Korea's War Plans
Just like China, Korea Three was also drawing up its war plans.
"We have to put together a perfect operational plan and make His Majesty happy."
The wolf girl with her ears pricked upright, Rianna Frostpen, spoke with a deadly serious face. What a perfectly Korean-style name that was!
Names of this form even appeared on the Gojoseon Amber Map. The alphabet itself originated in Gojoseon.
"Today's weather is clear. Not a cloud in the sky."
The long-eared elf gazing blankly out the window, Alteria Belgard, spoke at a leisurely pace as she listened to the information her kin were feeding her.
She wasn't listening to a single word Rianna said. Her mind was entirely fixed on the defense of the imperial palace.
"Are you listening to me? We need to draw up an ops plan."
Rianna let out a low, threatening growl. She narrowed her bright yellow pupils and glared at Alteria.
That four-dimensional girl spouts nonsense every single day.
"I have Walpurgis today, so I can't stay long."
The magical girl Scarlet announced her departure time from the conference room with a serious face.
I need to crack the whip on those immature young comrades every so often so they don't do anything weird. I can't skip Walpurgis.
Rianna will put the plan together just fine on her own.
Scarlet decided to trust Rianna and leave the entire operation to her.
"Hey, is it okay for you two to be this uncooperative?"
Rianna, who had been leading the meeting, let her ears and tail droop in defeat.
Shouldn't there be some input? How about we structure the operation this way? I've got a good idea. Please deploy us like this. Something like that?
"I lack military insight, so I shall follow Miss Rianna's lead. I'm certain you will craft an excellent plan."
Light returned to the jade-green pupils that had gone hazy from staring into the distance, and Alteria finally produced a proper answer.
Her upright, pure face, as if holding light within it, softened into a gentle smile as she looked kindly at Rianna.
"Uh, thanks… Still, though—is there anything you need? Any good ideas?"
Slightly embarrassed, Rianna cleared her throat and pressed on.
"Hmm? One moment…"
Alteria tilted her head, and hair like golden thread spilled down in a beautiful cascade of light.
From where she sat, she relayed the question to her kin.
= Do any of you have requests ahead of the war?
— None.
— Ditto.
· · ·
— We would ask that half of the World Tree Guardians not leave their posts. And that the young ones not be conscripted either.
At the words relayed by the High Elves stationed at the Four Great World Trees, Alteria nodded and spoke to Rianna.
"You may mobilize our kin. However, please refrain from deploying the young children and more than half of the World Tree Guardians unless it is an emergency."
"Huh? You don't even need to say that—I wasn't planning on touching them. If you leave your posts, holes open up in the air defense net."
Finally having something resembling a conversation, Rianna grinned.
Drafting the war plan alone had made the weight of responsibility feel crushing, so every little opinion was precious.
Now we're all planning this together!
Rianna's happy fantasy—tail wagging furiously—shattered on the spot.
"That is all."
Alteria let her eyes go hazy again and stared blankly into the distance.
"…Hello? Alteria?"
Even at Rianna's call, Alteria's mind—which had wandered far away—did not return.
She was completely absorbed in watching the Emperor at the palace. Truly devoted security!
"Is it my turn? When you deploy us Witches to the battlefield, please assign older people as leaders whenever possible. The young ones don't listen very well."
Scarlet, who had been focused on the clock, spoke up in Alteria's place.
"Oh, Scarlet! Of course! Send me a list of people you'd want as leaders and I'll build the units around that."
Turning away from the Alteria who had departed into the fourth dimension, Rianna nodded vigorously.
"Thank you. I'll send the list within three days. Well then, I'll be off to attend Walpurgis. Hang in there, Miss Rianna."
Scarlet politely bowed her head, clenched one fist in a fighting pose, and slipped out of the conference room.
"…Huh?"
Rianna stared blankly at the spot Scarlet had vacated, looking thoroughly pathetic.
"Ah, is the meeting over? I'll be going as well."
Alteria, who had conveniently woken up, glanced around and then exited the conference room just like Scarlet.
"Wai—"
Rianna's hand, stretched out on reflex, fell limply.
"Ahem! I'm still here, so don't you worry too much!"
A pink-haired woman who had been quietly watching the whole time shouted with supreme confidence.
"…You're a fish-head, so I don't expect much."
Rianna said it with a dejected face. The two who actually had brains—even if they lacked motivation—had walked out, so the meeting was finished.
She expected absolutely nothing from the mermaid race's representative who had stayed to the end.
"That's rude! That's racial discrimination!"
Cora Liris screeched and stamped her feet. She'd gone to the trouble of showing her face at the conference room only to hear that kind of grumbling!
"Fine. Got anything you want to say?"
Rianna flipped through various documents she'd originally planned to distribute, speaking halfheartedly.
"Hmph! I have a perfect plan!"
Cora thrust out her chest, and her sky-blue dress pulled taut.
"…Hmph. All size and no substance."
Rianna, who had glanced over at the confident declaration, muttered while looking down at her own chest.
I'm pretty decent-sized myself, but hers are weirdly huge.
"What did you just say?"
"Waaah!"
Startled by Cora's face suddenly shoved right up to hers, Rianna shoved her chair back in a panic, putting distance between them.
"You need to learn what personal space is."
Unable to hide her shocked expression, pupils narrowed, Rianna clutched her chest and scolded her.
Cora had gotten so close that her breath had actually touched Rianna's face.
"But isn't it nice being close? It's warm."
Cora pressed an index finger to her lips as she spoke, her eyes gleaming with a light as beautiful as lapis lazuli.
"It's stifling! Mermaids, I swear."
Rianna growled back, the ears rising from her silver hair standing sharply on end.
"More racial discrimination! That's not okay."
"It's not discrimination, it's a difference. Same as the dwarves refusing to even show up at the conference room."
Rianna let out a deep sigh as she recalled the dwarves, who had refused to attend and just asked to be told the results.
"They do like dark, gloomy places, yeah."
As Cora crossed her arms, hummed thoughtfully, and nodded, Rianna pressed her.
"So? What's this perfect plan of yours."
"Don't be shocked when you hear it! The moment the war starts, we mobilize every single warrior of our race and raise a tidal wave against China!"
Cora declared with absolute confidence, snorting proudly and lifting her nose high.
It really is a perfect plan!
Contrary to Cora's thinking, Rianna's face slowly rotted.
"Rejected. Do you even have any fighting strength left after pulling a stunt like that?"
"We just rest a little!"
At Cora's bold reply, Rianna exhaled a deep sigh that said she'd expected exactly that.
"Don't talk nonsense. Our navy's getting pushed back, so in a pinch you lot need to step up and perform."
"Isn't that just a matter of shooting some missiles?"
Cora made a tsk-tsk sound, closed one eye, and waggled her index finger left and right. Rianna barely restrained the urge to snap that finger.
"You're a grand general commanding the military and you don't even know that?!"
The index finger of justice thrust straight out at Rianna!
Cora crowed triumphantly, feeling proud of herself for having delivered a lesson.
To Rianna's ears, it was pure absurdity.
"That's idiotic. You think landing a missile on a ship is easy?"
"We just find out where the enemy is, and that's that."
"That doesn't mean the missile hits. Ships don't sit still—they keep moving. And even if you somehow score a hit, that's only after punching through the fleet's air defense interception net."
"I'm disappointed in missiles!"
Cora planted both hands on her hips and shouted. Rianna ignored her.
"And your existence is a secret, got it? To deal a fatal blow to the enemy navy, we need to conserve your combat power."
"What about sneaking under the ships and sticking bombs on them?"
Even after Rianna's cold words, Cora couldn't let go of the idea.
"Aren't you underestimating modern surveillance networks a little too much? You'd get picked up by underwater hydrophone nets and sonar, and the second anti-sub helicopters go up you'd eat depth charges and become grilled mermaid."
"Come on! How can you be so sure when we haven't even tried it yet!"
After pinching both of Cora's cheeks—the ones that had just yelled You coward!—Rianna delivered a dose of reality.
"We checked with our own equipment. You'd get caught."
Rianna figured they might be mistaken for dolphins, but she deliberately avoided saying anything that would boost Cora's morale.
If this idiot gets excited and causes an incident, how am I supposed to clean that up?
In Rianna's head, a vivid scene was already playing of Cora yelling "Really? Then let's raid them right now!" and charging off with troops on her own.
It felt like something she'd do right now, before the war had even started.
"We can tank a few bombs!"
Cora's will was unshakable. Regular mermaids might die from bombs, but superhumans like me are fine!
She focused only on the fact that her body would stay intact if hit, and paid not even a rat's tail of attention to the fact that problems would arise the moment actual combat began.
"If an explosion goes off underwater, the shockwave spreads over a wide area and it's even more dangerous. Shockwaves travel four to five times faster than above the surface—you'd end up as sashimi. Sure, high-ranking warriors could tank it. But if your stamina gets drained, we can't mobilize you when we actually need you."
Rianna explained in detail, and Cora let every boring word of it sail in one ear and out the other.
"We can do it!"
Anyway, the one who shouts loudest wins! Real-world problems didn't matter!
And so Cora's voice boomed and reverberated through the room.
"No. That doesn't exist in the ops plan, and it doesn't exist in reality."
Rianna muttered quietly, pressing both hands down over the ears on top of her head. The fur on her tail had puffed up from the startling noise.
"We can do it!"
Finally flopping onto the floor, Cora started thrashing her arms and legs and yelling. The part where she rolled side to side in the middle was just a cute bonus.
Of course, it didn't work on Rianna.
"…"
Twitch.
A vein stood out clearly on Rianna's forehead. Why is it only the stupid ones who diligently push their own opinions?
The smart ones all dumped it on me and left…
Rianna achieved enlightenment. They left because they're smart. They know perfectly well that since we all follow His Majesty together, I wouldn't sacrifice anyone needlessly.
Amber eyes now gleaming with wisdom looked down at the mermaid thrashing about like a fish that had flopped onto dry land.
"Waaaaaah!!!"
A mermaid princess roaring like a newborn baby. If she'd been a child, it might have been cute—but an adult doing this was just grotesque.
She stayed behind because she's an idiot.
Rianna delivered a short, sharp line—This is an order. Don't.—then chucked Cora out of the conference room and shut the door.
Even this cold treatment couldn't break Cora!
"Open up! I still have more perfect plans!"
Bang! Bang!
Cora started raising a ruckus, pounding on the door, and was soon seized by maids who arrived and thrown into the sea.
The sea, mother of all life, accepts everything…
Pwah!
The sea spat Cora back onto land!
Landing heroically in a perfect hero landing, Cora's will blazed anew.
"Not yet! It's not over yet!"
Refusing to give up, Cora climbed back onto shore and ran toward the palace, seawater dripping from her. She intended to run all the way to Seoul.
For the future of Korea!
Cora would never give up!
"Perhaps you should rest for today."
Maids who had been waiting, knowing this would happen, blocked her path.
Cora was seized on the spot and thrown back into the sea. After repeating the same stunt about ten times, Cora finally gave up and returned to Jeju Island.
Korea's future would work itself out somehow!