The watcher immediately raised his hands in a sign of surrender.
"......whoa. Calm down. I'm sorry for watching you just now."
With that, the watcher slowly removed the gas mask stuffed over his face.
As he removed the leather cap and goggles from his head, his rich ivory hair spilled out.
Osian opened his eyes in surprise.
It was a woman, and a very beautiful one at that.
"I'm not your enemy, I'm trying to help. Believe me."
"I do."
"Really?"
"I do. Because I didn't sense any sign of malice in your gaze."At that, the watcher’s eyes widened in disbelief.
"......Yes. I'm glad. My name is Lorraine Ponk."
"Osian."
"Yes. Osian. Do you know why I was watching you earlier?"
"To see if I did my first assignment right, and if not, to help me out."
Lorraine's eyes widened at the answer that flowed from Osian's mouth.
"You knew?"
"I had a vague idea."
Osian may have the ability to see and deflect bullets, but having the ability is one thing, but having the experience to put it to use is another.
Even the most talented can die the moment they let their guard down.
In Ronan's position, it would have been normal to stop him when Osian said he would fulfill the request immediately.
Nevertheless, Ronan granted Osian's request and she was a safety measure, just in case.
“… … Huh. This is true. I got a kick out of it.”
Lorraine clucked her tongue at Osian's unexpected insight.
Ronan said he'd only been in Tirna a short time.
The way he talks, he sounds like a veteran, like he's been around for years.
"He didn't say much, actually, but I wanted to come and see you, though in hindsight I think it may have been in vain."
"More than that, I'd like to ask: Didn't you see a strange man running away just a moment ago?"
"A strange man?"
"The ones with the masks and coats."
"Oh, I saw them. They smashed a window and disappeared in a flash, but I didn't think they were from the gang, so I let them go."
"I see."
Lorraine asked, sounding slightly concerned.
"What, did something happen?"
"Nothing."
"What was it?"
"Just that there's a shady group behind the Black Snake gang. We ran into each other, and they tried to kill me to destroy the evidence, and when that didn't work, they just ran away."
"...... That's not a big deal, is it?"
Lorraine stared at Osian in disbelief.
"What did he look like, or did you find out who he was?"
"I don't know. He wore a mask when we fought, and he wouldn't talk to me. But I do know this. One of them was a machine in human form."
"A machine? Oh, an automaton?"
Osian nodded.
Lorraine remembered the image of him as he fled.
The hulking creature had scampered across the roof of the building like a zoo monkey, which made sense if it was an automaton.
"Wait a minute. Didn't he have one arm missing?"
"I took it off. I gave it a little force and it broke."
"......I can't really tell because I wasn't looking closely, but he didn't look like an ordinary automaton, did he?"
"I've never seen an automaton before, but it looked normal. Except for the arm that was detached and exploded separately."
"......That's no ordinary automaton."
Even as she muttered that, Lorraine scanned Osian's form from top to bottom.
There was no sign of the explosion anywhere on his immaculately dressed attire but he wouldn't be lying since she had heard the explosion.
A detached arm exploding, that's not the kind of thing you'd expect from an automaton. It's probably a specialty product that's been painstakingly crafted.
It's amazing that Osian was able to defeat it, but how did he survive the explosion?
Lorraine gritted her teeth.
'Ronan, you lunatic, who are you to tell me I need to cover for someone who doesn’t need it in the first place!’
In fact, Ronan stopped Lorraine from going, and it was Lorraine who came on her own, but she blamed Ronan.
Ronan would have been furious if he had heard.
Of course, Lorraine was eager to meet the newcomer to Violet Fox.
No matter what anyone says, isn't that the person Ronan personally went to and proposed recruiting?
Ronan always narrows his eyes and never loses his smile, so he looks kind of grumpy but she had to admit that he's a man of discernment.
She thought the newcomer must be pretty good and talented since he's a newcomer that Ronan cares about quite a bit.
"Wait. What about the Blacksnake gang inside?"
"They're all taken care of."
"Oh, yeah. I see."
She wasn't surprised anymore.
Ronan had told her before I came here. He said this new guy, Osian, could parry a bullet with a sword.
Judging by the way he'd noticed her watching from the rooftop, he wasn't lying.
‘Are all mutants like this?’
Lorraine had met a few mutants herself, and fought some as enemies but none of them, at least in her memory, had been as agile and perceptive as Osian.
"Anyway, this is more troubling than that. I can't believe there are strange people involved in this."
"Does that mean we're in danger?"
"We'll be fine, but we'll have to be careful."
"Do you have any idea who they are?"
"No. It's not that we don't know, it's just that there are so many suspects, we don't know exactly who they are."
Lorraine said, retrieving the sniper rifle she had set up.
“There are many different organizations in Tirna since there are so many talented people. As for the guys who control the gang behind the scenes using special automatons, surprisingly, I can’t count them all with two hands.”
Hearing that, Osian realized just how big this city was.
To be faced with such people on his first job, he didn't know if he was lucky or unlucky.
"I guess so. Anyway, since I've successfully completed the request, I'll go ahead and leave."
"Huh? Huh. Okay. Thank you."
Lorraine nodded hesitantly at Osian's words.
She didn't say anything about how she’s his senior in the industry and what's with your weird way of speaking.
In this industry, the strongest person was the senior.
"Oh, and by the way."
Lorraine shivered involuntarily.
Osian smirked at the sight of her, then pointed at her waist with his chin.
"The one at your waist. I commend you for your judgment in not pulling it out."
With that, Osian darted off down the alleyway.
Left alone, Lorraine was at a loss for words for a moment at Osian's point.
‘Did he notice that......?’
A moment ago, when Osian appeared behind her, Lorraine let go of the sniper rifle and went straight for the gun in the holster at her waist but what kept her from pulling it was purely instinct that ran through her mind.
-If I draw my gun here, at least one of my arms will go flying.
Lorraine took her hand off the gun at that moment and immediately signaled her intention to surrender.
It turned out to be the right call.
‘He couldn't even see it from that angle, so how could he?’
Lorraine was wearing a camouflage poncho.
Obviously, there was no way Osian could have spotted her drawing a gun from his position.
But the fact that Osian had noticed it meant that his senses were sharper than Lorraine had expected.
Lorraine was glad she'd trusted her instincts, but she couldn't stop her expression from hardening.
‘Hah, I lost my respect as a senior.’
Lorraine let out a small sigh.
'I was so happy to hear that a newcomer had joined us, but now I'm going to be treated like a child.’
*
After dealing with the gang, Osian immediately returned to the Violet Fox.
Ronan, who was waiting in the lobby on the first floor, saw him and greeted him happily.
"I can't believe you finished so quickly."
"Well, by the looks of it, you knew I was coming."
"Haha. Of course not, I just happened to be taking a break on the first floor."
Osian snorted at that.
Who the hell would believe such nonsense?
‘It's true.’
Ronan was frustrated.
Why couldn't people believe him when he told them the truth?
“Then that lady wasn’t sent by you either?”
"I see you've met Ms. Lorraine. Originally, I was going to stop her, but when she heard that there was a newcomer, she got carried away."
Osian recalled the way Lorraine had looked at him awkwardly.
She had prepared well, so it wasn't like someone had forced her to come.
She really wanted to look good in a crisis as a senior.
The problem was that she'd been caught hiding and watching instead of helping, which is not something that would normally be embarrassing for either party.
"Come to think of it, there must be other fixers here besides me."
"Yes, of course. There aren't many of them, but there are some very good ones."
"Is Lorraine one of them?"
"She's a bit of a hothead, yes, but she's also an excellent sniper, and she's ex-military."
"I see."
"I don't see them much now, they're all busy, but you'll meet the others someday, they're all good people, you'll get to know them."
Ronan smiled lightly, then cut to the chase.
"I think you've done what you were asked, but judging by your reaction, something must be wrong."
"You know that?"
"Just that you seem to want to say something. Oh, and I apologize if I was too rude."
Ronan bowed his head slightly to convey his apology.
Osian smirked and shook his head at the sight, then proceeded to explain what had happened to him at the gang's hideout.
When he was done, Ronan put his hand to his chin in confusion.
His eyes were still glassy, but it didn't show.
“There was a group of people controlling the gang behind the scenes. Moreover, to use that kind of automatons, it wouldn’t be on a normal scale.”
"Do you have any idea who they are?"
Osian asked, a little hopeful that Ronan might know something but Ronan shrugged.
"I don't know but I have a guess or two."
"I see."
"You sound openly disappointed. There are so many organizations in this Tirna, and I don't know everything. But there are times when I can make a guess."
"A guess?"
"Yes. From the sounds of things, the mysterious organization was working behind the scenes, supporting the Black Snake gang, and naturally, some businesses were affected."
"Indeed."
Osian nodded, and Ronan clapped his hands together.
“Actually, I also vaguely heard the news, and it is said that the companies that requested us have received an acquisition offer from one company a month before the request was made to us.”
"A takeover offer?"
"Yes. It was basically a big company trying to swallow up a small company to grow its size. Naturally, they turned it down because the client didn't have the vision to go along with it in the first place. The acquisition fell through, and then this happened."
"So what you're saying is that the company that wanted to buy them did this out of spite for being rebuffed?"
"Something like that, actually. It's a common occurrence in Tirna. All the businesses in the city are trying to out-compete each other."
Tirna is a developed city, but inside, it's more like a wild jungle.
Most companies are not only looking to protect their own position, but also to take over others.
However, they couldn't cross the line.
If they did, they'd face the mace of the city government.
So the fights between companies became more covert and ugly.
Like this one.
They maneuvered gangs behind the scenes to cause material damage to the other company.
‘That sucks.’
As Osian listens to the explanation, he is both surprised and convinced by the savagery of the city.
"Corporations sometimes secretly support criminals to do their illegal work, or they raise them themselves."
Ronan explained that some of Tirna's more prominent private military companies (PMCs) were created by large corporations to get things done their way.
"Perhaps the men that Mr. Osian was facing were sneaky agents of those companies."
When Ronan finished, Osian smirked.
"You said you didn't know, but you know everything."
“It's not a certainty, it's just a guess based on circumstance and clues."
Despite his words, Ronan sounded half-convinced.
"Then it's dangerous, isn't it, since we've lost our pretense with them."
"You wouldn't have to worry about that, I don't think they'd hold a grudge against Mr. Osian, the Fixer."
"Even after they tried to kill me?"
"But Mr. Osian won, so they'll find another way."
"Another way?"
Ronan cupped his chin between his clenched hands.
A sharp gleam flashed in the corners of his narrow eyes.
"That would be to make a request to Mr. Osian."