Chapter 19
Inside the Nautilus, Christie was examining the two bottles of oral candy that Vladimir had just handed her.
Romain Rolland and Jules Verne were keeping an eye on Vladimir and Barry, who were fighting, and were preventing them from using their abilities over a wide area.
Using "Lives of Great Men" to transform into Jules Verne, Romain Rolland, juggling a stone ball in his hand, stands on either side of the real Verne, like two door gods staring intently at Vladimir and Barry.
There's no other reason than that I don't trust these two old children.
Regardless of the deterrent effect, it's quite pleasing to the eye for Romain Rolland and Jules Verne to stand together now that they look almost identical and are quite handsome.
— Jules Verne was just forty, while Romain Rolland looked like he was in his twenties.
They look the same, but on the left is a vibrant young man in his twenties, and on the right is a charming (and still very handsome) middle-aged man.
However, Agatha Christie, this straight-laced woman, was still intently studying the bottle in her hand and the candy inside.
The young Verne—Romain Rolland—turned to Agatha Christie and asked, "Christie, what are you doing?"
“Look at this bottle.” Agatha pointed to a lemon that Exupéry was holding up, which Vladimir had deliberately transformed back into as a display piece—“Exupéry, this is a bomb, isn’t it?”
Standing quietly beside Christie, Exupé nodded obediently: "Vladimir said it wasn't that person's ability to turn lemons into bombs, but that all these lemons were bombs, and then he brought them all back."
After saying that, Exupé tilted his head and thought for a moment, then added, "I did see a few lemons explode before."
“That’s very strange.” Agatha shook the small bottle in her hand.
"Isn't Vladimir's ability only to turn food into food? Why are these bombs turning into candy?"
Let's congratulate Miss Christy on discovering the blind spot.
Having also heard what Christie said, Vladimir abandoned Barry and rushed over: "Whoa! Did I get tricked by that bowl-cut guy?!"
As he spoke, Vladimir picked up a candy and snapped his fingers, turning it back into a lemon.
"But it definitely feels like a handmade bomb, doesn't it?"
Vladimir glanced at Barry, who was approaching, and threw the lemon in his hand at Barry without any mercy.
"What are you doing, you pervert?!"
The lemon suddenly became blurry in mid-air, as if it had been placed inside frosted glass, and then all that could be seen was a blurry burst of light.
The fire had just lit up when it abruptly stopped.
“This is definitely a bomb.” Barry shook his finger, and the explosive mass in the air rewound as if from a rewind, finally turning back into a perfectly intact lemon—“Then why did it turn into food? Can this bomb be eaten?”
As he spoke, Barry flicked his wrist, and the lemon in mid-air was thrown back towards Vladimir.
Vladimir, who had already guessed what Barry would do, sneered, caught the lemon, and "Lolita" without stopping instantly turned it back into a candy.
A bomb that exploded upon impact was tossed around by Vladimir and Barry like a harmless toy, utterly devoid of dignity.
Even Romain Rolland and Jules Verne, who were standing to the side, ignored their random bomb-throwing.
Vladimir frowned, held the candy in front of him for a moment, examined it, and then popped it into his mouth.
As a user of his abilities, he is the only one who is not afraid of the bomb suddenly turning back and exploding in his mouth.
He licked the candy in his mouth, and the next instant, Vladimir spat it out expressionlessly.
"It's plastic!"
He actually thought his abilities had evolved.
Christie, Verne, Romain Rolland, Barry: ...
Romain Rolland, who had somehow reverted to his original form, glanced speechlessly at the lemon in Antoine Exupéry's hand, then at the bottle of candy labeled "Lemon Flavor" on the table: "What kind of lame joke is it that a bomb that looks like a lemon turns into a plastic block that looks like a lemon-flavored candy? It's not funny at all."
Verne chuckled and said, "It's really not funny."
Barry tried to keep a serious expression, but the laughter in his voice betrayed him: "What's going on in your head, you pervert?"
Vladimir, whose subconscious was influenced by the "Lolita" effect: "I think I was thinking of stuffing all these bombs into that pot-headed guy's mouth, maybe that's why?"
Verne looked at Vladimir expressionlessly: "So you really almost wasted all those bombs? If Exupé hadn't stopped you?"
Vladimir said, feeling wronged, "I was just thinking about it."
A series of accounts flashed through Verne's mind in an instant. He took a deep breath: "Next time, reduce your budget for purchasing [illegible] by 20%."
Vladimir looked shocked.
"No, you're weakening the organization's fighting capacity!"
"Explain where all those desserts and clothes of yours came from," Verne said coldly. "I'm sure they're all real."
Vladimir: "The weather is really nice today, and we've probably got enough funding."
Everyone ignored him, except for Exupéry.
Upon hearing this, Exupé looked at Vargrave, who was standing behind Christie, with a puzzled expression: "Is there a logical connection between these two sentences?"
Vagrave shook his head gently: "You don't need to worry about this. It's just Mr. Nabokov having another episode."
“(⊙o⊙) Oh, I see.”
Looking at Vladimir, who was rolling around and acting cute with Verne, Exupéry looked at Vagreve earnestly and asked, "Do you need me to get the medicine?"
Wagrave: "No, there's no need for a baseball bat in this situation."
Romain Rolland, who happened to be walking towards Christie and overheard this conversation, said: "..."
#Every night before going to sleep, I feel thankful that this organization hasn't fallen apart yet#
As Romain Rolland walked over to Christie, he casually coaxed Exupé away from being further misled by Vágrave—who knows how Vágrave managed to convince Exupé that hitting the head with a baseball bat is a form of therapy.
Although Exupéry was easily fooled, he also knew when to admit his mistakes and correct them.
Romain Rolland pulled a piece of paper from his leg bag, unfolded it, and laid it on the table in front of Christie.
The paper contained a list of people with supernatural abilities who had committed crimes in Yokohama over the past three months.
"Just in case, I've been compiling this for nearly three months. Anything before that was far beyond the scope of the prophecy and has no reference value whatsoever."
As he spoke, Romain Rolland couldn't help but frown: "However, I haven't found any ability users who can be linked to the 'Human-Tiger,' nor any who resemble those I saw in the prophecy."
Upon hearing this, Christie couldn't help but frown.
"What went wrong?"
Barry, who was watching Vladimir's commotion, floated down and joined in: "Could it be that the prophecy was wrong?"
“How could that be?” Romain Rolland rolled his eyes at the eighty-year-old man whose mental capacity remained that of a child. “That’s the ‘I Ching,’ the world’s strongest prophet.”
"You saw how much effort it took us just to get close, and how long it took to repair the Nautilus after we got out."
Even putting that aside, how many achievements has the "I Ching" made in China's thousands of years of history?
The "Book of Changes" is one of the "Four Books and Five Classics," a strategic superpower that enabled China to maintain its dominant position in the world for thousands of years.
"Speaking of the 'I Ching,' we've become quite famous now, haven't we? How many non-governmental organizations are we, the UN, to have successfully obtained information from the 'I Ching'?"
"The records in the clock tower say that, according to the 'Spring and Autumn Annals,' since the birth of the 'Book of Changes,' eight organizations have stolen its knowledge." Christie glanced at Romain Rolland, who was beaming with pride—"The UN is the ninth organization to steal information. Is this the pinnacle of your infiltration history?"
Romain Rolland made no attempt to hide his excitement.
"Of course, this is a world-class achievement."
"But I remember the I Ching itself predicted that it would have its information stolen twelve times?"
Your actions, as I had predicted, were exactly what I expected.
Romain Rolland was momentarily dejected, but quickly recovered—"But being able to obtain information under such a terrifying blockade still shows how capable we are, doesn't it?"
Christie nodded.
"That's true."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
