A Small War on Bukhan Mountain (5)
"……."
"Pecia?"
"Just a second."
Pirate Captain Cratan.
The most belligerent noble in Pecia's amusement park.
He sailed the skies aboard a massive flying galleon, raining indiscriminate bombardment on the ground before charging into melee himself.
He would definitely be useful.
His physical defense and durability were so monstrous that even the protagonist needed a special skill just to one-shot him.
That was because Cratan was the king of close combat.
But is this really the right call?
I hesitated over the choice.
No matter how I turned it over, the notice that every Party Bear would completely vanish kept snagging on me. Honestly, wasn't this just a sacrifice?
They each had their own sense of self. If I traded all those lives to summon something stronger, I'd be no different from the cultists.
More than anything, Yena — who remembered every last one of the little bears' birthdays and names — would never accept this.
And if I tried to lie and say I'd sold them, those dumb little teddy bears didn't seem like the type to keep a secret.
I sighed inwardly.
…Better find another way.
"Show me all the special effects."
1. All Stats +10(Level 15 restriction)
— Skill Enhancement
2. Reflection(Level 30 restriction)
— Destroys the mana circuits of any target that attacks the wearer.
3. Mana & HP Recovery Rate ×2(Level 60 restriction)
4. ???(Level 120 restriction)
Attack Power:+50
1. Mana +1050(scales with level)
— Acquires Skill: Joker
2. While Joker is active: All Stats +666
The features were enough to make me whistle on pure reflex.
Kim Seojun's talent and gear as the protagonist were absurdly broken, sure — but Pecia the mid-boss didn't seem to lag far behind.
Decision made, I picked up my pace again and spoke to Elaine.
"Hey. If I turn black and white, restrain me, okay?"
Elaine gave me a suspicious look.
"Why?"
"Because black and white is sad. You'll have to heal me until I'm all colorful again."
"There you go with the weird talk again. What does 'turning black and white' even mean?"
That's something you don't need to know.
As we walked, I started spotting Party Bears torn apart here and there.
The space was so thoroughly scrambled that the battlefield was pure chaos. In one meadow, evil spirits lay scattered. Cross into the next stretch and Party Bear corpses lined the ground. Somewhere else, evil spirits and Party Bears had been shredded side by side like they were getting along just fine.
Looking over the shattered flesh-colored wooden fragments… it seemed the Party Bears had been pushed back until the Toy Soldiers joined the fight and flipped the tide.
Thump-thump.
For some reason my heartbeat quickened, but I forced myself to ignore it and kept walking.
The Pecia of my past life hadn't cared one bit when her subordinates died. I was human now — I couldn't afford to get that invested in their deaths.
I'll fix you up when I have the spare time. Just hang in there.
"Isn't that an instructor?"
Suddenly, a woman in light armor was walking toward us.
I'd assumed every administrator would have been subdued by this point, so we ducked behind a tree for a moment and watched.
But the timing was already too late, and the terrain was terrible for hiding.
The woman vaulted up through the bare branches and dropped right in front of us.
A woman in her early thirties smiled brightly.
"Lucky us. There are still people alive."
But Elaine, staring at her, asked in a tone that was anything but welcoming.
"…What happened, Sena unnie?"
"Oh, it's our young lady. You okay?"
"I'm fine. More importantly — what on earth is going on? A rescue team should have been here by now."
The female instructor shrugged.
"I don't know either. All the radios are dead. The enemies were stronger than expected, so I've been gathering some of my colleagues."
"What kind of colleagues, exactly?"
"……."
The way she blinked at Elaine's question. She was still smiling, but something about her looked uncomfortable.
The instructor twisted her mouth into a smirk.
"Our young lady — what exactly are you trying to say?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, your tone's getting a little sharp…?"
Elaine smiled coldly.
"Wouldn't it be stranger if I were being nice? We paid you a salary to protect the children, and instead you brought the monsters in."
"……."
Honestly, at this point there wasn't much left to say.
Every Ether Stone used to control the maze had been in the instructors' possession. The fact that things had gotten this far meant they had all been turned.
Or they were dead.
The female instructor didn't seem particularly interested in hiding it either. She tilted her head and answered.
"You talk like you did me some great favor. I had plenty of other places I could have gone, you know."
The sneer that came with that pathetic pittance clearly got under Elaine's skin.
Her expression wiped clean as she replied.
"…We took you in out of pity, and now look at the mouth on you. How low-class."
The instructor's lips twitched.
"Low-class?"
"When you're born at the bottom, everything you do tends to stay in the gutter. I understand that. But even that has limits. As of today, you're fired."
The instructor snorted a laugh.
"Fine. Do whatever you want."
…Acting all cool about it.
I turned to Elaine.
"You need to rebuild your entire HR department. Zero eye for talent."
Elaine nodded obediently, but I felt the need to pile on.
"You only hired pure mutts."
"……."
The instructor fixed me with a cold stare.
"Lady Pecia?"
"Yeah."
For a second, the instructor's deferential tone made Elaine's eyes go wide.
But I'd already shown them a gate — so it wasn't that big a deal. She might suspect I'd colluded with the other side, but I could prove otherwise from here on out.
The instructor spoke in a carefully measured tone.
"From this moment, I will escort you to headquarters. If you cooperate quietly, the Fifth High Priest has promised to overlook your previous… eccentricities."
I tapped my lips and answered.
"Eccentricities? Overlook?"
"Yes. If you refuse, he said he will kill Kang Jiye and her daughter. You wouldn't want your toys broken, would you?"
"……."
Pecia regarded the instructor with surprising calm. Neither smiling nor crying.
Even a threat against the people around her drew no reaction at all. She really was like a doll without emotions.
Step—
But Elaine instinctively sensed danger and took a step back.
She had seen Pecia like this once before. That unfocused, half-there expression — and the teddy bear that had trembled at the sight of it.
She hadn't cast a single spell or taken any combat stance, and yet a pressure settled over them as if their hearts might stop.
"All right. I'll go with you."
Suddenly Pecia smiled faintly and nodded. She held out her left hand as if offering a handshake.
The instructor's mouth curved up.
"A wise decision. However."
"However?"
"Once His Majesty descends, you will actively cooperate."
Saying so, the instructor took the handshake with her left hand. The moment Pecia's smile deepened—
CRUNCH—
The instructor's face tightened as her gaze dropped.
Two arms locked rigid, trembling hard.
Pecia was pouring every ounce of strength she had into crushing the instructor's hand.
Seeing it, the instructor's mouth fell slightly open, and she let out a sigh.
"You thought this counted as an ambush…? Of course. Your Mental Power is almost completely intact."
"……."
"You've come out weakened, Lady Pecia. Only this much strength? I could handle this myself without even needing a High Priest. What a disappointment."
Instructor An Sena possessed power roughly at the upper A-class level. Pecia might not have been a close-combat type of monster, but An Sena never imagined she wouldn't even clear this bar.
Confidence filled the corners of the instructor's mouth.
"If you don't let go, I'll have no choice, you know?"
Arm muscles bulged; veins stood out. She poured mana into her grip, intending to pulverize Pecia's hand. Who would have thought a mere cultist would one day get to wreck a royal's body.
It was a little sacrilegious — but it had its own kind of thrill.
"Hmm."
But Pecia's hand did not crush easily. The instant An Sena applied force, equal force met her. When she pushed harder, the same force came right back.
Wh-what?
Before she knew it she was straining with everything she had — and eventually even bringing her other hand into it.
Just as she began to realize the situation was going wrong… An Sena's eyes flew wide.
CRACK—!
"AAAAAARGH!!!!!!!"
In an instant her left hand was crushed, fingers bent every which way. Broken bone punched through skin and blood sprayed, but Pecia kept applying pressure with a blank expression.
From the ring finger to the index, the hand began to hang in tatters as if half-torn off.
An Sena's knees buckled as a long scream tore out of her.
"Stop, stop it!! I'm sorry!!"
Pecia opened her mouth.
"You'd better hope those two are still alive."
An Sena looked up at her through tear-blurred eyes.
"W-what?"
"If those two are alive, you get to die. But if something's gone wrong — you'll be stuck with me forever. Take her."
Suddenly blue particles drifted through An Sena's vision. She turned her head with fear-soaked eyes — and found an oval gate the height of a two-story building yawning open. Dozens of colorful teddy-bear arms stretched out from inside, seized her, and began hauling her in.
"N-no. Save—!"
Before the plea finished, her body was sucked clean through. At the same time the gate shrank and sealed shut.
.
.
.
"Pecia…?"
Elaine stared at her in bewilderment.
As if crushing a person's hand moments ago meant nothing, clear tears were sliding from the eyes of this small girl.
"…Because of me."
She lowered her head in a voice that sounded like self-reproach. Was she worrying about whether Kang Jiye and her daughter were still alive?
In truth, it was nearly certain she was a monster — and yet, somehow, pity began to edge out fear in Elaine's heart.
When she carefully took Pecia's blood-smeared left hand, Pecia looked at her with a faint smile.
"I like the Joker, Elaine."
"Huh?"
"He's always smiling."
From the corners of Pecia's mouth to the edges of her ears, a reddish flush began to spread.