The Foreigner on the Periphery

The princess couldn’t even turn her eyes back to Minjun anymore. He was just staring at the scenery outside the window that he was looking at but wasn’t seeing.  

With an expression that still couldn’t hide her shame, the princess resembling a crocodile said: "You looked embarrassed. Don't take what I just said into your heart."  

Minjun wanted to, but for other reasons, it seemed that he could not easily erase it from his memory. The princess remained silent for a moment before she spoke again.  

"It was a mistake made by my inexperience. Like any other Stan woman who knows her way as a lady, I have never been in the same place with an outside Stan man before. Never."  

A certain part of Minjun whispered in his head again. After all, what nonsense is that?  

‘A chaste Stan woman?'  

Those morals and values ​​had to be foreign to their people. This was because there was no concept of fidelity for them.

Originally, even if it was a princess’ bedroom, it was a society in which it was not a fault for other men to come and go every night. No matter who her father was, if it was confirmed that the princess gave birth, she would immediately be recognized as inheriting the royal lineage.  

‘No, wait a minute. Is this really true?'  

Minjun was confused by the knowledge that emerged like a buoy. It was evident that many of them were not consistent with these days.  

"Many Stan women sometimes get confused because they have never been close to men of their own race. My attitude today should be interpreted as such confusion. I apologize if I made you uncomfortable because of the emotional confusion I felt."  

“ · · · ·It's fine.”  

After sacrificing the conversation like that, he continued to ask about the part that bothered him. "It seems that the Stanians have a culture that values ​​female fidelity."  

“That is true.”  

"If it's not rude, may I ask how old the tradition is?"  

At this, the princess adopted a puzzled expression. Rather than asking her all sorts of questions… she looked like she had never thought of anything like that. Although it was the face of a reptile covered in scales, Minjun was able to retrieve the detailed and deep meaning. So easy. “

Well. Most of Stan's records prior to the racial war have been lost, so the origin is unknown."

The keyword ‘race war’ could not be found in memories like echoes of deleted personalities. "So, I guess, at the very least, it must be a venerable tradition that has lasted over 800 years."  

All of the information about the Gelanco-level tribal war was only what Ye Minjun had recently studied. The country to which she belonged to was the coalition of various races, and her Stanians had the lowest political status among her members.  

It was because they lost the tribal war that led to the founding of the United Kingdom. The concept of participating in the alliance as a defeated race was close to joining as a war criminal country or colony.  

He said, ‘Stan has the most overwhelming fighting ability, but she said it was rather poisonous. Did she say that all other races were united and fought amongst themselves?’  

Minjun thought for a moment and then spoke again. "Many Earthlings consider this visit to be a stepping stone for the Stan people to migrate to Earth."  

However, that didn’t seem to be the case, given that she just said he wanted to take her home. The princess quickly agreed.  

"I knew there were rumors going around. It’s a misunderstanding that you can embrace because you don’t know us too well. Earth's climate is not for us."

"It is not."  

"The weather is unpredictable, but look at this body. Keeping in mind that I’m on the ‘very’ dwarf side of my racial average.”  

The princess who said that was about 2.5 meters tall. She was one meter shorter than the racial average. "This world cannot afford to accept us. Even if you make up your mind and try to prepare, it will consume a lot of time and resources."  

It was also a story that Minjun had no choice but to accept. Even during the mass migration of trolls, the whole society suffered because of the size, and at that time, each country had to revise important laws, mainly the Building and Road Traffic Act, due to the pressure of the committee.  

The average height of the troll that caused the uproar was 1.5 times that of a human. If it was more than 3 meters, he couldn’t even guess how much more social cost would be.  

"Then you are really here for business."  

Then the princess smiled faintly. Her self-blame and her shame, which had tormented her, were the eyes of her that had faded a lot during her conversation.  

"Yeah, if I take care of this thing… maybe I'll get a chance to give birth too. Beyond the other princesses."  

The memories that had been from Minjun’s deleted personality were speaking. Stan women stopped ovulating for decades after they gave birth to a fertilized egg. This was because she had to focus all her resources and energy on raising the children born to adulthood.  

And so, what was the purpose of restricting the right to procreation for Stans today? The assumption that the number of gold-bearing creatures would increase indiscriminately was not true.  

The result of planting only onions in the field just because onions were booming led to a fall in onion prices next year. Someone may be controlling the number of Shutan by considering the time when a newborn girl becomes an adult.  

In addition to this, they may be the same ones who, in the distant past, thought it unsatisfactory for Stan to give birth to infertile eggs only once a month. They would also have thought that Stan’s biological nature of not being able to lay unfertilized eggs for decades after laying one fertilized egg was absurd.  

Ji-ik!  

At that moment, Bradley’s voice rang out from Minjun’s walkie-talkie. After he recognized the contents, he questioned the princess. "We are almost all near the Gongdeok Station you mentioned. Now, I think you have to tell me the exact destination."  

The way Princess Vermi moved was strangely cautious. What she was so afraid of, and that information might leak, made her only give a rough guide to the direction of the destination, and then gave the details just before.  

The princess nodded as if the time had come. “I see. Tell everyone, including the bodyguard and the driver. Now we are on our way to a company called Korea Precision Pension."

Hearing that name, Minjun’s expression hardened slightly. However, he soon regained his calm expression and began to respond over the walkie-talkie. He turned off his radio and asked the princess again. "It's not something I care about, but have you made an appointment in advance? If they suddenly come to you like this…"  

"It was intended to be this way."  

He thought he heard wrong.  

“Yes?”  

"They said it was a plan to embarrass them."  

"?"  

"You seem curious. After all, you don’t know why I came to Earth, so it has to be.”  

At the next moment, the princess’s mouth was torn long, revealing serrated teeth.  

"!"  

Then, the atmosphere that hovered over the dark green scales completely changed. The princess, who was shy because she couldn’t even look at Minjun’s face until a few minutes ago, disappeared.  

Instead, what was left was a single female warrior who expressed with all her body the virtues of the Stan people, who boasted of the superpower of tearing steel with their bare hands and chasing their prey to the end of hell. The princess then began to speak with a sly smile.

"I came to this world to collect long-term bad debts."  

Only then did Minjun learn the true purpose of Princess Vermi’s visit to Earth. It was not like the pre-arrangement of the 8th group immigration.  

She came here to collect debt.  

***  

The princess had overtaken her in many ways. Initially, the vicinity of Gongdeok Station was an area that deviated from the expected movement line submitted to the government, and there was no ban on movement.  

Therefore, most of the employees of Koryo Precision Pension were in a normal state of going to work. Princess Stanin’s visit was notified 5 minutes prior to the arrival of the vehicle, and as soon as they got off the parking lot and entered the lobby, the company’s upturned atmosphere was vividly felt.  

The directors, who must have jumped down in a hurry, greeted the princess. Princess Vermi looked at the figure with a relaxed gaze and made a sound of rolling an iron ball on a piece of glass.  

The interpreter, Olga, translated the words in a calm tone.  

"The boss told me to come out."  

The CEO, who was absent due to an external meeting, said he was returning in a hurry. In the meantime, in the guided meeting room, security guards including Minjun conducted a security check and confirmed that there was nothing magical or physically wrong.  

Meanwhile, Minjun’s expression continued to harden slightly. Since he first heard the name of this company, his eyes had changed strangely. And after a while. An elderly man came in, supported by a staff member.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Princess Vermi. I am the CEO of this company…"  

The old man stiffened yet stayed silent. His eyes were fixed on a man who looked particularly young among the bodyguards standing next to the princess. After a short, cold silence, the boss spoke in disbelief.  

Given the circumstances, this time he didn’t make the same mistakes as a few days ago.  

"Mr. Ye Minjun?"  

"…"  

Minjun silently nodded and said to Oh Man-sik. "It's really nice to see you again. At least in a place like this."  

The CEO of Goryeo Precision Pension was an old colleague Minjun met at the witch’s cooperative a while ago.  

Oh Man-sik looked at Princess Vermi and Minjun alternately, and muttered. “Oh, I see. Because you are an immigration agent.  · · ·Yes. It’s not unusual for agents to escort alien VIPs.”  

Then, he began to laugh bitterly. "If I had known it would be like this…"

I was concerned about the omitted words, but it was impossible to continue a private conversation in front of Princess Vermi. The princess was curious about their reaction, and when she heard that the two were acquaintances, she put on an expression of surprise.  

However, it was just there. Princess Vermi was a woman with a clear distinction between her works. "I have already checked the safety, so the bodyguards are telling me to wait outside the conference room."  

With this, they followed the interpreter. Minjun quietly waited outside for the meeting to end. It was not impossible if one were to try to eavesdrop on internal conversations.

I didn’t.  

This was because the days when one couldn’t control their curiosity had passed, and they knew that it was far better to keep some things ignorant than knowing. Just by paying close attention to the amount of money the princess lent and Oh Man-sik's debt repayment plan did not mean that we could know the terrorist plan of the Human Rights Coalition.  

‘I think that nobleman was one of the princess's debtors.'  

His taste was bitter. This was because of the fierce competition between biosynthetic and magical alchemy for the earth’s gold market, alchemy companies except for the Big Five knew that it was not an easy situation.  

He thought it was news that had nothing to do with me, though.  

‘By the way…'  

There were parts that he did not understand, rather than feel curious.

According to the amendment to the Alien Investment Act, it was by no means impossible.  

However, why did the executives and staff of this company, including Oh Man-sik, choose to become debtors of competitors, not fools?  

In this situation, the big hands of the earth were already playing a game of chicken to drive out the gold from Guerlain from the market.  

‘You can guess that it wasn't pure good intentions.'  

Then, there was only one answer. It was borrowed without knowing it, or the creditor was changed on the way.  

‘I can think of the case where the princess did not know that the princess was behind it, or the first creditor sold the bond to the princess.'  

In any case, it was certain that there was a bad intention behind it.  

‘The motivation for the Stanians to hold the earth's alchemy company bonds is…'  

It was probably not the intention to induce this company to go bankrupt. If one wanted to grow a biosynthetic pie in the earth’s gold market, you would have to destroy a company in the US or Europe, and no matter how big a Korean company was, it was only considered second tier by international standards.  

The same was the case for this company. In this case, then there was only one thing left.

‘After all, is that it?'  

Princess Vermi and other Stans seemed to be trying to diversify their portfolios in relation to the gold production process.