WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Little Prince in the Ossuary

Chapter 102

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Influence (1)

Yura looked upset.

“What is this? On the phone, you said it was just a scrape.”

She was talking about Gyeoul’s injuries: his left hand wrapped in bandages, and fine scratches still visible on his face. People besides Yura were shaken too. They seemed stunned that Gyeoul had been hurt at all. Some were trembling slightly, and a few watched him with guarded eyes. Gyeoul decided to sort those reactions out and remember each one.

‘Probably the same feeling, just different expressions.’

Some were afraid the boy might disappear. Others were afraid the boy might have been bitten.

The first was manageable. The second was a problem. This was the Gyeoul Alliance’s first barracks, the exact place where Yeon-cheol had first invited Gyeoul. The alliance had grown since then, and the membership had changed a lot. More than half the people here were administrative staff.

“Are you really all right?”

This time it was Jin-seok. After a brief pause, Gyeoul forced an awkward smile.

“Look. I am fine. I can move without trouble, and the military doctor said it should heal in about a month.”

“A month? That does not sound like a simple scrape. How did you get hurt?”

“A shovel blade hit me.”

“A shovel blade... I cannot even imagine the situation. You are lucky your hand was not cut off.”

Gyeoul thought so too. The soldier doing the digging had not wounded him out of carelessness. It ended as only a wound because he had been careful. The soldier himself still seemed to think he had made a panicked mistake.

“Ah... that must have hurt...”

Yura gently touched his bandaged hand. Jin-seok frowned at that. Call it status consciousness if you wanted, but the young combat group leader was always very aware of other people’s eyes on him.

Gyeoul gently pulled his hand away.

“Let us stop here. Three people died in the last operation. It does not feel right to get this much concern over injuries like mine. I cannot face the dead otherwise. And I really am fine.”

Yura flinched a little at the mention of deaths, then stepped back with a lingering sigh.

“There were KIA? Surprising to hear people died in an operation with Captain there.”

It was Min Wan-ki speaking from across the table after Gyeoul sat in a chair by the stove in the innermost part of the barracks. The others naturally moved away.

Gyeoul remembered Stan Page, a machine gunner in Charlie Company, 1st Platoon, weapons squad. He had died near Santa Margarita Lake from mortar wounds. His memorial service was scheduled for a few days later. Before he died, the soldier had told the boy that he thought he would not die as long as he stayed with the Lieutenant.

That was expectation beyond any limit. If he tried to live up to that kind of expectation, he would disappear in more ways than one. That was exactly why the boy was here now.

“Anyone else is one thing, but I cannot have even Vice-Captain Min saying that.”

At Gyeoul’s words, the middle-aged scholar smiled quietly.

“The ugly thing about faith is that the moment someone believes, it becomes real.”

“You are being cruel. I was hoping you would help keep that in check.”

“Haha. I know you dislike it, Little Captain, but from where I stand, it is an unavoidable human reflex. Religion and politics are different fruits from the same root.”

“So the root is blind belief?”

“Of course. Political support resembles religious faith. Once someone’s leanings harden, they only see what they want to see and hear what they want to hear. They force reality to fit their beliefs. Like people who claim fossils were forged and dinosaurs never existed. You should use that instead of suppressing it, Little Captain. They say when three people gather, politics begins. The alliance is already far beyond that.”

“Sounds like you do not trust people, Vice-Captain Min.”

“How could that be? I sincerely trust the people I understand.”

It was a cynical view. Gyeoul could not say he disagreed, but he was not comfortable accepting it as-is either. The thought came out naturally.

“If I were a college student, I do not think I would have taken your class.”

“That is a shame. I used to like students like you.”

The scholar laughed heartily. Gyeoul watched him in silence, then drifted into an odd thought.

‘In a way, I am talking to the past right now.’

Data mining. Every element in this worldview was the reconstructed result of searching accumulated information from the original world’s past. So Min Wan-ki had to be a virtual personality shaped from an unspecified multitude who had lived in those earlier days. Gyeoul thought again.

‘How many people had been disappointed by people?’

Maybe that was related to why the world he had lived in had felt so cold.

“Vice-Captain Jang will be a little late. He asked us to wait ten minutes.”

Min Wan-ki’s voice snapped him out of it. Gyeoul checked his phone. He had a message too. It was Yeon-cheol’s reply to Gyeoul’s summons text. Because of reinforcement work at the housing construction site, he was several sectors out. Gyeoul pictured where he would be and worried ten minutes might be too short.

Then came the sound of raindrops hitting the tent roof. Tap, patter-patter.

And then a new downpour began. Shaaaah. With his eyes closed, it sounded like reeds in a windy field.

“It is raining again after all.”

Long and short screams rose from outside. Even Gyeoul was getting sick of it. Min Wan-ki added his own concern.

“They say weather like this may continue through March. I am worried about the alliance members’ condition.”

“Is there anything I need to know?”

“Not yet. If there were, I would already have contacted you. Still, if I had to point to something, first is the power supply. Lighting hours are being controlled now, and watching TV or listening to the radio has become difficult. We do have a few hand-crank radios, but people have started fighting over them.”

“So what did you do?”

“By now, they are probably hard at work scrubbing mold. And that brings us to the second issue.”

Now that he thought about it, there was a faint musty smell in the air. Gyeoul spotted stains along the edge of the tent.

“How is heating?”

“It is fine. If nothing else, we are not short on heating fuel. The U.S. military has been paying attention to that. They suffered too when colds spread before, did they not? Quite a few died.”

Back then, every unit dispatched before Gyeoul to secure antibiotics had ended up listed as KIA or missing. The Triad took the heaviest losses. 3rd Battalion Bravo Company still carried scars from that time, because reinforcements had not been properly filled.

‘This is a little strange.’

U.S. troop numbers were increasing day by day. His journal had already recorded over eight million last month. Even accounting for training time, Fort Roberts should have been filled to capacity by now.

There was something going on. Gyeoul was sure of it.

“Please take care of your health too, Vice-Captain Min. You were sick for a long time before, and I worried a lot.”

“I am being careful. The older I get, the more I dislike winter. Ah, I mean the season. Do not misunderstand. Haha.”

Min Wan-ki still enjoyed old jokes. Gyeoul gave him a faint smile, then guided the conversation back where it belonged.

“From what you said, stress seems to be the real issue, more than health. I did not think our alliance had become harsh enough to fight over a single radio. If it were a minor scuffle, you would not have brought it up to me.”

“That is right. The biggest disappointment is the housing complex construction. It was right on the verge of completion, so the shutdown feels especially heavy. Things were best when everyone worked full of hope and forgot about erosion.”

“So that makes it even more frustrating.”

The construction site that had been left in rain and wind already had places damaged badly enough to need repairs. That was also why Jang Yeon-cheol moved so quickly as soon as the rain stopped.

Rrrrustle. The barracks rippled in a fierce wind. The ceiling light swayed, and every shadow inside seemed to dance. It was almost dizzying. After the soundless commotion settled, Min Wan-ki spoke.

“When Vice-Captain Jang gets back, he will be freezing. We should prepare warm drinks. What about you, Little Captain? They are all instant, but we do have some variety.”

Compared to the poverty when Li Ailing first visited, the alliance was better off now in many ways.

Min Wan-ki opened a nearby cabinet to show him. It was packed. Gyeoul picked what he wanted.

“Then I will have cocoa.”

“Understood. Please wait a moment.”

The middle-aged scholar put water on the stove first, then took out three glass cups. An alliance member who had been organizing schedules for refugee laborers came over to help, but Gyeoul stopped him. Instead, he stood up and helped Min Wan-ki himself. Everywhere he looked, everyone he could see seemed to hesitate.

It seemed Jang Yeon-cheol had the same taste as Gyeoul. Two cups were cocoa. Min Wan-ki chose coffee for himself. Then one sugar cube, two, three, four, five...

Gyeoul stared at him, and after dropping in ten cubes, Min Wan-ki said, almost as an excuse.

“Well, I have been liking sweet things lately.”

“Right... You should brush your teeth well.”

“H-heh...”

Around the time the water boiled, Jang Yeon-cheol came in. The moment he made eye contact with Gyeoul, he bowed quickly. He took off his raincoat, shook it out hard just outside the entrance, then hurried over and took an empty seat at the table. Seeing Gyeoul up close, his eyes widened.

“Huh? You are hurt?”

“...It is nothing serious.”

Explaining it all again felt tiresome, so Gyeoul offered him the drink instead.

“Warm up first. Vice-Captain Min was worried you would be cold.”

“Ha, thank you.”

Three men from different generations began their real discussion over two cups of cocoa and one cup of what was basically sugar syrup.

“This is why I called both of you today.”

Gyeoul placed a stack of forms on the table. It was the civil affairs commissioner recommendation packet he had received from the regimental commander. It also included several pages outlining the Military Government Office’s structure and planned scope of work.

While the two read through the documents, Gyeoul explained the background.

“They say a Military Government Office dedicated to refugee administration will be created soon. They need civil affairs commissioners to work there, and the regimental commander told me to recommend people. I wanted your opinions on how to use these and who to appoint. Also, I wanted to give both of you first choice.”

Each recommendation form was divided by department and rank. After taking turns reading them carefully, the two vice-captains sighed almost at the same time. Jang Yeon-cheol asked:

“If we just write names here, that is it? No screening or anything?”

“Yeah, looks like it. Still, we cannot choose just anyone, right? I will be the one responsible.”

“Wow, this is... a huge amount of authority. Could we not just monopolize all of it?”

Jang Yeon-cheol sounded impressed, but Min Wan-ki shook his head.

“It looks grand on the surface, but it is not that practical. The highest recommendable rank is only Grade 6 under federal civil service standards. Job-specific specialization would be separate, of course. In any case, even if we assume the Military Government Office ranks below state government, there will be plenty of superiors above whoever gets selected. In other words, even if we fill every recommendation with alliance members, their authority will be limited.”

U.S. federal civil service was highly stratified by function, so it could not be cleanly sorted in one universal ranking. Still, pay systems were divided by job weight, and that was the part Min Wan-ki was pointing out.

Jang Yeon-cheol hesitated.

“Is Grade 6 low? In Korea, that is pretty high...”

Min Wan-ki answered:

“It is neither low nor high. There are fifteen grades in total. Opposite from Korea, the higher the number, the higher the grade. Grade 6 maps roughly to Corporal or Sergeant in military rank terms. Our Little Captain would be around Grade 11 in civil service terms.”

Gyeoul tilted his head.

“Grade 11? I am only a Lieutenant. Is it really that high?”

“Yes. There are extra categories above Grade 15, that is why.”

“Ah, I see. You really know this well.”

“Well, this was my major after all. Heh.”

Meanwhile, Jang Yeon-cheol was clearly downcast. Min Wan-ki smiled again.

“No need to be disappointed, Vice-Captain Jang. This is still a good opportunity.”

“True. It never made sense for us to monopolize everything anyway. It would also be awkward to assign a Korean to handle Chinese refugee complaints.”

Gyeoul spoke softly.

“My credibility is tied to this. If I choose people in a way anyone can see is absurd, what will higher command think of me? The regimental commander said this is the American way, but before that, he was testing me. I do not want this to lower the U.S. military’s evaluation of me. There is still a lot more to gain in the future.”

The regimental commander had said he gave him the recommendation packet because Gyeoul proved the purity of his intent.

In the end, the U.S. military held the knife handle. If they decided something was wrong, they could cut everything off.

Min Wan-ki said:

“Then we should use this to build goodwill. Ah, of course, with key posts already set aside. The U.S. military must have expected at least that when they handed this over.”

============================ Author's Afterword ============================

#A Foolish Author's Regret

In the early part of the novel, around #Intermission, the journal and Time Acceleration once said this:

-The virtual personality in charge of journal records learns player behavior patterns collected from previous cycles.

Then in Chapter 101, it came up that the Control AI implements all virtual personalities in this worldview.

So the journal was a narrative device telling you that the Control AI was learning Gyeoul... In the early journal entries, Gyeoul made a few choices, but from the middle onward, he accepted things exactly as written in the journal, right? Meaning even if it was Gyeoul himself, he would have acted exactly as the journal wrote... meaning the learning had progressed that far... sort of that kind of vibe...

Hehe... I am sorry... the author should be more capable...

#Q&A

Q. ClassicPig-nim: @Did I miss something, where is Gyeoul pouring all his money right now? Is it his family again? Also I was shocked because author-nim is younger than I expected.....30 years old? Great read, thanks

A. You did not miss anything. This horror novel written by a very unfriendly author shamelessly refuses to give all the information at once.

About the author age, everyone keeps saying I am younger than expected. Why is that? If you read such fresh, childlike writing, the normal reaction should be, ah, the writer must be a kindergartener...

Q. Haruos-nim: @Anyway, Han Gyeoul doing early loan repayment really caught my eye.

A. But is it not full of hope since it is not regular repayment?

Q. Nesstor-nim: @ [Content: Please give us a calm romance story between the Control AI and Gyeoul!] <Reward: offering for 130 million people> <Will you accept? Y/N>

A. < N > My childlike innocence as an author can never allow that. The Control AI is cute, right? I am not giving it to anyone. It is mine. Haha.

Q. ZAHARA-nim: @Reason I come to Noble!! The title looks anti, but as you read it, the title makes sense... there is no title written better than this!

A. Thank you for understanding. As the author, I named it thinking, this is my best title, but lots of people say the title is anti, so I feel sad.

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