WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 445: Stuffed Paradise (7)

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The total amount of support a refugee corporation received depended on how much that corporation contributed to American security and the economy. The same went for its intake limit. With Gyeoul as its leader, and with so many decorated soldiers among those it had produced, the Gyeoul Alliance had an exceptionally high capacity compared to other corporations.

These intake limits were applied separately to ordinary refugees and soldiers. Within each assigned limit, people could move from one corporation to another as much as they wanted.

That was exactly what the five Ensigns wanted.

“To be honest, I’m not sure I even need to stay registered.”

It was the Ensign from France, who had introduced himself as Ethan Blanc.

“It’s not as if having my name listed with a refugee corporation benefits me, does it? I’m already a citizen anyway, and as long as I keep serving, my wife will be treated as a permanent resident too.”

He was right. Refugee corporations had been devised as a way to save on budget and administrative demand. Put simply, it was a system that said, we will give you the money, so handle the rest yourselves. In other words, the only way the corporation’s executives could profit financially was by embezzling public funds.

That meant most refugee corporations were bound to grow lax over time.

Gyeoul asked, lightly sounding him out.

“Still, if you belong to a corporation, wouldn’t they help you in different ways after your discharge, like creating jobs for you? There’s talk of military downsizing starting up too.”

Military downsizing. The media had been covering the topic often lately. Even for America, after the MacMillan administration, maintaining an army of ten million for long was nothing but a heavy burden. With the quarantine war entering its fourth calendar year, sales of wartime bonds were probably beginning to hit their limit.

At the same time, citizens were growing louder by the day in demanding the return of service members.

‘They have enough breathing room.’

Across the Isthmus of Panama, from north to south, a powerful fortress line surpassing the old mainland blockade line was being built. Because of Esther’s absence, the situation in Central America was not as favorable as before, but once Russia, which had taken central and southern Mexico, began projecting military power in earnest, the burden on the U.S. military would naturally decrease.

Ensign Blanc shook his head.

“Jobs... That’s another hotbed of corruption.”

“For example?”

“You can probably guess. The jobs a refugee corporation can give retired enlisted soldiers or officers are obvious. Workers hired through the corporation, or field supervisors at the sites where those workers work. Otherwise, they’re put in charge of managing assets or workplaces owned by the corporation.”

Unlike the person Yura had met, Blanc seemed to have no intention of hiding anything from Gyeoul.

“The number of positions is limited, so backroom deals in the process of distributing them are inevitable. Once you secure a position, you can make up the loss in no time.”

“So they’re taking money from the workers.”

“If you put it nicely, it’s a fee. If you put it badly, it’s a bribe.”

There were quotas on the number of workers who could be hired through corporations as well.

‘The Gyeoul Alliance’s limit is practically nonexistent, though.’

On top of that, many agencies and companies wanted to hire workers from the Alliance. It had a good reputation because no one had ever run away while working. On the other hand, among the workers sent by other corporations, many wanted to escape the refugee zones no matter what it took.

In Gyeoul’s eyes, that difference was the gap between having hope for a better tomorrow and not having it.

Another officer named Garcia joined in.

“I’m a little anxious because they say the minimum time in grade by rank will be normalized soon. Even if my promotion to Lieutenant has been confirmed, who knows how much longer I’ll be able to enjoy military status...”

It was an answer to the question of whether military downsizing worried them. The phrase enjoy military status revealed the basic perception behind it.

Minimum time in grade meant the minimum amount of time one had to serve in the current rank before the next promotion. For example, to become a Lieutenant, one had to serve at least eighteen months as an Ensign, and to become a Captain, one had to serve at least two years as a Lieutenant.

This had originally been set by Department of Defense directive. But once the quarantine war began, a special temporary directive reducing or ignoring minimum time in grade had gone into effect.

As for whether this applied to Gyeoul, not exactly. A separate law assigned grades to medals and added decoration records to service time.

‘A Bronze Star is six months, a Silver Star is one year, a Distinguished Service Medal is two years, a Distinguished Service Cross is three years...’

On top of that, the Medal of Honor had long been a decoration that guaranteed a special promotion by itself.

One of the two with different unit patches asked in an unfamiliar accent.

“We suffered so much from a shortage of officers. Surely they won’t cut us loose that easily?”

Dombrowska. Judging by the name, probably of Polish descent.

Garcia shook their head.

“You’re missing the point. It depends on how far the downsizing goes, but even accounting for that, junior officers like Ensigns and Lieutenants don’t have much value. The ones who truly matter are senior officers. With one order from the Secretary of Defense, all of us could be forced out of uniform.”

This was stipulated in the Wartime Commissioning Special Act for the quarantine war.

Garcia turned to Gyeoul.

“Sir. What do you think?”

“...I mostly agree. There are too many Ensigns, and too many Lieutenants too.”

“As expected.”

The five Ensigns took Gyeoul’s words gravely. With his fame being what it was, they seemed to believe this was not just his private opinion, but something backed by evidence. Gyeoul did not bother correcting the misunderstanding. It made no difference either way. Military downsizing had to be treated as a foregone conclusion.

Ensign Blanc spoke again.

“It feels as if we’re being pulled into an antlion pit. The outlook as soldiers is grim, and the military government office must know all too well about the corruption in the refugee corporations, but they simply leave the audits in the refugees’ own hands... And it didn’t seem like they were unaware of the situation. I couldn’t stop worrying that this would blow up badly one day. So.”

“So?”

“I’ll ask you directly. Can you take us in?”

The two from other affiliations probably wanted the same thing.

The table grew as quiet as it had been at first. The meal had been pushed aside for a while now. Since Gyeoul was listening seriously, his tray had hardly changed from when the conversation started. Since it was nearly time to leave, he was probably not going to finish his meal properly.

Gyeoul pushed his tray aside slightly and laced his fingers together.

“There are two problems.”

“What are they?”

“First. As I said when we first started talking, I don’t have the ability to take in everyone. There are only five of you, but the people anxiously watching this table right now... At a glance, there seem to be at least three digits’ worth. Is there any difference between you and them besides luck?”

“...”

“Next, I don’t know what kind of people you are.”

In truth, this was the more important problem.

“There are ways to find out. But all of them are debts. I’d have to repay them one day. And it’s not realistic to verify everyone who approaches me like this in that way.”

A brief flash of grievance crossed Ensign Blanc’s face. His mouth opened and closed silently several times. In the end, he did not defend himself. It would have been a pointless waste. Here, he was in no position to offer any proof besides asking to be trusted.

The other four were similar.

‘At least they’re not rash,’ Gyeoul thought, then continued.

“The Gyeoul Alliance... I get a little embarrassed because of the name whenever I mention it like this, but anyway, the Alliance is an organization I’ve been involved with since its formation. We’ve been careful about who we hire. Even while I was away, they improved transparency by adding external audits to internal audits.”

They had also received help from the CIA, but he did not mention that here. Strictly speaking, it amounted to surveillance of civilians. The targets were not American citizens, and because laws created for the state of emergency existed, it was not illegal, but if the truth became known, there was plenty of room for criticism.

“Ensign Blanc.”

“Yes.”

“As you expect, the corruption in the refugee corporations will come back as a major disaster soon. That much is almost certain. I don’t want the Alliance to be swept up in it.”

“Then what should we do? Should we simply leave the corporations we’re with now? Because we have to save ourselves first?”

Blanc clenched his fist on the table.

“The reason I’ve kept my name listed with the corporation until now... is because I couldn’t ignore the fact that the slightly higher support funds that come out because of me become the food and shelter someone needs to survive day by day. Each day I hold on, that person gets to eat for one more day and sleep one more night without freezing.”

On the other hand, if he moved his registration to the Alliance, only the route the support funds took would change. Even if the residence was far away, they could simply open a local office of the corporation.

For Gyeoul, however, that was also a drawback.

‘It would be too far out of my sight.’

External audit costs would increase as well, and it would be hard to expect the same strong bond as now. Achieving the ideal Gyeoul wanted from the Alliance would become that much harder.

“How about this?”

Before Blanc could continue, Gyeoul brought out the proposal he had been considering for a while.

“You undergo refugee leader screening yourselves.”

“...Us, personally?”

“Yes.”

In Gyeoul’s view, this was the best option.

“Now that the explosion is imminent, it’s hard for the Alliance to accept you and many others we would have to get to know from scratch... But providing a new ship for you to transfer to from the sinking one should be possible.”

“...”

“The screening is handled by the military government office, and the result is approved by the Refugee Leader Committee made up of House members, was it? I don’t know many people on the military government office side, but I think something can be worked out. And on the committee side, there are a few people I can ask to get in touch.”

The chance of success was high.

‘It only separates budget execution items. The total amount doesn’t increase.’

Policy was ruled by budget. As long as there was no budgetary burden, the politicians connected to Gyeoul would gladly accept the war hero’s request. They might even welcome it. Whether large or small, chances to put Gyeoul in debt did not come often.

Ensign Dombrowska pointed that part out.

“Sir. Isn’t that ultimately a kind of debt too? You just said you didn’t want to owe debts...”

Gyeoul answered with a light nod.

“Let’s say the difference is who I owe that debt to.”

If someone from the Intelligence Agency heard this, they might feel a little wronged.

“So, what do you think?”

After checking his pocket watch, Gyeoul asked the five Ensigns for their decision.

“As long as you have nothing to be ashamed of, I don’t see how following my proposal would hurt you.”

The French and Polish officers exchanged looks, then one from each side answered.

“If you can do that for us, it would be a great help.”

“The same goes for us. May we ask this of you?”

Gyeoul shrugged.

“I don’t have a hobby of teasing people in difficult positions. If I wasn’t going to do it, why would I bring it up?”

Only after hearing his mild answer did the Ensigns relax.

“Now that it’s come to this, I’ll ask one favor too.”

At Gyeoul’s words, tension rose again. The Polish Ensign Bobak trailed off.

“What kind of... favor?”

“It’s not difficult, so relax.”

Then Gyeoul motioned with his chin, drawing their attention to the gazes focused on this table.

“There seem to be a lot of people in situations similar to yours, and listening to each of them one by one would be too hard for me. I could do it if I had to, but...”

Gyeoul was worried even his time to call Anne would be reduced.

“So I’m saying you shouldn’t keep what was discussed here to yourselves. Do you understand what I mean?”

“Yes! Of course. We’ll gather their opinions and arrange to report them to you all at once.”

“Good. Then let’s talk again later.”

Gyeoul gave the Ensigns his email address.

Footnotes:

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