Ch.129Episode 7 – Daily Life

Camilla Lowell is a British university student. She attends Cambridge University, majoring in Conflict Studies.

I don’t know what kind of family she comes from, but she seems to have grown up quite wealthy, and for whatever reason, she mentions having visited Africa several times.

Anyway.

Since Camilla is majoring in a social science field similar to political diplomacy, her personality leans more toward the humanities than sciences. In other words, she has a somewhat clueless side.

A student from a prestigious British university.

An ability to control fire, presumably element-based.

She likes adventures, perhaps from watching too many movies (Harry Potter).

Up to this point, Camilla seemed like just another typical protagonist you might find in any third-rate novel, movie, or drama.

That’s who Camilla was, and that’s how she appeared.

What I didn’t expect were exactly two things. One was that Camilla was smarter than I had anticipated.

And the other—

“Why on earth are you still awake at this hour?”

“What’s the big deal about staying up all night? I used to work overtime every day during my internship!”

“…Let’s go inside.”

She was far more talkative than I had expected.

Episode 7 – Daily Life

Britain is an island nation in Europe. Geographically located in the North Sea of Western Europe, and historically known as “the empire on which the sun never sets” with its numerous colonies, Britain reigns as one of Europe’s leading powers alongside Germany and France.

Brexit triggered Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union. Western European disarmament, the redeployment of US forces in Europe, the political interests between the US and Europe, and the expansion of Russian and Chinese influence.

For various reasons, opinions differ on whether Britain should still be considered a member and leader of the European Union, but Britain is clearly one of the major powers in Europe.

Of course, to an ordinary citizen of South Korea, a non-European country, “Britain” brings to mind football, tasteless food, and a historically antagonistic nation. But it’s an undeniable fact that Britain is a major and wealthy power in Western Europe, as well as one of the permanent members of the UN Security Council.

Well, despite my fancy words, I don’t really know what kind of country Britain is either. I’ve never been to Western Europe, and I’m not particularly interested in Europe to begin with.

At most, I know it as the neighborhood where my friend who got caught gambling away his salary on the EPL worked (real-time sports betting is legal in Britain), where a senior colleague worked after leaving the military, a place that collaborates a lot with American friends, and the homeland of spy novel authors whose books I enjoyed.

My digression is long, but what I’m trying to say is this:

The “Britain” in my mind exists as an extremely abstract and conceptual image. How could I accurately know about a place I’ve never visited or lived in?

So, quite naturally.

My conversation with a British person, whom I was meeting for the first time in 28 years, couldn’t help but be awkward.

“Have you ever been to Britain?”

“No.”

On a cloudy dawn with drizzling autumn rain making the weather chilly, the British person approached me with conversation as soon as I stepped out of the elevator.

It was Camilla.

“Do you know where Britain is? Or perhaps you don’t?”

“Western Europe.”

Camilla approached me with conversation again today, without fail. The red-haired British girl was just smiling, seemingly oblivious to my tired appearance.

Maybe it’s because she’s a foreigner. Her reactions and gestures are somewhat… somewhat…

Very burdensome.

Unaware of my feelings, Camilla continued to smile brightly.

“Have you ever traveled to Europe?”

“I’ve been to Eastern Europe, but not Western Europe… Oh, I did go to Germany once.”

“Germany? Germany’s nice. What took you there?”

“To meet a friend.”

“You have a German friend?”

“He’s not German, he’s American. He just works in Germany.”

“Where in Germany?”

“Um… Ramstein, I think?”

“Ah, so he was with the US military. That’s where the air force base is.”

Camilla nodded and naturally made her guess.

It was half right and half wrong—my American friend had served with US Forces Korea, not in Germany—but I didn’t bother to correct her.

I was too tired.

Harassed by Veronica in the morning. Going to work around noon and working according to schedule. Being pestered by complainants right before closing time, then rushing to three or four appointments. Returning to the hotel only to be caught by Camilla.

This had become my daily routine lately. There wasn’t a trace of rest to be found anywhere.

I knew very well that intelligence agencies were workplaces where work-life balance was thrown out the window, and I joined the Military Intelligence Agency prepared to endure some discomfort, but this was really too much.

Whether she understood my feelings or not, Camilla approached me with her usual bright smile again today.

“Oh, right. Where are you from?”

“…What do you mean?”

“You’re obviously not from around here. I’m asking where you’re from.”

“South Korea. There’s a country between Japan and China. You know where Japan and China are, right?”

“Ah!”

The British girl slapped her forehead.

“The country with nukes that threatens America?!”

“……”

“Right?”

I wanted to hit her.

*

The most dramatic change after being (forcibly) outed to Camilla was communication.

I no longer needed to be cautious around Camilla when speaking, and she had found someone like a compatriot to open up to, so naturally, communication became more free.

Of course, that freedom didn’t always lead to productive conversations.

“Are you upset?”

“I am Groot.”

“Don’t avoid the question.”

“I am Groot.”

“You are upset….”

Camilla, who had thoroughly irritated me, apologized with an expression that didn’t look sorry at all.

“I’m sorry!”

“Maybe don’t do things you need to apologize for.”

“But when I think of Korea, nukes are all that come to mind….”

Logically, someone with a degree in “Conflict” Studies shouldn’t confuse an international rogue state waving nuclear weapons with South Korea below it, but I was too mentally exhausted to care about that.

Perhaps with her personality, she was just trying to tease me. I decided to let it go with that assumption.

I forced myself to relax my expression and said to Camilla:

“So, have all your questions been answered today?”

“Hmm, somewhat?”

“How much more do you have?”

Camilla silently rummaged through her pocket and showed me something. A neatly folded memo had a list of questions arranged like a checklist.

Faced with that list of questions worthy of a cult recruiter’s screening, I nearly lost consciousness.

“This is overwhelming….”

“I’ll just ask a few questions, so don’t act like you’re dying.”

“Can’t you just ask in the morning?”

I threw that out in desperation, but Camilla ignored me and unfolded her questionnaire. It was so sad that I couldn’t use diplomatic immunity at a moment like this.

“Okay, first question. Where you were originally. So…”

“Earth, yes. It’s Earth. But why ask something like that? Earth is Earth.”

“Multiverse!”

Camilla suddenly blurted out a strange word.

“……”

“Don’t you know about the multiverse? Haven’t you seen Endgame?”

“…What’s that?”

“The Avengers.”

Ah, Marvel.

“I saw the movie where a purple alien snaps his fingers and kills everyone, but I didn’t see the sequel. I was busy working then.”

“Oh, dear.”

Camilla covered her mouth and blinked her long eyelashes. It was a look that made me feel embarrassed, as if she couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen such an amazing movie.

I had no energy to respond and just desperately hoped she would get on with her questions.

“Anyway, what did you do when you were originally on Earth?”

“I was a soldier. A career soldier.”

“Army? Navy? Or Air Force?”

“Technically Army, I suppose, but it doesn’t really matter. My treatment changed depending on where I was deployed.”

“Deployed? Were you in some kind of special forces?”

“Something like that.”

Camilla suddenly asked with sparkling eyes:

“Where were you deployed?”

“Many places. Afghanistan, South Sudan, Lebanon, Syria…. But why are you looking at me like that?”

“Actually, my dad was in Afghanistan and Iraq.”

“Oh, really…?”

Camilla’s father was a British Army officer.

Britain deploys troops overseas frequently. Like France or the United States, British special forces units roam the Middle East and Africa conducting counter-terrorism operations and black ops (the ones known as “black ops”), and occasionally station brigade-level or smaller units in conflict zones. So it was quite possible that Camilla’s father had been in Afghanistan and Iraq. Britain deployed the second most troops overseas after the United States.

“Iraq is a rough place. Come to think of it, didn’t a British Prime Minister get impeached for sending troops to Iraq?”

“Tony Blair? Not impeached, but he had been criticized for military interventions since the Kosovo War. The Iraq War just made it explode, and he was pushed out within the Labour Party.”

“Hmm.”

I had no idea what she was talking about.

I had picked up bits and pieces about British politics, but since it wasn’t my field of expertise, it was slightly difficult to understand.

“I can’t remember if Tony Blair was a Labour or Conservative Prime Minister, but I know he was in politics during President Bush’s time. Bush was followed by Obama, right? And then Trump.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

The reason I specifically remembered Obama was simple. I had watched him and Vice President Biden explaining to the media when the CIA got caught torturing terrorists at Guantanamo while trying to circumvent anti-torture laws. Having seen that on TV in Cuba, it was impossible not to remember.

Camilla and I sat in the hotel room talking all night.

It was mostly Camilla asking questions and me answering, and I suspected her purpose was to satisfy her curiosity while also gathering information about me.

I answered her questions as sincerely as possible.

“Why did you go to South Sudan?”

“There’s a Korean military unit conducting PKO activities there.”

“Peacekeeping operations?”

“Yes.”

“I’ve been to Sudan, not South Sudan, so we were practically neighbors.”

“Why did you go to Sudan?”

“For medical volunteer work! Though I was actually tricked into going.”

“Tricked? But that’s a conflict zone?”

“When I was in high school, my sister said we should go on an overseas trip, and when we arrived, it turned out to be Sudan.”

“…I see.”

“What was your final rank? You’re a Major now, right?”

“Captain. I remember my Major promotion review was coming up soon, but I can’t recall the exact pay grade.”

“I don’t really understand military ranks.”

“Ah, right. You never served.”

“So you were in special forces before, and now what do you do?”

“I work as a military attaché. Military diplomacy, military liaison, attending events, information gathering.”

“Yet you had something so dangerous in a plastic bottle?”

“……”

“So you’ve never been to Britain and don’t really know what kind of country it is?”

“Not quite that bad… I have a friend in Britain, so I’ve picked up a few things. I’ve watched some football, movies, dramas, and read novels while I was in the military.”

“What stands out the most?”

“Le Carré’s novels.”

“Ah! The Spy Who Came in from the Cold! That’s really good. What about Sherlock Holmes?”

“I watched that as a drama. The one starring Doctor Strange as the lead actor.”

The conversation flowed without interruption. It was unexpected.

I had worried that things might have completely changed with the passage of time, but after comparing some common knowledge between Camilla and myself, we quickly realized we had lived in similar time periods.

Although I stumbled a bit trying to recall memories from 28 years ago, fortunately, I had no major problems understanding and responding to Camilla’s words.

The conversation with her wasn’t bad at all, was more enjoyable than expected, and above all, we had plenty to talk about since her interests and major overlapped with my experiences.

It was just, how should I put it?

Like the feeling of a stone being lifted from my chest. It was reasonably good. Except for being slightly tired.

Of course, there were some issues.

“Oh, could you teach me that?”

“Teach you what? I’m getting nervous.”

“Trade craft? I’m not sure if that’s the right term.”

“…Are you asking me to teach you espionage?”

“Yes!”

My answer was simple.

“I don’t know anything about that.”

Not telling you.