To Rage Trouble (5)
The black bear, evolved into a Superior subspecies, had swelled until its bulk rivaled a Blade Flyer, the muscle planed into sharper, harder angles until it looked less like flesh than armor. That ought to be enough.
The King Bear lay in an ugly heap, crumpled between the walls of the ravine. Evolving into a Superior subspecies had knit every broken bone and erased every wound, and still it hadn't come to. I'd beaten the thing half to death and knocked it out cold; once I was gone, that bottled fury would boil over, and it wouldn't stay tucked quietly in the ravine. Pounding it one-sided had bled off some of the anger I'd been sitting on, and I felt oddly clear-headed. People said beating a sandbag was good for stress. I was starting to see the appeal.
"Are you finished?"
"Yeah. From here I just have to watch."
"Then please look at this."
What was she trying to show me? I leaned in toward the 5.1-inch phone in Franc's hand. Playing on the screen was footage of Yeongeun's statement, delivered from the Chunchugwan press room at the Blue House.
…That the repayment, as a friendly nation, for helping an allied country through its difficulties should be a hostage incident leaves far too many points that sit ill, if we are to accept it as the will of the American government. We therefore strongly demand an explanation from President Donald Trumpet.
"It's only the last part of a four-minute protest statement she delivered at eight in the morning, Korea time, but every essential point is in it. She didn't use a scrap of ceremonial phrasing—only clear, direct language. Yeongeun must be furious."
"Hmm…"
I looked up. The day had sunk fully into night. When the light spilling from the phone died, the black bear in that starless dark looked as if it had simply become part of the night. Franc switched the phone back on and scrolled through the internet, her brow tightening as she scratched lightly at her head.
"Also, I've been searching on and off ever since we flew out here, and there's still no article about the desert tortoise."
"You've been looking for that this whole time?"
"Yes. Las Vegas is right nearby, and the desert tortoise let out quite a roar while it released those heat rays, didn't it? I thought something would break at once, but nothing at all is coming up online."
"Something may have happened, and they're just controlling the information to bury it. Anything else about what Yeongeun announced? America's reaction, for instance."
"Yeongeun's protest statement went out less than twenty minutes ago, so I don't think America's response has come out yet either."
"All right. Nothing else to do here, then. Let's head back. All that's left is to watch."
"Yes."
Before we left I took one last look at the black bear sprawled spread-eagle, then launched west with Franc.
On the way back to Korea I'd asked her to keep an eye on America's movements through the phone. Riding on my back and searching the whole way, she shook her head and spoke when we were about halfway across the Pacific.
"Nothing's coming up at all. Do you think they really are controlling the press?"
Alternating Space Leaping with the Wall of Space, it took four hours to get back to Korea, and in all that time America still hadn't responded. More than eight hours had passed since I'd evolved the desert tortoise, and four since the black bear. It was long past the point where something should have happened, yet the mood online was the same as ever, and not a single rumor about aberrants appearing was circulating. Even the ability-user community on the Certifier showed no talk of aberrants showing up.
"…Ah, forget it. If something happens, an article will go up."
If anyone got smashed, it'd be them, not me. If America refused to ask for help and those two aberrants tore the place to pieces, that alone would satisfy me.
When the sun stood at its zenith I reached the Grand Bleu Building and set down on the terrace of the house. No one was home. It was a little past one in the afternoon, and thinking about the time difference—Korea running fourteen to seventeen hours ahead of the United States—I caught up with myself. Today was Christmas Eve, wasn't it? One unpleasant thing after another had left me more irritated than festive, but I couldn't spend my first Christmas Eve with my lovers like this.
I opened the veranda door and stepped inside, and the sweet scent of my lovers filled my nose. The nerves that had been standing on end loosened a little. Come to think of it, if today was Christmas Eve, it was also the day of the closing ceremony before winter break. Past one in the afternoon—that would already be over. I sighed, turned on the Certifier, and checked the message box. Sure enough, texts from Han Go-eun and the others were waiting: three asking whether I couldn't make it to today's ceremony, and after those, messages asking if I was all right. They must have sent them after watching the live broadcast of Yeongeun's protest statement.
Franc, who had turned on the TV and was hunting through overseas news channels, came over with the remote in hand.
"I can't tell whether the American government can't respond or simply isn't. Maybe they're still agonizing over what reaction to show?"
"First, a wash. Wash me!"
"Pfft. Yes."
I'd alternated Space Leaping and the Wall of Space for a long stretch to cover ten thousand kilometers. The back of my neck ached and felt stiff, and after diving into the sea and then crossing the Pacific in a faceful of ocean wind, my whole body was pickled in salt and unbearably grimy. I caught the hand of a softly smiling Franc, pulled her into the bathroom, and stripped. Salt crystals dried into my hair pattered down.
"Goodness."
Franc clicked her tongue at the salt dust littering the washroom floor, then went into the bathroom and started filling the tub.
"Don't fill it. I just want a shower and done."
"Wouldn't it be better to soak in hot water?"
"It's fine. A wash and a little rest and I'll be all right."
As the shower poured over me, Franc brought a foaming sponge and began washing me with careful thoroughness. Her soft hands and the slick foam stroking my body tangled leftover desire with the anger I hadn't fully spent, coiling low in my belly. I wrapped one arm around her slender waist and seized a moon-pale buttock with the other hand. She flinched mid-lather and stopped.
"Seoha, I'm in the middle of washing you…"
"No?"
"…"
When I asked while nudging my cock against her white, smooth lower belly, Franc flushed, then turned smoothly around, tucked my fiercely swollen erection into the cleft of her buttocks, and began to sway it gently from side to side.
…Franc really did have long legs. I was standing, and she wasn't even up on her toes, yet her backside reached my lower belly. Was this what separated an eight-head figure from a six-head one? I let my mind wander to take the edge off, and savored the feel of my shaft sliding through the soapy, slick valley of her backside. Every so often she clenched her cheeks and squeezed me, and that was genuinely delightful.
I enjoyed her service for a while, then took hold of myself, aimed at the mouth of her hot, wet hole, and pushed in with a smooth thrust. With a wet slide my cock parted Franc's lower lips and entered. Her small shoulders went rigid, strength gathered in her waist, and a hot breath burst from her mouth.
"Nngh. Haa… Seoha's is too big. Mmn."
"So you hate it?"
"Ah, n-no. Hnn. It fits my body just—haah—perfectly, so… aah."
"I love it too. The way your pussy bites down so tight on my cock feels incredible."
"Haan. I don't like talk that dirty—aht! Seoha. Nnh!"
Every time I rocked my hips, Franc's whimpering moans heated my chest. She'd taken me to the root, and the feeling of each inner fold moving to wind around me made my molars clench until my jaw ached.
"Ah, I'm done for. Your pussy feels so good I think I'm about to come any second."
"Nnngh! Th-then give it to me."
"Hm? Give you what?"
I asked a little meanly and nibbled her earlobe. Franc hunched her shoulders and fussed in a voice thick with shyness.
"Hauh, I mean your semen… I, I want to take Seoha's semen in my womb. Please pour your seed into me. Lots of it."
…I didn't think there was a man alive who could hold back in this situation. Matching her plea, I gripped her hips and drove up hard enough to punch through her, and the urge to come climbed steep and fast.
And then I started to come.
"Aah. I can feel Seoha's seed coming in. Auh, aauht."
I grabbed her breasts in a rough handful and bit hard into the pearl-pale nape of her neck as I began to come. Franc's legs trembled as if the strength might leave them any moment and drop her. But she was skewered on my cock, harder than steel, and she couldn't fall. Bracing against the bathroom wall, she shook and spilled moans close to screams—haak, haaht—while she trembled.
The pleasure of coming was so sharp I forgot to breathe. I let out a deep sigh and stood there a while, still buried deep inside her, holding her against me. Just having our skin against each other was enough. I really didn't think I could live a single day without Franc.
After pouring plenty of my desire deep into her womb and finishing the wash, the rage gauge that had climbed to my throat felt as if it had dropped below my solar plexus.
I was sprawled on the sofa, slowly drinking the honeyed misutgaru Franc had brought me—roasted multigrain flour stirred into sweet water—when Sophia and Suhan came in carrying shopping baskets, talking loudly back and forth.
"Even thinking about it simply, this was that stupid American capitalist pig going after Master's power! How dare he try to kidnap Lady Hwayeon and take her hostage! There's a limit even to stupidity!"
"I imagine so. He touched Master's reverse scale, so we can hardly expect him an easy death."
"Exactly! This time we should just send him straight to his—ah."
"Just send him straight to his what?"
Sophia, face a little flushed and angry, had been about to swing her shopping basket when she saw me and Franc sprawled on the sofa. She flinched and stopped. Suhan set the bags down at once and bowed deeply.
"Welcome home, Master."
"Welcome home, Master!"
Sophia snapped into a crisp, folding bow as well and called out loudly. I waved at the two of them.
"Go on with what you were saying. Just send him straight to his what?"
"Ehehe… I was going to say we ought to ruin the Trumpet family so completely they never even think of trying something like that again."
"You said something about sending him to his grave, didn't you? Judging by the word order, that wasn't where the sentence was going."
"That we should just send him straight to his grave… eheh."
I snorted a laugh at Sophia, who stuck her tongue out a little and smiled cutely.
"Hmm. Not keeping America at a distance?"
Seeing my interest, she scurried over, dropped to her knees in front of me, and went on with the explanation, delighted.
"The interests of the great powers and the trade industries are incredibly complicated! Master wouldn't be harmed or troubled by keeping America at a distance, but Korea—and Lady Yeongeun, given her office and where she stands—couldn't simply cut off every exchange, I don't think!"
"That's true. So?"
"America is a very large, very fat piece of meat. Squeeze it and delicious oil just pours out! So if one spot breaks and rots, you don't throw the whole thing away. You fix that part, cut out only what's rotten, and then you use it!"
"Even if we use them, America's pride is insanely high. You really think we can milk them as easily as you make it sound?"
At the question her eyes sparkled. She thrust up an index finger and spoke, brimming with confidence.
"You mustn't see America as a single conscious being. The country called America is a union born of fifty-two states put together, and Trumpet only became president through the votes of those fifty-two states! On top of that, America is a country obsessed with security to the point of hypersensitivity! So if we prove that Trumpet will do enormous harm to the country of America, then when this incident is over he'll be devoured like a hunting dog after the season ends!"
So her point was to prove that the man called Trumpet was a harm to America. But how? She looked up at me with glittering eyes, as if she already had something in mind.
"I've thought of something that might be of help to Master. May I explain it?"
"Go ahead."
"Well, you see…"
And what came out of Sophia's mouth was a proposal to create a powerful aberrant that America, as America, could not handle, and turn it loose on the North American continent. She was saying it because she knew that if I fed an aberrant TP according to its Phase Power, it would evolve. Hearing it, a snort of laughter escaped me. Franc, listening beside me, gave a wry smile too.
"Sophia, you're thinking almost exactly what I was thinking."
"Eh?"
"Why do you think I only just got back?"
"…Ah! You really are my Master!"
She looked at me with genuine admiration, then smiled shyly and brought up something else.
"Well then… what about ruining Trumpet on the personal side?"
"Ruin him? How?"
"Trumpet is a classic land baron. He claims his total assets exceed 1.2 trillion dollars, but quietly he must be carrying plenty of debt too! On top of that, I hear his failure in the first Blade Flyer raid shrank not only his political standing but his grip on his businesses as well. Above all, with this kidna—with the attempt to take Lady Hwayeon hostage exposed, it's all but certain his moral standing will take a serious hit!"
Clearly delighted by my interest, she poured heart and soul into the explanation.
"So if Master publicly announces, on lawful grounds, that you will treat Trumpet as an enemy, then on the strength of Master's reputation his name will crash at the speed of light. And his political rivals will come running to tear into him too!"
"And from there I pour in my wealth and take the assets he owns?"
Seeing that I understood her scheme seemed to delight her. Her cheeks flushed red, she clenched a fist, and cried out.
"Yep! Seize the shares of his corporations to threaten his position, and at the same time start backing the rival companies of the firms he owns, with money and with everything else—and the other capitalist hyenas out to devour him will come running along with them! A man who has made Master his enemy can only fall, slowly!"
Franc, listening quietly beside us, winced a little at talk that smelled of intrigue, but she didn't look away. She listened closely, and that only spurred Sophia on. Trumpet, she explained, had as many comrades-who-were-enemies and enemies-who-were-comrades as he had wealth. Help those people push hostile takeovers, and I could slaughter the pig called Trumpet without spending all that much money or time.
"Sell off the companies and land you acquire that way at a relatively cheap price, and Master's fortune will barely take a scratch, while Trumpet becomes a powerless old man shoved into the back room, stripped of money, honor, political power, and financial power alike! And when the seeds Master has sown begin to sprout, declare that so long as Trumpet exists in America, you will never offer help. Then it's game over, you see?"
"Not bad. I really like the part where he becomes an old man shut in a back room. But that'd take a lot of hands, wouldn't it? I don't feel like pouring my time and my mind into destroying one little pig."
"Of course! A pig bastard like that… ah, I'm sorry. Master's time is far too precious to spend destroying him. But guess what! I've studied in that direction myself! So if you leave the work to me, I'll pour my heart and soul into making sure he loses everything and is destroyed!"
As if she'd been waiting for those words, Sophia pressed her hands together and looked up at me, eyes shining. I looked into them. All she wanted was to prove her loyalty to me. At that level, I could trust her with it.
"All right."
I stood, Space Leaped into the Phase Stone warehouse, and came back with two attaché cases—rectangular bags of the sort people call 007 bags—holding ten Superior Phase Stones and a hundred High Grade Phase Stones. I set them down in front of her.
"Ten Superior Phase Stones and a hundred High Grade Phase Stones. Use as many as you like. Send the Trumpet who tried to play games with me straight to his grave."
Sophia stared at the two bags, then picked up only the one on top—the bag of High Grade Phase Stones.
"I don't need that many. This alone is enough!"
"Don't come holding your hand out later saying you need money. Just take them all."
"No! Superior Phase Stones are awkward to liquidate, and if I start with too much capital I could draw suspicion! Money is the sort of thing where more is better, and the more you have the faster the work goes—but even that has a limit! This much is more than enough!"
She hugged the black bag to her chest and smiled brightly. Then she made a call somewhere, set the 007 bag down in their room, and left for the temporary laboratory, saying she was going to see her older sister, Seria Edelberg, for a little while.
Franc, who had been watching, turned to me with a slightly uneasy look.
"Will Sophia do well?"
"We'll have to trust her. Talking that confidently in front of me, she must have some skill she hasn't shown yet. She seems to want to prove she's useful."
Just then Suhan brought apples and pears, neatly cut, set them in front of me and Franc, and spoke.
"Sophia said that while she was receiving spy training in Japan, she learned all sorts of miscellaneous knowledge along with how to become a person who is not good—and also how to use that knowledge as a situation requires."
"That's something out of Machiavelli's The Prince."
Huh? Sophia had studied The Prince…? She'd learned the art of kingship? I speared a piece of pear with a fork and bit into it, looking at Franc. Suhan tucked the tray under her arm and nodded.
"Yes. It is said a prince must possess a great deal of knowledge of slander and intrigue in order to survive, and Sophia said that when she received her spy training she acquired the full body of knowledge related to that. Considering her personality, her origins, and the education she received, I believe she possesses schemes that would not lose even against politicians."
"That is true. The Prince is the book that became the beginning of modern political science, and she was a spy closely tied to politics. If she mastered that, she would be skilled at stratagem as well."
And then the two of them, having said that much, suddenly launched into a serious, solemn debate—whether a bad deed could be justified if it were used toward a clear, precise, and good purpose; whether a hereditary title, with power passed down through the generations, was a stain, and whether seizing power with no ability of one's own was right or wrong; the methods by which a mere citizen becomes a ruler; the legitimacy and the swiftness of doing harm versus bestowing favor; and so on.
…What was this, all of a sudden? Hwayeon or Yeongeun I could understand, but Franc had an interest in topics like this too?
Anyway, even if Sophia failed, a little scolding would be enough. I'd just watch what she did. If she did well, I could praise her.