# Executive Order 9066 (4), Camp Roberts
“Territoriality, unrest, religion, and drugs.”
“Ah!” Yeonchul exclaimed with surprise. "He isn"t the leader for nothing," he thought.
w.a.n.gi had a satisfied look. It seemed like he was still testing Gyeoul.
“I see why you wanted to talk in private,” said Yeonchul.
“I"m glad you noticed that. Anyway, if we only had to worry about territory, we could just tell the members to watch out. But unrest is a completely different problem. If people start worrying about spies, they might try to avoid newcomers altogether.”
“I see…”
“If the new ones realize they"re being ostracized, they"ll start forming cliques and become antagonistic. If that happens, things will only get worse, like a vicious cycle, and that"ll just bring in more spies. Not to mention drugs and religion, those are even more dangerous”
w.a.n.gi, who had been listening to Gyeoul until now, finally opened his mouth.
“You sure know a lot for your age, little boss. You"re right. Nothing can make a community crumble apart like drugs and religion.”
Yeonchul, after pondering a bit, asked back, “Wouldn"t drugs be the most dangerous?”
“Not necessarily. Someone"s religion won"t show if they decide to hide it. It"s different from drugs that leave physical evidence. To make it worse, we can"t punish people for having a religion. The mere possession of drugs can be a crime, but that of a religion isn"t. Freedom of religion— almost every country in the world guarantees that under their const.i.tution. If we ban religion, people will think we"re violating their rights.”
Yeonchul rubbed his temples a few times. It was something he had never thought of.
“But religion can be just as destructive as drugs. The proof exists within our camp. 「The Church of Full Gospel」. They are one of the biggest factions within the camp, and they use religion as their main weapon. As far as I know, they"ve already swallowed up a few small factions. The priest claims to be both a prophet and a savior, which I think is complete quackery, but it seems they have ways to coax Christians into believing in their doctrines.”
“Hmm… So we can"t tell others to watch out for spies, but we can"t just sit on our hands either…”
Yeonchul let out a low moan as he found himself in a dilemma.
“Boss, I think I might have an idea.”
“I"m all ears.”
“From what I understood, Christians are more p.r.o.ne to fall for the cult, right? Then what about we make a survey of our members" religion right now and have one or two people secretly monitor them? I can think of a couple of people appropriate for this job.”
w.a.n.gi then stepped up to support his idea.
“That"s a great idea. We can also make groups based on people"s religion and have them partic.i.p.ate in religious activities as a group. After all, having determined groups is efficient for running a large community. And when we recruit new people, we can tell them that there are groups for religious people. If there are any spies from cults, they"ll jump right at it. Because that"s what they do. They sneak up to people to coax them with their foul tongues and drag them into a pit of despair. But if we instruct each group leader to be on alert for these people, we should be able to keep cult spies under control.”
The two deputy leaders then continued discussing the plan in further detail. Gyeoul, standing beside them, quietly watched the proceedings despite having a plan of his own. It was to give them a chance to perform their role as deputy leaders. The mere awareness of being involved in running the faction could also serve as motivation for them.
“Thank you both for sharing your ideas, you"ve come up with something great. So, as per your proposal, we"ll conduct a survey of our people"s religion and have them establish some groups. As for appointing each group a leader, I"ll leave that up to you. Just be sure to let me know afterward.”
Gyeoul then added, “Oh, and I need you to organize a special team.”
“A special team?” Asked w.a.n.gi.
“Well, should I call it a combat team? A group to conduct special operations. I believe it"s necessary to have an armed team ready to respond to any situation.”
Though there was no need to flaunt their power either. Unless the other factions were fools, they would find out anyway. Excessive display of strength would only bring about more needless trouble.
“You"re absolutely right, little boss. Your sagacity always surpa.s.ses my expectations.”
“Okay, I think that"s enough flattery.”
“What else can I say when it"s true?” w.a.n.gi shrugged his shoulders.
Yeonchul"s eyes anxiously flickered back and forth between the two. He seemed a little timid in this aspect.
“Anyway, the members of this team can serve as squad leaders for the platoon I was asked to organize… and I"m gonna make it look as though they are the people I trust the most. As for the leader of this team, I"ll make an exception and select it myself”
“Do you have anyone in mind?”
Then the boy called out loudly.
“Yurssi!”
“Huh? M-me?”
Amongst the people gathered some distance away from them, the girl whose name was called hesitantly stood up.
“You"ll be the leader of the first combat team!” Gyeoul shouted with a smile.
“What? What do you mean, the first combat team?”
“These two here will explain later! For now, just be aware that you"ll be the leader! Oh, don"t bother coming here yet!”
“Wait, uh… boss?”
Ignoring the puzzled girl"s reaction, the three of them resumed their discussion.
“But are you sure about this, little boss? This is just my personal opinion, but I don"t think she"s suited for that… I mean, she volunteered for a dangerous mission so I do think her courage deserves praise, but the other two said she doesn"t have what it takes to be a combatant….”
“Don"t worry, I"ll teach her a couple of things. What"s more important is that she"s a trustworthy person. I know this since we went on a mission together.”
“Oh, okay. If you say it like that…” Yeonchul nodded his head half-dubiously.
“Enough with that matter, we still haven"t talked about drugs. Deputy Leader Jang, what do you think we should do?” Gyeoul deliberately used their positions when naming them. It was important to establish a proper sense of hierarchy.
After pondering for about a minute, Yeonchul answered, “Other than asking each group to keep an eye open, we can try occasionally inspecting people"s belongings… but I doubt that"ll be enough as there"s no way to know if they, I don"t know, buried them in the ground or something.”
Yeonchul"s forehead was bunched in a frown as though he wasn"t sure of his idea.
w.a.n.gi shook his head and disagreed with Yeonchul"s idea.
“We can"t conduct inspections on people"s belongings. The reason people refer themselves to our alliance is that they feel safe with us. But if they feel their belongings aren"t safe with us, there will likely be some backlash.”
“But we aren"t taking away their stuff. We"ll tell them that we are doing it to prevent an influx of drugs. Besides, what do they have left to call private belongings? We"re all no better than vagrants.”
Yeonchul grumbled as if he couldn"t understand at all. w.a.n.gi calmly explained to him.
“Of course from our point of view, they don"t have anything. But that"s also why they"re so desperate about it. Let me ask you a question. Can you really say you"ve never seen someone hide a clean piece of clothing, a wad of dollars, an unopened bottle of cosmetics, or an unused toothbrush?”
“Uh…”
Leaving Yeonchul speechless, w.a.n.gi continued.
“People, even in times like this, desperately try to keep their possessions safe even if they aren"t worth a cracker. They fear others might steal them, so they hide them, and they keep them secret. No matter how good the reason might be, inspections will cause dissatisfaction. Although this won"t make our alliance fall apart, it may bring some serious side effects in the future. So I"m sorry, but I can"t agree with your idea.”
Yeoncheol refuted immediately.
“You"re only bringing up the negative side of it, but we"ll have to do it if that"s our only option. If we don"t, drugs will spread and then things will get out of hand. We only need to deal with people"s complaints, which I think is trivial in comparison. If they don"t like it, then they"re free to leave. We also don"t need people who can"t make that kind of judgment. Those kinds of people don"t deserve to be here with us!”
Realizing his loud voice was causing agitation among the people, he took a big breath and continued in a low voice.
“You, little boss, said that you will make our alliance the best faction for people to live under. But strictly speaking, there"s a fallacy in that statement because our 「Winter Alliance」 is already the best. In which other faction does the leader work for their people? What about a leader who takes it upon themselves and ventures outside the camp? To my knowledge, there"s none.”
“Your voice is growing loud, you should calm down a little. There"s no need to get so worked up, right? Now, I appreciate your healthy debate. There"s a clear difference in your stances, but I could tell how much you both care about our alliance. With you two working as deputy leaders, I"m now sure we"ll be alright regardless of what the future brings us.”
“…It wasn"t much,” replied Yeonchul, bashfully scratching his head.
“But we shouldn"t forget that we haven"t reached a conclusion yet. Considering our boss"s position as a military officer, he will be often away from the camp, so I believe this matter has to be settled as soon as possible. What do you think we should do, little boss?”
“Then we won"t conduct any inspection. I"ll put my trust in the eyes of the group leaders.”
Yeonchul groaned at the Gyeoul"s decision. w.a.n.gi also didn"t look satisfied.
“Pardon me for picking on your decision, but I don"t think the group leaders" caution will be enough. These group leaders will be just inexperienced ordinary people. They might not be able to accomplish anything if we give them too many tasks at once. Do you have another way?”
“I do,” Gyeoul answered lightly.
w.a.n.gi, as if he wasn"t expecting a positive answer, blinked in surprise.
“When we decided the name of our faction a few days ago, I mentioned that I wish to recruit new members regardless of their nationality, but… language barrier is a big thing, right? I think most of the people who will be joining our alliance will be Koreans. In other words, the thugs who will try to sell drugs to our people will most likely be Koreans. And one of the things that I learned while studying world history is that the enemy of my enemy can be my friend. If the Korean drug dealers have any compet.i.tors, it should be the j.a.panese or Chinese drug dealers. Then I can go ask them if they know anything about their compet.i.tors.”
“Hahaha!” w.a.n.gi laughed noisily while applauding.
“I"m sure that among the people trying to overhear our conversation behind this tarp, there are members from factions of different nationalities, like 「Heishehui」 or 「Sumiyoshi-kai」. But no matter which faction they are from, they"d also want to make a connection with me.”
“Uhm… That"s good and all but… I don"t think that"s gonna help us flush out the moles in any way.”
“That"s okay because that"s not what I"m counting on.”
“Then…?”
“Another thing I learned from world history cla.s.s: the best defense is a good offense."
Gyeoul"s eyes gleamed intensely.
"I"m gonna get to the root of the drug traffic and root it out once and for all.”
Yeonchul stood with his mouth agape.
“I"m not gonna be good towards everyone. I"m sick of being used.”
Gyeoul did not want to repeat his past where he was a slave to his own life. It was his trauma. His bottled-up frustration and a sense of release. Under these polar sensations, Gyeoul released everything that had been boiling up inside him.
“Anyone who touches me or my people, I"m gonna beat the h.e.l.l out of them.”
The boy was determined to use every means available to make that happen.
For a good person to stay true, they have to set a clear boundary for others. Everyone has their bottom line that can"t be crossed.