Black Swan Chapter 17

Again, it was cryptic talk. There was no time for Yoo Nanoh to think between the lines.

“Division Commander Yoo Nanoh. I will give the order.”

At Lee Hwanmae’s words, Yoo Nanoh straightened his posture.

“Prepare the sacrifice ritual starting now. Deliver my order to the members participating in the ritual. Tell them to remain calmly silent no matter what strange things I babble in the middle of the ritual.”

“Patriotism!”

Yoo Nanoh gave a salute and went out.

In the empty room, Lee Hwanmae stared at the young snake for a long time. Leaning his back against the wall, the young snake had his head dropped down. He had not nudged an inch in that posture for fifteen hours. He was a fellow with remarkable patience.

A two-faced man, huh…. Indeed, Nanoh has a sharp eye.

The young snake’s face, veiled in shadow, was an impression that anyone would harbor goodwill toward at first glance. A face gentle yet brimming with vigor. A face where a boy filled with confusion and a man stronger than a rock coexisted. A face where a strange melancholy hovered like fog. A soft and sad face.

Lee Hwa had been deceived for seven years by that sad face. He had inwardly considered it admirable to see him personalmente treading night soil and horse dung with his own hands, breaking sweat to reclaim barren land. He had concluded he was an innocent idealist who did not suit the Mukso camp.

However, you are a black swan.

The question he had harbored over and over raised its head again. What kind of expression would the young snake wear if he knew his own terrifying fate right now? If the result Lee Hwanmae wiretapped was accurate, the young snake would undoubtedly shed bitter tears.

Lee Hwanmae sank into thought. Foreknowledge merely shows fate, but does not inform even the method to alter fate. In other words, if fate is the ruler, Lee Hwa is the challenger. The work of altering fate is never easygoing. It requires extreme cautiousness, like when hanging onto a utility pole to repair electric wires on a pitch-black night with torrential rain and lightning striking furiously. With even a slight mistake, fate returns to its original place, or in the worst case, the trajectory twists in a completely unexpected direction.

That is why there is an old saying that the goddess of fate is fickle.

Lee Hwanmae let out a chuckle.

The young snake’s terrifying fate… after discovering the black swan, Lee Hwa drew a blueprint to reassemble fate for a whole year. Using his experience of being cruelly betrayed by Wang Hui as a stepping stone, he designed it more exquisitely and meticulously than ever before. The reason Lee Hwanmae stepped out in person before the young snake to conduct negotiations was also to thoroughly ensure perfection.

Shall I allure the goddess of fate starting now, then?

In Lee Hwanmae’s view, the work of altering fate was a kind of seduction. The work of alluring an extremely fickle, fastidious, and clever woman scheduled for marriage. Lee Hwa is a bad-tempered Casanova. Because the opponent is extremely clever and fickle, the seduction must be underlaid with meticulous calculations. With even a slight slip, the opponent will slap the Casanova’s cheek and return to her fiancé.

Seduction is also incitement, after all.

In terms of remodeling the opponent’s mind as one wishes, seduction and incitement possessed identical characteristics. This time alone, Lee Hwanmae was also unwavering and certain. That Lee Hwa would perfectly allure the fickle goddess of fate. That he would remodel the goddess’s ideology through clever incitement and alter fate in the direction he desired. That thereby, he would definitely stop the emergence of the black swan that no one anticipated.

Your fate changes from now on. You will walk the road of destiny changing a road of death into a road of life from now on.

Lee Hwanmae spoke as if whispering.

“So listen to my words well, Gwanchang.”

∞ ∞ ∞

There is nothing for them to find out. As long as I keep my mouth shut well.

Gwanchang had been certain of that until the torture chamber door opened. However, the moment the torture chamber door opened and the slaughterers entered, that certainty cleanly vanished away. The faces of the slaughterers revealed under the fluorescent lights were none other than Mae-Ran-Guk-Juk.

Mae-Ran-Guk-Juk stared at the snakes with expressionless eyes. For Gwanchang, it was the first moment facing in person the men he had only encountered through photographs. The disparity between the photographs and real life was vast. In the photographs, they were neat and handsome young men, but in real life, they only gave off a thick smell of blood.

One man among Mae-Ran-Guk-Juk stepped forward. It was Major General Lee Hwanmae. Unfitting for a leader leading slaughterers, his face was extraordinarily pale and his skin was smooth. Lee Hwanmae gave a light gesture with his chin.

“Leave only Ran, and everyone get out.”

As soon as the words fell, Chrysanthemum and Bamboo left the torture chamber.

Lee Hwanmae pulled a chair over and sat down in a relaxed posture. The seven snakes gathered in a corner of the torture chamber and could not budge an inch. Brigadier General Yang Jeo, who sat next to Gwanchang, was trickling urine in his pants.

Gwanchang inwardly suppressed his bewilderment. Ran—Yoo Nanoh was a slaughtering demon whom even his comrades Lee Hwanmae, Park Gukyoung, and Seo Jukgyeong yielded a step to. When a field officer was captured, Lee Hwanmae unconditionally assigned the torture to Yoo Nanoh to trample their body into a dishcloth. Yet right now, Lee Hwanmae sent everyone out, leaving only Yoo Nanoh behind. It meant he judged that among the seven snakes captured alive last night, there was a field officer worthy of assigning torture to Yoo Nanoh.

How did Lee Hwanmae know that fact? Who was the officer the leader of the slaughterers judged to be of field rank among the seven snakes before his eyes?

Although the designation gave off an elegant fragrance, Mae-Ran-Guk-Juk was a slaughter group renowned for the worst reputation along the border line adjacent to ‘Usaguk’ and the ‘Kingdom of God’. The Mae-Ran-Guk-Juk division was famous for a terrifying cruelty that made even the snakes, who were notorious in the Western Continent, shudder. That cruelty was all the more worthy of fear because meticulous strategy was laid beneath it.

No matter how many herbivorous animals there are, they cannot withstand a single cruel beast of prey. Even while grazing in herds of dozens, the moment a single beast of prey intrudes, the herbivorous animals are seized with terror and scatter in all directions. That is the law of nature. Although hard to even imagine looking at his current appearance, Lee Hwanmae—who was said to have been respected by his juniors as a well-behaved star student during his school days—found their exit strategy in atrocious acts, being at an absolute disadvantage in terms of numbers compared to the snakes. He calculated that they could suppress numerous snakes only by being so cruel that the snakes would not even dare dream of attacking.

Indeed, the atrocious acts Lee Hwanmae committed easily surpassed common sense. It was said that fear stems from a lack of understanding. At atrocious acts surpassing common sense, even the snakes who were notorious in the Western Continent could not help but be paralyzed with terror. Just as Lee Hwanmae calculated, the snakes ended up reduced to herbivorous animals.

Currently, the highest-ranking officer among the snakes in this torture chamber is Brigadier General Yang Jeo. Although he disguised himself by wearing a private’s uniform, the moment his identity is caught, it will be the end. He will be cruelly thrown onto the altar of hell as a sacrifice and suffer a humiliation where dying would rather be better.

“Did you call for me?”

The torture chamber door opened and a private wearing a black uniform entered. Gwanchang cautiously examined the private. His face was pale and delicate in features to the extent he could pass for a boy at a glance, and his build was tall and slender. However, a coldhearted chill no less than Lee Hwanmae and Yoo Nanoh emanated from his pupils where no emotion could be read and his mask-like, expressionless face. Above all, Gwanchang was strongly impressed by the private’s movements. Because no waste whatsoever could be seen in even his minor foot movements.

Is a person of such skill a mere private?

“You’re here, disciple.”

Lee Hwanmae wore a smile toward the private.

“By the way, did you finish this work? Isn’t today the deadline?”

“As a matter of fact, I brought it. Please proofread it.”

The private handed a stack of papers to Lee Hwanmae. After turning the papers one by one, Lee Hwanmae handed them over to Yoo Nanoh. Mockery settled in Lee Hwanmae’s eyes as he skimmed through the papers. Yoo Nanoh snickered aloud quite openly.

Before long, Lee Hwanmae gathered the papers from Yoo Nanoh, arranged them in order, stood up from his chair, and approached the snakes.

“Do you want to read it, too?”

Gwanchang flinched. Lee Hwanmae handed the stack of papers to none other than himself. Among the captured snakes, Gwanchang was the only person who knew how to speak Eastern Script.

Surely he didn’t hand over the papers knowing that I am fluent in Eastern Script?

Gwanchang intentionally put on an expression as if he didn’t know what it meant. Saying “Here,” Lee Hwanmae handed the stack of papers even closer to Gwanchang.