Night Watch
By the time the groups that had split off for reconnaissance returned, camp was already more or less set up.
The spot wasn't particularly conspicuous, and there were no settlements nearby. Tonight, at least, we'd be able to rest easy. Finding a stretch of ground this open further inland would be nearly impossible. If the outskirts were already this infested, I didn't want to think about how thick with goblins the interior would be.
"Hah... hah..."
"You did well, Seoyun."
"Hah... n-no, I—hah—going with you was... really nice, oppa. Whew. I hope we can go together like this next time, too."
"Then you'll have to work even harder. You still look pretty worn out."
I offered the joke with a faint smile, and Na Seoyun scrambled to protest.
"I-I'm not! I'm barely even tired! So don't leave me behind!"
"Alright, alright."
I gave a wry smile and ruffled her hair. She was leaning on me more than I'd expected. If anything, lately it felt like she relied on me even more than on Na-yeon. Na-yeon still came first for her—for the time being, at least.
Unlike Seoyun and me, who'd let the tension ease into something almost light, the knights hadn't dropped their grim expressions for a second. That was why I'd joked with her in the first place—to take the edge off. I had no intention of doing the same for them. For my purposes, a little extra urgency, a little extra tension, would only help.
Cory, the knight who'd stayed behind to guard the camp and my party members, took one look at those rigid faces and asked what had happened. Tula, his peer, stepped in to answer.
"...We found four more settlements around the first one we discovered."
"...We're in trouble."
Cory grasped the situation in an instant, and his expression hardened to match the rest.
I turned to them.
"You should eat and get some proper rest first. Starting tomorrow, we push deeper inland—and from that point on, even sleep won't come easy. You asked for a longer reconnaissance period, so this is going to be a real forced march."
"...Understood. Everyone, rest well tonight. That's an order."
"Yes, sir. Understood, Senior Revo."
Ritaf, the youngest, answered on behalf of the others.
At Revo's word, the other three forced the tension from their faces and did their best to rest. The mood, however, wasn't going anywhere. They ate a quiet meal of jerky pulled from their inventories, assigned the night watch, and turned in early.
With nine of us, we paired off and rotated the watch. Revo—the strongest among them, though I was actually stronger—stood watch alone, and Na-yeon and I formed a pair. Beyond that, I deliberately mixed a knight with one of my party members for each shift. I wanted them to watch and learn how the knights conducted a night watch, and besides, leaving the watch to my party alone still made me uneasy. We'd had no choice before. We did now.
Na Seoyun clearly wanted to stand watch with me, but I deliberately paired myself with Na-yeon. I'd talked plenty with Seoyun. Precisely because of that, I'd barely spoken with Na-yeon at all. Whenever I was around the two sisters, Seoyun glued herself to my side, and even sitting together we hardly got a word in.
Seoyun was the first priority, but I needed to pull Na-yeon into the team as well. I had a growth plan for her, after all. Spirit Masters were rare—a position that barely overlapped with anyone else's—and High Potential among them was scarce enough to rival even Supreme Potential in value. In raw ability, Supreme Potential still came out ahead, but there was no telling what would happen once her spirit grew. A lottery ticket, of sorts.
The order was decided by drawing lots, and we ended up third. The first shift went to Joo Ha-yeon and Ritaf. The rest of us turned in. Even a few hours of sleep was sleep we needed. Rest was genuinely important. Being able to rest whenever the chance presented itself was a vital skill in the Tower.
I'd barely closed my eyes before my watch arrived. Revo, who'd taken the second shift, shook me awake.
"...Revo?"
"You're up. It's your watch."
"Ah—thank you for your hard work. I'll wake Na-yeon myself. Please, get some rest."
"Very well. Good luck."
Revo went straight back to sleep. There was nothing to prepare. Out here, you slept in your gear as a matter of course.
I got up and woke Na-yeon first.
"Na-yeon. Na-yeon?"
"Mm... mmh? Shin-hoo...?"
"Yeah. It's our watch."
"Ah. Okay. I'll be right there."
While she got up, I checked the campfire. I added a few more logs just in case, then made sure the light was properly screened. By the time I was done, Na-yeon had risen and come over to me.
For a while we sat warming ourselves by the fire, keeping watch on the dark. Then Na-yeon spoke, her voice careful.
"Shin-hoo."
"Yeah?"
"Are we going to be okay?"
"...What do you mean?"
"Lately... I've been getting anxious."
She's exhausted.
Na-yeon seemed mentally worn down. Anxiety about the future. Someone she had to look after. And ever since we'd entered the Tower, it had been one crisis after another. Now we were walking straight into one. Not that we had a choice—staying put would only bring a worse one down on our heads.
It wasn't strange, not really. Joo Ha-yeon and Nam Eun-ju probably felt the same, even if they hadn't said it out loud. I'd been there myself, in my first cycle, and Na Seoyun was no exception. That was why they leaned on me so hard. Seoyun, at least, had Na-yeon and me as a buffer, which meant she was under the least psychological strain of anyone. Which, put another way, meant the burden on Na-yeon and me was that much heavier. I was used to this, thanks to my first-cycle experience. Na-yeon was not. Her mind was probably being backed into a corner in real time.
"I know I shouldn't be like this, not with Seoyun here... but honestly, it's just so hard..."
"...Yeah."
"...Of course, it's hardest on you."
Na-yeon said it with a bitter smile.
"Whenever things got dangerous, you were almost always the one who stepped up. You were first into the fight with the goblins. When the wolves surrounded us, you got us out with that quick thinking of yours... at the castle, too... during reconnaissance, in the Underground Waterway, even when Johann framed you—you were always out in front. I know. I know I shouldn't be dumping this on you. But... I'm just so tired..."
I glanced at the knights. Fortunately, they were all sound asleep. True to their training, they seemed to rest properly when rest was called for. After a discreet check that they were out, I spoke.
"Well... just because I stepped up the most doesn't mean it hasn't been hard on you. I did it because I could. It's not that impressive. If you're struggling, tell me. Anytime. I'll listen as long as you need."
"...You really are amazing."
"Am I? I wonder."
"You are. Telling someone they can talk to you whenever it's hard, in a situation like this... I can barely hold myself together... It scares me to think what would've happened if you hadn't been looking after Seoyun so much."
"You're doing fine. I believe you would've managed even without me."
"...I don't know about that. I couldn't even do it back on Earth..."
Na-yeon fell silent. I simply stayed beside her, saying nothing.
Anything more I said here would only backfire. Sometimes the right move was to sit still. Once this moment passed, she'd feel closer to me than before.
I'll have to learn more, little by little.
Once we were closer, I'd hear about Earth too. And once we were that close, leaving my side would be difficult. The higher we climbed, the more of the Tower's reality she'd see. I would watch her change from beside her, make her lean on me, and draw her in.
Clearing Floors 1 through 3 had taken about a week. Floor 4 had taken a little under a week. On Floor 5, we'd spent three days resting and preparing for the dungeon, then another three days clearing it. Floor 6 had been a full week of survival. All told, the time from Floor 1 to Floor 7 added up to a little over a month. Given everything we'd been through together, the intensity was high—but in absolute terms, even counting the time spent on Floor 7, we'd only had about a month. I considered that more than enough progress. It wasn't as if I had any competition.
Na-yeon didn't speak after that. But as our watch drew to a close, she offered me a single word.
"...Thank you."
Then she rose and left to wake Nam Eun-ju for the next shift. Whether it was the firelight or something else, Na-yeon's face was flushed as she said it.
The next morning, we pushed inland quickly, just as I'd laid out the day before.
The goblin settlements grew denser the farther we went, and the path back stretched longer than expected. In my first cycle, I'd still been under torture around this time, so I hadn't known it would be this bad. Still, we were dealing with goblins that couldn't even use mana. We slipped past them at our leisure, and before the sun set, we finally brought the Grand Goblin Settlement into view.
The scale of it was overwhelming. The Grand Goblin Settlement had swollen even larger than before.
"......This can't be..."
Revo's face was ashen. He wasn't the only one. Cory, Tula, even Ritaf wore expressions of half-despair.
"...It's even larger than it was in the past. The speed they're gathering at isn't normal. At this rate..."
At my words, the knights turned to each other, their faces taut.
"The goblins here alone have to number over three thousand. Counting the surrounding area, we're looking at well over five thousand. Revo—this... there's no way, is there?"
"We'll have to pull in everyone from the nearby villages and mount a full-scale defense. What we're preparing now won't hold. Even if we scrape together every scrap of food and supplies we can find, it'll still be dangerous. We should request aid from the other territories..."
"...And who would help us? The neighboring territories are all hostile. We'd be lucky if they didn't seize the chance to invade."
"...They still won't invade. They're too busy keeping each other in check. If we fall, they're next..."
After talking it over, the knights turned to me.
"We'll need to survey the surrounding area as well. I want at least a rough sense of the full scale. I can only hope they're concentrated here, but..."
Even as he said it, Revo knew that wasn't the case. The settlements we'd passed on the way here hadn't been one or two. If we surveyed everything centered on this place, we'd confirm well over ten thousand goblins. Of those, the ones that would actually attack would number in the thousands—and even excluding combat forces, they'd be swarming.
The sun had already nearly set, so we rested another day and resumed reconnaissance the next morning.
It was as I'd expected. Just as in my first cycle, if you added up every surrounding goblin settlement, their numbers were staggering. From far off, goblins were slowly gathering, bit by bit.
The projected force: ten thousand.
Time until they fully assembled: a little over ten days.
The knights realized that Mellid Castle's destruction had entered its final countdown.