Ice
The crew that returned to the shelter finally settled into some well-deserved downtime.
From the perspective of Won-goo's Labor Services, it was nothing short of a vacation.
There had been brief pockets of rest here and there, but never anything like this. Thaddeusen, then Ganjeol Point, then the Arctic Giant. One crisis had chained into the next, and everyone had been living wound tight as a wire.
No one understood that better than Won-goo, and so he gave his people a proper vacation.
And by "vacation," he meant coins earmarked specifically for leisure.
The amount was no small thing, either.
In the old days it would have been a few silver coins at most, but this time each of them received a full gold coin.
Considering that a single gold coin covered an entire coin enhancement, it was a hell of a bonus.
They all accepted their gold with faintly stunned expressions.
Until now, spending money had meant being handed a money pouch under Lee Hyun-sung's watchful eye. This time it was a personal reward, paid to each of them individually.
That meant something.
"Everyone worked hard on this one. This amount is an advance — once the Arctic Giant and Slow accounts are settled, you'll be getting a lot more."
"More than this? That is quite the claim, is it not?"
"It is."
"A fine arrangement indeed."
"What, you don't like it? Fine, I'll take the mage's share back."
"That is not the part I meant... it is simply that our vacation pay seems to have swelled rather suddenly, is the part I'm saying."
"It means you earned it. And remember what I said when I founded this outfit — once we got on our feet, I had no intention of being a cheapskate. I'm a man who respects private lives. That coin won't buy anything huge, but it isn't nothing either. Whatever you do with it, I don't touch. Blow it on booze, gamble it away, sip something sweet — your business. Go out as a group or play solo, doesn't matter to me."
"C-can we re... really? Do that?"
"What, our Suwon? You got sick of hanging out with your hyungs or something?"
"N-no! Not at all!"
Suwon practically yelped it.
Lips curled into smiles all around.
"Go enjoy yourselves, all of you. We won't be taking any jobs for a while."
Won-goo allowed them to go off on their own because he'd judged that Shelter Sabbath no longer held even the slightest threat to his crew.
These days, there was no one in the shelter who didn't know Won-goo's people.
Even Rafael, who never went anywhere without her mask, would get deep, respectful bows from passersby.
That said everything about how complete their hold on the shelter had become — and it meant the odds of pointless fights or trouble breaking out had dropped to almost nothing.
Same went for a night out in the entertainment district, and same for gambling.
Gambling especially was a dangerous pastime, one that practically invited major incidents.
Everyone hits a hot streak eventually, and once the blood is up, self-control goes right out the window.
Competitive drive is a different animal from mental discipline, after all.
Get too deep into the tables, and sooner or later you'd lose more money than you had on you — it was practically a law of nature.
Which was why Won-goo had always sent Lee Hyun-sung along with the others as a preventative measure.
With Hyun-sung watching, such disasters simply never happened.
But now even the gambling den owners knew every face in Won-goo's crew.
It meant they'd defuse trouble on their own before it ever started.
Besides, after this long in the shelter, a man's vices were pretty well established.
Most of Won-goo's people enjoyed a flutter, but among them were those who preferred romance to roulette.
Geum Chul-soo was one of those.
In the middle of all this chaos, how exactly was he managing to court a woman? And yet it wasn't impossible at all.
"Chul-soo, come here."
As he said it, Won-goo held out a hand behind him.
Danshin hurried over and passed him a backpack. Not a Subspace Backpack — just an ordinary one, and a fairly heavy one at that.
"...?"
"Word is you've got a girl."
"Uh..."
"You punk. You think I don't hear everything that happens in this shelter?"
"Uh... not yet..."
"Not yet, what. What, you haven't even held her hand?"
"......"
"What's there to worry about? You call, and she comes running. Am I wrong?"
"She does come, yeah."
"Then she can't hate you all that much, can she?"
"But this is..."
"Just take it. My arm's getting tired."
Geum Chul-soo accepted the backpack in a daze. It was heavier than it looked — though apparently not heavy enough to actually hurt Won-goo's arm.
"They say in this day and age, the most popular man is the one who doesn't let his woman go hungry. Better than showing up empty-handed, no?"
"......"
The backpack was packed with all kinds of food.
The fact that Won-goo's crew never went hungry didn't mean every survivor in the shelter ate well.
Even those scraping by a living went hungry more often than not — especially bottom-tier survivors with no real income, many of whom survived on a single meal a week.
The intervals between meals were extreme enough to seem absurd, but such survivors were genuinely common.
Because skipping meals didn't kill you.
Not eating wouldn't end your survival.
Endure the hunger as long as possible, and pour every coin into enhancements instead.
Quite a few survivors reasoned that way.
And honestly, pinching your meal money to invest in coin enhancements was the surer bet for staying alive than eating three squares a day.
Just a few coins dropped into Toughness stretched the number of days you could endure starvation by several at a stroke.
"Th... thank you."
"This time, at least hold her hand. Understood?"
Chul-soo nodded and retreated. Then Won-goo called Jo Mu-sa over and tossed him a key from his pocket.
"...?"
"Key to the Trailer. Small and old. But plenty good enough to sleep in."
Jo Mu-sa wore the same stunned look Geum Chul-soo had.
"Don't look so shocked."
"......"
"Decorating the inside is your job."
"Thank you so much!"
Jo Mu-sa had always yearned for a home of his own.
Talk of things like that surfaced naturally enough when the crew wandered the shelter, and there was no way it hadn't reached Won-goo's ears.
"The location's written on the key tag. Not far from here."
"Yes..."
"Before you go, give Pacific another dose of that supplement."
"Understood."
The rest of the crew each had their own hobbies.
Lee Hyun-sung and Suwon liked spending time at the gambling dens, while Mu Beob-sa had people he met whenever money came in.
The bookstore community.
Drinking with the regulars who gathered there and trading conversation was his pastime of choice.
Hyun-sung, Suwon, and Jo Mu-sa filed out of the office. Mu Beob-sa paid them no mind, stretched out in his hammock with a book.
Rafael and Jeon Hye-ji had hobbies too.
Both of them loved browsing field equipment wherever they could find it.
Hye-ji in particular had an obsession with improving her skills, endlessly checking her gear and drilling her combat techniques.
And that obsession meshed perfectly with Rafael.
True to form for the Dwarf Elves — the cruelest and most warlike branch of elvenkind — Rafael never turned down a fight, and that held true even when the "fight" was sparring practice for a far weaker Hye-ji.
Rafael was also gradually growing more talkative, and the two of them chatted often when they were together.
"Rafael."
Next, Won-goo called for Rafael.
"What is it?"
"Nothing urgent. I wanted to ask whether the vow you made when you joined us still holds."
At once, killing intent sharpened in Rafael's eyes.
The very air around her seemed to change.
Anyone unfamiliar would have assumed she harbored a deep grudge against Won-goo himself.
"It has not changed."
"Good. No plans to change it going forward?"
"None."
"Then the time to honor that promise is drawing near."
Rafael's eyebrow twitched.
"Planning to enter the forest?"
"Yes. The big matters are settled, so it's time to close out what remains. Barring anything unexpected, we go to the forest. That's why I asked."
Rafael shook her head.
"...?"
"No."
"No? A second ago you said nothing had changed."
"Not with our current numbers. We cannot purge the forest."
"What's this? Back then you talked like you'd carve through the whole place single-handedly."
"That was when they were at their weakest. Even then, the odds were slim."
"Well, I appreciate the honesty. So what you're saying is, our combat strength as-is can't clear out the forest."
"Probably."
"Fair enough. Those bastards aren't idiots — they won't let themselves get ambushed three times."
Rafael nodded slowly.
"And by now, they will have chosen Revesus's Blessed."
"What's that supposed to be?"
"My blessing cannot exert its power in Revesus's presence."
"So the difficulty just went up. Noted."
"Revesus is—"
"No need to brief me now. The day will come when I hear it in full."
"We are not going?"
"Of course we are. You know them better than anyone. I respect your judgment."
"......"
"Now go out with Hye-ji."
"Is something happening?"
"No. Rest while you can — that's all."
"I am ready to fight at any moment."
"I know. But this is how Earthlings do it. If you're going to live here, adapt."
"Understood."
With Mu Beob-sa and Pacific excepted, the whole crew had filed out.
Won-goo called Danshin over too and pressed some money into his hand.
Not as much as the field crew had received.
"You understand, right? Can't pay you what the field crew gets."
"I know, Director."
"And here — this is the ring I was keeping for you."
"...?"
Danshin's eyes wavered.
"Not taking it?"
"You didn't sell it, sir?"
"What did I say? That I'd keep it safe for you."
"But the mage said you'd have already sold it off..."
Won-goo turned to glance at Mu Beob-sa.
"Eight out of ten things out of that old man's mouth are bullshit, so strain them before you swallow."
"Yes, sir."
"Now get out there and have fun. The gambling den the others always go to — Hyun-sung and Suwon will be there."
"Understood!"
Danshin wasn't exactly lacking in perception. He cleared out with impressive speed.
"And what exactly are you plotting, sending everyone out of the room, is the question."
"We need to check the prayer text, don't we?"
"Wasn't the whole point that reading it all the way through releases the magic?"
"It turns out to be a far better item than I expected. Especially in the hands of old-timers like us, wouldn't you say?"
"...?"
"It rarely comes up at all. Far less often than magic-type creatures and the like."
Thump.
Mu Beob-sa slipped lightly down from the hammock, a stone tablet in his hands.
"Use only the tiniest thread of mana. Understood?"
"The part is understood."
"Then read it."
And so Mu Beob-sa began to read the prayer, slowly.
Labeled a prayer, but the words themselves were nothing short of filth.
"My sister's damp and—"
Hearing those lines delivered in Mu Beob-sa's low, treacherous-sounding baritone, Won-goo's face scrunched up on pure reflex.
Mu Beob-sa read on for a good five minutes.
"It's even long..."
Ignoring Won-goo entirely, the mage read every last line to the end.
The moment he finished, light flared from the stone tablet and the magic released.
Shhk-za-rak!
Won-goo, standing a prudent distance away, leapt backward with his face twisted in fury.
The movement was sleek as a cat's vertical leap.
Thwack.
Completing a full somersault in midair, Won-goo landed lightly on the floor — and bellowed.
"Son of a—! I said take it easy! EASY, damn it!"