Picking a Fight Pisses Off Even a Sleeping Bear (4)
Saturday morning. For the first time in nearly a week, Yeongeun had actually gotten off work, and the whole family gathered over breakfast to hear the story she had to tell.
"It isn't just the allies along the Pacific. People from every walk of life in a pile of UN member states have been protesting and condemning it, so even that Trumpet couldn't push the Blade Flyer raid through."
"A lame-duck spell, in the second year of a term when his name is riding highest."
"Yeah. President Trumpet was on the verge of impeachment for political incompetence, abuse of power, and plotting to overthrow the state, so in the end he scrapped the second Blade Flyer raid. Too late, though. He'd already gone right up to the brink."
None of it had hit the television yet, and the rest of us were suitably startled. Miho and Hiarid couldn't have cared less. They just worked diligently through the fruit and vegetable salad and the grilled sticks of brown-rice cake set in front of them, while Darky slumped on the tabletop and poured every ounce of his attention into a rice-cake stick as big as his own body.
"Plotting to overthrow the state? They can hang a charge like that on him?"
I asked it while pressing a finger into Darky's soft, squishy body. Yeongeun smiled, playful, and gave a little shrug.
"Right now eight out of ten Americans will tell you, with one voice, that a second raid ends in total failure. And if the raid actually happens, what about the people who'd have to go? Even if they sign on, what comes after is the problem. They'd be offering up their own bodies to create an unprecedented Transcendental / Extreme-Rank Variant. Who wants to throw their life away and then get cursed by every generation that comes after?"
She lifted her teacup with an elegant crook of her little finger and took a sip of black tea.
"The ones out front, opposing a second Blade Flyer raid the hardest, are the G.S. raid team—formidable in money and in force—with the military behind them, and the staff officers for strategic phase disasters and munitions."
"The people who realized that if a raid happens, their lives and their positions are the first things on the line."
"Exactly. Once they lock arms and push, there's no way it doesn't go through."
At Hwayeon's chiming agreement, Yeongeun nodded as if that were the whole of it.
"The pretext is sound enough. A Transcendent-grade aberrant is an unknown realm humanity has never reached, and the man who would create such a monster is their own president. Should a Transcendental aberrant be born, Seoha has declared he will drive that monster straight onto the American mainland."
"In that case America is physically finished, so they slap on this terrifying little item called overthrow of the state. You follow?"
"Yeah. So what happens to the guy who's been such a pain?"
"Civilians, officials, and the military are all against him. What power is he supposed to use? The impeachment resolution got dropped in exchange for scrapping the raid plan, but thanks to that, just like Yeon said, he's already a lame duck in the second year of his first term—when his political strength ought to be at its peak. He's done."
"The party President Trumpet belongs to is already projected to take a crushing loss in the next primary."
Hwayeon knew an awful lot about politics. Had she been looking this stuff up on purpose? Maybe I ought to study a little myself.
"Ohoho. Pitiful, isn't he. He picked a fight with our Seoha, botched one raid, and torched his entire political career. Truly pitiful~."
She didn't sound the least bit sorry. Giggling, she grinned, pulled my arm into a hug, set her chin on my shoulder, and went on.
"And thanks to the Phase Stones Seoha sold off on his way out, basic industrial materials are already circulating through government agencies and partner firms. Other countries have started sounding us out about buying what's left, so the economy's actually in better shape than it was. That leaves one thing. The Blade Flyer. What does our Chairman Jung intend to do about it?"
"Winter break is practically on top of us. If I'm going to keep to the schedule I set, I need to deal with it fast."
"I thought you'd say that. Korea and Russia have agreed to jointly host a subjugation, with the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, and the rest gathered in. They're going to send a formal letter requesting Seoha's help."
Subjugation? Not a raid?
Franc turned a puzzled look on Yeongeun.
"That sounds as though the raid is already being prepared. Have I understood correctly?"
"Mm-hmm. And it isn't a raid. It's a subjugation. Sub. Ju. Ga. Tion. To our Seoha, a Calamity / Highest-Rank Variant isn't a raid target. It's a subjugation target, isn't it?"
Even so. It was still a Highest-Rank Variant, and they were pinning subjugation on it—a word that meant a one-sided slaughter. Weren't they laying it on a bit thick?
Hwayeon lifted her cup, took a sip of black tea, and asked.
"I am curious what joint is supposed to mean. From what I am hearing, Seoha will be doing all of the fighting. Other nations inserting themselves would be meaningless, would it not?"
"We'll go over it at the conference, but Britain, Australia, and Canada will take the lead and put satellites up to search for the Blade Flyer and track it. The US will deploy the Pacific Seventh Fleet. Russia will send a carrier and a submarine squadron."
A submarine squadron. So if America had a full fleet, Russia had the submarines. Something like that.
"The details get settled once the leadership of each country sits down in conference, so this is just the outline. And the reason for bringing fleets at all is mostly in case there's a swarm of lower-grade aberrants hanging around the Blade Flyer."
"It would also serve to head off terrorism or a military threat from some other nation."
"Right. Just in case means nobody actually knows. And while we're at it, we haul the Blade Flyer's carcass off, too."
Once I had a rough sense of how things were moving, I nodded and got to my feet.
"Then I should start getting ready to fight for real."
Breakfast done, I went into the Phase Stone storeroom with my lovers.
Ever since I'd gained Space Leaping, I'd sealed the entrance shut. The only ones who could come into this room were me and Franc. She could pass through the walls to get in, but she couldn't carry anything back out, so unless someone broke the walls down, I was the only person who could take a thing out or put a thing in.
Anyway. Looking over the Superior / High-Tier and High Grade Phase Stones packed along every wall, I said what I'd come to say.
"Over winter break I'll be moving around and making more Blue Stones, so leave a few ordinary Phase Stones as spares, just in case, and sell the rest."
"Dump them all at once and the price crashes. That's obvious. Cooperate with Grand Blue in moderation, and sell one or two apiece to the countries that help us. Enough to look generous."
Yeongeun had picked up a Superior-grade Phase Stone gone pitch-black under its coating of sealing agent. At her words, Franc and Hwayeon both nodded.
"Sell a third of these to the government, same terms as last time?"
"No! No need for that. Last time everything was such a mess that we took what they offered, but not anymore. We haven't even moved all of what we took in last time. An official notice will go out later, but eighty percent of the assessed value is simply too low. We'll raise it and pay seventy percent of the total sale price, so keep that in mind."
"And the finances still hold if you do that?"
"For now America has no intention of slapping on trade sanctions. Even at that rate, the profit is enormous."
"Hmm...... Fine. They only pay like that while you're president anyway. Take it and spend it where it needs spending."
Money wasn't hard to make. Ten raid teams under Grand Blue were already rotating through the Phase World and bringing it back, and that alone stacked up to hundreds of billions of won a month. My sister, Hwayeon, and Aunt Hyeryeong had all said it was no good letting that much money pile up in one place, so I'd told them to invest where investing made sense and to manage the rest if there was managing to do. Money left over was money that ought to be used.
The cash on hand had gotten a little light, sure—building out the Phase Stone refinery, the mansion, and the research institute had cost plenty—but the moment these stones started selling, the coffers would fill right back up. So long as this world's primary energy came from what you extracted out of Phase Stones, the money in my hands was not going to run dry.
Yeongeun shook her head, firm.
"If Seoha asked, I love him enough to walk into a fire. This, I can't give him. Keep handing it over like a giveaway and even if I don't, the people under me will start treating it as the natural order. The day the support stops, they'll push back as if they have every right. A favor that goes on long enough gets mistaken for a right."
"Madam is right. Even if we begin producing Blue Stones in earnest, the value of these will not fall. There is no need to dispose of them in haste."
"......If you're going to put it like that, fine."
Handing them over at eighty percent of the official rate, no conditions, not even a premium—that really was sucker behavior. I'd only been ready to give them away because Yeongeun was cute. My lovers clearly didn't see it that way.
Once I'd given in to them, Yeongeun and Hwayeon looked entirely satisfied, and stroked my head with slow, gentle hands.
"But why, all of a sudden, do you wish to sell the Phase Stones?"
"Because I need a lot of money. Once the institute's finished, I'm going to order them to start real development on modern weapons built around Phase Power. That kind of thing costs, doesn't it?"
"Yeah. That field will definitely eat money. But why all of a sudden......"
Yeongeun stopped halfway through the sentence, and her face went hard. A beat later, Franc's and Hwayeon's did too. The look of them was so absurd I had to ask, dumbfounded.
"Don't tell me you hadn't even thought about it. The second I heard a Highest-Rank Variant had shown up, what Myrddin said came straight back."
"Ah. Um. So that situation is already right on top of us?"
"I don't know if it's on top of us or not. Nobody knows whether that Blade Flyer spent two hundred years in the sea, fighting other things and evolving, or whether it just grew in a hurry sometime recently. All I'm saying is we prepare before it's too late to prepare."
At that, my lovers each sank into thought, faces grave. Then I needed to tell my sister and Aunt Hyeryeong, too, and get them ready.
I took the lovers with me and Space Leaped to the office, then called my sister and Aunt Hyeryeong up.
The two of them treated work like a hobby. Their weeks ran Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Friday, and Friday, no holidays in sight, and sure enough they were lost in it in their own offices even on this Saturday. The moment I called, they came up.
I set the two of them in front of me and gave them a shortened version of exactly what I'd told my lovers. Both of them were sharp enough that this much would do.
"So sell Phase Stones steadily, on a regular schedule, and start gathering scholars, scientists, and weapons developers who work on military ordnance."
Aunt Hyeryeong hesitated, then spoke.
"Research in that field is already underway in any number of countries, and development has made some progress, but nowhere has brought the cost against the performance up to a level where it can actually be sold. Commit to it in earnest and the money will drain like a jar with no bottom. Are you certain?"
"Wait, really? There's already research with results?"
I looked at Aunt Hyeryeong, startled, but it was Yeongeun who answered.
"Yeah. They've already developed rounds made by mixing refined phase energy with toxins. The problem is the unit cost. About three million won a shot."
"Whoa. Three million won a round?"
"Up through Mid-Low Rank Variants, ordinary ammunition can still kill them. The problem starts at Mid Grade. From there, regular firearms barely work, so you have to use rounds bound with Phase Power. They tested them on ordinary Mid Grade aberrants, not the crustacean types, and the result was three thirty-round magazines to bring down one."
Three million won a shot. Ninety rounds meant two hundred seventy million won per creature. And if the hit rate in a real fight was forty percent, that was a hundred seventy-five rounds—more than five hundred million won to kill a single one.
"The price tag's bigger than the prey. Anyway, money exists to be spent, so please go ahead. Even if it runs to a trillion won a month, that's fine."
At the size of the number, Aunt Hyeryeong's face went tired, and she turned to look at my sister. I added, watching that,
"Madam taught me that those who have must do what those who have are obliged to do. I think the duty in front of me now is developing weapons like these. The money—I'll keep earning it."
"......Ah. I understand. Then...... it would be wise to secure a weapons proving ground in advance, wouldn't it, Chief of Administration?"
"That would make the experiments and the research easier. I'll look into technicians in the field, so could the Chief of General Affairs take the site?"
"Yes. Leave it to me."
While my sister and my lovers split the work between them, their eyes turned my way, and the look in them had changed—the look people give a man they can lean on.
Everyone else threw themselves into the work. I refined my abilities, meditated, and put my strength into expanding the mental power I'd need for mind manipulation.
A week passed that way. On the twenty-first of December, with winter break three days off, word came through Yeongeun that Korea, Russia, and the United States would be gathering in one place, in the waters off Honolulu, Hawaii.
"Hawaii?"
I asked it of Yeongeun while I watched, from behind, as Franc and Suhan packed a travel bag.
"Yeah. They've already launched an operation and they're tracking the Blade Flyer's position. The American and Russian fleets are gathered off Honolulu. They say once our Seoha arrives, the raid prep is done."
"That was fast. What kind of operation lets them track a Highest-Rank Variant? At sea, no less?"
"Ask when you get there."
"Master. Your travel bag."
Yeongeun was smiling brightly and giving me almost nothing. I narrowed my eyes at her, and Suhan, finished with the packing, held out a small bag.
Well. If she wants me to hear it there, I hear it there. Not much choice.
"Oh, right. Take Miho and Darky when you go. They'll help if something unexpected comes up."
"A good idea. Miho can fly, and she can command water, and Darky absorbs and reflects. They will be a great help."
"I was already planning on it."
I don't use what I don't know I have. No reason to leave the ones I do have sitting idle. At the news that we were going aberant-hunting, Miho—who had been rolling around the living-room floor doing nothing but play games—threw her arms around my waist and lit up.
......Miho, you're an aberrant too. Put it in human terms and it was a little girl delighted to be going off to kill people. The feeling of it sat strangely.
Bag in hand, we all went down to the third basement parking level, and Hwayeon and my sister were already waiting there. Somewhere along the way Suhan had prepared another bag, and she handed that one to Hwayeon as well.
"Oh. Hwayeon's coming too?"
"If not me, who's going to assist you? Of course I'm coming."
She stared straight at me with a look that said refusal would not be accepted. I nodded and let it be.
"Be careful. Come back safe."
"If it looks dangerous, you run. You hear me?"
Yeongeun, left behind alone again, smiled with a slightly lonely face and waved. My sister, as always, wore nothing but worry, and cautioned us over and over. We left the two of them there and headed for Gimpo Airport, where a special aircraft the United States had prepared was waiting.
What the United States had provided was a top-class hotel of an airliner.
"I think that's the one."
The jet was black as pitch, and it looked expensive at a glance. An attendant who said they were from the US government guided us aboard with careful courtesy, and the interior was absurdly vast—so clearly built to entertain VVIP guests that it didn't look as though it could even seat four.
The lower deck of the two-level plane did have space for the crew to rest, but to my eye it was nothing but wasted money.
Wait. Am I supposed to be getting used to this? Buy one of these and hundreds of people, thousands, eat for a year.
Inside, it really was a hotel with wings. A bedroom. A shower where you could bathe. A billiard table set up for pocket billiards. A lounge for drinking. Even a secret room for talks that weren't meant to be heard.
The four of us boarded—me, Franc, Hwayeon, and Miho—and four flight attendants were there to greet us. All four were pretty, sensual Western women, and every one of them an H Class Physical Reinforcement type.
The problem was the uniforms. This was what people meant by provocative.
Short gray crop tops that bared the undersides of their breasts at the slightest shift. Navy ultra-miniskirts a good eight inches above the knee, panties on full display with every step they took. Faces beautiful enough to walk into the entertainment industry tomorrow and become stars.
"........."
I caught myself looking them over. Flashy, indecent blossoms, exactly what you'd expect from Physical Reinforcement types......
"Seoha!"
"Seoha."
"Ah. Y-yeah."
Two pairs of eyes, sharp with reproach. I turned my head, sheepish. Damn. So this was America's scheme to drive a wedge between me and my lovers.
While Miho set off to explore every corner of the plane, I had to endure the reproachful stares of my two lovers. The four attendants, thoroughly frightened by Hwayeon's murderous eyes and the pressure coming off her, were herded like rabbits and shut in the crew lounge. Only after they'd stripped off the racy uniforms and put on proper, modest stewardess attire were they allowed to wait on us.
I'd half expected some agent of the US government to show up mid-flight and try to cozy up to me, or start some kind of flirtation. Nothing of the sort happened.
A stewardess with rich golden-blonde hair did come over to explain that this royal private jet was a special aircraft reserved for VVIP personnel of the US federal government alone—a custom conversion of a two-hundred-seat airliner, operated only for important guests of the federal government, and flown once or twice a year at most, moving for no one but VVIPs.
And what was I supposed to do with that.
I spent the flight watching the poor stewardesses try to slide flirtatious glances my way, only to fold with a whimper under Hwayeon's sheer force. Nine hours later we arrived in Hawaii, well past midnight.
"A hotel's already booked. Let's go straight there."
Hwayeon glanced at her Certifier, let out a soft snort of laughter, and smiled as she climbed into the hotel limousine. I was about to ask what was so funny when I saw the emblem stamped on the door.
"Heh. Wait. This is actually that Trumpet guy's hotel?"
"Yeah."
So that was why she'd laughed. Staying at the hotel of the old man I'd so thoroughly fucked over. Funny, somehow.