Editing Sorcery Hacker:Volume1 Phase3 (section)

===Part 5===

“Th-this cannot stand,” said Henrietta with a tremor in her voice. She slammed her fist on the counter hard enough to nearly break it and raised her voice. “They stole the credit for sealing the Demon Lord? And they are beheading an old man for a nonexistent crime to gain the king’s approval? You advertise this as some exciting ceremony, Forturiana, but this cannot stand!! You make a mockery of the king’s trust and charity!!”

“Sorry about this. She’s very drunk, so please just ignore her.”

Ayato winked while doing only the bare minimum to deflect the attention they were gathering.

Then he spoke to the bull man who thought he was dressing up by wearing zipper-covered pants.

“How much did you know?”

The reddish-brown Minotaur tried to feign ignorance while using his very large hand to grab the strong cheese and dried fruit arranged in front of him.

“’Bout what?”

“How much about all of this did you know from the beginning? You were the one that lured us in with gold and hired us to destroy the human traffickers working in Fire Castle Town Flared. Did you know all this already and knew we would come into contact with Nirvelphany if things went well?”

“Anything’s possible.”

He dodged the question, but the answer was clear.

And if he was going to stick to the role he claimed for himself, then Ayato could guess why he had not told them their true objective from the beginning. He belonged to the Selected Kingdoms, which put him on the side of the humans. And if he had explained everything occurring here in Sky City Celedileka, it went without saying ''which side'' an uncontrollable Sorcery Hacker like Ayato Criminaltrophy would choose. That would have been a problem for the First Prince.

No.

It would have hurt his reputation as a prince of the Combined Royal Family if he had bowed down to a sorcery criminal in order to clean up a scandal related to the Forturiana Church that had deep ties to the regional power structure.

“…”

Needless to say, solving this kind of problem would be difficult for strict rule-followers like Henrietta.

You could not just draw out clear divisions between right and wrong.

If humankind banded together to hunt down the incarnation of evil that was Nirvelphany, that would be an act of good.

But if Nirvelphany was trying to do whatever it took to stop this meaningless public execution, that was also an act of good.

…The normal rules did not apply in a contradictory situation where two acts of good came into conflict. Especially when it involved revealing the lies of the powerful hidden deep, deep, deep within the system. That was why people sought out Sorcery Hackers and others who operated outside the law.

“''I was hoping you would figure it out on your own''.”

Resignation filled the reddish-brown Minotaur’s voice like a tutor lamenting that his student was even dumber than he imagined.

He also glanced over at Striker Henrietta, who symbolized the good and just side of the sky city.

“''It would have been best if you had left my control and solved it all yourself,'' but you were so trapped by your assumptions you were never going to arrive at the truth. And yet I went to you with this one because I believed Sorcery Hackers had more of a flexible worldview.”

“So we betrayed your expectations there?”

“That meant I had to make some decisions. If I couldn’t have everything I wanted, I had to figure out what I could salvage and what I had to give up on. I cut away the excess fat in my plan. Directly telling you the truth comes with a fair amount of risk, but I steeled myself for the pain and did it anyway. So what will you do now?”

“Is that even a question?” Ayato had a troubled look that said he wished he had been told this earlier. “Surely you have some guesses as to why Miss Teleria and Miss Mamilis are nowhere to be seen here.”

“Oh, so that’s why they aren’t with you.”

“Don’t pretend you didn’t know.” The Sorcery Hacker sighed. “Dagregor Bull Gerlos. He’s a white hat hacker who was given the title of Knight, but he has apparently been unleashed with Miss Henrietta away from the knights. I don’t know where you get your information, but I’m sure you’re aware of what that drugged-up Sorcery Hacker is up to.”

Henrietta’s shoulders jumped at that.

She must have known what kind of person that man was more than the bull man with the mystery information source.

“Wait just a moment. What has that drugged-up man done? What has happened while I was stuffed in that sack and tied up in a way too humiliating to describe!?”

“Heh heh heh. That is known as tortoise shell bondage, and what he believes is actually the opposite of the reality. You disappeared when we did, but how do you think he interpreted that?”

“Wait, you don’t mean…”

“Dagregor mistakenly thought you had captured us and he was so desperate to earn some credit for himself that he left the knights and started acting on his own. The knights have already fought Nirvelphany, so he hoped stopping her would earn him enough points to not be thrown back in his cell.”

“But what does that cockroach actually hope to do? That sorry excuse for a knight is an insult to the tradition behind the title, so I already know I am not going to like the answer!”

“Yeah.” Ayato nodded. “He went to destroy the earth core in this castle town. That’s why I sent Miss Teleria and Miss Mamilis to stop him.”

Henrietta had felt left behind by this conversation, but now she scrambled to her feet.

“Wh-what!? What did this dangerous individual just say!?”

“After all, Nirvelphany set things up so she could ''sneak'' into the center. Whatever kind of person he is deep down, Dagregor is officially a knight and that means he receives security reports from a law enforcement perspective. There must have been something in those reports that only someone with the skills of a Sorcery Hacker would notice. He might not be as good as me, but we still use the same sort of techniques.”

“But we never heard anything about that…”

“He wants to make a comeback after you outdid him, so do you really think he would honestly share whatever he found? Sorcery Hackers use data as a weapon, if you recall.”

The beautiful Striker placed a hand on her forehead.

She had threatened him to put a stop to his misbehavior, but she may have overdone it.

“That white hat hacker apparently thought he could sound his own alarm to make Nirvelphany panic while in the center of the city.”

“Th-that’s all? But we are talking about the earth core here!”

“Hey, what did I just say? Sorcery Hackers use data as a weapon. And the one thing we fear most is exposure. I bet he followed her ‘footprints’ so his attack would carry her scent. You can use the same technique when pursuing a sniper who also wants to avoid being exposed.”

The beautiful Striker only looked more confused by his explanation. This was too far outside of her style of fighting where she wielded a blade, directly confronted the ruffians, and proved the righteousness of the civil servants to put the people at ease.

“Maybe you could think of it like operating the bank vault door to trap the robbers inside. Just like we have to put ourselves in a fair amount of risk if we want to get the Demon Lord to make a mistake and leave enough of a trail to pursue.”

“B-but this is more important than some issue of logical planning. I mean, this is the earth core! And…and why would he hide something so important for so long!?”

“Oh, and don’t ask why we haven’t reported it yet. We’re still wanted criminals, so they aren’t going to listen to us. Also, organizations will always try to cover for their own. When it’s the word of a wanted criminal against the word of a knight, we all know who they’re going to believe.”

“…!!!???”

Well-behaved Henrietta flapped her mouth wordlessly and could not find anything to say. As someone who had seen the true line between good and evil for herself while protecting this city, she knew the power of official paperwork could not be ignored. Whoever Dagregor was as a person, he was officially registered as a knight. It did not matter that Ayato and Dagregor were both Sorcery Hackers. And it was Striker Henrietta herself who had given him the freedom to do all this.

Just then, they felt a tremor like the ground thrusting up from below.

Ayato looked up to the ceiling.

“Oh, did they screw it up?”

“Hey.” The reddish-brown Minotaur placed a hand on his rugged forehead. “Just out of curiosity, if this was so important, why didn’t you go with them?”

“Don’t blame them for this just because it didn’t work out. Remember what two threats we were facing back then: a berserker like Miss Henrietta and drugged-up Dagregor. The former was clearly more trouble.”

“Do not talk about me that way, dangerous individual!!”

“We had no idea what she would do when she came to. I mean as a Knight or a Striker or whatever, she was liable to find an opening, contact her old buddies, and get us surrounded. That meant we had to split up. …Although if I’d known she would kneel down the instant she saw bull man here, I would’ve gone there instead.”

“Wah, wah, wah!! Bah, bah, boo!!”

Henrietta’s mind was so overloaded her speaking skills reverted to the level of a baby while she clenched her fists and lightly pummeled him. The bull man sighed as he watched it play out.

“Wouldn’t this all go a lot quicker if you would just wield a sorcery gun, Mr. Hexajinx?”

“Don’t ask for the impossible. ''I’ve abandoned that devil’s revolver.''”

“?”

Henrietta stopped her fists and tilted her head, but he had no obligation to dig into that old scar and explain.

The blue blazer boy sighed and said something else instead.

“We touched on this before, but nothing anyone does to the earth city’s core will bring down the barrier’s emergency power, but it will probably make them reconsider the security situation in the central castle. And isn’t that where Nirvelphany is right now? I’m not about to root for her, but I don’t like the thought of her being angered because Dagregor’s haphazard actions got in her way.”

“So…”

“However she is trying to rescue that kind old man named Thomas, a powerful shock is going to run through that prison. Powerful enough for her initial plans to crumble around her.”