After finishing the examination, Ms. Jea called all her team members together so we could cross through the gate immediately.
Since the gate was scheduled to close today, time was even tighter. About fifteen hours remained. When one of Ms. Jea’s teammates said that if I had taken the test yesterday, we could have crossed through the gate with a little more leeway, Ms. Jea apologized several times. But the grumbling did not last long.
“My name is Bak Aram.”
She was the new human—no, the Awakened—who served as the “healer” on Ms. Jea’s team. She was a woman with a petite frame and charming, round, gentle eyes.
She did not give off the same overwhelming beauty as Ms. Jea, but she was certainly beautiful, and it was also clear that her personality was not prickly.
The next person to introduce himself was the man who had kept trying to dissuade Ms. Jea last time. He introduced himself as “Gim Jaeseok.”
He said he was in charge of the team’s “tank” role and mainly took on all the danger himself, then casually left behind the odd warning not to try anything funny.
As for his looks, well, they weren’t particularly important. He was handsome, but that was about it.
After all, a man’s appearance was outside my field of interest. Besides, the other male team member was similar to Gim Jaeseok. His personality seemed calm and quiet, though, and he was a man who used a “bow” as his weapon.
“I am Changun of the I clan.”
He introduced himself as I Changun, and his way of speaking was certainly archaic. At a glance, his bearing, speech, and conduct all screamed Confucian gentleman, which was especially irritating, but most men in this world were Confucian gentlemen anyway, so all I could do was sigh.
Then someone whose mischievous face and androgynous charm made it hard to tell whether they were a man or a woman introduced themself.
“I am Eunseok of the Jeon clan, and my role is to support the team.”
The person who introduced themself as a supporter was under 170 centimeters tall, with a slender build and long, graceful limbs. They were a strange sort who seemed like a woman and also like a man. Still, asking about someone’s gender did not seem polite, so I kept my mouth firmly shut and merely nodded.
I knew well that saying the wrong thing at a time like this rarely led to anything good. Jeon Eunseok smiled and brightly said they looked forward to working with me. I said the same in return, and after the team introductions were over, we stood before the gate.
That was when I noticed the commotion. It occurred to me that the gate yard, where this sort of thing almost never happened, was noisy.
The other team members seemed to feel the same, and Ms. Jea asked,
“Do you think something happened?”
“What could have happened? Someone probably struck it big.”
To put it bluntly, catching just one of the rare bosses that appeared in each gate could change a person’s life. In a case like that, wasn’t it only natural to leave the gate as if showing off and shock everyone?
At my words, everyone nodded in agreement. There was no other major explanation.
And so, with slightly envious expressions, we had to move toward the gate.
* * *
The first thing I felt was the “salty smell.”
“Is it because it’s sea wind? It’s cool and nice.”
At my words, everyone glared at me with tense expressions. To be blunt, this was the first high-rank gate they were entering, so their faces said they could not understand how I could be so relaxed.
But would they know that there was nothing for me to be nervous about?
After collecting demons, I could tell that my life and personality were changing quite a bit, but that was not something I could explain. So I performed the “keep my mouth shut” routine my teammates seemed to want and began tagging along behind them as they surveyed the area.
Because of the looks I had received for saying one wrong thing, I ended up having to fall back like this. Even so, because of the faint sweat gathering on the hand that held my spear, I often adjusted my grip.
In any case, it was proof that I, too, was unconsciously nervous. That amused me. How much had I admired those who lived crossing in and out of gates, those stages of fantasy, amid this kind of trembling?
Forming a team and setting out on an adventure!
It was romantic, and now that romance had become reality.
“Two Chalgapgwi.”
At that moment, Jeon Eunseok’s voice sounded low. And though I did not know what they had done, I began to sense two mermen through a strange perception.
It was as if they had made me feel, There are mermen over there! It was fascinating.
So this is the role of a supporter, I thought, once again admiring the importance of a team, then met Ms. Jea’s gaze as she looked at me.
“Jaeseok will take the lead. After that, Mr. Isan, please. Understood?”
From what I had heard, Ms. Jea was also an attacker who used a sword. In that case, it seemed Ms. Jea would follow after me.
Whatever the case, I thought they were opponents I did not need to feel too burdened by and nodded. Gim Jaeseok looked at me with a somewhat displeased expression, then took the lead.
He moved carefully toward the location where the mermen were.
His cautious steps, and the sharp eyes with which he watched for the right timing, made me think I had to see him in a new light.
“We’re going. I’ll take the left.”
Then Gim Jaeseok drew his longsword, gripped the scabbard in his opposite hand, and leaped forward quickly. It seemed he used a style that attacked and defended with the scabbard at the same time.
So, following the planned action, I immediately followed Gim Jaeseok and attacked the one opposite the target he had chosen.
The two mermen were suddenly ambushed. Their confusion lasted only a moment, and they quickly readjusted their tridents and faced us.
With a whoosh, an arrow flew in. It shot swiftly between Gim Jaeseok’s shoulder and neck, then buried itself into the shoulder of the merman that had been taking a stance and preparing for him.
Before the creature could do anything, it screamed from the arrow that had struck it and tumbled over. Gim Jaeseok rushed in as if pouncing on it, swinging his longsword.
At that, the one that was about to face me seemed to be frightened by something. I saw it hesitate and take a step back. Perhaps it feared that an arrow shot by I Changun might come flying at it as well. With that thought, I grasped the very end of my spear’s shaft, extended my reach as much as possible, and thrust without hesitation toward the merman’s heart.
The trident and spear crossed. However, its trident could not reach me.
The merman moved hurriedly to knock my spear away, but the thing was too slow. Thinking it was just like the pillar I had struck during the examination, I drove the spear in with all my strength. My spear lightly ignored the creature’s resistance and stabbed into the vicinity of its heart.
“Ggeueh…”
Letting out a strange, choked sound, the merman fell backward. The spear slipped out on its own from where it had been lodged, which was enough to leave me bewildered.
Moreover, Gim Jaeseok, who had been bouncing around dealing with the merman that had collapsed after being hit by an arrow, glanced at me with a startled expression. If anything, I was the one who wanted to ask the merman why it was acting like this.
Certainly, after I had recently begun crossing gates and getting a feel for how to use my strength, I had thought my skill was improving rapidly. But from someone else’s perspective, it was no different from displaying unbelievable power.
Ms. Jea, who had been running over to support me from behind, hurriedly rushed to Gim Jaeseok and finished off the merman with him.
After confirming the merman that had gone limp with a sword blade stabbed into its neck, the team members approached me.
“…Were you hiding your skill?”
“That’s right. How did you take down a Chalgapgwi in one blow…”
“Jea, explain this.”
All the team members looked back and forth between me and Ms. Jea. But Ms. Jea was just as flustered, so I stepped in and spoke.
“My attack power is strong. Instead, I’m weak on defense. You can think of it as me being able to deal a kind of explosive burst of damage.”
At my words, everyone wore expressions of disbelief and did not seem to accept it. To be fair, I would not have believed it either. But if not for something like this, there was nothing I could explain to them.
If I said, I’m crazy strong! I would be beaten black and blue by their gazes for no reason. So I had given a rough excuse, but of course, because it was rough, they did not believe it.
Still, there was not much I could explain. Then, at that moment, Ms. Jea said to her teammates,
“Mr. Isan has not yet confirmed his exact level of skill. He is someone whose strength we cannot judge for ourselves. So please don’t misunderstand. He is not trying to deceive us. This happened because he himself has not yet fully grasped what he is capable of, so I hope you’ll understand.”
At Ms. Jea’s calm words, the team members looked displeased but obediently nodded. Yes, this was what a team leader looked like. Thinking that, I nearly shot Ms. Jea a thumbs-up on the spot.
I flinched, hurriedly hid my hand, then put the settled situation behind me and began checking the merman.
“The condition of the scale armor is very good. Since it died in one blow, there’s no damage. If we skin it properly, we should be able to get a high price.”
At Jeon Eunseok’s words, everyone nodded. In contrast, the merman Gim Jaeseok and Ms. Jea had dealt with had died in a mangled state, so no one even bothered looking at it.
They simply ended the matter by saying it would be easier on the mind to collect the corpse later and trade it then.
But I could feel Gim Jaeseok’s displeased gaze. Somehow, it seemed that guy might have feelings for Ms. Jea.
A woman of royal blood who was also beautiful. Intelligent and considerate as well. A woman like her would undoubtedly be an excellent bride.
Moreover, she was an Awakened, so she earned good money. Now that I thought about it, she had no real flaws. If I had to find one, from my perspective, it would only be that she was “royalty.”
After that, the hunt began to proceed rather loosely. Since I kept cleanly taking care of one or two of them, the number of mermen the others had to deal with became limited.
As long as we simply confirmed, with the supporter’s help, where the mermen were and how many there were, cleaning them up was no work at all.
Now I understood why everyone desperately sought out supporters when entering gates.
In any case, we were able to spend a full five hours circling the island, and the number of mermen we had hunted was roughly over a hundred by then.
We were resting in a spot near the gate visible in the distance when someone came through the gate.
Everyone tilted their heads in confusion. Then that person also discovered us and began running over in a hurry. Judging by his running speed, he did not seem to be an Awakened or anyone of that sort.
Was that why? The team members and Ms. Jea glared at the newly appeared person with somewhat angry looks. It was a kind of unwritten rule: when there were people inside a gate, no one else entered. But the current situation was more than enough to cause a misunderstanding, so everyone was displeased.
But would someone who looked like an ordinary person commit such an outrage because he was insane? I thought there had to be some reason.
So I quietly rose from my seat and said,
“I’ll go take a look. Everyone, keep resting.”
At those words, Ms. Jea also stood and said she would come with me, then followed. And the closer we got to the person who had appeared, the clearer it became that he was an employee of the gate yard.
So Ms. Jea asked in confusion,
“What do you think happened?”
“We’ll know once we meet him. But if he’s rushing over that frantically, I don’t think it’s anything good.”
Ms. Jea looked worried. When we faced the gate yard employee like that, he bowed his head deeply to me and Ms. Jea and apologized first.
“I apologize for entering so rudely like this. The matter was so urgent on our side that we had no choice, and I hope you can understand.”
Ms. Jea nodded, saying she understood. Then, when she asked what had happened, the gate yard employee looked at me and asked,
“Are you Mr. Isan?”
Only then did I realize that his business was with me, and Ms. Jea looked at me with an expression that seemed to have figured something out.
So when I slowly nodded and told him I was, the gate yard employee asked with a bright face,
“If it isn’t urgent, we have rudely come to request that you step outside the gate for a moment.”
“Why do I need to go out?”
“Um… someone is looking for you, Mr. Isan.”
I had no idea who could be looking for me for the gate yard to do something this incomprehensible, but Ms. Jea pushed that employee aside and said,
“The imperial family must have moved.”
The gate yard employee was dyed with panic. Ignoring him as he tried to say something, I asked Ms. Jea,
“Why would the imperial family?”
“Because of a new Awakened.”
“A new… ah, could it be because of me?”
She nodded. I could not understand what the reason was no matter how I thought about it, but Ms. Jea said,
“The power held by the imperial family and the power held by the noble houses are roughly equal. Now imagine that someone appears who could tilt the scales of that balance a little further to one side. Then how would things look from the imperial family’s perspective?”
“Well…”
I understood. It seemed they intended to recruit me as a tool for palace intrigue. Since I had resolved to stay as far away from royalty and imperial blood as possible, I had not laid a hand on Ms. Jea even though I could have done something.
But now the imperial family was trying to get involved?
Naturally, from my perspective, it was a bolt from the blue, and I had no desire to belong anywhere. But whether or not Ms. Jea knew what I was thinking, she apologized first.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Isan.”
“Why are you sorry, Ms. Jea? I had to take the examination anyway.”
“That’s not it. It’s because of what prompted the imperial family to move.”
“What prompted them?”
“I think the imperial family moved immediately because I am royalty.”
What sort of nonsense was that supposed to be?