Chapter 22: Common Sense Countries

The American soldiers who were on duty outside rushed in at the sound of the tremendous wailing.

I was desperately trying to calm my mother down with my older brother, Younghak, and the soldiers, grasping the situation immediately, silently assisted us.

“Youngchul! My son! My son!”

Mother was using an excessive amount of strength for a woman of her age.

Even with four men trying to restrain her, it was difficult.

She was screaming and thrashing about.

Blood flowed from where we were hit by her flailing arms and legs, but neither Younghak nor I said a word.

After nearly ten minutes of struggling, mother finally fainted and collapsed.

“Get the medic! Call the medic!”

A stretcher was quickly brought in, and mother was carried away.

Even after she was gone, Younghak and I couldn’t say anything.

We just silently lit cigarettes and smoked one after another.

“Sungho.”

“Yes, brother.”

“You probably have plans for revenge too, but let’s put that aside for now. When mother wakes up, let’s try to fulfill whatever she wants as best as we can. It just seems like the right thing to do.”

I nodded silently.

“Of course.”

I was about to light another cigarette but stopped and hung my head.

“Maybe… it would have been better to lie. Even if it was false hope… maybe it would have been better to lie. Brother.”

“I don’t know. I don’t know, but let’s just do whatever mother wants. Forget our plans. Let’s just do as she wishes. Got it?”

I nodded silently at his words.

We didn’t speak again until we finished smoking the whole pack of cigarettes.

Blood drops from our cheeks fell and pooled on the floor.

As soon as Hunter Seo Youngchul’s mother woke up, she called for me and my brother.

“Who are the people who did this to my son? Who?”

She exuded a terrifying aura that made us freeze in place.

“Who are the ones responsible?!”

I told her that Youngchul had died during a punishment drill and that a female officer had ordered it.

Upon hearing this, she grabbed my hand firmly.

“Help me, Hunter Kim Sungho. Can you help me?”

“Of course, mother. I’ll do anything. What do you want?”

“Make sure my son’s death is recognized as a line-of-duty death. Let my son be buried in the National Cemetery.”

The National Cemetery was still in Daejeon.

However, no hunters had been buried there.

Even if hunters died, over 90% of the cases were not recognized as line-of-duty deaths.

Mother was asking for something unprecedented.

But I nodded.

“I will make sure of it.”

“And punish those responsible! Make them face proper punishment! At least that much should be done! Isn’t it only right that I demand that much?!”

I nodded at this as well.

“I will make sure of that too.”

“Gather the journalists. People need to know how my son died. They need to know! I can’t just let Youngchul go like this!!”

Mother started crying again.

I tried to hug her, but she pushed me away.

“I will accept comfort only after my son’s death is recognized and the responsible parties are punished! Not now!!”

I nodded and then left the room with my brother.

Outside, Chairman Volkov was waiting for us with a somber expression.

“The press conference is ready.”

“Thank you, Chairman Volkov. America has no objections to this press conference, right?”

Chairman Volkov nodded but warned me with a very serious face.

“As I said, South Korea must not fall. Whatever the outcome of this press conference, Stray Dogs must protect South Korea. President Komolov stated that any actions threatening Korea’s security due to dissatisfaction will not be tolerated.”

“Don’t worry about that. South Korea will be safe.”

“And as long as there is no disruption in the supply of magic stones… America will support whatever you say at the press conference.”

I nodded.

The silence was over.

It was time for South Korea to know the truth.

A few days later.

A press conference was set up in the middle of Daejeon city.

Numerous journalists were seated, waiting for my announcement.

I stood before them, dressed in a suit.

As soon as they saw me, camera flashes went off like crazy.

I silently looked at the journalists for a moment and then slowly began to speak.

“Today, I want to talk about us. Many of you must be curious. Why we went to America. Why we abandoned our stronghold defense. I want to tell you the truth about that.”

I wasn’t afraid.

After experiencing the fury of Mrs. Choi, nothing scared me anymore.

I began to convey the thoughts I had organized.

“First, I want to talk about the deaths of two people. The deaths of hunters that South Korea ignored and didn’t talk about.”

I recounted the story I had told the hunter parents a few days ago. Sangmin’s death.

The discovery of the elixir’s purpose.

And Youngchul’s death, leading the angry hunters to abandon the stronghold and decide to go to America.

I told the journalists everything just as I had told the parents.

As soon as I finished, the journalists bombarded me with questions.

“Wasn’t that an extreme choice? Why didn’t you inform the public?”

“Weren’t there more peaceful solutions?”

I smiled at all the questions.

I didn’t know if it was a bitter smile or a mocking one.

“Journalists, let me ask you a question. Do you know how many soldiers die each year? Do you remember how much those deaths are highlighted and commemorated?”

The noisy journalists fell silent.

“If we hadn’t gone to America. If we hadn’t abandoned the stronghold. If we had risked our lives to defend the stronghold and hunt mutant wyverns. If hunters had died one by one in the process. Would South Korea have remembered and commemorated them? I’m genuinely curious about that.”

As I spoke, anger surged from deep within my heart.

My voice grew rougher.

“If a more peaceful solution had existed, we would have taken it. But no matter how much I thought about it, I didn’t think South Korea would give us the outcome we wanted. Knowing that painfully well, we had no choice but to run away.”

“Then why did you come back?”

Amid the clicking sounds, a journalist raised a hand and asked.

I answered the question.

“Because America doesn’t want South Korea to collapse. Regardless of the outcome of this press conference, we will protect South Korea. But we will protect it while receiving the proper respect we deserve. We wanted respect. We wanted our sacrifices not to be mocked and belittled.”

But there was no respect.

The responsible parties did not take responsibility, the people did not realize how their ordinary lives were made possible by noble sacrifices, and those being protected spewed hateful words at the protectors.

“Respect no longer exists in South Korea. There is no respect for those who have dedicated themselves, nor do we commemorate those who have sacrificed. Well, we do commemorate them. We commemorate deaths that are politically beneficial. They exploit these deaths under the guise of remembrance to gain votes. But the deaths of soldiers and hunters don’t seem to benefit them politically.”

Although my words were calm, I could feel my voice growing rough.

“We demand two things from South Korea. Even if our demands are not met, the rift management will continue. Everything started with the deaths of two people, so it must end with their deaths as well.”

I called out the names that made my tongue sting just by thinking of them.

I called out the names of the two who perished amid the fragments of magic, aura, and cigarette smoke.

“Hunter Lee Sangmin. Hunter Seo Youngchul. Please acknowledge their deaths as line-of-duty and bury them in the National Cemetery. Also, find and punish those responsible for their deaths.”

After finishing my long statement, I took a deep breath, trying to calm my emotions.

But my emotions were still surging.

Revenge?

Yes.

I want revenge.

I want revenge on South Korea.

But beneath that desire lay a slightly different thought.

“I want South Korea to become a reasonable country.”

I didn’t want to harm my homeland.

But starved and desperate, we bit.

Thus, we became wild dogs.

Having seen the guard dogs turn into wild dogs, perhaps this time the master of the house will react differently, I thought somewhere deep in my mind.

“Please honor the sacrifices of those who were conscripted and lost their lives for the country.”

But even as I spoke, I felt this wouldn’t work.

Just because the guard dogs turned into wild dogs, it didn’t seem likely the master would come to his senses immediately.

If that’s the case, I have no choice but to take revenge.

I will bite cruelly.

I will achieve the result I want, by any means necessary, without upsetting the United States.

“That is what I, we, the Stray Dog Guild, want.”

The wild dogs that had left home shouted their demands to the master.

Now, all that remained was the master’s response.

***

A high-end Korean restaurant somewhere in Seoul.

Members of the Yellow Progressive Party were having a meal.

It was more of a strategy meeting disguised as a meal.

“No one missed Hunter Kim Sungho’s press conference, right?”

Party leader Choi Jungjoo said, taking a sip of his drink.

“We all watched it, leader.”

The returned response caused the leader’s expression to crumple.

“The conservatives are on the verge of collapse thanks to President Yoo Myunghak. With security issues and economic problems, conservative support is plummeting daily. Hunter Kim Sungho’s expose on the detention of hunter families has left President Yoo Myunghak almost powerless for the remainder of his term. It’ll be a miracle if he isn’t impeached.”

This was good news.

But despite this, the leader’s expression crumpled for a different reason.

“When the gate first opened ten years ago, it was our side that created the special gate law. I contributed to drafting that law. Our side’s president created the hunter system, and we passed the legislation.”

And Hunter Kim Sungho’s press conference was a hit that diverted public opinion, which had been solely targeting the conservatives, towards the progressives as well.

“There’s talk that we caused the Suwon rift crisis. This isn’t good. Public opinion is dividing, and there’s a chance Yoo Myunghak and the conservatives might bounce back.”

“What should we do?”

“Minimize the damage to our side and focus the firepower on the conservatives. Our support rate must not drop.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the lawmakers quickly began brainstorming action plans.

“I’ll control media reports to ensure Yoo Myunghak and the conservatives take the hit, not us.”

“The double-standard argument could work. How about leveraging Cho Geunsung’s death?”

“That guy had too many backdoor dealings. Highlighting him could backfire on us since we created the system in the first place. Bury it. And right now, it’s not wise to overly provoke the Stray Dog Guild.”

“Understood. Then, we’ll handle it by saying that while their anger is understandable, undermining national security won’t be tolerated. We’ll frame it as an issue of individual hunters, not the system or the law.”

Quickly, numerous methods to shift the impact of Hunter Kim Sungho’s press conference to the conservatives while sparing the progressives emerged.

“Party leader, what about the request to acknowledge Hunter Lee Sangmin and Hunter Seo Youngchul’s line-of-duty deaths and bury them in the National Cemetery?”

At those words, party leader Choi Jung-joo smiled wryly.

“Leave that to the Ministry of National Defense. They’ll likely protect their own. If Hunter Kim Sungho targets the Ministry of National Defence, it’ll reduce the arrows coming our way.”

“Understood.”

The conclusion was reached swiftly.

Party leader Choi Jungjoo filled his glass and downed a strong drink.

“I don’t like those Americans. And I hate those who hold American citizenship and use security to threaten South Korea even more. For now, we have no choice but to use them to handle the rift issue, paying them handsomely. But the moment we regain power, I’ll gradually push those wild dogs out. So, there must be no actions that could harm us.”

Choi Jungjoo’s eyes were burning.

“Our comrades in the activist circles must protect South Korea. We must prevent the return of the days when military regimes and Americans played us. Now is the time to be quiet. When we regain power, we’ll slowly drive out those wild dogs.”

“For the regime change!!”

One quick-witted lawmaker swiftly filled Choi Jungjoo’s glass and said.

Everyone raised their glasses and drank.

It was an ordinary evening in Yeouido.