The soldiers, who grasped my identity through a brief conversation, promptly loaded me into a vehicle.
The bike whined about being left behind, but for me the car was more comfortable. For one thing I did not have to drive, it was safer, and the ride quality was better too.
"This bike is......"
"Ah, that's...... I picked it up by luck."
I quickly explained how I had come to ride the bike as well.
The soldier who heard me was silent for a while, then loaded the bike into the vehicle's cargo bed as well.
『Hey hey hey, make sure to contract with me lat——』
The voice of the bike, which had been chattering about who knows what, vanished in an instant. Rather than the bike shutting its mouth, it felt like it had been forcibly muted.
It was a sorry thing to say about the bike, but honestly it was a relief.
I felt like I had gone through hardship I could have avoided because of the bike's exhaust note, so I had no sympathy to spare. And having it throw a tantrum about contracting when I had only just barely survived was rather tiring too.
FWOOOOSH!
In any case, the Bulgasari hunt continued even in that moment. The Bulgasari tried to flee toward the field, but the fire Ji-gwi had raised spread too fast and too wide.
Heh! Heh!
"Haechi, block the fire!"
"Three o'clock, mark!"
What's more, that fire did not spread indiscriminately.
Every time beasts that were neither dogs nor lions — probably Haechi — ran about like border collies herding sheep, the flames changed direction.
Grroaar!
At some point the Hogurokmo also ran near the Bulgasari and lent a hand to the drive.
Astonishingly, the Bulgasari seemed to fear the Hogurokmo, turning aside every time it blocked its path.
"Moving out!"
The vehicle carrying the bike and me joined the drive as well. Whether because of my presence it absolutely did not stick to the front, but a will not to open distance from the main force was faintly visible.
The flames burning the field and the Bulgasari trapped in the middle of them kept muddling my field of view. Perhaps the driver was skilled, because the interval neither shrank nor grew from about 200m.
The Bulgasari's enormous bulk began gradually to shrink.
"Recover Ji-gwi!"
"Haechi!"
Then, when the Bulgasari could no longer be seen between the flames, the Haechi gradually narrowed the range of the blaze. The blackly burnt field was hot with heat even now that the fire was out.
"Recovery complete!"
But some of the soldiers ran about on top of it perfectly fine without flame-proof suits. And beside soldiers like that, whether by coincidence or what, a Haechi was invariably attached.
"Tiger, Bulgasari hunt complete. Returning to headquarters."
The cleanup took about thirty minutes, I think. I was not certain. At that point my consciousness had grown hazy as I nodded off.
The moment safety was secured the tension went completely out of my body, so there was no helping it. My field of view gradually dimmed and the sounds I heard grew distant.
The only reason I did not fall fully asleep was that I had not judged this place to be perfectly safe.
"......He's asleep?"
"No wonder. He faced off against a Bulgasari alone and survived."
Did the sound of the soldiers riding in the same vehicle talking reach me in my half-sleep, or did it not.
"But earlier...... he was definitely talking with the bike, right?"
"You felt that too."
"......That's the first person I've seen who can talk with an object-type Phantasm, apart from the Major."
"Me too. Ha, is this what real talent is?"
Insults about me did not seem to be forthcoming. So my consciousness kept sinking, and in the end almost every sound submerged.
『......is.』
『......goes.』
『......'s master.』
......Was that really so?
"......Just now."
"Hm?"
"Just now, did you call......"
My consciousness, which had been about to fall to the very bottom, surged back up at some point. The surrounding scenery had already changed.
My somewhat dazed mind, having just woken from sleep, looked around here and there.
"Did someone wake the kid?"
"No?"
"You may sleep more."
"Yes......"
The soldiers said I could sleep more, but my mind was already awake. I quietly looked at the surroundings the soldiers were blocking.
A scene recalling a ranch stretched on into the distance.
『It looks this way!』
『Run!』
『You must not anger it!』
Why a ranch of all things. That was because in every section divided off by special fences, Phantasms were each occupying a spot of their own.
Some among them fled far off with startled faces. As if...... as if they were afraid of the ones moving along the road.
『How did they bring that thing?』
『Humans really have no fear.』
No. Were those things truly afraid of the army? It was not as if they had seen a sortie and a return only once or twice.
"What's with those things."
"They'll break the fences at that rate. Hey, get word to the handlers."
"Yes, sir."
I turned my gaze to the Hogurokmo and the Haechi running at the vehicle's speed.
Grrhng 『Pay no mind to the cowards.』
The tiger, noticing my gaze, cried softly. The speech, which had become remarkably clearer compared to the first time, was a bonus.
"Cowards?"
"......?"
"Yes?"
My mind, steeped in exhaustion, asked back reflexively. But what responded to my voice was not the Hogurokmo. The soldiers who had been surrounding me turned their heads toward me.
"What did you say just now?"
"No, um, well. The tiger said to pay no mind to the cowards......"
"......I beg your pardon??"
I blinked slowly at the soldier's reaction. The feeling that something was out of joint came the moment after.
Grhng 『Those ones cannot understand.』
My gaze reached the Hogurokmo again. Beep. The soldier riding in the front seat picking up a radio happened at the very same moment.
"Yes, Maj——"
「The civilian you secured is in your vehicle, isn't he? Put him on.」
"Yes, ma'am."
The soldier seemed a little flustered, but held the radio out to me with all speed.
Half a beat later my mind registered the radio. Maybe because I had taken a snatch of sleep the moment my tension broke. Even raising my hand to take the radio was somehow hard. My body weighed a ton.
A hand wrapped at some point in bandages took the radio.
"Uh, I have the radi——"
「Can you understand the Hogurokmo's speech?」
"——o."
......Straight to the point with no preamble? And more than that, what if I did not know what a Hogurokmo was?
I pressed my heavy eyelids down hard with my palm. Doing that much seemed to wake me up a bit.
"What a Hogurokmo is......"
I know the Hogurokmo from my previous life's knowledge. But whether the Hogurokmo is knowledge commonly available in this world, I do not know.
Taking that into account, I played ignorant for now, as I had with the soldiers. It was possible because my mind was gradually waking.
「The green tiger.」
"Ah, yes. It overlapped a bit with the cry so at first I could not quite hear it......"
But by then I was able to realize one more fact I had forgotten amid all the sudden developments and the exhaustion.
As depicted in the comic, being able to converse with Phantasms was also a kind of talent. In particular, being able to communicate even with subjects for whom no passage in the tales says speech is possible was treated as an enormous quality.
For instance, beast-shaped Phantasms, or object-type Phantasms. The ones I had been chatting with comfortably without a thought all this time.
「You were moved to this place during the third examination?」
"Yes, ma'am."
「Have you settled on the Hwadam Army as your path?」
"Yes, ma'am."
It felt as though ice water had been thrown over my whole body. This fact spreading would do me no harm, but I certainly had the impression that I had let myself go far too loose.
'Pull yourself together. Tired as you are.'
A penniless orphan's only backing was himself. So I could not fail to look after myself. Even if my talent was outstanding, the same applied.
If anything, precisely because my talent was outstanding I had to be more careful and more cautious. Aside from surviving, a future of merely being swung around by others was not for me.
I wanted to live the way I wanted.
「When you graduate, come to the Hwadam Search Special Task Force.」
"Yes...... what?"
「I will be looking forward to it.」
"No, what?"
The transmission cut off with that. I looked back and forth between the radio and the soldiers around me with bewildered eyes. Meaning, was what I just heard real?
"He, he can understand the Hogurokmo's speech......"
"Th-the Major herself......"
But the soldiers' state was worse than mine. Even the driver visible through the rearview mirror was gaping with his mouth wide open and stammering, which says it all.
I gave up on getting an answer out of them. In fact the reaction they were showing right now was itself proof that what I heard was not a delusion.
'The Hwadam Search Special Task Force, of all things.......'
Someone who graduates from the Hwadam Special Military Academy can choose one of two paths.
One is the 〈Hwadam Mobile Special Task Force〉, which operates in reality and specializes in destroying Dimensional Gates. The other was the 〈Hwadam Search Special Task Force〉, which operates in the Rear World, capturing and keeping Phantasms in check.
'If I have to say, my hope was the Mobile Special Task Force.'
And if you ask the reason...... it is that the original Ya-hwi, Seong-gwon, and the protagonist all belonged to that one?
To begin with, the Search Special Task Force had almost no weight in the comic. It was an important unit, but the comic dealt with reality and the other world more than the Rear World. Naturally more of the major incidents broke out over there too.
The Rear World held in my perception was, quite literally, nothing more than the zone where you obtain Phantasms.
'Above all, the Special Task Forces were depicted as an organization that practically has no days off to begin with. In that state, staying in the Rear World rather than reality would mean truly no free time at all.'
This was a fairly important matter.
Circumstances might be what they are now, but I had a desire to walk around a city center and have some fun. Even if my future was one where I had to return immediately the moment a mission came in, days off or not.
I too wanted to see and enjoy the world outside a hospital at least once.
"Is there a Hwadam Search Special Task Force too? I've only ever heard of the Mobile Special Task Force......"
In any case, at this point in time I was supposed to know nothing at all about the existence or the concept of the Search Special Task Force. By the information described in the main work, that was so.
By the setting, the Rear World was not information provided to the public, and the existence of a unit operating in that Rear World was likewise classified.
So, if only to avoid being caught having already known, I asked on purpose. Only then did the soldiers make faces of having slipped up.
"Ah, that's......"
I thought they might dodge the answer by saying it was classified. But after a little deliberation the soldiers gave me a brief explanation of the concepts of the Rear World and the Search Special Task Force.
Setting everything else aside, it seemed they were doing it because I was a person caught up in the incident. Or they were extending a little generosity because I was a prospective soldier.
"Sergeant Major, we have to blindfold him now, what do we do?"
"We blindfold him. That is the regulation, for one thing."
Around the time the explanation finished, the vehicle passed completely out of the ranch zone. What became visible instead was a road going up a mountain, a guard post managing entry, an entry barrier, and so on.
"Do I have to be blindfolded?"
"Because from here it is a classified facility."
Well, even with military academy enrollment scheduled, at present I was certainly of civilian status. It was right that they could explain concepts but not give direct information about a military base.
I obediently received the blindfold and put it on. It must have been a high-performance blindfold, because apart from the gaps almost no light came in.
The dark field of view and the occasional jolting vibration of the vehicle restored the sleep demon I had thought was gone.
"Please get up."
"Ugh......"
"We have to move."
I thought I had closed my eyes for only a moment, but time had been deleted.
I was forcibly woken by a soldier's hand. Whether this was still a zone where I must not remove the blindfold, my field of view was still pitch dark.
"Can you get down?"
"Yes......"
Since a soldier was holding my hand and guiding me, getting down was easy even blindfolded. I moved my feet gropingly and then hopped down lightly.
Stumble.
"Whoa there."
"Th-thank you."
I lost my balance mid-landing. If not for the soldier's help I might have taken a good hard tumble.
"Careful, please."
"I'm sorry......"
Normally it was not something I would fall over. But my body was not listening well. I had thought that sleeping a bit would have recovered my stamina to some degree, yet my body was heavier than before I slept.
"Wait, he seems to have a bit of a fever."
"Oh dear......"
"An antipyretic...... no, is it better to just get him to a hospital in reality quickly?"
"That would be best, wouldn't it?"
But according to the soldiers, I apparently had a bit of a fever.
It was not a strange thing. However steel-like 'Ya-hwi's' body was, what I had gone through yesterday and today was not of an ordinary level.
I accepted the reason my body had grown heavy at once.
"We will move to reality right away. Bear with it a little."
"Yes."
They chose to take me to a hospital in reality rather than one here. For me it made no difference either way.
Two soldiers each took one hand and led me. The picture would probably look a bit funny, but it was better than bumping into something.
I followed them obediently.
『......have you come?』
『At last?』
『It has returned.』
『Finally.』
But from some point, dozens of voices began to hum inside my ears. They were huge enough to be hard to ignore, and vivid enough to make me stop walking.
『Come?』『Fate.』『A dragon.』『You.』『Mean to overturn it?』『Stop.』『Why?』『My hand.』『Truly.』『Too late.』『Enough.』『Even now.』『There is.』『Change it?』『Again.』『Let us contract.』
No. If anything, they were so vivid that they were harder to make out.
『
WHERE MAKE GO THE
YOU CON A TRAI
GO TRACT WAY TOR
』『
DO YOU PRO I
WHAT ARE TECT BEG
』『
I WHY AS DO
AM IS FOR NOT
GO IT US GO
』『
HOW LET I IT
RE IT HAVE IS
LENT GO WAI NOT
LESS AWAY TED YET
』『
DO THIS I YOU
COME ONE DE PRO
BACK TIME PART MISE
』
Dozens of voices tangled and knotted into one another and mixed together completely. It was like a monogram made from hundreds of overlapping letters.
It was loud.
"Is something the matter?"
"Wait, the voices......"
Where on earth were the soldiers taking me? At the least I had the feeling we had come inside some building.
"Wait, are you all right?"
"He's sweating......!"
What kind of building is this, to be so full of voices?
『
CNT
ORO
MTU
ENR
BSA
AIL
CDT
KEO
NNW
OOA
WTY
LEB
AVA
TEC
ERK
RYI
MHT
IEI
NRS
DEN
FUO
ULW
?』
"There are too many voi......"
It was loud enough to be agonizing, so I covered my ears.
Of course that did not mean the sound stopped. Probably because Phantasms' speech is not a concept conveyed through the ears.
My soul was soaked, and soaked again, in words.
WEEEEEEE—!
"......Why an alarm now, of all things!"
"Evacuate for no——"
The world was simply full of sound.
『
TOW
HEH
NIY
ELS
RTT
EAO
TKP
HEN
EIO
NTW
OHN
WOA
HLY
ODW
LAB
DIA
ONC
NTK
TDI
LOF
EWY
TNO
GTU
OHC
IEA
TFN
GIR
ORE
NEA
TSC
HTH
ANI
NOT
DTS
OHT
NEI
LETL
.』
Simply, of sound alone.
『Seal your mouths.』
『Hold your silence.』
Then just two strands of voice cut through every sound. CLANG. It was then that a sound like metal striking a stone tile came from around my feet.
"W-wait, this is——"
"Sergeant Major!"
SLICE. I felt something being cut. Probably the blindfold.
I had done nothing, yet my field of view opened. Drip. Something I could not tell was sweat or tears fell from my chin. The empty space left by sound cut off in an instant was too vast. My head hurt.
『We have chosen you.』
『We have selected you.』
Even in the middle of it, the facts I could grasp were exactly two.
That from some point, I could not tell when, I had all but slumped down onto the ground. And the other one was......
『Do you choose us?』
『Do you too select us?』
That the metallic sound that had rung out at my feet was the sound made by two swords.
"......Who are you?"
『I am the sword that makes the mountains and rivers tremble by an oath to heaven. Call me the White Fang of the Twin Dragons.』
『I am the sword that dyes the rivers and mountains with blood in a single sweep. Call me the Black Fang of the Twin Dragons.』
On the white and the black scabbards respectively, patterns symbolizing dragons glistened in gold.
So I knew their name.
"The Twin Dragon Swords......"
These were the swords the protagonist 〈Baek San〉 used in the original.
They were also Phantasms whose use he was barely permitted only after the nation faced the crisis of ruin, and which maintained an arrogant attitude to the very end, saying that had the nation not faced an unprecedented crisis they would not have permitted him even to grip them.
"......Why?"
A being beyond Grade, of which only a few appeared in the entire setting.
Looking at them, I slowly lowered the hands that had been covering my ears. With great difficulty my fingertips touched the two sword hilts.
"Why me......"
『Reach the heavens.』
『It has reached the heavens.』
『Only you.』
Why was it. What I had grasped was plainly a sword, and yet I had the feeling I was holding a single fragment of the world.
My field of view went dark.