Brigadier General Jo Beomseok.
That was the last form of address that old man Jo Beomseok heard before he retired.
Thanks to that, the people of the Association called him “General.”
But in truth—
‘It’s an embarrassing title.’
He found that name terribly embarrassing.
There is a system called “fixed-term brigadier general.”
Among those who would normally have finished their careers in the army at colonel—
They take a carefully selected few, pin the rank of brigadier general on them for a two-year term, then send them to a dead-end post and discharge them.
For people who devoted their whole lives to the military but could not become flag officers, it was a sort of courtesy, a way to let them experience being a general just once... that kind of system.
Even if you called it the same brigadier general rank—
It was, in reality, a form of address that was quite far removed from a real general.
‘I thought my ability was enough.’
Unfortunately.
Back when he was serving, ability was not the only thing you needed to get promoted in the army.
School ties, regional ties—
And on top of that, you needed all sorts of elements besides skill.
‘I didn’t have any of them.’
With no school ties and no regional ties, Jo Beomseok had become a colonel on ability alone.
Under normal circumstances, that would have been the end of it, but they acknowledged that ability and those results enough to at least give him that fixed-term brigadier general rank.
If he was being honest.
There were times he had grown sick of that reality of the army...
Even so—
‘I am still a soldier.’
In his heart, Jo Beomseok was still a soldier.
He had always thought of his own group as a kind of reserve unit.
He was full of the desire to join up with a proper military unit and carry out joint operations.
—Therefore, we advise the survivors of Gyeonggi Province.
And then.
In the midst of all that, that radio appeared.
‘For the Legion... to send down a recommendation.’
Guidelines coming from the Legion, a military unit.
Which meant, in other words—
‘It’s no different from an order from the upper echelons...!’
Jo Beomseok, who had mainly operated with units in Gyeonggi Province.
And the Legion, the soldiers of Gangwon Province.
Their chains of command might be a little different—
Even so.
In a ruined world, it was effectively an order issued by an intact army.
It absolutely had to be obeyed.
‘But...’
As the radio played—
Jo Beomseok lowered his head and sank into thought.
‘In the current situation, following that directive carries too much risk.’
He thought there had been merit in what the people from the Northern Branch said.
Even so, he had rejected their proposal once.
Everything.
Was because of that very source of anxiety.
‘To carry out a large-scale operation while leaving this anxiety factor in place as-is is far too dangerous... what should I do.’
While he was mired in that worry—
His gaze turned to one spot.
‘...That young man.’
The others were too focused on the radio to notice.
But behind the leaders of the Northern Branch stood one young man.
‘Even with a radio like that, he doesn’t panic, he even feels relaxed.’
That young man alone, despite the shocking content coming from the radio—
Was just calmly listening to it.
He was clearly an unusual individual.
But because he had suddenly appeared at this point, as an outsider, he had drawn the suspicions of everyone.
However...
‘They called him an outsider...?’
In this world, having an “outsider” even exist felt absurd.
Regardless, that rare being was precisely that young man.
‘If that’s the case, he can be trusted.’
That outsider, who drew everyone’s suspicion—
For the current Jo Beomseok...
Was the one and only person he could trust.
****
“There is a traitor among the humans.”
“...!?”
“A traitor collaborating with that ‘Source of the Cold.’”
At those words, even I couldn’t help but be surprised.
It was surprising enough that this old man suddenly started talking to me—
But for the content to be something like this.
What I was most curious about was—
“...Why are you telling me that?”
Not the content itself.
But the fact that he had told it to me.
Unknown identity, unknown past, unknown background.
If you had to pick the most suspicious man in Gyeonggi, even I would point at me.
I had built up some trust with the people of the Northern Branch, but the others—
Especially this old man in front of me—there was no particular reason he should trust me.
“Wouldn’t it be better to tell someone else? If you want, I can arrange a meeting with the other leaders of the Northern Branch...”
“No! Under no circumstances can this be revealed to them.”
“Sir?”
“At the very least, it must never be revealed to anyone inside the Association.”
He led me off ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) to a more secluded place.
Only after confirming that there was no one in the surrounding area did he continue.
“I’ll speak plainly. In yesterday’s meeting, I opposed your opinion, didn’t I.”
“You did.”
“Privately, I thought what you said was right.”
“...Sir?”
“I’ve actually been thinking the same thing as you, lately.”
What was he talking about now.
“The basic principle of strategy is to know yourself and know your enemy. But despite the fact that we’ve absentmindedly ceded Gyeonggi’s climate to an unknown enemy, we don’t know anything about that enemy. I’d been thinking for some time that it would be dangerous if we didn’t investigate the cause of that more closely.”
“Then why, yesterday...”
“One of the reasons was that I considered it too risky a gamble. The reason I opposed the former Chair’s operation as well was that, while I agreed with the significance of that expedition, I thought the operation itself was too reckless. But if there hadn’t been another reason, I probably would have sided with you. You and yours had given me confidence in my own thoughts.”
Another reason.
“And that reason... arose on the way here.”
“Ah... that.”
“You know it too, I’m sure. We were attacked by monsters on the way here.”
Of course I knew.
I was the one who saved them from that ambush.
“In itself, being attacked by monsters is a common enough occurrence. But this ambush was a little different.”
He turned his head toward the wall as if imagining a hypothetical enemy.
Then muttered in a sharpened tone.
“As you know, it’s not easy in this world to move between Branches.”
A blizzard blowing to an excessive degree.
Because of it, not only was it difficult to recognize existing roads—
The moment you lost your bearings in that blizzard, you lost any sense of where you currently were.
Everything around you was just a pure white landscape.
There was nothing that could serve as a landmark.
“That’s why we usually ‘make’ a certain amount of route beforehand. Places where you can still see markers even when snow piles up, or places where we clear obstacles in advance so we can use them as roads—that sort of thing. Normally we use those fixed routes so we don’t get lost.”
I, too—
Back when I was at that “Northern Base,” I had used such roads when heading to other groups belonging to the Branch.
“Those monsters were lying in wait along each of those routes.”
“...”
“We’re not idiots either. We knew there would be problems if our movement routes were ever occupied by monsters, so we made several movement paths. There are routes that let you shift to other paths when you deviate from the main route. But...”
Jo Beomseok clenched his teeth as he spoke.
“On every single one of those routes, without a single exception! Those monsters had gotten there first and taken up positions. Do you know what that means?”
I frowned and answered.
“You’re saying... those monsters have information on human movements.”
“Exactly.”
What Jo Beomseok was describing—
Was absolutely impossible unless human movement routes had been completely leaked.
‘So that’s why he concluded there was a traitor among the humans...’
However.
There was still something that didn’t sit right.
“But why are you telling me that.”
“It’s simple. Because you are not registered in the ‘Association.’”
“...?”
That was the part I’d been asking: why he was telling me this.
“I heard roughly from the ones who came from the Northern Branch. You’re an outsider who hasn’t belonged to any other group before now, aren’t you?”
“For the moment, yes.”
“I don’t know how such a person can exist, but... I did my own checking, you know. At the very least, it’s certain that you’ve never belonged to any power inside Gyeonggi so far—especially never joined the Association. And the only people who know our movement routes are the people of the Association.”
Which meant—
“You couldn’t leak such information even if you wanted to. You wouldn’t know it in the first place.”
It was, of course, obvious.
In reality, I’d only learned how they made those routes because this old man had just told me.
Because of that—
I had, without meaning to, become the person with the lowest probability of being the traitor.
“That may be so. But even so, is it really all right to trust me? The fact that I’m an outsider is suspicious enough, isn’t it.”
“That’s true. For all I know, you might once have been part of a raider band... but even that doesn’t matter. At the very least, you are not an ally of that ‘Source of the Cold.’”
“How can you be so sure?”
“If you were truly our enemy—”
He looked at me as he spoke.
“Then back there. You would never have saved us.”
“...”
When I understood what he meant by that—
I let out a short, exasperated breath.
“...So you’d noticed.”
“I don’t think anyone but me has realized yet. Was it supposed to be a secret?”
“Not particularly.”
There was no need to keep the fact that I’d saved them a secret.
I’d just been so worked up that the thought hadn’t occurred to me.
If anything, revealing it would have raised my standing in this region.
Anyway.
“How did you figure it out?”
“It wasn’t much. I just... thought it was a voice I’d heard somewhere.”
“Sir?”
People did sometimes say I looked scary—
But my voice wasn’t that distinctive.
“When I first heard it, I thought it was oddly familiar, so I remembered it. Then when I was talking to you, I realized it was that voice.”
“Is that so...”
“So, tell me, are you and I acquaintances?”
If, in all that chaos, he heard my voice once and thought it sounded familiar—
Then it must really have been a voice that left an impression on him...
“No way. This is the first time we’ve met.”
“Hmm, is that so? I can’t quite recall why your voice feels so familiar...”
Unfortunately—
I couldn’t think of any real connection between this old man and me.
“But wait. If you knew, why did you turn me down so flat yesterday?”
“I told you I had my reasons. A favor is a favor, and work is work.”
I’d thought if I revealed that fact, I might be able to persuade this old man—
But apparently not.
“I’ll repay that favor separately later, but that’s not what matters right now.”
Right.
That story wasn’t what mattered at the moment.
What mattered was—
That even though he knew I was his benefactor—
He still had a reason he had to refuse my request.
“Those monsters were driving us south... toward the direction where the Source of the Cold lies.”
“Hm...”
“The Source of the Cold and the monsters who attacked us are by no means unrelated. The one who saved us from them—you—ends up being someone I can at least trust.”
I understood.
And at the same time, I could understand why he had rejected the proposal yesterday.
‘If you try to investigate that source, it’ll inevitably become a large-scale operation.’
But.
What if there’s a traitor among the humans?
“You were worried the operation would leak and you’d end up walking into a trap.”
“That’s right.”
He nodded with a heavy expression.
“I, you see, had always thought that while the leaders of the Association might disagree with each other, most of them were fine people. But the circumstances are telling me that there is a traitor among them.”
“...”
“I would have liked to root out that traitor first and then carry out the operation, but unfortunately it doesn’t look like we have much time.”
The speed at which the temperature was dropping was accelerating.
If they wasted time trying to identify the traitor, the enemy’s power would grow to the point where they could never launch an assault.
“As I said at the meeting, I plan to return to the Southern Branch and prepare for the operation.”
“Can we trust things on your side?”
“Of course I intend to keep in mind the possibility that there might be a traitor among the Southern leaders as well. If there’s a traitor in the Southern Branch, I can adjust the flow of information myself somehow. But aside from the South, there’s nothing I can do.”
“Then what you wanted to ask me was...”
The reason he had called me—
Was because there was something he wanted to ask of me.
And that request was—
“Either find the traitor and eliminate them...”
“...”
“Or, even if there is a traitor, act in such a way that the operation won’t be compromised.”
At those words—
I frowned and spoke.
“...You know that’s no simple favor, right?”
“I do.”
I was an outsider.
No one would trust my words except the people of the Northern Branch.
Finding the traitor lurking among them.
Or, making sure there were no problems even if a traitor existed.
‘This is insane difficulty.’
The problem was—
“But it’s also something that absolutely has to be done.”
If we failed to do it—
It would become incredibly difficult for the humans of Gyeonggi to survive.
...Tch.
Guess I don’t have a choice.
“...All right. Fine. I’ll give it a shot.”
“Thank you.”
He nodded and rose to his feet.
****
And then—
After Jo Beomseok left for the Southern Branch with his group—
I fell into thought.
“Make it so that even if a traitor leaks the operation, it won’t matter...”
The reason Jo Beomseok was confident he could control a traitor in the Southern Branch—
Was because he was someone who could exert that much influence there.
By contrast.
Right now, I couldn’t exert influence anywhere except the Northern Branch.
And it was a situation where it would be hard to build trust the way I had with the people of the Northern Branch.
‘What should I do.’
After a bit of thought—
The conclusion I reached...
Was actually fairly simple.
“Hey, Junior.”
“...Senior?”
I didn’t know how great that so-called traitor was.
But there was one piece of information that even that person wouldn’t have gotten their hands on—
No, one piece of information that no one in the Association knew, and therefore that traitor wouldn’t know either.
‘Chef.’
The fact that I was a chef was known to no one but that Junior.
And the humans of Gyeonggi had no idea of a chef’s potential.
‘They can make whatever operation they want, even if it might leak.’
In my current position, it was impossible from the start for me to meddle in their politics.
So what I could do was... well.
Wasn’t it obvious.
‘Cooking.’
As I stepped into the kitchen—
I spoke to that Junior.
“Teach me how to cook.”
