The Attitude of Asking (4)
One week earlier. Back when Jeong Hoon's party was still staying at Haengbok Villa in XX-gu.
"There's something I really need to tell you both..."
"Hm?"
"What is it, unnie?"
Han Sora was a little drunk — the alcohol had clearly gone to her head. She'd downed several beers in quick succession, and her cheeks were flushed a deep red. That was precisely why she could let the unavoidable honesty of a tipsy mind spill out without restraint.
The anxiety she'd been carrying deep inside came tumbling out, freely and without shame, in front of Kim Seyeon and Park Seeun — the two women she'd been chatting with over shared drinks.
"I mean, Oppa Jeong Hoon is... he's so strong, and cool, and capable. In this entire country... no, maybe even on this whole planet... he's basically one of a kind. And for someone like that... right now, that vixen over there is just..."
In a flash, Han Sora jerked her head up and locked her gaze on something across the room. Hostility simmered in her eyes.
In that direction, Seo Hyejin was chatting cheerfully with the others. Kim Seyeon and Park Seeun exchanged wry smiles at the sight.
Still keeping tabs on Hyejin, huh. And Hyejin doesn't even find Sora intimidating — she thinks she's cute, if anything. What a peculiar dynamic.
"But... even after we leave this place, there's no guarantee more vixens like her won't show up. No — if anything... i-if Oppa really makes it big in Yeouido... like, rebuilds civilization and rises to some presidential kind of position... then for real, tons of women are going to... flock to him. R-right? Don't you think?"
"Sora..."
"Sora unnie..."
Kim Seyeon and Park Seeun glanced at each other and understood at once. Han Sora was carrying a heavier dilemma than either of them had realized.
Because they both partly agreed with what she was saying.
In a ruined world overrun by zombies and monsters, the people who could cut those horrors down, claim the best ground, and protect others were the ones who rose to the top. And right before their eyes stood exactly that kind of man. Strong enough to fight, capable of keeping people safe, sharper than expected, genuinely skilled — and on top of all that, fundamentally decent. Jeong Hoon was protecting the roughly twenty people sheltering in Haengbok Villa, a little blunt at times, yet more attentive and gentle than anyone could have imagined.
And because they themselves felt that same pull of affection and attraction toward him, denying Sora's dilemma was simply impossible.
Still, the flavor of their feelings differed clearly. Kim Seyeon's leaned closer to ordinary romantic attraction between a man and a woman, while Park Seeun's was nearer to the fondness one might feel for a reliable, kind older brother.
"I... I get it, up here." Sora tapped her temple. "If Oppa becomes someone... really politically huge... even if he doesn't want to, he'll have to show that he likes and cares for other people. I know that. I know he has to. But... even so... in my heart..."
Watching Han Sora teeter on the edge of tears, drunk and pouring out her true feelings, was genuinely pitiable. So the more mature Kim Seyeon stepped in.
"Don't worry, Sora. Everyone here knows Jeong Hoon puts you first. No matter who shows up from now on, that won't change easily. I'm sure of it."
"Th-that's right, Sora unnie! Oppa always thinks you're the best. The absolute best!"
"D-do you really think so? That Oppa..."
"Of course, Sora. You've been by Jeong Hoon's side longer than either of us. You've seen what kind of person he is. Does he look to you like the type who'd swap women out the second something prettier catches his eye?"
"N-no. Not at all..."
"See, unnie? That's not who Oppa Jeong Hoon is! So stop fretting so much!"
Under their comfort and praise, Han Sora's expression gradually eased — though the unease hadn't fully vanished. No. If anything, she seemed to be harboring an entirely different thought.
"Thank you, Seyeon unnie. Seeun-ah. But... I'm not an idiot."
She nodded, offered a faint smile, and looked between the two of them with a face full of resolve. It was the face and posture of someone appealing to them with a decision already made.
"Seyeon unnie, Seeun-ah... you two... you like our Oppa, don't you?"
"Uh, huh?"
"Sora unnie? Why are you suddenly going there...?"
"I... I know my way of talking is weird, and I get too into games and stuff, but... I-I'm not stupid. I know there are tons of people — women — who fall for someone like Oppa, and there will be even more going forward. And in a situation like that, if I get greedy and try to monopolize him... I know I'd just put myself in a worse position. But... at the very least... the vixens, and the trash who just want to suck Oppa dry... I want those ones cut out for sure. But I don't think I can do that alone."
Sora set down her beer can and reached out, taking Kim Seyeon's and Park Seeun's empty hands — one in each of hers.
"If it's you two... it's okay. I... surprisingly have a good eye for people. You two can do the things I can't. And you're good people. And... more than anything..."
"More than anything, no matter how hard this world gets... you're people I desperately want to see survive."
"Sora..."
"Unnie, seriously... do you have to say something that embarrassing in exactly that way...?"
Kim Seyeon looked a little moved — the reaction of someone whose heart hadn't fully settled yet, but had already begun to lean. Park Seeun grumbled, yet couldn't bring herself to turn away from Sora — still more the reaction of a little sister who'd gained a trustworthy, dependable older brother than someone nursing romantic feelings.
"So... you two are okay. If you like our Oppa... o-or if you come to like him later... I can accept that. But in exchange... in exchange..."
"Any vixens who try to approach Oppa besides us... please, in your own ways, shut them out. Absolutely...!"
The way Sora delivered those words made Kim Seyeon and Park Seeun briefly feel as though they'd glimpsed the phantom of a great demon. Thanks to that, neither could easily refuse — and they found themselves nodding along, half-heartedly sealing the promise.
And so, more than a week ago, the three of them had reached a kind of agreement.
If someone had to name it, the Jeong Hoon Sharing Pact would have been the most fitting title.
...Perhaps some fortunate third-party observer of the world had heard, in exhaustive detail, exactly why Han Sora had made that declaration.
But I, the man currently listening to her words right in front of me—
"O-Oppa, seriously! Then... then later, if some even hotter... no, wait, there's no way anyone hotter than Seyeon unnie could even exis— anyway, if some hot person shows up and tries to seduce you... wh-what are you gonna do?! Y-you'll fall for it, won't you?! I-I mean... I did clearly give permission, but... that was a week ago... I held both their hands and cried my eyes out and... it took so much courage to say yes...! And four days ago I did tell Oppa those two were okay...! But still, still, this is way too fast. Oppaaa...!"
—was running my brain at full capacity, straining to reconstruct what Sora actually meant in terms that made any kind of common sense.
Fortunately, it seemed Lawful Good was providing some kind of intelligence correction... well, not quite. More like my Intelligence stat of 17 was offering a modest boost to logical inference.
One week ago, while we were still in XX-gu, Han Sora had lamented her own shortcomings and proposed something to the two women close enough to fill those gaps — Kim Seyeon and Park Seeun.
You can stay close to Jeong Hoon. Just help me cut down the other women — or vixens — together.
Faced with the sheer force of will behind that proposal, the two had no choice but to accept. Which was why, four days ago at that hotel, when I'd said I was accepting Yun Mina, Sora had whispered in my ear that those two were fine.
So, taking all of that as premise and daring to draw a conclusion about Han Sora's current emotional state...
She'd said the words herself, but I'd gone and formed a relationship with that person — Kim Seyeon — so fast that she was thoroughly sulking about it.
Of course, I wasn't so tactless as to say any of that out loud.
"I'm sorry I couldn't control my impulses. I must have been far too drunk."
"Ah, from now on... um... yeah! Together with me! Whenever you drink, you absolutely have to drink with me! Even if it means a threesome, n-no... even if it means a foursome, you absolutely have to include me! Got it?"
"Sora, that's going a bit too fa—"
"No, Oppa!"
Han Sora's eyes flew wide as she glared at me fiercely. Ah — no! Sora's eyes...
Why did it look like a massive earthquake was going off in her pupils, spinning them round and round?
Ah. I understood. Because that was exactly how chaotic things were inside Han Sora's heart right now!
"S-someone as strong and kind and cool as Oppa... can definitely handle at least a foursome! Absolutely!"
...
...I felt like my soul had briefly taken a business trip to Andromeda and only just returned.
At any rate, between Han Sora's threats and her scolding, the punishment for my supposed wandering eye came to a rather unexpected conclusion.
No — it truly ended right there. Because—
"Jeong Hoon orabeoni!"
"Hoonie oppa! Sora unnie! Where are you?! Hurry, hurry, come out! Hurryyy!"
—a desperately urgent voice was calling for us.
"Sora, we should go."
"Huh? Uh, u-uuuh...! I-I still haven't pointed out how those two accepting that Yun Mina wench is a treaty violation... uuuugh...!"
What treaty violation was she even talking about?
Regardless, the voices calling us were frantic and still going. I threw open the warehouse door.
"Hoonie oppa, Sora un— oh, there you are. Hoonie oppa! Hurry, hurry!"
Park Seeun, who'd been sprinting from the other direction, spotted us and frantically pointed outside, practically screaming.
The direction her finger indicated was the main gate of the National Assembly Building.
We scrambled toward the main gate with the rest of the party as fast as our legs would carry us.
The moment we arrived, I grasped the full situation.
"What in the world...?!"
It was a massacre.
People were dying.
"Aaaagh!"
"Help me, help m— khurk!"
"Fuck, you said it was safe... you said it was sa— gyaaaaah!"
"Hiiiek! Please, please just spare my li—!"
A considerable number of people — from god knows where — were being slaughtered by monsters and zombies. No: they'd been reduced to prey and playthings all at once.
The monsters were brutal. As if they'd stumbled upon a dense cluster of humans for the first time in ages, they were gleefully beating people down, stabbing them, and desecrating the corpses. The only mercy was that they weren't committing public gang rape out in the open street.
The zombies were no better. They were snatching people one by one and tearing into them as if they'd walked into an all-you-can-eat buffet.
At a glance, more than twenty humans were being eaten alive or dying where they stood, and another twenty had already long since become corpses.
And over in one corner of the road, roughly a dozen or so survivors clung together in a tight cluster, trembling helplessly as the monsters and zombies closed in — unable to do a single thing about it.
"Oh my god...!"
"Wh-where did all these people even come from? Why, all of a sudden..."
"Haa... don't tell me... that Han Miseon person...!"
Park Seeun, Han Sora, and Kim Seyeon, in that order, frowned at the carnage before them and let their reactions slip out. And Yun Mina—
"Wow, this is a bit... uurk...! I mean, I expected something like th—is... uweeegh...!"
—kept dry-heaving.
Hold on. When she'd been butchering monsters alongside me before, she hadn't reacted like this at all. Why now...?
Ah. Because living humans were being slaughtered, killed, and torn apart. My party tended to cut down monsters and zombies relatively cleanly when we hunted. This kind of raw, vivid carnage simply wasn't something Yun Mina was used to.
"I shall intervene."
"Ah, just a moment. Jeong Hoon-ssi?"
...Huh? Just a moment?
Normally when something like this happened, Kim Seyeon never said a word even if I charged straight out. And now she was putting the brakes on?
As I stood there bewildered, Kim Seyeon stepped right up beside me without hesitation and brought her lips to my ear. Ah — I could feel her breath. That same breath I'd felt last night... no! Focus!
"Helping them is fine, but... whisper whisper..."
Huh? Hmm? Hmmm...
That actually sounded pretty good. I couldn't think of a single reason to refuse.
"Understood. Sora — provide covering fire from range!"
"...Okay."
Sora pouted, but she was already grabbing her bow and preparing to support me.
And I took a single step beyond the main gate.
Whoosh!
In an instant, the starring role in the slaughter changed hands.
"Kurk? Wh-what the— KUEEEEEEEK!"
CRACK! BOOM!
I casually drove my fist into the skull of the first potbellied orc I saw. The punch pulverized its head on the spot and slammed the rest of it into the ground — no, it shattered the asphalt road and drove the creature straight into the earth beneath.
"Kuhik?"
"Kikeek?"
The goblins and orcs that had been thoroughly absorbed in tormenting humans froze the moment they heard their kin's death scream and the accompanying crash. Some of the suffering humans were briefly freed. Well — in that condition, they wouldn't last long either way.
But that momentary hesitation would be the last thing those monsters ever did.
I charged forward, drew my iron sword from my back, and swung it in a single arc. Within the blade's radius stood two goblins and one orc.
Slash! Whoosh!
"Kieeeek!"
"Kuhiieeeek!"
A monster's death cry never failed to sound refreshing. Ah — a zombie stumbling around nearby. Eat a fist, you filthy abomination!
Thud!
And now every monster and zombie in the vicinity that had been tormenting people finally registered my presence. Some looked wary. Others looked amused.
Good. This was exactly the moment Kim Seyeon had mentioned, wasn't it?
Ahem!
"I have come to pass judgment upon you who slaughter humans and feast upon their flesh."
In a low voice, I began the kind of reckless grand speech before monsters and zombies that I hadn't delivered even once over the past two days.
"Upon you who inflict suffering upon humankind, I shall personally deliver the sentence of death."
"Kuhik? What's that human babbling about?"
"Kikekekekekeke!"
"Uoooooh...!"
Fuck... The orcs were laughing at me. The goblins were cackling too. Even the zombies were shambling closer with faces that seemed to say, What the hell is this pretentious bastard going on about? He looks delicious as hell, though.
Still... I'd already started talking. There was no stopping now.
"Remember this before you die. The name of Jeong Hoon — the rightful ruler of Yeouido...!"
I declared it as loudly as I could — loud enough for them to hear — then kicked off the ground.
The moment I closed the distance on the orcs and goblins still laughing at me, I swung the iron sword in a great horizontal arc once more.
Whoosh! Slash!
"Ku-kuhiieeeeeeeek?!"
"Kieeeeeeeee!"
I'd made even more noise than before... so they'd heard me this time, right?
"Ugh... wh-what?"
"Th-that...!"
"A person... is that a person?"
"It is a person! Covered in blood, but... definitely a person!"
They'd heard me. Sharp ears, for a bunch of idiotic suicide-seekers!