Tatakau Shisho

Volume 7, 2: The Rebellion is Starting – Part 2

Volume 7, Chapter 2: The Rebellion is Starting – Part?2

Present – December 28, 1926

Olivia and Kyasariro were talking at the party.

“Oh, so you’re opening a new store?”

Kyasariro spoke while stuffing her cheeks with fried sausages. Because Olivia was opening a second store, she was apparently entrusted to be the manager.

“It still hasn’t been decided. But there’s talk of that.”

“It’s still amazing. I’ll come buy things when I have the time.”

“You’re so hasty. I said nothing’s been decided yet. I lack experience and there are many problems related to funds and such.”

“If you want a loan I have about enough money to buy a castle.”

“I can’t borrow money from friends. We have to make it ourselves.”

Olivia smiled. For Kyasariro she was a truly fascinating woman. She was smart and had the ability and courage to take action. While she spoke brusquely and rudely, at the root she was kind. She seemed to be somewhat lonely. Kyasariro came to like her after just talking to her a bit.

“But being a manager and all that seems fun. My second life seems a bit too good to be true.”

“It’s the balance of life. You’ve had plenty of bad things happen to you until now, Olivia-san. That’s why you’re going to have plenty of good things happen from now on.”

“That makes me happy. Next I have to get a good man.”

“Ohhh, seems like master Matt’s about to be absolutely dumped.”

“I already did it a while ago. I was wasted on that idiot.”

As expected, felt Kyasariro. She thinks she’s wasted on such a cool, rich and smart man, huh.

“Then what kind of a man would be good?”

“Hmm, it has to be a sincere man.”

“Sincere, huh. But isn’t that the most difficult thing to find?”

The pair kept chatting without any pause.

Meanwhile, Mattalast was arranging seats in the neighboring lounge. He let the limp Mirepoc sleep on one of them. She would wake up eventually even if he leaves her alone.

Let’s go enjoy some alcohol as well, he thought and returned to the hall. At that moment, one of the new Armed Librarians, Rizzly, spoke to him.

“So Matt-san, Olivia-san came here.”

Rizzly took care of both cooking and serving that day. He did that out of his own volition without anyone asking of him. Even now, he held a plate of a roasted piglet stuffed with herbs on one hand.

“Yeah, she did. What of it?”

“How’re things with her?”

He poked Mattalast’s side with his empty hand.

“Nothing. I have nothing going with her anymore.”

“Ehhh really? I want to hear all about it, all the details!”

Mattalast sighed. While Rizzly was an Armed Librarian, he was extremely fond of gossip as if he was a bored housewife.

“There’s nothing to tell.”

“Really? How boring.”

Rizzly’s shoulders slumped.

“Haah, I’m so bored. All the male Armed Librarians are blockheads and all the women have one loose screw in their heads. There’s no decent love story anywhere. Here, look at that.”

He pointed at the sleeping Mirepoc.

“Even though it’s a chance for a one night stand, nobody’s making a move. Really, what are they all thinking about?”

“It’s because they’re scared of the aftermath.”

Knowing Mirepoc’s personality, Mattalast voiced his frank impression.

“Yeah. No matter what happens they won’t escape bloodshed measured in liters.

So Olivia-san’s probably the only hope for amusement. I wonder if anyone’s brave enough to hit on her.”

Really, that guy’s so carefree. Mattalast smiled wryly in his mind.

He didn’t know that Olivia was a rebel that caused Hamyuts some fear. He also had no idea that Mattalast had almost killed her. If he did, it wouldn’t end at the level of mere gossip.

Mattalast thought back. He recalled how Olivia was able to gain peace without being killed by him. It really was strange. There are things in the world one just can’t imagine.

May 1925

Undertaking the task of erasing Olivia, Mattalast left the Library. He maintained a private army separate from the Armed Librarians. He reached out to the dark side of society and bought them. They didn’t know that their employer was Mattalast. He had no intention of letting them know either. They were nothing more than disposable pawns he bought with money.

They scattered all over the world and were secretly looking for Olivia.

“Was she in Ismo? Good grief, so that’s why we couldn’t find her in either Kuler or Meliot.”

Mattalast muttered as he looked at the report sent from his soldiers. No matter how much she ran away, she was only a woman with no supporters or special ability. Erasing her was only a matter of time.

Then, a mail separate from the reports of his underlings has arrived. It came from Hamyuts at Bantorra Library. Inside the envelope was another envelope. Apparently a letter addressed to Hamyuts was sent to Mattalast as-is.

He was surprised when he saw the sender. It was from the very person he was currently trying to kill, Olivia Littolet.

“What the…?”

As he looked inside, he was surprised even more. There were only a few words written on the paper with a poor handwriting.

“Please help me”

Below her current hiding place had been written.

He could convey this location to his soldiers and make them kill her. However, Mattalast chose to go there by himself.

But what was she thinking about? What kind of help was she asking from the opponent after her?

Mattalast looked for Olivia’s figure through his car’s window. The designated place was in the area of the station at a certain city in Ismo.

Olivia was there. She hid her face and worked in shoe polishing at the station. She was eagerly polishing the shoes of a suited man who seemed like some salaryman.

Mattalast had met with Renas countless of times, but this was his first time seeing Olivia. Hamyuts acknowledged her as a strong enemy, but hadn’t she miscalculated? She looked nothing more than a woman who wore herself out in a long time of living as a refugee.

“Hmm, what should I do?”

While muttering this, Mattalast brought out a wrench from the toolbox at his car. He started fiddling with it.

He could nimbly poke his hand out of the car’s window and throw the wrench high to the air. If it were to fall down on Olivia’s head it could easily destroy her spinal cord. This much would be easy for him even without using his Predictive ability.

An unidentified misfortunate woman died from a wrench falling down on her from a building. There will probably be at least five lines about it in tomorrow’s newspaper.

Mattalast hesitated for a while. Should he kill her now or later? Since there wasn’t much difference between both options, it conversely led him to a new doubt.

I’ll kill her now, he thought, but just as he was about to act Olivia raised her face. Mattalast’s hand stopped. He thought that she was looking at him, but he was apparently mistaken. It seemed like she just spoke up to the man whose shoes she was polishing.

“…I don’t feel like it.”

Once he had failed over some trifle trying it again felt bad. He moved the car and parked next to the shoe polishing Olivia.

“Get on.”

He opened the door and spoke to her. Olivia was puzzled for a while. Before long she threw her rag cloth away and got into the car. The man whose shoes she polished looked at her with widened eyes. It was understandable. A shoe-polishing woman suddenly rode a luxury car.

This could be quite the amusing scene for some movie, thought Mattalast.

He brought the car to a deserted suburb. He was looking for a suitable place to kill her in. He saw Olivia sitting next to him at the corner of his eyes. He was trying to imagine how she felt riding a car meant to kill her.

In the first place Mattalast didn’t like either fighting or killing. And he was even much less inclined to do so to Olivia for whom he held no grudges.

Nevertheless, he couldn’t hesitate on killing her. For Mattalast, killing had nothing to do with his feelings. No matter how much he liked his opponent, he would kill them if necessary.

Once he tried concealing the secret of Lascall Othello from Mirepoc. If, at that time, she had reached the truth, he would have probably killed her without hesitating.

Mattalast was just that kind of man.

“Well then, you remember me right?”

“Yeah. I still have my memories from when I was Renas.”

“What kind of person do you think I am?”

“A powerful person who’s part of the top five Armed Librarians. A person exceedingly close to the Acting Director.”

“Yes, and I am also the right hand of the woman who was aiming for you and had killed Volken – Hamyuts. And now I undertook the mission of killing you.”

Olivia didn’t show any kind of agitation at his words.

“Do you understand your own circumstances?”

“I know. I’m a nuisance to the Armed Librarians. Volken, Vend Ruga… I’m someone who knows things that must not be known.”

“It’s great that you make it easier for me.”

The car left town and started running through pasture lands. They would soon reach an area which was completely deserted.

“Won’t you tell me a little? I actually barely know anything about you. Why did you meet with Vend Ruga? Also, what was the deal with the Spinning Doll ückück?”

“…Do you guys not know anything?”

“It’s because you ran away without telling us anything. Well, it does seem like Hamyuts tried killing you before talking to you though.”

“…Unbelievable. Were you trying to kill me without knowing my circumstances?”

“And what of it?”

Mattalast said calmly.

“I don’t think it’s a strange decision though. It’s obvious we would kill you. We’ll understand your circumstances after reading your Book.”

“…I thought you were a bit of a better person than Hamyuts.”

“How strange.”

He shrugged while turning the wheel.

“I wonder why’s that… everyone in the world thinks I’m a good person. I myself think I’m at least as much as a villain as Hammy.”

“In a certain sense you’re worse than her. Looking like a good person outwardly is the worst.”

Mattalast smiled. The woman called Olivia was quite smart. He had fun talking with someone like that.

“It’s like this, right? The worst people hide in the shadows. People like Hammy who parade their villainy to the world are the weird ones.”

“So does that mean you’re the worst kind of evil?”

“No way. I’m just a lowly underling servant. The truly bad people hide way further in the back. So far behind that no-one knows of their existence.”

Maybe I’ve said too much, Mattalast somewhat regretted.

“So, won’t you tell me more than that? How did you meet Vend Ruga and why did you run away with Volken?”

The car passed the pastures just about when Olivia’s story was over. They were halfway to the neighboring town. The car parked at the middle of some plains no one was frequenting. The pair exited.

“I see, I now understand what you went through. But was it also your power that destroyed the Indulging God Cult? Truly amazing.”

While saying this, Mattalast checked the gun at his waist. I’ve brought her this far, but I really don’t like killing people.

“Are you going to kill me?”

“Yeah.”

Mattalast answered. He understood what Olivia was trying to say. She wanted to confess everything and plead for her life.

“Mattalast. Why must I be killed no matter what?”

“Don’t say that. Just give up and die.”

“I don’t know anything about the secret Vend Ruga possessed. I only know how his hand felt.”

If he believed her then perhaps there was truly no need to kill her.

Olivia knew nothing of the Violet Wish. Seeing she surrendered, she also had no intention of opposing the Armed Librarians.

But it had to be done.

“You certainly don’t seem to know the secret. However, you know the fact that it exists.”

“…What do you mean.”

“Even the existence of the secret must be kept secret. You know of Vend Ruga. You also know that we kill anyone related to Vend Ruga.

That’s enough of a reason to kill you.”

“I won’t tell anyone. Will you still kill me?”

“There’s no guarantee that you won’t tell anyone.”

“I can be made to forget it. I’ll drink the water of Argax. Is that not good either?”

“Killing you is more certain. I don’t know what will happen in this world. And above all I don’t know what you’re going to do.”

Olivia clenched her teeth with a desperate look. He pitied her, but that’s it. Everything would be settled once he kills her. Letting her live would lead to troubles.

“…I’ll cooperate with protecting the secret. Is that also not good?”

The moment he heard this, Mattalast’s expression slightly changed.

“…Didn’t I say so in the letter? I want you to help me. I don’t expect you to save me without giving you anything.”

“What do you mean?”

“Volken didn’t betray you at all… you want to conceal that fact, right? Don’t you need me for that?”

Mattalast’s hand that was reaching to the gun stopped. He first noticed that way of using Olivia then. If she was there then he would certainly be able to stop Kyasariro and the rest.

The gears in Mattalast’s mind began turning. He perfected the scenario in his head in mere seconds.

Not a bad script. If I can get Olivia to cooperate, I would probably be able to fool them.

But the problem was if she would really do so. While she did seem like she wanted to cooperate with Mattalast, perhaps she was planning something.

“How horrible, are you going to betray Volken?”

“Yeah, I will. While inferior to you, I still am a heretic.”

Olivia said as she gazed at Mattalast. If he noticed even the slight bit of hesitation in her eyes, he would kill her.

“And are you also fine with forgetting about Vend Ruga? Weren’t you fighting for him?”

“Well, that’s my suggestion. There’s no choice but to drink the water of Argax.”

“Really?”

Mattalast pulled out his gun and turned it at her. Olivia took a step backwards.

“Will you throw away the memories you’ve risked your life to restore? That seems strange to me.”

She tried one last thing. While clenching her teeth, Olivia cried.

“Strange? What’s strange here. I don’t really want to betray Volken. And I definitely hate forgetting about Vend Ruga.”

“Then why would you betray them?”

“Because…”

Olivia faltered for about ten seconds. Then, she spoke in an ashamed voice.

“…Because I don’t want to die.”

“…Is that it?”

“Yeah, something wrong about it?!”

Olivia dropped to her knees and started pounding the ground.

“I don’t want to forget. I also don’t want to betray them! But I have no other choice. What else can I do? There’s no other way. Is wanting not to die that strange?!”

“…I’m sorry.”

While saying this, Mattalast lowered his muzzle.

“Since I’ve had many enemies that were prepared to bet their lives in fights and dying for someone, I’ve misunderstood you. I thought you were also like that.”

“Mattalast… am I strange? Am I wrong in doing so?”

“You’re not. Because there’s no correct answer. So even betraying the people important to you in order to live isn’t wrong.”

“But I… Vend Ruga…”

Olivia was crying. If this is acting, she’s quite the woman. It would be amusing for her to turn to be an actress, he suddenly thought.

At that moment, she clearly turned from a person he should kill to a person he should use inside his mind. And a person to be used was also one to be protected.

However, this didn’t mean that he trusted Olivia. He had no proof that she really didn’t know the secret, and he had no guarantee that she really wouldn’t fight the Armed Librarians.

Mattalast had decided to test her.

Did she really not intend on opposing the Armed Librarians and did she really not have any information about the secret? Mattalast decided on gathering the Armed Librarians and test her.

Just as Mattalast told her to, Olivia hid Hamyuts’s conspiracy and lied to them. Even looking from the side it was splendid acting. Even Mattalast, a self-proclaimed natural-born liar, was amazed at her performance.

In addition, she gave him the bonus that was Kyasariro’s flying kick.