Djibouti, Africa.
Not many people knew of it, but it was a militarily important country south of the Gulf of Aden.
Just how important was it? Several countries had military bases there, including a U.S. base that housed the United States Africa Command.
All of them existed to protect ships passing through the Suez Canal, and the U.S. base was there for the same reason.
However, not long ago, the purpose of the U.S. base changed.
That was because of the ruins discovered near the border with Ethiopia, where modern humans were said to have first appeared.
In fact, that very theory had arisen because of those ruins.
The people who had escaped from Venus had arrived at those ruins through spatial movement, and had first settled in Ethiopia.
Having lost magic, they lost every trace of their former civilization amid the cold of the Ice Age, but in the end, like this, they had caused a new civilization to bloom again on Earth.
“……And so, the most important duty of the U.S. base in Djibouti now is to guard the ruins.”
The young officer who had finished his explanation bowed his head to the people.
Clap, clap, clap.
It had not been a bad explanation, so I applauded him as well.
The place I was in now was inside the U.S. base in Djibouti.
After the transport plane landed, the people who had come on the aircraft scattered in every direction.
Catherine left first, and the soldiers were led away by the officers who had been waiting for them.
I should have been with Margreta as well, but for some reason, Margreta had told me to wait here.
Because we had been attacked by missiles before arriving, and because of the things I had heard so far, I had thought this base would be extremely dangerous.
But the base was more intact than I had expected.
From far away, the sound of bombs exploding and gunfire drifted faintly over, but those were sounds I had always heard in the middle of war.
Perhaps the people at the base had grown used to it as well, because they were going about their daily lives as usual.
Of course, not everyone was like that.
A blond man who had been listening to the explanation with me raised his hand, his face pale.
“I can hear gunfire and bombs right now. Is that all right?”
The officer who had finished his presentation looked back and forth between the man and his documents, then said to him,
“You came here as a researcher, correct?”
“Yes.”
“It’s not exactly all right, but…… the research facility is underground, so there shouldn’t be any major problem.”
When I got off the plane, I had thought it strange that only the U.S. base was visible.
It seemed the other facilities were underground.
However, the officer’s explanation failed to reassure the man.
After all, saying it was safe because it was underground meant that the surface was not safe.
“The same goes for those of you heading to Paradise. Even in the worst-case scenario, the most that will happen is that your connection to Earth will be cut off.”
His words to the others were no different.
At his words, which were more blunt than expected, the people’s expressions stiffened.
As the officer had said, there were many people inside this barracks.
There was me, waiting for Margreta, of course, as well as people who looked like researchers, people preparing to go to Paradise, and even a few officers.
This seemed to be the place where personnel who had newly arrived at the base gathered.
A place where those who knew the secret were properly briefed from the beginning when they came to this base.
It was not strange for me to be here.
“Then, next……”
Bang.
The door suddenly opened.
The people turned around.
The person who had opened the door was Margreta.
Margreta beckoned to me.
“Hyeon, let’s go.”
I rose from my seat and went over to her.
The people’s gazes turned toward me.
When I arrived at the door, Margreta apologized to me.
“I’m sorry. You waited a long time, didn’t you?”
“It’s all right. It was quite an informative time.”
“Then let’s go. The Deputy Director is waiting.”
I greeted the officer standing at the front and left through the door.
I could hear the people speaking behind me.
“Is it all right for him not to listen to the whole explanation?”
“No. Those people are the only exception.”
“But……”
Pointless chatter continued after that.
I stopped paying attention to the voices behind me.
As we walked down the corridor, Margreta explained the situation.
“The Deputy Director was meeting someone who came from outside. Their matter was urgent too, so he had no choice but to make you wait, Hyeon.”
What could it be?
Something urgent enough to make me, who had brought stimulant samples, wait.
“Did you wait outside too, Margreta?”
At my question, Margreta shook her head.
“No. I waited beside him until the conversation was over.”
“So I was the only one who couldn’t be there? I suppose it was someone I wasn’t allowed to see.”
At my joke, Margreta’s expression turned serious.
“No. It’s the opposite. It was because that person wasn’t allowed to see you, Hyeon. He was from Russian intelligence.”
I stared at Margreta with an incredulous expression.
Russia was not a country that should have appeared here.
“Didn’t you say Russia was the one behind this?”
Margreta let out a sigh.
“That’s why politics is complicated. The Deputy Director will tell you the details.”
The place where the Deputy Director was waiting was not far.
When we entered a room guarded by two soldiers, the Deputy Director stood up and offered me a handshake.
“Welcome. I’m sorry for making you wait.”
“It’s all right.”
Once the handshake ended, he got straight to the point.
“Then…… did you bring the samples?”
At his tense words, I handed him the glass bottle.
“It’s enough for one hundred people. Dilute it and inject it.”
He carefully accepted the glass bottle and placed it inside a bag he had prepared in advance.
After closing the bag, he apologized to me again.
“I’m sorry for making you come here. I had no idea you would even be attacked by missiles on the way. If things had gone wrong, it could have been disastrous.”
The Deputy Director stroked the bag as he spoke.
“There was no helping it, since the dark energy research institute is located underground here. The best research facility on Earth is here, and this place is also the best suited to comparing energy users and non-users. On top of that, I heard you were planning to go to Paradise, so I called you here.”
I had no complaint about being called here.
The missiles had not been particularly dangerous either.
However, the research institute was something I had only heard about after coming here.
“I didn’t know there was such a research institute here. I thought it was in the United States.”
“It has to be close to Paradise. The work of attaching electronic devices to the ruins and reviving spatial movement, and the work of finding dark energy users through blood—both were done by the research institute underground.”
At the Deputy Director’s explanation, I suddenly thought of the world’s richest man I had seen in Pyongyang.
“CEO Aaron said he was the one who did it.”
At my words, the Deputy Director’s eyebrow twitched.
“That is not incorrect. He is the founder of this research institute, and he also holds the largest share.”
Even though he said that, the Deputy Director did not seem to like him.
He immediately changed the subject.
“We will verify this stimulant as quickly as possible and inform you. If the results are good, the U.S. government will compensate you as much as possible.”
At the word compensation, Soph’s words—“autonomy”—came back to mind.
However, it was not yet the time.
I pushed those words deep down in my heart once more.
Instead, I brought up something else.
“It’s a good thing there’s a research institute here. I have more monster samples.”
At my words, the Deputy Director tilted his head.
“Monster samples? I heard we had obtained them all…… What samples are they?”
Unlike with the stimulant, he did not seem to consider the monster samples particularly important.
“Samples of a defensive-type monster and the control entity.”
However, his expression changed when he heard me.
“……By control entity, do you mean the monster that built factories in the city, used magic, and controlled the other monsters?”
“Yes.”
“How did you……”
At his question, I shrugged.
Then I asked him again.
“Do you not need this monster?”
“We do need it! The researchers said they absolutely needed it. They kept emphasizing that they needed that monster in order to understand the monsters’ ecology!”
At my words, the Deputy Director answered fervently.
It was as expected.
The Akzar monsters were the children of the control entity.
To understand the Akzar monsters, they had to analyze the control entity.
Of course, I could not take out the monster’s corpse here.
We decided that I would visit the underground research institute later.
After the conversation about the monster corpses was over, the Deputy Director spoke with a grave expression.
“Now there is one problem left……”
“Paradise, you mean?”
“Yes. That is the problem.”
That was indeed the biggest problem.
However, I was on my way back from seeing the people who were supposed to go to Paradise.
“It seemed like there were people heading to Paradise even now.”
“Their departure has not been confirmed yet. Given the situation, it is difficult to send people as well.”
It seemed they were not departing, but waiting.
I asked again.
“What exactly happened? I heard there was a Russian here……”
The fact that Margreta had told me in advance meant I was allowed to know.
As expected, the Deputy Director did not take issue with me knowing.
Instead, he rubbed his wrinkled forehead and said,
“It is true that Russia was behind it, but the fighting taking place right now is not Russia’s fault.”
“What?”
The question slipped out on its own.
That was how little sense his words made.
Even at my question, the Deputy Director did not stop speaking.
“After we learned that Russia was behind it, we moved quickly. We immediately shared information with Russia. The Russian president also heard the story and agreed to our plan.”
That plan must have been for only those in power and a select few to escape Earth.
This president, who was said to be no different from the former president who had been a dictator, would naturally have agreed to that plan.
The problem was that even though Russia had agreed to the plan, the war was still continuing.
“But there’s still fighting going on, isn’t there? They even fired missiles at us. Those missiles were not launched by ordinary rebels.”
What had flown toward the transport plane had been proper anti-air missiles.
And not just one or two of them.
No matter how I looked at it, they were not weapons ordinary rebels would be able to fire.
“The ones who fired the missiles were Russian mercenaries. The mercenaries sent by Russia seem to have realized something, and they are refusing to obey Russia’s order to withdraw.”
I never thought I would hear such an absurd story in the twenty-first century, that mercenaries had betrayed their employer.
It was so ridiculous that I had no choice but to ask the Deputy Director again.
“They sent them themselves, and now they can’t persuade them?”
“It seems the matter is even more complicated because of what the former president did.”
Come to think of it, the former Russian president had caused a plane to crash and wiped out the mercenary leadership he himself had created.
This president was not that different, so perhaps it was only natural they would not listen.
A sigh escaped me on its own.
When I was on another planet, all I had to deal with were monsters, but on Earth, that was not possible.
As Margreta had said, Earth was far too complicated.
In any case, I now knew whom I had to deal with in order to go to Paradise.
“So all we have to do is break up those mercenaries?”
“They are the ones posing a threat to this base. Since Russia has pulled out, the other wars should soon die down.”
He meant that since they were countries where civil wars had already been going on, they would simply return to how they had been before.
“Understood.”
“If the situation changes, I will inform you immediately. Even in the worst case, we will ensure your safety, so please don’t worry and get some rest.”
I nodded at the Deputy Director’s words and left the room.
“Are you going to rest?”
Margreta, who came out with me, asked with a smile.
At her question, I nodded.
“I should rest.”
Right now, I needed to rest.
“If I’m going to move at night, it would be best to rest now.”
If the situation had to change for me to go to Paradise, then all I had to do was change the situation.
Moreover, I had to repay them for the missile barrage.
This place was currently in the middle of a war.
They had attacked me, so they were my enemy.
In war, enemies had to be eliminated.
Mercenary (2)