Black Swan Chapter 2

“I have a family too. A newborn nursing baby brother and my parents. Division Commander Yoo has an aging father. Captain Cho, you have a married elder sister and a widowed mother, right? Let me make this clear once and for all. If the enemies pour in, everyone dies. Our parents will be beheaded, and our sisters will be raped. All these atrocities are things that will happen in a few days.”

Silence settled in.

“You want to protect them, don’t you?”

His voice was as soft as a silk scarf.

“You want to protect your families, don’t you? But you’re going crazy from the agony because it feels impossible, aren’t you? Yet, even so, you desperately want to protect your own families at least, right?”

The scarf, fluttering softly through the air and wrapping gently around the men’s necks, transformed into a rope in an instant. The rope strangled their necks. With the brutal strength of a snake coiling around its prey’s body and tightening its stranglehold.

“You all know this. There is no one who will protect your families in your stead. The only ones who will protect your families are yourselves. Are you afraid? If you’re afraid, leave this place right now. Because only those who give up being human must remain here.”

He ruthlessly infused power into his tone. An even stronger force was exerted by the rope strangling the men’s necks.

“Yes, in a hopeless situation like this, humans usually expect a miracle. But unfortunately, miracles are nothing more than absurd fantasies that only appear in novels or movies. The invaders are many, and we are few. Realistically, there is only one way for the few to defeat the many. One person must kill as many people as possible. In short, we must commit a massacre.”

That voice making an extremely cold-hearted declaration was nonchalant and soft through and through.

“To drive them out, we must become butchers. We must transform into human butchers who view the invaders not as humans, but as dogs and pigs. To a human butcher, human emotions are unnecessary. It goes without saying, but a human who casts aside emotion is no different from a dead person. If you don’t want to become a dead person, leave while I count to ten. Those who remain will be regarded as dead. One, two, three.”

No one moved.

“Four, five, six.”

There was still not a single person leaving. Because everyone was dying. Bound by the rope in the shape of a voice, crushed by the powerful force cutting off their windpipes, the 574 men were slowly turning into corpses. That was precisely the result he wanted.

“Seven, eight, nine.”

His first massacre ended successfully. Until the very end, not a single person left. Everyone had chosen to become dead men, just as he intended.

“From now on, we are brothers. Starting now, we walk a grueling yet glorious path together.”

In front of the dead men, he smiled.

Before long, he cleared his throat and delivered a grand speech. At this nation’s top killer training center, where he had been stationed until just two months ago, he had been recognized by instructors and classmates alike as the greatest orator. This time, too, he displayed his skill without reserve, pouring out sweet talk. His uniquely charismatic voice shone brighter than ever. Words like country, nation, and patriotism popped out of his mouth every few seconds.

Before long, soft sobs broke out here and there. People even began appearing who could not contain the overwhelmed emotions rising from deep within their chests, shedding thick tears. Seeing his comrades’ fiery reaction, he was suddenly seized by a bizarre thought. This feels like I’ve become the worst villain on earth.

How many villains in human history had uttered words like country, nation, and patriotism as tools of agitation to delude and control the masses? Adolf Hitler. Joseph Stalin. Nicolae Ceaușescu.

However, everything is a double-edged sword. In an extremely disadvantageous situation where one must hit a rock with an egg, many precedents in human history prove that country, nation, and patriotism served as more effective tools than anything else to unite individuals into an organization. The situation he and his comrades faced right now was clearly the latter, but what weirdly crossed his mind at this moment was the adventure of a certain liar wooden puppet. The story of Pinocchio, who transformed into a human after a rough journey.

For a monster like me to commit the dangerous act of preaching patriotism. The liar wooden puppet met a happy ending of turning into a human, but would such a miracle really happen to an inborn monster like me, too? Won’t I instead transform into an irredeemable monster sinking to the absolute worst?

Even while complex thoughts went back and forth in his head, his mouth steadily continued the speech.

“Patriotism! Country! Nation! That alone is our conviction! We are mayflies! We are dead men! We are human butchers! Yes, I understand how you feel. You must feel wronged, having been born as attack dogs in such a chaotic era of all times. But it can’t be helped. The invaders have already defined us as an enemy state. To stand against those overwhelmingly strong invaders, we must rally together as a nation. Patriotism is our armor, our spears, and our swords!”

He shouted in a passionate voice.

“Nothing more, nothing less—just until we drive out the invaders, let’s close our eyes tight and throw ourselves into patriotism with everything we’ve got! Don’t worry, because we can defeat the snakes! Do not doubt, have faith! This is our destiny! There are no miracles, but fate exists! A fate far more astonishing than a miracle! An unimaginable, astonishing fate is waiting for you! Aren’t you curious how I know about this astonishing fate?”

At the out-of-the-blue talk of fate, the sobs subsided as if they had never happened. The comrades looked at their leader with dazed, dumbfounded faces. Though the atmosphere cooled rapidly as if cold water had been dumped over it, he was not shaken in the slightest.

“Earlier, all of you must have concluded deep down: ‘We only have a few days left to live. We’ll be wiped out while fighting the enemy in the upcoming border battle. He brought us all the way here to use us as arrow fodder.’ Am I right? But your guess is wrong. You will not die. That is your fate.”

That tone mixed with laughter was gentle, as if whispering to a lover.

“I will now explain how I came to know your fate. Actually, you see… I have a terrifying secret. I am God’s proxy. God appointed me as His proxy. In other words, what I told you earlier is precisely what I heard directly from our great God. God gave me a revelation. That He would have you defeat the snakes.”

“God? That can’t be…”

“No way. How could God…”

The comrades stirred, unable to hide their shock. The only calm person was Division Commander Yoo Nanoh, who already knew his secret. He smiled.

“Yes. God spoke to me directly. He informed me of the enemies’ battle formation in detail and even instructed me on the operational plan. He said that using me as His proxy, He will command you from now on.”

A silence fell. Every single one of the comrades staring at him had a face lost for words.

God.

The ruler who had hid inside a massive palace and stained this land with blood for over forty years. A cold-hearted old man who slaughtered political rivals and rebels without mercy, and even butchered all kinds of his own relatives. A tyrant. A madman.

Grisly rumors about that ‘God’ had been spreading widely of late. The men gathered here had also come across those rumors. If the rumors were true, their leader was clearly insane.

“We will drive out the snakes and protect our families. That is our fate promised by God. Therefore, from now on, you must follow my words unconditionally. Because I am the person who speaks directly with God, and receives and delivers His revelations.”

At those words, the majority of the comrades ended up falling into even deeper suspicion. Did our leader go crazy from being overwhelmed by fear? Otherwise, how could he say something like that?

Once again, he said nonchalantly:

“So, swear your allegiance to me.”

The comrades still stood rooted to the spot with bewildered expressions. Scanning his comrades, an arrogant smile suddenly appeared around his cruelly slitted eyes.

“If you swear, I’ll show you the way to live.”