In truth,
getting rid of a human’s suspicion when they were suspicious of me was simple.
‘Just feed them a dish.’
Feeding them directly would be hard,
but now that the effect of the ability called ‘Force-Feeding’ let me feed someone without them even noticing,
if I somehow secured ingredients and rammed the food down by force,
erasing that suspicion wouldn’t be difficult.
But—
‘That rubs me the wrong way.’
After the world changed like this,
what I guarded most carefully was my unit’s mentality.
To be exact,
I was afraid they’d lose their humanity.
And among those unit members,
I was included as well.
‘The more I overuse this power... the more it eats away at my humanity.’
The moment I start thinking I can control other humans at will,
my mind slips out of what belongs to an ordinary human and—
‘I might turn into a monster...’
That anxiety
always ruled my head.
That’s why,
unless they were people who’d committed extreme crimes,
I refrained from using this power to forcibly change their minds.
Right.
On humans, at least.
‘But on trees? Nothing says I can’t!’
They were things we used to burn for firewood.
They might be beings of special meaning to Gang Jaeho,
but to me, honestly, they were at the level of ‘uh, they’re just trees, right?’
Even if I poked at their feelings,
there wasn’t a single thing that would weigh on my conscience!
Right.
Since that man named Gang Jaeho said he couldn’t trust human words,
the way to make him trust me was extremely simple.
‘Seduce these trees.’
So,
I presented those trees with a dish steeped in profound [Happiness]...
“H-h-how...?”
The trees began radiating that happy emotion.
Confirming that feeling,
Gang Jaeho stared at me with a flustered look.
Seeing that gaze, I thought:
‘A man who can no longer trust others easily...’
In a way, that too
could be seen as a loss of humanity created by this damned world.
Exactly what I’d been wary of—
and afraid of.
‘I can’t fix that for him right away.’
The shock of losing someone precious
isn’t something you can treat easily.
But—
‘Then keep doing what you’ve been doing: trust the trees.’
Those trees gained happiness because of me,
and on that basis they’re surely insisting he can trust me.
‘So trust me—just as the trees say.’
He’ll
be able to believe in me.
‘And then... try trusting another human you’ve been doubting.’
A man who always only doubted—
to have the experience of trusting someone...
that would be a very hard step for who he is now.
‘Right—one step at a time... like that.’
His suspicion and anxiety won’t disappear right away,
but piece by piece, like this—
“What on earth... what kind of man are you?”
“How many times do I have to say it.”
as he keeps harboring doubts
and goes through the process of having those doubts resolved,
the sickness in his heart will gradually heal,
“The one who came to help you.”
and the sense of loss rooted in his heart
will slowly recover.
****
Once the parched earth regained its shape,
not just the Druid who’d been about to attack me,
but—
“What in the world is this...!”
the Shaman who’d secretly decided to help me but hid and watched in case things went wrong—
“Mr. Youngjun?”
“Yes.”
“When you said you’d solve the problem... was this what you had in mind?”
Han Iseo, too,
couldn’t hide her shock.
“The dry land... it suddenly turned moist...”
“Yes. Looks that way.”
“And the leaves on the withering trees— they suddenly started regaining vitality...”
“Ah, you saw correctly.”
“...You did this, right, Mr. Youngjun?”
“Yes.”
“...How?”
She spoke with eyes that said she couldn’t make heads or tails of it.
“Weren’t you an incredibly strong combat-class Awakener, Mr. Youngjun? I was sure you meant you’d help us expand our base elsewhere...”
“I only said I’d solve it; I never said I’d solve it by fighting, did I?”
“W-well, that’s true.”
Even at my answer, she still seemed flustered.
‘T-then how did he survive beyond Monsterland if he isn’t a combat class?’
‘And this... what combat class could even do something like this...’
She began muttering to herself in a small voice.
Leaving her behind like that—
“So it really was... your doing.”
“Yes, well. As you can see.”
The Druid who’d been charging to kill me barely a minute ago—
Gang Jaeho came up to me and asked,
“How... did you do it?”
“Mm.”
If I could have it my way, I’d have liked to say, ‘A dish.’
But this was a part that felt awkward to reveal right now.
“Trade secret.”
“...”
At my evasive answer,
Gang Jaeho stared at me blankly, as if at a loss.
“...A trade secret. Sure, I suppose that’s possible. Then—can you keep doing what you just did?”
He seemed to mull over his words,
then asked that question.
“If that was a one-time secret technique or something, please say so. That way we won’t get our hopes up for nothing...”
“If I have ingredients, I can do it as many times as needed.”
“You can do... this... repeatedly?”
“I heard there are other survivor bases nearby. If you want, I can do a few more.”
“N-no. I think that won’t be necessary.”
Of course it wouldn’t.
Even back when I was an Intermediate Cook, it was a power that fed a high-tier plant-type monster like an Alraune.
Granted, right now my ‘Cooking Proficiency’ was weakened by the penalty for crossing regions,
but the skill and stats I’d gained by becoming a War Cook and resolving incident after incident hadn’t gone anywhere.
Even in this weakened state, my cooking skill and stats were stronger than during the Alraune days.
‘I can stuff a place like this ordinary land full any time I want.’
With the fertilizer I’d just spread over the earth,
this land had likely become the most fertile soil in the world.
Not only within the Wall’s boundary—
I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the effect reached even beyond.
“That these trees could show emotions this joyful...”
And the one who could feel it most acutely—
wasn’t me, but that man.
‘It can’t be helped that he doubts human words.’
He’d been through enough.
It isn’t strange that he’d doubt anything to make sure he never had to regret it again.
But—
‘Could he doubt nature’s words, too?’
Crass as it sounds,
those trees had probably tasted true ‘deliciousness’ for the first time since they were born.
It was a dish that had made even that picky Alraune yield.
By now, that nature
was surely spilling lavish praise for what I’d done.
If he heard that content,
that man... surely—
“...What Iseo said wasn’t a lie.”
—would say exactly this.
I’d been certain.
“So—do you trust me a bit now?”
“...Yes.”
He—
as if his attitude of suspicion toward me had never existed—
“I’m sorry for doubting you.”
bowed his head to nearly a ninety-degree angle
and spoke like that.
“Uh... no. You don’t have to apologize that much.”
He looked around my age, or maybe a little older; when he came off that courteous, I was a bit wrong-footed.
But—
“No—it’s only right I apologize.”
Still bowing,
he spoke on.
“If what I heard from Iseo was right, you’d just returned to human territory. And with goodwill—the intent to help others.”
“...”
“And we dragged you in here just because you’d been in Monsterland with other criminals and because your look was fierce. We jumped to an absurd conclusion.”
Well.
Even by my account, I really had rotten luck there.
Also, because my look was fierce? That was part of it too...?
“After doing that, I didn’t even believe your claim of innocence. It’s clearly my fault.”
Maybe my making the land fertile carried that much weight for him.
“This is something I should apologize for.”
“...R-right.”
He said it with a sober expression.
At that, Han Iseo tilted her head and asked:
“Is it really okay to believe him so suddenly?”
“Iseo? What do you mean?”
“I mean—you doubted Mr. Youngjun because his past was so opaque, didn’t you?”
As she said,
his reason for doubting me was actually pretty reasonable.
She herself had said
that if her own ability hadn’t confirmed my words weren’t lies,
she never would have believed me.
Anyway,
one might wonder if this single act of reviving geovitality should be enough to lift suspicion this much.
“Well, we can hardly do otherwise, can we?”
“What do you mean—hardly?”
“I doubted him because I feared he might harm the group. But—”
Mid-sentence, he suddenly turned his back and stepped deeper into the Orchard,
heading to a certain tree.
‘That one...’
Back when
I’d watched him work, he’d had trouble because it wasn’t bearing fruit—
that very tree.
Saaaa—
When Gang Jaeho laid his hand on it,
plump fruit formed in an instant on what had been a barren tree.
“If my food supply becomes impossible, that means the supply of food to humans itself will drastically drop. At that point, many would have no choice but to starve.”
“In other words...”
“If he’d come here to harm us from the start, he could’ve just done nothing.”
The moment he helped with that matter,
it could only be judged that he had no intention to harm.
“...Honestly, I’m still anxious. I still wonder if it’s really okay to trust him as is.”
“Goodness—still?”
“Fundamentally, the reason I couldn’t trust you had personal roots... but it was also because I thought a human couldn’t survive beyond Monsterland.”
But—
now he’d changed that thinking,
and decided to try trusting me.
“Frankly, what you just showed is even more shocking than the story about surviving beyond Monsterland.”
With a helpless little laugh,
Jaeho continued:
“If someone can do this... if someone is supported this actively even by nature...”
“...”
“Then maybe... just one more time, I could trust him—assuming I’m being fooled for the last time.”
Only after hearing that
did I think of the first objective I’d set once I crossed into Gyeonggi.
“So then, my question is this.”
Making contact
with a friendly survivor group—
I felt that objective
had finally been achieved.
“First off, as I mentioned to Ms. Iseo before—there are people I want to find.”
“People.”
“I said I came down to help people... but to be honest, finding those people comes first for me.”
Most important of all,
was looking after the people of my unit—my people.
“Understood. I’ll actively cooperate on that front as well. Then—besides that?”
And once
that purpose was fulfilled to a certain degree—
“There are just a few things I’d like you to tell me.”
“Pardon?”
“Since arriving near here, I’ve felt the survivors’ situation doesn’t look that good. I want to know the overall state Gyeonggi’s survivors are in, why it became that way, and... to resolve those problems—”
the next step
was to move forward.
“—what I should do.”
****
After I resolved the problems this group was facing—
chief among them the food shortage—by restoring geovitality,
“Allow me to introduce myself again. I’m Gang Jaeho.”
“I’m Han Iseo.”
the next day,
I could finally have a proper talk with them.
After we’d gone through a certain amount,
the two who were now willing to extend me some trust.
And—
“I’m Park Junggu.”
the very first person I’d met among them.
The massive middle-aged man came up and offered a handshake with his big hand.
“First impressions were bad... but let’s get along from here on.”
Whatever else you say,
unlike Gang Jaeho, he’d more or less trusted me from the start.
There was no benefit to getting along badly, so I accepted his handshake—
SKRRR—...
Right before I moved to shake,
I looked down at the hand clasping mine.
‘...Hoo.’
From the outside it probably looked like a normal handshake,
but the strength gripping my hand... was awfully rough.
‘What is this, a kid’s show of strength? ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) How juvenile.’
I slid my eyes up to look at his face.
He was grinning, as if curious how I’d respond.
‘Combat maniac.’
Park Junggu stared at me with eyes like fire.
‘Those eyes... they say “I really want to square off at least once,” don’t they.’
Well, sure.
My unit had a few combat-maniac types too.
When you face someone who looks strong, the itch to clash—
I understand it well enough.
I do, but—
‘I’ve already declined him a few times. At this point, couldn’t he just let it go?’
He’d expressed the desire to spar with me again and again.
I’d told him no again and again,
but the man, as if my wishes didn’t matter,
kept picking little fights like this.
‘I’ve got plenty to worry about already... and now I have to spend brain cells on this?’
At first, it reminded me a bit of Gwangil and all that,
so I’d let it slide.
But to be honest—
I was starting
to get irritated.
“...Yes. Let’s get along.”
SQUEEZE—!
“...!”
A hand that looked twice the size of mine.
I put a touch of strength into the hand gripping mine and gave it a shake.
When the brief handshake ended,
Junggu stepped back, eyes wide in surprise,
and looked down at his own hand.
‘That’s gonna sting.’
It sounds like bragging out of my own mouth,
but my lack of combat skills is the problem.
In raw stats, I don’t lose to anyone.
A simple contest of strength—
and the simplest of them all, a grip-strength contest—
I just thought it was childish, so I never started it.
“...Kuk-kuk. You’re a very interesting one.”
Even if I wanted to lose—
I couldn’t.
****
“As I mentioned, we’re the Northern Branch of the Gyeonggi Association.”
Maybe they’d missed the nerves between me and Junggu,
because the other two leaders, thinking the handshake had ended normally, spoke to me naturally.
“I heard the gist.”
Because Gyeonggi was so vast,
this Association seemed spread out in all directions from the center.
“Four places if you count Central and exclude the West, to be exact.”
“Hm? Why not the West?”
“Ah, that’s because...”
Gang Jaeho answered as if it were obvious.
“Seoul City is on Gyeonggi’s west.”
“Ah.”
“There’s a Wall of Fire erected around there, too. Thanks to that, the area nearby keeps a barely livable temperature. We operate in that vicinity as well.”
“I heard monsters crowd near the Wall...”
“They do, but that Wall is relatively closer to where the extreme weather rolls in. Most monsters have crowded to the more distant outer Walls. Honestly, those outer areas are more livable for them.”
They pulled out a map,
uncapped a pen, and drew a line across it as they spoke.
“To be precise, we think the center where the extreme weather originated is here.”
Southwest—
toward Hwaseong and Pyeongtaek.
“The farthest from that cold, and therefore where monsters crowd the most, is here.”
She checked the area I’d come across—
Gapyeong and Pocheon.
And
the human domain—
‘The center of Gyeonggi, is it.’
Centered on that Wall around Seoul City—north, east, and south—
that center was apparently the region survivors currently held.
“To be precise, about this much.”
Goyang, Uijeongbu, Namyangju, Guri, Hanam, Seongnam...
and also Bucheon, Gwangmyeong, Siheung, Ansan, Anyang, Gunpo, Uiwang, Gwacheon, etc.
Listed out, the number was higher than expected.
Most of the major cities of old Gyeonggi were included in practice,
but—
“Compared to all of Gyeonggi, that’s very narrow.”
“Yes. Far too little.”
The area where humans operated
didn’t look like even 30% of Gyeonggi as a whole.
“Even within that, most are just zones where we operate. The places humans can truly be said to have occupied are far fewer. By the ratios in [Territory War], it’s under 20%.”
When I’d heard Gyeonggi’s humans had gathered under one faction,
I’d wondered if maybe they were ahead of our unit in Territory War.
But unlike us—who’d already occupied over 30% of Gangwon by the time I left—
they still hadn’t even reached 20%.
‘And given time, it’s questionable whether more occupation will even be possible.’
That natural environment was too deadly to humans.
It was a fairly bleak situation—
though unlike us, it was fortunate that humans had at least clustered together somehow.
‘Life got harder because of this environment... but conversely, because of this environment, people could unite under one faction.’
Because livable zones had shrunk to the extreme,
consolidating those gathered there would’ve been much easier.
The difficulty was on a different level from rounding up humans scattered across wide-open Gangwon.
“Honestly, a big reason we united under one faction is that there are major benefits to joining a Guild.”
“Guild?”
“Yes. It’s the term for an organization of at least a hundred Awakeners. The moment you join a Guild, you get quite a lot—your stats go up, you receive Guild Skill effects...”
“Mhm. Think of it like equipping two or three well-crafted gear items.”
At the mention of Guilds,
Gang Jaeho’s gaze fixed on me.
“In fact.”
The instant I received that gaze,
I guessed what he was going to say.
“If possible, we’d like to have you join our Guild, Mr. Youngjun.”
At that,
I could only go—whoops.
‘I already belong to a Guild.’
Or—do I call it belonging?
The largest Guild in Gangwon—
the Guildmaster of the [Iron Legion] is me.
But—
to these people, I was someone who hadn’t joined a Guild, hadn’t even met others.
‘If they tell me to join their Guild...’
...This could get
very messy, couldn’t it?
