"Damn it..."
"I knew it! I knew it!"
The shabby, cluttered street scenes on either side swept rapidly backward. The air grew thick and stagnant, pressing against his face along with the hard, cold raindrops.
"Broken-Brow" Barty sprinted madly away from the shack without looking back.
He was fast. With every step he took, the shadow on the ground beneath him trembled and rippled like the surface of water. Behind him, faint silver motes formed from Magic Particles could be seen quickly scattering.
Sure enough, just as he had guessed, all that talk about "signals" and "safe passages" was complete bullshit.
Those noble lords in White Cliff District had never intended to leave them a way out!
The Shark Gang had been completely abandoned!
A drowning man caught in a whirlpool would never see the way out.
Only now, after Barty had truly fled the battlefield, stripped away his identity as the Shark Gang's second-in-command, and stood outside the situation, did his thoughts finally become clear.
What had he—or rather, his big brother "Shark" Riley—wanted?
Resources and aid from White Cliff District, to let the Shark Gang escape its current predicament of stunted development and expand its power.
And what about the nobles who had given them the job?
All they had wanted was to teach Baron Faro a lesson, so that he would turn a blind eye during approvals in the future and let them seize more profit.
Kidnapping the baron's daughter was only one method of achieving that goal.
Putting himself in their shoes, if he were one of those bay nobles with vast resources in hand, how could he possibly entrust such an important matter to a third-rate little gang like the Shark Gang, who barely had a voice even in Saltwater District?
Even if it cost