“Enemy raid!!!”
The moment I shouted that—
Only then.
Did I start to see the color of the magic power approaching from beyond the blizzard.
‘A sudden raid like this, huh.’
The raid itself wasn’t strange.
This was a world overflowing with monsters.
Getting ambushed was about as everyday as making eye contact with someone while walking down the street.
The problem was—
‘We did everything we could to secure our field of view... and on top of that, we should have scouts deployed too.’
The expedition wasn’t stupid.
To prepare for enemy attacks, they had already gone through the work of securing as much visibility as possible.
On top of that, they’d dispatched a considerable number of scouts around the area.
The moment those scouts spotted the enemy, they were supposed to fire signal flares and send word back to the main force...
Those signal flares had never gone up.
‘I have to assume the scouts were wiped out.’
They could have been wiped out, sure.
But to be wiped out without even firing a signal flare meant...
The scouts had been hit without ever detecting the enemy in the first place.
Even with our visibility secured as much as possible—
I still couldn’t see the attacker.
That implied two things.
‘The enemy isn’t being hindered by this blizzard-stricken visibility at all.’
And, also—
‘The enemy... has insane range.’
An attack launched from a distance of at least several kilometers.
A being capable of an attack like that...
Within the bounds of what I knew, the only person who came to mind was someone like Seo Suhyeok.
BOOM!
“!?”
Right then.
A massive snowball came flying through the sky and slammed down inside the Wall.
When I saw monsters jumping out from inside it—
I honestly was shocked, but...
‘Good. They’re handling it well.’
The Awakeners who heard my shout immediately began to respond.
Northern Branch Awakeners headed toward where the largest number of monsters had crashed down.
Eastern Branch Awakeners were sprinting to secure the main gate.
‘Yeah... it’s a shame we couldn’t preemptively respond, but.’
Being late was something we couldn’t help.
Even starting to respond now, we could still deal with this.
‘The expedition’s strength is by no means weak.’
With that in mind—
I headed toward the man who’d been coming up the Wall stairs with Jo Jun.
“General Jo!”
I rushed over to Jo Beomseok.
“The enemy is approaching! They’ll probably be entering the artillery batteries’ range soon!”
“...Ah.”
“Please issue command orders!”
I grabbed his shoulders.
Then, turning my gaze toward the inside of the Wall, I spoke.
“First, we need to get as many buffs on our own people as possible. We have to wipe out the enemies inside the Wall first, then stop the enemies approaching from outside...”
“Ahh...”
But.
While I was looking toward the inside of the Wall—
There was something I hadn’t noticed.
“Ah... ahhh...”
“General Jo?”
“No... no...!”
The man whose shoulders I was holding.
The state of General Jo Beomseok was...
Honestly, really off.
“General Jo Beomseok!”
Even though I was talking to him—
He didn’t so much as look at my face.
He just kept his eyes fixed on the inside of the Wall, making strange sounds like he’d lost the ability to speak.
When I turned my gaze toward where he was looking—
I couldn’t help but frown at what I saw there.
‘Captain Jo Jun...’
Captain Jo Jun, pierced by the arrow and nailed to the wall.
Several people had pulled the arrow out—
And were trying to treat him after bringing him down to the ground.
“General Jo Beomseok... don’t tell me!”
“Captain Jo Jun... Captain Jo...!!!”
And.
Only then did it click.
“The hell...!”
“Jun!!!”
The old man who’d been so strict with his grandson.
When he actually saw his grandson’s body, horribly mangled—
The shock had sent his reason flying.
Jo Beomseok.
It was like he’d forgotten his own position as he dashed toward his grandson.
“...Hey, you bastard!”
His sudden movement—
Forced me to hurriedly run after him.
‘General Jo Beomseok is the core of this entire expedition...!’
In large-scale battles, the [Commander] class boasted absurd efficiency.
If we assumed the same level and stats, even my buffs—which I took some pride in—didn’t vastly surpass the buff efficiency of [Commander]-type Awakeners.
And that wasn’t all.
In a battle of this scale, things just as important as buffs were tactics and orders.
General Jo Beomseok’s buffs massively boosted the expedition’s overall power.
The expedition moved on General Jo Beomseok’s orders.
‘Even if each Awakener ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) is doing their best and fighting hard at their assigned positions... like this, all they’ll be doing is barely holding back the flood of monsters and then collapsing.’
To carry out an operation capable of changing this situation—
They needed the commander’s orders.
“Jun...! No, this can’t be, if anyone’s going first it should be your grandpa, you can’t go before me!”
“COUGH...”
I rushed down the stairs and arrived at where Captain Jo Jun lay.
Captain Jo Jun was a fairly high-level Awakener.
That meant he possessed a considerable amount of vitality.
His eyes had lost focus, and a mouthful of dead blood was pouring from his lips—
But it looked like his life was still hanging on.
However...
That was all.
‘...I’ve never once seen a human survive after taking an injury like this.’
I’d been someone who led an organization myself.
And.
Iron Legion soldiers were by no means invincible.
No matter how powerful the healers waiting in the rear were.
If the battle was hard enough, we always had deaths.
[Freshness - Lowest]
Captain Jo Jun’s current condition.
No matter how powerful the healer who showed up, they wouldn’t be able to save him...
He was basically a corpse with a breath still left.
“N-no. No...”
“...Damn it.”
Even though this was not a situation where he could cling like this—
Jo Beomseok was fussing helplessly over his grandson’s body.
He was so agitated he couldn’t even hear other people’s words.
‘...No helping it, then.’
At that sight—
I rummaged in my pocket, pulled out the dish inside, and brought it toward Jo Beomseok.
[War Cook’s Calm-Emotion Combat Ration.]
[Force-Feeding]
“...Huh?”
The amount of emotion infused into the combat ration wasn’t that strong.
Even so, it wasn’t zero.
It should at least have some calming effect.
“General Jo Beomseok! Are you coming to your senses!?”
“Y-you’re...?”
I grabbed Jo Beomseok’s shoulders and shook him roughly as I spoke.
Maybe thanks to the dish’s effect, he at least seemed capable of understanding my words.
I shouted sharply at him.
“Leave your grandson to the healers here. You have your own role to fulfill!”
“M-my... role?”
“The commander’s role!”
It wasn’t just about the buffs.
He held the role of supreme commander for this expedition.
Even if the combat leaders from each branch were serving as field officers—
The head of this group was him.
“Give the order!”
If he just gave proper orders—
That alone would improve the situation a lot.
“...Orders. Right. I need to give orders.”
And then.
After hearing my words, Jo Beomseok shouted in a loud voice.
“All troops...!”
Only then.
Did I finally feel relieved and try to join the battle—
“Do everything in your power to save my grandson... save Captain Jo Jun!”
“...What?”
By the time I froze at the absurd content of that order—
It was already too late.
DING!
[Command Order – ‘Save Captain Jo Jun’ resounds!]
[All actions taken to save ‘Captain Jo Jun’ receive a bonus.]
[This is the commander’s order!]
[If you fail to carry out this order, the stat bonuses granted by the commander’s trait, [Intermediate Command], will be removed.]
[If you fail to carry out this order, the stat penalties from the commander’s trait, [Intermediate Command], will be applied.]
“Y-you crazy bastard...!”
Awakeners in the ‘Commander’ line basically possessed wide-area buff-type traits.
[Command] was exactly that.
That unbelievably broken trait that gave you buffs just for breathing under the commander’s authority.
Even without [Commanding Shout] being used, it was a trait that passively applied at all times.
But that didn’t mean it had no risk at all.
“Save Captain Jo Jun...?”
“We’re already struggling just to subdue monsters, what kind of order is this!?”
The expedition forces, busy just dealing with the enemies in front of them—
Couldn’t carry out that order.
[You have refused the commander’s order!]
[The effect of ‘Intermediate Command’ is removed.]
The stats that had been granted through Jo Beomseok’s passive—
Vanished in an instant.
[You have refused the commander’s order!]
[The penalty of ‘Intermediate Command’ is activated!]
[All who do not follow the commander’s order suffer a slight decrease in all stats.]
“Ghk...!?”
“W-what the hell is this all of a sudden!”
Aside from the healers who had rushed over to save Jo Jun—
Every Awakener’s stats dropped.
‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’
Even just losing the buffs you’d been receiving by default created a huge “reverse” sense of impact.
And on top of that, a debuff.
The expedition’s Awakeners were suddenly forced to feel like their bodies had gotten drastically heavier in an instant.
“General Jo Beomseok! What do you think you’re doing!?”
“Damn it, if you can’t save my grandson then get out of the way and don’t interfere!”
Issuing a command that bordered on madness—
The man then focused entirely on his grandson’s condition.
Honestly, I couldn’t help but feel a bit stunned.
‘I even fed him a [Calm-Emotion] dish...!’
I had definitely fed him the dish.
And I’d confirmed that it had an effect. Yet he was like this.
Figuring out the cause wasn’t hard.
‘The higher-level an Awakener is, the weaker my dish effects land on them.’
Compared to Iron Legion, neither the ingredients nor the environment here were good.
Especially for that combat ration; its effect was never that strong in the first place.
So.
It had been enough to bring him back to his senses to the extent that he could listen—
But it hadn’t been enough to make him let go of—
‘That fierce obsession with saving his grandson... the last remaining family he has left.’
It simply wasn’t strong enough...
To make him let go of that.
“Then who’s supposed to command this battle!?”
“How the hell should I know! You figure it out yourself!”
“You crazy old man...!”
I clenched my teeth.
And quickly scanned our surroundings.
“Urgh...!”
“Losing all the buffs wasn’t bad enough, we even got debuffed...!”
The Awakeners, who were already busy fighting monsters—
Started getting pushed back little by little once the buffs vanished.
“Damn it, how long are we supposed to just hold the line...!?”
“Proper orders... we need proper orders...!”
Without proper orders being given—
All those numerous Awakeners—
Couldn’t bring out their capabilities and were just fighting like a disorganized mob.
‘...’
I knew it instinctively.
If this kept up—
The giant Wall we had chosen for safety.
This place—
Would turn into the expedition’s mass grave.
*****
‘How am I supposed to fix this?’
In the middle of a crisis that was beyond ridiculous—
My mind was racing.
‘Right now, the problem is...’
Goddamn it.
This wasn’t just one or two problems.
‘In that case... I need to start by dealing with the most urgent one.’
And.
What was most urgent right now was, obviously—
‘The one who holds command authority.’
The difference buffs made was huge, but—
We could somehow fight without them if we had to.
If we assumed the enemy leader was exuding an insanely powerful [Fear] that had wiped out all our buffs—
We could still fight and win like that.
However.
‘If there’s no one capable of commanding this battlefield, the situation will just stagnate like this and never improve.’
Someone.
Had to take over Jo Beomseok’s role.
The person originally meant to fill that role was—
Captain Jo Jun, who held the Job of [Intermediate Strategist].
“COUGH...”
But right now he was in that state.
In that case.
Someone else had to take his place.
“...Haa.”
No matter how hard I racked my brain—
Only one candidate came to mind.
—Then who’s supposed to command this battle!
—How the hell should I know!
Right.
The one whom Jo Beomseok himself had pointed at.
—You figure it out yourself!
That one person.
“Haah, what else can I do... goddamn it.”
Suppressing the irritation boiling up in me, I scratched my head.
Then I looked at Jo Beomseok and asked in a flat tone.
“Hey, General Jo.”
“What!”
“What you said earlier. I’m going to take it as your sincere intent.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but didn’t I tell you to figure it out yourself!”
“Yeah, yeah.”
Well.
That was enough for here.
“Captain Jo Jun.”
Next.
I went down on one knee and met the eyes of the dying Captain Jo Jun.
“Guh... urgh...”
He wasn’t even hearing my words.
He was like a corpse right before death; it was questionable if he had any reason left.
Even so—
I spoke to him.
“What you told me earlier... I’m going to believe you meant it.”
What Captain Jo Jun had said—
While running toward me.
—If I’m right, we will welcome you!
If his guess about my identity was correct.
He and the Southern Branch.
No—
All the Awakeners belonging to the Gyeonggi Province Survivors’ Association—
—Will swear loyalty to you.
Would swear loyalty to me.
—And obey your orders!
And would follow my orders.
“In that case, from this point on.”
To follow my orders meant, in effect—
They were no different from my subordinates.
“Every Awakener belonging to the Association, including Captain Jo Jun—”
General Jo Beomseok.
Captain Jo Jun.
The two commanders of the Association’s expedition force.
Had entrusted that authority to me.
“Will come under my [management].”
As I murmured that—
“...?”
“You, just now, what did you...”
The people crowded around to treat Jo Jun stared at me like I was spouting insane nonsense...
But frankly.
Whether those people accepted it or not didn’t matter.
‘The entire expedition force is coming under my command.’
Just by—
Me thinking that.
[Your Trait is activating.]
There was...
One thing that changed in a big way.
[Great Teacher]
[If there is a disciple who has gained enlightenment through your teaching.]
[You may ‘borrow’ one Trait or Skill possessed by one such disciple in degraded form.]
[Disciple – Howard Jin]
[Borrowed Trait – Ingredient Management (Degraded)]
[Ingredient Management (Degraded)]
[Ingredients under the chef’s management remain at the superior state the chef has in mind.]
“...Huh?”
From the mouths of every Awakener belonging to the expedition—
A bewildered voice leaked out.
