Trash Even a Dog Would Refuse
Having received Jincheon's "invitation," the Zabalcan officer set out for the man's residence with his attendants in tow.
They had moved with only a small contingent from the start, so their numbers were hardly impressive.
When it came down to it, dispatching a large force just to subdue a single Terran — someone whose physical abilities ranked mid-to-low by galactic standards, and who possessed neither special weapons nor equipment — made no sense whatsoever.
That Jincheon bastard is insolent. By rights I should kill him on the spot — but I can't let some lowly Terran throw the "plan" off course.
Under ordinary circumstances, the officer would have led his soldiers straight in and turned the arrogant Jincheon into a perforated slab of meat.
But for the sake of a greater design, he reined in his fury with sheer willpower.
Fine. I'll endure it. What can you expect from a savage Terran who doesn't even understand honor? You can't get angry every time a beast acts like a beast.
Having resolved to keep his composure no matter what the other party did, the officer stepped inside the house with his attendants.
"Yo. You made it?"
"!!"
That resolve nearly shattered in an instant.
"…What the hell is this?"
"I was fighting these guys earlier and one of my only two chairs got wrecked. Can't exactly make a guest sit on the bare floor, can I?"
Jincheon was sitting on a chair he had fashioned out of the men he had subdued.
One was on all fours like a dog.
Another was bent over the first man's head, serving as an armrest.
The last crouched with his back turned, functioning as a backrest.
"……."
The officer's attendants seethed at the sight of a lowly Terran daring to use Zabalcan soldiers in such a manner.
"Ugh… uhhh……."
"Ghh……."
Confirming that the men serving as furniture still had their wits about them, the officer spoke.
"Given the circumstances, we'll simply stand and talk. All of you — get up."
Hornless or not, he had no desire to watch honorable Zabalcan soldiers suffer the humiliation of being used as chairs.
"Ghhh…!"
"Urgh…!"
But the human furniture could only groan. They did not rise at the officer's command.
"What are you doing? Are you refusing my orders?"
"M-my body… won't move, sir……!"
"We want to stand too, but……!"
They answered in a panicked rush at the fury in the officer's voice.
"I locked them down so they can't move. Don't worry about it. I'll let them go once we're done talking."
The officer had no idea how Jincheon had managed to immobilize them.
"How long are you going to waste time on this pointless chatter? You've got more free time than I expected."
At that moment, an aquamarine-haired woman who had followed behind the attendants opened her mouth, her tone laced with mockery directed at the officer.
Inferior creatures yapping at him from both front and rear — irritation surged up like a tide.
Hooo……. Endure it. If I botch this here, I'm the one who gets punished.
For the sake of his future career, if nothing else, he had to swallow his rage and keep the conversation going.
"Ahem. First — your name is Jincheon, correct?"
"It is."
"I am with the Zabalcan Empire's Intelligence Department, Artifact Repository Second Bureau—"
"Anyone who lists their rank before their own name is a small man who leans on the power that rank gives him."
"……!"
At Jincheon's interruption, the officer clenched his fist so hard the veins stood out without him even realizing it.
"Well. That's generally true. Generally."
"Pff—!"
The aquamarine-haired woman covered her mouth, barely stifling the laugh that burst out at the utterly unconvincing save.
Not that it mattered — everyone had already heard it.
These bastards……!
The officer forced down the urge to put a hole through Jincheon's skull then and there, plan be damned.
I was going to spare your life if you cooperated. You're the one who threw that away!
"…My name is Kahim. Rank: Second Lieutenant."
"No family name?"
"You think I'd introduce my family name to a slave-race mongrel like you? Know your place!"
Kahim snapped the words out with raw irritation, then cut to the point.
"We came here to commission you for a job."
"A job?"
"There's something I need to confirm first. I've heard you go hunting in the heart of the White Shriek Forest. Is that true?"
"It is."
It was already public knowledge, so Jincheon simply nodded.
"Then one last check before we get to business."
Kahim activated his Bio Device, projected a hologram, and began playing a recording.
But the footage was washed out by something like pure white smoke, and almost nothing was clearly visible.
"Fog. But that's not White Shriek Forest fog."
Kahim's eyebrow ticked up slightly at Jincheon naming the answer before he'd even explained.
Show foggy footage while talking about the White Shriek Forest, and anyone would assume it was the forest's famous mist.
Most of the hunter groups with any reputation had fallen for that exact trap.
The White Shriek Forest was famous for its fog, yes — but that didn't mean fog never appeared anywhere else.
"Then what about these?"
Kahim opened roughly ten hologram windows and arrayed them side by side.
"That's White Shriek Forest fog. The mist over there has its own patterns."
"Good. Your skills check out."
Judging that the man had ability even if he was thoroughly unpleasant, Kahim began explaining the commission.
Had Jincheon failed the test, Kahim would have beaten him until every scrap of accumulated rage was spent.
"This was recorded by the black box of a mecha deployed last year to deal with the White Shriek."
Even if the creature lived only inside the forest, they had apparently decided to eliminate it for safety's sake.
"They fielded ten mechas and still got wrecked by the White Shriek. But this is the important part."
He dragged his finger and skipped to the latter half of the recording.
A fleeing mecha, lost in fog so thick it couldn't see five meters ahead, collided with an enormous gate.
"As you can see, they discovered a massive gate. This pilot died near the forest's outer edge while fleeing the White Shriek. Hunters recovered the black box."
"Strange. I've never seen a gate like that in the heart of the forest."
Jincheon had surveyed the entire central region.
He had never found anything resembling a gate of that scale.
"Even after the fog clears and we scan from satellites, the gate never shows up. In other words—"
"A structure that only appears when the fog rises. A relic."
An unknown building that revealed itself only under specific conditions.
There was no choice but to conclude it was a Calsorn Empire relic.
And the harder something was to reach, the higher the odds that whatever lay inside was valuable.
"The job is guide work. Use the know-how only you possess to lead us into the heart of the forest and handle any complications. We'll take care of the White Shriek ourselves."
"So next comes the talk about payment."
Jincheon leaned back comfortably against his "backrest," curious what kind of compensation the other side had brought.
Fog season's about to start anyway. Factor in travel time and the rest, and we've got a little room to spare.
He ran the fog calendar in his head and conceded that they had arrived at a reasonably good time.
That was when Kahim's eyes took on an extreme arrogance.
He activated his Bio Device and began manipulating something through an augmented-reality display only he could see.
Then he dragged his finger toward Jincheon, and a chime announced that a contract had been delivered.
Jincheon reviewed it — departure in two days, along with various performance conditions.
The moment his gaze shifted toward the compensation section, Kahim spoke up with open pride.
"Whether our mission succeeds or fails — so long as you properly fulfill the terms of the commission — we will appoint you an honorary citizen of Zabalcan."
"…What?"
For the first time, Jincheon's unshakable composure cracked.
Heh. Just as I thought — he's rattled.
Getting the reaction he'd hoped for only made Kahim more full of himself.
"It means we will accept you as a citizen of the city. Well? With an offer like this—"
"What kind of trash that even a shit-dog wouldn't take are you dangling as a reward?"
"What?"
Here the gulf between Jincheon and Kahim became clear.
The only genuine piece of future technology Jincheon had encountered in this world was the Bio Device.
Everything else was merely an advanced form of modern civilization — nothing fundamentally alien.
On top of that, until his parallel-world self had arrived, he had lived alone in the mountains.
Offer a man who was perfectly content with his life a chance to live somewhere "better," and the odds of success were never going to be high.
"Do you have any idea how great an honor it is to become an honorary citizen of Zabalcan, spouting garbage like that?!"
Kahim shot to his feet in a rage, his hand flying reflexively toward his hip.
Jincheon's relentless contempt for the Zabalcan Empire had finally pushed him past the breaking point.
In the same instant, murderous intent flashed in Jincheon's eyes—
"Enough!"
The woman who had been watching from behind with her hands clasped at her back stepped in and put a stop to it.
"Countless of our people are fighting out there in the cosmos — is this the time for petty emotional squabbles?!"
"Kh… but—"
"Finally, someone I can actually talk to."
Jincheon let the force drain from his eyes and smiled with easy composure.
"When conversation doesn't work with the subordinate, you talk to the superior. That's how it goes."
This Terran… he intended to speak with me from the start.
She understood it from the way Jincheon looked at her.
He had deliberately provoked Kahim just to open a dialogue with her.
"Your Highness, I apologize, but I am the one in charge of this operation."
Kahim used formal speech with the woman, yet neither his voice nor his expression held a trace of genuine respect.
It was no exaggeration — a little more anger and he would have thrown a punch on the spot.
"If you don't like it, go find someone else. Tell people they have to stand next to you while you fight the White Shriek, and most of them will run for the hills."
There were others besides Jincheon who knew the forest's terrain and had ample experience.
But requiring them to stay nearby during a fight with the White Shriek changed everything.
And if you lied to drag them along, the moment the fog rose they would bolt — and throw the entire chain of command into chaos.
That was why something as grand as a "contract" had even come into play when dealing with members of a slave race.
"I'm not talking to you. Looking at this, Her Highness seems like she'll be much more reasonable."
Kahim's boiling rage made the back of his neck throb.
Emotion was screaming at him to put a hole in the man's head right now.
Reason was dangling the hope that success on this mission alone would put him on the elite track.
"…Do as you please. But if the contract falls through, Your Highness will bear the responsibility."
"That's my concern, not yours."
"We're leaving."
Kahim cast a hostile look at the woman called a princess, then burned Jincheon's image into his memory one last time.
I will kill you. Without fail.
Leading his escorts outside, Kahim vanished with irritable, stomping strides.
"Hey. You lot can clear out too."
Jincheon followed up by striking their pressure points and driving out the soldiers he had turned into furniture.
The moment their points were released, they scrambled outside in a panic. Once their presence had faded into the distance, Jincheon fetched a proper chair from somewhere.
"Did you provoke him on purpose?"
"People tend to show their true nature when their emotions run hot."
The downside, of course, was that it made enemies easily.
"But why the formal speech?"
"I've spent so long living in a world where I have to use formal speech that it stuck. Earlier, I deliberately dropped it so the subordinates wouldn't look down on me."
Her answer only raised a larger question.
"I'm a slave-race Terran."
"Like I said — living under constant formal speech means constantly reading other people's moods. So when my life is about to be in danger, I can feel it. Just like now."
She offered a slightly awkward smile.
"If I hadn't stepped in, you were going to kill all of us, weren't you?"
"You've got sharp instincts, I'll give you that."
"It was even more intense than the looks my older sisters used to give me when they wanted me gone."
She sat in the chair and bowed her head.
"I am Calsira Crynol Zabalcan, Fourth Princess of the Zabalcan Imperial House. As you may know, the middle name is the true family name."
For reference, the Zabalcan Empire had originally been called the Crynol Imperial House.
But once they expanded into space, they adopted a national name that included their species designation, the way other nations did.
If rebellion or some other upheaval ever put a different bloodline on the throne, only the middle name would change — the surname Zabalcan would remain attached forever.
"Jincheon. The family name comes first. Just call me Jincheon."
At the sight of Jincheon properly reintroducing himself, Calsira flinched without meaning to.
The man who had completely shed his provocative act now radiated a charisma that felt almost royal.
Come to think of it… the way he uses casual speech is far too natural.
But as far as she knew, Terrans had no class system like this.
How did he project an aura so much like that of royalty?
Her questions were set aside for the moment by Jincheon's next words.
"All right. Let's hear the real details."
"As Kahim said earlier, the relic—"
"I'm not an idiot. Didn't you just say you can feel it when your life is in danger?"
"…Hah."
Calsira let out a sigh under Jincheon's gaze — a look that seemed to see straight through everything — and opened her mouth.
"You're right. Searching for the relic is just a pretext. The real objective is to eliminate me."