Deputy Commander Lilian
So that was roughly the story: he had possessed the body of Joren Tamer, a character from a game.
The status window had given him the following information, which did little to help him accept the situation.
First. For reasons unknown, the real world and the game world had become connected, and as a result the world inside the game had been warped. Ho-yeong was the one chosen to set it right.
Second. In this game world, humans could be revived once through a priest even after death. In Joren Tamer’s case, he had died on a mission and, during the resurrection ritual, Ho-yeong’s soul had been layered over his own.
Third. Ho-yeong shared Joren’s memories, but he could not properly use Joren’s abilities. Instead, he had been granted a skill called Edification, which could turn hostile monsters or people to his side.
“Hey, status window. That part’s certain, right?”
But more important to Ho-yeong than any of that was this:
“That no matter how much time passes in the game, time in the real world is frozen.”
His fear for the younger siblings he had left behind.
“Please rest assured, Guardian. In your world, time no longer flows. If you succeed in clearing this world, your body and soul will return to the point in time when you were summoned.”
“Meaning I go back to lunchtime, huh? Haah.”
Ho-yeong let out a deep sigh. It was a tremendous relief. Just thinking about his siblings searching for him while he was gone made his chest ache.
“Still, let me take stock of my situation.”
He had managed to avoid the fate of becoming captain of the queen’s guard thanks to his knowledge of the game’s story, but instead he had ended up as a Byeonbangbaek, sent off to defend some backwater territory.
Was the quest title being something like ‘territory defense’... was I fated to end up like this? Should I have gone and begged Queen Daisy instead? No, what kind of woman is she... no way she would’ve listened.
Regret changed nothing.
“The queen’s body was as strong as steel, and her will as hard as Dandanum.”
Remembering the line he had often seen while playing as Daisy, Ho-yeong closed his eyes. They had compared the hardness of her heart to Dandanum, the strongest metal in this world, so what else was there to say?
“Commander, no, my lord. Are you all right?”
Just then, someone entered the military tent. It was his deputy and second company commander, Lilian.
“I-I’m fine.”
Ho-yeong averted his eyes. Her gaze, mixed with concern and suspicion, was uncomfortable.
Lilian ★★★☆
[ Stats | Grade | Base Value ~ Maximum Value ]
Strength A: 75~87 (A famous-sword-class spear user. Skilled at handling aura)
Intelligence B+: 60~68
Magic C: 10~22 (Has talent in many areas, but born with little mana)
Charm B+: 55~76
Leadership A: 70~83
Mentality B+: 65~79 (Quirk: wants to exterminate kobolds)
Edification S+: 95~150
(Lilian is currently harboring doubt and disappointment over the fact that the superior she admires has changed so drastically.)
*Background*
A girl who lost her entire family to kobolds.
Joren Tamer also saved her when she was on the verge of death.
She took his outstretched hand and followed him without hesitation, becoming a soldier as a matter of course, but gave up on becoming a knight. Not because she lacked the ability, but because she wanted to remain forever at the side of the man she respected as his subordinate.
Because the moment she looked into his eyes, the status window spilled open in a cascade.
“What is this status window?”
“Huh?”
“Is it a person only you can see, my lord?”
“No, it’s not a person, it’s just...”
“Then what is it?”
Those reddish-brown eyes, the same color as her cropped hair, were fixed on Ho-yeong.
“For the past several days, since we came here from the southern plains to this capital, Kainea, you have kept saying that word, status window.”
Ho-yeong’s head throbbed. This stupid, inconvenient status window.
I can’t explain it unless I call it out loud, so what am I supposed to do? Dammit.
There was no way he could explain the status window. If he did, he would be revealing on his own that he was not Joren Tamer.
And then who knows what kind of random event will trigger.
It was maddening.
“It’s nothing. About resurrection—”
“Then you were going to say resurrection aftereffects. This is the thirteenth time I’ve heard it.”
“If you already know, why ask? No, forget it. If I’ve caused you concern, I’m sorry. It might even look less like resurrection aftereffects and more like I’ve hatched out of an egg.”
Ho-yeong ran a hand over the back of his head and sighed.
It was a small gesture, but to Lilian it was shockingly unfamiliar. The Joren Tamer she had known before his death had never once done anything like that.
“Commander. I will dare to call you Commander, not my lord.”
“Do that. I’m not a commander anymore, anyway.”
The moment Ho-yeong was appointed Byeonbangbaek, Joren Tamer’s former post vanished on its own.
“May I ask one question?”
“Ask one, then.”
Lilian strode closer. Ho-yeong flinched at the pressure of her approach, though he tried not to show it.
“Are you really... the knight Joren Tamer I knew?”
“I am.”
Lying to others did not suit his nature. Still, Ho-yeong bit down hard on his lip.
“Do you remember the first time you met me?”
You said you’d ask one thing!
Ho-yeong found this same-age woman deeply hard to handle. She wasn’t as frightening as the queen, at least.
“Of course I remember.”
Thanks to the days that had passed since the possession, he had become able to dig through Joren’s memories fairly well. In this case, though, he did not need to.
This was the sequence he had to go through to unlock Lilian’s character. A scene he had seen over and over again through repeated playthroughs.
“What did you say to me then?”
At that moment, a soldier entered the tent.
“Commander... no, my lord. The soldiers are all waiting.”
Queen Daisy had left the matter of the company’s disposition to the Byeonbangbaek, telling him to do as he wished with them, whether by taking them in as vassals or sending them back to the military.
“Understood. I’ll be out shortly.”
Seeing his superior silent for a while longer, Lilian turned away.
If this was going to become a memory without memory, a future without him, there was no need to keep turning it over.
“Lilian.”
Just as she began to move away, a hand caught her shoulder.
“Come with me.”
The same words he had said ten years ago.
* * *
“Come with me.”
The words left by her former commander wrapped around Lilian’s heart. Joy rang through her chest and spread through her whole body with every beat of her pulse.
He remembered.
She had been worried. She had not realized that the aftereffects of resurrection could be this severe.
She had been overcome with anxiety. What if he had forgotten the memories from before? What if he was no longer the same man she knew?
Hariad, thank you. Thank you for using your power to bring the dead back to life... and for leaving me the most precious part of him.
Resurrection aftereffects might leave a person a wreck, stripping away all sense and courtesy, but he had not forgotten his memories with her.
I’m sorry, Commander...
A single thread of regret rose up through the rushing current of joy.
I should have trusted the Commander.I was worrying about myself when I should have been worrying about him. After resurrection, he must have been the one who had the hardest time.
She was ashamed of how completely she had been clinging to the past.
Such aftereffects. I’ll help him overcome them.
* * *
The soldiers were frustrated.
Rumors only kept circulating, saying the commander had been destined to become captain of the guard and had suddenly become a marquis, or that the company had been dissolved in an instant, but no one gave them a straight answer.
“Commander’s here!”
The soldiers snapped to attention and saluted in unison as Ho-yeong stepped up onto the platform.
“At ease.”
Ho-yeong was stifled. He had no idea what to say or how to say it.
But he could not remain silent, so he opened his mouth.
“My men. You’ve all worked hard following me until now. But from here on out, you’ll have even more hardship ahead of you.”
A cold morning wind drifted across the drill yard.
The soldiers’ average Edification Level was around fifty at the moment. Edification Level was a measure of the favorable feelings a being held toward Ho-yeong, combined into a single number.
For these rank-and-file soldiers, it probably reflects their loyalty to me, or to Joren Tamer, or something like that.
Correct.
On the first day of possession, everyone was over ninety. To think it’s fallen this much already.
It was no wonder. Their once-stoic commander had been talking to thin air about status windows and muttering to himself, and then they had seen him look in a mirror and say things like, “Well, at least I’m handsome.”
Of course, they had all witnessed that resurrection came with severe aftereffects, so it had still been possible to smooth things over somehow.
Looks like I can’t keep glossing over this forever.
Ho-yeong closed his eyes for a moment and focused.
Joren Tamer, the original owner of this body. You were a character... no, a man with intelligence, charisma, and eloquence. But I’m not especially eloquent, and I’m not well educated. So please, help me out here.
Rather than clumsily imitating the lines he had heard Joren speak in the game, Ho-yeong decided it would be better to truly immerse himself in Joren.
This is the moment that decides the future of your subordinates.
Whether the soul of Joren had responded to that feeling or not.
“From this moment on, listen closely to what I have to say.”
Ho-yeong’s voice rang with unmistakable force.
“As some of you have already heard, I have received the grace of His Majesty the King and been granted the title of Byeonbangbaek. My fief is the city of Auphocalypse. I suppose it should now be called Tamer Territory.”
The soldiers exchanged uneasy glances.
“Then what happens to our company... what happens to us?”
The senior soldier with the most years under his belt asked the question.
“The moment I was appointed Byeonbangbaek, my post as commander vanished. Her Majesty has also entrusted me with the matter of what to do with all of you.”
That meant he would need attendants when he went to his new territory. Ho-yeong agreed with that. No, he was grateful.
Honestly, if not for them, who the hell would be insane enough to follow me all the way out to that godforsaken place? Maybe if I were hiring one or two people... But a whole unit? No wonder I’m thankful.
Still, he felt deeply unwilling.
“Then are we going to follow you, Commander... no, my lord, to the Dark Red Land?”
At the senior soldier’s question, everyone began to murmur.
“All attention. I’m about to speak on that matter now.”
Ho-yeong cut off the rising chatter with a calm but firm tone.
“As I said earlier, the authority to appoint personnel for our company has been entrusted to me. But as for where you will go...”
He swept his gaze across their faces.
Somewhere in his chest, pity and sympathy welled up, slow and warm.
You idiots, I know. I know.
He had once been a K-soldier too, one who had completed his service through full-term discharge.
I’ve been there myself. After grinding my way through life at the front line and finally getting back, I thought I’d get a little breather, and then they suddenly sent me to some isolated hellhole. My mind was shredded and my body was falling apart.
That was why he could not simply order them to follow him.
Maybe I’m being a fool.
At the same time, he wondered whether this was really the right thing to do.
These men were elite troops, important labor. The kind of manpower he would need greatly for rebuilding, no, founding this territory.
Is it really the right choice to just drag them all along because “orders are orders,” and not care whether their Edification Level drops or whatever?
“...Commander, no, my lord?”
Lilian looked at him with concern as Ho-yeong faltered.
“As for where you will go...”
After a short but fierce internal struggle, Ho-yeong made up his mind.
“Is up to you.”
Their eyes widened.
He could not drag people against their will toward a road of obvious hardship. Even if they were characters from a game, they were living, breathing human beings standing in front of him, and they were his subordinates, loyal to a fault.
“Those who choose to follow me will be welcomed as vassals of the first Byeonbangbaek. In that case, people in the world may laugh at you. They may say you followed me to exile in a monster den and became not vassals, but fools. Many nobles have already mocked my situation.”
The pitying looks and quiet snickers he had received as he left the royal court.
“Why, he dug his own grave by kicking away the captaincy of the guard.”
“Born a commoner, he gets a few military merits and starts thinking he’s above everyone else.”
“An estate where even digging in the dirt only turns up corpses? Even a passing orc would laugh at that.”
What made it worse was that those bastards were NPCs who had only ever given trash quests in the game.
“So I won’t blame you if you don’t follow me. No, I’d even prefer that you not follow me.”
At Ho-yeong’s words, the soldiers grew restless.
Lilian too looked up at her superior with widened pupils.
“Then why did you refuse the position of captain of the guard?!”
“That’s because...”
Ho-yeong paused.
He could not say, “Because I didn’t want to die.” He also could not say, “If I took that job, I’d be screwed.”
“Why would I enjoy wealth and glory by myself!”
So he shouted instead.
“If I had taken the captaincy of the guard, I could have lived in comfort. But what about all of you? You would have kept going out to subjugate monsters and sleeping under the open sky!”
Hot energy surged up in the soldiers’ hearts.
The soldiers were moved by the player’s words. The company members’ Edification Level increases slightly.
“Then I thought it would be better for us to share hardship and live through it together.”
Ho-yeong raised his fist with passion.
“A place with more monsters than citizens. A place so bare even goblins turn around. A place where the condolences paid out outweigh the taxes collected. All of that describes Auphocalypse City.”
As one of the game’s most notorious high-difficulty regions, Ho-yeong knew it well. A crazy place with few resources, few troops, and monsters of every kind pouring out without end.
“I said that those who follow me would become my vassals, but I can’t tell you there’ll be much pay. Hell, I’m not even sure I can pay you at all.”
He remembered buying snacks for his junior soldiers by scraping together his own meager salary and the squad leader’s support allowance.
“But one day, I will surely repay your labor. Even if we live not in luxury but on the edge of survival, even if we wander through endless caves instead of resting in warm houses, I will make sure you can look back and say proudly that it was worth it!”
The soldiers were inspired by the player’s eloquence. The minimum Edification Level of the company members rises significantly.
The Edification Level climbed steadily in response to the status window’s notification.
Ho-yeong himself did not realize it, but the way he spoke with himself as the subject struck a chord with the soldiers.
Most people would use passive phrasing, saying things like, “Your labor will be repaid.” But Ho-yeong said, “I will repay you.” To subordinates who already followed him firmly, that sounded far more trustworthy.
“Let us defend this land with our own hands! And beyond that, let us drive out the filthy monsters completely so they can never set foot on this continent again. You will possess land even His Majesty the Founding King never had!”
To defend the realm. A soldier’s dream.
To pioneer new ground. A man’s romance.
“Those who will follow me, step forward!”
“I will follow you!”
Lilian moved first.
“I will follow you too!”
“I’ll follow you even to the very edge of the continent, not just the frontier!”
“Long live the Byeonbangbaek!”
Then, one after another, all of them rushed forward.
Ability level up! The passive skill Influence has increased from level 1 to level 2.
A hundred and some vassals. The moment all of their Edification Levels reached 100.
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