Chapter 52. Telling Everyone the Truth.
Chapter 52. Telling Everyone the Truth.
Just before gathering everyone, I went to see the President alone and said,
"I'd like you to be the one to address the people yourself, Mr. President."
"Why me... Aren't you the group's representative now, Mr. Sihu?"
"A nation's president will come across as a little more trustworthy than the leader of the group."
With an exceedingly solemn expression, he nodded at me, clearly burdened by the thought of having to tell people himself that the world was changing.
It wasn't going to take long, and because it was extremely important this time, everyone on guard duty and everyone working on tasks all gathered in the clearing. Once people saw that everyone had assembled, they murmured among themselves with looks that said, 'Did something big happen?'
Right before delivering the news to the people, the President asked if he could speak about me. I replied that I didn't particularly mind. Then the President picked up the microphone and stepped up onto the small platform we'd set up, drawing everyone's attention.
"Thank you all for gathering here, not a single person absent, despite the work I'm sure each of you has."
He scanned the crowd, swallowed once, and began to speak.
"What I am about to say contains only the truth, with absolutely no falsehoods... The zombie crisis that has befallen this world..."
It was a short account, but those assembled didn't seem to feel that way at all; they were so engrossed in the story they forgot the sweat beading on their faces. After a time that was neither short nor long, the President's words came to an end.
"...And thus, we must prepare for what lies ahead."
Once the story concluded, people began stealing glances, shifting their gazes between the President who had spoken and me, standing beside him. Some people asked questions with expressions of half-belief or half-doubt. When one man among them was singled out, he cautiously began to ask.
"I don't mean to doubt you, but do you realize that even coming from a president, this sounds completely absurd...?"
I looked at the man, stopped the President before he could speak, and said directly.
"All this talk of mana and other worlds can be hard to believe out of the blue. So I'll just show you directly."
I pulled the Leviathan I had captured before from my pocket space and summoned Terion, asking him to show his true form. As expected, seeing with their own eyes was more convincing than words; the murmuring didn't die down — it grew even louder.
'They say seeing once is worth more than hearing a hundred times...'
Only then did people grasp that this was reality and fully believe. One by one, they raised their hands and requested to ask questions. We called on them in turn and took their questions. Among them was a doctor.
"That... mana? In a sense, isn't turning into a zombie also a kind of disease? Then the possibility of a cure..."
"I'm not a medical professional, so I can't say for certain. But like diseases humanity has yet to conquer, the possibility of a cure is practically nonexistent..."
Starting with the doctor, people raised quite a few practical questions — what they should do going forward, whether we could win if monsters crossed over, what the dispositions of the other races were and whether they were our allies. Among the questions, there was even one that blamed me.
"Wasn't this whole thing caused by you crossing over here!!!"
'Must be the father who lost his son...'
At the question that directly denounced me, everyone fell silent and their eyes darted back and forth between me and the man. I walked toward him without a word, each step heavy.
"Then what should I have done?"
"..."
He didn't truly resent me, either. The event of mana appearing on Earth was something that was ultimately going to happen. He had simply lost his son and needed an outlet for his anger.
"Thinking only of the single goal of returning to my homeland, I spent a stretch of time you couldn't begin to imagine. I watched countless scenes of my companions — people like family to me — being murdered, dying of old age, or dying while fighting illness."
I paused briefly, then continued.
"Should I have stayed there and survived to the bitter end?"
When I spoke of losing comrades, he saw the look on my face, hung his head, and apologized.
"I'm... sorry... You, over all those long years, time and time again..."
"I won't tell you to forget the past. Even I can't forget those who died. I still remember each and every one of them. Even so, if that had held me back, I would never have returned. Earth ending up like this was something destined to happen."
"I took out the anger from my first loss on you... At the very least, I won't let something like this hold me back... I'll apologize once more... I'm sorry."
"It's fine. What matters is what comes next."
Once the critical announcement concerning the future was over, the people dispersed. And I stayed in that spot, quietly smoking a cigarette and thinking.
'I figured there'd be at least one person who resented me no matter what. Humans want to rationalize their own circumstances through someone else.'
Seeing me smoking with a heavy heart, my companions approached. Among them were Jia, whose condition had greatly improved after a week, and the old man. Their faces were troubled, too; I could see them struggling with what to say to me.
"Son-in-law... are you all right?"
"I did expect that someone would resent me someday."
To be honest, it wasn't the person resenting me that put me in a bitter mood. It was because, while speaking to that man, the faces of the comrades I'd had there flashed through my mind one by one, and I thought of them. As if he'd read my thoughts, the old man asked first.
"Is it because you're thinking of the comrades you had there? If... you don't mind my asking, did you have children there as well...?"
"Old man... with the years my brother has lived, of course he...!"
"I didn't."
At my words, my companions' faces looked even more surprised. For some reason, Chaeyeon and Jia looked relieved, though...
"Living as long as I did, I really didn't think I could stay sane watching my own children grow old and die."
"As you say, watching the person you love die must be a terribly hard thing..."
The old man, seeming to think of someone himself, answered with a long sigh. To change this bleak atmosphere, I put a smile on my face, took Chaeyeon's and Jia's hands, and answered.
"Haha, but still, with these two here, I'm very happy right now."
* * * * * * * *
Perhaps because they'd heard the story of the other world, an odd sort of vitality filled the group. Everyone was diligently carrying out their assigned duties and steadily preparing for the future.
Having found a bit of leisure myself, I was sitting at home with Chaeyeon, Jia, and my mother(?)-in-law, the four of us sharing a cup of coffee and chatting. Perhaps because she was my mother(?)-in-law, she asked a pretty sensitive question.
"By the way, aren't you two planning on having children?"
At that question, Chaeyeon spat out the coffee she'd been drinking.
"M-Mom!!! What are you saying!!!"
"Oh my, why? When a man and a woman live together, children can naturally come about..."
"Oh, honestly!!! What are you saying in front of Sihu, how embarrassing!!!"
I just grinned and listened to their conversation. Just then, I heard the sound of a radio transmission coming from upstairs. It was the radio Commander David had given us back at the US military base.
'What's this guy calling about all of a sudden?'
"Hello? Mr. Cheon?"
"Yes, David. Good to hear your voice after so long. What's the occasion?"
"Haha, I was just contacting you to see how you've been."
He explained the current situation in America: because firearms are legal, there are laws concerning militias, so they were gradually clearing out the zombies more smoothly than expected. But the landmass was so huge that the progress was barely noticeable.
"Come to think of it, that whiskey you gave us before you left was delicious."
"Haha, that was whiskey I'd painstakingly collected. I'm glad you enjoyed it."
"But it seems the American government is still alive and well?"
"Yes, His Excellency evacuated to a bunker right away. It was stocked with enough food and supplies for a large number of people to survive for at least a few years, so it was fine. And just like you folks, we're prioritizing securing military bases."
'Guess you really have to call them the Heavenly Kingdom?'
"Anyway, we've also been flying drones for reconnaissance to assess the situation, and we've discovered a new variant."
"A variant...? Not the giants or the tentacled entities we saw before?"
"Correct. Our land is so vast we stumbled upon it during reconnaissance. The unusual thing is that they were forming colonies, like animals."
"We haven't discovered that in Korea yet. But don't zombies normally gather by following sounds?"
"No, that's not what I mean. It's more like... they're forming an organized group, I should say. If only the communications were working properly, I'd send you footage, but..."
"Thank you for letting me know, even if it's directly by radio like this. Could I hear some more details?"
"Hmm... from what we saw, their skin color was green. Some had the build of small children, and there were some larger than average adult males, too. They also used weapons directly."
"So they're intelligent?"
"Yes, I didn't see it in person, but judging from the recorded footage, they seemed to be conversing."
'Green skin and conversation? Don't tell me they've crossed over here?'
Earth seemed to be succumbing to mana's erosion faster than I'd thought. I told David I'd contact him again right away and called all my companions to the village assembly hall.