Hearing a knock, I looked up from my work to check the time. It was 4 PM.
I can’t believe it’s this time already... I instinctively began massaging my aching shoulders, but then I heard knocking once again.
“Come in,” I hastily replied.
“Pardon me.” A man wearing glasses entered the room looking quite unwell. I recognized him as an army engineer with the rank of lieutenant general. I gestured for him to sit down, but he refused and then handed me some documents on paper.
“I’m here to report that the inspection of the Noa armor plate we obtained is now complete. Our conclusions are as follows: It is already within our ability to mass-produce armor plates of this type. We discovered no particular points of improvement. We have been unable to obtain a full powered suit, so the full extent of the suit performance remains unclear. However, based on our inspection of this armor plate, we believe that the sixth-generation suit is not significantly different from the fifth-generation suit. In other words, the sixth-generation suit is merely an improved form of the fifth-generation suit. Or to put it more bluntly, the suit is a sham created to—”
“A sham? Have you been watching TV recently? Not just TV. Have you visited any online video sites?”
“Not recently. Though I don’t see the connection,” replied the lieutenant general with a blank face.
It was difficult to stop myself from yelling at him as I told him to look at the screen on my desk as I played back the “Cosmetics Commercial” from Noa that had started airing the day before.
The lieutenant general began to look even less well after watching all five variations of the commercial. By the time he was finished, he looked so pale that I worried he might pass out. “I-Is this CGI?”
“You’d think so. There’s no way for a woman to transform into a princess by using makeup in reality.”
“B-But Mister President! This level of production is...”
The lieutenant general was understandably surprised. My government had asked a major movie production company to inspect the video, and they had told us that there was no evidence that CGI had been used. In other words, Noa had already far surpassed the capabilities of American companies despite having only just established themselves as a movie production company.
Why would Noa resort to making sham weapons when weapons development is their specialty? This lieutenant general must be clueless.
“Now that you’ve seen this, do you still think the suit is a sham?” I demanded.
“But the technology involved in movies and weapons development are so different...”
“You fool!! Weapons development is Noa’s specialty, and yet you think it’s a sham? I’d love to hear how you can be so optimistic. Listen to me. A day after this commercial started airing... at around noon today... Noa’s products completely sold out in cosmetics stores around the world. I’m sure even you can understand how much of an impact this commercial must have had? What’s more, we recently received an audio message from Miki Arakawa herself.”
“The demon lord...? What did she say?”
“She said that the armor plate we’d obtained was an unfinished product. She said that she will deliver a new armor plate via a ‘legitimate route’ in several days from now. She also said, ‘This is merely a gesture of goodwill, and we ask nothing in return.’ What I want to know is whether this country’s intelligence agencies are inferior to a commercial entity? No, it’s more than that... Why did you offend Noa despite all my warnings?! They’re no ordinary company! This incident has already damaged our relationship with Noa. In the future, take more care not to incite their anger!”
I couldn’t resist any longer. I was yelling at the lieutenant general now. He apologized repeatedly and then left the room.
Unbelievable! If they wanted an armor plate, they should have used a legitimate procedure to ask Noa to provide us with one, I fumed. Not only did they anger the demon lord by using covert methods to obtain it, they’ve also created a huge setback for my plans to invite Kouki to visit as a state guest and honored researcher! My wife and my daughter Mary have been looking forward to meeting him...
I’ve scheduled a cabinet meeting this evening to discuss how we might somehow regain Noa’s trust, but this is going to take some sort of ingenious plan.