novelraw Chapter 120
Chapter 120
Chapter 120
“Recently, Omega Investment’s movements have been troubling. They have begun quietly buying up shares related to us and Militech…….”
“The Strategy Team has been analyzing news articles and rumor posts from the past year to determine the basis on which Omega Investment’s Motherboard AI reached that judgment…….”
“In response, we first propose to buy back our own shares…….”
Stingray Group board meeting.
The foremost figures who led the Imperial Family of New Valhalla City sat together, continuing discussions to make the empire even more prosperous.
The dull, yellowish eyes of the white-haired old man in the wheelchair stared blankly into empty space as if uninterested.
Be that as it may, the other attendees continued their in-depth debate.
Thus, as the course of response to the recent aggressive moves by ‘Omega Investment’ seemed roughly set, everyone, at the end, turned their gaze to the old man in the wheelchair.
He met their eyes with slow movements and, in a murky voice, uttered only one sentence.
“……Do so.”
After the meeting.
Secretary-General Lim Sang-ho escorted Chairman Drake Stingray to his bedroom.
Though it was too early to sleep, the body of a man over two hundred years old already complained of fatigue.
A room lavishly decorated, befitting the moniker Emperor.
All sorts of luxuries that ordinary people could never obtain even in hundreds of years adorned the space, and outside the window, a vast garden and trees, carefully tended, composed a beautiful view.
A view one could see only in ‘Elysium,’ reserved solely for the city’s highest rulers.
For those raised only in the bleak city where not even a blade of grass could grow from Sector A to Sector E, it was a sight beyond imagination.
However.
Because even that precious scenery was their everyday norm, Secretary Lim naturally passed it by and pushed the wheelchair toward the bed.
“Chairman, I’ll take you to the bed.”
“……No. I wish to look out the window for a moment.”
For some reason, the chairman refused to go straight to bed and insisted.
Secretary Lim realized the chairman’s eyes shone in a subtly unusual way compared to usual.
He turned the wheelchair and drew it up close to the window.
And immediately after.
The chairman slowly moistened his parched lips with saliva and spoke.
“Sang-ho.”
“Yes, Chairman.”
“Isn’t the garden too bare?”
At first blush, it sounded like he disliked the garden’s appearance.
An ordinary person might have taken it as an order to fire the current landscaping chief immediately and hire a new one.
But Secretary Lim had served at his side for many years and grasped the intent hidden in his words.
“……Young master Aaron is currently busy with the Foundation’s work. Miss Kallia also seems unable to make time due to the exhibition and social gatherings she’s preparing these days. At least young master Benedict—”
“Enough. I have no interest in a loser.”
A clear chill settled in the chairman’s eyes that had looked hazy a moment before.
For an instant, one could almost imagine the furrows of his wrinkles easing.
“He never understood what ability had been given to him. Blinded by arrogance, he erred in trying to clash, with half-baked skill, in his elder brother’s field.
A technician has his own way of fighting, yet he grew greedy for nothing…….”
Tsk tsk tsk.
Chairman Stingray clicked his tongue.
What he had expected of Benedict was the ability of an outstanding engineer.
He had hoped the boy would ceaselessly display overwhelming technological prowess that even the likes of Militech could not even covet, and make the Stingray empire more prosperous.
Yet Benedict, never awakening to his proper calling, wasted time on pointless scheming, and, without fully blooming his innate talent, collapsed on his own.
Had he truly dug into a single field, at some point he might have created something beyond the singularity and seized the Stingray empire in his hand.
He, who should have been a genius, dropped out as a mediocrity in the end and, naturally, became someone who could not receive Chairman Stingray’s interest.
“……Compared to that, the first one isn’t bad. He was far stronger than when I last met him. I don’t know how, but it seems he found a way to break through his trials.”
“Is that why you turned a blind eye to him siphoning off that ‘monster’s corpse’?”
“Isn’t it admirable to see him continue to strive to become stronger? Hehehe.”
The chairman smiled for the first time in a long while.
For Secretary Lim, it was hard to understand.
No matter how he looked at it, it seemed that someday the blade the eldest son forged would point at him.
How could he rejoice so greatly in the growth of that killer?
“……I say this with caution, but one day he may become a monster you cannot control.”
“A father must die by his son’s hand.”
There it was again.
It was Chairman Stingray’s bizarre creed.
A grotesque belief that a father must, without fail, be betrayed by his son and fall.
He appeared convinced that only thus could the empire called Stingray, which he had founded, flourish even more.
Nor was Secretary Lim entirely unsympathetic to the idea.
Would the one capable of wresting that seat from Chairman Stingray, who had built such a colossal empire, truly be an ordinary human?
“……In that sense, our youngest, Kallia, is a bit disappointing. How long will she keep hiding her claws?”
Muttering thus, the chairman looked toward the garden once more.
After a brief moment, he spoke again.
“Sang-ho.”
“Yes, Chairman.”
“I will die before long.”
“……Please don’t say such things.”
He spoke so, yet he could not entirely deny it.
Chairman Stingray’s age had already far surpassed a normal human lifespan.
It had been nearly sixty years since he had served him.
In that time, Chairman Stingray had aged greatly.
Even before so-called ‘anti-aging surgery’ appeared in this world, he had already been a white-haired old man; now, through operations, he was merely keeping his soul from slipping away from a debilitated body.
Had he received the operation when he was somewhat younger, he might have had more time left.
But, having started so late, even continuous surgeries could no longer stem the flow of time.
“……I am not afraid of dying.”
“Chairman.”
“Even if the ones to kill me are my own brats, it’s the same. Only…….”
The chairman’s breathing grew a little rough.
“Before that, I would like to see a grandchild once.”
A wish far too modest for an Emperor.
He had even crafted his children by borrowing the power of science—what reason now made him hold such a desire in his heart?
After a moment’s thought, Secretary Lim answered.
“I have heard that lately there is a young girl whom young master Aaron has been taking around.”
“C-could it be…… a granddaughter!?”
The chairman’s eyes widened.
Secretary Lim, too, was taken aback by that reaction.
In all these long years, it was the first time the chairman had shown such a human response.
Perhaps such humanity was itself proof of his old age.
Or perhaps he was simply, purely surprised that that killer had produced a child.
“I will look into it at the earliest opportunity.”
“Yes, yes. We should confirm it properly and then decide.”
“Eh? What decision do you mean?”
“Marriage.”
Chairman Stingray’s out-of-the-blue answer.
“We need to get the first one married.”
The expression on his face as he said that—
It looked like that of a mischievous child planning a prank.
Blue Coat Fixer Office.
One of the many fixer offices scattered across New Valhalla City, located in Sector E, District 79, on Neonfall Street.
I had often visited Sector E while going back and forth to Miyu’s workshop, but since it was the largest of the five subdivided sectors, the atmosphere varied greatly depending on the area.
For example, the area near the Black Market, where Miyu’s workshop was located, was a commercial-industrial district.
There, factories producing light-industrial goods gathered, where profits came from slashing workers’ wages to offset the high land prices.
But lately, as Adaptees’ combat ability increased, colonies expanded, and production rose, those factories had been gradually shutting down.
The Smile Food Factory, once taken over by the Blood Wolves, was a typical case.
On the other hand, Neonfall Street, where the Blue Coat Fixer Office was located, was a busy district filled mostly with small street food stalls, taverns, clubs, and video rental shops.
Of course, since the people gathering there were mostly Sector E’s lower-class laborers and Fallen natives, the atmosphere was extremely rough.
“……Ugh, it stinks!”
The moment she got out of the car, Evangeline covered her nose.
No wonder—compared to where Miyu’s workshop was, the stench here was unbearable.
Trash piled up more than twice as much on the streets, and people shamelessly relieved themselves anywhere.
Some were vomiting heavily from drunkenness, others were sprawled across the roadside, probably high on Junk Chips.
It was likely because taverns were so abundant that the riffraff gathered here.
The Black Market, dealing in illegal weapons, almost seemed like a refined place by comparison.
Had I known, I would have left Evangeline with Miyu.
I regretted it for a moment, but it was already too late.
All I could do was have Maria hold her tightly and continue moving.
Only……
‘Some suspicious ones are watching.’
Even here, we seemed to stand out.
I thought we had blended in well enough, since there were many in suits too, but to the locals we were obvious outsiders.
‘Are they backed by the Mafia?’
In places like this, neither the government nor the police maintained order.
Instead, the Mafia took over that role, collecting protection fees and guarding merchants.
In other words, those who strutted around here either had ties to them or believed they could deal with us quietly without the Mafia finding out.
In short……
‘Small fry.’
Even with low-grade scanners, they should have been able to roughly gauge our overall module output.
For them to pick a fight with us meant they weren’t sharp enough to make that judgment.
“Master.”
“……I know.”
Maria looked at me with concern, but I was no longer the Aaron Stingray who was once a mad killer.
It meant I no longer accepted every fight just to satisfy the urge to spill blood.
We ignored their presence and stepped into a building.
There was no elevator, so we climbed the stairs ourselves, heading to the 4th floor—Blue Coat Fixer Office.
At the entrance, instead of a holographic sign, someone had scribbled “Blue Coat Office” with something like a magic marker.
From the open communal restroom of the building wafted a hellish stench, and from the next building over came the unfiltered sound of a couple quarreling.
‘I knew it, but not to this degree.’
Normally, I would have been excited at the thought of meeting a character from a novel, but the wretched surroundings drained any sense of anticipation.
Instead, only a sigh escaped me.
“Maria, stand aside by the entrance.”
“Yes, understood.”
Knowing that man’s personality, I didn’t know what would happen the moment he saw my face.
Thanks to Aaron having earned unexpected grudges, meeting this fortuitous encounter had become much harder.
Knock knock.
I tapped the door twice and, without waiting for an answer, boldly opened it and stepped inside.
In that instant—
Bang-!
A flash streaked toward my forehead.
I casually waved my hand to block it, and the bullet ricocheted off my knuckles, shattering the window.
Crash-!
“Aaaagh! That window was expensive! How the hell am I supposed to explain this to the landlady! I won’t forgive you, Aaron Stingray!”
Across the desk in front.
A man pointed his gun at me.
It seemed he had already known we were coming, even before I stepped in.
Really now, why bother shooting when he knew it wouldn’t work?
At that moment—
—“Baaaane! Did you break the window again!”
A deep, booming old woman’s voice rang up from below.
The man who had been aiming at me clutched his head and shouted out the window in reply.
“No! This one wasn’t my fault, old hag!!”
—“You think I’ll fall for that excuse again! If you don’t pay up the rent and all the glass fees this time, I’ll throw you out for real!”
“Damn it, that cursed hag!”
After howling and tearing at his hair, the man looked at me grimly.
Then, with a face of mixed emotions, he suddenly shifted to a warm, accommodating tone—
“W-whatever the problem, I can solve it for you. How may I help, honored customer?”
“……”
He must have been in dire need of money.
Truly, he was a man who never left one bored.
The director of this fixer office, and the one I had come to meet today.
His name was ‘Lexus Bane’.