Chapter 69 To Protect (4)

One or two minutes was the time needed to cut down the heathens. Yoon-seok even slew the ones that tried to escape. Then, he calmly scanned the area to see any survivors before slowly returning to the carriage and his companions.

“Who…who the hell are you? How can a human possibly do this?”

It was Wellington who spoke. He unwittingly stepped back when he saw Yoon-seok approaching, but when Yoon-seok stopped in his tracks, he realized he’d made a mistake and bowed.

“…I’m sorry. I asked you a strange question. That’s not what I’m supposed to say right now. Thank you for saving us.”

He still couldn’t get used to this kind of greeting, not even when Jong-Il had done so. Yoon-seok turned his eyes away.

“…Then let’s go.”

That’s all he has to say after doing something close to a miracle…? Was this routine for him? He was casual as if he only did what he had to. On the other hand, Wellington was starting to fear him, but it also made him feel reassured.

“…I will.”

Wellington, who seemed to sense what kind of personality Yoon-seok had, didn’t say much. He just nodded and climbed up to the wagoner’s seat once more. When Yoon-seok climbed on the roof, he drove the wagon while avoiding the bodies littering the ground.

Yoon-seok just silently guarded his surroundings, while the others didn’t talk much anymore. In a completely different atmosphere than before, the wagon rolled through the forest.

“…”

It was only after they had been traveling that Yoon-seok broke the silence and talked to Wellington. Of course, it was far from small talk.

“Do you think there will be more heathens?”

“…Maybe not. It would’ve been a huge risk for them to cross the border with a force that large.”

“I see.”

Coincidentally, Yoon-seok’s prediction matched Wellington’s. However, unlike his, it wasn’t based on realistic probability. Since this was a mission given by the Tower, he just thought there might not be more enemies since he’d destroyed the heathens.

Gallop. Gallop.

The wheels of the wagon rolled peacefully. One, two, three, four days…

It was a mystery. Every night felt like the calm before the storm for Yoon-seok.

“Mr. Rick! Mr. Rick!”

Yoon-seok opened his eyes to hearing his alias name. Opening the running wagon window, Elle was sticking out her upper body to call out to him. Perhaps Kanna was tired of trying to stop her from doing that, as she didn’t make any move to stop her.

“What’s going on, Miss?”

“Seriously! Can you not speak comfortably?”

“…This is comfortable.”

In response, Yoon-seok smiled awkwardly. He didn’t insist on honorifics because of age but out of respect. Even though it was back to her childhood days, he still found it uncomfortable to drop honorifics when she was the same ‘Elle.’ Yoon-seok naturally changed the subject.

“Anyway, what’s going on?”

“Look ahead! It’s the ocean! Ocean!”

Maybe because she was only in the wagon, but the ocean was in sight since a few hours ago. But Yoon-seok felt like it’d be annoying to hear, so he didn’t say anything.

‘Two days from now…’

It had been exactly forty-three days since he’d come to this world, and Wellington said they would reach Jarisman Harbor in two more. After meeting merchants heading inland ten times a day on the sloping hills, they would finally reach their destination after just a bit longer.

Yoon-seok felt a strange sentiment welling inside him.

‘It feels like a graduation ceremony.’

After the day he wiped out the heathens, the group was wary of Yoon-seok, except for Elle. But, they slowly got to know Yoon-seok and let their guard down as time went by. They now spoke without hesitation, and Yoon-seok enjoyed talking with them. Thanks to that, it gave him a deeper understanding of how the culture and society worked in this new world, and he also had the opportunity to learn about Elle’s unfortunate past. He also confirmed James Hambledon was the ancestor Ragna talked about.

Even if that wasn’t the case, he still enjoyed it. When Elle and James started bickering, there were a lot of times where Yoon-seok couldn’t hold it in and laughed. Wellington’s bad sense of humor occasionally made the atmosphere awkward, and Kanna always served bizarre dishes, unlike her mother-in-law-like image…

Yoon-seok didn’t find it unpleasant. They couldn’t get any friendlier because of their personalities, but he enjoyed their company.

‘We won’t see each other again, but…’

They were very much alive and breathing, but they were just fictional recreations by the Tower. The moment the mission was over, it would all disappear. Suddenly, a sense of emptiness washed over him, but Yoon-seok wasn’t overwhelmed by it. He wasn’t soft enough to forget his goal, even though he felt comfortable around them for the first time in a while.

‘…Let’s concentrate until the end.’

Yoon-seok also managed to relax without realizing it. He shouldn’t let his guard down until the end of the mission. Elle knew about Yoon-seok’s level, but she seemed reluctant to let him come here.

‘There’s no way things would end like this.’

It was an admin’s wish to clear the only difficulty level on the eighth floor. Nevertheless, this mission remained uncleared for such a long time. In other words, it was reasonable to think that there was something more to this than just the heathens.

As he was thinking…

Rattle.

The carriage stopped. He didn’t sense anything, so why? Yoon-seok instinctively reached out to his sword. And then…

The wagon door opened, and Elle and Kanna disembarked. Elle looked to the roof and shouted enthusiastically to Yoon-seok.

“I’ll be back to pick up some flowers!”

It was slang for going to the bathroom. Yoon-seok nodded, and Kanna took Elle to the bushes beside the slope. Yoon-seok used his energy to cover his ears as a courtesy. However, this was the trial given by the Tower.

Yoon-seok belatedly realized that such consideration was a life-threatening act.

「There is a special challenge within a radius of 200m.」

Suddenly, a phrase appeared in front of him. Yoon-seok immediately opened his sense and raised it to the limit.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!”

A sharp scream that sounded like a woman came from afar. It was estimated to be about two hundred meters away due to distance, which the challenge confirmed. Was it a coincidence?

‘No way.’

Yoon-seok immediately pulled out his sword and ran. He quickly found two women in disheveled clothes who fell on their hips in the bushes. It was Elle and Kanna.

Yoon-seok covered the two.

“Toilet…no, why did you go so deep when you said you were going to pick flowers?”

Kanna replied, her face red.

“It’s so that you wouldn’t hear us…but it’s over there! Look over there!”

Yoon-seok’s eyes followed Kanna’s pointing. About ten meters away, there was a man wrapped in a black cape over comfortable clothing. It seemed like they were about to crouch down and screamed after spotting the guy…

「Within a radius of 10m, there is a special challenge.」

No doubt he meant the special challenge. When he wondered for a second if he was in trouble like James, the man sitting with his back to a tree and drinking water calmly looked at Yoon-seok. And…

「You have encountered Disaster.」

The moment he saw black eyes, which were nothing unusual on Earth, he gasped. They were breathtaking. No, it took his breath away. His body froze as it did during the countdown before the start of the duel.

「Choose a person who should die.」

Deep inside Yoon-seok’s heart, his emotions stirred. Surprisingly, it wasn’t like this with the Heavenly Devil or King of Steel. No, he didn’t even have this feeling when the admin Heavenly Warrior tried to kill him…

It was instinctual fear.

“The Pontiff of the Triads and Heathen Lady of Trejans…even if only remnants were left, it’s natural that your senses don’t work since four gods have gathered.”

The man murmured while scanning through Yoon-seok’s companions. Who was this guy? He looked normal at first glance, but something was different. He was standing before their eyes, but something felt distinctly off as if he weren’t real. It felt like something beyond a living creature.

“Just think you were unlucky and accept your fate. That’s all I can do for you.”

He didn’t know what he was talking about or why the system notified him to choose who should die. However, things like this couldn’t go on.

Drop.

A drop of blood fell from Yoon-seok’s lips. He relaxed his stiff body and bit his tongue, causing his body to move once more.

Yoon-seok’s first move was to point a sword at him. The man looked a little surprised.

At that point, Wellington and James showed up.

“…W-who’s that?”

Wellington asked Yoon-seok. Yoon-seok replied briefly without even giving him a look.

“Disaster, he said.”

“D-disaster…no way he’s the strongest out of the Top 10…?”

Yoon-seok just read the phrase that appeared; he didn’t know if it was him. However, his identity was confirmed by the man’s following questions.

“What an unusual human being. How did you know about me?”

A question with a positive meaning.

Did the name Disaster intimidate them? Wellington, James, and Kanna began to tremble. The man didn’t pay them any attention, as if he was used to it.

“Well, that’s good, and you know about the curse I’m under.”

“…”

Curse. Yoon-seok recalled the story of the Disaster James told when he talked about the Top 10. Was it a terrible curse where every life he’d met had to be divided into two?

“There are five of you, so only three people have to die. Choose who will die and who will survive.”

“Choose…? Wasn’t everyone who encountered you dead?”

“I haven’t met anyone since I got the shield, so I’m sure they were wrongly informed. That was a long time ago when I didn’t know exactly about this curse.”

It seemed like James knew outdated information…the question was whether it was a fortunate thing or not.

“Rick…”

Wellington looked at Yoon-seok, asking him what they should do. Yoon-seok couldn’t answer his gaze.

‘Three of us…’

There was an option the moment he’d heard the numbers. It was about sacrificing Elle, Wellington, and James. Then he would certainly succeed in the mission because they had nothing to do with the success. It was the ideal choice if efficiency was to be taken into consideration. But…

‘Then how am I different from them?’

The only difference was that it was an inevitable situation. When his furrowed brows grew deeper and deeper as if to prove the confusion in his head, Wellington stepped forward for Yoon-seok.

“Choose me for now. I don’t want to survive.”

“Lord Wellington!”

Kanna screamed sharply. Wellington, who had always lost to her before, ignored her voice now. Looking at him, Yoon-seok’s mind cleared immediately.

‘What the hell was I doing…?’

Was he eaten by fear for a second there? How could he think about sacrificing someone without fighting? He felt so pathetic.

“You don’t have to.”

Yoon-seok came forward, beating Wellington to it.

And he stood in front of the man.

“If I had to choose who would die here today, it would only be him.”

The man didn’t laugh as if he were ridiculing him. Whether the situation itself was very interesting to him or not, the light in his eyes danced when he looked at Yoon-seok.

It was then that a new phrase appeared.

「Content of the challenge varies depending on choices.」