People in Terra, governing a weird little country

The corner of Ernst's mouth twitched and he glanced at Vina beside him. Vina straightened her chest and showed no intention of retreating.

The first rule for diplomats is that you represent your country! Be confident!

Even if Kjerag is not big, you are not small!

Without disturbing Miloqi, Ernst sat down and waited quietly.

If Holhaiya had come back, it was at least half a month ago. Although the memory of Terra Superman was excellent, Ernst was not sure whether Miloqi could remember it.

But don’t be afraid, it’s just a matter of asking a few more people.

I was prepared that Miloqi might not remember it. Before Ernst could say anything, Miloqi suddenly said:

"Well, I have seen this man, and not long ago."

"Where?" Vina, who finally got a chance to speak, instantly interrupted Ernst.

Miloqi blinked and recalled: "Three nights ago, in the Science and Technology Industrial Park. He was with a Liberi."

"I was passing by there...well, I was going to see if I could pick up some parts to build Durin 259, and I heard them talking about some weird stuff."

"Monsters?" Ernst couldn't help himself.

Logically speaking, Miloqi should have no reason to lie to him, but what she said was indeed a bit too unbelievable.

Let’s not talk about the fact that you go to the Science and Technology Industrial Park to pick up some parts in the middle of the night. Is it possible that in your city of Durin, all kinds of modified parts are actually everywhere? (Really)

Could things like demons and monsters really be discussed by two people who obviously had secrets in Tremont, a science and technology park, in the middle of the night?

It seems that Holhaiya is not coming back, so why is he holding a courage contest in Tremont? It's not even summer yet.

If you want to play, come back and play, Ernst can arrange it for her. If Holhaiya wants to play something exciting, Ernst can ask Nasti to help.

It is said that the demon can scare children to tears, and the mountain snow ghost can stop children from crying at night. If Ernst lets the demon and the mountain snow ghost take turns appearing on the window of Holhaiya's bedroom, is there a chance that Holhaiya's crying can be combined into a Chopin nocturne?

Not to mention, Ernst also has some artistic pursuits.

Ahem, I’m getting off topic.

"Can you be more specific? For example, what were they talking about, or which area of ​​the industrial park were they in?"

"Well--"

After falling into deep thought for a while, Miloqi said uncertainly,

"They seem to be discussing...the Fire Demon?"

Fire demon?

When Ernst heard this term, he broke out in a cold sweat.

He turned his head and glanced at the calendar on the wall, then lowered his head and looked at the watch on his wrist.

Turtle, isn't this the point?

The Flame Demon incident?

Chapter 181 Ernst: I don’t know what I should know. I don’t know this.

The so-called Balrog incident was a series of major accidents caused by an accident in the Balrog Project led by Rhine Life. In addition to causing almost all researchers involved in the Balrog Project to be infected with mineral sickness, except for a few survivors, the Balrog awakened in the body of the experimenter Ifrit, and indirectly led to the intensification of the conflict between Rhine Life's founder and defense director Saria and Rhine Life's general manager Christen, and eventually parted ways.

The above content is all that Ernst knows about the Balrog incident.

Apart from that, Ernst knew nothing about what triggered the Balrog plan, why it would happen, when it would happen, what the process was, and what the inside story was about the Balrog's awakening.

The most troublesome thing is that the intelligence is completely opaque.

Before Ernst came to Columbia, he had never thought about guarding against the Balrog incident. Firstly, he really didn't know the exact time of the Balrog incident, and secondly, Christen was still in Kjerag!

Christen's passion for the aerospace industry is unquestionable. Ernst looked up more than once on his way home from get off work and saw that the temporary street lights built on the Matterhorn mountain road were still on. Although he and Christen met only a few times, Christen would describe the progress of the research station construction in an almost fanatical tone almost every time.

Therefore, Ernst really didn't think that a scientist who was now fully committed to the "Dome Project" would be distracted to manipulate Columbia's "Evil Demon Project".

But no matter how much he doubted, when the word "Flame Demon" came out of Miloqi's mouth and was related to Holhaiya, it meant that Ernst could no longer sit idly by.

It would be best if Miloqi heard it wrong.

But in case she heard correctly...

To guard against this, Ernst Shivaash was standing in front of the Rhine Life Gate at this moment.

The security guards from the Defense Department had already gone in to inform Acting Chief Director Saria, and a moment later, Ernst saw the figure of the Columbia Science Superman walking out of the Rhine Life Building.

Saria was wearing a long brown trench coat, which was a popular style in Tremon this month, and it somewhat broke Ernst's stereotype of Saria.

She took the initiative to extend her hand and greet Ernst and Vina:

"You two, Christen has already greeted me. You came to Tremont to look for someone, right? Why don't you share Ms. Holhaiya's information with me? Rhine Life can also help a friend a little."

Vina was about to decline the offer as Ernst had said when he came, but Ernst smiled and nodded, took out a photo of Holhaiya from his arms, and handed it to Saria:

"Then I'll trouble Director Saria to help."

Saria took the photo of Holhaiya, frowned slightly in surprise at a glance, and looked at Ernst:

"this......."

Before Saria could finish, Ernst interrupted her as if he had foreseen the future:

"This is my employee. She should have returned to Kjerag a week ago, but she hasn't returned yet. I guess she might have been involved in some trouble in Tremont and couldn't get out of it, or even been coerced by bad guys and had to do something dangerous. But no matter what, she is my employee. Since I'm here, I must bring her back safely."

These words are the first step to characterize Holhaiya's behavior.

From the expression on Saria's face when she took the photo, Ernst was almost certain that the information Miloqi had heard about the "Flame Demon Incident" was absolutely true. Moreover, Saria had probably dealt with Holhaiya overtly or covertly, and at least caught some of Holhaiya's flaws.

Ernst couldn't let her speak. No matter what Holhaiya was doing now, whether voluntarily or forced, she was undoubtedly involved in a far-reaching experiment of Rhine Life, and might even be related to the Colombian military.

It would be fine if Saria revealed the clue about Holhaiya, but if she said something like "I've seen this person before, isn't she a spy?", then this matter would not end well.

Putting aside the issue of interfering with the internal affairs of Rhine Life, an important partner of Kjerag, should he say that he knew about Holhaiya's affairs or not?

Knowing the truth, and allowing his men to act as spies or saboteurs to cause trouble for a star company in Colombia, what was Ernst's intention?

If Ernst knew about it, would it mean that he would have to make some statement? Would he be in a very embarrassing situation?

Some of you may wonder, if Holheya was a spy from the beginning, and Ernst only found out about it now, what does this have to do with him? Why did he make a statement?

This is actually a very simple truth.

Just like in the original world line, during the Snow Mountain Incident, Nosis Edwards arranged for Moshi, a hidden agent who was originally ambushing under Hulus's men, to try to assassinate Enthiotis during the Holy Hunting Ceremony.

From the beginning to the end, Hugh Rose Blanto, Moshi's apparent master, was unaware of the matter.

But when the truth came out and Moshi was arrested, everyone asked Hulus to speak out first. Boss Yin even used this as an excuse to put all the blame on Latatos and Hulus, labeling them as traitors like Actor.

The reason is simple. Whoever is the subordinate is responsible. Even if the matter is given by someone else without authorization or secretly, if something goes wrong, when the boss wants to find someone to be responsible, the first person he will look for is your direct supervisor.

People will only believe that what they see is the fact. As long as they find that a person did something wrong and his boss was beaten for it, the public's nerves, which have the shortest line segment between two points, will come to a very reversed causal relationship - whoever gets beaten must have made a mistake!

Why did you get beaten if you didn't make any mistakes?

Don’t think this is outrageous, there are many such remarks, from top to bottom, everywhere.

There is a judge above who asked you to help him if you didn't hit him. There was a rat head and duck neck incident below, and many people were reflecting and blaming him so much that they wanted to tear down the State Administration for Market Regulation.

Although Ernst had never been hit by such a punch when he was a civil servant, even if he had never eaten pork, had he never seen a pig run?

He knew very well that even if he wanted to settle the troubles caused by Hol Haiya, whether it was to fire her or to pinch her G-spot hard to make her scream and wail, he had to wait until he caught the feathered serpent and then deal with it internally.

Externally, we must suppress it. It is best to reduce a big incident to a small one, or a small incident to nothing. If the Flame Demon incident can be prevented, it would be best. If it cannot be prevented, at least the impact must be minimized. Do not attract the attention of Rhine Life and the Columbian military.

Otherwise, the impact would be too bad. He couldn't accept the accusation that Kjerag's government officials interfered in foreign military affairs and stole scientific research secrets!

Having quickly formulated the next battle plan in his mind, Ernst kept a smile on his face and looked at the somewhat stunned Saria:

"Does Director Saria have any clues about her?"

"I........"

"If so, that really helps me a lot. This is not the place to talk. I wonder if Director Saria can take me on a tour of Rhine Life, and we can talk while we walk?"

Ernst suggested.

Saria looked at Ernst deeply, then nodded:

"Of course, Mr. Ernst didn't have the chance to visit Rhine Life last time he came. Christen is not here, so I will be the host this time."

She moved aside to make way for Ernst:

"Mr. Ernst, Ms. Vina, please."

..........

It was impossible to talk while walking. Saria just took Ernst around the Rhine Life Building and then came to her office.

Although she is the acting chief executive, she does not work in Kristen's office.

Christen herself didn't even use that place, as it was too spacious for Saria. There were no sandbags, no boxing ring, no fitness equipment, and no props suitable for her Originium skills training.

Sitting down in her office chair, Saria frowned, looked at the two visitors who were also slowly sitting down in front of her, and expressed the doubts that had been in her heart since just now:

"Mr. Ernst, Ms. Vina, you really don't know?"

Vina shook her head blankly: "Know what?"

Ernst asked in return: "Should I know?"

For a moment, Saria couldn't tell whether the two were playing charades or really knew nothing about it.

"Isn't Hol Haiya your subordinate and colleague? Don't you have any knowledge or investigation about her?"

Ernst shook his head. “I know everything about my subordinates. But only the parts I think I should know.”

"As for the investigation, you mean the background security check, right?"

"I'm sorry, but Kjerag is not yet capable of conducting that level of investigation. Besides, I don't advocate conducting too many investigations on employees. As long as he is talented and does not violate my principles, I can accept him no matter who he is."

Vina immediately agreed with a "hmm". After that, she looked at Ernst twice and continued to agree with a "hmm".

Try to analyze what kind of mood Vina reflects through the two "hmm"s.

Ernst did this for a reason. Background checks are indeed a very important part of recruitment, but Ernst thought about it again and again and still did not implement this principle when recruiting his own employees.

Firstly, according to the rules he knew about the review of civil servants in his previous life, there were probably few people in Terra who could pass. Those who passed were pure and honest. Considering the speed of pollution in Terra, the minimum age for Ernst's recruitment was estimated to be reduced from high school graduation to birth.

Secondly, Kjerag doesn't have the conditions, and most of the time there is no need for that.

Ernst had already recruited the purest people in the world, except for babies—kind college students! If he conducted a strict investigation, who knows what he might find out?

Apart from making himself unhappy, can Ernst find something better out of this shit?

Besides, the one he recognized would eventually have to be brought back to Kjerag. Bringing Kjerag back meant that he would have to be watched and examined by Yelagund.

Although Yelagund does not have the ability to read minds and see whether others have bad intentions, as long as he is around, even if these people have bad intentions, they will not be able to cause any trouble.

Facts have proved that Hol Haiya had never caused trouble before. Ernst and her cooperated well, and a lot of the subsidies from Wen Duoduo were counted on her.

Perhaps after this, Ernst will change his strategy and conduct a symbolic investigation. But as he said, it is just symbolic.

A real spy cannot be found out at all. A fake spy... can there be a fake spy?

Sherag had quite a few spies, including Daphne, Ravshini, Ahmoni, Mandra, a skilled worker in loosening soil, plastering and moving stones at construction sites, and a Miss Ceylon who was not sure if she could be considered a commercial spy.

One more is not too much, one less is not too little. Ernst will hire anyone who has talent and can contribute to Kjerag's development.

"OK then."

I really didn't expect Ernst's attitude to be like this. Saria rubbed her head and said,

"So what are you planning to do here?"

"Help you." Ernst said, "Like I said, I don't know what Holhaiya is doing, but Director Saria, you may know."

"So, you can totally 'use me' and let me find my missing employee without 'knowing' and help you solve this trouble, right?"

Chapter 182: Cleverly Making People Who Should Not Be Offended Feel That They Have Not Been Offended

Columbia, Rhein Life, Office of the Director of Defense Section.

Saria looked at Ernst with interest.

What Ernst said is interesting. Even if you don't know the truth, can you still help?

He had a good plan. He wanted to save Holhaiya, but didn't want to get involved in it?