Chaotic Reunion
Shannon emerged from the water droplet after the reconciliation period had ended. She had been on the verge of suffocating, of course, and once she was free she made no attempt to hide her emotions.
“Hic… hiccup… sob… waaah…”
She looked exactly like a shrimp getting its back broken in a fight between whales. After hearing the full story, those feelings poured out even stronger. The sense of why the hell did you fight in the first place? The resentment that magic had been used over a misunderstanding. The terror of nearly dying while trying to help. It seemed like she was about to declare she would rather just die or leave the group entirely.
“Shannon, I’m sorry. I should have been more careful…”
I couldn’t let her stay like that. Her survival was part of it, yes. But the real reason was that the lives of thirty examinees hung in the balance. She was the only person here who knew restraint magic. If she bailed now, the cards in our hand would run dangerously low. That was unacceptable.
Kang Sian patted her back and offered what comfort he could. He apologized repeatedly for not confirming the situation sooner, promised to give her his SNS ID once they escaped so she could send a friend request, and swore he would buy her an expensive meal if she contacted him. He kept up a steady stream of nonsense, throwing out promises he might never keep. They could come back to bite him later, but in an urgent moment like this, what couldn’t he say? He simply went all-in, hoping something would stick.
The sad part was that even then, there was a high chance it wouldn’t work. Logically, she had come here to survive. There was no reason for someone who had nearly died because of others to remain in the group. Shaken leadership. Unstable trust. A bleak future.
“Huuuh… Really…?”
But she was actually buying it? What? Some other desire must have overridden her survival instinct, because Shannon readily agreed.
“Th-then… if you could tell me your ID…”
“Yes, yes! I’ll buy you anything! So stop crying!”
She folded that easily? Kang Sian decided she had a surprisingly simple personality.
With the immediate crisis defused, they all stepped outside—Kang Sian, Cheon Mari, and Shannon. The rest of the group was startled by the sight of him. When Cheon Mari followed, shock rippled through them and weapons were instantly leveled at her.
“Whoa, everyone, hold on. I made a mistake.”
“Huh?”
“She’s actually my friend. We fought for a second because of a misunderstanding.”
“Ah…?”
Even so, the distrust in their eyes remained. That was because Cheon Mari’s appearance was utterly horrific. She looked like she could have ripped Satan in half, and her injuries were so severe it was questionable whether she was even alive.
“Um… is that person actually human…?”
“I’m not a corpse.”
Trust was difficult, but for ordinary people it couldn’t be helped. One might wonder why Kang Sian remained so calm, but he had known Cheon Mari for a long time. He had seen her like this in the game, so he simply accepted it.
There were precedents. She had once gotten lost at a game show in Busan, flown into a rage, and jaywalked in her fury—only to be hit by a truck and torn into five pieces. Yet she had remained on Earth instead of being sent to another world. It was a tragic event for this world, but Cheon Mari was not a woman who died from ordinary accidents.
Of course, not dying and having her body’s functions deteriorate were two different things. Impairment was inevitable.
The moment Cheon Mari stepped outside, she kept blinking at the sunlight, rubbing her eyes repeatedly.
“Hey, are you okay?”
“Just a second. Just a second.”
The sight worried him deeply. Kang Sian carefully examined her eyes.
One eye is completely burned away? The other doesn’t look much better.
These injuries seemed to predate their fight. He wondered what the hell had happened to her.
“Mari, your eyes, your body—how did you end up like this?”
“I was… near the explosion when it went off.”
“Explosion? You got caught in an explosion scroll and this is the result?”
She gave a slight, ambiguous nod—neither full confirmation nor denial.
“After I got clear of the blast, I ran into the hero candidate bastards.”
She had encountered the hero party while already injured. They fought. She dodged their attacks and took them down one by one. But a mistake had occurred, and she was struck in succession by the saintess’s holy magic and other spells. That was the story behind her current state.
Cheon Mari waved her hand as if to say not to worry, but the tale alone made it sound like she should have been dead already. In the end, Kang Sian took several steps back.
“How many fingers am I holding up?”
He raised his middle finger. It meant exactly one.
“GOA.”
“Looks like you can see everything you need to.”
If she couldn’t, she wouldn’t have been able to fight him properly. At the very least, she still had enough strength left to take care of herself.
“My body’s performance has dropped. But its functions haven’t shut down completely.”
“That’s a relief, then.”
Cheon Mari looked around and tilted her head. Roughly thirty examinees were staring at her.
“By the way… where were you headed?”
“To the World Gate. Both to find you and to get the hell out of this mess.”
“Hmm… In this condition? Doesn’t seem like a great idea.”
“That’s why I’ve been raiding buildings to arm everyone. As you can see, it hasn’t gone that smoothly.”
Cheon Mari narrowed her eyes and scratched her head. Then, as if the next part was difficult to say out loud, she leaned in and whispered into his ear.
“...There are too many people.”
“I know. But there was no choice.”
“Are the kids’ skills decent?”
“Just enough to pull their own weight.”
“Damn. We need them pulling at least double if everyone’s going to survive. Got any spare shield batteries?”
“Not a single one. We need to secure some before we head for the gate.”
Nothing but bad news. Cheon Mari clicked her tongue and spoke to him coldly.
“It’d be hard for just the two of us to slip away, huh?”
“If you’re willing to endure the hatred after we escape.”
“Just close your eyes and…”
The moment those words left her mouth, the others grew uneasy. Her voice had been too quiet for them to hear clearly, but the continued whispering was enough to breed suspicion. Especially since Cheon Mari sounded like a skilled fighter from what little they caught. One skilled person might be manageable, but two? There was no telling what they might do.
Why do they keep whispering…?
They can kill hero candidates, so they must fight pretty well…
…They’re not planning to run away, are they?
The fear that the two of them might abandon the rest of the group. Cheon Mari, who had been briefly entertaining those extreme thoughts, withdrew her suggestion when she felt the chilly atmosphere.
“Tsk… It’s not like there’s no way to get supplies—including batteries.”
“There’s a way?”
“There’s one building I passed while walking over here.”
Cheon Mari traced the shape of a sword and shield in the air with her finger. There was only one building that fit that description.
“The armory?”
“Yeah. Go straight from here and turn left—it’s right there.”
“Then we need to go.”
It wasn’t marked on the map, so they hadn’t known about it. If they could reach it and properly arm themselves, breaking through the encirclement and surviving would become far more feasible.
“But there’s a problem.”
“What?”
“The knights have occupied it.”
“Ah… You’re sure?”
“I saw it clearly. I watched them swarm in with overwhelming numbers, attacking like a whirlwind and pushing the defenders back.”
If things went well, they might break the encirclement with minimal casualties. If not, they could be wiped out before they even reached it. Which outcome was better remained to be seen. Still, in this situation, the gamble was worth taking.
From the beginning, they were in a position where they had to bet everyone’s lives on this operation. To raise the boy soldiers’ survival rate, raiding the armory first was the correct move. Logically, the weapons inside would be incompatible with their enemies, so the occupying force probably wouldn’t be that large. It would be far easier than charging straight into the encirclement. It was also better in terms of justification and morale.
Suggesting they break through an enemy-packed encirclement in their current state would naturally meet resistance. But proposing they seize the occupied armory first and then break out would be far more convincing. Even if they still got screwed, at least they would get screwed after preparing properly.
If we can just get the shield batteries, we’ll be safe even if we take heavy hits.
If we loot that place, we can fully arm ourselves. Escape becomes completely doable.
So? Are we doing this or not?
At any rate, both Kang Sian and Cheon Mari were confident they could survive no matter what dogshit they had to pull. For the sake of the others, it was a burden worth carrying.
“Everyone! I have something to tell you!”
Kang Sian made his decision. He explained the plan to raid the armory and then break through the encirclement. He was honest about both the reasons it was a secondary option and the risks involved. There was no reason to refuse, so everyone accepted readily.
They gathered their belongings and began moving toward the new destination. That included Kang Sian and Cheon Mari—
“Oh, right! I left something behind!”
“Ugh… Go get it quickly.”
Cheon Mari dashed back to the potion shop. When she returned, she was carrying something truly vile.
“What the fuck is that.”
Six human heads and one iron rod. A genuinely horrific combination.
“Say hello. In order: Adolf, Eva, Josef, Magda, Albert, Margarete.”
Cheon Mari had impaled six severed heads on an iron rod like some kind of bandit trophy. Naturally, Kang Sian wore the expression of someone updating the worst moment of his life.
“No, seriously—what the hell is that?”
“The hero candidates I caught and killed!”
Is this modern art? Kang Sian barely swallowed the words. His insane villainess childhood friend, unaware or uncaring of his thoughts, pointed at each head with clear delight as they walked.
“The blond guy on top, Adolf, was second in the first-year class at Hero Academy. His main weapon was a jewel-encrusted greatsword, but he had zero talent and his skills were absolute garbage.”
“This elf woman is Eva. She openly bragged about being some big shot from an elf nation. Her archery was mediocre at best. She was kind of pretty, but not as pretty as me, so whatever.”
“This hooded guy, Josef, was just a loser. I still don’t understand why he was chosen as a hero candidate. A few punches and he was on the ground crying that it hurt. What was that about?”
“The purple-haired woman is the mage, Magda. I don’t know how good she was at magic, but she was excellent at team-killing. Imagine dying to your own spell in this world.”
“This guy with his tongue ripped out is the porter, Albert. Interestingly, when I started tearing his limbs off, the female hero candidates threw a fit. From what I overheard, it seems he was sleeping around with all three of them. He should have known his place.”
“And this is the saintess who fired a holy beeaaaam at me—Margarete! Well, she was called a saintess but was probably just a priestess. When she realized she was going to die, she started acting all coquettish and threw every tantrum imaginable. You really should have seen it.”
This woman’s personality was astonishing. The suspicious level of detail made it easy to guess what had happened. Still, it wasn’t enough to feel any sympathy. From what Kang Sian could see, Cheon Mari had been a hair’s breadth from crossing the Jordan River. How many attacks had they landed to reduce her to this state? And what exactly had they done to run into her in the first place? He couldn’t even begin to imagine.
So he simply added that she had killed them well.
“By the way, those names sound really familiar?”
“I just made up some German-style names on the spot.”
So they were von names. Even though her insane mental state seemed completely unhinged, the fact that she was mentally stable in her own way made Kang Sian let out a deep sigh.
“Hehe. Anyway! Unlike me, you didn’t get hurt, so that’s good.”
“Ugh, worry about your own body, please.”
Bad kindness aside, she really was a friend who lived a difficult life.
“We won! We got them! We looted it!”
“Waaaaah!”
The armory had been successfully occupied. After teetering on the edge of disaster, they could finally breathe a sigh of relief.