Surviving in the 121st Century - Chapter 61
Only Noblemtl
The two airships that had suddenly risen up slowly landed again in the open space behind the camp. One was piloted by Ramien, and the other was piloted by Urata, who was threatened by Jincheol’s sword.
Lamien, who had landed on the ground, immediately jumped out of the cockpit and ran to the airship that Jincheol had hijacked. Jincheol, who was getting off the airship, was holding the commander of the armored soldiers who had escaped earlier in his hands.
He was holding his other wrist with a trembling hand, and beneath that wrist was a red-stained rag that replaced his hand. His wrist had been blown off by Jincheol’s sword. Still, he was in much better condition than the other guards who had risked their lives to protect him. The only survivors from the airship he was on were the pilot and him.
Ramien ran towards him and immediately grabbed him by the collar and urged him on.
“You! The people who were originally here! What about the people who stayed at this camp! Where did you send Ipani?”
“···”
Commander Rabito did not answer, even though his lips were trembling. Jincheol, who was looking at the surviving armored soldiers sitting on the floor with their weapons thrown away, turned his gaze to him.
“Aren’t you going to answer?”
At Jincheol’s soft voice, the commander trembled as if his severed wrist was in too much pain.
“···The homeless, the homeless, to a labor reform facility···”
“Who is a bum! Who are you calling a bum!”
An excited Ramien slapped the commander in the face. Jincheol whistled briefly as he watched the commander fall backwards. This rabbit can do a punch?
Ramien immediately ran to the fallen commander and grabbed him by the collar again.
“You speak clearly! What are the Urata soldiers doing here in the first place!”
“···Mom, target, to hunt down the white slaughterer, the guerrilla of the pig doctor···”
“Then what about the people? Why the other people who were staying at the camp here?”
“That was… to secure manpower.”
“Securing human resources?”
The commander turned his head to the side and looked at the dirt floor instead of looking straight at Ramien. When the man did not tell him the story right away, Ramien pulled the pistol from his waistband and aimed it at his chin.
And unlike a moment ago when he had raised his voice, he whispered quietly.
“I’m actually a soldier of Jasso. I’m at war with you. That’s why, unlike the lax revolutionary army, I can enjoy killing you Uratians.”
Her chubby fingers clicked back the pistol’s hammer.
“Will you be my pleasure, or will you tell me everything you know without hesitation?”
Oh, Ramien! You know how to threaten? Jincheol stepped back slightly and covered his mouth with his arms. It was to hide his laughter.
Unlike Jincheol who found her threats cute, it was real to the commander who had the gun pointed at his chin. His hair stood on end and his nose twitched.
“Bah, excavation site! There’s an excavation site! Our current primary mission is to hunt down the White Slaughterers, but all the Urata units in Jaso’s land are basically carrying out a manpower expansion operation! That’s why I just sent them on an airship to increase their performance!”
“A manpower expansion operation?”
“Yes! The government will collapse, and the homeless and wandering vagrants, no… the self-involved people will be gathered and sent to the southern excavation site to be reeducated through labor!”
The commander was about to say that he was a vagabond, but quickly changed his words when he saw Ramien’s frowning eyes. But even that did not soften her frown.
“Labor reeducation work at an excavation site? What kind of nonsense is that?”
“South! Excavations are underway across southern Rostang! The relics of an ancient empire, a forgotten empire, lie buried beneath Rostang!”
“What the… You’re digging the ground when the war isn’t even over? And you’re even arresting the people? What kind of idiot would do something like that?”
“General! This is your long-cherished project!”
“Rahiman’s long-cherished wish···?”
Ramien made a blank expression as if he couldn’t understand. Then he shook his head, came to his senses, and shook the commander’s collar again.
“So! The camp people here are flying to Rostang right now?”
“That, that’s right… Brigantine No. 3 should be heading to Rostang right now…”
“What the hell is this!”
That’s crazy. That’s right. They kidnap healthy enemy citizens and make them dig while excavating a ruins? That’s not something a normal country or military would do. Jincheol, who was listening, opened his mouth with sunken eyes.
“You just said that all the Urata units in Jasso Land are basically carrying out a manpower expansion operation. You sent the camp people to capture them for performance even though that wasn’t your main goal. How many people were captured and taken to the Rostang excavation site?”
“What? How many people…? How would I know that? I was just doing what I was told to do! If the higher-ups told me to catch them, I would catch them, and if they told me to kill them, I would kill them!”
Ramien tightened his grip on the collar.
“This kid···!”
“You’re a soldier of the Jaso! Then don’t you know what a soldier’s duty is? A soldier lives and dies by orders! That’s what a soldier is!”
Ramien’s finger on the trigger trembled slightly. It seemed as if he wanted to pull it.
“So what? Are you trying to tell me that what happened here wasn’t your fault?”
Jincheol’s words. At those words, Ramien relaxed the strength in her fingers and looked at Jincheol. Commander Rabito also looked at Jincheol and raised his voice.
“Yes! I was just following orders from above! The special forces that died by your hand are the same! That’s how war is! Kill on orders! Take prisoners on orders!”
“Take the old people and children into the forest and shoot them all to death?”
“···”
There was no threat, anger, hatred, or disgust in Jincheol’s voice. Instead, it was just terribly quiet and cold. That’s why Commander Rabito couldn’t answer as if there was a cold blade stuck under his chin.
“you···!”
Ramien, who had been glaring at the commander, let go of his collar and put his gun back in after a while, as if he had been thinking about something. The commander, who was sprawled on the floor, smiled brightly at the sight.
“Are you going to spare my life? Yes, I am an officer. Even if I become a prisoner, I will be treated as an officer-”
Ramien’s fist struck his jaw again. The commander’s broken front tooth rolled on the floor with blood.
“I won’t kill you with my own hands right now. I don’t think that will appease the anger of the dead people.”
The commander, bleeding profusely, looked up at her from the ground. Her expression was rigid.
“You will be hanged in public. Your crimes will be exposed to the world in every detail, and you will pay the price.”
“I, I am an officer… deserve proper treatment…”
Ramien’s combat boots slammed into the commander’s face. The man lost consciousness, his remaining front teeth falling out. Ramien rubbed the soles of his shoes on the dirt floor as if they had been stained with dirt. Then he looked back at Jincheol and smiled bitterly.
Jincheol realized a beat later why she was smiling like that. He himself had that kind of smile on his lips.
Ramien said.
“Isn’t our race so ugly?”
“···Ugly?”
“Scholars claim that we, the Rabitos, have a much more advanced and superior civilization than any other race. We have banks, a well-organized military, and even international agreements, albeit minor ones. We even have flying warships. That makes us far superior to other races.”
Her eyes turned back to the commander. He was lying unconscious, drooling bloody saliva.
“···Can we say that that is superior? Does it make sense for us, who kill and capture people like this while wearing such a facade, to claim that we are better than other races? I··· I don’t know··· It’s just, right now, I just··· I miss Ipani so much···”
As she continued to speak calmly, tears began to flow from her eyes. Jincheol pulled her, who had become weepy without saying a word, closer to him, and she buried her face in Jincheol’s forehead and cried.
The crash of the flying battleship and the shooting down of the Battlewing. I barely managed to survive the fall and come this far, only to find my loved one gone, nowhere to be seen. I could have cried.
Of course, it was hard for someone who had been in love for ten thousand years to understand more than that. Anyway, I confirmed that Ipani was alive, and I also knew where she was taken. Then, wouldn’t it be okay to go and find her? Compared to when I didn’t know if she was alive or dead… I could shed tears of frustration, but was that really worth crying out loud like this?
But he couldn’t be that cruel to the crying rabbit, so Jincheol just patted her shoulder without saying anything.
“···”
As I felt my forehead getting wet, I suddenly saw a person lining up the armored prisoners. The person was wearing an owl mask and was leaning against a spear, quietly looking in this direction. Snow.
Jincheol, who saw that blank stare, grabbed Ramien’s shoulder and slowly pulled her to one side.
“Yeah, when it’s hard, you cry and stuff. Go over here and rest a bit. When Doljumeok calls the people from Solkain, we’ll leave the cleaning up to them. Got it?”
“···yes.”
He sat Ramien, who was answering with a squeaky voice, on the steps of the wooden building on one side. She, who was sobbing, sat down on the wooden steps as Jincheol led her. Jincheol stood up, leaving her slumped, and stopped walking after only a few steps.
It was because the owl mask had already approached.
“What, what is it? First of all… Nice to meet you. Are you Snow?”
Instead of answering, the owl mask thrust the blade into Jincheol’s mouth. Jincheol didn’t move. As a result, the blade stopped just short of his Adam’s apple.
“Who are you?”
The voice was a little trembling because of the mask. However, it was a weak voice that didn’t seem to fit the master of spearmanship who wore a cold mask. Jincheol continued speaking while looking at Snow’s mask.
“Kang Jin-cheol. Just call me Jin-cheol.”
“Kang Jincheol? I’ve never heard of the surname ‘Kang’ before.”
“It’s a rather old surname. About ten thousand years ago, I think? That’s not the important thing. There’s a message from your mother.”
“···That woman?”
Oh my. You don’t even call me mom. This is deeper than I thought. Jincheol felt a slight headache. Still, thanks to fighting together, he didn’t immediately attack me as if I was an assassin.
“Yes. Your mother, Ishanka.”
“···What message?”
“Mom said she was sorry. So she told me to come home.”
“···”
She didn’t say anything, but Jincheol felt the strength in her shoulders and arms slightly relax. The sharp blade aimed at her Adam’s apple had slowly moved downward. However, he couldn’t tell what expression the face hidden behind the mask was making at the moment.
She said.
“···Sorry? What?”
“Well, I guess they just felt sorry. It was the kind of regret that many parents feel for not being able to do for their children.”
“···”
After a while, she swept away the spear blade that was aimed at Jincheol. Then she stood there blankly, staring blankly at the floor. Jincheol could hear her muttering.
“···Now that you’ve come here··· Now that you’ve come here, what’s the point···”
Jincheol chimed in, his voice sounding completely relaxed.
“I found out on the way here that assassins often came from Sioux? But Ishanka didn’t know anything about assassins. She said that after you left Sioux, she kept wandering around the outside looking for you. She wanted to come here herself, but the head of the household there stopped her.”
“···”
She was looking at the floor, then looked at Jincheol at those words, and then lowered her head again. She didn’t respond. Jincheol felt a little suffocated when he saw that, but strangely enough, it felt strangely familiar. More precisely, it felt a little strong. What is this? This familiar feeling?
“That… Your family’s issues seem complicated, so I’ll let the Antera clan figure that out later. The reason I came here is because of the message, but also because I have something to ask you.”
“···”
“···Excuse me, Mr. Snow? Can you hear me?”
Only then did Snow raise his head and look at Jincheol. The moment he faced the owl mask again, Jincheol realized the identity of the sensation he was feeling now. It was the feeling of weakness he felt when he met the so-called socially disadvantaged and talked to them.
“···A question for me?”
“Yes. Is it okay if I ask you now? Or should I give you some time to think about what your mother said?”
“···”
What? Didn’t you say you were the best guerrilla in the revolutionary army? Are you just acting alone because you can’t get along with other revolutionary soldiers? Is that an excuse for running around the mountains and fields to avoid being noticed?
At that moment, a short “Ah-” sound came from behind the mask. Then, the sound that came out immediately was an apology.
“···Sorry. I pointed the spear.”
“No, that’s what’s important… Yes. If you point a knife at someone’s neck, you should apologize. But your character hasn’t deteriorated. That’s fortunate.”
Jincheol closed his eyes and scratched the space between his eyebrows. Snow’s voice had become smaller and smaller. Was the woman in front of him right now the woman who had just taken the lives of the armored soldiers like a can opener?
“That… Okay. Let’s take it slow. First, would you like to take off that mask? But we need to see each other’s faces while talking.”
“···”
Surprisingly, Snow took a step back with a slightly cowering gesture at those words. He looked very wary. Jincheol felt like he was going to sigh, but he continued to speak.
“Okay. If you don’t want to take it off, then don’t. I won’t force you. Then, is it okay if I just continue asking questions?”
“···No. I’ll···take it off.”
That’s a bit strange. You’re saying you’re taking off your mask, so why are you stuttering like that? Regardless of Jincheol’s thoughts, Snow slowly untied her hair tie and took off her owl mask.
A face as white as a sheet of paper appeared.
“···”
The red eyes were shaking back and forth and could not look Jincheol in the eye. Jincheol was quietly looking at the face.
Jincheol also knew about albinism. Of course, he didn’t know the details, but he knew that it was a congenital disease caused by a lack of melanin pigment, and that it was a phenomenon that could be seen anywhere in nature, although it wasn’t common.
And in that sense, Snow’s albinism was quite nice to look at. The albinism that Jincheol knew had white hair all the way down to the eyelashes, which felt very foreign, but Snow’s eyes were red, but her hair was a bit darker.
Thanks to this, her facial features were distinct and clearly divided, so in some ways she just looked like someone with very light skin. Of course, her red pupils were triangular and her ears were long, so it was clear that she was of the Esai race.
She took off her mask and hesitated. Jincheol saw her and asked.
“Why? Do you have something to say?”
“···You too?”
“what?”
She eventually lowered her eyes, unable to look straight at Jincheol. She spoke while avoiding eye contact.
“···You’re cursed too?”
“A curse? Oh, the curse of that winter or something?”
It seemed like she was saying this after seeing Jincheol’s skin color. It was as if she was seeing someone similar to herself for the first time. And from her attitude, Jincheol could somewhat anticipate the answer to the question he was going to ask. Damn it, she doesn’t seem to know anything about Ophesis or anything.
“It’s not a curse. It’s just a matter of how much melanin pigment is synthesized in the body…”
“···?”
Jincheol was speechless at the sight of the round eyes looking up at him. It was an era where AI could cast strange spells. Could there really be such a thing as a curse? However, he still found it hard to believe the legends about the return of winter and the White Army.
Jincheol decided not to overthink it. If it was really a curse, what could he do? In my eyes, he was just a person.
“Anyway, you’re not under any curse or anything. Is this the first time you’ve seen someone like me? Ishankar said you followed a light-skinned person when you left Sioux.”
“···”
Instead of answering, she stared blankly at Jincheol with her red eyes. It was frustrating that he couldn’t answer quickly, but he didn’t want to rush him either, so he just stared at her eyes.
Only after a moment did her mouth open.
“I don’t know how that woman knew, but the person I followed that day was Esai. I followed him because he said he could lift my curse, but he just took my blood and did some strange tests, and then one day he ordered his subordinates to try to kill me.”
“···Who was that?”
“The head of Antera. My grandfather.”
“···”
It’s the end. They’re filming a really bad drama. Is it the game of thrones, or is it the game of Esai? Jincheol felt a slight pain in his neck at the secret history of the Esai family that he didn’t really want to know.
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