Deception: A Tactician's Card

Now it's Personal

"Qualified being, confirmed. Granting ownership. Initiating."

"What in the world...?"

Who wouldn't be startled to hear such stuff coming from a stranger? And what's with the 'ownership' thing?

"What are you blabbering about? Hey? Are you listening?"

And now she's sleeping soundly. I wish I could shake her back and forth but that would be rude. I couldn't leave her here either. I mean, who would? Except if she loves seeing this gore fest.

She's someone who's a little shorter than I am (maybe 5'4" or something), got a silky smooth black hair with the length that could barely reach her shoulders. She's pale as a paper, and I don't know if that's her regular color or not. She has a slender physique and a decent ches— Uh... Where the heck am I looking? I better give her some clothing but there's none in my [Receptacle]. And I wouldn't even dare to get the clothes off their corpses.

I have no choice but to carry her on my back. I'll just alter her presence just like what I did to myself for zero percent chance of being detected and attacked by the Wraiths. She's light as a feather.

I continued on searching for my sister's whereabouts and finally saw the jackpot.

A Wraith was carrying her and it's heading towards the stairs to the fourth floor. I'll guess I'm going to use my rune card once more.

I was about to activate my [Nightmare Requiem] using my voice (I can't snap my fingers since both of my arms are occupied), a soft voice, more like a whisper, was heard near my ear.

"[Nightmare Requiem]."

Huh?

My rune card appeared, and activated.

How could that happen? Did she have the same rune card with the same name?

No, that's not possible. I'm pretty sure that rune card is mine. Whenever someone uses their rune cards, they'll feel a certain connection between them and the rune card. I felt that connection when this girl activated [Nightmare Requiem] to halt the Wraith's movements and put it in a state of confusion. This is the first time I've seen this.

"Grr...Grraaaaaagh!"

The Wraith started acting similar to the two earlier, and dropped my sister. I ran towards her as I came to doubt this female sleeping behind me.

How come she's able to actually activate my Original rune card?

I'll put this matter aside for now, and rushed to where my sister is. The girl on my back is still sleeping for some reason (so what was that earlier, a sleep talk?) as I gently put her on the floor, positioned her body to lean on the wall. Luckily, this area is corpse-free zone. There's no disembodied parts lying here.

I checked my sister's vitals to make sure she's safe. She does seems safe, but she's under a rune card's effect. Her skin's a little odd. It's yellowish, and her nerves and blood vessels are visible. Don't tell me... There's no doubt about it, these are the symptoms of someone under that rune card.

"[Eternal Slumber]? If it is, I need to find the caster."

I've read contexts about the rune card [Eternal Slumber] in a book. It's a Dot VII rune card that won't get deactivated unless the caster permits to. There's another way to stop this though, and it's killing the caster. I prefer not to do that though. I'm a bonafide pacifist.

About the caster's identity, there's no sense to doubt anyone except that stalker. I guess Annie's getting a handful of her brother's retarded actions. Now, a new problem arises.

How should I carry these two out of here?

I also need to check what's on the other floors. Before this quest started, I sent a message to a certain happy-go-lucky chairperson. I hope she read that mail.

•••

"ACHOOO!"

"Sis? Did you catch a cold?"

"No, I haven't."

I rubbed my nose as I head to a certain location, with Snow of course.

I received a mail coming from Yukti about his sister's a*******n. He then gave me a series of numbers that grants access to trace his cell card.

It's pretty scary that there are people like that who'll kidnap anyone for THAT reason.

If you love the girl, court her in a proper way, dang it!

What he asked of me is pretty simple. The mail was attached with a voice recording is his actual message; he only wrote "Yo, listen to this ASAP".

"My sister got abducted, and I'm on my way to save her along with the culprit's sibling and a random dude. We already notified the Bureau that we're going, but you know how the world works. Due to me panicking, I don't have any stored points here and forgot to transfer my points from the bank, and I have no time to go and get the points I needed. I humbly ask of you to cover the expenses for now so that a backup team would be deployed to our destination. I'll just return how much you payed for it after this. Exclude these two that were currently with me, for I'll give them the points myself later."

Of course. The fear of losing the only family you have is dire. I wish you good luck Yukti. I clearly know that feeling, and it's painful. So you better rescue her, safe and sound. I don't want to lose a student, but most importantly, I don't want to lose someone who cherished my sister Cory.

You're a little brother to me, so don't die. Okay?

•••

"What is this place? A lab of some sorts?"

I went upstairs as I planned. As for my sister and that girl, I put them side by side leaning against the wall. I need the mobility of course, so carrying them here would hinder it, not to mention that that'll put their safety on risk.

There's a lot of of glass canisters lined up along a straight path towards a supercomputer, containing a lot of (probably dead) bodies. As of why this piece of technology was still operating without electricity, there's a separate canister that contains an electric man and was used as an energy source. It doesn't have its limbs attached and got the same hole as that girl I saved.

This place is scary.

Only the faint green light from the glass canisters illuminated the room. Just how did they abduct this many people without getting caught?

It seems troubling, but I smell a rat among the higher-ups of the Bureau.

"But yeah, I feel sorry for them. Being desecrated after death...this is nasty— Hmm? An earthquake? That's sudden. Maybe it's coming from those who are engaged in battle."

I kept on investigating the whole floor after I felt the shaking. I'm going to ignore it now but I'll ask Annie later.

There's no room in here. All it has are glass canisters as far as my eyes could see, and that supercomputer I saw earlier. I decided to approach the supercomputer and check its features when suddenly a voice coming from that technology came out.

"Process Complete. Subject Number 4722 rune cards [Flame Sphere] and [Fuel Pump] successfully extracted."

Extracted? I was about to scratch my head and think about it but the answer appeared in front of me.

Coming from a slot, a couple of rune cards came out. It's the rune cards [Flame Sphere] and [Fuel Pump], just as what the computer detailed.

This is an extracting machine!

I thought this machine is accessible only by the Bureau when punishing an outlaw.

My hunch is right.

There's a retard that helped the one who operates here to get this piece of equipment. Moreover, these bodies and those corpses below this floor... Don't tell me that these are the deceased individuals all over the world being "buried" by the Bureau?

That makes sense.

When it was first implemented that the burials would be handled by the Bureau with no charges, some of the members including us found it fishy. Cory and I asked one of the supervisors we knew we could trust and he said, "It's not yet time to expose the real reason. If you do know, you have the option to help me unveil the truth". During that time, I'm puzzled why he answered like that.

But now, I fully understand.

Does this mean Cory's body is here too?

Just thinking about it stings. They desecrated the dead. This is unforgivable. I'll make the one responsible for this regret it—

And I saw her.

Just as I turned my head to my right...

I saw her.

She lost an arm and a leg. She wore her adventurer clothes, the same clothes I saw when I attended the funeral.

How could this be?

How could anyone do this s**t?

This is unbelievable.

My rage is starting to build up.

I bit my lips and blinked for a moment to see if it's all but a dream, but it's not.

Subject Number 8822, Cory Lore

Cory... How could they do this to you? Don't worry, I'll make sure that I'm keeping my cool. You hate it when you saw me getting angry right?

Sorry.

I lied.

I can't keep my cool after seeing you in such pitiful state.

"Now, it's personal you dipshits."