“Yes, I’m the one who gave him permission.”
“......You’re the same man who wouldn’t even let your own group members come into the kitchen, and now you’re saying that?”
“Do I really have to explain that to you?”
Back when Howard was receiving my “realization.”
He’d been whining things like, “I can’t do that~” and whatnot.
But thinking about it.
‘This guy......’
I remembered the very first time we met, when he’d been yelling at me.
‘What the hell are you doing, barging into my sacred kitchen with mud on your feet!?’
Maybe it was because he was the chef here.
But he turned out to be pretty hot-tempered.
“......That young man is from another Branch. Leaving an outsider hanging around in an important place like the dining hall for too long—”
“Wasn’t kitchen and dining hall management my exclusive responsibility? Anywhere in there, what happens is up to me.”
“There’s always the chance something might happen. For the stability of the group, you should cooperate......”
“Cooperate?”
Howard folded his arms.
Then, with his already rough face scrunched up even more, he said:
“Mr. Yunseong. I think you’re misunderstanding something.”
“This kitchen is my territory. Respecting that authority is the proper form of cooperation.”
“You didn’t say anything back at the last meeting either, did you? At the moment, I’m acting as the Chair’s—”
“As acting leader of this Branch? Yeah, I know. But the Chair never interfered with anything related to the kitchen or the dining hall.”
“.......”
“If there were some problem and you were asking for help, that’d be one thing. But you’re barging into a place that’s running perfectly fine and suddenly sticking your nose into everything. It really hurts my feelings.”
He spoke in an exaggerated tone, like he genuinely found it heartbreaking.
“My chest hurts so much I almost want to go on strike and stop cooking altogether. Would that be okay with you? I’m the only one who can turn those ingredients over there into proper meals, you know?”
“......Don’t do that.”
“Hmm. Well. Since the acting leader himself is asking so nicely, I’ll let it slide this once.”
Howard let out a sigh.
“Hey, Mr. Yunseong.”
“What is it?”
“You’re usually a quiet guy. I don’t know if getting handed the big chair suddenly made you feel responsible, or if you’re just drunk on power...... but let’s not forget that your position is only temporary, okay?”
“.......”
“Like always, I’ll handle everything in the kitchen. If anything goes wrong, that’s also on me. So don’t try to meddle too much on this side.”
“......Haah. Fine.”
With a frown and a sigh.
Yunseong finally backed off and left the building.
“ Tsk. What’s with the sudden meddling in the kitchen? That’s not like him.”
Once he was far enough away.
Howard also frowned and muttered.
“Uh, is this really okay?”
“Hm? What are you talking about, Senior?”
“Well, he’s acting as leader right now, isn’t he?”
I knew he’d stepped in to help me.
But honestly, it puzzled me a bit.
“I was just wondering if you can really shove him off like that.”
“......Ahem. Senior, you’re seriously underestimating me.”
At my question.
Howard answered like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“Sure, compared to you I’ve painfully realized I’m nothing special as a chef. But here, I’m the only chef there is.”
“Huh?”
“I didn’t have much influence on big stuff like the operation to find the Source of the Cold...... but when it comes to the missions in this local area, my buffs from cooking actually matter more than you’d think.”
“Ah.”
Now that he mentioned it.
Weaker than mine or not.
He was still a chef.
He could give buffs through his cooking.
‘Roughly...... his buffs from monster-meat dishes are probably on par with mine back when I was still in the low Level 10s.’
Considering Howard was in his 20s, stat-wise it was a bit underwhelming.
But that was only because I was the comparison.
In reality, even that level of buff was way beyond what you’d normally call “decent.”
“Besides, you saw it, didn’t you? How limited the regular ingredient supply is here. If I go on strike, everyone either has to force down that tasteless crap, or starve. One of the two. It’s not for nothing that I can assert my authority over this kitchen.”
“......Makes sense.”
As long as he was handling the food that was essential for survival.
Even if he fell short compared to me—
“You’re more respected than I thought.”
“Ahem. Well. If it were the Chair I was talking to, I wouldn’t be acting like this.”
Within this group, at least, his position was acknowledged.
“That guy just happened to be the only one left standing to fill the acting leader role. But in terms of his original place in the group, he wasn’t really any higher than me. That’s why I can talk back to him like that.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Mm. He is a strong enough fighter to be considered elite, but he wasn’t a Guild officer or anything. Not even a squad leader in charge of elite Awakeners. I bet his Level’s about the same as mine.”
So right now he was acting as the group’s leader.
But originally, he’d never held some high-ranking post.
“Come to think of it, what kind of guy is he, anyway?”
“Huh? Mr. Yunseong?”
That got me curious.
“Dunno. All I really know is he’s some kind of warrior-type. He used a greatsword like the Chair, I think......?”
“So nothing particularly special.”
“......Mmm, thing is.”
Howard hesitated a bit at my question, then began.
“I kind of feel like I’m just talking behind his back here...... but he’s not someone you never hear stories about.”
“Huh?”
“You know this already, right? The only reason he can act as our group’s leader now is because every other elite or officer disappeared.”
“Yeah, that part I know.”
In the course of investigating the source of the cold.
All the elites, including my parents, had gone missing.
And the one left behind—
Was him.
“He’s the only one who came back alive from that operation. Claims he was injured before the mission even really began and had to return early.”
“I heard that much. Junggu told me.”
“The problem is...... that injury wasn’t as bad as you’d expect.”
“......?”
“You know how tough Awakeners are. He was injured, but not so badly that he had to be pulled from an operation where literally every fighter they could scrape together was deployed...... it was like right on that borderline? If they’d had other wounded, it would’ve made sense for them to come back with him. But he came back alone, and that made people talk.”
At that.
I frowned.
“That’s really weird.”
“Sounds like that even to you, huh? Back then, everyone just kind of went, ‘Eh, guess that’s how it went,’ and moved on.”
“You all just let that slide?”
“People are too busy just trying to survive to obsess over things like that.”
In a world where just figuring out how to live takes all your focus.
Nobody had the bandwidth to worry about something like that.
“Then later, when none of the other elites came back, and the Chair and other officers disappeared...... talk started up that someone had to represent the group, at least on paper. That’s how Mr. Yunseong got the acting leader job.”
“You made a guy with suspicious crap like that in his past the acting leader?”
“I mean, people did talk about it. But it’s not like there were other options. He was the only high-Level combat class left, and in this world, raw strength matters most.”
“......And people actually accepted that?”
“Well......”
When I asked, openly sounding suspicious.
Howard scratched his cheek, like he regretted bringing it up.
“We just argued a bit right now, but he’s not some huge piece of crap or anything.”
“.......”
“Ahem. I get that the way I’m putting it makes him sound super shady, but from the perspective of someone living with him, he was just an ordinary, easygoing guy you could shrug off as ‘guess he had his reasons.’ Does that make any sense to you at all?”
“Easygoing, huh.”
The same man who just basically told me to get lost?
Judging by my expression that I couldn’t reconcile that.
“......Now that I think about it, I don’t know why he acted like that with you.”
Howard tilted his head too.
“Like I said, he’s a normal guy with a pretty mild personality. He’s not the type to kick people out or anything. Not super friendly, but not hostile to anyone either...... just an average guy.”
“......He was like that?”
“Even I was a little surprised he picked a fight with you. Normally, he’d never.”
That made something come to mind.
“After what I just said, I’m worried you’re going to see him as some kind of obvious villain. He’s really not that bad. I don’t want to plant some weird impression in your head.”
Howard was trying to tell me that this Yunseong guy was reasonably decent.
But my thoughts were a little different.
‘A guy who originally had a vague, middling position...... suddenly becomes a group leader.’
Why?
‘Because everyone else who could have taken that role disappeared.’
And.
On the operation where they all vanished.
‘He was there too—and came back alone.’
He said he came back because of an injury.
But it wasn’t severe enough to really warrant a return to base.
And there was no one else who could testify to that.
‘That’s way too suspicious.’
Maybe, like Howard said.
Originally, this man Yunseong hadn’t been a bad guy.
But......
What popped into my head.
Was why the people of Gyeonggi had decided a group’s leadership had to always have at least three members.
‘Because they can be controlled...... or replaced.’
I stood up.
Left the kitchen.
And kept thinking.
‘If Jo Beomseok is right, there’s a traitor among the people who know humanity’s intel.’
Until now.
I hadn’t had the slightest clue how to even start looking.
Nobody had seemed particularly suspicious, and the whole thing just gave me a headache.
‘But if someone does look suspicious.’
Then there’s no reason to drag this out.
‘I just have to confirm it.’
I decided on the spot.
To go confirm it.
****
This was the first suspicious person.
But.
There was one problem.
If this was happening inside the Legion, that’d be different.
But this was Gyeonggi Province, a place that was unknown territory to me.
And here......
‘Actually confirming that suspicion is a bit tricky.’
If something like this had happened inside the Legion.
I’d just give the squad an order.
Have them grab the suspect, throw them in a cell.
And force-feed them my cooking until the problem solved itself.
But here, it wasn’t that simple.
‘I can’t exactly shove food at him and expect him to just eat it.’
And even if I did manage to get it down his throat somehow.
Right now, things were just at the suspicion stage.
There was still a chance he wasn’t the traitor.
If I used that method now, the identity of my most repulsive power—
The thing behind my “Special Sauce”—
Would be exposed.
So.
I chose the simple route.
“[Environmental Assimilation].”
Sssk......
Late at night.
With nothing but the scattered campfires burning here and there to keep people warm.
In the darkness, where no other light touched.
I erased my presence.
Kept [Environmental Assimilation] active, and slipped through the shadows.
My target was obvious.
‘There.’
The place where that man, Yunseong, was staying.
At this hour, odds were ten out of ten he’d be asleep.
Sure enough, when I arrived and listened carefully—
......Hhh......
From inside.
I heard a slow, steady breathing.
‘An Awakener’s senses are incredibly sharp.’
I could hear his breathing clearly all the way out here.
Getting this close with [Environmental Assimilation] was doable.
But getting inside was a different story.
The moment I opened the door.
Even in deep sleep, an Awakener with sharp senses would wake up instantly.
That’s why.
‘Go carry out the plan.’
‘Yes, sir!’
The vampires hiding in my shadow—
Slipped out and showed themselves.
Then, they......
[Mist Form]
Turned into a blood-red mist.
For a combat class, it was the kind of Skill anyone would kill to have:
A Skill that nullified any physical attack.
But that wasn’t the only advantage of [Mist Form].
S-slide—
Just like that.
As mist, they could slip through narrow door gaps that you normally couldn’t pass through.
And.
When they turned into mist, any gear or objects they were carrying turned to mist with them as well.
[Honest Emotion-]
In the hands of the vampire siblings who snuck into the room—
Was a dish I’d made.
After entering as mist, the two canceled [Mist Form] only for the dish.
Then, they brought it close to the sleeping Yunseong’s body......
And that was enough.
[Force-Feeding]
I watched as the dish I had made—
Quietly melted into the body of the sleeping man.
‘I’m not sure it’ll take.’
An honest-emotion dish.
I had really put my back into it using the kitchen, but—
Honestly, the ingredients had been a bit lacking.
If he’d been awake.
A high-Level Awakener in his right mind could probably have resisted it to some extent...... but.
‘When you’re asleep like that, you don’t even think to resist.’
Still in mist form.
The two vampires whispered in tiny voices right by his ear.
So quiet that only an Awakener’s hearing could barely pick it up—
And not enough to wake him from sleep.
“Do you...... know who the traitor to humanity is......?”
“Do you?”
Anyone who had eaten a dish imbued with [Honesty]—
Would feel an irresistible urge to answer any question they were given.
That power even made them answer with their mouth sealed:
It would drive them to tear whatever was blocking their mouth away just to respond.
“The traitor......?”
Power like that.
Was strong enough to even make someone talk in their sleep.
“The traitor iiis......”
From outside the door.
I sharpened my senses and listened to what he said.
‘Huh?’
And then.
‘......Seriously?’
When I heard what came out of his mouth......
I was honestly stunned.
****
After that.
For the next few days, I kept “going to work” at the dining hall.
“This part, you want to do it like this......”
“That Trait of yours, if you use it like this......”
I kept honing my cooking skills.
Helping my junior level up his [cooking].
Had him pick out the better cuts of monster meat stored here in Central Branch—
So I could stash them in my shadow.
And in between that, while I was busy with this routine.
“Troop consolidation is complete.”
We spent our days doing that.
And before I knew it—
“Everyone, move out!”
“Open the Wall!”
The day came.
When I, along with the people of Central Branch—
Left for the Southern Branch, the human [N O V E L I G H T] territory closest to the Source of the Cold.
