—Grk... can we really trust you...?
“You really do not trust what people say, do you.”
The green-skinned monster grumbled.
Not once or twice, but over and over he repeated the same line, to the point it was getting annoying.
—There is no way I could believe it so easily.
By nature this one was a shaman of the Green Manes tribe.
He just happened to be taken alive.
Strictly speaking, he was still an enemy.
We had tied him up tight and forced down food to extract information before, but unlike then, he was now freed from restraints.
However.
I knew this one would not run wild.
—Krrk, it was a promise made with my weakness in your hands. If you choose to betray me, you can betray me whenever you like.
“Well, that is true.”
Because we held his weakness.
‘That huge egg he tried to hide no matter what.’
Our troops were keeping that safe.
As someone who would use any means to revive his old kin inside that egg, he had no choice but to follow my orders.
And.
That was not even all of it.
The reason he cherished that egg was to raise up his fallen tribe again.
In that case.
—You are promising the revival of my species if I only obey your orders...
“Even when I say I will, you make a fuss.”
The means and method.
Could be us.
“Only, it will be difficult in the near term.”
—Why?
“There is a deep rift of feeling between you and us. It is a job that has to be done with as much time as possible.”
Not only the battles up to now.
It is not an exaggeration to say almost all the humans in the northwestern part of Gangwon-do were killed by these ones.
We are in a situation where even Ariella has to hide her presence to be used.
Even if we tell them to accept as comrades the very culprits who killed humans and made them slaves, there is no way they will swallow that easily.
Yes.
‘Just as your species in the end could not form alliances with other species.’
The Green Manes tribe ultimately made the wrong choice there.
Unable to forget their grudges, they fought their own fight, and ended up selling their species to demons.
Now that we know such a case of ruin, by contrast it is not hard to get a feel for what to do to escape ruin.
‘Scrape together as much fighting strength as possible.’
Whether it is something I like or not.
Whether the other side is the descendants of a hostile force that fought us.
Whatever it is.
If that is the way to survive, I had vowed long ago I would do whatever it takes.
“Only, taking in your kin who are currently in a civil war is too much.”
—I understand that...
The backlash from the troops will be considerable.
However.
‘That egg... at least was not one of those who fought us.’
They are only the children of that species.
If you want to survive, you mobilize whatever you can.
I will have to punch through the troops’ backlash somehow.
—How can you make such a choice?
“Hm?”
—If you say even you cannot take in other species, then you are mindful of interspecies grudges, are you not.
Borjin spoke as if he could not understand.
—Our species can increase our numbers very quickly. How can you be sure those who increase like that will not be hostile to you.
“I cannot be sure.”
—Then how.
“Mm, that is...”
Those that hatch from that egg might become hostile to us.
However.
“It is a trade secret.”
It is not that I have no method.
My profession is chef.
So...
“With kids, the best way is to win them over with food.”
—...?
“It is a thing, man.”
He did not seem to grasp the intent completely, but when he heard me, Borjin muttered vacantly with a shocked look.
—To accept a species different from your own, one that has taken each other’s lives...
—We... could have done that as well.
“...”
—Great Chieftain. Did you think that far...
...Well.
Anyway, in this way, my policy for increasing fighting strength and Borjin’s goal meshed.
In truth, just letting him raise that egg somewhere in peace the way he wanted would be enough.
Children born that way could be grown into a friendly relationship with a few meals.
Only.
‘It would be a waste to end it like that.’
We hold the upper hand.
He is the one in the weaker position.
“Since it has turned out that way.”
This one is a fairly capable shaman.
Until those eggs hatch, he is in a position where he has to obey our orders.
“As promised, how about you show us some skill.”
—...Grk.
We ought to squeeze every drop we can.
****
A sudden attack.
Ordinarily, it would be normal not to know who attacked or why.
However.
—It seems among you there are those who have powers related to the heavens.
“Ah, you mean Taejun.”
—...That sounds like a native’s name. Are you saying a single person was all it took to blind our tribe’s eyes?
In our unit there was a person who could learn of things far away through the stars.
Of course.
Even with such a one’s power, we only learned rough information like “southern Gangwon,” but that was a while ago.
—His power is certainly significant... but there were several points I felt while responding together with other shamans.
“Hm?”
—Compared to his excellent power, he seems to have less know-how about astrology than I expected. The reason we were able to pierce his astrology was largely because of that.
“...Uh, are you saying.”
—The knowledge I have will be quite helpful.
To jump to the result.
We were able to narrow it down to a fairly detailed area.
“Shamans are busted.”
Not that it let us pinpoint the location # Nоvеlight # perfectly.
In the first place, our unit’s information gathering was not done with only shamans.
—A spirit user, hm. The kind differs a bit from the Spirit of the Earth, but the essence is similar.
“Which means.”
— For now it looks like a water spirit, but I see signs of shifting to other attributes... this side will also need a little of my help.
We dispatched a bio—no, a spirit-body drone.
“It is true. When we did it the way that monster said, Droplet’s range of activity increased. We also found the location you mentioned.”
“...Spirit users are busted.”
“Sorry? What did you just...”
“Nothing. Forget it.”
All that mattered was that we pinpointed the location.
Anyway.
“Pyeongchang, huh.”
“They even settled in a famous place.”
The place they settled was quite well known.
In the past it was where many buildings had been erected for the Olympics.
It was not hard to guess why they chose that place.
‘Once the Olympics ended, those places turned into empty buildings.’
A place with many empty buildings means there is less prey for monsters, which means fewer monsters.
The fewer humans killed by monsters, the fewer zombies there will be.
‘And buildings are in themselves excellent barricades.’
Usable facilities that are even safe.
There is no reason not to take it.
And that means, in reverse...
“They also need safe defensive works.”
“Ah...”
“In the end it means they are only humans just like us.”
The name Demon Contractors.
It sounds pretty grim.
In fact, when I explained their existence to some of the soldiers, a few were a bit cowed by the name.
However.
‘Even so, they are the same humans.’
In the end, just like other humans, they are reliant on the protection of secure facilities.
In that case.
If the conditions are right, they can definitely be taken down.
And those conditions were being met, one by one, by Borjin, the monster now glaring at me.
—...You must keep that promise.
****
“...Far, is it.”
So with that, I left the Vimana and came a long way.
‘A place far removed from the area we manage.’
It was fortunate we had narrowed down the location.
In this era, even moving a short distance is not easy.
Moving a distance this long, naturally, takes tremendous hardship.
Especially when many troops move together like us.
It inevitably draws aggro from the surroundings.
“Today is for reconnaissance only.”
For reconnaissance I came out with... that green monster over there.
—Grk.
An old shaman leaning on his staff.
I came here with just Borjin and me.
—I have no choice but to trust and follow.
When he relaxed his grip on his staff hand, thud, his body sagged down to sit on the ground.
An old shaman.
I had not realized when he was being held by Changsu’s guild, but he was a monster so old he could barely hold himself up without relying on his staff.
However.
To bring out that monster’s power, a young body was not necessary.
The elder set his knees on the ground, touched the soil, and murmured.
—O spirit...
A spirit.
It is a being whose true nature I still have not fully grasped, but I have seen a few who borrow the power of spirits.
In our guild, Jung Sua is one such person.
The spirit contracted to Jung Sua, Droplet.
As a drone, that spirit performed excellent reconnaissance.
The problem was that spirit has a timid disposition, so it often could not enter places where strong enemies stayed.
And then.
—Show me the memory of this land...
A shaman who handles the Spirit of the Earth.
A monster that boasts a deep history in handling spirits that differs from ours.
Borjin’s spirit arts were different from Jung Sua’s.
“Do you see anything?”
—Mm.
Even without sending a spirit there directly, by reading the memory of the land he could produce the effect of scouting the enemy camp.
‘There are constraints on memories that can be read, he said.’
No matter how long, he cannot read memories older than a week.
Unlike Jung Sua’s spirit, real-time reconnaissance is impossible.
The effective range is far narrower too.
Compared to Jung Sua’s spirit arts, it is not that one side is superior; each has strengths and weaknesses.
And.
—Grk... as expected.
In a case like this, it is precisely Borjin’s spirit arts that are the right fit.
Having read all the memories, Borjin opened his eyes and spoke.
—It is as I already warned. Many minions are settled there.
“Tsk.”
This is exactly why I came all the way here with this one.
Those contractors will be enemies we will be fighting soon anyway.
To gauge their strength.
After securing his cooperation, the very first information Borjin gave me was this.
—Those demon worshipers... you call them contractors, do you not?
“Names are not important, so skip that.”
—Mm. There will already be quite a number of minions summoned there.
“...Huh?”
In the enemy’s main base, there were already a tremendous number of monsters.
“You said those minions only get summoned when they pay with their lives. Are you saying that many lives have been offered up?”
—Not quite. The minions settled there are, strictly speaking, closer to what they borrowed.
“Borrowed?”
—If precious contractors die in the wrong place before they can offer their lives to him, it is a loss from the demon’s standpoint, so until then he sends minions sufficient to protect the contractors’ safety. We also benefited from that quite a bit.
“...”
What can I say.
‘What kind of demon acts... like a marketing firm.’
It feels like customer management at a marketing company loaded with know-how.
Anyway, minions.
“You mean ones like the Spirit of Darkness.”
—You mean the Spirit of Darkness that was summoned to eliminate you. That is certainly a powerful minion. But fundamentally it is a being specialized only in erasing a single target. The demon’s minions are far more diverse in kind.
Maybe because I promised to hatch those eggs for him, his manner of address got oddly polite.
—There will be many beings there you do not know. Of course...
He even tried to claim credit.
—I will take care of all the information on such beings.
However.
“Take care of,” he says...
It felt like a place where I needed to draw a line.
“Just in case, let me give you a warning.”
—Hm?
“Do not try to climb over me.”
—...
Perhaps he felt the hostility in my gaze.
He bowed his head meekly.
“The children in the egg you brought are not guilty, but that does not mean you have no guilt.”
—It was not my intent...
Seohwan and Miho.
And Kkamang at least has never harmed humans.
‘When I think about what this one did to other humans, I still cannot calm down.’
However.
Ariella and this one are different.
That is why Ariella was punished by being made to belong to me in all things.
This one as well.
He is a monster I want to kill at once.
I cannot forgive the sly attempt to climb.
—...No. That was my intent. If it displeased you, I apologize. I thought if I could only build my position, it would help when raising the tribe’s children.
“I will handle how they are treated. Be careful from now on.”
—I will take care.
However...
I have to acknowledge he is a monster worth using.
‘A member of a species that contracted with a demon... and in the end part of the side that won the war and drove out those demon contractors.’
Knowledge about the demon’s minions that we do not possess.
It means that experience is now coming to us.
If I had been blinded by resentment and cut his throat, it is experience and capability we could never have gotten.
—To warn you, even if I give you the information, it will not be easy to handle those minions.
“Hm?”
—Their raw strength is considerable. No matter how much you know, they are not beings you can bring down easily. Our tribe as well... though we were weakened, we took heavy losses to eliminate the demon worshipers that arose within.
Right.
In that process even the Great Chieftain died.
“I understand what you are saying.”
No matter how much we gather information, their baseline strength is great, so they will be hard to take down.
I get it.
I get it, but.
“You will not have to worry about that.”
—...?
The raid we suffered last time was a powerful attack that could have broken up our legion if it went wrong.
‘But we did not come away empty-handed.’
The greater the crisis, the more you gain when you overcome it.
If it can go to a straight fight of strength against strength, I have no thought of losing.
“Do not worry about it. We have a method.”
—So your native species still has means left, I see.
“Something like that. Then I have another question.”
—Hm?
“Among the minions in there... is there one with powers that can detect concealment.”
—Hrm.
Borjin closed his eyes.
He seemed to recall the list of minions he had seen in the spirits’ memory, then spoke after a moment.
—I do not think such a being is present.
“Oh, really.”
—Why do you ask.
“No reason. It just means things worked out.”
I had two reasons to come all the way here.
‘One was to gauge the enemy’s strength.’
And the other was
“I am curious what those bastards are doing.”
To identify our enemy.
‘There were more than a few things that bothered me.’
What the Demon Contractor I met said.
{You must think you are the good guys.}
And what Borjin said.
{They seemed to have some kind of conviction.}
Demon Contractors, a name that sounds grim just to hear it.
The odds they are normal people are low.
However.
They were people who, just a few months ago, had been ordinary humans.
Why did they have to become such enemies.
Why did they make a situation where the same humans are fighting each other.
And...
‘There are people who are breaking their backs doing anything to survive.’
Why.
Did they make contracts that toss away their lives so lightly.
“Let us go find out.”
I bit into a combat ration.
[Trait: Environmental Assimilation is...]
—Do natives usually have this many tricks...
To match the snow piled up around me, my body turned pure white.
