LE V1 (Main) C11-1

Chapter 11 - Meeting with Sunang - Part 1

TL: Eevee

Ed: Isalee

Even if you called it the holy land Namsan, nothing much had changed from before. You could say that it was exactly the same as the last time I'd come here. The packed buildings of Myongdong were nowhere to be seen, but Namsan itself was exactly as I remembered it. Perhaps the reason why it's still the same after 1000 years is because of the great barrier. You could say that the scent of the place was still there.

"That's funny."

"What's funny?"

"I've walked these roads before a thousand years ago."

It felt like that was just yesterday to me, and maybe because of that I couldn't get the grasp or scope of it. It's like saying 'you're looking hundreds of millions of years in the past' when you look at a star. Maybe if it was a supernova.

"What was this area like in the prehistoric era?"

"Can you see Namsan Tower over the~re?"

Amazingly, Namsan Tower was still there was well.

"Do you mean the Tower of G.o.d?"

"Webtoon?"

I really liked that webtoon, I can't read it anymore though, can I?

"Huh?"

"N-nothing. It looks like you're calling it the Tower of G.o.d nowadays. It's old name was Namsan Tower. You could get an amazing night view of Seoul from there so it was a famous date spot."

"What is a date?"

"Hm?"

Pyongang brought out the word date on her own so how come Nakran didn't know of it?

Then again, Pyongang's the odd one, not Nakran. It's odd that I can even talk to them to begin with. Even when I talked to my grandma, I barely understood her due to her dialect, so it's weirder that I can freely talk to people over a thousand years in the future.

"Date…… would you call it something like going out somewhere with your loved one?"

I don't know the exact meaning either. You just use it thinking 'it means something like that~'

"So that was how it was. It seems Jinsu-nim had a lover as well."

"That's a bit harsh."

It's almost like I was asked, 'so you had a girlfriend too?'

"I di-d. More often than not I didn't. I didn't have once since my army days, so at least four years. I think I forgot how to relations.h.i.+p to begin with."

Once I went back to uni there was no one who'd introduce me to girls. Since I wasn't part of any committees, I barely went to club outings after military service. Of course there were no G.o.ddesses of the engineering department either.

Since I was job hunting and whatnot I had a very limited social circle that mainly consisted of mainly my high school and club friends. I had no opportunities. Then again it's not like I had the courage to ask for someone's number.

"So you were in the army? I'm curious. Just how was the army of the prehistoric civilization organized?"

Nakran's ears and tails suddenly shot upright and her eyes started sparking. Was she a military otaku?

"On a large scale, it was divided into the Army, Navy and Air Force, with around six hundred thousand regular troops, 3 million reservists, and about ten million potential soldiers."

'Potential soldiers' refers to the maximum number of troops that could be mustered up in the event of conflict. To be honest, if you needed them, then in all reality Korea would be dead in the water anyway.

"……It's enough to conquer the world."

Personally, I thought if you just had Pyongang infiltrate and carry out guerilla operations on her own, our country would still be screwed over.

"It's not like that. Although our country's army was quite large, the surrounding nations were all monsters. Worldwide, America was first, Russia was second, China was third, and j.a.pan was seventh. Our country was only ranked around eleventh?"

Since exact troop numbers were cla.s.sified information in every country it couldn't be fairly estimated. For example, the twentieth ranked country, North Korea, would be a hard match for us 1v1. Of course, that's because we'd be protecting and not attacking, and North Korea had stockpiles of chemical weapons that were illegal under international law.

"Were there that many people?"

"As far as I know, the world population was around 7 billion. That number hits around 8 billion when you include the estimated numbers that aren't officially counted, but it's only an estimate."

"Seven billion…."

Crowded, isn't it? Even I can't get my head around it.

They say humans are born beating the odds of around 200 million to one. In other words, your existence is a miracle in itself. But there are at least 7 billion of the same such humans. Miracle my a.s.s.

"You won't get it just by hearing the numbers. For example, the old Seoul had around a million people living in it? That's around two million total when you include the surrounding suburbs and districts. Not easy to imagine, is it?"

Not easy for me, either. All I ever cared about was the h.e.l.lish number 2 subway line and whenever I tried to drive out of Seoul with a car.

"What about here?"

"There are an estimated three hundred thousand dragonkin. That is the smallest number of the four races.

"The angelkin's population is estimated to be around seven million, but since it was calculated using tax returns, it is not exact. The demonkin number approximately five million, but again, it is not an exact number. The beastkin are hard to estimate due to their city-state governing structure, but I understand the numbers are less than the demonkin."

Hm. The number of dragonkin are lower than I thought. But you're still telling me that each of them are a match for a thousand. Then do you need to calculate it as 300 million? Isn't that pretty much one-sided?

"Maybe there are other places where people could be living."

Europe, the Middle East, Africa, America might all have their own civilizations up and running.

"That is not the case."

"Why?"

"The four great G.o.ds said that aside from the lands of the four races, everywhere else is ocean."

What? Did all the ice caps melt and raise the sea levels? No, then Seoul wouldn't be unscathed either.

"Do you have a map?"

"If you mean a map that represents the world, then Sunang-nim will have one."

Looks like I have one more reason to see Sunang after all. Just what did happen over those thousand years? The figure of Namsan Tower looming over us is starting to look like Pandora's Box.

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Holy s.h.i.+t a chapter without explanatory notes