Ch.149One step forward, three steps back!

A few days later.

‘Do you need to be physically imposing to hold a government position? Did that become a trend while I was away from Earth?’

This was Dexter’s brief assessment after meeting the Ambassador of the Republic of Yekaterina at the Russian consulate in San Francisco.

She was a typical Russian beauty, but only in terms of her face. As soon as Dexter saw the ambassador, who was about his height with broad shoulders, he sensed she was extraordinary.

“Anna Sokolova.”

With her thick Russian accent and gestures that could be perceived as brusque, Dexter took her hand and said:

“Dexter Hughes.”

“Ximena Rivero.”

Ximena, whom Dexter had expected to be intimidated, appeared surprisingly calm.

“First, thank you for making time in your busy schedule.”

“It’s no problem. Especially if it’s a request from the American government, I should naturally oblige.”

While Anna’s words in response to Ximena seemed courteous, her voice was cold and indifferent.

“So, why did you want to see me?”

“I was wondering if you might know this person.”

As Ximena showed a photo ID of the deceased Encyclopedia, Dexter carefully observed Anna and the faces of the security guards and staff around her.

‘Since she’s a diplomat, if the ambassador doesn’t know, her staff might.’

The moment Ximena held out the photo, Anna smiled enigmatically, and the eyes of the staff around her momentarily wavered.

Dexter didn’t miss that.

‘They definitely know something.’

“……”

“Ambassador?”

Some people immediately reveal their emotions through expressions when angry or flustered, while others try to hide behind calmness or a polite smile.

Anna belonged to the latter category.

“You’re hiding something, aren’t you?”

“I won’t say anything about this matter.”

In response to Ximena’s gentle probing, Anna’s face was smiling, but her voice had a sharp edge to it.

“I see.”

Just as Ximena was about to put the photo back into the folder, as if she had anticipated this response, Dexter pointed to one of the staff members and said:

“You’ve shaved recently, haven’t you?”

“Excuse me?”

The male attendant in his 40s, whom Dexter had singled out, looked at him with a confused expression. Dexter pointed to his cheek and neck and said:

“You have some cuts there.”

“Ah, yes…”

As Dexter had pointed out, the male attendant had scratches on his cheek and neck.

“It’s as if you normally have a beard but had to shave it off in a hurry today, isn’t that right?”

“……”

At Dexter’s words, Ximena carefully examined the male attendant.

“With a beard and sunglasses, he’d look just like that person.”

“Oh, you’re right…”

Following Dexter’s observation, Ximena took out a photo from her folder showing Encyclopedia with a bearded man in an alley near a Las Vegas hotel.

“The man in this photo looks like you.”

When the photo appeared, Anna’s face hardened, and the male attendant clenched his teeth with a rigid expression.

Dexter could easily predict the man’s reaction, but Anna’s subsequent statement became the issue.

“My husband did nothing wrong.”

“Husband?”

Ximena was startled by the unexpected word.

It contradicted the information she had gathered.

“Ambassador Sokolova, I was told you don’t have a husband…”

“Officially, that’s correct.”

With those words, Anna made a slight gesture, and everyone except the male attendant left the room.

Then Anna closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and looked at Ximena and Dexter before saying:

“This is my husband, Stefan Sokolov.”

“……”

With Anna’s gesture, Stefan bowed his head slightly.

“But I was under the impression that there was no mention of a spouse even within the Republic of Yekaterina.”

“Didn’t I say ‘officially’?”

She was still smiling, but her voice was cold enough to make the air feel frigid.

However, Ximena was an OSA agent and couldn’t back down so easily.

Ximena crossed her arms and looked directly into Anna’s eyes as she spoke:

“Then let me ask directly. Why did your husband meet with Mr. Encyclopedia?”

Anna stared at Ximena intently for a moment before slowly opening her mouth.

“You’re not FBI, are you?”

“…No, I’m not. Though we work closely with the FBI.”

“I already know which agency you’re from. You’re from America’s Office of Space Security.”

Anna took out a metal case from inside her coat and extracted a cigarette from it.

Stefan immediately approached Anna, snatched the cigarette from her mouth, and said:

“No smoking.”

“I’m trying to smoke because of you.”

“Did you think I’d allow it?”

“This is really stressful.”

Anna shook her head and put the cigarette case back inside her coat.

Ximena and Dexter waited quietly until Anna spoke again.

“Fine, how much do you want to know?”

“Since you’ve already deduced that we’re from OSA, please start by explaining the relationship between Mr. Encyclopedia and your husband.”

In response to Ximena’s question, Anna brushed her hair once and said:

“Encyclopedia… In Stefan’s homeland, he was known as ‘Vitlaras.’ Until a few years ago, we didn’t know, but recently we discovered that they were from the same hometown.”

When another unexpected piece of information emerged, Dexter interrupted Anna’s words:

“Excuse me, are you saying your husband is an alien?”

“Yes. Is there a problem with that?”

“No, it’s just…”

Dexter glanced at Ximena, but she also didn’t know Stefan was an alien and could only shake her head.

“Then, can you tell us exactly what happened that day?”

“It was a routine meeting. Usually.”

Dexter didn’t like Anna.

More precisely, he didn’t like that Anna was answering all the questions on behalf of her husband.

“I’d like to hear directly from Stefan.”

Dexter turned his body completely toward Stefan and looked him in the eye as he spoke:

“If it was a routine meeting, there are many good places like cafes or restaurants. Why would Encyclopedia need to hide in a drainage ditch to meet Stefan?”

“That’s…”

Just as Stefan was about to speak, Anna cut him off with a cold voice:

“He must have had an urgent reason. Are you interrogating us now?”

“Ambassador.”

Seeing Anna directly blocking every question, Ximena, who was starting to get irritated, looked directly at Anna and said in a low voice:

“You don’t know what happened to Mr. Encyclopedia, do you?”

“What do you mean…?”

Ximena showed them a photo taken by Department of Science and Technology engineers, showing Encyclopedia’s head connected to a car hood.

Stefan turned pale, and Anna looked at Ximena with an openly displeased expression.

“…What is this?”

“A few days ago, Mr. Encyclopedia died. This is him after being subjected to some kind of experiment.”

“D-died, you say?”

Stefan continued with a trembling voice:

“Ah! Vitlaras! How could this happen to you…!”

Dexter quietly observed Stefan, who was trembling while holding the photo Ximena had handed him.

‘If this is acting, he deserves an Academy Award for Best Actor at minimum.’

Ximena wasn’t speaking, but she felt similarly to Dexter.

Stefan stared at the photo for several minutes, tears streaming down his face, before turning to Ximena with a shaking voice:

“Who, who did this…? Huh? What bastard would…”

“That’s why we’re here, Stefan.”

Speaking in a tone lower than usual, Ximena slowly continued:

“You were the last person to see Mr. Encyclopedia before he disappeared. Our course of action depends on the information you provide.”

After hesitating, Stefan looked at the photo of Encyclopedia’s death again and steeled himself to speak:

“The purpose of the meeting itself was… ordinary. But Vitlaras asking to meet first was unusual. He wasn’t that kind of person.”

“So normally, you were the one who initiated meetings?”

At Ximena’s question, Anna smoothly inserted herself into the conversation:

“Stefan held a higher position, so Encyclopedia—I mean, Vitlaras—couldn’t act freely around him.”

“Position? Status? What, is he some kind of royalty or something?”

When Dexter asked jokingly, not understanding, Anna simply nodded.

“That’s right. Stefan was the Crown Prince of the Gaijin Empire.”

While Ximena looked confused, Dexter frowned and rubbed his forehead.

“The Gaijin Empire? The rulers of Planet Minsk?”

At those words, Stefan looked at Dexter with surprise and said:

“Even OSA agents wouldn’t know much about it, how did you…?”

“Well, I’ve actually met Emperor Kisli of the Gaijin Empire in person.”

“…My father?”

“Son, wait… Emperor Kisli had a son?”

As Dexter looked at Stefan with bewilderment, Ximena poked him in the side and whispered:

“What’s going on?”

“Well, there’s a planet called Minsk about 25 light-years from Earth. The country that unified that planet is called the Gaijin Empire, and they were quite expansionist until a few years ago when there were rumors about an imperial succession. Eliya and I visited once.”

Dexter glanced at Stefan and whispered to Ximena:

“But I never saw any son there, only the Crown Princess.”

“That’s only natural.”

Anna answered for him again:

“Stefan renounced his succession to the throne.”

“…Was that because of you, Ambassador?”

“Yes. The imperial palace pressured us to break up. They said how could someone who would become Emperor marry someone from a small country that couldn’t even conquer Earth?”

Anna raised one corner of her mouth as she recalled the past.

“So Stefan chose me. He passed the Crown Prince position to his sister, the next in line.”

“I gave it to my only sister, Victoria. I feel like I’ve only caused her trouble, though…”

As the topic shifted to imperial succession, Dexter stood up briefly to summarize the situation.

“So, the former Crown Prince Stefan met with Mr. Encyclopedia, someone he normally wouldn’t meet unless he called for him first. And then what?”

Stefan looked at Dexter with a gloomy expression and said:

“When I first met him, he brought me… bad news.”

“Bad news?”

“He informed me that my father, Emperor Kisli, was bedridden.”

At Stefan’s increasingly downcast voice, Anna bit her lip slightly.

“So I continued to receive news about my father through him… and one day, Vitlaras asked if he could make a small request of me.”

“A request?”

“He said, ‘There’s someone who needs Stefan’s power,’ and wanted to introduce someone to me.”

Stefan swallowed once and then carefully continued:

“Vitlaras introduced me to a woman, and her name was…”

“Olivia.”

Anna looked at Dexter with a stern expression and said:

“She didn’t give her last name. She just said to call her Olivia. And by another title…”

Anna hesitated for a moment, then ran her hand over the desk in front of her and said:

“She told us to call her the Commander-in-Chief.”