The Crown Prince Who Raises Alt Characters

#Chapter 335 Boss Quan (16) - Worries -I'll make you into a human. In other words, I know that you, as you are now, are not human. Qiana's expression froze coldly. From the moment they had deliberately pinpointed and camped out in front of Quan's office, she had already known that the management bureau suspected them. But knowing Qiana's true identity was an entirely different matter. '...Does she think I'm simply an anomaly using mimicry to pose as a human? Or, could it be. Even my true identity?' Qiana's wariness rose sharply. Almost no one knew that she was the reincarnation of Queen. Only two people: Qiana herself, and Quan. Aside from them, even the office staff merely thought Qiana was some kind of special esper, not that she was the reincarnation of Queen or anything of the sort. So then, how did this woman know? Was it simply a probe, or did she genuinely know something? Qiana glared intently at the Director's face, but she could read nothing from the woman's beaming smile. It was right at that moment. Click. Quan set his coffee cup down on its saucer and calmly opened his mouth. "Pure human or whatever, is that all the compensation you can offer?" "Hmm?" A look of interest surfaced on the Director's face. "Are you saying the compensation is insufficient?" "Absurdly insufficient." Quan flicked his cigar with a flippant motion of his hand and curled up the corner of his mouth. "Isn't a fragment of Queen worth that much? Considering the kind of uproar that broke out last time just to obtain a single piece, a complete finished product goes without saying." "That's a fair point." The Director nodded. "Then, what kind of compensation would you like?" "Money." Quan put his feet up on the table and crossed his legs right there. Qiana was appalled at such an excessively rude gesture to make toward the Director of the management bureau of all people — no, toward anyone at all — but surprisingly, the Director said nothing about it. "A treasure powerful enough to shake the world. If it's compensation for cooperating in finding it, shouldn't it amount to money powerful enough to shake the world too?" "Please tell me a specific figure." "Well, let's see." In a spot unseen from the Director's side. Qiana, catching sight of the phone screen Quan was fiddling with, had to desperately fight to control her expression in that instant. ─AI, when a major corporation from a developed country is negotiating over core technology for a project it's staking its future on, what amount would be one they can't pay out in one go, but would seriously agonize over? [Generally, when a major corporation from a developed country purchases core technology or patents for a project it has staked its future on, an amount that is difficult to cash out immediately but worth seriously considering ranges roughly between 650 billion and 2.6 trillion won. However, this may vary depending on the specifics…….] Was this guy insane? No, was he seriously insane? Whether Qiana was dumbfounded or not, Quan calmly continued speaking. "How about 600 billion won." "Alright, if that's the case─" "So, that's based on the smallest-sized fragment. Per case. Naturally, the bigger the fragment, the bigger the compensation." Seeing the Director's face, Qiana thought her boss was an incredible person. His approach might be damn awful, but he had managed to break through that poker face regardless. The Director spoke as if dumbfounded. "Do you think 600 billion is some dog's name? Not even as a total contract sum, but per case?" "It's not like the management bureau can't afford that amount, is it?" "Mr. Quan, if you had that much money in your bank account, could you readily spend it for no reason other than that you 'could'?" "I couldn't. But I'm not the management bureau, am I. I have no reason or motive to save civilians, or the world, for that matter." For an instant, Qiana clearly saw the Director's eyes narrow. At first glance, it would seem like anger at Quan's selfish remark, but to Qiana, it felt... as if the Director was searching for traces of someone else within the man called Quan. As silence stretched on and Qiana began wondering whether she should strike first or not. At last, the Director spoke. "Alright. However, payment will be after the fact. We'll settle separately each time a fragment's recovery is completed." "What about an advance payment?" "At least not for the first one. Unless you tell us the specific 'search method,' that is." "That's not even worth discussing. Fine, let's go with those terms." "In that case, we'll send a guide within three days. Please be prepared." The Director rose to her feet. And, turning her gaze toward the window, she said something rather out of the blue. "What do you think of the Anomaly Slayer?" It was a question whose intent was hard to grasp. At least, it was so for Qiana. Of course, the Anomaly Slayer was someone deeply connected to Qiana in many ways... but why would she ask Quan about it? Quan answered. "Well. Judging by the impression I've gotten from rumors, if she were still in this world, I imagine she'd be swinging a baseball bat around plenty." "...Is that so." That was the end of it. An answer whose purpose for asking such a thing remained hard to fathom. But there was no chance to press further about it. She had surely been standing there blankly by the window. But after a single blink of the eyes, the Director's figure had completely vanished. Qiana's eyes widened, and after a moment she clicked her tongue. "Since when?" Quan shrugged his shoulders. "Probably from the start? To begin with, it wasn't ordinary for someone of the caliber of the management bureau's Director to come popping in and out of a place like this café, no matter how much it was to get clues for recovering Queen's fragments." "Honestly, the ones who go on about justice and being a guardian and whatnot are always the sneakiest." "If the management bureau heard you say that, wouldn't their blood pressure spike too?" "What?" Qiana glared at Quan. It was partly because his remark had annoyed her, but there was also something else she needed to take issue with. Her contract with Quan had admittedly been formed somewhat vaguely and haphazardly, but its core was still that he would help Qiana recover her fragments. But wasn't agreeing to hand over the fragments to the management bureau like this a betrayal? Just as Qiana was about to say something about it, Quan naturally rose to his feet and draped an arm around her shoulder. "Ah, ah. Damn. Having a row with someone so high up really wears you out. I think I need some comforting. Shall we head to a hotel?" "……." The mere fact that she didn't slap him across the face on the spot meant no one could claim Qiana lacked patience. *** After arriving at the hotel. Quan placed four wooden tablets, each engraved with a strange ritual pattern, in the four corners of the room. Their effect was soundproofing, and blocking any prying eyes. Qiana asked sullenly. "So, what, are you planning on adding night duties to my job description?" "As if. I don't want to die on a bed stabbed by a bio-blade either." Quan spoke while, rarely without a cigar in hand, pouring himself a glass from a bottle of liquor and drinking it. "But well, at the very least I needed the management bureau folks to think that way. That way, even if we use something like a spell to block out prying eyes and ears, they won't find it strange." Qiana, too, was far from stupid by nature. She immediately understood what Quan meant. "So you mean the management bureau has us under surveillance right now. Which is why we can't even speak freely." "Why wouldn't they? If anything, we should be grateful their agents haven't already stormed in to detain and execute us." The management bureau displayed great enthusiasm for Queen's fragments. And right now, Quan and Qiana were suspects strongly believed to be in possession of fragments. "This proposal of cooperation the Director offered isn't really a proposal at all. It's closer to a threat." The management bureau was said to be an organization that kept to certain boundaries, but precisely because of that, it tended to act somewhat radically on matters where civilian casualties could occur. If Quan had drawn a line there and said they couldn't cooperate, what the two of them would have faced next was a wave of the management bureau's elite agents crashing down upon them. Qiana crossed her arms. "So, the enemy's too strong, so we have no choice but to just hand it over. Understand that. Is that the gist of it?" "That's right. For now." "For now?" Quan curled his lips up into a grin. "The fragments inside the management bureau. Let's intercept them ourselves." Qiana, who had reflexively been about to ask if that even made sense, suddenly stopped to think. ...Come to think of it? Why couldn't they? As if supplementing Qiana's train of thought, Quan continued. "If we intend to gather all the fragments anyway, contact with the management bureau was inevitable. More than half of the fragments are probably lying dormant somewhere in a Sealed Vault within the bureau. The problem was how to worm our way inside, but conveniently, they just handed us a good pretext." "You sly old fox. So that's why you kept haggling over how stingy the pay was. If you agreed too readily, they'd get suspicious. You wanted them to think you saw the fragments purely as a moneymaking tool." "Well, isn't it nice to grab some practical benefit while we're at it?" Of course, it wouldn't be as easy as it sounded. The management bureau wasn't a pushover, so it wasn't likely to let something like the Sealed Vault's location be exposed so easily, and even if it were, breaking through all manner of security to recover a fragment from that Sealed Vault and fuse with it was an entirely different problem. But neither Quan nor Qiana bothered to bring that part up. At a fork in the road, if one path was difficult and the other led off a cliff, then of course one should choose the former. Talking at length about how hard the former path was would only sap their energy for nothing. "By the way, that compensation she first proposed. Are you interested in that?" "First? Ah, that thing about making me into a pure human or whatever?" Qiana scoffed. "Not interested. What's so great about being human, anyway." "Well, that's fair enough." "Huh?" "What is it." "No, isn't this the part where you're supposed to say something like 'don't look down on humans'?" This time, conversely, it was Quan's turn to scoff. "Among humans, there are decent ones like Jun-seok, whom you saved last time, and conversely, there are also trash like the bastards who kidnapped people this time. Humans themselves are neither good nor bad." "...Then what about anomalies?" "Same thing, the category itself is neither good nor bad. Though they do seem a bit stifling to me." "Stifling, how?" "Having 'tormenting humans' as your reason for existing is just lame, isn't it. Especially when it's not even something you thought up yourself, but something someone else ordered." "……." Qiana did not answer. Queen was the strongest of all anomalies. But what was that strength for? No, to begin with. Why had Queen been hostile toward humans? Qiana tried to grope through her hazy memories. And then she was flustered. There was none. It wasn't that she couldn't recall it, or that, like her other memories up until now, part of it was simply missing. If anything, the emotions from back then were startlingly vivid. Humans were repulsive. Their very act of living and breathing was irritating. Watching them strut about calling themselves the "lords of creation" or whatever, despite being so hideous, made murderous intent surge up. Yet she couldn't grasp the root of how she'd come to hold such feelings. She had simply hated humans for the entire time she existed as the anomaly called Queen, without ever questioning it. No, perhaps. It wasn't just Queen — maybe every anomaly was like that. If so, then what about her current self, who no longer regarded that "obviousness" as obvious? It was then that a glass filled with amber liquid was held out before Qiana, who was sunk deep in thought. "You look like you've got a lot on your mind. Care for a drink?" Qiana glanced back and forth between Quan's face and the glass he held out for a moment, then let out a short laugh. "A boss who not only drags his subordinate into a hotel room, but offers her a drink on top of it. That's just asking for rumors." "Hahaha! What of it. As I said earlier, I'm just the boss of a small outfit. Don't expect me to act like some saint or hero." Well. That remained to be seen. Shrugging at words that somehow didn't quite sound like his true feelings, Qiana took the glass and drank it down in one refreshing gulp. "So, are you confident you can fool those management bureau bastards well enough?" At Quan's question, Qiana said with a smirk tugging at the corner of her mouth. "I told you. I just choose not to bother — but if I actually tried, I'd be the most popular girl in the room."