WeTried Translations
Translator: Coughing Baby
Editor: Coughing Baby
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 397: Change (14)
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The White House was busy from the morning of the next day. At the same time, tension was rising beneath the surface, because many experts expected that if a terror attack happened before the transfer of power, it would happen today. Terrorism was ideological violence. Propaganda made of blood and gunsmoke. The clearer their beliefs, the more terrorists tended to obsess over symbolic dates, places, and people. Today, the White House met every one of those conditions.
Despite that, even President-elect Kramer attended the award ceremony. It was the day when seven new double recipients of the Medal of Honor, with no precedent since the Second World War except for Gyeoul, were being created all at once. Perhaps he thought he could not miss such a historic occasion.
‘No real threat, then...’
The whole time he waited in the waiting room, Gyeoul gauged the changes in his senses. At the very least, the White House did not seem likely to explode.
Still, for a short while, he had not been able to relax. The reason was none other than 「Toxic Resistance」. He had not had a chance to test it, but if 「Toxic Resistance」 gave him immunity or resistance to necrotoxin, then terrorism using necrotoxin would no longer trigger Gyeoul’s 「Survival Instinct」. Strengthening a talent could end up degrading sensory correction.
After thinking it over carefully, though, he realized there was no need to worry that much. Even if Gyeoul himself was unaffected by the toxin, if everyone else lost their minds and turned into cannibals, that too would be treated as a threat and crisis to Gyeoul. The intensity might differ, but sensory correction itself would not be rendered useless.
When Gyeoul’s turn finally came, the medals prepared for him were a pair of Distinguished Service Crosses, but the ceremony itself proceeded exactly like one for a Medal of Honor recipient.
When the president introduced a recipient to the audience, he usually spoke about the recipient as a person before explaining their achievements. Hometown, family, life, beliefs, character, and so on. But this was Gyeoul’s third time, so that part was skipped. It would have been difficult to talk about anyway. Was there anyone who did not know Gyeoul? How he had fought and whom he had saved were enough by themselves to fill the required time.
Standing at the podium, the president addressed the audience.
“Lieutenant Colonel Han Gyeoul contributed to securing the necrotoxin manufacturing facility by assisting the investigative authorities with his outstanding Insight. Even without the lieutenant colonel, we would have found it in the end, but what matters is that in a situation where every moment counted, we were able to save even a little time. Countless people’s safety depended on every minute and every second.”
The comment that they would have found it in the end even without Gyeoul had surely been made with public criticism of the investigative authorities in mind. People were asking what the FBI and other investigative agencies had been doing while a living variant passed through a checkpoint and necrotoxin was weaponized.
The interesting part was that this sentiment was strong in the South. Many residents had been horrified by the fact that rebel forces had mass-produced the toxin in the middle of a city. So while some people did blame the federal government for failing to stop it in advance, overall support for the federal government had risen higher than ever. In the residents’ eyes, the traitors were pure evil itself, and the state government had been even more incompetent than the federal government.
For the next president, it was an extremely useful shift in perception.
MacMillan continued.
“The lieutenant colonel went out into the streets, calmed citizens shaken by false information, and persuaded them to trust the government and wait in safe places until the situation ended. After working with the military and police to determine the location of the rebel ringleader, Clarissa Chadwick, he joined the battle at the Army weapons exposition venue. In the process, he single-handedly killed five snipers lying in ambush at Union Station. This alone would have been a heroic enough achievement, but...”
It was all information they already knew, yet not one person in the audience looked bored while the president listed, one by one, the number of enemies killed, the locations of each engagement, the significance of each battle, and the names of the people saved.
After explaining how he had rescued the dignitaries and allies isolated in the Mandarin Oriental, the president mentioned that Gyeoul had been wounded at the time and stressed that it had been an incredibly difficult and noble fight. Listening to him, Gyeoul found the nobility he emphasized embarrassing. He had simply been desperate to save Anne...
“Despite that astonishing devotion, I cannot place the Medal of Honor around Lieutenant Colonel Han Gyeoul’s neck today. Because the lieutenant colonel himself has acknowledged wrongdoing. At the convention center, the lieutenant colonel tortured a captured enemy. He did so to learn the location of captured allies.”
After a pause, the president slowly nodded.
“I know. It must be difficult to accept. The enemy had seized many tanks and armored vehicles, and our heroes had no choice but to stop their advance with their own bodies. In that urgent and overwhelming disadvantage, what other method was there? How should he have acted? It was unavoidable. Few would say the lieutenant colonel committed a crime, and even fewer would condemn him harshly.”
The audience quietly agreed.
“To be honest, just as all of you did, I hoped Lieutenant Colonel Han would deny the charge against him. I wanted to tell him there was no need to shoulder that burden. But the lieutenant colonel did not waver. To every official who tried to persuade him, he reaffirmed his fault without the slightest hesitation. Even if it could not be helped, wrong was still wrong. That fact must not be forgotten. When I heard this, I was deeply moved. Is that conscience and conviction, unbound by worldly honor, not the truly honorable attitude?”
Among those seated in the audience, a few people who seemed very fond of Gyeoul raised their voices in agreement and applauded. Kramer was one of them too, though whether it was sincere or an act was hard to tell. For a moment, some of the press cameras focused on him. Laughter, out of place in a ceremony that should have remained solemn from start to finish, spread through the room. President MacMillan also wore a faint smile.
“Even if I cannot award him the Medal of Honor, the fact that Lieutenant Colonel Han is more honorable than anyone does not change. All of America knows this. Therefore, I wish to honor that honor with a pair of Distinguished Service Crosses. Everyone, please rise.”
Applause poured out. Receiving two Crosses for one achievement on one occasion was extremely unusual. Since the Cross ranked directly below the Medal of Honor, it was, quite literally, an honor equivalent to the Medal of Honor.
When the president pinned on the medals, he spoke softly as they shook hands.
“To tell the truth, I was worried you might refuse to accept even this.”
Gyeoul gave a slightly bitter smile.
“I am sorry for causing you concern.”
The president took it as a light joke.
“You may be proud. You troubled none other than the president of the United States. You could say you wielded the greatest power in the world, even if only for a moment.”
The award ceremony and the dinner that followed ended without incident.
Since Christmas fell on a Sunday, the holiday, including the substitute holiday, continued through Monday. Because of that, Gyeoul could not meet Anne until Tuesday. Worried about terrorism, she had spent the entire holiday going back and forth between the office and the field, practically staying up through the nights. Once she was released from work, she slept for more than twenty hours as if she had passed out.
The place where she fell asleep was even the break room at FBI Headquarters. That meant she had not even had the energy to think about going home. They had spoken briefly on the phone now and then, but those four days were not easy for Gyeoul either. It was hard to keep his attention from wandering. When someone spoke to him, he often had to ask them to repeat themselves, to the point that even the stiff Jin-seok asked if he was sick. Gyeoul sighed.
‘I do not think I can stand this...’
There were still three or four months left until the unit redeployment, but the worry he had been carrying for two months since the day they suppressed the rebellion did not seem likely to end just because a few more months passed. That was why the impulse to let go of every thought kept coming back. Just be selfish once. Cheon Jong-hun, KILL, had only been an exceptional and extreme case.
What helped were the photos Anne sent from time to time.
「There are moments like that.」
That was what she wrote in the message attached to them.
「Moments when I try to picture you, Gyeoul, but the image feels unclear somehow, and I become frustrated and miserable. When I focus on one part, another part blurs, over and over. No matter how hard I concentrate, I cannot draw an image as clear as I want. Because the standard for that clarity is the real you.」
「In the end, once that frustration begins, it usually only goes away when I look at a photo. If I do not, it eats up every other thought.」
「I know you must be the same.」
That was why she was sending the photos.
She was exactly right.
On January 20, Kramer officially became president of the United States.
“President-elect, please raise your right hand and repeat the oath after me.”
At the inauguration, Gyeoul was seated close enough to hear the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court’s words with his own ears. The very front row of the VIP seats prepared directly behind the podium. A seat close enough to the center that he would be in the same shot as the president throughout the declaration and speech. Normally, that chair should have gone to a major donor who had given an enormous amount of campaign funds, a senior member of the ruling party, or a minister-level public official.
But Kramer had covered most of his campaign funds with his own money, had not received the full support of the ruling party, and was not the type to care what anyone thought, so he dragged Gyeoul over and seated him there. After Gyeoul declined several times, Kramer had come in person and brought him along. Gyeoul hid his discomfort in front of the cameras. He had originally expected to be assigned security duty. Instead, he even had to attend the inaugural ball that night. Jin-seok, the Company commander, would handle the unit operations, but still.
With his left hand on the Bible held by the First Lady and his right hand raised, Kramer repeated the oath after the Chief Justice.
“I, Edgar Alexander Kramer, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. So help me God.”
When the oath ended, the honor guard fired a salute, and the Chief Justice offered Kramer a handshake.
“Congratulations, Mr. President. Please lead this nation well.”
Kramer accepted the greeting with a relaxed smile. The applause and cheers of the citizens gathered below the podium continued for several minutes, and during that time, Gyeoul also gave a standing ovation. It would have looked unnatural otherwise. Former President MacMillan exchanged a few brief words with Kramer, his face half relieved and half conflicted. The content was buried under the shouting, so even Gyeoul had trouble making it out.
Then Kramer stepped up to the podium for his inaugural address.
“Thank you, thank you. Thank you to everyone who came out despite the cold weather to celebrate this nation’s new beginning. Because of your support, I was able to overcome many hardships and stand here now. I also thank President MacMillan and the presidents before him. Your excellent leadership made the America of today possible. I will not waste the political legacy you have left behind.”
Then he opened his hand and pointed at Gyeoul. Dozens of cameras changed focus almost at the same time.
“And Lieutenant Colonel Han Gyeoul. On the day a horrific rebellion swept through this city, you saved this life of mine, and I will use it as valuably as I can until the moment it ends. Because I am alive thanks to your devotion, I, too, will follow your devotion as an example and serve the nation and its citizens with all my strength. Let us keep fighting together. We will continue to win together. I promise you that my support, and the support of the citizens, will always be behind you.”
The citizens’ cheers boiled up once again. Gyeoul smiled with difficulty, hoping it looked like a restrained smile.
Footnotes:
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