Ch.176Into the Unknown! (4)

#176

“Ex-girlfriend?”

“No. And if you’re going to make such assumptions, just keep quiet.”

At Dexter’s curt response, Himena squinted one eye and closed her mouth.

As a slight smile appeared on Dexter’s face while looking at Bella, she too smiled lightly and said:

“I see you can smile after all.”

“Don’t you remember telling me to smile more because otherwise a master and servant would look like thugs?”

“Hughes, you always twist people’s words.”

“No more than you, Chairwoman Bella.”

Though they had only exchanged a few words, their power struggle was so intense that even Himena was getting tired of it, and the secretariat staff were also bewildered.

“Director, shouldn’t we stop such friends from…”

“Let’s leave them be for now.”

Director Makoa also found the relationship between Bella and Dexter peculiar, so he decided to let things play out.

“So you’re the one who brought up the negative talk to Chairman Eliya?”

“Does that kid even have friends? He’s surrounded by nothing but enemies trying to take advantage of him.”

“You speak as if you’ve never done such things yourself.”

“His money is my money, so why would I need to take advantage of him? You’re similar, aren’t you, Chairwoman Bella?”

“What did you say?”

“Well, just considering how you met your husband…”

“Why are you bringing up my husband here…!”

Startled by her own outburst, Bella covered her mouth, looked around, and lowered her voice again.

“Are you really doing this?”

“Who failed to detect that negative extraction, processing, and weaponization was happening on Earth?”

“Fundamentally, it’s best to leave Earth’s autonomy alone. Do you think planetary-level surveillance is easy?”

“Let’s be honest here.”

Dexter, who had been standing while responding to Bella, pulled out a chair from the conference table and sat down.

“It’s possible, isn’t it? Planetary-level surveillance.”

“……”

“You must have selected a decent AI for surveillance at the Security Council a few years ago, right? If I remember correctly, you extracted a huge sponsorship from Tenpenny Corporation ‘for the safety of the galaxy’ at that time.”

Bella slightly turned her head away at Dexter’s words.

“I wonder where that money went, and why you’re saying you can’t conduct planetary surveillance.”

“Earth’s current situation with the neutrality treaty…”

“Are you going to say we can’t freely monitor it? Then what about the quarterly symposiums and seminars for scientific figures from various fields? The Security Council conducts those too, right? Though it seems they barely happen once a year now.”

“That’s obviously…”

“Please don’t say you can’t force people to gather, or that you can’t help it if they’re busy. Chairwoman Bella seems to see me as just an Earthling who’s only been on Earth.”

“……”

With all her attempted excuses blocked, Bella glared at Dexter with wide eyes.

“I’ve been watching you for years, Chairwoman Bella, and I said let’s be honest. You’ve completely turned off support and interest because it’s a backward planet with a neutrality treaty. Isn’t the only reason aliens visit occasionally just tourists interested in Earth culture?”

Dexter crossed his arms and looked at Bella as he spoke.

“You didn’t come here because you needed money urgently, so why did you come? Even if negatives are classified, it’s extremely rare for someone of your stature to visit.”

“Do you find it amusing to view people as so materialistic?”

“Should I bring up your husband again?”

“Ugh…!”

As Bella rose from her seat unable to contain herself, the security guards behind her rushed to restrain her.

“Just reveal your true intentions.”

“It feels like gambling with all my cards showing!”

“You don’t know if I have a pair or a straight. Worth gambling, isn’t it?”

“Hughes, you’re really insufferable!”

“You didn’t come here just because some Earthling failed to maintain confidentiality. That’s not the Chairwoman Bella I know.”

As Dexter responded smoothly, Bella, unable to contain her excitement, blinked her pupils and looked at Director Makoa.

“You should have told me that Hughes was the one who leaked the negative information!”

“You came barging in despite our attempts to handle it, Chairwoman.”

“Urgh…!”

Noticing that the situation was turning favorable for the Earth side, Director Makoa also spoke smoothly, causing Bella to bare her sharp fangs.

“…You know that even a planet with a neutrality treaty has voting rights for the Security Council chairperson confirmation, right? And that the voting period is approaching?”

“Now we’re getting somewhere.”

Dexter smiled and said:

“Is the previous chairperson dead?”

“Even saying the same thing, you could…! Former Chairman Agony passed away three months ago due to old age.”

“Ah, he was such a good person. He passed away, and somehow you became the chairperson.”

“…I want to speak kindly, but kind words won’t come out. My request is simple. The negative-related incidents will be resolved internally by Earth, and the Galactic Union will not make an official response.”

“So because sanctions from the Galactic Union could cause problems with the neutrality treaty, Earth will handle it on its own, and in return, you want votes in the chairperson confirmation?”

“Will you do it or not?”

“That’s not for a low-ranking agent like me to decide. Director, what will you do?”

Director Makoa didn’t particularly rebuke Dexter’s bold statement but smiled slightly and said:

“I didn’t expect things to turn out this way… We can certainly work to align the opinions of the heads of state for the confirmation vote. However, I’d like to ask if you really want to leave the negative-related incidents for us to resolve.”

After answering the specific details, Director Makoa looked at Bella once, then turned to Dexter and Himena.

“But… these two must be uncomfortable for you.”

Contrary to suggesting he would send them out of the conference room, Director Makoa smiled at the two.

It meant that the two had fulfilled their mission sufficiently, and now he would handle things himself.

If someone other than Dexter had leaked classified information about negatives, they would have faced severe punishment, but since it was Dexter who practically knew all of Bella’s weaknesses, Bella growled:

“Get them out now.”

Bella, who couldn’t stand seeing Dexter who had unintentionally shaken her, ordered the two to leave. Director Makoa laughed loudly and then said in a small voice:

“I’ll call you separately in a little while, so we’ll see you then.”

As the two left the temporary conference room as Bella wished, Himena put her hand on her forehead and said to Dexter:

“How on earth do you know each other?”

“This is exactly why I didn’t want to have deep conversations with that person.”

As Dexter made an unusually disgusted expression, Himena looked at him seriously and said:

“Is she really your ex-girlfriend?”

“How could that be? The age difference between us is enormous. Bella and I have an age gap like a grandmother and grandson. Would you want to date an 80-year-old grandfather?”

“Ugh!”

“I feel the same way.”

Expressing his disgust, Dexter put his hands in his pockets and continued:

“The Bella I knew was one of the standing committee members of the Security Council. I didn’t know she had risen to the chairperson position.”

“She looked similar to a Reptilian, is she one?”

“No. She’s similar, but as you saw, she’s closer to a lizard.”

While “Reptilian” on Earth refers to all reptilian aliens in general, it typically refers to reptilian aliens from a specific planet.

“Well, the reason I know Bella is obviously because of Eliya. Since Eliya has a lot of money, Bella tried to extract contributions to help other underdeveloped planets, and that’s how I got to know her.”

“Does she primarily handle contributions?”

“Something like that. From my perspective, it was no different from extortion.”

Indeed, Bella was one of the people who visited Eliya annually, almost like a yearly event, to extract contributions.

Thanks to that, Dexter thought of Bella as a thief trying to take someone else’s money, while Bella saw Dexter as a bad guy who interfered with giving less money around Eliya.

“When Bella was a standing committee member, I heard there wasn’t a single planet that defaulted on contributions. She was like a role model for debt collectors. Ah, you could think of her as somewhat like Shylock.”

“That’s really something…”

In any case, Dexter and Bella were enemies to each other, and they were very reluctant to meet, whether in public or private settings.

So when they confronted each other in an official setting, unpleasant words were bound to come out.

“Now I understand why the two of you were growling at each other.”

“So please, pleeeease stop saying things like she’s my ex-girlfriend. Honestly, I don’t even want to imagine having such a woman by my side.”

“Honey, you really hate her, don’t you?”

“Himena, I really, truly hate that woman.”

Seeing Dexter, who rarely expresses emotions other than smiling, showing genuine disgust, Himena nodded.

“As you probably heard earlier, she’s a woman who never considers anyone else’s circumstances except her own benefit. Look how she immediately came to use the confirmation vote rights when Earth got a weakness.”

“If it weren’t for you, we would have been swept away, really.”

“Not just swept away, we might have been in a slave contract for decades.”

As Dexter and Himena talked while waiting near the temporary conference room, the meeting ended without them being called back.

Bella left Earth in a hurry, boarding her own spaceship, while Director Makoa met with Dexter and Himena privately, wearing a broad smile.

“If it weren’t for you, we would have been completely dragged along!”

Director Makoa, sitting alone in the temporary conference room, was tired of seeing Bella trying not to back down even a step while putting forward conditions favorable to herself despite having her weakness exposed.

If the confidentiality breach had remained a weakness, they would have certainly been dragged around by Bella, so Director Makoa felt genuinely grateful to Dexter.

“It’s nothing. Plenty of planets have been thoroughly taken advantage of by that woman because they weren’t prepared in time.”

“As you said, Earth almost got thoroughly taken advantage of too. How long have you known Chairwoman Bella?”

“In Earth years… about 6 years. Anyway, she’s not a good woman to be close to, so you’d better be careful. As I just said, the moment that demon-like woman catches your weakness, she’ll tear into you tremendously.”

For better or worse, Earth was Dexter’s homeland.

Dexter, who couldn’t stand seeing a woman he already disliked trying to maintain her chairperson position by imposing unfavorable conditions on his homeland, gave Director Makoa a few more methods to counter Bella before heading to the OSA headquarters with Himena.

Using the hologram video device in the special investigation team’s office, Dexter immediately contacted Eliya and shouted with furrowed eyebrows:

“You bastard. Did you send me there deliberately to mess with me?”

As soon as the hologram of Eliya’s still sickeningly handsome face appeared, he smiled slightly and shook his head.

-Oh my, that’s slander, slander. I thought at most a standing committee member would go.

“You sent Chairwoman Bella to properly mess with me because I’ve been using you a lot lately, didn’t you?”

-Oh, come on. Is this how friends treat each other? Preposterous. How could a mere corporate chairman like myself manipulate the chairperson of the Galactic Union Security Council?

Eliya’s expression was calm as he said this, but seeing his slightly raised corner of the mouth, Dexter pointed directly at it with his finger and said:

“You, I’ll deal with you later.”

After exchanging a few more jokes to lighten the mood, while Himena watched the two childish men with disbelief, Dexter crossed his legs, tapping his foot, and got to the point:

“That’s all I needed, so how’s the news related to negatives?”

-As you said, it’s treated as highly classified. The Galactic Union seems to have overreacted because of that, and because of that, there was only one planet I could access information from.

“One planet?”

As a complicated expression mixed into Eliya’s face with those words, Dexter jumped up from his seat after seeing that expression.

“Hey, don’t tell me…”

-I requested access to classified information from planet Keoria.

“You crazy bastard, you insane bastard, you have so much money to throw around that you’re even spreading it to a planet like that?”

-After looking into it, that was the only planet with relevant information.

“Did you fucking think I’d be happy about you doing something like that because of me? Are you crazy? Aren’t you angry? This guy is a complete lunatic, isn’t he?”

As Dexter hurled insults at Eliya with a genuinely angry face, and Eliya calmly accepted those words, Himena couldn’t understand and tried to stop Dexter:

“What’s going on? Why are you acting like this?”

“That’s the place that killed his parents.”

“Who?”

“The leadership of that planet killed Eliya’s parents.”

Dexter raised his head, unable to contain his frustration and anger, and Himena, momentarily stunned, looked at Eliya to confirm if her understanding was correct.

Eliya’s expression remained calm.