Rust - Chapter 626



Only Krnovel

RUST [RUST]-626

Ki-soon, who was bewildered by the group action(?) of the Naru clones, gave an additional explanation.

“Uh- That’s right. They were making a fuss from the beginning, wanting to see your face. It’s not that they’re sick. They’ve been like that from the beginning.”

“······.”

The face of my dead brother.

Maru felt strange seeing four identical faces. When he heard about it, he didn’t mind, but when he saw it alive and moving on video, he was overcome with subtle emotions.

“And… I’m sorry. There are about a thousand more people who want to see your face.”

“what?”

Of the Naru clones produced by the Empire, over a thousand survived until the third generation. Now that the New York rat crisis was resolved, the issue of trade remained.

The issue of ownership of the clone research materials, the main body of Naru, and the surviving clones. When Ki-sun asked for the surviving clones, the Empire quickly handed them over.

At the time, I liked quick processing, but it wasn’t something I could just enjoy. Since the Empire had changed its affiliation to the Holy Kingdom, the Holy Kingdom had also become responsible for supplies.

Sending them to Montreal, Niagara, or Detroit was difficult. In the bitter cold of winter, it was not easy to travel that distance on foot, even for clones.

In other words, the situation has become one where we have to buy supplies from the empire.

“Instead of supplying them when the Empire is short on supplies, I refused to turn them into mercenaries for the time being. They are the ones who have been separated from the underground sewers, so I am letting them rest for the time being. The supply is the problem. It will be difficult to hold out until the transport ships arrive with the supplies from the embassy.”

“···What are you going to use the clone mercenaries for?”

New York was free for the time being, as the rats formed a front line under New York, but the outskirts were not. There were still large monsters nearby that had not been subdued, and there were many rat groups that had not joined the Holy Kingdom.

“We are currently conscripting and training because we are experiencing a large number of manpower shortages, but we need a unit that can respond quickly. A force of a thousand men is not a small number.”

Maru read the number of General Den Brown. Kisun must have said that he would save at least one more Naru clone, and Den Brown knew that and intervened.

‘It won’t be easy to buy supplies with money.’

Even without that, New York’s winter prices were merciless. It would literally be a money-eating hippopotamus to properly manage a force of over a thousand men.

What if it were only accepted in Holy Kingdom coins or gold? The gold that I had been diligently collecting using crows would melt away.

“It’s not easy.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“But why do the clones want to see me?”

“You’re going to be living in the Kingdom from now on. While the kids were resting, I was going to tell you about the Holy Kingdom and the differences between it and the Empire, etc…”

“Did you do it?”

“Honestly, the most crucial difference between an empire and a kingdom is you.”

So, the fact that the King of the Holy Kingdom and His Majesty the Supreme Being, His Majesty Vladimir Kalin, was shown in a very mild manner, just a small part of his majesty, was met with excitement.

“I had a feeling it might work since it was based on Naru’s memory. I wanted to show the power of the Holy Kingdom and prevent them from leaving without permission, but the reaction was completely different from what I expected.”

If we have to compare, it’s comparable to the reaction of fans who are truly crazy about famous idols. Kisun was completely taken aback by the reaction of Naru clones because she had not expected it at all.

It was the same for Maru. Imagine a thousand kids who looked exactly like the sister you cut ties with, shouting ‘Oppa!!!’ ‘Gyaaaaak!!!’ like dolphins.

Even if you think back to when we were quite close, not before we broke off ties, Naru would get entangled in thousands of shouts of ‘It’s your Majesty!’, ‘Big Brother!!!’?

“······.”

“I would like to start by bringing the kids from Montreal.”

The idea was to bring them on Gisun’s private airship, which would be cramped but still fit four women.

“why?”

“They already know the taste of freedom, and they know how to return to the Holy Kingdom. They’ve already experienced what they’ll have to do in the future by hanging out with Hee-yeon, so wouldn’t that be helpful in controlling the same clones?”

“······.”

“And I’m a little worried about No. 17. I need to check that too.”

“Did you notice what happened in New York?”

“uh.”

“Yeah. It’s a bit much to leave it for too long.”

Ki-soon’s floor also agreed.

It was No. 17 who noticed that the Naru clones were being separated. It was necessary to check if it was a simple shared sense or if it was a clone control ability like Heeyeon, and if there was any possibility of development in that direction.

But if I only brought No. 17, I didn’t know what the other three would do. So the idea was to bring all four.

Maru, who had been quietly thinking about Gi-sun’s words, changed direction.

“It would be better for us to go rather than bring them.”

“Us? Taking all 1,000 of them?”

“okay.”

“Wouldn’t it be dangerous?”

The distance from New York to Montreal, Canada is about 600 km. If you travel 20 km a day, it takes 30 days, and if you travel 30 km, it takes 20 days. It was dangerous if you encountered a blizzard or a sudden drop in temperature along the way.

“So, we have to go quickly. And make sure to bring plenty of supplies and equipment.”

“Huh? You really?”

At the mention of gathering supplies and equipment, Ki-sun’s squinted eyes looked at the floor.

“Don’t look at me like that, there’s a way. And tell me you’ll clean up the surrounding monsters, and bring me plenty of winter equipment and supplies. And a sled.”

“sleigh?”

What is that guy Maru thinking? Ki-sun’s squinted eyes narrowed again.

“Even if you pack cold-weather gear, it’s still dangerous. If you walk, it’ll take at least 20 to 30 days to get to Montreal. If you have to deal with monsters along the way, it could take even longer.”

“So, bring plenty of sleds.”

‧

‧

‧

‧

“Here!”

The sound of a whip hitting the air. Crack!

Sizzle!

Click!

The field mouse sled began to race down the frozen Hudson River.

======

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“A field mouse sled?”

“yes.”

This is really something. I ate a lot.

The corners of the mouth of General Dan Brown, who had lost his expression, slightly rose. Strictly speaking, there were also dog sleds, so there was no reason why a field mouse as large as a small or medium-sized dog could not pull a sled.

‘That’s why they swept away all the sleds.’

A thousand Bloody Marys was not a small number. I had planned to use it to clean up the surrounding area and recover the gold that was shamelessly stolen under the pretext of crow trading, but it was a shame.

“What about your promise to clean up the area?”

“We are organizing the riverside area where sledding is easy and heading north along the Hudson River.”

“Hudson?”

“yes.”

General Dan Brown’s eyes turned to the map. If you went north along the Hudson River, you would reach Montreal.

“Huh? Was that what you were aiming for from the beginning?”

The migration route of the field mice that flocked to New York was the Hudson River. Could there be a monster left along the river where hundreds of thousands of field mice migrated?

A horde of giant rats will have decimated the nearby monsters as they move south toward New York, so they’ll have a near-free pass heading north again.

“Yes? Then you are deceiving us?”

“I didn’t lie.”

He also left after catching a monster near New York. Strictly speaking, it was the field mice of the Holy Kingdom who wiped out the monsters around the Hudson River, so it was true that they subdued them.

When I asked to get some free service from here, they said it was out of the question.

It was strange that Ki-sun, who had been negative about the mercenary offer, suddenly changed his attitude and agreed to the offer. He readily agreed even though I gave him only a week’s worth of supplies just in case, but it turned out that he had originally planned to go back on a field mouse sled.

‘The lack of stamina would have been resolved by frequently changing the field mice pulling the sled.’

If you keep changing things like that, you will arrive in Montreal in 3 days, or at the latest in 4 days.

“We also had the problem of additional supplies on the northern front, didn’t we?”

“Yes. There was a request for additional supplies due to a shortage of ammunition.”

“Send it through the Hudson River.”

“All right.”

There was no safer supply route than this, having been swept away twice from that side.

“Contact with the Confederate liaison has been lost.”

“······.”

This was not good. It was possible that existing double agents and fixed spies would be caught, but it was unexpected that a contact with the upper echelons of the Confederacy would be caught.

There were three forces behind the Confederacy’s beginnings: political power rooted in the South, Virginia Langley and the businesses she controlled, and finally the military.

These three led the Confederacy while competing with and keeping each other in check.

The military attempted to use cannibals to expand its military power while also securing control and dominance. Virginia Langley, which had transformed from an intelligence agency to a company, attempted to create a new order by making full use of the researchers and research capabilities it had acquired over the years.

The new order envisioned by the military and the Virginia Company was an extremely efficient order based on vertical domination.

In contrast, the new order envisioned by the political powers based in the South was simply independence and self-respect from the Union, and they had no intention of completely abandoning the existing political system.

This was because abandoning the existing system meant giving up the vested rights they had.

Abolish the electoral system?

Even leaving aside the talk about democratic principles and citizens’ right to vote, for them the electoral system was a means to realize their dreams and ideals.

It meant that if you were from a powerful family, you had a chance to run for power.

But are you saying we should overhaul it into a vertical governance structure?

Even if you agree with the vertical power structure, what are the chances of challenging for power?

Even if the system was maintained in name only, it was a problem.

Because the moment they become cannibals or vampires, the lower-level entities cannot resist the higher-level entities. Once they are warm, they are warm forever unless something special happens.

Those who wanted to rise through elections could not accept such a vertical order as a new order. Such Confederate politicians were supported materially and spiritually by imperial agents, just as Confederate spies swayed imperial legislators and influential figures.

“Did you also cut ties with Senator Robin McDowell?”

“yes.”

A deep frown formed between Director Den Brown’s eyebrows. No matter how much the military tried to reorganize its forces using cannibals, it could not avoid internal opposition. After all, cannibals’ food was humans.

Likewise, even if the Virginia Company had succeeded in its experiments on werewolves or nobles, using them and becoming them were two different things.

Even if they packaged becoming a monster as immortality or becoming a new human being or an aristocrat, it was not a situation that worn-out politicians could overcome in one go.

‘If you say you’ve passed…’

“There was a traitor.”

“······.”

It meant that there was someone who betrayed them after they had gathered their strength to keep them in check. Otherwise, all the ties would not have been broken at once like this.

“Let’s start cleaning too.”

It was a time to weed out those who were thin-eared and babbling.

======

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Sizzle!

Squeak!

It was a spectacular sight to see the field mice pulling the sled.

The Naru clones, divided into over 150 sleds, were happy even during the forced march that lasted over 8 hours.

“Green Sun?”

“I heard you’re on an airship?”

“You’re the only one in the airship?”

“They said it was a single-seater.”

“Didn’t you say the king was there too?”

“The King has a secret.”

“why?”

“If the Empire goes after the King’s genes….”

“ah?”

They say that when five people gather, one of them is strange, but here it’s over a thousand.

“Aiming for genes?”

“You want to make a clone of the King?”

“Genetic combination···.”

“?”

“!”

The King’s genes combined? Whose genes? What genes? Thousands of Naru clones began to murmur.

Sizzle!

The sled running in front slowed down with a loud noise. It was a report from the field mouse scouts who had gone out on a reconnaissance mission that they had found a pack of wild cats.

The mutated feral cats were about the size of a small car. A group of them were targeting the rat sled.

Jjiik-

Click-

Most of the field mice were maintaining the lines underground in New York, and it was not easy for field mice pulling sleds to fight off a pack of feral cats.

[Defend here.]

The field mice flinched at the sound of his voice from heaven.

“It is the king’s voice.”

“where?”

“sky.”

“Your Majesty, it is an airship.”

The Naru clones looked up at the sky in a commotion.

A slowly descending airship. The airship, which looked like an elongated rugby ball, looked as if it had come from the future.

As the entrance to the white airship that had landed quietly opened and Maru, wearing a new Ripper suit, slowly came into view, the frozen air was torn apart with a high-pitched sound.

“Gyaaaah!”

“Your Majesty!!!”

“Oppaaaaaa!”

“!!!!!!”

Maru sighed.

This little guy, Kisun. What do you want me to do?