WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Little Prince in the Ossuary

Chapter 72

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After the Rain (2)

“I do not hate Squad Leader Yura.”

Park Jin-seok opened up after Gyeoul called him aside during what was, at least on paper, a patrol.

“Not that I like her either, but I do think she is one of the few people we can trust. At least she is a hundred, a thousand times better than those cowards who only care about themselves. I watched her train, and her shooting is good. She was completely different from how she was back in Paso Robles. That proves she put in the work, does it not?”

Gyeoul gave a quiet nod.

He had set this up with one thought in mind: when you put out a fire, you do not leave embers behind. Speaking with Jin-seok first was also the best way to crush any suspicion that he was favoring Yura.

“I am just disappointed. She lacks a sense of crisis. Honestly, this applies to everyone. Even if we stay tense and tense again, it is still not enough, but life gets a little stable and everyone loosens up, do they not?”

So that was it. He had never liked the alliance’s optimistic mood to begin with.

Gyeoul thought that might be why Jin-seok had tried to drag his squad to the training ground even on Christmas Eve, to keep his own people separate from that atmosphere.

It sounded like a question he expected an answer to, so Gyeoul searched for a balanced response.

“I agree we need tension. Still, I do not think the alliance’s current mood is necessarily bad. Life cannot stay pulled tight all the time, can it?”

“Why not? Humanity is on the brink of extinction. If you want to live, of course it has to be like that!”

Jin-seok laid his fear bare.

“I will be honest. I am scared! I have nightmares every day! I wake up while being chased by those half-dead things, or while being torn apart and eaten! Then I get scared all over again that one day those dreams will become real! Is this really baseless fear? No, absolutely not!”

His voice kept rising, raw with emotion.

“We got through the last raid safely thanks to you, Captain, but are we guaranteed to be this lucky every time? If we want even a slightly better chance to survive when the next crisis hits, we cannot tolerate even the smallest carelessness or laziness. Everyone has to push themselves to the limit. To the point it feels so hard you could die. Even that is far better than actually dying, is it not? I think so! I want to live, even if that is what it takes!”

In the end, Jin-seok’s rigid attitude was his own way of fighting fear.

Gyeoul shook his head.

“I understand. But not everyone is as strong as you, Squad Leader Park. Really. How many people can face fear that way? Everyone has different limits, right? I think mental breathing room is like lubricant. A machine without lubricant wears down fast and breaks often. If people have no room to breathe, would they not crash into each other, wear each other down, and fall apart?”

“......”

“What is best for one person and what is best for a community are very different. That is how it seems to me. Just because one person can do it does not mean we can force that standard on everyone.”

Jin-seok’s eyebrow twitched.

“Then what about someone who can do it, but does not?”

“What?”

“I mean Squad Leader Yura. I am sure of it after watching her. Maybe not everyone else, but Squad Leader Yura can do it. She has the ability. She just does not do it. That means she has no conscience!”

The first part struck Gyeoul as insightful. The second made him frown.

“No conscience? Are you sure that is the right word?”

“No, it is exactly the right word. The alliance has grown this big, but everyone still keeps trying to rely on you, Captain. Where did all those people go who said they felt guilty about putting a minor in charge? The same person keeps taking the most dangerous jobs every time, and everyone else shamelessly looks for comfort behind him? I cannot accept that.”

His intent was good, but Jin-seok’s tone was highly aggressive. Strong disgust showed on his face.

Gyeoul forced a strained smile.

“First, calm down. You are too worked up.”

“...My apologies.”

Since this was nominally patrol duty, they had plenty of time to cool off while walking. Once Jin-seok had settled down, Gyeoul spoke again.

“Well. I hope you think about this in the long term. Squad Leader Park... no, Jin-seok-ssi, you seem to think you are fine and can keep going like this, but from where I stand, you are under severe mental strain. If you say reality leaves no other choice, I cannot argue that part. But if you keep going like this, then from my position, I cannot keep trusting others to your care. You dislike them.”

Jin-seok was visibly shaken.

“That is a separate issue.”

“Do you really think so?”

Gyeoul shook his head.

“Is it not hard to sincerely protect people you despise? I do understand your position. That is exactly why I cannot hand them over to you. For their sake, and for yours.”

“No, but my effort...”

“Enough. I am not saying we are doing anything right now. You have done well so far. Give yourself some room. Then you will be able to take responsibility for more people.”

Jin-seok clamped his mouth shut.

Gyeoul looked away as if he had not noticed, replaying whether he had been too blunt.

Still, it would work. He had not said any of it out of malice.

After sending Jin-seok off, Gyeoul went to find Yura.

On the way, he noticed the soldiers in Yura’s squad had changed their posture. No one was leaning against anything. No one was sitting anymore.

The moment she saw him, Yura made a tearful face.

“I am sorry about earlier. I showed you a bad side of myself. I should not have done that.”

“It is okay. More importantly, I saw your squad standing at attention on the way here. Was that your order, Yura-ssi?”

“Ah, yes! Yes, it was!”

She nodded hard. It was obvious she had been agonizing over this.

“After I cooled down, I thought it through, and I realized Jin-seok-ssi was right about some things.”

“Really?”

“Yes, yes. The part about showing a sincere attitude to the people doing the logging work. We are out here to protect them, right? But making them feel safe enough to work is also our job, right? He was right about that, at least, and I still got angry. Maybe I was just venting old resentment. Once I got that far, I felt embarrassed. I am an idiot. I should have realized it immediately.”

She looked genuinely ashamed, and she spoke very fast.

She must have rehearsed what to say if she saw him. The embarrassment of being seen arguing with Jin-seok in front of Gyeoul probably made it worse.

It was amusing. Gyeoul laughed without meaning to.

“You are really admirable.”

“Admirable? You are teasing me, right?”

“No. I mean it. Why would I tease you?”

Yura still looked unconvinced.

There was no need to force the point. She would believe him if he told her everything from his talk with Jin-seok, but that would be reckless in its own way. Jin-seok would not have opened up if he thought that conversation might leak.

A gunshot rang out.

It was only one round, but the entire work site froze.

Gyeoul signaled the refugee laborers and nearby troops to stay calm. 「Survival Instinct」 gave almost no warning at all.

While that happened, a radio call went around, action first and report after.

[This is Boundary Point 16. One Ghoul neutralized!]

By chance, the shooter was Jang Han-byul, the same person who had told Gyeoul about Yura and Jin-seok’s argument, and the same person whose impressive zeroing shot had made Sergeant Pierce praise her as marksman material.

When Yura and Gyeoul arrived side by side, Han-byul was extremely excited.

“Captain! Look over there! A Ghoul showed up, and I dropped it in one shot!”

The direction she pointed was far away, nearly 200 meters.

A Ghoul would not have stood still, so landing that hit with single-shot fire was impressive on its own. If it died from one round, she had hit the head or another equivalent vital point, which made it even better.

“That is impressive. Your skill seems to improve day by day.”

“It was not skill. The scope helped a lot. I really like this thing.”

She was no longer a volunteer soldier but regular military now, so she received standard military gear. A 4x scope was one of those items.

She had not been given it because she shot well and they wanted her to shoot better. It was simply standard U.S. infantry gear.

“No need to be modest. Even with that, your shooting has improved. Looking at how it dropped, it seems it died while running. You blew its head off with a predictive shot, in one round. Even many experienced shooters cannot do that.”

Han-byul brightened and started giggling in a strange little voice.

Praise motivates anyone. Han-byul used to be terrified of pulling the trigger, but after being praised in every shooting session, she had come to love marksmanship more than anyone.

Now the U.S. instructors were calling her Miss Triggerhappy.

Though that laugh was a little...

Yura looked visibly put off.

“Was there anything else besides that one?”

“No. Just one. Weird, right?”

Han-byul’s voice trembled as she answered. Both hands holding the rifle were trembling too.

That was Combat High. It had something in common with fear, but overall it was a completely different state.

“It is not weird. Probably probing.”

Yura flinched at Gyeoul’s words.

“Probing?”

“Yes. Lately we have been repeating work at the same time, along the same route, in the same place. It would not be strange for mutants to learn that pattern. More than anything, a Ghoul-level one should be about as smart as a bright dog or wolf. I doubt one would wander alone for no reason.”

“Now I suddenly feel scared...”

“As long as we do not miss these scouts when they show up like this, we should be fine for a while. Looks like they plan their attacks in their own way too. And many special mutants died on Christmas.”

「Insight」 affirmed Gyeoul’s estimate.

“With that in mind, one more time. Han-byul-ssi, you did really well.”

Heheh.

Han-byul hugged her rifle and smiled brightly.

After that, nothing else happened until the logging work was finished.

Work ended at 3:30 p.m.

Winter days were short, and the schedule had been set to ensure they could return before sunset.

Today’s sunset was at 5:13 p.m. twilight would remain after sunset, so there was still plenty of time.

Just before departure, they made final checks of materials and personnel, and then a group of Chinese refugee laborers approached Gyeoul.

The nearby combat group members tensed a little, but Gyeoul raised his hand to reassure them. At this point, no group was crazy enough to try harming him.

No, there was one, actually.

The 「Full Gospel Saints」 were becoming an increasingly extreme fanatical group. They lacked rationality, which made their behavior hard to predict. They also had their own reasons to hate Gyeoul.

By sheer chance, the large-scale mutant attack had happened on Christmas. And Gyeoul had warned them in advance. To those people, that looked like prophecy.

He remembered one of them shouting while holding a Bible in one hand and pointing with the other.

“You are a false prophet! A trumpet of disaster that summons demons!”

“Hear the word of Scripture! If any prophet presumes to speak in My name what I did not command, or speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die!”

“Hear the word of Scripture! This is what the Lord Jehovah says, woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing! You prophet are like a fox in ruins! They have seen false visions and lying divinations, and they make people hope their words will surely be fulfilled, though Jehovah did not send them!”

“Hear the word of Scripture! I, Jehovah, say this, the prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream, but the one who has My word, let him speak My word faithfully. What has straw to do with wheat? I, Jehovah, say this! Is not My word like fire? Is it not like a hammer that shatters rock? I, Jehovah, say this! Therefore behold, I am against the prophets who steal My words from one another!”

Gyeoul thought there were plenty of other good passages in the Bible, but even there, they only saw what they wanted to see.

He had only drifted for a brief moment, but it was enough time for the Chinese laborers to reach him.

On the surface, they seemed to have no special intent, just coming to thank him for protecting them. The combat group members relaxed.

Gyeoul still found it strange. Nothing like this had happened during the half month of ongoing work.

“Dage, great work again today!”

“Because of dage, we can work with peace of mind!”

While he was hearing those words, someone asked for a handshake. As they clasped hands, he felt something angular in the grip.

Folded paper.

A letter?

Gyeoul accepted it without reacting and slipped it into his pocket in a discreet motion.

The escort for the return vehicle column was solid. Besides Humvees, multiple Light Strike Vehicles (LSVs) moved widely along both flanks, guarding a broad area.

Inside the Humvee, Gyeoul unfolded the letter.

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

1. Even now, I still receive occasional requests to switch to premium, and each time that happens, I end up thinking hard about how to respond. If people ask again even after I already explained my position, I take that to mean my explanation was insufficient, and that maybe I should provide something beyond what I already said.

So, I will once again state my position by quoting part of a reply I gave one reader yesterday.

As long as even one reader still wants this work to remain in Noblesse, I do not plan to reverse this decision.

Then a question may come up, does that not mean many readers lose out because of a small minority? But calling that a "loss" is not appropriate. More accurately, it means the expected gain that would have come from switching to premium disappears.

When pursuing profit through any change, if even one person is harmed by that change, then that change and that profit cannot be justified.

I am also in a position where I gave up a large expected gain by deciding to remain in Noblesse. My regret is probably greater than yours. So I would appreciate your understanding.

I will hurry the publishing contract so pay-per-chapter access on other platforms can begin as soon as possible.

2.

Q. Mupeulleo-nim: @Is your plan to make us stay awake by uploading later and later, you are evil

A. No way! The author cannot sleep either, you know?

I skipped one day of serialization because I had daytime obligations. I had to take my mother to the hospital... and last night, an old friend visited for the first time in a long while, so I nearly skipped again... but that would not do, so I stayed up all night and posted one chapter.

Q. CaMo-nim: Writing is important too, Author-nim, but I hope you keep healthy sleep hours. If you suffer from sleep deprivation, I get morning headaches. I am writing a review in Korean right now, but if you want I can write it in English. Personally I like that the refugee stories I find most interesting are coming out. Please take care of your health, and thank you for writing a good work. ^^

A. No! This author loves Korean! I can read an English review without a problem... honestly, any review is good. Even Munhwaeo is fine. :)
Q. Dohwawon-nim: @Is the Chairman's daughter's name not Eunseol? Nickname EunnbitFox!

A. Nope! Chairman Go's daughter is Go Ah-young!

Q. Ronapeu-nim: @But daily necessities already seem scarce, so how are drugs being distributed? I do not see any supply method

A. That question is a spoiler, so I cannot answer. Please understand.

Q. AphoSeu-nim: @Was this work written by the cold rational left brain, or the warm emotional right brain?

A. This novel has no reason and no emotion, only childlike innocence.

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