NOVEL NEXT Chapter 68
A short while later, Ayle and Galm returned after chasing the fleeing beastkin.
“─I lost her.”
“She was faster than I expected… I’m sorry.”
“You lost her? The two of you?”
I was quite surprised that Ayle, who ruled the skies, and Galm, who dominated the land, had failed to catch just one person. However, recalling what Levitan had said earlier, I nodded as if I understood it was entirely possible.
Levitan had mentioned that the beastkin woman who appeared earlier was named Hani and was the only success of the L Project. Well, it was slightly incorrect to call her a success.
To be precise, Hani was the reason the L Project was initiated. In other words, she was the first beastkin to gain supernatural abilities.
* * *
‘─Looks like I managed to escape…’
At the border of City O.
Realizing that the sounds of her two pursuers had disappeared, Hani, fleeing from Galm and Ayle, slowly came to a stop.
Who would have thought their friends would show up out of the blue? Hani shivered at the thought of the two pursuing her. One was the terror of City H, the evil magical girl who still existed even without the world’s enemy, and the other was an S-rank villain based in City E.
Both were widely known as villains belonging to the Evil Organization. So, Levitan is acquainted with such figures? She must be in a pretty bad situation.
‘That man… was called a scientist or something. Does that mean the Evil Organization is using Levitan…?’
Hani thought that Levitan was unfortunately being held captive by the Evil Organization, undergoing some horrific experiments like what had happened to her in City Z. Unlike the other executives, who were definitively aligned with the Evil Organization, Levitan’s past as a police officer had not been exposed.
In a situation where she had once been a test subject, if she heard news linking her to the Evil Organization, she could only consider the worst possibilities. Hani was indeed like that.
‘What are the heroes and police doing…! An S-rank villain has entered their city…!’
After a brief moment of anger directed at the negligent Hero Association and police, Hani began to contemplate what she should do to save Levitan.
First, she needed power. It was impossible to do it alone.
She had some confidence in her strength, but saving one person while simultaneously facing an S-rank villain and several high-ranking executives was a different story.
‘There’s no choice. I have to use my brain.’
As she thought so, a vehicle approached her. Upon seeing it, Hani immediately blocked the front of the vehicle.
Screech! The long sound of brakes echoed as the vehicle came to a stop right in front of her. The window rolled down, and the driver leaned out, yelling.
“Damn it! Are you crazy? Trying to get yourself killed?”
“─Excuse me. Can I borrow your vehicle for a moment?”
“Wha-what…?”
Hani held a sword to the driver’s neck as she spoke. The driver, whose throat was threatened, broke into a cold sweat and hurriedly nodded.
A moment later, the driver slowly got out of the vehicle and started to flee. Leaving the fleeing driver behind, Hani promptly entered the vehicle.
‘It’s this easy.’
If you ask nicely while pointing a sword at someone, anyone will comply with your request. This had never failed her since she escaped from the lab, and it was the reason she carried a sword around.
As Hani started the vehicle, she recalled a long-ago memory. How she got her name.
─I’m a rabbit, so I’ll be called Rabbit… But just “Rabbit” isn’t cute enough, so I’ll go with Levitan. What about you?
─I’m… Hani.
─Hani? That’s a cute name! Not as cute as mine, but still!
The voices of hopeful children locked away in the same cage dreaming of going outside echoed in her mind like a hallucination.
Pushing the hallucination to the back of her mind, Hani slowly drove out of the city.
Crash!
“Ah….”
Not long after, Hani crashed the vehicle into the guardrail and scratched the back of her head. Driving was poison for her since her vision was poor.
Ultimately, Hani got out of the wrecked vehicle and ran across the border of the city on foot.
* * *
The next day.
After Regalia and Vira woke from their sleep, we gathered for a strategy meeting.
“─So, that Hani girl threatened the scientist?”
“More precisely, she seemed to be targeting Levitan.”
“Hmm- Levitan. Do you have any idea what her goal might be?”
Upon hearing Regalia’s question, Levitan slowly shook her head.
“I didn’t know she was alive… I thought everyone died back then.”
“I see.”
Levitan replied, forgetting even her distinct speaking style. After hearing her words, Regalia maintained a moment of silence before nodding, as if she had made a rough decision.
“Then our task remains unchanged. Enjoy your vacation.”
“Boss, is that really okay?”
“Is there a problem? Didn’t Galm and Ayle run away after seeing you? There’s no point in being scared of such weaklings.”
The boss’s words were indeed reasonable. After researching the name Hani, it was confirmed that she wasn’t a particularly wanted villain or a famous superhuman.
It would be stranger for the Evil Organization, which could be considered an S-rank villain organization, to be scared of a no-name rookie.
In the end, we resumed our vacation as if nothing had happened. Of course, we paired up in twos, just in case of a potential ambush.
“Hani……”
“Do you miss her that much?”
“More than missing, it feels like facing an old homework I left untouched… so long ago that it doesn’t even register in my memory.”
“Shall I check where she is and what she’s doing?”
“……Thank you.”
Excluding a gloomy Levitan, everyone enjoyed their vacation again.
However, that vacation was shattered in less than a day.
“─Excuse me. This is the police.”
Suddenly, the police showed up. I opened the door and cocked my head, wondering what was happening.
But the police silently scanned the room, then immediately bowed their heads.
“Sorry for the disturbance. We’ll be leaving now…”
“No, what’s going on?”
“It’s a confidential operation. You don’t need to know.”
“I’ll be filing a formal complaint.”
“Feel free.”
As the police said this and moved to the next room, I frowned slightly and immediately filed a complaint about that officer, hacking into the police database to find out what he was doing there.
Finding out why the police had come wasn’t difficult. No sooner had I found something in the database than the officer blurted it out himself.
“─T-There really is one! This is P-1, repeating, this is P-1. Suspect sighted. Immediate hero and reinforcements needed…!”
“Ugh-? What is this?”
“Hands up! You villain scum-! You are currently under suspicion of terrorism against City O and─.”
Someone had falsely reported to the police that the Evil Organization was planning a terror act in City O.
Anyone could see it was a false report, but the police had no choice but to verify it according to procedures, and the officers that came over actually found Galm, who was wanted as an S-rank villain.
After briefly assessing the situation, I let out a sigh and relayed this news to the boss. The boss, upon receiving the message, let out a laugh of disbelief.
[They believe we came here to commit terror… Do they usually believe such nonsense?]
“Well, they have to arrest us first, whether it’s nonsense or not, since we’re villains.”
[That’s absurd.]
Meanwhile, Regalia also found this news ridiculous, and reinforcements arrived to apprehend Galm. The hero and police special forces surrounded the hotel, and we slipped out of the hotel unnoticed.
Galm stayed behind, starting a scuffle with the heroes. The boss watched from outside the hotel, glaring at someone who ruined his vacation with hatred.
“Scientist.”
“Yes, boss.”
“Can you find out who did this?”
“─Of course.”
It was a situation where I should say that the impossible was now possible. I nodded vigorously, and Regalia glared at me with rage.
“Find out. And punish them.”
“Understood.”
Whoever they were, how unfortunate it was for them to provoke the boss’s wrath. I thought so as I fiddled with my pad, beginning the search for the informant.
The informant reported from a payphone in a remote location, obviously with no cameras nearby.
But it didn’t matter. What does it matter if there are no CCTV cameras? This world had already reached a point where space exploration was somewhat complete.
‘The satellite passing through that area around that time…’
I hacked the satellite to obtain footage of the informant at the time of the report. I improved the video quality and zoomed in to capture a moment when the informant appeared.
After confirming the informant’s appearance, I couldn’t help but chuckle. I then looked over at Levitan, who was staring at me as if to ask what was going on.
“Wha?”
“Oh, it’s just—.”
I silently showed her the pad. There, a beastkin woman with rabbit ears, strikingly similar to Levitan, was captured on screen.
As Levitan saw the rabbit girl with bigger breasts than herself, her expression gradually hardened.
On the screen was the figure of Hani, the one she had been searching for so desperately.