Chapter 45 – Returnee II

Chapter 45 – Returnee II

[Translator – Jjsecus]

[Proofreader – Gun]

Chapter 45 – Returnee II

4

The marquis may have been crazy, but his ability was great.

To truly grasp how great it was, some additional explanation is needed.

This world hates humanity.

Even kids in their adolescence, caught up in their teenage angst, mutter, “It feels like the world hates me.” And as you grow older, you gradually (actually, not so gradually) learn that the world doesn’t really care about your existence.

Honestly, from the world’s perspective, there are quite a few things to care about besides you. Like turtles swallowing plastic or quantum entanglement.

But not anymore. Since the Gate Incident, something decisively changed. It changed completely.

From that day on, the world decided to dislike humanity a bit.

The Void.

Alternatively called the abyss or hell. While the term “gate” was used before, gradually people started using the word “void.”

– Hey, what’s that?

– Huh? What?

– That flower. Why does it have teeth?

In the Void, shark teeth grow on the petals of the Rafflesia flower. Spiders sprout legs, numbering thirteen. Dragonflies develop six compound eyes. Headless elephants roam.

Without exterminating monsters and aberrations, extensive genetic mutations occur in the affected areas. The number of malformed creatures increases drastically.

It’s called the Void Toxin.

The culprit that swiftly dismantles the civilizations and knowledge painstakingly built by humanity.

Have you ever seen a paddy field dyed crimson like blood? Rice grains resembling the shapes of all the insects, from beetles to flies? Instead of rice grains, water lilies bloom. There’s even a reported sighting of rice fields where all the planted rice seems to have roots connected underground like a bamboo forest.

Despite the same field, same crop, same water, and same sunlight, the rice on the left side of the field looked different from the right side.

Human civilization was built on the foundation of ‘repeatability’. Even as everything in the world changes, when you realize that spring comes again after a year and winter repeats itself, humanity erected a tower of gold. At the sharp top of that tower, time finally turned into history.

The tower has now collapsed.

Time flows. It flows uncontrollably. Like a desert storm covering the once glorious surface of the tower with sand.

What is humanity? What are ‘we’? Are we the beings where flowers grow from our heads and fish gills sprout from our tongues?

From those gills, the cries of a newborn baby can be heard. Eventually, they only communicate and convey messages through the baby’s cries, but we cannot understand the meaning of that resonance.

Sometimes time flows rapidly near Incheon, while it flows slowly near Seoul. Nothing repeats. Nothing is reproduced. It just flows.

“We connect each city......”

Therefore, I, the Saintess, the Warlord, and the Triumvirate declared war against the void that devours our world.

“Humanity needs to return to the era when it was overwhelmed by nature.”

To the question of whether this is regression, the Warlord shook his head.

“Just as evolution and regression are only distinctions made by humans, this is merely adaptation to the environment, not the decline of civilization...... From domination in terms of surface (area) to domination in terms of lines (linear).”

From surface to line.

From line to surface.

That was the motto of the Highway Management Bureau.

“So, we can escape from being isolated by the void and maintain our community as ‘us’......”

Like providing a wheelchair to a disabled person, the Highway Management Bureau paved the way for humanity.

They laid the ‘rails’ in the world.

Finally, the isolated points, cities, and people became rest stops where people could take a break.

“I’m fixing the railways that have been destroyed in this world, one by one, and continuing to move forward.”

I was able to fulfill the command of the fallen leader.

It took many years.

And it will take even more years in the future.

“From history to history, forever.”

The Highway Management Bureau did not represent Busan. It could not symbolize Seoul. The Highway Management Bureau was simply the cradle of humanity’s last stand, the final unit, and the frontline.

“We can do it. No, we must do it......”

Every time they left the road, the patrols of the Highway Management Bureau could not guarantee their survival.

The patrol that left for Gangneung never returned. The patrol sent to explore the North Korean area returned after two years, with all 13 patrol members transformed into sunflowers walking with their heads bowed towards the flag they were carrying when they left, rather than the sun.

Yet, we did not hesitate to stand on the frontline.

“Well, this season is also a bumper crop!”

The marquis could be considered the support unit of this frontline.

“With this much food, we can feed and save the Three Han countries and still have leftovers! Truly, it must be the care of the heavens!”

No matter how much we clear the way, people still need to eat. It’s my urgent fate to ensure that they have three meals a day, two meals, or even just one.

I did not accept this hunger as a burden or sadness.

If one were infected with the virus of New Buddha, they could escape from the fate of hunger at any time. This meant transcending from being human to becoming a void existence. Hunger was dismal, but it was the misery of humanity, still the misery of beings born and raised on this land.

The marquis began to melt under the shoulder massage Noh Doha provided. Even if they said his previous occupation wasn’t as a government official but as a masseuse, his skillful hands were believable enough.

“Whether plum blossoms bloom at the top of a mountain or on the streets, they’re still plum blossoms. So, if they bloom in people’s hearts, wouldn’t they still be plum blossoms? Now that the mantle of the Mount Hua Sect has been passed down to you, it doesn’t matter whether it’s Haidong or Jiang’an, does it?”

“Well, but the disciples...”

“No, no... Your master has already passed away, hasn’t he? Then, since you’re the most senior member of the Mount Hua Sect, although it’s common for juniors to visit their seniors, I’ve never heard of seniors visiting their juniors. They should come to you, so why are you moving around?”

“Oh? That’s indeed a valid point.”

“If you write a letter, I’ll take responsibility and send it to China. If they understand the relationship between superiors and inferiors, they’ll surely come to see you...”

“Oh ho! Your advice on diplomacy is truly correct!”

“Then, I’ll look forward to the harvest of autumn strolls...”

“Hmm! Leave it to me!”

The Highway Management Bureau is a sovereign state, and its leader is a sovereign. That’s what it means.

After finishing the inspired hand movements and tongue movements, Noh Doha turned back to me and chuckled.

“That’s why I prefer adults over young people... Communication works, you know?”

I won’t argue against that claim.

But no matter how much effort Noh Doha put in, there were limitations. The marquis was a lunatic, and lunacy was an incurable disease.

“I have to visit the Huashan at least once before I die.”

Every time the seasons changed and the rice was harvested, the marquis murmured incessantly, like someone afflicted with nostalgia.

“I have to go before I die...”

Since the establishment of the Highway Management Bureau, in the 54th run, 55th, 56th, and 57th, the marquis murmured like this every season.

Time passed.

Finally, in the 108th run.

During the vacation season, I visited the marquis. It was still very early on, before the first year had passed. The marquis was still living in his hometown, Ulleungdo (yes, this person had no reason to be afflicted with nostalgia).

“Marquis.”

“Hmm?”

The old man, watering the flowers in the front yard of his shabby house, turned towards me. Water dribbled from the watering can.

“Who are you, young man?”

“I am someone bestowed with the knighthood of Yuldo Country.”

“What?”

If an ordinary person had an unfamiliar stranger walk into their front yard and suddenly claim a micronation’s title, they would probably either call the police or at least swing a broom at them.

“Oh, this is one of my countrymen! Come in quickly!”

But indeed, the marquis was extraordinary. I secretly wondered if this old man had been cosplaying as a nobleman ever since he came to Ulleungdo, but it seemed he had already discarded that act since his time in his hometown.

“But your title sounds strange. I’m not the Marquis, but the South Marquis. Why have you come to find me?”

I put on the saddest expression I could muster. Method acting wasn’t particularly difficult. Just recalling the scene when the leader died made it simple.

“Unfortunately, Yuldo Country has been destroyed.”

“What?”

“The sinister influence of the demon cult has reached even to the distant seas. Not only Yuldo Country, but also the eastern part of Yeonggilli has been devastated, and even His Majesty the Duke couldn’t escape.”

“No...! How could such a thing...!”

“Marquis.”

Thud!

I knelt in the yard. And with an unprecedented solemnity, I shouted.

“Although the government of Yuldo Country has failed, can we consider it right for the people to accept the nation’s downfall? Isn’t it true loyalty to establish a country with the remaining people alone?”

“......!”

“Now that there are no nobles left in Yuldo Country except you, it is only proper for you to establish a new government here. However, as a person of reason, we cannot forget His Majesty the Duke’s grace. Therefore, please ascend to the marquisate and revive the Yuldo nation!”

For the record, the marquis’s house was shabby.

And the shabby house was located in a shabby neighborhood.

Furthermore, a characteristic of the shabby neighborhood was that when something unusual happened next door, you could easily peek over the fence to see what was going on. The people in the neighborhood all looked this way.

To express their gaze, it was like, “Oh, just casually looking.”

“Ah, heaven has not yet abandoned me!”

The marquis paid no attention to the neighborhood’s people.

“Get up quickly! How could you understand my intentions so well!”

“I apologize.”

“You truly are the marquis’s right-hand man!”

It was basically saying “best friend”.

108th run.

That day, I had lunch with the future head of the Mount Hua Sect.

[Translator – Jjsecus]

[Proofreader – Gun]