Greta hid in the alleyway and quietly watched the lights of the abandoned building. She contemplated whether to follow Osian inside, but judging that staying put would help him, she kept her position.

It was then that a shadow in the darkness slowly approached Greta. Greta, distracted by the lights, didn't notice someone approaching. The reason was also that the opponent's movements were so stealthy.

The moment rough hands tried to grab her from behind.

"……!"

Greta, who instinctively felt something, quickly lowered her posture and avoided the hands. The opponent seemed flustered, as if they hadn't expected her to slip away.

Greta is pickpocketing in District 44. For a young pickpocket to be caught in such a terrible place essentially meant death. The fact that Greta was still alive like this had its own reasons. One of them was her unusually good senses.

'Who is it?!'

Greta couldn't identify her opponent. They were wrapped entirely in black clothing and wore a mask on their face. Anyone could see they were the type of people who couldn't afford to have their identity revealed.

Biting her lips, Greta immediately tried to run toward where the lights were.

However, another person blocked her path. They were at least three times bigger than Greta. In the darkness, the red glow of night vision goggles gleamed.

‘A dangerous person.’

Greta's senses activated. She didn't know their identity, but anyone could see they were the type of people one should never approach.

While Greta hesitated, surrounded front and back, the man who had initially missed her reached out his hand toward Greta again. This time, his actions showed an intense will to absolutely not let her escape.

It was the moment Greta was about to open her mouth to call for help. Starlight fell from the sky.

Swoosh!

The starlight cut off the arm of the man who was reaching for Greta. The man whose arm was cut was flustered, and so was the one blocking the path.

"Who are you guys?"

Osian, who appeared as if dropping from the sky, asked while pointing his blazing sword. Seeing that light, the guys became even more wary and stepped back. As if they shouldn't touch such light.

The brief standoff ended when the guys exchanged glances and then took action. The large figure who had blocked Greta's path charged at Osian.

"You're courting death."

Osian was about to swing his sword but frowned. He felt a strange sense of unease from the guy. And this also made him feel a vague sense of déjà vu.

Swoosh! Osian swung his sword without hesitation. The Starlight Sword cut the charging guy's waist in half. There was no scream. Instead of blood, a liquid mixed with oil and ether water flowed from the severed body. It wasn't human—it was an automaton.

"As expected. I thought I felt déjà vu somewhere, and it reminds me of the old guys."

Osian recalled his memories from when he had just arrived in the city. Was it Black Snake? It was a gang that attacked and plundered trucks from small and medium-sized companies.

Osian had gone to deal with them personally, wielding a single sword. That's when he encountered someone who commanded special automatons.

That automaton was similar to the one he had just cut down. Which meant.

"The performance would be the same too."

Osian's Starlight Sword turned piercingly blue. The blade became thinner and drew graceful curves. The Moonlight Blade deeply pierced the fallen automaton.

Zzzzzzzt.

The automaton, cooled below freezing point, was covered in pure white frost and froze solid. Naturally, the process that was trying to explode the ether water was also stopped.

The attacker whose arm had been cut off seemed flustered, not expecting to be neutralized so easily.

From this, Osian could tell that the guy wasn't an automaton. Instead, the severed arm was apparently a prosthetic, as it didn't particularly bleed.

When Osian pointed the Moonlight Blade at him, the guy hastily opened his mouth.

[Fixer Osian. We didn't come here to fight you.]

The voice was modulated to hide their identity. No, more than that.

"You recognize me."

[That unique sword of yours is famous. It's regrettable that we've come to face each other like this, but it seems there's been some misunderstanding between us. We're not trying to touch you. We came here following traces of the Liberation Army.]

"If you're targeting the Liberation Army, why are you reaching for an innocent kid?"

[Calling her innocent is a bit hard to swallow. This area is dominated by the Liberation Army. The residents are practically sympathizing with their cause.]

Osian frowned.

[Didn't you also come here to resolve this situation like us? If so, I think we don't need to help each other, but there's no need to interfere either.]

"You seem to be mistaken, but I'm not moving with the intention of rooting out the Liberation Army like you guys."

[……Is that so. That's truly regrettable.]

When the guy spread his fingers, capsules that were tucked between them popped out. It was sleight of hand like watching a magician's card tricks. The capsules were scattered as they were. Osian quickly rolled his eyes and cut down all the flying capsules with his Moonlight Blade.

The ether water in the capsules froze solid, so the magic didn't activate but Osian's expression wasn't bright because gunfire came flying from beyond that darkness to support the guy.

Osian stood in front of Greta and spread his Nebula Silk.

Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat! The bullets couldn't penetrate the cloak and fell to the ground with thuds.

'He was talking to buy time from the beginning.'

The gunfire had stopped at some point. The guy had apparently fled, as he was nowhere to be seen. Osian retrieved the Nebula Silk he had spread around.

"Wow."

He heard Greta's admiring voice from behind. When he turned around, she was staring blankly at Osian with an expression unlike her usual self.

"Is there something on my face?"

"Uh, uhh. No?!"

"More than that, let's move. This place doesn't seem safe."

When Osian took the lead, Greta also hastily followed him. Even inside the abandoned building, having heard the commotion outside, everyone was moving busily.

When Osian returned, the Liberation Army executives who had been pointing weapons hesitated and lowered their arms upon recognizing Osian.

"It seems trackers have followed us outside."

Lukai seemed to already know. Greta looked at Lukai and unconsciously muttered.

"My goodness. It really is Lukai."

Lukai's gaze turned toward Greta. Greta shrank back and hid behind Osian, then realizing there was no need for that, she gathered courage and stepped forward. Lukai withdrew his gaze from such Greta.

"Let's move. It'll be hard to have a quiet conversation here."

"How do you move when eyes are spread all around? Did you dig a tunnel or something?"

In the darkness, those who had tracked Lukai's whereabouts were already spread around the area. The moment he showed his face here, bombardment might really pour down.

They were desperately focused on eliminating Lukai.

"A tunnel, huh. We used to frequently use such classic methods too."

Lukai chuckled and flicked his hand. One of the executives with an unfamiliar face, a girl who appeared to be in her late teens, stepped forward.

She had freckles on her face and red hair. When that girl, commonly called a ginger, extended her hand, something like pure white thread lines spread and began to surround the interior of the abandoned building.

'This is…….'

It looked like a fluttering thread, but that was visualized energy. And although it seemed to simply surround the space, it was trying to take on some kind of solid form.

"Don't worry. Stability is guaranteed. As long as you don't thrash around needlessly."

The energy flowing from the girl was cut off. Around them, geometric patterns reminiscent of magic circles were spread out in three dimensions.

"I'm going."

With the girl's small voice. Light flashed and the surrounding scenery changed in an instant.

Osian felt Greta tightly gripping his clothes. But more than that, he was captivated by the scene unfolding before his eyes.

The scenery had changed. The abandoned building where logs burned in drums had disappeared and been replaced by an open space surrounded by densely built buildings like a fence.

"……Teleportation?"

Not magic, but a supernatural power. So that red-haired girl was a mutant. A mutant with teleportation abilities, no less. The reason for the Liberation Army's impossible elusive movements, including Lukai's, was right here.

"I don't know much about mutants, but this must be a very rare ability. Don't tell me you used this when coming to District 1 too?"

"It's not that omnipotent. For District 1, we purely infiltrated by secretly hiding on an airship."

"Brave. Showing me such a card, and even inviting me to your hideout."

Lukai plopped down in an appropriately empty spot.

"Trust between each other is essential for having a conversation."

When he removed the scarf covering his mouth, his bare face was revealed. Lukai took out a bottle of liquor and poured it glug-glug into an empty bottle beside him. The sharp smell of strong alcohol spread pungently. Lukai offered the glass to Osian.

"Care for a drink?"

"My throat was getting dry anyway."

Osian accepted without hesitation. He didn't even consider the possibility of poison. Not only because his body wouldn't be affected by such things, but mainly because he trusted that Lukai wasn't that type of person.

Gulp. Osian downed the strong liquor in one go. A burning sensation flowed down his throat. It was alcohol he was drinking for the first time in a long while since he first entered this city.

"Good."

The executives who were sitting around watching exchanged bewildered glances among themselves. They had said they would have a conversation, but this was practically the middle of enemy territory. There might be some trap, yet Osian was acting far too confidently.

"Ahem."

Then Greta cleared her throat and naturally stood as if guarding Osian's side. When Lukai stared intently at Greta, she rather asked back.

"What are you looking at?"

Even Lukai couldn't help but be somewhat flustered by that bold response. This must be how one feels when seeing a rabbit borrowing the tiger's authority.

Glug-glug. Lukai filled his empty glass with liquor and downed it in one gulp. Phew. The sharp alcohol aroma spread with his exhale.

"I can guess what your purpose is for coming here. You probably came to check because you thought we would join hands with heretics and escalate the incident."

Osian's eyes lit up. Indeed, Lukai, as the leader of the Liberation Army, had instantly seen through why he had come to District 44.

"As you can see, the people gathered here are those who have been persecuted and abandoned. They were just pushed here to survive."

Religious people who had settled in one place gathered together, closed their eyes, and offered prayers. It was a language whose meaning couldn't be understood, but it didn't feel evil. Rather, it was quite reverent. Osian nodded.

"I understand that they're not the heretics I was thinking of. But how can you be confident that there are no real heretics in District 44?"

Many people had flocked to District 44 now. Most probably came after hearing about the Liberation Army, but he couldn't be certain there were no real heretics among them.

As the saying goes that to hide a tree you must hide it in a forest, the current environment was all too optimal for heretics to hide.

"So, because of that possibility, the city government will sweep this place clean? Killing over 100 innocent people to catch one heretic?"

"Because that one heretic will kill 1000 people afterward."

"While sucking the blood of the poor, that is."

Lukai's voice naturally became sharp. The eyes of the surrounding executives were the same. It was understandable that they reacted sensitively. Actually, the lower classes were victims of heretics. Most of those killed by the Eternal God Church were those in society's blind spots.

"Let me ask in return. Then do you have confidence that you won't do the same? Do you have confidence that you won't join hands with heretics to kill those upper-class people who squeeze and suck your lifeblood?"

"This bastard with his loose mouth……!"

The black executive with a prosthetic arm shot up from his seat. Whether he was truly angry, he was bulging the veins in his neck.

"Calm down, Dominic."

So the guy who had fired shots several times was named that. Lukai calmed Dominic down while interlacing his fingers.

"In your eyes, we're probably just terrorists. But we also have pride."

Osian's eyebrows twitched at the word pride. It wasn't a word that should be carelessly spoken, especially in front of a knight.

"You speak the word pride too lightly. You say that because you don't know the weight of that word."

"We don't fight simply for hatred. We fight for our suffering compatriots."

"Is that the guy who deliberately incited protesters to expand demonstrations and planted spies among guards to provoke conflict?"

Lukai frowned.

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't play dumb. Didn't you plant people among the guards to make them use violence against protesters to intensify the fighting? You also deliberately recruited agitators among the protesters to turn it into violent demonstrations."

"I won't deny that we recruited protesters and made them move. But we have absolutely never planted people among guards or deliberately made demonstrations turn violent."

Osian stared intently into Lukai's eyes but Lukai didn't avoid his gaze. The moment he saw his upright eyes, a curse flowed from Osian's lips.

"Damn it."

So that's how it was.