THWACK!
“Set this burner up over there.”
“Yeah.”
I pulled tools and ingredients out of the shadows, then—
I went straight into prep.
‘A full-power cook for the first time in a while.’
There was a lot to get ready.
“Take these ingredients down to the stream and wash them.”
“Yeah!”
With First Lieutenant Kim helping out,
I got everything set up as fast as I could.
FWOOSH.
FZZZAT!!!
Cooking started on the lit burner.
Thanks to the effect of [Field Cooking],
my cooking speed on the battlefield becomes ridiculously fast.
And the [Assistant Chefs] were already busy sweeping through the sky.
At this rate, I could probably finish this one quickly, too.
“......First Lieutenant Kim?”
“Yeah. What’s next?”
If my estimate was right,
the dish would be completed in time, easily.
And if that was the case—
“There’s nothing else for you to do, but there’s one thing I want to ask.”
“Hm?”
While I cooked,
there was one issue I wanted to pin down before we moved on.
“You said earlier that once you activate [Meeting Expectations], your mental strength is at a level that can overcome any mental interference.”
“I did.”
“And you also said you could even overcome interference that was already there from the past.”
“Yeah. That’s right.”
It was a blatantly cheating skill that made no sense,
but after watching him break the Matron’s illusion on his own, there was no room to doubt it.
“Then let me ask. That mental immunity.”
And when I heard that for the first time,
one thought had come into my head.
The Matron had definitely applied mental interference to our unit members, but—
in truth—
“Does that include the effect of my cooking...... too?”
“.......”
The thing that had influenced our unit’s minds the most
wasn’t the Matron.
It was me.
And—
“Then the dishes I fed you are the same, aren’t they?”
First Lieutenant Kim Hyeon-seok
was, among them all,
the person who’d been hit with the most mental interference.
It was a question I asked just in case, but—
“Well...... yeah.”
Looks like my guess
hit the mark.
*****
“The moment I used the skill, it felt like my head cleared up.”
“.......”
“My thoughts started running tight and fast, so it wasn’t hard to figure out why. There had been something in my head that was blurring it all this time. And.”
First Lieutenant Kim
looked at me with an expression I couldn’t read, and said,
“My mind was being heavily affected by your cooking.”
“.......”
Since the day the world ended,
I’d done a lot of things.
But among them,
the thing that dragged the most guilt out of me was what I’d done with First Lieutenant Kim.
Back then,
there was a time I thought leaving him as-is would cause huge problems for our survival.
We’d wanted to push him out and install a different commander—
and as a means to do it...... even murder had been discussed.
But.
I voted against murder.
Instead, I’d suggested another method.
‘Putting First Lieutenant Kim’s mind under my control through cooking.’
He was forcibly detained by me,
made so he had no choice but to obey my orders—
remade into someone who couldn’t be satisfied without my cooking.
At the time, it had been unavoidable if we wanted to live.
And it had been a time when I didn’t fully understand my own power yet.
But as a result—
First Lieutenant Kim, who had unmistakably possessed dignity as a human being,
fell into something no different from an addict who couldn’t even live properly without my cooking.
‘And I used a First Lieutenant Kim like that however I wanted, through my cooking.’
An act that openly trampled on someone’s dignity.
And worse—
‘I’m not like those other criminals.’
Unlike the criminals who had openly acted as our enemies,
First Lieutenant Kim was only a factor that could become a long-term problem for our unit.
He hadn’t even committed some crime.
He was, literally,
just—
because he was incompetent.
Because of that alone,
his dignity as a human being was crushed, and he was reduced to someone who could only submit to another person’s orders.
“You must’ve hated me.”
If it had been me on the receiving end of that,
and then only later realized the truth and managed to break free—
“Me...... I’d have grabbed a kitchen knife first, then stabbed you right in the gut.”
“Heh.”
A horrific crime where I’d have nothing to say no matter what kind of retaliation I got.
If First Lieutenant Kim wanted that retaliation,
then right here, right now, I’d have to remove him first,
and then solve this situation by another method I’d already thought through.
“Honestly...... I’m sorry to say this, First Lieutenant.”
“Yeah.”
“Right now...... can I consider you an ally?”
Even so,
there was one reason I asked.
Through [Taste Bud Enhancement],
I could taste far more things than before.
And judged by that taste—
“Who knows.”
From First Lieutenant Kim,
I couldn’t taste any spicy heat like rage.
“Hate you? If I said I didn’t have that kind of feeling at all, that’d be a lie...... but if you ask whether I was furious enough to lose it, no. Not really.”
First Lieutenant Kim said that much,
then gave a short, crooked smile.
“If I’d been that mad, I wouldn’t be sitting here talking. The moment I used the skill, I would’ve stabbed you first.”
“Ah.”
It was only after hearing that that I finally realized.
‘All those loops.......’
The repetitions created by Jang Youngwoong.
In those loops, First Lieutenant Kim had used that skill quite a few times.
And now that I thought about it—
every time,
First Lieutenant Kim would’ve been freed from the mental control of my cooking,
and would’ve realized he’d been dominated by it.
‘But not once did he ever bring it up.’
Even so,
he was always cooperative with me.
Because of that,
I’d assumed he was still under the influence of my cooking.
“Why......?”
“To the reason.”
To me,
it was something I couldn’t understand at all.
“Youngjun. The reason you did that to me was because you decided, back then, that I wasn’t fit to be the head of the unit.”
“......I’m sorry, but yes.”
“Well, it’s pretty humiliating. But if you look at what I was really capable of, it’s not exactly wrong.”
I’d imprisoned and dominated First Lieutenant Kim
because I thought he wasn’t suitable to be our leader.
In the end, I’d carried out a kind of coup and stolen his seat.
“If it hadn’t been you, Youngjun...... I’d probably have been a lot angrier.”
“.......”
“But.”
He looked down at his hand,
then clenched it into a fist.
“And you were surprised earlier too, right? This skill. [Meeting Expectations]—it’s a power that doesn’t make sense.”
“Seems like it.”
“When I use it, I turn into someone so capable it’s absurd, even to me. Of course, the downside is it burns way too much mana. And.”
He opened and closed that fist a few times,
then muttered in a small voice,
“Originally, this skill’s effect probably wasn’t meant to be this strong.”
“What?”
“In the end, it’s just a power that raises your ability up to the level other people think you’re at.”
Just like he said,
[Meeting Expectations] is a power that raises you to match the level people evaluate you at.
Which meant the reverse was true, too.
“It’s only meaningful if there’s a huge gap between what people think you are and what you actually are.”
“That’s... true.”
“And unless what people think you are is overwhelmingly higher than what you actually are, it’s not worth using while paying this much mana. If it worked the normal way, it’d be a ridiculous trash skill.”
But even so,
right now this skill was being exercised as a completely broken cheat.
“The reason I can reach this level of ability...... is probably because the standard people use to judge me is that I’m the head of an organization called the [Steel Legion].”
“And what about it?”
“Right now, I’m getting this power as the leader of the Legion who achieved everything the Legion has achieved. And what that means is simple.”
He clenched his fist tight,
then raised his head from where it had been lowered.
“The power I’m using right now—this is nothing more than the power a real [Steel Legion Commander] should be able to use.”
“So what are you—”
“And the real [Steel Legion Commander] is someone else.”
With his head lifted,
he pointed at me.
“You.”
“.......”
“The person who stacked up such unbelievable achievements that people would think it’s only natural for them to have unbelievable ability. The real [Steel Legion Commander] is you, Sergeant Shin Youngjun.”
Only then
did I understand what he was trying to say.
“Everything I can do right now comes from the achievements you built. Even my ability right now is nothing but the shadow of what you accomplished.”
“That—”
“Do you know what the first emotion I felt when I used this ability was?”
I’d never thought that far.
The Legion was a big organization,
and First Lieutenant Kim was its public-facing head—
so I’d just assumed people would expect him to be that capable...... that was all.
“I got chills.”
First Lieutenant Kim’s thoughts
seemed a little different.
“If this much power is what people think fits the head of the Legion, then how incredible does the real commander have to be—someone people think is that incredible....... I got chills just thinking that.”
Because the power he could exert was overwhelming,
that meant—
“I even felt awe.”
Toward the existence
that power originated from,
he couldn’t help but be amazed.
“What you did to my mind is personally regrettable. But thanks to that, the Legion survived and grew like this.”
“.......”
“If I’d really acted as the commander, this would’ve been impossible. And the reason I’m even alive right now is, in a sense, thanks to the commander who achieved all of this. So.”
Tap.
First Lieutenant Kim nudged my shoulder.
“The feeling I have right now isn’t hate, or anger, or anything like that, Youngjun.”
“First Lieutenant.......”
“Awe, respect, and.”
He patted my shoulder gently and said,
“Gratitude.”
“.......”
When I stared at his face, speechless,
First Lieutenant Kim gave a short, crooked smile.
“Right now I’ve got a bit of a sense for things, you know. I can pretty much guess what you usually thought when you looked at me.”
“That’s—”
“But I’m telling you this clearly. You don’t need to feel guilty about this, and you don’t need to regret it.”
A commander who’d become more capable than anyone else,
opened his mouth with absolute certainty.
“You made the right choice.”
“......Even so.”
“The person it happened to is saying it. I’m not accepting objections.”
At those words,
I felt my insides knot up.
All the regrets the Matron had shown me—
there were plenty from before the end of the world,
but—
‘There were far more from after.’
If only I’d made this choice then.
If only I hadn’t made that choice then—those thoughts and regrets.
“Believe me, Youngjun. Up until now, you’ve done an unbelievable job.”
I couldn’t shake off those regrets to the very end.
That was why
I could only escape the Matron’s attack ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) through a workaround, too.
“Even if I stayed like this—activated with this skill—and went back to the past, I still wouldn’t be able to achieve results on your level.”
Those choices I’d been regretting all along
weren’t purely bad.
“You’re the one who has the right to lead us.”
“.......”
The person I thought had only been harmed by that choice
was saying this to me.
‘Ah.’
As I recalled the regrets the Matron had shown me,
I felt the lumps that had settled in my chest
slowly start to loosen.
“......Thank you.”
“I’m just stating facts.”
But then—
“Also.......”
“Also?”
“You tried to use your skill-made food to control my mind, but.”
After saying that, First Lieutenant Kim scratched his cheek like he was embarrassed.
“Even without that kind of skill, I liked your cooking in the first place.”
“.......”
That made me remember the old days back at the military base.
Whenever a disgusting menu came out,
First Lieutenant Kim would always call me.
Not some gross pollock-fillet fry—
couldn’t I make him pasta on the side, just for him?
An annoying, unbearable request—
the kind of thing only a worthless officer would do.
But—
“Even without that skill. Eating your food...... it was pretty enjoyable.”
“......Heh.”
That was because
he genuinely thought my cooking tasted good.
“Your cooking’s mental interference probably won’t work on me anymore. But...... you get it, right?”
“Yes. Yeah. I’ll cook for you a lot. But you know too, First Lieutenant.”
“Yeah. To be treated to your cooking.......”
First Lieutenant Kim said that much,
then carried the completed dish and moved off somewhere.
“I’ve gotta earn my keep too.”
The soldiers collapsed on the floor,
trapped inside the Matron’s illusion—
were there.
