Rust - Chapter 642



Only Krnovel

RUST [RUST]-642

Dick Herold’s head spun around.

‘It’s twisted.’

The conclusion was that it was a dirty mess. That is, when he met with Prince Vladimir Kalin alone, the premise was that the rebels were cannibals and the government forces were regular troops, so he decided to side with the government forces.

That would be the case, because psychometric examination of the massacre scene showed that many of the rebels were cannibals.

Moreover, King Vladimir warned that if you side with the cannibals, you will be left to your own devices. So, when you came unconditionally as a government soldier, your general turned out to be a cannibal.

‘What if the rebels are cannibals and the government forces are cannibals?’

Sweat dripped down his face. Dick desperately tried to calm his mind. The French general didn’t know whether he was aware of the tension or not, but he kept talking.

“···The rebels are massacring civilians. They are massacring Western citizens because they exported grain and wine to the American Empire.”

France was a more complex country than you might think. It was an agricultural powerhouse with a food self-sufficiency rate of over 300%. However, in reality, it was a country where the government purchased and disposed of the remaining surplus agricultural products.

In France, independent farming dates back to the Revolution, when the large landowners and nobles were ‘revolutionized’ and the land was dismantled, and small independent farmers were fostered.

After World War I and World War II, whenever land was concentrated, revolution and redistribution naturally took place, which led to the growing influence of small-scale independent farmers.

The problem came after urbanization and industrialization took place and international trade increased rapidly. According to capitalist principles, if cheap agricultural products came in from abroad, the prices of agricultural products in France should have plummeted.

So what would happen? Smallholder farmers would risk the French tradition of revolution. What could they do? The government would have to buy agricultural products at high prices.

So, the self-employed farmers worked so hard to farm that they achieved a food self-sufficiency rate of over 300%. Absurd things like paying up to several times the price for three times as much food and then discarding it occurred.

Grapes were okay, though. French wine was made only from French grapes, and the purity of wine was protected with tears in their eyes.

The problem was grain. It could have been exported rather than discarded, but what France was after was the position of leader in the European Union.

France, which sincerely wanted to beat Germany and become the top country in the European Union, should shake up the grain market, which is the rice bowl of poor member countries?

Neither an uneducated Yankee nor an ignorant bear, France of culture and revolution, a leash on food without romance?

‘Okay. I have pride.’

France chose pride over profit. Even when grain prices were soaring, it only spent money domestically and did not send it abroad. And this paid off as an unexpected jackpot.

With the spread of cannibals, the activity of mutated monsters, the outbreak of civil war, and climate change all at once, crops were ruined, and only a few years could be sustained with grains that were awaiting disposal.

Here, the empire that succeeded the divided United States came out with a humble attitude, saying, “We will hand over the modular nuclear power plant, so just give us food.” The French government, as the center of the continent, made a grand decision to hand over the food.

The problem is that the great French government has become a rat’s den in Paris after exporting grain. So what about those who are fighting here, claiming to be government troops?

“···So, after we suppress the rebels who are taking control of the West, we plan to move the provisional government to the American continent. Eastern Canada is French-speaking. We should establish ourselves there.”

What?

Isn’t that the territory of the Holy Kingdom?

‧

‧

‧

Dewey’s languid face was completely rotten.

“Yes. I checked how the body is disposed of.”

“······.”

“They put it on a sled attached to a snowmobile. Packed it well.”

“···What about the woman?”

“It was just as I imagined. It ended up being packaged the same way.”

“······.”

The fact that they were wrapping corpses and women in real time meant that most of the upper echelons of the French Provisional Government were cannibals.

“What are you going to do?”

“What should I do?”

Since they had dealings with the Empire, they must have known that the Holy Kingdom occupied that area. The cannibal general must have welcomed them in order to facilitate their passage to eastern Canada.

“They’re leaving us quietly in the rear. Are we just going to stay like this?”

I was worried that it would become a meat shield, but the opposite happened. If it had been deployed in a street battle, I could have gotten away with caution, but since it was stuck in the rear, there was nothing I could do.

“There is no way right now. We are being watched. Once Nantes is taken, the surveillance will be lifted. Don’t do anything stupid and wait.”

“What did you do to deserve this?”

Dewey spat, his rotten face crumpled, but Dick continued talking as if nothing had happened.

“The fact that they packed the corpse and carried it away means that there are a lot of cannibals. Tell the kids not to go out and run around like that. And tell them to endure it no matter how frustrating it is.”

“Ah- Okay, I understand. Just tell me to wait.”

Dick, left alone, pulled out his emergency signal.

The signal was flashing red. It seemed that the ones who were left alone weren’t completely wiped out.

‘Fuck.’

Dick also activated the emergency signal. I don’t know about anything else, but if it’s information that the French provisional government forces are trying to cross over to the Holy Kingdom, it’s public knowledge.

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The Holy Kingdom has succeeded in placing a relay station into the stratosphere to replace satellites. It has begun deploying drones for communications into the stratosphere.

Due to radio interference, real-time call quality was not at a level where one could expect it to be, but it was good enough to exchange text messages and simple photos.

[···The Empire and some states are likely to face serious food shortages in the future. Ohio and Indiana, located to the south of us, have been incorporated into the Empire. In addition, three other states are effectively in a state of anarchy and are likely to be absorbed into the Empire.]

A text message from Ki-soon, who had gone to the Empire to attend an economic conference, appeared on the screen. There was a slight delay, but it was safe to assume it was real time.

‘Isn’t this similar to the equipment used by Chinese special forces?’

It was Maru who came to mind the text messaging device used by the Chinese special forces that he encountered at the stolen hospital. That device also worked in Japan, where the communication network was destroyed by a major earthquake and volcanic eruption.

‘Hmm. Did the Chinese kids know that a great disaster was coming?’

It was a thought that came to my mind before, but China, Japan, and the United States each had something.

It was clear that they were preparing for something. As time passed, the things they had hidden were slowly being revealed.

The same goes for the mutant virus, and the reason the upper class is particularly tolerant of cannibals. The upper class wants absolute control, not loose control through capitalism and democracy.

[The atmosphere in Montreal has improved. It seems that the mercenaries are also restraining themselves, perhaps because of the rumor that they were once filtered by psychometry···]

After filtering out the problematic mercenaries, Ki-sun said something strange at the end of the story about how the atmosphere in Montreal had improved a lot.

[There was talk of a French provisional government being established in Quebec.]

[What are you talking about all of a sudden?]

What is this? Suddenly a French provisional government?

[It seems the empire was continuing trade with Europe]

[however?]

[I came back from France and found out that there are rebellions happening all over the place.]

[Is it that serious in the South?]

I knew there were rebellions in the West, but I didn’t know the South was that bad.

[They say the conflict between the North and the South has quite a long history.]

[Are you saying that the provisional government is running away because there are rebels everywhere?]

The floor felt uncomfortable.

What kind of crazy thing did they do to make the provisional government run away when it wasn’t even an invasion by a foreign country?

[Britain also said that the surrounding countries were plundering France.]

[Tell President Dan Brown not to give a shit. If he wants to bring in the provisional government or Nabal, he should bring them into that area.]

[Hey. Why are you so sensitive? Even Montreal is half French-speaking. Quebec is just French-speaking. What would the people there think if rumors spread that a French provisional government had entered the empire?]

[You’re just being lazy because you saved the day, so what are you thinking? If not, tell them to go to the empire where the French provisional government is.]

Maru’s policy was firm.

If you don’t like it, leave. If you want to live in the Holy Kingdom, follow. Is that difficult?

[The French-speaking children in Canada are still in bad shape, so we need to coax them and take them over. Our population is too small compared to our territory. Even if we add them all up, it’s hard to guarantee 4.5 to 5 million, let alone 6 million. Isn’t it also a problem to replace them all with AI? We need to have a certain population to mix them in.]

It was true that a minimum population size was needed for an economy to function. This was true even outside of economic aspects. A certain level of population was needed to raise and maintain an army.

We had sent away everyone who was to be sent, and we had taken care of everyone who would be a problem, but we wanted to avoid another exodus of people due to the provisional government issue.

[If the provisional government comes in, won’t the French children come over with them? Even if only 200,000 to 300,000 people come over, it will be enough to fill the empty space. Do we really have to hand them over to the empire?]

If only they could afford it, Ki-soon thought that in a situation like now, population would be national power. Maru thought differently.

I thought that the existing economy could not handle the economy of the future. In fact, the current Holy Kingdom was close to a semi-planned economy.

In this situation, a sudden increase of 200,000 to 300,000 meant that the burden had increased. What would happen if those who were dissatisfied started to complain?

[If you can’t even properly handle the French-speaking children in Canada, then you want to bring in more French natives? What if you bring them in and say you want to become independent, or unite the French-speaking children and make them autonomous provinces?]

[If the current situation is obvious, would you do that? Even if you did, honestly, it wouldn’t be a problem. We’re not tied to the ground. If you say you’ll do that, then just tell them to do it. When the floating city is completed, half of the population will move to the floating city, so if that happens, you can just leave them out. I’m not saying to accept it without thinking.]

Ki-soon continued the story. France also had better technology than expected. If they were the people who followed the provisional government, there would be many technicians and capable people, so wouldn’t it be better to use them to quickly build floating cities and infrastructure?

[If we could just capture 100,000 highly skilled workers out of the 200,000 to 300,000 people, wouldn’t the construction go much faster? Or, we could demand highly skilled workers as a condition of accepting them in the first place.]

Beep-beep-beep-beep-

An emergency signal was sent from the mercenary unit left behind in France.

[Wait. Let me think about it. I’ll contact you later. Thanks.]

Beep-beep-beep-beep-

The red flashing light was an emergency rescue signal.

Yesterday, a distress signal came from the mercenaries, and today, a distress signal from Dick Herold was ringing.

‘Come to think of it, I told you to join the French government forces.’

According to Ki-sun’s words, there were no government troops, only provisional government troops.

‘Hmm – I guess he joined the provisional government forces.’

According to Ki-sun’s story, the French provisional government was planning to come over here. Wouldn’t the mercenaries led by Dick Herold also be buried there and then come back?

‘There would be no reason to send an emergency signal.’

If the provisional government had collapsed after being pushed back by rebels, Gi-sun would not have sent such a text message.

If the provisional government was on the verge of collapse right now, they wouldn’t have been discussing where to send them. They would have accepted them into the empire first and then discussed their future plans.

?

‘Then why did the provisional government attack Nantes?’

‘If you’re planning to come over here anyway, there’s no need to attack Nantes, right? You can just defend it and hold out until winter.’

The last time we saw Dick Herold, he was a man who would have found a place to live and a place to die. It was definitely strange that such a man would suddenly send an emergency signal.

[That provisional government. Let me meet with them once and decide.]

[Do you know where it is?]

[okay.]

Maru’s private airship headed to France.

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Dick Herold stared intently at the emergency signal.

Is it just a signal? There’s a microphone and a speaker attached.

“Ah- Ah- Can you hear me? This is the Free Mercenaries.”

“Ah- Ah- Can you hear me? This is the Free Mercenaries. Commander Dick Herold.”

A soft voice was heard behind him as he spoke cautiously into the traffic light.

[Yeah. It looks like you’re comfortable in the back. Why did you press the emergency signal?]

Dick felt as if he was going to faint at Maru’s dark voice.