Black Swan Chapter 8

Yoo Nanoh was not at all disappointed in Lee Hwanmae, who did not bend his stubbornness to the end. Because he had expected from the start that it would not be adopted. When Yoo Nanoh thought up to eight, Lee Hwanmae always came up with sixteen. In fact, if this war could be prevented by sacrificing a single younger brother, Lee Hwanmae might have been the very first to push Yoo Nanoh’s back. Of course, Yoo Nanoh would throw himself into the flames without hesitation. Thoroughly hiding the guilt and pain of having sacrificed his younger brother behind a soft smile overlaid on the corners of his mouth, Lee Hwanmae would take the people’s condemnation with his whole body. The responsibility of soldiers was that heavy.

Yoo Nanoh stared downward, lost in thought. Fuck, then is there no choice but to kill as many as possible tomorrow? I need to eliminate at least 50,000 in half a day for Mukso to reconsider the invasion even a little bit. The method of blowing off heads hundreds at a time by the bunch is low in efficiency… Should I try causing a large-scale landslide? If it’s a suitable mountain in this vicinity…

While he was squeezing out various thoughts, Lee Hwanmae spoke out of the blue.

“Bring food.”

“Huh?”

Yoo Nanoh raised his head reflexively. Lee Hwanmae grinned softly.

“I told you to bring food. I’m hungry.”

“…You turned away the tray, so I just disposed of it. It’s the hour when the mess officer must have gone back to the barracks too.”

“Then you cook the rice and bring it.”

“You bastard, what nonsense is that? I can roast a wild boar well, but I don’t know how to cook rice. Just eat with me at the mess hall. Let’s go out together.”

“I don’t want to. I’d rather just starve.”

Lee Hwanmae turned his head and threw darts again. Before long, he turned sharply and shot a fierce glare at Yoo Nanoh.

“Did I ask for a seven-dish setting, or did I even ask for a sinseollo? All I eat is soybean paste stew, mixed grain rice, rolled omelet, kimchi, and one kind of seasoned vegetable. You don’t even want to serve me that? Yeah, that’s just like you bastard. When have you ever worried about me! Ah, you did worry. My famous head. Then you should bring me food all the more! You said you have to supply glucose for the head to rotate well too! Bring food right now, right nooowww!”

At the rapid-fire tone, Yoo Nanoh scowled fiercely. This bastard is at it again.

Lee Hwanmae’s chronic hysteria flared up again. Even though he had experienced Lee Hwanmae’s hysteria to the point of sickness during seven years of military life, Yoo Nanoh was surprised every single time. What kind of disgraceful behavior is that for a guy who is thirty-two years old?

“Hey, then eat even this, you bastard. This is carbohydrates in its own way too.”

Yoo Nanoh, suppressing his anger, pulled out hardtack from his uniform pocket and handed it out, then suddenly froze. A bizarre premonition flashed across his mind. Could that guy, by any chance…?

Yoo Nanoh observed Lee Hwanmae with narrowed eyes. At this point when war was imminent, he had despaired thinking there was no hope since Lee Hwanmae had skipped his meals. But that guy suddenly asked for food?

Even though he must have clearly noticed the gaze Yoo Nanoh was throwing, Lee Hwanmae merely threw darts in silence. At that appearance of being completely serene, Yoo Nanoh’s suspicion rather grew even deeper. Could it be…?

A spine-chilling coldness rose up his back to the nape of his neck. Meanwhile, his intuition bypassed the logical thought process in one bound and presented the answer.

Hey, did you finally find it? The way to prevent the war, I mean!

As if answering his younger brother’s soundless shout, Lee Hwanmae threw a dart with all his strength. The straw doll hit by the dart dropped to the floor with a thud. Only then did the energy slip away from Yoo Nanoh’s entire body. It felt as if a boulder that had heavily weighed down his chest every hour and every second for seven whole years was cleared away in one go. Fuck, so that was it. In the end, you found a way to survive!

The time spent preventing invasion through a precarious tightrope walk reached a full seven years. Thinking that this sickening time was finally coming to an end felt like a dream, but anger soon surged up.

That bastard, evil to the core as always.

Yoo Nanoh hurled curses at his half-brother in his heart. Instead of laying it out coolly, you deliberately burn a person’s insides again? If not for that useful head of yours, whether you’re my hyung or whatever, your legs would have been broken by my hands already.

“Hey, lay it out on the table now. Let me also know what the operation handed down by the great and vaunted God is.”

At Yoo Nanoh’s words, Lee Hwanmae gestured toward one wall with his chin.

“Doesn’t it look like the Three Kingdoms period in the 3rd century?”

A map of the Western Continent was hanging on the wall. Lee Hwanmae aimed a dart at the map.

“This is Wei.”

The dart stuck right in the middle of the territory of the Feathered Snake—’Usaguk’.

“Here is Shu.”

The dart hit the Hanging Tower—’Hyeontapguk’.

“This side is Wu.”

Lowering his hand after hitting the dart even on the Tree of Life—’Saengmyeongmokguk’, Lee Hwanmae spoke:

“In terms of population and territory, the currently strongest power is indeed Usaguk. Even in the Three Kingdoms period, the power of Wei was the strongest. Although Mukso is a figure closer to Yuan Shao than Cao Cao. Come to think of it, both bastards have the exact same name with the character ‘Shao❨紹❩’, don’t they?”

“Stop talking nonsense and just answer me, you bastard. What is the operation instruction handed down by God, I saaay—.”

“Have you seen me talk nonsense? This is the answer to your question.”

Yoo Nanoh slightly raised one eyebrow. What kind of talk is that again?

Lee Hwanmae grinned and pulled out a hairdryer from the chest of drawers.

“Don’t be impatient, Nanoh. You just have to follow my orders as you always do. I tell you again, we won’t die. You, me, the youngest guy, my second cousin, the troops, everyone survives. God asserted it. The standoff will end soon.”

Yoo Nanoh swallowed his breath soundlessly.

God asserted it. The standoff will end soon.

Now, there was no further need for questions. Because whenever Lee Hwa used the expression ‘asserted’, it always came true in reality. No matter how absurd a thing it was, it was without fail. Then it was over. A miracle he had not even imagined in his dreams finally happened.

Not a temporary buying of time, but a complete end? This sickening seven-year standoff is finally ending?

It did not feel real just yet. Above all, he was intensely curious about how Lee Hwa would make that million-man army withdraw. Ah, could He be planning a total annihilation by any chance? The Battle of Salsu by General Eulji Mundeok, who thoroughly submerged the Sui Dynasty’s detachment numbering 300,000 at the end of 7th-century Goguryeo, passed through Yoo Nanoh’s mind. Euha?

“How childish! It’s not that.”

Lee Hwanmae, who read Yoo Nanoh’s mind, said sharply.

“It’s not?”

Yoo Nanoh flinched at the shoulders in spite of himself. At Yoo Nanoh, who was bitterly disappointed, Lee Hwanmae burst into a ridiculous laugh as if flabbergasted.

“Of course not, you punk. Are you a fool?”

“But there’s a river right in front too…”

“It’s a river in name only, but in reality, it’s no different from a stream. Unless there’s a dam to blow up, how do you cram a number as huge as a million into that shallow stream? Why does a smart guy suddenly have such a subnormal thought? If it were a fight to win by geographical advantage, we wouldn’t have dragged out time for seven years doing those stomach-churning deeds. Ah, anyway, why is my skin like this today of all days?”

Lee Hwanmae clicked his tongue while scanning his own face reflected in the mirror. Yoo Nanoh grimaced and leaned his back against the wall. Curiosity kept surging, but even if he asked Lee Hwanmae, he wouldn’t get an answer. Because ever since his Hwado Academy days, Lee Hwanmae was famous as a guy who never revealed his inner thoughts. Even if he showed the branches, he had never once shown the forest. Even to his half-brother Yoo Nanoh.

Anyway, this bastard doesn’t know teamwork.

Yoo Nanoh glared fiercely at Lee Hwanmae. I am also a comrade who shared joys and sorrows for seven whole years in name and reality, so if you give me a little hint of the detailed circumstances, do freckles sprout on your face? A bastard with not a fingernail’s dirt worth of pretty qualities except for that fast-rotating head of his, just wait until we get discharged. I’ll pay you back hot with interest for what I suffered all this time. Anyway, why is he sprucing himself up so meticulously today of all days? Surely he isn’t planning to go seduce someone at a crucial time like this.

“Nanoh.”

Suddenly, Lee Hwanmae turned around to Yoo Nanoh.

“What, you punk.”

Yoo Nanoh responded half-heartedly. Lee Hwanmae tapped his own cheek gently with his fingertips.

“How do I look to you? Am I handsome?”

“What?”