"Doctor, do you know something?"
Zephyr felt there was more to Oran's words, and his brow furrowed. The military demanded concise, clear speech. This sort of talk that needed guessing was what Zephyr disliked most.
"No, I was just talking nonsense while drunk. Looking for patterns is actually quite a fun game."
Seeing that the liquor in Oran's glass had gone down a layer and was nearly spilling out as he swirled it, Zephyr said nothing more. He selectively skipped over the subject and casually began talking about things like ideals.
Yet those riddle-like words left a thorn in his heart, constantly stirring Zephyr's curiosity. At the moment, he could not understand what connection there could be between the pattern of Navy deployments and the nature of justice.
"Sometimes, you have to understand the difference between justice and order. Perhaps one day, you'll hear the newspapers call me the world's greatest villain."
Oran spoke those rather absurd words in a joking tone. Zephyr did not take them seriously at the time. Much later, he would finally realize what Oran's words truly meant.
"You can't really trust what newspapers say, either. Recently, a new newspaper company called the World Economic News Agency has emerged. Its president seems to be named Morgans.
"He trained a new kind of News Coo to deliver newspapers. They have a wide reach—you can see those birds everywhere on the sea. It's just that his papers often exaggerate the outcomes of events, so quite a few Navy people dislike him."
Before they knew it, Zephyr and Oran had moved on to a new topic: the part of a middle-aged man's drinking session where he complained about current affairs.
"That kid has some nerve. He even poached people from the Navy's photography division, and he really did lure