Chapter 109 – LV.Seven Martial Artist Gaeulbi – [Two]

Oh Haengbok seemed to continue explaining afterward, but Kim Jihyeok’s mind couldn’t quite take it in.

It was just too unfair. After hardening his heart and setting out for revenge, he ended up putting a bullet in that girl’s shoulder, and when it might have been a farewell forever, he sent her off like that. With no one scheming against him, he alone had chosen to commit the worst acts.

The thought that his final response would be etched in that girl’s memory as it was filled a corner of his heart with an indescribable sense of emptiness.

Kim Jihyeok silently nodded and returned to the tent where he stayed with his teammates. Sitting down on the floor, he remained blankly silent for a long time.

“Are you okay? Let’s warm you up a bit.”

Seo Yun cast Healing Spells on the six people and had them drink hot water. Since they still looked cold, she even cast Warmth Granting Spells on them, and whether it was their first time experiencing such spells, they looked at each other in silent amazement.

After about five minutes of such care, the six finally seemed to regain the strength to speak. Those who had been lying down also sat up, looking this way and stammering their words. Thank you, savior of our lives, and so on.

After rambling like that, they asked this way.

“Why is a girl alone here…?”

“Why are you all passing through here? Do you live nearby?”

“We…”

Their reluctance to answer seemed suspicious. Seo Yun asked something else.

“Earlier, I heard screams and saw you running this way. Were you attacked? Is there some danger outside?”

“No, it’s probably not an immediate danger…”

While Seo Yun was asking this and that, footsteps were heard from the second floor, so she turned her head to see Han Siwoo coming down the stairs.

Whether he had woken up from sleep, his squinting eyes were directed at the six people. He approached this way and asked in a low voice.

“What are these people doing?”

Seo Yun answered.

“Don’t know yet.”

“You should have woken me.”

“Sorry for letting them in without saying anything, but I thought I could handle it alone? I made sure they couldn’t bring weapons in, at least.”

“Weapons? What kind?”

“Rifles. They’re lying outside. We need to hide them somewhere…”

Han Siwoo silently went outside the building. After a while, he returned and whispered this way.

“The discarded guns outside, they’re K-2s, right? The ones the military uses. These guys, by any chance…”

“Having K-2s doesn’t automatically make them military. Even in our village, we use captured ones, don’t we?”

Despite Seo Yun’s words, Han Siwoo seemed suspicious of them. He glared at the six people, narrowing his brow.

“They look like military no matter how I see it.”

“But they’re not wearing uniforms?”

“There are plenty of military personnel who wear padding instead of uniforms. In the first place, in this world nowadays, anyone wandering around who isn’t a Player should be considered either military or looters, and the two are practically synonyms these days.”

Was he saying that based on his experience wandering around with the chimpanzee?

Seo Yun also agreed with the argument that they might be military and should be cautious. To check the identities of the six, she rummaged through their backpacks without permission and said.

“Since we saved your lives, we’ll take some of your provisions. You agree, right?”

“Th… that’s right.”

However, nothing like dog tags or items revealing their military status was readily visible in their belongings. It was only after Seo Yun took one can and finished searching their bags.

One of the six blankly stared this way and asked.

“Are you a Priest? Seeing you make fire… a Flame Priest?”

“If you mean a Hearth Priest, then yes.”

“We need a Priest where we live…”

Then Han Siwoo cut in.

“Where in this world nowadays doesn’t need a Priest?”

Han Siwoo shot back in a voice tinged with irritation and anger, then suddenly began intimidating the six.

“So, are you Military Grunts or not? Do you have more comrades outside?”

“Stop, you’ll wake Eulbi.”

At Seo Yun’s words, Han Siwoo glared this way. As if questioning why she was interfering, Seo Yun sighed and asked.

“What if those people are military? Are you going to kill them all like Eulbi says?”

It seemed to be a difficult question to answer. Han Siwoo didn’t answer and furrowed his brow.

Seo Yun continued.

“You don’t actually agree with Eulbi’s words that we should kill all military personnel, do you? It’s awkward for us to say this since both you and I have been kidnapped by military people, but that’s a truly insane goal.”

“Insane? Why do you put it that way?”

“It’s insane, of course. It’s not about taking revenge on a specific unit but outright killing all military personnel—isn’t that the same level as saying, ‘I lost my mother in a car accident, so I should puncture the tires of all cars in the country’? Before evaluating whether revenge is justified or not, it’s just Lunatic behavior.”

Han Siwoo hesitated for a moment, then said.

“There’s a reason.”

“What is it?”

“Eulbi doesn’t know which unit kidnapped her aunt. She can’t target a specific one for revenge. Besides, as I said earlier…”

“These days, military and looters are practically synonyms?”

“Right. Military personnel with their heads on straight scattered long ago to take care of their families, and those still claiming to be military and moving in groups are the ones looting under the pretext of requisition. There’s no need to distinguish between good military and bad military to hate them.”

Seo Yun sighed.

“Still, I can’t support indiscriminately trying to kill anyone who seems roughly military.”

“Why? Because even though they’re kidnappers and looters, human lives are precious?”

At Han Siwoo’s question, Seo Yun shook her head.

“It’s not that military lives are precious; the problem is a seventeen-year-old’s hands getting drenched in blood. Just the fact that she tried to shoot me with a crossbow when we first met—how absurd was that? If she had actually killed me, she would have become a murderer who killed an innocent person. For Eulbi’s own sake, we can’t leave her to do that.”

Since she cited what had happened to her as grounds, Han Siwoo couldn’t refute it. When he finally fell silent, Seo Yun said.

“Leave those people be, whether they’re military or not. We don’t know what they’ve done to others so far, but at least they haven’t harmed us, right? When day breaks, let’s part ways as if nothing happened. Understood?”

Eventually, Han Siwoo nodded, and though he should have been upset at being pushed back in the argument, not a trace of displeasure showed on his face. He seemed to be making an expression as if deeply pondering something.

Is it because it’s about Eulbi that he’s reacting so seriously?Seo Yun thought. That bastard Han Siwoo is shady, but his devotion is rather admirable. Well, considering he followed the girl he likes on her escape route not once but twice. She’d seen quite a few sincere men in her life, but this was the first time she’d encountered one so genuinely devoted.

On the other hand, thinking about the love this boy harbored also brought this worry to mind.

Given that a troll had already claimed he didn’t like human women and then suddenly confessed, traumatizing the chimpanzee in the process. And this boy’s insistence that he doesn’t like women could be seen as similar to the troll’s.

So, if this boy confesses later, wouldn’t he be viewed on the same level as the troll and be scorned?

Suddenly feeling sorry for Han Siwoo, Seo Yun spoke in a gentle voice.

“Go upstairs and get some sleep now.”

“But I have to keep watch on these guys.”

“I can handle it alone, so go on.”

Unable to withstand her insistence, Han Siwoo reluctantly went upstairs. Finally left alone with the six men, their gazes all turned toward her.

One of the six men, who had been observing Han Siwoo’s demeanor earlier, opened his mouth.

“You’re Seo Yun, right?”

Seo Yun raised one eyebrow.

“How do you know my name? Have we met before?”

“Even if we haven’t met, I’ve heard about you. There was a rumor among the troops about an unusually pretty girl who put an incredible amount of effort into healing… I thought you were just trying to look good for the military grunts since you were captured, but it seems that’s just your nature. Seeing you in person, you’re so… unfitting for these times.”

Seo Yun was startled and opened her eyes wide. It seemed the man was complimenting her, but that wasn’t the important thing right now.

Did what he just said not reach the chimpanzee upstairs? Seo Yun glanced toward the stairs and asked quietly.

“You were from the Dawn Corps?”

“Yeah.”

“This is Gangwon-do. Why would the Dawn Corps from Seoul come all the way here?”

“We ran away.”

“Did you desert?”

At Seo Yun’s question, the man shook his head.

“Not deserting. The Dawn Corps itself split in two. The losing side had to flee everywhere…”

The man said the first ominous sign in the corps was the eyes of the officers. Starting one day, the eyes of the battalion commanders and important commanders turned red.

They claimed it was conjunctivitis, so at first people accepted it. But after their red eyes were witnessed flashing eerily in the darkness multiple times, it became impossible to just accept it.

Wasn’t it the very situation where Centaur Vampires were running rampant upstairs? The Dawn Corps didn’t have the Immortal Kingdom Rulebook either, and having never seen an actual Vampire Centaur, they couldn’t be sure if red eyes were truly a characteristic of Immortal Kingdom Vampires, but quite a few people were suspicious. Aren’t there quite a few media where red eyes are portrayed as a symbol of vampires?

Upon reports that the commanders might have been subverted by the Centaurs from upstairs, Division Commander Kim Jeongtong immediately flew into a rage.

Division Commander Kim Jeongtong tried to interrogate the battalion commanders who had caught the ‘eye disease,’ and was assassinated in turn.

“Among the battalion commanders who became Vampires, there was a Mage, right? They had installed thermal cameras and such to prevent external Mages from using Invisibility to infiltrate, but they couldn’t have done that inside the corps itself…”

“If it’s a Mage battalion commander, is that Lieutenant Colonel Lee Hoon? He killed the Division Commander?”

“Right, that bastard Lee Hoon. They say his eyes were the first to turn red. It seems he was the first to turn traitor and then turned the other battalion commanders into Vampires.”

Lieutenant Colonel Lee Hoon was the person who had indirectly helped her when she was captured by the Dawn Corps. He protected her from soldiers starved for women and made various allowances for her.

Amidst her surprise at the unexpected news about a known person, the soldier continued.

“Now, some battalion commander stepped forward claiming to be the new Division Commander. His eyes were normal, but given the circumstances, he was clearly in cahoots with the battalion commanders who became Vampires. He had absolutely no intention of catching and killing those traitor bastards, right? The Vampire bastards probably promised to turn him into a Vampire later if he followed their orders…”

Meanwhile, Lieutenant Colonel Lee Hoon, who assassinated the former Division Commander, began actively subverting the corps members. He reportedly transfused his own blood to influential officers in the corps, squad members, and squad leaders who swore loyalty, turning them into Vampires.

“If you become a Vampire, you stop aging and don’t feel cold or hunger, right? So it worked as an incredible reward…”

Seo Yun challenged the soldier’s words.

“That doesn’t make sense. Among the Centaurs, becoming a Vampire is a privilege only granted to Warriors who have achieved immense feats, right? There’s no way they’d allow humans to mass-produce Vampires haphazardly…”

“I think it’s strange too, but what can you do? That’s the situation. Eventually, we split into two factions: those who accepted the Vampire battalion commanders and those who didn’t. We fought, and those of us who didn’t accept them were pushed out and scattered everywhere.”

Seo Yun bit her lip and asked.

“So why are you suddenly telling me all this?”

“I have a warning for you.”

“What warning?”

“Be careful of the locals.”

“Be careful of the people in this area?”

“Yeah. Do you think the people here welcomed us when we came fleeing into this area with guns? They’d try to kill us all. We almost died earlier when we entered some building because there was a trap on the stairs? While we were going up, arrows suddenly came flying at us. Everyone was startled, screamed, and ran out…”

“The locals must have set it up to kill you.”

“Right. They’re incredibly hostile to outsiders. I even heard that some Players roam around even in winter to kill soldiers who come from outside. You’re outsiders too, so you could easily…”

“If the people here are that hostile to you, then how come you had the nerve to come in here after hearing my voice outside this building earlier?”

“We were so cold our judgment was impaired… We were so critically low on fuel we couldn’t even warm our bodies… Probably all the other Dawn Corps bastards are in a similar situation.””It’s winter now, right? Most of those who fled are freezing to death. We can’t even light fires for cooking, so even if we have rice, we have to roughly chew and swallow it raw. To drink water, we have to melt snow, but even that’s so difficult that many have become crippled trying to melt it in their palms and drink it. In this situation, if they see a girl who can light a fire without fuel, they’d go crazy…?”

So it meant to be cautious not only of locals but also of other Dawn Corps soldiers. Everyone is freezing to death now, so the presence of a Hearth Priest would be seen as a lifeline. There are plenty of people who would try to kidnap her by any means necessary.

‘Then I must be incredibly popular right now.’

Seo Yun nodded, then suddenly remembered something and asked.

“But if you’re from the Dawn Corps, do you happen to know a mean female Nursing Officer?”

“A female Nursing Officer?”

“Yes. She’s someone I met when I was captured. She only wore her rank insignia, not a name tag, right? I couldn’t ask for her name, so I don’t know that woman’s name. Do any of you know her?”

At Seo Yun’s question, one of the six raised a hand.

“I know.”

“What is it?”

“Ga Huiyeong.”

Seo Yun gently closed her eyes, then opened them.