The First Tower (2)
Leading my team toward the tower that had appeared nearby, I pushed through a forest of trees left withered and bare by its presence, climbing the mountain until night fell. We set up a simple camp and spent the evening bantering among ourselves when I looked up and saw the great bursts of flame that had been lighting the night sky for weeks now.
Fireworks—something rarely seen these days.
If my daughter were still alive, she would have tugged at my hand, cooing and pleading for us to go get a closer look.
Thinking of the daughter who had already left my side, I sat by the campfire, sipping a hard-to-find cup of instant coffee, and watched the fireworks bloom overhead.
A bright, clear voice called out to me.
"Uncle Dusik, watching the fireworks again?"
A young woman who looked freshly adult, her long brown hair pulled up into a high ponytail, came over to me.
Her name was Kang Ara, daughter of Kang Hancheol—the leader of the Mokdong Settlement and a man I called brother.
"No idea who's setting them off, but it's not every day you get to see something like that in a sky like this. Hahaha!"
"True enough, but you've been the one saying we have to be careful because the noise has been going on for weeks and we can't hear the monsters or outlaws moving around us."
"Ahem. Well, that is true."
"And sure, they looked nice the first time. Now it's just noise pollution! I can't even sleep!"
Still grumbling, she sat down beside me and thrust her cup toward me, clearly asking for coffee.
"We're getting up early tomorrow. No."
"Come on~ Just one cup's fine, right? I want to taste it again after so long~"
She had been close with my daughter, and the familiar way she looked at me brought the girl back to mind.
"Fine. Just one cup, got it?"
"Yes! Uncle, you're the best!"
"Don't say things you don't mean. Tsk..."
She took the coffee, drank a cup, and then said,
"Ryeong really loved fireworks. No—anything loud that got the mood going, she loved it all."
I simply stared at the sky in silence and listened to her talk.
"I got some information this time. Their location."
At those words I whipped my head around to face her and shouted,
"You!!! You're still doing that?!"
The sudden yell drew the other team members' eyes our way.
She only pressed a hand to her ear and scowled as if I were being too loud.
"Ah, stop yelling. I'm an adult now, okay?! I'm old enough to decide for myself!"
"What kind of nonsense is that?! You just turned twenty!"
"I know. So, Uncle... please?"
I knew exactly what she was asking.
She wanted me to go investigate with her.
"No."
"Come on~ Don't be like that, Uncle. We're only going to look. It'll be fine."
"No. If I lose you too, I won't be able to go on living. And I couldn't face your father."
"Ugh, fine."
Ara left her seat.
"Don't even dream of it until we've cleared the tower!"
"Ah~ I got it already~"
Watching her wave a hand and head for her sleeping bag, I remembered that day.
The look in those eyes as they fixed on my daughter while we traveled with a group toward the settlement where Hancheol was waiting.
Eyes that watched her like prey. I had brushed it off with a careless Nah, it couldn't be and kept going toward the settlement—
until the Outlaws appeared. Among them, the Falcon Gang, whose activity had been especially fierce lately.
They were the ones who killed the wanderers traveling with us... and my daughter.
I must have drifted off while lost in those bitter memories.
Still half-asleep, I was jolted awake by a tremendous roar; everyone scrambled to their feet.
"Uncle! Get up, hurry!"
"Ara! What's going on?"
"I don't know either—there was this huge noise all of a sudden and everyone's up packing!"
"Captain! What do we do?!"
One of the team members asked, looking at me.
"Pack up fast and scout the area! We clear the tower only after we've confirmed the surroundings are safe!"
We struck the makeshift camp in a rush and began searching the area—only to run straight into a pack of Giant Orcs.
"Uncle... these things..."
I had brought Ara out to the nearby tower for real combat experience now that she could handle her ability reasonably well, but I never expected to meet monsters of this caliber.
The earlier roar must have stirred them up as well.
"I'll draw three of them. Ara, you take the remaining two with the rest of the team, split up, and run for the settlement."
"U-Uncle?!"
"Hey, vice-captain. Take Ara and the others, split up, and get out of here."
"Understood. All right! Everyone move out, now!"
"Uncle!!!"
Leaving Ara's cries and the team behind me, I quickly lured three Giant Orcs and sprinted toward the source of the great roar.
Of course, I never expected what I would find at the end of that path to be a young girl.
The middle-aged man who had charged out alongside me—Ho Dunsik—swung his axe in a rough, unrefined style, yet the power behind each blow felt considerable.
Looking closer, I saw his body was covered in a metallic material; he either dodged the Giant Orcs' attacks or deflected them with his free hand while fighting.
"I'm not about to lose either!"
I accelerated hard, fired a burst of Holy Fire at the farther of the two orcs he wasn't engaging to pin it in place, then cut hard toward the nearer one's left leg and sliced clean through its ankle.
I had only meant to sever the Achilles tendon and stop it for a moment, but Durandal simply took the entire lower leg off.
As expected of Durandal! Performance you can count on!
With a guttural cry the Giant Orc toppled. I vaulted onto its back and brought my sword down on its neck with everything I had.
The blade wreathed in holy power sheared head from body in one stroke; the heat seemed to keep the blood from spraying.
"Good—one down!"
The orc that had been halted by the Holy Fire was already closing in. I formed another burst of Holy Fire and set it floating around me.
"You're the one who should keep quiet when you don't know anything, mister. Look! They already heard the noise and came running."
Her words made me realize that my own shout had drawn the orcs' attention back after I had briefly shaken them off.
A girl in armor that radiated a sacred presence, holding a sword that carried an inexplicable pressure.
Yet her build was about the same as my daughter's.
She must have an ability that lets her survive in this world; that was why she could stay so calm.
Even so, I was already seeing my daughter overlaid on her, and I shouted for her to run.
"Young lady, just keep running and don't look back. I'll buy you time."
She only said they would catch her soon enough and stepped up beside me, settling into a stance.
Unlike me—who had never learned martial arts and simply swung an axe with raw ability just to stay alive—her posture felt like something polished over long years of training.
Left with no choice, I charged the Giant Orcs that had appeared with her.
As expected, she had a hidden ace; a mass of flame bloomed behind the running girl and shot straight at the farthest Giant Orc.
By then there was no mistaking it.
The girl was far stronger than I was—and far stronger than I had imagined.
While I traded blows with one Giant Orc, I stole a glance at her.
She was already cutting the orc's leg with practiced ease, climbing onto its back, and severing its neck.
Ara could show solid movement and technique through her ability, but this girl's motion was pure, clean economy—nothing wasted.
No matter how strong an ability might be, you could not move without hesitation like that unless you had lived through real combat again and again.
Only moments earlier even Ara had been trembling slightly as she looked at me.
Just when I thought we had mostly finished them, a bellow rose from the girl's side. I looked over and saw the orc rearing up, both arms raised to smash down on the girl as she thrust at it.
I shouted and flung several of the knives at my belt.
One of them luckily struck the orc in the eye and broke its posture.
The girl—Charlotte—shot me a sidelong glance, then drove her blade straight through the orc's heart without breaking form.
After collecting the magic stones and cleaning up the area, the middle-aged man and I found that simply having saved each other's lives in that short span had already drawn us closer.
"Charlotte, was it? That was some fine movement. Did you train somewhere?"
"Yes, well, something like that. You fought pretty well yourself, Uncle Dusik. You control your ability nicely, and the way you threw those knives at the end—that wasn't a first-timer's skill. Anyway, thank you for the help."
I thanked him and used Holy Fire to burn the orc blood from my clothes.
That was another result of the recent training—a kind of purifying power, it seemed.
Being able to designate and burn only foreign matter with Holy Fire made washing clothes stained with sweat or blood far easier.
Uncle Dusik watched me with a look of wonder.
"Oh-ho, so that flame can do that too?!"
"Mm. It carries purifying power."
"I see. Then what, are you some goddess's holy maiden? Haha!"
"Well, that's not entirely wrong. More precisely, I worked as a heretic inquisitor—an Inquisitor."
"What?! Then... Miss Charlotte, are you a Returnee?"
"Yes, something like that. Why are you so surprised?"
"Hmm. It doesn't matter to me, but being a Returnee is something best kept quiet in Korea."
What was that supposed to mean?
I asked him with a blank look.
"What on earth happened that makes you say that? Did some Returnee go on a rampage and massacre people?"
"No, nothing like that. If you returned, do you know about the Ryan Incident?"
"Ah~ I looked that up on the Watch, so I know."
"Watch? Ah, you mean the device. People call it that too."
"So what does that have to do with me having to hide that I'm a Returnee? And just speak comfortably."
"Really? All right then. Ahem. The truth is, there were a few Koreans mixed up in that incident. One of them broke quarantine and wandered around freely, and that turned it into an even bigger disaster here in Korea."
It was an absurd story.
"Wait—someone actually went around like that?! After living through COVID?!"
"What can you do? It spread and became a huge mess. And because that person happened to be related to someone high up, the media spun it as 'This happened because of the Returnees,' so people didn't look kindly on them."
"Aigoo..."
I was genuinely speechless.
They commit the crime themselves and then pin it on Returnees who had nothing to do with it...
"Well, these days more people know the truth, so it's better, but there are still those who don't look kindly on them. So when you go to a settlement, it would be best to hide that you're a Returnee."
"Yes, I'll keep that in mind."
"Good. By the way, Charlotte, where were you headed?"
I pointed at the tower.
"I was going toward that tower. I figured I needed the experience."
"The tower? Hmm. In that case, why don't we head to our settlement first and decide from there?"
"Why? Can't we just go straight there? With you and me, couldn't we clear it quickly?"
He nodded.
"Of course, with you along, clearing the tower probably wouldn't be a problem. It only appeared recently, so the difficulty should be low. But there was a pack of Giant Orcs around here, so there might be other monster groups as well."
In other words, we could exhaust ourselves or run into variables before we even start the tower.
"All right. Then let's go to the settlement first. So where is your settlement?"
"It's called the Mokdong Settlement."
Why is that name coming up here of all places?
But I had no real reason to refuse, and it was a place I had planned to visit anyway, so I agreed to travel together.
And so Uncle Dusik and I set our steps toward the Mokdong Settlement.