The soldiers’ gazes.
I can feel them stabbing toward me.
“If we just do what Sergeant Shin says, things mostly work out.”
“It’s been like that all along, you know.”
Only then.
Did I realize.
“Here... the one who empathized with those contractors’ despair.”
That when the world one day falls to ruin.
Humanity, with no one to protect it, would be ruined as is.
I despaired like that.
“Was it just me?”
Apparently.
Inside the Legion, the one who holds that thought...
Seems to be just me.
“How can that be.”
It’s not like the other soldiers are empathy-less psychopaths.
That can’t be the reason.
I’ve paid attention to mental care through cooking.
Even so, that shouldn’t be enough to deny such a plain fact.
The difference between the other soldiers and me.
What it is...
I could guess right away.
Wonjun’s reason for despair was simple.
He realized there is no such thing as a god in the world.
And lost something to lean his heart on.
But they.
“Because they have me...”
All this time.
I’ve been overestimated way too much for my actual ability.
A leader being strong isn’t a bad thing from the group’s point of view.
I knew to some extent that foolish rumors were spreading.
And I left them alone on purpose.
On top of that, starting not long ago...
Because of Taejun’s advice.
I even let things I didn’t do get treated as things I did.
As a result.
Their evaluation of me, their faith in me...
Rose too high.
“So high it far exceeds what I anticipated.”
Contractors who despaired at the fact there is no god.
The reason the soldiers didn’t share that despair was obvious.
“Even if there is no god... there’s someone nearby who /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ gives them god-sized faith.”
Once I thought that far.
One suspicion brushed through my head.
“Is this what Taejun was talking about?”
He said I needed to stack up more achievements.
That even if they weren’t achievements I personally did, even if I stole someone else’s credit.
I should inflate my evaluation without limit.
“So they can have something to believe in?”
Whether that was truly why he said it.
Or whether there’s some other reason, I don’t know.
But.
At least the immediate effect is plain to see.
“Because the world is chaotic.”
In a world so chaotic no one can believe that ordinary humans, even if they band together, could survive.
Humans who realize they have nothing reliable to lean on naturally fall into despair.
Those contractors despaired at that fact.
And sought to lean on a seditious being... that isn’t strange.
When people fall into despair like that.
To block that despair...
You need something they can trust and lean on.
“I... have to play that role?”
That’s part of why I didn’t stop the foolish rumors about me in the first place.
But hasn’t this grown too big in scale?
The whole world has collapsed.
Unlike the other species who could lean on a god.
Even if humanity wasn’t given anywhere to flee.
“If we just listen to Sergeant Shin, it’ll work out somehow!”
“Can’t argue with that, sir.”
That belief that we’ll beat it in the end.
An absurdly optimistic faith.
I have to give the unit that faith.
To do that.
I will have to stack up feats no different from a god’s.
Honestly it’s a burden that makes my gut hurt.
Until a little while ago I was thinking maybe I’d try interning at a restaurant after discharge.
There’s no way I can stack feats at that level.
Even though I’m lacking for ability.
If it’s to give them something to believe in.
“Do I have to snatch my classmates’ achievements too and bluff as hard as I can?”
Turning things that didn’t happen into things that did.
Shouting that they should just trust me and follow.
“No, this is insanely rough.”
If I were really that great a human being, maybe.
But in reality I’m full of shortcomings.
I’m confident in my combat ability for a very short time.
After I exert my full power I’m a patient thanks to the side effects of [Absolute Palate].
I’m not particularly bright, and I don’t think I overflow with leadership either.
At least I’m confident in cooking, but that’s all.
Doing some grand thing like that.
There’s no way it’s possible...
Or so I thought.
“Of course, someday we might lose.”
Corporal Jeon Gwangil stepped up.
And spoke toward them.
“Sergeant Shin is extraordinary, but the monsters won’t be ordinary either.”
“If you know that, why.”
“Well. You don’t know until you try.”
At that.
I couldn’t help but be a little shocked.
“Even if we lose someday, until that day comes we thrash and claw like dogs.”
“......”
“That is the sergeant’s teaching. So if it won’t work, we make it work.”
I took my gaze off the contractors.
And looked at the soldiers standing behind my back.
“We just challenge it with guts and grit.”
And.
Looking at those soldiers, I was a little surprised.
“Huh...”
A world where snow lies heaped to the horizon.
On it, half-collapsed buildings have fallen.
And in that ruined city.
Monsters so powerful we wouldn’t even have laid a hand on them before.
Their corpses stretched on without end.
Standing with their boots on those corpses were...
“The Legion’s soldiers.”
After countless battles.
One by one they had been reborn as elites, the Legion’s soldiers.
Wearing ash-gray uniforms.
They were standing firm, looking at me.
I had never consciously registered it until now.
But seen like this.
“...they really have gotten strong.”
How should I put it.
They looked absurdly reassuring.
“With guts and grit.”
“If it won’t work, make it work.”
Right.
Back in ordinary conscript service those words were nothing but awful.
But in a ruined world.
Those were exactly the words that let us survive.
“Shin Youngjun, you dumb bastard... you taught them and then what are you doing?”
Those magnificent soldiers.
Are trusting and following my teaching.
That powerful army...
Was supporting my back.
“Ha.”
If that’s so.
“Why does this feel doable.”
“Sir?”
Someday we might lose?
We have no means to run when that day comes?
I’m appalled at myself for thinking things like that.
“Why think about that now.”
Objectively speaking.
Beating the mighty enemies to come.
There’s no way that’s possible.
Until a few minutes ago.
I too had the thought that maybe we should cling to the demon’s side a little.
But.
Our unit members were different.
Me, who empathized with the contractors’ despair.
And the unit members, who did not empathize.
The reason for that difference was clear.
“Because I too ultimately had no one I could trust and lean on.”
If the contractors despaired at the lack of a god and leaned on a demon.
And if the Legion soldiers leaned on me.
I know my limits well.
I cannot trust myself.
And that being that could not be more off-putting.
I cannot trust the demon either.
Unlike others.
I thought I couldn’t depend on or lean on anyone.
“I... used to think that.”
However mighty the monsters to come are.
No matter how strong they may be.
Seeing a unit that has grown so splendidly.
I feel like we can at least scrap with them a little.
“My Legion... that I fed.”
No matter how mighty the monsters.
If it’s this Legion we’ll bring them down somehow.
If that happens.
I can [cook] that monster.
Even that powerful enemy.
Will be nothing more than a tasty ingredient that makes us stronger.
“What is this. It actually feels pretty doable.”
Some among those unit members.
Might think they survived thanks to me.
That’s probably why they’re sending me faith more than I deserve.
But.
In truth that’s a big mistake.
“I survived thanks to those guys.”
Why did I decide to grow a unit in the first place.
Because for someone like me, obviously a support class, to survive.
I had to grow this unit somehow.
I really did raise them through dog-hard effort.
Thanks to the unit members I raised like that.
I’ve been able to stay alive to now.
“Fine. If you want to believe in me, believe all you like.”
It’s a little burdensome.
But I’ll accept it all.
In return.
“Everything in the world is give and take, isn’t it.”
If the contractors believe in a demon.
And the unit members believe in me.
Then I too.
Have to believe in something to be able to endure.
And...
There is only one thing in this world I can believe in.
“I’m going forward trusting you.”
The ones pushing at my back.
I just have to believe in this Legion.
In my heart.
I feel one emotion rising.
That no matter what dog-strong enemies come surging.
Even if it means wallowing in filthy mud.
We’ll somehow survive.
“An absurdly optimistic confidence with no basis.”
The unit I trust.
If the unit members trust me.
“Screw it, let’s do it.”
I too.
Can trust... me, the one the unit members believe in.
“[Stat — Divine power merges naturally.]”
“[The efficiency of divine power slightly increases.]”
“[The growth efficiency of divine power greatly increases.]”
****
“...What on earth have you been through that you’re able not to fear ruin.”
Wonjun muttered in disbelief.
At the attitude my unit members were showing.
Until just a moment ago.
I’d been sympathizing with a lot of what he was saying.
“Who said we aren’t scared? We’re just saying we’ll hold out like dogs until then. That’s it.”
Right now, with groundless confidence bubbling up in my heart.
The anxiety that had gripped my head disappears.
Me, who has only ever thought about my own survival.
That might be a bit selfish.
But.
“In a world like this you can be a little selfish.”
What’s wrong with being a little selfish.
As long as you don’t harm others.
“These guys are the opposite of me.”
Even if their motive was altruistic.
Their act was to make other humans their enemy.
If so.
What we have to do is decided.
“Because we are soldiers.”
Whatever the motive.
They made our army and other humans their enemies.
There is no reason to harbor pity for such an opponent.
“More than that, let me ask one thing.”
Maybe because the anxiety is gone and my mind is clear.
One point among what he said.
“You said he promised to preserve humanity?”
“...What of it.”
“Well, there’s a part that sticks with me.”
Something I want to check.
“Guys.”
“Yes, Sergeant Shin.”
“Bring the bodies of the monsters outside. One of each type is enough.”
At my order.
The soldiers who had been standing firm nodded at once and moved.
“Understood. But why the monster corpses?”
“There’s something I want to try.”
My job is chef.
And.
What does a chef do with a monster’s corpse.
“I need to do a little butchering.”
That being called a demon.
What it said while luring the contractors.
Whether that was a normal proposal.
I felt we ought to find out.
****
Thud...
Thump.
“We brought them!”
“Looks like we grabbed one of everything we could see.”
Not long after I gave the order.
Between the subdued contractors and our Legion soldiers.
The corpses of the monsters called “the demon’s minions” began to pile up like a mountain.
“What... are you planning to do?”
“Just wait and see.”
Whether the contractors muttered with anxious eyes or not.
I looked over the monsters the unit had brought.
“Well now... what a visual.”
The demon’s minions.
Every one of them had an appearance so ominous it was ghastly.
A monster whose shadow rippled even as a corpse.
A monster whose skin surface was coated with something like sticky oil.
A monster that had walked around with its intestines hanging out.
A monster with only a grotesque flame flickering where its eyes should have been.
Not one of them looked normal.
They were incredibly strong.
But their appearance could not have been more horrific.
“It struck me as odd from the start.”
“What?”
“If it were a being that would straightforwardly protect humans, the system wouldn’t have put the name demon on it.”
It’s true this system is sloppy in places.
Ariella’s race, vampire, originally wasn’t pronounced anything like vampire.
But it got translated vampire because it was roughly similar.
Still.
“At least it’s similar.”
Setting aside whether the origin is Earth or not.
Most of Ariella’s traits match those of the monster called vampire in Earth’s lore.
If that being called a demon could truly bestow goodwill enough to protect humans straightforwardly.
There’s no way the system would have called it a demon.
“Thinking that way... there’s one guess I could make.”
The first target I put my chef’s knife to.
Was the [Spirit of Darkness].
“Just as you met a mantis monster, we too have spoken with another monster.”
“What does that have to do with anything.”
“The one we met also knew about demons. In a way, it was your senior.”
“...?”
“And according to what it said...”
I bit into jerky.
After receiving the [Anti-Demon Light] buff.
I began carefully trimming the vast, ominous shadow cloaking the Spirit of Darkness.
“It said that as they accepted demonic power, at some point their outward form began to change.”
“...?”
“The change was so frightening... that they sealed the children before the change. A change that stark.”
The eggs Borjin was hiding.
The fetuses crawling inside them.
If I wasn’t seeing things.
Inside those transparent eggs, the fetuses...
“Had brown skin, not green.”
By demonic power.
From skin color to outward form to temperament.
Many parts changed.
Slice—
The shadow covering the [Spirit of Darkness].
Was peeled away one layer at a time.
Soon the trimming was done.
And there...
Only a small sphere remained.
“Jung Sua.”
“...? Yes, Benefactor.”
The moment the trimming ended.
Holding that small sphere.
I called our unit’s spirit user.
“For what have you called me.”
“Summon Droplet. So others can see too.”
“Yes. As ordered.”
At my command.
Jung Sua summoned a water spirit without a word.
“[Ingredient Appraisal (Enhanced)]”
“[Intermediate Water Spirit — Droplet]”
The water spirit looked like a drop of water floating in the air.
If there was one part that let you realize it wasn’t an ordinary drop.
At the center of that drop.
“[Spirit Core of a Water Spirit]”
A small sphere there.
It looked very much like what I was holding...
The cores of spirits.
“...Benefactor. This is, could it be.”
“That could-be is right.”
The first to catch on, of course, was the spirit user, Jung Sua.
After looking at Droplet’s spirit core.
I turned my gaze this time to the sphere in my hand.
“[Ingredient Appraisal (Enhanced)]”
“[A spirit core twisted after being foully insulted]”
“You said humanity must not be ruined as is.”
“...W-what does that have to do with anything.”
“Then let me ask one more thing. Say, as he said, humanity is preserved.”
“[It is the form of a once-pure spirit core corrupted and defiled by an external power.]”
“[The spirit’s trait of harmony with nature has been forcibly modified to react to death and demonic energy.]”
“[In structure, remnants of the spirit remain so it is called a spirit, but in truth it is so corrupted it may as well be called a different species...]”
“It’s preserved, but.”
What I held in my hand.
Was once an ordinary spirit, but now no longer.
“Being modified to the level of an entirely different species... is that fine with you?”
Right.
It was a being that could be called the senior of those contractors.
