WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 424: Dawn, or Twilight (4)

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The next letter he read was, frankly, more than a little uncomfortable.

There was no sender’s name anywhere on it. But even before he opened the envelope, a faint fragrance drifted out. When he slit it open with a paper knife, sure enough, Gyeoul was greeted by familiar handwriting, full of feeling. This was someone who used the perfume she wore in place of a signature.

「Benefactor, have you been well?」

「I hear that in the mountain range where you are staying, the days of frost have passed, and the season of heavy snow and freezing ice has arrived. Though I am in a safer, warmer place, my heart seems to feel the cold where you are.」

"..."

At that point, Gyeoul hesitated over whether to simply fold it shut. Then he let out a weary sigh, pressed hard at his temples, and read through the remaining lines.

「My heart is filled day and night with concern for you because I have not forgotten whose grace gave me the safety and warmth I now enjoy. Each time my miserable past comes to mind and makes me grateful for this peaceful present, I am reminded of how desperately precious the help you gave me was back then.」

「Even so, since I am in a position where I can only learn of your worrying circumstances through the news, in the most literal sense, I suppose I have no choice but to live with this anxiety for a while. But whom could I blame? I was the one who acted rashly.」

「I still regret sending you lilies and forget-me-nots. Their flower language was clearly troublesome. I can picture how flustered you must have been. I apologize once again for making you uncomfortable.」

「Yet, if I may dare to hope, please do not misunderstand my sincerity. I truly pray for your happiness. If that happiness could have come from me, there would have been no greater happiness for me as well, but how could I not know that there is no realistic possibility of that?」

「It is only that the human heart does not move as one wishes, and from time to time, I comfort myself with empty fantasies.」

「So please, do not be disappointed in me. Each time I think I have made you angry, all color vanishes from the world. I eat and cannot taste the food. I hear words and cannot understand their meaning. Even when drowsiness pours over me, I become unable to sleep...」

After that, the letter continued with words that painfully stirred pity. But a far deeper emotion flowed between the lines. She seemed to be hiding it in her own way, but there had already been dozens of similar letters, so it would have been stranger not to notice. The number itself was abnormal. To Gyeoul, who did not want to see Anne suffer even in a one-in-ten-thousand chance, it was naturally a burdensome and uncomfortable obsession.

As it turned out, there was even a cultural background beneath it that he found hard to accept.

Ernai, or xiaosan. A concubinage culture that had been widespread in China before the plague and was now showing signs of revival among Chinese refugees. Ernai meant a relationship based purely on a financial contract, while xiaosan meant a case where romantic feelings were tangled in as well. The latter was sometimes called disanzhe, a third party.

According to Min Wan-ki, who knew their circumstances better than anyone, concubinage in China before the plague had been treated as a privilege shared by the ruling class. In other words, it had been a means of satisfying base desire while also confirming and flaunting wealth and power by openly ignoring social taboos. It was ridiculous, but if China really had been that kind of country, there was nothing more to say.

At the same time, the women who accepted it were said to have considered becoming ernai something to be proud of. The logic went like this: poor men with no prospects were losers not even worth treating as men in the first place, and a woman who could not protect her man lacked ability, so it was normal for her to be weeded out.

It was a warped principle of survival of the fittest, born from an extremely corrupt society.

A pattern where material benefit replaced humanity in every human relationship.

It was a shortcut to that barren outside world.

For Gyeoul, it was a current he could never accept.

'Since she was born and raised in a country like that, she could only have weak psychological resistance to it.'

It was rare for someone’s wrongdoing to be entirely that person’s responsibility. In a way, Ju Wei, too, was a victim swept away by muddy waters. But understanding her that far was clearly beyond Gyeoul’s limits.

He thought he had cut her off coldly enough until now, but the time had come to send an even colder message.

Gyeoul picked up his pen.

After the formal opening, he wrote the main point.

「...Until those feelings are settled, please do not send me any more letters. It will only make things harder for both of us. I have never been angry with you so far, but if I continue to receive letters like this often, I may truly become angry someday. It may hurt the person I love.」

「Since Operation Roaring Storm is a matter of interest across all of America, news reports should be enough for you to confirm that I am safe. Also, for the sake of the person I love, I fully intend to return alive no matter what, so you do not need to worry, sojeo.」

「If you do not respect my wishes, then it will become difficult for us to remain even friends. If that happens, I will have no choice but to reconsider the things I promised you as well. That would be regrettable for me too. For both our sakes, I ask that you please...」

His handwriting grew stiffer as it went on.

The financial help Ju Wei had promised was not something important to consider now. Without Anne, there was no Gyeoul anymore, and without Gyeoul, there was no future for the alliance.

Even if they faced some difficulty, there would be plenty of other ways to secure funding.

After finishing the letter, Gyeoul let out another sigh like the first and walked to the window to stretch. Looking at the stars was always a comfort. With the desk lamp at his back, countless points of starlight glittered in the sky.

The motion of the stars made Gyeoul think of Bom, the law of this world.

Time passed again. Christmas for the Independent Battalion came and went as if it had barely happened. The new year dawned in quiet tension, and the Ground Zero drop finally entered its full countdown.

"Ah."

In the unit lounge, Corporal Jang Han-byul put down the remote control and sighed.

"It’s the same broadcast no matter what channel I turn on."

Ground Zero, Joint Task Force, Lieutenant Colonel Han Gyeoul, Russian airborne troops, Lieutenant General Rogers, White House, address, President Kramer, Tibetan Plateau, cold, snowfall, Department of Defense, airborne armored drop... They were the same keywords every broadcasting station rattled off.

"Goddamn goddamn goddamn..."

Curses muttered softly, almost to herself. Han-byul’s mouth had grown much rougher than before. If asked whether it was because of the pressure of the drop operation, that had some effect, but it was not the whole reason.

One day, Gyeoul happened to pass by and heard her spitting out harsh profanity. It was on the outskirts of the garrison, in a place with few people.

"Fuck! Shit! Damn! Shut the fuck up motherfucker!"

Wondering who she was so angry at, he took a peek, only to find her alone, frowning and cursing at empty air. Was she seeing things? Or was her work stress too extreme? Schizophrenia? PTSD? Drug addiction? All kinds of thoughts flashed through Gyeoul’s mind, and when he asked what she was doing, Han-byul grew terribly embarrassed and stammered.

"I-I’m practicing vocalization."

"Vocalization?"

"Yes. Sergeant D’Angelo said, what kind of bitch who’s already a Corporal can’t even swear properly?"

"..."

Gyeoul frowned and asked if she really needed to do that. Han-byul’s expression turned slightly serious as she answered, "This is non-commissioned officer culture, so you have to pretend you don’t know." That left Gyeoul troubled all over again.

Now, the culprit, Sergeant D’Angelo, spoke.

"Hmm. It feels like all of America has developed voyeurism."

At that, First Sergeant Merriweather raised an eyebrow.

"...Voyeurism?"

"Isn’t that what it is? We’re going to risk our lives and fight, but they chatter about it like it’s the NFL finals. How high the odds of success are, how they analyze the unit’s combat power, how live reports from the field will be delivered... They even broadcast information about our unit officers like they’re showing athlete profiles. I didn’t know this was how I’d debut on TV."

"So you mean it feels too vulgar? That there’s no respect for us?"

"Yes. It feels like they’re consuming war lightly, like porn. From the position of someone who actually has to bet their life on that porn, it doesn’t feel very pleasant."

After thinking briefly, the First Sergeant answered gravely.

"Hmm. That’s an unofficial tradition that has continued since the Gulf War, so there’s nothing to be done. There’s also no better way to boost the public’s will to carry out a war. I understand how you feel, but at least in front of the troops, watch what you say and do. This is a time when maintaining morale matters more than anything."

As Merriweather said that, the First Sergeant glanced sideways at Gyeoul, the battalion commander. Gyeoul gave a light nod of thanks. It was difficult for Gyeoul to pay attention to this sort of thing one by one. The First Sergeant was doing the job.

"Understood."

Sergeant D’Angelo answered with a dissatisfied look.

Though there were still days left until Operation 「Roaring Storm」, the footage broadcast by the stations was already filled with gunfire and explosions. That was because Operation 「Fort Liberty」, the preparatory step for the Ground Zero drop, had already begun on December 15.

Having enjoyed great success with the feigned landing at Cartagena during the Continental Partition operation, the U.S. military leadership was confident the same trick would work on the Tibetan Plateau.

Certainly, the density of mutants at Ground Zero would change depending on how many mutants the 「Fort Liberty」 Joint Task Force, commonly known as Task Force Liberty, drew south of the Kunlun Mountains. Gyeoul had expectations of his own as well. Even the famous 101st Airborne Division had joined Task Force Liberty, so unless they suffered an extraordinary crisis, they would hold their ground.

There were other preparations for Operation 「Roaring Storm」 as well. Aircraft were continuously flown over the area around the Tibetan Plateau, a process meant to make the mutants grow insensitive to flight noise. If the roar of turbojets passed overhead at all hours, there was a higher chance they would not treat a drop in the pitch-black night as anything special.

Periodic bombardment from gunships had been added on top of that, so even if quite a bit of artillery fire was heard on D-Day, they would not react too sensitively across a broad area.

Win first, then seek battle. Ideally, the outcome of a fight was decided before the fighting began.

Whatever his tendencies and beliefs might be, Kramer was not an incompetent commander-in-chief.

'The Department of Defense was probably the one actually drawing up the plans, but the president’s influence is absolute when it comes to adopting them. Especially for an operation like this...'

It was true that Gyeoul had been quite uneasy when Kramer said the Independent Battalion would be transferred under Special Operations Command and thrown into a drop operation. But Kramer’s unreasonable demands had stopped right there. The fact that he had not forced anything more was enough proof of a realistic sense.

The break did not last long.

Intelligence officer Murray covered their face.

"Games aren’t fun when you’re forced to play them either."

What Murray meant was the night training conducted in game format.

It was training that reproduced the local terrain, confirmed through satellite and aerial reconnaissance, in a virtual space so that every officer and soldier of the Joint Task Force could familiarize themselves with the local environment before the operation began. Of course, combat against mutants had been implemented too.

Developing the program took time, but there had been enough time to prepare from the beginning of the year until now. There had also been plenty of budget and manpower. The best experts had been brought in, and the result was on a rarely seen level.

Gyeoul thought it was an extremely novel method. It helped him too. He had relied on 「Map Navigation」 to commit every map of that area to 「Memorization」, but encountering it through 3D graphics was an entirely different matter.

They had done every preparation human beings could do. The rest depended on variables in the field.

Footnotes:

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