Bone and Flesh (2)
Why was Han Sora acting like this all of a sudden? Had she spotted something?
I tore my gaze from her and looked in the direction she was pointing.
Then I sucked in a sharp breath — pure, unfiltered shock.
There were birds in the sky.
Except these birds were different from ordinary ones in two critical ways. First, they were massive enough that a person could have fit inside their maws. Second, they had no flesh at all — nothing but bare bone.
The instant I saw them, my hand flew to the window of its own accord. I slammed it shut with a hard clack, yanked the curtains closed, and snapped an order at Han Sora.
"Sora. Go floor by floor and close every window. Draw the curtains. If a room has no curtains, tell people not to linger near the windows."
"Ah— y-yes! On it!"
Han Sora bolted from my room. I could hear her thundering up and down the stairs the moment she got her shoes on. Hey, try not to make so much damn noise…
The door burst open.
"W-what's going on?"
"There was a sudden loud noise…"
Kim Seyeon and Park Seeun, who had been resting in their rooms, poked their heads out. Seyeon looked noticeably thinner; Seeun's face was tight with worry. I left them with a single brief line and headed out myself.
"Both of you stay in your rooms. There is something I must confirm."
I left my nest in room 303 and went straight down to the second floor, aiming for room 203. That unit sat at the villa entrance, so I had already told everyone not to live there. I shoved the door open and started toward the wide-open window—
—and froze.
What the fuck is that?!
Instinct slammed me flat against the floor as I triggered my Rogue skill.
Rogue Skill: Stealth — Rank S (Low)
Beyond the open second-floor veranda, something catastrophic had overtaken the once-quiet alley.
Skeletons packed the street, wandering in dense clusters. And these were no ordinary skeletons. Among them stalked Skeleton Knights — the same kind that had forced me to burn through every scrap of my magic the last time I fought one.
And this time, none of them were alone. Each Knight was leading dozens of Skeleton Warriors.
Even the Warriors looked wrong. Last time they had been little more than bare branches clutching a sword and shield. Now they wore helmets and full armor.
Are those the elite mobs bosses drag around? Elites or whatever the hell they're called? Either way, treating them like the ones from before would get me killed. I could feel it in my bones.
…They're looking for something.
I read the situation in a single glance. The skeletons weren't simply patrolling. They were entering buildings one by one, searching.
They were looking for something… no. Someone.
No matter how optimistically I tried to spin it, the only conclusion that made sense was that they were looking for me.
So what now? What choice are you going to make?
I asked the question.
Of whom? Of myself.
Of the stranger squatting in my heart — the uninvited guest known as the alignment Lawful Good.
I already knew the answer would be the most predictable kind imaginable. I asked anyway.
The reply came instantly.
We stand and fight.
Figured as much.
My hunch that it would choose a frontal confrontation had been dead-on.
But I couldn't let that answer go unchallenged.
This time was different. No matter how unique my system was, no matter how different my power and stats were from everyone else's…
The situation outside was no longer an environment where yesterday's me — the one who had charged around like a hero saving the world — could still run wild.
In other words, if I charged out bare-handed screaming about justice, there was a very real chance I would die the second I opened my mouth. The enemies I would have to face were simply that powerful, and that numerous.
Even so, I pressed the point home: We still have to stand and fight?
Lawful Good answered.
Even so, we stand and fight.
Then it added one more line.
A righteous will need not be borne alone.
Kim Seyeon lay on the bed, her entire body ruled by a crushing sense of exhaustion.
Her only movement for the day had been poking her head out of the room when the noise from Han Sora and Jeong Hoon startled her. Beyond that, she had done exactly what she had done yesterday: lain on the bed without sleeping, staring blankly at the ceiling and the walls.
"Unnie…"
Park Seeun sat beside her with worried eyes, but it didn't help much. The helplessness crushing Kim Seyeon was rooted in an enormous weight of guilt.
Her wrong choice.
That single decision had gotten dozens of the companions who had shared life and death with her slaughtered. Not long ago, the sacrifices of the comrades who had protected the survivor group alongside her had been rendered completely meaningless by one terrible choice.
She thought: It's all my fault.
Me… the fact that I'm still alive and standing on this earth is wrong. If I… if I hadn't been so stupid… if I hadn't been shaken by that temptation…!
Resentment toward Do Minhyeok. Self-reproach. And grief for people she would never meet again.
All of it had hurled Kim Seyeon into a pit of despair.
And it was clear she was making no effort to resist that wave of emotion.
The door burst open.
But there was someone who had thrown a rope of salvation to that ignorant, drowning woman.
And that someone was walking into her room right now.
"J-Jeong Hoon oppa! A-asking something of someone who hasn't even had a full day to recover from the shock is… a little…!"
"It has to be now."
Kim Seyeon shifted her gaze from the ceiling.
When she turned her head, two people were standing in the room.
"W-what is this?! Barging in all of a sudden— ah. Right. This is Jeong Hoon-ssi's room…"
Park Seeun started to protest, then lowered her voice.
Yes — the man who had just walked in was Jeong Hoon. This villa was the building he was staying in (calling it his property wouldn't have been much of an exaggeration). It was even the unit he normally lived in.
"The situation outside is far from ordinary. I judged that I could not leave you uninformed."
And… peculiarly enough, he was a man who spoke in hao-che, a speech register that had all but died out in the modern world.
Outwardly he looked like an ordinary young man of the present day, and his clothes weren't particularly out of place either — yet his way of speaking made him sound like someone who had stepped straight out of the Joseon era or a historical drama into the modern world. His face was so deadly serious it was hard to call him on it.
More than anything, he was skilled enough to have rescued Kim Seyeon from the hands of organized criminals without shedding a single drop of blood.
The perfect contrast to her own helpless self.
"Skeletons throng the streets. Among them are high-level knights and mages. They appear to be searching for something. We are safe for the moment, but it is only a matter of time before they storm this villa."
"That can't be… those powerful monsters are overflowing into the streets?"
"…"
Jeong Hoon laid out his business without preamble. Park Seeun reacted appropriately; Kim Seyeon barely reacted at all.
Because a certain feeling had taken root in one corner of her heart.
Even so, he can probably wipe them all out by himself…
Why was he bothering to pass this information to them?
Unlike her powerless, inadequate self, he could handle it alone.
And yet the content of Jeong Hoon's next words struck deep into the heart of a Kim Seyeon ruled entirely by negative emotion.
"I alone am insufficient. I would like a little of your aid."
"H-huh? M-me and… Seyeon unnie?"
"…What?"
She couldn't believe it. Us?
No — Seeun maybe, but… me? Why me?
"A Cleric's skills are highly effective against the undead. Even the lowest-tier heal deals damage when used on them, and the first-tier skill Sacred Ground inflicts a devastating debuff on undead. According to the information Han Sora possesses, Kim Seyeon, your power is desperately needed. Park Seeun, you are desperately needed to guard Kim Seyeon and Han Sora's side."
"Th-that's right!"
"Ah…"
"…"
It was a convincing argument.
Park Seeun clearly agreed completely with Jeong Hoon and Han Sora. Kim Seyeon, too, knew in her head that what they were saying was correct.
The problem was the will of the person who actually held that class.
"I don't have that kind of ability… At that elementary school, I couldn't even properly protect the others. I couldn't protect my comrades either, and I got them all killed…"
Kim Seyeon murmured the words, helplessly baring a lonely heart.
It was a roundabout refusal. Park Seeun's face twisted with pain at the words, and Han Sora muttered anxiously, "M-maybe we asked too soon after all…"
"By any measure, you are the only suitable person."
"…Me? You must be joking, Jeong Hoon-ssi."
And a person driven into an extreme situation will sometimes spit out their true feelings without realizing it.
"The difference between someone like you, Jeong Hoon-ssi — who can charge out in front of everyone, not die, and smash everything to pieces — and someone like me, who just coasts on her class, is like heaven and earth. Honestly, you can do it alone, can't you? Without me, without Seeun, without that anxious young woman over there."
The moment the words left her mouth, Kim Seyeon regretted them.
What kind of thing had she just said to the benefactor who had saved her and the other survivors in this villa?
But the water was already spilled. There was no scooping it back up. She simply averted her eyes and lowered her head.
"…That was not your fault."
"…What?"
Jeong Hoon's voice came from surprisingly close.
When Kim Seyeon lifted her head, her breath caught in her throat. At some point he had drawn near, sitting on the edge of the bed and meeting her eyes.
His expression looked blunt to the point of severity — and yet it was full of pure, honest sincerity.
It's a different look from all the other men who always stared at me with desire rolling in their eyes… Kim Seyeon thought privately.
"The survivors who died at Daengdaeng Elementary School did not die because of you. Your comrades' deaths were not your fault either."
And Jeong Hoon drove straight into Kim Seyeon's most painful place without mercy — like a doctor ruthlessly plunging in a needle.
"…How can that possibly not be my fault? Isn't that packaging a little too obvious?"
So she snapped back without meaning to. Of course, Jeong Hoon's expression didn't so much as twitch at the words — nothing but a faint movement of the muscles around his mouth.
"People are not perfect. Least of all in an age like this. How many people have ever truly lived through an era overflowing with slaughter and despair? I cannot speak for other regions, but in Korea the number can be counted on one hand. You simply found yourself in circumstances that did not fit you, and you ran up against your limits. I, too, have limits I cannot break — of that same kind."
"What kind of nonsense—!"
Something surged up in her. The words coming out of the man in front of her were absurd. Limits? Limits? Was that something a man who had vaulted over the wall she couldn't cross in a single leap had any right to say?
"You… you saved us! You actually rescued us! You brought me and everyone else here, to the place where you stay! So how can you say something so ridiculous…!"
"Had I truly been a perfect human being, I would have ensured that not a single casualty emerged from that elementary school. But I failed to do so. Because until yesterday morning, I did not even know that you and your comrades existed. That is a limit. The limit of a person who lacks information. And a limit that every person is bound to share. Is that not so?"
"Wha…"
The argument was so plausible that Kim Seyeon's words dried up again. Today, Jeong Hoon was speaking more than he had in the entire past week, as if he had come prepared.
Deep inside, where no one could see, he had handed everything over to Lawful Good.
"Teacher Kim Seyeon. You simply did the best you could within the bounds of what you were able to do. Handing yourself over to that gangster Do Minhyeok because you saw no other way was, in that moment, an entirely rational judgment for you. Do not feel limited by things you could not have known. Do not be excessively afraid of the results that choice brought. You are terrified of what the people in this villa must feel toward you. But the people from Daengdaeng Elementary School who managed to take shelter in this villa did not resent you. Because they had watched your sincerity — your desire to protect them, again and again — from closer than anyone else."
Thud.
It felt as though something deep in her chest had lurched hard.
A massive impact seemed to slam through Kim Seyeon's entire body.
Jeong Hoon was… saying, with astonishing precision, the words Kim Seyeon had wanted to hear.
They fell into her inner world like drops of unbearably sweet temptation, sending ripples outward.
Kim Seyeon's collapsing heart was not ready to shake that temptation off.
N-no… I… I have a husband and a child—
Thump. Thump. Thump!
A near-expressionless bluntness. And yet an unbelievable gentleness.
Kim Seyeon's heart was being shaken by a man she had known for barely a day.
No — already… from the moment he had saved her that dark night, one step short of being violated by Do Minhyeok, and shown her that impassive yet sincere face… she had already…!
"But the situation now is grim. Everything we have managed to protect may be on the verge of collapse. I wish to stop that. However, I judged that I cannot do it alone. There are simply too many of them."
"…"
"I need your help, Kim Seyeon. You, Park Seeun, and Han Sora. If the three of you stand with me… I dare say we can sweep away the monsters threatening this area in a single stroke. And then… we may even be able to save the survivors still hiding somewhere, trembling, whom neither you nor I have yet been able to reach."
Jeong Hoon held out his hand. Kim Seyeon looked down at it.
It was fairly clean, with little excess flesh.
As if proving he had lived as an ordinary person. As if he had never gotten a single drop of blood on his hands before all of this began.
Right. This man, too, was simply dropped into a horrific age… and doing his best to survive.
Suddenly, that feeling settled over her.
"…All right."
So she took it.
"I'm still far from enough, but…"
Carefully, she lifted a slightly flushed face and looked Jeong Hoon straight in the eye.
"I'll… do my best."
"…I thank you."
And in that place, a four-person party — a suicide squad — was formed.
(The protagonist's inner monologue)
Fuck. Even that haggard, unwashed face and appearance are absurdly lewd. What the hell is this unreal decadent beauty? And she's looking up at me from the bed like that, so it's like… it's likeee…!
Uwaaaaaaah for reeeal!
Did I save a person or a walking piece of erotica? I can't even tell!
Married and still radiating that kind of sex appeal — what a shameless succubus! The second I get the chance, I'm definitely going to—!
…Ah. No, sir. I was only thinking good thoughts. I'm a good person, Lord Lawful Good! I really am!