WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Chapter 109: Hanga Mogok Orphanage (1)

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Han San immediately put to use the Cross Society leader's declaration of full support that he had secured that way.

"Commander. Here are the pledges and written apologies stating that they won't grow any rose of Sharon[1] from now on."

"They've written them already?"

Sawada accepted the stack of documents and blinked his one eye.

Sawada Kazuo certainly despised Koreans, but he also knew perfectly well that not every Korean was like Kim Gang-cheol or Han San.

And if they were the sort to grow rose of Sharon in times like these, how stubborn must they be?

Some would have sprawled on the floor, claiming they had forgotten both Japanese and Korean. Others would have nitpicked every phrase in the pledge and dragged things out for a month. If he beat them, they would say their injuries were so bad they couldn't even hold a pen, wasting more time that way.

Yet the documents had been submitted after only one night. Every last one of them.

Han San rubbed his hands together and boasted.

"I collected them myself. Since we're going to be looking after those little beggars together anyway, I leaned on them a bit. Aren't you busy enough just handling important matters, Commander?

"Ah, the third page there. That fellow's handwriting isn't very good, but he means every word. You can practically see his loyalty to the Empire dripping from the page. It moves me deeply."

"Hmph."

Sawada rolled the steel ball in his palm with a click.

Pledges submitted overnight, against all expectations. And that Korean bastard prancing around among them.

'I see.'

The lone eye of the viper, proud of its [keen insight] and acknowledged for [having one good eye], saw through every cause and effect behind this matter. It gleamed coldly.

'Has my leadership as a man destined to rule the realm finally begun to bloom?'

The spiritual opium called Han San was this dangerous.

The stack of pledges passed through Sawada's hands and went up to Chuncheon.

The situation room of the Chuncheon military police.

"What? They wrote them all in one day?"

"Those seditious bastards?"

"Good grief."

The Chuncheon military police commander and operations chief frowned at the pledges before them. Beside them stood a Special Higher Police[2] inspector dispatched from the Gangwon Police Department's Higher Police Division, arms folded.

Namgung Eok and his underlings, who had only become more obstinate with age, had suddenly learned to listen?

"This is..."

"Yes, that must be it, Battalion Commander..."

"From the Special Higher Police's perspective as well..."

The three men had spent a long time on the peninsula and dealt with countless so-called seditious Koreans. They quietly exchanged glances, grasped every cause and effect behind this matter, then nodded together.

"I keep telling you, Sawada was born to keep his underlings in line."

"Quite right, Battalion Commander. Honestly, I never expected that bastard to be this capable. At this point, he truly deserves to be called Gangwon's discipline chief."

"We had only heard of Sergeant Major Sawada's reputation. Now even the Special Higher Police knows there is always someone above you."

As such talk went around, only Corporal Ishihara, who sat in a corner leafing through documents, wore an expression as though he had bitten into a bug.

'Something about this feels wrong...'

He couldn't say it aloud.

He would only hear something like, [Hey! Are you jealous because he took the case you made and scored the credit?] Besides, even Ishihara himself thought jealousy was probably the reason.

'Reflect on yourself, Ishihara. Wasn't it enough that you made enemies by running around as though your promotion were guaranteed?'

Once Ishihara, the only one who sensed something was off, embarked upon a path of self-cultivation, the pledge matter passed without issue.

And so.

Han San, tucked safely behind a Sawada shield even better than a Mountain Lord shield +3, whispered treasonous plots with Namgung Eok[3].

"Teacher. Could you hand over Mogok School to me, the entire place? The site and everything else. You can't use it as it is anyway, with all those seizure notices."

"What do you plan to use it for? You aren't opening a restaurant..."

"Of course not. What restaurant could I run in a building tucked away in a corner like that?"

"Tucked away in a corner..."

Namgung Eok dejectedly stroked his beard. Han San proudly revealed what he intended to do with it.

"I'll use it as an orphanage. I'll pack all those little beggars in there."

"An orphanage."

Namgung Eok immediately understood.

"Of course. Whether it is a school or an orphanage, both spread learning far and wide. Then will we become teachers at this orphanage?"

"Yes. Let's put together an educational curricu-lum."

"What? Curricu-lum? Ho ho. Your English pronunciation is not bad."

"Thank you."

Han San puffed out his chest and accepted the compliment from the former royal English interpreter of Emperor Gojong[4].

It was proof that the ambiguity of the phrase "not bad" could be quite a problem.

In any event.

The next day, Han San and Namgung Eok sat down together again and exchanged the educational curriculums they had prepared.

Namgung Eok read Han San's list.

"Reading. Writing. Japanese and Korean. Cooking. Carpentry. Twenty lessons on amusing wordplay..."

Han San read Namgung Eok's list.

"Reading. Writing. Korean and English. Twenty lessons on a theological proof of why imperialism is bound to collapse..."

They looked at each other.

Namgung Eok asked first, his face blank with disbelief.

"What in the world is amusing wordplay?"

"Ah! At last, I've been given the chance to tell a historical figure like you. Listen carefully, Teacher. Zhu Yuanzhang was walking down the road when..."

A while later, Namgung Eok erased part of his memory by force and gently persuaded him.

"Well... there's no need to make it a separate subject. I think it would be better to mix it into reading and writing."

"Hmm, should we...? I thought separating it out might help with the children's emotional development and, what was it, cultivate their poetic sensibility..."

Namgung Eok, himself a renowned poet, swallowed a curse.

He made his request politely to the end.

"Please. Listen to me."

Han San nodded with a gloomy expression.

Then Han San opened his mouth with an equally incredulous look.

"No, Teacher. [Twenty lessons on a theological proof of why imperialism is bound to collapse], are you serious? We're submitting this curriculum with the orphanage proposal. You really intend to submit this?"

"B-but the spirit of the nation..."

"That's what I'm saying. Mix that sort of thing into other lessons bit by bit when nobody is watching. I can see why you kept getting arrested now."

Namgung Eok nodded gloomily.

Managing another organization in this era was much like being an editor for a novelist. Unfortunately, Han San had never done such work, so he couldn't explore the similarity.

After the two of them sat together and wrangled over it for a long while, they finally produced something that might sell without getting them shut down.

"Good! Then I'll go right away."

Han San went to find Sawada.

"Commander, could you pass this along for me?"

Sawada looked over the proposal and let out a low groan.

"You want to turn the den of those seditious Koreans into a beggar holding camp?"

Sawada's lone eye swept over Han San's face.

This Korean had said he needed the people from Mogok School for a street-cleaning project, but wasn't this as vicious as turning an enemy religion's place of worship into a garbage dump in the middle of a religious war?

'Could this bastard also be one of Kim Gang-cheol's kind?'

Even a man like Sawada had no choice but to click his tongue.

'What a vicious bastard. I'm glad we aren't countrymen.'

Still, no matter how badly the seditious Koreans' spirits were ground down, a beggar holding camp would certainly benefit the Empire. Sawada sent it up the chain of command without complaint.

The Chuncheon military police commander, operations chief, and Special Higher Police inspector let out low groans.

"Ha, this bastard Sawada..."

"I've planned many operations myself, but I've never seen a scheme this cruel."

"There truly is always someone above you."

Even men like them had no choice but to click their tongues.

'What a vicious bastard. I'm glad we're countrymen.'

Ishihara, meanwhile, was so focused on self-cultivation that he never saw the proposal at all.

Permission to convert Mogok School into an orphanage passed at once. The seizure and asset freeze were lifted, and they could even recover the confiscated books.

The Sawada shield performed quite well.

"The issue is operating costs..."

Han's Myriad Commerce would support it, but it couldn't cover the full amount.

How many teachers and students from Mogok School had they already taken over? And how many more little beggars would be added in the future?

"I can cover part of it with donations..."

Han San made a list of people from whom he might squeeze donations.

Hajama Ayame's name sat at the very top. Wasn't this exactly the sort of thing a rich young lady of this era ought to do? The time had come for her to shoulder a young lady's burden.

"I'll have to make a deal with the authorities for the rest."

There were many ways to do it.

He could ask for subsidies, or have Han's Myriad Commerce's taxes reduced by the amount it donated to the orphanage, and so on.

"Good. I could send this through Sawada too... no, I can't."

The regressor knew that man simply lacked the ability to handle something like this.

So while asking Ayame for a donation, Han San made another request.

"Miss Ayame, I need your help."

"Yes. I'll do what I can!"

Through Ayame's connections, Han San submitted every application he could think of.

Some were dismissed, and some were rejected, but more than half passed.

Not only would Han's Myriad Commerce receive tax reductions equal to a certain percentage of its orphanage donations, it would also receive a subsidy from the Gangwon provincial office.

Gomchi clicked his tongue.

"Goodness, Sajang San's powers are something else... Lord above. You got money out of the Government-General too? Is this a lie or the truth?"

"I'm pretty capable."

He acted proud, but Han San had thought the odds were high from the start.

'This is something the Government-General needs too.'

A private company called Han's Myriad Commerce would fully bankroll gathering up people with no relatives? And employ as teachers the people who had been arrested as seditious Koreans?

No matter how well he wrote the proposal, didn't that sound a little strange?

[Paying money] meant [securing that much stake]. And securing a stake meant having that much leeway to inspect and intervene.

Of course, this was the harsh Japanese colonial era.

Those people at the top could inspect, interfere, and take everything away whenever they wanted, even without paying a single coin. That was exactly what had happened to Mogok School, the orphanage's predecessor.

But looking at it the other way around, they had left Mogok School alone until it gave them the decisive pretext of the rose of Sharon.

Why?

It certainly wasn't some absurd reason like the Government-General having human hearts. Japan didn't have them, nor did the Western powers led by Britain. That was the nature of imperialism.

It was simply cheaper!

[Administrative power and policing power are resources too.]

Just as Teacher Han Bada had said long ago.

Administrative and policing power were limited. If they were used in one place, they couldn't be used somewhere else. If a few coins could save the Government-General administrative and policing power, it was a profitable deal.

'Still, more applications passed than I expected.'

That was thanks to Miss Ayame's efforts.

'She truly is an excellent young lady. She also made the largest donation to the orphanage.'

He would have to make time to entertain her properly someday.

Han San added Ayame's name to the list of people he would repay in the future. Since Ayame had shouldered a young lady's burden, Han San was willing to shoulder a sajang's burden as well.

Before entertaining the young lady, though, mountains of work remained.

"Teacher Namgung Eok, your people will probably have trouble dealing with beggars, won't they?"

"They likely will. You saw them before, but they all have the temperament of bookish scholars... There was one person named Jeong Guhwan who was good at practical work, but..."

"The person who reported the Mugunghwa Incident..."

"Yes. It is my failing. Truly, how many people must I have disappointed without even knowing it?"

Namgung Eok shook his head bitterly. Han San comforted the old man.

"Some things can't be avoided in life. To borrow what I told another young lady before, you aren't even money, Teacher. How could you possibly be loved by everyone? That would be asking too much."

"What? Ha ha. That is a fair point."

Namgung Eok looked a little lighter. He thought Han San was remarkably good at comforting old people for a young man.

After comforting someone four years younger than himself, seventy-four-year-old youth Han San thumped his chest.

"Anyway, understood. Leave this part to me."

Han San headed to Lower Hamlet. His trial run with Gomchi, a sample employee, had gone very well.

"Brother Sundae! If there are people who are clever enough, getting on in years, and starting to want to wash their hands of this life, send them my way. No gambling or drinking inside the orphanage. They can hit the children, but only for educational purposes. I'll pay them about this much."

Pi Sun-dae clicked his tongue.

"Sajang Han really knows how to use people without leaving a single gap. Hey! What are you doing? Why aren't you taking me too?"

"Ah, Brother, your face is a little harmful to education."

"You bastard, Gomchi?"

He secured a location, built a system, solved the operating-cost problem, and even procured dorm supervisors who could double as guards.

In Mogok-ri, Seo-myeon, Hongcheon County, on the site where Mogok School had once stood, an orphanage opened.

The sign on the building read [Han's Mogok Orphanage].

And then.

Across East and West alike, the word [orphanage] had always carried a peculiar meaning under the conventions of genre fiction.

By some twist of fate, both the heroes destined to save the world and the villains destined to destroy it all came from orphanages.

Under the peculiar leadership of Han San, who had taken over Chuncheon's underworld, this orphanage had also finished preparing to pull a small [trick].

[1] The rose of Sharon, or mugunghwa, is a hibiscus long associated with Korean national identity, whose display colonial authorities often treated as a nationalist gesture.

[2] The Special Higher Police, or Tokko, was Imperial Japan's political police organization, tasked with surveilling and suppressing dissent in Japan and colonial Korea.

[3] Namgung Eok (1863-1939) was a Korean educator, writer, and independence activist who promoted mugunghwa, the rose of Sharon, as a national symbol.

[4] Emperor Gojong (1852-1919) was the final king of Joseon and the first emperor of Korea, reigning as emperor from 1897 to 1907.

[5] Sajang is a Korean title for the owner or president of a business.

Footnotes:

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