Pyongyang Airport was a place we had visited not long ago.
The person who came to meet us was also the same U.S. military officer who had guided us last time.
“Welcome. The others are waiting in the lounge.”
Unlike last time, he greeted us with perfect courtesy.
It might have been because of what had happened before, but more than that, it seemed to be because of the people waiting for us.
Once we got into the car, the officer in the passenger seat said to us,
“I never thought I’d see the richest man in the world in person.”
We couldn’t understand what he was talking about.
“The richest man in the world?”
“You didn’t know? Aaron Jetson is waiting for you two in the lounge.”
Hearing the name only made me more bewildered.
It was a name I hadn’t expected.
“You mean the man who makes spaceships?”
“He makes phones too.”
To ordinary people, he was certainly more famous for making mobile phones than spaceships.
There had once been rumors that he had tried to make electric cars as well, but after the United States abolished all environmental regulations, those rumors had vanished entirely.
I asked Magreta,
“Did you know?”
“No. I was told only Catherine and Maxwell were coming.”
Magreta shook her head as well.
Puzzled, we arrived at the lounge.
I had felt it last time too, but the VIP lounge did not suit the outdated Pyongyang Airport.
Its interior was exceedingly lavish, but the people waiting for us suited that lavish décor quite well.
Catherine, Magreta’s cousin Maxwell, and Aaron Jetson, whom I had seen countless times on TV but was seeing in person for the first time.
“I’m glad you’re not late.”
When she saw us, Catherine said that as she opened the bag placed on the table.
“Yes. We flew here right away.”
When I nodded at her words, someone else answered me.
“We’re meeting again sooner than I expected. I never imagined things would unfold like this.”
The one who took over the conversation was Maxwell.
He seemed displeased with the current situation.
Well, he had reason to be.
Last time, we had agreed to exchange the new black stones and artifacts through him.
But on the very next spatial transfer, the story had changed.
From his perspective, he had every right to be dissatisfied.
But this couldn’t be helped.
The newly acquired black stones hadn’t been obtained by me alone.
And there weren’t just one or two of them.
It was impossible to handle them the old way.
And that was not all.
Magreta said in a calm voice,
“That place was somewhere a day felt like a month, after all.”
“True. I heard many people died.”
He nodded.
They were black stones obtained at the cost of many lives.
If he made a fuss about monopolizing those black stones, his position would only shrink.
“I know it couldn’t be helped. I was only saying that I have complaints.”
At her cousin’s words, Magreta smiled and said,
“Yes. I’ll be careful from now on.”
It was hard to tell whether her words and expression were teasing or affectionate.
Maxwell clicked his tongue and stepped back.
As soon as he did, as if he had been waiting, the last person held out his hand to me.
“Pleased to meet you. You must be the rumored Mr. Hyun.”
I took his hand and asked,
“Aaron Jetson?”
“That’s right. That’s me.”
At his boastful tone, I shook my head inwardly.
This wealthy businessman was no different from what I had seen on broadcasts.
An attention seeker with brains, a greedy businessman full of discrimination, a mad scientist who had thrown scientific ethics to the dogs.
With a single remark, I could tell that every one of the many nicknames attached to him suited him perfectly.
“I didn’t expect you to come here.”
“Ah, I’m not here officially. I tagged along as the owner of the private jet.”
At his words, I looked at Catherine in puzzlement.
She wasn’t the type to bring someone along like this.
“He used the excuse that he’d let us ride his private jet. It was certainly much more comfortable than coming by military plane.”
“The remodeling cost of my private jet exceeded the price of the plane itself. Would you like to try riding it? It’s parked on the runway right now.”
Now that he mentioned it, I remembered seeing a passenger plane standing on the runway.
It had been a flashy-looking aircraft.
But there was no way Catherine had brought him along for a reason like that.
“In fact, he is a key member of this project. He was the one who discovered the ruins on Mars together with NASA, and the Venus exploration was also conducted using a spacecraft he built.
All of the electronic equipment attached to the ruins and artifacts on Earth was made by his company. The technicians who manage the spatial transfer devices also belong to that same company.”
If that was the reason, I could understand.
She had put it simply, but when you thought about it, it was an incredible achievement.
It meant that finding the ruins and currently operating the ruins on Earth were all things his company had done.
“That’s impressive. I heard that after the Mars exploration, you stopped going into space. So you were continuing your work in secret.”
It seemed I had misunderstood him.
I had thought he was an attention seeker, but to think he had been working so hard in secret like this.
As expected, one shouldn’t judge people by first impressions alone.
“Haha. I truly almost went bankrupt. We discovered an alien civilization on Mars, but we had to hide it. On top of that, all activities had to be kept secret. If I hadn’t been able to monopolize the exploration project and the ruins research, I wouldn’t have stood for it.”
Mm. Maybe my first impression had been right after all.
“Still, thanks to that, we can now carry out this Earth escape project. It’s all according to my plan to build a city on Mars and prevent the extinction of humanity!”
It did seem to have turned out as he said, but I had no desire to agree with him while he was showing off.
“I’ve been managing the ruins that diligently, and then I heard there was someone who had brought back an enormous number of black stones. That’s why I rushed over like this.”
Even when I said nothing, his eyes sparkled as he looked at me.
“Black stones with more than a hundred times the capacity of the existing ones. This will be a revolution in the use of spatial transfer devices. We’ll be able to explore farther places, and test far more artifacts. We’ll be able to do many things we couldn’t do before because we lacked energy!”
As expected, he was exactly the kind of person the rumors said he was.
Among the uses he listed, one thing was missing.
The simple fact that with more energy, more people could be saved.
He had not thought of that at all.
No matter how I looked at it, he was not someone I should keep talking to.
I turned my gaze away from the man who kept prattling on.
When I looked at Catherine, she turned the wide-open bag toward me.
I could see the objects inside.
There were three items. All of them were artifacts.
“There are too few.”
I had heard about it beforehand from Deputy Director Samuel, but the number of artifacts was far too small.
“These are all the ones on Earth.”
Contrary to Catherine’s words, these artifacts were not all of them.
There were artifacts used for secrecy, and there was also a lie detector.
However, it would have been difficult to bring those.
I had more to say, but first I decided to examine the artifacts.
“May I take a look?”
“Yes. However, one of the artifacts has not finished being researched, so it cannot be exchanged for a black stone.”
“Then will you return that black stone?”
“That is…”
“Let’s talk about that after I confirm them as well.”
Seeing Catherine look troubled in a way unlike herself, I checked the artifacts one by one.
A bracelet, a short dagger, and lastly, a brooch for men.
Unfortunately, this time there were no artifacts that would be of much help.
The bracelet was not a magical artifact, but an artifact that increased stamina, and the dagger was an ordinary blade that produced flame magic.
However, the last one was different from what I had expected.
[Another artifact engraved with forbidden magic. Earthlings truly do love mind magic.]
When I poured dark energy into the brooch, a magic circle and equations I had never seen before surfaced in my mind.
[It’s a structure I’ve never seen before. What kind of magic is this?]
It was a magic circle and formula that made me feel nauseated just by recalling them.
I immediately withdrew the energy.
[It is magic that induces disgust. It is a spell cast on criminals, but it seems there was a magician who left it behind as an artifact. Just what sort of magicians were the magicians of Paradise…]
I immediately knew which artifact they were currently researching.
There was only one artifact on Earth that could be useful.
The brooch that induced disgust.
Even if it became usable on Earth, there was no way this artifact would be used for a good purpose.
[They would secretly give it to someone else and make people hate him.]
For a politician, it would be a truly useful object.
If they merely pinned it on a political enemy, victory would be as easy as eating cold porridge.
However, it seemed difficult to use the artifact on Earth.
They would have to attach a mechanical device to that tiny brooch, connect it to a black stone, and then conceal it.
Thinking of that, I understood why it was still under research.
So I decided to give them a little help.
Crackle.
Without anyone noticing, I poured electric magic into the artifact.
So that the magic circuits inside the brooch would become unstable.
In any case, the magic contained in the artifact was mind magic that was effective only on ordinary people.
Even if it became unstable, it would still be effective on ordinary people.
But modifying it with electronic equipment was another matter.
As I put the artifact back into the bag, I asked,
“What kind of magic is placed on these artifacts?”
“I know the bracelet has magic that increases stamina, and that the dagger releases flames. However, I heard they still haven’t confirmed what magic is placed on the brooch.”
“The artifact that cannot be exchanged for a black stone must be the brooch.”
“Yes.”
While talking with Catherine, I checked the people around us.
Catherine and Maxwell did not know what kind of magic was in the brooch.
But Aaron knew.
“Then let’s exchange the other two artifacts for black stones.”
“Those artifacts are ordinary ones. Captain Hyun, you wouldn’t need them.”
“My team members need them.”
“…I see.”
At my words, Catherine wore a complicated expression.
Maxwell smacked his lips, and Aaron lifted the corner of his mouth as if sneering.
As I took the other two artifacts, I asked Catherine,
“Then will you return the remaining black stones?”
At my words, Catherine looked to the side, and Aaron, wiping away his sneer, stepped forward.
“Then it seems we should discuss that now.”
As expected, there was no way they would simply return them.
I turned my head and looked Aaron straight in the eyes.
Aaron opened his mouth.
“Let’s exchange the remaining black stones for artifacts in Paradise. Next time you come, how about going to Paradise and checking the artifacts?”
His words were exactly the same as what the Deputy Director had told me.
“So that’s why you came.”
“It was one reason among others.”
As expected, he was one of the inner circle members the Deputy Director had mentioned.
[He is not traditional nobility. He seems like a nouveau noble who bought his title with money.]
Soph gave a harsh assessment, but I did not care what his origins were.
In the end, I had come to meet the core of America’s power.
I pretended to think for a moment, then nodded.
“Let’s do that.”
“A wise decision.”
He smiled broadly as he said that to me.
With that, the artifact inspection was over.
As I gathered the bag and everyone rose from their seats, Soph said,
[Did we suffer a bit of a loss this time?]
[No. We did not.]
I shook my head inwardly.
Then I held out my hand to the richest man in the world.
“It was a pleasure to meet you.”
He smiled and took my hand.
“The pleasure was mine.”
Unlike at first, he was looking down on me quite a bit.
His eyes were as if he were looking at a sucker.
Still holding his hand, I cast a spell.
It was the magic that created disgust, the one I had just obtained.
I used forbidden magic, but this time Soph did not object either.
Rather, he told me how long the effect would last.
[It was not cast using a magic tool, so it will not last long. A week should be the limit.]
That was enough.
I only needed enough time for the people in charge of managing the ruins to fall into confusion.
While they were thrown into chaos, I intended to stop by Venus.
Origin (2)