Chapter 175: The Mansion’s Monster (1/2)

Akira and his companion finished checking the corpses outside the mansion, so they moved to check the corpses inside. Since no one took care of the corpses, the mansion was filled with them from the last battle. The floor, as well as the walls and the ceilings, was still dyed red with blood.

Akira and the other Hunters felt nothing at all when they were welcomed with such a scene as they stepped into the mansion. But that was not the case for Erio and the other non-hunters, they looked obviously distraught.

A short check was enough for them to find a room filled with dead bodies inside that mansion. The people who came beforehand had no interest except for the loot, so they just piled the corpses in one place to clear the way for them. Colbert decided to start working in that room.

As one of the many people who were responsible for that, Akira, did expect to find something like this. But he also noticed something that he did not understand when he saw all the corpses there. Alpha noticed it.

“Akira, what’s wrong? If you regret fighting in that battle, it would be great if you can hold yourself back from doing something like that next time.”

“No, that’s not the problem. I just thought with all of these corpses and blood, this place doesn’t smell like blood at all.”

“Oh, about that, huh. There are reasons for that, you see. The cyborg, for example, doesn’t rot even after they die. While the medicines that they use sometimes also contained an anti-rot drug. It is also said that the colourless mist of the eastern district prevents the smell from spreading. Well, it’s basically the same reason as to why the corpses out there in the wasteland don’t smell.”

“So that’s the reason, huh?”

“Although most of them are in a bad shape, they’re basically the leftover after that battle. Fortunately, most of them still retain their original shape, it should at least help Erio and the other children to identify those corpses.”

“Now that you mention it, that is kind of true.”

Akira nodded as he understood what Alpha was saying. After that, he immediately lost interest in that subject. Although there were other things that were out of place, he did not notice any of those.

While Erio and the other children were checking the corpses, Revin was checking the equipment those dead corpses left behind.

It did not matter if it was a powerful rifle, or if it was mostly destroyed, it was nothing more than wreckage. Of course, Revin could fix them, but its worth would still be greatly lowered. As for the augmented suits, although they were expensive, most of them were readjusted for personal use. So it would be worthless to resell them. Not to mention that he would need a good connection for selling them too, otherwise, he would not be able to sell them at a good price, and to top it off, taking them off from the corpses were too much of a hassle.

That was why Revin was separating the augmented suits from the rifles that were easier to check if they were badly damaged or not. Thus easier to predict how much money they could fetch from selling them. Colbert, who noticed him, looked sternly at him.

“Revin. Didn’t I tell you that you’re free from doing that as long as you don’t forget the real reason why we are here?”

“Don’t worry. With this many corpses around, we’ll have to wait for a bit until Erio and the other children finish checking all of them. I’m just using the waiting time for something more productive here.”

“If you have free time, you should help them in checking the corpses or help to keep eyes on the surroundings.”

“Don’t worry, I’m doing that too.”

Although Revin was answering lightly, he was still sorting the loot with a rather serious face. Since these were not old-world relics, they had no obligation to bring them to Katsuragi. Furthermore, he did not have to spend bullets to gather them. He needed to get money from wherever he could in order to repay his debt.

Colbert also knew Revin’s situation. Because of that, he held himself back from saying anything more after letting out a big sigh.

Akira was watching the surroundings when a question came up in his mind.

“Colbert, I feel like we already found and carried quite a lot of bodies, are they really that many?”

“Hm? Well, it’s not that many if we’re talking about the debtors for the company that paid me. But the boss of the company, Tomejima, seems to have discussed it with the other companies to share information. So in short, we’re also searching for the debtors of those companies too. That’s why there are a lot of them. Also, there are not that many people who are interested in doing this job.”

“Is that so? Why is that?”

“I don’t really know the details, but the recent rumour is that someone found pretty expensive relics from a rather unexpected ruin. So I’m sure they are more interested in that rumour.”

Of course, in the case of Colbert, he still had not completely recovered from the trauma after both of his hands were eaten by monsters during an expedition, that was why he was not interested in that rumour. As for Revin, he could not go hunting for relics because of the deal he had with Katsuragi.

“…I see…”

Akira looked away and just stopped their conversation there.

Colbert noticed it, but he did not dig too deep. He believed that it was understandable for a Hunter like Akira to at least have some interest in such a rumour.

Akira suddenly looked at the door into the room. Colbert followed suit and saw two men enter the room. Revin stopped sorting the loot the moment he noticed them.

Those guys walked toward Akira and Colbert and casually said to Colbert.

“Well now, isn’t it Colbert? What a coincidence meeting you here.”

Colbert lightly laughed.

“Peppa, huh? Why are you here?”

“Nah, I just came to say hello since I heard that you’re here. Moreover…”

Peppa looked at Akira, Erio, and the other children as if to evaluate them before lightly laughing.

“I see that you’ve really splendidly fallen now, to think that you’re earning money by taking these brats with you. You’ve really stopped being a Hunter, huh. But like, isn’t it hard living without hunting for relics?” “I can say the same to you too. Seeing you here means that you have nothing better to do, right? Or is that you’re here to scavenge the dead Hunters? Well, for a Hunter like you who can’t get any good relic even when you get into the ruin, I guess it’s not a wrong course of action though.”

“You bastard…”

After that short exchange, Colbert was still calm like usual, while Peppa looked slightly offended.

The guy who came with Peppa, Bosch, interjected and stopped Peppa.

“Peppa, cut it out.”

Peppa clicked his tongue and stopped prodding Colbert. Colbert snorted and looked exasperatedly at Bosch.

“Bosch, you should keep him properly under your leash, isn’t that your job?”

Bosch lightly smiled, it was an honest smile for his old friend.

“Don’t say that. It was your job in the first place, wasn’t it? I’m already giving it my best, you know?”

“Humph, though that might be true, that is your job now. So I have nothing to do with that. I know that we’re acquaintances, but you should stop him from picking a fight like that. It’s dangerous.”

Colbert and Bosch had a friendly air around them.

“So then, Colbert, what are you doing here? Don’t tell me that you’re here to pick up the loot from these corpses.”

Bosch caught Revin who was sorting the loot as if there was nothing to worry about. Peppa looked mockingly at Revin.

“I’m here to search for dead debtors. These other guys are here to help me out… And also, just leave that guy alone. He’s in big trouble from debts, you see. As someone who is also here to keep my eyes on him, I can’t really bring myself to tell him to stop, you know?”

After Colbert said that, Bosch could not help but frown.

“You’re still doing work for those creditor companies, huh?”

“…Well, I have my reasons too.”

“I know it’s not my place to say this, but if you get yourself too comfortable working inside the city, you might not be able to return back to doing Hunter job, you know? You already have both of your arms healed. Honestly speaking, I think it’s a good idea if you go hunting for relics once in a while as a rehabilitation.”

“I know…”

Colbert was a little bummed from that rather harsh but indeed true advice from his friend.

—*—*—*—

Tiol was munching the corpses inside a room. He ate the cyborg bodies whole together with their mechanical parts. He easily lifted the mechanical body up with his left hand and put them inside his mouth.

His left hand was no longer of a human hand. To be more precise, a huge gun grew out from his left shoulder. As he ate more and more cyborgs, the gun on his shoulder grew longer and bigger. Eventually, once it grew out into a complete rifle, it detached from his shoulder and fell to the ground.

There were already other parts on the ground. Small arms were growing out from some of those parts and those arms suddenly started moving. They were dragging themselves toward each other and reassembled themselves into something that looked like an autonomous turret monster.

The newly made turret walked away and lined up beside the other autonomous turrets that were made before it. There were already a few dozen autonomous turrets lined up inside that room.

Tiol, who was eating metals without saying anything, suddenly stopped and looked away. Although he was looking in the direction of a pile of dead cyborgs, he was actually able to see past that pile and through the wall behind it too.

He then turned at the small mechanical monsters in front of him as if he was giving them a command. After that, all of the small mechanical monsters immediately sprung into action. They removed the wreckages blocking the entrance to that room and left the room.

Tiol only silently watched the small mechanical monsters leave the room. Once all of them were out, he started eating the Hunter corpses and their equipment again.

—*—*—*—

Akira was keeping his eyes on his surroundings which doubled as training for him while talking with Alpha. But when he noticed a small change in his information-gathering device, his expression immediately turned stern as he shifted his focus to check that signal more closely.

But before he could do that, Alpha suddenly warned him.

“Akira, there are monsters.”

“Monsters? Not Hunters?”

“Either that or it’s a group of non-human cyborgs that are moving in an organized manner. It’s up to you to think which one it is.”

“Alright, I’ll go and get back my rifles from Erio and the other children.”

“There’s no need to do that. Since we have them here, how about we get them to fight too? After all, it’s not like you’re here to protect them anyway.”

“Are they going to be okay?”

Akira was a bit surprised by that suggestion from Alpha, but she replied with a smile that was filled with confidence.

“I’ll take command, so it’ll be okay. Meanwhile, you should try to face them without my support as a training.”

“Roger that!”

Akira reloaded armour piercing ammo into his AAH and A2D assault rifles.