Ch.225Side Story 1: Modern Family (2)

#01_Modern Family_2

On a bed in an empty room within the villa lay the unconscious man who had descended from the spaceship.

Everyone, including the woman, had gathered in one place, watching Dexter’s actions as he stood beside the man.

-Thwack!

After inserting an injection kit into the man’s body, Dexter watched the real-time decreasing gauge of the medication and said:

“It’s a temporary measure, but he should recover after resting well for half a day.”

“Th-thank you, sir!”

Dexter nodded to the woman who was thanking him and said as he put the empty injection kit back into the first aid box:

“Judging by the rifle you’re carrying, you seem to be from Planet Alucard. What’s your reason for landing in a civilian residential area in broad daylight without permission on a planet under a neutrality treaty?”

“Y-you know about our planet?”

“Of course I do.”

When Dexter stared at her intently, the woman fidgeted with an awkward expression.

‘Why isn’t she answering?’

Watching the woman’s behavior, Dexter shook his head and turned to Himena, who was on the phone with another location.

“Himena, what did the Florida branch say?”

Himena, holding her mobile phone, nodded at the sound coming from the speaker.

“Given the emergency, they’ll allow a 12-hour stay. After that, they naturally have to leave Earth.”

“You heard that. As soon as this person recovers, you must leave immediately.”

At Dexter’s firm response, the woman shook her head with a dismayed expression.

“N-no! Please, please hide us…”

“You keep repeating that it’s not possible and that you need to hide. Looking at your clothes and behavior, you two seem to be quite high-ranking people from Planet Alucard, but you won’t say a word about your identity. Are you hiding something?”

“Well, actually…”

As the woman hesitated again when asked about her identity, Jesse, growing impatient, was about to grab her shoulder when—

“…My lady, I will explain instead.”

The man who had been unconscious until now opened his eyes and looked at the woman.

“Your Grace, but…”

“It’s alright. They saved our lives and even know about our planet.”

After comforting the woman, the man turned his gaze to Dexter.

“I am ‘Wallachia.’ A person who rules the northern frozen lands of Planet Alucard, owning only barren territory.”

“If it’s the northern frozen lands of Planet Alucard, are you perhaps the Grand Duke of the North, Wallachia?”

“…How would you know that title unless you’re from our planet?”

Seeing Wallachia’s wariness, Dexter smiled slightly and said:

“A few years ago, you had a scandal with the daughter of Admiral Szilágyi from the south, and because of that, romance novels became a craze on Planet Alucard, didn’t they? A friend of mine was once obsessed with a novel where you two were the main characters.”

“That… this is Lady Ilona, Admiral Szilágyi’s daughter.”

“What?”

Ilona awkwardly curtsied to Dexter and spoke:

“H-hello. You know that more than half of the novel’s content is made up, right…?”

Since Dexter had actually read that novel, he hesitated before finally squeezing out a response.

“Yes, well… it’s more like gossip filled with public wishes.”

“…Dexy, what are you talking about? Explain so our parents can understand too.”

“Well, you see.”

The attire and culture of Planet Alucard are stuck in Earth’s early modern period.

The planet is divided into nobles and commoners centered around a unifying emperor, and it also has feudal aspects where nobles and their bloodlines govern their respective regions.

Wallachia is a margrave who fights against fierce monsters in the northern frozen lands dominated by bitter cold, a man with considerable military strength even in the north where only the strong survive.

In contrast, Ilona is the daughter of a southern admiral where the climate is mild year-round, a coastal region with military power rivaling the north due to its many sea monsters.

Although the two regions are on the same planet, their climates are polar opposites, so their living cultures are quite different, and there are frequent conflicts between them.

“To put it in one line, their relationship is like Romeo and Juliet, but with the scale amplified about 10 times.”

“Th-that’s right… Grand Duke Wallachia lost his parents so only his retainers oppose him, but in my case, everyone from my parents to my retainers is against us…”

“So you eloped for love?”

When Jesse said this with a smirk, Ilona nodded.

“I took the initiative, and the Grand Duke merely stepped up to protect me…”

“You took the initiative, Miss Ilona?”

Himena, finding it hard to believe that Ilona, who looked as frail as Judy before she started exercising, had shown such initiative, asked, and Ilona carefully nodded.

“Yes… But my parents thought the Grand Duke had kidnapped me and fled into space, so they were chasing us until they forcibly entered Earth’s atmosphere just a little while ago…”

“You must have been through a lot.”

As Judy held Ilona’s hands to comfort her, Ilona shook her head and said:

“No, the Grand Duke has suffered much more.”

“Not at all, my lady. It was only Lady Ilona who led me, indecisive in love. Please don’t belittle your efforts.”

“Grand Duke Wallachia…”

Ilona embraced Wallachia tightly, and seeing this, everyone else quickly turned their heads away.

Dexter took Himena’s hand and led her in another direction, then pointed with his eyes at Wallachia and Ilona and said:

“What did the Florida branch say?”

“We’re communicating via messages, and it seems they’re in a difficult situation. Apparently, Planet Alucard is continuously making thinly veiled threats demanding the return of those two?”

“At least they have some common sense.”

“No, I think that common sense will soon disappear. They’re saying that since they’ve already landed here, what reason is there for them not to land too, essentially daring us to try and stop them.”

“Complete lunatics.”

“The Florida branch says they’ll send personnel to the villa for now. They need to prevent a conflict between planets.”

“That might just complicate things further.”

As Himena and Dexter conversed in low voices, Isabella asked Judy:

“Excuse me, Judy? Do you know what they’re talking about?”

“Judging by their lowered voices, I think they’re discussing how to handle this based on what the OSA Florida branch said.”

“Ah, I see. I heard you work at the same place as Dexter. Is your job also a cover?”

At Isabella’s direct question, Judy smiled brightly and waved her hands.

“What? No. I don’t have much connection to OSA; I really work as a correctional officer. I only know about this because of Dexter. I’m similar to Emily here.”

“My daughter didn’t talk about Emily’s profession, so I guess Emily is similar?”

“Well, about that…”

“I’m a thief.”

Emily, who was standing behind Judy who was wondering whether to reveal or conceal this information, casually disclosed her profession.

“A-a thief?”

“Yes. I specialize in cars. Madam, you’ve probably heard of the Old Folks.”

“Could it be the Old Folks who only steal vintage cars?”

“That’s right. But I only steal from people known to be bad guys. As proof, I haven’t touched any cars owned by the Libero Group.”

“W-well, that’s true, but…”

As Isabella’s poker face, which had been maintaining a smile, crumbled, Pablo, who had his hand on Isabella’s shoulder, looked at Emily and said:

“So in the public eye, I’m not considered a bad guy?”

“You’re not like a Mexican cartel boss or a Third World military dictator.”

“Hahaha, you’re quite the joker!”

“I’m not joking.”

Seeing Emily, Pablo, and Isabella, Jesse whispered to Judy:

“…Is this really a conversation between a tycoon and a thief?”

“I’ve never been either a tycoon or a thief, so I wouldn’t know…”

As the ordinary correctional officer and former criminal were at a loss in the subtly flowing conversation—

Dexter suddenly looked out the window and said:

“It seems the Florida branch failed in negotiations.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“I can hear spaceship engines.”

Unless it’s a truly exceptional spaceship, most spaceships’ stealth modes can’t completely mask the sound.

There’s still a noise similar to aircraft engine sounds at low altitude.

Noticing that sound, Dexter rushed out of the room, and everyone except the two lovers from Planet Alucard followed him.

The Libero couple’s villa had a private beach with partitions.

Since the spaceship had its stealth mode activated like the one the two lovers from Alucard had arrived in, the landed spaceship was invisible to the eye.

All that could be seen was a disc-shaped depression in the sand.

As Dexter stood at what appeared to be the entrance, men wearing uniforms similar to Wallachia’s began to disembark.

The men, ignoring Dexter who stood with a cocky posture, lined up in a row and stared at the spaceship’s exit.

‘Hmm?’

As Dexter also looked at the spaceship’s entrance, a young man with a stylish mustache emerged and looked at Dexter with his defiant stance.

Then, in an arrogant voice, he said:

“Who is this person?”

“Who are you to come to Earth as you please, you son of a—”

Just as he was about to say “bitch,” the Libero couple arrived and could be heard chatting.

“Indeed, nothing is visible, but ah, there’s a landing mark over there.”

“How wonderful it would be if such technology were introduced to Earth.”

Though Dexter had lived as he pleased for 15 years, he at least knew not to grab and shake just anyone in front of his girlfriend’s parents.

Dexter swallowed the curse that had risen to his throat and asked politely:

“Excuse me, but who are you?”

“How insolent! How dare you address Lord Siward, the prince of Admiral Alucard’s southern region—!”

The most cunning-looking man among those lined up approached Dexter and pointed a finger at him.

‘What’s with this guy?’

As Dexter was about to raise a hand to break the finger immediately, Siward restrained the cunning man.

“Calm down, Morris.”

“But, this person!”

“I said calm down.”

‘Maybe he’s somewhat reasonable after all?’

As Dexter was beginning to feel some respect for Siward for restraining his subordinate Morris, at that moment—

“This is Earth, without even proper spaceships. What would a brutishly large commoner know?”

A clear look of looking down on him.

A vein bulged on Dexter’s forehead.

‘This bastard, really.’

As Dexter was truly about to lose patience and throw a punch at his face, Himena and Jesse behind him immediately noticed.

The two grabbed Dexter’s arms on both sides, and Himena said lightly with a smile:

“I’m Himena Libero, an investigative agent belonging to OSA, Earth’s alien intelligence agency. This is Dexter Hughes, also an OSA investigative agent.”

“Hmm, is that so?”

Though he might not know what OSA does, there are similar intelligence departments on Planet Alucard too.

Siward, who had a bad personality but wasn’t stupid, still looked down at Himena, Dexter, and Jesse as he spoke:

“I was told that the northern mute and my sister would be here. Is that true?”

‘Ilona’s brother?’

As Dexter scrutinized Siward, he did indeed have some resemblance to Ilona.

In any case, Dexter wanted to get rid of these men in front of him as soon as possible.

Not because he wanted to prevent them from interfering with the century’s love story between Grand Duke Wallachia of the North and Admiral’s daughter Ilona of the South, but because he wanted to kick them out quickly and rest.

‘Do they think it’s easy for all of us to take vacation time at Christmas?’

While he was contemplating when to physically expel the men from Alucard, Pablo, who was behind him, looked at Siward with displeasure and said:

“Before that. Is it acceptable to enter someone else’s private property as you please?”

“What did you say?”

At Pablo’s sudden intervention, Isabella grabbed Pablo’s arm to restrain him, just as Jesse and Himena were restraining Dexter.

“Honey, our daughter and Dexter will handle this.”

“Well, I need to say what needs to be said.”

Pablo stepped forward and pointed at the beach, saying:

“This is land I own. I don’t know how people from your world think, but people in this country greatly dislike others entering their private property.”

“So, what are you trying to say?”

“Leave immediately.”

“Leave…”

At Pablo’s firm words, Siward chuckled and lowered his head.

“It seems you still don’t understand. I wasn’t making a request, was I?”

“What?”

Siward raised his head again.

“It’s an order.”

With those words, Siward signaled to his subordinates, who then aggressively approached the Libero couple as well as Dexter’s women.

“Subdue them gently, though they are hostile to us.”

“Yes!”

Not wanting to witness the scene of ‘commoners’ being subdued, Siward turned his body around and spoke.

As his subordinates unanimously responded and were about to subdue Dexter’s group and the Libero couple—

“P-Prince!”

“Do I have to point out everything…?”

Siward turned his body again to look at where Dexter had been, and a strange scene unfolded.

“Who gave you permission to order a subduing?”

Dexter was firmly gripping the wrist of one of the subordinates who had been at the front.

As Dexter, now with a fierce look unlike before, stared at him, Siward frowned and said:

“What are you doing, commoner?”

“Your lackeys come behind me, they die.”

Behind Dexter were his women and the Libero couple, looking at Dexter and Siward alternately with bewildered expressions.

“Insolent commoner, what did you say?”

“Ah, this bastard keeps saying ‘commoner’ at the end of every sentence. I’ll give you one last chance.”

Dexter bared his teeth and said:

“Don’t cross the line, punk.”

As Dexter gripped the subordinate’s wrist even more tightly, the man screamed.

“Aaaagh!!”

“Or you’ll really die.”

“What nonsense I’m hearing.”

When Siward laughed lightly at Dexter’s words, Dexter’s head tilted to the side.

“You’re laughing?”

Unfortunately, Siward didn’t know much about Dexter’s combat abilities, nor did he have the discernment to recognize such abilities.

So he gave an order that was nothing short of a major mistake.

“Kill this disrespectful bastard right now!”

As soon as the order was given, Siward’s subordinates rushed at Dexter.