Schicksal had plenty of ways to make someone tell the "truth," regardless of their personal will.
"But as promised, I only brought you home. I won't help you do anything else. Now that your possession of a firearm has been exposed, you'll have to figure out how to deal with the corpses, the gun, and the aftermath yourself. If you can't explain it clearly, you're definitely going to jail. Or rather... for everyone involved, you going to jail is the best possible outcome."
"That way, everyone can naturally complete their own missions without any more obstacles or unexpected accidents."
"If you're still out there running around, too many people will be forced to take actions beyond their expectations because of you."
Anna didn't explicitly say who she meant, but Li Wu could easily guess.
Including her, everyone who got close to him had deviated from their original behavioral trajectories.
Judging from just one day of interaction, many people who had been proceeding perfectly along their own paths were forced to change course upon coming into contact with him, doing all sorts of strange things.
Even though she hadn't investigated the details clearly, her long-term mission experience still allowed Anna to make an accurate judgment.
Take Arga, for example. First, he backstabbed his teammates, then he tried to use a "bitter flesh" trick, intending to scurry back with the excuse that the "mission failed, and I was the only one who luckily escaped."
Raiden Mei, who should have been self-destructive, suddenly had the desire to live. She even temporarily accepted her Herrscher persona and gained a portion of its authority.
Kiana Kaslana took the risk of asking her aunt, Cecilia, for help in completely shutting down three noble families in the Far East.
And her aunt, in turn, requested that Anna monitor Li Wu and prevent him from doing anything dangerous as much as possible.
And then there was herself...
In just one short day, she had violated the Valkyrie Code a full three times!
It was completely baffling! Everything she did felt justified and completely logical at the time, but in the end, things just kept getting weirder and weirder!
Anna had a premonition. If this continued, it wouldn't just be the others—she herself might not be able to escape unscathed.
This Li Wu was a very strange person. It was as if he had a "magnetic field" around him that made anyone who got close act strangely.
She had to draw a clear line with him as soon as possible.
Right. I also need to warn Kiana to draw a clear line with him. This guy is too weird...
Although she wasn't familiar with her arranged fiancé, Kiana was still Aunt Cecilia's daughter. Anna felt it was necessary to give her a heads-up.
Having said all this, Anna didn't give Li Wu a chance to respond. She stormed out the door, showing absolutely no lingering attachment.
When it came to executing missions, she was like a completely different person from the airhead beauty who had just transferred into his class.
Li Wu had to re-evaluate Anna Schariac.
Or rather, he had to re-evaluate every "acquaintance" he had made in this world, because that might very well be the key to breaking the stalemate.
There was a massive difference in how Anna handled missions versus how she handled interpersonal relationships.
During a mission, she was decisive, resolute, and highly opinionated. Whether it was her combat experience in preventing Arga from counter-attacking with the Plasma Kagehide when the intel was unclear, or her various on-the-spot reactions in battle. Even if she didn't initiate an attack, she knew exactly what she should do and what she could do. She never dragged her feet; her actions were decisive.
But when handling daily life, she would often become flustered due to a lack of common sense, foolishly smiling and apologizing even after being tricked.
I'll stop summarizing here for now. As for this mess...
Li Wu glanced at the two corpses. He already had a countermeasure in mind.
"Well then, I'll be heading back to report in. If nothing unexpected happens, relevant personnel will come to question you in about two hours. You better prepare yourself."
Arga offered a quick warning, then awkwardly hobbled to the window and jumped out. That kind of height was no problem for a cyborg like him.
The kitchen suddenly fell quiet. The only sound was the cold wind blowing the freezing drizzle through the shattered windowpane, pattering clearly against the kitchen floor.
The floor was a total mess...
Shattered glass, the fragrant aroma of hot soup, the biting chill of frost, bright red blood, the smell of gunpowder, bullet casings...
It would be very hard to explain what had just happened here.
Leaning against the cold cabinet, Li Wu slowly slid down to a sitting position. His eyes drooped, his right hand gripping his left shoulder. The short sleeve of his uniform had long since been soaked through with blood.
His body couldn't stop shivering—whether from the cold brought on by blood loss, the utter exhaustion following extreme tension, or perhaps both.
Despite Li Wu's efforts to suppress it, his body no longer obeyed him. Even his vision grew incredibly blurry, and a constant ringing echoed in his ears.
Only now, with the dust settled and the crisis averted, could Raiden Mei's gaze finally rest carefully upon Li Wu.
Then, her throat suddenly felt tight and sore. She opened her mouth, her lips moving, but not a single word came out.
His entire arm was swallowed by crimson. Blood flowed from the horrifying wound on his shoulder, trailing down his arm to his fingertips, dripping drop by drop...
Under the bright, warm orange light of the kitchen, Li Wu's face was impossibly pale. There was no color left at all, only a deathly white.
His entire body was drenched and filthy, as if he had just been dragged out from the ruins of some disaster. His hair, soaked by the rain, clung to his pale forehead in a messy tangle, stained with what was either mud or dust.
Is this... how he looks every time he stands in front of me?
Tottering, battered, and exhausted.
He looked so terrible...
So terrible that it seemed he might completely shatter in the next second...
Again...
Again...
It felt as if something was lodged in Raiden Mei's throat. A sour, hot current uncontrollably surged into her eyes.
She remembered back in the classroom, when Li Wu had asked her, "What if I left... what would you do?"
At the time, she had hugged him and said, "I forgive you."
Looking back on it now, it was an absolute joke.
Raiden Mei finally understood.
The "leave" Li Wu had spoken of was perhaps much closer to its literal meaning.
Just like tonight, appearing before her covered in wounds, having almost truly "left" forever.
Throwing himself into fatal danger time and time again, using unpredictable sacrifices as bargaining chips, all to gamble on the miniscule "possibility" of saving her.
But in the end, she would still die, and ultimately, she would only drag him down with her.
The continuously flowing blood, the accumulating injuries, the mounting pressure...
And I actually had the nerve to say a ridiculous joke like, 'I forgive you.'
Even drawing a breath looks painful for him right now...
Tears burst from her eyes, blurring Mei's vision.
Through her tear-filled eyes, Li Wu—sitting amidst a pool of blood and debris—looked more handsome, more dazzling than ever before.
Her beloved was not a lofty god, nor an invincible hero. He was just an ordinary mortal covered in wounds.
An ordinary mortal who belonged to her, one who was on the verge of collapse but was still desperately holding on.
How am I worthy...
How am I worthy of this...