The terrorists had targeted the capital’s main areas, but there were far fewer injured than we expected. The vast majority of the population had been at the colosseum, watching the Seven Star Cup. Even those who couldn’t purchase tickets had gathered at the stalls just outside of it.
At present, the colosseum was being used as an emergency shelter for the empire’s royalty and its citizens, protected and watched over by the Seekers assigned to the location.
I was in charge of shutting down and suppressing the terrorist threat, and I had various Seeker units either in battle or providing rescue and aid where necessary. I myself was focused on weeding out the location of the Lord of Flies.
Based on the situation, I knew the Lord of Flies was not actually taking part in battle. Instead, they had left the fighting to their familiars—or the living beings to which its familiars were attached. I knew that the more familiars the Lord of Flies controlled, the closer they had to be to the action. The Lord of Flies would have to be right near the action and within range of its familiars.
By gathering reports from each Seeker unit, I worked out the likely location of the Lord of Flies, then narrowed that down to four buildings. But I didn’t need to know any more than that—the feedback stone in my coat pocket had begun to vibrate, leading me the rest of the way.
I arrived at an abandoned hotel, the owner of which had gone bankrupt. I went in alone, without any teammates, and proceeded upstairs. The feedback stone served as my guide. Eventually, I made it to the roof of the building, where the clear winter sky was filled with the golden light of the setting sun. The beautiful, fleeting rays of sunshine cast a shadow at my feet.
I found them. The Lord of Flies is ahead.
The Lord of Flies had their back to me. Fortunately, I was downwind, so they were unlikely to notice me as I held my breath and crept closer. I also didn’t sense the presence of any familiars nearby. Based on the mana that the familiars put out, the Lord avoided using them here so as not to be detected. But that was exactly what I’d predicted.
I caught the sweet scent of flowers on the wind. I smothered my presence as I closed in on the Lord of Flies, who was focused on controlling their familiars. Then I unholstered my silver flame and placed the cold steel of the barrel against the back of their head.
“Good evening, Lord of Flies,” I said, my voice like ice. “Or should I say, Bernadetta.”
Bernadetta’s back went straight. “Th-that voice… Is that you, Noel?”
She attempted to turn around, but I pressed the gun harder against her head.
“Freeze. Move again and I blow your brains out.”
“Is this some kind of joke?! Why are you doing this?!”
“You’re going to try and keep up the act now? Far too late for that. I’m in no mood to argue with you here, so listen up.” I nudged the gun as a reminder and said, “You want to know the truth? I knew something was up the moment we met.”
“What…?”
“As part of the job, I’m sensitive to people’s fear. And the moment we met, I felt terror in you. An unnatural amount.”
“That was because of all the rumors I’d heard about you…”
“There are different types of fear. But the one I felt from you? That was the fear of confronting an enemy. The tension in your expression, your voice, your body—it wasn’t a fear that compelled you to run. Rather, I knew you were already thinking about how to dispose of me. But why would the sheltered daughter of Ralph Golding want to kill an infamous Seeker?”
Bernadetta said nothing. I couldn’t see the expression on her face, but tension emanated from her entire body.
“I have a lot of enemies,” I went on, “but none were princesses out to murder me the moment we first met. So I wondered, perhaps this girl had it in for me for reasons I wasn’t aware of? There was only one possible answer. The Lord of Flies, handyman of the underworld. We had a past, but where they knew my face, I didn’t know theirs.”
Even after putting Loki on the job, I couldn’t work out the identity of the Lord of Flies. But in a strange twist, not knowing was the connection that led me to the truth.
“Bernadetta, you are the Lord of Flies.”
“All of this is mere speculation, isn’t it?”
“Don’t be a sore loser,” I said with a chuckle. “I have definitive proof.”
“You do?”
“The pendant I gave you. It has a feedback stone in it.”
Bernadetta gasped, and I snickered.
“Feedback stones are often used in radios. With some magical energy, a divided stone will resonate along with its individual pieces, and radios use that to transmit voices. But even outside of radios, you can use them to know when your target has activated skills. Do you understand what that means? Given what’s going on around us and where we stand right now, there’s only one explanation.”
Now aware of the trap I’d set, Bernadetta sighed. “From the very beginning, you aimed to corner me.”
“As did you. You simply lost the game of deception.”
“So why did you let it go on for so long?”
“For starters, I didn’t have proof until now. Secondly, even with proof, it would be no easy task to charge the daughter of Ralph Golding. Thirdly, I was waiting for an opportunity to have you die in an unforeseen accident. Does that satisfy your curiosity, Princess?”
“Perhaps I’m not one to speak, but you really are wicked.” There was such malice in her words that I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Do you know what the other Seekers call me? The snake. No one matches me in deception and cunning.”
Even EX-Rank Seekers and the nation itself were pawns in my game. The Lord of Flies was nothing.