Chapter 103
Chapter 103
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 103
Chapter Title: Han-ASEAN Camp (3)
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“Senior! Are you in your right mind or not?! If we just sit here like this, we’re all finished!”
Thud! A man shot to his feet so forcefully that his wooden chair splintered.
Not a single one of the men in camouflage uniforms seated around the round table tried to stop him.
As if his rude outburst spoke for all of them.
“Swords are at our backs, and you’re just going to sit there?! That new prime minister bastard is trying to rip our military apart!”
“Enough.”
Thailand, outskirts of Bangkok, underground in the army headquarters building.
The man raising his voice, his face flushed red, had two stars on his shoulders.
Reflected on the metallic stars was the stern figure of a single man with a mustache.
“Calm down.”
“But, Senior!”
“Shut it! Sit your ass down right now! That’s an order from your superior!”
Commander Pai of the Thai Army.
Stroking his mustache out of habit, he fixed his junior hardliner with a piercing glare.
As if aiming an invisible pistol, his overwhelming presence quickly quelled the man’s excitement.
Only after the hardliner’s breathing steadied as he sat back down did the commander finally speak, slowly.
“It’s still early days for the regime. We don’t have the justification to topple the prime minister right now.”
“Justification! You think that fancy bullshit can stop real bullets?! We could just roll a tank up to the prime minister’s office and crush it...!”
“You idiot! It’s that flimsy justification that makes the soldiers with guns in their hands—and the lowly masses at the bottom—listen to us!”
Like his lips were coated in honey, the hardliner went instantly mute.
Commander Pai let out a short sigh as he eyed him, then tapped the map on the table with his baton before speaking.
“Not right now. But... it’s not entirely impossible. You lot just bide your time calmly.”
The hardliners lit up with ecstatic smiles, as if his grudging words had electrified them.
The commander, leader of the pack, wore a mask of stern resolve. He could feel the reins in his grip fraying.
Hunting dogs thrashing wildly, eyes rolled back, bloodlust unchecked.
Even if they toppled the regime, he foresaw himself choking under the hardliner tidal wave.
“Next week, after the ASEAN summit in Korea ends, I’ll try compromising with the prime minister first.”
“Compromise... you mean with the prime minister?”
“Yeah. If he’s got any brains, he won’t touch our interests. No need to stir things up if we guarantee enough profits.”
Disappointment clouded the hardliners’ faces. They looked ready to turn on their own leader.
In this moment demanding authority, Commander Pai slammed his fist on the table to rally them.
-Bam!
His eyes blazed from the center of a long vertical scar.
Baring his fangs like the alpha of a starving wolf pack, he growled low.
“But. If we don’t get satisfactory results there...”
Gulps echoed as the hardliners’ throats bobbed.
Commander Pai met each pair of eyes around the table before opening his mouth.
“Then we’ll spill blood, just like you want. Even if Bangkok’s streets flood red up to our ankles.”
Joy and dread crossed paths.
Shadows of elation and worry draped the hardliners’ and moderates’ faces like mist.
“Th-thank you, Senior. No, Commander! As expected, you think the same as us...!”
“Quiet! So until then, shut up and hold your positions. Don’t fuck up the grand plan with reckless bullshit.”
With that uneasy dismissal, the military brass slipped away like the tide.
Commander Pai remained seated.
The fading clamor of their footsteps in the corridor lingered in his ears like echoes—each man fighting to impose his will in their dire straits.
“Phew, controlling these hardliner bastards is getting tiresome. The moderates won’t even squeak at the table.”
Commander Pai clutched his face with rough, callused hands.
The hardliners made up over 70% of the military. If their leash snapped, escaping his control...
The unimaginable catastrophe would spread like wildfire.
Sinking deep into his chair, the man holding the ticking time bomb of decision-making let out a weary voice.
“No matter what, we have to make a call before summer. Unless... some unexpected external variable pops up.”
* * * *
South Korea’s front line, the DMZ. Combat fatigues I hadn’t worn in ages, visiting a military base after so long.
“We’re here, Minnie. Wish granted, right?”
“Heehee. Sorry for the sudden whim. But I really wanted to come.”
I wasn’t here for reserve training or anything like that.
She’d skipped the fancy palace tours in Seoul, shopping at massive duty-free shops, and all the trendy food spots girls her age love.
All for Minnie.
“This is... the front line?”
“Yeah. Full of military facilities you like. I’m sick of them, don’t even want to look.”
True to Thai elite traits, she had strong Chinese ancestry mixed in, with a bright look that could pass for an idol singer.
Minnie clapped mischievously, darting around snapping pics of the military sites.
From the blue-tinted Panmunjom to the stern barbed-wire fences, she tried soaking in every sight.
“That place earlier was Panmunjom, and this is inside an actual base.”
“Oh, so that’s why soldiers are standing there with guns. And all these military installations.”
Normally, a foreigner like Minnie couldn’t even enter the base.
But after a quick word with the Foreign Ministry, everything sailed through smoothly. Even from the notoriously uncooperative Defense Ministry.
‘The president probably gave the nod. Cooperate wherever possible, for now.’
The president.
I knew the approval-ratings-obsessed bastard might not like what I was doing.
But... before regression, that chubby guy I met in prison.
‘Ongbak was an ace during the coup. Led the infiltration team.’
‘Yeah right, Ongbak. No one here buys your army bullshit.’
‘Warden’s exempt from service, doesn’t know the real men’s world. Not ’cause you’re a gangster—too fat, right?’
‘Ha, you rotten punk. Ongbak, you fucker. Gonna beat your ass raw today.’
His grin with two front teeth missing. And the Thai coup he mentioned.
So, this alone time with the Thai prime minister’s daughter was the key to opportunity.
I handed her a packed lunch and sat on a nearby flat rock.
“Eat up first. Then your military spy work.”
“Heehee. Not a spy, okay? Maybe if I were an industrial trainee.”
Minnie’s natural personality was upbeat. She took my spy joke in stride without offense.
The young girl grabbed a sandwich, stared blankly at the fence, and spoke.
“Really... such a weird country. Here.”
“Korea?”
“Yeah. Over 400,000 troops near the capital, but coups are basically impossible. It’s... amazing. And kinda enviable.”
“Now civilians control the military’s leash with civilian rule. Coups here? Unthinkable.”
Envy filled her eyes at “civilian control.”
Maybe her youth?
She showed her feelings openly, just as I’d expected.
“Dad would love hearing this. Total opposite of Thailand.”
Her murmur, soft as wind, barely audible.
A slightly sad look crossed her face as she finished her sandwich and hopped off the rock.
Then, a wistful word tossed my way.
“Now I’ve seen it all, so we should go. Not sure if it helps, but thanks for coming with me.”
She brushed dirt off her pants and walked ahead.
Today, spending time together, I was certain.
Every word and action from Minnie, daughter of Prime Minister Ingtak, carried her father’s raw worries intact.
That’s why I could confess with conviction.
“Just bringing you here will definitely help your father... no, Prime Minister Ingtak.”
“You... knew who my dad is?”
Minnie’s deer-like eyes widened in shock.
She’d only introduced herself as a civil servant’s daughter, so her guard was up.
No long excuses needed now.
I stepped closer and continued flatly.
“You stood out from the other participants, Minnie.”
“What do you...?”
“Skipped every Seoul tourist spot for a grim front-line tour. Noted and analyzed every military facility.”
She hid her notebook behind her back. Her eyes, fixed on the ground, trembled like an earthquake.
I drove the wedge home.
“Your dad must be really worried? Not knowing when Thailand’s rabid guard dog—the military—might bite his hand.”
“......”
Minnie couldn’t respond. No easy yes or no.
Her mind must be a storm of tangled clouds.
I pulled out my wallet and handed her a red business card. Ammunition Group Chairman—my real title.
“This is...?”
“My real name and position. Pass it to your father. And this message too.”
She gripped the card tightly in her small hand. Suspicion, curiosity, a flicker of hope in her eyes as she looked up.
“Next week. ASEAN summit in Seoul. Tell him I’ll meet him separately and discuss one important agenda.”
After a moment’s thought, she nodded.
A slim hope of slashing the military coup knot in one stroke.
At that crossroads, she chose to hear me out. I delivered a clear message in a calm voice.
One she couldn’t refuse, had to hear.
“Mad dogs dying to run wild on bloodlust. The way to tame them. Ammunition Group and I have it.”