WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Little Prince in the Ossuary

Chapter 95

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Night by the Lake (13)

They had completed the mission objective. There were no enemies left to lure. The squad crossed the river again. It was the third time since sunset. Everyone picked up speed, moving like they had done this a hundred times.

Corpses were scattered along the riverside in the black pre-dawn. Here and there. Not many. Gyeoul gave the squad a short breather. It was time to recover U.S. military remains. Recovery did not mean transporting bodies.

“Break off the dog tags and secure the helmet-cam memory. If you find notebooks or anything like that, check what is inside. There might be decisive evidence. Keep everything out of the rain.”

Even as he gave the order, Gyeoul did not expect much. A Milspec helmet cam battery usually lasted around four hours. Gyeoul carried more spare batteries than anyone else because the Ministry of Defense public affairs office wanted everything the boy officer saw and heard on the battlefield.

Captain Harris’s men had no reason to do that. Their batteries had probably died long ago. The cameras could be switched on and off whenever they wanted. They had no reason to leave evidence. Notebooks were even less likely. If Captain Harris had still been in his right mind, he would have cracked down hard on his men over that.

‘Still, it is not impossible. Maybe one of them felt guilty...’

Either way, it needed to be done. First a civilian massacre, then a wipeout battle between U.S. soldiers themselves. The U.S. government would react with extreme sensitivity to this incident. The more evidence, the better.

It was not just Gyeoul hoping for that. Squad leader Joel Hernandez said the same.

“Whatever it is, we need to come up with at least one solid piece.”

“It would be nice, but we can manage without it. The evidence and witnesses we already have should be enough.”

Tap tap. Gyeoul tapped his own camera. He was trying to reassure him, but it was not empty comfort. The recordings alone already contained enough evidence, including the full exchange with the captain. There would be civilian testimony too. Bribery? Coercion? Ridiculous. Burying it through press control was the realistic option. Patriotic reporting. Very plausible.

“That is because you are Lieutenant-nim. For us, that is luck in the middle of bad luck. If someone else had been in command, we would have been terrified about what came after we got back.”

How cover-ups treated the people involved was obvious. Reassignment without cause. Forced transfers. Then dangerous missions after that. Under martial law conditions, that was both possible and useful administration. At the edge of human extinction, public distrust of the military could lead straight to catastrophe.

His thoughts drifted too far. Gyeoul gave his head a slight shake and came back.

“Try to think a little more positively. Maybe they will release what happened exactly as it is. If the news reports only positive stories, would that not hurt credibility?”

“What I mean is, with you here, that chance is much higher.”

Gyeoul gave him an easy smile.

“I just told you to think positively, so this may sound strange, but I am only curious. Do not take it the wrong way.”

“What is it?”

“Are you not worried they might bury me along with all this?”

The sergeant snorted.

“That is the one thing that is absurd.”

“Why?”

“Are you really asking because you do not know, or are you just insanely humble?”

“That is enough. I know the answer without hearing it.”

Gyeoul snapped his rifle up. Dududut! A three-round point-fire burst. Every round hit. A mutant that had sprung up to tackle a soldier staggered and collapsed. The saved soldier reacted a beat late.

“Aaaah!”

He screamed, fell backward, and scrambled away as if seizing. Duduk! Duduk! Dududududut! He emptied an entire magazine into a corpse that was already dead. Brass casings spilled everywhere. The other soldiers flinched.

“What the hell! What happened?”

“Damn it! This bastard was playing dead! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”

Gyeoul walked over and calmed him.

“Quiet. Why were you careless? You already saw these things think.”

“S-sorry. Were you the one who fired first, Lieutenant-nim?”

“Yes. Me.”

“Thank you so much. I got too relaxed because I thought it was over.”

The private was shaking hard. He looked badly rattled. Guilherme spoke up.

“What do you mean, over? Nothing is over until you get back to the barracks and receive dismissal. Forget that and you come back as a corpse. Be grateful you got a good commander.”

“That is enough.”

Gyeoul patted the private’s back until he settled down.

Evidence collection ended soon after. Whether they had found anything useful, they would only know once they got back. Gyeoul had the soldiers throw the dead men’s weapons into the river. Hernandez asked:

“What now? Do we link up with the platoon leader?”

“Link up? Well...”

Gyeoul still had one eye on the forest shadows. He could not shake the unidentified special mutants he had seen during the firefight. The first-discovery reward mattered, but more than that, he wanted to steer the world in a better direction.

Still, was it wise to run a search at this hour with this manpower?

Seeing the boy officer hesitate, the squad leader asked again.

“Is something bothering you?”

“I think I saw something earlier.”

“What do you mean?”

“I want to confirm it. It was pretty big...”

After weighing the risk a little longer, he gave the order.

“Report remaining ammo, one by one.”

The result was tight. Some had extra, some were short, and there were more of the latter. They redistributed what remained so no one was immediately short. Around two spare magazines per person. Enough for one emergency engagement and withdrawal.

Morale was the problem. The moment it looked like they might have to do something else, fatigue rose on a few faces. The rest hid it, but likely felt the same. They had already started imagining the return.

It made sense. Since leaving base, it had been one hardship after another. Gyeoul encouraged them.

“I know you are all exhausted. I want to give you rest, but I cannot right now. I hope you understand. If what I saw was unconfirmed special mutants, getting information now will help us later.”

Hernandez replied:

“Lieutenant-nim, you do not need to put it that way. Give orders like an officer. Kicking these guys in the ass is my job as squad leader.”

Guilherme jeered with his expression. Gyeoul gave a faint smile.

“Fine. This is an order. Follow me.”

As expected, Gyeoul led the search himself. Someone suggested assigning a separate point man, but he refused. It was directly tied to the group’s survival capacity. He also needed 「Tracking」.

They came upon trees torn to pieces. The footprints between them were huge and deep. The soldiers held their breath. Up to now, every time special mutants appeared, they had taken heavy losses. No reason this one would be different. Tension was natural.

“At this size, is it not a Grumble?”

One soldier’s guess. Gyeoul shook his head.

“The footprints are different. And if this were a Grumble, why did it not join the fight earlier? Those things charge in while trampling even other mutants.”

He scanned the area. Broken branches. Stripped trees. Deep gouges in trunks. But it did not look like those marks came from passing through alone. Gyeoul tilted his head.

‘Why? Why would it break trees on purpose?’

It had to be tied to the mutant’s trait, but he could not guess what that trait might be.

「Tracking」 continued. The soldiers’ tension kept burning away. Their steps lost rhythm now and then. Signs of mental drain, fatigue, and physical exhaustion. Even stimulants had limits.

The monster appeared without warning.

He had not expected it at all. Sensory correction gave no warning. The heat source, hidden behind obstacles until that moment, seemed to pop out of thin air. The silhouette was clear. Not a Grumble.

He shoved aside the surprise and raised his hand at once. The squad spread out and took cover.

“Two o’clock, about forty meters. One hostile.”

The enlisted men’s night vision could not detect heat. They caught the target only after Gyeoul gave direction and range. Hernandez whispered:

“Do we attack?”

“Grenades first. Hold fire until ordered. Kraus, McKenzie. Get ready.”

He did not choose that for raw power. It was tactical. They still did not know the monster’s ability. Gunfire would reveal their position too easily. Grenade-launcher rounds had the same problem. Grenades had no firing sound and no muzzle flash, making them ideal. With a blast weapon, the enemy would also struggle to identify attack direction.

The noise might draw more enemies, but for now there was only this one. The immediate priority was the unknown threat right in front of them.

The two soldiers took positions behind shrubs. Each held a grenade and looked at Gyeoul. He nodded. They counted to three and executed Throwing simultaneously.

Tak! One went slightly off and struck a fig branch. As the monster turned, the other grenade detonated almost point-blank. The second explosion followed almost at once. The blast shook the forest, and the flash burned afterimages into the trees.

Kyaaaaaaaa-

The ground trembled. A heavy monster running. It was slower than expected. It slammed into a fig tree with its whole body. Kwoong! Even so, its mass was immense, and the thick trunk shook as if it might snap. Then nothing else. Great strength, but far too little to be the brute force of special mutants.

Had Grumble not ripped trees out by the roots and thrown them?

‘Did it think we were over there because it heard the grenade hit the branch?’

Better this way. Right now the monster looked like an angry, anxious beast. It moved as if guarding every unseen direction at once. Very sluggish.

“Give me the launcher.”

Gyeoul took the rocket launcher tube from a soldier. Heavier than a rifle. Unlike the light LAW tubes they usually carried, this one Jeffrey had handed him had a warhead weighing several kilograms. By propellant alone, it had at least ten times more than a grenade.

It might not be enough to break Grumble’s Physical Resistance, but against this one, it looked workable.

“Wait here. All of you.”

Again, he did not fire right away. The launcher’s backblast was too strong. The firing position would be exposed instantly.

Even in darkness, he could not be careless.

He lowered his posture and ran. Twenty meters to the side, then a three-meter slide, then immediately set his stance.

The monster was still there. Its head snapped left and right, like it was trying to watch every direction at once.

‘Excited? Enraged?... Somehow it looks more afraid than anything.’

No warning from 「Survival Instinct」, and only a weak warning from 「Combat Sense」. What the hell was this thing?

While thinking, he pulled the safety pin at the warhead tip. Ting, a clear little metal sound. Barely audible, and only to him. He pushed up his night vision to aim. Launcher to shoulder. Center line on target. He fired at once.

Puh-ung! His whole body shook. The high-explosive round flew on a trail that shredded raindrops. Gyeoul felt launch and impact almost simultaneously. The shockwave was visible. Rain burst outward, surged up, then came pouring down in dense streams.

The explosion faded.

But the monster showed no reaction.

What? Gyeoul stayed prone and watched ahead.

No movement. Only thick steam, distinct from mist. Far too much of it. It seemed to be rising from body fluid spilling out of the creature.

Sensory correction warnings disappeared completely.

To be safe, he counted to ten in his head, then slowly stood.

He rejoined the squad, approached carefully, and observed from a fixed distance.

“Wait... is that thing dead? Just like that?”

Guilherme muttered, unable to believe it.

The special mutants lay dead, spread open toward the sky. The posture looked strange because of bodily imbalance. Its center of mass had been pulled into a massively swollen back. Its protruding spine was striking.

Countless boils covered the outer back. What they had first taken for body fluid was actually yellow pus leaking from there.

Maybe it was not literally pus. At least that was what it looked like. Even now, dead, it had not stopped. Even wounds ripped open by the blast rarely bled. Most vomited pus instead. Gulp, gulp. Huge amounts. The steam rising from it was nauseating. When the wind shifted, the stench reached them. Gyeoul shouted:

“Gas masks on!”

「Survival Instinct」 and 「Crisis Detection」 stayed quiet. In other words, it was not toxic.

Still, that was the natural order to give.

Gyeoul fired several rounds into the corpse. Where would be most effective? Puk! Pupuk! Every impact splashed pus. Yellow and highly viscous. It kept pouring out, covering the surrounding ground. Any blood that appeared thinned as it mixed with it.

Hernandez muttered, disgusted.

“What is this thing, a giant tumor mass?”

The soldiers edged backward. Gyeoul did not stop them. He moved them farther back instead. A report would go up, and there was no need to invite pointless suspicion from higher command.

‘If they worry about infection or poisoning, they will isolate us for quite a while.’

Eventually the truth would come out, but the wasted time before that was the problem.

“Lieutenant-nim. Do you think these things might have biochemical attack methods? If so, this pathetic combat ability makes sense.”

Guilherme asked. Gyeoul shook his head.

“If you are asking my gut feeling... no. But right now we have no basis to conclude anything. Better to record the location and pull out. We only need to report it. The Medical Service Corps will collect it later.”

Gyeoul took out his GPS terminal and map. He marked the spot and copied down the coordinates.

“Good work, everyone. Let’s head back. Jeffrey will be waiting.”

The moment he gave the order, their retreat quickened. Before long, they were almost running.

Filthy slime spread wide and began flowing down the slope.

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

#Quiz

Guess what that mutant was?

#3:20 AM

Author: I was extremely tired, but for some reason my head keeps getting clearer.

Friend: Ever heard of a last flash before burnout?

Author: It is not that...

Friend: lololol

#Q&A

Q. BlueCrystal-nim: @Author I really want to see your comments. Reading those after each update and sitting with the aftertaste for a bit was part of the experience, and now something feels empty.

A. Since you asked, I will do them again. Some people dislike them, so I should control the amount better. :)

Q. SoPetem-nim: So where is the signing event? As long as it is not in outer space, I will attend.

A. Well. Would that be possible? Honestly, if this novel came out in print, I think even the first printing would not sell out and the leftover stock would get dumped later. In that situation, a signing event would be too much.

Ah. That does not mean this novel is not fun, it means paper books just do not sell that much these days, so please do not misunderstand. Haha. I hope more people read it, even as an ebook.

Q. Anarkh-nim: @I cut down my sleep for days while reading this.. I had promised myself I would never subscribe to Noble again, but because of this I subscribed to Noble for one month. Thank you for staying on Noble for existing readers. After this work ends, I think I will read your next one whether it is premium or published haha. I am throwing an author-pay coupon and disappearing.

A. I am glad it was worth cutting sleep over. Thank you. I will keep doing my best as an author to cultivate irregular sleep habits in my readers.

I am so kind. My personality is proportional to my leg count...

Q. Raynesis-nim: Munpia will not work.. Better do premium here.. By the way, are you moving to web novel serialization on the site that starts with na?..

A. It is only a matter of order and timing, but I think I will eventually enter all major platforms. Kakao too. Still, if I go into Naver first, getting advertising support on the Kakao side will be difficult, right? People already look at this negatively because it is a Noblesse serialization...

On Naver, it will not be web novel, it will go to N Store.

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