Rebuild World

making sure that it would not show on her face.

 

[…Ane-san told me to assume that she’s dead and act accordingly if I can’t contact her for 24 hours.
She even arranged for soldiers to be dispatched if she was killed.
Although our current situation is dangerous enough that Ane-san might get killed, Milady’s sense of danger is still too naive.]

 

Kanae realized just how naive Reina was, but she did not find that unpleasant at all.
It could be said that it was because Reina was living a comfortable life since Shiori was always there to support her.
And if she made another blunder, the situation might roll to the direction that Kanae preferred.

 

Kanae was a battle maniac, she herself understood that very well.
Thus she had no complaints about her employer as long as she got enough reward and was able to experience good fights.

 

It was Shiori’s duty to teach Reina to avoid any needless danger.
So Kanae had no plans to fix Reina’s sense of danger.

 

It did not take long for Shiori to arrive.
After she changed to her maid uniform, she then went to explain the reason why she went out to Reina.

 

Although the incident with Akira was resolved, Reina might make a similar mistake if she was not made aware of the gravity of the situation.
Thus, Shiori carefully explained everything to Reina.

 

After she finished listening to Shiori’s explanation, Reina then asked Shiori.

 

“…So, basically, Akira is not angry or anything, right?”

 

“Since nothing happened, then there’s nothing to be angry about.
At least that’s Akira-sama’s current stance.
Thus, just to be safe, I want to tell Milady that Milady should not try thanking him or apologizing to him because of that incident since nothing had happened between us.
Not only doing such a thing might bring the whole problem back to square one, but it might also be taken as a form of harassment since Akira-sama has signed a confidentiality contract with the City Management.
So, please be extra careful about this subject.”

 

For Reina, it was a big disappointment since not only could she not say sorry after she caused so much trouble because of her blunder, she also could not convey her thanks after she got herself and Shiori saved by Akira.
But if it would cause Akira more problems, then it was a whole different story.

 

Reina sounded apologetic as she said.

 

“…I see, I understand now.”

 

Shiori somehow understood what went through Reina’s mind, she then smiled and said.

 

“I’ve conveyed our thanks and apology to Akira-sama, it seemed that he also really enjoyed the meal.
So I believe it’s alright for Milady to stop worrying about that.”

 

Kanae smiled and interjected.

 

“Milady, if you’re still angry for getting abandoned there, I can just go and give him a good beating in secret, you know?”

 

Reina and Shiori immediately turned at Kanae and sent their intense glare to her.
Kanae winced back as she pretended that it was a joke.

 

“Oof, I guess I went too far.
You know, like, I just thought that saying something like that might cheer everyone up, no ill-feeling intended at all, alright? It’s not like Milady is a saint either, so I just thought that there’s no way Milady is not at all angry about that part, okay? Ah, I’m sorry if I’m mistaken here.”

 

Reina and Shiori were still sending death glares to Kanae.

 

“Just stop.”

 

“Stop there, Kanae.”

 

It was not like Reina and Shiori had no ill feelings toward Akira at all.
Although it was true that he had no duty or reason to save Reina, Akira did abandon her to die in that incident.
But it was all because of Reina’s fault in the first place and he did save both of them in the end.
Thus both Reina and Shiori were not as shameless as to vent their displeasure toward Akira.

 

Kanae then lightly apologized.

 

“I was just joking.
I’m sorry that I went too far.”

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Kanae actually was interested in knowing Akira’s real strength since he was able to fight evenly against Shiori even after Shiori used her trump card.
Kanae was even thinking of pretending not to know anything or misunderstand the information given to her to mess a bit with Akira.
But after seeing how Shiori and Reina reacted, she decided to give up that plan.

 

[Leaving Milady aside, to see that even Ane-san, who thinks about nothing but Milady, would react like this.
This Akira guy must be a really dangerous guy.
Yep, this is interesting.]

 

Unlike Shiori, Kanae was not very loyal to her employer nor to the person that she was assigned to as a bodyguard.
Although she could feel their gratitude; good reward and a pleasant working environment were much more enticing.
Kanae might cover for Reina and go as far as sacrificing herself, but it was because it was her job and not because of her loyalty toward Reina.

 

Kanae also knew well just how loyal Shiori was toward Reina.
That was why she couldn’t believe that Shiori did not feel any grudge against Akira, who abandoned the object of her loyalty to die.
If it was indeed true, then it carried a huge meaning. 

 

She could come up with two possible reasons.
One, because Shiori’s gratitude toward Akira, who ended up saving Reina, outweighed her grudge.
Two, because Shiori was afraid of expressing her grudge towards Akira.

 

Kanae lightly smiled, hoping that it was the latter.

 

—*—*—*—

 

Akira was enjoying the bath inside his house while reminiscing the taste of the meals that he ate in the restaurant that day, he looked like he was in a good mood.
And just like always, Alpha was also together with him in that bath.
Although there was a goddess-level beautiful naked girl beside him, for the young Akira, who was of the age where delicious food was more interesting than a girl, his mind was filled with the memory of those delicious foods, so much that he ignored Alpha even more than usual.

 

“That was really amazing.
I want to go there again.
I guess I have one more reason to earn more money now, huh.”

 

“It’s good that you discover more things that you can enjoy in life… But you can’t go there with your current earning, you know?”

 

“…You’re right.
Now that I think about it, I didn’t really consider the price back then, huh.
I can’t really go to that restaurant again until I can at least pay those meals like it was nothing.”

 

Being a Hunter was an expensive job, there were equipment expenses, ammo cost, and treatment cost when injured.
For the current Akira, it would be very difficult to eat in that restaurant using his own money.
It was not like he could not afford to pay the bill, but that would mean that he would have to cut other expenses which would increase his chances of getting killed.
At least, until the day when he earned a stable income to pay for his own expense, he would have to stay with frozen food.

 

“Now that I remember it, there were many cyborgs inside that restaurant.
I wonder if they ate their meals in the end? And if they did, what would happen to the food that they ate?”

 

“For those cyborgs who have an organic furnace installed inside their body, the food that they eat will be broken down and then converted into energy or become one with their biological organs.
But for those cyborgs who don’t have such a thing, I’m sure they’ll take the food out from their body later.”

 

“And then after that?”

 

“Throw them away, I guess.”

 

“So it’s basically purely for their eye’s pleasure, huh.
I bet those cyborgs have a whole lot of money with them so that they can even enjoy such a luxury.”

 

Akira looked exasperated.
For him who had grown up in the slum city where getting food was a matter of life and death, he found such behaviour disgusting.
But it had a very important significance for the cyborgs, so important that there were demands for developing foods for cyborgs.
After all, it was a matter that affected their psychical health.

 

“Well, just because they exchanged their biological organs for mechanical ones, it does not remove their desire to drink and eat.
In exchange for getting a body that is stronger than their organic body, they have to take care of problems that they could have easily solved when they had organic bodies.
Of course, there are high-quality cyborg bodies that would allow them to solve those problems easily, but I’m sure they cost much more.
Also, there are only a very small portion of people who can afford those high-quality cyborg bodies like the staff from big companies, people from super-rich families, or those Hunters who work on the frontline.”

 

“…That does sound super expensive.
It doesn’t seem like I would be able to get one just from selling mountains of relics.
Now that I remember it, those relic Hunters were cyborgs too, right? They even took their chance stealing those relics even if it meant having to fight the City Management, I wonder if they wanted that much money in order to buy such kind of cyborg body.”

 

Akira remembered about Nelia and Yajima.
Up until now, no matter how much money was at stake, Akira never thought that any amount of money was worth fighting against the City Management.
But that might not be true for the people who got turned into a cyborg because of some kind of accident or after getting attacked by monsters and had to live their life in a body that could not even process food.
For them, getting a high-quality cyborg body that could process food as if it was a normal biological body, and then using it to enjoy expensive meals in a high-class restaurant would be like a dream come true.
Since Akira had already tasted the pleasure of such a delicious meal, he somehow understood why people with cyborg bodies would even do something like that.

 

During the night of the same day, Akira saw a dream.
He was fighting against Nelia in his dream.

 

Akira was desperately trying to evade Nelia’s attacks as she was swinging the blades in both of her hands at him.
Although it was a difficult place to move around freely with all the rubbles around them, both Akira and Nelia were not bothered by those rubbles at all.

 

There was no opening where Akira could slip any counter-attack.
Because there was a big gap between their skills, he was only able to barely survive Nelia’s onslaught.
Akira was unarmed in his dream.
Nelia was not someone that Akira could defeat without any weapons, his kicks and punches could not damage her cyborg body at all.
Not to mention that Nelia might even cut his limbs if he tried to attack her.

 

 Akira turned to Alpha and asked in a panic.

 

“My rifles?! Where’s my CWH anti-material rifle?! There’s no way I can win this fight without it!!”

 

“You lost your CWH anti-material rifle, remember? You need to buy a new one from Shizuka later.”

 

“Ah, that’s right!!”

 

Although there were a lot of strange things happening, Akira did not realize that he was in a dream.

 

“Now that I remember it, I did go to Shizuka’s shop not too long ago, right?! So why didn’t I buy one back then?!”

 

“There’s no way you can use that rifle without an augmented suit, you know? You did lose your augmented suit too, remember?”

 

“Ah, you’re right!… Hm, wait?”

 

Akira checked his equipment while making a puzzled face.
He was not wearing his augmented suit, not even an armour, but the same durable clothes that he received from Kibayashi.

 

His movements immediately dulled the moment he realized that.
After all, without his augmented suit, Alpha could not give her support and his physical capability would return back to normal.

 

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When his movement dulled, Nelia did not let that chance slip as she quickly lunged at Akira.
He could see Nelia’s blades chasing for his neck in slow motion.

 

[Ah, I’m dead.]

 

As that thought ran through Akira’s mind, Nelia’s blade separated his head from his body.

 

[I really wish I can at least taste those foods again…]

 

That was his last thought as he looked down on his headless body that fell down to the floor in front of him, then his consciousness was swallowed by the darkness.

 

Akira suddenly woke up from his dream.
He looked around and realized that he was on his bed inside his room.
It was dark since it was still very early in the morning.
Trembling, he moved his hands to his neck.
Once he confirmed that his neck was still attached to his body, he realized that it was only a dream.

 

“…Just a dream, huh.”

 

Alpha looked worried and asked Akira.

 

“Are you okay?”

 

“Yeah, I just had a weird dream.
But I’m okay now.”

 

Even after replying, Akira did not shift his gaze from Alpha.

 

In reality, Akira did survive his fight against Nelia.
But in his dream, he was killed by Nelia when he lost Alpha’s support.

 

The current Akira and the Akira in his dream were not that different.
If for some reason, he lost Alpha’s support, he might simply drop dead just like inside his dream.

 

[The me from that dream is the current me, with my real strength.]

 

Because of his luck, he was able to meet Alpha and was receiving her support since then.
That was the only thing that allowed Akira to survive until now.
But not even he knew just how long his luck would remain.

 

As Akira kept staring at Alpha without saying anything, she just smiled mischievously and said.

 

“What’s wrong? Are you falling for my beautiful face again?”

 

Akira retained his serious face.

 

“…Alpha, for how long are you planning to keep giving me your support?”

 

Alpha sounded puzzled as she answered back.

 

“Of course I’m planning to keep giving you my support until you are finished with my request.
Why did you ask that question so suddenly?”

 

“I just thought that rather than asking me, wouldn’t it be better if you ask one of those veteran Hunters out there? The reason why you got in that contract with me is because I can connect to the old-world domain, right? So like, I’m sure I’m not the only Hunter in this world who can connect to the old-world domain.
I bet you can find another better Hunter if you look for one, right? Ah, but rather than looking for another person who can connect to the old-world domain, I can just post a request in your name to accomplish your request, right?”

 

Hearing Akira’s answer, Alpha stared into his eyes.
Akira too stared back at hers, awaiting her reply.
There was a moment of silence before she answered his question with a serious expression.

 

“I have no plans to neither interrogate you nor to make you confess what made you think that I might stop giving you my support.
But I’ll at least make this one thing clear to you.
My support is just the front payment for doing my request.
So I’ll keep following you until you finish my request even if you don’t want me to.”

 

“…I see, you’re right.”

 

“Yep.”

 

Since Akira received Alpha’s support, he had the debt and duty to accomplish her request.
Even if he thought that it would be better for her to replace him, even if that was the truth, Alpha would not let him get away from her, that was what she meant between the lines.

 

Akira was relieved after hearing Alpha’s answer.
To be honest, he even felt a bit guilty for receiving such superb support from Alpha since he sometimes felt that he did not deserve it.
But on the other hand, somewhere inside him, Akira knew that Alpha intentionally said that to him since she knew that it would give him a sense of reassurance.

 

Akira smiled and said.

 

“I see, I’ll go back to sleep then.”

 

Alpha smiled and replied back.

 

“Good night, I hope you’ll get a nice dream this time.”

 

“I think it’ll be okay.”

 

Akira laid down on his bed again.
Since his worry was already cleared, he quickly drifted back to sleep.

 

For some reason, Akira was sure that even if he got the same dream again, it would not end the same way as his previous one.