Chapter 77. The Road to the Forest.
Chapter 77. The Road to the Forest.
— Knock, knock...
'Who comes calling at this late hour...?'
"Who is it?"
"My apologies for the late hour. This is Minister Fujiwara."
An utterly unexpected visitor — honestly, I was surprised. I told him to come in and handed him a cup of warm tea.
"The reason you came...?"
He closed his eyes, frowned deeply, and after a long hesitation, began to speak.
"The Prime Minister and the Captain of the Awakened Ones held a secret conversation. Normally, if they discussed plans, I would receive a report. But this time I heard nothing at all."
"What are you trying to say?"
"Whatever the content of that conversation was, it will not be good for the Korean side."
"Why go out of your way to come and tell us? There must be risks for you as well, Minister."
Risks. In the worst case, he could be branded a traitor and suffer terrible humiliation. He could have simply pretended not to know. Did he really have a reason to come all the way here and tell us everything?
"I am a person who still has at least a shred of conscience. I have long been sick to death of the Prime Minister's binary way of thinking. If anyone even slightly disagreed with him, he never even considered accepting them — he simply excluded them."
"Just coming here alone in the dead of night is already a huge risk in itself, I'd say."
"Japan is my homeland... Before the wound festers any further, I must cut it out with a scalpel. And I believe that scalpel is you, Representative..."
With a sigh, I thanked him for the information, told him not to worry and to act as if he knew nothing, and then sent him on his way.
To be honest, I had already expected them to be up to something. I wasn't born yesterday — I had already dealt with countless scum like them on Titan.
'Their next move is bound to be predictable.'
After the conversation with the minister ended, my companions approached me one by one.
"Representative, what did you talk about?"
"Just that some gnats are buzzing around, so we should be careful."
"...?"
* * * * * * * *
Morning came, and the day to head into the forest had finally arrived. Meals were brought to our rooms, and after each of us finished eating, we gathered to hear the plan briefing. Then we completed our preparations, went outside, and received a send-off from the people.
"Prime Minister, we will carry out our assigned mission and return without fail!!"
The Prime Minister, hearing the Captain of the Awakened Ones speak, smiled — whether at the mission's success or something else — and told him to be careful and come back safely.
'Let's see how long that smile lasts.'
We moved by helicopter to a position where the forest came into view. After the helicopter landed, we distributed GPS devices and radios to each person and entered the forest.
Even as we entered, the captain kept glancing at us with a gaze that held wariness, fear, and envy. There were also a few people who looked at us with more positive feelings.
For my companions, dealing with zombies was now a walk in the park, and even goblins or orcs — unless they were evolved specimens — were no different from moving targets. The kids and soldiers cut down nearby zombies with swords, while Chaeyeon and Jia eliminated the ones farther away with ranged attacks.
Just before the point where the reconnaissance team's radio contact had been cut off, we decided to take a brief rest.
"Let's have a rough lunch here and then move on."
We naturally split into two groups — the Japanese side and our side. Like us, their group included not only Awakened but also ordinary civilians assigned to this mission.
They roughly tore open long-life processed foods — canned goods, jerky, and the like — and ate them, while we used the subspace to have a proper, fully prepared meal.
They were astonished at the sight of objects appearing out of thin air, and once they saw what came out, they were clearly envious.
'If they bow their heads and beg, there's nothing I can't give them.'
Honestly, aside from the captain and a few others pulling shady crap, I bear no ill will toward the rest.
'Just think of it as having the misfortune of being stuck with that captain.'
At that moment, the Japanese side had further split into two smaller groups, and a girl from one of them approached us.
'This kid is the one from last time...'
She was the girl I had locked eyes with when she was muttering curses in Korean by herself. At first, I thought she had come because she wanted food, but unexpectedly, she walked up to Jia and started asking her all sorts of questions. They spoke in such quiet whispers that only those very close could hear.
From what I overheard, she was even younger than Jia. Unusually, she used healing-related skills and had some proficiency with a bow. That was why she had become curious about Jia, who also used a bow.
Probably because the girl was younger, Jia kindly shared some gimbap and rice balls and kept the conversation going. After a few minutes of talking, just before turning back, the girl hesitated, then bowed respectfully and asked if we could share a little of our food.
For a girl her age, the behavior was far too formal and cautious. After receiving the food from us, she gave some to a boy around her age and then made sure the people in her group also got some.
'Hm... a younger brother?'
Just as I was tuning out and resuming my meal, a sudden shout rang out, and everyone's heads turned toward the source.
"Hey!!! You brought food — shouldn't you be giving it to us first? Who's been protecting you all this time...!"
The captain's group snatched the food they had been eating. This clearly wasn't the first time; the ordinary people kept their eyes down and couldn't even offer any resistance. And the girl who had first brought the food was being trampled on by the captain's words.
"To a Josenjing like that... it already infuriates me that you allowed yourself to be humiliated like that, and now you dare fawn over them and beg for food? You have no right to be Japanese!!!"
He rattled off his insults in a torrent, and once his anger had subsided somewhat, he snorted, grabbed the food, and returned to his spot. The girl, as if afraid she might drop what she was holding, clutched the food to her chest and handed it to her younger brother.
"That... that utter scum...!"
"Sihu, is this really okay?"
Naturally, my companions were ready to lunge at him and kill him right then and there. I raised a hand to stop their furious advance, stood up without a word, and walked over to the so-called captain. The moment I approached, of course, he flinched and tensed up.
"Why are you stuffing your faces with that?"
"What?"
"I seem to recall giving it to that girl, not to you lot..."
— Snatch.
I grabbed the bastard's jaw with one hand and lifted him up. With my other hand, I pulled his tongue out, stretching it.
And then,
— Crunch!
I forced his mouth shut while his tongue was still sticking out. With tears and snot streaming down his face, he screamed, wetting himself.
"So you don't want to bow your head and beg, but you still want to eat the food — is that it?"
Overwhelmed by the excruciating pain, the bastard was crawling on the ground with one hand clamped over his mouth. I walked up to him again and whispered in his ear.
"I don't know what you're scheming, but do your best."
I went over to the ostracized group the girl belonged to and shared some food. Even seeing what had just happened, they still seemed to be walking on eggshells.
"It will be fine. They won't want to lose their tongues."
While the captain stopped the bleeding and treated himself, they finished their interrupted meal. Then we set out again.
— Krz... krzzt...
As we moved closer to the center, crackling static began to come from the radios. The Awakened — and my companions as well — could feel the air growing heavy with mana.
"A-attack!!!"
A tremendous number of winged monsters flying through the air rushed at us. There was gunfire, swords, and magic flying everywhere. The situation quickly spiraled into chaos.
Once it was over and we reorganized our personnel, most of those who had allowed close-quarters attacks were lying on the ground with at least serious injuries.
'Our people are unharmed.'
And Jia, who had been concerned about that girl and boy from earlier, had blocked the threatening attacks heading their way, so they were relatively safe. We decided to leave the seriously injured to rest here and take the able-bodied personnel deeper inside.
"The deaths are regrettable, but it seems we will have to recover them later."
I said that while quietly looking at the monster corpses. Then my companions came up beside me and spoke.
"Sihu, is this..."
"Sihu..."
"Representative, could it be... what we saw at the power plant..."
'As expected... there are gargoyles here too. If so, then what I saw in the photo is almost certainly...'
"Everyone, stay on high alert. Unlike the Leviathan, this one flies."
A tremendously huge being that rules over all winged creatures. Every single feather rivals steel in hardness, and its sharp, sturdy beak is difficult to block even with a shield. And it is known as the most clever and wise of the Three Beasts of the Demon Realm — and the most troublesome.
As I thought this, I let out a wry laugh and pictured it.
'I don't know why it's lying low and staying inactive, but if it had simply spread its wings and flown, at least one city would have been wiped out...'
I turned to my companions and spoke as if joking.
"If we hadn't come, the country of Japan might have been erased from the map."