LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 12 - A Touching Reunion
“Grrr!”
Gilbert, who was running alongside me, let out a pained groan and fell to the ground.
I involuntarily stopped in my tracks.
“You damn idiot!”
Gilbert, still on the ground, shot the mafia boss in the head with the assault rifle he held in his hand and said to me.
“Ryuji, I can’t run anymore! Leave me behind! I’ll try to slow them down as much as I can!”
I ignored his words and carried Gilbert up.
“Hey! This is crazy! You can’t run with me on your back!
“Shut up or you’ll bite your tongue!”
I run with all my might.
“It should be a little further to the launch base.”
“I couldn’t bear to lose another comrade.”
“Tch, you’re really carrying me while running! I weigh 108.4 kg, you know?”
“You… You must be rebounding… I told you to go on a diet…”
And so, I managed to reach the facility with the launch platform while still carrying Gilbert.
I couldn’t grasp the whole picture, but the building wasn’t too large.
“Unbelievable… He actually managed to escape…”
“Let’s hide in the bushes here…”
Gasping for breath, I gently set Gilbert down on the ground.
Then I looked at his wounded leg.
He probably wouldn’t be able to move anymore.
Gilbert forced a smile.
“Leave me here. Without any rocket launcher ammo, I’m just a charming fat guy now.”
“I can’t just leave you here. There should be a place to hide you inside the facility. Since one of your legs is fine, you can walk from here.”
I reluctantly lent my shoulder to Gilbert, and we got up from the thicket.
As if he had realized something, Gilbert began to speak.
“Ryuji, I want to rid the world of hungry people. So, I have to stop wars that cause poverty.”
“Yeah, I understand. But still, you eat too much.”
“Being fat is a symbol of happiness. Besides, there are times when my body comes in handy, you know?”
As we were having that conversation, a sound of something dropping was heard behind us.
Immediately, Gilbert pushed me away.
In my startled gaze, I saw Gilbert diving towards the grenade that had fallen on the ground.
“Gil!”
“Ryuji, I’m counting on you for the rest!”
With a beaming smile towards me, the grenade exploded.
Gilbert’s large body shielded me from the blast, and I was covered in his blood splatter.
…I must still be quite inexperienced as a mercenary.
Training to control my emotions was not my strong suit.
“Phew…”
I exhaled deeply and sharpened my focus.
I turned all the anger burning within me into my strength and gripped the survival knife that Gilbert had on his waist.
I’m going to kill them all.
Every mafia member in this forest…
Transformed into a demon of carnage, I surged forth…
And annihilated the enemies.
“Haa… haa… Gil, Aaron. I’ve avenged you guys.”
I removed the dog tags from Gilbert’s body and attached them to my necklace along with the tags of my other comrades, waiting for the forest to regain its original tranquility.
Upon entering the missile launch facility, I saw the bodies of mafia members strewn about. Seeing those corpses, I became certain of who was responsible.
“Definitely Oscar from the separate unit. All of them have cleanly broken necks.”
Given the confined space indoors, it seemed they had eliminated the enemies within the facility through hand-to-hand combat and surprise attacks. My martial arts instructor, after all, I still hadn’t managed to defeat him even once.
Remaining cautious, I explored the facility and spotted a girl sneaking around.
“Hey, Char.”
“Eek! There were still enemies!? Don’t kill me—Wait, Ryuji! Are you okay? You’re covered in blood!”
I reunited with Charlotte, who had been heading to this base with Oscar’s separate unit from the back entrance.
“It’s okay, it’s all just splatter.”
“S-Sure… What about the others?”
“…”
“Right, I understand.”
“How about you? Where’s Oscar?”
“The last remaining enemy was a specialist in hand-to-hand combat. Oscar got into a struggle with them… and they both fell off a cliff together…”
Saying that, Charlotte showed me Oscar’s dog tag.
“He must have handed it to her.”
“I see… It seems there are only two of us left. What about the missile?”
“It’s probably underground, but the door to access it got jammed and deformed due to a grenade explosion. I was searching for tools to fix it.”
“Good, I can force it open. Take me there.”
Following Charlotte, I inserted a metal bar I found into the control room’s door and opened it. Charlotte, with her hacking skills, accessed the control panel and went downstairs.
Finally, a vast chamber with the missile warhead came into view.
“Who are you two?”
“We’re justice heroes!”
I knocked down the individuals who seemed to be researchers around the missile. The control panel’s screen displayed 38 minutes remaining until launch. It seemed we had arrived just in time.
“Charlotte, can you stop the missile from launching?”
“Leave it to me! That’s why we’re here!”
Snapping her fingers, Charlotte connected her laptop to the missile’s control panel. A few minutes later, she hit “Enter,” and the missile’s launch timer halted.
“Alright! Now, I’ll set a timer for a detonator”
As I was about to prepare, an alert started blaring.
“Received external cyber attack. This missile will self-destruct in 10 minutes.”
“10 minutes!? Charlotte, can you stop it?”
“…I can’t! They’ve completely severed interference with the system! We have to escape!”
There was a self-destruct device for covering up evidence. The missile itself didn’t carry much destructive power. Its role was to ignite the flames of war.
Still, within 10 minutes, we wouldn’t be able to escape the blast radius.
I searched the surroundings for a solution.
And then, I found it.
“Charlotte… take this.”
I placed the dog tags of our fallen comrades around Charlotte’s neck.
Including mine, Ryuji Miyamoto’s dog tag…
“Nearby, there’s an emergency large-scale defense door that can be manually operated. I’ll close it to limit the explosion’s range. During that time, you need to run as far away as you can.”
“No, I can’t! I don’t want to be the only one who survives!”
I gently stroked Charlotte’s head as she sobbed.
“Charlotte, please survive. And let our families know that we had an honorable end. You’re the only one who will remember us.”
“N-No…”
“There’s no time left! I’m entrusting this to you, my partner Charlotte!”
I immediately ran to the lever and started closing the defense door.
It was a door meant to seal off the entire room containing the missile.
Of course, it wasn’t designed for one person to close. It was ridiculously heavy.
“Go! Charlotte, go!”
I used my trained muscles to turn the lever.
Slowly but surely, the massive door, like a gate, was gradually closing.
As I sprinted through the closing door, Charlotte wiped her tears and looked at me.
“Ryuji… I love you.”
I felt like I heard those words in Japanese.
“―Three,”
“―Two,”
“―One.”
Thus, I completed my mission and met my end.
And now, having been reincarnated as a high school student…
Before me stood Charlotte, who had miraculously survived without a single scratch.
Wearing elegant clothes, her beautiful golden hair neatly tied up.
Aside from her incredibly beautiful face, she was no different from any other high school girl around.
“There’s something I need to tell you about your husband, Ryuji Miyamoto.”
Startled for a moment, Shiori showed a surprised expression before quickly regaining her composure and smiling.
Charlotte was now fluent in Japanese, having diligently studied the language.
“Please come in. I’ll prepare some tea.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
As encouraged by Shiori, Charlotte entered the house.
In her hand, she held my dog tag, clutching it tightly.
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