Chapter 119: Argos

"Honey, we didn’t find anything!"

"Yeah, this isn’t as intuitive as I thought. Hmm, maybe things are inside the buildings, like some kind of shopping malls."

We kept walking, but aside from the statues, fountains, and a few buildings with interesting designs, we didn’t find any markets, restaurants, or recreational spots.

Iris had been saying she wanted to buy a flying device, but we didn’t find any stores like that either.

We hadn’t gone inside any of the buildings, since I noticed that all the entrances had some kind of security checkpoint we had to go through.

Which inevitably led me to notice that everyone we’d come across was wearing a bracelet with a peculiar design.

In fact, now that I think about it, Bianca and the triplets had them too—though at the time I just assumed it was something everyone at an academy had. But if everyone here has one, there must be a reason.

Maybe it’s an ID and the way to get into certain places.

"Honey, let’s split up so we can see if we find anything interesting."

"No!"

"Why not, honey? I have one of your cards, and if I leave you part of my weapon, I’ll know where you are, too."

"There’s no need to split up. Besides, before that, there’s another problem we have to take care of."

The Beast Kingdom didn’t have them, and it was never mentioned to any clients, but this city might operate under a system that requires identification to move around.

That thought gains more weight when I consider how advanced this place is and how everyone is wearing those bracelets.

The problem is that those kinds of checks are most likely done before entering the city—or even the kingdom itself—but we were already in the center.

Before we keep trying to sightsee, it’s better to put that doubt to rest and find a solution. I don’t want to draw attention to ourselves and get chased by the local authorities.

"Love, let’s go somewhere secluded."

"Honey, don’t tell me you were thinking the same thing I was and want to try that?"

"...Just to clarify, what are you referring to?"

"Public sex ヾ(≧▽≦). You said these cloaks had the ability to reduce our presence, right? We just have to find a good spot and—"

"Hold on!, that’s not what I mean. Let’s go somewhere secluded to sync up, since we might have accidentally gotten ourselves into trouble."

Now I kind of regret not having looked into how this kingdom works in more detail.

"Oh! Synchronization! I get it, honey. After that, we’ll split up to find a fun spot."

Well, whatever. Once we synchronized, she’d understand the potential danger of our situation.

..

.

"Ah! I see—so we probably don’t have an identity. Hmm, we need one to get into buildings, too."

"Yeah, exactly."

"Hmm, but that means if we do something illegal, there won’t be a record of it, right?"

"Oh! That’s true! We’re off the grid, hehe!"

"Hmm, but I want to find a flying machine first; I think it’s best to gather information before anything else."

"Right, very true."

Well, once we found a secluded alley, we synchronized,. Now we were both on the same page.

There are lots of interesting things I can think of doing, including checking if those statues were really made of gold and if I can take a little piece home as a souvenir.

But first I had to confirm whether my assumption that those bracelets served as identification was correct, and there was a simple way to do that.

..

.

"Oh, you don’t have to be scared, my dear friend—we’re not bad people."

"Yes, we’re decent people, but if you don’t answer correctly, we could cause you a lot of pain, hehehe. My axe craves blood!" (Iris)

There we were, Iris and I, surrounding a guy who had the misfortune of wandering down the deserted alley where Iris and I had set up our ambush.

He was a winged man, but he didn’t look very strong; he appeared to be rank one, so he was just an average citizen.

Well, we wanted to talk things out peacefully, but in case he didn’t cooperate, the huge crimson metal axe Iris was holding could certainly dissuade him from doing so.

Anyway, we assigned roles: Iris would play the crazed one eager to kill him, and I’d be the voice of reason.

"W-who are you? What you’re doing is illegal!" (Man)

The guy didn’t have much guts.

In fact, his legs were shaking like crazy, he was sweating, and he couldn’t take his eyes off the huge axe whose blade was just centimeters from his neck.

"Heh~! It’s only illegal if we get caught, and there’s no one else here but us. You can try yelling, but if you yell too loud, you might scare me and make my axe slip—heuheu~." (Iris)

Although we were still wearing our identity-concealing cloaks, we were also using Morphogenesis underneath, and we’d both already changed our appearances.

If things went wrong, we’d run and blend into the crowd.

"Y-you’re not afraid? The Argos system will know you were here, and you’ll be arrested!" (Man)

"Argos? What are you talking about? Spit it out."

I pressed him when he brought up an unexpected topic.

"What are you talking about? H-how can you not know what the Argos system is? You’re infected by corruption! Y-you’ve gone crazy." (Man)

"Answer my partner’s question—if I were you, I’d hurry. My hand might get tired and drop my axe, hahuehue~. Well, I don’t mind finding someone else either, hueheu~. More blood for me." (Iris)

I need to understand what kind of city this is and the danger we’d face if we wandered around without those bracelets.

"I-I... Argos, this... this is..." (Man)

Anyway, under pressure from Iris, who seemed eager to slit his throat, the man raised his hand shakily and showed his wrist, where the bracelet was—and apparently that’s what he meant by Argos.

"Oh, so that’s Argos. And that’s exactly what I wanted to ask you: what are those bracelets, what are they for, and where can you get them? As you can see, my companion and I lost ours."

I told him as I showed him that our bracelets were missing. When the man saw that, his eyes widened in visible disbelief.

"N-no, that’s i-impossible. You two... h-how? T-that can’t be." (Man)

"Hehe! The fact that you’re not speaking clearly makes me really want to find someone else. Hmm, now I don’t know if a vertical cut or a horizontal one would be better." (Iris)

Iris said as she brought the axe even closer to the man’s neck, causing a small, superficial cut.

The man seemed to feel that his life was truly in danger; he pulled himself together a bit and continued speaking.

"I-it’s impossible... This city is under the Argos system. All residents—even those in the slums and newborns—have one. A-as soon as it’s damaged or you take off the bracelet, the guards will surround you." (Man)

"Oh! What if—let’s say, hypothetically—I never had one of those? What would happen?"

"I-it would be the same. N-no one can enter high-level cities in the kingdom without them. If they do, the Argos system will detect it, and they’ll be surrounded by guards." (Man)

"눈_눈, are you sure about that? Because, as you can see, even though we don’t have that bracelet, nothing has happened to us, and we’ve been here for several days."

"I-I don’t know, I-I swear. I-I’m not lying; if you ask anyone, they’ll know I’m not lying. P-please, let me go—I don’t know anything else." (Man)

Yeah, it looks like the poor guy is having a breakdown, so it wasn’t a good idea to just keep pressing him.

Anyway, if he’s reached this point, he obviously doesn’t seem to be lying, but that just made our situation even stranger. The man already seemed to be at his limit, but I had more questions for him.

"So, clear something up for me. Besides keeping an eye on citizens, does that also serve as identification, or am I mistaken?"

"N-no."

..

.

"Okay, in short, the Argos system is only used to detect whether everyone has that bracelet. It can also track down those who don’t have them, but, aside from that, it can’t monitor people in any other way."

"The most important thing is that, even though this kingdom does have an identification system, it has nothing to do with Argos."

"It also detects people with corruption, which prevents a lot of problems—that’s why this kingdom is one of the safest in the whole world."

Yes, luckily Argos isn’t some kind of all-powerful surveillance camera that sees and hears everything.

At first, that man seemed pretty sure we wouldn’t kill him, because if we did, obviously, there would be evidence that we’d been there, but we don’t actually have those bracelets, so even if we killed him, there wouldn’t be any evidence of anything.

That’s why the man got even more scared—he realized that we weren’t afraid of the consequences and might actually kill him.

In any case, his fear was unfounded, since I hadn’t planned to kill him even if he didn’t answer—I would just knock him out and look for someone else.

I even slipped a few gold coins into his pockets as compensation.

Now, setting aside the fact that the Argos system hadn’t detected us, in order to have fun and sightsee comfortably, we had to become citizens.

According to him, at the entrance to every major city there’s a registration office that foreigners or students use, and they give you a wristband.

But here’s the interesting part: although the Argos system itself didn’t serve as identification—as I’d originally thought—depending on whether you’re a citizen, a foreigner, a student, a high-ranking official, or something else, the wristbands are different and grant different privileges and access.

For example, students at the academy have different wristbands than citizens.

Ordinary citizens cannot enter the academy without a valid reason, while students can enter and exit simply by going through a quick check.

And there are places that citizens can enter easily, but students and foreigners have to explain why they want to go there—or their entry is outright prohibited.

In a way, it seems like a very restrictive and annoying system, but there really aren’t any complaints, since there aren’t that many places you can’t go.

Of the few that exist, they include places like the academy, magical towers, and government sites—where it makes sense for restrictions to be in place and for permission to be required beforehand.

For the people here, it’s more of a convenience that simplifies procedures and lets them know where it’s okay to go and where it isn’t, rather than something that restricts them.

"Hmm... I wonder if it can be destroyed."

I heard Iris mutter that.

I guess she was thinking more or less the same thing I was, and I understand her. It’s not total surveillance, but I don’t like the feeling of control over us and the restriction it imposes.