Minnesota, Minneapolis.
Located in the northeastern part of the central United States, this city straddled the Mississippi River and, together with neighboring Saint Paul to the east, was known as the Twin Cities.
From a village that had initially relied on waterfall hydropower, it had gone through economic development in flour milling, logging, and other industries, with the Mississippi River serving as its engine.
Step by step, it had grown into a city of its current scale.
"Minne" meant "water" in an Indian language, and with twenty-two beautiful little lakes throughout the city, it was also called the City of Lakes.
But for foreigners, most had probably never heard of this place. Even if they had, it was likely because of a certain Black man's name. After all, it was nowhere near as world-famous as San Francisco or Los Angeles.
Its economy was decent, its development was decent, and it probably ranked somewhere in the forties among American cities. With its beautiful lakes, the environment was quite nice.
In short, it was a city suited for recuperation, comfortable living, and retirement.
And perhaps because it had taken a liking to those qualities, one of Fies Erde's two pillar giants in the Medical Field, a medical device company possessing world-leading technology,
Litton Me's headquarters was located here.
Yet he had not arrived at the headquarters building as the empire's chief executive, nor had he taken in the beautiful scenery of this lake city in the downtown area.
North of downtown Minneapolis, a standard black stretch luxury car was parked by the roadside beneath the afternoon sun. Two small Black Shadows slipped out through the lowered window,
and flew toward the large factory whose outline had already become clearly visible in the distance.
Then, a full thirty minutes later,
inside the black