Infiltrating the Superhuman Training Girls’ School of the Republic of China!

“That… well, it probably isn’t me.”

I said to Chen Yayuan. She stared at me with her cloudy gray eyes and nodded.

“Maybe not. Still, I was curious about who the Korean exchange student in the exchange student class was, and I’m glad we met like this.”

“Yes, it’s my first time greeting a second-year student too…”

“The surveillance on first-year exchange students is strict, isn’t it?”

“Honestly, I don’t really feel it.”

“That’s exactly what strict surveillance is.”

Chen Yayuan said. Her voice was gentle yet had an undeniable magnetism.

“If it’s too obvious, it makes you suspicious. If the purpose is to weaken the opponent’s mind and body and put pressure on them, intelligence agencies deliberately make it obvious that they’re watching. But that’s not the method used at Huangpu or Beiping. You have to make truly suspicious targets feel like they’re free.”

“I… I see.”

It’s correct, but I don’t really understand why she’s telling me this…

Am I being suspected after all?

“Come to think of it, there was something I always wanted to ask when I met a Korean.”

“Yes, well, if it’s something I can answer, I will.”

“If a second world war breaks out. And if it happens in the very near future, who do you think will be fighting whom?”

What a completely out-of-context question.

But this topic is also about that ‘information’ that Chen Yayuan presented to the U.S. government. It’s certain. She suspects that I’m an agent deployed by a U.S. government agency. No, maybe for some reason, she might even have convincing evidence.

I need to respond calmly. If she sincerely desires cooperation with the U.S., in whatever sense, and contacted the White House for that reason, she probably doesn’t intend to harm me or expose my identity. Respond appropriately, Shin Eun-young.

“Wouldn’t it be the communists versus the anti-communist forces?”

“That’s right. Anyone would say that. But how about more specifically?”

“…More specifically?”

“The balance is off. Don’t you think so?”

“I’m not sure what you mean just from hearing that.”

“I see the current world as torn into four parts. It’s a common analysis. The Western European colonial empires led by France and Britain. The United States, exerting influence in Europe through Germany and in Asia through the Philippines. Russia, the undisputed leader of all communist countries, and here, the Republic of China.”

“Yes. That’s right.”

“China, the U.S., and Europe each have the power to stand against Russia alone.”

“That’s how it’s usually seen.”

“If a world war breaks out, it would be a 3 vs 1 fight. Even though Japan’s national power has recently become strong enough to be comparable to Russia’s, it’s still barely 3 vs 2. The balance is too off. It’s not a picture where war can break out.”

“Isn’t that because the League of Nations is fulfilling its role? It seems like a good thing.”

The League of Nations, established after the world war in the 1920s, went through countless hardships, but starting with China’s entry as a permanent member in the 1930s and the U.S. joining, it has been faithfully fulfilling its new role as an anti-communist barrier.

The leaders of the three major anti-communist forces ruling the world – Britain, France, the U.S., and China – all exert enormous influence on world affairs as permanent members of the League of Nations, maintaining an overwhelming military superiority, including nuclear and superhuman forces, against Soviet Russia.

In addition, the League of Nations has solidified its cohesion and political status by deploying superhuman organizations affiliated with the League to block whenever individual superhuman villains, or ‘super villains’, run rampant. Considering that there were even theories about the very existence of the League of Nations being in crisis during the Japanese Empire’s invasion of Manchuria, it can be said that this organization also had its lifeline saved by Chiang Kai-shek’s activities.

“But what if Chiang Kai-shek disappears?”

Chen Yayuan said. I refused to answer and remained silent for a moment.

“I’ll tell you a story that might interest you. There’s a possibility that another world war could break out. And the premise for that is the collapse of China.”

“…”

“It’s simple arithmetic. If we consider Japan as a great power capable of leading an independent force rather than a vassal state of Russia, the collapse of China would instantly lead to a 2 vs 2 balance of power. Russia could strike Europe, and Japan could target the U.S. Under the premise that China collapses.”

“That’s a politically dangerous story. China is strong. It’s also solid. I don’t understand why you, as a Chinese person, are saying such things…”

“Are you suspecting that I’m a descendant of Chen Duxiu?”

“You don’t seem like it, but in China, only the descendants of the Chinese Communist Party talk about China’s collapse, don’t they?”

“No, there are also Kuomintang members who sincerely worry about this country’s future.”

“You might be branded as a leftist and purged.”

“But you won’t do that, will you?”

“I don’t know on what grounds you’re saying that… Honestly, what you just said could be a big problem if I just ran to one of the instructors and reported it. I don’t want to report a Chinese senior student I just met. No, more than that, I’m worried you might try to kill me right here because of what I’ve heard.”

“Duey, Bhatt, Churchill, Katerfeld, Tikhonov, and Curoo.”

Chen Yayuan said.

“Those are the names of my classmates.”

“Names that definitely couldn’t have been sent by the U.S. Curoo is a bit suspicious, but she’s too famous… The White House probably wouldn’t have recruited her…”

“I can’t follow what you’re saying at all.”

“The suspicious ones are Crystal, Demetriades, Hoang, and you. But I’ll bet on you.”

“…”

“Because when I investigated the story, I felt some writer’s touch somewhere.”

“…Excuse me, are you perhaps someone who usually leaves the other person behind and goes off to another world on your own when you have conversations?”

“It doesn’t matter. Anyway, don’t you want to know? This country’s secret that might collapse China. I clearly asked the U.S. to come, but if they don’t come, I have no choice but to find the U.S. The day after tomorrow, at lunch. Let’s meet in the central hall library’s audiovisual room 3. I’ll make a reservation in advance, it will be the only place where we won’t be disturbed.”

“W-wait a moment…”

And Chen Yayuan got up without even listening to my words and disappeared to the opposite side of the garden with steady steps. I was left alone in the pavilion with a dumbfounded face and threw another pebble into the pond.

“Chen Yayuan… World War…”

What kind of woman is she? I knew there were many strange people in this school, but this seems to cross the line. I had guessed that there might be some conspiracy lurking in this school, but now I can’t even grasp what kind of country China is.

Is something really about to happen soon? Chinese high-ranking officials are rushing to recruit talented superhuman officers, and a Chinese exchange student at Huangpu openly discusses China’s collapse and a world war in front of foreigners.

A colonel from the Red Army suddenly comes to study abroad at the school, and Chiang Kai-shek personally bestowed his military sword to her.

The walk I started to clear my head only ended up making it more complicated. When Churchill saw me return to the dormitory, she smirked and said to me:

“You don’t seem to be in much better condition?”

“The garden was too big. It was my first time walking it properly, and I got tired because I almost got lost in the middle.”

“It is an unnecessarily large garden.”

“Have you been there?”

“No, I prefer European-style gardens. Not that Chinese style is bad… it’s just different, you know. If you walk in such a place for too long, I feel like I might end up playing Chinese instruments instead of the violin. Not my taste, that kind of music.”

“East Asian string instruments sound good if you listen to them.”

“They’re good, they’re good, of course I know they’re all good…”

“You know they’re all good, but…?”

“They don’t go well with my baton.”

I couldn’t understand her words. But it wasn’t the first or second time that Briar Churchill said something incomprehensible, so I gathered my tired mind and flopped down on my bed.

Churchill came close to me, sniffing, and asked:

“It doesn’t smell like you walked that much.”

“I don’t give off much body odor originally. Besides, I don’t sweat much from just light walking.”

“Yeah, right. I know. Do East Asians generally have faint body odor? Anyway, it’s disappointing, no, I mean, I think it’s a somewhat unique characteristic.”

I’ve gotten somewhat used to her trying to smell my sweat. It’s become a daily routine for her to subtly cling to me and put her face near my nape after we finish running on the field every morning.

I was just letting it be because if I strongly refused, I was afraid she might go and do the same thing to someone else. There’s no need to unnecessarily increase the number of victims.

“But even so, this is… hmm… you didn’t walk much, did you? Didn’t you just sit somewhere for a long time and get some air?”

A surprisingly sharp analysis. I shrugged my shoulders.

“There was a pavilion on the way. I rested there for a while. I didn’t even know how far I had walked, so.”

“You were resting there alone, like that, the whole time?”

“Yes. Alone.”

The private meeting with Chen Yayuan is suspicious. I thought there was no need to tell her about it.

“Hmm…”

“What is it?”

“No, if it was another secret meeting with that instructor…”

“If that were the case, I wouldn’t need to go to the park.”

“It seems you’re admitting that what you usually do is a secret meeting, well, I get it. Fine. Keep doing that. Enjoy your secret meetings disguised as interviews. But remember this. No matter what happens, you’re probably just one of many playthings passing by for that woman, you know?”

“Hah, honestly, I could say the same thing. Besides, it’s not like anything particularly happened, miss.”