Chapter 1389 |
The information inevitably spread about Heins Territory’s technology, having been leaked during the meeting in the Contas Empire. It was impossible to deny and suppress, given that the Goran Kingdom of all nations was the one who suddenly possessed their proprietary technology.
Since Empress Redimia's departure left Davey no time to focus elsewhere, he planned to entrust the job of remedying the situation to Willow.
Red Ribbon and Blue Ribbon were on a school field trip, while Evangeline was busy streaming. Besides them, Darian and Abel were still children, so naturally, he couldn't entrust that kind of work to them.
That was the superficial reason, but the truth was a little different.
“I announced my retirement, but they won't let me rest even once,” Davey lamented.
Yet he couldn’t just let things go and make an agreement, and neither could he ignore them. As such, only one option remained—find someone trustworthy to step forward so that he wouldn’t have to.
Super Ribbon seemed the most fitting, though actually the most detached from humanity. While she looked fine, her philosophy and thoughts differed slightly from typical living beings, meaning a usually small issue could easily spiral into a big problem given the right circumstances.
Evangeline was too much of a free spirit, acting solely according to her mood, so he definitely couldn't trust her with important work. Plus, she was still young.
Willow, on the other hand, was quite level-headed. She had been a sword from the beginning, yet after emerging as a goddess, her way of thinking had changed considerably. The only problem was that as a goddess, she also saw and felt things that ordinary living beings couldn’t…
“Oh, right, Dad!” Just as he was deep in thought, Willow, who had excitedly rushed out not long before, suddenly opened the window to the room and peeked her head in to add something else. “I've been debating whether or not I should tell you this.”
She went silent, seemingly still conflicted despite already having begun speaking.
Just as Davey was feeling impatient, about to say something…
“I love you.”
Poof!!
Her form scattered into the air, and Davey let out a hollow laugh.
* * *
Yuria Helishana, the head of the Gourmet Research Society, and Aeonitia O'Rowane, the acting head of the Heins Territory Development Department, both stared directly at Willow.
“So, you're saying you need our help?” one of them asked her.
“Yes, Aunt Aeonitia.”
Despite looking older than Aeonitia, Willow was actually higher up in the family tree. Of course, if one only considered how long she had existed, Willow had been alive much longer than the average human adult.
“Hmm. This is a pretty serious issue. Heins Territory’s technology leaking has too many far-reaching implications.”
“Dad already had a list of several technologies he assumed might leak, tacitly approving of.”
In fact, academic conferences had been held regularly on the Tionis Continent since the launch of the International Federation, whether for alchemy, magic towers, or other fields.
Taking that into account, he had already expected that several technologies would leak through the papers published by the Heins Academy’s researchers.
He’d allowed such things to happen, knowing all of that, because he judged it wouldn't be a problem.
“But... the technology suspected of leaking this time is strictly classified,” Willow added.
“What technology exactly?” Aeonitia asked.
“The core technology of the Avengers Squadron golems, as well as the Decepticon Fleet golems. Portions of both have been leaked. In fact, when Dad waged war with the Goran Kingdom, those guys tried to mobilize incomplete golems using the technology,” Willow answered.
Besides the magic bomb, the military nation of Goran had tried to integrate part of the golem technology they somehow acquired into their own independently developed technology.
Of course, given it was a core technology created by top experts in Heins, it was difficult to integrate without the knowledge and magic of an ultra-high-level wizard. Instead, even using just parts of it allowed for one to explosively increase the technical capabilities of a normal golem.
“It won't be a problem for Heins, but the international power balance could be skewed. It might even escalate into a war.”
“This is definitely far beyond anything that could be considered a harmless prank.”
“Did someone from the inside hand it over, maybe?” Aeonitia suggested.
Yuria added, “I heard copies of the technology are circulating in the black market.”
They fell silent for a moment, gathering their thoughts.
Then, after a little while, Yuria smiled brightly and reached out her hand to Aeonitia. “How about we form a temporary alliance?”
“Sounds good.”
Willow wasn't sure what she was witnessing. “Did you two... fight?”
“Not exactly fight, but...”
It seemed they constantly bickered because the Gourmet Research Society often caused the Development Department's budget to be cut.
“It's just that the Gourmet Research Society constantly screws us over,” Aeonitia said with a polite smile.
Yuria responded in kind, “Oh my! I hope you aren’t thinking we did that on purpose?”
“You didn't?”
Watching the two bicker again, grinding their teeth, Willow suddenly had a thought.
‘They're keeping it civil now… but I wonder what’ll happen if they really have a fallout with each other.”
“You two are just playfully arguing, right?”
“Excuse me?”
“No.”
‘Phew. This reaction is better. If they say it’s nothing, the situation would be pretty serious.’
“I'm counting on you guys. You're both important to Dad, and if you two start fighting, he might just take down both departments to save the hassle.”
Knowing that it wasn't just a simple threat, the two exchanged glances nervously. After all, both Aeonitia and Yuria were very passionate about their respective departments.
“That’d be a problem. Should we try building trust first?”
“Our Development Department already has a decent amount of trust. The Gourmet Research Society, though, goes around town and messes—”
“Okay, okay, stop with the petty stuff and give me some suggestions,” Willow said with exasperation. “Dad put me in charge, but honestly, I don't know where to even start digging.”
Such work was essentially new territory for Willow.
“I understand. It’s easy to feel lost when you first start something.”
“Then how about we start gathering information?”
“Or… should we brainstorm while eating something delicious?”
Willow didn't know what else to say to those two lunatics.
Both of them made some sense. Yuria's suggestion to plan before starting and Aeonitia’s opinion to gather all the information they could both had some validity.
“You want to slack off before we even do anything? We can't come up with a plan as of now, so we should get some information first,” Aeonitia asserted.
Yuria countered, “You need to be careful, Princess Aeonitia. This isn't about finding a monster or developing a new technology. This is about finding a rat hiding in Heins, and a pretty smart one at that.”
“What do you mean?” Willow was still having a hard time keeping up with them.
“Fufu. You're still young. The suspect isn't blind or deaf. If we start openly showing that we're digging for information, they'll immediately become cautious.”
“That...”
Yuria smoothly coaxed Aeonitia and Willow, almost like a cult leader. “So, we have to start this off the right way. The suspect will think we're just holding our usual tea party, so we just have to secretly gather information during it.”
“Can't we just ask the folks from Shadow for help?”
“They're probably only left with a minimal team at headquarters, most investigating the external side where the technology leaked instead.”
Yuria showed surprisingly keen judgment, perhaps because the Gourmet Research Society was so good at infiltration that even the master of the Shadow was amazed.
“Let's be a little more careful with gathering information. The suspect probably still doesn't think they'll get caught. If they had even the slightest worry about being exposed...” one of the two began.
“...They wouldn't have dared to pull that kind of stunt here,” the other finished. “They've already seen that the mindset of ‘it doesn't matter if they find out I did it, because I can just run away’ doesn't work here.”
The only way out was to never be exposed at all. In fact, if there hadn’t been any issues externally, the technology leak might never have been noticed.
The culprit was either absolutely sure they wouldn't be caught, or they were truly smart. Either way, it was incredibly intriguing for them.
“Well then, would you like to try the Gourmet Research Society's latest masterpiece?” Yuria clapped her hands, and as if she had been waiting.
Rinne swooshed in, balancing trays on both hands as well as her head. “Perfectly aged. Rinne rates it highly.”
“Oh, really?”
On the surface, it looked like a perfectly normal cookie.
But having been burned by their deceptive appearances before, Aeonitia flinched. “Ummm. What are the ingredients?”
“It's not poison. Try it.” Yuria put a cookie in her mouth and made an ecstatic face, inviting them to try.
Rinne, too, ate a cookie with an expressionless face, then wiggled. “Rinne rates the taste highly. Rinne analyzes a high probability of success...”
Seeing the two eat so deliciously, Aeonitia looked down at the cookie with an anxious expression before finally taking a bite.
The spectacular taste that followed made her tremble. “Hah...”
“It's good, right?”
“Ahem! It... It is tasty!” Aeonitia, who had answered with a completely relaxed face, was startled and quickly composed herself. It was frustrating, but she had to concede the treat was undeniably delicious.
Yet, admitting it felt like losing.
“See? It was a great idea to age it for a long time.”
“But... what exactly is this made of?” Aeonitia asked again, wondering if perhaps she had overreacted.
The Gourmet Research Society often made perfectly normal food, despite their odd behavior.
The two victims were in for the shock of their lives.
“Oh, um, it has regular high-quality flour and various seasonings. The only thing different is the milk. The milk is from sirens that lure sailors, which we processed using a very important technique...”
Both Willow and Aeonitia immediately spat it all back out.
“Uweeek!!”
Unable to hold it in, Aeonitia ended up tearfully collapsing, and Willow cautiously placed the cookie she was holding back down with a disgusted look.
Sirens were closer to monsters, unlike So-Ya, the mermaid on Earth. They looked similar to So-Ya, but were low-grade monsters far below her rank.
“It was my mistake to trust you guys. Gourmet Research Society... Haaaah.”
The most irritating thing was how absolutely incredible the cookie actually tasted. If they kept the ingredients a secret and sold it as-is, it’d fetch an insane price.
Of course, there were some foods that had actually caused a boom on the continent the same way, changing public perception.
Great examples were certain parts of the harpy, which were infamous for never being eaten, or the tongue of a mega worm, which people had found repulsive and never considered food.
The Gourmet Research Society had brought about more change to the continent than people realized, to the point where those items were now treated as delicacies that were hard to get.
‘And this cookie might just soon be one of those things too.’
As Aeonitia kept a nauseous and tearful face, Willow muttered to herself, “I should feed this to my junior. Hehe...”
She’d said something that’d make the current Neltarid freak out without batting an eye.
Aeonitia wiped her mouth and tearfully asked, “So how are we going to plan this?”
Yuria glanced at Rinne and shrugged. “Beats me.”
Aeonitia couldn't believe it. “Wait, but you just said we needed to make a detailed plan before taking action, and that we needed to prepare so the suspect wouldn't notice.”
“Yes, I did, didn't I?”
“But you don't have a plan?”
“Nope!”
Aeonitia’s forehead pulsed with a vein at the playful response. “Gah! Seriously!!”
The Gourmet Research Society's thinking was vastly different from the norm.
“President, Rinne is currently processing the territory chef's resignation. Please authorize.”
“Ah. Is he leaving too? That's a shame.”
“Huh? The chef?” Willow was having a hard time keeping up.
“Yes! Apparently, the chef who was managing the territory resigned because he decided to move back to his hometown. Since we're involved in this area of work, we’re the ones who are processing his resignation.”
Being the relevant department, they seemed to have some influence.
