In the end, like that,
I headed for Seoul together with the personnel selected from the reconnaissance squad.
‘...Impressive.’
And then.
I turned my head slightly and looked at the woman standing beside me.
“That’s the place the Legion Commander mentioned. However... it seems there are too many risk factors around it to approach right away. Please wait a moment.”
Squad Leader Jeong Sua.
‘I knew the unit members’ abilities had improved.’
The reason I’d wanted to go to Seoul alone was simple.
I thought that would be safer.
But in reality, it wasn’t.
Just like how no matter what I did as a cook, I could never outdo a combat specialist in combat,
awakened people display ability in their specialty that no one can touch.
‘I didn’t realize it was this much.’
Infiltrating Seoul with the reconnaissance squad
was far safer and faster than I’d imagined.
-Temporary halt. Hazard ahead.
When Squad Leader Jeong Sua said that—
-Remove it as quietly as possible, then return.
-Loyalty.
The reconnaissance soldiers would slide their bodies out of sight—
and then come back after removing the hazard.
In the past, the reconnaissance squad had been sloppy—basically just walking ahead carefully to check for danger.
But watching them carve out a safe route through this dangerous Seoul now, all I could do was admire it.
Thinking about it, there’s a reason search units in the military are brutal.
Being the first to infiltrate a place where you have no idea what danger might be waiting.
If you’re the ones who’ve shouldered that kind of work all along, how could you be weak?
“Squad Leader Jeong Sua.”
“Yes, benefactor.”
And.
Among them all, the one who stood out the most was—
“It feels like you’ve gotten a lot stronger.”
“...! Thank you!”
Squad Leader Jeong Sua replied in a voice trembling with emotion.
‘Just how wide is her detection range?’
The range at which she sensed hazards was absurd.
Well, her range had been wide even before,
so it would make sense if it widened further as her level rose.
But—
“Before, didn’t you rely only on the spirits’ line of sight?”
“That’s correct.”
“Now it feels like you’re sensing places you can’t see.”
“Hehe! You noticed...!”
At my words,
Jeong Sua spoke with a face that was barely holding back her delight.
“It’s thanks to the master you introduced to me, benefactor.”
“By ‘master,’ you mean Borjin.”
“Yes. Through my master... I learned from the beginning again, how to communicate with spirits.”
Aged Borjin didn’t have the physical ability to come along here,
but his spirit arts were incredible.
And as a result of those spirit arts being passed on to Jeong Sua—
“Right now, I share every sense that Bell feels.”
I looked up at the sky.
A large waterdrop, faintly translucent.
[Upper Water Spirit]
[Bell]
Bell had a form and size similar to a person.
Now it looked powerful enough that the cute name didn’t even fit anymore.
‘If it’s [Upper], that’s the stage right before [High].’
The fact that Bell had become an upper spirit meant
Jeong Sua’s spirit arts were right on the verge of entering the level 30 range.
And—
“Bell... shares senses with all the water that exists in nature.”
At that,
I couldn’t help widening my eyes.
Because—
“The water pooled nearby, the groundwater flowing beneath... all of it is no different from my eyes and ears and skin.”
“...!”
“The vibration near where the groundwater flows. The sight of monsters moving while stepping through pooled water... I can see it all, and feel it.”
If before it had been, at best, drone-level scouting ability,
now it was the senses a water spirit felt—
all information born from all water that existed nearby—flowing into her.
“And...”
The woman who had gained that impossible sense—
Jeong Sua—stared forward with an ominous look.
“Over there...”
The place she was looking at
was the very destination I was aiming for.
“There’s a presence that feels... nothing but ominous.”
The ground where the monster I’d met inside that repeating Seoul had settled.
Gangnam.
*****
I looked at Gangnam and thought.
‘Unbelievable.’
Most of Seoul had been destroyed so badly you couldn’t even recognize its shape.
Even Yeouido, where I’d gone at the end to see Jang Youngwoong, had been nearly unrecognizable as Yeouido—aside from being an island by the water.
But here was different.
“Most of the buildings are still standing.”
They were extremely old, and there were grotesque patches of something like flesh stuck to places.
Even so, I could still see traces of the Gangnam I’d visited a few times in the past.
“The monster occupying this place... probably has less of a destructive tendency.”
“Probably.”
And that made one thing click.
‘That monster I met in the Seoul the Matron created.’
At least from the conversation back then,
it was an existence I could speak with.
And when I looked back on it, it even felt fairly rational.
Meaning it wasn’t the type of monster that enjoyed indiscriminate destruction.
“......Benefactor.”
But.
That didn’t mean it wasn’t a monster.
Because—
“Do you really have to go in there?”
“Unfortunately. For now, I don’t have another method.”
Around it,
countless monsters—
-KRROOOOAAARRRGH...
filled every gap between the relatively intact buildings.
*****
Land crawling with countless monsters.
Their appearance was familiar to me.
[Ingredients Identification (Enhanced)]
[Nightmare Fusion]
[Artificial lifeforms created by dismantling and reassembling various living creatures.]
Those monsters that had attacked Yeouido
in that repeating Seoul.
Thinking about it now,
that “crack” was probably a phenomenon born as Jang Youngwoong approached his limit.
The Matron covered that Seoul with an [Otherworld] created by her power.
When she attacked me, she punched holes in it and sent monsters through.
And when Jang Youngwoong repeated time and his body approached its limit,
a hole must have opened in that otherworld.
These things had crossed over into the Matron’s otherworld through that crack.
And—
“......They look extremely strong.”
“And there are so many.”
Back then,
even with a hundred of our unit’s best elites, plus buffs from my cooking,
I’d judged it nearly impossible to kill every monster that came through the crack.
They were superior in quality.
And in quantity.
These weren’t beings you could mess with lightly.
“......Benefactor. I don’t know what your goal is, but isn’t this place too dangerous?”
Not just Jeong Sua.
Every reconnaissance soldier escorting me spoke with worry on their faces.
“For now, pull back.”
“B-but—!”
Unfortunately,
this was the only option that came to mind for treating my body.
And.
‘If what that thing said last time is true.’
It wasn’t something to trust blindly, but...
...the chance of my life being threatened immediately was low.
‘...If I get attacked, protect me no matter what it takes.’
-Yes.
After ordering the escort forces in my shadow, just in case,
I carefully headed toward the land crawling with monsters.
And then—
{Ho, to think you would visit such a humble place.}
An existence revealed itself from among the monsters.
A grotesque creature: a skull-like head with facial features stitched shut, only a bat-like membrane attached, floating as it drifted through the air.
{It is truly an honor, Legion Commander.}
The one I’d crushed underfoot in that Seoul.
...the very monster I’d spoken with.
*****
A monster with bat-like wings appearing between the monsters.
It looked exactly like the one I’d crushed last time.
But I wasn’t surprised.
‘I knew even then that wasn’t the real body.’
Most likely,
it was a terminal—something the true master that controlled these monsters used to convey its will.
-And no one else...
And when I met it in Seoul last time,
it told me, clearly.
-You’ll come looking for me of your own accord.
Back then, I hadn’t known what it meant.
Now I did.
“Doctor.”
According to the information the [Blue Bird of Rumors] delivered,
the owner of these monsters...
the one hiding its body right now was the monster called the Death Surgeon.
“When we met last time... inside that [Matron]’s territory, you noticed my condition, didn’t you?”
The prefix bothered me, but—
either way, it meant a monster with outstanding medical skill.
{Of course. Though, at most, I could only tell that something was wrong.}
“How could you do that?”
I didn’t like saying it myself, but
the awakened the Legion had were extremely high level now.
And the Legion had quite a few healer-class awakened as well.
{You ask what is obvious.}
But.
Even those people couldn’t properly diagnose my condition.
Meanwhile—
{I have devoted my entire life to the study of medicine. If I cannot recognize a body as broken as yours at a glance, I have no right to call myself a doctor.}
That thing—
even in the middle of that chaotic battlefield—recognized my condition at a glance.
It even left behind the line that I’d come looking for it soon.
It was humiliating, but—
just as the warriors of the Cheonsan Martial Academy were stronger than our unit’s fighters,
and Borjin’s spirit arts surpassed Jeong Sua’s,
“Like you said back then, I came looking for you.”
{Then you have only one reason for being here?}
“Yeah.”
Its medical skill was—
something said to overwhelmingly surpass the Legion’s healers.
“I want to know how to treat my body.”
{Hmmm.}
Even as I spoke,
I stuck my tongue out slightly, tasting the “flavor” leaking from it.
{I do consider myself quite confident in medicine, but...}
If I felt even the slightest hostile hint,
I planned to immediately throw the vampires from the shadows and run.
But thankfully, I didn’t sense anything overtly hostile.
Still—
{...Asking for treatment for free is a bit shameless, isn’t it?}
“What?”
There wasn’t any clear goodwill, either.
“When you attacked us in that otherworld, didn’t you say you’d pay us back later?”
{Haven’t I already paid that debt? Without my help, you would have had difficulty escaping that otherworld.}
“...That’s because you didn’t like that [Matron] either.”
{That was one of the biggest motives, yes. But that does not erase the fact that I helped you, does it?}
“......”
He was right.
Right now,
there was no debt between me and that monster.
And it wasn’t like it felt some immense favor toward me, either.
{Regrettably, I am not such an altruistic being that I will work for others for free. So... if you truly wish to treat that body.}
To treat my body,
{you must pay the price.}
To that monster—
meaning I had to pay a treatment fee.
{If you wish to treat that body even at the cost of a price.}
As it said that,
the line of monsters filling Gangnam began moving all at once.
{Come inside, Legion Commander.}
“......”
{We will negotiate the treatment fee.}
******
“B-benefactor.”
“Legion Commander...!”
Countless monsters split left and right.
A path opened between them.
An invitation to go inside.
Hearing that, the unit members were horrified, grabbing my shoulder.
“You absolutely must not go in.”
“Outside, we might be able to escort you somehow... but if you’re attacked in there, we won’t have any way to respond.”
Then,
the eyeball monster spoke in a tone like it didn’t matter.
{If you wish to leave, then leave.}
“......”
{If I am to treat you, I must receive a price. I merely wish to negotiate that price. If you do not wish to be treated, I have no intention of stopping you.}
And.
Hearing that, I—
“You can stay here if you want.”
“Legion Commander!”
walked into the gap between the monsters.
“Please come back, Legion Commander!”
“Like I said, you can wait here. I’m the only one with business inside anyway.”
I could hear soldiers trying to stop me behind my back.
But I had no intention of stopping.
This wasn’t something I did thoughtlessly.
‘I don’t taste anything aggressive from it.’
Even if negotiations went sideways inside,
it hadn’t invited me in to harm me.
‘In this world, you can’t survive by choosing only safe options.’
Even if ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) I had to shoulder the risk,
I had to choose the option that could treat my body.
And then—
“W-what should we do, Sister.”
“......”
From a distance,
I could feel the unit members staring at me in panic.
They’d come to escort me—
and now, not long after reaching Seoul, they were about to leave me inside dangerous enemy territory.
For them, it was a deeply agonizing situation.
“You ask something obvious.”
...And then—
“I promised the benefactor I would assemble people who could support the Legion Commander no matter what happens.”
Even though I’d clearly permitted them
to wait outside if they wanted—
“This, too, must be a test the benefactor is giving us....”
They hesitated for only a moment.
Then—
“We escort the Legion Commander according to our mission. Follow.”
With quick steps, they came after me,
then began walking near me as if shielding me.
“You really don’t have to come.”
“...What a hurtful thing to say. Even if we die, we will complete the escort mission.”
And.
Watching them, I thought—
‘Jeong Sua has wanted to create my royal guard from the beginning.’
She’d submitted the royal guard proposal to me again and again.
And now, these escort soldiers were the ones Jeong Sua had personally selected.
Even if it was limited to this mission,
they were effectively playing the role Jeong Sua had wanted so badly—my royal guard.
‘When I said you could leave, I meant it.’
And...
‘If they truly want to take the royal guard’s seat, leaving me behind would be absurd.’
If they’d abandoned my escort here,
I’d planned to use that as justification to reject every future royal guard proposal.
But—
“Fine, then.”
To protect me, they chose to follow me inside—
into a place where any danger could be waiting.
Watching that, I thought.
‘...I’ve never believed I needed a royal guard.’
But at least the minimum qualification—
it felt fair to say they’d proven that much.
