Ch.177Into the Unknown! (5)

#177

“Don’t you have any pride?”

-You said it yourself. Negatives threaten Earth’s safety…

“Himena, cut the connection.”

“What? No, wait. Honey, you can’t just hang up like this. At least hear everything out before…”

“Turn it off now.”

Dexter’s face crumpled as he looked at Himena with rough breathing, but she just shook her head.

“…That fucking idiot.”

With those words, Dexter glanced at Eliya’s hologram and walked out of the office.

-I apologize, Miss Himena. You’re caught in the middle because of my inadequate friend.

“It’s fine. But I’ve rarely seen Dexter genuinely angry since I met him until now.”

Himena briefly turned her head to look at Dexter walking away from the office, then turned back to Eliya’s hologram.

“What exactly did Keoria do to…?”

-…It’s a long story.

Eliya showed a faint smile as he spoke to Himena.

* * *

Planet Keoria is a place where 95% of residents, regardless of gender, are soldiers.

The remaining 5% are residents with physical or mental issues that make them unsuitable for military service. Anyone born without disabilities is a soldier from birth until death.

Everyone lives immersed in daily training preparing for wartime, and their dream is to live their entire life on the battlefield and die by enemy bullets—a planet truly devoted to the “military.”

Because of this, they put their hearts into weaponizing anything possible, and they strive to extract maximum efficiency from numerous rare ores, minerals, and energy sources.

But even that requires money.

-Food, clothing, shelter… and research all require money.

It was a crazy planet where generals, soldiers, and the national leadership all had strong militant tendencies.

Unable to farm much and without any notable industries, the barren Keoria ultimately had to rely on people.

“What do you mean they had to rely on people?”

-‘National power lies not in defense, but in invasion.’ I heard there’s such a saying on Earth.

“That’s not really a saying…”

In the end, other planets and civilians were easy targets.

The entire planet routinely plundered others like space pirates.

This also happened to Thomastair Tenpenny, who was the head of Tenpenny Corporation.

-Tenpenny Corporation was a small company that barely made it into the galaxy’s top 100 when his father Thomastair was alive. Still, it was easy prey in the eyes of General Chill, the fleet commander of Keoria’s 1st Space Fleet, and once it caught his eye…

If someone like Dexter had been by his side, Chairman Thomastair wouldn’t have been so helplessly victimized by General Chill’s subordinates.

When the company chairman and his wife were kidnapped by the Keorian Space Force, Tenpenny Corporation immediately fell into chaos.

-If it had been another planet’s space force, they wouldn’t have done such things to maintain military honor and faith, but the Keorian Space Force began to act even more blatantly.

“Don’t tell me they made threatening calls to Tenpenny Corporation demanding ransom…”

Eliya was too young at the time to offer opinions, and all decisions were made through discussions among Tenpenny Corporation’s senior executives.

-No ransom payments. No discussions or negotiations with kidnappers. That was their conclusion.

From the moment they declared they wouldn’t pay ransom, the 1st Fleet that kidnapped the chairman and his wife became desperate.

They sent subtle messages to the executives and even sent a severed finger, but nothing worked.

-The method they chose was very simple.

A few weeks later, the Tenpenny couple were found dead in a wasteland on some planet.

“……!”

Apart from missing some fingers, they reportedly met a clean death without any other external injuries, but the fact remained that they died.

Afterward, under strong pressure from the Galactic Union, Keoria was banned from external activities for the next 10 years, and activities like looting and kidnapping are still being suppressed to this day.

* * *

“Now I understand why Dexy got angry in the middle.”

Himena sighed and held her head after hearing the whole story.

Anyone would be angry about Eliya paying a large sum of money for information to the planet that killed his parents for money.

“I understand your thinking too, Eliya. You wanted to get even a small piece of information when Dexter’s hometown was in danger. But these are the people who killed his parents.”

-If you want information, you naturally have to pay the price.

“I never thought I’d say this to you, Eliya… but are you stupid? I don’t represent Earth, but rather than you getting information this way, it would be better to catch the Captain General quickly. Nobody wants you to get information like this.”

Himena had never understood Dexter’s feelings so deeply before.

“Dexy must feel terribly sorry. That’s why he left first, not wanting to continue the call with you.”

-I know.

Eliya’s hologram showed a deeply contemplative expression.

“I’ve never seen a friendship like this… Geez, both Dexy and you are so frustrating, really.”

Himena crossed her arms and pouted with a dissatisfied expression.

“So, did you get the information?”

-I did get it properly, but because Dexter left first… Ah, I think it would be good if you could relay it to him, Miss Himena.

“What is it?”

-I found information about weaponizing Negatives, but the problem is that the first developer is listed under a peculiar name.

“A peculiar name?”

-Well…

Eliya’s hologram said with a subtle smile.

-It was Howard Hughes.

While Himena stood with her mouth agape in shock, at the same time, Jessie was looking at a book with a learning device on her head, covering her mouth with one hand.

Without turning her head toward the persistent gaze she felt beside her, she said:

“…I’m studying.”

“I know.”

“If you know, why are you here?”

“I feel like I’m going crazy.”

“What did Himena say?”

“Nothing.”

“Then who said what?”

“Don’t know.”

“…Can’t you go somewhere else?”

“Don’t want to.”

Annoyed by Dexter who was sticking close but keeping his distance, Jessie finally couldn’t stand it anymore, closed her book, and removed the learning device from her head.

After briefly glancing at the situation outside, she looked at Dexter’s ambiguous expression and patted her thigh saying:

“Lie down quickly.”

“Am I a child?”

“It’s better than having someone who doesn’t usually do this making me nervous by hovering around. Won’t you lie down?”

“What if the maintenance staff sees us?”

“They don’t come in except to tell me when it’s quitting time when I’m studying, so it’s fine.”

“This must be a workplace paradise.”

When Dexter stopped refusing and lay down on Jessie’s lap, she looked down at him and said:

“Just rest before you go. Honestly, I’m not the type of person who’s good at comforting others. I don’t have that kind of way with words.”

“Thanks.”

“If you’re thankful, recover quickly and get back to work.”

Jessie was stroking the crown of Dexter’s head when something suddenly occurred to her.

“Is the surveillance case just over like this?”

“I’m going to look at the video testimony of those mafia guys and try to find even a small clue.”

“I’m curious about the memory erasing method they said the mafia experienced. Is it like shining a bright light like in movies?”

“It’s actually similar to the learning device you’re wearing. They put a helmet on your head and zap you with an electric shock.”

Seeing a smile appear on Dexter’s face as he said this, Jessie looked at him with a somewhat relieved expression and said:

“Sounds like some kind of electric chair.”

“Similar. Want to watch the testimony video when you’re done studying?”

“I’d like that, it would be a nice change of pace.”

After saying this, Jessie lightly kissed Dexter’s forehead, and he touched his forehead saying:

“Come to the evidence room in about an hour.”

“We’re watching it there?”

“The archive room inside the evidence room is quiet. The office isn’t really suitable.”

“Hmm.”

Jessie nodded in affirmation.

“Then I’ll see you there later.”

“Yeah, study hard.”

Dexter also kissed Jessie’s forehead as a gesture of gratitude before heading to the archive room.

After requesting the recorded testimony of the three mafia members from a staff member, Dexter sat in the archive room, took out a notebook and pen, and began summarizing their testimonies.

[…Just because Asians form a crime group in suits, they’re all Triads? That’s racial discrimination too! Damn it, even government secret agencies are sitting around making shitty discriminations!]

Watching the recorded testimony, Dexter clicked his tongue as soon as he saw the man in the video complaining.

“Tsk, why do these criminal bastards have such long tongues.”

There weren’t many worthwhile testimonies that would make Dexter slap his knee in realization, and most of it was just whining to the interrogator.

Moreover, these Asian mafia members weren’t particularly hardened criminals, but rather closer to the riffraff that Jessie had described—easy to dismiss.

‘They’re just guys in suits pretending to be criminals.’

Just as Dexter was half-heartedly going through the testimony videos, thinking he had failed again to find the person who requested the surveillance, both Himena and Jessie entered the archive room simultaneously.

Able to recognize their footsteps without taking his eyes off the monitor, Dexter said in a voice full of annoyance:

“You’re here.”

“I finished talking with Eliya.”

“That idiot.”

“Geez, speak nicely! I gave him a piece of my mind too.”

“Whatever.”

Seeing Dexter’s curt response, Himena was about to burst out in anger when Jessie also turned her eyes to the screen and casually said:

“I understand how Dex feels, but you shouldn’t treat your girlfriend like that.”

“……”

At Jessie’s words, Dexter covered his mouth without answering and started focusing on the video.

“He clams up when he’s at a disadvantage.”

“But why are you suddenly watching those mafia testimonies?”

“I’m trying to catch the bastard who put in the surveillance request on me.”

“Didn’t you say there weren’t any significant testimonies? That they didn’t really know anything and everything was vague?”

“That’s right. I read the transcript and there wasn’t much.”

Himena placed her hand on Dexter’s shoulder and continued:

“‘Judging by the build, it seemed to be a man, and his tone and manner seemed to look down on us,’ ‘He’ll give us state-of-the-art androids, so when the job is done, manipulate them in such and such way and turn them off’… That was about it, right?”

“The information is very limited.”

“It is. But if the reason was to surveil Dexter, it means they at least know Dexter’s identity…”

Himena suddenly cut her words short, and Dexter turned his head to look at her and said:

“Someone who knows my information. Who could it be?”

“…Why didn’t I think of that?”

“Because you already know my identity.”

“What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

Jessie, not understanding what was going on, asked Dexter, who paused the video and inquired:

“The Captain General would naturally want me dead. I interfere with everything he does, and I either lock up everyone related to him or send them to another planet. I can understand if he’s monitoring me to find my weakness or to learn my schedule to kill me with a bomb attack like the Stephans. But…”

Then Dexter pointed at Himena.

“Himena isn’t being followed. If she were, I would have noticed. But they only followed me. Why?”

“That’s…?”

“The answer is simple.”

Dexter looked back and forth between Himena and Jessie as he spoke:

“Since I’m near Himena, they’re not interested in Himena’s schedule.”

“…You don’t mean, a spy?”