The price for the bird he had never properly cared for leaving the nest was too high.
The expectation that time would eventually resolve things and the hope that if he covered up her mistakes, she might let go of her desires and change, were all realized to be a luxury.
As the years passed, Roilnia’s desires became overgrown, and her greed swelled alongside them.
At this point, the old man had to admit that he had failed miserably in every matter concerning Roilnia.
The recognition of failure brought despair.
He could not see any way to guide her to the right path by his own efforts.
He felt that he truly had to completely give up on the granddaughter his daughter had borne—the existence he had constantly feared and covered up.
Because the first button had been buttoned incorrectly, all the remaining buttons were crooked.
Yet, the internal conflict remained.
The red eyes and hair, the blood flowing through their veins, clung stubbornly to his ankles, constantly weighing what he held tightly in his hands against Roilnia.
Although the choice he should make was abundantly clear, he couldn’t bring himself to do it.
As a result, Renato could not deviate an inch from his predetermined role.
He could only stand by and watch whatever conclusion came, whether it was from Hoapilen Regious or the woman herself.
“Oh, right.”
Roilnia turned her gaze toward Renato, who was still slumped on the floor, as if remembering something she had momentarily forgotten.
Her face was full of smiles, but in contrast, her fingers moved nervously.
To her, the singular arm reflected in the fish tank was a symbol of regression.
The body that remembered defeat mocked her incessantly, minute by minute.
So, the crux of what the woman truly needed to know was now.
Otherwise, there was no reason why she hadn’t killed the old man when she had grabbed his neck moments ago, as her temper dictated.
Roilnia Lanilgraph was a human who only moved to satisfy her own desires, so she would move after meticulously calculating the profit.
Acting merely on a whim meant that she was fundamentally different from such uncivilized beings.
Although she wanted to kill him, she fully understood the utility value of the old man, who was bound to her by blood, and the wealth Renato held in his hands was another task she would eventually have to completely seize.
She would devour everything the old man had achieved after she became a singular existence, surpassing all men.
It would be a loss to kill him unprepared and miss out on all the good things she didn’t know about, so she had to prepare a foothold to suck him dry until the very end.
‘As expected, there are so many tempting things in the world.’
Stealing was her nature.
She needed to possess, to take, and to be the only one for it to be thrilling.
Roilnia covered her cheek, intoxicated by the mere imagination.
“The armory location has been changed.”
“……!”
Information about the regenerative ampoules was good, but the woman brought up her original intention.
Roilnia had always wanted something else from the ‘Ranilgref’ corporation when she came here.
The old man’s company was a business that made money by manufacturing and selling military supplies.
This place, which had everything necessary for war and killing, was an exceptionally good prey for the woman.
As Roilnia revealed her true intentions, Renato’s eyes, which had been cast down, shook greatly.
Roilnia knew he clearly did not want to tell her, but she didn’t care.
The old man’s reaction was not an option in her choice set.
The woman clearly saw how to handle the old man, who was nothing more than a fish playing in the fish tank of her palm.
“Listen carefully. This is the very last chance I’m giving you out of consideration for the amount of affection less than the dirt under my fingernail, so you had better think carefully.”
The previously merciful gesture that had lingered on the fish tank dropped away.
After a brief moment of silence, the betta fish beyond the wall suddenly writhed in agony.
Its beautiful red and blue tail was torn to shreds, and its pectoral fins fell off.
Following the pectoral fins, its gills were scattered, and then its scales were ripped apart and dispersed.
It took no time for the vividly moving betta to become a shredded rag, fouling the fish tank.
The lifeless creature floated belly-up on the surface, and the blue color of the tank gradually turned red, like poison spreading, following the blood the betta had shed.
Red, like the deepening smile of the woman.
“The secretary. The betta. If I don’t get what I want, what comes next?”
*
The biting wind, far past the threshold of winter, was fierce.
Deputy Director Enten Nebail of Eternita Central pulled up his padded jacket higher to his neck, feeling the stinging sensation that clawed at his cheeks and made the tip of his nose tingle.
Then, he hurried his steps to escape the bone-chilling cold.
Commuting was a struggle for all office workers, but the workplace was at least warm.
The irony of rushing to work because of the cold.
Enten felt the sorrow of the office worker anew and regretted that he didn’t have a sturdy body like a physical or corporeal Esper, resistant to cold or heat.
After swiping his employee ID, the interior of the Central greeted Enten with a blast of warm air.
He felt that the chill inside his body, in contrast to his melting skin, would be perfectly thawed by a hot cup of tea.
His wife had packed him quince preserve made from late-autumn quinces today.
Just as Enten was about to head to his office, he suddenly remembered that his electric kettle was old and broken.
‘Who knew putting it in the online shopping cart yesterday and delaying the payment would come back to bite me like this.’
He belatedly took out his smartphone and pressed the payment button, but there was no way it would arrive today, let alone immediately.
Enten debated whether he should give up on having tea.
Feeling utterly disappointed, he considered the internal cafeteria as a second option, when he suddenly recalled something employees had casually mentioned yesterday.
It was about how the Guide Information Development Office had just gotten a new, state-of-the-art coffee machine and a nice electric kettle.
Looking at the time, it was still before the employees had fully arrived.
Enten, who personally aimed to be a comfortable, non-condescending superior to his subordinates, rationalized that he could just quickly use the electric kettle and return to his office so as not to inconvenience the staff.
The fact that he didn’t really need to have the tea, but his desire to have it increased simply because it was difficult to get, was amusing even to himself, but Enten didn’t care.
He was simply determined to have the quince tea his loving wife had packed for him instead of his usual strong caffeine.
“Oh, Director?”
“My apologies. I was momentarily intruding.”
However, Enten, who had headed towards the Guide Information Development Office, encountered a completely unexpected person in a place he thought would be empty.
He had expected at most an early-arriving employee like himself, so he couldn’t help but be considerably surprised to suddenly run into his superior.
Did Director Hoapilen have any business that required her to deliberately stop by the Guide Information Development Office?
It seemed like a stretch of the imagination to think that she, who was in a position to receive reports, had come to use the newly installed electric kettle and coffee machine, just like Enten.
The Hoapilen Enten knew was not someone who would abruptly and silently appear in a subordinate’s workplace.
Furthermore, judging by his unusually good Esper perception, the Hoapilen sitting there now was subtly masking a sense of embarrassment.
“I just had to check something.”
After a brief silence, Hoapilen added this with a slight air of excuse.
Enten smiled wryly.
‘Even someone in the position of Director of Eternita Central feels awkward when they get caught doing something off-task.’
He, too, occasionally felt mortified when a subordinate suddenly walked in while he was endlessly fiddling with his smartphone.
Enten, fully empathizing with the difficulties of being a superior, turned his gaze away from the Director’s minor offense, thinking, ‘She must have come here for some work,’ and pointed toward the utility room.
“Don’t worry about it. I heard a new electric kettle was brought here, so I came to borrow the utility room for a moment. Should I make you a cup of quince tea? My wife packed it for me, and it’s perfect for this cold winter, isn’t it?”
“Hmm… should we?”
At Enten’s consideration, Hoapilen seemed to ponder for a moment, then expressed her assent with a faint smile.
She ran a hand through her well-kept hair, watched Enten heading toward the utility room, and added.
“By the way, how are your injuries?”
“Haha, but I’m an Esper, ain’t I? It wasn’t a severe wound, and even a stab wound, though it doesn’t heal as quickly as for a physical or corporeal Esper, should be fine in a few days.”
Enten, who had slightly opened the door to the utility room for smooth conversation, put water on the kettle and spoke lightheartedly.
Depending on the rank, for an Esper, as long as the wound wouldn’t leave permanent aftereffects, physical injury recovery was usually quick with a few ampoules, without the need for surgical treatment.
Enten, too, had a poor self-healing ability, which made things a little difficult, but he had recovered quickly after receiving treatment once the incident was over.
He was puzzled that Hoapilen brought up the old injury now, as it had been quite a while, but then he realized that it had been a very long time since Enten had directly confronted the Director.
Hoapilen’s dark circles under her eyes were visibly darker, and she looked quite worn out at a glance.
It seemed she had been heavily burdened with the cleanup after the Irina Sheril incident.
Even apart from the cleanup, Hoapilen had seemed increasingly nervous and anxious to Enten lately.
Of course, it didn’t show on the surface at all, but if he had to give a reason, it was just an Esper’s intuition.
Instead of having a sturdy or agile body, Enten was good at reading the flow of emotions, like a mental Esper.
Even though Hoapilen was skilled at maintaining a poker face enough to defend against ordinary mental attacks, Enten could catch even a subtle sense of incongruity.
In that sense, Hoapilen had been noticeably showing her emotions lately.
That is, it was evidence that her emotions were fluctuating sharply.
