The Crown Prince Who Raises Alt Characters

#Chapter 333 Boss Quan (14) - The One-Eyed Among the Two-Eyed The innermost depths of the management bureau, finished on all sides with cold black marble. The Security Chief stood rigidly at attention. Outside, he was feared under nicknames like 'King Baldy' or 'Octopus Death God,' and even within the management bureau, he was the one who drilled subordinates rather than being drilled himself — but this time was an exception. Because right now he had failed to perfectly complete his mission, and standing before him was the Security Chief's one and only superior — one of the legends of this management bureau. "Civilian abduction incidents that occurred nationwide have been suppressed. Criminals involved in this incident have also been 99% eliminated and apprehended. However... we failed to recover the fragment. I apologize." Having said that much, the Security Chief glanced forward. There was no human figure there. There was only a massive video call screen displaying the words 'In Communication.' A voice resonated from the screen. 《A failure — this is your first since you rose to Chief, isn't it? When you were a new recruit you failed so spectacularly that the Chief at the time caught you like a rat.》 It was a dry, mechanical voice. A classical voice modulation, almost anachronistic for an age where even ordinary human voices could be easily mimicked by AI. But despite such a rigid voice, the tone and intonation were so comfortable and familiar that they had the power to naturally put listeners at ease. To the point where the Division Chiefs' joke — 'Talking normally with the Director feels too tension-free for a conversation with a secret society boss, so she intentionally uses that stiff mechanical voice and suspicious video calls to compensate' — carried a grain of believability. "Haha... Back then I nearly died not at the hands of an anomaly but at the hands of the Chief. Still, I hold no grudge. It's because he properly forged me that I've survived until now." 《My, I was going to tell you to reflect on your past self and stop tormenting your subordinates, but hearing that, I can no longer offer even that advice.》 "Going forward as well, I will diligently drill my subordinates with a loving rod and raise their survival rate." Having loosened his tense shoulders thanks to the light banter, the Security Chief resumed his report this time with a professional gaze and clear tone. "The targets we missed are a pair. Unless there is a third party we failed to detect entirely, at present it is certain that they have secured the fragment. One could not be properly identified due to a mask and sunglasses, while the other's bare face was confirmed, so we are currently reviewing the database. However, since there is also the possibility that the face itself is fabricated, we are treating it as merely a possibility for investigation." 《What was the reason you lost them?》 "The opposing side utilized the spatial distortion properties of the suicide spot anomaly to shake off physical pursuit." 《That is... curious. Spatial anomalies usable in that manner have their very existence concealed from the outside through our information control, so ordinary people wouldn't know they exist. Where was it?》 "It was Phantom Lake." Immediately after those words left his mouth. The Security Chief felt a chill and tingling sensation, as if an ice spike had pierced through his spine. 'Gasp...!!' The Security Chief trembled and darted his eyes around. This was the innermost depths of the management bureau. A space where external attacks were simply impossible. The only ones here were the Security Chief and the Director. No — even the Director was merely conversing via video call, and was in actuality in a separate space accessible only by passing through several more specialized doors from here. And yet. Just from the Director beyond the screen pausing her speech for a moment, the Security Chief felt an overwhelming pressure that nearly stopped his breath. Bloodlust? Rage? A torrent of emotion that couldn't be summed up with a single word crashed down on the Security Chief like an oncoming wave. The Chief's reason screamed 'there's no way to feel the emotions of someone who isn't even in the same space,' but his instincts screamed right back that they didn't care about any of that — they were genuinely feeling it, so what was he supposed to do about it? 《...Ah. I'm sorry.》 The Director finally opened her mouth as if coming to her senses. Only then was the Security Chief able to resume the breathing he had unconsciously stopped. "Huff, huff." The time he had held his breath was probably no more than a few seconds. Despite being a laughably short amount of time for the Security Chief, who had trained his body to its limits with extreme hard training as if it were a daily meal, he felt violently short of breath. 《Oh my, what am I to do. Honestly, even at my age, unable to control even my own emotions... I'm truly sorry. Are you alright?》 "I-I'm fine! If anything, I'm the one who's sorry for showing you such an unsightly display!" 《Not unsightly at all. In any case, please continue the investigation. I will use my Director's authority to postpone the disciplinary committee regarding the mission failure.》 "Understood!" 《Then please go.》 "Yes ma'am!" After the Security Chief left with the brisk alertness of a new recruit. The Director, who had been continuing the conversation from the room beyond, also ended the video call and rose to her feet. She was a breathtaking beauty. Long flowing brown hair. A voluptuous body with dramatic curves. Even if Qiana, who had deliberately crafted a 'beauty that easily wins goodwill from those around her,' were present, it was an appearance that would be difficult to easily rank against her own. She approached two display stands installed on one side of the room. One was a massive journal that looked unusual even at a glance — the kind that people would readily accept if claimed to be a grimoire. The other was a colorfully decorated metal baseball bat — too out of place to be sitting alongside such a journal. The woman stroked the surface of the journal and spoke. "Using that lake in 'that manner.' Could it be mere coincidence, or—" The woman's fingers that touched the journal let out a sizzling sound as if burning, emitting smoke. As if the journal found even the woman touching it unpleasant. But the woman showed not even a hint of pain, a smile playing at the corners of her lips. "—Could it be that the bad stray cat has returned?" There was no one who heard that murmur. Even if someone had heard it, there would have been no one to understand it. Because it was a story not properly passed down to the management bureau of 'this world' where 'the Anomaly Slayer disappeared.' The woman laughed. And from somewhere, someone laughed along in time with the woman's laughter. *** Qiana could not laugh. "...Hey, do you happen to know the phrase 'right person for the right job'?" To her voice full of discontent, Quan responded. "Of course I do. But why do you ask?" "I recovered to about 7% of my peak strength while recovering the fragment this time, you know? Sure, 7% sounds small, but at this level I have enough power to single-handedly sweep aside things like the Tiger-Thralls from before or those raccoon company guys." "And?" "But do you think it makes any sense to have a high-caliber talent like that doing office cleaning!?" Qiana roared, a broom in one hand and a dustpan in the other. And as always, Quan didn't even listen with half an ear. "Whether it's 7% or 70%, your position in the office is second from the bottom, isn't it. Then doing something like cleaning is only natural." "Then just make the youngest one do it!!" "You don't actually put the brand new Private to work. You start properly running the Private First Class who's got a bit of seniority." "Seniority be damned, at least give me a vacuum cleaner!! What era do you think we live in, cleaning with these old-fashioned tools!? No, just buy a robot vacuum!" "Ahem, that can't get into every nook and cranny. Things are only truly clean when human hands have touched them." "That old-fogey boss of mine...!!" Qiana ground her teeth furiously. In her heart she wanted to dump cigarette ash all over that face leisurely smoking away, but if she did that, it was obvious she'd get not a scratch on his smug face... but a bullet in retaliation. Convincing herself that this was all a rational choice made after considering the physical risk, Qiana steadily continued her cleaning. Quan's office she had to handle entirely on her own, but on the floor below — that is, in the space where the other employees were — helpers gradually increased. "Oh, sis. You're working hard. We'll help too." "...I always wonder, why am I 'sis'?" "We had a similar conversation before, but in this industry, if you're strong and have money, you're 'big bro' or 'big sis.'" "Ah, sis. Have some of this before you keep going. I bought mala tteokbokki from nearby — it's delicious." From here and there, sis, sis, sis. Watching the office employees treat her as if she were a familiar neighborhood acquaintance, Qiana let out a sigh. Had the humans here completely forgotten that she was not a human but an anomaly — a vicious being capable of severing their necks at any moment? Instead of unleashing a cold killing intent to terrify the foolish humans... Qiana obediently tossed aside her broom and sat right down where she was. "Keep a good lookout. If that old-fogey sees this again he'll throw a fit about slacking off while on the job." "It's fine. The boss almost never comes down from his 5th floor office anyway." "True, he tells others to work nonstop while he himself rolls around in his own seat. He's such a terrible boss." "Hahaha. Seems like you've got a lot built up, sis. How about a little drink?" "In broad daylight?" "In broad daylight." "Deal." Qiana enjoyed the combination of mala tteokbokki and soju to her heart's content. Not to win their favor, not to lower their guard — just because this moment was comfortable. For the Queen of Anomalies, it was an unnecessary thing. For Qiana, it was something she needed, if only for the sake of relieving stress. Not blending in because Quan had ordered her to, but simply because she herself felt at ease. And so, the One-Eyed mingled with the Two-Eyed, without hiding the fact that she was a One-Eyed.