The Foreigner on the Periphery

Edward’s eyes, as he spoke unexpected words, belonged to those who had already made a decision. However, he couldn’t hide his faint uneasiness. ‘Did you come here thinking of me as a hitman?'  

It was clear that Cathy didn't even hear the request from the mastermind in advance. Had she known, she would have cut her line. She was very displeased, but Minjun decided to listen to more stories without kicking him out because he was thinking of Cathy.  

"Agent, I trust you will keep the secret." Minjun said in a cold voice.  

"Whether you accept or reject the request, there will be no spreading of the word. But I hope that the story you are bringing with you is not the obvious story I think."

The heir of a large corporation asks for the murder of women and children. There was only one scenario that Minjun could think of. It was quite a filthy thing to try to deal with the unknown government and the out-of-wedlock at the same time. However, Edward did not immediately deny it, and that made Minjun even more displeased.  

"Please. Please listen to my story to the end. Then you will understand me."  

He pulled out his tablet PC and showed him a picture. "This is an alien who is the target of the request."  

The woman in the photo was a blonde elf. Judging from the length of her ears, unlike Edward, she was pure blood with no blood from other races. Of course, she could also be an elf alien. Even human beings were aliens if they did not have global citizenship, and furry dogs were also earthlings if they had citizenship.  

"You want me to kill this woman?"  

“Yes.”  

“Why?” He mumbles in a melancholy voice. The story begins with the meeting of the two. "The first time I saw her of her was ten days ago."  

‘Ten days? Then it’s not a request to take care of her extramarital child.’

And so, he couldn't understand it anymore, but he would try to listen more first. "The first time I saw her, I fell in love with her. But… she politely declined."  

"It looks like the timing isn't right."  

"Yeah, she said she didn’t want to date a man for the next 100 years or so. As you know, when pure-blooded elves say things like that, it’s often because they really feel that way, not just a hope or a hunch. I thought so too."  

The reason elves who lived long enough to exceed 1,000 years of age cannot rapidly increase their population compared to Orcs that died early was due to the low fertility characteristic of long-lived species. Some Orcs, who were well aware that their relative superiority over the elves was only their strength and fertility, ridicule them as eunuchs to relieve their inferiority complex, but this was not the right expression.  

A more accurate expression should be ‘intermittent sexual desire.' In other words, pure-blood elves were asexual by default, and it was very rare that they felt such a desire in their thousand-year life. The shortest cycle was one year, and the longest one could take several hundred years. It burnt for a long time once it burned, but that didn't change the fact that ignition was very difficult. Therefore, in the early stages of group migration, wealthy humans who wanted to gift the long life of elves to their descendants faced difficulties.  

The elves, who agreed to marry in order to raise their status, refused to sleep, and demanded, "Wait until you feel like that."  

The waiting could be over a hundred years, so of course humans could not adapt. At first, they tried to borrow the power of alcohol but failed. Elves, who already had a sensitive sense of smell, never tried to put alcohol in their mouths. It was cocaine and heroin that humans found desperately. It was possible in the past.

Of course, with the development of artificial insemination technology, everything has become much easier. The half-elf in front of him must have been born like that. Edward continued his speech. "I was nervous. He was someone I really wanted to meet once in a lifetime. It was the first time in my life that I felt that way."  

It was too private to tell here. Minjun realized that his revealing even that part was a great effort to justify his next confession. "So how did you do it?"  

"…I took off my sunglasses and approached him and talked to him."  

‘And?”  

"Somehow…" Edward Mitchum confessed.  

‘Somehow,’ he said he had a relationship with her with her mutual consent. Minjun didn’t believe in such bullshit.  

"Are you revealing to others that you are a vampire trait?"  

“ · · · · · ·No.” Minjun looked at the opponent with contemptuous eyes. He used his powers to seduce an elf who didn’t feel like it.  

"It's that healthy liver."

A vampire’s enchanting ability could cause great harm to society if it started to be abused. However, it was also true that there were many people who avoided punishment because of the ambiguity in the application of the law.  

"I regret it."  

Edward said repeatedly with a dark complexion. "Really, I regret it to the bone."  

Minjun asked without hiding his disgust. "Didn't the men waiting in the parking lot of the building next to you dry them?"  

At this, Edward shuddered. There was no way for the successor of a large corporation to wander around alone. The bodyguards who waited under her without notifying Minjun would have accompanied her when they met her. "You are great too."  

Edward’s expression grew slightly paler. "It is all my fault. The attendants dissuaded me, but I insisted. As a result, I had to get this."  

He touched the tablet and played a video. "The next day we exchanged her contact information, but she lost contact with her. And just three days later, this video was sent to me."  

In an unknown place, the blonde elf continued speaking in a calm voice. He then held a child in his arms. The ears of a child were shorter than that of a pure-blood elf and longer than that of a human.  

There was a typical half-elf trait. The woman then opened the front page of a newspaper article on the day the video was shot. It had been three days since the two broke up. Then he spoke to the camera.  

This child was Edward Mitchum’s child. Her baby was born as a result of the rape of her by her vampire power, Edward, and if she didn't do her request, she would eventually report this to her press and claim her inheritance as her paternity.  

Minjun could never understand the situation. "No, wait a minute. Obviously, the first time we met was ten days ago…"  

The gestation period of an elf was not much different from that of a human. Moreover, the child in the picture appeared to have passed her 100 days of life. When he pointed this out, Edward was washing his face impatiently. He then began muttering in a desperate voice. "Please keep looking… Agent."  

The elf in the picture suddenly grabbed a large pair of scissors. Then, he slowly brought it to the baby’s face.

"?!" While Minjun took a low breath, the woman cut off a handful of the baby’s belly with a sharp scissors blade and put it in a separate container.  

With that, she calmly continued to move her hand. She put a cotton swab in her struggling child’s mouth and scratched it decisively. It also went into courage. "They were delivered to me too."  

Although he thought it was nonsense, he said that he secretly commissioned a genetic analysis. Of course, this was done anonymously. "What is the result?"  

He answered with a sound close to a moan. "My son is right. A 99.99% chance."  

It sounded like the paternity test has been completed. Minjun shook his head. "It is an impossible story. Are you saying you can get rid of pregnancy and childbirth in three days?"  

With that, a hypothesis popped into Minjun’s mind as he asked the question. "Aren't you mistaken? Did you meet that woman separately a year ago?"  

"It never happened."  

"Even if it's not that woman. Maybe you’re plotting something like that with your child born to someone else.”

"Please watch the next video, Agent."  

With that, he played a new video. Minjun felt as if possessed by a ghost. “Oh My God.”  

It was a video delivered three days later. A woman in a similar outfit was talking to the camera in a similar place. It was the same with opening the newspaper that morning. However, this time, there was one more character. “Twins?”  

The woman was holding in her arms two babies that looked alike. The next scene was not much different. DNA samples were taken from various parts of the baby’s body. "Did that get delivered too?"  

“Yes. And that mourning… it turned out to be my child." He said with a sullen face. "The scariest thing is what that woman said at the end of the video. If you don’t comply, I’ll have another child in three days.”  

"?!"  

What else did that mean?

It sounded like she would have a baby if one didn't listen to her request, or that she might not give birth if you do. Even more absurd was the time period of 3 days. No, it was not a child-bearing machine…  

"It must have been the birth of twins from the beginning."  

The half-elf shook his head. "If that's true, then at least triplets."  

"No way?” There was another video.  

"…"  

For now, that was the last. The number of children on the screen has increased to three, and again, a DNA sample confirmed as the paternity was delivered. ‘No, wait a minute.'  

There was something that caught Minjun's eyes in the last video. ‘Aren't the other two babies a little bigger than the ones in the other videos?'  

It wasn't the growth that could be seen in just a few days. Edward then spoke while he stared at the video.

"When I first saw the results of the genetic analysis, I thought they were homunculus. But the rap in charge of the forensics said it wasn’t. These are not children who have been cultured by simple cloning of genes. It is an organism that was born in a normal way, created by combining the genes of two people. Even the genes between children do not match completely. I am not a clone."  

"Wait a minute, then…" He said that the genes he inherited from his father belonged to Edward. If so, what about the maternal line? An answer came out of Edward’s mouth.  

"The maternal DNA is said to be a race that was never known on Earth." He said confidently.  

"That woman wasn’t a pure blood elf. It was illegally polymorphed and appeared in front of me." With that, Minjun traced his memory. Although it was rare, there were few races where a woman kept a male’s sperm obtained through just one mating in her body for a long time and continued to “recycle” it to produce children.  

However, which race could mate with another race and end pregnancy and childbirth in three days? He had even recalled the past ecology of the Stan people, but he could not remember anything about this keyword.  

"We must find it. She’s threatening that if she doesn’t listen to her she’ll have another child in 3 days. Yes, I know. Of course they could be quadruplets. But what about next?"  

"Why do you think you are making threats like this?"  

"If I do not comply, that woman seems to be planning to have as many children as possible and proceed with a paternity lawsuit. If the speculation is true that she can have as many children as she wants."  

A groan escaped Minjun’s mouth. In the Korean Civil Code, there is a system of oil fractions. If Edward’s estate is worth 2 million won, at least one million won of that was unconditionally allocated to his children. No matter how he wrote his will.  

And what if one were to have five children? One million won divided by five, 200,000 won was the legacy that one child can secure at least. However…

What if one were to have a hundred children? Edward had only one child because he wanted it, but if the alien had 100 children, what would the distribution be?  

"Certainly, according to the current law, everyone would be recognized as children."  

It didn't matter what her mother’s race was, whether she was an illegal alien or a permanent resident. Whether the child was born through rape or conceived for other purposes does not affect the interpretation of the law. If a child was born to two parents, it was classified as a biological child and had the right to inherit.  

‘But, do you mean to catch them all and kill them? It is nonsense.'  

Moreover, it was not that there was no way to avoid inheritance by using trickery. The media would be pretty noisy, though. Minjun, considering this far, prepared to expel Edward. "I never wanted kids like that. Children born in such a bizarre way are not my children. Even if the genes are identical! Aliens who give birth to children like that, or children who are born that way, shouldn’t exist in this world!”  

At this, Minjun let out those words. The last time he asked this before giving the congratulatory order was purely out of curiosity. "But what the hell is she asking for? A huge amount of money comparable to the expected inheritance?"  

"Yes, they are asking for money. But . . . that is the money I cannot mobilize."  

"How many?"  

At the next words, Minjun’s expression hardened coldly. "It is not money that can be obtained on Earth… and is asking for space currency that is ‘talents' or something."  

***  

Minjun then sent Edward back without confirming that he would take on the quest. He looked very anxious, but once again promised to keep the secret and let him go. This was because he also needed time to think.

With that, he needed more information before making a decision. ‘What kind of race are you?'  

In terms of the nature of the quest, Minjun was not at the level. It was clearly a crime to polymorph illegally, and so was the threat to Edward. And if the confirmed birth method was real, it could now be regarded as an illegal alien because it was not a registered alien on Earth. However, he had the ability to give birth in a way that was different from that of humans or elves, and it was hard to see it as a sin to put it into action.  

Of course, it could be morally criticized for using childbirth as a means of intimidation. ‘I think it's enough to just pick and hand over any agent other than me.'  

Nevertheless, he was concerned about the talent that the aliens demanded in return. ‘Do you know anything?'  

And so, Minjun decided to identify the race of the opponent first. He wanted to know what other abilities he had and what his behavior was. A race for which he has no information. Who should I ask in this case?  

With that, Minjun turned on the computer. He circulated the entire mail through the spiritual network after a long time. Recipients were other prisoners who had been assigned to various dimensions to perform their duties.

After he sent out a message listing the traits he had heard from Edward and asking if anyone knew any of these races. Only a few minutes had passed. ding!  

‘Well, already?’  

With that, someone responded quickly.  

– Sender: Asif-26,188,280  

– Message: What, you misunderstood the sender! Another… (remark)  

‘He's still a lively guy.'  

Not long after he started his life as a prisoner, he was an old colleague who was still very motivated. Minjun opened the message and checked the rest.  

- · · · · · ·I thought you were contacting me after hearing the news because it was not someone else and you got a message. However, it was the whole mail. Anyway, let me tell you, I was finally dispatched to Earth!  

It appeared that he was coming to Earth as the successor of Bradley, who died while on a mission. Minjun flipped through the content that continued to be irritating.  

– By the way, what kind of races live on Earth? What race body did you get now? Please, it would be nice if it wasn’t human like last time…  

The human race’s body was so weak that he couldn't feel the taste of being on duty. If one was going to give it to him, wouldn’t it be nice to give it a body that was strong and versatile like a dragon? That’s why… (short-up)  

He kept flipping through the messages, but there was no answer to what Minjun asked. Minjun frowned as only words that were not nutritious continued. ‘After all, since my assignment is in the United States, even if you come to Earth, you will hardly ever have anything to do with me.'  

He was trying to close the message in that state, but a line caught his eye again.  

– If you’re going to give it to me, wouldn’t it be nice if you gave me a strong and functional body like a dragon?  

Minjun smiled bitterly. ‘The body of a dragon to a prisoner.'  

This was a sentence that revealed that the life of a reformed labor type is short. As far as Minjun was aware, there was no prisoner who has received a dragon body with a fake body. not even one.  

‘My friend, your dream is too big,' he murmured as he closed the message.

He suddenly thought it was strange. ‘By the way, why not?'

Giving the prisoner a strong body will make his mission easier. Even if it was not an old dragon, if one were to give it the body of a young dragon that was just over 100 years old, it became a powerful weapon that could not be compared with a human in itself.  

‘Come to think of it, I've seen all of my colleagues who have received the body of a star race, but none of them have a dragon body.'  

Was one wary of the inmate's power rising too much? It couldn't be. Even if some of the people who entered the labor reform sentence have the body of an old dragon, the committee had the ability to control it enough.  

‘Why? Why is dragon the only exception?' Minjun's thoughts deepened.