Chapter 401: Pop-Up Store (1)

Shu waved her hand back and forth.

It had been quite a while since I’d last seen her, but she looked the same as ever. The senior was wearing a kitschy short-sleeved T-shirt with a crescent moon printed on it and a pair of shorts, seated in her automatic wheelchair.

Ricardo was dressed casually too.

A striped short-sleeved shirt and a brown leather watch. It looked like he’d run into Shu on the way over—one hand rested lightly on the wheelchair.

The two seniors approached smoothly, weaving through the crowd.

The pop-up was being held inside a small building in a busy district.

I’d heard the space was used exclusively for pop-ups, with the contents changing periodically.

We’d set our appointment for the third day of the mouse pop-up.

A brand plastered with colorful mouse illustrations.

Shu told me the brand name, but I forgot it.

Honestly, I still couldn’t quite wrap my head around the fact that this was supposed to be a mouse.

Still, it seemed popular. We’d agreed to eat lunch separately and meet up, and from lunchtime until now, there had been a constant line of people.

“Did you wait long?”

Shu rolled up beside me and looked up.

I smiled.

“No.”

“You came without a mask or a hat~?”

Ricardo asked, hands shoved into his pockets.

“You won’t be able to walk comfortably like that....”

Well, it wasn’t that bad.

I was startled when people started staring the moment I stepped onto the street. But everyone was friendly. And maybe because this area was known for celebrities showing up all the time, people seemed accustomed to seeing famous faces.

I did have to take dozens of photos on the way here, though.

Some kids screamed and ran up to me. Older folks looked desperate to put something into my hands. When I said I didn’t have enough hands to accept things, they even shoved paper bags at me.

It felt like I’d become almost as famous as I was back in the Empire.

The kind of fame was different, though.

In the Empire, it was usually aggressive swordsmen who approached.

Those who admired me rarely dared to come close. Almost no one spoke casually to an imperial knight. They cheered from afar, but not many ran up screaming like this.

Maybe at balls, sometimes?

Even then, I’d been too busy guarding nobles to pay attention....

Anyway, I ran into several people on the way who said they liked the basic flavor, and that lifted my mood.

When I smiled at them, Ricardo let out a dry chuckle.

“Something good happen~?”

“A lot of people said the Lexic basic flavor is good.”

“They’re probably just saying that to make you feel better....”

“No. They said they genuinely like it.”

“The line’s long.”

Shu smoothly cut off the exchange between Ricardo and me.

“I feel really bad making you wait with me.... Senior. It’s fine if you stay at a nearby café with Hilde. I don’t think it’ll reach our dinner reservation time—I’ll go in alone and then come find you at the café.”

“No need~. We’ve got time anyway....”

“I don’t mind either. We just need to keep in touch.”

Shu didn’t argue further.

She nodded, looking like, if that’s what you both want, and went to stand in line.

Ricardo and I obediently lined up with Shu.

The people ahead of us looked at us with curiosity.

“Do you like this stuff?”

Students who looked like high schoolers or first-year college kids asked awkwardly.

“Are you on vacation today?”

“Yeah~. That’s right, I’m on vacation~.”

“We’re seniors and juniors having dinner together later, and they said they’d come here with me first.”

Ricardo replied with a smiling squint of his eyes to the kid who was cautiously looking up at me.

Shu offered a sort of explanation to the students whose faces clearly said, Why are these big guys here?

As for me... I chatted lightly with people who got excited about having eaten Lexic noodles.

“So Hilde, you really only eat the basic flavor?”

“Yes.”

“The other menu items are good too!”

After exchanges like that and taking photos, the people in line went back to chatting among themselves.

I seized the moment and pulled my phone out of my pocket.

There were messages I needed to check.

“You’ve been busy lately....”

Ricardo watched me closely as I asked for his understanding and opened my messages.

That one had some bite to it.

I forced a sheepish smile, trying not to flinch.

I never heard what Kairos had told the senior who’d taken him away that day.

Neither Ricardo nor Kairos answered my questions.

Still, Ricardo was frighteningly perceptive. He must have realized there was a reason I suddenly filmed an ad and had been glued to my phone far more than usual.

But I also agreed with Ska’s stance.

Ricardo and Jonathan didn’t need to know about the Elders.

“I’m sorry.”

I apologized politely.

“I’ll be done soon.”

“Take your time~.”

“Yeah, take your time. Looks like we’ll be waiting a bit anyway.”

If they said so.

I didn’t refuse and tapped the photo Yoow had sent.

Yoow sent his reports by writing in Imperial script on paper and photographing it. It was a reporting method he’d used for a long time—security was guaranteed since no humans could read Imperial characters.

As expected, Yoow was truly solid in this area.

It hadn’t been long since he started, yet information was already lined up neatly.

Given his paranoid tendencies, he’d probably collected plenty even before I gave the order.

I smirked as I read the report my subordinate had compiled.

‘Reference. Chronological listing of incidents.’

Impressive.

On the paper, written in elegant handwriting, were countless atrocities committed by the three Elders during their political struggles.

They weren’t just sitting in those seats. Since ancient times, those at the top of a nation never slept peacefully. The Elders were no exception. They maintained their positions by cutting down the necks of those who coveted their seats, like hyenas.

‘The casualty list is quite something.’

I skimmed the names of those eliminated in power struggles.

The names of those who’d executed the losers were attached beside them like tags. Colton and Jaeyeon, of course—but also the Yekaterina–Lee Seunghyun duo, and the exploits of the Erich Erhart–Shashinsky & Levi duo stood out.

In Center Core, political struggle was literal combat.

Before the First War, political infighting could be waged through market logic and law. Back then, the public could visibly see who held power.

Now, the public doesn’t know who sits at the very top.

The methods of power struggle have regressed into something far more primitive.

These days, it usually involved parking a car packed with explosives along a route the Elders used.

Boom!

Once the head flew off, it was over.

Of course, before that, the underlings usually got their throats cut.

All of an Elder’s underlings had blood on their hands—deeply soaked.

You couldn’t sit in that seat and keep your hands clean.

I was no different.

I didn’t know whether I’d end up using this information....

[Sukhoi has agreed.]

I smiled faintly when I saw the Imperial sentence written at the bottom.

[Falcon has definitely caught on. In the near future, he’ll bring out something that could overturn the positive ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) public opinion. He’ll probably expose the Captain’s identity or something along those lines.]

That was likely.

So far, everything was within expectations.

I replied to the strategist, then moved to another message.

A message from Lee Seunghyun.

[I’m attending counseling regularly, but....]

I could read the unspoken irritation—why do you keep asking this so often?

I typed back quickly.

[I just contacted you to confirm you’re still going.]

Today’s nagging, done.

[Keep going in the future too.]

Then I replied to messages from Rose and Igor and lifted my head.

Just then, people started coming out of the pop-up store, and the line began to move.

I apologized and followed behind the seniors.

“Sorry.”

“We’re going in.”

Shu was so distracted by the fact that she could enter the building that she didn’t care whether I was holding onto her or not.

Ricardo peered inside through the window, his brow slightly furrowed.

His gaze wasn’t displeased so much as baffled.

“That’s a mouse...?”

Exactly.

“Doesn’t it look more like Milk than a mouse? Am I being embarrassingly soft saying that?”

“No.... That actually makes more sense....”

We walked inside slowly, sharing the same question.

No matter how I looked at it, it seemed more like a teddy bear or a Thief Snowflake than a mouse.

But what were they selling inside?

Clothes? Bags?

With those questions swirling, Ricardo and I followed Shu inside.

***

Kai was up on the building rooftop.

Holding binoculars. Dressed comfortably in a black short-sleeved shirt and jogger pants.

Today was his vacation.

It wasn’t that he’d planned to take one.

Headquarters was in chaos, and the atmosphere was grim. He’d planned to rest later. People were whispering that an ambush might be coming soon.

But the moment the last week of July arrived, requests telling him to take leave flooded in, leaving him no choice.

[Sophia Kalak: Take leave right now.]

His peer was the first to contact him.

Not to be outdone, messages followed from Ami, Ricardo, and Hilde.

[Ami Choi (1st): Kai! You’re not planning to work, right? Take leave! I’ll check!]

[Ricardo Sordi (2nd): Rest quietly. Don’t be stubborn.]

[Hildebert Taleb (62nd): Senior. You must not take the ancient dragon’s words lightly. I’m begging you—please take a long summer vacation this time.]

No reason not to.

Kai took the leave without protest.

And now he was enjoying his time alone. He’d always liked being by himself.

It felt a bit wasteful to go through a long vacation without seeing a single person, but still.

He briefly considered reaching out to people from his old hobby group, but decided against it.

Given the situation, it felt wrong to ask civilians to come out.

It was awkward to contact other Badgers too. Most of them probably couldn’t even afford to take leave and were stuck on patrol duty.

I’ll rest quietly and return.

Lukewarm yet crisp wind.

Kai put a cigarette between his lips.

Without lighting it, he leaned against the rooftop railing and habitually raised the binoculars to his eyes.

A hobby he’d picked up a few years ago.

Birdwatching in the city.

Kai—Carl—Dow surveyed Center Core through the binoculars, savoring the calm it brought him.

Then he spotted something strange.

Kai slowly stopped turning his head.

And stared at it.

Something placed right in the middle of an urban park.

Absurdly massive....

“A flower?”

The word slipped out reflexively.

“Why is that there?”

***

At the same time.

Simon Diamond woke from his nap, screaming.