Poincaré's Invitation
I was able to meet the Korean students studying in Paris. They had all tasted foreign waters, so they were practically glistening with health in a way you would never see back in Goryeo. The group welcomed me with genuine warmth.
“It is an honor to meet Your Excellency, the Minister of the Army!”
I always think this, but being called “Excellency” in a body that hasn’t even reached thirty yet feels pretty damn weird.
“All of you must be working hard in France. You are the pillars of our nation. In the future, you will be the ones responsible for Goryeo’s tomorrow.”
I gripped each student’s shoulder one by one. You people. You are the ones who will carry this country’s future.
“Thank you, Your Excellency!”
“By the way, for people who’ve eaten foreign food, you all look healthy enough, yet something seems to be bothering you. Is there a problem?”
At my question the students exchanged glances before one finally spoke up.
“Your Excellency… the truth is, we have experienced racial discrimination here several times.”
They began pouring out their grievances to me. Racial discrimination, huh. I figured it would come up eventually. Even in the original timeline, Japan had been called monkeys and worse even after clawing its way to the edge of the Great Powers. These students abroad were an easy target. The fact that France was even willing to take them in was already something to be grateful for. Since several batches of students had already come and gone, things would probably settle down. I planned to recall all of them before the war anyway, so there wouldn’t be any lasting issues. Until then, discrimination was inevitable. They would just have to endure it.
For now I had to keep feeding them honeyed words about how all of this was thanks to France. I needed to squeeze every possible benefit out of them while I could. At least there hadn’t been any major incidents yet. I supposed I should count that as a win.
“Do you think I don’t understand how you feel? But you must endure. Endure again and again. Until we are strong enough to protect our nation with pride no matter who invades. Even if it is dirty and humiliating, the students here must absorb everything they can.”
The students’ faces twisted with frustration at my words. They weren’t stupid. They knew that for now they had to swallow their pride and build up Goryeo’s future.
“Even if discrimination runs rampant here, even if they mock us as yellow race, learn everything you possibly can. Take their knowledge. Turn the very anger from that discrimination into fuel and use it to develop Goryeo later. At the very least, since an agreement exists between us and France, they will teach and protect you.”
What they suffered now would pay off in the future. All they had to do was contribute to Goryeo’s growth. Surprisingly, they had little to say about how I had crushed the imperial family. Well, the fact that they had chosen to study abroad showed they had their own thoughts on the matter. They probably hoped there would never again be an imperial family as useless as the Yi dynasty.
After all, the reason Koreans were still treated as uncivilized, mere yellow people, talking monkeys, was largely because that pathetic imperial family had failed to reform the country. In the end, raising the nation’s prestige meant becoming strong. Just like how, in the original timeline, independent Korea had sent workers to Germany. Those dispatched workers had been sent for economic development and foreign currency. In the same way, these students would one day achieve a modernization for our people that made the Japanese colonial development of the peninsula look like child’s play.
“Swallow your rage. Be proud that you are Arirang People who have inherited the spirit of Hongik, the people who will become the talent for our future struggle for living space.”
You are the ones who exist for the future. Therefore you must never waver.
“““Yes, Your Excellency!”””
One day you will become people who achieve great things for this country. So never, ever let yourselves be broken. You will diligently absorb European technology and develop our nation.
“If you do that and later work for the country, the state will not forget you and will repay you in full.”
I spread my arms wide. You are the proud sons of Goryeo. I gave them my word that they would be sufficiently rewarded. We would not become the weak nation that had fallen into colonialism. We would not be the pathetic Korea that had to rely on America even for independence. No longer would we be the weak country that could only survive through hedgehog tactics.
Starting now, from these 1910s onward, I would lay the foundation so that the Korean people could expand. And it wouldn’t be just France. Exchanges with Germany would begin in earnest as well. Of course, considering the war, it would last at most two years, but even that would be enough to prepare the stepping stones for Goryeo’s development.
“Long live the Army Minister! Long live Goryeo!”
“That’s a powerful voice. What’s your name?”
For some reason, guys with loud voices always seemed to have something special about them. I decided to ask just in case.
“My name is Yu Il-han!”
“You have the face of someone who will achieve great things. Keep working hard.”
I patted Yu Il-han’s shoulder several times. I wasn’t sure whether this person had been in France in the original history, but those three syllables were definitely familiar.
“Yes, Your Excellency!”
Yu Il-han. Yu Il-han… Yeah, I’ve heard that name. After all, I graduated from the university he founded. I didn’t know exactly what he did, but I knew he was supposed to be an incredible figure. If he was an incredible figure in this period, he was probably an independence activist. It might be good to keep an eye on him for a while.
On the way back from meeting the students, I received a dinner invitation from President Poincaré.
“Does French food suit your taste?”
“From what I’ve heard, the country with the most delicious food in Europe is France, the country with the best desserts is the Ottomans, and the country with the worst food is Britain. French cuisine agrees with me very well.”
This onion soup with bread soaked in it? It was actually good.
“I’m glad.”
“By the way, what made you call me here?”
“To be honest, we still don’t quite understand the purpose of Goryeo’s Army Minister’s visit. Let’s be frank. Neither the red ginseng business nor the publication of this book seems to require the Army Minister to come in person. That’s what I mean.”
Well, that was true. It was a sensitive issue. I had suddenly passed through Germany to get here. If we had at least claimed we borrowed a ship from Russia it might have sounded more plausible, but instead I had come straight through Germany carrying a mountain of gift baskets with no explanation whatsoever.
“It’s to greet the real powers as a fellow real power.”
“That part still bothers me.”
“Hmm. You must be curious whether I made some kind of deal with Germany.”
Of course. Poincaré was a politician. The Korean Peninsula had become a buffer zone, but the Great Powers were still probing and Goryeo was reaching out.
“Hah, yes. Exactly that.”
Should I frame this as internal interference and say he shouldn’t ask any more? No.
“Isn’t this too openly asking me to tell you everything?”
“Considering all the help we’ve given you so far, I think we deserve at least that much, don’t we?”
The slightly aggressive tone suggested that when he spoke nicely, he expected a proper answer. It would be dangerous to brush him off here.
“It’s not that there has been no military exchange. After all, we have to give and take. We received submarine technology and various other things from Germany. But we had nothing to give in return, you see.”
“So what did Goryeo give?”
“I simply tossed out the suggestion that the airplanes used in the Italo-Turkish War could be developed for military use. That was all.”
That was really all I had done. I made sure to hammer that point home. The only thing France knew about me was that I could foresee the future. They probably didn’t know that I also understood fighter plane design.
“Is that really all?”
“I already told you. In the first place, what could a Far Eastern nation like ours possibly do with Germany?”
No matter how many times I said it, there were limits to what I could achieve.
“Hah, using airplanes for war…”
“Please just consider it the nonsense of an Oriental woman.”
Even if I told them, it wouldn’t change anything. Once the war started, Germany would produce fighters and bombers first. The basic tech tree would be completely different. If German personnel trained at the Manchurian airfield and continued developing fighters together, France would inevitably be pushed back in the early stages. The title of air ace didn’t exist for nothing.
“Then, could you give me one prophecy?”
He suddenly asked for a prophecy here? This was unexpected.
“You mean France’s future?”
“Yes.”
The fact that he was curious about France’s future suggested this had been the real purpose all along. Since it would be awkward to just let it pass, he was basically saying to give him a prophecy before I left. Mentioning the war itself should be fine. As long as I didn’t tell him the exact causes, it would be okay.
“I can’t say exactly which year, but the war that will break out soon will drench the European continent in blood.”
“What?”
France would have no choice but to join once the war began. This was a fight over who would hold hegemony over the European continent. There was no way France, which boasted Europe’s finest army, would sit still. But hearing it with his own ears must have felt different. Even now, though he had asked me to speak, his expression soured. Still, what I said here was just conjecture. I set aside specific facts and simply, naturally, in the most standard way, explained what would happen if war broke out in Europe.
“Whether someone wins or loses, there will inevitably be enormous loss of life. If France does not participate in the war, its future won’t be so bad.”
“And if it does participate?”
If it participated, it would be no different from dying. “It looks dark. It means a great deal of French blood will flow.”
In truth I hadn’t asked the Great Gallery. I had no intention of looking at a future where Germany won the world war. At least not until after the war broke out. Checking the situation in real time was obviously necessary.
Poincaré shook his head as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“Be reasonable. What are you—”
“Therefore you must never participate in the war.”
Having heard the prophecy, Poincaré frowned with clear displeasure.
“Hoo… It seems I asked something pointless. Then what do you think will become of my own future?”
How the hell should I know, you bastard? In the end he was more curious about his personal fate. I had already told him about the war, so he could figure that out himself. I deliberately put on a smile.
“It seems the President is worried about the future.”
“Any human would be curious. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Do you believe me?”
If it were me, I’d think, I wouldn’t listen to a word this crazy bitch says! Even though we were talking face to face, the moment I turned around he would probably mutter about what kind of madwoman I was. Yet he was still listening to me. After all, he was the one who had summoned me here. In that case, I supposed I needed to give him some credibility.
“I can’t believe everything, but there must be some reliability since the Russian Tsar and the German Kaiser sent you gifts, no?”
“That’s true.”
Well, they had seen it with their own eyes, so of course they would.
“Hmm. Then can you see my past as well?”
“The past, is it. Very well. However, viewing a person’s past requires some preparation.”
“I will wait.”
Raymond Poincaré. The man was staring straight at me. Whatever. Let’s just do it. From his reaction, it seemed he would watch no matter what I did. I tapped at the air with my finger.
That was strange. Didn’t my question disappear? Or did it remain as a record? Judging by the angry comment, he remembered. In that case I might need to change how I asked questions.
I had been tapping at the air, and Poincaré had been watching me strangely the whole time. I spoke to him carefully.
“You named your childhood dog Bismarck, didn’t you?”
“How… how could you know that?”
This time he wasn’t wearing the face that said he had expected it. He looked genuinely shocked. Of course. He would never have imagined I knew something about his dog. My credibility had probably shot through the roof.