Ch.171170. Seorabeol (2)

# The Birth of the United Federation of Seorabeol!

This was the founding of the new nation on the Korean Peninsula that the Balhut Cult had been waiting so desperately for. The founding narrative of Seorabeol had already been well-crafted by the cabinet staff and was ready for distribution.

Of course, it would clearly include many mythical elements unsuitable for modern times, such as being a nation blessed by the Dragon God, but many intellectuals within the Balhut Cult had determined this wouldn’t be a problem.

“But we really are a nation blessed by the Dragon God… Can you deny this narrative?”

“Um… no? Why would we deny it? It’s a fact.”

The problem was that the mythical narrative was actually true.

While there were certainly exaggerated elements in the story of Yuna’s first meeting with Bahamut, wasn’t the basic framework a traditional mythical narrative—Yuna getting lost in the mountains, meeting Bahamut in a mysterious cave, forming a contract with him, and becoming the Dragon Priestess?

Furthermore, the subsequently established Balhut Cult had received the blessing of the Dragon God Bahamut, conquered most of the Yeongnam region, and built the new nation of Seorabeol.

‘This is ridiculous. Somehow we’ve ended up creating a myth.’

Bahamut couldn’t hide his bitter smile as these mythical stories unfolded in reality.

The problem was that even though he wanted to blame someone, the Balhut Cult had recreated mythology in modern times, but Bahamut himself had enthusiastically supported them.

Well, it was too late for Bahamut to regret this fact now.

“Is something troubling you?”

“No. I’m just surprised that we recaptured Daegu before Ulsan, contrary to expectations. Thanks to that, the founding of Seorabeol happened in an instant. The process of getting here… wasn’t that long.”

To think they would not only keep the Balhut Cult—once derided as a cult—but even establish it as the state religion when founding the country… This Dragon God Bahamut couldn’t have foreseen it. He grumbled inwardly, but since this fool’s eyes had always been merely decorative, there was nothing strange about it.

Rather, if they hadn’t been able to establish a country despite his full support, that would only have been possible if the world itself had already entered an apocalyptic state.

“It’s all thanks to Lord Bahamut’s guidance.”

After all, wasn’t it thanks to Bahamut providing all the technology, energy resources, and knowledge(?) they lacked?

When Bahamut muttered this, Yuna, who was working at the temple, smiled brightly and said that all of this was thanks to Bahamut’s guidance.

At those words, Bahamut looked at Yuna with a somewhat skeptical expression and thought:

‘No, I think it’s more because Yuna is so capable.’

Honestly, from Bahamut’s perspective, most of what he had done for the Balhut Cult was improving convenience; beyond that, he believed it was mostly due to Yuna’s charisma as she led the provisional government.

While Bahamut had provided the foundation, it was entirely Yuna’s responsibility to manage it on the ground, and Yuna had excellently leveraged that foundation to create the nation of Seorabeol.

In essence, the nation of Seorabeol could be considered the joint creation of Bahamut and his first contractor, Choi Yu-na.

“By the way, we’ve established the foundation of the country with this, but there’s still much lacking.”

“We still have a long way to go. We need to rebuild the damaged Daegu. And for the Ulsan front, we need to choose either a ceasefire or the occupation of Ulsan.”

However, just because Seorabeol had been founded didn’t mean it controlled the entire Korean Peninsula.

In reality, the territory controlled by the Balhut Cult was limited to the Yeongnam region—and even then, excluding South Ulsan and Busan.

Seorabeol had not yet secured the crucial cities of Ulsan and Busan, and even the inland city of Daegu was essentially a frontline…

“Among the cities we effectively control, only Gyeongju and Pohang are functioning properly. The rest… are more like frontline fortresses than valuable cities.”

In reality, only Gyeongju and Pohang were areas where economic activities were operating smoothly.

Despite recapturing Daegu, Seorabeol wasn’t much different from the pre-founding days of the Balhut Cult, which was evidence that Seorabeol’s foundation was quite precarious.

In this situation, they had to rely heavily on foreign trade and pay attention to diplomatic activities related to other countries.

“At least the granary region along the Hyeongsan River has recovered, they say.”

“That’s an opportunity to reduce our food dependence on the United States. We can’t rely too much on them. The other regions still need more time.”

Seorabeol was aware of these weaknesses and was proceeding with reconstruction and development to overcome them.

In particular, Seorabeol—whose food sovereignty was essentially controlled by the United States—was working to rebuild and develop the region along the middle reaches of the Hyeongsan River, which was an immediately usable granary area, in an effort to reclaim food sovereignty.

It was essentially aiming for long-term results rather than short-term gains, which wasn’t really a suitable policy for the current apocalyptic situation, but…

“Still, if we succeed, we can reduce our food dependence on the United States.”

Nevertheless, food sovereignty was an extremely important lifeline in this apocalypse, and they were considering the possibility that trade with the United States might be cut off due to unforeseen variables.

If trade with the United States were cut off, it would essentially mean Seorabeol would starve to death, so recovering the granary region was an absolutely necessary project for the nation of Seorabeol to avoid that worst-case scenario.

“We have a long way to go.”

“Yes. All the regions we govern need reconstruction and development. Because of the apocalypse, we’ve hastily patched things up, but it’s like a house of cards that could collapse again at any moment.”

In the end, all territories under the Balhut Cult’s control needed reconstruction.

This required resources and time, and fortunately, the resources could be secured if the Balhut Cult—or more precisely, Bahamut—sold magical items he had developed to the United States, which would provide enough funds for reconstruction and development.

The remaining issue was time, but now that they had secured Daegu as a buffer zone and barrier, even if they had to sacrifice Daegu’s development…

“We can focus on developing Gyeongju and Pohang, which are essentially our headquarters.”

They would be able to complete the reconstruction and development of Gyeongju and Pohang, which could be considered their headquarters.

“So despite founding a country, nothing has changed in what we do.”

“But it means a new country has emerged to replace the Republic of Korea, doesn’t it?”

“Well, that’s true…”

In the end, what needed to be done hadn’t changed.

Of course, only Bahamut felt this way; the Balhut Cult and the outside world wouldn’t think that nothing had changed after the founding of Seorabeol.

In fact…

“Lord Bahamut. Lady Yuna.”

“What is it, Guard?”

“Ambassador Plenipotentiary Steven requests an audience.”

The United States, now an official ally of the newly established Seorabeol, had sent a special ambassador plenipotentiary to congratulate Seorabeol on its founding.

After the temple guard reported that Ambassador Plenipotentiary Steven had come to Bahamut’s temple, Yuna fell into thought for a moment…

“Ah, come to think of it, Steven sent us a congratulatory message for our founding.”

“It seems he’s visiting to deliver the congratulatory message to me personally. And he might have a small favor to ask.”

When Seorabeol’s founding was officially announced, the United States had expressed great welcome.

And if Steven was coming all the way here in person, it was reasonable to assume he was visiting to inform Bahamut himself of the United States’ position, and indeed, as expected…

“My sincere congratulations on the founding of Seorabeol. You’ve finally transformed from a transitional government into a real one.”

“You seem happier than I expected.”

“Yes, yes. We’ve finally become true friends.”

Upon meeting, Steven immediately congratulated Seorabeol on its founding and welcomed Seorabeol as a friend of the United States.

Above all, from the perspective of the United States… or rather, the administration Steven belonged to…

“Above all, the White House is currently being criticized as imperialist by political opponents.”

It was a perfect opportunity to avoid opposition criticism.

Steven was sincerely congratulating Seorabeol on its founding, as if truly relieved that they could avoid accusations of imperialism.

“Imperialism, huh? Why is that?”

However, Bahamut was greatly surprised by the sudden mention of imperialism.

After all, imperialism had been notorious for two centuries, and even in modern times, the harmful effects of imperialism could be observed knowingly or unknowingly.

Therefore, the fact that the opposition was criticizing Steven’s administration as imperialist suggested that there were aspects that hit close to home for them as well, but…

“Haha. It’s a sensitive matter, so it’s difficult to discuss. But well, Lord Bahamut should know about this too, so I’ll tell you as a small personal favor.”

“I appreciate the favor.”

Steven responded that it was a sensitive matter, but then said he would tell Bahamut as a personal favor, drawing a line that what he was about to say was not an official statement from the United States.

Remembering how Steven occasionally divulged information under the guise of “small personal favors” for the United States’ purposes, Bahamut decided to listen carefully to what would follow.

“We’ve been attacked with accusations that we’re planning to swallow other countries using imperialist logic since all our allies are provisional governments. Well, even the cabinet can’t say much against the term ‘provisional government.'”

“That’s not wrong.”

And it was certainly deserving of criticism as imperialism.

After the apocalypse, all the allies the United States had gathered were nothing more than provisional governments, so if this were exploited, it could easily be misunderstood as imperialism, which is why the opposition couldn’t help but bring up imperialism.

Of course, the opposition, knowing everything there was to know, couldn’t possibly be unaware of the apocalyptic situation, and this could be judged as the typical WWE-style back-and-forth between the two parties, but…

“In other words, there have also been questions about whether Dragon Lord Bahamut can be trusted.”

“Oh?”

Conversely, this meant that the opposition had expressed doubts about trusting Bahamut.

At these words, Bahamut was only surprised that the inevitable had finally come, but he didn’t show any signs of alarm or confusion.

Rather, the one who reacted strongly to those words was…

“What do you mean by that, Steven?”

“To summarize simply, a faction has emerged claiming there’s no certainty that Lord Bahamut is on humanity’s side.”

It was Choi Yu-na, the Dragon Priestess, and under her intense gaze, Steven had simply summarized the situation.

As Steven said, this was indeed a sensitive topic for the Balhut Cult.

The suggestion that Dragon God Bahamut couldn’t be trusted essentially meant that the alliance between the United States and Seorabeol could collapse.

“Th-th-these…”

What Yuna found most objectionable was…

“Blasphemers! How dare they doubt the Dragon God!”

‘Of course! This child is my fanatic!’

The fact that someone dared to doubt Dragon God Bahamut.

Though she usually maintained a normal appearance, Yuna, who lost her rationality when it came to matters related to Bahamut, was greatly angered, while Bahamut simply sighed with a knowing expression, as if he had given up.

After all, this wasn’t the first time Yuna had behaved this way, and he had reached a state of resignation about it.

“Haha. Truly frightening. The anger expressed by the Dragon Priestess.”

Steven, seemingly aware of this, merely laughed bitterly while expressing fear.

However, what was surprising came next.

“They have good reason to be suspicious.”

“Eh?”

Bahamut had admitted that he was suspicious.

Normally, when such things were said, one would deny it or express displeasure, but Bahamut instead acknowledged and accepted it.

“Well, it’s not like they’ve seen me directly. And I haven’t given them any reason to trust me. It would be strange to demand their trust.”

“Hahaha. Lord Bahamut, you’re quite a unique individual.”

In any case, there wasn’t much of a problem.

These people held the power, and no matter how much the opposition talked, those with actual authority had the upper hand.

Above all, there was also a complacency that in this apocalyptic situation, a change of administration wouldn’t happen easily.

Historically speaking, wasn’t it customary in such emergencies or crises to concentrate power in and trust the existing government?

‘The current administration hasn’t made any mistakes. Surely a change of administration wouldn’t happen so easily?’

Bahamut judged that unless the apocalypse officially ended, there wouldn’t be a change of administration.

However, there was one problem here…

“The problem is that things have gotten quite serious. We might lose the next election.”

Contrary to Bahamut’s expectations, there was a grim forecast that a change of administration could occur.

‘Huh? This was a more serious conversation than I thought!’

A change of administration.

This meant that the next administration couldn’t be guaranteed to be favorable to Seorabeol.

Although there were still two years until the US presidential election, conversely, there were only two years left.

If the next administration advocated for an America First policy and implemented it…

‘This is dangerous! The country could economically collapse after two years!’

Seorabeol could lose the growth engine that had greatly developed with US support.

This was a more serious matter for the Balhut Cult than expected, and it was a reality they couldn’t ignore.

“So you’re asking me to help with your election?”

“We don’t even hope for that. But even if there is a change of administration, we want to protect Seorabeol’s interests at all costs. Of course, we have no intention of losing easily. President Arthur is an excellent person who is fighting to overcome the apocalypse.”

Bahamut asked if they were requesting help with their administration’s election, but Steven firmly stated that wasn’t necessary.

Rather, he had shared this information to protect Seorabeol’s interests, and expressed confidence that they wouldn’t easily lose, saying they were only seeing early signs of trouble now, and that the current administration’s leader, President Arthur, had accumulated many achievements during this apocalypse.

Could such a president easily be defeated?

“If you’re careless, you might fail.”

“Haha. With so many achievements under our belt, surely there will be people who support us?”

“You’re not wrong.”

The United States had been at war with the apocalypse and was gradually achieving victory.

Even if a decisive variable were to appear, they were working to maintain a close relationship with Seorabeol to resolve that variable, so there was no need to worry at all…

‘But somehow I feel uneasy.’

But to say that… considering the variables unique to the apocalypse, Bahamut had a feeling that a major butterfly effect might erupt somewhere he wasn’t aware of.

After all, the recent refugee crisis had also erupted from a place he hadn’t known about.

“I have my own sources of information, so I’ll handle the rest.”

So what Bahamut could do was…

“Hmm. It seems your new contractor has been quite helpful.”

“It’s just a form of mutual respect.”

“Ah, is that so? That’s good enough for us.”

Through a contractor arranged by the United States, he could understand the political situation in Europe.

Seeing this, Steven smiled and left a brief comment that this was good enough.