“Se-Sergeant Shin. What on earth is that supposed to mean?”
“What are you saying!”
At the talk of bringing a monster in as an ally, of course there was plenty of pushback.
Even Gwangil, who had hesitated a little over how to dispose of the monster, and certainly Corporal Seo Suhyeok, raised his voice outright.
‘Well, that figures.’
Why do we only make use of Ariella where the troops cannot see her?
It is because she is a monster who even killed one of our own.
‘These ones are worse.’
The soldiers who were wounded or died fighting these ones outnumber those from the vampire extermination battle.
The instinct to blow up that °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° egg the moment they saw it was only natural.
To the troops, dealing with it was the obvious thing to do.
However.
“It is something we need.”
“Sergeant Shin...!”
“How many humans do you think are left alive?”
“...”
Because of the radio we sent out, the number of humans who will die from now on will have dropped quite a bit.
However.
‘Even just in our unit, the most deaths were on day one when the Day of Ruin began.’
Even we were on the low side for casualties only because we had the peculiar advantage of being a military unit.
Out there, where there were no defensive works, no rifles, no grenades, it had to have been incomparably worse than what we faced.
It is a rough estimate, but in the early phase of the Day of Ruin, in less than a week, about nine out of ten humans probably died.
‘The Pope also said... fewer than one out of ten survived.’
The Pope, who had stacked on powers I could not even begin to guess at.
According to his testimony that he looked down upon the world, the number of remaining humans was absurdly small.
“We cannot survive with only us.”
Just as those orcs could not survive on their own power alone.
“Are the ley-lines, the two Beastkin instructors, and... the others not enough?”
Minjae spoke with a grimace.
By “the others,” he meant the vampires.
This was not the first time we had wrestled with this question.
We had thought for a long time about increasing our strength by other means, and in fact there were forces from another world who joined us that way.
However.
“They are far from enough.”
“...”
Kkamang as well.
Seohwan and Miho as well.
‘In the end, each is only a single entity.’
Their individual combat power is of course tremendous.
The knowledge and know-how Seohwan and Miho possess have raised the level of the legionnaires by several steps.
And once Kkamang finishes consuming steel to the maximum and brings out its native strength, how strong it will be is something even I cannot begin to guess.
They have been more than pulling their weight.
Even so.
‘If this ruin has covered the entire world.’
They alone are nowhere near enough.
No matter how outstanding they are, in the end they are only a small number of individuals.
‘At least in terms of numbers, the vampires are playing some role.’
Ariella’s power is the power to control and dominate other living beings.
This power is quite aberrant.
My [Special Sauce] is the same, but powers that control others are exactly the kind that inspire fear in those around you.
You never know when you yourself might be controlled.
Even if, later on, the troops’ aversion to monsters diminishes, it is the kind of ability that is hard to show openly.
What we need right now is something else.
Those we can bring out in the open, who can become sufficient fighting strength for us as we face countless enemies.
“We bring in an entire race. Whole.”
“Se-Sergeant Shin...”
The fetuses in that egg are said to be children sired by the Great Chieftain before any strengthening by demons occurred.
Compared to the Green Manes tribe we fought, their combat ability will not be all that outstanding.
However.
‘They are a race that can grow at a tremendous speed and increase their numbers.’
Even if the combat power of each individual lags a little, the one thing for which there can be no substitute by any means if we rely only on humanity is the number of troops.
To fill that number, they are second to none.
“The backlash will be severe... Sergeant Shin.”
“Well, of course.”
Even just the squad leaders here now.
They have fought with me for a long time, and they trust me that much.
Even so, they were shocked enough to voice their opposition like this.
“Surely you are not thinking of persuading them by using your cooking.”
“No. I should not do that.”
For the survival of the unit, to correct our direction.
Matters like this must never be resolved by coercion.
“We will take time and persuade as far as possible.”
“It is easy to say. It will not be as easy to do.”
“Of course. But really, when has anything in military life been easy?”
Properly.
I have to work so that every soldier accepts it through a normal process.
“Well, I am in favor.”
He had looked flustered when he first heard me, but once I finished speaking, Corporal Jeon Gwangil chuckled and shrugged.
“Are you really fine with it?”
“To be honest, I do not like those bastards either. But we are not bringing in all the other monsters. We are only going to raise those fetuses, right? If it is only to that extent, I do not mind. Besides...”
He glanced at my face and spoke with a big grin.
“If it is something Sergeant Shin is doing, it will surely go well.”
“...Thank you.”
While Gwangil came around like that, Corporal Seo Suhyeok wore a face that looked quite conflicted.
“...I will confirm one thing.”
After thinking hard for a long while, Corporal Seo Suhyeok opened his mouth and asked.
“This choice. It is not coming from some paltry sense of mercy, is it?”
“Mercy, you say.”
“If it is because you heard that monster’s story and got carried away by it, if it is for a reason like that.”
“Hardly.”
I am sorry, but I am not that nice a guy.
“I made this decision because I judged it would benefit us. You can trust that.”
“...In that case, understood.”
In the end, all three squad leaders nodded to my view, and—
—You bastards... what are you talking about?
The monster, who had been listening to us in silence, opened his mouth with a confused face.
“You. You said you would stop at nothing to preserve your species, right?”
—Y-Yes. Because my advice brought about the destruction of the species... I must also take responsibility for getting it out of that crisis.
A monster from the tribe that had stood against our legion.
“Then let us do this.”
I walked up to him, squatted to meet his eye level, and spoke.
“First, spit out the things you can do and the information you have.”
—All of a sudden, what are you...?
“You are a shaman, you said? Hm. You must have a lot of know-how and techniques related to divination. And you use spirits, yes? You will also have information that can help a spirit user. Hm. You have more usable value than I thought.”
—So what are you talking about...!
“Oh, last thing. One more.”
I grinned.
“What your species... eats.”
—...?
What food culture you have.
What dishes you like.
“All of it.”
If you do that.
I will save your species from annihilation.
****
Southern Gangwon.
There, inside a half-destroyed building.
“...What did you just say.”
“It is hard to believe, but...”
Inside that building, where white snow piled up and lent a strangely desolate air, a man was receiving a report from his subordinate.
“...You are saying those soldiers looked completely fine?”
“Yes.”
The man receiving the report.
The leader who commands the Demon Contractors.
Wonjun asked back with a face that said he found it absurd.
“Is there any chance the comrades who went there betrayed us and did not execute the contract?”
“We cannot be certain, but the probability is low. You know it too, Guide.”
“Right... Every one of them was resolved to offer even body and soul for humanity.”
He shook his head as if even he thought it was a stupid question.
“...Which makes it even harder to understand.”
He roughly seized his unkempt long hair and spoke to his subordinate again.
“Dozens of army bases near the soldiers’ stronghold.”
“...”
“It was an operation to unleash the monsters that had settled at dozens of sites. And you are saying there was no damage at all?”
“...Yes.”
Bang!
The man who had been clutching his head slammed the wall and shouted.
“What the fuck is this...!”
“...”
“Do you think that sounds even remotely plausible?”
At the enraged bellow, the subordinates could only shrink back.
“Is this information solid?”
“It should be.”
“Every comrade we sent to lurk near them said the same thing. They did not look like they had taken damage or were in any great panic...”
Wonjun could not control his anger and panted, but the subordinates watching him also thought it was only natural.
‘Because it is that nonsensical.’
No wonder.
The monsters settled in the army bases were incomparably stronger than ordinary monsters.
And this operation was to release not one or two but dozens of such monsters.
On top of that, without warning.
An attack little different from a raid.
To have blocked such an attack with no damage.
‘No, something like that... is impossible.’
The comrades assigned to this mission were armed with self-sacrifice.
It was actually more believable that they had a sudden change of heart and gave up the mission.
No matter how strong those soldiers are, there is no way they could have exterminated all those monsters.
If there was any viable possibility...
“It is likely they were detected by the enemy before they could even carry out the contract.”
“...That would make sense.”
“No matter how carefully our comrades approached, if the soldiers had some way to detect that approach and subdued them before they could contract... it would not be strange for the operation to fail.”
If they had succeeded in releasing the monsters, that would be one thing.
If they failed, that was the end of it.
The monsters that contractors can summon through [Contract] are inevitably weaker than the monsters in the army bases.
However.
That line of reasoning did not calm the Guide.
Grit...
“I would almost prefer it if our comrades had abandoned their mission.”
The enraged man.
Wonjun ground his jaw so hard his teeth might shatter and muttered.
“It was an attack our precious comrades attempted at the cost of their lives.”
“...Guide.”
“For it to return to nothing this hollowly.”
He wiped his face and let out a deep sigh.
He said nothing for a while.
But his exhale carried a peculiar sadness.
“How do you think those soldiers will move next?”
After a moment, somewhat calmed, Wonjun spoke levelly.
Their signature attack had failed.
As the leader of the Demon Contractors, Wonjun bore responsibility for the next move.
“At the very least, unless they are fools, they will have sensed that someone attacked them.”
“Of course. It was as if monsters that had been fine suddenly got released.”
“And if they are a normal group... they will set out to retaliate.”
“Retaliation.”
At Wonjun’s prompting, the subordinates projected the soldiers’ next response.
However.
“Even so, I do not think we need to worry about that part.”
Their eyes did not carry that much sense of crisis.
“Those bastards will not know who we are or where we are.”
“Even if the comrades were discovered before they reached the bases, they surely attacked through [Contract].”
Contractors who have paid the price for a contract vanish without a trace.
Even if the soldiers wanted to dig for information, they would have had nothing to dig.
“Even if we ever do come into contact with those soldiers later, we can just play dumb and deny it.”
“...Right.”
What the subordinates said was not wrong.
Even if they ran into the legion later, contractors look outwardly exactly like ordinary humans.
Unless the soldiers had some power to read a person’s profession, they would have no basis to suspect them.
“Truly, even if by some chance they attack us, we do not need to worry.”
And finally.
“This place... is protected by the minions sent by the master.”
The being they contract with and serve.
A demon.
The minions he sent for the contractors’ sake were guarding this place.
Yes.
What the subordinates said was not wrong.
It was not wrong, and yet...
‘Why do I feel this uneasy.’
Wonjun could not easily shake off the anxiety that had settled in his head.
****
“Right, here we are...”
Around that time.
A man exhaled white breath at his lips as he entered a nearby city.
“This is where the insolent bastards who attacked us are... yes?”
And then.
—Be careful. The odds are high that the demon’s minions are roaming.
There was a monster.
