Rebuild World

re without any reason, you know.”

“I-I see, I understand.”

Sheryl could not pursue any further if Akira said so.
After all, she did not have the ability to escape from that place with her own power.
If Akira thought of her as a bother, she might get left behind to die there.
She did not say anything any further, she just tightened her arms around Akira to ward off her worry.

Akira seemed a little disappointed and thought.

“…As I thought, it won’t work, huh.
Well, I did expect that though.”

He did that fully expecting that it would not work in the first place.
As he was about to make his next move, Alpha suddenly said in surprise.

“Akira!”

“I know, we need to go, right? I’ll give up on killing that pickpocket and go back home.”

“No, that’s not it.
She’s here.”

Akira raised his eyebrows and looked in the direction that Alpha was pointing at, he could see Carol running towards him.

Carol stopped in front of Akira and smiled at him.

“Sorry for the wait, did I come too late?”

“No, it’s fine.
I didn’t expect you to really come though…”

Carol smiled and exasperatedly said.

“Geez, that’s so like you.
Not only did you call me here with just one message, I even happily ran as fast as I could to get to you.
That’s not how you should react to a girl who did that much for you, you know.
Or is it that you’re doing it on purpose to hit on girls?”

Carol was using the seductive augmented suit that she used back in Mihazono ruin.
It would not be strange for other people to think that she was using that suit to seduce someone.
Sheryl was so surprised by Carol’s augmented suit and how cold Akira reacted to it.

But Akira just ignored that and proceeded to confirm something.

“Carol, that message is just an escort request, you know.
Don’t make it sound like I sent some strange message to you.
And since you’re here, it means that you’re willing to take it, right? I know it’s weird for me to say this since I was the one who sent that request, but I didn’t expect you to accept it, you know?”

Akira sent an escort request to Carol.
The content was a very one-sided offer, the reward would be paid later after the request was finished and the amount was open for negotiation.
He was also willing to pay for the expense up to some amount, and it had no detailed explanation.
To top it off, it only had a coordinate mentioned and a text saying that it was a time-limited offer as if it was only a prank.

If it was himself, Akira would have refused that request.
In the first place, he could not reach the designated location under the time limit.
Akira thought so when he sent that message.
Because of that, he was amazed that Carol actually came.

“But still, it’s pretty impressive that you could come here under the time limit.”

“I was somewhere nearby, you see.
But well, I wouldn’t have been able to come if I wasn’t using this augmented suit though.
That aside, I didn’t expect you to send an escort request, but seeing those powered suits fighting each other over there, well, that’s understandable.
Well, let’s go.”

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“Wait, I’m not coming with you.”

Akira only said that as he lightly pushed Sheryl to Carol.
Carol and Sheryl were equally surprised there.

“I still have something to do here, that’s why I can’t leave yet.
The request is not to escort us, but to escort Sheryl.
So, there you have it.
I’ll leave her to you.”

Seeing Akira was about to leave after saying that, Carol flusteredly stopped him.

“W-whoah, wait there! Akira, you’re not coming? Are you sure?”

“Yeah, it would be hard for me to do the other thing that I need to do here while carrying Sheryl around, that’s why I sent you that escort request… I know it’s my fault for not giving enough explanation in that message, but the request that I sent is an escort request, not a request for reinforcement.
I sent that request considering my fighting power, if it’s impossible for you to do that without me coming along, then just refuse it.”

“No, I’m okay with that, but…”

“I see.
Well, later then.
I’ll be counting on you.”

Akira immediately left after he said that.

Carol and Sheryl looked at each other, both of them were fully shocked.
They could see from each other’s expression that the other person was equally confused.
Carol then awkwardly said to Sheryl.

“Uhh, well, shall we go now?”

“Y-yes!”

Sheryl understood that it was not like Akira abandoned her, but she could not help but to make all kinds of guesses as she made a rather conflicted face.

Carol saw that and smiled bitterly.

[She’s having it tough too, huh.
As I thought, he really doesn’t know how to treat girls.]

If that was the case, then it made sense why he reacted so indifferent toward her.
Carol thought so as she escorted Sheryl away from the battle.

The other aim that Akira still had left was to kill Alna, so he once again went into the mansion to finish that job.
She might as well already be dead, but of course, no one had the leeway to clean up all the corpses in that situation.
He thought that it would be enough if he could find her corpse.

The inside of the mansion was filled with the sounds of gunshots.
Ezont Family’s soldiers were trying to fight back the invading Haurias’ soldiers.
Akira moved around the mansion while evading both sides.

“They are fighting both outside and inside the mansion, huh.
Well, it’s not like they can bring those powered suit inside the mansion, so it’s still better than being outside.”

“You might get hit by the stray bullets if you move too close to the outside, so let’s only take the route through the inner part of the mansion.
Depending on the situation, you might need to break through some walls though.”

“Roger that.”

Even Akira also did not want to get involved in that battle between powered suits.
That was why he did not have any complaint taking the inner route.
Although leaving holes inside Ezont Family’s base would bring huge trouble to Ezont Family, it was not his problem, so he did not care about that.

“By the way, Akira, are you sure you’re okay doing that to Sheryl?”

“I had someone to escort her, so I’m sure she’ll be fine.
I know how strong Carol is and she was using that strong augmented suit with a high power consumption rate too.
I’m sure she can handle it just fine.”

“But putting that aside, it’s not like you can fully trust Carol, right? What will you do if she did something to Sheryl?”

Akira frowned and said with a serious face.

“…If something like that were to happen, then that’s just how far Sheryl’s luck is.
It’s not like I can protect Sheryl 24/7 and I have no wish to do so in the first place.
Once I’m back exploring old-world ruins again, I won’t be able to rescue Sheryl all the time if something happens to her.
So let’s just say that this is also a test for her luck and I hope that she’ll do her best for that too.
If Sheryl finds it unpleasant that I didn’t escort her myself, I don’t care at all.
I have things that I need to do too, I have no obligation to do everything that she wants me to do.”

Including this time too, Akira came to Sheryl’s rescue, so Alpha thought that Akira had been too invested in Sheryl.
Alpha had anticipated that she might need to do something to change that soon, but judging from Akira’s reaction just now, it seemed that there was no need to worry about it.
Although he might be slightly invested in Sheryl, he had no problem with abandoning her when needed.
In the worst-case scenario, he did not even care if she was dead.
For Akira, Sheryl was only worth that much.

But another problem came up from there.
Between saving Sheryl and killing Alna.
Akira actually put saving Sheryl after killing Alna on his priority list.
He put more priority on killing Alna.
Which meant that it would be difficult for him to change his priority.

Akira would kill Alna, and if Katsuya witnessed it, it would no doubt cause a lot of trouble.
Alpha wanted to avoid that.

“Akira, get into that room.”

“Did you find her?”

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“Just get in.”

Akira went in as he was told to.
But there was no one inside that room.

“No one is here though.”

“Then put furniture to block that door.”

“…What’s going on here?”

Akira looked suspiciously at Alpha, who looked back at him with a serious face.

“…Alright.”

Akira thought that there must be a reason why Alpha did that, so he then barricaded the door.
Once he was done, he was told by Alpha to wait in the middle of the room, and that was exactly what he did without complaining.
His right hand suddenly moved on its own.

“Oh? Alpha, is that you?”

“It seems that it’s working just fine.”

“With this, I can get your support through my augmented suit, huh? But if I’m not mistaken, you said that you needed more time to fully take control of my augmented suit, right?”

Akira said so and looked at Alpha, who pouted and replied.

“I really didn’t want to do this.
I put in a crude control software since it’s better than having no support from me at all.”

“I-I see, why do you look so displeased then?”

“Personally, I really don’t want to use that crude control software, you know.
But, since it’s better than nothing, I don’t have any other choice but to use it.
I can give you some support with this, but don’t expect anything advance, okay?”

Alpha obviously looked really displeased.
Akira winced back since it was very rare for her to make such a face.
He then said as if to change the subject.

“I-I see, okay.
I’ll be careful, by the way, why is there a need for me to get in this room and barricade the door?”

“You can’t use your augmented suit while I’m rewriting the software.
So it’s to buy some time in case your bad lack caused someone to attack you while I’m in the middle of rewriting the software.”

“I see.
You could’ve told me, you know?”

Alpha sent a slightly intense glare to Akira.

“I’m sure I’ve told you this before, if you can’t follow that level of order without asking me the reasons then it might be too late.
That was also for confirmation, and from the result, I decided that it’s better to be able to control your augmented suit although I would be using that low-quality software.”

Even Akira understood that Alpha was basically saying if he had followed her order quickly without questioning anything, then there would have been no need for her to install that low-quality software.

“I-I see.”

“Since we’re here, you should check if you feel anything weird.
I’m sure that it would be fine, but since I changed the control software, there might be a different lag time compared to before.”

“O-Okay.”

Akira immediately started moving around and testing the newly rewritten augmented suit as if not to worsen Alpha’s mood.
He moved around, readied his rifle, and checked for any possible uncomfortable sensation from his augmented suit.

“It’s fine, no problem at all.”

“That’s good to hear, let’s hurry up then.
I’m sure you want to finish what you come here for and get out of this place as soon as possible too, right?”

“Yeah, you’re right.
Let’s go.”

Akira immediately left the room and went to the basement of the mansion to search for Alna.

[…I don’t know what’s going on but it seems that she’s in a rather bad mood.
Is it because of the software? I remember that she was pretty angry when I called her a good alarm clock too, does it have something to do with that? I have no idea at all.
Well, this is not a good time to ask her anyway, so let’s just do that after I’m done in this place.
Though I might no longer care about this when I’m done here though.]

And so, Akira decided to forget about it for now.
With Alpha’s bad mood and her constantly urging him to hurry up, Akira could not notice why she decided to make sure that he was able to receive her support.