The Magician of Sound

"She is…"

The girl was standing behind Paolo, so obviously, he was supposed to be the one who introduced her, but…

"She is Paolo's nanny. Isn't that obvious?" Nathan snorted before making a smug smile.

"You can't be serious. She is my wife, not my nanny!" Paolo snarled and glared at Nathan.

"Pfft!" Ethan, Ria, Jose, and even the president, Brent Joseph, laughed upon this. Just like how they knew about Paolo's personality, they knew how he just dug his own grave.

Kai, on the other hand, was completely stupefied. He closed his eyes, pinched the bridge of his nose, and muttered to himself. "I don't want to be rude… Ugh, even with the gap of thirty years, it shouldn't matter because this is for the sake of repopulating the Earth."

"Pfft!" All of them burst out laughing. They couldn't contain it anymore after seeing how Kai acted.

"You brat! I am the youngest out of the old men here, and I am not even fifty years old!" Paolo slammed the table, corrected Kai, and tried to stop the laughing… With his face red because of the embarrassment… Not very convincing.

"Not fifty years old? But aren't you forty-nine years old? And your birthday is in January!" Nathan teased him again before laughing out loud.

"Besides…" Paolo gritted his teeth as he was about to flare up. "She and I don't even have a twenty years gap!"

After he said that, a hand suddenly grabbed his head, trying to crush his skull.

"Argh!"

When everyone turned around to see who it was that could make Paolo scream, they were shocked to see his wife be the culprit. Her expression sent chills down one's spine even though she still wore her big and gentle smile.

She then came closer and sent a dangerous glint toward Paolo. "What are you saying, honey? Not even twenty years? Are you mistaking? Are you saying I'm old?"

"You are angry at that?" Paolo's face became pale as he couldn't believe that his wife was actually angry about age rather than the embarrassment.

"Anyway, that guy is Paolo's wife. You can call her Erica or Lieutenant Erica since she is officially Paolo's strategist. Paolo himself can't do anything other than storming inside the enemy and blast his way toward the target. Hence, we are calling his wife his nanny. It's not that wrong though." Ria finally introduced her to Kai.

"Well, it's good to have this happy atmosphere. After all, his first wife had fallen in battle, and his second wife passed away after giving birth to his son. This time she chose someone who could stay by his side and treasure her dearly." Nathan added.

"I don't know if you already know about this, but you should be aware of the last Zodiac, Taurus, right?" Ethan asked.

"Yes." Kai nodded without hesitation.

"He is his son." Jose continued the conversation.

"Ah?!" Kai opened his mouth in surprise.

"He is also a muscle brain like him! If only I meet you sooner, I can raise that boy to be a brilliant guy who can master strategy and brawl. And now he is like you, and the only thing he could think is to fight. Geez," Paolo's wife, Erica, said while pinching Paolo's ear.

"I am sorry." Paolo couldn't say anything other than those three words. In fact, he wanted to cry at this moment because of this embarrassment.

However, none of the people inside actually commented on this matter. They could see that Erica seemed to love Paolo from the bottom of her heart despite the age difference, and they felt happy for him.

After all, Paolo had been serving the army for almost thirty years, he deserved this happiness after his dark past. Even Ria and Nathan, who never had the time to deal with something like this, lifted their lips a little.

Kai also closed his eyes and smiled. At the same time, he suddenly thought of another thing that he could consider. He looked at Erica for a few seconds and fell into deep thought.

"What, boy? Don't say that you love me! I already have him!" Erica was taken aback and prepared to correct Kai's way if he truly did what she just told him.

Kai shook his head and smirked. "No. I just think a good idea."

"A good idea?" Nathan lifted his eyebrows as it piqued his interest. It was a phrase that was hard to come out of his mouth, so it must be something special, especially when he saw how confident Kai's face was.

"Yes. I will explain it later if you don't mind." Kai nodded before walking toward the screen and showed the map to them.

"Before you start, I have something to say." Ria stopped him and looked at Brent. "I am going to have my student explore Easter Island along with Sofia Campbell."

"!!!"

Brent furrowed his eyebrows as he suddenly turned serious. "Mind telling me more?"

"It's not a big deal. He will check the site by himself."

"Still, it's hard to go there. In the past, we needed a boat to go there. Because of these magical beasts in the sea, we were unable to do it and sent a helicopter. And yet we had many casualties just to reach that place. You must know the risk yourself. Why do you want to send your student?" Brent glared at Ria, wondering if she actually wanted to send her student to his death.

"Don't think I don't know the fact that you are building a runway there. Knowing there might be a secret in that place, you are doing everything you can to support the investigation. Now, you think I am reckless?" Ria snorted at him.

Brent was the president of this base that was known for his thirst for knowledge. Because of that, he always sent some funds along with his hard-earned money to fund something like this. And to think Ria wants to take advantage of it…

"Look at this. I am doing you a favor in this matter. You should know that my student got recognition from their side, so he might be a clue that you are waiting for. Hence, I am sending him there." Ria glared back, not scared of this president.

"…" Brent's body shook after hearing her and thought it might be a good idea to do that. Still, he tried to change the target to something that needed a smaller cost. "There is actually another site to do this…"

"No. I will have him go there. If you are worried about the cost, I can simply give you. I have too much money that I can't spend anyway. How many do you need? One hundred million? Two hundred million?" Ria snorted and raised her hand as if her victory was nothing but assured.

Brent closed his eyes for a second and nodded his head. "Alri—"

"Since I am the one sponsoring this trip, I want him to get there safely. So, I want the elites to send them there with a few fighter jets to accompany him." Ria didn't let him agree first and threw a condition.

"Are you insane?"

"What? Do you want to bet with me? If my Kai can discover something new, you pay me back all the cost. How's that?" Ria smirked and looked down on him.

"Kh!" Brent clenched his fists for a few seconds and sighed. "Alright. Since you want to throw your money away, I won't stop you. But I won't agree with your bet."

"Hmph! Afraid of losing?" Ria shrugged.

Brent snorted and looked away.

Ria didn't care about this small thing and looked at Kai. "There you have it. Now you can start your presentation about your plan."

'How do you expect me to explain in this tense atmosphere…' Kai sighed inwardly before taking a deep breath and explaining the plan since he had no choice. "This is the map, and we start from here…"

Kai began his explanation, covering everything in his plan. Although there were some questions uttered by the others, he managed to answer them flawlessly. In the end, none of them found a single complaint in his tactic and came to a tacit understanding.

"Good work! You have done your job well." Ria applauded and cheered for Kai after everything was over.

"It's because of Teacher's guidance." Kai shook his head and answered humbly.

"If you can behave like your student, the base will know peace." Nathan sighed as he glanced at Ria Ross.

"Huh? Do you want to die, old man? How about we take this matter outside? Don't worry. I won't injure you too much and make sure you can return to the battlefield in one month." Ria clasped her hand and cracked the bone on her fingers.

"Alright. That's enough." Brent stopped them before looking at Kai mysteriously and asking. "How big is the percentage of success of this plan?"

"The worst will be sixty percent…. Well, I don't know about the soldiers as well, so fifty percent."

"Oi! You are too pessimistic. Our soldiers are better than you think!" Nathan complained while the other generals also nodded in agreement.

"Since that is the case, I will give the official order for this." Brent agreed after watching the generals' expressions. They seemed to be confident with Kai's plan. After that, he suddenly remembered another thing. "By the way, I can see that you are a talented strategist. Coming up with a plan like this already makes you extraordinary. In addition, Ria Ross seems to not help you in this plan… Still, I can't see this great idea of yours. What did you mean by that?"

Although he was only a president, he had served the army in the past and became a lieutenant general in his career. However, even he couldn't recognize the great idea, or it might be because he hadn't returned to the battlefield that his sense grew dull and couldn't recognize the great idea himself. Hence, he asked.

No one couldn't really laugh at him since he is the president of this base anyway. Suddenly, the room turned into silence, allowing Brent to know that he wasn't the only one to get confused about what he stated earlier.

Even Ria Ross, Kai's teacher, couldn't comprehend and felt he had another plan behind this. Ria Ross looked up, closed her eyes, and thought for a moment.

Suddenly, enlightenment came to her as she opened her eyes wide as if shock ran through her body. She looked at Kai for a second, then turned to the president, and laughed out loud. "Haha…! My student is really a genius! I wouldn't be able to understand his plan if he didn't say he has a good idea."

Ria seemed to have deciphered the plan by how she glanced at the president. And yet, no one had a single clue what this pair of student and teacher were thinking. Everyone was still working their brain but to no avail.

They were dying to know Kai's plan as they looked at him to destroy this suspense that was killing them.

Meanwhile, Kai smiled when watching his teacher, took a deep breath, smiled slyly, and finally opened his mouth. "Mr. President… I have a request."