I was fortunate to have checked the boss's position in advance.

I thought as I moved through the darkness.

If I get flustered just because the lights went out and fail to protect my employer, I should rightfully return my mercenary badge.

(Of course, no such thing as a mercenary badge actually exists)

After a brief comma-length moment passed, my mechanical eye Implant activated its night vision function to perceive the darkness.

And I wasn't the only one, as other people nearby were also illuminating their surroundings with lights in their eyes to assess the situation.

But.

I didn't stop running.

I know from having used similar ambush tactics myself that incidents like this rarely end with just a "power outage."

Ominous predictions are never wrong.

I grabbed the boss who was watching the entrance area warily. Then with my running momentum, I fell forward as if collapsing.

- CRASH!!

I could tell just from the sound.

The ceiling had collapsed.

Blinding beams of light shot through the hole in the ceiling.

The luminosity, which seemed to be hundreds of thousands of lumens, brightly illuminated the pitch-black party venue that had been darkened by the power outage.

First darkness, then light.

It was an old-fashioned but effective method for neutralizing most ocular implants.

I didn't bother turning around to identify the attackers.

Rather than that.

- RATATATATAT!!!

Blocking the bullet shower was the priority.

I grabbed the boss by the nape and kept him close to the floor. The startled boss let out a small groan, but it was quickly drowned out by the loud gunfire.

There was no time for etiquette in a life-or-death situation.

Behind us, a small barrier I had created with mana had formed.

It would probably be fine against most types of ammunition, but it was better to minimize the target area just in case.

It seemed the attackers were targeting "everyone at the party."

Screams erupted from all directions amid the thick dust and smoke, but the gunfire showed no signs of stopping.

- Ping, ping.

I could hear bullets ricocheting behind us.

It sent chills down my spine.

Making money in a cyberpunk world is this difficult.

Eventually.

How many minutes had passed by my estimation?

The storm of bullets gradually subsided.

Right, after firing that enthusiastically, they'd need to go through a cooling process.

I slowly finished preparing to use magic.

33. The Answer Only One Person Doesn't Know (4)

"...Cyber Force, riot control team."

"It does look that way."

The circumstantial evidence pointed to that.

Drones emitting powerful light beams and bipedal robots capable of maintaining concentrated firepower for extended periods.

Not many groups in this city had access to such resources.

I carefully looked around.

It seemed no one besides us had survived.

"......"

The boss appeared lost in thought as he looked down at the riot control robot I had taken down.

Honestly, trying to guess who was behind this was meaningless at this point.

There were too many possibilities.

The robot systems could have malfunctioned, or someone could have hacked them. It was even possible that the city authorities had orchestrated this because they disliked the brokers.

The boss, who had been looking at the broken robot, now examined the bodies of people nearby.

"...No matter how much they disliked them, these people didn't deserve to go out like this."

Honestly, I didn't recognize any faces here, so I couldn't say.

Still, it was somewhat difficult to see the fallen man who had just greeted me earlier—someone I had at least briefly met.

I pushed aside such emotions and said to the boss:

"We should get moving now."

"...Yes, we should."

The boss walked toward the exit.

I stopped him in his tracks.

"Wait a moment."

"...Hm?"

The boss turned around to look at me.

"What is it? If we're escaping, we should go out with the security personnel waiting outside—oh."

He stopped mid-sentence.

Seems like he's realized it now.

His composure was visibly shaken, probably because his life had been threatened.

I pointed at the floor and said:

"With all this commotion here, the situation out there probably isn't any better. And if it were, they would have already entered the party venue."

I cautiously guessed that the power outage might have been the signal for the operation.

"...What should we do then?"

"First priority is getting out of this room."

"How?"

I raised my finger that had been pointing at the floor and pointed it toward the hole in the ceiling.

The blue night sky was visible beyond it.

"Through the ceiling."

A good mercenary always needed to think flexibly. Since there was a hole in the ceiling, escaping through it was the right choice.

"...How?"

This time, the boss's "how" sounded different from the previous one.

The ceiling was very high, as expected of a party venue. The distance was considerable.

I nodded lightly, indicating there was nothing to worry about.

I never thought I'd be using the magic I practiced by launching alley scavengers into the sky like this.

"You don't have a fear of heights, do you?"

* * *

Fortunately, the boss of No Answer didn't have a fear of heights.

"......"

Still, he seemed dissatisfied with the speed. I tried to go as slowly as possible.

I could feel his glare from behind.

No matter how well I could control the wind using mana, keeping us suspended in the air like "hovering" was nearly impossible.

It's absolutely not because it was too difficult for me.

...I hope he doesn't think I deliberately created a whirlwind to blow him away?

I'm a bit worried now.

"This way from here."

I changed direction according to the boss's instructions. We moved slowly with our backs against the building's wall.

I thought we might get lost given how vast the mansion was.

The boss said he had brought a "mansion layout" in his data module. Thanks to that, we wouldn't waste time wandering around the mansion.

It would be nice if we could call the police.

But we didn't even try since the city might be involved. It could just end up revealing our position.

Come to think of it.

I turned around and asked the boss:

"Have you tried contacting your subordinates?"

"...What's the point from up here."

Fair enough.

That's also why I hadn't used the "distress signal emitter" Drek had given me.

Actually, knowing those guys, they might just beat up all the city forces blocking their way and come to rescue me.

But that's not what I wanted either.

In the end, I had no choice but to escape using my own strength.

Fortunately, we didn't encounter any other forces as we traversed the mansion. This was one benefit of the mansion being so large.

Then, the boss stopped at a large wall.

"Here it is."

"Here?"

"Once we get over this, we'll reach the parking lot."

Oh.

Still, just to be safe.

I gently placed my hand on the wall.

Carefully drawing up mana.

Closing my eyes, I roughly detected signals from outside, like sonar.

"...No people. There seem to be cars, but from what I can tell, they're not aerial vehicles."

The boss nodded at my words.

To him, it probably just looked like I had placed my palm against the wall, but he didn't show any signs of doubt.

"Heave-ho."

I used the wind again to climb over the wall. The upper floors definitely seemed secure against thieves. The wall was several meters high.

Despite the parking lot being enormous, there was only one vehicle in sight.

It felt a bit suspicious.

But I didn't worry too much about it.

We hurried along the holographic parking lines.

We stopped in front of a black SUV.

"Can you drive? This doesn't seem like a vehicle you prepared in advance."

"Hacking chip."

The boss showed me an unidentifiable device from inside his coat.

You have the makings of a great car thief.

There was no sign of anyone around, and it seemed we could just get in the car and leave this place.

"......"

But why do I feel so uneasy?

"Hey—"

I tried to call out to the boss who was about to get into the car.

At that moment.

I saw "something" flying through the air.

In an instant, time seemed to slow down for me.

Thankfully, there was some distance.

We avoided the worst-case scenario.

I hastily gathered mana without considering the risks, just like when I first learned magic.

Whether I die from mana explosion or from a missile hit.

The result would be the same anyway.

I grabbed the boss who was about to get into the car. Wrapping him in my arms as I ducked down, I used protective magic to completely envelop our bodies.

Now it's in heaven's hands.

The boss looked back at me with a puzzled expression, but even that appeared in slow motion.

Sigh, damn it.

- BOOM—!

My vision turned pure white.

A shock that churned my insides struck the ground.

This is really maddening.

- AAAAARGH!!!

* * *

...Hmm.

Am I alive?

......

I am alive.

I slightly raised my head.

Checking if my limbs were still intact.

I wonder how far we were thrown.

Is this the power of magic? It feels like we flew at least several dozen meters.

We must have rolled on the ground dozens of times, judging by the scrape marks everywhere. But nothing seems broken.

The boss who had been in my arms fortunately appeared to be in better shape than me.

Honestly, if I didn't have the negative trait "Delicate Skin," I probably wouldn't even have these scrapes...

Anyway.

The boss seemed to have lost consciousness momentarily.

I understood.

I never expected to be hit by a missile in my life either.

But we needed to move.

I ignored the bone-deep pain and got to my feet.

The missile that just hit us made one thing clear.

"Someone's" attack targeting the boss wasn't over yet.

The good news, if any, was that the missile had come from farther away than I had thought.

Perhaps they had discovered the riot control robots I had neutralized. I felt a sense of wariness from the moment the missile arrived.

Let's move from this spot.

I tried to move my creaking mechanical joints to lift the unconscious boss.

......

More precisely, I tried to lift him.

"Ah."

This is a problem.

He's too heavy to carry.

* * *

"You did that back then...?"

"Ah."

I guess I never told you about this.

I averted my gaze from Natasha's question.