{This place seems to have once been a medical facility for the native species of this land...... humans.}
The place we arrived at after passing through the monsters.
Was a gigantic hospital that had once stood in the heart of Gangnam.
{Human medicine had a strange side to it. It seemed incredibly advanced in certain fields, yet absurdly backward in other fields...... it was quite entertaining.}
“.......”
{Anyway, this place had plenty of things that were usable for me as well. So now I’m living off it like this.}
“Living off it.”
If this had been the old days, I might’ve said something like, Who the hell gave you permission to occupy the Republic of Korea however you want?
But now, it wasn’t to that degree.
If there was something that bothered me—
“What happened to the original owners of this place?”
{That, I don’t know either. By the time I became able to move in this land, this place was already an empty building.}
I recalled that horde of those ‘fusions’ that filled Gangnam.
Their strength and their numbers were overwhelming.
‘It’s a bastard that’s claimed an area this wide. Probably...... even within Seoul, it’s a monster force strong enough to count on one hand.’
When [Ariella] first met me, her true body’s power hadn’t been exceptionally strong.
But because she had the power to handle that army, she’d been chosen as the monster guarding that bunker.
I didn’t know how strong this bastard’s main body was.
But the claim that there had been no survivors around here when it woke up was probably true.
If it was a monster that could command an army of this scale.
No matter how weak its main body was, it must have been sealed in this land for quite a long time.
{Sorry for dragging out the small talk. Shall we get straight to the point?}
“Before that, I want a clear answer.”
I stared at the eyeball monster in front of me as I spoke.
“You. You really can treat my body, right?”
{Hmm.}
Even if this bastard possessed extraordinary medical skill.
My condition wasn’t anything to take lightly, either.
I needed a definitive answer on this first.
{To answer that question, I think I’ll need to examine the Legion Commander’s detailed physical condition. It’s not the same as a proper checkup. If the Legion Commander allows it, I’d like to do an examination...... would it be alright if I touch the Legion Commander’s body?}
......That grotesque monster touching my body.
It was unsettling, but.
This was the situation: I needed treatment from this bastard.
“......Do it.”
{Then.}
The moment I nodded.
KRRRKKK.......
“!?”
The floor tiles of the hospital room flipped over.
And something rose up from beneath the floor.
{I’ll begin the examination.}
Slimy with bizarre oil, grotesque, disgusting tentacles.
Rushed toward my body.
*****
A sudden tentacle assault.
I had no choice but to be exposed to that assault as-is.
‘Damn it!’
The unit members were positioned outside this room.
With my condition right now, there was no way to respond to this attack.......
That’s what I thought, but—
KABOOM!
“Legion Commander!”
In that instant.
The unit members burst in through the door.
‘......How?’
They couldn’t have known what was happening inside from the outside.
Even so, they reacted so fast it was as if they’d been watching, which was a little strange.
But regardless of my confusion, the unit members moved quickly.
“Protect the Legion Commander!”
At Jeong Sua’s order.
The unit members drew their weapons and struck at the tentacles.
And then, what stopped those unit members was not.
Those strange tentacles.
It was me.
“Sto...... p.”
“!?”
“I said...... don’t attack.”
“Le, Legion Commander? What do you mean—”
I was trapped between sticky tentacles.
And as I reached a hand out toward the soldiers, I said,
“It feels like shit, but.......”
Even so.
I didn’t sense hostility from this bastard.
“It’s not an attack.”
Just like it said.
This was probably.
{The examination is finished.}
A checkup meant purely to confirm my condition.
*****
“Patient’s guardians. Why did you suddenly come in?”
After the tentacles sank back underground.
[Doctor] turned its head and looked at the unit members as it spoke.
{I don’t know why, but a consultation with a patient is a time when private matters can be discussed. If possible, I’d like you to step out.}
“Bu, but—”
{Up until now you were waiting just fine, so why did you suddenly do this?}
As the soldiers hesitated with their weapons still in hand.
I looked at them and said,
“Thanks for trying to help.”
“Legion Commander.......”
“But for now, I think it’s better to do what that says. I’m really fine.”
“......Understood.”
Only then.
The unit members backed out of the room, fidgeting and retreating cautiously.
{Those guardians are rather overzealous.}
[Doctor] spoke with a frown as it watched them.
Overzealous.
From my perspective, they were giving everything they had to protect me, so it was actually a good thing.
SQUELCH.......
“.......”
I looked down at my body.
Sticky mucus was smeared all over me.
“Couldn’t you warn me in advance?”
{Hmm? Warn you? About what?}
“That you examine people with those weird tentacles.”
At that.
That monster...... [Doctor] tilted its head and spoke.
{It was a normal examination. Was there a problem?}
“This is...... normal?”
{Hmm...... then it isn’t?}
“What kind of obvious—!”
When I stared at it with a look like I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
[Doctor] answered with a slightly startled expression.
{......I see. It seems there is a cultural difference between me and you.}
“A cultural difference?”
In [Ariella]’s case.
She drank human blood and read the information contained in that blood.
She had a tendency to judge that information by her own standards and label things accordingly, but.
Even so.
[Ariella] understood human civilization very clearly.
[ Borjin ] was similar.
It had captured human slaves and studied their language and culture.
On the other hand.
{I tried to investigate in my own way, but this land’s history seems quite long and complex.}
The way that bastard’s words echoed inside our heads.......
It was similar to that Dasmuru [Pope].
{Unless I could have interacted with living natives for a long time, I suppose. I’ve only met living natives a few times at most.}
“.......”
{I did obtain information about the natives from them, but you can’t understand everything from such brief encounters.}
Unlike [Ariella], who could use Korean fluently.
That bastard was undoubtedly a powerful existence, but.
It couldn’t speak Korean at all.
{I’ll be honest. I don’t really know your...... native culture very well.}
It might lack even a basic understanding of human civilization.
‘So cases like this exist.’
Usually, monsters with that level of intelligence and power had at least some understanding of humans, but.
Now that I thought about it, it would be stranger if all monsters were like that.
It was possible to have a case like this—immense strength, and yet ignorance of humans.
I wanted to get angry, but.
I couldn’t, because—
{So I thought it might be rude, which is why I asked if I could perform the examination.......}
“.......”
It had.
Asked me whether it could examine me.
{Naturally, I assumed that when one says “examination,” it refers to the act as I understand it.}
We just had different understandings of what an examination meant.
Either way, it had asked for my permission before doing it.
{I apologize for that part.}
“......Well, it’s not really something you need to apologize for.”
It was such an awkward situation to comment on.
I sighed inwardly, wiped off as much of the sticky mucus as I could, then sat back down.
{In any case, about the results of the examination.}
“Ah.”
{You asked whether I can restore the Legion Commander’s condition, yes?}
From the start.
That tentacle assault...... no, that examination, had been done to answer my question.
Whether it was confident it could treat me.
And.
The answer to that question was—
{To be honest, it’s a bit ambiguous.}
“What?”
Just like it said.
It was truly ambiguous.
*****
“Ambiguous? What does that mean?”
{As a doctor, I won’t lie. If what the Legion Commander wants is to return to the condition from before becoming like this.......}
It frowned slightly and sank into thought.
Then it nodded and spoke.
{That, even for me, is difficult.}
“What the—!”
At those words.
I couldn’t help but get irritated.
“I heard I’d end up coming to you, or whatever. Doesn’t that mean you can obviously treat my body?”
{.......}
“You acted so confident, and you can’t even treat a body like this?”
At that.
Maybe its pride was hurt.
{It seems the Legion Commander does not objectively grasp their own condition.}
After studying my body closely.
It let out a strange sigh and spoke.
{The meridians throughout the body are shredded, to the point it’s no different from rags, and the mana hole is barely holding onto its shape. Foreign mana keeps mixing in repeatedly, so it can’t be refined and just runs wild...... and I don’t know what you did, but the adhesion between soul and body has loosened a bit as well.}
“.......”
{If that’s the extent of it, that’s fortunate. But the blood vessels are clogged with a great deal of strange mana waste. There are abnormalities in the joints too. And besides that...... hmm. There’s too much to list, so I’ll stop here.}
At those words.
I had nothing to say, so I shut my mouth.
{To be honest, it’s hard to find any part of your body that’s fine.}
“......Yeah.”
{How brutally did you treat your body? I find it more astonishing that a body can even reach this condition.}
It was true that I’d handled my body roughly.
“Then what exactly is my condition?”
{If you were an ordinary human, you’d have already become a corpse...... that should suffice as an explanation.}
At that.
I flinched and spoke.
To the point I’d already be a corpse meant—
“Are you saying I could die if this continues......?”
{No, it’s not to that extent.}
I spoke while trembling with fear.
Fortunately, it didn’t seem like my life was in immediate danger.
The reason was—
{The Legion Commander possesses a strange vitality, do you not?}
“......!”
I couldn’t help but widen my eyes in shock.
This bastard.
{You’re half no longer an ordinary human. You’re barely enduring thanks to the power on that ‘non-human side.’}
Because it had already identified the monster mixed into my body.......
Even the blood of a night noble.
{I’ll have to do a detailed examination to know for sure, but that side’s order as a living being seems overwhelmingly higher than a human’s.}
“.......”
{There aren’t many living creatures with vitality this strong, even if one searches the entire universe. I don’t know how you ended up like this, but °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° you should be grateful for that other half’s power.}
At that.
A small voice rose from beneath my feet.
-That’s what it says, Master.
“.......”
-It’s best to listen to a doctor’s advice. You should be...... grateful, right?
......This little bastard.
Maybe it was because what I’d asked about it being wary of the unit members still stuck with it.
It was strangely snide.
Anyway.
The overwhelmingly powerful regeneration of a night noble’s blood was helping me.
{Thanks to that power, you won’t die any time soon. For ordinary daily life, there shouldn’t be any major problem. However...... if you rely on this power, one day you may be devoured by that non-human side.}
“One day.......”
But.
Depending too much on that blood wasn’t good, either.
“How long until that happens?”
{......It will be difficult to give you an answer to that.}
It couldn’t answer.
“So it’s not long.”
{That isn’t it. This depends on how much the Legion Commander pushes their body.}
Ah, I see.
The more I overused that power, the sooner the day would come when I’d be eaten by it.
{I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can give a definitive answer on that.}
“No. That’s enough for me. I never wanted more than that.”
{Is that so. Then I wish to ask one thing as well.}
Then.
This time, [Doctor] asked me a question.
{This doesn’t happen from pushing your body once or twice. At this level, there must have been many warning signs as your body deteriorated. Did you ever feel anything strange?}
“That’s.......”
When I hesitated to answer.
[Doctor] nodded as if it understood.
{I don’t need you to say it. You felt the warning signs, but you ignored them all.}
“.......”
The direct trigger for how I ended up like this was overusing the [Berserk] cooking in Gyeonggi.
But even before that, I’d done things that ground my body down, again and again.
‘The most representative one was...... stacking more than three cooking buffs.’
It wasn’t something I did unknowingly.
Every time I stacked buffs past a certain point.
[System] had warned me, in detail, that doing that would destroy my body.
Thinking back, it was a truly kind warning.
‘I just ignored it, that’s all.’
You know.
I thought one or two times would be fine.
And as those one or two times piled up.
{Even though you received the signal that your body would be ruined, you pushed it this far.}
Now.
It was starting to show in my body.
{Haa...... it isn’t someone else’s body, it’s your own. Wouldn’t it be better to treat it with a bit more care?}
A tone that sounded oddly scolding.
It felt like being lectured by a doctor on the day of a health checkup.
{The Legion Commander doesn’t want to die early, I presume. If you want to live long, stable body management is essential.}
After going on about cultural differences and all that.
A doctor was a doctor, even on that side.
But.
About this part, I had something to say too.
“Back then, I had to.”
{There was something you had to do, even if it meant turning your body into this?}
“Yes.”
The reason was simple.
“To survive. Me and my people.”
When I used those buffs.
Most of the time, it was because I had no choice but to use them.
“Even if my body ended up like this because of that choice, I don’t regret it.”
After the fight with that [Matron].
I decided to live with the belief that what I did was the best possible choice.
“Even if I could go back to that time, I’d make the same choice.”
Because First Lieutenant Kim—who had been the person I carried the greatest regret about—
Had given me a definitive answer that what I did was the best.
{......I won’t ask what circumstances you were under.}
After listening to me, [Doctor] looked at my face with a strange expression, then opened its mouth.
{Anyway, what matters is the point, but.}
“Yeah. In the end, it’s impossible to treat my body, right?”
{If the Legion Commander’s request is to treat the body back to its past condition, then yes. However.......}
RRRIP.
The mouth of the eyeball monster that was conveying [Doctor]’s will tore open.
{Ha ha. The Legion Commander is lucky.}
It was an utterly grotesque sight, but.
If this sound in my head was to be believed.......
‘Is that supposed to be a smile?’
That bizarre, split mouth.
It seemed to be expressing laughter.
{Fortunately, it’s not as if there is no second-best option.}
“A second-best option?”
And then.
FLUTTER.......
{Before we begin proper treatment, let’s talk about the treatment fee first.}
Something came flying from somewhere.
Another eyeball monster.
It had a piece of paper in its mouth.
It flapped closer to me, then spread that paper out on the table.
FLAP.
And.
[Doctor] pointed to a certain place on that paper and said.
{Do you know this area?}
“This is.......”
And.
As I stared at the paper, I said,
“The place where the 3rd Battery was.”
The paper the monster brought was a map of Seoul.
And the place the doctor indicated was...... the 3rd Battery.
{In exchange for treatment, what I want is simple.}
When we clashed with Seoul’s soldiers in that [Otherworld] of the [Matron].
That was the very place where the military unit that had shelled us was stationed.
{Capture the existence that has nested here and bring it to me.}
What would be there was a military unit.
In other words.
‘Capture the monster that’s taken up residence in the military base.......’
Setting aside the difficulty of the mission.
I lifted my head and looked at it as I spoke.
“......Then my body can return to how it was?”
{No. As I said, that is impossible.}
If it couldn’t restore my body to its original state.
I had no reason to accept this mission.
{Instead.}
As I was thinking that.
RRRIP.
The monster’s mouth tore open again.
{How about...... making you a body better than the one you had in the past?}
It.
Smiled that grotesque smile as it said it.
