#121
“If Mom says it’s not, then it’s not. If Dad came to Earth with her, it would be through a portal on the American side. Running AI on this photo should allow us to estimate what his face looks like now… Alright, I’ll go get the evidence.”
“Actually, I should go.”
Seok-ho, who had quietly appeared, subtly asserted himself, but Cha Ki-young shook his head.
“No, this time I think I’ll have to go to America with Mom anyway, so I’ll do it while I’m at it.”
“You, personally, sir? Then what about my incentive…”
“Of course, you’ll have to go too. But separately. Follow me secretly without Mom knowing.”
“Yes, sir!”
Seok-ho, who had shrunk with shock, answered excitedly again and started bringing food from the kitchen.
Come to think of it, since when had Seok-ho started coming to this house and cooking, even when Cha’s mother was here?
“Let’s eat first. There’s no kimchi stew over there, right?”
“They do bring retort food…”
“Such things can never match Seok-ho’s cooking skills!”
Behind Cha Ki-young, who scoffed, Seok-ho proudly smiled and served kimchi stew, rolled omelets, soybean paste rice, sausage stir-fry, and roasted seaweed in succession.
* * *
Legas was also quite good at cooking, but nothing could beat the taste of his hometown. Jin-ha devoured the Korean-style dinner after a long time. It was truly a satisfying meal.
As soon as the meal was over, Cha Ki-young’s presentation began. Surrounded by a huge pile of boxes that Seok-ho had pulled in on a cart, Jin-ha took out a doll crumpled in a corner of a box. It was a squirrel-shaped doll. These boxes seemed to be the items from his father’s family storage that he had mentioned were coming by ship last time.
“Alright, then I’ll report the investigation results.”
Cha Ki-young pretended to adjust non-existent glasses and handed Jin-ha a pile of papers.
“There are more things in the storage than just these. I’ve selected and brought only what seems important for now, but if you want to check the other items, you saw the container in the parking lot, right? You can go there. I’ve put a door lock on it, and the password is your house password.”
“How do you know our house password?”
Cha Ki-young just grinned in response and continued with what he wanted to say.
“I checked the existing information again, but there was nothing special. Since that side seemed to have no answers, I investigated further after he joined the military. It’s confirmed that Dad went to another world. Project Bridge 8. The eighth portal discovered in the US was connected to an island where a magical girl lived. But during the process of learning about that world through interaction with the girl, trouble arose, and the portal was closed. Since it’s the same as what your mom said earlier, I think it can be considered cross-verified?”
“Do you know what the trouble was?”
“No, that part was completely deleted. To find out, I think I need to bribe someone who was serving in the same unit at the time, but guess what! There are no living people.”
“…No living people at all?”
“No, according to the records. Maybe the entire unit changed their identities? I’m still tracking, but I haven’t found much yet. Anyway, I’ve organized the profiles of the people who were reported dead, so take a look.”
Jin-ha flipped through the pages and reviewed the profiles of seventeen American soldiers in succession. It was a unit mixed with men and women of various ethnicities. There was no age that seemed to have died of old age, and although it was a mix of various ethnicities, the only Asian was his father.
“About the ‘persistent person’ Mom mentioned earlier, I think it’s probably Alex Miller, the unit leader.”
Alex Miller was a typical American with blonde hair and blue eyes. He played American football during his school days and became a soldier after retiring due to a knee injury. He volunteered for Project Bridge 8 and became the unit leader, with a promise that if the project succeeded and they could make magic America’s, he would be promoted to a high-ranking officer.
“Other people are said to have died during military service, but only Alex Miller is recorded as having died after a dishonorable discharge. And the reason for that dishonorable discharge…”
Cha Ki-young smirked.
“It’s said that he assaulted his superior after insisting on continuing the project. Doesn’t that show how obsessed that guy was with Project Bridge 8?”
“…That’s definitely excessive.”
“The end of Alex Miller, known to the public, is that he died of a heart attack after locking himself in his house without taking any other job after the dishonorable discharge. But this guy did something interesting before he died. He asked his sister to book a flight to Korea.”
Alex Miller had tried to come to Korea but died of a heart attack before he could. But if that heart attack was fake for identity laundering, where would the living Alex Miller be now?
As soon as the question came to mind, a person came to Jin-ha’s mind. He was already working at the Anomaly Management Agency when Jin-ha awakened his abilities. Although he sometimes felt frustrated due to his somewhat hesitant and easily intimidated personality, he was kind and got along well with everyone. He was someone that everyone in the agency knew at least by face.
“What’s wrong? Jin-ha.”
“Section Chief Nam…”
“Yes?”
“Can you find out where Section Chief Nam is now?”
“What? Suddenly? Why Section Chief Nam?”
Jin-ha felt the puzzle pieces fitting together in his complex mind.
“If I’m right, Section Chief Nam is Alex Miller.”
At Jin-ha’s words, Cha Ki-young immediately picked up his phone. The call was connected shortly.
“Yeah, it’s me. Track Section Chief Nam’s location. Section Chief Nam from the Anomaly Management Agency. Yes, that person.”
Jin-ha started to think Section Chief Nam was strange when he visited the Deputy Director’s office last time. It was when he looked at Jin-ha, whom he had known for 10 years, as if he was seeing him for the first time. When he met that strange gaze that simultaneously felt both hostility and familiarity, Jin-ha felt that something inside Section Chief Nam had greatly changed.
Next, he noticed that the Deputy Director’s belongings were too clean. It seemed as if he had anticipated that Jin-ha would check the information, so everything was well organized, but at the same time, there was too much information on everything, as if measures had been taken to make it difficult for Jin-ha to read.
“Jin-ha, the signal response is within the Anomaly Management Agency, but it seems only the phone was found in a corner of the underground parking lot. There are traces of him leaving by car, but the car owner is someone else. It seems like he stole a car and ran away…”
Already ran away. Jin-ha let out a deep sigh.
According to his speculation, the situation was as follows.
Alex Miller came to Korea to track down his father, Lee Seung-jun, to resolve his grudge. However, due to the cooperation between the Korean and American governments and his death in the process, he could not find any traces and a lot of time passed.
Perhaps he had already given up on finding his father. His new life was not bad, he earned a decent amount of money, and above all, Korea was peaceful. Maybe he thought of living like this without clinging to power this time.
“How did this happen? Was Section Chief Nam Alex Miller? Wait, then did Section Chief Nam kidnap the Deputy Director? Why?”
What stirred and provoked the sensitive part of Alex Miller, Section Chief Nam, was probably…
“He saw Dad’s documents. The deal condition that the Deputy Director offered me.”
Section Chief Nam, who coincidentally found the blacked-out document, would have realized that it was a document about Lee Seung-jun, whom he was looking for. So, he kidnapped the Deputy Director and demanded the unredacted document.
Jin-ha thought that the day he met Section Chief Nam in the Deputy Director’s room was the day the Deputy Director revealed the location of the unredacted document. That day, Section Chief Nam confirmed through the document that Jin-ha was Lee Seung-jun’s son. And he saw Jin-ha not as Lee Jin-ha, whom he knew from the Anomaly Management Agency, but as ‘Lee Jin-ha, the son of Lee Seung-jun.’
This was the identity of that unfamiliar gaze.
“But their appearances are completely different?”
“It’s the power of an artifact.”
“Is there such an artifact?”
Jin-ha nodded. When he visited Master Senistry’s report before, there was an artifact among those shown by the Fairy Queen and the squirrel that had such an effect. He didn’t covet it as it wasn’t particularly necessary, but it was surprising that it affected not just the appearance but also the height and volume with magic, so it remained in his memory. If it weren’t for that, Jin-ha might have found it difficult to connect Section Chief Nam and Alex Miller.
“No, but does this make sense? Your eyes? Have you ever seen Section Chief Nam through the Information Eye before?”
He didn’t ask any questions when told to track the location, but once he started asking, the questions didn’t stop.
Jin-ha was confused about whether to praise Cha Ki-young for being a good listener or to scold him for lacking his own opinion. But since he was a guy who had an excessive amount of his own opinion when it came to his own work, let’s call it plus-minus zero.
Jin-ha, who had given up on both sides, continued to explain.
“I have seen him. But originally, even if you check a person’s information, it’s not easy to get useful information. Even things like morning menu or tripping over a root while walking are recorded.”
“Originally? Then now?”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
