“You said earlier. That people like me, Minjae, Gwangil, or Suhyeok—people who used to be ordinary—are now displaying remarkable abilities.”
“I did.”
“Thinking about it now, I don’t think it’s because we had some great talent and that’s why we turned out like this. Like you said, we were ordinary people. And yet we ended up like this because, well. How should I put it.”
I scratched my head and said.
“To survive in this world...... we had to become like this.”
It’s a chaotic world.
You couldn’t survive while remaining an ordinary person.
We had to adapt to the changed world somehow, and—
“At least up to now, I think we’ve done pretty well.”
There were a lot of hardships.
But we managed to overcome them and succeed at adapting.
“Politics and identity. Sure, they’re complicated issues.”
Certainly.
Someday, there might be problems because of this.
But.
“Just like we managed up to now, I figure we’ll...... somehow manage going forward, too.”
“.......”
“So that’s what I’m saying.”
I looked at First Lieutenant Kim’s face as I spoke.
“The reason you gave is, in the end, all anxiety about things that haven’t happened yet.”
First Lieutenant Kim has become someone who can’t live without my cooking.
The person who watches my mood more closely than anyone else in the unit is probably First Lieutenant Kim.
And yet he made a proposal to me that was obviously going to meet resistance.
“It feels like that’s a little weak as a reason for you to bring this up.......”
“.......”
“Am I mistaken?”
I felt like there had to be some other.
More important reason.
“Hoo, good grief. That guy who was so ordinary, what kind of awareness......”
And then.
At my words—
“......It’s not really some grand reason.”
First Lieutenant Kim shook his head side to side,
Then let out a small sigh and opened his mouth.
“It’s just...... I thought it wasn’t a reason I could use to persuade others, so I didn’t bother saying it.”
“......?”
As if he was embarrassed to say this,
He scratched his cheek and spoke.
“Ahem. If we turn into warlords like this, then our identity will gradually move farther away from ‘Republic of Korea Army.’”
“......Well, yes.”
“And our identity of belonging to the Republic of Korea will also get fainter and fainter since people from other worlds are joining the unit from time to time, too.”
That couldn’t be helped.
Since the state can’t function as a state, it’s only natural.
To me, I wondered what the problem was, but—
Apparently.
There are types of people who take that kind of thing as a problem.
“If the identity of the Republic of Korea disappears, and that place gets replaced by a new...... warlord faction called the Legion.”
As if even imagining it made him regretful,
First Lieutenant Kim continued with a bitter gaze.
“I felt like it would turn into a world too far removed from the world before the collapse...... and the past I knew.”
“.......”
“That scared me a little.”
He said it indirectly,
But I could understand what he meant.
‘Patriotism, something like that.’
This First Lieutenant Kim.
Was he a patriot, despite how poorly it suited him.
“It’s a ridiculous reason even after you hear it, right? That’s why I was going to not say it.”
“.......”
“That’s all. It’s only a suggestion...... if you judge differently, I’ll follow that.”
When First Lieutenant Kim finished speaking,
I fell into thought for a [N O V E L I G H T] moment.
To put it bluntly.
Even if I ignored First Lieutenant Kim’s proposal, there wasn’t anything he could do.
First Lieutenant Kim is the person who has been bound to the effects of my cooking the longest.
At this point, it would be impossible for him to break out of that addiction.
......But.
‘For First Lieutenant Kim to make a proposal like this.’
The sense of responsibility and weight of being this group’s external leader.
And an obsession with the concept of the nation.
First Lieutenant Kim, in his own way,
Must have been thinking a lot about this world in many ways.
That proposal, too, likely came after quite deep deliberation.
‘It isn’t a proposal I can dismiss lightly.’
Even if he’s someone subordinate to my cooking,
Even so, First Lieutenant Kim is still a member of the Legion.
I needed to consider this proposal seriously.
‘......To be exact, it isn’t patriotism.’
More than that...... right.
‘The gap between the present and the past.’
I recalled the cities of Gangwon I had looked back on.
In Chuncheon, spires engraved with bizarre magic circles were being erected everywhere, and a gigantic fortress had taken position in the river.
In Inje County, people were living inside a forest made of thick, enormous trees.
‘They say they’re rebuilding human life in their own way...... but it’s definitely different from the past.’
This world was undergoing far too rapid a change.
And there had often been people from before who couldn’t accept that change.
Most of the people who had lost their minds inside [Dasmur] were people who couldn’t accept the rapidly changed world and chose to let their minds go themselves.
‘For First Lieutenant Kim, that ‘line you can’t accept’ is the concept of the nation.’
If it were only simple patriotism,
Like First Lieutenant Kim said, it would have been nothing more than a flimsy reason that couldn’t persuade anyone, and I would have brushed it aside.
But.
‘It won’t be only First Lieutenant Kim who has this kind of attachment to the past.’
It’s the nation they belonged to for their entire lives before the collapse.
There’s no guarantee there aren’t many people who have attachment to it.
This world will keep changing more and more.......
But there’s also no guarantee everyone can adapt to that change.
The less change, the better.
And if that’s the case—
‘It might be better to maintain the concept of the nation as well.......’
I arrived at that conclusion.
“It’s impossible for the Legion to go under another faction.”
“Youngjun.......”
......In the end.
Letting out a sigh, I opened my mouth.
“As I said, the Legion members are people who gathered because they saw the Legion’s name. That isn’t something I can decide on my own. But.......”
“But.”
“I’ll promise you one thing.”
If—
Only in the case that they really are people who can be called a proper government.
“When I speak with them...... I’ll think about your proposal one more time.”
“......!”
Going under them would be impossible.
But maybe—
If it was just forming a cooperative relationship...... that might be possible.
“Th-that’s enough! Really...... thank you. Truly.”
“You don’t need to thank me.”
Nothing had been decided yet.
First Lieutenant Kim made a suggestion, and I just made my own judgment from there.
‘Besides.......’
I let out a small laugh and continued.
“To begin with, it might be meaningless that we’re talking like this here.”
“......?”
“We haven’t even met them yet.”
Whether they truly have the qualifications to call themselves the government, that can be put off until later.
We talked like we could decide our relationship with them.
But.
“Maybe they built up a bigger force than we did.”
They might not have.
‘Seoul is a place we expected to have a high survival difficulty...... and they’re saying they survived there.’
The first time since Gyeonggi Province.
We would be facing.
A faction from another region.
If our expectations are right, other regional forces besides ours will also be gathering there.
“As I’m sure you know.”
And.
When meeting people from other factions.
“First Lieutenant Kim’s role...... will be very important.”
“......!”
The external leader was none other than First Lieutenant Kim.
At my words—
“Since you granted my request...... I’ll also do my best.”
First Lieutenant Kim Hyeon-seok nodded with a heavy expression.
‘......For now, this should be enough.’
From here on.
All that was left was to go there and collide head-on.
Looking out the window, I thought.
A broken road, but with a strangely familiar feel.
I could tell for sure it was the road that led to Seoul.
‘Seoul.’
Gangwon was becoming a place far too different from the past.
And.
Seoul was probably similar.
‘Just the fact that there are survivors is astonishing. Probably...... it has become a place quite different from the Seoul of the past.’
And.
The fact that there are people who find it hard to accept that change—I had just learned that through my conversation with First Lieutenant Kim.
‘There are a lot of people from Seoul among the unit members, too.’
I could only hope.
That they wouldn’t be too shocked when they saw how Seoul had changed.
With that thought,
Our unit advanced toward the capital of the Republic of Korea.
Seoul.
*****
After the conversation with First Lieutenant Kim wrapped up,
The unit approached Seoul without much trouble.
The outskirts of Gangwon are places where our unit’s influence doesn’t properly reach.
Around us, monster corpses and human corpses were mixed together in a chaotic tangle, and even the roads were hard to travel properly.
“It would’ve been hard to come with a large force.”
“It’s a good thing we decided to come in small-unit scale for now.”
Whether it should be called a good thing or not.
Right now we weren’t going to conquer Seoul—we were going to meet the faction in Seoul that invited us.
Since the number of troops wasn’t large, our travel speed didn’t drop too much even on unmaintained roads.
“We’ve arrived.”
And.
“This seems to be...... the boundary line with Seoul from before.”
“Hm.”
I looked down at the ground and said.
“It’s viciously melted here.”
“Well, it’s nice that it makes the boundary line easy to confirm, isn’t it?”
The spot where the boundary line between Gyeonggi Province and Seoul would have been.
That place was filled with traces that looked like they had melted down under intense heat along where a wall had originally been.
Buildings were burned and melted down, and even the ground had formed deep pits.
‘What happened to the people who originally lived around a boundary like this.’
Maybe it was fortunate that boundary areas between regions weren’t neighborhoods where many people lived.
“Then...... let’s go.”
“Yeah.”
It was a pretty deep and wide pit, but—
Me and the soldiers weren’t ordinary humans anymore, either.
THUD!
I lightly kicked off the ground and cleared the pit.
And the moment I crossed from Gangwon into Seoul like that—
[.......]
‘......Huh?’
I—
Was seized by a strange sense of incongruity.
*****
THUD—
My body, which had lightly leapt into the air, touched the ground.
It meant I had entered Seoul from Gangwon without trouble, but—
‘......What was that just now?’
That strange sense of incongruity I suddenly felt.
Because of that bizarre, unknown sensation, I had to stand still for several seconds.
‘It doesn’t feel like...... it’s just my imagination.’
My physical condition hadn’t been good lately, but—
This felt a little different.
I was bothered by what that incongruity was, but—
Since nothing came to mind, I was frowning when—
“......This is strange.”
“Huh?”
One of the soldiers who entered Seoul with me.
Corporal Seo Suhyeok looked around, then said with a frown.
“Strange how?”
“Sergeant Shin, don’t you think it’s strange? Here.......”
He jerked his chin at the surrounding scenery.
A road that should normally be filled with monster corpses and all kinds of battle traces.
That road was now—
“Isn’t it too intact.”
“Hm.”
It was being kept so clean it felt uncanny.
‘That’s true.’
I turned my head slightly and looked back.
Where we came from.
The roads in Gangwon, if I put it nicely, weren’t in good shape.......
To be blunt, they were a complete mess.
‘We do maintain the roads in our territory to some extent, but we couldn’t do that all the way out to the outskirts like this.’
Normally it might be different, but in a world where monsters roam around,
A road that isn’t under the management of a proper faction was so broken that vehicles couldn’t travel it at all.
But.
Even though this should be the far outskirts of Seoul—
Not only were the roads being kept clean enough to compare to near our base in Chuncheon,
There also wasn’t much sense of monsters nearby.
‘......Was that incongruity earlier because of this?’
Looking closely, it wasn’t like there were no traces of battle.
Monsters must have appeared here, too.
“For now, keep advancing.”
Even though I was bothered by why such an intact road was being maintained—
I didn’t have to go far before I learned the reason.
“Stop, stop!”
“......!”
After moving forward for a while along the road.
In the distance, there was a group of people.
“Those approaching, halt!”
A large number of humans appeared, blocking the way.
Me and the unit members couldn’t help but flinch at the sight.
“Sergeant Shin? That’s......!”
“Yeah. I see it too.”
I stared at the insignia attached to their shoulders.
A yellow shield.
And a long sword pattern engraved above it.
The yellow shield symbolized peace.
And the long sword symbolized the power to mercilessly crush those who threaten that peace.
And the corps that insignia represented was—
“Capital Defense Command.......”
They were soldiers guarding the capital of the Republic of Korea.
Seoul.
