A Temporary Return, and Putting Things in Order (6)

"So what you're asking is for us to make armor out of the byproducts of a Transcendental-grade Aberrant?"

I had brought Dr. Altina and her senior researcher, Mac Hamilton, over to the phase physics laboratory where Dr. Dwight and Dr. Oh Soeun were, and there I laid out why I had come to the temporary phase research institute. Baekcheong's bones and scales had no Phase Power to speak of, and yet they had held against my Wall of Space the way a living Highest-Rank Aberrant would. I had wanted to know how that was possible.

If anyone could find the reason, it would be the people in this room. And if the reason could be found, I might be able to make my amber Wall of Space a little stronger — and, along with it, push the strength and durability of weapons and armor higher still.

"Byproducts of a Transcendental-grade Aberrant... I can hardly believe it."

Director Oh Soeun murmured it with a blank face, staring at Baekcheong's bones and hide where they floated in the hologram window of my Certifier.

"You know I spent close to a month in the Phase World before I came back, yes?"

"Yes. And the matter of your lover as well...!"

Dr. Altina's eyes were sparkling too, as if she had heard about Franc. Under my cold look she flinched, and her legs trembled, but not a word came out of her about being allowed to study Franc. She must have read the warning in my eyes. That subject was not to be raised.

"I'll fund the research as much as you need, so I'd like you to start as quickly as possible. I'll recruit armor craftsmen and assign them to you as well, so please cooperate fully in making the weapons and the armor."

"Hmm. If it were simply a matter of making armor, you would have left it to Crafters Maestro. The fact that you're entrusting the research to us suggests there's something else to it."

As if she had caught something in what I'd said, Director Oh Soeun folded her arms beneath her chest, eyes bright, and spoke. Hardly anything there, and she still bothers to fold her arms under it...?

"The hardness is terrifying."

"Hmm?"

"My Wall of Space breaks down even diamond without effort."

I took out an industrial diamond I had brought along, unfolded the amber Wall of Space, and tossed the stone in. It dropped through with a soft plop, failed to last a single second, went soft and shapeless, and came apart into nothing.

The doctors stared at the Wall of Space with eyes fierce enough to throw off light. If a gaze could disintegrate matter, that look alone would have erased the wall.

"This Wall of Space breaks down anything that isn't an object or a living thing possessed of Phase Power. But..."

"But those byproducts weren't broken down?!"

I nodded at Director Oh Soeun, who had cut in with an excited voice and finished the sentence for me.

"Even with my ability, they're byproducts in which Phase Power can't be detected. Not. At. All. And yet they showed a certain resistance to my Wall of Space. I'd like you to keep that in mind as you research them, and make the armor."

At first I had simply assumed the bones were so absurdly hard and cohesive that the amber Wall of Space couldn't break them down. Once I was back in reality and thought it over, that wasn't it. The amber Wall of Space struggles more to disintegrate something the denser that thing's Phase Power is. The Wall of Space had failed to break down Baekcheong's bones. And yet no Phase Power registered in those bones at all.

Not even a syllogism could get a foothold in a situation like that.

After dumping the new workload on the institute's doctors, I stepped outside and called Director Oh Soeun aside. I had been planning to poach Dr. Woo Mingu, and I figured Dr. Oh Soeun — who had done the same work on the same floor — would know where he was. So I asked. The answer that came back was not the one I expected.

"Dr. Woo Mingu has disappeared?"

"Yes. He's been missing since the collapse of the Korean headquarters of the Ability User Association. We thought he might have been crushed under the building rubble, or buried in the ground, so we mobilized the Association's detection-type ability users and searched the area thoroughly. We didn't find Dr. Woo Mingu."

"It wasn't a kidnapping, or something like that?"

"No. Senior figures in the Ability User Association are under the protection of the precognition department. If there had been a kidnapping attempt, or even a plan for one, it would have come to light almost at once."

Dr. Woo Mingu, whom I had provisionally decided to make director of my own institute, had gone to ground. Some unpleasant premonition kept rising and fading, and it scraped at my nerves. Dr. Oh Soeun's face had darkened as she told me, and that bothered me too. I scratched the back of my head and spoke.

"I should look into what happened."

"If you learn anything about Dr. Woo... would you tell me as well?"

The deep bow she gave me was unexpected enough that I asked.

"What is Dr. Woo Mingu to you, that you'd go that far?"

"He's the mentor who helped me set foot on this path. And he's looked after me a great deal ever since."

Was that so? Well, I had been planning to look for him even without being asked. I nodded and told her I understood, and Dr. Oh Soeun's face brightened a little.

Back at the Grand Blue Building, I hesitated before stopping by my sister's office.

Being alone with her was still awkward. Hwayeon was home, training in Phase Power control with Franc, and Aunt Hyeryeong was out somewhere as well. Dragging along another department head, or Sophia, or Suhan, would have been strange in its own way. Which left me with no one I could haul in front of my sister as a decent excuse.

And so there I was, hemming and hawing when I hadn't even done anything wrong. It wasn't as if she was going to eat me, and I hadn't done anything wrong. Even so, Space Leaping straight into her office felt oddly off, so I went to my own office first, took the elevator, and entered hers the normal way.

The doors opened. I stepped into her office, and my sister — chin propped on one hand, a magazine open in front of her — lifted only her eyes to me.

"..."

"..."

S-say something, would you. Why are you staring like that?

Her face gave nothing away. I started to look aside, then decided that whoever looked away first lost, so I put force behind my own eyes and stared right back at her — and she was the one who flushed first, and dropped her gaze.

With her face faintly colored like that, she looked like a ripe peach, and some feeling I couldn't name made me swallow.

"What is it?"

Set against the red in her face, her voice was perfectly calm and level. Not a voice that belonged to someone blushing like that.

"Uh... I stopped by the company — no, the institute — and I need armor craftsmen I can trust."

"Planning to have them research as well, while they make armor from Baekcheong's bones?"

Whoa. Didn't even need a long explanation. She caught on immediately.

"Yeah. Baekcheong's bones showed strong resistance even to my Wall of Space, so I thought putting them into the research might turn something up."

"Good. The phase physics team's Mystic Stone project just wrapped up anyway, and I was wondering what to give them next."

She folded the magazine, slipped it into a drawer, and worked her Certifier, floating several documents up into the air.

"Mystic Stone?"

"Blue Stone is a pretty shoddy name for something that effective, don't you think?"

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

Tch! What's wrong with my naming?! It's better than whatever lunatic came up with Blue Genius!

Even so, Mystic Stone did have a better ring to it than Blue Stone. I pouted, grumbling under my breath, and went to sit on the sofa. She sorted the documents, then came out from behind her desk and sat down across from me.

"You have two options."

As she said it, she let me see the two files she had selected. One of them was this.

"A business proposal? This company sent us a business proposal? What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means everyone in a position to know that you obtained byproducts of a Transcendental-grade Aberrant already knows."

"No way. I got back yesterday afternoon, and they already all know?"

"At a minimum, there are roughly six satellites trailing the country and photographing the area around the Grand Blue Building. The nations that own them call it coincidence, but the ones that have been at it longest have been following us for over five months. There's no way that's a coincidence."

Right — Franc had looked up at the sky back then and said a satellite was photographing her, hadn't she?

"Is that even legal?"

My sister sank back into the sofa and shrugged.

"Rights and authority over satellite orbits come with all sorts of complications. Anyway. Once they heard the news, the CEO and master craftsman of Crafters Maestro contacted us this morning, wanting a business partnership with Grand Blue. Now look at the other one."

She shrank the proposal, enlarged the remaining document, and held it up in front of my face.

The other one was...

"Sanjinsundo?"

"An old house with a long history of making traditional arms and armor. The line died out about a hundred and fifty years ago. The name belongs to a family company founded by a grandchild of that house, after studying abroad at Balmung Enterprise in Germany."

"Hmm...?"

A line that had died out, now back to making arms and armor? It felt a little ambiguous.

"Ambiguous, right?"

"You startled me!"

I jumped — more than a little — at my sister speaking as if ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠she had looked straight inside me, but I didn't call her on it. I studied the paper she was holding out.

The reason she was showing me files on both firms was plain enough. She wanted me to pick one of the two, Crafters Maestro or Sanjinsundo, to partner with. Crafters Maestro was a weapons and armor manufacturer the whole world knew, so that one made sense. She wouldn't be showing me a small company like Sanjinsundo for nothing. There had to be something worth noticing, or she wouldn't have brought it out on purpose.

"Hmm... how good do you have to be to get offered a development director post at a major corporation in your mid-twenties?"

"People who've used a weapon President Choi Yoon-chang made say they can't use anything else."

"That's impressive."

I skimmed the rest and put what I had been thinking into words.

"So the reason you showed me this is, first, we aren't doing mass production at this stage. We only need to make what we'll use ourselves, so it doesn't have to be a big company. And second, the president is skilled enough that Balmung in Germany offered her a development director post after only six years. A real craftsman."

"And?"

I spoke, feeling awkward under her gaze — chin propped on her palm, her expression soft with something like pride, as if I had done something terribly commendable.

"Turning down even a department-head post at a major corporation and coming back to Korea — that says she wants to make her own work and nothing else. An artisan's spirit. If we're judging by skill first, what Sanjinsundo's president makes probably wouldn't lose to the craftsmen at Crafters Maestro."

"Right. She could have taken a major corporation's ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠backing, developed and produced weapons and armor, and put her own name on the gear she made. She didn't. She came back to Korea, persuaded her family, and built a company. The biggest point is that she isn't someone money can push around. A person like that won't sell technical information for a payout."

Ah. So that was it. Given what the materials going into anything we made from here on would be, every step of the process, from one to ten, would be classified at the highest level. Partner with Crafters Maestro and we would get a share of well over a century of their know-how and technique. The other side of that coin was that our research, and every source that went into the making, would be as good as laid open.

C.M.'s know-how and technology could be bought, or built up ourselves, so long as there was money. Byproducts of Aberrants at Highest-Rank and above were different. As things stood, I was the only one who could obtain them. Whatever technology came out of that would be an asset no fortune could buy. The maker's temperament would matter too. As a partner, Sanjinsundo looked better to me than Crafters Maestro Korea.

I was thinking that when my sister's glittering eyes, and her pretty, finely oval face, filled both of mine.

"Why are you smiling like that?"

"What am I doing?"

Maybe ten percent of what was in her eyes was the look you give a cute little brother. The rest was a feeling I was afraid to meet, and I wanted to bolt right now.

I dragged my eyes down, away from hers, and spoke.

"...It's nothing. Anyway, from this alone, contracting with Sanjinsundo looks better than joining hands with Crafters Maestro. What do you think, Noona?"

"I'll pass your opinion along at the executive meeting this afternoon. If we sign with Sanjinsundo, we'll need to pick a reasonably clean, capable subcontractor too."

She rose as if she had known all along that I would choose Sanjinsundo, and walked toward her desk — and her back came into my sight as if magnified. A perfect line, like a slender vase thrown by a master potter. Coffee-colored stockings, and a black pleated pencil skirt rising to just below her bust. The immaculate white blouse set off the narrow waist and the apple-round rear that continued from her finely shaped hips, and a mature allure and a pure, delicate loveliness seemed to live in her at once.

I had often seen her around the house in loose clothes that showed plenty of skin, and dressed with real effort when she went out, but today she truly looked like a grown woman. For an instant she seemed like an entirely different person. For a moment she wasn't my sister at all, but simply a woman as beautiful as a goddess, and I flinched and lifted both hands to rub my eyes.

"What's wrong?"

"Huh?! N-nothing!"

I shot up from the seat. She watched me with puzzled eyes, came closer, and reached out to lay a hand on my forehead. I dropped my gaze without meaning to. Through the open collar of her blouse I saw the pale, soft swell of her breasts, and I stepped back before I knew what I was doing.

"Th-then I'll leave the rest to you!!"

"Huh? Seoha, wai—!"

Her flustered voice followed me from behind, but staying any longer felt dangerous. I leaped, in a hurry, to the camping trailer in Shinchon-dong. The instant I had seen my sister's chest through that open collar, a sweet scent I had no words for had flooded up my nose. My heart had pounded. My face had gone hot. If I had hesitated even a little longer, she would have caught my reaction.

"Haa..."

Struggling to settle my hammering heart, I remembered what I had forgotten to say.

I should have asked her to invite Rawar from India, and I had just up and left. Once my chest calmed down, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I would have to ask Aunt Hyeryeong. Oh — and I needed to ask her to look into Dr. Woo Mingu, too.

...But is she really my sister? Not a doppelganger or something? Ugh. This damn heart isn't even trying to calm down. It's not like that, so settle down, you bastard.