novelraw Chapter 185 : Aberdeen (2)
Chapter 185 : Aberdeen (2)
A rustle—
His appearance, revealed as he subtly lowered the newspaper, was indeed striking.
A stern, strong-willed face, with hair half-gray and half-white slicked back.
And his signature items: a tobacco pipe and white gloves.
It was unmistakable.
The man on the bench, holding open a newspaper and puffing on a pipe, was Ludwig Allegro, the head of the UMC.
“You recognized me right away? This is supposed to be a top-secret meeting, you know.”
“……”
He said that, but he wasn’t exactly hiding his identity.
The necklace visible inside his newspaper was a unique item worn only by high-ranking Priests.
The very fact that he was uncomfortably wearing a necklace meant to be hidden inside, out for all to see, indicated he had no intention of concealing his identity from me.
‘...Why did he come in person?’
His intention wasn’t clear.
No matter how I thought about it, this wasn't something he needed to handle personally.
Of course, the ‘Resurrection of the Beastkin Faction’ that I had spouted off about was indeed no ordinary matter.
From his perspective, as the head of the UMC involved in countless counter-intelligence cases, everything about this incident must have seemed strange.
The fact that Tan had revealed his identity first, my very existence, and even the intention to resurrect the Beastkin Faction, probably didn't sit well with him.
So, from his standpoint, he had no choice but to keep a close eye on me.
However.
Merely observing me as a person of interest was a completely different matter from the head of the UMC appearing in person.
If he was truly concerned, he could have increased the number of agents observing me or dug deeper into the information about people around me; there was no reason for him to come himself.
In other words, I concluded that his direct appearance here was for a reason separate from his interest in me due to the Beastkin Faction.
‘...Could it be?’
There was one thing that bothered me.
The fragment of the Primordial Demonic Beast that had infested Allen Tigris's Thought Form.
If the UMC already knew about its existence, then his presence here would make some sense.
Cases involving Primordial Demonic Beasts were certainly not something the UMC could take lightly.
But there were still oddities if I assumed that was the case.
If the UMC knew about it, leaving it untouched would be unthinkable.
They should have either imprisoned Valencia or implemented a separate management process, not simply left her under the lowest level of probation.
In other words.
No matter how I looked at it, the current information didn't provide a satisfactory reason for him to seek me out in person.
Having reached that conclusion, I shrugged my shoulders and replied nonchalantly.
“Well, I think if you keep doing that, anyone would recognize you.”
“Heh. As if.”
“……”
“Then again, from your perspective, if an agent goes around revealing their own identity, you might think that.”
“……”
“The UMC must be completely dead.”
Truthfully.
He and I weren't exactly close.
That was certainly true in this life, and even in my previous life, our relationship wasn't deep enough to call it significant.
We had spoken directly only a handful of times, and though we'd crossed paths occasionally, it was mostly just passing encounters during missions.
He wasn't a member of the Suicide Squad, but a unique individual who resisted by providing support from outside the Suicide Squad until the very end.
Of course.
Regardless of how many times I'd actually seen him, his intense personality had certainly cemented him in my mind as one of those unforgettable figures.
“...I don’t know much, but your position doesn’t seem like one you can move lightly from.”
“……”
“Why did you come in person?”
The position of UMC head was not one that allowed for casual movement.
Besides managing the various unidentified creatures the UMC was responsible for, there were undoubtedly numerous major tasks being carried out at this very moment.
As a secret organization, the difficulty and importance of its missions ranked among the highest for The Order's Priests, and due to its nature, it struggled with recruitment, making the UMC one of the most demanding in terms of workload.
Of course, it was generally expected that a head of an organization would merely stamp documents for already-processed matters.
However, due to the UMC's unique nature, even its head would inevitably have tasks requiring direct handling.
I knew this well, having had a roughly similar role in the Suicide Squad.
Therefore, setting aside the gravity of his position or the need for a secret organization to maintain security, his coming here in person was inexplicable simply due to his workload.
“That’s my business. Do I need your permission to come and go?”
“……”
“If you don’t like it, you be the head of the organization.”
Annoyed, he snapped back with his usual curt tone, then took a drag from his pipe, exhaled, and added.
“Besides, you called me first.”
“……”
“I just wanted to see your face, to see how confident you are.”
He said that, but it couldn't have been such an emotional reason.
Even if he acted that way on the surface, he was the type of person who calculated every step and gesture in his mind before acting.
The fact that he set aside countless UMC duties to come here meant that he placed great importance on meeting me in person, whether for personal reasons or on behalf of the UMC.
In other words, he had come here to make a critical decision, one important enough to use his direct authority as the head of the UMC without going through intermediaries.
“...I imagine we’re both busy. Why don’t we get straight to the point?”
Shaking off the complexity in my mind, I asked directly.
After all, with the information I currently had, further contemplation wouldn't yield anything new.
Of course.
He didn’t abandon his character and answer right away.
“I’m not busy.”
“……”
When I simply stared without replying, he seemed a bit embarrassed and let out a cough before answering.
“Ahem. I take back what I said about you being young earlier.”
“……”
“After a few words, your sense of humor seems to have aged.”
With a shrug, he folded his newspaper and spoke in a slightly different tone.
“Well, it’s simple.”
“……”
“If something goes out, something must come back, old man. Are you just going to greedily take it and then shut your mouth?”
Finally, he was getting to the point.
What he meant by ‘something going out’ was clear.
I had only received one thing from the UMC.
“...Are you talking about the slave prison information?”
“Yes. That information, as it may seem, is something most other organizations wouldn’t dare touch without us. Handing it over externally is grounds for disciplinary action, but I pushed it through with my authority.”
Hmph—
“And I took all the risks.”
He emphasized his words by pausing, but even without that, I knew well that the information he'd sent via carrier pigeon was not trivial.
Information related to the black market, by its very nature, tended to require extra caution regarding external leakage.
‘……’
If information about the black market were leaked externally, and the Market Maker realized they were exposed and being monitored, all the information painstakingly gathered so far would likely become useless.
Originally, moving such a large organization wasn't easy, so one could track them by changing methods during the transition.
However, since the black market had a single root in the Market Maker, once they decided to change, things would be handled swiftly.
Furthermore, in my case, since I had already declared my objective of the ‘Resurrection of the Beastkin Faction,’ it was somewhat a foregone conclusion that the information would be immediately used for an attack.
This meant that all the information collected so far would definitively become useless.
That was the part he had taken a risk on.
Leaking information in a situation where its loss was certain couldn't simply be covered by the word ‘mistake.’
If Tom failed to deal with all the slave prisons and the Market Maker retreated deeper into the shadows, and if The Order's higher-ups learned of this and disciplined Ludwig Allegro, it was highly likely that it wouldn't end with just a pay cut or suspension.
And the fact that I had thought this much meant that I, too, had a prepared answer.
“For that, I am grateful.”
“……”
“So, as I mentioned earlier through Tan, regarding the Villain Hunter, on my part...”
But before I could finish my reply.
“You would have handled that on your own anyway.”
“……?”
He cut me off.
“It seems you’ve resolved the succession issue anyway, and from our perspective, we couldn’t make use of it either way. Whether that cat is dead or alive.”
“……”
“Or if you’ve put a leash on it and locked it in the basement, what do I care? I’m rather grateful you removed that troublesome wart that was hanging around.”
...That was an unexpected reply.
What I had originally intended to offer as repayment for the information was the Villain Hunter. That is, the process of dealing with ‘Allen Tigris III’ and a few concepts related to Thought Forms that hadn’t been revealed at this point.
Although I didn't know the exact number, I knew that the UMC was managing several other Thought Form-type unidentified creatures besides Allen.
Revealing some characteristics of Thought Forms that were known in my previous life but not yet in this one.
That was the compensation I intended to give Ludwig Allegro in exchange for the slave prison coordinates.
Since the characteristics of Thought Forms were information that could be widely used not only by the UMC but also by Exorcists and The Order, I thought it would be a fair trade.
Moreover, even if he were to receive disciplinary action later for this matter, claiming he exchanged it for that information would be valuable enough to warrant consideration.
But Ludwig Allegro expressed his refusal before I could even finish speaking.
And not in a roundabout way, but so directly, rejecting it so definitively without even a moment's thought, implied one thing.
‘...This is a loss.’
It meant that Ludwig Allegro already had a set compensation in mind even before he came here.
Sure enough, he took a puff from his pipe, then gazed out at the sheer buildings of the Delta sector in the distance and said.
“A girl named Emily...”
“……”
“Just take care of one child.”
...It was a little.
No, it was an utterly incomprehensible request.