Episode 257: To Britain in Search of the Enemy (12)

It wouldn't be long before the retrieval team Yeongeun had sent for Sophia arrived, so I passed the time with Franc gathered in my arms, my nose buried in the wealth of her platinum hair, breathing in the scent of apples.

As expected, it wasn't long at all before Spatial Perception caught ten ability users knocking at the suite door, and I called them in.

What I hadn't expected was the composition. Three agents of the National Intelligence Service, and seven C-Class ability users drawn from Grand Blue's First and Third Teams. I'd assumed the government would be sending all ten.

Among the escort, at any rate, were Team 1 Leader Han Hyeon-rang, who had fought beside us in the assault on the Asumpfre Sunken Ruins, and Team 3 Leader Park Yoon-ho, whose easy, open smile I still remembered.

"Whoa — the team leaders came too?"

"Yes. We're taking custody of an ability user who betrayed the Master. Just in case, everyone who came, the two of us included, is C-Class."

"That's a comfort. How are you getting back?"

"For this matter, the President has provided a special aircraft."

A special escort flight. Unlikely anyone would stick a hand into that. I nodded and told them I was counting on them, and Team 1 Leader Han Hyeon-rang thumped his own chest as he vowed it.

"Don't you worry! We'll escort Sophia Adelberg to the Grand Blue Building without harming so much as a hair on her head!"

"Yes. I'm counting on the three of you as well."

I looked to the National Intelligence Service agents in their black suits and custom augmented-reality sunglasses, and they bowed their heads with proper courtesy.

I went into the bedroom and dragged Sophia out. A female agent locked a pair of purpose-made cuffs around her wrists and forced a gag into her mouth so she couldn't speak. Through all of it Sophia's eyes stayed on me. I only stared back, cold, with Mana Vision burning in my gaze.

Bound tight in prisoner's cord, she ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was taken by the arms between the female operatives and hauled out of the suite. The rest of the detail saluted me and followed after her.

I stood at the window, watched her climb into the prisoner transport, and spoke to Franc.

"Shall we go see the Edelberg couple, then."

At first I'd thought to punish Sophia in short order, then throw Dwight, his wife, and their three children into the phase institute I meant to build and grind them down there. Ichika I could simply attach to the Grand Blue raid team — set her to hunting, or rotate her through the institute's security. But that ran straight into the question of how hard to punish Sophia.

If I wanted voluntary cooperation out of her family, I couldn't come down too hard — and yet if I let her off with something moderate, she would be no example to the rest of those bastards. Voluntary cooperation presupposed, before anything, that Sophia was still breathing. The problem was what degree of punishment that left me.

I called Hwayeon and Yeongeun, told them the government agents and the team had departed with Sophia, and asked how the Edelberg couple ought to be handled.

"And after that?"

"Yeah."

The moment I confirmed it, Yeongeun rustled through her papers and went on.

"You're not planning to torture it out of them, are you?"

"Right. If I want people with that kind of family devotion to sink into their research without nursing a grudge, I can hardly come down hard on Sophia. Even if I pulled their favor up with Mana Vision, once hostility takes root, there's no telling whether it'll come undone again."

"First, whether it's a public press conference or spreading it across YouTube, I want every last thing Sophia did laid out in the open. I want her buried so deep she can never operate in society again. Even if society buries her, it won't be a problem for me to use her."

I watched Yeongeun give a pleased little hum through her nose and nod, then turned to Hwayeon, who hadn't said a word all this time.

"What would you like done, Hwayeon? You still haven't decided?"

"Yeongeun, hold on a second. Hwayeon can't get a word in."

I smiled at the sulking Yeongeun and glanced sidelong at Hwayeon. Hwayeon let out a small breath and opened her mouth.

"A trial? A heavier sentence could come down than if we punished her ourselves."

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"Hm. All right. Franc?"

"I shall follow wherever Seoha chooses to lead."

I heard everyone out and nodded.

"Good. Yeongeun — once Sophia arrives, extract what you can, so long as it doesn't touch her body or her mind. Use whatever skill you've got."

"And as for your opinion, Hwayeon... Franc and I are going to see the Edelberg couple now. I'll watch how they react, and decide whether to win the Edelberg family over. I'll try to come down on the side of taking what you want."

"Thank me for what."

She was the woman who was going to be my wife. Of course I ought to take her view.

Heading for Crawley Down, I called Lydia — my only channel to the British government — and laid out my demands regarding the Edelberg family. She asked back with a blank, foolish look on her face.

"To say it again: Sophia Adelberg has already been caught and is being ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠escorted back to my country, and I want the Edelberg couple, and all their children, brought to Korea on suspicion of espionage. I'd like you to convey that to Her Majesty."

I repeated the demands with a blank face, and Lydia, thoroughly flustered, began to flounder.

"I caught Dwight Edelberg and his wife involved in Sophia's case. If you don't believe me, I'll send you the full transcript of my conversation with them."

"Right. Talk it over and contact me again. And for the record, pass along that I fully intend to take them."

In a few modern states, kin punishment — the principle that parents are punished when a child commits a crime — is still in force, but in the great majority of countries it's as good as illegal. Even so, hauling the Edelberg family off without a word and then using them would, any way I looked at it, be no different from flinging shit across the Queen's dignity.

So the card I played was the system they call kin liability, or collective familial punishment. Sophia, who had stabbed me in the back. And Dwight and his wife, who had given her the cause to do it. If I said I was taking them to hold them jointly responsible, I figured the Queen would have no choice but to hand them over. Favorability would drop, of course, but if I offered a little advantage at the High-Tier Phase Stone auction, or quietly sold her one or two, it would recover. A High-Tier Phase Stone the royal house could dispose of as it pleased was as good as a strategic weapon on the political board.

My plan... it was a bit sloppy to even call it a plan. They were parents with strong family feeling, so I'd apply a moderate threat with the captured Sophia as leverage. Then Dwight and his wife would surely follow her to Korea. And the three siblings born of Dwight and Ichika were said to love their family as fiercely as Sophia did, so the odds were good they'd cross over after their parents.

And if not? Well, if not, then not. I'd have to be satisfied with Dwight and Ichika, who were certain to come after her. What else could I do?

When I ended the call with Lydia, the Edelberg mansion came into view in the distance.

Before leaving the hotel I'd called to ask whether the whole family was gathered at the house. If not, I'd meant to tell them to assemble — but it was Sunday, and because of what had happened yesterday, Dwight had said they were already all together. I'd planned to proceed once they were collected, and now I could handle it at once, without waiting. That worked out.

"Do you think it will go well?"

"If it doesn't, Sophia will just have to wear her parents' insolence on top of her own."

"Nooo. I meant whether the British government will meekly let the Edelberg family go..."

"We've got the recording of what Dwight and his wife said yesterday, and even if they're core members of the Grokis Institute, they can't compare to what I'm worth. If only to build goodwill with me, nine times out of ten they'll hand them over."

Whether it was an answer she could accept, Franc's face brightened.

"That is true. The Edelberg couple are the sort to honor a moral responsibility, so they will follow Sophia to Korea. That side of it, at least, we needn't worry over."

"Ah — this is really giving me a headache, and I'm about to get pissed. I'm trying, in my own human way, to live by some kind of morals, but when things make me use my head like this I just want to smash morality and all the rest of that crap to pieces."

No matter how complicated a maze gets, if you've got the strength you can just smash through every wall and walk out the exit. If Sophia had simply been a villain, I'd have crushed her flat and flattened the Edelberg house along with her... If I just judged them enemies the way Aunt Hyeryeong said and beat the shit out of them, I'd feel so much cleaner. But this damned sentiment, whatever it is.

At my irritation-laced grumbling, Franc smiled softly, clung to my back, and spoke.

"Henceforth, when a matter grows complicated, let us simply resolve to think of it simply."

"I should. Or else just dump the whole of it on the people under me."

We arrived above the Edelberg mansion, and as I dropped I looked through the interior. In the drawing room the Edelberg couple were gathered with three young men and women: a woman in her late twenties, black-haired and somewhat sharp of feature, mixed East Asian like her mother, and two men in their mid-twenties who were the spitting image of Dwight. Come to think of it, Sophia resembled Dwight a little too.

I landed in the garden, lit Mana Vision in my eyes, opened the front door, and went in. The Edelberg family, gathered in the living room, turned to me all at once.

"Hello?"

I'd tossed the greeting out as I entered, trying to sound clever about it, but the couple only regarded me with grave faces, and the children turned expressions on me that were all edge. At those faces, the irritation I'd barely settled surged right back up. Think about it. I was the victim. If the people who'd done it glared at me like that, was I supposed to get angry, or not?

"......!"

The three siblings had been glaring at me with pure insolence. I opened my mouth with Mana Voice, biting the words off as if to chew them up, and all three flinched and dropped their gazes.

I glared at the three of them as they shrank, and with my pride stung I dropped every courtesy and spoke bluntly to Dwight and his wife.

"Sophia left her fate in my hands and boarded a flight for Korea an hour ago. What are you going to do now?"

"Wh-what is to become of Sophie?"

Dwight, his face grave and his eyes red as if he hadn't slept, asked me in a rush. Did he think I was going to kill her?

"Before that, one thing. Are you prepared to sacrifice yourselves for Sophia?"

"Of course. Sophie is, to us, our one and only family. My wife and the children feel no differently."

I turned to Ichika and the three children as if to ask whether that was true, and every one of them nodded. They really did have family feeling as fierce as my own. But the eyes the three siblings turned on me were the eyes one turns on an enemy.

Spatial Perception was actually picking up hostility, a red lamp blinking in my head. What had I even done, that they looked at me like that?

"And yet, Dwight, your three children are staring at me with a good deal of hostility mixed into their eyes."

Only then did Ichika take in the children's state. She pulled them into her arms and soothed them, telling them to stop. Seeing her calm them, the three turned their eyes away and sighed.

In other comics and movies, most people turned endlessly servile before the strong. And yet, somehow, the people I met — good or bad — had such fierce self-assertion that even looking at me, who could kill them with a poke of one finger, they wouldn't yield. Do I really look that negligible?

Confirming that the three's hostility was gradually fading, I opened my mouth again.

"Sophia Adelberg passed dozens of kinds of information about me to Japan — and that's only what's been confirmed. On the basis of that information she was deeply involved, twice, in means meant to kill me. One was an assassination that used a Soul Reaper's casket. The other was a direct assault by seventeen Japanese ability users."

Whether they already knew all of it, the Edelberg family only looked at me in silence. I shrugged and spoke again.

"Let me be clear. I am the victim, and you are the perpetrators. Don't play the victim just because the balance of force has been reversed. Sending hostility at me thoroughly provokes the temper of a man who came here to show you mercy. Remember that."

Hearing my cold voice, threaded with Mana Sieve, the Edelberg couple and their three children darkened — then, little by little, brightened. Among them, the most composed young man, the very image of Dwight, put a question to me with calm eyes.

"I apologize for that. Do the words of Grand Blue's Master, just now, mean that you will spare my elder sister Sophia?"

So this was the fruit of yesterday's visit, when I'd stormed around talking of killing Sophia or not.

"If you accept my proposal."

"I apologize as well. What is the proposal?"

The daughter standing beside him, the spitting image of Ichika, asked with a cautious face.

"You cross to Korea with Sophia, and pay off the crime she committed together."

At that the Edelberg family, as if the sense of it didn't quite follow, looked at one another with bewildered faces.

"Put simply. Ichika Edelberg, you become a member of Grand Blue's raid team. Dwight Edelberg, you join the Grand Blue Phase Research Institute I'll be building, as a researcher. The same goes for those of you in doctoral programs. I won't force unpaid labor on you, of course. At minimum, I'll guarantee benefits equal to what you receive now at the Grokis Institute."

When I proposed, under the name of punishment, a life hardly different from the one they'd been living in Britain, the hostility Spatial Perception had been detecting vanished as if washed clean. In particular, the look on the woman I took for Sophia's older sister — could this man actually be a decent person? — left me certain she was under Mana Vision's favorability effect.

"So you mean for us to work at your Grand Blue, and serve as one another's hostages?"

The young man who looked like Dwight and Ichika mixed in equal parts, as if something had just occurred to him, turned a sharp gaze and a suppressed voice on me.

"Ha."

It came out as an empty laugh, sheer disbelief, and the momentum of the man who'd been cutting at me with that look eased a fraction.

"You. What's your name?"

"Arol."

"Arol Edelberg. Do you think you're important enough, valuable enough to me, that I'd need to keep you as hostages?"

"......"

"You know the saying — hate the sin, but not the sinner? I hate that saying. If a crime was committed, the human who committed it should pay for it. People make crimes. Crimes don't make people. In that sense, Sophia ought to suffer at my hands until she's fit to die, and then actually die."

At my voice — quiet, but mixed with anger — Arol's complexion grew darker and darker. The others didn't dare think of cutting in. They only watched my mood.

"I'm making this proposal because I took into account that you had your circumstances too. But if that's how you're going to think, forget it. I'll go back, take the anger of Sophia's betrayal out on her, and whether she lives or dies, tossing her in a cell at Alcatraz will be the end of it. Your dispositions, of course, I'll hand over to the British government as well."

At my edged reaction, the faces of all five of them went pale.

"So don't provoke me when I've come to do you a kindness."

"I am... sorry, for asking so rude a question."

I'd spoken while glaring at Arol as if to growl, and the fellow bowed his head low and begged pardon. He seemed to understand that if he pushed any harder, his sister would die and the house would be smashed to pieces.

I accepted the gloomy-faced apology with a nod, then looked at Dwight.

"Before I came here, I conveyed my intent to the British royal house through Princess Lydia Isla Marietta — that I would take you to Korea and hold you jointly responsible. What remains is your judgment. Lay everything down and live out the rest of your lives as criminals, or come to Korea and throw yourselves into Grand Blue alongside Sophia. Choose one of the two."

"We will go to Korea."

Dwight spoke with the face of a man who saw no reason to deliberate, though he looked exhausted, and his wife Ichika, and their daughter and sons, nodded.

"Good. Sophia will stand trial before a judicial body in Korea. How passionately I petition during that process, I think, will depend on your family's attitude. And after she has faced that trial... I'll try to see that she can live with you a day or two each week."

"Th-thank you."

At the word that Sophia would be allowed to live with them too, the family's complexions improved considerably. Whether because I'd come on strong from the start, or because they'd already talked it through among themselves, the matter was settled quickly. As I turned to leave, the talk finished, Dwight stopped me in a weary voice.

"Pray wait. What are we to do about our house? And by when must we go to Korea?"

"Why are you asking me how to dispose of your property? Hand it to others for free and come with nothing but your bodies, or sell the lot and come — handle it yourselves. And the more you want to see Sophia, the sooner you'd better cross over."

Ah. I ought to instruct them on that, too.

"And when you cross to Korea, Yoo Hwayeon, the boss of Grand Blue, will be waiting. Dwight — tell her everything you've been through. Leave nothing out."

"Under...stood."

"Then I'll see you in Korea."

I left the Edelberg house, set my foot on a Space Wall, and leapt into the sky, and Franc stroked my head as if I'd done something splendid. Her expression was exactly like a mother looking at a child she was proud of...

"What? What's with that face?"

"Seoha, you were truly admirable~ Since when did you become so dependable~?"

Halfway through, her face filled with mischief as she kept stroking my head. I snorted a laugh and opened my mouth.

"Since Franc put her mouth to use?"

"......!"

"Or was it from when Franc became my woman..."

"......!!"

"If not that, then from the first time Franc got jealous..."

"Aaah! Stop! I lose!"

"Heh heh."

Face red, arms around my neck, squirming — she was so cute I turned and kissed her cheek. Franc smiled, soft and shy, and kissed me back.

I checked the Authenticator.

Two hours since I'd passed my intent to the Queen through Lydia, and not a single response.

Seeing me check the time, Franc hesitated, then wrapped her arms around my neck and asked.

"Seoha. If Britain will not release the Edelberg family, what do you intend to do?"

She'd asked once already, and she was asking again. Worrying because it was her homeland, maybe.

"Mmm. If I were the Queen, I don't think I'd have any choice but to send the Edelberg family."

"Why is that?"

"Put yourself in her place, and fighting me looks thoroughly unappealing. Just looking at what I did to Japan, and at Mapo, going head-to-head with me is the same as deciding to run your country into the ground. I don't think a crafty old snake like the Queen would make a choice that costly. That's why I accepted the unofficial dinner and showed her I can tell right from wrong, within reason."

"Britain could draw in the other great powers and hold you in check, could ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it not?"

"Assuming the worst like that is my habit. This time Franc's the one doing it."

At that she looked as if she had nothing to say, awkward. The sight was cute enough that I grinned and answered.

"When that happens, you just give yourself to the current. Everyone climbs aboard a train on rails whose end no one can see, and you run full speed."

It was a roundabout way of saying we'd all die together. She seemed stunned for a moment — then she shook her head to cast it off, and set her face hard with resolve.

If that day ever came, she was probably making a resolve that wasn't quite a resolve: to stay at my side, and break my enemies apart.