Chapter 85 (1/2)

Behind the gla.s.s windows stood wooden mannequins. One was wearing combat gear, communication devices, a helmet with regular goggles, and another set of night vision goggles. Another wooden mannequin wearing a doctor’s white lab coat stood next to it. At their sides were plastic supply crates, research equipment, and an a.s.sortment of combat equipment including heavy firearms. All of the equipment were tagged with the US flag, their battalion tags, and the words ‘U.S. Marine.’

“According to the records, first contact with the otherworlders was peaceful. Around a hundred otherworlders arrived at where the Forbidden Lands started and created a … Hm, base? Station? Camp? Residence? I don’t know what the right word is.”

“Just call it a camp.”

Seeing Mazelan worry about something as petty as a word, Isaac gave him a definitive answer. Mazelan nodded as he continued.

“Alright. These other-worlders seemed relatively serious about their efforts, creating a solid outer wall made of steel and constructing research facilities and residential areas within it. It was a small organisation, consisting of scholars tasked with studying this land and soldiers to guard them.”

Isaac smirked as he looked at the exhibition after hearing Mazelan’s explanation. Seeing how the Empire got ahold of all this equipment, it was clear that camp no longer existed. Unless the Empire attacked first, it was obvious what happened.

“I can guess how things went down.”

“You can?”

“They start peacefully at first. They most likely approached saying that they wished for a peaceful relations.h.i.+p. Well, that may be what the researchers and soldiers who moved over may think but not their commanders. They’d scope out every aspect of this world, and when they consider themselves stronger, they’d show their true intentions. If both sides seemed equally strong, they’d use negotiations as a tool to get what they want while crippling the opponent however they can. If they seemed weaker, they’d grovel at the opponent and use the negotiations to gather as much technology and resources until they became equal and then proceed along the second path.”

“You seem to know well.”

“They’ve done it a few times already.”

“Is it like how your saying goes? That it takes one to know one.”

“Maybe?”

“Anyhow, that’s exactly what happened. Hm, the first otherworlders seemed to be mistaken that the gate they pa.s.sed through was the only one. But we grew suspicious of their intentions, having gathered information regarding their world already. That suspicion was confirmed when they did their utmost to hide the gate. They refrained from showing it to Count Cicleon, who was sent as our emissary, when he demanded to see it.”

“Just because they refused to show the gate? Isn’t it because of confidentiality reasons?”

“The problem was that Count Cicleon was an elf.”

“The eyes of truth?”

“As you know, elves have an innate ability to tell if their opponent is lying and if they harbor ill intent. The power of this ability differs between individuals, but Count Cicleon’s ability was exceptional enough to earn him the t.i.tle as the Commissioner of the Department of Law once.”

“Why would an individual with such pedigree decide to become a mere emissary?”

Mazelan replied to Isaac’s question as if doubting what he’d just heard.

“Are you really asking that question after being witness to the elves in New Port City for such a long time?”

“Ah…”

Isaac couldn’t utter a word. These elves loved unique experiences, so they’d more than likely throw away their t.i.tle as Commissioner of the Department of Law in order to become the leader of the emissaries. There must have been fierce compet.i.tion within the elven community for the t.i.tle of being the first to contact otherworlders.

“Anyhow, the otherworlders we came into contact with seemed to have judged that our technological level was that of the medieval era. That mistake was their downfall.”

“I don’t fault them for thinking that when you showed up to those holding guns with swords and arrows. So you basically extracted information from them instead when they let their guard down?”

“We took all the information we wanted all the while acting foolish and innocent, being surprised at every object we already knew about. As your saying goes, it was easier than eating a cold ‘jook.’ Ah! I actually have a question. What’s a ‘jook?’”

“Think of it as a soup.”

“Ah! I see. Is it that tasty?”

“What’s harder? Drinking hot soup or cold soup?”

“Obviously the col… Ah! I see. I understand now. What I love the most about your world is all these funny proverbs that you have.”

TL Note: “Easier than eating a cold jook” is a half-translated Koprean idiom that really means “easier than eating cold porridge.” “Porridge” is p.r.o.nounced “jook” in Korean. That’s why Mazelan is confused about it. This idiom is similar to the English counterpart of “easier than taking candy away from a baby.”

“Enough of that. Keep going with the story. It’s just starting to get interesting.”

Isaac felt that it was somewhat refres.h.i.+ng to hear that the Yankees got handed it to them for once, but what really interested him was how this world managed to defeat the overwhelming firepower of the U.S. troops. Their infrastructure may be on par to the modern era, but their armies were still stuck in the medieval era.

“The otherworlders lived together with our emissaries and tried to learn more about us with great effort. The scholars of both sides studying each other’s language, the level of civilization, perception of the world, and the political organisation were beneficial to the both of us. Our only sources of information were the biased and skewed information from the invaders ever since the gates closed, after all. But the other-worlders’ demands began to grow increasingly difficult.”

“Demands?”

“We agreed to provide them with an a.s.sortment of food and materials as they wished in return that they do not leave the Forbidden Lands. They agreed to our conditions.”

“Ha. As if they’ll follow that.”

Isaac snorted, and Mazelan nodded with him.

“It’s as you say. A small group left the Forbidden Lands and scouted the human fiefdom.”

“Wait. That Forbidden Lands. I thought you guys had trouble just finding a path through it? How did they pa.s.s through so easily?”

“The path we found over the long period of time was marked with stakes hammered into the ground. We had no choice but to leave signs like that, since the terrain within the Forbidden Lands changed erratically.”

“So it’s a place too perilous to travel through if you don’t have the stakes. But how did you guys find out they scouted your lands?”

“We didn’t. We didn’t have the capacity to send men through that path other than the supply transports. Plus, we let our guard down, knowing the power of the Forbidden Lands and who the otherworlders were.”

“So basically the two of you traded blows with each other.”

Mazelan didn’t seem to like how Isaac put it together. He glared for a moment then continued with a harsh tone in his voice.

“One of the reasons we refused to let them leave the Forbidden Lands was because we knew the germs, bacteria, and viruses they could have brought with them may have dire consequences.”

“That was actually one of the questions I had too.”

When the doctor Isaac met just after dropping down into this world diagnosed him with PTSD, Isaac had thought that this world had an advanced understanding of psychology. Even in his own world, PTSD had been regarded as a psychological disease very recently. Before then, the patients were treated like cowards or insane.

Isaac was even more surprised when he constructed hospitals in New Port City. He knew that the basic infrastructure was well-developed here, but the level of medical treatment was even more advanced than the old world.

Now that he knew they had been watching the other world and only took the best of it, the inclusion of the study of medicine was obvious. Thanks to the linking of both worlds, their medical field had advanced beyond that of Isaac’s former world.

“So? What happened?”

“A disease the likes we’d never seen before appeared and spread like wildfire in the reservations and human lands around the Forbidden Lands. Seven fiefdoms fell to ruin because of it. We barely managed to find the cause of the disease and develop treatment for it, but the disease we faced was even worse than the Black Plague you suffered in your world’s medieval era. Even now, the northern lands of the Empire are shunned by the people. It is but a desolate wasteland now. Well, thanks to that, it was very easy to censor the spread of information.”

“But I doubt the US would send someone with such a dangerous disease over as an expeditionary force?”

Isaac asked Mazelan his question, still interested in the topic. Mazelan replied with a blank look.

“I don’t know.”

“What?”

“Do you really think I’d have expert knowledge about it when I’m not even a doctor? From what I hear, the germ mutated and it got serious. If you’re that curious, I can find you a doctor to explain it to you thoroughly.”

“No. I’ll decline. But what did you do next? I doubt you guys could blame them for it despite knowing it was their fault since you didn’t have the evidence? Even if you did complain, they’d obviously deny any responsibility for it.”

“As you’ve said, the otherworlders denied responsibility, saying they’d never do such a thing. And with the theory that it was the supply transport that could have spread the bacteria being thrown out, we had no choice but to bear it. The benefits we’d receive by interacting with your world were too great to get angry over it. But the otherworlders committed a grave crime that could not be forgiven.”

“A grave crime?”

“Another expedition snuck through the Forbidden Lands once more while the region was embroiled in the chaos of evacuation. They not only gathered samples of the soil and flora but also captured humans, elves, dwarves and beastmen, hiding them deep within the camp. We were in too much of a panic, and with so many dead or missing, we weren’t aware of the victims who were captured. But the otherworlders were too ignorant about our world.”

“What was that?”

“Have you ever heard of the saying? Never kill a member of the Werewolf Tribe unless you’re the strongest person alive or prepared to run for the rest of your life.”

“I may have heard of it…”

“When members of the Werewolf Tribe die of something other than natural causes, they send the memories just before their deaths to their bloodline, their families. The werewolves who receive images of their dead kin’s last moments consider it an honour and move out to exact revenge. They are a stubborn race who’d never stop until their path for vengeance is fulfilled.”

“Ah! You’re talking about those half-man half-wolves right?”

Mazelan nodded at Isaac.

“Most non-humans are beautiful in the eyes of humans. There was a werewolf woman among those captured by the otherworlders. One of them tried to rape or force themselves onto her while she was weakened by the disease, too weak to even transform into her beast state. The woman committed suicide and sent her memories straight to her family. What’s worse was the woman happened to be the daughter of a Werewolf Tribe’s chieftain. Even now, the presence of otherworlders is confidential information known only by the Emperor, high n.o.bles of the Empire, and chieftains of each race. And all of a sudden, he received a vision of his daughter, locked in a strange building by men wearing strange clothes and almost suffering the disgrace of rape. These Werewolves were a proud race who remained stalwart and lived in their ancestral homelands even as the 7 Days of Calamity ravaged through it. But with a new peril that was the plague encroaching upon them, they suffered incredibly and had to leave their ancestral land. Can you imagine how they felt when they faced such images when they were suffering so much already? Basically, they went berserk.”

“Man, I can already see how it ended.”

“By the time the Empire got a hold of this information, all of the warriors from the Werewolf Tribe were already a.s.saulting the otherworlders’ camp. We didn’t have the time to stop them, nor was there a reason to. In fact, the emissaries who resided within the camp joined forces with the werewolves.”

“Without even hearing about the details? Won’t they usually try to act as a mediator?”

“I think your saying goes, arms bend inwards?”

“I don’t think that’s the right saying…”

“No. It’s exactly right. There was only one reason the werewolves would rampage like that. We didn’t even need to ask why. The emissaries were already quite irritated by the otherworlders for denying responsibility for the plague when it was obviously their fault too.”

“…”

The two of them walked on for quite some time whilst engaging in conversation. As they pa.s.sed, Isaac saw countless familiar objects arranged to the side. When they got to the end, a steel door with unknown symbols blocked their way to the last exhibition. Mazelan stopped in front of the last exhibition and looked at Isaac, who looked at what was inside the exhibition with keen interest.

“Do you know what that is?”

“… That’s not what I think it is right?”

“So you know.”

Isaac looked at the cylindrical object with bright eyes. It instantly reminded him of the Stargate TV series. An expeditionary force sent into another world. And the leader of the group took an object, keeping it a secret to everyone. The object given to him to explode it if everything went wrong. But there was a panel on the cylindrical object, and Isaac couldn’t help but tilt his head after looking at it.

PR Note: This is referring to the naquadria bomb, a weapon of ma.s.s destruction used as a last resort in the Stargate TV series.

00:00

4 black 0s were s.h.i.+ning up on the green background of the panel, and the rightmost 0 kept flicking between 0 and 1. He wasn’t sure if this was just a dud or there was some error in the mechanism, but the fact they transported this fearsome object all the way here was insane.

‘As they say, you become bolder the more foolish you are…’

Isaac muttered to himself and knocked at the gla.s.s with his hand. He asked Mazelan.

“You know what this is right?”

“Hm. Normally, otherworlders are very surprised when they see this.”

“That’s because they’re afraid of death.”

“Are you saying you aren’t?”

“Well… I wonder?”