Chapter 231

When a country fell into this kind of state, many people found their thoughts tangled. The dictatorship had deteriorated so visibly that patriots would consider a coup out of patriotism, while corrupt officials would consider one out of self-interest.

In that situation, Do-Jin expected Riccardo to serve as the catalyst. He was no ordinary man but a former general who had been demoted for the crime of saving citizens trapped in a mine and left to die. From Do-Jin’s perspective, few figures were better suited to stir wavering patriots.

The same applied to those who had enjoyed corruption under the dictator. For them, Riccardo himself wasn’t what mattered. To people who valued their own safety above loyalty or patriotism, choosing the winning side would be reason enough to act. They knew very well that, if the revolution succeeded, the only place for corrupt officials and corrupt soldiers would be the gallows.

The possibility of a domino effect was more than sufficient. The rot had been building for a long time, and it was bound to burst eventually. This merely meant that the explosion had been brought forward.

It is a success, but it went beyond my expectations.

Do-Jin had overlooked Riccardo’s true depth. More precisely, he had underestimated the true power of a veteran lieutenant colonel.

In both his past life and this one, Do-Jin had no real connection to the military, so he had failed to factor in the weight of seniority and experience. A veteran lieutenant colonel who had active-duty generals as his classmates and juniors carried far more influence than the “symbolic lieutenant colonel” he had imagined.

In just one day, Riccardo had accomplished the incredible feat of pulling three full divisions over to their side.

The flow’s out of my control now...

Until now, Do-Jin had redirected the current and, at times, even carved out new channels. At least, he had been able to. But that stage had passed ever since three divisions had joined the coup, and they had decided to begin a simultaneous advance on the capital from both the east and the west.

This was less like changing the course of a river and more like blowing apart a dam, and water pouring out of a shattered dam couldn’t be controlled.

“Are we heading straight to the capital like this?” Theresa looked shaken at the sudden march toward the capital the moment they crossed the border.

“Dragging things out would only lower the chances of success,” Soso replied. “Historically, most successful coups were fast and decisive. When they fail to end things quickly, they usually either collapse or turn into a civil war that drags on with no clear end. The soldiers who sided with Riccardo must know that.”

“Oh, of course a med school dropout is on another level. I guess that fancy education makes you sound smart.”

Theresa ruffled her hair as she spoke. Soso swatted her hand away with an annoyed expression.

Meanwhile, Tanto cast Soso a sidelong glance, startled to learn that she was in med school. He quickly looked away, though, in fear that the sharp-eyed Soso would catch his questioning gaze.

Just as Soso had said, speed was critical in a military coup, so troop transport magic carriages were mobilized. They even pulled out all the mana stones that had been stockpiled as decorative reserves and poured them into the rapid operation.

Rumanus wasn’t a large country. The distance to the capital wasn’t far, and there was almost nothing blocking the way. With communication lines and the chain of command already dead, no one could respond to a sudden, coordinated mutiny across the regular army.

A few clashes broke out along the way, but they felt more like scuffles than real battles. The humanoid Chimeras sent into combat shattered the morale of the side that used them. For those forced to face them, the sight stirred righteous fury and deepened the conviction that justice was on their side.

That was how, before the sun had even set, Do-Jin found himself standing before the five-meter-tall wall surrounding the capital of Rumanus. It was a wall the dictator had built to protect himself.

Perhaps because the fall of the capital was imminent, the commander appeared the moment the standoff began. “Are you out of your damn minds?! Rebelling at such a crucial time! As the commander entrusted with the sacred duty of defending the capital, I order you all to identify your affiliation and lay down your weapons!”

Hearing the enemy commander’s voice blaring through a magitech loudspeaker, Do-Jin let out a hollow laugh. “They really are like some Tang Dynasty army.”

At this point, asking which units were in rebellion made no sense. They should have finished assessing the situation already and moved on to preparing countermeasures. The fact that they still didn’t even know who stood right in front of them was beyond mere incompetence. It showed just how badly things had fallen into chaos on their side.

Then again, they must have been busy with other things.

To maintain even a minimum level of secrecy around the Chimera production process, they would have had to rely on the capital’s soldiers, effectively the Consul’s personal guard, as labor. Those men would have been occupied with procuring human materials, carrying out massacres, creating Chimeras, and disposing of the waste left behind.

If not, then they really are a hopeless bunch.

If their incompetence truly ran that deep, he almost felt like applauding them. While Do-Jin was thinking that, a divisional banner was raised.

“Vales from Third Division! What the hell do you think you are doing pulling something this insane! Lieutenant General Vales, lower your guns at once and return to the front immediately! The nation is under attack by filthy reactionaries, and you dare point your weapons at your own country! This is treason!”

As the capital defense commander finished barking his orders, another flag rose moments later under a different banner, and this time it was the flag of the Rumanus Free Revolutionary Army, the very same banner belonging to the so-called “filthy reactionaries” he had just condemned.

“This, this is... You are joining hands with pathetic reactionaries! Vales, have you truly lost your mind!”

After the commander’s voice thundered across the channel, he received a reply.

“Javizon. It has been a while. This is Riccardo.”

Capital Defense Commander Javizon Nezov’s eyes widened as if they might tear open. The two of them had entered the academy in the same class and once stood side by side as brothers-in-arms.

“With your position, you should know... You should know what is happening to this country right now,” Riccardo said.

“The reactionary scum carry out terrorist attacks, and trash soldiers like you plot rebellion! Is that the kind of tragedy you are talking about?!”

“I am talking about my homeland giving up on being human. After seeing these Chimeras with my own eyes, I could not stand by and pretend nothing was wrong.”

“If there were not trash threatening the nation, that would never have happened! If there were not garbage soldiers like you waiting for a chance to point your guns at your own country, none of this would be happening, and if you had done your jobs properly, this situation would never have come to pass in the first place!”

Hearing those words screamed at him by a former comrade who once drank with him and talked about becoming good soldiers together, Riccardo answered in a heavy, restrained voice, “Javizon, this is what I believe. Even if a nation collapses and disappears into history, there are things that must never be done, and what I saw was clearly the result of something that should never have existed.”

“Do not make me laugh! The nation comes before the individual! What do the bottom-feeding masses even know! Do you think giving real freedom to people who scream about freedom will create a proper world! It will only turn into a bigger mess! Those born deficient must be crushed and controlled for the world to function properly!”

Whether he had lost his reason under the pressure of the crisis or whether Riccardo had struck some buried nerve, Commander Javizon continued shouting with bloodshot eyes, his composure completely gone.

“What does a fool who ends up crushed at the bottom even know! They are people who were given a chance to be loyal to the nation! We gave meaning to lives that would have died like livestock with no purpose at all, just—”

A gunshot rang out, cutting him off mid-sentence. The shot had come from a young officer standing beside him, someone who could no longer endure what he was hearing.

“You damn reactionary bastard!” Javizon bellowed.

In this world, however, a single impulsive shot was not enough to kill a true powerhouse, and Javizon twisted his head aside in an instant, avoiding any injury before crushing the head of the subordinate who had fired on him with his bare hands.

The explosive cracking sound echoed across the battlefield through the magitech amplifiers, making it impossible for anyone to pretend they hadn’t heard it.

“They are beyond redemption anyway! Do not let a single one escape! Anyone rotten enough to turn their guns on their own country carries corrupt blood, so grind up their entire bloodline along with them!”

For all intents and purposes, it was a direct order to attack. From the words he chose, to the gunshot, to the sound of a skull cracking, and finally to the declaration of collective punishment, all of it worked together to set the battlefield ablaze.

Do-Jin found it impressive. He couldn’t help wondering how thoroughly the enemy commander had bolstered morale for the opposite side in that single exchange. The effect was immediate and overwhelming, and the soldiers who had taken up arms to save their fallen homeland burned with fire in their eyes, from the highest ranks to the lowest.

At this point, I might as well hire him as our cheerleader.

Sensing that the battle was about to begin, Do-Jin let mana surge through his entire body. Almost immediately, multiple massive shapes vaulted over the inner side of the wall.

Heavy impacts rang out in succession as Humanoid Chimeras landed on the ground. They had been modified far more brutally than any he had seen before, and just looking at them made it impossible not to imagine the cruelty of the process that had created them. The disgust they inspired went far beyond their grotesque appearance, because that brutality was impossible to ignore.

“Aaaargh!”

Unable to endure the humanoid Chimera’s roars any longer, one soldier pulled the trigger. That single shot, fired before any official attack order, spurred both sides into action. It was the beginning of a chaotic melee.

“We need to reduce the number of Chimeras as much as we can!” Do-Jin shouted.

In the middle of the chaos, he ignored everything else and focused solely on cutting down the enemy’s “special forces.” Regular soldiers struggled to deal with them, and even when they managed to bring one down, the casualties would be severe.

Together with his companions, Do-Jin tore through the battlefield, where intermittent bombardments continued to rain down, intercepting and eliminating the Chimeras one by one.

Each one was powerful on its own, and because of that, the rebels were taking heavy losses, especially since many of their soldiers were still tied down by the capital’s human defenders. Even so, the momentum was clearly on their side.

“Commander, rebel forces have appeared in the west as well!” an enemy soldier reported.

Two of the three divisions were advancing from the west, and the enemy had delivered the news themselves. They did so through the magitech amplifiers, which were still blaring across the battlefield. It was only natural that the gap in morale became even more pronounced.

The sound of Theresa batting away a shell with her shield blended into the countless other noises. The thunderous booms and flashes from Do-Jin’s magic were no different.

After cutting down another Humanoid Chimera, Do-Jin took a brief moment to steady his breathing and looked toward the gray wall. An explosion erupted, and part of the upper wall collapsed. It seemed the factions inside had started fighting among themselves as well.