Chapter 86 (2/2)
Clack!
It seemed that was a sensitive topic that Isaac should not have touched. Yoo-rah was still smiling, but anger rumbled beneath that thin veil. She clacked her mug noisily on the saucer, and Isaac immediately shut his mouth. Isaac glimpsed at Yoo-rah from time to time, and she changed the topic, finding this situation difficult.
“I’ve been reading the reports regarding your activities, Joon-young. You seemed to have enjoyed an interesting student life?”
“I’ve nothing to say if you’ll just put it down as interesting.”
“You seem to have little to no attachment to this world. Others tend to have a bit more enthusiasm in their actions, calling it their second chance at life or a new opportunity.”
“… Let’s just say I don’t have the motivation.”
Yoo-rah smiled bitterly at Isaac’s indifferent response.
“But you know that won’t be possible now no matter how much you want it right?”
“Can’t I just shove myself into a corner and live a quiet life?”
Yoo-rah shook her head at Isaac.
“You’ve heard this world has been monitoring people like us until now right?”
“About type 1 and 2 thing?”
“Yes. When the Empire finds people like us, they continue monitoring and categorize us as surveillance targets. But once they confirm we are from the other world, they recla.s.sify us from surveillance targets into invaders.”
“Invaders huh… that’s a perfect description.”
They suddenly appeared into this world when they didn’t even want to. It may be confusing to the person who just arrived, but they were indeed invaders to the people of this world, barging in uninvited. Yoo-rah smiled bitterly at Isaac’s impression.
“Right? But ‘invaders’ is putting it nicely. There’s a different official term.”
“An official term?”
Yoo-rah took another sip of coffee to ease her throat before she continued.
“Information source.”
“I can understand invaders, but what do you mean by ‘information source?’”
“Type 2, 3 and 4 invaders don’t really take races into account. The only common thing is they take over the body of a sentient race, but this is completely random.”
“So you’re saying it’s not just humans, but even elves, dwarves and the like could become invaders?”
“Yes. This world is more complicated than it seems. The Empire may seem like it holds absolute authority over the lands as a unified nation, but that’s only the look of it. You can tell just by looking at the laws. You can understand better if you remember USFK. Even if the other races break the laws of the Empire, they are not punished according to it. They are only summoned back to their reservation.”
“Isn’t it because of the peaceful policy they have with other races?”
Yoo-rah quietly shook her head.
“Do you know why humans form the main body of the Empire’s society? That’s because of me. It’s embarra.s.sing to say it as the first invader myself, but I held the greatest range and depth of knowledge amongst all of the invaders that appeared into this world, which allowed the humans to dominate when the Empire was founded. But more invaders began to show themselves amongst other races too. And these races began demanding rights for the possession of these invaders, and the Empire had no choice but to accept it.”
“Possession huh… so instead of seeing us as another sentient being, they simply treat us as resources?”
“That’s right. It’s not like I know everything in our old world. My knowledge may be the most advanced generally, but that isn’t the case in all subjects. Even now, you should have more knowledge regarding the military than I do.”
“That’s obvious.”
Isaac had gone through all kinds of experience as a soldier. He most definitely held more military knowledge than a civilian would, especially compared to a woman.
“That’s exactly it. These invaders that appeared into other races possessed their own knowledge or skills they learned throughout their profession. There was a fisherman who ran aquaculture, a printer, doctors, and nurses and even artists and actors of little reputation. There are many whose professions differ greatly from my own.”
“So that’s why they are information sources.”
“When an invader presents themselves, their possession is given priority to the race they appear as. But n.o.body knows what knowledge these invaders have. If they’re unlucky, the invader may have only learned information another race had already discovered. It was quite rowdy in the early years because of this. Truth be told, the knowledge that people of the current era have is very similar to one another unless they are professionals. Anyone from before that time is worth nothing. So they made a treaty; the race who first registered the information to Central will have all the rights to that knowledge.”
Isaac couldn’t help but laugh out loud. How could they claim sole possession of its rights when they weren’t its creators nor were there any copyright laws? Yoo-rah also seemed entertained and smiled with Isaac as she went on enthusiastically.
“Do you know what’s funny? The invaders who appear in this world all lived in different eras.”
“Different?”
“There was a soldier who fought in the Vietnam war, a philosopher from the Roman Empire, and a farmer from the medieval era.”
“Ha. I guess historians would have loved it.”
“Right? It must be interesting to meet with someone who lived in that era even if they weren’t interested in history. But the funniest incident is when a Viking appeared.”
“A Viking?”
“Yes. This Viking who appeared into the world as a Type 1 invader seemed to be mistaken that he died and was taken to Valhalla. He rampaged through a lord’s castle and was eventually killed by a combat knight. Everyone thought it was just some lunatic at first, but when Central reported that he mentioned mysterious words such as Odin, Valhalla and Asgard, I a.s.sumed that even Vikings come here.”
Isaac smiled bitterly as Yoo-rah snickered away.
What a pitiful soul. Of course he’d consider he was transported to G.o.d’s realm if he suddenly teleported to another world. They did say Valhalla was a heaven where they eat, sleep and fight eternally. One would question how that was heaven but hey, the warrior society considered eternal combat a paradise.
“Does that mean I can live peacefully if I share all the information that I have?”
“That may have been possible in the past, but not anymore. Now that they know you are an acquaintance of mine, Central will use you until nothing is left. I’d a.s.sume the Empire would rather welcome it than go against it.”
“Has Central become so large that the Empire can’t do anything even if they go against their order?”
Isaac tilted his head and pointed out this discrepancy. Was it not the Empire who held all authority and Central just below it?
“Most people believe the Empire founded Central as an organisation, just as you do. But in truth, it was Central that founded the Empire. Central is the confederation of all sentient races that live on this world. The Empire is merely a member of the Grand Council which directs Central.”
Isaac rubbed his chin. Although his senses had been dulled after having learned one shocking fact after another, hearing that Central stood above the Empire was still a shocking revelation.
“That’s quite a surprising turn of events.”
“Right? In truth, I don’t want to go against it either. I’m in desperate need of someone who’d help me.”
“… I never thought a request for help could sound so menacing.”
“It shouldn’t be harmful to you at all, Joon-young. In fact, you’d welcome it.”
“Well, there isn’t much that I want…”
Seeing Joon-young still wasn’t convinced, Yoo-rah looked at Isaac straight in the eye and confidently made her words.
“I heard all of your family died in the war, Joon-young?”
“… They were caught in the crossfire during the defense of Busan. What of it?”
“What will you do if I can resurrect your entire family?”
“…”
Having returned to his room just before his meal, Isaac sat by the window and looked at the view outside. The sight of Gabelin out of the palace was truly beautiful. Far into the sea sailed many different vessels, and the buildings in the city showed off its own beautiful architecture. Taking out a cigarette from his pocket out of habit, Isaac pondered as he looked between the cigarette and choyu leaf. He smirked and placed the cigarette back inside and lit the choyu leaf. The refres.h.i.+ng scent scoured through his lung and disappeared, sharpening his mind.
Family… Isaac tried in vain to remember the faces of his parents, but he smirked and shook his head. It was a tempting offer. To resurrect his dead family.
He reminded himself of Newton’s three laws. An extremely developed scientific technology is no different than magic. But if this scientific technology fused with magic, was it still science or was it now magic? This magic of theirs did go against the laws of physics and achieved the impossible, but resurrecting the dead was going too far.
He couldn’t overlook it as a joke or ignore it. He himself was a dead man who was resurrected into this world.
“Interesting.”
Isaac couldn’t hold his laughter as he lost himself in the twists and turns in his head. It was a conspiracy on a world scale. He could understand they all had their own goals, but why did they have to involve him in this? Why couldn’t they leave him alone, taking him far away from what was happening to this world in the shadows? Just what riches and fame awaited them by involving him in this!
Isaac knew there was no point in complaining. He couldn’t avoid it, and that’s what p.i.s.sed him off even more. ‘If you can’t avoid it, enjoy it.’ Isaac hated that phrase the most. Why enjoy something you can’t avoid, when you can simply give up! But now he couldn’t avoid it or give up on it.
The most decisive factor was that he couldn’t trust Yoo-rah. That woman had been present at the founding of the Empire. Her body may still be the same, but can a human mind stay firm for that long of a time? A woman who was but a mere researcher? It was safe to a.s.sume that something was broken inside her.
He didn’t know what Yoo-rah wanted, but he also couldn’t trust what Yoo-rah told him either. Maybe Yoo-rah did speak the truth, and the reason he couldn’t trust her was because there was something wrong with him instead. Who cares. It still piqued a small bit of interest within him.
The Empire, the Queen, the expeditionary forces, Invaders and other races. They all moved in accordance to their own problems and profits. The world should be complicated yes, but this was far too convoluted to be reasonable.
Information sources, invaders, and possession of the rights. They tried to beautify it with fancy words, but at the end of the day, this was a fight between those trying to cling to their possessions and those who wanted to take them. It seemed politics was no place to peek one’s head around, whether it was this world or the other.
Annoyed at the increasingly depressive mood, Isaac shrugged and quietly smiled at the dimming city. Now that it’d come to this, it didn’t seem like a bad idea to be used as a chess piece and die after causing an incident that could end up changing this world.
Isn’t it great! The fact that he could rampage throughout the world, earning the infamy that would make everyone shake in terror and grit their teeth in anger just by thinking of his name. And their anger, unappeased even after his corpse was ripped to pieces!
It brought a smile to his face, thinking that maybe he could even bring his family the honour of being written into the history books.
‘Alright. I’ll play along.’
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