“Saint King!”
“Saint King!! Please look over here just once!!”
“Kyaa! He really looked! His eyes are scary!”
“...”
Piercing voices and all sorts of clamor combined to the point of splitting my head open.
“Saint King!!”
“Saint King--!! Please hold my hand just once!”
The people surrounding me on all sides. Burning with fervor, they wrapped around me in an instant and sent up ceaseless cheers.
And the intensity of those cheers was something else.
“Saint King--!!”
“No, no, I need to get through, so please step aside….”
“Our hero!”
“Damn it.”
They weren’t touching me directly, but there were so many people that I couldn’t move forward.
At this rate, there was no telling how long it would take to reach the Alliance.
Should I push through with force or shake them off and fly away? That thought flashed by for a moment, but.
“Saint King…!! I was truly grateful back then!”
“Thanks to you, we were able to save my mother…! Thank you, truly, thank you….”
“...”
Seeing those who approached me expressing their gratitude, my hands couldn’t move so easily.
‘Tch.’
What was I supposed to do? Just as I was about to think deeply on it.
“Saint King oppa!”
Oppa…?
At the unexpected address, I slightly shifted my gaze and saw a young girl waving her hand nearby.
She was riding on the shoulders of a man who appeared to be her father.
“Hi, oppa!”
“You little…! How dare you speak so rudely to the Saint King…!”
The father scolded her in fright at the girl’s manner of speaking, but the child merely smiled with the pure innocence unique to her age.
Who was it again.
Ah, I remembered.
It seemed to be the father and daughter I had saved in passing.
They had remained in my memory.
Recalling how they had been back then, I smirked and spoke.
“Hey, are you listening to your dad well?”
“Yes!”
“Good. Keep listening to him well from now on.”
Not that I was any good at listening myself.
Since she wasn’t too far away, I reached out. I placed my hand on the small head and patted it a few times.
This was quite amazing.
‘To think there’d be a kid who doesn’t cry at the sight of me.’
Young children always cried when they made eye contact with me. But this one didn’t seem to be like that.
The way she stayed still under my hand greatly resembled someone.
It was like seeing Wi Seol-a when she was young.
‘She’s younger than Wi Seol-a was back then, but….’
As if it didn’t matter, I patted her a few more times, and the father began to speak to me.
“I was truly… grateful back then. Saint King, Great Hero.”
“Mhm… yes….”
I laughed awkwardly. That damned alias still hadn’t grown on me.
At this rate, I probably never would for the rest of my life.
Just like with Jinryong and Soyeomra.
“…Thank you. If not for the Great Hero, back then my daughter and I….”
“It’s fine. I just happened to pass by, that’s all.”
I had to spread my senses to deal with the swarming crowd.
As I had said back then, it wasn’t the concept of saving them. It was me cleaning up a mess I had made.
“Not at all. Not only did you save us, but you even remember us.”
At the man’s words, I had to let out a hollow laugh.
“What’s so hard about remembering?”
As I spoke, I pointed at someone with my hand.
It was an old man full of wrinkles.
“That elder who was at the pharmacy over there, right?”
“Yes…? Ah, yes… t-that’s right.”
The old man pointed at himself in surprise and answered.
Hearing that answer, I pointed at another with my hand.
“That one… the lady who was under the Sangjeon Trading Company building. Next to her, the man I saw at Pungwon Forge… and….”
One by one.
I called them out precisely as I remembered.
“That elder is….”
I stopped speaking and stiffened my hand. Because the more I did it, the more I felt a strange atmosphere.
“…What. What is it?”
Why were they all making those faces?
“…You… remember all of them.”
Their faces looked somehow moved.
Seeing that, I had to break out in a cold sweat.
Why were they really like this.
‘I remember because I saw them.’
It wasn’t to the extent of perfect memory; I was just pointing out the people I remembered. Was that enough to elicit such reactions?
“…As expected… of the Great Hero.”
Seeing them about to say more with their moved faces, I immediately waved my hand.
“Ah, forget it…! You all seem to be doing well, so step aside now. I have to go….”
“The Great Hero is our hope…!”
“Saint King…!!”
“For crying out loud.”
It didn’t look like this would end.
So in the end, I had to use a bit of my skill to break free.
‘And my body isn’t even in good condition.’
Tch! Just as I clicked my tongue briefly and was about to leap.
“Make way-!”
Suddenly, a loud voice was heard from behind.
“Everyone make way!”
At that voice, everyone’s gaze turned.
“Urk!”
People began to be pushed aside as if by force. Within the forcibly opened gap, a group appeared.
Clothes with white embroidery woven into sky-blue martial uniforms. An appearance indicating they were members of the Martial Arts Alliance.
Normally, people would have stepped aside on their own or looked pleased just to see them.
“…Isn’t that the Alliance?”
“They’re from the Martial Arts Alliance.”
The expressions of those making way for the martial artists were not good.
Some still had pleasant expressions while harboring resentment or contempt, but the majority did not.
Seeing that, I tilted my head.
‘The situation seems worse than I thought.’
I had hoped for a certain level of distrust, but it seemed the level was much higher than I’d expected.
Perhaps sensing that atmosphere as well, the Alliance member frowned and shouted at the crowd.
“This area is currently scheduled for restoration. Civilians were ordered not to enter. Why are you gathered here!”
I looked around. It was certainly a mess, just as the man said.
I had come out in a hurry, but it was a place where buildings had collapsed and debris was everywhere.
For such a crowd to have gathered around me in this situation was certainly strange.
Why were there so many people?
Just as that doubt arose, someone shouted as if answering the martial artist.
“Is all of Hanam the Alliance’s property!?”
“…What?”
The martial artist frowned at the shout. It was an expression that seemed to ask how dare someone raise their voice at him.
However, regardless of the martial artist’s face, others began to raise their voices as well.
“What have you done to arbitrarily ban people from coming and going?”
“That’s right! Even if we restore it, we’ll do it ourselves. You won’t help properly anyway. We’re saying we’ll handle it ourselves.”
Hearing those words, I realized.
I had wondered what they were gathered to do.
‘Were they trying to restore the district with their own hands?’
How were they planning to handle this disastrous mess?
I couldn’t quite understand, but one thing was clear.
‘Faith in the Alliance has significantly decreased.’
Perhaps due to the aftermath of the incident, the way the current Hanam viewed the Alliance seemed to have worsened considerably.
“You…!”
Now the martial artist was about to get angry, but.
“What business do you have?”
I spoke to the man before that.
“What the hell are you…!”
Immediately the man tried to raise his voice at me, but when our eyes met, he clamped his mouth shut.
He seemed to clearly know who I was.
Which meant.
“It seems you have business with me. Am I right?”
As I tilted my head and spoke, the man carefully approached through the path people had opened.
Even as he approached, the crowd’s gazes fixed on him were extremely fierce.
Soon the man, having approached right before me, slightly bowed his head and opened his mouth.
“…Vice Commander of the Azure Dragon Squad, Gimunseok, one of the Seven Seats. I greet the Saint King.”
A deeply bowed head.
Though displeasure filled him as he bowed, his manners were firm.
So I looked at the top of Gimunseok’s head and answered.
“You may rise.”
“…!”
Perhaps because it was an unexpected answer, Gimunseok raised his head abruptly.
His eyes were full of absurdity. Confirming that, I grinned.
“It’s a joke. A joke. You looked so stiff that I thought I’d lighten the mood. Sorry if it annoyed you.”
“…Ah… no….”
He clearly looked quite annoyed, but Gimunseok seemed unable to retort and simply bowed his head again.
Looking at him, I briefly recalled a thought.
‘Gimunseok.’
Who was he again. It was a name I’d heard somewhere.
I tried hard to remember, but nothing came to mind immediately.
Anyway.
“What business do you have with me?”
I looked at Gimunseok and asked. Only then did he raise his head.
“I’ve come to escort you.”
“Me?”
“Yes…. I had sent word in advance through an official letter. Perhaps you did not receive it.”
“Hm?”
Hearing that, I fished out a letter from my chest.
I unfolded it again to check.
“Ah, so it is.”
It was clearly written.
A note saying I would personally come to escort you around this time today.
I hadn’t known this.
‘If I’d known, I wouldn’t have come out in such a hurry.’
The situation had been so urgent that I came out first and looked later. Turns out I didn’t have to.
‘Now that I think about it, it was strange.’
It was true that a letter came from the Alliance summoning me, but the fact that it told me to come on foot was itself strange.
‘Seeing how they gave me an alias yet treated me terribly, I thought they were trying to screw me over.’
Unexpectedly, it seemed they intended to take care of what needed to be taken care of.
That made it even more regrettable.
‘Now I have one less excuse to kick up a fuss.’
I thought about nitpicking his words and making a scene, but unfortunately, while the Alliance was incompetent, they weren’t completely reckless.
“…In any case, we shall escort you on your journey to the Alliance this time, Saint King.”
“Hm.”
I pondered briefly and nodded.
Actually, there was nothing to ponder about.
I had to go anyway. And since they came to fetch me personally, it was convenient.
Rather, it was good.
Since I’d been wondering how to break free anyway.
“Yes. Then let us go.”
When I said I was leaving, the surroundings felt reluctant.
I really wondered why they were so disappointed… but it couldn’t be helped.
And the reason I was going to the Alliance this time was none other than this:
The Alliance had sent an official investigation request regarding the recent raid.
******************
Guided by the Azure Dragon Squad, I arrived at the Alliance.
The interior of the Alliance wasn’t greatly different from before, but the atmosphere inside was quite different from then.
It couldn’t be helped.
There had been a raid, they hadn’t been able to respond properly to that raid, and public sentiment was currently bad.
Direct property damage might have been small, but fundamentally, the one most harmed was indeed the Martial Arts Alliance.
Screech.
A chair slid slightly backward.
“Please sit.”
At the man’s words, I sat down nonchalantly.
Inside the Alliance.
I sat in the interrogation room I had been to before.
If there was anything different from then, it was that the treatment was considerably different.
Though it was clearly an interrogation room, there was a teacup and expensive-looking snacks on the table.
They had even lit lamps in the room, so it was only called an interrogation room in name. It wouldn’t be wrong to view it as a guest reception room.
“…If you wait a moment, the Commander will arrive.”
Hearing Gimunseok’s words, I picked up a yakgwa placed in front of me and put it in my mouth.
“Not only did you make me come since morning, but now you’re making me wait. How amusing?”
“...”
“I don’t like pointless posturing… This is a bit childish. Ah, this is also a joke.”
Words that were clearly not a joke to anyone. I could see Gimunseok swallowing dryly.
As I was wondering whether to needle him a bit more.
Creak-!
The door opened and someone entered.
It was the man I had seen before.
‘Ilcheonggeom.’
The man who had been Jang Seongyeon’s right-hand man in my past life.
Commander of the Azure Dragon Squad, Ilcheonggeom Jang Seongmyeong.
It was him.
“Pleasure to see you.”
Ilcheonggeom appeared without saying much and sat in a chair. I rested my chin on my hand and looked at him.
“You’re late?”
“Yes, I had a schedule before this.”
Ilcheonggeom organized the stack of papers in front of him without meeting my eyes.
Watching that quietly, I spoke.
“Then you should apologize first.”
“...”
Clench.
Ilcheonggeom’s hand stopped at the words.
“Isn’t it a bit much to be late and not even apologize?”
As I continued with a smile, Ilcheonggeom’s eyes immediately narrowed.
What would he say? I watched with interest, but.
“I apologize for making you wait.”
“...”
Ilcheonggeom did not take the bait.
This was quite regrettable.
I was tempted to try another tactic.
But.
“So, why did you call me?”
For now, I decided to get to the main point.
Because there was no benefit to spending more time here.
“Have you read the part regarding the reason?”
“I did. It said to come for interrogation.”
“…Rather than interrogation… to verify matters more clearly….”
“That’s interrogation. Isn’t it? Checking whether I’m involved in the incident. Isn’t that right?”
No matter how much flowery language was attached, the conclusion was the same.
A few days after the raid occurred.
The first thing the Martial Arts Alliance did was summon and interrogate those who, while not belonging to the Alliance at the time, had fought against the mysterious assailants and the demonic beasts.
Those directly involved in the incident.
The pretext was to check the details of the situation… but anyone could tell it was an interrogation based on suspicion.
“I worked myself to the bone saving them, yet here I am being interrogated while suspected. Really kills the mood.”
“…Shall I say again, this is rather than interrogation….”
“Forget it. Let’s just do it. I’ll wrap this up quickly and go eat.”
Clench.
Strength entered Ilcheonggeom’s hand as he listened.
It felt like he was suppressing anger. However, once again, no fist flew.
“…Yes, since the Saint King says so. I shall proceed to the main point immediately.”
How many times had he sighed internally?
Just as I suddenly wondered that.
“There is something I wish to ask the Saint King.”
“Yes.”
“The Alliance plans to establish a new battalion.”
“Hm?”
I frowned immediately upon hearing it.
It was truly unexpected.
“Suddenly?”
“Before starting the investigation, I thought it better to inform you of this first.”
“…A battalion.”
“Yes. Therefore, before establishing the new battalion. I wish to make you an offer first.”
As if pondering, I touched my lips, and Ilcheonggeom spoke.
“To take the position of Commander for the soon-to-be-established unit….”
“I won’t.”
“Pardon?”
I spat out the answer before he even finished speaking.
“I said I won’t do it.”
It was an immediate answer.