Book 19 Chapter 4

Recover (復碁)

-Tacho slope (打草驚蛇)

"Is that okay?"

Mazinger asked in a cautious tone. There was no conviction in his words yet. In fact, it wasn't his words that were unconvincing, it was his heart that was unconvinced, and he hoped that his trusted and capable staff would be able to convince his wavering mind.

"Are you worried, my lord, that I'm being too honest?"

He smiled, his eyes gently curved, as if he didn't know if he had a silver-tongued handkerchief or not.

"Honest, who says?"

Mazinger, gesturing wildly around the room, said.

"Well, I guess you could say I'm honest because I said what was on my mind, but I couldn't be more honest if I cut open my stomach and showed you what was in it."

"Honesty is a good thing. There's power in truth."

He knew that power is the greatest driver of the human heart.

"Besides, there was no hiding, so there's nothing morally wrong with it, so it's a win-win."

However, saying so did not mean that Mazinger had full confidence in Sun Tzu's morals. The military's job was to deceive the enemy, so a little immorality was not a violation of professional ethics. In fact, it was even encouraged.

As several scholars have pointed out, sometimes honesty can be more barbaric and cruel than lying, and it's true, in a tone of conviction.

In this case, we have a very paradoxical situation in which Mazin's honesty is due to Sun Moon-Kyung's maneuvering, and Mazin's honesty is dishonest to Sun Moon-Kyung because it is being used as a means to deceive whoever he is dealing with.

"But did you really have to go to all that trouble, I did what you asked me to do……."

I wonder if I'm talking too much in front of the eyes and ears of the world?

That worried Mazinga, and he feared that those eyes and ears were also eyes and ears elsewhere. The beings called Feathers, who had been roasting them for a hundred years.

It's a story that makes me cringe just thinking about it.

"If I had any doubts, I wonder if it wouldn't have been better to quietly investigate and get some evidence."

Important discussions like the one he'd just had were meant to be had in private, in a quiet, respectful conference room, where he didn't have to worry about being overheard. He still wasn't sure if it was a good idea to blabber on in front of everyone as a representative of an organization whose authenticity was currently being questioned. It was too much to risk.

But the mastermind of the scheme seemed to have all of that in mind.

"I know what you're worried about. You're afraid you're going to fall foul of the Wu of the Tachos, aren't you?"

Sun Moon Kyung smiled and said in a subtle tone.

"I saw it right away."

If you touch the grass and startle the snake and make it run away, you can't catch it. How can we find it once it's back under the surface? We can't spend years waiting for it to bite us. But Sun Moon-kyung is not worried at all.

"You're the opposite of me."

"The opposite?"

"Yeah. I'd rather they move a little faster, so I can see them from a distance."

The grass in the center of the field was too big, and the manpower was too small. It was easy to fall down from exhaustion from the weeds while searching without any indication.

"Are you saying he was provoked on purpose?"

Sun Moon Kyung smiled again.

"They've been hiding too well for too long to make them run away by touching the grass. You'd be hard pressed to find them on the grassy ground; they're already burrowing deep into the earth. They're a hundred years old, and they're not going to move unless we show them that we're going to turn the ground upside down."

"What if I hide under deeper ground?"

There was nothing that couldn't happen, and there was nothing that couldn't happen that she hadn't considered, so she already had an answer ready.

"As soon as it's quiet, it's quiet."

Sun Moon-kyung said in a tone that said she was not worried at all. But Mazinger was worried.

"Why, I should like to know, and not just you. That's why I'm paying you a salary, isn't it? It's not my money, it's the academy's money, but it doesn't change the fact that you're my chief of staff and aide."

He didn't want to waste time pretending to know something he didn't. He shouldn't feel the slightest bit ashamed that he was being asked to do what he couldn't do. The only time he should feel ashamed was when he was underutilizing their abilities, and now, when they were being utilized to their fullest, it was determination, not shame, that was needed.

Decision was not a responsibility that could be delegated. And it was not something that could be delegated to others; to shirk responsibility was to abdicate it, and that was the same as abdicating leadership.

He didn't want to regret his decision, so he listened to her.

"It's not just movement that's a reaction; it's also sudden silence. Movement is not only movement; stillness is also movement, and vice versa. In order to stop, you have to be moving. Movement is change. It's this change that I want to see. Things that are out of phase, things that are different, things that are not the same as they are now, and the wider they are, the easier it will be to recognize them. And even if it's a pool, it's not all the same pool, because a moment ago we labeled one pool."

Iron!

Mazinga unknowingly slapped his knee.

"Indeed!"

His brain didn't let him down.

"Okay, so the first public disclosure of what we're speculating about was in the meeting earlier, so if it comes up again elsewhere in the future, it's through him."

The original distinction is a series of operations in the human mind.

"That's right. By marking only one pool, we'll be able to pinpoint the source of that leak."

"So that's why you went to the unions later."

After the young envoy withdrew, Sun Tzu asked the laborers present to keep quiet about what had happened in the Great War. He also warned them that if they violated his request, he would deal with them severely. This was because they shouldn't play with their tongues and mark different grasses without permission.

"Do you think the Great Hall is their home?"

The impact it would have was horrifying to think about, but that didn't stop me from imagining it. It was the role of a leader to hope for the best, but always prepare for the worst. You couldn't shirk your responsibilities because of personal likes and dislikes. In fact, the more unpleasant the imagery, the more you have to pay attention to it, because that's where the real danger lies.

"It's too early to tell. But it's pretty clear that their forces have penetrated to a significant degree."

Otherwise, none of this would have happened.

"They are like foxes who have been hiding for a hundred years and have never been seen. They won't come out from under their rocks unless you shake them hard, and you have to light a fire to get them out of their burrows."

"I hope those foxes are scared out of their dens by the smoke."

Then, and only then, can we start fox hunting.

"It will happen."

The two rows of eyes did not move, and she smiled with her mouth only.

"Hong, are you there?"

"Here I am, my lord!"

A crackling sound came from the ceiling.

"Please."

"Um, but what do you mean?"

"……."

"……."

"The dick, the dick."

"Oh, you mean the dick? I see!"

"Do I have to tell you that competent subordinates are selfless?"

"What's a horse for? It's for stuff like this."

"Isn't your dick fifty-two hundred paces?"

But Mazinger couldn't hear his answer. Hong had already disappeared.