The sudden threat that had appeared passed by like a downpour—brief and violent.
“...For now, it seems the thing has withdrawn.”
Old Man Owlbear said so, his ears pricking up.
The Land Leviathan—or more precisely, should I call it its claw? In any case, it was less persistent than I had expected.
Considering it had clearly come running from outside the Blackout Zone, that was rather unexpected.
Of course, it wasn’t as if I had no guess as to why.
‘In the end, that thing hadn’t come looking for us.’
I wondered whether I should tell my companions, but in the end, I couldn’t bring myself to speak.
It was already all we could do to deal with the Mimic Beasts right in front of us. In terms of force, we weren’t lacking, but our minds were pitifully fragile compared to our bodies.
Even after purifying the incubator, we had sunk even deeper into gloom from the sheer horror of it.
We may have achieved something remarkable, granting rest to the children who had become monsters… but that didn’t mean the despair we felt had been washed away.
‘If, on top of that, I explain that there’s also some mighty being I encountered…….’
There would be chaos. Absolute chaos.
Worry for families who might be in other Blackout Zones, anxiety that we might have to face such a being in the future…….
At the very least, it wasn’t information they could accept right now.
If we could now get outside, maybe that would be another matter…….
“...So, what should we do now?”
Because after our clash with the Land Leviathan, we had fallen down to the third floor.
In the current situation, we needed to focus on what lay immediately before us.
“There are two options we can take.”
Captain Kim said in a low voice.
“First, find a way back up.”
From the moment we entered, the obstetrics and gynecology building had possessed a deformed internal structure.
Some walls were twisted into spirals, and every staircase had been rendered unusable.
Even the method the previous advance team had used—breaking through walls—no longer worked. The walls had been strengthened to the point that our firepower couldn’t pierce them.
But now, the situation was a little different.
“...Those walls that were so solid…….”
Old Man Owlbear muttered that while rubbing his wrist as if it ached.
The wall, which hadn’t taken so much as a scratch from ordinary impacts, had been gruesomely smashed apart by a single finger of the entity identified as Land Leviathan.
“...Now I see why they can’t operate tanks. How many of those things are wandering around?”
Mr. Orc muttered.
Captain Kim replied in a slightly trembling voice.
“As far as the military has confirmed at present… three entities.”
Considering how enormous it was, that felt like a hell of a lot. And judging from what Captain Kim said, three was simply the number the military had identified. In other words, it wouldn’t be strange if there were more than that when counted one by one.
Still, if there was any comfort, it was that the absolute number was small.
The problem was that one of those few monsters had happened to show up here and drop us onto the third floor.
“I suppose we should count it fortunate… The wall it destroyed doesn’t seem to be regenerating.”
Meaning that, if necessary, we could climb back up through there.
Of course, the ceiling was so high that unless we had some structure like a ladder, getting up there would be extremely difficult.
That was when Old Man Owlbear proposed a groundbreaking rocket-launch idea unbecoming of his age.
“I’ll try throwing someone up. If the person is light enough, wouldn’t it be possible to get them up there?”
Old Man Owlbear’s gaze turned toward me.
From those words, I realized why our ancestors had evolved in the direction of using tools.
Tools were weak things used by those lacking strength. If you had sufficient strength, even without something like a ladder, you could send a few people to the upper floor.
“...No.”
Naturally, Old Man Owlbear’s opinion was quickly rejected.
It wasn’t that the plan lacked realism. The old man possessed the strength to impose his will upon the world.
However…….
“We did clear out all the Mimic Beasts upstairs, but there may still be ones we missed. Besides, the rest of us couldn’t get up using the same method, could we?”
It was a method possible only for a limited number of people, and at the same time, it could place relatively weaker combatants in danger.
And… because the method was so forceful, if something went wrong, there was no telling what sort of injuries might follow.
In the end, Old Man Owlbear seemed embarrassed by his own suggestion and withdrew while scratching his head.
“W-what about using the elevator…….”
“That heap of junk hasn’t budged since earlier.”
At Yu Inha’s question, Mr. Orc answered with a frown. It seemed he had checked it in the meantime.
With no sharp solution immediately forthcoming, Captain Kim opened his mouth as if there was no helping it.
“If worst comes to worst, instead of escaping, we’ll have to move on to the next area. As it happens, that door is here on the third floor.”
“That’s…….”
Not a good choice.
To begin with, we had entered this place assuming a short-term engagement. That meant our supplies and provisions were not sufficient. Hadn’t we already used up all the grenades we had?
Going to the next area was a situation we needed to avoid as much as possible.
“If worst comes to worst, I mean. Before reaching a conclusion, first…….”
At those words, I looked around.
The third floor of Gangnam Sarang Obstetrics and Gynecology. The place where the delivery rooms and Cesarean operating rooms were gathered.
“...We need to search this place. Still, no Mimic Beasts are charging at us right now.”
As Captain Kim said that, his voice was trembling heavily.
*
It was after Captain Kim finished speaking.
The first to speak was Mr. Orc.
“Will you be all right?”
“What… do you mean?”
“If you aren’t all right, then stop.”
Only then did Captain Kim seem to realize what Mr. Orc was talking about.
With a small “Ah,” Captain Kim hesitated before speaking.
“Yes, I’ll be fine.”
“I’ve never seen anyone who says that actually be fine.”
At Mr. Orc’s pointed rebuke, Captain Kim slowly parted the lips he had pressed tightly shut.
“…….”
His gaze turned toward the end of the corridor, into the darkness sunk like pitch-black ink.
There, where only the faint emergency exit sign flickered, an old placard reading [Cesarean Operating Room] hung precariously.
As though that very placard were strangling him, Captain Kim’s breathing grew rough for an instant.
“I have no intention… of making excuses. So I’ll speak honestly.”
His voice sounded as if it had been squeezed out against his will.
Clenching his trembling hands tightly, he opened his mouth with difficulty.
“This place, Gangnam Sarang Obstetrics and Gynecology. And on the day that unidentified Blackout Zone swallowed the middle of Seoul…….”
Captain Kim’s voice quivered.
Unable to meet our eyes, he lowered his gaze to the floor and continued.
“It was the day my wife’s Cesarean section was scheduled.”
“…….”
“And the place where the surgery was supposed to take place was right here, on the third floor.”
A heavy silence settled over us.
No one could carelessly open their mouth. The Mimic Beast wearing the form of his wife, the one he had been forced to shoot dead with his own hands on the lower floor earlier.
From the moment that Mimic Beast appeared, covered in that filth, it had been obvious that his wife must already have met a horrific fate….
‘But to think it had been on that very day.’
I swallowed bitterly inwardly.
And everyone else was no different.
“But I am a soldier.”
Then, suddenly, Captain Kim snapped his head up.
His bloodshot eyes were streaked red, but the thread of reason he had forcibly grasped was holding him together.
“I have no intention of ruining the mission because of personal feelings. Placing the mission above all else is a soldier’s virtue.”
The one to pour cold water on that detached yet resolute determination was Mr. Orc.
“People are swayed by emotion far more than they think. Even if you truly have resolved yourself that way, Captain, I don’t believe things will go exactly as you intend.”
“I can tell you that you don’t need to worry about that at all. Because……”
Captain Kim said with a bitter smile.
“If I were truly going to be swayed by emotion, I would have gone to save my wife on the first day of the incident.”
A deep, deep smile bloomed on Captain Kim’s face. The name of that flower was self-mockery.
The flower called self-mockery had many meanings in the language of flowers. And though those meanings were similar, each held a different nuance.
Regret, lamentation, resignation….
To my eyes, Captain Kim, whose face was filled with self-mockery, looked as though he had resigned himself.
“I left my wife here. Of course, I want nothing more than to borrow the power of a miracle and bring my wife back… but what can I do? Among all these countless Mimic Beasts, I can’t even know which one is my wife.”
Only then did I understand why he had viewed the world so pessimistically, and why he had urged me so strongly to remain in the rear.
He had already given up on everything.