SNAP—
The folding fan in my hand opened cleanly, and the refreshing scent of bamboo tickled the tip of my nose.
As expected of the top-quality item Byeon Hak-do had cherished.
“Now, we don’t have time, so let’s make this quick.”
I swept my gaze over the ruffians, who still could not seem to move and were watching my reaction, then waded straight into their midst.
THWACK, THWACK-THWACK, THWACK.
Crisp striking sounds followed.
My body after Blooming was light and nimble, as if I had been reborn. Normally, no matter how one Bloomed an ability, it took time to adjust to its power, but—
‘I’m already past that level.’
Even if it fell slightly short of Full Bloom, Eighth Bloom was not a level where just anyone could go around beating me up. On top of that, for someone like me, who had rolled around in the field all my life, that bit of control over speed and force was as easy as eating cold porridge.
As I opened and closed the folding fan and beat them down with great enthusiasm, I felt the pent-up indigestion that had unknowingly built up inside me finally clear away.
“Oops, the bastard who went first must be lonely, right?”
“K-Keugh, urgh, p-plea—”
I lifted one of the bastards rolling around on the ground and threw him straight beyond the space.
“S-spare m—”
“They say the ruffians of Namwon are the finest in the Eight Provinces, so why not show me your skills while you’re at it?”
“Aaaah—!!”
I sent the next bastard over right away too.
Now only one remained.
The man, sprawled on the ground and scooting backward on his ass, begged.
“P-please, please, my lord. Spare me. Please spare me. I was wrong. I did everything wrong.”
“Chun-hyang might have persuaded the Chief before you got there, so go and beg Chun-hyang to save you.”
I returned the words he had spoken earlier, seized him by the collar, and threw him as he was.
“You damned bastaa—!!”
His figure disappeared beyond the torn space, and his voice abruptly cut off.
With that, silence settled over the surroundings. Even Wolmae, who had been lying spread-eagle on the ground and screaming herself hoarse, was only blinking, as if she could not believe what had just happened before her eyes.
“What? Does anyone else want to go?”
When I looked around and asked, a rather elderly farmer opened his mouth in a trembling voice, as if he had squeezed out every last bit of courage.
“......Th-they say if you throw ’em all in at once, i-it ain’t any use.”
“So?”
“I-if you’re going to throw ’em in anyway, would it not be better to do it slowly—”
At the farmer’s words, a hollow laugh burst out of me.
“You mean we should keep putting people in there until that thing closes? Then how about you go next?”
When I stepped one pace closer to the farmer and asked, he hurriedly waved both hands and shook his head.
“Hiiik, no, no, sir. I have many mouths I must feed. P-please, I was wrong. It was this old mouth of mine running off, that’s all.”
The farmer, frightened out of his wits, began weeping as he knelt on the spot and begged.
Watching a powerless old man plead with my bright young self for mercy left a bitter taste in my mouth for no reason.
I turned my gaze and looked for Yu-bong.
“Yu-bong.”
“Yes, my lord.”
He answered with an unexpectedly calm face and bowed at the waist.
What is this bastard?
Did he already know Byeon Hak-do was an Awakened?
At the sudden sense of wrongness that rose within me, I tilted my head inwardly.
“Go to the government office and bring people.”
“They will not come.”
Yu-bong, who had been bowing obsequiously with his waist bent, answered while lifting only his eyes.
What an insolent bastard. He never loses a word.
Though, I did think the same thing.
After sneaking a glance at me while I remained silent, Yu-bong continued.
“The Special Military Unit of Namwon Protectorate is famous for not budging even when a mid-grade Dire Gate erupted in Imsil, which is only a stone’s throw from here. Those bastards will not even twitch an eyebrow over a mere lower-grade Dire Gate just because one village is ruined. Even if the Dire Species overflow because no offering is made here, they are the sort who would flog the remaining villagers, claiming they must be held accountable for that crime. That is what I am saying.”
At those words, I nodded and opened my mouth.
A few years ago, the disaster that occurred in Imsil was large enough to reach even Byeon Hak-do’s ears while he was in Pyeongan Province. Because it was not stopped in time, the Dire Species that escaped from the Dire Gate became established in the area, causing casualties and nearly rendering the granary region around Imsil useless.
If not for the Special-Grade Special Military Unit under the Royal Guard, which the central government urgently dispatched, Joseon’s already poor food situation would undoubtedly have become truly disastrous.
Well, yes. The bastards who did not move even then would have no reason to move for a lower-grade Dire Gate like that.
“You have a point.”
Yu-bong’s eyebrow arched up. His face said he had not expected me to accept that so easily.
I strode forward and said,
“Tell them that anyone who has not come by the time I return will be beheaded.”
“Pardon? W-where are you going?”
That bastard Yu-bong tilted his head and asked.
Instead of answering, I kept walking and continued,
“It won’t take long. So you had better deliver the message quickly.”
“My lord?! My lord! Oh no, my lord! Have you truly gone mad?! Oh, my lord! My lord!!!”
Yu-bong, who had belatedly realized where I was headed, cried out in alarm.
Let’s put out the urgent fire first.
Leaving that bastard Yu-bong’s voice calling after me behind, I stepped through the Gate, and the distinctive foreign sensation of crossing dimensions swept over my entire body.
‘Garbage disposal is garbage disposal, but first I have to save Chun-hyang.’
Embezzlement, fraud, and breach of trust were already headache enough. I could not have myself saddled with charges of aiding and abetting the murder of the protagonist too.
Besides, I could not simply sit back and watch as people threw their neighbors and relatives in as offerings until the Dire Gate closed. Rather than waiting for the bastards of the Special Military Unit to come, it would be faster for me to go in and deal with it myself.
What a rotten fate.
To think I had to go around doing this again.
Still, it was also true that I somehow felt glad to be back.
After all, whatever anyone said, the field was the easiest place for my mind.
***
“......Damn.”
As soon as I crossed the boundary and stepped inside the Dire Gate, I stopped where I stood, speechless at the sight that unfolded before me.
I had no choice. Because the one climbing onto the shoulder of a lower-grade mon—no, a lower-grade Dire Species, and cutting its throat right now, was none other than Chun-hyang.
This was not exactly on the level of, “Thank goodness she’s alive,” was it?
I blankly followed Chun-hyang’s movements.
With a dagger about the length of a child’s forearm, though I had no idea where she had gotten it, Chun-hyang slit the Dire Species’ throat in one stroke. Then she spun in place and drove the blade into the heart of another Dire Species that had pounced at her from behind.
Rain of Stealthy Slaughter.
First Bloom.
The ability name wavered above Chun-hyang’s head.
A rain of death spreading stealthily. It had a rather elegant feel—
Chasing the tail of that thought, I suddenly startled and opened my eyes wide.
Wait.
I can see someone else’s ability?!
Even her Blooming level?
“Damn, this is incredible......”
I muttered before I knew it.
An ability was strictly an individual’s unique power. Because of that, what sort of ability an ability user possessed and how many Bloomings they had undergone was something others could not know in the first place.
Even in the modern era, where Ability Engineering had developed to a high degree, information about an individual’s ability and achievements could only be obtained through special examination by a specialist team. It was classified intelligence at the national level. After the manifestation of Gates, the type of abilities an ability user possessed and their accomplishments were no different from national power, so it was only natural.
‘Could it be the power of the Mirror of Safety and Peril?’
Sword Amid the Battlefield had no ability like this.
That meant it had to be the power of the Mirror of Safety and Peril.
‘Future sight, and the power to see through another person’s ability.’
While I was organizing my thoughts for a moment, a Dire Species lunged at Chun-hyang from behind.
Without hesitation, I drew my sword.
WHOOOSH—
SLASH!
When Chun-hyang saw the Dire Species’ head fall and roll beside her, she turned to look at me. In her widened eyes, as if she found it unexpected, surprise, contempt, and distrust flickered past in rapid succession.
What can I do? If you die, that bastard Mong-ryong says he’ll kill me.
For now, don’t you think both you and I have to live?
After organizing my thoughts, I spoke with the gentlest face I could manage.
“Are you all right?”
Good.
That was nice enough.
But contrary to my self-assessment, what came back was a blunt question.
“Do I look all right to you?”
At those words, I looked her over again from head to toe, and it was true that she did not look fine, covered in black blood splashed from the Dire Species and in a complete mess from rolling all over the place.
Still, the words had already left my mouth. I could not take them back.
I pointed with my chin toward the pieces of what had once been people rolling over there. Unlike Chun-hyang, who had luckily Awakened, the other ruffians did not seem to have been granted that luck.
“Even so, you look to be in better shape than them.”
At my words, the lovely brows of Namwon’s greatest beauty arched sharply. Watching it, I felt my heart strangely flutter.
Wow. No wonder she is called a peerless beauty under heaven.
“It sounds as though you find it regrettable that I did not end up like that.”
“No, why take it that far?”
When I muttered without thinking at her icy reply, her ice-cold face turned sharply away as if she had seen something unbearable.
Good grief.
I had expected it, but I had really earned her hatred thoroughly.
My chest felt tight from the unfairness of it all.
If only that crazy bastard Byeon Hak-do had not dragged her out on his very first day in office and raised that X-shit about making her attend his bedchamber, things would not have become this twisted.
But what could I do?
In her eyes, Byeon Hak-do was me, and I was none other than Byeon Hak-do.
“Damn it all.”
SHRAK-KRAK-KRAK!
SKREEEE!!!
GRAAAAAA—!!!
To relieve my frustration, I charged at the Dire Species swarming toward us and swung my sword. Their heads tumbled to the ground in heaps.
To begin with, since this Dire Gate itself was lower-grade, there was no way lower-grade species, or even a swarm of Chief-class Dire Species, could withstand the Full Bloomed—no, to be precise, Eighth Bloom Sword Amid the Battlefield.
But Chun-hyang, who had no way of knowing that, seemed quite shocked.
“H-how......?”
“It is useless to cut those bastards anywhere else. Taking the head in a single strike is fastest.”
“......You were not a civil official.”
Chun-hyang asked while staring curiously at the Sword Amid the Battlefield shining in my hand.
“There is no law saying a civil official must only hold a brush.”
When I answered with a shrug, Chun-hyang turned her gaze away as if displeased.
“Ah, yes.”
Seeing Chun-hyang answer half-heartedly and move west, I opened my mouth again.
“It would be best not to go that way.”
“What concern is it of yours?”
Her gaze turned on me as if she were looking at a leech. Once again, resentment welled up inside me, but I endured it.
Ah, yes, yes.
To her, I’m a sea cucumber, a sea anemone, a leech, and dog shit, yes.
After calming my mind, I spoke evenly.
“I understand that you hate me, but stepping into a deadly place and refusing to listen to someone with experience can only be called foolish. There is always a reason when someone tells you not to go somewhere.”
At my words, Chun-hyang paused for a moment, then asked with a face that still had not shed its suspicion.
“What is over there?”
“Remember this. The structures of Dire Gates vary in a thousand ways, but there is exactly one thing they have in common.”
After briefly catching my breath, I raised my hand and pointed in the direction she had been about to go, in other words, west.
“West Seat, Death Road.”
“West Seat, Death Road.”
Chun-hyang murmured after me.
I nodded and continued.
“The west is where the Chief is. There has never been an exception in any Dire Gate so far. If you want to die, go that way. With your current skill, let me see. You should be able to die in about one second.”
Chun-hyang glared at me with eyes that seemed to flare in anger, then muttered in a somewhat subdued voice.
“......Even if I stay here, dying will be the same in the end, will it not?”
After looking at her for a moment, I shook my head and said,
“Well, people do die someday. But today is not that day.”
“??”
“Follow me.”
I began striding forward.
The lower-grade species remaining nearby did not dare attack and instead edged backward. They were creatures without intelligence, but after the overwhelming gap in skill I had just shown them, they instinctively could not bring themselves to attack any further.
“Did you not tell me not to go that way?”
Chun-hyang’s voice came from behind me as I began walking west in the lead.
At those words, I snorted and answered,
“I meant that for you. At my level, the path this body chooses to walk becomes the path of life.”
At those words, the light footsteps following behind me abruptly stopped. In their place came her voice, sounding utterly dumbfounded.
“Where exactly does that confidence come from?”
When I looked back, Chun-hyang was glaring at me with her arms crossed, as if she found me absurd.
At that moment.
The Chief, whose territory had been invaded, woke from its sleep, and a long roar rang out.
GROOOOOOOOOAR—!
The grotesque cry shook the earth.
At the Chief’s roar, which she was experiencing for the first time, Chun-hyang’s face filled with fear. Above her head, the single petal she had only just managed to bloom trembled faintly.
As I watched it quietly, I remembered the days in the Ability Bureau when I had led little blood-clots experiencing a Gate for the first time.
Ugh, it’ll be ages before she can pull her weight.
Feeling the impression I had had back then rise in me once more, I opened my mouth.
“Where exactly does my confidence come from, you ask?”
Watch closely, little blood-clot.
I adjusted my grip on Sword Amid the Battlefield and leaped toward the Chief as it began to reveal itself.
“The source of confidence has always been—”
Skill.
The moment I muttered that, the light extending from my hand dyed the world before my eyes white.