The Legion wasn’t planning to pay attention to Seoul for a while.
And for good reason—there was nothing to gain in Seoul.
Right now, the Legion’s goal was to secure as much survivor strength as possible.
And there were no survivors in Seoul.
Near the boundary leading into Seoul, Gyeonggi’s awakened had already spread out a defensive line.
Since most of the monsters had strong territorial instincts, the number of monsters spilling out from inside was small.
In other words, there wasn’t a single reason to enter Seoul itself right now—Seoul was crawling with monsters.
So.
Normally, there’d be no reason to ever come back to a hell like this.
“Is that it?”
I was, right now,
stepping into Seoul... no.
To be precise—
“Yes.”
“I’ll figure out a route that lets us enter safely up to the target point.”
Together with my unit,
I was pushing a foot into that Seoul.
“Alone? You’re saying you’ll go alone?”
Honestly.
I’d planned to head to Seoul by myself.
Because—
“This trip to Seoul is purely to treat my body.”
Unless my unit had nothing to do,
the Legion was busy as hell with the Gyeongsangbuk-do campaign.
So I figured going alone was the correct call, but...
“Do you hear yourself?”
Sergeant Lee Minjae stared at me like I’d just spewed nonsense.
“What’s the problem?”
“What’s the problem? The problem is that you’re the Legion Commander, Youngjun!”
“I’m not saying I’m going to fight a war. I’ll just accomplish my goal and come back. Alone is plenty—”
“No!”
At that.
I couldn’t help feeling confused.
‘What is this?’
Sure.
I’d done a lot of solo actions up to now.
And Minjae had tried to stop me plenty of times.
But—
“I’m absolutely not sending you alone. If I even smell you trying to move solo, I’m restraining you on the spot. Keep that in mind.”
“Restraining me?”
This time the intensity was different.
Before, if I pushed it, he’d just sigh and watch me.
Now he was seriously considering using force.
“You know my magic is electricity, right?”
“......”
“I’m confident I can restrain you without killing you.”
Why was he opposing this so hard?
I didn’t get it, but—
“A guy who’s already not feeling well—what kind of confidence makes you think you can wander around alone...”
“What?”
At the mention of my condition,
I opened my eyes wide and turned my head.
And then—
“Ahem...”
“Well, uh. When Sergeant Lee Minjae asks, we can’t exactly hide it, can we.”
“You little shits...!”
The two corporals—
Gwangil and Seo Suhyeok—avoided my eyes and cleared their throats.
I’d thought only those two had noticed my condition.
Apparently not.
“......How far did it spread?”
“Squad-leader level... all know.”
“Squad-leader level—so, the guild executives?”
Early on, “squad-leader level” was how we referred to guild leadership.
But as the unit grew, everything got subdivided.
Now there were plenty of people called squad leaders outside the system’s official leadership slots.
And—
“No. I mean reconnaissance squad leader, combat engineer squad leader... including First Lieutenant Kim, too.”
“.......”
Somehow,
it looked like every squad-leader-level soldier knew about my condition.
“Haah. I hid it because there’s nothing good that comes from people knowing...!”
“Don’t worry too much. Everyone’s tight-lipped, and they’re better than you think. If hearing you’re not in good condition would shake morale, they never would’ve made it to squad-leader level.”
He was right.
Every Legion position is assigned based on ability.
So at least these were people who could handle a certain level of information sharing.
“If you really want to get down to it, I would’ve stopped you even if your body was fine. But right now it isn’t.”
“......Ahem.”
“And in that condition, you’re going alone to Seoul? The unit saw what Seoul looks like. I’ve heard everything they’ve been saying. Anyone who’d allow it would have to be out of their mind.”
I got it.
But I still had my reasons for wanting to go alone.
“You know what Seoul looks like right now.”
“......?”
“The number of monsters was insane. And because it’s a tight area, the density was high. Honestly, killing the monsters in Seoul would probably be harder than the Gyeongsangbuk-do expedition.”
There was a time I thought Seoul might still be intact.
Reality wasn’t even close.
‘We got overwhelmed.’
Back then, we had roughly a hundred elites gathered.
A hundred superhumans—enough to clash head-on with a large force if we wanted.
And even then, we saw Seoul and had no choice but to back off.
‘Thinking about it, that might’ve been inevitable.’
Those monsters seize key facilities first.
And no matter what, this country’s basically “Seoul Republic.”
‘The biggest population, the most facilities... if the strongest and most numerous monsters appeared there, that wouldn’t be strange at all.’
Unlike Gyeonggi—where the environment flipped and monsters thinned out enough for relatively safe zones to exist—Seoul had nothing like that.
A hellscape where you couldn’t even spot a place without monsters.
Seoul was a place packed with monsters to the point we couldn’t even consider taking it on until [vimana] could be restarted.
A frontal push was impossible.
So...
“I was going to use [Environmental Assimilation] to enter, accomplish my target, and come back out.”
“......The unit can’t use Environmental Assimilation.”
Only I could pull the trait itself over, thanks to [Absolute Taste (Enhanced)].
Even if I fed everyone cooking from Of the Blue Waterdrop-, the limit would be something like: a bit better adaptation, a slightly dulled presence—at best.
Even with my cooking skill having skyrocketed, that limit remained.
“Then how about this.”
“Hm?”
That was when—
“We know the Legion Commander’s stealth is incredible, but it’s also true there are monsters that can detect even that stealth. We can’t help but stop you from entering Seoul alone. You need an escort.”
“......So?”
“Instead, we build an escort team centered on unit members specialized in hiding themselves and operating discreetly—like you, Legion Commander.”
The person saying that was—
one of our squad-leader-level figures.
“The reconnaissance squad I lead is mostly made up of people specialized in surveying enemy territory while avoiding their eyes.”
The squad leader of the reconnaissance squad.
Squad Leader Jeong Sua.
I might gain stealth-related abilities through cooking, but—
awakened abilities were incredibly diverse.
And among them were people whose actual job was stealth.
Thieves, rangers, and the like.
People who had stealth-related skills.
And—
“With me and my people, we won’t be lacking in serving as the Legion Commander’s escort.”
The place where those stealth-specialized people were gathered was—
the reconnaissance squad.
“Hm. So the reconnaissance squad attaches as Youngjun’s escort?”
“That doesn’t sound bad. And Sua’s someone we can trust—she’s capable.”
Sergeant Lee Minjae and Squad Leader Lee Sanga nodded as well.
‘......It’s true.’
Reconnaissance Squad Leader Jeong Sua’s spirit arts had always been excellent for scouting.
And especially recently, I’d heard her spirit arts had improved by leaps and bounds after recruiting Borjin—an otherworld resident specialized in spirit arts.
Unlike the Gyeongsangbuk-do campaign, where we could use North Gyeongsang locals’ information—
Seoul, where not a single survivor remained, and where the city had collapsed so thoroughly you could barely recognize its original shape, was completely unknown territory for us.
‘With Jeong Sua’s ability... scouting would be useful.’
The only problem was—
‘I was originally going to assign escort duty to the vampires.’
Daytime would be an issue, but—
thanks to the huge manpower reinforcement we pulled from Gyeonggi, at night they were a force that didn’t really fall behind the Legion.
But we couldn’t easily use that force in front of the soldiers.
“I know what you’re worried about, benefactor.”
“Hm?”
As I was thinking that,
Jeong Sua spoke first.
“You hid your body’s condition... and you probably have information that can’t be shared with the other unit members.”
“That’s... not necessarily—”
“You don’t have to tell me that secret. Instead... if you leave it to me, I’ll make it so you don’t have to worry about it.”
Jeong Sua met my eyes as she spoke.
“No matter what happens, they won’t lose trust in you, benefactor—and even if they learn any secret, they will never leak it. I’ll form the escort with only people like that. People you can trust.”
“.......”
At that,
I stared blankly at Jeong Sua’s face.
She’d been with the unit for quite a while now.
But because she treated me so formally, I’d kept some distance.
Maybe her excessive politeness had felt like a burden.
But—
‘She’s one of the most diligent people in the unit. And one of the most loyal.’
No one could deny how hard she worked.
She had a thick base of support inside the unit too—she’d even hosted some kind of gathering, if I remembered right.
‘When I stuck out my tongue, the taste I felt... an excessively thick taste of “faith.”’
Meaning she trusted me a lot.
She’d been high level from the moment she joined the unit, too.
In ability and trust, she didn’t come up short.
And on top of that, Jeong Sua had been the one to submit proposals about the royal guard to me multiple times.
Now even the leadership—including Minjae—were backing her.
She wouldn’t back down easily.
And recently—
based on what I’d heard from Mirinae,
maybe it wasn’t good for me to hide everything from the unit and try to do everything alone.
“......Fine. I’ll leave the selection to you.”
“......!”
With a sigh, I nodded.
And then—
“Th-thank you!”
She looked like she might cry—eyes shimmering as she nodded with joy.
“I’ll do my absolute best! Please trust me and leave it to me!!!”
Watching her react like that,
it almost made me think this order wasn’t wrong.
-Arrogant children.
On the way to Seoul,
a voice spoke from within my shadow.
I answered quietly.
-Arrogant? What is.
-The woman, and the humans following that woman.
In the shadows,
Ariella continued in a voice that sounded offended.
-Don’t you already know, master? Why they clung so desperately to this Seoul trip.
-......Well.
At that,
I shrugged and thought.
‘That whole royal guard thing... it’s because of that.’
They’d submitted royal guard proposals again and again.
And every time, they’d been rejected.
So this time, they wanted to prove ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) their usefulness... something like that.
-That’s what’s arrogant about it.
-Hm?
-Your escort is my duty... mine, and my children’s. And those who aren’t even capable dare... dare to aim for that position.
At her words,
I couldn’t help feeling a little flustered.
-......Just checking. Don’t tell me you—
Sure.
Ariella had handled my escort up to now.
And yes, Jeong Sua and the others were clearly eyeing that role.
But—
-Are you... competing with the unit members?
-......
Even so,
I’d never imagined I’d see her trying to compete with other unit members.
-Ho, hoho... competing? What a hurtful thing to say...!
At my words,
she panicked, unable to hide her fluster.
-No, that’s... um. How do I put it? You might not know this, master, but I take your protection very seriously.
-......You do?
-People who aren’t capable aiming for this position—what if something happens to you because of it? That’s what I’m worried about! Ho, hoho... competing? Competing is something you do with people who can actually be compared, isn’t it?
...It’s a little suspicious.
But she wasn’t exactly wrong.
To feel threatened about “having your bowl taken,”
the opponent needs to be someone who can actually take it.
At least right now, there wasn’t anyone in our unit with ability comparable to Ariella.
‘......Ah. Wait.’
Thinking it through,
there was something that might make her feel her standing was threatened.
‘Is it because of that one that got added last time?’
I remembered we’d added someone.
If I factored that one in, I could understand her reaction.
But from my perspective, it was still absurd.
Someone with that level of ability, anxious about losing her spot.
-Even now, they’re jumping around saying they’ll prove their ability! You can tell how it ends without even looking.
Whether I found it ridiculous or not,
she kept talking in a fluster.
-They’ll probably get overwhelmed by the capital’s monsters soon, toss the mission aside, and bawl about sending them home!
-.......
-Then, when that happens, we send those ones home and dig into the capital with you ourselves... so there’s nowhere, absolutely nowhere, that I would have any reason to—
But then.
Something cut her off.
“Then, according to the plan.”
The leader of the reconnaissance squad—
and the person appointed captain of this escort team.
“From now on, we will begin the operation to safely guide the Legion Commander into the depths of Seoul.”
“Yes!”
At Jeong Sua’s order,
the people she’d selected moved in perfect unison.
And the real entry into Seoul began.
-......N-no.
And then...
a little later,
what I heard wasn’t people bawling and begging to be sent home.
-It... this isn’t...?
It was only—
a flustered voice,
coming from the shadows.
