What the hell.
This guy says his ability got that strong.
“Thanks to you there is a flame that quieted. With that fire, even the fire demons released at the military bases can be suppressed.”
“What the hell are you babbling, damn it...!”
So that guy’s cloud-chasing babble stayed the same.
“So getting stronger did not make you any kinder, is that it?”
I was speechless.
No... but.
If that is the case.
“Then all the more reason I had to come to the 423rd Battalion.”
That thought came to me too.
“Taejun and the Radar Section members do not know the unit’s circumstances.”
Strictly speaking.
After Doomsday.
How the members who left the mountains grew.
What they went through.
Who became our new comrades...
“Who lived how and died how.”
The guy Taejun who was holed up here alone.
Does not know.
“Judging from those lines he is giving... they are probably clues to solve this issue.”
In other words.
It would be about the power our unit possesses.
No matter that [Astrologer] is a class like a shaman.
Aside from guild messages, the guy did not receive detailed information about the unit.
There is no way he could know those parts.
On the other hand.
“As for me... I can.”
Not to brag.
But I do think I have gotten along with our members.
And.
Not long ago I conducted interviews with the entire unit.
The customers who will eat my dishes.
Opponents who may need to eat my full-power cooking at any time.
I have their detailed information to a certain degree.
“Damn it, what else can we do. I will do it.”
If it is me who has shared all of our unit’s history.
I can interpret the things he is saying.
“Sergeant Shin! The notebook and pen you asked for! We brought them.”
“Thanks.”
I kept jotting down in the notebook the lines he muttered.
What they meant.
What he was trying to convey, I interpreted.
“The first thing he said... an axe that was small but grew rapidly...”
At first I had no idea what that meant.
But I racked my brain to analyze it.
“Could it be that.”
I did not get it at first.
But when I focused as much as possible,
[Chef: All Legion members, focus.]
What it meant.
I felt like I knew.
****
“Good work on the mission~.”
“Everyone did well.”
As the Legion grew larger.
Most members lived busy lives in their respective duties.
For combat roles.
The most representative was patrolling the surroundings and subjugating monsters.
Near Mobile Fortress Vimana the Dragon Fang Troopers handle it.
But because the Dragon Fang Troopers’ AI is abysmal.
Heading out for patrols or subjugations far afield was not easy.
“Urgh. That was a long-range mission after a while. Tough.”
“Ha ha. Only doing patrols gets boring, so sometimes this is not bad, right?”
The ones who took up that role.
Were the Legion’s soldiers.
“The mission ended well, which is good, but getting back to Vimana will be tomorrow.”
“If we hurry we could arrive at night... but there is no need to, and there is an outpost the engineers set up nearby. Let us stay there tonight.”
And now.
One squad among those soldiers was returning from a mission.
“Hehe. Then I am sharing a room with Suyeon~.”
“Mmgh...”
Among them, a unit member.
Spoke as she tugged the cheek of a girl who still looked young.
As their influence expanded, the Legion came to accept many kinds of people.
Its members did not discriminate between men and women, the old and children.
Speaking now were a woman in her early thirties.
And a child who looked no older than middle or high school.
“I-if we share a room you will keep me up late... We will be busy tomorrow so let us use separate rooms tonight...”
“But I get lonely. Hm? Sleep with me.”
The woman who was playing with her own cheek.
The girl grumbled at her.
“I-if it is because you are lonely. Hmm.”
“Look at you being too soft to refuse. So cute.”
A lot had happened since Doomsday.
Among them many had suffered wounds of the heart.
But after joining the Legion.
As they ate the rationed dishes, in many ways their minds found stability.
The mood returning from missions was quite relaxed.
“Until we are back we are still effectively on operation. ...Keep it a little quieter.”
“Okaaay~.”
Only, since the operation had not completely ended yet.
A middle-aged man with a heavy air and a large scar on his face intervened in °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° their talk.
“And the outpost set up over there seems to have many rooms. Everyone will be given a private room. There is no need to share a room.”
“Tch.”
The woman pouted in mock regret.
Thus the unit’s march continued.
“Th-thank you.”
A moment later.
The girl who looked about high-school age approached the middle-aged man and spoke.
“Mm? What for?”
“Just now you helped me because I looked troubled, right?”
At those words.
The middle-aged man smiled like it was nothing.
“No need to thank me. Doing this is my role.”
“But I am thankful all the same.”
“Miss Suyeon is carrying out your role well, so I am only being faithful to mine.”
The girl’s name was Lee Suyeon.
In the past.
While hiding in the stockroom of a mart eating pet food she scavenged.
There was a brother and sister who were found by the Legion searching the mart for supplies and joined.
Lee Suyeon.
She was the older sister among the siblings found then.
“That is impressive. I could never do things like you do, reading the squad’s mood, holding the center, showing consideration.”
“I did not get older for nothing, so this much sense is only natural. As I see it you are more impressive. You are still young and yet you are properly carrying out your role. Compared to me you are on another level.”
“That is not it.”
“Mm?”
He meant to compliment her.
But at the middle-aged man’s words, Lee Suyeon shook her head firmly.
“The Commander said Awakened do not care about age or gender.”
“Hoh.”
Recently the Legion had begun aiming for elite formation.
From now on they decided to admit new members strictly.
But until then they had not refused those who wanted to come in.
As much as that.
The number of members who were still young was by no means small.
But.
“Thank you for helping, but if you are thinking of paying special attention to me because I am young, there is no need.”
“...Well now. I made a mistake.”
A girl just at the age to be entering high school.
Lee Suyeon did not want that kind of consideration.
In the past.
Because she had no power she was shut in a dark space.
She could not forget the moments she woke at every sound from outside, trembling in fear and dread.
She would rather die fighting.
She never wanted to end up like that again.
To avoid that she had to grow strong.
To her, who sought to grow strong.
Consideration on the basis that she was young was nothing but useless.
“I-it is not that it was a mistake! I am just saying.”
“Ha ha. Miss Suyeon is quite stouthearted. Seeing you reminds me of my daughters.”
At that.
The woman in her thirties who had been walking a little ways off came closer and entered the conversation.
“What is this? Mr. Jungseok. You have daughters?”
“Mm? Did I not say? They are studying abroad in America now. I am concerned how things are there... but they were capable kids. I believe they are living well.”
“Mr. Jungseok’s daughters... Hmm, I cannot picture it.”
“Fortunately they take after my wife more than me. Both are quite cute.”
“I am curious. Though well, they cannot be cuter than our Suyeon.”
“W-why am I in this again...!”
She had butted in because she wanted to tease.
The woman once again fondled Suyeon’s cheek...
Ding.
“?”
Before their eyes.
A single line of message appeared.
[Chef: All Legion members, focus.]
Strictly speaking.
A guild message appeared.
“What is this...”
Guild message.
Only the Legion’s executive-level people can transmit this.
There are also personal messages among them or messages only executives can see.
But just like this.
It is also possible to send a message everyone in the unit can see.
“An order from the Commander.”
“...!”
At the sight of the message.
The playful mood from just moments before vanished.
The soldiers gripped weapons and stood with calm.
“Since we do not know what order will come down, everyone focus.”
“...Loyalty!”
As soon as the Commander’s order came down.
As if that light mood had never existed.
The squad leader issued orders with a cold gaze.
The squad members as well.
Obeyed those orders with tense faces.
And soon.
Additional orders came down.
[Chef: 13th Squad. Proceed to the location of the 324th Battalion under the 12th Corps, then eliminate the monsters that have appeared in that area.]
“13th Squad. That is...”
“That is us.”
The order that came down.
Was directed at their squad.
“We were just about to return. Well now.”
There was a bit of grumbling, but only for a moment.
The members of 13th Squad began preparations to carry out the operation.
And then.
The middle-aged man with the large scar on his face.
Park Jungseok opened his mouth.
“Please give the order, Squad Leader.”
The one he addressed was.
“...All squad members.”
“Loyalty!”
The little girl who had just been getting her cheeks pinched.
“Enter operation prep.”
****
“Assistant Squad Leader Park Jungseok.”
“Yes. Assistant Squad Leader, Park Jungseok.”
“Take out the military map and determine the shortest route to the 324th Battalion. We will need to move as fast as possible, so make haste.”
“Loyalty.”
After confirming the middle-aged man received the order.
And that Park Jungseok took out the military map.
Lee Suyeon called the next member.
“Squad member Choi Seonga.”
“Loyalty. Squad member, Choi Seonga.”
The woman who had been teasing by pinching the girl’s cheeks just a moment ago.
She responded to the call with a serious face.
“As soon as the route is determined we will run. Use your buffs in advance.”
“Understood.”
The playful mood from earlier was nowhere to be seen.
The priest took out the cross hanging at her neck and spread buffs over the squad.
“Corps Headquarters.”
“It is close.”
Among the members who had been on standby, a few spoke as if uneasy.
“If it is a normal monster subjugation, that would be fortunate.”
“Of all places, near a military base...”
“The fact it is an order directly from the Commander too, it feels like no ordinary matter. I wonder if this is a mission we can handle alone...”
An operation unfolding adjacent to a military base.
If it goes wrong they could draw the gaze of the powerful monster occupying that base.
No...
It could be that monster itself that is the target of subjugation.
The monsters that had taken up at military bases are especially powerful.
No matter that we are the Legion, one normal squad cannot handle them.
“If the mission is impossible, we will simply make it possible.”
“...”
However.
Their squad leader spoke lightly.
She looked at the uneasy members.
And continued calmly.
“If you are really scared, you may hide in the back.”
“Squad Leader...”
“We are not cowards to that degree.”
“It is a subjugation mission adjacent to a military base. Being afraid is natural.”
In the past.
When she had been an ordinary survivor, she held only a single fire axe.
During the process of escaping the apartment.
By luck she had managed to obtain an old fire axe.
Once, using that fire axe.
She had even harbored thoughts of dying by suicide with her younger brother.
After Awakening.
After growing through countless battles.
She.
Had become a different kind of human than in the past.
Clank...
A weapon so excessively massive that an ordinary human could not even lift it.
A halberd whose weight approached the ton range revealed itself.
“Squad members, move with safety as the top priority.”
If it were for decoration that is one thing.
As for practicality it looked like it had none, that ponderous weapon.
“Just as we always have when there was a hard mission. For this subjugation too.”
Lee Suyeon.
Lightly rested that halberd, larger than her own body, on her shoulder and spoke.
“I will handle it.”
In the words she directed at her squad.
There was unending confidence.
