Chapter 32 - The Maker II

Whenever Noh Doha’s patients gathered, they never hesitated to sing their practitioner’s praises.

“That road they laid in Bansong sure looks nice and open.”

“Exactly. Honestly, nothing’s uglier than asphalt cracked all over. Instead of maintaining all those unnecessarily wide lanes, they laid one neat, pretty lane. Isn’t that much better?”

“That’s our Noh for you. Where’s Noh from, again?”

“Ttangkkeut Village in Haenam, I hear.”

“Just what you’d expect from someone born somewhere with good water and clean air! We need a great person like that born in our neighborhood, too.”

At first listen, it sounded like old men rambling over a game of Go, but elderly citizens naturally preferred a roundabout route to a straight road. Translated, their true feelings went something like this:

‘I’m jealous! So jealous!’

‘Please lay one in our neighborhood, too!’

Noh Doha had come into this world with distrust and hatred of humanity equipped as passive abilities. Naturally, Noh could intuit the ugly, sordid desires lurking behind human words.

Yet this eccentric was infinitely generous toward patients. A limited-edition affection rating, perhaps? Just as a humanity-hating dictator might become a mere servant before a pet, Noh Doha maintained an emotional balance in a peculiar way.

“Sir... Shall I lay a road to your neighborhood, too...?”

“Hm? No, no! That’s not what I was getting at!”

“That is what you were getting at, and you’re still getting at it... So would you like me to lay one, or would you rather I didn’t...?”

“Oh, well. Of course I’d like that. It would be wonderful. But I feel like I’m whining at you when you already have so much on your plate...”

“Yes. I’m sure you feel sorry. In this shitty world, you’re a patient with nothing to your name but your age, clinging to a promising technician like me. I know you took it upon yourself to speak for the others, so please keep feeling sorry along with the rest of the patients...”

“...”

Noh Doha came to the guild alliance.

Then, as now, Dang Seorin was the Alliance Leader. As for me, I was more like a mercenary captain occasionally called in to do a job.

“Welcome, Noh Doha. I hear you’ve been expanding your business lately.”

“I trust you’ve been well... It’s a little embarrassing to puff myself up and call it a business in front of Three Thousand. I’m just gathering a few old fellows who used to knock around construction sites and laying a few ri of road shabbier than an old country highway...”

Surprisingly, Noh Doha was exceedingly respectful toward Dang Seorin.

It wasn’t that their hearts were particularly in tune. Their wallets were. Anyone would discover manners they’d never possessed after seeing the assets in kind Dang Seorin generously donated to Noh Doha’s workshop every quarter.

“Why be modest with me? So, what brings you here?”

“Well. I’m doing some repairs on the existing roads to make it easier for patients to come and go... But there’s the issue of fairness, and people are fickle. If they think they’re the only ones left out, they start sulking. So, since I’m doing the work anyway...”

“Are you planning to fix up Busan’s entire road network?”

“Yes, well... That would actually be simpler. But it turns into such a massive project. There are more than a few guilds claiming this district or that as their turf.”

“Hmm.”

Dang Seorin fiddled with the tip of her pointed hat.

“You want me to sort out the territories?”

“Yees. If that’s difficult, you could simply invite me when there’s a guild meeting or something and give me a chance to talk to them...”

“Right. That would be better. If it looks like I’m putting you to work for me, a few guilds are bound to throw fits. You should handle this from start to finish so nobody has anything to gossip about.”

“That could happen. Guild leaders with nothing but a shitload of pride and greed are all like that...”

“All right.”

Dang Seorin beamed.

“I’ll arrange something as soon as I can.”

“Thank you, Alliance Leader.”

Noh Doha gave a sinister little chuckle.

“If you ever end up a cripple, I’ll do your whole body for really cheap. Just come back with your brain and heart intact...”

“...”

The part worth noting here wasn’t the word “cripple,” but “really cheap.” Not even on pain of death would Noh say “free.”

Noh Doha bowed and left the train car.

Dang Seorin looked toward the sofa where I sat. As it happened, I’d coincidentally dropped by Three Thousand as a guest myself.

“What do you think?”

“Noh Doha is a good person.”

I sank back into the sofa. Perhaps because this was a converted lounge car on one of the country’s almost unique ultra-luxury trains, the seating was extremely comfortable.

Dang Seorin gave me a peevish look.

“After calling me a cripple?”

“To be precise, it was ‘if you ever end up a cripple.’ Don’t sulk. You’ll only wear yourself out if you weigh every word that person says, Alliance Leader. Have you ever seen Noh Doha treating patients, Guild Leader of Three Thousand?”

“No.”

“I once had the opportunity to stay at Noh’s side and observe for an entire day.”

That had happened in another run, not this one.

Oh, for the record, I always tell these stories as though they follow one continuous thread, but that doesn’t mean everything happened in a single run. More often, I weave together and edit events from multiple runs into a plausible narrative.

My account of this country’s government collapsing was one example. It’s not as if I spent twenty-four hours a day glued to the radio. How could I know every statement issued by the Second Provisional Government and the coup forces?

I heard one speech in run four and another in run eleven. I didn’t personally witness the refugees hoisting Seoul’s deputy mayor for political affairs up and throwing the official off the bridge until run thirty-seven.

My “omniscient observer’s viewpoint” had been secured through countless runs and experiences.

And I invested as much time as necessary to determine whether someone was trustworthy. There had even been a run when I worked at Noh Doha’s side practically as a lackey.

Unfortunately, in all the previous runs, I hadn’t been here on the day Noh Doha came to see Dang Seorin. As a result, Noh Doha’s project had always ended after covering, at most, the city of Busan.

But things would be different now.

As I said, this time I had “coincidentally” dropped by Three Thousand’s headquarters.

“Patients with physical difficulties often have emotional difficulties, too. And it’s not just the patients themselves. If they have caregivers, those caregivers are the same. Even while listening to their complaints and curses, Noh Doha has never once turned away a patient.”

“Hmm.”

“Noh may look sinister and speak strangely, but you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone that good anywhere.”

“Noh’s always ripping off awakened people.”

“That depends on who they are. Didn’t I tell you? Not a single patient has ever been turned away. Do you think only awakened people with money to spare have visited Noh Doha’s workshop?”

Dang Seorin rested a hand against her chin.

“... Still, this is someone who’s spent a lifetime looking after patients. Can Noh take responsibility for something big?”

“This isn’t someone who cuts responsibilities down to fit their own capacity, but someone who grows to fit the scale of their responsibilities. It’ll be fine.”

“...”

At last, she nodded.

“All right. I can trust your judgment of character, Undertaker.”

And once Dang Seorin put her faith in someone, she was the type to follow them to the farthest reaches of hell.

Before long, a nationwide guild meeting was held off the coast of Busan. As “off the coast” might suggest, we used a cruise ship.

There wasn’t enough fuel to actually sail it, so it simply remained moored at the pier. Even that was a level of extravagance and luxury almost unimaginable in this day and age.

Officials of the Second Provisional Government and members of the Young Officers’ Corps, who would ordinarily try to horn in on official events like this, were rigorously excluded.

A few “self-proclaimed big shots” sent people to protest, but Dang Seorin casually ignored them. The Second Provisional Government’s foreign minister? What’s that? Oh, you’re a member of the Fukushima Korean Association. Sorry, we can’t hear you very well from here. Cross the Korea Strait first, then talk.

The meeting hall held guild leaders alone.

Noh Doha was the only person invited as a guest. Excluding the chefs, singers, and jazz band brought in to round out the occasion, of course.

“Um... Alliance Leader...?”

“What?”

Looking around at the guild leaders in attendance, Noh Doha appeared discomfited. It was a rare expression.

“Maybe it’s just me, but it looks like you’ve gathered not only Busan’s guild leaders, but all the major guild leaders from across the country...?”

“Oh.”

Dang Seorin waved a hand as though it were nothing.

“Don’t worry. I said I was holding a meeting, and inquiries came in from all over. It’s been so long since we’ve seen each other. Why not take the opportunity to extend the shelf life of our acquaintances while we’re at it?”

“Aha...”

That was complete bullshit.

The program went as follows. First, Dang Seorin, the host, came forward to offer a greeting. A brief one, making it abundantly clear that she wasn’t the star of the occasion.

Then it was my turn.

A fervent welcome erupted.

“Undertaker! How long has it been?”

“Please come visit Gangwon Province sometime. Our people miss you so much.”

“Is Sim Aryeon doing well? Thanks to you sending her last time, we cleared the gate without a hitch.”

“I’ll be sure to arrange something and host you sometime!”

Even the elderly Sword Marquis sat with his arms crossed on the far side of the hall.

It was truly a gathering of Korea’s most influential awakened.

I’d just demoted myself to the level of a mercenary captain, but did you know? Even Switzerland, a permanently neutral country, once made its living from mercenary work. It also provided a historical precedent showing how easily the trust earned in that business could be converted into banking.

Put simply, very few of the guild leaders gathered here from across the country had never owed me a favor.

And like all conscientious debtors, they were desperate to repay the principal and interest they owed to the bank that was me. They knew very well how things might snowball later if they didn’t pay now.

“My heartfelt thanks to everyone who has traveled such long and perilous distances to join us here. Ordinarily, those words would be a routine greeting, but they contain the entire subject of today’s meeting. Long and perilous roads. Isn’t it time we repaired them?”

“Hear, hear!”

FWEEET!

The subject of today’s meeting? I’d already spelled every last detail out in the invitations.

The Saintess had even sent a constellation chat message the moment each guild leader opened the letter. Something along the lines of [The ‘Saintess of National Salvation’ considers this quest highly desirable].

Dang Seorin’s authority. My trustworthiness. A constellation’s endorsement.

It was literally a trinity. No more powerful credentials existed on the Korean Peninsula at present. Probably not anywhere in the world, either.

“Many of you will already know this person. The eternal supporter of us awakened! Thanks to this person, it’s no problem even if monsters chew off our arms and legs! The proprietor of ‘Noh Doha’s Workshop,’ whose outstanding contributions have pushed the combat capabilities of the awakened to their limits! ... And the owner of a personality and character that make even notoriously ill-tempered awakened shake their heads. Everyone, please offer a thunderous welcome! Noh Doha, the ‘Limb Maker’!”

Thunderous applause erupted. Not figuratively—literally. Who used thunder magic?

I looked and found Dang Seorin in the front row, chanting the First Melody. A happy smile filled her face.

For the record, Dang Seorin could hold a grudge for an unbelievably long time. If someone called her a cripple, she was perfectly willing to demonstrate who the cripple was now.

I’ve only described her good side, but once, she caught a rival guild leader who’d shouted, “You fucking bitch!” at her and snipped his balls off. Then she laughed and said, “My, my, what’s this? A cute gender-swapped girl? Now then. Who’s the fucking bitch?”

Of course, she and that particular guild leader had an especially bitter history. Still, it was good evidence that she hadn’t won her position as head of Korea’s awakened guild alliance with poker chips.

Ever heard the saying that green shades are all alike? Or that birds of a feather flock together? I’ve mellowed a great deal now, but once I was among her most trusted confidants, rising all the way to Deputy Guild Leader under that very Dang Seorin.

“...”

Lavished with goodwill from both Dang Seorin and me, Noh Doha trembled from head to toe, overcome with joy.

After my introduction, Noh Doha trudged onto the stage and took the microphone. That expression was, well... probably one Noh had worn fairly often back in the days of being a grade-seven civil servant.

To put it in a slightly simpler sentence:

“I’m Noh Doha...”

Fucked.