After taking out all the building materials, Magreta and I headed for the underground ruins.
We were going to Earth.
However, going to Earth now had not been part of the plan.
We had prepared everything we needed to take to Earth, from the black stones of the control objects to the stimulants, but there was still work left to do on this planet.
As we walked down the passage, I asked Magreta,
“The team members will be all right, won’t they?”
“They’ll be fine. Hannah is with them, and though they went west of the mountain range, the monsters they’re hunting aren’t Akzar monsters.”
Fortunately, Magreta seemed to have forgotten what had just happened and answered me properly.
Originally, we had planned to train the newly arrived expedition members together with the existing team.
Of course, they weren’t going to hunt Akzar monsters.
This time, we intended to hunt the native monsters newly discovered west of the mountain range.
Just as I had done when I first came to this planet, we planned to have the new expedition members hunt native monsters so they could awaken to energy.
Simply awakening to energy would not help much in fighting Akzar monsters, but fighting Akzar monsters was not the only thing to be done on this planet.
We had been sent to this planet to mine black stones, but now we had to survive here.
Hunting native monsters, building villages, cultivating plants, and reviving civilization.
For that, we needed many people who could use energy.
But Magreta and I had to leave that work to the other team members and go to Earth.
Because urgent news had arrived from Earth.
—Chinese civil war has broken out. The Northern Theater Command and Central Theater Command have entered combat.
—At present, part of the Northern Theater Command is advancing east, targeting the Baekdusan base.
—Personnel transfers will be halted for the time being. In the worst case, the base may be closed.
The contents written in the secret letter held by the expedition member from Earth forced us to return there.
I had expected a Chinese civil war, but I had not thought its aftermath would reach us.
To think they would aim for another set of ruins when they had a separate planet to flee to. It seemed I had been too complacent.
The contents of the secret letter looked extremely urgent, but I did not rush.
It was a regular army on the move.
There was no way the Baekdusan base would be dealt with overnight.
Of course, it would be troublesome if it were bombed, but if they intended to use it themselves, they would not damage the base.
To be honest, I did not care even if the base was destroyed and the ruins were buried.
I was no longer bound to the Baekdusan base.
If other ruins on Earth remained, I could go through those.
Of course, if we could no longer use the Baekdusan ruins, it would become impossible to supply personnel, so I did have to go to Earth.
Magreta and I hurried down to the underground ruins, and from there, we spatially transferred to Earth.
Flash.
The white light vanished, and the Baekdusan underground ruins came into view.
The atmosphere of the Baekdusan underground ruins was different from before.
The crowds of people were gone, and so were the American soldiers.
Only a few Korean soldiers were guarding the ruins with tense expressions.
The soldiers looked surprised when they saw Magreta and me.
It seemed they had not expected us to come.
While a communications soldier called the surface on a wired phone after seeing us, an officer came running toward us.
“I didn’t think you would come in person!”
A lieutenant who had seen us coming and going here saluted as he spoke.
“What happened? Where did the technicians and the American soldiers who were here go?”
Magreta asked the lieutenant with a grave expression.
“In preparation for a collapse, everyone except the minimum necessary personnel has gone up to the surface.”
The lieutenant answered Magreta’s question quickly.
At his words, Magreta’s expression brightened.
It seemed she had been worried the American forces might have withdrawn all the way back to their home country.
“So they haven’t completely withdrawn.”
“No. In fact, they’re reinforcing the unit. Units that were in the south are also moving up.”
Contrary to Magreta’s worries, there was no way America would abandon this base.
They had acquired more black stones than planned, but America still needed black stones.
America was not a country that easily gave up what it wanted.
The same was true for Korea; it could not abandon this base either.
It was a base they had built after going to war with North Korea.
Now, with destruction looming, the reason Korea had gained recognition from the entire world was also because of the Baekdusan ruins.
There was no way they could give up a place like that.
“Then, in the end, it’s war…”
If the ROK-US Combined Forces were prepared to go to war with the Chinese Northern Theater Command, then it made sense that they had emptied this underground ruin.
Once war began, this Baekdusan base would become the front line. Even if no one intended to destroy it, there was more than enough chance that a stray bomb could fall here.
Once I realized that, I understood the tense expressions on the soldiers’ faces.
Just then, the communications soldier who had been contacting the surface shouted loudly to us.
“The commander says to come up at once!”
“The commander?”
The lieutenant answered my question.
“Yes, the commander of the ROK-US Combined Forces is here in person. There are stars all over the place up above right now.”
Since we had only ever passed through, I had not known, but the lieutenant was more interesting than I had thought.
But now was not the time to chat with him.
A high-ranking person was calling, so we needed to go quickly.
After greeting the lieutenant, I left the ruins with Magreta.
I had been worried, but even after we took the elevator up, the temperature did not rise.
Of course, it was not a temperature befitting winter weather, but it still did not seem much different from when I had last come here.
Feeling a little relieved, I stepped out of the elevator, but outside was darker than I had expected.
It was not as if there were dark clouds overhead, yet the sky was dyed a dark hue as though it were covered in storm clouds.
The surroundings were not bright either.
It was not as dark as night, but it felt like a day when rain was pouring down in sheets.
It was because of the aerogel America had scattered into the sky to stop the temperature from rising.
Of course, it was not the pitch-black night Magreta had told me about, but even at this level, it seemed they would have to give up on this year’s farming.
“Either way, this will be the last year people can live on Earth.”
Even if humanity did not perish from the heat, it would perish because it could no longer farm.
At my words, Magreta nodded with a dark expression.
Whoosh!
As we were looking up at the sky like that, fighter jets passed overhead.
Fighter jets were not the only things passing by.
Dudududu.
Formations of helicopters flew past, and vertical takeoff and landing aircraft were landing near the base.
Armored vehicles and tanks were lined up on the parade ground where I had once trained, and instead of the soldiers who had been standing guard, anti-aircraft missiles and self-propelled anti-aircraft guns were watching the sky.
I could tell without even spreading out my extrasensory perception.
This Baekdusan base had been completely transformed into a combat base.
While we looked around in surprise, two officers came running toward us.
A U.S. Army major and a Korean Army lieutenant colonel. The two men who had run over greeted us first.
“Deputy Commander Hyeon and Ambassador Plenipotentiary Magreta, correct? We came to escort you.”
Field-grade officers had come running to guide us.
As the lieutenant had said, this place seemed to be full of stars.
The place the officers guided us to was a container building I had visited several times before.
It was the place where the general and the deputy director of the NIS had stayed, and later, the place used by the third-generation chaebol heir.
Now, that container building and the area around it had been turned into a field headquarters.
On one side, American officers, communications soldiers, and staff officers were shouting at one another.
“Are the satellite images of the Manchuria region updated yet?”
“The satellite hasn’t arrived yet!”
“Where are the carriers?”
“The Ronald Reagan is anchored off the coast of Chongjin, and the Carl Vinson and Lincoln are passing the 38th parallel.”
Korean officers were hounding communications soldiers on the other side.
“How far has our army come?”
“The 7th Maneuver Corps has passed Pyongyang.”
“The Capital Mechanized Infantry Division has passed through Gaeseong.”
“That’s too slow! The Chinese army is right on our doorstep!”
“They’re doing their best!”
When we appeared in the middle of all that military commotion, several soldiers looked at Magreta and me with startled eyes.
It was not because they were surprised to see a pretty woman and a civilian.
They seemed to be soldiers who knew us.
The voices suddenly died down, and the bewildered soldiers looked back and forth between us and their suddenly quiet comrades.
At that moment, the container door burst open.
The person who opened the container door was someone I knew.
“What are you doing? Get in here!”
The man who opened the door was Samuel Carter.
Magreta’s superior and the deputy director of the Geographic Intelligence Agency.
The number two man in the American intelligence agency was here.
Then again, with the combined forces commander here, there was nothing strange about him being present as well.
At his gesture, Magreta and I entered the container.
Once we went inside, the container door closed.
Inside the large barracks made by joining two containers together, there were several people.
Several people with stars on their shoulders, and others in black suits.
I really could see more stars here than I had seen in my entire life.
Unfortunately, aside from Samuel, I recognized only one person.
There was no one I had seen at the White House, and no one I had seen during the war.
The only person I knew was an NIS agent standing among the men in black suits.
He was staring at me with a sickened look in his eyes.
After greeting him with my eyes, I followed Samuel’s guidance and walked toward the generals gathered in the center.
As I approached, one general stepped forward.
A middle-aged white general with four stars on his epaulettes.
He was the commander of the ROK-US Combined Forces, whom I had seen in the video during the war.
“Good to meet you. I finally get to see you in person. I’m John Ashford.”
At the general’s words, I had to tilt my head.
Ashford. That was a surname even I knew.
I looked at Magreta.
Magreta spoke to me with an awkward expression.
“He’s my uncle.”
At her words, the commander smiled and said,
“It really has been a long time. I heard you left home. I also heard about your activities afterward.”
I knew she came from an impressive family, but I had never imagined her uncle was the commander of the ROK-US Combined Forces.
Looking at Magreta, it did not seem she had deliberately avoided telling me either.
“I didn’t know you were still in Korea.”
“Well, compared to my brothers, I was the one posted overseas.”
It seemed she had simply forgotten.
Magreta looked at me apologetically, then quietly stepped back.
“Then please talk. I have a report to make…”
Magreta stood beside her superior, Samuel, and Magreta’s uncle looked at me.
“I’ve heard a lot about you, but much of it was hard to believe… I’m not sure how I should treat you. In any case, the intelligence agency and the homeland have told me to help you as much as possible, so I will do so sincerely. What do you want me to do?”
I answered the commander.
“Please tell me the location of the advancing Chinese army.”
“Why that?”
Had it been an answer he had not expected?
The commander asked me back with a puzzled expression.
I answered his question.
“I intend to end the war.”
The inside of the container fell silent.
Civil War (2)