwara, had to choose a successor as retirement approached, and through the influence of the "important person," [Roku], who had made a name for herself as the captain of the first squad, was selected.
[Roku], who had suddenly become the captain of the assassination unit overnight, felt dazed beyond belief.
-"You have done well."
Was that praise for her, or self-congratulation that elevated the judgment of the one who had brought her here?
Probably closer to the latter, [Roku] thought with her head bowed.
After a few more words of praise and the reward money she gathered up, she returned to her quarters.
That night, she heard that the "important person" had been recognized for his achievements and given a major post within the clan.
Even after becoming captain, [Roku] was not happy at all.
Rather, it felt as though an unattainable longing had only grown larger.
She had kept her promise to her friend to rise to the summit. There was no one higher than [Roku] inside the Sun, Moon, and Stars Squad now.
Even the instructors who had once seemed more terrifying than anyone during her trainee days now bowed their heads and showed her respect.
But she was still Fujiwara’s dog.
A dog that could not be shown carelessly to others, and not one kept close enough to be petted.
That was exactly [Roku]’s position.
Like the saying that the bear does the tricks while the man takes the money, the price of her loyalty, devotion, and suffering belonged entirely to her master.
It was empty, but there was nothing she could do.
She had to keep moving forward with the hope that if she simply fulfilled the duties given to her, someday she would gain freedom with her own name.
Even if she could not reach the light, step by step.....
Unable to help it, Uro sat down quietly and began to eat.
Sitting at the table she had overturned with her own feet made her feel embarrassed, but Yoshino’s subtle gaze was hard to endure.
-clink clink
For a while, only the quiet sound of tableware moving briskly rang out at the table.
Even in a tense situation where she could not tell whether the food was going into her mouth or her nose, the meal was irritatingly delicious.
It made her annoyed for no reason.
"Thank you for the meal. Please bring dessert."
"Would you like ice cream, black tea, or coffee?"
"I’ll have coffee. What about you?"
"....Ice cream."
"I’ll prepare it right away."
The waiter, who bowed politely and stepped away, returned in less than two minutes with dessert.
He set coffee in front of Junpei and a round scoop of ice cream in front of Uro, then smiled and withdrew.
Uro had not even touched the ice cream, which looked cool and crisp and delicious, and instead her gaze turned to Junpei, who was slurping his coffee.
"What’s the point?"
"You finally feel like talking?"
"Forget all this crap and just tell me what you’re thinking. You could have killed me when I lost consciousness. Why did you spare me?"
After thinking for a moment, Junpei shrugged and replied.
"It’s a little complicated."
"What?"
"There was something Higuruma-san asked me to do. And I didn’t want to kill you like that, there in that place."
"Say it in a way I can understand. Don’t talk about things only you know."
When Uro pressed him, Junpei continued with a more detailed explanation she could follow.
"I still don’t know whether you’re someone worth respecting. I don’t know why you entered the Culling Game, or what you want to achieve. In that situation, if I killed you while you were unconscious, I’d probably feel uneasy about it for the rest of my life. That wouldn’t be a "proper death.""
"A proper death?"
"It’s the value my friend holds in the highest regard. I agree with it too. Everyone dies, but at the very least, I think a person should meet a death that fits the life they’ve walked. Whether it’s murder or suicide."
"So what, if I tell you my story and you like it, you’ll cry some tragic tears and kill me? And if it’s shitty, you’ll just stomp me like a bug?"
Uro’s expression soured.
It sounded like there was no way to avoid death either way.
Maybe it was because she was taking it the wrong way, but to her ears Junpei’s proposal was no different from telling her to perform a little trick before she died.
Her pride would not allow that.
"Then kill me now. I have no intention of groveling in front of you and begging for my life like some clown. Saving a jujutsushi who fought with their life on the line is something you can’t possibly accept either, right?"
She growled, poison sharp in her voice, but Junpei answered calmly.
"There’s nothing I can’t accept."
"?"
"You can’t beat me, can you? You’re weak. Higuruma-san is already dead, so do you really think I’d worry about future trouble because I don’t kill you now?"
"...!!"
Uro’s face reddened at the bluntly accurate words.
And then the next shocking remark left her no time to care.
"And I’m not going to kill you. At least not now."
"...You’re not going to kill me? Why should I believe that?"
"Your distrust of people and inferiority complex are at a serious level. If your intention was to test my patience, congratulations, you succeeded brilliantly. If I had planned to kill you in the first place, I wouldn’t have brought you here, would I?"
-Just like he had done with Dorb.
A chill ran up Uro’s arm.
"You seem to be misunderstanding something, but I’m not the kind of ranker who just kills everyone."
"...You killed everyone except me."
"There were reasons for that too."
He had killed everyone except Kashimo and Uro, but there had been reasons for each of them.
First was Ishigori, who wanted to end his life honorably after a fierce battle.
You could call him a complicated mix of battle maniac and suicide seeker.
Because he fulfilled his wish and left with a smile, Junpei could send him off lightly.
The second, Dorb, was someone who absolutely had to be killed.
Unlike Uro, who seemed to be aiming to "survive" by earning points, he was trash who simply enjoyed seeing blood, points or no points.
He couldn’t even be reasoned with, and slaughter itself was his goal, so there was no choice other than killing him.
Dragging around some old man over a thousand years old and trying to admonish and reform him did not seem like it would be very pleasant.
The third, Higuruma.....was close to suicide.
He died taking an attack meant for Uro, and in his final moment, he seemed to have given up on life. Whatever painful thing he had gone through, he had chosen death because he could not overcome his self-loathing.
Hadn’t he said he had become a human who could no longer find a reason to live? There was nothing more Junpei could have done for him there.
Rather, in his final moment, he had let go of his grudge and worn a satisfied smile.
"Anyway, that’s how it is."
"......"
"And I said I’d help you ‘accept death,’ not that I’d kill you. I have an obligation to talk with you and hold you back, but that’s not enough reason to kill you."
"In the end, it’s just wordplay. If I say I want to live, will you save me?"
"At least if the reason is something ‘proper’ that I can accept, I will. And from what I can see, you don’t seem like the sort of person who just goes wild because they got a second chance. I don’t know if I’m qualified to say this, but...if you want to live, then you can live."
If you want to live, you can live.
If you want to live.....
Uro’s face twisted with an emotion she could not name.
"You said you were gathering 1,000 points. The 105 points I have..."
"I know. But it doesn’t matter. I can gather them again. Even if it’s urgent, I don’t want to do something that goes against my beliefs. And I already checked that the other comrades are doing well."
105 points.
It was a large score, if you thought about it.
A score that could only be gathered by killing 21 ordinary players who had not earned any points.
But prey was everywhere.
Right now, if he simply turned on the rankings and looked around, there were players with 10 or 20 points everywhere, if not as many as Uro. And among them, there would surely be some he could not compromise with.
Letting Uro go and losing 105 points was not that big a problem.
What really mattered was whether there was any "meaning" in killing Uro.
"So....tell me your story. I want to know what kind of person you are."
"....You know that sounds a little like an old pickup line, right? Is my body what you’re after?"
"Don’t worry about useless things. I already have a lover."
"The one who has one thing always covets another."
"Oh, come on."
Junpei recoiled a little with a look of disgust.
He was already wary because of her slutty outfit, and now she was saying something dangerous.
Besides, she wasn’t even his type.
"Uro-san is beautiful, but she has too sharp a face, so she’s not my type. And think about the age gap, grandma."
"You insolent brat....."
"So, are you going to talk or not?"
She had only tried to be petty and ended up taking a counterattack instead.
Uro let out a sigh and chewed over the conversation they had just had.
-You can live. If you want to live.
For some reason, that thin little kindness sounded like it was affirming her existence—
and her heart wavered a little.
"You’re a madman. One of the top three madmen I’ve ever seen in my life."
The boy in front of her was a kind madman.
Good and strong, but ready to punish without mercy anyone who crossed the line.
And on top of that, he was a strange guy who pitied people sunk in darkness and wanted to give them a chance.
From her perspective, his words were incoherent and illogical, but somehow there was a part of them that was convincing.
What kind of life had produced that utterly bizarre set of beliefs?
He looked like he’d been raised gently and pampered, and yet he kept spouting difficult words.
For some reason, she got the feeling that this "young master" might not have grown up as smoothly as he looked.
".....Do whatever you want."
Takako Uro did not dislike this kind-hearted madman all that much.
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