Soon, under the guard's lead, Li Wu arrived at the deepest part of the prison—
A fully equipped "surveillance room."
The room wasn't dim; in fact, it was excessively bright, lacking the crudeness usually associated with places holding serious criminals.
The first thing that caught his eye was a wall covered in LCD monitors. Each screen displayed a different area, offering an almost blind-spot-free view of every corner of Nagazora City.
Except for particularly remote places that couldn't be seen, such as the alley where he and Raiden Mei had hidden—a "blind spot" specifically arranged for the protagonist in the manga's setting.
"I'm surprised you managed to bring Mei to me safe and sound. But from here on out, there won't be any more surprises."
Raiden Ryoma raised his hand.
The guards immediately raised their rifles, aiming at Li Wu from all angles. They were just waiting for Ryoma's command to turn Li Wu and the Raiden Mei in his arms into a honeycomb.
However, Raiden Ryoma wasn't in a rush to do so.
Li Wu's actions had moved him deeply. So, as long as Li Wu was willing to put Raiden Mei down, Raiden Ryoma didn't mind giving him a way out.
"I don't believe there are any surprises in this world. Everything is destined, including me bringing your daughter to you safe and sound. My departure is also destined. If I want to leave, you have absolutely no way to stop me."
Li Wu placed Raiden Mei on the bed to the side, then turned to face Raiden Ryoma, meeting his gaze without fear.
This sudden confidence made Raiden Ryoma frown. He looked the somewhat tender-faced young man up and down.
Soaked from head to toe by the rain, messy hair, fresh scrapes under his torn uniform caused by some kind of energy—he looked quite wretched.
Combined with what he had witnessed on the surveillance monitors, apart from his excellent on-the-spot decision-making during the fight with the cyborgs, the boy in front of him had no other highlights. He was just an ordinary person you could find anywhere on the street.
Files and records don't lie.
Raiden Ryoma was certain.
The other party wasn't a child from a major Schicksal family, nor an Anti-Entropy cyborg, nor a member of World Serpent from the Previous Era.
"I won't kill you. After all, you are sincere toward my daughter. Whether it was the Blood Wolf Mercenary Group or using Mei's Herrscher power to wipe out the cyborgs I sent." Raiden Ryoma shook his head in disappointment. The last sliver of hope he held vanished upon seeing how ordinary Li Wu was. "But you're just a hot-blooded young man like any other. Being able to come before me is already remarkable."
"If you continue to stand by my daughter's side, you'll only drag yourself down... Give up. Don't persist anymore. Continuing to struggle with Mei will only lead her to a more miserable end. Besides, you can't take responsibility for her, can you?"
Raiden Ryoma questioned him with the mature tone of an elder.
To Li Wu, it sounded incredibly ironic, so much so that he couldn't help clenching his fists, wanting to rush up and punch him in the face.
"I really want to punch you in the face right now, but reason tells me it would be meaningless."
"See, you're just a somewhat clever, hot-blooded boy. Reality is complicated, child," Raiden Ryoma continued to persuade.
Li Wu's voice was calm. His dark gaze swept past Raiden Ryoma and landed on the monitors behind him. "I can take responsibility for all my actions. But a father who wants to kill his own daughter has no right to judge me. If I were you, I'd either run with her to the ends of the earth and die together at worst, or quickly fulfill her wishes and send her off 'painlessly'."
"Do you think I don't want to?!" Raiden Ryoma's expression turned angry, his tone becoming agitated.
"What does a student like you know about how many eyes are watching me? do you know how much effort it took for the 'right of adjudication' to fall into my hands? I only found out about her Herrscher identity being exposed after I was locked up here! If it hadn't been exposed... I had the ability to let her live a safe and peaceful life."
"...Forget it. In the end, you don't understand anything. All I can do is urge 'those people' to end my daughter's suffering quickly... As for the methods and the process, I have no right to interfere."
Raiden Ryoma's voice suddenly dropped low, like sinking into water, leaving only muffled gurgles.
Regarding this aspect, the manga didn't provide supplementary settings.
"Those people"? The nobles who planted a bomb on the bus, locked Raiden Mei in the girls' bathroom to humiliate her, and tried to sneak a time bomb into her school bag?
Heh.
Li Wu offered no further comment. He turned around, walked to the bed, picked Raiden Mei up again, and headed for the exit, ignoring Raiden Ryoma.
"Stop! Do you think you can come and go as you please? This chance... this chance finally appeared, to let Mei leave without pain... I absolutely will not allow you to waste this opportunity!"
Raiden Ryoma grabbed a portable pistol from the nearby table and aimed it at the back of Li Wu's head, his words full of threat.
Li Wu stopped.
Then, he slowly turned around. There was not a trace of panic on his face despite being held at gunpoint. His eyes were as gloomy as stagnant water. Looking past the muzzle aimed right between his eyebrows, he stared straight at Raiden Ryoma's pained and stubborn expression.
"You never asked for her opinion, did you?"
"What does it matter if I ask or not... No matter what, the outcome won't change..."
"That's an excuse. How she chooses is her business. If she chose self-destruction, no one could be blamed. But you didn't even ask. How do you know she doesn't want to live?"
Raiden Ryoma was rendered speechless. He bit his lip, his mouth moving silently. His gaze, along with the gun in his hand, slowly lowered and drooped.
Indeed, he hadn't asked.
But how could he bear to ask? How could a father ask his daughter with his own mouth: Do you want Daddy to send you on your way?
How could he possibly do that!
"You did everything, except dare to try giving your daughter the right to choose her own fate. If you had done that, I think the originally 'kind' Raiden Mei would have definitely understood her father's difficulties and quietly taken her own life as you wished."
"But you didn't."
"And so, she tasted every kind of bitterness and humiliation."
Li Wu began to list them, every word sounding like an accusation: "You don't understand how painful it is for a helpless student to be shouted at and cursed in society, and bullied by classmates at school. Ask for help? Heh, those guys couldn't hide fast enough. Why would they help? Everyone played blind, unwilling to wade into the muddy water. Day after day, anyone who helped her had ulterior motives. Most people either stayed out of it or became accomplices."
"Making a fool of herself in front of classmates and teachers became the norm."
"Locked in the restroom, enduring having filthy water from the slop bucket poured on her; walking with her head down because anyone passing by would enthusiastically lean in to mock her; her desk, chair, and textbooks were never clean—spit, paint, all kinds of filthy words never ceased; her gym clothes stolen during P.E., forced to take the class in her uniform and then deliberately humiliated; spiders and centipedes secretly stuffed into her school bag..."
Li Wu relentlessly recounted all the bullying Raiden Mei had suffered. With every incident he mentioned, Raiden Ryoma's eyelids twitched uncontrollably, the corners of his mouth pulled tight, his body trembled slightly, and the muzzle of the gun shook.
Some were things Raiden Mei had personally experienced, some were things from the manga that hadn't happened yet due to his interference...
Even just one or two of these incidents would be enough to leave lifelong psychological trauma.
And there were hundreds of such incidents.
Some were carefully planned malicious traps, others were just "jokes" made on a whim between classes.
Raiden Mei grew up in this environment. Being bullied and insulted became her "daily life."
That originally pure and kind heart was repeatedly soaked in malice and despair, gradually fading, until she had to grow a protective shell around herself—just like how he would experience personality dissociation after too many deaths.
When the brain judged that the consciousness could not withstand external pressure, it would adopt various protective measures...
"How dare they... How dare they..."
"There's nothing they wouldn't dare. Isn't this the order you personally gave? Whether you intended for this or not, this is the result."
Li Wu interrupted Raiden Ryoma, whose emotions were on the verge of losing control.
Then he walked forward, his steps steady. He walked straight past Raiden Ryoma, picked up another pistol from the table next to him, skillfully ejected the magazine, checked the bullets, and chambered a round.
The click-clack of metal parts colliding was exceptionally crisp in the deadly silent room.
"I will seek help from World Serpent and have them provide temporary asylum for Raiden Mei. Before the asylum ends, I will find a way to make that Schicksal Overseer change her mind. At least... make her abandon Raiden Mei as a test subject."
Li Wu carried Raiden Mei to the door again. The guards still blocked his way.
The only change was that Raiden Ryoma didn't raise his gun at him. Instead, his arm hung limply at his side. The pistol clattered to the floor. His entire face was utterly dispirited, looking as if he had suddenly aged several years.
"It's useless... World Serpent won't help Mei. And that Schicksal Overseer... heh, forget about you, even if our Anti-Entropy Sovereign Welt stepped in personally, it wouldn't shake her in the slightest..."
"Believe what you want. I'm not here to ask for your opinion, just to notify you."
"Even so, I can't let you take the risk with Mei... You're just an ordinary student... Persisting will only bring the most despairing end to Mei. Compared to becoming a test subject in a lab with no human rights, dying here is the best outcome..."
Raiden Ryoma still stuck to his view, but his tone was like a pebble on the edge of a cliff—teetering and no longer firm.
"I'm going to refute three things you said."
Li Wu didn't move his body. He turned his head sideways, looking back at Raiden Ryoma obliquely.
"First, as you said, physically I am indeed an ordinary person. But having made it here, I am no longer ordinary. The most important thing a person should do is understand their own position—don't be blindly confident, but don't be overly inferior either."