WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Little Prince in the Ossuary

Chapter 112

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The Past & April Vengeance

#The Past (7), King

Chairman Go Geon-cheol had finally taken Paradise into his hands. It was a timely chain of carefully laid traps, and also the capitalist magic that lets control of management change hands over just 1% of shares.

In the divorce suit, the heir of Paradise Group denied the affair. But there was far too much clear evidence. Go Ah-young was the clear victim. Alimony swelled to an astronomical amount. She was also recognized as having contributed more to building the family wealth than her husband had. She was a member of Hyeseong Group's executive leadership, and from the start she had been one of Paradise Group's major shareholders.

The media blasted the verdict across headlines. A chaebol divorce changing a company's governance was not rare. But this time, they said, it was on another level. Not a company's governance, but the nation's governance had changed.

Now Go Ah-young had become an executive of Paradise Group. Everyone knew it, though. Her father, Chairman Go Geon-cheol, was the real ruler.

Ah-young agreed.

'Right. It's only a nominee trust anyway.'

Nominee trust. A case where the nominal owner and the real owner of property did not match. The Paradise shares Ah-young originally held were only hers on paper, while in truth they belonged to Chairman Go Geon-cheol.

Usually this was used as an inheritance loophole. Chairman Go Geon-cheol was different. In the past, he had paid every last cent of gift tax, into the trillions of won.

That was the fairness a tyrant pursued, and also a move laid down for the future.

That was why he was raging even today.

"What did you just say? Tax avoidance? Save how much? You son of a bitch! You dared try to steal my shares?!"

The Paradise Group accounting officer had gone pale. In his own way, he was probably trying to prove his ability to his new employer.

He reported how Paradise Group had reduced taxes so far, and how under Hyeseong Group's influence, even more efficient tax reduction and evasion would likely be possible going forward.

The tyrant roared at his aides.

"All of you listen well too! Pay every tax that must be paid, and pay every tax that can be paid!"

After one burst of anger, more anger followed.

"I am a fair merchant! I don't care how other thieving vermin behave! I pay taxes so I can demand that much in return! More taxes! More rights! I pay the price! The state must pay back accordingly! I am the largest shareholder of this country!"

That was what he meant when he said the accounting officer had tried to steal his shares. The chairman viewed the state as an extension of corporate management. He was the kind of man who converted everything in this world into monetary value.

By the same logic, lowlifes who tried not to pay taxes had no right to claim rights. That was why the chairman treated other business leaders with hostility. He saw them as freeloading vermin.

At first glance, it sounded fair.

Inside, Ah-young sighed. The standard and the method were both absurd.

The tyrant demanded compensation he thought was justified. That "justification" came from his standards alone. As if he put his own business ethics above the law. So at times he traded things that could not be traded, things that should not be traded.

'Like that child's body...'

Ah-young took in the image of the enraged chairman. In that moment, he looked like a child. She compared him to the child born in winter. The boy had never made a face like that. They were different people. From the same features, she could only imagine what he looked like before the transaction.

What would happen to this country now? That furious old boy was sitting on the throne.

Until now, the chairman himself had drawn lines. Rights up to this point could be bought for this amount. In that sense, he had been strict.

Now that he held Paradise Group, Chairman Go Geon-cheol could pay far more taxes than before. Maybe more than half the national budget. His daughter could no longer even imagine what her father would demand now. His demands would have no limit.

Long ago, when she was still immature, the father who hated his daughter denied everything she learned at school.

"The people are an illusion. They're uncivilized pig-dogs."

He did not trust human beings.

"Sure, they have shares. Tiny grain-sized shares. But even those tiny shares are an oversized necklace on them. They spend them with no insight, no deliberation. They sort each other by birthplace, by generation, by school background, by job, by sex. When they attack each other, it's never to decide right and wrong. They latch onto the other side's fault like dogs and turn it into their own vested interest. Busy stealing someone else's bowl, busy protecting their own. As long as they can keep their bowl, right and wrong do not matter."

He said it again.

"In this shameless world, the right answer is money. Everything must be economic. Because contracts that are not economic cannot be trusted."

Ah-young hated her father's worldview, but the world really did look like that.

People respected her father. The reason was simple: he had money. Paying lots of taxes was patriotism. Everything else, his inhuman words and behavior, got painted as visionary management philosophy.

Ah-young was lost in those thoughts. It was a meeting about Paradise management, but no one asked for her opinion. A prop. An ornament. A bound fate, never once allowed to be a subject.

So when the meeting ended, it surprised her that the chairman told her to stay.

"What's this about?"

At his daughter's question, the father replied.

"I'll keep your child for a while. By the time you get back, the child will already be gone, so understand it that way."

Ah-young froze. A formless chill sank into her marrow. Stammering, she asked again. Why. Why did you take my child, why?

Her father smiled with contempt.

"Even if that seat you're in is nothing but chaff, if your thinking is short, you might become troublesome. You seem to be under the illusion that you love your child, so for now that should make a usable safety device."

The chill turned to heat. It swelled hot and spilled out of her mouth. What remained came out as tears. With trembling hands, she hurled everything within reach. But none of it flew in a straight line toward her father.

Watching his daughter explode, the old king was satisfied. It seemed he had picked the right safety device.

#April Vengeance, Fort Roberts (1)

The days preparing for 「Manifest Liberation」 were monotonous. Repetitive missions to secure advance routes and stack up supply stockpiles.

Then one day, an FBI agent came to find Gyeoul. She greeted the boy officer with a crisp salute and stood at rigid attention.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Joanna Gibson, Supervisory Special Agent from the FBI National Security Branch."

Her visit was unexpected. Agent Gibson asked the regimental commander for a private one-on-one with the boy officer, and the interview room arranged for it was fully isolated from outside.

Why would the Bureau take interest in Gyeoul? What was she trying to tell him? Was he facing some kind of charge?

With no base information, 「Insight」 did not activate.

He had never experienced this kind of turn before. Gyeoul started with a careful greeting.

"Nice to meet you, Agent Gibson. Is that how I should address you? Sorry, I don't know what level Supervisory Special Agent is..."

"That's fine. If we had to compare, it's about captain level, but the Bureau and the Army are separate organizations. Roles and scale are different too. A one-to-one mapping is meaningless. In an actual operation I would have supervisory authority, but supervisory authority and command authority are different concepts. So please speak comfortably."

The context was clear. Gyeoul asked,

"Actual operation? Does that mean I'll be deployed on the same operation as you, Agent Gibson?"

"Yes. The Central Intelligence Agency requested that Lieutenant Han Gyeoul be sent over. Before we proceed further, could you sign this first?"

With a businesslike smile, she held out a form. A non-disclosure pledge. It said he must keep the operation confidential even after it ended. Gyeoul hesitated.

"Do I have the right to refuse?"

"No."

The answer was immediate and clear. She pulled out another document.

"Please look at this. A detachment order from the Department of Defense and the Blockade Command."

It stated that Lieutenant Han Gyeoul, currently detached to the 160th Regiment, 「Seventh California」, would be temporarily released from his current duties and deployed to another operation at the CIA's request.

On that paper, Gyeoul even confirmed Regimental Combat Team Commander Colonel Laughlin's signature.

At that point, hesitation was meaningless. Gyeoul did not hesitate either. He took Agent Gibson's pen and wrote his name in neat handwriting.

"Thank you for your cooperation."

While she organized the documents, Gyeoul asked another question.

"You said this is a CIA operation. Are you participating too, Agent Gibson?"

"Ah, that's by regulation. Domestic operations of the Agency are supervised by the Bureau. The operation is under Agency jurisdiction, the Department of Defense assigns you to support it, and the Bureau monitors whether the operation harms national interest or has procedural issues."

Too many helmsmen could send the boat into the mountains. Maybe she read that concern through 「Perception」, because Joanna Gibson gave him a clearer smile than before.

"Think of me as the brakes on a car. I stop it from running out of control. I don't plan to interfere with the operation unless absolutely necessary. No need to worry in advance."

"Could you explain the mission I'll be handling?"

"Detailed contents can be delivered after boarding the transport aircraft, but..."

"How long will it take?"

He asked again. After a brief pause, she gave limited information.

"You must have a lot of questions. I'll tell you everything I can at this point. First, operation duration is uncertain. The Agency expects up to several months."

"..."

"The operation itself was launched some time ago. You are the only one being newly inserted with me, but there is already sufficient personnel on site. For some specific need, the Agency requested that you be sent."

If the operation had already begun, there must have already been a supervisor. She had said domestic operations were supervised by the Bureau. A new supervisor coming in meant the previous one had become unable to perform duty, for some reason.

'And they're taking me too... That means they need combat power.'

The former supervisor was likely dead in action. That proved the mission was dangerous.

After her short explanation, Agent Gibson told him departure was scheduled for 9:00 p.m.

"I heard you personally look after some people. It may be good to give them a brief update. Something like, you've been assigned a specific mission and will be away for a while."

"Thank you for the consideration."

"Then please report to the parade ground by 20:30. Everything else is prepared, so it will be fine if you bring only your personal combat gear. If you have no further questions, we'll meet again then."

Further questions would be pointless. Gyeoul nodded once and stood.

From the moment Gibson arrived, Gyeoul had no more duties that day. The operations section had taken him off rotation, so he immediately went to the alliance and shared the news. Everyone was flustered. The two department heads were most worried, especially Min Wan-ki.

"This is not good."

The middle-aged scholar let out a deep sigh.

"Even when various problems came up, as long as Little Captain was here, it was easy enough to keep things pressed down. Religion, Faction, all of it. Everyone watched themselves. Same with relations with other organizations. To be honest, this is a very sensitive period..."

"It can't be helped. It's an order."

Gyeoul felt like he was being torn by force away from the current he had been moving in.

No matter how great you became alone, if the world flowed the other way, you were still swept along.

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

#Edit

The message came through again. For now, they said they would not touch the brutality.

But the author's childlike innocence trying to punch a hole through your stomach... I mean, the adults-only scenes will probably need full cuts.

That is sad for the author too.
I thought I wrote that part to feel extremely repulsive...

#Q&A

Q. Gomsiju: @edit Even so, editing should be much faster now than when you first started writing, right??!

A. Not at all. If I spend ages agonizing over what I wrote, fixing it is much harder.

Q. Oshin4: @Whatever, just sign my print copy, O Great Ancient One

A. They said the first print run is 1,500 copies, I can't sign all of those, right? Haha. I guess the only way is to put a few signed copies into events and hand them out...

Q. GeujipJjukkumi: There's a typo~!! "I'll drive it deep into the orbital cavity" x "I'll drive it deep inside" o
A. rumen: "orbital cavity" probably isn't a typo. It means eye socket.

Author: rumen is correct, but if the word is too difficult... I'll consider changing it to just "eye socket."

Q. Klinen: @As expected the board still lacks childlike innocence. Calling this violence in a novel full of childlike innocence, when even webtoons openly serialize stuff where a character shown in one episode gets dismembered in the next.... Writer-nim, please don't lose the Great Old One's childlike innocence

A. The author's childlike innocence ran dry a long time ago. Right now I'm barely surviving day by day.
Tears are falling...

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