UN
"I'll interrogate them myself."
After sorting out the situation, the Director called us in separately.
We were supposed to undergo a more thorough investigation regarding the terrorism, but all that came out of my mouth was something along the lines of, "I just ran into them by chance and lured them in."
"Well now, it's not often that people drop by here as frequently as you lot."
The Director said this with a slight smile.
This was a place you couldn't enter without booking an appointment. The Director was a busy man. Even with a fairly urgent reason, showing up unannounced usually got you turned away at the door, and even with permission, coming in twice in a single day like this simply didn't happen.
Even when I'd been playing the game, this guy was often away from his desk… so I'd use the downtime for other side quests or skill grinding.
"Sorry to trouble you, but could you prepare some tea inside? Four cups of whatever's fine."
"Understood, Director."
A woman who appeared to be a secretary hurried off with quick little steps.
Looks like he figured this conversation was going to run long.
Don't tell me he's planning to bring up compensation for the car?
Honestly, from my perspective I'd only done what needed doing, so there was no reason to get scolded. But with Kang Jiye right next to me, I couldn't exactly argue back. I mean, why leave such an expensive car there in the first place?
"Oh, Ddori!! Why are you here! Are you okay?"
There was a pink Party Bear in the Director's office.
I'd noticed it sneakily following us out earlier and just pretended not to see… so it really had been planning to take the Director to task over the personal attack, huh.
That was just me messing around because I was bored. I'll tell it the truth once it calms down.
"By the way, is Yena alright? She doesn't seem particularly shaken."
The Director looked puzzled at Yena clinging to the Party Bear. That explosion just now had been powerful enough to blow a vehicle to pieces in an instant. I wasn't sure if anyone had been blown apart, but it still would have been a lot for a young child to handle.
But Yena answered in an excited tone.
"It's fine 'cause our unnie's gonna protect us anyway! Eldrisa unnie said Pecia unnie is super strong. And just now nothing even happened to us."
"And who is this Eldrisa?"
If talk of a beast revival came up, getting home would take even longer, so I casually cut in.
"She exists. She's my subordinate. More importantly, why did you call us here? We already covered everything earlier."
Kang Jiye lightly pinched my cheek and gave it a shake.
"You should be saying thank you. Normally you'd be in an interrogation room writing statements and going through all kinds of examinations."
"Why should I have to go through all that hassle when I did a good thing?"
"Because that's the procedure?"
…Ah, well, there had been plenty of complaints about similar things in my previous life too. If you stopped a crime or reported one, they'd keep calling you in for questioning. In the worst cases, you'd get treated like a suspect yourself. Sometimes even get sued by the criminal.
The Director plopped down onto a single-seat sofa and spoke.
"We're the ones who should be thanking you. Thanks to you, we were able to arrest those troublemakers without any incidents. I'm especially grateful that you cleared out the parking lot so no one got caught in the explosion."
He was talking around the hypnosis skill. I answered with a smile.
"Not at all. Everyone's will to clock out was so weak I could chase them off easily. The Hunter Administration is such a great place to work that nobody even resisted."
"…Is that so?"
"Yep."
The corner of the Director's mouth twitched.
"Well now. I've been feeling a bit guilty about all the overtime lately, but I guess I don't need to walk on eggshells as much."
"Hehe, of course. Everyone will be happy about the extra pay!"
Good that the Director seemed to be in a better mood. I needed to gradually steer his attention away from the car like this.
Was it true that their will to clock out was weak?
Of course it was a complete and utter lie. Everyone had been so desperate to go home that I'd burned through a fair amount of mana forcing the hypnosis on them.
This meant the Director would work them even harder going forward, but that wasn't something I could help.
If you don't want to work, you shouldn't have gotten a job.
As we made small talk to shift the mood, the tea arrived.
The Director savored his teacup, then lowered his eyes and got to the point.
"By the way, there's something I don't quite understand."
"What is it?"
"There was one woman who uniquely didn't resist at all… just a moment."
Right on cue, a call came through for the Director.
It was from Kim Seojun. From what I could gather, he'd blown up an entire research lab in a fit of anger and things had gotten a bit complicated.
Protagonist or not, a greenhorn was still a greenhorn. Making emotional mistakes like that and all. He'd caused a bit of a mess, but his proper awakening wouldn't come until after the Academy incident, so this sort of thing was inevitable.
The Director expressed a bit of concern as well.
"I understand how you feel, but this was a bit excessive. You should have told me beforehand."
"—I'm sorry."
"Well, it's not as if there were no gains at all, so don't worry about it. Thanks to this, telling friend from foe should get a bit easier. Save your apology for Purple Bunny."
Saying this, the Director muttered some code-like words at random — "laurel," "mortar" — then ended the call with Kim Seojun.
I've never seen anything like this in the story either?
From the atmosphere, it seemed like he was referring to me, but his expression never changed so I couldn't figure anything out. Not even whether it was positive or negative.
Don't tell me……
She wrecked my car, so let's kill her while we're at it.
As you wish.
You son of a—! Bring it on, all of you! While I'm at it, I'll smash Kim Seojun's car too! KRAAAAH!!
While I was having these useless delusions, the Director opened his mouth.
"Ahem, anyway, getting back to what I was saying earlier…"
What the Director had been curious about was Raye Ji-won. He seemed to find it strange that she'd been so obedient on her own while everyone else had been desperately resisting.
I answered while slurping my tea.
"That's because she's my follower."
"Follower?"
"Even among the various Royalties, there are different factions. The cult is the same way."
"Are you saying there are multiple cults?"
"Hmm… multiple, sort of. It's one organization, but split up, I guess. People make things like the UN and still fight among themselves, right? Same kind of deal."
The Director furrowed his brow.
I'd thought it was a decent analogy, but maybe it hadn't landed?
"Royalty? You were Royalty?"
Kang Jiye asked me with a look of curiosity. I mentally went oops but played it cool and shot back a question.
"Did I not mention that?"
"You said you were someone high up. You never said Royalty. But what exactly does Royalty do?"
Yena asked with equal curiosity.
"Wooow— is unnie a princess?"
This is exactly why I didn't want to say anything.
Properly revealing my identity could deal a considerable mental shock. The gap between "just a pretty strong S-class" and "a core member of the gate invasions" was massive, after all. It could easily spiral into a trust issue. And beyond that, there were countless other complications waiting to pile up.
"Ah, hold on."
At that moment, fortunately, the Director waved his hand and drew everyone's attention.
"UN… what is the UN?"
"Huh?"
"You just said it, didn't you. That people made a UN and still fought. But I've never heard of such an organization."
So much for fortunate.
"……"
Oh, world. Pecia, you idiot!
Come to think of it, there was no UN here.
After World War II, this world had established the WPO — the World Ability Organization — instead. After the invention of gunpowder, gates had been nothing more than "resource mines," until they suddenly grew stronger, and only then did the world finally band together.
Unlike the UN, which was more or less toothless, this was a global organization that actually wielded real physical enforcement power. For example, if an S-class gate appeared somewhere, nearby nations had to mobilize the hunters the WPO demanded. Refuse, and you'd face massive fines along with intensive investigations. If it was an individual hunter's misconduct, they'd be extradited to the WPO for trial.
Of course, it wasn't all restrictions — there were corresponding benefits too… but either way, it was a very different organization from the UN.
"I misspoke — I meant the WPO."
At my nonsense, Kang Jiye covered her mouth and turned her head away.
The Director replied flatly.
"The pronunciation is completely different."
"I'm a beast, so this happens sometimes."
At that, he put on an unreadable smile and settled comfortably back against his chair.
"UN… UN, is it. Given that you mixed it up with the WPO — United Nations?"
Gulp.
"Oho, looks like I got it right. An organization from your world, then? Are there nations in the beast world too? From the way they fight each other, it seems a bit different from the WPO."
"Auntie—!"
I threw my arms around Kang Jiye's waist.
I had no intention of holding a long conversation with a madman who could deduce that much from a single word. Time to borrow the power of her overflowing maternal instincts.
But Kang Jiye scratched her cheek, looking embarrassed.
"W-well… honestly, I'm curious too."
"Huh?"
"Can't you just tell us? It's not like the Director or I don't trust you. We're asking because we do trust you. Okay?"
"No! This is genuinely useless information that won't help anyone with anything!"
"That's why I want you to tell us as gossip. Perfect."
Kang Jiye's eyes sparkled as she waited for my mouth to open.
She seemed to think it was some story from somewhere in the Abyss. The idea that beasts had alliances and fought among themselves was bound to be interesting. In those terms, it was like yakuza versus triads, or IS versus Al-Qaeda, I supposed? I would have been interested too, in her shoes.
I clutched my head, thinking how to break out of this sticky situation. Unfortunately, the UN was not in the beast world.
Fortunately, an idea for diverting the Director's attention came to me right away.
"Director."
"Go ahead."
"Your classic car, Director."
"……!"
"Actually, it was half-destroyed beyond recovery earlier. Did you know?"
The Director blinked with a stiff smile.
He quietly raised his right hand… and pressed his thumb firmly into his own gut. So he had known.
I pulled my eyebrows into a woeful slant and apologized in a regretful tone.
"I'm truly sorry… Kim Seojun the hunter said he'd take full responsibility, so I… I should have been more careful."
The Director's eyes went wide.
"Kim Seojun told you to?"
"Yep."
"…I didn't tell them to do it in the parking lot."
"I see."
"…No. I'm sorry. It's entirely my fault."
Kim Seojun simply bowed his head.
Pecia for twisting his words was annoying, but the root cause of this incident was him. Any excuse would only make him look worse.
The Director burst out laughing.
"Hey, Seojun."
"Yes?"
"Isn't it interesting?"
"In what way…?"
The Director smiled faintly and stroked his chin.
"Every single thing she does is so utterly human. Almost enough to make you wonder if she really is just a teenage girl."
Blaming someone else because she didn't want to get scolded for property damage. For an ordinary person, there would be nothing strange about that — but the problem was that Pecia was unmistakably a beast.
There was no way she should be fretting over something this trivial.
Kim Seojun nodded.
"That's true, but…"
"Of course, it is true that my car got wrecked because of you."
"……"