The Aberrant That Appears (5)
The moment I reached the school rooftop, I called Youngeun on my Certifier — and the line connected before the first ring had even properly sounded.
Behind the faintly startled face in the hologram window, I could see the interior of the presidential car. She must have set out the instant my message arrived.
“You left already?”
On the screen Youngeun was smiling brightly, but a trace of weariness showed through to my eyes. Sorry that she was dragging her tired self out on my account, I spoke with an apologetic look.
“I called so busy Youngeun wouldn’t have to strain herself any further, and you’ve already left. I’m really not angry. Half of that message was a joke.”
Youngeun fussed with exaggerated drama, then seemed struck by a sudden headache. She tipped her head back a little and let out a long sigh.
I went to a bench in the corner of the rooftop garden and sat. She pressed the fingers of her left hand hard into the space between her brows, then opened her mouth in a voice gone weary.
She said it beaming — but Franc, listening quietly beside me, watched that smile grow steadily colder.
“What did you say when you left?”
She said that in the middle of a summit? My reputation was about to get even more terrifying.
I managed a bitter little smile at Youngeun’s story. Franc, it seemed, did not consider this a matter for bitter little smiles.
Cold past the point of cold — a look on which frost had settled — she revealed her face from behind me and called out.
“Youngeun……?”
“You walked out of a meeting that important, using Seoha being angry as an excuse……?”
“Youngeun!”
Whether she had felt Franc’s anger, Youngeun flinched and cut the call in a hurry — but Franc, thoroughly sulking, puffed her cheeks full of air, pulled out her phone, and began firing off text messages at speed.
The recipient was obviously Youngeun. They were going to see each other in a little while anyway.
Ding. Ring-ring. Ding. Ding.
I watched her send message after message with that sulking face, then drew her slender waist in, covered the screen with my hand, and spoke.
“Franc, do you hate it when my reputation gets worse?”
“I do. I cannot understand why they fasten such vile names upon you — God of Destruction, Demon of Destruction, military dictator. Seoha did nothing more than return what had been done to him. What reason is there that he should have to hear such cruel things?”
She poured it out in a single breath, as if it had been weighing on her all along, then caught her breath. I looked at her with a smile, and Franc lowered the phone weakly, rested her forehead against my chest, and said,
“With names like that already going around, Youngeun went and acted as if she acknowledged them, and I grew so angry I simply…… I am sorry.”
“Don’t worry about what complete strangers say. Getting people like that to understand you is about as likely as internet trolls having a change of heart. It’s enough if my family sees me right.”
“Yes…….”
Whether the embrace and the soothing had done their work, Franc calmed quickly, set her chin on my shoulder, and offered a small smile.
A little later Youngeun arrived in her private car, and the moment she saw Franc’s stern face she rubbed her hands together and begged forgiveness, admitting she had been wrong.
“This is when we ought to be protecting Seoha’s reputation. What are we to do if you go and act as though you’re endorsing some vicious nickname?”
“I’m sorry. I was wrong. I must not have been in my right mind from exhaustion. I absolutely won’t do it again!”
Faced with Youngeun begging unconditional forgiveness, Franc could not keep her anger up either. She let out a long sigh and pulled Youngeun into a tight embrace.
“I’m sorry too. I think I was on edge because of the people pinning bad names on Seoha.”
“No, no. I was more in the wrong, so you don’t have to apologize, Franc.”
It was good to see the two lovers looking after each other with such affection. The sight warmed me — but.
“Can we go eat already? Lunch period started twenty minutes ago. My belly’s about to have a meeting with my backbone.”
Right on cue, a growl rose from my stomach. At that, Franc and Youngeun — still holding each other’s hands — glanced at one another and burst out laughing.
“Right. Our prince is starving, and we hadn’t a shred of tact.”
“What shall we have for lunch? Is there anything you would like to eat?”
The two beauties holding each other and whispering had put me in a slightly indecent mood. I grinned like a pervert and opened my mouth.
“Something I’d like? If I said I wanted to eat Franc and Youngeun as a course meal, would you let me?”
They looked at each other for a moment, then broke into quiet laughter.
After lunch at the Michelin two-star Chinese restaurant Youngeun had reserved, we drank pu-erh while I asked for the full story of why she had not been able to leave work the day before.
“Weren’t you going to talk to the Americans who wanted to raid, once you got my message? So where did Russia suddenly come from?”
“That was the plan, but halfway through Russia got hold of the information and wedged themselves in on the pretext that anything happening in the Pacific mattered to them as well. They said it happened in the Pacific, so it wasn’t something they could be left out of.”
……? A summit between our country and the United States, and Russia had shoved itself into the middle? Was that even possible?
I stared at Youngeun, unable to make sense of it, and she swept the hair at her temple back behind her ear before speaking again.
“Mm. My explanation was lacking. When I’m with our Seoha, the work switch just refuses to flip. Let me explain a little more precisely?”
From the story she told me, after watching every bit of the Blade Flyer footage and then hearing what I had to say, Youngeun had been shocked as if her soul might leave her body.
An Aberrant that appeared in reality grew stronger the more raids against it failed — wasn’t that the point?
In the Phase World, failure meant you could simply abandon the target and be done. Reality was not so kind. There was no telling what rampage a strengthened thing might go on once its temper had been provoked as well.
Youngeun requested a summit with the American president over a hotline she rarely used, then summoned working-level staff from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the intelligence service, along with her aides, and agonized over a response. A little later, the face that appeared on the connected screen was the United States Secretary of Defense.
She had requested a summit with the president, and the Secretary of Defense had shown up — that alone was absurd enough to leave one speechless — and the man who called himself Secretary of Defense had snickered and sneered at what she told him.
How could an Aberrant absorb Phase Power and grow stronger? He dismissed it with a snort as utter nonsense.
“Of course I protested. I requested a summit with the American commander-in-chief under the authority I hold, and some ridiculous scrap of a secretary popped out instead. So I told him this was an urgent, grave matter, that I needed a meeting with President Donald Trumpet right away — and he ignored me.”
Youngeun frowned again as if the irritation had returned, and exhaled a sharp huff through her nose. I was a little angry myself. A defense secretary, of all people, slighting Youngeun?
I made sure to remember. This grudge — I would pay it back later, without fail.
While I was privately swearing revenge, Youngeun went on, her face recovered to a cool composure.
“No matter how many times I stressed that this could become a grave threat, he acted as if he hadn’t heard a word, and at last I got angry myself.”
She requested a summit with the American president once more, insisting the situation demanded urgency, and was ignored by the Secretary of Defense again. Furious at the American side’s repeated conduct — conduct that amounted to a diplomatic affront — she said very well, she understood, and just before she cut the line, she let my name slip.
“I understand the position of the United States perfectly well. Korea is merely one among the allies of the Far East, and from the American point of view, you could hardly be expected to extend us any particular courtesy. Korea will seek its own path forward, in its own way. Kindly recognize, then, that we have discharged our duty as an ally. And yet — to answer in this manner even when the source of the information is the chairman of Grand Blue…… It seems any further discussion will require me to begin the process of requesting a summit with President Puchin of Russia.”
Youngeun saw the Secretary of Defense’s flustered face in the instant before she unilaterally cut the video call, but she did not request another. Nor did she accept the callback requests that came flying from the American side as if they had grown frantic.
Her chest was hot (with anger), but her head judged the situation with cold clarity. She immediately requested a meeting with the Russian president through the Russian Embassy in Korea, and let slip, as if in passing, word of the Highest-Rank Variant that had appeared in the Pacific.
“The truth is, it was a gamble with less than even odds. Russia was a country that had at least professed neutrality toward Seoha. I thought they might refuse a summit even if I mentioned him.”
“And even so, you showed the United States a hard line? What were you going to do if it went wrong…….”
When Franc asked with a look of surprise, Youngeun flushed faintly as if embarrassed and glanced at me.
“W-well, as a politician’s bearing it would be a disqualification, but I was thinking that if it came to that, I’d act spoiled with Seoha…….”
She hid both cheeks in her hands for a moment, embarrassed, then went on.
Fortunately, things flowed in a good direction, and in less than ten minutes a video conversation was established with President Puchin — a man of formidable impression and a solid, powerful build.
“If the source is the personal account of the chairman of Grand Blue himself, would you believe it?”
“The chairman of Grand Blue judges that the Blade Flyer has already slain ten B-Class ability users of G.S. Team 2 and absorbed their Phase Power. Should even the second raid — the one that includes an American A-Class ability user — fail, the Blade Flyer will without doubt become a Transcendent-grade Aberrant, the worst of monsters threatening humankind.”
“Hehe. President Puchin is mischievous. Looking at the situation Korea faces, we have no choice. The trade route to the north is completely sealed, and the remaining three sides are sea. Should that sea be sealed as well, we may live, but we will not be living.”
“Which is why I recommend that Russia set a foot into this matter as well. Even now, the United States is repeatedly requesting conversation through this hotline, as though a fire has caught beneath their feet. What do you say? Are you inclined to take this board together with us?”
“Yes. He is showing a deep interest. Were that not so, there is no reason talk of an Aberrant absorbing Phase Power would ever have left his mouth, is there?”
The United States’ earnest communications — a fire under their feet — were accepted only once the stage had been adjusted again and Russia had inserted itself, making it a three-nation summit.
A breath of admiration escaped me before I could stop it.
Set my existence aside — that one thing — and there was nothing in which our country could best the United States.
Face them one-on-one in a situation like this, and our weaker nation would only be dragged along, will-less, at America’s pace. And yet she had drawn in Russia, the sole power capable of checking the United States, and overturned the board entirely.
With Russia in the mix, the United States had to keep Russia in check while also minding our country, which had me at its back; Russia, for its part, watched America while gauging my strength. Youngeun’s room to move had widened by just that much.
“Impressive. Seventy years in politics, after all.”
Mention her age, and Youngeun shot me a pointed glare. She took a sip of tea, then spoke again.
“At first I only meant to tell the American president directly, and secure a kind of compensation and a few rights. Of course, part of it was also to confirm the timing for Seoha to step in. But the American president is…… mm…….”
She hesitated, let out a small sigh, and tapped her teacup with a fingertip.
“I can’t say he’s intelligent. But he has a clear sense of reason, and he listens well to the people around him. His character, though, is narrow, and he looks at people of color with a discriminatory eye. Even so, he’s also a man credited with making America wealthy through his businessman side.”
“So because you’re yellow, and a woman, he refused that first request for a summit with an attitude of half-ignoring you?”
“I think that’s probably it. And he happened to have a convenient excuse — that they were holding meeting after meeting, day after day, on how to deal with the Blade Flyer.”
The American president…… Donald Trumpet, was it? You, I remembered as well.
“So how have the meetings gone so far? By what means does America say they’ll catch the Blade Flyer?”
At Franc’s question, Youngeun made a slightly troubled face, then glanced quickly around.
“If wiretaps or anything of the sort become a problem, let’s step outside first.”
I tossed the rest of the pu-erh down in one go, groaned at the smell of wet rice straw flooding my mouth, and left the restaurant. Sipped little by little it was fine, but knocking it back in a single mouthful was a bit…….
I paid the bill with a slight grimace, and the moment we stepped outside I scooped Youngeun up in a princess carry.
“Oh my?! W-what if someone sees…….”
“It’s fine. No one’s around to look.”
Then I took Franc’s hand and leaped through space, high into the sky.
Watching the clouds drift past beneath my feet, I raised a Wall of Space, sat down, and settled Youngeun on my lap. She stared down past her feet with a dazed look, narrowed her brows, and muttered.
“This is the kind of view that makes you feel like you have to pee.”
“I already looked you over from head to toe with spatial perception. Nothing I’d suspect of being a wire.”
At that, Youngeun — who had lightly covered her chest with both hands — narrowed her eyes and looked at me with a suggestive expression.
“Hmm~ And how did it feel, examining my naked body so thoroughly?”
“How did it feel. Can’t you feel the stick poking your ass? Anyway, talk.”
“Hehe. America is insisting they can make the raid succeed no matter what. They’re thinking of mobilizing an A-Class ability user, a dozen or so B-Class ability users, hundreds of C-Class ability users, and the entire Seventh Fleet of the Pacific — the pride of the U.S. Navy.”
What were they planning to do about the gap in force, mobilizing the entire Seventh Fleet? In any case, I didn’t cut her off, and listened to the rest.
“But Russia is opposing it fiercely.”
Attempting a raid on an Aberrant that had seized the ocean was all well and good — but this was reality, not the Phase World, and according to our chairman of Grand Blue, it was as good as confirmed that if an Aberrant killed an ability user, it absorbed Phase Power.
And if the raid were to fail, wouldn’t the Blade Flyer, a Highest-Rank Variant, become a Transcendent-grade Aberrant? If that happened, not only the Pacific but the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic as well — the seas of the Earth — would become the thing’s playground.
……That, Youngeun said, was the Russian government’s position.
“Charging blindly into the Blade Flyer’s area of activity is a poor plan, so preparations and an operation will be needed as well…… Anyway, all sorts of talk is going back and forth. It’s no different from a three-nation unofficial summit thrown together on the spot, so the more they work, the more the work piles up.”
In the midst of that, Youngeun’s expression was not ordinary. It was the face of someone with something bitter in her mouth…….
Feeling there was something she had not said, I wrapped an arm around the slender waist of the woman sitting on my lap and asked.
“Is there anything else?”
“Not really…….”
“For ‘not really,’ your expression isn’t good.”
When I stared, Youngeun moved to speak and stopped, opened her mouth and closed it again, over and over — then reached out, wrapped her arms around my neck, and looked down at the land of Korea spread like a carpet all the way to the horizon. Clouds streamed beneath our feet, and ranges of white and blue mountains lay under snow. She let out a deep sigh.
“How can a country be this beautiful…….”
In those words I seemed to feel the sorrow of long years knotted in Youngeun’s chest. Was I the strange one, for feeling a thing like this — or was what had settled in her breast simply that heavy?
Franc, hearing her, looked down at the land of Korea spread beneath us and let slip a small breath of wonder. Youngeun smiled faintly at her, sighed long once more, and rested her head against my shoulder before she spoke.
“I only felt the sadness of a country without power. They were the ones who refused, and now it’s ‘if it was such an important matter, you should have kept asking until the words got through — why did you drag Russia in?’ They phrased it prettily enough. But setting the phrasing aside, it’s the content that matters, isn’t it?”
“Want me to go scold the lot of them?”
I spoke the moment her story ended. Her eyes widened a fraction; then she worked her lips in a playful pout, grinned, and gave my cheek a light pinch.
“Our Seoha puts my heart so at ease that I end up acting spoiled before I know it. This is my work, so I’ll see it through myself. So you’ll work hard at your own work, won’t you?”
“……All right. If it gets hard, or if they start tormenting you, you tell me. If you swallow it like a fool and just endure in silence until you fall ill, I’ll slit every one of those bastards’ throats.”
At that extreme declaration, Youngeun’s body flinched — ever so slightly.