The Burden of the Weak
The Corpse Band had made their decision: they were going to push forward with the Orc Lord raid. Immediately after clearing out the surrounding Orcs, I returned with Shin Yuhee.
"Oppa. It seems the other side is moving first."
"Hm?"
"They're saying they called dibs on it first, and that they're the ones going out to clear it."
Just as we were about to begin the boss raid with Choi Yujin at the helm, Han Jeongho's group had beaten us to the punch. The prospective heroes who had been in the village were gathering their weapons and heading somewhere in a pack. As soon as our eyes met, they immediately turned their heads and left the village in a group.
"What's going on?"
"They said they hadn't been leaving the Orc Lord alone because they couldn't clear it, but because they were waiting. They told us not to even think about stealing their hidden piece."
"Hmm..."
"They even threw in a comment about whether we didn't know the basics of an RPG raid. Even Mr. Gihwan and the other guys didn't seem to have much of a rebuttal."
"Then it can't be helped. We've been outmaneuvered in terms of justification."
The justification the Corpse Band put forward was to clear the stage as quickly as possible. My justification was that I didn't want to see people suffering, so we should kill the Orc Lord quickly. That didn't necessarily mean 'we' had to be the ones to clear it. Up until now, Han Jeongho's party had taken the stance that the raid should be delayed, not that it was impossible and should be abandoned. Furthermore, it was a hidden piece they had been so adamant about. I didn't know if a hidden piece would actually drop from the Orc Lord, but because it was an unknown, they had no choice but to bite the bullet and go for it. At least, some of them did.
"First of all, their party has split in two. One is the party going to clear the Orc Lord with Han Jeongho, and the other is the group over there."
"They all look weak."
"They're all people who haven't finished their sub-quests yet or have relatively little combat experience."
Out of 88 people, 58 had gone out for the raid. And here, left in the village, were 30. Using the word 'left' was a bit of a misnomer. It would be more accurate to call them 'left behind.'
If there was one unexpected thing—
"Why is Kang Daehan over there?"
"...He's leading the people who were left behind, but it looked like he had something he wanted to say to you, Oppa."
"To me?"
"Yes. Well, privately."
Choi Yujin pointed at Kang Daehan and gave me a subtle nod. Kang Daehan was taking deep breaths as if he were sitting in a job interview waiting room, so I could roughly grasp the situation.
'Did he figure it out?'
Did he realize that Choi Yujin was just a figurehead and want to make a request to me? Or was he just trying to find a way to get on my good side because I was a man and someone he had met before, making me more comfortable to talk to than Choi Yujin?
"What is it, Kang Daehan?"
"You're going to clear the Orc Lord, right? Hyung?"
"Obviously."
At Kang Daehan's question, I pointed to the Corpse Band, who had already finished their preparations. "I yielded the raid order out of courtesy, but I don't intend to just stand by and watch from the back. If Han Jeongho's party gets wiped out or falls into danger, we'll naturally have to step in to help."
"We'll join you."
"'We'?"
"Yes. We."
The prospective heroes who had been hovering behind Kang Daehan followed him. They didn't just look weak-willed; they were all people who seemed far removed from any kind of physical labor. They were hanging their heads, faces tense, as if they had never even tried a head-on confrontation with an Orc. If they had at least been looking at me, I might have thought they were just a bit behind in skill, but these were people who lacked the guts to fight in the first place.
'This is the problem with the tutorial.'
Not everyone has a talent for combat. The angels try to turn even those people into sword-wielding soldiers. I understand. They're desperate for even one more person. But among them, there are heroes who might shine more when holding a hammer, a needle, a pot, or a lute rather than a sword. Being a hero doesn't limit you to just hunting monsters. When a hero saves the world, they need the sword they wield, the armor to take the Demon King's attacks, the tools to cook the food the hero eats, and the instruments to heal their mind with the music of their hometown before they break.
"Please, let us come with you. I'm begging you."
"You're asking the wrong person. Why don't you ask Choi Yujin?"
"......."
"...*Sigh*. Fine. I have a question, though. Weren't you guys in the same party as Han Jeongho to begin with?"
"Han Jeongho abandoned them."
At Kang Daehan's words, the expressions of those behind him twisted. It was a somewhat harsh way to put it, but no one could refute him.
"They were berated for not being able to use a sword, and cursed at for freezing up when facing an Orc. There's even a friend currently receiving treatment after falling on their butt while trying to block an Orc's attack with a shield."
"That would happen, of course. That's why Han Jeongho thought of them as 'dead weight' and didn't take them on the Orc Lord raid."
"......."
"I'm not trying to defend Han Jeongho, but wasn't he showing them consideration? A boss raid can be dangerous. You know that if you die once, you have to clear the stage with the other dead people, right?"
"Ugh."
The stragglers behind Kang Daehan let out groans.
"Let me be clear: the Arena is hell. We've crossed the line between life and death in that hell more times than I can count. It was crawling with monsters even more terrifying than Orcs. Han Jeongho and the raid team left you in the village because they didn't want you to end up in a place like that, didn't they?"
"...Even if we can't fight directly, we can still help."
Kang Daehan reached behind his back. As if he had prepared it in advance, he held a bow in one hand and stones in the other, spreading them out toward me as if to say, 'Look at this.'
"We'll provide support from a distance. If the Orcs rush us, I'll block them from the front. I'm here, and so are the others."
"Hmm..."
"Hyung. So, please, let us—"
"I don't get it."
I genuinely didn't.
"Hyung. We want to live, too. Everyone wants to go back—"
"No. I understand the desire of those who want to participate in the battle rather than stay in the village. I don't know much about RPGs, but the hyungs who knew them well used to say things like that."
When we defeated one of the Demon King's main forces as a hero party, there was a conversation like that during the distribution of rewards.
'Do we have to share the rewards with people who contributed 0.001%? They were just people who... what's the term? People who just put a spoon on the table. Do we have to give rewards to people like that?'
Some people ground their bodies down and broke their bones to kill a Demon King's executive, so should rewards be provided to a hero who just flicked a few normal arrows from afar without even imbuing them with mana? For example, if someone participated in a Dragon raid but didn't even peel off a single scale, does it make sense for them to be recognized as a [Dragon Slayer] and get gold coins just because they shot one arrow at the dragon? If the raid reward is 1/N, is it right to put dead weight into the denominator?
'The raid team must have thought that way, too.'
It's a problem born from thinking in game terms. Of course, this isn't the tutorial stage, and it's a problem to seriously consider once we cross over to the other side, but at least from the angels' perspective, it's not a very desirable picture. To be precise, it's not ideal for people to be abandoned without participating in the front lines, whether they're reserve troops or not.
"I understand the desire to participate in the battle somehow. I understand that even if you're in a place slightly removed from the danger, you want to put your spoon on the table, even if it means throwing stones from afar. But... why you?"
What I was curious about was the thinking of Kang Daehan, who was leading these prospective heroes who thought of themselves as dead weight.
"Aren't you a skilled enough person to be on the raid team?"
"...Yes. That's right. Jeongho-hyung actually told me to come, too."
"Then why are you here?"
"I stayed behind on my own. Of my own volition."
Kang Daehan thumped his chest a few times and pointed to the people behind him.
"I want to go with them. Even if it's hard and difficult."
"......."
"I know it might look like I'm being stubborn. You might think I'm just trying to play leader..."
Thud. Kang Daehan took a step forward, looked me straight in the eye, and nodded to himself.
"I want to help, too. Just like you did."
"......."
Was it an illusion? Someone overlapped with him. It wasn't any one specific person, but a fragment of the countless people I had fought alongside on the front lines.
-Helping people who need help is... well, it's not exactly a given, but shouldn't we help when we can?
-Siwoo-ya. Actually, I have a fetish for helping the weak. I'm self-absorbed, getting off on being admired by the weak people I help. So don't give me crap for throwing my body into the fray to save the guys who are dying. It's, what should I call it, the ultimate form of masturbation...!
-That hyung is doing that crap again. How can he be so vulgar even when he's saying something like that?
-Siwoo-ya. No. You shouldn't learn things like that.
"...Tsk."
"...U-uh, is there no way? Even if it's like this, everyone here is actually pretty smart...! Uh, we're a bit like this because we didn't exercise much, but if we had known we were coming to a place like this, we would have done Jiu-Jitsu or whatever...!"
"Fine."
What could I do? "I'll talk to Choi Yujin, but you take responsibility. If you drag them along and they get caught in an area-of-effect wipeout skill and die or get hurt, it's on you."
"...Yes!!"
Just as I don't easily break my stubbornness, these guys are the type of people who won't listen no matter how much you talk to them. People who don't compromise with injustice and willingly throw themselves into helping the weak.
'They'll know once they get burned later.'
A good person and a pushover are only a hair's breadth apart. Even so, if they don't break...
"You're going to be well-liked by the angels."
Even if they die when their time comes, they will remain in someone's memory as a true hero. I'm not walking that path anymore, though.