The Rolling Bootlegs (20 page)

“Don’t screw with me… Bastard…”

Randy, who’d quickly hidden against the wall, had been spared by the bullets’ weak penetration through the barrier. Since Szilard had backed into the hallway, he was currently in his blind spot.

“…Hey…Pezzo… Dammit…!”

The sight of his buddy’s big body lying at the mouth of the hall nearly sent him into a rage, but he desperately calmed himself down, only to close in on the hall, crouching low. His knife was in hand, and he was prepared to take Szilard’s head off the moment he showed his face. He knew he wouldn’t actually be able to do that, but if he could at least drive it into his brain…

Suddenly, a shape darted out of the hall.

“
!”

Randy raised his knife…and froze.

The figure that had leaped out…or rather, had been thrown out by Szilard…was Seina’s unconscious body. Its head drooped limply.

In the instant he stood, frozen, the muzzle of a gun appeared from behind the falling Seina’s.

Randy, who’d been about to scream something, danced the dance of death in a spray of blood, in time to the gunfire.

This happened just as Maiza finished regenerating. A humorless comedy.

When he opened the rear door, Firo was struck by an odd sense of
wrongness
.

Even before he’d located the source of the feeling, he hastily leaped backward.

The next moment
Something swept past him, right in front of his nose, like the blade of a guillotine.

It took him several seconds to realize that it had been the heel of a leg, raised high. Up until then, his attention was focused on the leg’s owner.

“You’re…”

Firo knew that face. Or rather, those clothes.

“From yesterday…”

“You’re the…”

Realizing she recognized her opponent’s face, Ennis halted her attack.

It was the guy from the knowledge she’d gotten from Barnes, via Szilard. The guy who’d been going around looking for her. That was all she knew about him, but in spite of herself, she paused.

Szilard had told her to detain Maiza if he fled out the back door, so she’d launched a surprise attack the moment the door opened… But apparently the shadow of her leg falling across his face had given her away. Not only that, but to
this
man, of all people.

After giving it a little thought, Ennis decided to reopen her attack. This guy was probably Szilard’s enemy as well. If she let him go, she might lose her own life.

However, on the other hand, Isaac’s and Miria’s faces flickered through her mind.
If Szilard ordered me to kill them, what on earth would I do?

“Waugh, hold it!”

After a few seconds’ pause, the woman in front of him launched another kick.

He managed to evade the first attack, but the second kick, propelled by a spin with the opposite leg, sank neatly into the top of Firo’s shoulder.

The impact was greater than he’d expected, and it sent him staggering into the wall behind him. Along with a light shock, he felt the cold of the bricks upon his back.

“Ghk… Careless…”

Without pausing, Ennis sent a fist his way.

Huh. That looks like the Oriental martial arts I’m learning from Yaguruma
. At that conclusion, Firo naturally slipped into the motions he’d practiced with his
primo voto
.

“I…”

Using his own right hand, he grabbed the right wrist Ennis had thrust out. It was moving pretty fast, but compared to Yaguruma’s jabs, he’d been able to follow it with his eyes…and since her wrist was thinner than a man’s, he was able to stop it fairly easily.

Ennis’s eyes widened slightly.

“…said…”

Then he raised his left hand high, turning his back to Ennis as he pulled her closer. Firo’s body slipped past Ennis’s side, almost as if they were dancing…and for a moment, the two of them were parallel to each other.

“…
wait
, all right?”

Twisting his opponent’s wrist, he swept her feet out from under her. As her body tilted, he pulled her down in one move. The result was that Firo dropped into a crouch…and Ennis’s back lightly struck the ground.

Not only that, but Firo was still holding her right wrist. From this point on, no matter what move she tried to make, she’d lose the initiative to the boy in front of her. Without more “knowledge” than her mind currently held, there was nothing Ennis could do. This boy seemed to have combat training she didn’t possess.

Firo asked the woman a question. His expression was quiet.

“…Explain this, would you? You got anything to do with that old guy in there? Why is he here, and why doesn’t getting shot kill him? And most importantly… Who are you?”

On hearing this, Ennis was a bit startled. This guy didn’t know anything about her. Not only that, he didn’t even know about Maiza and Szilard… In which case, why had he been looking for her?

“Listen. Please… I don’t know a thing, and I’m the only one. If things stay that way, I’ll look like an idiot.”

Doesn’t know a thing…
That was exactly the way she’d been, once. The world as it had been before she’d “eaten” the alchemist rose again inside Ennis. Herself, given only the bare minimum of knowledge. The memories of that time made her feel nauseated, even though it was herself she was remembering. After she’d learned everything, she’d felt, and continued to feel, the pain of not knowing.

“……You won’t regret it?”

“…Huh?”

“Once you know…you may not be able to go back. Do you still want to know…even so?”

For the space of a few breaths, there was silence. After thinking briefly, Firo spoke.

“You know… They said something similar to me at the ritual last night.”

“…Pardon?”

“Tell me. I might regret it, but I’m good at forgetting stuff. …I’m no genius.”

With that, he let go of Ennis’s right arm and stood.

For a moment, Ennis looked blank. Then she followed suit, a mystified expression on her face.

“…You don’t think I’ll run away?”

Her eyes were fixed steadily on Firo’s.

After another short pause, Firo answered. If the situation hadn’t been what it was… If the two of them had met normally, he might have blushed a bit.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m just dumb, that’s all.”

“You really are a dull-witted man, Maiza.”

Szilard gave Maiza a pitying look.

The smell of blood filled the speakeasy. The only ones standing were Szilard and Maiza.

“I’m not as dumb as you are.”

At this point, both Maiza’s polite tone and the smile that put people at ease were gone.

“Back then… When you managed to summon the demon on the ship, I should have stolen the privilege from you, even if I had to kill you to do it.”

In contrast, Szilard preserved a persistent calm. Though facing another immortal, he didn’t seem to doubt his absolute advantage.

Even as the terrible scene around him inspired white-hot rage,
Maiza squashed it down and spoke, casting about for a way to break out of the situation as he did so.

“That demon… If I’d died, no doubt he would have gone straight home. He’s rather conscientious about things like that.”

“Ha! You speak as if you and the demon are friends. You, who’d researched alchemy, ultimately betrayed the way of science by turning your hand to magic, and then, not satisfied with even that, summoned a demon. And in front of our band of thirty companions, the demon said, ‘I’ll give you knowledge’!”

Almost like the narrator of a silent film, Szilard began to speak in a tone that made it sound as if he was watching that long-ago scene.

“You, a companion… Don’t make me laugh.”

“You said, ‘I want to know about eternal life.’ We were given a cup of elixir that resembled liquor, and we all drank, sharing it among ourselves. …That was where our current lives began. And you learned the method for preparing this elixir of immortality! In other words, you also obtained the right to spread immortality around the world!”

He spoke loudly, commending Maiza’s great achievement. Then he changed completely, shaking his head and lowering his voice.

“…But… The very next day, you began to spout nonsense about sealing the elixir’s production method. I will have you explain yourself now, Maiza. At first, I thought you were planning to monopolize the method…but you seem to have a loathing for immortality itself.”

Slowly and clearly, Maiza answered the question that had been tossed at him.

“One reason…is that there was a flaw in this immortality.”

“A flaw?”

“Our immortality…ends when an immortal is ‘eaten’ by someone who has the same power.”

“Hmm… But the demon said that was a system he’d created out of kindness, did he not?”

“No. It truly is a ‘demonic’ system. It can provoke murder not only among those who hate, but even among those who love each
other. Think about it: Even you want to dispose of those who could kill you…myself and our other comrades. That’s what I mean. Even those who’ve overcome death by old age fear dying more than ever before. We each try to become ‘the last one.’ If even one other such person appears, inevitably we see danger where none exists, and immortals begin slaughtering one another.”

“…………”

“Even those who love each other… At some point in the midst of eternity, they may think they want to know everything about the other…whether their partner truly loves them, for example. There is one sure way ‘to know everything about the other’… By ‘eating’ them, one can unlock the deepest secrets of another’s heart. If they are unable to resist this temptation…”

“People that foolish
should
consume one another and die.”

“I wonder. The thought may be foolish now. However, if immortality were to spread… If it permeated the world, the world’s ethics, religions, and laws would change completely. Before long, thoughts like this would no doubt surface: ‘If you take all the other’s knowledge into yourself, it can be said that that person lives in you.’ If, in the future, the world naturally evolves into that sort of world, I don’t mind. However, I don’t want to be the one to create it. I like this world, you see.”

“…Hmph. In that case, you may rest easy. Giving this power to the thickheaded masses isn’t my inten—”

“And the greatest reason is—”

Maiza spoke firmly, interrupting Szilard.

“—because people like you exist.”

“In order to increase his own knowledge, Master Szilard began to ‘eat’ the alchemists on the ship, those who had been his companions. Maiza’s younger brother was ‘eaten’ as well, because my master mistook him for Maiza. Immediately afterward, the survivors surrounded Master Szilard, and he threw himself into the ocean…
The surviving alchemists drifted to New York. Master Szilard also reached the American continent without succumbing to death.”

Firo was captivated by Ennis’s story. He’d never even heard of this “alchemy” field before, and then, on top of that, there was the business about immortality. It sounded completely crazy, but after seeing Szilard riddled with holes and still smiling, he had no choice but to believe it.

Come to think of it, that must have been why Maiza’s bloodstain had disappeared the previous night. As various things clicked into place, Firo listened attentively.