NOVEL NEXT Chapter LXVI – Their enemy is found out.
49th of Summer, 5859
Libertycave, Mount Curry
Today, like any other day, a scene which had recently become common up in old Mount Curry took place once more for the final time: a black knight and a tangerine witch making their rounds around the place.
“Are we there yet?” protested Tangerina, whose knees were protesting against being forced to walk up the mountain once more.
“Does it look like we’re there yet?!” Kim had taken off his helmet, though it was hard to decide whether he wanted to have his head fried with or without a tin can on his head. The summers in Northern Gemeinplatz were hot and humid, not suitable for LARPing as a knight in full black-colored plate. The otherworlder cursed himself for having chosen such an inconvenient alter-ego back in his adventuring phase; curses be to ye olde days of his edgy teenhood! Thankfully he had learned to substitute that emptiness in his soul, an emptiness where compassion and basic empathy should be, with loads of money instead of edgy antics. “You should know we’re close when you feel loads of people nearby.”
“I’ve felt a couple of people with my scan. They ran away immediately though; the fugitives must have scouts stationed in the mountains…” Tangerina immediately stopped, her face scrunching up. “Ow… Okay, I just detected a load of people. That hurt…”
“It’s time then.” Kim put his helmet on once more, his own face scrunching up the moment he smelt its insides. “Urgh, I should get Nirmal to clean this helmet once I get home.”
“…are secretaries supposed to wash their boss’ helmet?” Tangerina didn’t question further though, for her job definitely didn’t include questioning people. Her job did include climbing however, and climb up a cliff towards the fugitive camp they (painfully) did.
Once at the top, Kim saw a scene which wasn’t all too new to him. He had already seen Libertycave from far away before, and the mud (plus the occasional brick) huts didn’t look all too impressive from this closely either. What was a new sight was a formation of men ready to face him, all armed with sharp spears and even sharper intent. The first line of men were crouched down with long spears, long enough that they may even be classified as pikes, pointing forwards while the second line behind them held spear throwers which had shorter spears readied in them.
It’d be a lie to say that Kim didn’t feel nervous staring at such a large formation of men. Feeling nervous when overwhelmed by large numbers is the most natural of instincts after all. However, he kept his cool: Kim knew that he could take all of them on if need be. “Alright gentlemen… and ladies, please lower your spears. I’ve come here to talk, not fight. Don’t worry, I’m on your side.”
Being referred to as “gentlemen” by Kim had already done wonders. Some spears were lowered, while the freemen began speaking amongst themselves, while some were still suspicious of the otherworlder for being an otherworlder. Sure, the black armor looked menacing, but it would have been foolish to judge a book by the cover or a Kim by his armor. There was someone who definitely hadn’t been tempted, however. “That is all good, but I’d like to approach this with due diligence.” Out came John Brown from the middle, flanked by a rifle-wielding Harriet Tubman and a gem-wielding Ayomide No-surname-as-of-yet. Brown was amongst the tallest in the crowd; his height combined with the semi-automatic rifle he wielded made him quite the intimidating figure, or it would have if he wasn’t hiding the rifle from the direct sight of Kim. This trio were all hiding their weapons behind their backs, to not reveal their trump cards from the start.
Despite being tall, Brown hadn’t managed to get a good look at his opponent from the back. Now that he did however… “Hm? You’re familiar. Didn’t we meet back in Casamonu? And, that hat of the lady next to you is simply a design which none would never forget.”
“Migugin!” Kim too was surprised with this chance encounter. “This was last place I expect American!” He confused everyone except Brown and Tubman by speaking “gibberish”, more commonly known as “English”. The freemen were a bit confused at the fact that they were witnessing an ostensibly amicable conversation instead of fierce battle.
“I see. He must be the Mr. Kim that the letter mentioned.” said Brown in a volume only heard by those next to him. Then he continued with a shout towards Kim “Then, do let us know of why you’re here.”
“A- As I said, to help your revolution against the Empire of Gemeinplatz.” Kim took out a wooden stick crowned with a steel tube. It looked to be all new and crafted with an otherworldly level of craftsmanship. “I have these hand cannons set for production, ready to go.” Getting a prototype ready so quickly had been quite the challenge for Kim, from the design to the production to making sure it doesn’t violate any international treaties… “I only have one request, though calling it a request would be wrong since this would be of benefit to you all as well.”
Brown had the sneaking suspicion that Kim’s deal would be too good to be true. “What would that be?”
“It’s simple, really. I have many more gifts to bestow upon you, I have grand plans for Gemeinplatz as a whole.” His helmet hid it all, but one could practically feel the smile creeping upon Kim’s face. “If I am to provide you patronage, then I’d like to be the one who leads you as well. The one who leads Gemeinplatz into a new future, and you into freedom.”
Thus it was, Kim’s plan that he had cooked up during a [insert brand of energy drink]-fueled session of planning. The Empire was bad for business, with all the tariffs, the annoying guilds and the snobby feudal lords… Chattel slavery too, that was bad for business; Kim preferred underpaid workers to slaves. At least the former held onto an illusion of freedom he could exploit. Back home in Korea, workers would rather end themselves rather than end the system exploiting them. They’d vote for the people exploiting them as long as they were promised some vague enemy to deal with. Wouldn’t it have been more convenient if Kim was to lead a movement of abolition and be the one who got to restructure Gemeinplatz in such a manner with him being on top? Get himself to be king, president, whatever, and get all the newly-freed slaves working for him in gratitude... They probably wouldn’t care about the work as long as their lives had improved by the littlest bit.
No matter how greatly Kim thought of himself however, the freemen didn’t look all too eager to be led by some strange otherworlder. Sure, Brown fit that description as well, but he was the strange otherworlder who was actively fighting for them. Plus, Brown hadn’t actually bothered to officially declare himself as a leader yet, and much of the day-to-day decision making was made by the freemen themselves without any intervention from Captain Brown. This foreign man in black armor didn’t inspire much trust in anyone. “That isn’t my decision to make. If the fine folk here want to follow you, then I have nothing that I can do or say.” Looking at the cynical expressions on the faces of the freemen made it clear that they weren’t going to follow Kim anywhere. “It seems that we won’t be reaching an agreement.”
“Really?” Kim took off his helmet to look at everyone face-to-face. “Look at me. I’ll lead you to victory. I cannot lead you anywhere if I’m not your leader.”
Suddenly a shocked voice from the back cried out. “Wait, are you that Kim?!” It was Watanabe, who had seen a semi-familiar face pop out from under the helmet. “I remember seeing you on the news, ‘the genius youth from South Korea who became a millionaire overnight with cryptocurrency’!”
The crowd was shocked. What the hell was a “cryptocurrency”, and why did Watanabe know about this guy? “I had invested in your bloody crypto exchange before I died! Do you know how much that cost me?!” Watanabe threw a rock at Kim, who dodged the low-level rock easily. “You were somehow worse than Sam Bankman-Fried, you scamming bast-”
Watanabe’s angry rant was cut short by a swift wave of water, coming from the direction of Tangerina, sweeping him off his feet and face first into a puddle of mud. Still, he didn’t stop. The errant otherworlder and former crypto investor pulled his face out of the mud and continued, “This guy isn’t going to be leading us anywhere but failure.” He picked up and threw another rock towards Kim, who dodged the low-level rock once more. “Piss off and go drown in your bathtub full of cash!”
Before Kim could attempt to refute anything coming from Watanabe, the wall of freemen had already had enough. Watanabe’s rocks were joined with a couple javelins flying towards Kim, who had the slightest bit harder of a time dodging the mid-level javelins. Though they didn’t get what “crypto” was, the freemen got the fact that they didn’t want to be ruled by otherworlders anymore; Watanabe’s protest had only given them the boldness they needed to start throwing the javelins. However, despite how angrily they threw their javelins, all of their weaponry either bounced off of Kim’s plate or Kim dodged the incoming projectiles with superhuman swiftness.
A couple volleys later, Kim and Tangerina were standing amidst a field of thrown javelins without any wounds inflicted on them. Kim, who had put his helmet back on during the rain of javelins, let out a muffled laugh. “Alright, I gave you a deal. You refused, so I have no choice now.” He turned to the magician standing next to him. “Tangerina! Let us exterminate them, Tangerina.” At least he could get kudos for having wiped out the fugitives if his first plan hadn’t worked out.
Tangerina raised her staff up, and a great cloud of water vapor began being sucked into it from the humid environment. This water trickled down from the staff to the ground, where it quickly rose up to create another wave akin to the one which had swept Watanabe. This one was much larger however; large enough to sweep everyone standing in formation. It rushed forth, this great wave, and everyone in the formation braced themselves for impact.
This bracing was for naught however, as this wave of water was dissolved with a wave of wind blowing from the opposite direction. It was Ayomide, who had revealed the shining green gem which had been resting in her hands, and cast a strong gust of wind to counter the rushing water.
“Okay, you could have made this easy.” said Kim, now drenched with water. “I’d have captured all of you and… Why am I even explaining my plans to you anymore?!” He raised his fists of steel: a pair of gauntlets with spikes adorning the top of them. Swords were a bit too lame by Kim’s standards. It seemed he had given up on conversation as well judging from the fact that he was silently rushing towards the line of freemen with his right fist raised up for a punch.
The kilos upon kilos of metal armor made Kim appear sluggish; he was anything but sluggish. In a couple seconds he had closed the distance with the line of men throwing javelins at him, and his first target was the impudent Watanabe. Ayomide’s wind didn’t serve to slow the metal man down and soon he’d make contact with his foe if nothing went wrong…
…and then John Brown raised his M1 Garand up high.
BANG!