Chapter 149

During the Great War era, as a humanitarian medical aid organization, during times of food shortages, they provided cold sleep or metabolic suppression procedures, and in modern times, countless cosmetic options and implants. Above all, they provide life extension procedures to the public.

The Amagi clan, the founding family of the Enema Corporation, which has contributed to the preservation and prosperity of humanity, is essentially an unchanging ruling family.

The members, specifically the bloodline of Ohtsuge, each took on a significant pillar of Enema.

The eldest son managed the implant and modification procedure sector, which is the main cash cow, as well as large-scale budget execution.

The eldest daughter focused on medical services and medical engineer training systems.

The second son handled the development, maintenance, and sales of public medical equipment, managing industrial capital.

And the youngest daughter, guided by her strong will… took charge of beauty and cosmetic procedures.

Moreover, all the children shared the business responsibilities little by little, and for tasks related to R&D or the secret branches of Enema, they kept a check on each other… sometimes collaborating. They were busy proving their own skills, value, and abilities.

Unlike Paradise, which sustains the corporation with department-specific executives, a somewhat distorted form of competition where managers or directors who hold the authority of their respective businesses dominate the command structure might raise questions from the outside.

However, the internal power struggles and the cutthroat competition for resources—the savage factional fighting that continued under the chairman’s tacit acknowledgment—resulted in the parties involved accepting it as a process for the advancement of Enema.

In that sense, though he was the youngest in the family, Executive Director Edamatsu, who served directly under the chairman, held the role of fixer and internal auditor.

Regardless of the truth, he appeared quite close to the throne of power at a glance.

Well, as long as his subordinates, who might serve in any way or manner, contribute to protecting Enema in the end, their satisfaction is irrelevant.

If a regular employee were assigned a position or transferred, they might sigh, wondering about the experience… which was a bit far from the hopeful outlook of advancement in terms of job scope and working environment.

“……It’s strange.”

However, when a hundred people gather, there are a hundred different traits.

Here, the errant royal named Edamatsu Amagi was certainly aware of his situation and what type of work he was about to engage in, yet someone had still volunteered to serve in his secretarial staff.

“…It doesn’t make sense.”

Kaijun, a staff member affiliated with the secretarial office.

A man whose name contains the kanji for the sea, implying somewhere sticky and dark.

As he unconsciously crumpled a stack of documents, he realized that what lay in his grasp was the original periodic report sent from the research institute and hastily relaxed his grip.

If the one being held is stabbed by a knife, they must be careful not to let blood stain the paper before treating them.

If hit by a car, even if limbs are broken, dust must be brushed off first to account for how much more valuable the person is compared to himself.

…At least for now, when he hadn’t yet risen to a sufficiently high position.

Fluttering. The pages that had finished review turned.

Normally, there would be no legitimate way for Kaijun to access these documents, as the security level difference crossed into an area that would be deemed treasonous, but if there were an order given… the story changed.

Although it wasn’t an order from the highest “villa,” if it were a personal activity of Executive Director Edamatsu, it would involve picking on his siblings’ businesses or spitting in each other’s faces.

In fact, they were very much towards nitpicking behavior, but the order that had recently come down was somewhat peculiar.

“Analyze all reports and communications from Delta Research Institute over the past few years to find any anomalies.”

It was vague and merely hearing it dried his mouth out.

Fundamentally, those who had the authority to access the reality of the classified research within the faction were only Executive Director Edamatsu himself and Secretary Kakubari.

Thus, those assigned to this task would clearly remain tied to Enema for the rest of their lives, specifically, their careers destined to end in this secretarial office. Initially, Kakubari selected the most loyal applicants.

Of course. The ambitious Kaijun, yearning for higher positions, volunteered more actively than anyone else, and his determination was highly valued, granting him considerable authority for this matter, far beyond his peers and seniors.

However, it took longer than expected to seize the opportunity for advancement, and it was all the more unfortunate because the task he had staked his career and future on turned out to be a more complicated issue than he had imagined.

“…Kaijun-kun, I will be stepping out for a moment to settle contracts with external engineers, so if Executive Director Edamatsu asks for his secretary or inquires about the investigation progress, make sure to respond without mistake.”

“!! Of course!”

As Kakubari gathered his outerwear and walked past from his seat, he sent a smile to his immediate superior that seemed to say, “Where did you just click your tongue?”

The way to win big in gambling with a small stake involves betting on the rarest odds.

In that regard, Executive Director Edamatsu was an exceptionally excellent “investment opportunity.”

By inheriting the Amagi bloodline, he had sufficient qualifications to inherit a regular biometric authentication free pass to the throne.

Moreover, he already had appropriate influence and position, as well as subordinate forces, and, most importantly, held the right and opportunity to meet directly with Chairman Ohtsuge. Kaijun thought he was a latent talent.

By quietly supporting Edamatsu and stimulating his suppressed desires, merely fulfilling the role of a kingmaker would be a grand success.

If there was room to worm into his heart or if he were weak enough to be made a puppet… achieving an American Dream that would go down in history wouldn’t be a mere dream.

…If only there weren’t one fatal miscalculation he didn’t expect; that the person he decided to serve turned out to be much more erratic and self-destructive than he imagined.

“Hmm….”

In any case, what mattered now was that, for the first time—at least as far as Kaijun could see—the mad lord he had to carefully attend to seemed to show interest.

It was the on-site inspection that cut off our young lord’s notoriously uncooperative and carefree life full of no worries about survival.

Ever since that day, he had been barking orders at his subordinates like a possessed spirit.

Despite extensive and ongoing investigations, including a broad search operation, they couldn’t even find a clue regarding the ambush incident where not even a scrap of evidence was discovered.

At the very least… if even one key figure from the research institute who could provide some testimony was still alive…

Swish, and.

As Kaijun turned the pages of his document folder, his hand cautiously pulled out the thick staff roster from the research institute.

Head of Security Kusakami Kenzo… Lead Engineer Baragan Asimov… Head Operator Laurent Lagus….

This document contained the personal information of various key personnel, yet among them, the one who must know all the ins and outs was likely the institute director, Boris Markovich.

It was hard to believe that this genius scientist, who even had a direct hotline to the chairman, left no trace even while the facility was being destroyed.

He carefully went through detailed entries. Age, career, employment records, and family relationships.

His younger brother had long since left due to not adapting to the company atmosphere. His children under him… it was either surprising or tragic, but they had disappeared in the same manner, working at Delta Research Institute.

‘…Considering they don’t resemble each other, I suppose it’s a foster daughter. Did they recognize her talent and raise her?’

Some people painstakingly climbed up to here because they had no aptitudes with suitable skills and suffered as ordinary employees… this lament echoed within him.

Regardless, there could be no dispute to raise his value and prove his usefulness this way.

There was an urgent need for material—something very concrete to spark debate—and just as that anxiety crept up…

In a corner of his vision, something unusual, seldom seen even at Enema headquarters, caught his eye as it passed by the secretarial office toward the director’s room where Edamatsu was.

A bizarre figure, a tracker whose equipment was broken and, moreover, injured.

Did someone cause a ruckus? No way… which bold person dared to do that? No, it could only be another tracker who could render such modifications to that broken human.

“Hey, agent! What happened? No matter how much of a tracker you are, barging through procedures into the director’s room like that is unacceptable. Not even you are part of the escort… wasn’t it you assigned to monitor external individuals for contract purposes?”

“……I apologize. It seems there was a situation that made it difficult to report via the public line, so I rushed.”

As Kaijun jumped up from his seat, raising his voice and casting a glance around, the tracker, confirming that Kaijun was currently performing the secretary role and thus fulfilling a superior’s duty, politely conveyed his purpose.

And before any further words came out, he immediately sent some sort of video through his cyberware…? Real-time footage from the internal cameras showing the meeting room and what appeared to be staff data for a girl reflected in it.

Kaijun’s eyes quickly picked out the important details.

First, the position of the one causing trouble; naturally, if they were higher up than him, it would be troublesome to take action.

Roughly the affiliation; if the troublesome reason stemmed from the eldest son or eldest daughter, it would be best to handle it at his level before Edamatsu blew his top.

Lastly, the name—well, knowing the name was basic and didn’t hold much weight…

“……Markovich? Anastasia Markovich??”

“She was recruited for data restoration over the past few months and was disguised as an engineer working in the containment unit. There was a minor disruption when she revealed her identity while relocating for accounting purposes….”

“…….”

The diligent tracker was explaining the details and circumstances, yet Kaijun couldn’t focus on what was being said.

He was busy matching the face of the previously missing researcher with that of the hacker who had spun the absurd rumor inside the secretary’s office about how Executive Director Edamatsu had fallen for a beautiful woman.

Even though he had ordered thorough background checks on the mercenaries, he would have time later to reprimand the person in charge for not even thinking about comparing it to the employee list. If he could act first, before she had any meetings with other superiors, and produce results…!

“Shut down all the closed-circuit security systems near the meeting room! There’s no way I can allow someone so suspicious to be sent directly to the director. Absolutely…!!”

With large strides. Anastasia stepped into the meeting room, where she was being temporarily detained.

So, plotting various schemes and strategies in his mind and speculating about the girl’s identity, he was all set to conduct leading interrogations, but from the beginning, his conspiracy subtly… went awry.

It was partly because he saw the beautiful girl’s weary face, worn down by fatigue, visibly crumple as soon as she caught sight of him, like she had seen a lidless toilet bowl.

“Hah… right, sigh. I was hoping we wouldn’t run into each other.”

“……….”

The other party’s demeanor, as if they knew him thoroughly, made it difficult to act deceitfully, and he instinctively sensed that things would get terribly tangled.

…Despite lacking in maturity, the image of a universally recognized beauty visibly distressed upon meeting him clearly left a trace on his heart.