Do You Need Proof?
Queen Knight worked her hands through a sea of paperwork with a carelessness that was only on the surface. Her right hand took up a document while both eyes raced through its contents; her left stamped a seal or drove a pen, approving one file and rejecting the next.
She did not miss the TERA intranet flickering at the edge of her vision either. Every time the laptop scrolled, another production line spun up inside her head.
Hours had already passed with her clearing documents in that same posture. Now and then an operative who came to deliver a report or carry a file away offered a worried word, but Queen Knight's eyes only told them to get back to work.
She knew it herself. Keep on like this, and even a superhuman like her would not last long.
There had been time to rest, once. With Captain Kid gone and the world pitched into chaos, her workload did nothing but grow. Sleep was a waste. Meals were a waste. If she had not jolted herself awake on caffeine and driven herself with duty and responsibility, even Queen Knight would have collapsed halfway through.
Tok. Tok.
"Come in."
"Excuse me."
The secretary who worked under her opened the door with care and came in, barely keeping a pair of unsteady legs in check, and approached.
"Four of the Arctic subjugation party, and one beast, are on their way to TERA under Tough Guy's escort."
"I already have the report through the network. When will they arrive?"
"An hour remains before they reach the Alaska branch. You ought to move quickly."
"......Has it been that long?"
Queen Knight rolled her shoulders, worked the knotted muscle loose, and rose from the chair that had been toasting her seat.
Thump!
"Madam...!"
"I'm fine. It's only overwork."
She lifted the hand she had braced on the desk without thinking and tucked the faintly trembling fingers down into her pocket.
"How are the preparations at the Alaska branch?"
"Lodging and meals, all complete."
"Have them check once more. These are honored guests."
They were heroes who had caught a villain TERA had chased and chased and still failed to take. They had stood in for those who guarded the Earth; there could be no shortfall in courtesy.
If TERA had tried to catch that villain on its own, we might never have managed it. No. We would have been the ones who took the hit.
She called up the field reports from those who had watched the combat zone at a distance, and the interim reports of the personnel who had breached the laboratory. A research facility that could only be called a hell. The scars of a ferocious battle. And a vast hole driven through the middle of the Arctic.
They had measured its width. Nothing short of several hundred tons of TNT detonating from below could have made a sight like that. It was no different from setting off a tactical nuke.
No one walks out of that alive except Captain Earth. In practice, catching the villain would have had to be abandoned.
Set against the ruin Scientist had visited on the world, the thought made her grind her teeth until the feeling curdled into humiliation. But that was the reality. They could not stake the whole of TERA on a single villain.
And that villain was not alone. He belongs to an organization.
According to what Captain Kid had passed along, a being called the Boss stood behind Scientist, and under that Boss were executives of the same rank.
He was not the only problem. TERA may have been pouring its time into a meaningless place, never knowing the true power in the dark.
The seat of TERA's madam routinely handled even the information a nation spent its full strength to hide. Conceal a country's secrets however one liked; it came to the same thing. People did all of it.
Captain Kid, however, had brought her information that even Queen Knight found cause to doubt.
A god. That truly existed?
They said Captain Kid and Roadman had seen with their own two eyes even the being who had unleashed the Great Flood. The story was so absurd that, for the present, only TERA's inner circle knew it.
One of the gods is said to be coming in person. I'll see it with my own eyes, and judge then.
Whether it was truly a god out of myth, or an ability user on the order of a god, she could not know. Captain Earth's strength alone was already godlike.
If, by some slender chance, it is real...
Queen Knight packed the idle thought away again.
Either way, this is a good chance. We can gain a good neighbor in Asia, where TERA's influence is comparatively thin.
The Shrine Priest had, regrettably, returned to Japan, but the tie had been opened. The opportunity would come whenever it came.
I never would have dreamed it. Korea and Japan, at each other's throats like dog and monkey, and close in secret.
If the debt ran deep enough that the Shrine Priest had come in person to cooperate, that alliance was anything but ordinary.
And TERA steps into the space between them...!
Queen Knight's eyes glinted, faint and bright.
Alaska.
Where endless wilderness met snow-covered mountains, there was an ordinary village. A helicopter drew slowly toward it, quieting its noise.
A few people in everyday clothes stood in an open lot. Contrary to their looks, they swung signal wands with crisp, disciplined movements, and the helicopter poured down its wind and landed.
"Welcome. This is the Alaska branch, one of our TERA branches."
Tough Guy spread a palm like a tour guide as he made the introduction.
I looked around. Asphalt weathered by the years, snowbanks shoved to one side, a single grocery store, a bar breathing a thick reek of liquor, a clattering truck, and cars jammed in wherever they happened to fit. For a TERA branch, it was closer to a shabby country town.
And yet it was not quite an ordinary neighborhood either. Call it the atmosphere. I could not shake the sense that danger lay scattered through the everyday: a strange wrongness an ordinary person would never notice. Pay attention, and you knew. Let it slip, and it was easy to grow used to.
"Oh, I've only ever seen this in movies. So there really are places disguised like this."
"I didn't know it was here either. It's completely seamless. If no one had told us, I don't think we could have found it."
Pele and Dan Miryu marveled, and Tough Guy swelled with pride as if the credit were his own.
"Everyone who stops here for the first time reacts about the same."
"Why go to the trouble of disguising it this way? The upkeep alone must cost a fortune."
"There are several reasons, but the greatest is that this branch is a refuge."
"A refuge?"
"Yes. Think of it as a place where agents' families, agents on leave, injured agents, and retired agents can stay in safety."
"This way."
Tough Guy led us toward the best-looking house in the village.
Ding-dong.
Familiar with the place, he pressed the doorbell beside the door. Dozens of seconds later the door banged wide, and a silver-haired woman appeared.
Hair grown long spilled down behind her neck like a waterfall. Her brows were hard and distinct, as if they reflected her character, and her irises were a blue like melted jewels. The set of her eyes was stiff and cold, but the ripe, mature allure of her looks dressed that coldness instead as pride and a lofty reserve.
She was TERA's knight, and its second-in-command.
Queen Knight. Elizabeth Melusine Saint-Pierre.
"You've come. I've been waiting."
A crisp voice called me out of my thoughts.
"A pleasure. I am Queen Knight. Thank you for accepting TERA's invitation."
Fine brows drew together with a modest grace. Unlike the cold, expressionless air about her, her manner of speaking carried breeding.
Dan Miryu, whose eyes had wandered over Queen Knight's looks, cleared his throat.
"Thank you for the invitation. I am Dan Miryu."
He offered a brief bow and said it in English.
"Please come inside. I've prepared a light bite."
Queen Knight stole a sidelong glance at Pele, then opened the way toward the kitchen.
The moment we crossed the threshold, a fragrance sharp enough to pierce the nose came rolling out. The table was crowded with so many dishes its legs might have bent: Korean food to start, every kind of Asian cuisine, and Western plates I had only ever seen past a television screen. There was raw meat set out for San-gun as well.
"There was little time, so it isn't much, but please eat without any discomfort."
The welcome was more than we had expected. How TERA regarded us came through sharp and clear.
We sat, mouths watering. Perhaps because the tension had loosened, my stomach raised a clamor to be fed.
"If it isn't enough, please say so. Our chef is standing by at all times."
"Thank you. Then we'll eat well."
When Dan Miryu lifted his knife, the rest of us took up our utensils and began to eat. Tough Guy eased back and disappeared.
"Forgive me for asking in the middle of a meal, but may I put one question to you?"
"Hm?"
Pele stuffed spaghetti, pizza, fondue, and grilled short-rib patties down all at once, swallowed, and spoke.
"What kind of question?"
"......Are you truly a god?"
"Yeah."
Pele reacted as if she had been asked something obvious.
"Didn't the little boss pass it on? I don't think we hid anything that mattered."
"So I was told. Even so, I simply cannot believe that a god truly exists......"
"You need proof? I could give it, if I must......"
Pele's gaze slid, just slightly, out the window.
"There are a lot of mountains around here. Shall I turn all of them into volcanoes?"
"You would make this place a sea of fire?"
Dan Miryu had gone pale.
"I'm the goddess of volcanoes. What could be more certain than that?"
Grumbling, Pele snatched the steak Dan Miryu was reaching for and ate it.
"Miss Queen Knight. May I ask a question as well?"
I cut in as I set a portion on Hong Yumin's plate.
"Of course."
"How is the Prophet? Is it serious?"
"........."
Queen Knight's expression hardened with a chill that prickled the skin. The table went quiet.
"Hah."
Hong Yumin sighed. She seemed to be weighing whether or not to crack my skull.