NOVGO.NET Chapter 200: The Plan...?
Chapter 200: The Plan...?
He returned to the sitting area and sat back down on the plush leather sofa next to Mable.
Meoni was sitting across from him, holding a glass of wine, and immediately burst into a melodic ringing laugh the moment Koya sat down.
"Hahaha! Oh, Hubby, you played that masterfully!" Meoni giggled, wiping a tear from her eye. "Getting two days of seven-star top-floor accommodations for free just because they tried to bug your room? That’s classic Isle City high-society management for you. They’re terrified of real power."
Koya shook his head, picking up a small slice of fruit cake from a platter. "It’s just annoying. Anyway, let’s get down to business. Start the briefing."
He paused, looking at Meoni with a sudden realization.
"By the way," Koya asked, "why isn’t Hakai here personally? She sent a text saying she was delayed with Star Enterprises and Order business, but this seems like a pretty major operation for her to skip out on."
Meoni blinked, stopping mid-sip of her wine. She looked at Koya with a look of genuine utter bewilderment.
"Eh?" Meoni gasped softly. "You... you don’t know? That’s because Boss is pregnant and she’s currently at the high-tier medical facility taking private genetic tests! Didn’t she tell you?"
Silence fell over the plush sitting area.
Koya froze mid-bite, his fork hovering inches from his mouth. His crimson eyes slowly shifted, locking onto Meoni with a sudden, intense stillness.
"...She’s pregnant?" Koya asked quietly.
The moment the words left his mouth, Meoni’s face instantly went pale.
A wave of panic washed over her expression.
Meoni suddenly remembered the strict explicit command Hakai had issued to all Order executives before the mission.
’Nobody tells Koya about the baby. I am going to reveal it to him personally during our private date night.’
’OH NO,’ Meoni screamed internally with her soul practically leaving her body. ’I BROKE BOSS’S DIRECT OATH! SHE IS GOING TO FLAY ME ALIVE AND FEED MY REMAINS TO EVERYONE!’
"W-Wait! Hubby! Wait!" Meoni stammered frantically, waving her hands in the air, her face dripping with sudden nervous sweat. "I-I mean... she’s... maybe she’s not! I mean, it was just a rumor! A test! Don’t tell Boss I said anything! Please! I have so much to live for!"
While Meoni was frantically trying to backpedal and calm the situation down, Mable casually swallowed a piece of dragon-steak, turned her face toward Koya, and spoke up in her cute matter-of-fact childish voice.
"Mama Hakai told me, Papa," Mable said casually, nodding her small head. "She showed me her tummy before we left Star Mansion. I could see the little baby glowing inside her belly with my dragon eyes! Had she not told you yet?"
Meoni slumped back into the sofa cushion, covering her face with both hands, silently weeping.
’It’s over. Boss is going to murder us both.’
Koya sat in silence, staring at his fork. His lips thinned into a tight pale line.
To Meoni, it probably looked like Koya was rising into a terrifying silent rage at being kept out of the loop.
On the contrary, Koya was remarkably calm.
’It’s just like her...’ Koya thought, a soft exasperated sigh escaping his lips. ’It is so typical of Hakai to keep massive life-altering secrets from me until the last possible second so she can orchestrate some grand dramatic reveal.’
This was the second time Koya was going to become a father.
The first time was with Mable... a magical chaotic dragon-daughter who had essentially manifested into his life.
But this time, with Hakai, it was a pregnancy.
He genuinely wanted to be more involved from the ground up... accompanying her to tests, taking care of her cravings, and being a proper partner rather than being treated like a secondary spectator kept in the dark.
’I’ll have a very long and very serious talk with her after this mission is over,’ Koya decided firmly in his mind. ’She isn’t getting away with hiding health updates from me anymore.’
Koya shook his head, clearing his thoughts, and looked back at Meoni, who was still cowering on the opposite sofa.
"Fine," Koya said with his voice perfectly steady. "We’ll deal with Hakai later. Give me the debriefing now. What exactly are we stealing from the Isle City Mafia in the first place? What’s so important that it required this entire elaborate disguise?"
Meoni slowly lowered her hands from her face, letting out a massive gasp of relief when she realized Koya wasn’t about to obliterate her.
She sat up straight, her expression instantly shifting into her sharp professional Order No. 4 persona.
"Right. The target," Meoni began, leaning forward over the table. "The operation has two primary objectives, Hubby. The first target is an ancient classified treasure that has been passed down through the secret vaults of the Isle City Mafia bosses for centuries. In fact, it’s so sensitive that even the White King’s personal guard has been actively searching the City’s black markets to recover it..."
Koya’s crimson eyes widened in genuine surprise.
’The White King’s personal guard?’ Koya thought, his mind racing.
How many items existed on this entire planet that were important enough to draw the personal active tracking of the White King’s elite force?
That wasn’t a standard criminal artifact... That was a high-tier anomaly!
’How the hell is this considered a normal heist mission?’ Koya pondered, glaring slightly at Meoni. ’A target like this should have been personally handled by Hakai herself!’
Meoni continued, oblivious to his internal spiraling.
"The Mafia doesn’t even know its true origin. They just refer to it internally under the code name: Project E.G.D. I don’t have access to the full classified records, but my undercover intel confirms it’s an ancient life-sized crystalline statue of a woman with long, pointed ears. According to the syndicate’s mythos, it holds a sealed spatial core with the power to fundamentally alter the world’s mana structure."
Koya blinked.
His brain completely stalled.
’Long, pointed ears?’ Koya thought, his brows knitting together in utter bewilderment. ’An elf? What the fuck is an elf doing in this world...?’
He had encountered ancient vampires but the concept of classical fantasy elves existing in a post-apocalyptic crest-based Awakened society felt utterly bizarre.
’This world is just getting more and more confusing by the day...’ Koya sighed internally, rubbing his temples.
Suddenly, right in the center of his field of vision, a brilliant, glowing golden interface window materialised out of thin air.
「DING!」
「Congratulations, Host! You have received +40 Fate Points for uncovering another fundamental hidden truth of this world!」
「You have received a Bonus reward... As a special courtesy, the full unredacted name of "Project E.G.D" will be revealed to you by Yours Truly! However, please exercise extreme caution... DO NOT utter this full name out loud in the physical world, or your spiritual memory channels will go ZZT~ and instantly trigger the White King’s laws!」
Koya rolled his eyes internally at the blue screen.
He had honestly partly forgotten he even possessed a System over the last few hours, given how quiet the interface had been during everything.
「The full, banned true designation of Project E.G.D is: "Project Elf God’s Daughter"!」
Koya’s jaw tightened as he read the golden text on the floating screen.
’Elf God’s Daughter...?’ Koya questioned in his mind. ’There was an Elf God?’
Then again, given that Koya had just recently inherited the complete bloodline and core of the Vampire God, the existence of other ancient pantheons or divine species wasn’t completely out of the question.
But the real mystery was Hakai.
How did Hakai know about the statue’s location? How did she know the Isle City Mafia was hiding a piece of a literal divinity in their vault?
Koya felt a headache coming on.
’Yeah... Hakai and I are definitely having a very, very long talk when I get back to Star Mansion.’
Koya reached out, picked up a chocolate tart from the table, took a bite to settle his nerves, and looked back at Meoni.
"Alright," Koya mumbled around the pastry. "That’s the statue. You said there were two objectives. What’s the second thing we’re stealing?"
Meoni grinned wickedly, holding up a single finger.
"The second objective is simple, Hubby," Meoni purred. "We are completely cleaning out the Mafia’s primary central vault beneath the Grand Casino. We’re taking their physical liquidity reserve... Exactly One Trillion Crowns."
COUGH! COUGH! WHEEZE!
Koya instantly choked on his cake.
He clutched his chest, coughing violently as the chocolate pastry nearly went down the wrong pipe.
Mable hastily reached over, patting his back with her small hands while handing him a glass of water.
"A-A Trillion Crowns?!" Koya wheezed out, wiping his mouth with a linen napkin, his crimson eyes bulging in sheer disbelief. "A TRILLION?! What the fuck?! How do you even count that much money?!"
He was driving around with a billion in his car vault and thought that was absurd.
Now Meoni was casually talking about stealing a trillion crowns... a sum of capital so colossal it could literally collapse the entire economy of Isle Supercity in a single night.
Koya slumped back against the soft leather cushions of the 90th-floor Imperial Penthouse, staring up at the grand crystal ceiling, defeated by the scale of his wife’s madness.
’Truly...’ Koya thought, letting out a long, wheezing sigh. ’Being a rich person is fucking stressful.’
Koya rubbed his temples, feeling a fresh headache brewing behind his crimson eyes.
He looked at Meoni or Irene, as her undercover identity was knownand then down at the empty plates of room service treats scattered across the low glass table.
"A trillion Crowns," Koya muttered, his voice flat with disbelief. "And a world-altering, sealed divine statue. Right. So how the hell are we supposed to actually execute this whole plan? How do we steal Project E.G.D and a trillion Crowns without turning Isle Supercity into a total warzone?"
Meoni leaned back against the plush leather cushions, a confident smirk playing across her lips.
She swirled the golden wine remaining in her glass before taking a slow sip.
"The entry point is simple, Hubby," Meoni explained smoothly. "You have to befriend the Boss of the Isle City Mafia tomorrow night."
Koya stared at her like she had just spoken in ancient telepathic runes.
"Befriend him? The syndicate boss holding a divinity and a trillion in cash? How the hell am I supposed to manage all of that? Is the guy just hanging out in the open waiting to make friends?"
"Pretty much, yeah," Meoni giggled, waving her hand dismissively. "He spends almost every evening in the private VIP lounge of the Grand Casino. And given the absurd identity the Order crafted for you... Lord Albano Shirou, the silver-haired, crimson-eyed mega-whale who just dropped ten million credits to kick an entire floor of nobles out of their rooms... every single player in the criminal underworld is practically drooling over you now. You’re the biggest target in the city."
Koya let out a dry exasperated breath.
"I can only hope the backstory isn’t too extra. I explicitly told Hakai before I left that I wanted a unique grounded background, not some ridiculous cliché protagonist trope. I already look like a silver-haired anime protagonist with these crimson eyes. If she gave me some absurdly edgy, tragic backstory, it’s just going to piss me off."
Meoni covered her mouth to stifle another laugh.
"Well, let’s just say it’s... tailored. Phase two of the mission begins at the casino tomorrow night. I’ll pick you up from the hotel in my executive transport. We’ll head straight to the high-stakes floor, you’ll drop some massive bets to get his attention, and then you’ll sit down at his private table to play a few games."
"And then?" Koya pressed, raising an eyebrow. "I just play cards with him and he hands over the keys to his vault?"
"Not quite," Meoni replied, her purple eyes flashing with tactical sharp intelligence. "The Boss is extremely paranoid and normally keeps his inner circle strictly locked down but your crafted backstory was tuned to mirror his own life experiences almost perfectly. Once you establish a rapport over the cards... two grieving ruthless moguls who built empires out of tragedy, you’ll be able to get close enough to slip a high-grade Order truth-serum into his drink. Once he’s drugged, he’ll spill the exact bypass codes, spatial keys, and security routines for the vault. We’ve tested it on several Silver crest people before."
Koya leaned back, crossing his arms as he studied her.
"Hold on. You’ve been undercover inside the Isle City Mafia for six months as a senior executive I’m guessing. If it’s as simple as drugging him, why haven’t you done it yourself already?"
Meoni shrugged, her expression turning slightly more serious.
"Because the guy is on the verge of achieving a Silver Crest breakthrough. His physical durability and mana perception are ridiculously high. More importantly, he has Project E.G.D on a dead-man’s lockdown. If his life force drops unexpectedly or if he registers a hostile attack from an insider, the containment array automatically triggers a total purge. The statue gets vaporized into the void, and the vault locks down forever."
She paused, taking another sip of wine.
"It’s going to be a delicate, high-stakes operation but Boss Hakai estimates the entire heist will be wrapped up within a week, provided we play our cards right tomorrow night."
Koya frowned slightly. "And what makes her so confident that I can get close enough to a paranoid, near-Silver Crest mafia boss to drug him in a single evening?"
Meoni smiled softly, shifting her gaze over to Mable, who was currently lying on her belly on the sofa, happily kicking her feet while munching on a chocolate-covered strawberry.
"Because both of you are girl dads," Meoni said simply. "His daughter is the only thing in this entire world he actually cares about. Seeing you with Mable... it’s going to break through his defenses faster than any blade."
Koya looked over at Mable, whose draconic ears twitched happily at the mention of her name.
He softened, shaking his head. "Right..."
DING-DONG!
The penthouse intercom chimed again, cutting through the conversation.
"Ah, that’s the replacement room service," Koya said, pushing himself up from the sofa. "Excuse me for a second."
He walked across the vast marble living room to the heavy mahogany front doors, unlocking the latch and pulling them open.
Standing outside was a middle-aged female server pushing a brand-new, gleaming gold service cart loaded with piping-hot, newly prepared dishes. She was trembling slightly with her eyes fixed nervously on the floor.
"L-Lord Albano!" the server stammered, bowing deeply. "I deeply apologize for the previous incident! The General Manager personally selected me to oversee your dining! Every single ingredient was prepared in an isolated high-security kitchen under my direct supervision! I assure you there are no devices or intrusions!"
Koya used his Vampire King X-ray vision to scan the cart top to bottom. It was completely clean.
"It’s fine. Thank you," Koya said smoothly, stepping aside as she wheeled the cart into the dining alcove and set up the steaming platters of roasted meats, fresh bread, and savory soups.
Once she finished setting the table, the server backed away, bowing nervously. "Please enjoy your meal, My Lord. If you require anything else, please contact the main kitchen directly."
Koya looked at her trembling hands.
Despite the hotel management being corrupt and incompetent, this server was clearly just a regular worker trying to do her job under immense stress.
He reached into his inner suit jacket, pulled out a sleek gold-embossed chequebook provided in his travel kit, and casually scribbled a figure onto the parchment.
He tore the cheque off with a sharp sound.
"You did well," Koya said, handing the slip of paper to her. "Take this."
The server took the cheque with trembling fingers.
When her eyes landed on the handwritten denomination... 100,000 Crowns, her entire body froze.
A hundred thousand Crowns. That was more than three years of her base salary at the hotel!
"M-My Lord...!" The server’s eyes filled with sudden overwhelming tears.
Before Koya could react, she dropped straight to her knees on the hard marble floor, clutching the cheque to her chest and bowing her head until her forehead touched his polished shoes.
"Thank you! Thank you so much, Lord Albano! Bless you! May the White King grant you eternal prosperity!"
She even went as far as pressing a quick frantic kiss against the leather tip of his shoe in emotional gratitude before scrambling back to her feet, wiping her eyes, and bowing repeatedly as she backed out of the penthouse.
Koya stood in the doorway, staring at the closed door with an utterly bizarre, uncomfortable expression on his face.
’Man... that felt super weird,’ Koya thought, rubbing the back of his neck as he walked back inside. ’I really hate giving out free money left and right like some arrogant snob... but what choice do I have? This is literally my wife’s money, and playing the absurd billionaire is the entire foundation of the mission.’
He let out a quiet sigh, staring down at his Storage Ring.
’Seriously though... just how much damn money does Hakai actually have? She hands out billions like pocket change.’
Shaking off the thought, Koya returned to the dining area where Meoni and Mable were already waiting.
For the next hour, the three of them sat around the dining table, enjoying the fresh, high-grade meal.
Mable happily chattered away between bites of roasted meat and sweet pastries, thoroughly enjoying her role as a rich young lady in a luxury hotel.
Once the meal was finished and the dishes were cleared, Meoni stood up from the table, smoothing down her burgundy suit jacket and checking her sleek wrist-comm.
"Well, Hubby," Meoni said, her sultry voice dropping into a low intimate purr. "I have to return to the Mafia’s executive headquarters before my absence raises suspicions. I’ll arrive here tomorrow evening at exactly eight o’clock to pick you up for the casino."
"Got it," Koya nodded, walking her toward the penthouse exit. "Stay safe out there, Irene."
They stopped near the entryway, well out of line of sight from where Mable was sitting in the living room playing with her handheld gaming device.
Meoni paused near the heavy mahogany door, turning around to face Koya. Her purple eyes gleamed with a sudden, playful hunger.
"Right... Boss’s Husband," Meoni purred softly, stepping dangerously close to him until her chest nearly brushed his shirt. "Before I leave, I have to give you a gift."
Koya raised an eyebrow, stepping back slightly. "A gift? What kind of gift?"
Meoni tilted her head, offering a sweet, innocent smile that didn’t match the predatory look in her eyes at all. "May I have permission to kiss you on the lips?"
Koya blinked, frowning.
"Meoni, we talked about this—"
"It’s not just a pass at you, I promise!" Meoni interrupted quickly, holding up her hands in a defensive gesture, though her cheeks flushed with a pink tint. "It’s the Order’s high-tier operational sync protocol! By sharing a direct, mana-infused kiss, I can establish a private, un-interceptable telepathic link between our spiritual cores... Tomorrow night in the casino, the Mafia’s anti-magic arrays will be running at full capacity. Standard comms will be completely jammed. If we share my core link now, we can talk in each other’s minds without casting a single spell!"