“Lieutenant Kim.......”
“The Ruler of the Legion.”
Maybe they thought we wouldn’t hear them.
People muttering under their breath, cold sweat beading.
Gulp.
They were tense enough that I could hear dry throats working at Lieutenant Kim’s entrance.
Standing behind the lieutenant, I watched and thought:
‘That guy, Lieutenant Kim...... the more time passes, the more his bearing actually looks the part.’
One way or another, our guild is the strongest force in this area, at least around here.
Sheer headcount of Awakened might even favor them, but—
Military materiel seized from multiple army units and then reworked by Engineers.
A massive fortress, and the powerful Dragon Fang Troopers bound to that fortress.
And a unit where each individual boasts transcendent strength.
“I’d like to hear why you asked to see me. As you know, this is a rather busy moment.”
From the outside looking in, Lieutenant Kim Hyunsik was the sole ruler of such a powerful force.
‘In reality he’s a figurehead who takes orders from me, but.’
After all this time, Lieutenant Kim seems quite used to playing figurehead.
Lately, a touch of gravitas has started to cling to the way he acts.
Leveling up and transferring to [Intermediate Commander] is probably one reason.
“S-someone should speak up.”
“A-hem.”
People who’d been overwhelmed by his presence—
One of them stepped forward, face tight with nerves, and opened his mouth.
“We would like to request to join the Legion—”
What he said matched 100% with what the other soldiers and I had expected.
And—
We already had the answer prepared.
“Sorry, but that will be difficult.”
“......!”
Before the other side even finished speaking,
Lieutenant Kim cut him off.
“W-what do you mean.”
“For the time being, we have no intention of increasing our soldiers lightly.”
Lately,
watching our members grow through repeated battles, I’d become certain of one thing.
‘Blindly swelling our numbers does not benefit the Legion.’
The level of Awakened isn’t determined by headcount.
More than that, the strength of each individual matters far more.
High level, powerful traits and class.
An Awakened properly armed can accomplish several times what ordinary Awakened can.
‘Someone like Gwangil is the example.’
Up to now we had been increasing our numbers blindly.
If we keep doing that, sooner or later
the moment will come when the numbers grow excessive.
‘When that happens, it becomes impossible to perfectly support the growth of each and every soldier.’
Therefore,
with winter upon us, we made one decision.
‘Elite reform of the unit.’
From now on, riffraff won’t be setting foot in the Legion.
Only those who prove sufficient qualifications will be able to join our guild.
Truth is, I’d wanted to go elite for a while.
There just hadn’t been a trigger that made it possible.
‘What became that trigger is the martial arts our guild members are learning.’
Its strength is beyond imagining.
Outside of [Myohyangsa Temple], only our Legion can distribute it.
And unlike Myohyangsa Temple, which teaches a degraded version,
our Legion passes on advanced martial arts tailored to the individual.
‘That’s a power deserving to be called a privilege.’
To push elite reform,
you have to make others crave joining the Legion.
There were already plenty of perks exclusive to Legionnaires, but
this martial art will be the flagship.
Defense of the territory is the Dragon Fang Troopers’ job anyway.
Rather than increase numbers,
it’s better to accept only those whose ability and character have been vetted.
“T-that can’t be. You weren’t like this before.”
“The people who came in then are still with us as dependable soldiers. But quite a lot of time has passed, hasn’t it? You can assume our situation has changed from the past.”
“......Good grief.”
“If you truly want to join, we can conduct an interview...... but in my view, not many of you would pass.”
At Lieutenant Kim’s words,
despair crept over the faces of the gathered.
‘If you wanted to get on the train, you should’ve done it early.’
It’s not like the acceptance window was short.
The bus has already left.
“If you were people who fought alongside us before, we’d at least consider it...... but it doesn’t look that way. Let me ask you this, first.”
Lieutenant Kim’s gaze swept their faces.
People with no friendly ties to us.
If they were ones who had helped us and performed well in battle, we’d hesitate—but they were not.
“Why do you suddenly want to join the unit?”
“......That’s...”
At that,
a man in the back stepped forward and spoke.
“Our groups each have at least one mage in the frost line.”
“Hm?”
“I’m sure there are similar mages within the Legion. I guarantee they’re all feeling the same thing.”
“What do you mean.”
“The trait possessed by those who awaken into cold-line jobs, Cold Affinity....... With that trait, there’s one thing you can tell.”
The man sighed and spoke.
“This winter...... is going to be brutally cold.”
Indeed.
I think our unit’s cold-line mages said something similar.
‘They said we haven’t seen cold like this in at least a hundred years, at minimum.’
A monstrous cold wave.
Our unit is prepared to withstand most cold snaps, but—
“At that level of cold, it will be hard for us to survive.”
“Especially here. You know, right? We were trapped behind that wall of water for a long time. Whether the monsters ate them all then or what, it’s hard to find a single piece of firewood.”
“Groups with fire mages are a little better off, but even they can’t keep flames going 24/7 without fuel.”
As if he understood the gist,
Lieutenant Kim nodded evenly.
“I see. Hence the wish to join our unit.”
However,
his attitude suggested he felt little else about it.
One of them, unable to swallow his anger at that sight, spoke out.
“You soldiers...... are you planning to let civilians die?”
“G-Gwak!”
At that,
“......Hah.”
Lieutenant Kim let out a faint laugh and said:
“You said you were worried about the cold.”
“......Yes.”
“Isn’t that a bit strange to say? Normally, when winter comes, the first thing to worry about isn’t cold, but food.”
“.......”
“The reason you don’t have to worry about food right now. What is it.”
Our unit......
To be precise, thanks to me.
Monster carcasses they couldn’t possibly process.
I processed them and turned them into proper meals.
“Seeing no answer, I take it you don’t want to say.”
“.......”
“Fine, let’s set that aside. Sure. Cold is the issue? Then leave for another region.”
“Another region?”
“Lack of fuel is not a problem unique to this city. Take Hongcheon County, for instance. Settle over there and there’ll be plenty of trees for fuel. In fact, a large guild in Yanggu County is based there and doing just fine. Their only worry was food, and we solved that.”
At that,
their side, shrunken, muttered in a small voice.
“The monsters there are too......”
“True, there aren’t monsters around here. Those monsters that once overflowed—who do you think cleaned them up?”
Dragon Fang Troopers still patrol the surroundings.
Thanks to sustained territorial sweeps via the Dragon Fang Troopers, a safe zone was created.
“We are fulfilling our duty as soldiers with everything we have.”
“.......”
“You can have complaints, but don’t ignore that fact. Who knows? If we get offended by your words, we might choose to abandon that duty.”
“A-a-are you saying you’ll abandon your duty!?”
“I said if that were the case.”
They relaxed a little at that.
But Lieutenant Kim didn’t stop there.
“Right now, there is nothing that compels our actions. We carry out our duty as soldiers because we were soldiers. No more and no less.”
If a situation arises where we must give up that duty,
we are in a position where we might give it up.
“Th-that’s...”
“So...... if you want to enjoy safety within our territory, then just behave.”
“......A-all right.”
When he retreated,
others behind him scolded him—“See? I told you not to run your mouth......!”
“Is that all you had to say?”
When Lieutenant Kim showed his anger openly,
tension rippled among the leaders of the gathered Awakened.
After a short beat—
“Well......”
In the stiff atmosphere,
another Awakened stepped forward.
“Frankly, having you accept us into the unit would be best.”
“Hm?”
“But if we were refused, we planned to make another proposal. Gwak cut in and I missed my timing.”
“I see. So you have a second-best option.”
“Yes. The cold that’s coming...... there isn’t no solution at all.”
“......?”
At that, even Lieutenant Kim’s eyes widened.
“A solution? Are you serious?”
“Only—on our own, it’s impossible. So...... we were hoping for the Legion’s help.”
“I’ll hear what it is first.”
What the man said next
was shocking even to me, listening from behind.
“Restore electricity.”
“.......”
At that,
not only Lieutenant Kim, but every soldier listening—
even the other Awakened on their side—looked dumbfounded.
‘You think that’s possible?’
Power went out in less than a month after Doomsday.
The only way to get any electricity at all was to run generators.
And the fuel to run generators is now, after food, the rarest resource in the world.
Even our unit has to hoard it—so much so that we leave turning on lights around the base to mages.
Fuel is used only in battles where we must deploy armored vehicles.
But to restore electricity and winter over?
Nonsense—
“W-wait. I know you think it’s impossible. But just hear us out.”
“What is it? I’ll say this up front. Whatever you scavenge from a single gas station won’t even scratch it.”
“That part, he’ll explain in detail. Jeon!”
From behind, another man stepped forward.
“One of the few mages in our group.”
“I’m Jeon Gihyeok. Class is Mage...... to be precise.”
He held out his hand.
Crackle.
A small spark danced over it.
‘An electric mage?’
Same class line as Lee Minjae.
“As you can see, I’m an electricity-line mage.”
“And what of it?”
“I’m sure you know. An Awakened’s class is related to their aptitude, or their previous job. What matters is why I ended up with the electric mage class.”
I wondered what point he was building to with all this setup,
watching, a bit bored, when—
“It’s probably because I was a power plant employee.”
“......!”
The next words were enough to surprise us a little.
He’d been a power plant employee?
Then could it be—
“Is there a nuclear power plant near here—”
“Not nuclear. If it were nuclear, reactivating it alone would be impossible even if I asked for help.”
“Then?”
“Solar. Do you have a map?”
When we brought the military map our unit uses,
he pointed at the center of ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) Chuncheon City.
“This is Chuncheon. You see the river here, right? Your Legion’s massive fortress sits on that river, and......”
“We know where our fortress is, at least that much.”
“Then we can go faster. As you know, there are three more islands here.”
I knew there were islands.
If I remember right, one of them had a fairly famous theme park built on it.
Someday we planned to bridge over via Engineers
and incorporate that area into our unit’s territory.
“A place we still haven’t touched.”
Back in the dungeon days,
outside the dungeon’s boundary, a powerful waterfall flowed that could shear steel in an instant.
Because of that waterfall, all bridges to the islands were smashed to pieces.
To cross we’d have to build boats, inevitably.
We hadn’t had the slack for that, so pushing into that side had been put off far down the list.
We’d been ignoring it, with no urgent reason to touch those islands immediately, but—
“This island here is a solar power plant.”
A place I’d had zero interest in
turned out to be a power plant that generated electricity.
“You’re asking us to retake that plant.”
“There will surely be monsters there. Without boats or anything, it’s hard for us to send enough people to that island.”
“Retake it, huh.”
As Lieutenant Kim fell into thought,
Gihyeok spoke urgently.
“You may not know this, but those islands weren’t within that water domain. I don’t know what kind of havoc the monsters inside caused...... but the facilities are likely intact. Facilities that once supplied power to over two thousand households!”
“Hm.”
“Even if only about half the solar panels function properly, most people settled around here could benefit. Not all day, of course. But if we can just get through the coldest nights, it would mean a lot......!”
Many people died.
The number of survivors is by no means large compared to the past.
If that plant really remained whole,
simply bringing its power back online would mean quite a lot.
‘If we can get electricity...... it’s not bad for us either.’
We have [Vimana], and mages can substitute for most things, but
there’s no harm in having it.
And the unit has been reducing outside operations, so we have troops to spare.
‘Let’s do it.’
Nod.
I looked at Lieutenant Kim and gave a quiet nod.
However—
even though I clearly gave an OK sign, nodding,
“Hmm.”
Lieutenant Kim
let out a displeased hum, as if unconvinced.
“I-is there some part that doesn’t sit right with you?”
“No. It’s a trivial reason. If you’re asking us, that means there are monsters in there too difficult for you survivors to cull, correct?”
“T-that’s—since we haven’t entered the island yet, we can’t know, but—”
“That’s even worse. An unknown enemy whose identity isn’t even confirmed.”
Stroking his chin,
Lieutenant Kim spoke in a tone that said he didn’t like it.
“Unless I can be sure our soldiers can cull them, I don’t want to drive our men into a dangerous battlefield.”
......What’s with this guy.
Why is he suddenly acting like this?
