Master Smith Under Ministry of National Defense

Master Smith Under Ministry of National Defense

103 – Public Bidding

“Now I’m not a Major anymore, but a Lieutenant Colonel. I’ve been promoted.”

Myung-jun smiled, scratching his head awkwardly as he looked at Holmes.

“Welcome. Have you seen our new headquarters?”

“I was surprised. Of course, I saw the rough outline from satellite photos before departure, but actually getting on board made me realize its immense size. Moreover, all the damaged parts have been repaired. I heard it can even submerge, is that true?”

Holmes asked, mixing various questions into his friendly tone, to which Myung-jun replied with a smile.

“Do you start exploring as soon as you board the ship? It’s not very polite to show too much interest in other people’s homes, you know?”

“Haha. It was merely personal curiosity. Moreover, the questions I asked are information that the U.S. government already knows. I asked to let you know that we are aware of this extent of information. I would appreciate it if you could think of it that way,”

“The sea breeze is strong. If it’s not impolite, can we continue the rest of the conversation indoors?”

After hearing Holmes’ words, Myung-jun pondered for a moment before speaking to him.

“Have you had your meal by any chance?”

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***

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‘Am I dreaming right now?’

Holmes and Bill, who entered the interior of the Liberator, could not possibly regain their composure.

The interior of the Liberator they saw was filled with facilities and technologies that perfectly surpassed the current level of human technology, as if it were straight out of a sci-fi movie or anime.

Even the meal was no exception.

From the bread served before the meal to the wine accompanying the main fish dish.

The food served as a perfect restaurant course meal by serving robots was unbelievably delicious, to the extent that one could hardly believe it was cooked inside the ship.

Even Holmes, who always prioritized missions, forgot the fact that today’s visit was a pre-arranged meeting and focused on scraping the plate with his chopsticks to get even a drop more of the remaining sauce.

And Bill, who had been eagerly staring at the menu since earlier, was no different.

“1945 Chateau Ducamp?! 1986 Romane Conti? Is this real? This?”

“It depends on the definition of the word ‘real’, but the taste is the same. It’s a replica copied exactly from the original. The food Mr. Holmes is enjoying is the same. The menu you had today is a complete copy of one menu from Le Bernardin, a three-star restaurant in Manhattan.”

“A replica?! Are you saying you replicated the food?”

“As long as the original is available.”

“Um… then, could you please give me one bottle of wine to take back, even if it’s just one of the wines here…”

“Sure. Just pay $200,000.”

When Myung-jun called out the high price, Bill’s face turned pale, as he had thought it would be served for free.

Seeing Bill’s reaction, Myung-jun smiled as if teasing him.

“Replication isn’t free. The more complex and delicate the item to be replicated, and the more detailed the characteristics of the original, the more crystal stone energy is required.”

Of course, replicating common foods that taste similar even with rough replication did not require much energy. However, for luxury wines that had value only when every molecule with aroma was faithfully replicated, Myung-jun needed crystal stones of a level similar to the value of the original at current market prices. Therefore, Myung-jun did not engage in selling replicated wine at auction houses.

Instead, Clan members were allowed to freely enjoy whatever food or drink they desired under the premise that it would not interfere with their missions, which was aimed at stress management for Clan members who had to live inside the ship away from their homeland. Thanks to this, members of the Liberal Clan were enjoying quite a pleasant life inside the ship despite living there for a long time.

With just a few button presses, they could drink wines worth tens of millions of dollars or eat famous dishes from around the world whenever they were hungry.

At that moment, Arin, who had been emptying the same food for three plates next to them, exclaimed in surprise.

“Huh?! This involved crystal stones?!”

“You didn’t know?”

“I thought it was all free…”

“It is. There’s a lot that goes into it.”

“Ugh… I didn’t know that and ate so much…”

“It’s okay for you to eat. You’re an officially invited guest. And we’re not so poor that we’d go bankrupt over a meal.”

Hearing Myung-jun’s words, Arin smiled and ordered the same menu again.

Then, Myung-jun started talking to Holmes with Arin beside him.

“Now that you seem to have filled up to a certain extent, let’s start the main negotiation. What does the U.S. government want from us?”

“Before that, there are a few things I want to confirm.”

Holmes threw questions prepared in advance to Myung-jun.

Whether it was indeed the Liberal Clan that dealt with the sea monster that sank the Sandong ship.

If so, whether there were no more attacks from monsters at sea.

Myung-jun honestly answered Holmes’ questions as if there was nothing to hide.

“Firstly, it’s true that we dealt with the sea monster. There was an overflow of a larger scale than what happened in the Amazon, in the Pacific Ocean, which led to numerous fish-shaped monsters being released into the sea. We captured most of the powerful creatures among them, but there may still be some weaker monsters remaining.”

“Gate incidents on land continue to occur and their frequency and intensity are increasing. Is the same true for the sea?”

“Probably. Since we captured the leader of the entire group, which controls the overall herd, there should be some speed control. However, if we leave it as it is, intermittent overflows may still occur.”

“If that happens, will the lord-rank monsters that appeared last time reappear?”

“No, that’s not the case. There are a total of 12 lords, and among them, the Leviathan is the only one active in the deep sea. Since that fellow has disappeared, subsequent overflows in the deep sea will summon relatively weaker monsters.”

Despite Myung-jun’s words, Holmes’ expression remained grim. This was because he knew well that even the relatively weak monsters were difficult for the current US military to deal with.

Carefully choosing his words so as not to offend the other party, Holmes posed the next question.

“Recently, the Seawolf-class submarine Connecticut, which was active in the waters off Peru, was attacked by an unidentified deep-sea creature. And at the critical moment, they were able to save their lives thanks to a sudden helper appearing. The US military suspects that helper to be the Liberal Clan. Is this true?”

“It is. Due to the 8th-rank monster we were tracking moving to your area, we happened to rescue the US submarine during the tracking process.”

“In that case, I sincerely thank you for saving the lives of US soldiers.”

As Holmes stood up and bowed toward Myung-jun, Bill also followed suit and bowed along with Holmes.

“We didn’t do it to receive gratitude. We just hunted down the creature we were tracking,”

“Still, saving the lives of US soldiers is no small matter. Therefore, the US military would like to convey this as a token of gratitude.”

Myung-jun accepted the paper Holmes took out of his pocket. However, it was a blank sheet of paper with nothing written on it.

“A blank check… It’s not exactly that, but what does it mean?”

“It’s similar. If you write down the materials you need there, regardless of the amount or situation, we will supply them as quickly as possible.”

“There’s no limit?”

Since Myung-jun was someone who didn’t know what to write down if there really was no limit, Holmes quickly corrected his words.

“The price of the Seawolf-class submarine you saved is about $3 billion, so please make requests within that range.”

“That’s incredibly generous.”

In fact, it was a necessary gesture for Myung-jun as well. Even if the materials for these monsters were obtained from the newly hunted fish-shaped monsters, various metals and other materials forming the base of the broken hull needed to be supplied from somewhere.

Despite not showing it outwardly, the Liberator was in a serious shortage of materials. The Liberator was unable to completely repair the damaged hull with only the materials loaded for the estimated consumption during the completion of the Liberator.

From steel, titanium, copper to rare earths and plastics needed to make various facilities, the US military’s offer to supply numerous materials that could only be procured on land was like a godsend to the current Liberal Clan. However, without revealing such facts, Myung-jun took the paper.

“Since you’ve given it to me, I’ll accept it gratefully, but before I do, I have one question.”

“Please, go ahead.”

“It seems like you’re making such a fuss about something that doesn’t necessarily need to be done, as if you want something more. May I ask what that is?”

Holmes hesitated for a moment. He did have something he wanted, but he was worried that bringing up that matter might stimulate unpleasant memories for the other party. Thinking about it, Holmes recalled Myung-jun’s cheerful personality he had seen in Korea and cautiously brought up his request.

“Although I don’t particularly want material compensation, I do have a wish. I hope you can forget about the recent unfortunate incident between the US government and the Liberal Clan.”

“Unfortunate incident?…”

“I’m referring to the delay in cooperation from the US government during the execution of the Korean government’s decree.”

Myung-jun finally realized why the US government had been so generous. He hadn’t been concerned because he could have handled the crisis without the US government’s cooperation. But in the end, the US government had broken its ‘promise’ to Myung-jun.

Upon realizing this, Myung-jun immediately hardened his expression and said to Holmes.

“Was it a delay? Or was it ignored?”

“…It was ignored.”

“And the reason was that when the Korean government’s plan succeeded, the equipment produced  by Liberal Clan will be shared the with the US government?”

“…”

“There’s no point in hiding it. We also have information on the movements of the US government.”

“If you knew that much, you must know the reason. Frankly, the US government believes that the snowball promised by the Liberal Clan is not growing as expected.”

“That’s your side of the story. When we handed over the equipment for the reinforcement coating agent and Awakener devices, the US government had built the world’s most powerful infrastructure for nurturing Awakeners. It was the US government’s responsibility to grow the snowball using that. It’s not about blaming the Liberal Clan for it.”

“I’m not trying to blame the Liberal Clan for that issue now. I just want to say that we had reasons for our actions at the time. And I also want to apologize for that. It’s about clearing up past misunderstandings and forging a completely new relationship with the Liberal Clan for the future. That’s what the US government wants.”

“And this is the compensation?”

After a moment of contemplation, Myung-jun put the paper he was holding into his pocket. Then, with a tense expression, he said to Holmes, who was looking at him.

“Very well. I accept the apology. We also had our faults in not providing adequate aftercare. Instead, from now on, we’re starting completely from scratch. Is that enough?”

“That’s sufficient. Thank you for your consideration.”

As Holmes bowed his head once again in gratitude, Myung-jun said, “You don’t need to thank me. Starting from scratch means that from now on, the US government will be treated on equal terms with other customers.”

“If by other customers…”

“I’m referring to the United Kingdom, France, Japan, and China, who are rushing here with great interest. When they arrive, I’ll invite all the negotiating teams from the US, France, the UK, Japan, and China here. And let them compete face-to-face in a bidding war.”

“A bidding war?”

“That’s what I mean by a bidding war.”

When Myung-jun snapped his fingers, a serving robot approached Holmes. On the tray held by the robot, instead of food, there was a catalog. It was a 30-page catalog adorned with a dazzling blue-colored robot drawn on its cover.

The photo on the cover depicted the production model of Abyss Knights developed to allow Awakeners to freely use their abilities even in the deep sea. It was a picture of the [Knight Marine Type].

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