-Count Molten's Request: Search for the Goblin Subjugation Squad Missing in the Red Forest
-Traces of the Subjugation Squad Discovered (Subjugation Squad Flag: 1/1, Subjugation Squad Equipment: 30/30)
-Encounter: Troll (★★☆). Combat Initiated.
-Troll Subjugation Complete. Subjugation Squad Corpses Discovered. Survivors: 0.
-Quest Complete: Exp 40, Gold 1000 Acquired.
The screen Gim Yuhan had seen while playing the game suddenly surfaced in his mind.
Our deaths were nothing more than a few lines of text in this world.
'Don't make me laugh.'
Even if the world denies us, we are human.
I had not the slightest intention of ending as merely a few lines of text.
His overheated mind raced desperately to find an answer.
The opponent was a troll. The king of the forest and a demonic beast approaching knight-class.
What must I, an ordinary soldier, do to survive against it?
Call for reinforcements? Impossible. A backwoods territory like this has no knights.
Use the terrain? Impossible. Terrain doesn't work on a troll, the king of the forest.
A head-on fight? If that were possible, I wouldn't be agonizing over this in the first place.
Escape? Would that company commander, obsessed with results, even listen to me?
Other alternatives like fire, poison, and strong acid came to mind, but they were all methods a mere soldier could never pull off.
'Think, Asyeon. This is the first opportunity you've grabbed, isn't it? Think of something, somehow.'
"Asyeon, are you okay?"
"Huh?"
Had I been thinking too deeply?
Senior Lena, having approached my side without me noticing, made a worried expression.
"Did something really happen to you today? Right now, looking at your face, it seems like you could kill someone."
"No, I just have something on my mind. But why did you think I was acting strange?"
"I've been with you for over three years. How could I not know?"
Tilting her round face upward, Senior Lena looked smug.
Though from my perspective, due to the height difference, she looked like a little sister looking up at her older brother.
"Hey, you were just thinking something weird, weren't you?"
"No, I wasn't. So what did you want to talk about?"
"It's nothing. I don't know what you're worried about, but I wanted to let you know you're not alone."
A small but warm hand from Senior Lena overlapped my right hand.
"If there's anything you need help with, tell me. This noona will help you."
Having finished speaking, Senior Lena immediately spun around on her heel.
She hurriedly turned her back as if she wasn't embarrassed, but her bright red ears were betraying her.
'Lena really is cute.'
As I broke into a smile, my overheated head cooled down.
Only then did another solution begin to come into view.
'Thank you, Senior Lena.'
I silently conveyed my gratitude to her and sank back into thought.
'The premise was wrong from the start.'
Until now, what I had thought of was how the current me could face a troll.
So of course, an answer couldn't come out.
Because the result would be the same even if Asyeon, a mere soldier, fought the troll, king of the forest.
But what if I weren't a mere soldier?
What if I were a hunter equipped with the arms to fight a troll, perhaps….
'It's possible. I can do this.'
Then what equipment would I need to kill it?
Once I grasped the direction, my thinking became astonishingly fast.
A weapon to suppress the troll's regeneration.
And armor that would let me survive grappling with it.
There was much such equipment in the game.
But equipment far away had no meaning whatsoever.
So if I only considered nearby equipment, where should I go?
The answer came shortly.
"The Tomb of Seonhyeolgyeong."
A location where one could loot Seonhyeolgyeong's spear and armor, usable in the early game.
If I could get just those two, perhaps I could hunt the troll.
No, if I staked my life on it, I could definitely hunt it.
'The problem is how on earth to go to the Tomb of Seonhyeolgyeong and come back.'
When I discreetly checked the edge of the campsite, I saw soldiers standing sentry.
If discovered by them, I would immediately be considered a deserter.
According to military law, desertion is summary execution.
Getting my neck cut by the company commander while trying to catch a troll—
There was nothing quite so absurd.
Even if I luckily got out undetected, there was still a problem.
'If I can't get back before tomorrow morning's roll call, it's over.'
If this were a game, it would be at most a five-minute distance, but this place is reality.
The flow of time and the distance were clearly different.
If the distance to the destination was farther than expected, what should I do?
'I need to check first.'
"Senior Lena, could you spare a moment alone?"
"Hm? What's going on?"
"It's something I can only say when we're alone."
"…Only when we're alone?"
Perhaps realizing the seriousness of the matter?
Senior Lena's eyes went wide.
She glanced around briefly, then soon nodded.
"Hm, hm. If you're saying that, I can't exactly refuse. All right, let's go."
**
Beneath a large rock near the campsite.
Having arrived, Lena stared at me intently, as if waiting for something.
Seeing how she'd kept scanning our surroundings on the way here, she must have intuitively grasped how important this conversation was.
"Ahem, so what is it? This noona is ready for anything."
"Then that's a relief. I can ask without reservation."
"You didn't need to feel reserved in the first place. Your noona knew everything."
Was Senior Lena's perceptiveness something I couldn't fool?
I admired her slightly and asked point-blank.
"Do you know where the Tomb of Seonhyeolgyeong is?"
"The answer is goo—…what?"
"The Tomb of Seonhyeolgyeong. It's a famous legend around here, isn't it? You've been stationed here longer than I have, so you must know it well."
"Ah, yeah. That's right."
Had she been expecting something else?
With a slightly deflated posture, Senior Lena answered.
"Yeah, I know it well. But why are you looking for it? Do you believe in ghost stories too?"
"Ghost stories?"
"It's famous, isn't it? That Seonhyeolgyeong's ghost roams at night, or that you can still hear something moving in the tomb. I thought you were asking because of that…."
"It's for something similar, actually."
Since I actually had business with Seonhyeolgyeong's corpse, it wasn't entirely wrong.
"So that's what it was. I thought it was something else."
"Hm? Why?"
"No, it's nothing. Don't worry about it. Hmm, the Tomb of Seonhyeolgyeong, you say. Let me see… roughly, it would take about twenty-five hours on foot round trip from here."
"Twenty-five hours?"
That far?
It's impossible. There's absolutely no way I can go and come back before tomorrow morning's roll call.
But I couldn't give up.
'Without Seonhyeolgyeong's spear and armor, I can never defeat the troll.'
I had to find some way, no matter what, to go and return by tomorrow.
"Is there no faster route?"
"Well, if you don't go around the rocky hill and climb directly up, you can save about four hours. But is there any reason to go that far?"
"I see, then Senior. I have one favor to ask."
"What is it? I'm not falling for it this time."
What did she mean she wasn't falling for it?
Setting aside the rising question, I whispered to her in a low voice.
"Can you help me go to the Tomb of Seonhyeolgyeong and come back?"
"What? Hey, are you crazy?!"
"Shh. Your voice is too loud."
I hurriedly covered Senior Lena's mouth and surveyed our surroundings.
Fortunately, I didn't sense any presence.
Letting out a small sigh, I looked at her again.
I couldn't see below her mouth, but her wide eyes made it clear she was shocked.
"Senior. You're not going to scream, right? Then I'll remove it."
Her head nodded slowly.
When I removed my hand from her mouth, Senior Lena glared at me.
"No matter how close we are, wasn't that way too rude just now?"
"I'm sorry. It was an urgent situation."
"Fine. Let's say that. But I still don't understand. Why on earth would you want to go to the Tomb of Seonhyeolgyeong? And the day before an operation, of all times. Don't you know desertion means summary execution?"
"I know. But I must go."
The troll's strength is regeneration.
Without Seonhyeolgyeong's spear, which possesses regeneration-suppressing power, there is no way to pierce its weakness.
"Senior. No, Lena. I'm asking you. I know it's dangerous. But no matter what happens, I must go to the Tomb of Seonhyeolgyeong."
"Just what is the problem? I need to know the reason before I can decide whether to help or not."
"That… I can't tell you. Even if I did, it would sound like madness. I'm asking you. This is my first and last request."
"You really…! Hah."
The eyes of Senior Lena, who let out a small sigh, darkened.
"Desertion means summary execution, but aiding a deserter also means summary execution. You're asking me to die with you right now. Do you understand?"
"…I know."
"And even so, you can't tell me the reason and just ask me to blindly cooperate?"
"Yes. I'm asking you."
Lena remained silent for a long while.
Though she didn't speak, her trembling pupils showed she was conflicted.
When enough time to drink a cup of tea had passed, she let out a deep sigh as if having made up her mind, then met my eyes.
"I'm a Kurdan."
"…So?"
"Everyone sees us as prostitutes or mercenaries, but that's only our surface. No matter what happens, we protect those who have become our friends once."
She continued slowly, as if lamenting.
"You. Do you remember the first day you met me? Do you remember what we talked about then?"
"I remember."
Surely, she had said she was the senior, so trust and follow her.
At the time, I had immediately answered that I understood.
"Honestly, I was surprised when you agreed right away. The others don't answer like that. They either look down on me for being a Kurdan, or else. So I was a little moved."
"Was that so?"
"Yeah. But you're asking me to die with you right now, aren't you? You know you're a real bastard, don't you?"
I didn't answer Senior Lena's words at all.
I simply looked straight at her without avoiding her gaze.
My face was reflected in Lena's golden irises, like a prairie at sunset.
Eventually, she closed her eyes as if she couldn't help it.
"…Just this once. There won't be a next time."
"Thank you, Senior!"
"But when you come back, you must grant me one favor. That's a promise."
"Of course."
"You sure talk sweet."
She let out a snicker and pointed with her finger to the bushes behind the rock.
"If you hide there and move carefully, you can slip past the sentries without being noticed. Don't get caught. Got it?"
I exchanged a gesture of gratitude and immediately threw myself into the bushes.
Twenty-two hours until tomorrow morning's roll call.
Within that time, I had to find Seonhyeolgyeong's armaments.
'Watch, world.'
Even if you regard us as mere text.
I will show you that I can change the future.