On the 74th floor of the Twin Towers skyscraper in Nishitama City, Secretary Ireland entered the office with some documents that urgently needed to be signed.
The afterglow of the sun spread all over the floor through the floor-to-ceiling windows, and the man standing by the window turned back to look at him.
When he saw the scenery outside the window, he realized that it was dusk in Ireland and he was stuck. He quietly looked at the man's expression. For a moment, he couldn't tell which one it was. He hesitated and said: "...Mr."
"It's me."
Spiatus didn't care about Ireland's disgrace: "Today is special, he didn't come out for the time being."
Ireland's expression and actions became much more natural, and he walked to the table and put down the documents.
He turned around and wanted to leave, but suddenly a voice without any emotion came from his ears: "Ireland, do you think I was cruel to those undercover agents?"
If it were another leader of a criminal organization, such as the previous one, this would have been a question. If he answered any slowly, blood would be splattered on the spot.
But Ireland knew that the person in front of him was not that cruel, so he replied without much hesitation: "You are very tolerant to the undercover agents. You did not even impose the most basic punishment on them, and even allowed Scotland and Bourbon to continue to follow Angstra."
How can this be considered cruel around us?"
Speaking of those two undercover agents, Ireland felt incredible.
Angstra's three subordinates were exposed one after another. He thought that there were only two ways for them to end up, either to be killed directly, or not to be killed for the sake of getting along with each other, and to be imprisoned for the rest of their lives.
Unexpectedly, they took the third route.
...Not only that, they could also leisurely accompany Angstra to the hot springs right away. He didn’t know what fun there was there, but he remembered that they had been there once before.
Ireland didn't have a good impression of undercover agents, and he was dissatisfied whenever he mentioned it. But since the BOSS allowed it, he naturally wouldn't say it directly.
Spiatus smiled: "I have nothing to do here, you can go out first."
"yes."
Ireland quickly left the room.
Spiatus was the only one left in the empty room.
He put his hand against the floor-to-ceiling window, lowered his head and looked down, and thought of the conversation half a month ago.
…
"The dead you miss the most, the living you miss the most..."
He slowly spoke out these two options, showed a subtle smile, and looked at Jing Baiye.
"If you could only choose one of the two, which side would you choose?"
Jing Baiye's eyes suddenly lit up, and even the black and blue under his eyes couldn't stop the sparkling light: "Can you summon the dead from other worlds?"
"No." Spiatus said directly, "It can't be done."
Jing Baiye was stunned and looked at him, as if he understood something.
But he didn't say it.
"Then I..." He lowered his head and thought for a moment, then quickly gave the answer, "I will choose the living."
"Why?"
Spiatus was a little curious, this was beyond his expectation.
"I know who the dead person I miss the most in this world is." Jing Baiye replied, "Unlike the teacher, he was killed by my own hands. I don't think a dead person would be willing to stay with his murderer.
No matter how good their relationship was during their lifetime..."
"But the living are different."
Jing Baiye's tone was serious: "Missing is a very heavy feeling, let alone the 'most'... Since he or she cares about me so much, I must find the other person and cherish it."
"I don't want to let others down."
Jing Baiye and Spiatus looked at each other. If he told lies, his eyes would uncontrollably wander, but if he told the truth, he would never be afraid to look directly at others.
Spiatus looked at him quietly for a few seconds, then looked away first. He mentioned another thing.
"How is the shield AI I asked you to make?"
Hearing this question, Jing Baiye's originally serious expression froze, a little red quickly crawled onto his ears, and he lowered his head in embarrassment.
"Sorry, BOSS, that AI... I failed."
"Although you gave me a lot of information and one of her eyeballs, you asked me to try my best to reproduce her character as completely as possible..."
Making an AI with its own personality is a completely different challenge than imitating a person and making an AI that has the same thinking as the other person - the latter is much more difficult.
"Maybe it's because I really can't understand her thoughts and pursuits." Jing Baiye said, "I tried many times, but when the finished product came out, what she did was completely different from what was recorded. She would..."
Spiatus interrupted: "That's enough."
"Since you can't do it, there's no need to do it anymore." He said calmly.
…
In front of the floor-to-ceiling windows, Bathing in the half-dark sunset, Spiatus suddenly spoke.
[Fenrir, do you regret these years? 】
[Your daughter Chris Crowe was terminally ill at a young age, and died of the dual torment of disease and drug addiction because of addictive painkillers prescribed by unscrupulous doctors.]
[And in order to save her, you sold everything in the house, sold the violin Gleipnir you gave to your daughter, and even sold your body to participate in drug experiments. As a result, you ended up in the organization's laboratory and stayed there for more than ten years.
, life is worse than death every day.]
[If it weren’t for her death, you wouldn’t have chosen to sacrifice your body to me in the end... But this has plunged you into a new round of pain. 】
[You can only come out at dusk. This is my gift to you. If I want to suppress you, you can only talk to me like this. Even if I want to copy your daughter's tragedy to countless people in this country, there is nothing you can do.]
【In the past ten years, do you regret it?...Are you desperate?】
The room was quiet, no matter how much he said, only the other soul in his body could hear him.
【I have never regretted it.】
The voice of the man who gave his soul to the devil was gentle but firm.
[According to the contract, if you save them and avenge them, I will be willing to pay any price.]
[And my daughter. Not only Chris back then, but also Sharon now. She has smiled more in the past ten years than in the past years combined.]
[I have always been grateful to you, why should I despair? As for what you did not long ago...]
There was a hint of smile in that voice.
【There is another person in this world who can always stop you inadvertently.】
Spiatus said nothing and turned to look at the flowerpot beside him.
A large flowerpot was placed next to the floor-to-ceiling window. The short-lived chrysanthemums he planted before completely withered on the 4th of last month... That's how it should be.
Moni was sitting in the flower pot, stepping on the sand under his feet. In front of his tiny paws, there was a very small bud that had just sprouted.
The folded-eared cat, who was used to being pampered, stretched out its paws, eager to touch the seedling.
But just as the claws were about to touch it, it was gently picked up by Spiatus.
He checked its front paws and then placed it in his arms in a sitting position - the most comfortable position for folded-eared cats suffering from congenital orthopedic diseases.
Spiatus held it and walked to the sofa to sit down. The table not far away was piled with documents, but he didn't want to deal with it today.
He stroked Moni's back. Her blue eyes were round and she was dirty, as if she had just emerged from the garbage.
The tragedy of death caused by feeding the wrong food did not happen to the second cat he raised.
"The ship did not sink. The development of Shield AI failed. The wish to bankrupt the Karasuma Group and countless people in Japan suffered was in vain. Even the teacher..."
Spiatus stopped, he did not finish his sentence.
He remembered what he had just seen while standing by the window.
It was about to enter night, and the street lights were on. Even if he stood so high, he could still see the small and faint light below, but it was indeed there.
The man pursuing despair sighed softly: "...Failure of all wishes is also a kind of despair, right?"
No one answered him.
Neither the hope he expected nor the despair he expected can be reproduced in this world.
————
Hakone Town, Ebisu Hot Spring Hotel.
In the Yeyue Room on the second floor, Jing Baiye sat cross-legged at a low table, staring intently at the computer screen, processing new documents from Ireland.
Modern society is all about convenience. Even if others are not in Nishitama City, they can still work.
Zhu Fu Jingguang walked over. He was wearing a black bathrobe. The crow embroidered with gold thread on the hem of the clothes spread its wings as the hem of the clothes swayed.
He first put the tea on the table, then picked up the yukata jacket next to him and put it on Jing Baiye.
"It's still quite cold now, be careful of catching a cold." He reminded, "What do you want to eat tonight?"
"Just the VIP suite special package." Jing Baiye said.
Zhu Fu Jingguang nodded, looked at the screen, and said hesitantly: "Angestra, you'd better rest. You haven't learned to sleep well these days. You can do your work tomorrow."
He knew what Jing Baiye was dealing with.
Some members of Codename have relatives who are just ordinary people. For example, Shirley's sister Miyano Akemi says she is a member of the organization, but in fact she has never even done petty theft.
In order to take care of these members who have little power on their own and only joined the organization because of their parents, Jing Baiye plans to arrange them into the Karasuma Group, not only to support them, but also to let them work for him.
Currently, only the members he is familiar with have this treatment.
"It's okay, you'll be fine soon." Jing Baiye smiled helplessly.
Zhu Fu Jingguang didn't try to persuade him any more. When he turned to leave, he glanced at the other person at the table.
The blond mixed-race man was sleeping soundly not far from Jing Baiye. He was covered with a blanket and a coat - this was specially given to him when Jing Baiye saw that he refused to go back to his room to sleep and insisted on staying by his side.
Covered.
He seemed to be having a nightmare, his body bowed slightly, his hands were placed on his pillow, and he was carefully holding something in his palms.
Those are two pendants.
Jing Baiye picked up the tea cup and took a sip. He picked up the phone with the other hand and sighed softly at it.
"I don't know how Rai is doing..."
In the quiet room, the mutterings were amplified. After saying the code name, Jing Baiye quickly lowered his head and went to the person next to him. Seeing that he didn't wake up, he pulled the blanket up for him with a little guilt.
Morofushi Kagemitsu didn't know why he insisted on coming to this hotel in Hakone Town today, and then stayed in the room all day without going out.
He looked like he was waiting for someone to come to him.
"..."
Zhu Fu Jingguang didn't say anything. No matter what his status was, subordinates had no right to ask about the behavior of their superiors. He picked up Ye Yuejian's wooden door card and walked towards the door.
As a result, as soon as the door was opened, his steps to walk out suddenly stopped.
"What's wrong?"
Jing Baiye keenly noticed something strange about him.
Zhu Fu Jingguang didn't answer. He bent down, picked up something from the ground, and turned to look at Jing Baiye.
It was a bouquet of black roses.
I don’t know how long it has been there, but there are still water drops on the flowers, dripping down the petals.
Jing Baiye stood up suddenly and looked at this rare and special flower with disbelief. Suddenly he seemed to realize something, turned around and ran to the window, opened it, turned over and jumped out.
Shortly after he left, the person lying on the ground woke up leisurely.
"I smell a disgusting smell..."
The blond mixed-race man sat up and looked around. When he saw no one around him, his expression suddenly darkened.
"Where's Angstra?"
"He went down just now." Zhu Fu Jingguang pointed to the window. He looked at him for a few seconds, and his eyes fell on the brows that were frowning tightly because of displeasure.
"Let's go down and order dinner, ZERO?"
Fangtani Rei nodded and carefully picked up the two pendants, one was an acrylic pendant full of cracks, and the other was a double-A metal pendant.
He stared at the two letters. It would be nice if one of them was F or Z.
"What do you want?" He took back the pendant and asked casually.
"Special package for the VIP suite," Zhu Fu Jingguang glanced at the window, "... four copies."
On the snowy field, the exhausted lone wolf finally arrived at the door of the fairy tale wooden house.
Downstairs at the hot spring hotel, Jing Baiye ran towards the black-haired, green-eyed man standing in the shadows.
