WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

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◈ The Little Prince in the Ossuary

Chapter 113

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April Vengeance (1)

Once, a psychotherapist read his records from 「Days after Apocalypse」 and asked him if he seemed like someone who wanted to fight the world. After thinking quietly for a while, the boy answered like this.

I never thought of it that way, but now that you mention it, I guess that is true. I must be dreaming. In here.

Now, Gyeoul repeated the words he had left unsaid back then.

In the end, it is a dream of hating the world...

He had tried not to hate. He prayed for the happiness of the two people he loved. But when he thought it over, would the world really change just because Han Gyeoul alone refused to hate it? It was not that he did not hate. He had given up on hating. It was beyond human limits.

So he dreamed here. A dream of crossing those limits. A dream of going beyond human, becoming more than human, and fighting what humans could not fight.

That illusion, enjoyed with full awareness, did not stay enjoyable for long. Now he lived for only one reason. Gripping a thorn he could not let go of, guarding whatever remained of his heart.

"What are you thinking about?"

Gyeoul blinked and came back to himself. The first thing he saw was his own combat boots. He raised his head to find Agent Gibson watching him with a puzzled look. He was startled by how deeply he had sunk into those memories. He had not fallen asleep, yet it felt like waking from sleep. That had never happened before.

"No, it is nothing. Someone from the past came to mind, that is all."

Whatever she made of that answer, Agent Gibson gave him a sympathetic look. Gyeoul read her thoughts with familiar ease. Even after confirming it with 「Perception」, he did not correct her misunderstanding.

Wooooong-

He felt a floating shudder in the seat. A wind-like vibration traveled through the backrest. The transport plane shook. They seemed to have hit light turbulence. Gyeoul noticed the agent's uneasy reaction. Her neck was tense, and her fists were tightly clenched. It was unusual for a seasoned investigator.

Gyeoul and Joanna Gibson were on a transport bound for Vandenberg Air Force Base. The cargo bay lights were dim. The aircraft had not been sent just for the two of them, and it was packed enough with freight to feel claustrophobic.

Gyeoul asked casually.

"Can I ask now why the Bureau needs me?"

"Ah."

Her response was almost a groan. She seemed to realize it herself and get flustered. Ahem, ahem. After clearing her throat a few times, she began.

"Now that you mention it, we still have not briefed you on the mission. The objective of this operation is to gather intelligence from inside San Francisco Bay and eliminate the security threat there."

"San Francisco Bay... then this is an operation among the maritime refugees?"

"That is right. That is why the Bureau requested your detachment, Lieutenant. The qualifications requested for this role are exactly these. First, outstanding combat ability. Second, judgment under sudden contingencies. Third, native-level spoken Chinese. Fourth, East Asian ancestry. There are only a few people in the entire U.S. who meet all of those conditions. In practice, only you."

Just hearing the criteria told him what kind of operation this was. Even so, one question remained.

"Only me? I do not quite understand."

The agent shook her head.

"I am not joking. People with both special-operations level combat power and foreign-language fluency are extremely rare. And how many can speak Chinese at a native level? You would not find many even among CIA officers. Our China branch has effectively collapsed."

"At one point, there were only three people in the entire intelligence community who could handle Arabic dialects. It is a famous story," she murmured.

Her voice dropped because the plane shook again.

"Then let me ask something else. What exactly is this security threat?"

No matter how qualified Gyeoul was, he had little to no special-operations experience. His military training had also been little more than improvised front-line instruction. And whether he lived or died was a White House concern. If they still chose to deploy him, this threat had to be serious. After a brief hesitation, the agent spoke.

"Nukes."

"..."

Gyeoul remembered the warships from different nations he had seen in the journal. Soldiers stranded in New World ports after losing their homeland. Even then, they fought a nationless war to protect their own people.

Of course, that was not all.

Environment tested character. Corruption was always possible for anyone. The outside world was brutal for everyone. Just as this world's audience desired only pleasure without Empathy.

The agent went on.

"According to Intelligence Bureau and Navy assessments, five nuclear submarines are currently lurking inside San Francisco Bay. We have identified the positions of four. We can sink those at any time. The problem is the remaining one."

Gyeoul raised another doubt.

"I may be missing something, but are they not still surviving on U.S. support in the end? Even if they have nuclear weapons, I do not think they would use them recklessly. Not unless they want to starve."

Nuclear submarines could operate without resupply for a long time. But that was only with advance preparation. The Morgellons pandemic had been an unexpected disaster. China had been the starting point. If the submarines under watch belonged to the Chinese Navy, proper preparation would have been impossible. That was Gyeoul's reasoning. The agent nodded.

"You are right. But national security cannot ignore even a one-percent threat. Just like when our Bureau warned of the worst terrorist attack in history and was ignored everywhere."

She said it as if the young officer should naturally know. There was pride in her voice. But that event belonged to another era. Only after seeing an augmented-reality overlay from cognitive enhancement did Gyeoul understand what she meant. The collapse of the Twin Towers. The event that drove America into the war on terror. He had seen it in textbooks. In the era he was born into, it was already a page of history.

"Either way, this is an operation that cannot fail, and it is right in front of us."

America had staked its national fate on 「Manifest Liberation」. The agent nodded at his words.

"What makes it worse is the rumor spreading inside the bay."

"Rumor?"

"Yes. You already know the domestic rumor, that the great pandemic was really a Chinese bioweapon... Among maritime refugees, an even further claim is spreading. They say Morgellons is an American bioweapon. They claim America used it to bring down China and then lost control."

"Hmm... sounds like that has become serious."

"It has. Groundless nonsense, but Chinese maritime refugees seem to believe it blindly. The Bureau is concerned that submarine crews may have been swept up in that fanaticism."

After a short pause, Gyeoul asked:

"Do not tell me the Bureau wants me to find that submarine's location. How?"

"Like you said earlier, everyone inside the bay survives on American material aid. Submarine crews are no exception. According to intelligence we have gathered, Chinese submarines surface at regular intervals and receive supplies from Chinese-flagged vessels. Lieutenant Han Gyeoul, your job is to identify that location."

Maritime refugees were surviving on U.S. aid shipments and food from deep-sea fishing fleets. Soldiers would be taking a share of those supplies. Enough time had passed that fixed procedures and handoff points likely existed.

If the location were always the same, there would be no reason to ask him. They were probably rotating supply points according to a set arrangement. Even so, how was he supposed to uncover that? If drones could handle it, he would not be here. Gyeoul tilted his head.

"You said identify the location... do I have to infiltrate directly?"

"Mostly through interception, but yes. In some cases infiltration will be necessary. We are concerned because you are already well known, Lieutenant... but Bureau agents will help with your disguise. That is their specialty."

Gyeoul pictured conditions inside the bay. Soldiers and civilians from a fallen nation sharing limited supplies. Power came from the barrel of a gun, so military dominance was inevitable. Civilians had probably managed to protect only the bare minimum for themselves.

A hungry person eats their conscience first.

Still, if submarines had to surface regularly, only one condition made sense. Gyeoul asked:

"Did you intentionally reduce supply volume?"

"Yes. If supplies are sufficient, a nuclear submarine can hold out for months without surfacing. I think leadership made a rational decision."

Agent Gibson acknowledged the cold strategy of the White House and the Department of Defense. Starve the refugees so less food could flow into the military of a fallen nation. At the same time, tighten the resupply cycle so submarines would have to surface whenever stocks ran low.

"When people are hungry, they get sharp. Would things not be less dangerous if you supplied them more generously?"

Extreme conditions pushed people to extremes. Gyeoul recalled the history he had studied before entering this world setting. If interwar Germany had been prosperous and stable, could someone like Hitler have gained support?

In this world setting, the most essential resources were ammunition and food. And U.S. food production was overwhelming. The strongest power in the world was also the world's largest agricultural power.

But Gyeoul's view was rejected at once.

"It is easy to reduce supply, but hard to increase it. As you know, homeland airlift capacity has hit its limit, and the sea is full of pirates. We cannot send cargo ships without escort frigates."

"Pirates... right. I see."

"Now that we cannot use the Panama Canal, any ship heading to the west coast has to round the Strait of Magellan or Cape Horn. That route is over twenty-five thousand kilometers. There are too many pirates along it. Fleets that lost their countries."

She was talking about pirate squadrons made up of submarines and destroyers, firing naval guns and anti-ship missiles. Limits existed not only for individuals, but for nations too.

"The Navy is already exhausted from maintaining the east coast blockade. There is no additional force to spare for convoy escort. And inadequate supply creates constant dissatisfaction, regardless of how large or small the shortfall is."

The Strait of Magellan and Cape Horn lay at the southern tip of South America. Gyeoul pictured a route from North America's east coast, around South America's far south, then up to North America's west coast. He also pictured how much force it would take to sustain that route.

He accepted part of it. He did not fully agree with Joanna Gibson, but she too was only one person. Even if he argued, nothing would change.

"We have arrived. Vandenberg Base."

A short line to redirect attention. Relief was audible in her voice.

Through a small window, Gyeoul looked down at the approaching ground. A runway lit with minimal guide lights. An air force base near the ocean. Fort Roberts was not far, and they had crossed the distance in a brief conversation.

According to plan, they had to wait for a cargo ship here.

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

#Signed Books

Fifteen hundred signed copies... yes, I can do that. But what if they are still unsold and sitting there a year later?...

I would probably be so embarrassed I would want to die. Hahaha.

#Q&A

Q. PAM-nim: Was there an @adults-only part...?

A. There was. The part where the Chairman made his daughter do something no parent should make her do.

Q. EojinGwangdae-nim: @What the author admitted here will be talked about for a long time. Author-nim, keep your balance and run. I think it is already too late to walk.

A. Huh? Admitted?... What exactly are you saying I admitted...

Are you referring to the part where the Chairman called the people pigs and dogs? Or the narrative that spoke for Ah-young's helpless state of mind?

Well, how many readers could possibly come away from this novel with a positive view of the Chairman...

Q. RIIIN-nim: Your humor feels a bit unnatural, like someone in their 40s trying to make trendy jokes... I especially felt that in the viewer chat here... It felt like awkward jokes from a math textbook or a dictionary.

A. You can leave that as one comment. There are five, so the author is a bit flustered. :) Some readers say the chat is childish or that they dislike it, while others say they want it to appear more often.

I am too lacking as a writer to satisfy everyone. I wish I had a little more talent...

I am sorry.

Q. realrosty-nim: I think the Chairman's cruelty could be shown even without describing that part in so much detail. I did not want to see it again, so I skipped it on reread, but from what I remember, a drier and more concise description still could have conveyed what kind of person he is.

A. In that part, my first intention was less to depict the Chairman's personality and more to convey rejection toward the idea of humans being traded as products. So from the author's side, it is quite disappointing. Having to edit it...

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