Chapter 307-The Manga Pariah's Guide to Self-Salvation
In the upper district's Public Security Bureau office, a young woman was dozing in her chair, the brim of her cap pulled low over half her face, dried blood still visible on her jaw.
"Captain, the Royal Knights Order's Second Division is requesting our support!"
Wu Shu clicked her tongue in annoyance at being disturbed. She didn't even bother turning her head. "Our Bureau can barely take care of itself. The chief's lost somewhere in a Demonic Domain. If you've got the energy, go help them yourself."
The young man delivering the report faltered. "B-but he says there are rioters who've snuck into the upper district and are on a killing spree. That falls under our jurisdiction."
"Right now the chief's MIA, the deputy chief and the others died in that last Demonic Domain... You're the highest-ranking officer here, Captain. The safety of the upper district rests on your shoulders..."
Wu Shu finally stood. The metallic tang of dried blood wafted from her body, and the reporting officer instinctively stepped back.
"You see, I haven't yet recovered from the grief of losing my superiors. I can't shoulder that kind of responsibility right now."
She patted his stiff shoulder, her breezy tone devoid of any actual sorrow. "You're awfully eager to push me. Are you that keen to experience the same grief yourself?"
"No! I've always had the utmost respect for you, Captain!"
"Good." She gave them all a piece of advice: "If you want to live, stay put. If you want to die, I won't stop you."
The officer's face went white. He nodded frantically and backed out of the office hunched over.
Watching him leave obediently, Wu Shu's expression turned to one of weary boredom. She passed the mirror hanging on the wall and only then noticed the blood on her jaw, wiping it off immediately.
A Demonic Domain had descended on the Bureau not long ago. The creatures inside bled green slime, so having human blood on her was a bit conspicuous.
Then again, no one would dare give her trouble after this. Everyone who could give her trouble was pretty much dead.
Panicked shouting suddenly erupted outside the office. Wu Shu's brows knitted. She pushed through the door and headed toward the commotion.
At the Bureau's front entrance, uniformed officers had gathered in a tight cluster, their expressions a mix of fury and fear. After the initial outburst of screaming, they lowered their voices to hushed exchanges, as if afraid of attracting something.
Wu Shu pushed through them and looked down.
A severed head, cleanly cut at the neck, sat on the doorstep.
Wu Shu let out a short laugh. Well then—every last person who could have given her trouble was now officially dead. She really ought to thank Sierra.
She turned away, satisfied, but the officers behind her fixed her with strange looks—wariness and resentment flickering in their eyes.
"Wu Shu, did you conspire with the criminal Ye Zheng and Sierra to orchestrate today's carnage? You traitor to the upper district! Traitor to the Empire!"
Wu Shu clasped her hands behind her back and tilted her chin up, studying her accuser with detached amusement.
She'd been called a traitor to the Middle District plenty of times over the Dragon Bones affair. Now she was a traitor to the upper district, a traitor to the Empire. Couldn't they come up with more creative insults?
"No use denying it. Everyone in the upper district knows you're one of the Pope's people. Dare you claim this disaster has nothing to do with you?"
Wu Shu's sharp gaze settled on him. "If I recall correctly, you're from the Middle District too—same as me. The way you keep saying 'the upper district' this and that, anyone listening would think you were at least a viscount."
The officer's face flushed crimson. The others watched her warily—they couldn't fight this many Demonic Domains, and they couldn't stop Sierra, but against a single B-rank nobody? Now they felt confident in their numbers.
"I really am not cut out for the captain's post."
Facing their collective pressure, Wu Shu took off her cap, tossed it on the floor, then raised her right leg and kicked the severed head hard—
The unexpected move sent them scrambling out of the way. The head rolled into the Bureau's main hall, bouncing and tumbling for a good while before coming to a stop.
"That's right—I'm very close with Ye Zheng, I have personal dealings with Sierra, and this Demonic Domain disaster is absolutely tied to me. Oh, and those old bastards who 'died in the Demonic Domain' just now? I killed them."
"So? Which one of you wants to step up and play hero?"
"You? You? Or you?"
Wu Shu passed each of them in turn. Her deep violet eyes cut through them with piercing intensity. They exchanged glances, but not one dared make the first move.
She let out a contemptuous snort of laughter and strolled onto the blood-tinged street, her neatly cropped hair swaying in the wind.
Wu Shu sensed movement behind her. It seemed someone had finally mustered the nerve to act. Without looking back, she waved a hand. "Haven't you noticed? Sierra's people are trying to lure you out."
They stopped, predictably.
Wu Shu had long worked in the upper district and kept a residence there, but she didn't feel like going back to it now. She wandered the streets aimlessly, braving the ever-present risk of being swallowed by a Demonic Domain.
She had never seen the upper district like this. Expensive jewels and fine wares lay heaped on the roadside like garbage. Dark blood seeped through door cracks. Corpses were scattered as commonly as stray dogs in the lower district, while the living scrambled about in blind panic, too frantic for grief or dignity.
A sight that was perhaps once in an eternity.
She drifted through the carnage like a detached ghost, aimless, untouched.
She hadn't wandered long before she ran into a hard target.
"Don't move. The second you use your ability, it's gone."
Around a corner, a blade pressed against Wu Shu's waist.
"Since when do I have any 'personal dealings' with you?"
Sierra glared up at her, fierce red eyes tinged with distaste.
"We don't, really. So what do you want with me?" Wu Shu raised both hands, regarding her with curiosity.
"I have no intention of stopping you, you know."
Not only had she not tried to stop Sierra—from the very start, she had used her position to intercept the Bureau's intel about Sierra entering the upper district.
"You're not stopping me? Is this another part of Ye Zheng's grand plan?"
Sierra was sharper than Wu Shu had given her credit for. Wu Shu had to deflect.
"Does it matter? Sierra, from what little I know of you, this is something you've wanted to do for a long time."
"You trampled every person who once trampled you. The Empire's deep-rooted aristocracy has been cut down by at least half because of you. I'd wager this land has never before been watered by so much noble blood."
"A problem that even Ye Zheng found vexing, you bulldozed flat. Sierra, your name is destined to be written boldly in the history books." Though most likely in infamy.
Sierra stared at her in silence, unmoved by the praise. For some reason, Wu Shu thought she glimpsed a trace of despondency in those eyes.
"You've been to the Imperial Palace?"
Wu Shu's sharp eye caught a pendant on Sierra's chest—a jewel-encrusted lion crest, the emblem of the Aston Royal Family. She suddenly recalled a similar ornament on the Emperor's scepter.
"Yeah. Nothing interesting."
Sierra muttered, head down, her knife idly poking at the fabric at Wu Shu's waist.
Wu Shu discreetly edged back a step. She was perceptive enough to read the reason behind Sierra's uncharacteristic mood.
"Sierra, if doing all this didn't bring you the satisfaction you imagined, it means it's not what you truly wanted deep down. So what is it you actually want?"
"You talk just like Ye Zheng. Fitting for her lapdog."
"..."
Wu Shu promptly dropped the deliberate gentleness. She shrugged. "I'm nowhere near as clever as Ye Zheng. If you really can't figure it out, why not head back and discuss the answer with her?"
"Go back to her? Is this another one of your schemes?"
Sierra's hair practically bristled. The knife at Wu Shu's waist drove forward without mercy.
"No—this is outside of her plan."
Wu Shu hopped backward, smiling brightly.
Sierra leaned in, one eye wide, scrutinizing Wu Shu's face as if trying to tell truth from lie.
After a long moment, she put the knife away and walked off without a word.
Wu Shu watched her go and rubbed her cheeks, stiff from the forced smile. That last part—she hadn't been lying.
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