Chapter 100 (1/2)

Isaac 100

“Sores! How dare you!”

The captain bellowed, and everyone immediately ran for the airdock, disregarding whatever tasks they were on beforehand. Isaac too walked with them, grinning with glee at the sudden entertainment.

The airs.h.i.+p was the only way to escape from this place. Sores, the man Isaac had rendered unconscious earlier, instigated his men to steal the airs.h.i.+p the moment he regained consciousness.

Although they were in exile, these agents of Central were combat agents. The sailors of the airs.h.i.+p were only field agents, so there was a huge disparity between their combat capabilities. The sailors were immediately subdued, and the garrison troops who realised Sores was attempting to escape clung on to the airs.h.i.+p with their dear lives.

Sores, however, ignored his comrade’s pleas and quickly made preparations to take flight, even kicking away some of the agents who persistently clung onto the airs.h.i.+p. When the s.h.i.+p gained sufficient alt.i.tude where no one could reach him, Sores heard the Commander’s enraged voice. He and his men panicked, but they had pa.s.sed the point of no return.

They were well aware that their lives were gone the moment they landed the s.h.i.+p here. Those on the ground were as good as dead anyway, so Sores justified to his subordinates that they might be able to get past the interrogations by lying that the commander sent them to ask for a.s.sistance with the intention of defending the garrison to his last breath. If not, Sores explained that they could make a run for it and rally his subordinates after pa.s.sing through the mana storm.

Although all of them were aware of Central’s information network and its deductive capabilities, his subordinates had no choice but to believe in Sores. They were on the same s.h.i.+p now, and it was impossible to think Noxvil, the man who followed rules and principles as his motto, would forgive them. Desertion before battle was punished with death, both in this world and the other.

“This is some beautiful sight you’re showing me. I thought Central was pretty great, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. I’ll need to reevaluate you guys. The commander decides to leave his post to play, and the vice commander decides to ditch everyone to save his own skin. How did you guys manage to fend off the Expeditionary Forces up to now?”

“You dare! Do not mock the honour of those who have sacrificed their lives to protect this land!”

Noxvil refuted loudly, but Isaac pointed at the airs.h.i.+p and smirked mockingly.

“If saying a few words are a mockery to them, then what of the brave souls’ actions aboard that airs.h.i.+p?”

“Kuuk…”

Noxvil could only twitch in silence shamefully, unable to speak back at Isaac’s sarcasm. Isaac talked to the despondent Mazelan this time, whose eyes had been closed.

“Did they really meet the qualifications to join Central? Or did you only accept them because of their families?”

“Sigh! To think a disgrace like Sores would come from the Cage family, given their reputation for bravery…”

Everyone could see with their eyes how the group was struggling to keep the s.h.i.+p in flight, what with all the sailors kicked off from the s.h.i.+p. The group of deserters remained at the gondola, unable to figure out what they needed to do. Mazelan muttered glumly as he looked at Sores in the bridge, and everyone around him dropped their heads in agreement with Mazelan. Isaac looked at this disheartened lot scornfully and slowly snuck his way to the back of the group.

“I have brought it here…”

Rivelia handed the object to Isaac. It was something Rivelia and Saints had taken from the warehouse as ordered by Isaac, and Rivelia spoke with a voice full of worry. Isaac replied to Rivelia not with words – but with action.

“Hi hiik!”

Saints screamed in terror, and some of the agents standing at the back of the group turned back to see what the commotion was about. When they saw Isaac, they panicked, and the wave of panic spread through the entire group like dominoes. Noxvil and Mazelan were the last to hear the screams, and when they saw Isaac, they shouted out with great surprise.

“Wait!”

“W, what?”

Even before Mazelan and Noxvil could react, Isaac stabilized his aim and pulled the trigger. With the sound of gus.h.i.+ng wind, the rocket flew toward the airs.h.i.+p, hitting the gondola.

With a giant explosion, the airs.h.i.+p faltered. More explosions followed, and the airs.h.i.+p was quickly engulfed in flames and began plummeting toward the ground. All of the airs.h.i.+p’s sailors screamed while the captain of the s.h.i.+p fainted.

In the midst of everyone watching the scene with a blank, disjointed look on their faces, Mazelan and Noxvil approached Isaac with faces so stupefied by what had happened.

“W, why…”

The two couldn’t even finish their sentence as they spoke with faltering voices. Isaac threw the smoking launcher away and took a deep puff of his cigarette. He then spoke to Rivelia who also stood blankly.

“Back in my world, all deserters were punished on sight. Is it different in this world?”

“… It is the same here.”

Rivelia nodded with a grim look on her face, and Isaac looked at Noxvil and Mazelan as if asking what was the problem. The two finally lost their sanity.

“You! Fool! Do you think we don’t know that?!”

Mazelan grabbed at Isaac’s collars and shook him wildly. Noxvil quickly drew his sword and immediately started throwing waves condensed mana into the air using his sword.

“Do you see that ?! If we wanted to destroy the airs.h.i.+p, I could have done so myself!”

“Cough cough! Then why did you just sit and watch?”

Isaac grumbled despite being shaken down to his soul by Mazelan. Mazelan and Noxvil both pointed at the airs.h.i.+p which was but a smouldering ruin.

“Because that was our only way to send a message out of this place!”

“… Ah!”

Isaac scratched his head with a sorry look as if he’d just realised. The airs.h.i.+p had to leave the Forbidden Lands to notify the rest of Central of the current situation. Isaac had destroyed, with his own hands, the only way to withdraw when even the Communicator was destroyed.

“To think we would lose this place so incompetently… When so many have spilled their blood to protect this land for ages…”

Noxvil muttered with an empty look with his shoulders dropped, and Mazelan let go of Isaac’s collars and stretched his hand out with a drained look.

“Hand me that cigarette of yours, not the choyu leaf.”

“You really want to smoke it?”

“What wouldn’t I do in this situation.”

Isaac couldn’t help but hand out a real cigarette that he couldn’t bear to throw away earlier. He lit the cigarette for Mazelan, and Mazelan took a deep breath.

“Cough! Cough! Uweek!”

Mazelan was. .h.i.t hard by the sudden intake of the nicotine; dazed, he sat on the ground. Despite this and the constant coughing, Mazelan continued to smoke.

“How is it?”

“Why do you people smoke this horrible thing?”

“See? That’s why I only smoke choyu leaves.”

Mazelan glared at Isaac as if he had been cheated. Isaac responded with a shrug, and then he looked at the others who were all over the docks with a defeated look.

“What will you do now?”

Rivelia asked when Isaac was about to light a new cigarette.

“What do you mean what will we do? We fight!”

Mazelan screamed just before Isaac was about to speak.

“Bring over my men. We will fight, but it will be different from what he planned.”

“… Yes sir.”

Rivelia stared at Isaac for a moment before nodding and disappearing to gather the Security agents.

While Isaac looked at Rivelia’s disappearing figure, Mazelan grabbed Isaac’s shoulders with a glimmer of hope in his eyes and shouted.

“You are going to use a different method? You shot down the airs.h.i.+p because you were confident! Right?”

Isaac felt extremely uncomfortable when Mazelan’s face came ever so close to his and turned away before answering.

“Um… Maybe?”

Five Humvees raced across the rough, desolate plains where not a single blade of gra.s.s could be seen. The Humvees stopped occasionally to check for directions before das.h.i.+ng through the plains again.

EDN: Humvees are short for High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, which is basically a modern form of the older military Jeep. Wikipedia article.

“Seems like everyone’s gotten used to driving.”

Isaac muttered to himself as he sat on the pa.s.senger’s seat and glimpsed at Mazelan, who seemed to be having fun flooring the pedal and subtly competing with the other cars. The automobiles that had just been released in this world had the same basic mechanism, the only difference being its power source. Isaac picked the drivers from his Directorate of Security agents based on past driving experiences. Although they stalled the engines multiple times at the start, they quickly got used to driving them, perhaps because they were a bunch of brainiacs.

“Over there! Where the wind gathers and forms a twister is the location of the Gate’s appearance.”

Saints, who was suffering from severe car sickness at the back seat with windows down and his body limp as a snail, shouted out when he noticed a twister forming for a brief second before disappearing.

Mazelan turned his wheel toward Saints’ direction and sped up. The other cars quickly followed behind. Isaac witnessed the phenomenon of a twister forming and disappearing just as Saints had described with great fascination, when the Humvees stopped at an adequate distance away.

Screech!

As soon as the humvee stopped, Saints leaped out of the seat and retched. Agents from other cars also started disembarking.

“That point where the wind gathers is precisely where the Gate will open.”

As Isaac took out a cigarette with one arm leaned out of the Humvee’s window, Rivelia came around pointing at the spot to explain with her hair tied to the back, annoyed that her long hair flew wildly in the wind.