Chapter 83 - Praise Me!!!

When I opened my eyes again, we were outside Gwangju City Hall in Gyeonggi Province. I could tell from the sign visible beyond the woman's body blocking my view when I cracked my eyes open.

But my body felt heavy. I hadn't woken up after a good night's sleep—someone had shaken me awake by the shoulder, and my eyelids were unbearably heavy.

"Wake up, junior~."

It was Go Ryeo-ha. She seemed to be doing this out of boredom, so I intended to ignore her completely. No matter how important reproduction and sexual desire might be, when you were sleepy, you had to sleep.

But when a hand grabs the back of your neck instead of your shoulder and starts kneading it, you have no choice but to open your eyes wide.

My eyes snapped open!

My mind was even clearer than when I'd been caught dozing in middle-school class, ordered into the push-up position, and beaten with a mop handle.

I stared ahead with my eyes wide open. Go Ryeo-ha raised her right hand and held it out like a playful cat.

"Knead, knead."

"What did you wake me up for?"

"They say we need to switch vehicles."

I blinked at that and looked around. Sure enough, the Supreme Mages who had been riding in the back of the military truck were down below, looking up at me. They were all yawning away. Pastor Park Yo-han also opened his mouth in a huge yawn and wiped the tears from the corner of his eye with his index finger.

"Je-min. If you're awake, hurry down. We need our rest too."

"Yes, sir."

Only then did Ryeo-ha and I climb down, the last ones out. The five special forces soldiers were the only people left in the back.

They had infiltrated Seoul via the Han River to escort us, but they seemed to have all sorts of feelings about completing the mission with far less wear and tear than expected. The radio soldier turned toward us and calmly saluted.

"Unity. Congratulations on your safe return."

He seemed to be their leader. When he saluted, the other soldiers turned toward us and saluted too.

We weren't soldiers, but we couldn't coldly reject a salute from these proud men. We Supreme Mages answered with a wave.

"You've worked hard. Take care."

Their movements were crisp. After finishing their salute, the special forces soldiers settled back into the truck, which accelerated and began pulling away.

I didn't know why they were making us get off in Gwangju and transfer instead of going straight to Suwon, but that was the Republic of Korea for you. Unless they were heading to Seoul, people out in the provinces routinely had to change buses just to get to the next town. I took it in stride.

That was when Lee Se-jun approached with a pointless complaint. We'd finally managed a heartwarming farewell, and he was already finding fault.

"Je-min, why did you wave instead of saluting? Anyone could see that was our cue to snap off salutes, answer them with 'Unity!' and then say 'Loyalty!' ourselves!"

"Se-jun. Reservists are civilians. We only answered the mobilization order. Besides, we're actual civilians now."

"Legally, we're military manpower that can be mobilized at any time."

"Se-jun, by that logic, the sex digit on your resident registration number has been permanently stamped as a three ever since your birth was registered in the Republic of Korea. It can never change."

I heard the offended Se-jun yelling some bullshit, but decided to ignore him. Thank goodness the Stage One ear-magic penalty wasn't active right now.

Shin Na-in was the one stuck bearing the brunt. He frowned at Se-jun, put on his headset, turned up the volume, and hummed a hymn.

"I'd rather have Jesus... than anything..."

Meanwhile, the pastor, Hamza, and Ryeo-ha approached. They had put a little distance between us during the commotion and only returned once things quieted down.

"Pastor, are you ashamed of us?"

"Je-min, you're not the sort of person I'd normally want to associate with."

"Ahem, hmm. That's precisely why Je-min needs to come to church and be tempered. Islam Boy isn't entirely wrong. Even a broken clock is right twice a day."

"Honestly, Pastor. And you, Mr. Muslim, don't be so hard on my junior. They look so close. Isn't it nice?"

Hamza answered, the pastor cleared his throat for no reason, and Ryeo-ha joined in.

The instant I heard Ryeo-ha's comment, an overwhelming wave of regret washed over me.

We looked close?

Who did?

Surely she didn't mean me, Baek Je-min, and that fucker Lee Se-jun, along with Shin Na-in, who thought nothing of monopolizing a toilet for thirty minutes.

Had she really lumped me in with those two bastards?

...

"Je-min...?"

"What's wrong with Je-min's face?"

A man's pride is everything. And Go Ryeo-ha had just inflicted a heinous wound on mine. Even I could feel how cold my gaze had grown as I looked at her. Resentment or hatred couldn't describe this emotion.

I had just drawn a line in my heart.

Ryeo-ha covered her mouth with her left hand instead of her lowered mask and giggled.

"Hehe, junior. Remember, I promised to make you a wonderful fetish object using the Sorcery-type magic I learned!"

"Hahaha! You can see it too, Teacher, can't you? Se-jun, Na-in, and I really are close."

Even Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei—the three brothers of the Peach Garden Oath who swore to die on the same day at the same hour—would have to concede defeat before me. If I ever thought I was about to die, I'd shoot Shin Na-in and Lee Se-jun first so I wouldn't feel cheated.

That was when an officer approached, bringing soldiers from the glass-fronted city hall beyond the sparsely planted street trees. His rank was captain. Like the other officers we'd encountered, he had removed his name tag, so I couldn't identify him. He looked to be in his early to mid-thirties, with long eyelashes beneath thick, horn-rimmed glasses.

"The civilian Operators of Aphorism. Correct?"

"Yes."

"We'll arrange your vehicle immediately. Please follow me. You've been through a great deal getting out of Seoul. You'll have about ten minutes. Please take care of anything you need to and board as quickly as possible. Headquarters is requesting that we send you to Suwon as soon as possible, so I ask for your understanding that we can't give you a long break."

"One of our guys needs at least twenty minutes to take a shit. What do we do about him?"

I raised my concern in advance with the stern-voiced captain in horn-rimmed glasses. He blinked, looked over our group, then stared at Ryeo-ha for a long time. Who knew how many things he was imagining?

But rather than entertaining lewd fantasies, he was agonizing over something else entirely.

"The person over there is the friendly local survivor Aphorism brought out, and, uh... if she needs more than twenty minutes, that puts our dispatch schedule in jeopardy. If you miss this vehicle, you might have to wait another hour..."

"No. The guy who needs twenty minutes to shit isn't that woman. He's one of our teammates."

"Then he can shit himself and let it dry. Or hold it for a day."

That razor-sharp decisiveness told me he truly was an iron-willed soldier maintaining the cordon. Fortunately, Na-in seemed too absorbed in his hymns to hear the captain's remark. Though now that I'd kindly thought about it for him, he'd be able to mull it over.

We were given seats at tables set up inside Gwangju City Hall, along with time to use the restroom. I intended to take a leisurely shit once we reached Suwon, so I only took a piss. Sitting there alone watching everyone else work, I wondered whether anything in the world could be sweeter.

The others hadn't returned yet, so I could observe how the military was operating outside city hall.

In the parking lot, several vehicles loaded with all sorts of supplies were constantly being serviced or inspected. Here and there, people struggled because they were slow on their feet or clumsy with their hands, or simply lacked a knack for the work. Most weren't soldiers at all, but civilian laborers. They looked as hollow-eyed and irritable as workers loading and unloading trucks at a logistics depot before dawn.

Naturally, being civilians didn't mean they had the strength or energy to haul heavy ammunition cans and boxes. Most were gray-haired elderly people, men bearing at least some trace of life's hardships, or rough middle-aged women. Young people were only scattered among them.

The horn-rimmed captain stood supervising them with his soldiers, crossing things off in a file and recording quantities with his pen. Then, apparently noticing my gaze, he turned and approached.

"Aphorism. My apologies. Your vehicle will be dispatched without any problems, so please don't worry."

"That's not really what I was worried about. I was just checking how things are going for the military."

Just then, an odd sight caught my eye. Three or four heavy armored vehicles were rolling down the road near city hall in a column, with a swarm of quadcopter drones buzzing overhead. Noticing my eyes turn toward the drones, the captain sighed.

"We're just hanging on."

"We're civilian Operators, you know. Since we're legally civilians, we haven't had proper access to military information. We were holed up in Suwon, took a little tour of Seoul, and came back, but we still don't know much. How are you keeping them contained?"

I asked the captain while keeping the truth about the Han River firmly to myself.

Seeing the Han River's true face had only made me wonder more. The troops attempting to contain Seoul at the first cordon numbered 150,000. It sounded like a lot, but it was nowhere near enough to encircle a metropolis that had housed ten million people. How had they managed the containment with those numbers?

When we'd heard the broadcast intercepted by the Society of 66 inside Seoul, the Armed Forces were already estimated to have suffered over 30,000 casualties. Could the remaining 120,000 troops really hold back all the monsters lurking in Seoul?

Picking up on the implications of my question, the captain spun his pen several times, stared down at me, and let out a long, deep sigh.

"It's hardly a major secret. And you've been into Seoul and back, so I suppose this much is fine."

Having convinced himself, he turned toward the eight military and civilian trucks standing side by side, looking at their loads of ammunition cans and artillery shells.

"We're sealing off eastern Seoul around Namyangju and Mount Geomdan. You know how good drones are these days, right? People have been talking about them ever since that war in Europe. Unmanned robots with machine guns, quadcopter drones, things like that. We've set up drone factories in Gyeonggi Province, and we're using them to shoot anything that moves in the mountains or near the riverbanks."

"Oh."

"Besides, the rules of engagement prohibit rescues and require us to kill anyone found in restricted areas. Killing everything without having to hesitate has eased the burden a little. I can't speak for Seongnam, but out east, monsters don't try sneaking in among civilian groups anymore. They know we kill everyone, so they've learned. I hear refugee groups make it inside the cordon around Seongnam because the troops there haven't been hardened enough yet and still hesitate. That's insanity. We can barely manage even when we kill every last one."

"Ah."

Remembering the drones flying around Olympic Park brought up a fresh tangle of emotions. Running out of ammunition so quickly was a problem, but for a search-and-kill policy, nothing seemed to beat drones. No matter how fucking nasty the monsters were, they were helpless against suicide drones or bullets from ordinary drones. And if everything found in a restricted area was shot regardless of the reason, identifying friend from foe wasn't an issue.

The captain stared at the middle-aged men, women, and elderly people busily hauling boxes, speaking as though venting his frustrations.

"Those elderly people aren't here because they couldn't get through Gyeonggi Province's second cordon. This is their hometown, or they couldn't bear to abandon their houses. They're saving up military scrip one note at a time to send to their families stuck in Gyeonggi Province, farther to the rear. But if we take in refugees coming down from Seoul out of pity, and even one monster hiding among them exploits that sympathy and breaks loose, all those people die. Anyone mouthing off about us not evacuating the refugees simply has no sense of responsibility."

As the other Supreme Mages returned from the restroom one by one and took their seats, the captain continued in a troubled voice. Around then, Hamza approached and whispered to me.

"What's wrong with that soldier?"

"Guess he's got a lot bottled up. Let him talk. Some information should come out with it."

"People who ought to be using walking sticks are hauling boxes to earn a single note of military scrip, scrambling to grab even one spare packet of instant noodles. Anyone who sees that and still says we should have taken in refugees just to soothe their own conscience is a fucking bastard. You've come out of Seoul, so you know, don't you? What kinds of monsters are in there. You'd know better than we do."

Ryeo-ha returned to her seat just as the captain turned, and their eyes met. It wasn't a coincidence. He had clearly timed it deliberately. Rather than her looks, it was the fact that she was a Seoul local that inspired his intense distrust and paranoid vigilance.

Ryeo-ha gave her characteristic laugh, but this time her eyes weren't smiling. The pastor and Hamza involuntarily flinched at the sight, while Se-jun folded his arms and watched.

"I regret that things have turned out this way."

"Ahaha... You trap people inside, kill them all, and that's what you have to say?"

"Hey, hey, hey!"

This crazy bomb called Go Ryeo-ha was about to go off somewhere I hadn't expected, so I hurriedly stepped between them. I held out both hands, trying to mediate between her and the captain. More importantly, there were things that needed doing before those two started glaring viciously at each other.

"Everyone, stop right there. What do you think you're doing?"

"Junior...?"

"Civilian Operator."

"I don't think this is the time for us to fight over who's right and who's wrong."

Just then, the last Supreme Mage returned from the restroom. Shin Na-in, who really had used the full twenty minutes, sat down. He looked between me, Ryeo-ha, and the captain, then gave me a peculiar look.

Contempt, pity, resignation.

And finally, amusement.

"Je-min isn't wrong."

"I haven't said it yet."

After answering Na-in, I turned toward the frowning captain and Ryeo-ha, who was tilting her head, and stated the most important point.

"Shouldn't the soldiers be praising our achievements, and shouldn't Teacher Go Ryeo-ha first be thanking us for helping her escape?"

These fucking bastards.

Start with the praise and ass-kissing.

* * *

Our next vehicle was another deuce-and-a-half. Apparently, they had no spare vehicles capable of carrying large groups at the moment, so a military deuce-and-a-half was the only option.

But there was a clear difference from before. To apologize for the pointless strain he'd caused, and having accepted that my argument was reasonable, the horn-rimmed captain took action.

Once the Supreme Mages and Ryeo-ha had all climbed into the back, the captain gave a rigidly precise salute and shouted.

"Everyone, attention!"

With crisp, synchronized movements, the soldiers lining both sides of the lane out of city hall snapped into position at his command.

Watching them execute their drill with the precision of synchronized choreography made my chest swell. My emotion doubled when the deuce-and-a-half started up and slowly rolled forward. For the benefit of the soldiers whose eyes asked who the hell we were to deserve all this, the captain explained in a booming voice.

"The people aboard this vehicle are Aphorism's civilian Operators. On April 15, they voluntarily joined the first Seoul reconnaissance, successfully made contact with locals, and escaped! They were not dragged there or forced to volunteer. Out of devotion to their country and people, following their own convictions, they worked together with the Armed Forces to overcome brutal conditions and brought every member home alive and safe!"

Only then did the looks the soldiers cast our way change. The irritated curiosity asking, Who the hell are you? gradually vanished. A kind of awe took its place.

We Supreme Mages and Ryeo-ha couldn't help noticing the change in their mood. The pastor's lips twitched, Hamza needlessly fiddled with his turban, Se-jun struggled to suppress a delighted laugh, and Na-in grinned. Only Ryeo-ha kept the corners of her eyes raised in a vicious glare.

From behind the slowly rolling deuce-and-a-half, the captain's shout reached us. He was still standing rigidly at attention.

"You know better than anyone what Seoul has become. You should understand what that means!"

He was right. The soldiers, who had begun to relax slightly, had completely changed their demeanor after hearing his explanation.

There were fewer than forty soldiers lining the two sides of the road at most, but the civilians watching from the city hall parking lot and farther down the streets to see what the commotion was made it enough. The soldiers stood stiff and precise, as though their division commander had come for an inspection, waiting for the next order.

In a reverent silence so deep that not a breath could be heard, with only the occasional sounds of wind and birds, the captain shouted.

"Everyone, salute."

At that moment, I remembered when the Army chief of staff had come to inspect our unit. The memory of that day, when we had been ready to move mountains with shovels and performed perfectly synchronized drill while praying he'd just leave, overlaid the soldiers on either side of us.

The difference between then and now was their mindset. That day, I'd maintained razor-sharp precision to avoid giving him anything to criticize. Now, despite their differing backgrounds, personalities, appearances, and lives, these soldiers matched their movements with one united heart.

Their hands rose as one.

Perhaps the perceptive soldier riding up front had given instructions, because the truck deliberately rolled slowly, giving us all the time we wanted to savor the soldiers' salute. Passing between the soldiers holding their motionless salutes and the civilians who had gathered like clouds, every one of us couldn't help smiling.

Eventually, once the truck cleared the crowd completely and began picking up speed, exclamations finally burst from the Supreme Mages.

"Hah! Did you see that? Those guys were razor-sharp! They wouldn't manage that even for the president!"

Se-jun was the first to get drunk on being a Supreme Mage. True to his status as the bastard with the greatest craving for recognition, he laughed heartily and made delighted noises as if he'd downed a bowl of makgeolli.

"Ahem. Se-jun, pride is what you must guard against most. A person should always live humbly."

Pastor Park Yo-han gently admonished him, but the corners of his own mouth had ascended all the way to his cheekbones and refused to come down. He was drunk on being a Supreme Mage too.

"This too must be the Lord's grace. Amen."

Na-in grinned as he pressed his palms together in prayer. His headset was now around his neck. Apparently, he'd taken it off to hear what the captain had to say.

But while everyone else was riding the high and doing as they pleased, one person maintained an objective, neutral perspective.

"Je-min, I know. Even among us Supreme Mages, you were the most supreme. Truly the best."

Hamza.

Such profound insight was exactly what you'd expect from an elite former medical student from Pakistan. True emotion comes from these small, seemingly insignificant remarks.

At Hamza's perfectly valid observation, I unconsciously raised my index finger and wagged it, unable to speak. Covering my mouth with my left hand, I spent a long while pondering as I wagged my right index finger, but in the end I had to surrender. I simply couldn't find any way to refute the reasonable, intelligent opinion of a former medical student.

"That's our Hamza. Let's have a Spam party when we get back. Need some soju too?"

"Je-min. I'm fine."

"Huh? Why?"

"We can just get drunk on the fact that we're the best of the best."

Ahhh...

Medical students really were different. The guy was smart. A whole different breed!

As the street scenery swept past with the wind, I too became drunk on being a Supreme Mage.

In that atmosphere, my gaze naturally turned toward Ryeo-ha. True to her background as a Seoul mage who loathed the military, she sat with her arms crossed and the corners of her eyes viciously raised, watching us enjoy the soldiers' salutes.

But I say what needs saying.

That was who I was: Baek Je-min.

"Teacher. Don't you have something to say?"

"... Junior. I'm disappointed. You know how the soldiers treated the people of Seoul."

"I'm disappointed too. You couldn't have escaped without us. I think there's something you ought to say."

"Didn't I promise to make you a fetish object?"

"Let's make that the condition for me not looking for an opening to kill you."

Praise us. Acknowledge us. Sing our praises!

Shower your thanks on the Supreme Mages who put on an undeniably fucking spectacular performance and got you out of the hell called Seoul!

I sent her a burning look filled with that sentiment. Ryeo-ha raised her eyebrows, worked her lips for no reason, sighed, and uncrossed her arms.

"... You're right. Without you and the older gentlemen, I wouldn't have found the courage, even with everyone cheering me on."

Ah. Come to think of it, this crazy bitch still believed there were survivors left at Konkuk University.

I smacked my lips, feeling my enthusiasm fade. Unconcerned, Ryeo-ha softened her vicious glare and giggled.

"Thank you, everyone. For coming all the way to Konkuk University on the strength of a single radio contact."

Se-jun, who had been pretending not to care while straining to listen from farther away, cleared his throat.

"Ahem, hmm!"

The pastor was already beaming. Na-in looked between him and Ryeo-ha and furrowed his brow in disapproval.

"See? Even the way Ryeo-ha talks is lovely. I told you I have an eye for people! She definitely looks like someone who's lived kindly and been loved by everyone."

"Pastor... Tsk. Ryeo-ha, direct your thanks to the pastor and the Lord. We are merely the swords of the Lord God."

And I, Baek Je-min, finally nodded after taking in the low hills and city streets receding behind us, the men and women busily walking about carrying boxes, the children playing even at a time like this, and lastly the soldiers marching crisply in formation.

"Next time, I'd appreciate it if you thanked us without waiting for me to bring it up, Teacher."

"Hehe. Now that I look at you, junior, you're like a puppy, aren't you?"

An eerie sensation made my spine seem to straighten all by itself, so I decided to keep quiet.

As I ignored Ryeo-ha's humming, the pastor finally lowered his voice, sounding embarrassed.

"Baek Je-min. Come to think of it, can't you be a little subtler when you drop hints? I'm not saying what you did earlier was wrong, but it was a bit ugly, wasn't it? Huh? Don't you know the saying about an awl in a bag? An awl in a bag?"

"I know it well. That's why I made my appeal."

An awl in a bag.

That beautiful four-character idiom means that to find out whether there's an awl in a bag, you first have to poke it through. How could I not know it?

Na-in's expression shifted as though he were looking at a pathetic fool, but I paid him no mind. This was much better than getting recognition from a bastard like him.

And so, riding peacefully in the vehicle, we began looking forward to our next transfer. We intended to advertise ourselves every time we changed vehicles.

Of course, I had a hunch that things weren't going well at Gyeonggi Province's second cordon. Perhaps the situation at the cordon and the second cordon was far worse than we'd expected.

In that respect, I was the very definition of a talent prepared for the task.

Praise me. Applaud me.

Open your mouths wide and react.

Archmage Baek Je-min does not want ordinary non-mages to begin learning magic.

Ordinary non-mages have only one job.

Simply cheer and clap as they watch this fucking awesome archmage in action!