Lovers

15

The Blood-Stained Holy Grail

“It must be a misunderstanding, right?”

At my words, our department chief, Otto Layer, glared at me.

“Why?”

“Because it seems like I, your superior, am busy as hell while you, my subordinate, are having fun?”

“Come on, I’m not having fun.”

Sitting on the edge of Otto’s desk and stealing his potato chips, I felt at ease. Otto glared at me like I was the worst scum on earth, then took a sip of the coffee I brought and his eyes lit up with an “Oh.”

“The coffee’s delicious. Did you brew it?”

“No, Baral did.”

“He’s from Department 2… Team 1 leader, right?”

Yes.

At my answer, Otto took his hands off the keyboard and tapped his desk with his fingers for a moment. Hmm, hmm. He was lost in thought, groaning like a puppy that needed to pee, then let out an “Ah―” with a tone of disappointment.

“Who was it again?”

It seems like I should remember! Otto frowned, saying he couldn’t recall. Watching him, I unconsciously clicked my tongue. Wow, this is really a talent. How can he know exactly who’s above him but barely know the people below? Even if they’re not from his own department.

“Don’t you know Baral, who’s in charge of the bear in ‘The bear tears people apart’?”

“Ah, that bear-like guy? That polar bear,”

“That’s Department 4. We have a brown bear.”

“Ah, shit. Who is that?”

Otto finally accessed the Security Bureau system and opened the file of Department 2, Team 1 leader. As soon as he saw the photo, he pointed and exclaimed, “Ah!”

“This bastard!”

“A familiar bastard?”

Of course, he must be familiar. Being the Department 2, Team 1 leader is almost the same as being the Department 2 Chief’s right-hand man. He must see him often when meeting with the Department 2 Chief. But the “This bastard!” in his voice suggested not just a visual familiarity, but a heart-level familiarity, implying resentment.

“This bastard pulled a gun on me last time!”

“Alfred did? He might be a bit uptight, but he’s not that crazy…”

No, Alfred Baral isn’t crazy. But what about Otto Layer?

Although he’s our department chief, Layer’s craziness was famous in the Security Bureau. You can’t reach the top of Department 1 with an ordinary temperament. Our petty department chief was also subtly misogynistic and a male chauvinist. He always had male chauvinist tendencies, but from my perspective, the misogyny seemed to have developed after his divorce.

“I didn’t do anything wrong!”

No, did it start when his ex-wife remarried an IT tycoon?

My gaze must have been very doubtful because the chief jumped up. Seeing him insist that he absolutely did nothing wrong made me even more suspicious.

“Anyway.”

“We’re not done talking.”

“What do you think about the possibility that Sebastian Riegel might be receiving self-defense training from his bodyguards?”

I asked, half-listening to the chief’s grievances. He scratched near his ear and made a “hmm” sound.

“He probably has been trained, but I don’t think it’s from his current bodyguards.”

“Oh, really?”

“I think I heard something about this before. After the Riegel chairman experienced his son’s kidnapping, he had his children undergo strict training. Since Sebastian Riegel has been so reclusive, not much is known about him, but…”

Otto’s fingers danced nimbly over the keyboard. Finally, he pulled up a news article on the screen.

Sambo, Fencing, Shooting ― Saskia Riegel Shows Girl Crush Charm

The headline was impressive. I had seen ‘Saskia Riegel’ in Riegel’s file. She’s Sebastian’s younger sister.

I took the mouse Otto had released and read through the article. The content itself was nothing special, just a typical article promoting a chaebol group’s child. These days, chaebols usually start with image-making to pass the company on to their children, so it was a common content, but two things stood out: Saskia Riegel’s bright lemon-colored hair and winter sky-blue eyes in her photo, and ‘Sambo’.

“I’m not very familiar with this… Is Sambo a sport that helps with image?”

“No, not at all.”

It’s a sport that might give a strong and powerful image, but not a sophisticated or cool one. Especially in Rotman, where sophistication is everything, it’s a sport that’s actually useless to learn… unless you’re going to use it in real situations.

Sambo, depending on how it’s learned, is quite an excellent martial art for practical combat. Moreover, reading the article, it doesn’t seem like she just learned it for 1-2 years, and given the interview content saying ‘she learned it with her brothers,’ it seems Sebastian learned it too.

I thought he was just a shut-in crying about the Orient, but he has many unexpected aspects.

“What’s his relationship with Canaris?”

The chief asked casually. But this is not a casual question.

“Well…”

“You don’t know?”

“From what I can see, it seems even the Department 2 folks haven’t found out yet.”

The chief snatched his mouse from my hand. Then he looked at me straight on.

“What about Matthias Yudorov?”

This must have been the real reason why the chief called me to his office.

Matthias Yudorov. The leader of Canaris.

This man, who is like a legend among socialist revival activists, created the terrorist group Canaris and showed their presence but has never been caught. Many people have died and suffered because of him. Even I have acquaintances who died because of him.

That’s why his head became even more precious. Especially among the Security Bureau chiefs, his head is like the Holy Grail. Otto is the type of person who would rather shatter that Holy Grail than let someone else take it. And Nina Volkari will try to enter Department 1 with that Holy Grail this time.

Such internal politics weren’t my business until now, but how did it come to this?

“They definitely haven’t found him.”

“What about the possibility that Riegel knows?”

I recalled Riegel from our first meeting and shook my head.

“Judging by what he said on the night he was arrested, he didn’t seem to know his counterpart well.”

I could still vividly remember his face as he complained about the drug smell. He said he didn’t want to know what it was and needed to wash up, and that he would throw away his clothes. Indeed, when we left the room, those clothes were discarded on the floor. His overall attitude was like, ‘How rude of them to be doing drugs when we were supposed to meet.’ This meant that Riegel didn’t know his counterpart was the type to use drugs.

“So he’s not deeply involved with Canaris?”

“It would be difficult for him to be involved in a good way, right? The son of Riegel, who stands at the pinnacle of capitalism, with guys pushing for a return to socialism?”

To begin with, banks weren’t private entities during the socialist era. If socialism continued, Riegel would suffer enormous losses, so it’s inconceivable that he would support Canaris. Moreover…

“The kidnappers who abducted Sebastian Riegel,”

“They still haven’t been caught. Even though Michael Riegel put up a huge reward.”

“Yes, exactly. So, if they can hide after doing such a thing, it’s reasonable to think there’s someone hiding them, and there’s actually no guarantee it’s not Canaris,”

“There isn’t.”

“That’s right.”

According to records, Sebastian Riegel was kidnapped when he was about fourteen years old. It happened three years after socialism collapsed. When socialism fell, Rotman became closer to anarchy than democracy. The absence of a system made people selfish and threw them into a hell of every man for himself. Wealthy people left the country entirely, but some people seized opportunities during this time, and Michael Riegel was one of them. As Riegel prospered and got his hands on a bank, he became synonymous with Rotman wealth, and eventually, his eldest son Sebastian was kidnapped.

At that time, Canaris was pre-organization. However, Matthias Yudorov had organized and was operating a small group. Many people thought that Yudorov’s group, the predecessor of Canaris, had kidnapped Sebastian Riegel and released him after receiving money.

No wonder he became a shut-in.

As I looked into the Sebastian Riegel kidnapping case, I understood his choices a bit more. That kidnapping case is still one of the most talked-about mysteries. People still chew over that incident like bar snacks. If it’s like this now, how much worse must it have been back then?

It would have been impossible for Riegel to attend school. Moreover, from what I’ve heard, the atmosphere at that time was not one of sympathy for Riegel, the victim, but more like ‘serves him right, the son of a rich pig.’ This was because at that time, Riegel had too much money and Rotman was too poor. In a country where many people were starving to death, a boy kidnapped for money became an object of hatred for having enough money to be kidnapped.

“I’m not interested in Sebastian Riegel. Let the Department 2 bastards put flowers on him or eat him raw, they can do whatever they want. But.”

Ah, I think I know what he’s going to say without hearing the rest. As I was about to get up from the chief’s desk, he pressed down on my thigh. I could easily shake off this desk jockey with force, but since he’s my superior, I awkwardly sat back down.

The chief brought his face close to mine and said:

“Not Yudorov.”

The chief emphasized that Yudorov absolutely cannot be handed over to Department 2. Feeling an ominous premonition, I quickly shook my head.

“Yudorov or whatever… I can’t even access that kind of information. My mission is just to become Riegel’s friend.”

“If you ever find out Yudorov’s location, you must bring it to Department 1 no matter what. Understand?”

The chief’s eyes burned fiercely.

“No, I’m telling you this isn’t something I would know about.”

“I don’t care if Riegel tells you, or if you happen to overhear a radio transmission while you’re there. Yudorov will be caught by Department 1. No matter what.”

I looked down at Otto’s brown eyes. From his eyes, I shifted my gaze behind him. There, a high school girl in uniform was smiling brightly. That girl must be Otto’s daughter. The one who attends a private school abroad.

The reason I can’t completely dislike Otto Layer is because of that photo. He may be petty and mean, but he’s a father who wants to make his daughter happy.

“Well, I don’t think I’ll get the chance anyway.”

I grinned at Otto.

“If the opportunity comes, I can’t miss it, right?”

After all, regardless of everything else, doesn’t everyone want the Holy Grail?

At my words, the chief smiled fiercely, saying, “That’s how you should be!”