Chapter 9
"Walking down the street, I glanced back, and Polia, who had been trailing closely behind me, stopped as well.
A simple outfit with a hat pulled down low.
Thanks to her efforts to conceal herself, she might look like just an ordinary woman from afar,
But as someone who knows her true identity, I felt a strange sense of déjà vu.
Polia.
Phenomenal System D-rank.
A world star representing the current generation.
Her ability, befitting her stage name 'First Snow Crystal,' is to create cold air.
The cold air, combined with her natural beauty, added a touch of cynicism and pathos, to the point where some called it the most beautiful shock she could deliver visually.
I still couldn't believe that a child receiving such evaluations was the junior of our office.
So, seeing her bright smile faintly revealed beneath her hat, worry for our youngest preceded any admiration.
"Did you really rest well?"
It was short, three days.
Even for me, a regular worker… no, a mere Deliverer, vacations don't come easily.
For Polia, those three days might have been the only ones in the entire year.
"I rested too well."
"It didn't look like it."
"How did it look?"
At my counter-question, she slightly led the way and asked back.
So, I walked ahead again and replied—
"You looked like an ant that barely escaped from under a magnifying glass."
You were just spacing out for those three days, occasionally chirping like a bird with Runea.
"That ant must have been incredibly happy."
Polia tilted her head up slightly and grinned.
Then, the junior's whining, which she had shown throughout the three days, popped out.
"But why an ant of all things?"
Having finished her short grumble, she quickly looked around as was her habit, then lowered her head again.
If you walk straight along the upper path from Jeblin's huge central plaza, at the end is a sea drawing a horizontal line, and above that sea, a double-track steel path stretches across the horizon.
If we take the train arriving here soon for two stops, from then on, Polia becomes everyone's person.
At the same time, it's also the moment the official security mission Beru requested begins.
What did Beru tell me before we left?
If Polia, the office's greatest asset, gets hurt even a little, I have to pay back 200 times the loss?
But he said there were great professionals in that area….
"Oppa, it's coming over there."
While I was feeling uneasy at Beru's words, Polia pointed beyond the horizon.
There was a train.
Enthusiastically rushing over from that distant place, kicking up sea spray.
A train that had a rainbow on its back.
＊ ＊ ＊
Early morning Jeblin is quiet as expected.
Right now, in the first-class car, there are only about two people besides us, right?
Following my guidance, Polia slipped into a window seat.
Leaving her there, I scanned the surroundings once, imprinting the general elements of the first-class car in my mind.
I had delivered specific security details a few times before, so this kind of thing was familiar.
As I sat down next to Polia, she stared intently at her wristwatch.
"There are still three hours left."
She was happy about the time it would take to reach the second stop.
No, should I say it was relief rather than happiness?
"It's nice having Oppa with me."
Swish! she glanced at me, then swish again.
She turned her head to look out the window.
If I were to jokingly say to the back of her slender neck,
"It's a relief if it's not bothersome."
"It's not."
Polia turned her head sharply again and looked at me softly.
"It's not bothersome at all."
No matter how many times I looked, I couldn't understand those eyes.
Wrapped in a mysterious light, they were so radiant that it was hard to read her emotions.
So, if I unknowingly stared down at her as she looked back at me,
Suddenly, the surrounding air turned cold.
"Polia…?"
No sooner had I noticed the change than she turned her head sharply back towards the window, looking flustered.
A moment later,
The train, having jolted once, departed.
The train scraping across the sea began to be engulfed by the sea it had disturbed.
Tudduk— Tudduk—
Swaaaaa—!
It was like a sudden downpour.
＊ ＊ ＊
How much time had passed?
I gently pulled Polia's wrist away from the window, where she still had her head pressed.
Already 30 minutes had gone by.
"Polia, what are you doing?"
She never usually lets go of her wrist without resistance, but when I called her name, her head slid down along my wrist like it was melting.
Then, in time with the train's vibrations, she bobbed her head, nodding off.
Occasionally, her head would knock against the window with a thump thump.
No, if she gets hurt, it's 200 times the loss.
Carefully, I brought her swaying head over and rested it on my shoulder.
Only then did she become still and completely settled.
After about an hour in this state, my rather stiff thoughts had eased.
So, I naturally looked out the window, lost in thought.
Quite a few things had flashed through my mind in a short amount of time.
A big request that didn't feel like it had a proper ending, the Discounters, and even Olleerd.
But unlike how chaotically things had passed, the goal resulting from it had become clear.
Having stepped into the big leagues, I needed to acquire a weapon befitting it.
Among the four systems, none are without their unique aspects, but the Weapon System has an unparalleled characteristic from its very foundation.
That is the mastery that is accumulated and unleashed only through the medium of a weapon.
Even the total amount of mastery is determined by the weapon.
Simply put, the more excellent the medium, the weapon, the more the skill of the Weapon System ability user also increases accordingly.
Of course, the above is extremely idealistic, and if you consider the reality, it feels like a truly harsh constraint.
If the user's skill is lower than the weapon's potential, in the Weapon System, it's expressed as being devoured by the weapon.
A mediocre talent with an excellent weapon is the best prey wherever they go, so it's difficult for them to survive.
In short, the living beings who possess ultimate weapons are geniuses who have been filtered and refined through the sieve that is the Weapon System.
The contradiction of a weapon, grasped to climb to a higher place, simultaneously becoming a threat.
That is the ecosystem of the Weapon System.
Until now, I had chosen a path of looking down instead of climbing up, and so I carried a weapon far below my skill level.
It was a safe path, and so I walked it.
But not anymore.
＊ ＊ ＊
The downpour had stopped.
Because we had arrived at the first stop.
As the sound of water, which had been like silence itself, receded, the surrounding noise became clear.
Startled awake by the unfamiliarity, Polia stuck her head out the window, then leaned back onto my shoulder as if returning to her bedding.
Sensing something was off, she briefly met my eyes, and no sooner had she done so than she made the surrounding air cold.
In that short moment, I could see her cheeks, which had been about to flush red, quickly turn white.
Having lived as a celebrity, had she become more sensitive to regulating her body temperature? If so, I felt a bit sorry for her.
"Are you hot?"
"N… no!"
She then quickly changed the subject, stammering.
"S… shall we go eat something?!"
Polia, looking thoroughly flustered, moved away from me, straightened her clothes, and stood up.
"Can we eat anything?"
"No…."
"Then let's go choose."
As I stood up following her, she grinned sheepishly.
Then, grabbing the end of my sleeve, she followed behind.
The very edge of the sea station.
Chairs placed like a painting.
If you sit at the end and wait, Polia soon approaches with two small bowls.
"What's this?"
"Tofu ice cream."
"Do I have to eat the same thing?"
"Why?"
"That looks like the result of blasphemy against ice cream."
"If you don't like it, don't eat it."
Her lips pouted out at even the slightest teasing; maybe that's why people like to tease the junior.
"No, give it to me. I want to eat it."
If I pleaded softly, she would immediately hand the bowl back to me.
And so, we sat side by side, eating ice cream while feeling the sea breeze.
"Oppa, you've never been to the eastern lands, have you?"
"No."
Because that's a place that doesn't tolerate the existence of Deliverers.
"You could just wear different clothes instead of a suit, right?"
"Are you telling me to travel instead of work?"
"Yeah."
If Garrick had asked this question, I would have replied with some gruff curse, but since the junior asked, I couldn't help but smile.
"Well, I hadn't thought about it like that."
"It's really nice there, like a completely different world."
"Come to think of it, Polia, you're probably going there for work too, right?"
"Huh? That's right!"
Polia, for some reason becoming very cheerful, began to chatter non-stop.
"Oh, right, you know? I was originally scheduled to go to Nogden in the north after Belignore, but the schedule suddenly changed, you know?"
"The schedule changed?"
"Yeah, they said I'm going to Middle Road to perform."
Middle Road?
"You don't know why it suddenly changed?"
"Well, I got the notice suddenly during my vacation, so I don't really know either."
In a way, you could think it was just a simple change of plans due to circumstances,
But the moment I heard the word Middle Road, Eren's face flashed through my mind, so I couldn't think that way at all.
Her agency, DX, is also under that Olleerd, after all.
"Oppa, is something wrong?"
"No, it's nothing."
But for now, there's no way to delve deeper into that suspicion.
＊ ＊ ＊
As the train departed again and approached the transfer station, Polia, unlike her earlier relaxed demeanor, looked quite sharp.
From her composed posture that showed no signs of disarray to her deeply serious expression.
There wasn't a single gap to be found.
"There's not much time left to see Oppa now."
"What are you talking about? I'll be right beside you for work."
"Is that so?"
She gave a meaningful look at my words, then finally smiled, repeating my words to herself.
Her wristwatch, which I glanced at again, now indicated that there were 10 minutes left.
The train, which had been fiercely pushing through the sea, now gradually slowed down,
And the downpour, which had been quite loud, also slowly began to stop.
At the opposite platform of the station we reached, there was already a much larger and more glamorous train waiting.
Unlike the quiet previous station, this place was full of people.
No sooner had the train stopped than,
"We've arrived!"
"Let's get ready, makeup team, gather around."
The people filling the station began to move with practiced efficiency.
"Those people…."
"They're all people I work with."
Polia reassured me, noticing my wariness.
Soon, as they took Polia out of the train, they naturally led her into their group as if it were the obvious thing to do.
"Polia! How was your vacation?"
"Jeblin was quiet and nice too, except for the dangerous part."
"Makeup team, please hurry!"
"Five minutes until departure!"
Polia's presence vanished in an instant.
I could only tell that this large crowd was moving centered around her.
As I stood there dumbfounded, a large man in a shirt strode towards me.
"Private? The one that 555 Office sent?"
A tailor, perhaps? His words were sharply cut here and there.
Nodding instead of answering, the man chuckled and gestured to me.
"Let's have an answer, follow me."
At his call, I immediately turned my back on Polia and headed in the opposite direction.
"Who's that? Ah, private?"
"What is it? Is that person from Polia's office?"
"He's a Deliverer? Does that office pick people based on looks?"
The territorial remarks poured out from the huge train I entered following the large man.
"They said he's B-rank?"
"Mind your own business, we won't be involved."
The atmosphere was quite different from the lively one of the people up front.
But conversely, that was probably also proof that the security work wouldn't be easy.
Reaching the end of the car following the large man and pushing through the territorial ones, a petite woman walked out from beyond the large man and held out her hand to me.
"Hello, I'm Max, the head of the security team."
The moment I grasped that hand, my five senses twisted in an instant.
