Shock and Awe (3)
A flash bulletin flashed across the screen. Urgent update. According to local time, first thing Monday morning, just now—Hong Kong was hit by a surprise bomb terror attack on the Hong Kong Governor.
The terror was estimated to have been carried out with a hastily assembled explosive device, or IED. At the moment of the terror, the Hong Kong Governor had been conducting an interview with a South Korean businessman about attracting investment.
Both the Governor and the Korean businessman had been severely injured and rushed to the hospital, where emergency surgery was immediately under way.
Whether their lives were in danger was still being assessed. I will provide updates as soon as further details come in. ABC News correspondent on the ground in Hong Kong…
I listened to the news with quiet satisfaction and slowly nodded. The subordinates I had left behind in Hong Kong had performed well.
While the news continued to deliver its quick, concise summary, Matthew W. Lewis’s phone on the table began vibrating wildly, as if on fire.
I gestured with a hand, putting on an exaggeratedly disappointed tone.
“Why don’t you take the call? It seems important.”
“…All right. I’ll be brief.”
Oh, there I go again, making it sound as though I were the mastermind. Such a misunderstanding was absolutely unacceptable.
I had simply been in that city for a day or two before the terror occurred in Hong Kong.
Just as simply, I had mentioned in passing that a terror might happen, and the very next thing I knew, the news had reported it.
Extremely convenient, yet that was far from sufficient proof that I had plotted or orchestrated the terror.
Truly, I had been the one who had suffered the most injustice. That explained the unfairness.
Unfortunately, I could not hear what was said on the other end of W’s phone or what he was replying.
Probably because he had taken the call from a distance, strongly conscious of me. Even with my English pronunciation, the distance made it difficult to read the conversation.
Still, there was no need to understand every word; the general outline was clear enough.
I smiled innocently as I watched Matthew W. Lewis return to his seat and asked, “What was that about? In any case, the United Kingdom’s territory has been attacked. If this is a military strike, NATO joint response would be necessary, but I doubt the United States would take the lead, would you?”
Of course, it was a question I already knew the answer to.
“Unfortunately, both of them have been affected. Not only was it a military attack, but the United States is involved directly.”
“Hmm? What do you mean?”
I tilted my head, asking with perfect innocence.
“I heard it through the British Ministry of Magic just now. The perpetrator is a North Korean, and two U.S. citizens who were caught in the terror have gone missing.”
“Oh? Then the United States will be involved after all. Shall I cancel today’s schedule? We still have time. I can wait for you if you need to.”
“…That would be most helpful. I’ll cover the hotel costs myself. Just remember that you can call me anytime, Bayres.”
“Of course. Take your time, Matthew.”
The reunion with the Americans had ended abruptly—though to me it had never been sudden—and I naturally returned to the room.
Indeed, by moving exactly as I had expected, I had made it almost laughably easy. How could you reveal such obvious movements?
Back in the room, I sprawled on the bed and replayed the instructions I had given the subordinates.
«Charm» slave Ryu Geum-cheol, whose soul is now mortgaged to me, will naturally begin to see me as the object of his loyalty.
What exactly changes? It’s a somewhat abstract concept, isn’t it? The Party, the nation, ideology, and so on. Since the communists’ way of thinking is far from common sense, you could call it a collective that’s difficult to express in any single word.
Anyway, I’ve arranged so that Ryu Geum-cheol believes I am the “most authentic citizen of the Republic.” His devotion to the Party and the nation now points toward me, and he can dream of nothing else.
It was a masterpiece of twisting both body and mind. Even a human with unyielding will would ultimately become my puppet, no matter how much suffering they endured.
Thinking about it, this method would have been impossible if I had lacked even one single piece of the puzzle.
First, my own magic path had to be deep and broad enough to suppress the magic paths of other mages.
The minimum depth required to “infiltrate” another mage’s path was at least twice what I had achieved. Only the magic path I had steadily honed since my previous life could have made this possible.
Second, the bodies and minds of the prospective puppets had to be completely shattered.
That was, in a way, the easiest part.
The body had received electric shock while the bloodstream was laced with truth serum, and the mind had been supplied with «Charm», a kind of cheat code.
Of course, the body and mind were not entirely separate, but without «Charm», it would have taken weeks.
And finally, the surrounding environment had to be controlled to such an extent that the twisted “fake reality” of the puppet could be made to feel as real as the genuine article.
Suppose Ryu Geum-cheol, believing he was using some channel for communication with his home country, decided to open communications on his own, without me or the subordinates noticing. What then?
To prevent that, it was necessary to perform the tedious task of one-to-one replacement of most of the concepts he had been fed, replacing them with me and my subordinates.
For example, any phone call heading toward the North Korean Workers’ Party External Intelligence Bureau would be rerouted to the Northern Covenant Syndicate’s information division.
If Ryu Geum-cheol ever suspected something was amiss, the fake world created by «Charm» could collapse at any moment.
Like Truman realizing the world was fake, the puppet might run straight to the edge of the fake reality.
Therefore, all these conditions had to work together in perfect harmony until the day the operation began.
Without having prepared the Hong Kong Governor as the first puppet and Ham Cheon-ho as the second, it would have been extremely difficult.
Yet my subordinates and I had executed it flawlessly, and the situation I had always wanted was finally here.
I had received the final moments of Ryu Geum-cheol from the subordinates.
The final footage from the North Korean communist was truly moving. He had woken from a nightmare, barely realizing that everything was fake, and the expression on his face had been exquisite.
Before I flew to Florida, I had given those subordinates left behind in Hong Kong this warning.
“It doesn’t matter. I’ll leave behind just a little of the cultured slime made from Benjamin Ashford. As long as the Governor and Ham Cheon-ho don’t die, everything will be fine. Thanks to the regeneration magic sealed inside the cultured slime.”
“You already know, don’t you? The cultured slime is now a kind of golem. If it detects injury, it will wriggle, crawl, transfuse blood, heal wounds—everything. You don’t have to worry.”
“What do you have to do? If necessary, the slime can melt its own flesh and eat it for energy, so I’m not worried about calories. But just in case, prepare some intravenous fluid. That will be enough.”
The supplies I had received in London just before leaving Hong Kong included the cultured slime made from Benjamin Ashford.
I had been the last to work on it, infusing regeneration magic into the slime. In case any unexpected casualties occurred during the terror I would stage to control Ryu Geum-cheol like a puppet.
A slime grown from human flesh was truly an outstanding base for regeneration magic.
Blood-type compatible, it could transfuse blood at will; as a golem capable of holding regeneration magic; and, even more, it could eat its own flesh to replenish energy—it was a universal artifact.
Of course, the people who ate the flesh would feel rather unpleasant. Even with all the refinements, it was still human flesh.
It’s none of my concern.
Yet I was not kind enough to share that sympathy even with the puppets I fed them to.
I then turned my thoughts in another direction upon hearing Matthew W. Lewis’s almost overly sensitive reaction.
The reason Matthew W. Lewis had shown an overly sensitive response was simple. Two American citizens had vanished without a trace while Ryu Geum-cheol was planning the terror.
If they had merely been caught in the terror—well, that would be a tragedy for the Americans. But I already knew the truth behind it.
The two American citizens Matthew W. Lewis mentioned had indeed been caught in the terror. More precisely, they had been captured by my subordinates.
The method of luring in American citizens was simple. Just kidnap them in a dark alley and it was done.
Actually, the harder part had been to make it look clumsy enough to leave behind clear evidence at the scene. That was what the local subordinates had repeatedly reported.
The kidnapped Americans had been killed quietly before they could make too much noise.
The Governor and the representative of South Korea’s largest conglomerate had been intended to die in critical condition, but the American civilians unfortunately had not been granted that luxury.
Once you pull the eagle’s claws down, they must truly die without being able to turn back.
The Hong Kong Governor and the representative of South Korea’s great enterprise had both fallen into critical condition.
Of course, the cultured slime would have used its regeneration magic immediately, but the subordinates were holding them until an appropriate time passed, so the outside world would know nothing.
But what if American civilians walking by were injured or killed in the process?
At that point, it would truly become irreversible.
After the twin towers were struck by planes, what else could have driven the United States to its breaking point?
It was shocking enough that the U.S. mainland had been invaded again for the first time since Pearl Harbor, nearly sixty years earlier.
But what mattered more was that Americans themselves had died.
I hoped that Britain, the United States, and the entire Western world would shout in unison their fury against the communist bloc.
The puppet dictatorship regime that had illegally occupied the northern half of the Korean Peninsula was, of course, a fabricated conspiracy, and I would rage against the violence of the “communists.” But that was obvious.
As the de facto ruler of Britain, which held one-third of NATO, I had more than enough “evidence” to gift to the Americans.
No matter how much the North Koreans tried to blame others, no matter how much the Soviets drew their lines saying it had nothing to do with them, no one was going to believe it.
The butterfly effect that had begun with the eagle’s wings would soon cover the entire world in shock and awe.