162. Vertical and Horizontal Alliances (1)
It was essentially an unconditional surrender, placing their lives entirely in Baek Seol-hwa's hands. In response to Heo Jin-ho's white flag, Baek Seol-hwa smiled brightly and spoke.
"I have no intention of killing you. Lower your hands."
"...We're refugees. The kind who might repay your kindness by stealing your positions."
Baek Seol-hwa drew a clear line, stating she had no plans to kill Heo Jin-ho. At that, he issued a warning—not quite a warning, but close enough. After all, in this apocalypse, showing kindness to refugees often led to betrayal by those very same people you'd saved, resulting in disaster. Heo Jin-ho himself was a prime example of that.
He bluntly suggested they could usurp the Balhut Cult's position, but considering the god the cult worshipped, it was little more than needless worry.
"Heh. Go ahead and try. I'll accept every challenge."
Above all, Baek Seol-hwa wasn't one to shy away from a fight. She provocatively urged him to give it a shot, and Heo Jin-ho looked at her with an expression of sheer bewilderment. Sure, he was a refugee now, but if he regained even a sliver of power and secured a foothold, he could rapidly grow into a threatening force like the Daegu provisional government once had.
Especially from the Balhut Cult's perspective, expanding into Yeongnam, the Daegu provisional government had served as a buffer zone against external threats—but it was also a dangerous rival. Viewed that way, the moment Heo Jin-ho challenged for power again, he'd remain a threat unchanged.
"But I need you all. More precisely, the Balhut Cult does. We need the Daegu provisional government."
On the flip side, someone capable of vying for leadership held immense value. Just as the Balhut Cult had recruited Jin A-yeon and Han Seong-geun to establish a police force, if they could bring Heo Jin-ho on board and build a fitting government structure around him...
'With some luck, we could even claim Daegu itself.'
Using the connections and intelligence network from his provisional government days, they could bring Daegu under the Balhut Cult's influence. Protecting Heo Jin-ho and persuading him toward the cult made far more sense than executing him.
"I'll heal you, so can you explain your situation?"
"The wounds..."
Seol-hwa approached him alone and cast her healing spell. Under her magic, not only Heo Jin-ho's injuries but those of his surviving followers began to mend one by one.
Realizing the girl before him was favorably inclined toward the Daegu provisional government, Heo Jin-ho pondered briefly—but not for long. Calmly, he began explaining his circumstances as she requested.
"At first, we thought they were just ordinary refugees from outside. With zombies pouring in from all sides giving us headaches, we took them in and turned them into soldiers."
"I see. That's common enough."
Turning wandering refugees into soldiers was far more routine than one might think. In an era where people died by the masses, every single fighter was precious. Rescuing refugees and conscripting some into service was standard practice across factions. The Balhut Cult itself saved refugees, incorporating select ones into its ranks—the real motive was pragmatic manpower, not pure humanitarianism.
"But eventually, the refugees swelled beyond what we could handle. Even our administrative network in the Daegu provisional government couldn't keep up..."
"One of the refugee leaders usurped your position, right? But how? Your main base was in the most defensible spot, wasn't it?"
The problem was the sheer volume of refugees overwhelming the provisional government. When their numbers surpassed the government's armed forces, the refugees forgot their debts of gratitude and betrayed them, launching a total assault that forced a retreat here. Yet one issue lingered: any faction's headquarters would boast their best defenses. The Balhut Cult's own main temple was guarded personally by its elite Hwarang.
"We had a traitor."
"A traitor, huh. Yeah, can't do much about that. Who's the traitor?"
Even with solid defenses, they were manned by humans. If those humans betrayed from within, the fortifications became poison instead. And the name of Heo Jin-ho's betrayer was...
"A bastard named Go Jun-woo."
Go Jun-woo.
'Huh?'
'Oh.'
'Ah.'
A name even the Balhut Cult couldn't ignore. Baek Seol-hwa, who knew the details, along with the National Tax Service agents and military personnel, all stiffened. They stared at Heo Jin-ho, faces frozen in disbelief at why that name surfaced here.
"That guy's a real piece of shit!"
"Yeah. Betraying trust like that—total scum."
Jin A-yeon's and Han Seong-geun's oblivious remarks stabbed the three who knew better right in their consciences. The reason the military, National Tax Service, and Baek Seol-hwa reacted poorly was simple: that name belonged to a collaborator the Balhut Cult—especially the National Tax Service—had cultivated during their direct involvement in Daegu.
Before the Ulsan campaign, to check Daegu's ambitions as a provisional government, they'd selected him as a sort of champion, with economic bureaucrat Lee Hyun-ah wielding influence over him. Thus, the military and Baek Seol-hwa's gazes naturally turned to...
'The National Tax Service.'
'The National Tax Service screwed up again. More to report to Yuna-unnie.'
...the National Tax Service agents. It was the look of "if something shady happened, bet on them being the root." And sure enough, the moment Go Jun-woo's name dropped, they were pegged as culprits.
'This isn't fair!'
But the National Tax Service felt wronged. After all, hadn't Lee Hyun-ah herself been swamped with the international reconstruction conference and other duties? Moreover, Go Jun-woo hadn't seized power outright; he'd acted as an inside traitor, handing it over. How were they supposed to predict that?
They could admit to some negligence in oversight, but the refugee crisis's butterfly effect felt like pure bad luck. Unbeknownst to them, the root cause stemmed from Kim Su-ho abandoning refugee control entirely—leaving the National Tax Service as mere victims of his policy. Before that, they'd firmly collared Go Jun-woo, coordinating with the executive branch for total control.
'Is this our fault? What do we do?'
'Gotta be the National Tax Service bastards.'
The clueless military and Baek Seol-hwa exchanged glances, eyes trembling with uncertainty. The root was definitely the National Tax Service. Confront them now? Or confess upfront? Either way, a dilemma.
The former offered short-term ease but massive backlash later; the latter cleared the karma immediately.
'Minister Lee Hyun-ah! Is this our fault!? OUR FAULT!?'
The National Tax Service agents inwardly wailed at the absent Lee Hyun-ah, faces etched with genuine grievance.
"Why the long faces?"
Jin A-yeon asked as the three factions' expressions soured. From the moment Go Jun-woo's name emerged, everyone had gone stiff, deep in thought—it was only natural to wonder.
With the police force newly formed, Jin A-yeon hadn't received full intel on Daegu, so she was clueless. Approaching the grim-faced group with innocent concern...
"N-no! Just shocked that betrayal from within doomed them. Yeah... pretty shocked."
Baek Seol-hwa quickly pivoted at Jin A-yeon's worried query, blaming the traitor's betrayal. The stares shifted from the National Tax Service to her, allowing them all to claim shock at the downfall-by-betrayal narrative...
"Yeah, must be devastating. I'd lose my mind if betrayed from inside."
"Getting stabbed by someone you trusted breeds distrust in humanity—no surprise there."
...drawing a line away from any Balhut Cult ties. Jin A-yeon and Han Seong-geun nodded in understanding; it was empathetic enough for Baek Seol-hwa, a regional leader herself, to grimace at Heo Jin-ho's parallel fate.
'This girl's higher up than she looks. Could she be the rumored Dragon Priestess?'
With those two buying that Baek Seol-hwa empathized due to shared experience, Heo Jin-ho—overhearing—realized the girl held significant status. But he missed that her group included one of the culprits behind his government's fall.
Not his fault: Han Seong-geun and Jin A-yeon's reactions were too sincere to fake, and the girl's position seemed legit for such empathy. Plus, considering the Balhut Cult's push from Gyeongju—focused on Ulsan—they wouldn't suddenly divert to hit Daegu.
'Good. He bought it!'
Reading Heo Jin-ho's face, Baek Seol-hwa adopted a serious expression and turned to him gravely.
"...So, Go Jun-woo's betrayal toppled the Daegu provisional government? Refugees are scary in numbers, sure, but a 'provisional government' should have more armed troops than them, right?"
"Right. We weren't weak enough to fall to one traitor. But Go Jun-woo sold us out to a capable warlord from outside."
From Go Jun-woo's view, he'd merely auctioned the government to the highest bidder. The hitch was that bidder being an outsider warlord—but if that was the best offer, it was understandable.
"Sounds like that raider who snuck in with the recent refugees. A named raider among them, huh..."
"Exactly."
"But an outsider makes it weirder. Could one traitor really collapse everything?"
One betrayal alone couldn't fell the Daegu provisional government. The scale gap between a lone warlord and a self-proclaimed government was vast, especially in manpower. Unlike refugee bands capped at dozens or hundreds by logistics, the government could muster hundreds at minimum, thousands of awakeners if pushed.
Thus, claiming downfall from a single traitor sounded absurd—but Heo Jin-ho provided the answer.
"A decapitation strike. Couldn't face us head-on, so the bastard targeted our command structure. Go Jun-woo was bought for that op. If it's just the leadership fighting, not the full army, you don't need masses of troops."
"I see."
Knowing they'd lose a straight numbers fight, the warlord skipped it for a precise decapitation op on command. Recruiting founding member Go Jun-woo, they executed flawlessly—theory made reality. Heo Jin-ho fell cleanly, losing his base and fleeing.
"And your flight ended captured by us. That's the story."
Grateful to survive for another shot, but with nowhere left, Heo Jin-ho had no real opportunities. Chances required unclaimed land; everywhere he fled was owned, and rebuilding power would draw Balhut Cult execution.
"Total wipeout, then."
"Yeah. At least my followers are all solid talent, if I do say so. One of me should suffice, right?"
Aware of his fate, Heo Jin-ho pitched his men as valuable to the cult, essentially begging mercy—kill him, spare them. Unconditional surrender.
"To repeat: I'm not interested in your head, Mr. Heo. Your followers could definitely help us."
Truthfully, she cared little for his neck. Impressed by his calm gallantry...
"And frankly, you yourself... we might want to recruit."
...she voiced the wild idea of enlisting the warlord.
"Heh. Big shot or opportunist? Can't tell."
Heo Jin-ho scratched his head, eyeing Baek Seol-hwa with utter confusion at the audacious proposal.