The Perfect Informant
The twins were Fenil the older sister and Benil the younger. Both were eleven years old. In reality, they were each ten years older than Baengnae. Yet Baengnae led them around as if she were their big sister. Since the girls could not join me on the East Bali capital tour, they had spent that time touring the Equator instead. They had fallen completely in love with it. Every day at tour time they came looking for me, begging me to call for their Equator guide, Baengnae.
“Fenil wants to go.”
“Benil wants to go too.”
So when I asked if they wanted to live on the Equator, the children answered without hesitation. They had no family tied to them by blood. It seemed West Teron had been using orphans for its Chimera experiments from the start. The only connection the girls had was to the researchers who had experimented on them.
I used the breathing room the Prime Minister had given me to quietly gather information. But as an outsider, there were limits. Then I heard that the right person had appeared in the free market, and I decided to seek him out. Someone well-versed in East Bali’s internal affairs, reasonably clever, and suitably capable. Campbell, the boy who had once been the protagonist of The Glutton’s Dessert Café. The former Secret Police Chief was the best tool I could use in this story.
Late at night, I quietly went to find Campbell. He had retired after the Prime Minister rescue operation. He had once explained that the only reason he became a secret policeman in the first place was to find me.
‘And then you pointed a gun at me?’
I respected that attitude of his. The kind of person who, once given a responsibility, would see it through no matter what variables appeared. People like that were decisive in both their endings and their beginnings.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
A small house between flickering streetlights. I knocked on Campbell’s gate.
“Who is it?”
“It’s me.”
Campbell opened the door halfway and showed his face. He did not look particularly wary.
“What brings the most famous person of late to my door?”
“Let’s talk for a bit.”
He opened the door without resistance. I stepped into the neatly arranged space.
“No family?”
“I had a wife.”
After closing the front door, Campbell habitually checked outside, then his face hardened. He slowly turned to look at me.
“You shook off every tail… I’m suddenly afraid of what you’re about to say.”
“Nothing too grand. You’re not a secret policeman anymore, right? So I came to ask if you might be interested in immigrating.”
He flinched as he mulled over my words.
“Don’t tell me you really mean the west…?”
Then he immediately corrected himself.
“Please pretend you didn’t hear that.”
It was exactly the word choice I had intended. I had been testing how much loyalty he still felt toward East Bali. Even though he had, for a moment, considered that I might be from the west, he showed no particular displeasure.
‘So there really is no resentment.’
What I sensed instead was anxiety. He was thinking first about how difficult my situation would become if the secret police heard this story. That put me more at ease, so I asked directly.
“So, are you coming or not?”
“I would like nothing more than to go with you, but I was once a secret policeman. The state will never let me leave freely.”
‘He didn’t even ask where we’re going.’
Campbell was an honest man. He wanted to come with me, but refused because the act itself would cause me too much trouble. In that case, all I needed to do was show him that accepting him would not pose any real threat to me.
“Want to take a walk?”
We stepped outside and walked down the street. I walked in silence and he followed quietly. By now he must have noticed. Even in the dead of night, in the middle of the capital, it was impossible for there to be no drunkards, no small animals. Campbell could not have failed to realize that. Yet the man who had walked silently through the quiet finally opened his mouth. For the first time, I saw displeasure on his face.
“What exactly… is your intention…?”
It was because I had stopped in front of a grave. A place one could never reach by simply walking aimlessly. It was the grave of his deceased wife, the only person Campbell had ever given his heart to.
“Did you love your wife?”
“Of course… So this joke has gone too far.”
I handed him a small glass bottle. It contained a precious concentration of Baengnae’s poison.
“A gift.”
“What is this?”
“An offer from the devil. It brings the dead back to life.”
“…”
Campbell’s eyes wavered. No matter how much common sense and science tried to deny it, the miracles I had shown were real.
“This can’t be… this is…”
Muttering that it was madness, Campbell nevertheless began digging up his wife’s grave. Carefully, but quickly. The coffin emerged from the ground, and inside lay a woman who looked perfectly fine. Campbell’s wife, who had recently passed away from a chronic illness.
Glug, glug—
It did not take long. I poured the concentrated poison of Baengnae into an ordinary human with low physical abilities. In that case, it was no longer poison. It was miraculous life-giving water that revived the dead.
The woman inside the coffin stirred and sat up. As casually as if she had simply woken up thirsty from a nap, she called out to Campbell.
“Dear…? Huh? Where is this?”
“Ah… ahh…”
“Campbell… why are you crying?”
The preservation was excellent. Since she had died of illness, there were no outwardly strange parts. ‘No need to summon boots for her.’
“If you want to immigrate, come find me tomorrow.”
I turned away, leaving Campbell to savor the reunion. This was no longer a place for me to stay.
The next day, Campbell came to visit. The moment he entered the room, he dropped to his knees.
“I apologize for my disrespectful words. Please forgive me. I wish to follow you.”
He really was an incredibly rigid fellow. Even after losing his wife, he had thrown himself into his duties, and even when he found a lifelong goal, he had prioritized responsibility over everything. And now that kind of man was going to work for me.
I helped Campbell to his feet and briefly explained the secrets of this world. Even when I told him the absurd truth—that he was actually a character in a story and that this entire reality was fake—he accepted it easily. Instead, he only thanked me for giving him the chance to be saved from falsehood.
‘He feels a bit like a fanatic now…’
I had thought a longer persuasion process would be necessary, but perhaps this was the right way after all. If, back on Earth, I revived his dead wife and then told him this world was fake and asked him to come with me to the real one, fewer people would believe it. For him, whether it was real or fake did not matter.
‘Well, if it works, it works.’
I shared with him what I planned to do here. Steal East Bali’s mana stone mines. Kidnap West Teron’s Chimera researchers. And recruiting Campbell had indeed been the right choice. The veteran spy, after quietly listening to the contents, offered a clear plan based on Baliteron’s political situation. It took him less than a minute to outline the rough plan.
“First, going to West Teron is not difficult. If you receive a secret police mission and go on dispatch, East Bali will handle all the complicated matters for you.”
“You want me to become a secret policeman?”
“Yes. You may not feel it while staying in the capital, but the cold war between the two nations is on the verge of exploding. Even if the state suspects you somewhat, if you volunteer to act as a spy, they will spare no support.”
Campbell’s suggestion had many clear advantages. If I infiltrated West Teron under the guise of a secret policeman and extracted the Chimera creators, I could shift the blame onto East Bali. Since I would actually be moving with East Bali’s spies, it would not even be a complete lie. Above all, the border was the most heavily guarded place. Having one side’s help would make things much easier.
“On the other hand, the mana stone mine is close, but I think we will need to investigate a bit. It is not generally under the secret police’s jurisdiction, but if we look, information will come out.”
Campbell took out a map of East Bali from his inner pocket. He pointed to two regions with his finger.
“There are currently two areas known as mana stone mines. But judging by the amount being supplied, there must be more. I will investigate this part and report back.”
The framework was set. While I went to handle matters in West Teron, Campbell would stay here and plan the mine operation. With one local informant, the entire board had become much easier.
“Take your time. And I will leave Fenil and Benil in your care for a while. It would be best if you protect them while I am gone.”
“I will do my utmost. But I am concerned whether I have the ability to protect them.”
Campbell was mistaken about something. His wife had already become a powerful zombie. Even ten secret policemen would not be able to defeat her. Still, it was true that she was a bit lacking.
‘Regular zombies are awkward to assign because of their appearance…’
I turned my head toward Baengnae. Seeing the situation, Baengnae read my thoughts and immediately made a sulky face.
“This is Baengnae’s.”
“I’m just borrowing the little sisters for a bit. Still don’t want to?”
“Ugh…”
In the end, Baengnae handed over the owl doll she had been holding preciously to Fenil and Benil. The children received the doll and cheered.
“Wow!”
“Wow!”
The owl shouted in protest.
[Hey! I am not some gift to be passed around!]
“Cooperate a little. If my work goes well, you will get to go to the Sky Library too, right? Don’t want to go to the Sky Library?”
[Uwaa! Seriously!]
[Sky Library] aside, the truth was that this guy owed me a life. If it were not for me, he would have been caught by the Librarians. The owl, perhaps knowing this, did not rebel too strongly.
“Owl.”
“Mister.”
At Fenil and Benil’s call, the owl quieted down. He had decided to cooperate.
“Just make sure to stop any weird guys who approach the kids. Don’t cause any trouble.”
[I’ll handle it!]
With that, there was nothing left to worry about. The owl might act that way, but if he put his mind to it, he was a being capable of destroying a small city by himself.
‘Roughly sorted.’
I requested an audience with the Prime Minister. I needed to inform him of my intention to join the secret police and temporarily entrust the girls to Campbell. To my surprise, the meeting was arranged immediately. Usually the position of Prime Minister was not so free. Every day would be packed with schedules, so I had expected to meet him in a few days. But the meeting was set for a luncheon two hours later.
‘There must be something.’
The word “luncheon” suggested many people would be attending. Probably a political gathering. Inviting me to such a place gave the feeling that he wanted to use me to scheme something. I expressed my intention to attend. Even if he had an agenda, it did not matter. I also had an agenda in wanting to meet him. According to the laws of politics, I could simply use the Prime Minister in return.