Money Keeps Piling Up No Matter How Much I Spend

Chapter 142

Translator: Dreamscribe"What about the supply? Is it going smoothly without any issues?"

“Yes. As soon as the negotiations ended, Russia sent natural gas as if they had been waiting. It seems we’ll be able to receive the supply just like before.”

Only then did Chancellor Olaf feel at ease.

He had worried that the negotiation process might face difficulties, but it seemed Russia was just as desperate.

“What about the Eastern European countries that used to receive natural gas from us?”

“We informed them in advance. After the negotiations with the EU fell apart, they were looking elsewhere for natural gas, but now they’ve canceled all the ongoing contracts and said they’ll trade with us again.”

Germany’s status had been reestablished.

Hadn’t it played the role of a hub for natural gas, delivering resources to all of Eastern Europe?

Thanks to that, the economy, which had been on the verge of collapse, could be salvaged.

“Did Russia bring up the war during the negotiations?”

“No. Since it’s a sensitive issue for both sides, it seemed they were trying to avoid bringing it up. War is war, and the things we need from each other are separate, so they seemed to have drawn a clear line.”

Someone might ask that question.

Don’t you feel any pangs of conscience?

After all, aren’t you trading with a country that started a war?

But Chancellor Olaf could place his hand on his chest and speak with confidence.

He didn’t feel a single bit of guilt.

This wasn’t done for himself.

It was done for this country and its people, who would suffer from this situation.

If the supply of natural gas were cut off and the economy collapsed, then who would take responsibility for that?

He had only joined hands with Russia again to prevent such a catastrophe.

There was no shame in it.

“What about support for Ukraine... what should we do?”

“They must know we’re trading with Russia again, right?”

“Yes. By now, there probably isn’t a country that doesn’t know.”

Though he claimed to feel no guilt, he couldn’t help but be conscious of how things looked.

Because the money Eastern European countries including Germany were now paying Russia would clearly be turned into bombs attacking Ukraine.

“We should increase the aid. What else can we do? We just made the only choice we could.”

“Yes. We’ll discuss raising the aid cap further.”

Even if it was just a little, that helped lighten the burden on the heart.

But perhaps he had let his guard down too soon.

Not long after resuming trade with Russia, a shocking report came in.

“...W-What did you just say?”

The report was so startling that Chancellor Olaf’s voice came out hoarse.

“The pipeline burst!? Are you kidding me right now?”

“This is the current on-site footage.”

The Chief Secretary showed a video that displayed a sea full of bubbling foam.

“Don’t tell me this is...”

“It’s the Baltic Sea. All the bubbles rising up there are caused by gas.”

His vision turned dizzy.

All the natural gas that was supposed to come into Germany was now leaking into the sea.

“How in the world could a pipeline just burst? Was there some kind of issue?”

“No. In fact, we recently conducted a thorough inspection of the entire pipeline and received reports that there were no abnormalities.”

“Then the people who did the inspection were sloppy?”

"No. The pipeline was not the problem."

“What? Then why the hell... wait.”

If the pipeline wasn’t the problem, only one possibility remained.

“Sabotage?”

The secretary slowly nodded.

“Yes. Someone deliberately attacked and blew up the Nord Stream pipeline.”

“!?”

Chancellor Olaf slammed the table hard.

“Who the hell dared to do this!?”

“If the pipeline connecting Russia and Eastern Europe is destroyed, who stands to gain the most?”

Only one country came to mind.

“Don’t tell me Ukraine did this?”

“No one but Ukraine stands to benefit from this incident.”

“But would those bastards really go so far? Are they saying they want to make an enemy out of Germany?”

This was clearly an act of aggression.

To think they would dare pull such a stunt against Germany!

“The Ukrainian government is completely denying it. They’re claiming they had nothing to do with it and are placing the blame entirely on Russia.”

“Nonsense! Why would Russia do something like this? They were the ones desperate to sell us natural gas!”

“Yes. It’s highly unlikely Russia would have done this. However, all we have is strong suspicion that Ukraine is responsible, there’s no clear evidence. It happened in the middle of the sea, after all. It appears someone entered by boat through a less guarded area and set off the explosion.”

His rage surged to the top of his head.

But what was even more infuriating was the fact that they couldn’t even point fingers at Ukraine as the perpetrator.

It was an explosion in the vast Baltic Sea.

Not only was it practically impossible to catch whoever did it, but even if they did, if Ukraine claimed their government had no involvement, there would be no way to hold them accountable.

“What about the aid going to Ukraine? Has it not gone through yet?”

“No. The budget is still under review.”

“Cancel all of it!”

“But Chancellor, Ukraine hasn’t been proven guilty, and there’s no concrete evidence...”

“Anyone can see it’s them, what more evidence do you need! Cancel everything!”

His anger simply wouldn’t subside.

Truthfully, he felt like sending in a tank unit to Ukraine himself.

To think they were attacked by Ukraine, of all countries.

Just how lightly did they think of Germany?

“This all happened because our military is weak. They see Germany as a punching bag.”

Due to the past atrocities committed by the Nazis, Germany had voluntarily reduced its military and lowered its defense capabilities.

But now that the country had weakened, they were being exploited and even attacked by all sorts of people.

Were they supposed to keep taking hits like this?

Or was it time for a change?

“Call an emergency meeting right now. Get everyone together. And bring me the materials on the military budget.”

“The military budget...?”

“Yes.”

Suddenly, it felt like a revelation from the heavens.

Perhaps it was time for Germany to return to being the powerful nation no one dared ignore in the past.

***

“So those bastards finally caused a mess.”

Aiden’s already tired face looked even more worn out.

America was a place where every day was a fierce political battle.

On top of that, the sudden outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war had already been a headache, and now Ukraine had provoked an allied nation.

“Are we sure it was Ukraine?”

“Yes. Don’t we have the operation intel we acquired in advance? They executed the plan exactly as described in it.”

“Didn’t we make it clear to them? That they absolutely must not attack the Nord Stream pipeline?”

“We did. In fact, President Zelenkis himself opposed the operation and said he had ordered everything to be stopped.”

“Then why the hell did this happen?”

“It appears that General Valerii, the military’s Commander-in-Chief, acted on his own.”

The country was in absolute chaos.

Zelenkis had personally stepped up to rally the troops, which was good, but internally things remained unstable.

For a military commander to ignore the president’s orders and launch a unilateral military operation, in any other country, that would’ve been punishable by execution.

“If the president didn’t authorize it, he wouldn’t have received any support from us, right?”

“According to the intel we received, Valerii obtained support personally.”

“Someone other than the Ukrainian government funded Valerii?”

“Yes. It seems he carried out this operation with that support.”

To be honest, it was somewhat understandable from Valerii’s perspective.

Germany and Eastern Europe had broken their promises of economic sanctions and resumed relations with Russia, receiving natural gas through the pipeline.

Knowing that money would all be used to fund attacks on Ukraine, it was enough to make someone snap.

Still, there are lines that should never be crossed.

And Valerii had crossed that line.

No matter what, how could one attack a friendly nation that was providing aid?

“What should we do?”

“What do you mean, what should we do? If we come out with an official statement saying Ukraine did it? Then the entire EU becomes Ukraine’s enemy.”

If the United States also officially confirms that this incident was the work of Ukraine, then the EU would lose all justification to support Ukraine, and America would have to cut ties as well.

“Then Russia would smoothly end up taking Ukraine, and what's more, China, already showing suspicious movements, might go ahead and attack Taiwan too.”

There’s only one reason the U.S. is working in coordination with the EU to block Russia.

While the fact that they started a war is problematic in itself, the far bigger issue is that if Russia successfully occupies Ukraine, it could provide China with a justification to launch an attack on Taiwan as well.

“Then we have no choice but to pin this on Russia.”

“Right. We’ll have to frame it as if Russia, unhappy with the EU’s support for Ukraine, intentionally blew up the pipeline to weaponize natural gas.”

This incident must never be revealed as Ukraine’s doing.

No matter what, Russia must be made the culprit.

“They should’ve just focused on defense. Why did those bastards go and do something so unnecessary? Don’t they realize they’re only going to suffer more because of it?”

“Germany is also apparently convinced it was Ukraine’s doing and is planning to drastically cut its aid.”

“Aren’t they going to punish the Commander-in-Chief within Ukraine?”

“President Zelenkis has already declared that Ukraine had nothing to do with this incident. If they punish the military commander now, it’s no different from officially admitting involvement, so it seems they’re just letting it slide.”

“Zelenkis must be smiling to himself by now.”

“Yes. He was also strongly in favor of this operation. He might have been waiting for someone to go ahead and do it.”

He had underestimated him a bit, just because he used to be a comedian.

But he clearly wasn’t someone to be taken lightly.

After all, he was the one who had boldly appeared on broadcasts to declare Ukraine’s will to resist, even as Russia invaded.

You couldn’t do that unless you had nerves of steel.

“So in the end, everyone ends up losing. No... wait. With this incident, natural gas prices are going to skyrocket. So by now, the suppliers must be rejoic-”

Suddenly, a thought crossed Aiden’s mind.

“You said the Commander-in-Chief carried out the operation not through the government, but with personal support, right?”

“Yes. It wasn’t government funds. It was done with private backing.”

“And we don’t know where that money came from?”

“That’s... unknown. It was funded through Bitcoin, and there’s a high likelihood it came from one of the Ukrainian oligarchs who have been consistently supporting the government.”

As soon as war broke out, the Ukrainian oligarchs were the first to flee the country at the speed of light. But seeing that Ukraine was holding out better than expected with strong will to resist, they seemed to feel a bit of guilt and began funding the government.

This operation was likely financed with that support as well.

But who stood to gain the most from this incident?

“Didn’t Kwangwoon have its natural gas contract with the EU fall through because Eastern Europe suddenly changed its stance?”

“Ah, yes. That’s right.”

“And in that situation, someone gave Bitcoin support to Commander Valerii?”

“...That’s also true.”

The circumstances were starting to fit together in an uncanny way.

“I’m not the only one finding this suspicious, right?”

***

The pipeline explosion in the Baltic Sea sent shockwaves around the world.

Amid growing fears that this could spread into a wider conflict, stock markets everywhere were shaking.

"It is reported that 3 out of 4 pipes were destroyed. The one remaining pipeline had already been shut down long ago, so effectively, Eastern Europe can no longer receive natural gas through the pipelines.”

All day long, the news was filled with reports about the incident.

Experts tried every possible way to repair the damaged lines, but ultimately, all they concluded was that restoration was impossible.

“Have they figured out who was behind it?”

“The United States is claiming it was Russia. Meanwhile, Russia is saying that Ukraine and the U.S. colluded to deliberately blow up the pipeline. At this point, the real culprit is still unknown.”

Even in Europe, they dispatched several teams claiming they would conduct a thorough investigation into the incident, but the problem was that even with many personnel deployed, identifying the culprit was close to impossible.

It was something carried out by a small group in the middle of the sea.

There was no way to know who the mastermind was, or who exactly had detonated the explosives. It was even expected to be difficult to identify the type of explosive used.

“Department Head, who do you think did it?”

“I... I’m not sure. I find it hard to believe that Ukraine would be crazy enough to do something like this. Perhaps it wasn’t the government, but rather an extremist group that supports Ukraine who carried it out?”

The U.S. said one thing, Russia and Ukraine said another, and Europe had its own version.

Everyone was saying something different.

So, for people like us, there was no way to know who had committed such a crazy act.

“War is truly terrifying. To think they would do something like that without hesitation.”

“Yes. It’s horrifying. This incident is expected to cause significant environmental destruction in the Baltic Sea as well.”

“Then should we make some donations to the environmental organizations around the Baltic Sea?”

“That’s a great idea.”

War truly was a dreadful thing.

Blowing up a perfectly functional pipeline, throwing multiple countries into crisis, and when the world was already in chaos over environmental destruction, this massive natural gas spill was about to make things even worse.

“By the way, CEO-nim. We just received another message from the EU.”

“Yes?”

“It’s about our natural gas. With the complete halt in trade with Russia, Eastern Europe is now facing a major crisis. They’ve run out of the natural gas they need for immediate use. They urgently need a supply, and right now, we’re the only ones holding stock.”

Countries like ours, including Kwangwoon, had intended to sell natural gas to Eastern Europe by resuming trade with Russia, and were now facing losses.

But I had followed my instincts and imported and stored all of the natural gas held by other countries as well.

In short, Kwangwoon is now the only one holding large volumes of natural gas.

Moreover, we had storage facilities near Europe, so we could quickly distribute it widely through shipping at any time.

“With the pipeline in that state, natural gas prices have skyrocketed. Prices are already five times higher than before.”

We were originally planning to sell it to the EU at three times the usual rate.

But now, prices had changed.

“How much is the EU offering to pay?”

“The same as before, three times the original price.”

My intuition gave me a faint nudge.

It felt as if it was laughing at them for trying to negotiate at that price under the current circumstances.

“That’s not going to work, is it?”

“Right. It’s outrageous. The EU is the one who turned their back on us after agreeing to a contract. So I think we should raise the price, to reflect the current market rate. Maybe five times, or even up to seven times.”

I nodded and started jotting down prices in my notebook.

But no matter how much I wrote, my intuition wasn’t reacting.

I kept increasing the price.

“.......”

Then, when I reached a certain amount, my once-silent instinct suddenly shook me.

But this price...

Was it really okay?

“How about we go with this? Raising it a bit more.”

“Yes. Even if we raise the price reasonably, they won’t have a choice but to accept our proposal... Huh.”

When the Department Head saw the price I handed over, he was shocked.

“C-CEO-nim... We’ll charge eleven times the original price?”

“A bit too much, right?”

I gave a sheepish smile.

Even I wondered if I was gouging them too hard.

But still, if they stabbed us in the back first, shouldn’t they properly compensate us for it?