The Regressor Only Protects Me [EN]: Chapter 59

#59. Revolution

I listened to the Chief’s words in silence.

He had invited Jin Jaehee and me to his office a week after the first execution.

And ironically, today was the day of the uprising.

I sat before him, with Jin Jaehee standing beside me.

The Chief said to me,

“Do you know what’s so strange about people?”

The Chief’s table was laden with food.

He thawed frozen sashimi and dipped it in gochujang [a savory and spicy fermented Korean condiment made from red chili powder, glutinous rice, fermented soybeans, and salt].

Gurgle, gurgle—.

Wine was continuously poured into the Chief’s glass.

Fishcake soup filled with warm broth, chicken grilled on a brazier, meat grilled on a hot plate, and foods from the previous civilization that couldn’t be found after the world’s destruction filled the desk.

Disposable chopsticks were neatly placed in front of me, and the Chief devoured the food ravenously.

Amidst the chaotic food, the chess pieces of the Chief and I were neatly arranged.

I was Black, and the Chief was White.

“People make mistakes. That’s the thing… if it weren’t for those mistakes… there wouldn’t be conflict among people. When you think about it, a wrong judgment might not have been a mistake at the time, but looking back, it becomes a mistake.”

Thunk, slice, slice.

The Chief cut the steak.

I wondered where the chefs had been drafted to these days, but it seemed they were being used as the Chief’s personal chefs.

The Chief put a piece of steak in his mouth and chewed, mumbling.

The Chief continued to speak.

“But, then again. If people didn’t make mistakes, we humans wouldn’t have been able to develop like this.”

Tick, slice, slice, slice, slice.

The Chief was cutting the steak, his gaze fixed on me.

“Manager, do you happen to know who the first human was? Let’s leave out religious stories like Adam.”

Gulp, gulp.

The Chief began to drink the wine straight from the bottle.

Empty bottles were piled up beside his nest.

I followed him, drinking wine, and answered,

“Are you talking about Homo sapiens?”

“No. Well, yes, but think about it. Who is the first human…?”

The Chief’s mouth opened and closed at regular intervals.

Each time, the thick saliva connecting his lips to the finely crushed food in his mouth made me want to vomit.

“Who could it be… well, I saw it in some book. It was definitely a professor from somewhere in Israel, the Middle East… but when I saw that book, I realized it! I thought it made sense! Haha.”

The Chief spends most of his life inside his office.

A bed is prepared on one side of the office, and next to the bed is a wide and long desk, where he always eats.

Thanks to the two heating devices placed here, it maintained a warmer temperature compared to other residences in the police station.

The Chief, who had been rolling the wine on his tongue, put down his knife and fork and looked at me.

He seemed to be waiting for my answer.

However, I don’t know the answer the Chief wants.

And I don’t know what intention the Chief has in calling me separately and bringing up this story.

I didn’t want to know either.

Of course, now is the time to cater to his whims.

Because the uprising has already begun.

“I guess you don’t know.”

“Will you tell me?”

I picked up a grape from the table.

The wine was rotating steadily in the Chief’s hand.

“The answer is the first monkey to lie.”

Holding the grape, I put it in my mouth and chewed.

Crunch.

It was sour and sweet.

“The first monkey to lie deceived other monkeys for its own benefit. Do animals lie? No. Animals don’t lie. They move according to their instincts. So why did that first human lie?”

“……”

“I think it’s because of the desire for destruction.”

Gulp.

The Chief’s throat moved up and down.

“There’s no reason for a monkey to kill another monkey. Unless it’s a carnivore, it’s safer to form a group together. But that monkey… destroyed another monkey for its own benefit. By taking away the monkey’s food, or by falsely starving the monkey, it committed a kind of destructive act. That was a transcendent act of progress that went beyond the primitive instinct of an animal.”

Thud.

The Chief put down his wine glass.

He squinted, glared at me, and finished speaking.

“Then, one question arises. Isn’t the human who commits murder the most progressive being?”

I also raised my eyes and glared at him.

He was smiling, revealing his unpleasantly yellow teeth.

“But that seems like too one-dimensional an interpretation… I think the transcendent progress through destruction ended with the monkey. So what about humans now? What is needed for humans to become more transcendent beings than they are now? The monkey was the desire for destruction… so what about humans?”

Clink—.

When the Chief opened the Zippo lighter, a clear sound filled the room.

The end of the Chief’s cigarette curled into the flame that rose from the Zippo lighter.

“This league is the process of eliciting the answer to the question that proves that. That is my conclusion.”

“……”

Poof—.

The cigarette smoke he exhaled momentarily obscured him from my sight and then dissipated in the air.

“That’s what I think. Don’t you think so? Manager.”

He asked for my agreement, but I couldn’t answer easily.

His voice was dry and wicked, like the cry of a snake.

“Well. Think as you please.”

My eyes went to the wine glass in front of me.

I had never drunk alcohol in my life.

I had never drunk soju [a clear, colorless distilled beverage of Korean origin], beer, or any alcohol-containing liquor.

But now, I reached for the wine glass, following him.

With the glass on my lips, I paused for a moment and took a sip.

Bitterness was followed by sweetness.

Already, the Chief and I had been drinking for two hours, exchanging only trivial stories.

The Chief slurred his words, as if his tongue was slightly twisted.

“I’ve been thinking about something for a while. That is… why are humans equal?”

“……”

Pop-!

The Chief opened another bottle of wine.

He was already quite drunk.

Gurgle, gurgle.

His glass was refilled with bright red wine.

“Humans are not equal. Manager. Because they are not equal, they are enjoying equality. Unequal, authoritarian beings have simply made the world equal. So the world is not equal. We are beings who become unequal the moment we are born.”

The Chief emptied the wine in his glass in one gulp, and I followed him, drinking the wine.

At that moment, Jin Jaehee touched my glass, looking worried.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m okay.”

She was worried that I would drink too much.

But I wasn’t worried about this much.

I wasn’t drunk, and it was still difficult to get the Chief drunk with this much.

“Anyway… I… like the Manager… you’re like my nephew, well. What’s the point of age now… originally, I had an observer attached to the subjugation team that the Manager formed, but.”

I couldn’t help but be a little surprised by that.

I raised my eyes and looked at the Chief.

He was staggering, shaking his head from side to side.

I thought of the city councilor who had died a few days ago.

I rated him highly.

I thought he was the practical brain within the force.

But it wasn’t.

The city councilor was executed, and the Chief was thinking for himself.

The police chief, and me too.

We were watching each other.

“Bridge and monster taming… I know you’re doing various things. And… I also know that you’re gaining the trust of the citizens… uuuurgh…!”

The Chief covered his mouth and looked at me again.

“But the fact that the Manager… ordered the citizens to make the guillotine… th- that. I. The Manager has now become one of us… that’s what I became convinced of… well… actually, I was going to eliminate you. If I rashly killed you, the citizens’ resistance would become even stronger… in preparation for… ah… I’m getting drunk.”

I looked at the Chief and naturally asked,

“But what happened to Officer Kim Su-kyung? She hasn’t come since yesterday.”

“I killed her? She was acting cheeky.”

The Chief answered as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

I frowned.

Thump-!

After that, the Chief got up from his seat.

And he grabbed the wine glass in front of him and reached out to me.

“Well, that’s already in the past. Come on, Manager! For our… success.”

The Chief smiled as he held up the wine glass.

I also held up the glass, following him.

Clink—.

The wine glasses collided, and a clear sound echoed.

The Chief drank the wine and raised his head, but his eyes were looking at me.

I felt his gaze, but I pretended not to notice and emptied the wine in the glass.

It’s still bitter.

In the end, it’s a battle of timing.

Will I kill the Chief first, or will the Chief kill me first?

And the conclusion has already been reached.

“We’re in the same boat now. Manager.”

“……”

“As a celebration, I would like to give the Manager a small gift. This is a gift that we have reached the same position.”

At that time, the Chief called the secretary outside.

“Hey, what is it. Tell them to come in.”

I wondered if I should drink some water, so I grabbed a bottle of mineral water on one side of the table.

At that time, several people entered the office.

All of them were women.

The women stood side by side next to me, looking down with anxious eyes.

The Chief refilled his glass with wine and said to me,

“Since ancient times? Those who have reached the highest position… have had exclusive and absolute authority over all pleasures. The saints of Greece enjoyed sleeping with young boys… and Gandhi, an anthropological saint, also enjoyed a promiscuous sex life. …Are modern people any different? No. It’s even more so. This is natural. There’s no need to feel guilty. We are not originally sick or weak beings. We don’t have morbid desires. This is just… natural. You are above, so you have the natural right because you are an existence above. So enjoy it to your heart’s content.”

The alcohol was rising, but I straightened my mind.

Then I turned around and looked at the women.

They were all young women.

Then I turned my head again and looked at the Chief.

It is abnormal for a man not to feel sexual pleasure.

I am also a twenty-year-old man.

Even after the world was destroyed, that desire stirred within me.

Sexual desire, appetite, desire for sleep.

Even in this world where everything is lacking, the top class of the group is enjoying everything.

There was nothing different from the world before the destruction.

But I wasn’t interested in pleasure.

My only interest was finding my sister.

“……Let’s pretend I didn’t hear that.”

Then the Chief pointed to Jin Jaehee with his staggering fingers.

He grinned, revealing his blackened gums.

“Ah, does the Manager already have a lover?”

The Chief chuckled as if holding back laughter and continued.

“You’re a romantic? Our Manager.”

“……”

I didn’t feel it was worth responding to, so I didn’t answer.

I put my hands in my pockets, stared at him for a moment, and then raised my upper body.

Then, I naturally returned the black chess pieces that were scattered messily to their original positions and said,

“Chess. Do you know how to play?”

“……Chess? Ah, yes. I do. I used to play often in college… yes. Ah, right. Manager. You were going to play chess with me… right? Okay. Let’s have some fun.”

Crash.

The Chief swept the plates and food in front of him to the other side of the table.

Now a chessboard was in place between the Chief and me.

Chess was a game I brought.

One way to keep him here.

The first is alcohol, and the second is chess.

Simple things, but the two means are elements created to keep the Chief here.

The Chief grabbed his chess pieces with his staggering hands.

“Was the rook… here… no, the positions of the queen and king… this is… different from Korean chess [a strategy board game popular in Korea]….”

I picked up the black king that had fallen over due to the Chief’s commotion and stood it up again.

Clack—.

The moment the black king stood up, my legion was complete.