The Little Wooden Soldiers

A message window rose the moment the contract with Elia was sealed. He had thought they were only settling a percentage. Instead she was appointed his designated merchant outright, and a whole bundle of rights and duties came with the title.

From now on, can I only trade with Elia?

It hardly mattered. The only merchant who ever answered Minhyuk's summons was Elia anyway. And one of the privileges suited him rather well.

Namely, the very last line.

So a designated merchant can come to the place of business whenever she wants?

From now on Elia could come to the deserted island whenever she pleased, even if Minhyuk never touched Merchant Summon. That was better, if anything. Far better she play with Kkureung on a safe, wholesome island than linger among strange characters trying to squeeze money out of a child.

"See this? If you wanna play, you can come anytime."

"Mm! I'm gonna come play every single day!"

Elia seemed to like it too. She grinned, all teeth.

For a proper adult — stranded on an uninhabited island though he was — he ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had done everything he reasonably could to protect the child.

Now it was time to settle the books.

Two hundred eighty-five coins, the merchant's five-percent fee already skimmed off, were delivered to Minhyuk.

Fifteen coins from the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠first cucumber sale, and the two hundred eighty-five from this one on top of them. And the sales total had been three hundred coins.

"Sold out again?"

"Mm-hmm. They sold super fast."

Having confirmed a balance that had grown pleasantly fat, Minhyuk handed Elia the reward he had promised.

"Here. Let's eat the baked potatoes. They're hot, so you have to be careful. Got it?"

"Whoa!"

Baked potatoes perfumed with the scent of leaves. Minhyuk took the first bite himself.

"Ah, hot, hot— hhh— hhh—"

It was hot enough to scald the roof of his mouth, and still a salty, savory richness wrapped thick around his tongue. Because they had been grown in Fertile Soil? The flavor and the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠aroma both felt a layer deeper than before.

"Hoo— hoo— here, aaah~"

"Aaahm~"

Elia's turn. The moment he cooled a bite with his breath and fed it to her, a bright, clever light flashed in her eyes.

"Mmm! It's so yummy!"

"You can eat a lot today. I just harvested them, so there are plenty of potatoes."

"Hehe, I'm gonna eat ten!"

That much was fine. He was only paying her a five-percent merchant fee anyway. The least he could do was let her eat her fill.

"Urp— I'm full..."

But Elia raised the white flag after half a baked potato. The sight of her belly rounding out from that little bit pulled a laugh out of him before he could stop it.

"You rest. I'm going to go get some work done."

"Work? Want me to help?"

"No, it's okay."

Minhyuk waved her off at once.

The cucumber harvest, and the potato harvest. He could give up anything else, but never those two. They were how he raked in a tidy haul of experience.

"Play nice with Kkureung."

"Mm. Okaaay."

Minhyuk rolled up both sleeves, headed for the field, and threw himself into a proper harvest.

Pluck. Pluck.

He picked the cucumbers.

Pluck. Pluck.

And the potatoes.

The potatoes... better not sell them this time either, right?

They had just eaten two, which left thirty-eight. For reference, a potato's harvest cycle was fourteen days. On top of that he had started exercising, so a steady intake of carbohydrates was essential. Set aside what he needed to feed Kkureung and Elia, and what he had to hold back for seed potatoes, and the rest was barely enough for Minhyuk to eat on his own.

Therefore, potato sales were on hold.

"Hnnnngh—!"

He finished the grueling fieldwork and stretched, and a pleasant notification rose before his eyes.

The Safe Zone's level had finally hit double digits. Yeah. This was the taste he farmed for.

Except...

"A sp-special perk?"

For a second he thought he was about to be handed another trivial little perk, something on the order of Humidity Control. A speeecial one?

He swallowed.

Expectation welled up in Minhyuk's eyes.

Message windows kept surfacing without end, like lines of computer code.

"......Oh?"

Carefully, he opened the Safe Zone's status window.

"......Legion Manufacture?"

What... was this? He looked up the details at once.

Powerful little soldiers. Something like escort warriors, then?

"Guess I'll have to try it myself to know."

Seeing it once would beat hearing about it a hundred times. Minhyuk used Legion Manufacture at once.

It said the material is wood, so...

Scritch. Scritch.

He shaved the wood with a carving knife and roughly shaped it into a person, and then—

For an instant a radiance seemed to flash—

What stood finished was a Little Wooden Soldier dressed like a redcoat from the height of the British Empire.

Snap—!

The little wooden soldier saluted him. Minhyuk saluted back, awkwardly.

"Uh... yeah. Nice to meet you too."

He was... glad, he supposed. But what exactly was he supposed to do with this thing?

Isn't it way too small?

About the size of a person's forearm. And it wasn't steel or titanium, either. It was wood. One kick looked like it would smash the thing to pieces.

He had burned a whole twenty coins, and for what — a toy like—

"Wha—?!"

Minhyuk took one look at the wooden soldier's status window and nearly choked.

The grade was, of all things...

"S-rank?! Th-this is S-rank?"

S-rank was a Hunter grade of which Korea had only a handful. And here was an S-rank escort soldier for twenty coins.

"Oooh..."

Minhyuk stared hard at the little wooden soldier. Value that extreme changed the entire conversation.

Wait a second.

Kkureung could sense where the magical beasts were, but that was all he could do. Minhyuk could say with confidence that the meerkat's combat power sat below his own. In terms of force, Kkureung was no help at all.

But if he had S-rank little wooden soldiers? Not one of them — a legion, in the literal sense? And if he added Kkureung's detection on top of that?

I could... pioneer the jungle, couldn't I?

Not stopping at cucumbers and potatoes. He would be able to enjoy far more of this uninhabited island's resources. A more abundant castaway life.

"Hmm. Looking at you again, you're actually reassuring."

Minhyuk looked at the little wooden soldier with eyes that had turned a full hundred and eighty degrees from the start.

He'd earned a tidy pile of coins. Maybe make a few more soldiers?

The headquarters of the Love Church.

Hmm... something's strange...

Kang Seongjun, founder of the religion and the man who served as Love Church's Supreme Leader, was in the middle of savoring a thoroughly bewildered mood.

What in the world... is going on...?

Love Church was barely two years old. It had been founded around a grand doctrine — offer prayers to the Tower God, and thereby save humanity — but that had only ever been a plausible sign hung over the door. The reality was entirely different.

Doctrine? The Tower God? All of it was nothing but lies Kang Seongjun had made up.

He was certain of that. And yet...

"Y-Your Holiness's words were right!"

"The Tower God has answered us!"

The believers were jumping in place and cheering, crying out the name of their leader and of a Tower God that did not even exist.

"Hail—! Hail the Tower God—! Hail Your Holiness—!"

For Kang Seongjun, it was a deeply unsettling turn of events.

His reason for founding Love Church? Simple.

The family had money to spare, for one. He hadn't wanted to fall behind his eldest brother, the youngest sitting member of the National Assembly, or his second brother, a marquee Hunter carrying a major guild, so he had cobbled a religion together in a hurry for the sake of a plausible title: Supreme Leader.

It had begun in a childish greed to outshine his brothers.

Any normal person, of course, would never believe a cult like this. So he had recruited the relatively desperate — patients whose faces had been ruined by Mana Core Erosion Syndrome.

He preached that faith in Love Church would bring them salvation, and before he knew it a fair number of believers had gathered.

He ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠could say with certainty that he had never squeezed money out of them, nor forced them into anything wicked. A luxury available only to a man born with a silver spoon in his mouth.

And so, in a building under Kang Seongjun's own name, with no religious activity whatsoever, the patients of Mana Core Erosion Syndrome simply gathered to share their pain and comfort one another.

How to put it... Less a religion than a kind of care home. A house of love. It had been deteriorating into something of the sort, when—

"Your Holiness! Could it be that the day of salvation has finally come? The day written in the doctrine, when divine grace descends from the Tower!"

"......Y-yes. You could call this the beginning."

And then, of all things, a cucumber. A cucumber capable of healing the aftereffects of Mana Core Erosion Syndrome had appeared, and from that moment the situation began to flow in a very strange direction.

"Your Holiness, how did you know a miraculous cucumber like that existed in the Free Market, and guide the believer Cha Seoyun there?"

How was he supposed to have known that! He wanted to fire the retort straight back, but Kang Seongjun made himself answer with deliberate calm.

"Well... because I am a man who has received divine revelation."

Complete and utter bullshit.

There had been a simple reason he sent the patients here and there under the pretext of divine revelation. Shut them in the gloomy corners of their homes and their fear of other people would only get worse. Send them outside for sunlight, fresh air, and a little people-watching, and their minds might improve, if only a fraction.

Cha Seoyun had been the same.

He had told her to visit the Free Market without any particular thought, and who could have guessed she would find a miraculous cucumber there.

Is this... actually a good thing?

Whatever it was, that cucumber had restored Cha Seoyun's face to some degree, and the believers here now had a chance of being healed as well. So Kang Seongjun had given Cha Seoyun an order, spending five hundred coins of his own money: buy as many of those cucumbers as she possibly could, and bring them back.

"......Now. Everyone, your attention."

Having finished sorting out his thoughts, Kang Seongjun drew every believer's eyes to himself. Something seemed to be going quite badly wrong. Even so, he had to salvage it somehow.

"Waaaaah—!"

"We believe, Your Holiness!"

Having closed the sermon in a suitably convincing cadence, Kang Seongjun briefly puzzled over how to land the ending.

"All of this is by the grace of God! Praise Him, every one of you!"

And with that he dropped hard to his knees in the direction of the Tower.

"Thank you! O Tower God!"

The fifty or so believers lowered themselves after him and offered worship as one.

"Infinite glory to the Tower God!"

"Infinite glory—!"

Toward a god who would be somewhere in the Tower. A god whose face they did not know, and whose name they did not know.

"Get there safe. If anything happens, come straight back."

"Mm. Okaaay."

Once he had confirmed that Elia was on her way to the Free Market, Minhyuk looked over his Safe Zone and let out a quiet sigh.

"Aigoo... the work's piled up like a mountain."

True to his words, the field after a harvest was nothing but chores. The lush cucumber vines had to come out. The sandy beach, and the hard earth besides, all of it had to be turned with a wooden hoe. And every seed had to be planted again, one by one.

It had even grown by another three pyeong.

"Tch. When am I supposed to finish all this."

He was muttering the small complaint when—

Step. Step. Step.

A little wooden soldier approached with a squared, angular gait and stared at Minhyuk as if asking whether something was wrong. Except it wasn't just one. Ten little wooden soldiers in all had come up in a two-rank line, corners razor-sharp, and were looking at him.

The result of investing a full two hundred coins.

"It's nothing. You guys couldn't do it anyway."

Minhyuk smiled faintly and waved them off. The wooden soldiers were for escort. They had no laborer function. The status window said so plainly: combat and escort.

In short, cleaning up the field was entirely his job.

"Ah, forget it."

But Minhyuk flopped flat on his back. He was too lazy to deal with it now; he could do it later. First, a nap, and he could recharge while he was at it.

Khhrrrk—

Sleep rushed in, and he was gone. How much time passed after that?

Poke. Poke.

A scratchy wooden texture jabbed his cheek.

"......Uh, huh?"

He opened his eyes, and one wooden soldier was standing right in front of his nose.

"What? What's going— huh?"

Minhyuk had been pushing himself up at a lazy pace. The sight spread out before him froze him solid.

Kkureung... kkureung-kkureung...

Kkureung fidgeted, anxious and unable to settle.

Snap—! Snap-snap—!

The little wooden soldiers held their formation, posture sharp as a blade.

And—

Kkurung—!

Kkororong—?

Kkuruk-kkuruk—!

Kkururung—!

An unfamiliar troop of meerkats, trussed up in cucumber vines and surrounded by the little wooden soldiers.

"......Huh?"

Minhyuk rubbed his eyes, got to his feet, and stared blankly at the bound meerkats.

So... who were they?