Why am I even debating this?
Enten furrowed his brows but couldn’t easily press the shutdown button.
Normally, data query logs cannot be deleted.
This is fundamentally for information security and log data accumulation, and deliberately deleting query logs was only possible with the highest authority, such as the Director’s.
Honestly, from his perspective, he could simply assume it was deleted and click the shutdown button to be done with it.
That would end all his worries, but the reason he was creating trouble for himself was that he couldn’t shake off an uneasy feeling.
He had a feeling that if he just let this go without knowing, he wouldn’t be at peace.
Sometimes ignorance is bliss, and this could be unnecessary meddling.
Still, since he had come this far, Enten decided not to overthink it anymore.
In times like this, it’s best to follow his heart.
Following the supreme teaching of his wife, which stated that sometimes one must follow a strong gut feeling, Enten hurriedly turned on the program’s administrator module.
It was difficult to delete something, but restoring what had been deleted was fully possible for an Esper proficient in this field.
The situation would be different if she had used a separate tool, but Enten didn’t think Hoapilen would have been so thorough as to anticipate the recovery.
Anyway, a few minutes later, Enten, having coded the recovery, pressed execute, and the desired information finally appeared.
[1 item of recovered information browsing list – Ben Plaskun.]
‘Hmm, I knew it.’
Enten’s suspicion was confirmed.
Conversely, it would have been stranger if a completely unrelated person had appeared in the current situation.
The Director’s authority allowed her to browse the information of all Guides, and Ben Plaskun had been a hot potato within the Central high-ranking officials recently.
So, it was possible to check it out of curiosity once.
She could check it, but simply needing a Guide’s information was possible using the computers in the Director’s or Deputy Director’s office.
It wasn’t necessary to come all the way here, nor was it necessary to delete the record.
If there was information that even the final decision-maker couldn’t receive while sitting at their desk, and was only viewable in the Guide Information Development Office, it was this:
[※ Access Restriction.
This is sensitive information requiring verification of the individual. Viewing is impossible without biometric verification of the registered Guide.
If necessary, please view after consultation with the Guide in question. Furthermore, the external disclosure of Guide information is subject to legal sanction, and violators will be severely punished according to related laws.]
‘Yes, this is normal.’
The warning message that appeared with an alarm was nothing new.
Intimate details, including a Guide’s personal biometric information, could not be accessed without the consent of the person concerned, regardless of the information viewing access level.
Moreover, information on special personnel like Guides and Espers, who constitute a minority of the population, was even more protected because they are vulnerable to public interest and enemy threats.
Therefore, this could not be the end of it.
Enten’s rational suspicion was that Hoapilen would not have come all the way here just to access information anyone could see.
He fueled his thoughts with the quince tea, his mind running in circles.
Information with restricted access wasn’t truly impossible to view by anyone other than the person concerned.
Although complex security technologies like encryption were applied, it was theoretically possible to reverse the process.
To actually execute it, it was a very cumbersome and difficult task that required piercing through several firewalls and searching for the smallest loopholes in the security system, but the conclusion was that it could be done.
Because there was special authority granted only to the Director of the Central Eternita Branch.
Enten entered the code to extract the remaining trace data into the command prompt and executed it.
Extracting the traces, not directly querying the information, was possible with a spontaneously coded program, given Enten’s level of experience.
After waiting a short while, the loading finished, and the program screen opened again.
‘……What the.’
Enten, who had been typing on the keyboard, stretched his neck and focused on the screen that appeared.
Even though the content wouldn’t change no matter how many times he read it, Enten even placed his finger on the monitor and reread it carefully.
But he didn’t know.
It was the answer he was looking for, but it only raised new questions, not provided the answer itself.
‘Why would the Director need this…?’
Enten could not understand the reason why she had gone to the cumbersome trouble of directly copying Ben Plaskun’s biometric information.
The only thing he could know was the trace data left in the system, whose intent was unknown.
Only Hoapilen knew where the copied data was moved and for what reason.
‘Would it have been better to suppress my wretched curiosity and press the shutdown button?’
The matter he started because of an uneasy feeling was not resolved at all, leaving only an unpleasant taste.
His current feeling wouldn’t clear up by tracing her steps further.
The source of the feeling Enten felt was closer to an ominous premonition about an unknown future event than the reason for Hoapilen’s actions.
Browsing biometric information without the person concerned was illegal, and copying and moving the data was even more illegal.
The actions Hoapilen had taken as Director were, in short, all illegal.
It was only a natural result that he, as Deputy Director, had to worry about what he should do.
‘First, I must inform the person concerned.’
Enten’s first thought was to inform Ben, the person involved.
It was better to know something than to suffer something without knowing.
He had initially intended to respect his superior’s privacy and ignore her minor misbehavior, but now that he knew it wasn’t ‘minor,’ that was no longer possible.
He must try to correct the wrongdoing.
When the Director was losing her mind and going astray, it was the duty of him, the Deputy Director, to remain fully alert for the sake of his subordinates.
He wished to talk to the Director at the earliest opportunity, but since she had abruptly bolted from her seat, it seemed honestly unlikely when he would be able to see her.
It looked like her absence wouldn’t be a matter of one or two days.
Then, he needed to establish some countermeasures first.
Enten planned to strengthen the security program to prevent further information leakage after informing Ben.
In addition, he decided to re-examine the response plan for leakage and investigate whether there were other leakage incidents.
And if possible, to find out what Hoapilen intended to use Ben’s information for.
Just a little thought revealed a mountain of tasks ahead.
Enten, holding his aching head, heard the increasingly audible voices of the employees from afar.
He restored the information to its original state, shut down the computer, and left the spot.
He had a feeling that a fierce storm was about to blow through the Central.
He hoped it wouldn’t come, but just as humans cannot control nature, it felt like a storm that would eventually turn everything into a wasteland.
*
‘A sharp ache.’
“Ugh—!”
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
It was an unexpected, sudden pain.
While walking as usual, Ben reflexively grabbed his ankle and stumbled due to a sudden, sharp ache in his left ankle when he put his weight on it.
If Haimar had been by his side, he would have caught him before he collapsed, but Haimar was unavoidably absent.
Only Elgran was walking next to him, so Ben barely caught his balance just before sitting down on the ground.
‘This is very strange.’
Lately, his left ankle had been aching like this out of nowhere.
Ben, who was trying to figure out why his ankle was acting up, thought he should first move his steps, which had suddenly come to a halt, blocking the way.
He gently stepped on the ground and put his weight on it a few times, confirmed it was fine, and immediately started moving his legs.
“No. It’s nothing. I think I just briefly sprained it.”
“A sprain is a sprain; what’s a brief sprain?”
Elgran, who rebuked him with a suspicious look, grabbed the shoulder of Ben, who had just started walking again.
Although his words were blunt, he seemed genuinely concerned.
However, Ben was just as surprised, which explained his strange wording.
The pain was on a different level from what happens when you step wrongly or twist your ankle, feeling like a thunderclap in his ankle.
The pain was so intense that he briefly thought the bone had broken, even though there was no snapping sound.
Curiously, it was perfectly fine now, as if nothing had happened.
It wasn’t warm to the touch, nor was it swollen.
There was no more pain.
The ankle was completely normal, except that his skin was slightly cold due to the outside chill.
‘This is baffling.’
He clearly felt the pain, yet he was completely fine now.
He pondered his past, wondering if he had ever injured his ankle, but no specific memory came to mind.
In terms of timing… perhaps after Ellyn’s birthday party?
Or maybe it was one of the injuries he sustained during the Roilnia incident.
He had so many minor, scattered injuries that he couldn’t remember each one, so his ankle could be one of them.
The first time it ached like this, he was confused.
The second and third times, he dismissed it.
But as the frequency slowly increased and it happened a few more times, it was starting to become a source of worry.
Furthermore, since it hurt quite strongly this time, he had a plausible suspicion that there might still be some aftereffects remaining.
Aftereffects would naturally heal with time, but he didn’t want to cause Haimar unnecessary worry over something like this.
Ben, who decided he should visit the Central infirmary sometime, reassured Elgran.
“I’m truly fine now. Don’t worry.”
