The Little Prince in the Ossuary
Chapter 72

00072 <– #After the Rain–>

#After the rain, Black Mountain (2)

“It’s not that I hate Lee Yura, leader.”

In a separate meeting during patrol, Park Jin-seok confessed his feelings.

“Of course, I don’t like her, either, but I think she’s one of the few people I can trust. At least, a hundred times, no, a thousand times better than cowards who think highly of themselves. I saw her training, and she was good at shooting. She was a completely different person from Paso Robles. Isn’t that proof of her efforts?”

Gyeo-ul nodded silently at his words. He wanted to try and end their fighting completely. Giving him time first was, in itself, the best way to dispel doubts about Yura’s favor.

“I’m just disappointed. This is a total lack of sense of crisis. In fact, it’s the same with other people. We should be nervous, but just because we’re a little more stable, they’ve let themselves become too relaxed”.

The optimistic atmosphere of the alliance itself must have been unsatisfactory. Gyeo-ul wondered if Jin-seok was trying to separate his people from that atmosphere simply by dragging his team to the training ground even before Christmas.

He guessed it was a question asked in anticipation of an answer. Gyeo-ul then came up with a proper one. “I agree with the need for alertness. But I don’t think the current alliance atmosphere is necessarily bad. We can’t always live in fear, right?”

“Why not? We’re in a crisis of human extinction. If you want to live, of course you do!” Jin-seok then emphasized his fear. “I’ll be honest with you. I’m scared! I have nightmares every day! I’m chased by the dead, or I’m eaten, and I open my eyes and get scared again that the dream will become a reality someday! Is it a groundless worry? Absolutely not!”

His rising voice was quite emotional.

“The last raid was successful thanks to you, but can you be so lucky every time? If you want to increase your chances of surviving in the event of a crisis, you can’t tolerate even the slightest neglect or laziness. Everyone has to push themselves to the limit! It’s so hard that I feel like I’m going to die! But even though it’s that hard, it’s much better than dying. I think so! That’s how I want to live!”

Jin-seok’s uptight attitude seemed to be a means of confronting fear in his own way.

Gyeo-ul shook his head. “I understand, but not everyone is as strong as Mr. Park. Really. How many people can face fear like that? Everyone has different limits. I think mental relaxation is like a lubricant. Just as machines that run out of oil wear out and break down easily, won’t people who have no time to spare fall apart as they bump into each other?”

“…”

“What’s best for the individual and what’s best for the community are very different. That’s what I feel. Just because it’s possible for one person, you can’t impose that standard on everyone.”

At this, Jin-seok wriggled his eyebrows. “Then why don’t people who can do it do it?”

“What?”

“Lee Yura, leader. I was sure as I watched. Lee Yura can do it, she has the ability. But she doesn’t do it. That’s not honorable!”

Gyeo-ul felt surprised on the surface and confused deeper down.

“Honorable? Did you misspeak?

“No, I’m telling you right. Even though the alliance has grown so much, everybody is still willing to rely on you. Where are all the people who said they were sorry when they called in minors to be leaders? There’s someone else to do the most dangerous thing every time, and they shamelessly find a way to live with it? I can’t accept that.”

He meant well, but Jin-seok’s attitude was quite aggressive. His expression showed strong disgust.

Gyeo-ul gave him a strained smile. “Please calm down for now. You’re so upset.”

“…Excuse me.”

Since this time was nominally for patrolling, there was plenty of room to breathe while walking. After Jin-seok calmed a bit, Gyeo-ul spoke up.

“Well, I hope you think on it a bit longer, Mr. Park… Jin-seok, you think you’re okay. You think you can keep going as you are now. But I think you’re very mentally cornered. If you say you can’t help it because of our reality, I can understand. But if you keep doing that, I can’t trust other people. Because you don’t like it.”

Jin-seok was visibly shaken. “That’s another matter.”

“Do you think so?” Gyeo-ul shook his head. “Won’t it be hard to protect the people you despise from the bottom of your heart? I understand your position. Which means I can’t leave the responsibility to you anymore. For the people, for Jin-seok.”

“No, but my efforts…”

“Stop. I haven’t decided what I’m going to do right now. You’ve done a great job so far. Take your time. Then you’ll be able to take responsibility for more people.”

Jin-seok shut his mouth tightly. Gyeo-ul looked in a different direction, pretending not to know. I think it was too obvious.

However, it would work. I didn’t mean anything bad.

After sending in Jin-seok, Gyeo-ul visited Yura. However, the attitude of Yura’s soldiers had changed. No more leaning, no more sitting.

As soon as Yura saw Gyeo-ul, she began to cry.

“I’m sorry for earlier. I showed you a bad side of myself. I shouldn’t have done that.”

“It’s okay. As I came here, the team was all standing up. Was that your order?”

“Oh, yes! That’s right!” She nodded eagerly. She was obviously in a state of panic about this. “I just thought about it after my head cooled down, and I think there are some things that Jin-seok is right about.”

“Really?”

“Yes, yes. We need to show our sincerity to the loggers. We’re here to protect them, aren’t we? But it’s also our job to let them work with confidence. Jin-seok was right, but I got mad, right? I think I’ve been venting my anger because of the grudge I usually hold against him. And now I’m ashamed because I’ve thought about it. I’m a fool. Of course, I should have thought of it.”

It was very embarrassing to behold, and her words came incredibly fast. She must have been desperate to say what she had to say as soon as she saw him. The embarrassment that Gyeo-ul had caught her and Jin-seok arguing also seemed to have played a significant part.

It was amusing. Gyeo-ul burst into honest laughter.

“You’re great.”

“Great? You’re making fun of me, aren’t you?”

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

Still, Yura couldn’t believe it.

There was no need to persuade her. She’d believe it if Gyeo-ul told her everything about the conversation he’d had with Jin-seok, but that would be a rash act in its own way. When Jin-seok had revealed his true feelings, he wouldn’t have thought the conversation would leak anywhere.

Then a shot rang out.

It was only one, but the whole worksite froze. Gyeo-ul sent a signal for the refugee workers and other troops to be relieved. It was like there had been a little warning of “sense of survival.”

In the meantime, there was a radio announcing the first measure, second report.

[This is border number sixteen. I’ve killed a ghoul!]

It was, unfortunately, Jang Han-byul who had taken the shot. He was the person who’d informed Gyeo-ul of the fight between Yura and Jin-seok. And with his impressive zero shots, he’d got Pierce’s admiration as the designated shooter.

When Yura and Gyeo-ul arrived side by side, Han-byul looked very excited.

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

The location he was pointing to was quite far away, almost two hundred meters. It was amazing that the Ghoul hadn’t been standing still, yet he’d hit it with a single shot. Moreover, if it had died from that shot, it was even more impressive because it meant that he’d hit its head or equivalent.

“That’s great. I think your skills are improving day by day.”

“It’s not my skill, the scope helped me a lot. I really like it.”

He was now a regular soldier, not a volunteer, so his equipment was also paid for on a regular army basis, including a quadruple scope. It wasn’t specifically for him to shoot better, but it was the basic accessory of the American infantry.

“You don’t have to be humble. Your skills have improved. Seeing as he fell down dead, it looks like he was running away, but you blew his head off with a predictive shot, right? In one shot. Even a very skilled shooter couldn’t do that.”

Han-byul, who was feeling better, began to laugh, accompanying this with strange sounds.

Praise was a motivation that worked for everyone. Han-byul, who had been so afraid of pulling the trigger at first, liked shooting more than anyone else since he continued to be praised at every shooting drill.

Now, U.S. military instructors called him Miss Trigger Happy.

However, that laugh was a little… Yura had an alert look on her face.

“Any others besides that one?”

“No, there was only one. It’s weird.”

Han-byul’s voice was shaking in response. The same went for both hands, still holding his guns, because of the excitement of battle. There was a connection with fear, but overall it was a completely different concept.

“It’s not weird. It’s probably a search.”

Gyeo-ul’s words surprised Yura.

“Search?”

“Yes, we’re doing the same thing at the same time these days, coming to the same place and working. There’s nothing strange about the mutants learning patterns. Most of all, it would be a smart dog or a wolf, and I don’t think they’d hang around on their own for no reason.”

“Suddenly, I’m getting scared….”

“If you don’t miss your shots, you’ll be fine for a while. I guess they’re planning and attacking. A lot of special mutants died on Christmas.”

Gyeo-ul’s presumption had been proven affirmative by “Insight.”

“In that sense, once again, Han-byul, you did a great job.”

Han-byul smiled as he hugged the gun close to him.

After that, nothing special happened until the logging work was completed.

The work eventually finished at 3:30 p.m. The day was short because it was winter, and the work schedule was made to make sure everyone returned before sunset.

Today’s sunset was at 5:13 p.m. A little sunlight remained after, so there was plenty of time to spare.

A group of Chinese refugee workers approached Gyeo-ul to conduct final material and personnel checks before departure. The combatants who were with him seemed a little nervous, but Gyeo-ul raised his hand to reassure them. There was no group crazy enough to haze Gyeo-ul now.

‘No, there’s one.’

The “Pure Gospel Church,” an increasingly serious fanatic group, was impossible to predict because of its lack of rationality. They also had a reason to hate Gyeo-ul.

The massive attack by mutants on Christmas Day had affected everyone. However, Gyeo-ul had warned of it in advance. To them, this seemed to have been a prophecy.

Gyeo-ul recalled the epigrams. One of them was holding the Bible in one hand and pointing with the other while shouting.

“You are a false prophet! The trumpeter of the devil!”

“Listen to the Bible! If any prophet says something that I have not commanded him to declare in my name, if he says it in the name of other gods, he will be killed!”

“Listen to the Bible! Let us be angry at the foolish prophet who prophesies according to his spirit without seeing what the LORD Jehovah has said! You, prophet, are a fox in the wilderness! He looked at the vain and false divination and made people hope that the words would be firmly fulfilled, not Jehovah!”

“Listen to the Bible! I, Jehovah, say! How would you compare wheat with chaff? For the prophet who has obtained it will speak it, and the one who receives it will speak it with sincerity. I, Jehovah, say! What I’m saying is like fire! Isn’t it like using a bat to smash rocks? I, Jehovah, say! So look! I will take the prophets who steal my words from each other!”

Gyeo-ul thought. There must be a lot of good passages in the Bible, but even there, you could only see what you wanted to see.

The time he spent in thought was short, but it was enough for some Chinese workers to approach.

On the surface, it seemed that they had come just to thank Gyeo-ul for protecting them rather than with any particular intention. The combatants relaxed. However, Gyeo-ul was still wondering. This hadn’t happened for the past fifteen days.

“Brother! Thank you for your hard work today!”

We’re doing our job at ease, thanks to you!”

While receiving these words, there was a person who asked for a handshake. When Gyeo-ul took their hand, he could feel a keen sensation in his own. It was the texture of folded paper. A letter? Gyeo-ul pretended not to notice and put it in his pocket with an invisible motion.

The returning motorcade had a strong escort. In addition to a Humvee, a number of LSVs traveled widely between left and right in the ranks, wary of a wide range of areas.

Gyeo-ul opened the letter once he was in the Humvee.