Backstab
Sector 32 in the American zone.
A space reserved solely for us Korean hunters, empty of anyone else.
Yeonghak hyung and I stood on the platform while the hunters gathered on the parade ground. They looked up at the two of us in silence.
"Let me ask you something first. Who here got threatening calls from Korea?"
Most of them raised their hands. Aside from a handful with no family left or who had long since cut all ties, nearly everyone had received contact from home.
"They said if we don't return immediately, our families might have to pay massive fines."
"They even said we could end up serving prison time in the worst case."
"They told us to come back right away if we didn't want to see our families go to jail."
I nodded. Yeah. Of course they'd pull that. The outpost was gone, and if they wanted to rebuild it while hunting rifts at the same time, they needed manpower badly. So they'd decided to drag the runaway hunters back at once.
It was a decision made with eyes flipped white from panic, not knowing when the next rift might open. Still—holding families hostage? It felt less like the South and more like something those long-vanished Kim pig father-and-sons from the North would have done.
Maybe that was why it felt so far outside common sense.
The faces of the hunters standing on the parade ground looked ready to erupt like volcanoes. Even if they had expected lines to be crossed, none of them had imagined it would go this far. I studied their faces one by one, then turned my gaze toward Yeonghak hyung.
"Hyung. You're pissed, right?"
"How the fuck wouldn't I be?"
"You want revenge?"
"Obviously!!!"
Yeonghak hyung's thunderous roar rolled across the parade ground and faded. I turned the same question on the hunters.
"What about you lot? You want revenge on the Republic of Korea?"
The answers exploded out at once.
"Of course we do, hyung!"
"Those fucking bastards!"
"Kill them all!!"
If a furnace of rage and resentment had a face, this would be it. Yeonghak hyung himself was so full of fury he couldn't think straight, swept up in the mood. I gave them time to vent fully, then raised a hand and quieted them down.
"Let me tell you a story."
The parade ground fell silent.
"There was a man with a family he loved. A cozy little three-person household—wife and daughter. One day, while he was out, the pleasure-killer next door raped his wife and daughter, then chopped them into pieces and put them on display in the living room."
My voice, laced with mana, boomed across the entire parade ground without any need for a loudspeaker.
"The man, drowning in rage, made a plan. He kidnapped the killer before the courts could take him, cut off his arms and legs, and locked him in the basement. Then he got a pistol, pressed it to the killer's forehead, and pulled the trigger. The killer died. And that was the end of the man's revenge."
"What kind of ending is that?"
Yeonghak hyung's baffled protest drew nods from several hunters. I smiled at that.
"If that's how it ends, is it a satisfying revenge story?"
Everyone shook their heads.
I shook mine too.
"For a truly satisfying revenge, the killer has to stay alive. For a very long time. Ironically, the most delicious revenge only becomes possible when the target survives as long as possible."
I lit a cigarette.
"We could take two hundred wyverns and the ancient dragon and turn every corner of the Republic of Korea into a sea of fire. Burn the whole country that treated us like disposable shit, then stroll out with only our families. If that's what you want, we can do it."
Only then did they understand what the short story had been about.
"Is that the satisfying revenge you want? Korea dying on the spot without ever paying a proper price for what it did? Is that really the ending you're after?"
No one answered. Then one man stepped forward. A face I knew well.
Go Jaewan.
The same-year recruit who had been close with Seo Yeongcheol.
"Seongho hyung. Then what kind of revenge do you think is ideal?"
"I've spent the last few days thinking hard about that exact question. What should we do with the Republic of Korea? How do we get the most satisfying ending possible? And I reached a conclusion."
I flicked the cigarette butt to the ground and crushed it under my heel. After exhaling a long stream of smoke, I poured mana into my voice and roared.
"One week from now!! A summit opens in Washington, D.C.! Korea will drag in Russia, China, and Europe to pressure the United States! To spit us back out! And I am going to stop it! I am going to isolate Korea!"
Go Jaewan clenched his fists and asked,
"And after that?"
"Korea will try to handle the rifts without us. But they'll fail! Without our know-how, failure is inevitable! And when the absolute critical moment arrives—I'll hold out my hand! I'll offer to protect their national security!"
"Go back to Korea and protect that fucking country?"
I shook my head at Go Jaewan's words.
"Not protect it, Jaewan. Use the excuse of protecting their security to devour Korea ourselves."
"What?"
"I'll put Korea in a position where they have no alternative whatsoever for rift management except us. Then I'll force an unreasonable contract on them. Using that contract, I'll dig deep into Korean society and slowly—cut off Korea's arms and legs. Make it so they can't survive without us. And after that—"
I made a slicing motion with my hand.
"One by one. I'll dry out and kill every last piece of shit that made our lives hell. Pathetically. Miserably. Don't you want to see it? Those bitches who mocked noble sacrifice withering away? The country that called its heroes fools and treated them like idiots rotting in regret? The homeowner who called us the dogs that guarded the house finally shedding tears of fear once those dogs are gone?"
Silence settled over the parade ground. Everyone seemed to be thinking something through.
And everyone seemed to reach the same conclusion.
They would try it my way.
"What do you need us to do, hyung?"
Go Jaewan asked in a much calmer voice.
"Tomorrow we fly into the European, Russian, and Indian zones. Association President Volkov has already made quiet contact. You're going to show them exactly what you can do on wyvern-back. Using that, we'll pull them onto America's side and neutralize Korea's schemes. So get yourselves ready. We need to look imposing as hell."
"Understood."
"Don't worry about your families. Once this is over, they'll be released. No prison, no fines. I promise you that. So focus on the work with peace of mind."
"Yes, sir!"
The hunters answered in one voice, then scattered to their tasks.
Once everyone was gone, I tossed the spent cigarette butt to the ground.
"Yeonghak hyung."
"Speak."
Hyung seemed to have liked my speech quite a bit.
I returned the pleased smile he was wearing.
"The Republic of Korea is crossing lines."
"Touching families is definitely crossing a line."
"So we need to cross a few lines ourselves."
"What are you planning?"
"One week from now. During the summit, I'd like a little accident to happen."
"What kind of accident?"
I told Yeonghak hyung exactly what kind of accident needed to occur.
The way the corners of his mouth slowly climbed toward his ears as he listened was only natural.
How the hell did I end up like this.
Ju Cheolwu, President of the Korean Hunter Association, stepped off the plane while desperately trying to steady his trembling hands.
If this failed, the career he had spent a lifetime building would vanish like foam in an instant. That, above all, had to be prevented.
The president was running wild.
He was thrashing desperately to keep hold of the power in his grip. Noise was erupting from every direction, and public opinion was nowhere near mild. Everyone was fretting that a second Apgujeong incident might break out. Right now they urgently needed hunters who could stabilize the situation beyond the Gate.
Re-conscripting the discharged hunters still left in Korea won't be enough numbers. To rebuild the outpost we need the ones who fled to America, the discharged hunters, and every mana-sensitive person in their teens, twenties, and thirties scraped together.
In other words, this absolutely could not be allowed to fail.
Ju Cheolwu climbed into the limousine and spent the entire ride to the summit venue furiously turning over possibilities in his head.
China already has a mountain of grudges against America and is worried their own elite hunters might cross over the same way ours did. They don't conscript the way we do, but over there the hunters still take little profit while the state scoops up most of it. So they have no choice but to support Korea.
China was fine.
The problem was Europe and Russia.
Their attitude was strangely lukewarm.
Far less enthusiastic than expected. Absolute support like China's seemed unlikely. Still, he had pleaded desperately. It wasn't a one-time violation of international law—they had broken it repeatedly. Next time it could be Europe's or Russia's turn.
That had seemed to land; they had answered in a tone that suggested they would at least speak in support. Ju Cheolwu had no choice but to believe them.
The real problem is India.
India.
One of the nations with the strongest voice in the world beyond the Gate, India approached the Gate from a slightly different angle than the others. True to their polytheistic roots, they had turned the Gate into a religion and worshipped it. Their only interest was in their ascetics and hunters growing stronger.
They don't want to get involved in interstate disputes and lose training time? What kind of nonsense is that.
He had tried to persuade India and come away with nothing but the conclusion that they were a strange breed. Failing to win their support was regrettable, but they had always been obsessively neutral, so the lack of support wasn't a major blow.
I have to succeed. Absolutely!!!
With that thought, Association President Ju Cheolwu stepped into the summit hall.
The United States, Russia, India, China, the EU, and Korea.
Every nation with real speaking power beyond the Gate was present. Ju Cheolwu took his seat and anxiously studied the faces of each country's hunter association presidents.
Association President Volkov kept a blank expression. The Chinese side looked furious. The Russian, EU, and Indian presidents were smiling and exchanging greetings with one another.
"All right! Let's get started!"
After some time had passed, Association President Volkov's leisurely voice opened the summit.
"This emergency summit has been convened at the request of the Republic of Korea. Association President Ju Cheolwu, please take the floor. What matter brings you here?"
Ju Cheolwu pulled the microphone toward himself and set his face as hard as he could.
"The Republic of Korea formally requests that the United States return the hunters it forcibly abducted in violation of international law."
"As I stated in the interview, it was a rescue on humanitarian grounds, and those hunters applied for naturalization in the United States of their own free will."
At those words Ju Cheolwu clenched his teeth.
That fucking Defense Minister.
If they had just proven that people had been riding the wyverns that set fire to the Daejeon military base, pressuring America would have been far easier. But that idiot still hadn't produced a single usable piece of evidence, leaving Ju Cheolwu short of words right now.
Yet the Republic of Korea was short on time. So even without evidence, they had to charge in.
"Whatever justification you offer, invading another nation's territory inside the Gate without government consent is a grave violation of international law. And we cannot recognize any rescue operation conducted through such illegal means. Immediately!! Return those hunters!"
Finished speaking, Ju Cheolwu looked toward the other association presidents.
Now was the moment for them to lend their weight to his words.
With evidence so thin, they needed to create momentum and pressure together.
No major problems. They're on my side.
Sure enough.
"China agrees with Korea's statement. Taking hunters while violating international law? Call it humanitarian aid all you like—it looks more like the seizure of another nation's hunter forces under the pretext of a monster attack!"
The Chinese hunter association president threw his weight behind the words. Ju Cheolwu's expression brightened a little.
Now.
Europe and Russia's turn.
Ju Cheolwu waited for the association presidents to open their mouths and firmly pressure America.
And their mouths opened.
"The EU will speak. We have heard that the hunters who crossed to the American side were being exploited. If they fled to another country because they could no longer endure exploitation that ignored human rights, we cannot agree to Korea's request."
Association President Ju Cheolwu's face froze while still wearing its faint look of expectation.
"Russia will speak. We have just received information that even the families of the hunters who went to America were taken hostage and threatened. Demanding that people be returned to such an inhumane nation is itself an inhumane act, and therefore we will not support Korea's statement."
This wasn't right. Ju Cheolwu's expression began to crumple in ruin.
"India will speak."
Even the Indian association president—who looked more suited to meditating in a Hindu temple with that white beard—opened his mouth.
"We will not lend strength to a nation that fails to treat properly the ascetics who receive divine revelation and cross the Gate of Trials to cultivate themselves."
Even neutral India.
Had turned its back on Korea.