Author Notes: bla bla bla
TN: Nothing worth mentioning. Even if I add it here, we will not notice any of it because it is just about the number of characters and changes on the content without affecting the story.
—- Arakawa Kouki Point of View —-
The kacha kacha sound of the knife echoes in the room. After I presented the Free Broadcasting Rights, Lieutenant Colonel and Yuri-san said “We will need to consult with our superiors” in a panic and went outside of the room. Perhaps this is something beyond their authority to decide and this is something they did not antic.i.p.ate. After that, I just keep on eating while Anton-san is being silent and grumpy. Did I make him angry? I talk to him while making such prediction. (TN: kacha kacha is the SFX of the knife with the plate, there are no English word to translate that)
“The food is delicious isn’t it, Anton-san? Would be great if we have green tea instead of water”
“……I’m envious of you Kouki-kun. In this situation, how can you make yourself so relaxed? Also, can you please stop being reckless? If something happens to you, I don’t know what to say to Miki-san. “
Is he angry with me because I ate earlier without checking for poison? I already explained that to him but why are you still so worried. More that that, there is something I’d like to ask Anton-san. I created a chat room with my terminal and tap on it with my finger until he noticed. I then send an invitation to his registered terminal address.
[The room might be bugged so sorry if we had to talk this way. This program is created by Noah’s Technical Department, it should be safe. There could be camera around though so please scramble the screen on your terminal]
[What’s wrong?]
[Do you know the woman who was dressed as maid earlier?]
When I noticed Anton-san entered the chatroom, I asked him a question that I’d like to ask since earlier. Depending on his reply, it is possible to have a big change on how the negotiation should go once the Lieutenant Colonel is back. Anton-san looks at the message that I wrote with a furrowed eyebrows and briefly answered.
[You noticed that? That’s right, her code name is Sasha]
[One more, how about the bellboy who gave me a knife with written characters?]
[I don’t know. I didn’t realize that something like that happened]
Fumu, so the beautiful maid who we pa.s.sed by the corridor is really an ally. If so, the bellboy is also probably a member of ‘Chern.o.bog’, however why is he asking for asylum? Maybe Anton-san would know something about it, I guess I should ask him.
[The bellboy is asking asylum for 18 people. I think that is also the reason why Sasha-san is here but is there anything you know about it? Even trivial matter is worth knowing]
[It has been three years since I left Chern.o.bog so I don’t have any idea. I think someone from the intelligence department like Claire or Miki-san might know something though]
As expected, we don’t have enough information unless I got mom involved. I do not mind asking her but…… she will definitely get angry with me for coming to Russia without her permission. There is also Claire-san who I left with all that work. That beautiful face while wearing gla.s.ses and making an expressionless face asking “Are you ready to die?”, I’m confident that I will leak in fear when that happens.
I don’t want to face the anger of the scary witches, that’s why I do not want to rely on them as much as possible. However, we cannot move forward at this point without them. I am having a swirl of dilemma inside my mind but if I don’t decide here, macho will also get angry while saying “Man don’t hesitate!! Take action!!”
“It can’t be helped, I’ll ask mom directly and see if she can give us more information”
Anton-san look at me in surprised when I made a bitter decision. It is probably because the icon on the upper left corner of the screen in our terminal disappeared when the Lieutenant Colonel and Yuri-san left the room.
It is probably something to keep us isolated and hinder us from gaining extra information or it is just standard security but in any case, it is useless.
“Kouki-kun, that… you may have not noticed, but we cannot get in touch to anyone from outside. It’s probably an electronic interference”
“No problem, my terminal is a next-generation quantum terminal made by Ruin Company. Moreover, mom remodel it. This degree of electronic interference is nothing── right mom?”
I look at the camera on my terminal when I answered Anton-san’s doubts. If my guess is correct, mom should have return home when Claire-san noticed that I head for Russia and report it to mom. Since they cannot chase us, she is using the microphone on my terminal to pick up the sounds from surroundings and grab my current situation.
“Since when did you notice? Also, don’t worry about the room being bugged. Your terminal has countermeasures against electronic interference.”
Yossha! I figured it is like that after all. At the same time mom replied, she took control of my terminal and the figure of Noah’s Devil King, Arakawa Miki, was displayed on the screen. Although her facial expression is just how I expect it, I still wished that I was wrong.
“It is because my overprotective mother did not contact me even though I arrived in Russia… by the way… Claire-san is?”
“She left with a large transport plane an hour ago to pick you up. Since the plane took off together with an aerial refueling aircraft, she is probably waiting outside Russian Air s.p.a.ce until we contact her. ─── when you see her, make sure not to run away. She brought a Hunting Tranquilizer Gun with her”
Mom who saw the change in my expression gave me an advice but if you are saying such things, you should have stopped Claire-san in the first place. I am not macho, won’t I die if shot with that kind of Tranquilizer Gun!? Worst case, I will use Anton-san as a shield. Anyway, I have to ask mom if they know what is happening in Russia right now.
“As expected, I cannot run away from her. More than that, I’m sure you already heard our previous conversation. Do you know what is the situation here in Russia?”
“Unfortunately, I do not have any information. Russia has been pretty quiet recently so our Intelligence Department are focusing their attention to United States and EU”
Are you serious? There goes my information. There is no doubt that something is happening here, if only I have a hint or something…
“So, what are you going to do?”
“Unn?”
“I cannot understand what you were thinking when you went to Russia to negotiate but since it’s you, there must be some kind of reason. If only you let me know what you are planning, I can do the negotiation for you”
Sorry, but there is not such big reason. I was just happy that Anton-san relied on me and I thought I could find a place here in Russia where I can sell anime-related goods. I did not expect to get involved in a troublesome situation but since I am the one who started the negotiation, it is my responsibility to end it.
“That’s unnecessary. Besides, there is something that I want to do. I will take responsibility to see things to the end. What I’d like to ask mom is to arrangements for people who are seeking asylum and escape measures for worst case scenario”
“Haa~aa(sigh)…… recently, you are acting like an adult. Okay, leave it to me. However, do not forget, there are people worried about you. There is no shame in relying to others when you think things are impossible”
“I understand, I will remember that”
As I reply, mom who looks lonely disappears on the screen and the control on my terminal is back to normal. There are times when you need to go away from your parents but I wish she wouldn’t make such face. When I return, I will do something for you so please forgive me just this time. After thinking such things, I decided to a.s.sess our current situation in my head──
—- Yakov Tarkovsky Point of View —-
I left Arakawa eating in the room and go to a suite one floor below. I look at the complexion of Yuri Pamfilova, the Director of Foreign Intelligence Service, who is sitting across the table. The director has been silent for a long time while repeatedly drinking from his bottle of water. I talked to him since I cannot stay silent any more.
“Director, what should we do?”
At the same time I call out, the Director stops on drinking water and take out a cigar case from his pocket. He offer his high-cla.s.s cigars to me and after I thanked him, I pulled one and lit it. The Director then finally opened his mouth.
“……He really is a monster”
Even without asking ‘who’, I understand that he is talking about Arakawa Kouki who is currently enjoying his meal in a room above. Even though he is just a freshman at a Technical Academy, he knows the exact position of a diamond mine we do not even know that exist and he even knows highly cla.s.sified secrets of our country.
I can’t help but feel fear towards him but could it be that the Director feels the same?
“Do you know how he found out about the Polonium?”
“I do not know. All doc.u.ments about it are written only in papers to prevent leakage, so Arakawa should not know anything about it unless he invades the underground safe”
“Yet.. he knew…”
He is telling us, ‘I know things that everyone does not know’. He did not only outwit us, he also had us dancing in his palms. I was not optimistic but somewhere in my heart I cannot deny the idea ‘He is a child after all’ when I first saw him. I am now furiously regretting my action.
“Perhaps, Arakawa knows everything about it?”
“No way, we only learned about that this morning!? Arakawa shouldn’t know about…”
In the middle of my sentence, my voice trailed off. That monster probably knows everything about it and is only ‘pretending’ that he didn’t know to negotiate with us. If you think about it, something is wrong right from the start. He is extremely calm and offering a diamond mine and Noah Broadcasting rights free of charge just for Senior Leiutenant Anton’s former officer is too favorable for us.
Could it be that he knows everything and is just waiting for us to tell him the truth? According to the latest intelligence that we have, Arakawa Kouki’s mental state has remarkably improved by ethics education.
“Probably, this negotiation is ‘his warning’ telling us that ‘if we tell what we know, you will not be harmed’?”
“You are probably right. When a girl named Alice Alford was kidnapped before, Arakawa was able to gather information in secret using his own intelligence network. This was the conclusion of a Lieutenant Colonel during the United Nation’s Rescue Meeting. He probably found evidence that we were involved in someway from his information gathering”
“If that is true then we are in serious trouble. He is a man who destroyed an entire terrorist group alone for Alice Alford. Even though his ethical sense improved, he currently have the military power of Noah behind him. He can get us all killed…”
Besides, Arakawa is not the only enemy. If the fact comes to light, the Russian Federation is will be criticized by countries all over the world. If that happens, not only we will lose power as a major country there is also the danger of Arakawa Family pressuring the United Nations to expel us from the group. The Russian const.i.tuents who are quiet will wake up and cause serious confusion. A ma.s.sive confusion that will lead to──
“World War 3…”
“It seems that you’ve reached the same conclusion as me. Now do you understand why I am drinking this water while in cold sweat?”
“But will that really happen? To put the existence of mankind to danger just for the sake of a single girl”
“There is no need for him to cause that much disturbance. All he need to do is publish the information that he have about Alice Alford, hold a press conference and say ‘I still love her’. That alone will make Arakawa looks like a knight trying to protect a weak girl while making us the evil country. Perhaps this is the reason why he took control of media?”
That’s true, Noah’s CMs had such impact that can cause social phenomena. If Noah makes a TV Program that criticizes our country and defends Arakawa’s argument, the entire world will side with Noah in the blink of an eye.
Aa~ that kid really is a monster. How far can he see into the future? How can he consider all the possible outcomes no matter how small it is?
“Here’s what we will do. We will provide all information that we know about ‘Project Alice’ and prove that we have no relation with the cult group called ‘New World’. Head back to headquarters and gather up the relevant doc.u.ments immediately”
“I will do that right away!”
I made a salute to the director, jumped out of the room and head for the elevator. I have to come back before Arakawa gets tired of waiting and take action. I remember that he is fond of animals. Let’s get a video where we breed our country’s treasure, a rare Russian Desman, ‘Vyhuholl’. That will somehow keep him occupied for a couple of hours. (TN: Vyhuholl closer to the moles, but live near reservoirs. A rare species. Thanks to Pavel and Francis “The Douche”)
Thinking that, I pick up the terminal attached in my waist and sent instructions to my subordinate. After that, since the elevator is taking its sweet time… I repeatedly press the elevator b.u.t.ton──
Author Notes: Now now, I am excited on the development on this one but I will have to stop here. I will do my best on the next chapter so please look forward to it.