Chapter 107: The King of Korea (２)

****

Today, too, the full truth of the incident remained shrouded in mystery.

After neutralizing, arresting, or intimidating hundreds of persons of interest through investigation, Korea fell silent in an instant. There was the advantage of having solved the problem, but—

It also meant that every lead worth chasing had vanished. It was like pest control. Just when you thought you could forget about them, they’d crawl back out, and then you’d have to spray pesticide and shake them all off again.

“Dr. Lee, what do you think?”

[I can tell now. I’d wondered about this ever since I started working at the Foundation in a human body… but now, face to face, I finally get it.]

“Get what?”

[The Orchestra. There were only rumors before. A rebel faction within the Foundation. The Foundation’s chief enemy operating outside it. A gang of hired thugs for the highest-ranking executives. Now I think I understand what they really are.]

“Which one are they?”

[It doesn’t matter at all. They have collaborators inside the Foundation and outside it. Sometimes they’re deceived into carrying out the Overseers’ will, and sometimes they fight against the Foundation.]

“…”

[In the end, the Orchestra is just the Orchestra. Whatever they think of themselves, whatever their intentions. Enemy of the Foundation, collaborator, hired group—they’re a controlled opposition that acts according to the Foundation’s needs.]

“That’s how you see it?”

[Yes.]

The truth of the world.

The deeper you peel back the layers…

Everywhere in the world, every place the public eye doesn’t reach, is the domain of anomalies. And all the power in the world seems to lie under the Foundation’s influence.

****

“Director.”

Dr. Kang from the Humanoid Division.

“What is it?”

“A new humanoid anomaly just came in, and I think you’ll need to take a look at it. It’s an instance we purchased from that LLC.”

Handing money or valuables over to those bastards—honestly, it turned my stomach. But there were too many cases where we had no other option.

And this time, the situation was different anyway.

Meanwhile, Dr. Kang was using expressions like “one of them” and “instance.” I didn’t know what kind of humanoid anomaly it was, but apparently it didn’t look human.

The Humanoid Division staff didn’t tend to use that kind of language for anomalies that looked human and spoke like humans.

“Understood. I’ll head over right away.”

****

It was as I’d expected.

Something that didn’t look human.

The impression was of a humanized owl. Hard to say for certain, but judging by the body proportions and facial structure, I took it to be female.

Wings were spread across her back.

Instead of hair, something reminiscent of feathers atop her head. Abnormally white skin, and peculiar eyes that resembled an owl’s more than a human’s.

A head shape closer to a cat’s than a person’s.

Still, purely in terms of appearance, she wasn’t particularly unpleasant to look at. You might say she sat at the left peak of the uncanny valley.

I wasn’t sure why she didn’t feel unsettling. Was it because her features—cat-like, child-like—stimulated positive responses?

“That one. Does it talk?”

Dr. Kang scratched his head.

“Well. It doesn’t speak unless prompted, but if you address it directly, it answers in very complex literary language. Rather hard to follow.”

“Mind if I try talking to it?”

“It doesn’t appear to pose any particular danger.”

****

I grabbed the microphone. As I’d done several times before, speaking into it would carry my voice through the audio equipment inside.

“What’s your name?”

I looked into the humanoid containment cell. The white form inside stared straight back at me.

“A name is a thing most small and fleeting.

The designation one bestows upon oneself holds

no meaning. The image reflected in another’s eyes

becomes the means by which one is called and named.”

The aberrant being’s voice was unbearably grotesque. It took me a long while to realize what felt so off. At first listen it sounded like a child’s voice, but the creature’s peculiar breathing pattern made it clear it wasn’t human.

So it was telling me to come up with a name myself.

“Then… I’ll call you Arccosine. Arccosine. Is there anything you need right now?”

“Need is a word used all too often.

Human life is a succession of needs,

but not every living being is forced

into an endless chain of them.”

So nothing it needed, then.

“Do you know where you are?”

“You are those who bound providence in chains.

I have a rough idea. You are those who

sliced the rainbow apart with a prism.

Tailors of a godless reality and of providence.”

Oh ho.

“Do you consider the Foundation an enemy?”

“The Foundation is not what is wrong. Resisting

death is the natural right of every being.

I have no intention of hindering the Foundation.

I am entirely on humanity’s side.”

“Could you introduce yourself?”

“Cherubim, Nephilim, Seraphim. We are

the messengers of heaven that humanity has

revered for millennia, the stewards of providence.

But humans usurped our place.”

So it was claiming to be an angel?

“Are you saying we’re the usurpers?”

“Not you. War is fair.

War is not fair. Seven wars.

The seventh has not yet come.

The Civil War in Heaven, the war of the gods.”

I nodded for the moment.

“Nineteen forty-five. Humanity was victorious.

The age of magic ended, and the war in heaven

was forcibly brought to a close. History was

rewritten by the power of those tailors.”

“Forced oblivion. We did not forget.

Non-human beings did not forget.

Only humans live on having forgotten.

The earth remembers, the angels remember, that scar.”

The white being fell silent.

****

I took my mouth away from the microphone for a moment and let out a sigh. What on earth was it talking about?

“Dr. Kang. Did you understand any of that? Honestly, I got nothing.”

“I’ve noted down that it’s some kind of angel and that it’s connected to World War II, at least.”

This humanoid anomaly was something Deimos had handed over to the Foundation as payment for saving his life. Since it had been taken by force rather than purchased, it hadn’t cost much, but whether it would prove useful remained to be seen.

If it was Deimos’s group, they’d probably kept it for ornamental purposes — honestly, I had no idea. What use did those Pluto LLC bastards see in this anomaly that they’d kept it stored away?

****

[Provisional Designation: Owl Angel]

[Filed by: Dr. Kang, Humanoid Division]

[A humanoid anomaly that claims to be an angel. It has wings. Its hair is white as well, and at a glance it looks like a small child, but on closer inspection it’s not human at all.]

[Um… what else is there. I’ll jot down what I remember from my observations, and leave the transcript of my conversation with the Director.]

[It frequently mentions World War II. As of now, we have no idea why.]

[It’s afraid of needles, but whether there’s a specific reason or it’s just a natural, physiological reaction to needles, we can’t tell.]

[Blood test results show it’s not human. I was quite startled. Usually when you analyze these things they come back as human, but this time was different. The blood test results come back as inconclusive.]

[It appears not to be a nucleic-acid-based life-form. However, the fine structure of its feathers does seem similar to an owl’s, as the Director mentioned.]

[Large quantities of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were found in this creature’s biological tissue, blood, and feathers. A pattern similar to the Pitch-Black King and certain reflective entities.]

****

[Re: Provisional Designation: Owl Angel]

[Filed by: Dr. Geum, Director’s Office]

[Dr. Kang, why is this report so sloppy? No matter how casual you want to be. Research records aren’t a diary—you can’t just write down whatever comes to mind.]

****

[Researcher Hasti]

[Filed by: Hasti]

[Hello, Director!]

[I heard you said I could join the research.]

[I didn’t believe it at first. But you actually did it. I still hate you lot, but participating in research is better than doing nothing. It keeps the boredom away.]

[These days, in my free time, I’ve been studying chemistry with the research interns. I don’t really know what kind of position a research intern is, though. They’re students, right?]

[They said they’d teach me intensively. So I can quickly be reborn as a Foundation researcher.]

[Honestly, I still don’t get it. I thought you were evil. And I still think that… but the researchers say the Foundation is absolutely necessary for this world to survive.]

[The Foundation promised me a lot.]

[If I go one week without causing trouble, they’ll let me roam the facility freely, and if I go a month without causing trouble, they’ll even let me go outside the facility.]

[…]

[I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what to think, either. Or how much of your words I can trust.]

****

[Regarding Researcher Hasti]

[Filed by: Dr. Ahn, Humanoid Division]

[I did make use of a few additional safety measures, but it’s all according to the Director’s plan.]

[Miss Hasti should be able to become a productive member of the Foundation for the time being. I’m not sure if this is the best method, though.]

[As requested. The non-invasive control measures used as safeguards on Miss Hasti are attached separately below.]