Javert's Iron and Justice (8)
"Kill me."
"......"
A hellish sentence rang out.
Javert clenched her fist.
Beneath her, the black-haired boy lay sprawled out.
He had been pinned down so he could not move, letting out one icy breath after another.
"Investigator."
Black eyes looked up at the woman.
There was not the slightest trace of fear in it.
Javert's eyes, on the other hand, were trembling as if an earthquake had struck them.
"Is this not the moment you wanted so badly?"
Javert was clearly the one holding his life in her hands.
Yet the mood felt like the opposite.
The boy was perfectly at peace.
The woman's breath shook as if she were the one about to die.
That strange disconnect made the chill of Purgatory feel even heavier.
"Kill me."
"......"
"If you do not kill me, I will run away again."
"......"
His voice urged the execution on.
The boy was goading the woman.
'Why?'
She could not tell what he was thinking.
Javert clenched her fist even tighter.
Everything was a mess.
Despite his command to kill him, static crackled in her ears.
-You were going to kill them anyway, weren't you? No matter what kind of person was inside this robe.
-Because that is your justice.
There were no exceptions to principle.
Those awl-sharp words stabbed into her eardrums and tore them open.
-Do you not know that even those principles are nothing but righteousness full of holes, born from human hands?
-What you are talking about is nothing but oppression dressed up as principle.
-And despite that, you still intend to entrust yourself to principle alone?
A suspicious figure covered in a robe.
The few words the boy had thrown at her.
And,
-Mom! Please hug Lua!
-Lua likes Mom... as much as Dad.
-Hm-hm. Lua seems to like you quite a lot, Professor.
-It seems you have been very kind to Lua.
-I always think I made the right choice by becoming your Direct Aide.
A peaceful day.
Memories of short days, not even particularly special ones, flashed past.
It felt as if her heart were being gnawed away whole.
Her clenched hand trembled.
Even through that opening, the voice inside her could be heard.
'Kill him.'
Her heart pounded.
In front of her was a task she had to finish.
'You have to kill him.'
Kill him.
You cannot let him go this time.
'What are you hesitating for?'
This is a principle.
You decided to follow principle.
All you have to do is drive your fist into his face.
'Do not tell me... you will not do it?'
After ruining everything with your own hands, now you will not even atone for it?
Shameless bitch.
Bitch who deserves to be torn apart and killed.
You swore in front of your mother's portrait.
You swore in the unlit study as you watched your father cry.
'It is your fault.'
Do not repeat the same mistake.
Everything will fall apart.
Who cares whether some student dies or not?
In the end, what matters is upholding principle and living forever without ever straying.
-Investigator.
Drive your fist down.
Crush him until there is nothing left.
Do it, and prove that your vow still has not changed.
-Investigator, you are surprisingly careless in some ways.
Kill him.
-It is an honor for me, of course.
-To think I can play the role of your lover, even if only for one day.
Prove it.
-You look... wonderful today.
-You shine even in nothing but your uniform, Investigator.
-Oh my, flattery? It is clearly my sincere heart, without a single bit added.
Keep your vow.
Javert.
My beloved daughter.
Bitch who deserves to be chewed to death.
Investigator.
Javert Droit.
Professor.
Undutiful child.
Professor Javert.
Bitch who does not deserve forgiveness.
Chief Investigator.
"Haa, haa..."
Her mind was thrown into chaos.
It felt as if she might lose consciousness.
The woman staggered again and again from dizziness.
Yet in the end, Javert gritted her teeth and lifted her head.
'Do it.'
She dropped her loaded fist.
A violent flash of light struck toward the floor.
Kwaaaaang-!
"......"
Yet that light did not smash the boy's head.
Her fist skimmed past his face by a hair.
Then it slammed ferociously into the floor right beside him.
Perhaps his cheek had been cut as it grazed him, because red droplets were welling up on the boy.
"......"
"......"
Viktor did not even look surprised.
He only looked up at the woman.
Silence settled between them.
For one very brief moment, time that had taken death's place crept through Purgatory.
"......I cannot."
After a long while, the woman muttered.
A sound barely forced its way through lips that had stayed silent all along.
"I cannot do it."
White breath bloomed.
In the freezing air, the woman exhaled a flower.
Its echo had withered past all meaning.
"I."
Tap.
A raindrop fell.
Onto the boy's cheek.
"You."
In that cold place.
Rain fell from the sky instead of snow.
To the boy, that raindrop felt hot.
"I cannot kill you."
Javert was still expressionless.
Her eyes were empty.
Tap, tap.
Tears fell like that.
They gathered in dead eyes, ran down her scarred cheek, and dropped.
"Investigator."
"......"
Javert was crying.
......No, perhaps crying was not the right word.
She was not sobbing, her emotions were not surging, and her brow was not furrowed.
Only tears were dripping down.
"......"
"......"
Stillness returned.
Javert's light went out, and darkness filled the corridor.
'She broke her principle.'
In the end, the woman had derailed from the track.
The fist she had clenched loosened without killing the boy.
Her lungs felt cold.
"......"
Javert let go of the boy's collar.
Then she rose unsteadily.
The woman took a step.
She turned around and walked back through the dark corridor, as if going against it.
Click, click...
Her red hair receded with the sound of her heels.
The boy did not stop Javert.
Her back disappeared into the darkness.
Viktor simply lay still on the floor, spread-eagled.
[Viktor.]
By the time even the faint echo had completely vanished.
The bat hiding in my arms spoke.
[Is it over now?]
"Probably."
[Did you not give me a terrible fright? To provoke your opponent in such an explosive situation...]
"I did act a little boldly."
[It is fortunate that child pulled her fist back in the end. What were you going to do if she had truly tried to kill you?]
"It is quite all right. I had more than 100 plans prepared for such a case."
[You are trying to slip past me with wordplay again.]
"Do you think it was wordplay?"
[......Is that true? 100 plans?]
"Well? I wonder."
I laughed while sprawled out on the floor.
After that hearty laugh, I added one small caveat.
"I just... trusted Investigator, at least for now."
I had drawn Javert's answer out of her.
That alone meant a great deal.
I rummaged through my clothes.
"It is not over yet, but I think we are almost there."
Then,
I took out something neatly folded.
Ding-!
[Forgotten Sage's Contract]
-Category: Document
-Grade: A+
-Status: Clean
-Description:
The reward for clearing Purgatory Floor 80 last time.
The item I had obtained beyond the mirror after breaking apart the version of me reflected inside it.
I stroked the parchment.
"Shall we wait just a few days?"
A faint relief mixed into my exhaled breath.
***
Meanwhile,
Javert had left Purgatory.
"......"
She walked in a daze.
Unlike her usual spotless appearance, her uniform was a complete mess.
Without even tidying it, Javert took staggering steps as if she might collapse.
No matter how one looked at that broken gait, it was not like her.
-I cannot do it.
The tears had stopped, but their traces remained around her eyes.
Her reddened eyes stung.
-I. You. I cannot kill you.
Her stomach churned.
Her vision went hazy.
She kept walking.
The place the woman arrived at was none other than the headmaster's office.
Though it was late, her adoptive father was still at his desk, working.
"......Javert?"
The headmaster was startled by the sudden visit.
Of course he was.
He could see the traces of tears on her face.
As far as the old man remembered, Javert had not cried even once since her mother's death.
"W-What happened...!"
She had been a child like a doll, in the truest sense.
The headmaster sprang up from his seat.
But Javert did not offer any detailed explanation.
She only gave him the plain result, as if she had become a criminal.
"What happened to make your eyes so red...?"
"Please detain me."
"What?"
"I missed the culprit. No, I let him go with my own hands."
"The culprit, you mean the unauthorized Purgatory raid? No. What do you mean, you let him go with your own hands...?"
Javert reported calmly.
The events that had occurred in Purgatory.
The headmaster had no choice but to listen to that story in a daze.
The old man's lips pressed shut, and only after his daughter's report ended did they open again.
"......You mean you encountered the culprit behind the unauthorized Purgatory raid again. This time, you confirmed his face and even succeeded in subduing him?"
"Yes."
"But you let him go?"
"Yes."
"Did you find out who it was?"
"Yes."
"Can you tell me his name?"
"That name is..."
A sharp thorn caught in her throat.
Her green eyes wavered.
"......No. I cannot say it."
"......I see."
The answer settled heavily.
Headmaster Valter Droit's expression sank even further.
Perhaps it was because he had a rough idea of what would come next.
"Please detain me."
"Javert."
"I let a subdued culprit go and even hid his identity. At this point, I am no different from his accomplice. Please give me the punishment that fits. Until an accurate punishment is assigned, I will detain myself in the underground prison. Please open the deepest level, the narrowest cell."
"Javert."
"Headmaster."
"My child, please do not do this..."
"I will go."
"......"
"I have to go."
"......Very well. I will open it."
The old father could not hold his daughter back.
After all, the reason the child had become like this was entirely his fault.
'Javert.'
Even as Valter felt his insides collapse, he arrested his daughter on the spot.
***
Javert was detained.
The underground prison.
The deepest, narrowest solitary cell within it.
She was assigned a room used only for Class 0 Death-Row Inmates.
-Hey... did you hear? They say the Chief Investigator has been detained.
-Isn't that just a baseless rumor? Why would Professor get detained?
-They say it is true! There is even talk that she was detained as a death-row inmate...
-What? Why all of a sudden? But she was teaching our class just a few days ago...
Rumors had already begun spreading throughout the academy.
Since it was such a shocking issue, they traveled fast.
The academy slowly began to shake.
Like that, as the increasingly unsettled atmosphere began to seep through everything,
Counting from Javert's detention, exactly two days and fifteen hours had passed.
"......"
"......Mm."
The old man was meeting alone with a certain boy.
Headmaster Valter Droit.
He wore a very pained expression.
His wrinkled hand lifted a teacup, but in the end, he turned his gaze straight ahead.
"......Everything has gone according to your plan, Student Viktor. Truly, without the slightest error."
Only a masked boy sat across from him.
Viktor.
The boy who had introduced himself as a prophet and insisted that they had to prepare for countless tragedies.
Valter stared at him uneasily.
"So... what do you intend to do now?"
The old man asked as if he were desperate for an answer.
Because he knew this entire chain of events had begun with the boy.
"There truly is a way to save Javert... correct?"
A smiling mask.
An ill omen.
That boy answered far too simply.
"Of course."
Viktor's breathing was utterly calm.
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