Cheaters Prosper

“My lady, do you feel better today?” E.T. smiled over Raven on the bed as she awakened. Yep, they were on a bed at Raven’s cottage. After finishing their ‘dirt wrestling’, they agreed that the open forest wasn’t a good place to spend the night. Maybe they should have realized that before they took off each other’s clothes, but hormones got to hormones.

Flight and E.T.’s exceptional navigation skills got them to their destination in less than three hours, just in time for the night to fall. They showered, separately, and collapsed in exhaustion onto the same bed.

And that was how they ended up at this moment.

Raven returned a smile, having forgotten the revelation yesterday. “What did we even steal?” Why did she act as if she had contributed to the heist? I wasn’t petty enough to say anything, but I would certainly remember this.

E.T. kissed the back of Raven’s hand. “I didn’t hear you ask that last night.”

Heat rushed to Raven’s cheeks. It took her utmost effort to muster up a nod. The extra blood didn’t help her speak at all.

E.T. slipped off the bed to take out the magical mallet. A wave of his arm slammed the face of the mallet against the corner of the bed. Following a clack, a diamond necklace manifested at the impact point. “Rigged raffles, fake charities, anonymous donations, made-up inheritance. I used different ways to give them what I had stolen from the rich. This dispersion tactic let me hide from the government and other pursuers, but Yonna-san still found me.”

Raven was inspecting the necklace with interest when she heard E.T. mention my alias. Her head turned so rapidly to him that her neck was at risk of cracking. “You said that Yonna-san found you? Can you tell me more about what happened before we met? She never tells me anything.”

“She suddenly called me. Told me she knew I was the Robin Hood, and gave me information that I couldn’t even get from the mirror. That was why I took the risk and worked with you. Because she was too valuable of a potential ally to ignore.” The Eight-Hand Mirror had more restrictions than quasi-omniscience, after all.

“Oh?” Raven scribbled down what E.T. said. To which I wanted to ask, why? Did she even know what he meant by ‘mirror’?

E.T. returned the mallet to the suitcase and crawled onto the bed again. His face hovered dangerously close to Raven’s. “Did I answer all your questions, my lady?”

Raven turned away, hands on her cheeks. “One more thing. Who are you giving the riches to? Are they so poor that you have to resort to stealing?” She was whining about the act of stealing, but giving away too much money from the hammer might just collapse the economy.

The smile on E.T. flipped into a frown. “Poverty isn't always ragged clothes and unkempt faces. The system might not take away your humble home and warm clothes, but it squeezes you until you pop.”

“But stealing is still…” Raven clasped her hands together, shifting about.

E.T. took a deep sigh. Melancholy harmonized with his handsome features. “I will show you.”

***

E.T. held Raven by her waist as he flew them over the forest and mountains. The foliage melted into a blend of green that resembled a patch of grass. The decaying signs of civilization welcomed them with open arms. The shaved lands took on too much yellow to be arable; the slated canopies poking out of the verdant horde seemed to be gasping for their final breath before vegetation would overtake them.

A lonely network of roads seeped through the deepest corner of the suburb, meant to unite the village as one. E.T. landed them on the stretch of the driveway that reached out to the rest of the world; his golden shawl fluttered as they touched land. “This is as far as we can go.” He gazed at the entrance to the dead town. Hidden beneath the bird’s-eye view was a world only accessible through one’s imagination.

Like a black hole, it caged in all the nearby information with its gravity. My quasi-omniscience couldn’t catch anything beyond where Raven stood. She also appeared to sense the boundless null looming before her. Her arm extended to touch it, feeling no resistance, but her hand still couldn’t move forward. “Is this place…”

“Nohato Village. My parents died here. Funny. I thought they would die from overworking, not from a magical disaster.” E.T. joined Raven, also resting his hand on the threshold to the information graveyard. This was the only way they could feel the weight of that invisible tragedy from a distant past.

“It was an accident,” Raven retorted with an uncertain whisper.

“An accident that had never happened before. When in history did an entire area of information get thinned out at once? And for it to be uninhabitable, impassable since then.” He was right. A giant invisible dome around the village warped the information flow. This was more than a blind spot; it was an exclusion zone for consciousness and magic.

“Then… what is it?” Raven lowered her head and shuffled her lips. Her throat dried up under E.T.’s intensity. I knew she wanted nothing more than to plug her ears and run away to one of her apartments.

“Mass murder. They pushed the project forward, setting unrealistic timelines and goals, while knowing the risks. And after things went south, they didn’t even offer a word of apology and continued to live in luxury. And does it look like an average Joe got a taste of magic? No. Those people died only so the rich could enjoy the fruits of magic.” E.T. curved his fingers into a claw.

The Nohato Disaster was one of the potential motives I had considered for the serial murders. Quasi-omniscience couldn’t directly read the past, but from the records, it found that all the victims had invested in the project. But… there was a puzzling fact. Genki differed from the rest since he pulled his funding and support at an early stage. The other victims stayed committed even after the disaster, blaming the whole incident on the researchers.

Genki was far from the only investor who bailed early. Would E.T. kill the others next? He hadn’t shown any signs of preparing.

Should I kill him, just in case?

As my thoughts arrived at this point, E.T. forged ahead onto a mountain, straying from the path that had been laid out. Raven brushed her hand along the slithery barrier as she lagged behind; her gaze was glued on him, paying little attention to her steps. If I killed E.T., how would she react?

Maybe I should start preparations to pull the two of them apart.

“See. I told you that you would learn more about the artifact trade. You even lost your virginity. Congratulations.” I broke my silence, which had persisted since their sexcapade.

Raven didn’t flinch this time, as if she had been expecting my intrusion this time. “How did you contact Takafumi-san? What do you want? Did you kill Pestilence’s roommate? How did you do that?” She’s using his first name already? I'm surprised that she didn't blush. It could be that the motionless air and the void of smell had dulled her sense of embarrassment.

“Raven-”

“It’s Karasuya.” Her exasperated tone sounded like she had tolerated the nickname for a long time. Well, she was always welcome to suggest another one with even fewer syllables.

“Raven, you got a hot boyfriend out of it. If I had to sacrifice orphans to give you that, would you break up with him?”

The question failed to stir up a storm in her; instead, her steps got steadier and more willful. “You didn’t ‘give’ him to me. We fell in love of our own accord. And he actually tells me his secrets.” Why did she have to say it like we were in a love triangle?

“I sacrificed a pregnant woman to make E.T. fall in love with you. Can you still stay in this relationship now?” I knew she wouldn’t believe me, but this might at least create some false guilt.

“What? What E.T.? Just shut up unless you'll help us defeat those evil capitalists.” It was as I thought; Raven was grasping for E.T.’s goals as her lifeline. Maybe I should have invented a sad backstory for myself. That would barely take any effort; there were plenty of light novels to plagiarize from.

“If you want to make the wrong decision, be my guest. I won’t help you in any way.” A strange sensation presented itself to me, as if the center of Nohato Village was dragging me out of Raven’s body. This metaphor was the only way I could describe it.

“I don’t need it,” Raven replied. That’s where she was wrong. Because I would work against her, setting her up for failure. When she fell, I would be there, swooping in, her knight in shining armor. And she would forever be dependent on me. I smiled and nodded internally, content with my new plan. Maybe I could tame her earlier than I thought.

Although our conversation had broken off, Raven still muttered, “This place feels too normal. I wish I could see through the trees and mountains.”

No, you don't.