“...So the traitor really exists.”
“Who is it...?!”
The moment I brought up the traitor to humanity,
the two people standing rigidly behind Jo Beomseok looked so shocked their rock-solid posture nearly collapsed.
Seeing that, I felt a bit bad saying this, but—
“Who it is... I don’t think I can tell you.”
“...What?”
I was.
In a situation where I couldn’t answer their question.
“You can’t tell us...?”
“You’re sure a traitor exists, but you don’t know who it is... is that what you mean?”
“Pretty much. You can think of it like that.”
“......?”
The two behind him frowned like I was talking nonsense.
But Jo Beomseok looked at me calmly,
then nodded.
“I don’t know what the circumstances are, but I understand that you can’t say it. Still... you know I can’t just go ‘okay then’ and move on, right?”
“Of course.”
“You’re certain there’s a traitor, but you don’t know who. That’s a dangerous situation. Especially since we’ll start the operation meeting as soon as the leaders from each region arrive. If that meeting gets leaked to the enemy... humanity in Gyeonggi will be wiped out without even having a chance. Is that what you want?”
He was speaking calmly,
but the meaning was clear.
Hand over information about the traitor.
But—
I shook my head.
“You don’t need to worry about that part.”
“...Hmm?”
A traitor definitely exists.
But.
It wasn’t going to be a problem right now.
“Because what you asked me for in the first place wasn’t ‘tell me who the traitor is,’ was it?”
“What are you saying?”
Remove the traitor.
Expose their identity.
Those were just
means to an end.
“What you asked was that I stop the traitor from passing internal information outside, or eavesdropping on operation plans.”
“...That’s true, but what does that matter?”
And then—
“That request is already completed.”
“...What?!”
I crossed my arms.
“From now on, that traitor won’t be able to find out a single thing about what happens inside the Association.”
****
After finishing my talk with the Southern Branch leaders,
I left the building and headed for the lodging they’d assigned me.
‘The other Branches are far... so it’ll still take a day or two for everyone to get here, right?’
The real operation meeting would only start after they arrived.
The Central Branch was close enough to get here quickly.
The other regions—
especially the Northern Branch—were a long way from here.
So until then,
I should do what I’ve been doing.
Focus on raising my cooking skill with Howard.
“...Excuse me.”
“Hm? Ah... you’re...”
I was thinking that as I walked toward the assigned quarters
when someone called out to me.
“Captain Jo Jun?”
“Haha, yes. Captain Jo.”
Jo Beomseok’s grandson.
Jo Jun.
“I think we covered everything inside. Why...?”
I’d been ready to shut him down if this was going to be about pressing me for traitor info.
But—
“Nothing serious. It’s just... I said it in there, but I wanted to say it properly again.”
“Say what...?”
“General Jo... thank you for saving my grandfather’s life.”
“Ah.”
So it wasn’t that kind of talk.
“...Well, it’s not something you need to be that grateful for.”
I scratched the back of my head, embarrassed.
Sure, he was right.
I had saved Jo Beomseok and his group while they were being attacked by some unknown enemy...
But—
‘I can’t exactly tell him I was planning to ditch them and keep going.’
Back then I was fired up and fixated on finding the source of the cold,
so I’d planned to ignore anyone getting attacked and just move on.
It only happened because the ambush was right on my route.
If it hadn’t been, I really would’ve left them to die.
So yeah.
It was awkward as hell for me.
“No, it absolutely is something to be grateful for.”
“...?”
But Jo Jun shook his head.
“Like you saw in there... the real leader of the Southern Branch is General Jo.”
“Yeah. It sure looked that way.”
There were three leaders including Jo Jun, sure,
but they’d been standing like escorts behind Jo Beomseok.
“Because of the Association rules, we keep three leaders. But honestly, that’s just for show.”
“The other two didn’t look incompetent.”
Jo Beomseok was strict with his grandson,
but level-wise, there was only about a one-level gap between Jo Beomseok and the other two leaders.
“No, no! You heard what General Jo said. Compared to him, I’m really lacking.”
“Are you?”
“Yes. He says all the time I’m supposed to reach a higher position than him.”
Heaving a small, helpless sigh,
Jo Jun shook his head.
“Unlike him, I went through a proper elite track... so in a normal world, maybe I would’ve ended up like he says. But leading a group in reality? There’s a massive gap.”
“Hmm.”
“Instant judgment, leadership... and actual experience leading people. The difference is huge. I don’t think I could catch him even if I lived my whole life.”
“I don’t think that’s something to be so down on yourself about.”
Watching him cut himself down, I wondered if years under a strict grandfather had crushed his self-esteem.
But—
“Down on myself?”
It wasn’t that.
“You’ve misunderstood. I’m proud that a man like that is my grandfather.”
“...Oh. You are?”
“Yes! He’s incredible. It’s just bad luck he couldn’t rise higher. If you look at what he achieved in active service, he wasn’t someone who should’ve stopped at brigadier general. He could’ve aimed for full general.”
I hadn’t realized from Jo Beomseok’s attitude alone,
but clearly Jo Jun loved his strict grandfather.
He respected him that much,
so he lowered himself just to raise him higher.
“If General Jo had died, the Southern Branch might not have survived.”
“......”
“You stopped that from happening.”
And from the perspective of a grandson who adored his grandfather,
what I did must’ve meant a lot.
“Thank you, truly!”
“...Ahem.”
“I came to say that.”
He bowed ninety degrees
and thanked me in a loud voice.
“Lift your head. You’re making me uncomfortable.”
“Haha... yes, understood.”
Still embarrassed as ever,
but there wasn’t much I could do about it.
“I’ll repay this debt, no matter what.”
Jo Jun said it like he meant every word.
He had to be older than me, given the rank,
so seeing a grown man act this respectfully toward me felt weird.
“...Anyway.”
“Weren’t we done talking?”
“No, there’s something I wanted to ask.”
Jo Jun raised his head.
His face held a bit of uncertainty.
“I heard you were a soldier until recently.”
“...Ah, that? Yeah. ‘Recently’ feels off—more like about a year ago.”
“Yes, I heard. You went through Doomsday while you were on terminal leave.”
Yunseong was the one I told that to,
but since a bunch of people heard it, including Park Junggu,
it must’ve spread.
“...It’s just... a rough story. I don’t even know what to say.”
“......”
Apparently the fact that I got hit by the apocalypse on my terminal leave—
that I was a truly, unbelievably unlucky bastard—
was pretty widely known now.
“So, um.”
He tilted his head.
“May I ask which unit you served in?”
“...What is this, some kind of personal background check? Or a rank-sorting thing from an officer?”
I’d been a sergeant on terminal leave,
and technically hadn’t been formally discharged.
So by the old system, I was still a sergeant.
Meaning I was subordinate to Captain Jo, an active-duty officer.
And—
‘I almost got rank-sorted by a certain chef once.’
So I asked just in case.
“No, no! Nothing like that!”
Jo Jun waved his hands in panic.
“Then why ask?”
“I was just wondering if we might’ve met before. Like I said, I’m military too.”
“Hm, in that case... I served in the 423rd Battalion.”
“The 423rd Battalion... oh! I know that unit. The radar battalion built up in that insanely high alpine zone. Directly under the 18th Corps...”
“Yes. You know it?”
“Of course. It’s pretty symbolic.”
Well.
Our battalion was small, but the altitude made it famous enough.
So it wasn’t surprising he recognized it by name.
“423rd Battalion... I’ve heard the name, but I’ve never been there...?”
Even after hearing it, Jo Jun still looked unsure.
“Then we probably haven’t met.”
“Hmm... I thought I had seen you before.”
“...Yeah?”
“Youngjun. This might sound strange, but...”
He scratched his cheek.
“Have we ever met somewhere?”
“...?”
At that, I took a careful look at his face.
“No. I think this is the first time.”
“R-right. Sorry.”
He looked earnest.
Not a face that screamed “memorable,” so [N O V E L I G H T] it was possible I’d seen him once and forgotten.
But I had no memory of it.
“Why did you think you’d seen me?”
“Haha, well...”
That felt like some ancient pickup line.
Hearing it from a guy just made me baffled.
“Honestly, I think I’m seeing your face for the first time too.”
“...What are you even saying?”
“It wasn’t your face. Your voice felt familiar.”
My voice?
Come to think of it,
his grandfather had said something similar back then.
“From the moment you spoke in that meeting room. I kept thinking I’d heard that voice somewhere.”
“Is that so?”
“But the more I think about it, it feels a little different from the voice I remember.”
And then—
the next thing out of his mouth
made my skin crawl.
“The one I heard had more crackling noise mixed in.”
“...Ah.”
“Like I said, it felt familiar, but I couldn’t place it. So I wondered if we knew each other... guess I was mistaken.”
Jo Jun scratched his cheek, looking embarrassed.
“Sorry to bother you. Get some rest.”
Convinced his hunch was wrong,
he turned and went on his way.
But—
‘...Wait. No way.’
Cold sweat slid down my back.
‘He’s heard my crackly voice before?’
When I crossed the Wall of Fire,
nobody knew what kind of [Penalty] I’d get.
So me and my squad leaders had racked our brains,
trying to predict possible Penalties and how to neutralize them.
Like assuming [Guild Message] would be blocked and using radio as a workaround.
Stuff like that.
But—
‘My voice...?’
That wasn’t on the list.
—We are the Legion.
The radio broadcast I sent at Minjae’s request.
Week one.
‘I only read week one myself.’
And the fact that I read it—
‘He remembered that voice?’
People who remembered my voice
might be here.
And because of that—
[If the fact of your regional movement becomes known to the humans in the destination region.]
[A Penalty will be imposed.]
[Penalty]
[Death]
‘...I could die because of this?’
Because my identity might slip
just from a remembered voice.
‘This kind of shit...!’
How was anyone supposed to predict that?
****
A threat to my life had arrived out of nowhere.
But there wasn’t much I could do about it.
Honestly, I’d just been lucky up to now.
Jo Jun might not be the only one who remembered my voice.
‘And I can’t go around killing everyone who might recognize it.’
So in the end,
all I could do was hope Jo Jun didn’t connect the dots.
And wait.
Then—
about two days after arriving at the Southern Branch—
“Long time no see, Youngjun!”
“Haha, you’ve been well!”
The Awakeners from the Eastern Branch and Northern Branch
arrived too,
each leading their own forces.
