EP.145 The Road Flows with the Traveler - 1
The Military Nation is a country of absolute control.
It is an obsessive nation that meticulously monitors roads and trains, checking every single passenger's ticket.
When a military vehicle that must cross the wasteland enters the road, the guarding sentries begin their inspection with more suspicious gazes than ever.
If I were alone, I would have abandoned the vehicle in a nearby secluded spot, sneaked onto a train or a regular flight, and taken a long, roundabout way back.
It's not that I couldn't do that.
But why should I endure such inconvenience?
To eat delicious bread, must I personally tend the farmland, set up scarecrows, water the crops, and raise them with utmost care, then harvest them with tears in my eyes when the ears ripen to a golden hue, cruelly thresh them, mill them into powder, meticulously knead the dough, bake it in an oven, and only then eat it deliciously?
If that's the case, I'd rather just pay money and buy it. This is the efficient way to use the economic systems and structures created by humanity.
In other words.
"You're a Captain! Salute. Pass through!"
With one living pass, it's an automatic clearance; there's no need to take a difficult detour.
Just having a Captain in the driver's seat is enough. The sentries don't even touch the passenger seat. Since the other party is a Captain, doing so is meaningless.
"Ah, so convenient!"
I cried out as I leaned my back against the seat.
At that, Military Nation Signal Officer Captain Avey stared straight ahead with a deeply furrowed brow and muttered.
"Do not get comfortable. Be aware of your position."
"A petty criminal released on the expiration of his sentence, returning to the capital with a Military Nation Captain."
"...That is the reason I have not restrained you."
The driving Captain said with her eyes fixed forward.
"Do not forget. Although your post is gone, you are a suspect related to Naksung. The only reason you are not currently under arrest is simply because you are heading to Amitengrad with me. If you show any suspicious movement, or attempt to leave arbitrarily midway. I will arrest you immediately."
Captain Avey, who had lived the life of a golem, spoke stiffly even with a body of soft flesh. Be that as it may. I put my legs up on the front of the car, stretched with a yawn, and spoke to her.
"If you're going to do that, you should have just handed me over to the sentry earlier. I would've just been arrested."
Saying that, I casually read her thoughts.
The answer that surfaced in the Captain's mind was as follows:
'A Signal Officer must not reveal their mission or position as a Signal Officer outside the [Windowless Room]. That is the ironclad rule of Signal Officers who handle all sorts of classified information. To transfer a criminal's custody, I must request jurisdiction, but to do so, I must reveal my position. A contradiction...'
"...It's classified."
The Captain neatly organizes the information in her head while verbally only saying it's classified. Is this a trait of Signal Officers?
Either way, since it's easy to read, there's a thrill in asking. I asked again.
"And why do you have to go all the way to Amitengrad? You could just go to a nearby base. Or just communicate. Why isn't a Signal Officer communicating?"
'If the [Windowless Room] is damaged or must be abandoned due to unavoidable circumstances, all forms of communication toward that Signal Officer are severed due to the risk of information leakage. The same applies to me; contacting other Signal Officers is prohibited.'
The Windowless Room is essentially like the massive twin gemstones that Callis or Lieutenant General Ebon used.
If a Signal Officer's room is damaged and its interior is exposed, a signal is sent to the replica in the Military Nation, and all Signal Officers are immediately notified.
And to prevent any further information leaks, communication with that Signal Officer is completely severed. In case the Signal Officer might have been captured by the Resistance or an enemy nation.
To lift this restriction, she must return to the headquarters in Amitengrad within two weeks.
The Captain, who only recalled that information in her mind, answered a beat late.
"...It's classified."
For something classified, the information is organized too neatly. I ended up reading it all without realizing.
"Saying it's classified is fine, but why do you keep pausing for a half-beat?"
'To avoid any potential information leaks, it is better to keep a consistent interval between all responses rather than answering immediately. In extreme situations, even a slight delay in reaction can become information.'
"...It's classified."
What an exemplary attitude. From a telepath's perspective, there's no easier target. It feels like I've found a manual that brings up explanations whenever I speak.
I read Captain Avey with the feeling of observing a strange creature.
This was truly a strange book.
It's a sort of encyclopedia. It's full of unrelated information that exists purely to be passed through. Furthermore, there is no personal 'life', so the book itself sprawls out haphazardly without a single connecting thread.
The only things there are extremely trivial matters, like the rules of Signal Officers or 99 ways to cook canned food.
Other than that, the few memories are conversations shared with other Signal Officers, or things glimpsed from a golem's perspective. The experiences that make up her are extremely transparent.
Seriously, the Military Nation is something else. They really use people like spare parts.
'Actually, the moment this person found out about the Windowless Room, I should have committed suicide by taking poison...'
Especially in aspects like this.
'...This person knows that I am a Signal Officer. A disastrous mistake. What... should I do.'
Distracting thoughts entered the Captain's mind. Those distractions immediately showed results. The auto-carriage, which should have been moving along the straight road, began to swerve wildly from side to side.
Consequently, my legs, which I had propped up on the front, slammed left and right with a thud. Ah, so this is why they tell you to sit properly when riding in a car!
No, just drive properly! I screamed as I gripped the handle tightly.
"Aaaah! Drive properly!"
"......!"
"The fact that this is the result of you concentrating without saying a word is even scarier! Move, I'd rather drive myself!"
"De...nied...! I am... escorting... you...! I will... hold... the steering wheel...!"
"No, please! I'll go wherever you tell me to! Let me drive! Just stop first!"
When I shouted, the Captain turned her head towards me.
"Did I mishear...? Did you say to step on the right to stop?"
"That's the accelerator! Alright, I'm sorry! I won't interrupt you anymore, so look forward!"
Only after swaying creakily like that did the steering wheel barely calm down. I let out a sigh of relief and sat up properly.
"Tell me honestly. This is your first time driving an auto-carriage, right?"
"Denied. I am familiar with piloting. Since golems also need to move at times, I have learned how to pilot various types of vehicles..."
Reading her thoughts, it wasn't a lie. How is this real?
"Huh? Really? Then that just now was a psychological issue..."
"...With a golem's body."
"Suddenly I'm getting anxious."
In short, it's all indirect experience, right? You're not actually good at it with your real body, are you?
No, well. Still, she's a Sync Type. If she moves like a golem, she'll roughly know the sensation...
"Even if there's an accident, it's not a problem. A golem just needs to be retrieved and repaired."
"This is our main body right now! Both you and I have blood flowing and warm bodies! If we get into an accident, we'll actually die, so please slow down!"
Then the Captain snapped her head up and cried out.
"Main...body? Ah, Affirmative! I am in my main body right now! I am feeling dizzy from the shaking!"
"Leaving aside the fact that you're surprised as if you just realized it, whatever, just don't mistake your sense of reality for the car shaking!"
The only saving grace is that this road isn't a particularly difficult course, and that once this road ends, I won't have to see the Captain's terrible driving skills again.
One of the Military Nation's Seven Great Inventions, the pinnacle of civil engineering, and the Military Nation's greatest achievement where the miracle of Earth Arts was manifested.
Because the Meta Conveyor Belt will welcome us.
Like that, the Captain and I drove with our lives threatened until the road ended.
Land flowing like a river. The Meta Conveyor Belt.
A mystery that would appall anyone stepping into the Military Nation for the first time, an aggregate of civil engineering, Earth Arts, and Magic Engineering. The aorta of the Military Nation.
A masterpiece literally created by grinding the blood and sweat of hundreds of thousands of people.
The description is grand, but the reality is simple.
It is a giant conveyor belt responsible for most of the Military Nation's logistics, circling half of the national territory.
The entire land moves at a constant speed.
Its speed is faster than one would expect, fast enough to reach from one end to the other in three days.
Like that, it crosses the Military Nation, reaches the coast, loops widely upward, and returns. Carrying all sorts of cargo, luggage, and people on top of it. Dropping them off where needed and picking them up again, it flows majestically as before.
It is a massive bloodstream circulating half of the Military Nation.
The flowing land to which Jiseon gave the alias Gongonrae. This endless and massive flow silently and steadfastly carries people and goods, moving in one direction.
Meta Conveyor Belt Northeast Terminal.
The point where the fast-flowing stream splits into ten strands, and its speed decreases exactly to 1/10.
A massive container headed toward one of the terminals according to the stream.
Cargo searchlights sensing the movement illuminated the container, and a massive crane dangling thick iron chains turned its head. A device no different from a terrain feature, making creaking sounds from afar just by moving.
Rumbleeeee.
An iron chain hook caught onto the container on the Meta Conveyor Belt. The iron chains pulled simultaneously, and the massive container flowing along the ground gradually stopped. Screech, the sound of friction against the ground. At the same time, the crane stretched out and lifted the heavy container.
The steel-bodied crane rattled. A container of such tremendous weight.
However, a giant thunder-gear comparable to it spun in reverse with a harsh metallic sound, and the chains and wires wrapped around the thunder-gear screamed as they were pulled taut. The sound of iron chains rubbing against each other was exactly like thunder rumbling.
Cargo packed tightly into a container somewhere was transported, and like that, it reached the terminal and escaped the conveyor belt. The crane that snatched the container twisted its body to the other side. The sight of a building-sized container moving suspended by chains was felt with vivid texture even in the darkness.
An overwhelming spectacle that commands awe just by looking at it.
Of course.
"Move, move, quickly!"
At the supervisor's command, the laborers who had connected the iron chains to the container ran backward along the belt, exhausted.
Having clung to the flowing container to connect the chains, they now had to dismantle the container and take out and move the items inside.
Deliverymen who brought auto-carriages or ordinary horse-drawn wagons stood packed together waiting. They would take the goods on their own once the laborers put them down and deliver them all over this region.
To factories, or to various facilities.
It was a scene happening everywhere across the terminal. Rolling the massive logistics required a vast number of laborers. All of them likely brought in from somewhere, they moved busily with frail blood and flesh between the devices with steel bodies and the flowing land.
If the Military Nation is steel, they are the lubricant.
They were laborers of a harsh country, wedged between gears to prevent damage and turn the main body.
Whether it's cargo or an individual, to board the Meta Conveyor Belt, one must accurately state their destination. If left as is, it will continue to circulate the Military Nation and obstruct traffic.
However, the Captain, whose identity itself was classified, presented classified documents instead of speaking, and the person in charge went to report to their superiors in a panic.
And after a brief moment. The Captain and I were called to the terminal management office.
"I am Colonel Kalpus, the head of the Northeast Terminal Management Office."
A middle-aged man with a majestic beard called the Captain and me.
Fitting for the Military Nation's number one facility, even the one in charge of the management office was not of ordinary status. Not an adjutant to a general, but a full Colonel who had proudly reached the rank of Colonel through his own power.
It's a Colonel because the Northeast Terminal is essentially a frontier; major city terminals are guarded by Generals. The Meta Conveyor Belt, the aorta of the Military Nation, is that important of a facility.
"Captain. You said it's a classified operation? You have the orders, I presume?"
"Here it is."
The Captain, who raised a salute, took out the orders from her breast and handed them over. The Colonel read the orders with a stiff face.
"Two-week deadline from the seal release point. Four days elapsed. Level 4 classified. Requesting cooperation from personnel. Hmm. You'd have to be around a General's rank to know the contents. It's annoying not having stars for things like this."
The grumbling Colonel handed the orders back. The Captain received it politely with both hands, tucked it under her arm, and waited for the Colonel's words.
"Alright, understood. I'll grant you permission to use the 'Walkway'. It's late today, so get your necessary equipment supplied tomorrow."
"Thank you, Colonel. However, mine is an urgent mission where every hour counts. Can't we depart today?"
"Even with searchlights, the terminal at night is dangerous. Two weeks isn't that tight of a deadline, so take at least a day to rest."
The Colonel glanced at the wound on the Captain's head and added.
"Your body doesn't seem to be in good shape either."
The Captain couldn't possibly refuse when he was being this considerate. Besides, he wasn't wrong.
At a terminal where ten streams merge into one, all sorts of accidents are bound to happen. For example, a container not scheduled to stop here gets caught between merging streams and turns into minced meat. Or getting the back of one's neck snagged on an iron chain hook.
To travel safely, daytime is better. I, who couldn't read the thoughts of objects, fervently agreed as well.
"...Thank you for your concern."
The Captain conceded. Now, the Colonel's gaze turned to me.
Unlike the Captain, who kept her uniform neat even coming all the way here, I looked like an unemployed vagrant wearing only a shabby shirt.
The Colonel narrowed his thick eyebrows even more.
"...So, who is this person accompanying you on a classified operation? Are they your lover?"
At the sudden remark, the Captain glared.
'Denied! This person is a suspect. I am only escorting this person to Amitengrad!'
But she couldn't explain this.
The duties Signal Officers undertook and their positions are classified. That is why they are given the nominal rank of Captain.
The fact that she is a Signal Officer is information that can only be revealed through communication. If she were to explain the whole story to the Colonel here, it would immediately constitute a leak of classified information.
On top of that. My own charges are also ambiguous.
'...However, it is a charge that has not yet been proven.'
They say I caused Naksung, but if I had the ability or intention to kill a General, would I meekly follow the Captain to the capital?
If the suspicion is removed, I am an ordinary laborer. I just became unable to work anymore because my workplace got 'overturned'.
...Phew. It's a relief the Captain didn't see anything else through the golem's eyes. Let's be thankful to the regressor who smashed the golem in advance.
'I can lay out the suspicions, but that is beyond my authority. Also, it is content I cannot mention...!'
The Captain was hesitating, unable to bring herself to speak.
As no reply came, the Colonel's eyes narrowed. The doubt was directed at me.
And yet they say they keep secrets. Tsk.
It can't be helped. I tapped the Captain's shoulder and whispered, just loud enough for the Colonel to barely hear.
"What are you doing! You have to tell him quickly! Say I'm your brother!"
Since we're at it, with a fake identity.
At my sudden action, the Captain glared at me with wide eyes. All sorts of thoughts flowed out from her blue eyes.
'Denied! Denied! What false report is this laborer making! But, denying this is also part of a classified information leak...! A deadlock!'
Ignoring the thoughts I heard, I deliberately pretended to be in a hurry, patting the Captain's shoulder and acting flustered.
"What are you hesitating for, Beep! Tell him quickly! He's looking at me suspiciously...!"
'Beep?! Who? Surely not me?'
It was when the panicked Captain was at a loss.
"Hey!"
Instead, the Colonel sternly reprimanded me. When I started and looked at the Colonel, he clicked his tongue with a frown.
"Tsk. The personal information of someone performing a classified operation is also classified. No matter how meaningless it may be to hide family relations, how can a junior speak so carelessly!"
"Ah, s-sorry."
"What is your citizen level?"
"L-Level 1..."
'Denied! This petty criminal is actually Level 0! Even Level 1 is an impersonation!'
But the Colonel couldn't read the Captain's mind. The Colonel, looking down at me, clicked his tongue loudly and shouted.
"Tsk. To be far inferior to your younger sibling. If it weren't for your sibling, you wouldn't even be able to ride the Meta Conveyor Belt! Well, I guess that's why you're tagging along with them!"
"Y-Yes."
"Enough, and stop dragging your sibling down! I'm only letting it slide because of the circumstances; anywhere else, you would have been arrested immediately!"
The Colonel, who had strictly reprimanded us, gestured toward us. We only bowed our heads and scrambled out of the office.
The Captain didn't say a single word until we were guided to our assigned quarters.
Instead, the moment she opened the door and entered the quarters, she grabbed me by the collar.