Shinhyeok’s stomach churned at the shocking, absurd article.
“Fuck!”
“So I think that’s why everyone returned.”
“What kind of bullshit is this? What government pushes an alliance with bastards they don’t even know anything about? With monsters that take people as sacrifices!”
His anger would not subside at the ridiculous news. It kept surging up.
“Hyung, what do we do now?”
“…….”
Bang.
Baek Arin barged into the quarters as well.
With a bewildered, shocked face, she stared at Shinhyeok.
“Mister, did you see?”
“Yeah.”
“What do we do now?”
Shinhyeok forced down the torrent of emotions that felt as if it would boil over.
“They’ll announce something sooner or later. Let’s hear what kind of nonsense they spout.”
* * *
As expected, the government made an announcement the next morning regarding the nationwide awakening and the alliance with the Demon Realm.
Everyone in Hongik focused on the announcement.
The Association President, appearing alongside the President, conducted the briefing.
Staring into the camera, he spoke as if addressing someone who would be watching.
“The Earth of the future must think not of the present, but of what lies ahead. What we will face five, ten years from now will not be mere monsters like those of today, nor mindless beasts.”
Camera flashes sparkled as a reporter urgently asked,
“Then what exactly are we facing?!”
“We are facing gods and an overwhelming civilization that has evolved far beyond humanity. Are we prepared for that?”
At the Association President’s counter-question, the reporters fell silent.
“That is why we need an alliance. Not Yggdrasil, which is all talk! We need an alliance with the Demon Realm, one that can provide a direct and certain hand! They are not some pathetic system that chooses only a select few! They will awaken everyone!”
One reporter raised concerns about them being “demons.”
“But aren’t they demons? Is it safe?”
The Association President smiled as he answered.
“I guarantee it. Their title of ‘demon’ is nothing more than prejudice. I am their contractor.”
Proudly displaying his brand, he emitted a visibly dark mana.
“Everything requires a price. All we need to do is offer up the enemies who will invade us in the future as the price for all of this.”
The reporters began murmuring.
The Association President looked around at them for a moment, then stared back at the camera and spoke.
“In the future, our enemies will grow stronger, while we remain stagnant. Will you simply stay as you are?”
With a satisfied smile at the shifting atmosphere, the Association President continued.
“On the day all dimensions become one, should the nation called the ‘Republic of Korea’ not still exist?”
With those words, he concluded the announcement and press conference.
The President’s announcement that followed was no different.
The three of them, who had been listening from the quarters, turned off the TV.
“Hyung, does that even make sense?”
“Mister. They’re not seriously doing that, right? Who would accept that…? Haa, the idiot President approved it, didn’t he.”
Shinhyeok smiled crookedly.
“Ha, ha. I’m supposed to just watch that? That!?”
Shinhyeok sprang to his feet and spoke to the two of them.
“Don’t you think it’s time we went on our first leave?”
“Yes?”
“Huh?”
Shinhyeok smiled in an extremely sly and wicked way.
“I think it’s time we had one hell of a vacation. Get ready. We’re going on leave right now.”
Then he immediately left the room.
Seeing that, Baek Arin hurriedly shouted,
“Mister, where are you going!?”
“To pick up the priest! He absolutely has to come with us!”
Shinhyeok strode out and knocked on the priest’s room across the hall.
Knock, knock, knock.
He knocked on the door, but it was quiet.
Hong Ichan came out belatedly and spoke cautiously.
“The priest went somewhere.”
“Where?”
“No idea. He quietly went off somewhere with a National Intelligence Service agent.”
At those words, Shinhyeok remembered the vehicle still parked in the unit parking lot.
“That phone should still be there.”
The one they had given him to use for the mission should still remain.
Shinhyeok hurried out to check.
“……It’s here.”
He immediately took it out and called the woman whose number remained in the call history.
“You’re not allowed to keep using this. I’m hanging up.”
She answered.
Before she could hang up, Shinhyeok urgently shouted,
“I need the priest! Please just pass on the message!”
“I told you, you can’t keep doing this. Huh? Yes?”
A faint voice could be heard beside her.
Recognizing the familiar voice of a middle-aged man, Shinhyeok urgently shouted,
“Priest! It’s me! I need help!”
“Ah! Seriously! Um, excuse me?”
She struggled with someone, but in the end, it seemed the phone was taken from her.
Soon, Priest Eijar answered the call.
“Ah, Brother, what brings you to call?”
As soon as the priest answered, Shinhyeok felt relieved and spoke at once.
“Priest, I need your help. It’s time to stomp on a demon’s nose and crush it.”
At those words, Priest Eijar let out a hearty laugh and said,
“I’ll be there at once. You must wait for me there.”
Agent Hong Juyeon, who got the phone back, continued in a voice full of irritation.
“Stop interfering like this. It’s annoying! We’re in Pohang right now, so how are we supposed to get all the way there!”
“Yeees~ Do your best.”
“Hey!”
Click.
He hung up.
Shinhyeok busily reviewed the plan in his head.
‘The unit’s help won’t be of any use. What I need right now is Baek Arin.’
Shinhyeok looked at Baek Arin, who was staring blankly from the quarters, and smiled benevolently.
Baek Arin responded with a look of disgust.
“Mister, I feel uneasy….”
“Why, you little.”
Baek Arin slammed the window shut.
Shinhyeok hurriedly went up to the quarters to find Baek Arin.
“Mister, if you look at me with that weird expression again, I’m going to take it as a sign you want to fight.”
“Hey, don’t distort my pure intentions.”
“Pure? That?”
Before Baek Arin, who was full of suspicion, Shinhyeok gave a wicked smile and called everyone over.
Once the two came closer, he revealed his plan.
“I don’t like that announcement. So I’m thinking of overturning it. Will you join me?”
The corners of Baek Arin and Hong Ichan’s mouths twitched.
“Call.”
“I’m in too.”
At their agreement, Shinhyeok spoke right away.
“Baek Arin, your help is desperately needed.”
“Huh?”
“We will also conduct a nationwide awakening.”
“Pardon?”
“Wha?”
Shinhyeok smiled benevolently and pointed to the room beyond.
“As healers, of course.”
There was a saying in the world of Awakened.
Healers were kings and nobles, and everyone else was nothing but peasants.
“If we tell people we’ll awaken them as healers, do you think they’ll hate it?”
“Wow. Just the words alone are huge.”
“Hyuung~? But how?”
Shinhyeok told them the story that had come to mind.
Then he smoothly divided up the roles.
“Arin, you’re the money. Full-scale material support!”
“Ichan, you’re the mascot. In charge of marketing and promotion.”
“Promotion?”
Shinhyeok put a hand on Ichan’s shoulder as he made a puzzled expression, then looked at him seriously.
“You’re the most important one. From now on, you’re a healer. You’re a case of a demon who awakened as a healer.”
“Ah.”
Ichan’s expression rotted.
“The concept is, ‘Even demons were jealous, so I awakened as a healer.’ That’s it.”
“Hyung, please…… go die.”
“Not yet. I’ll go get permission for leave right away!”
Shinhyeok immediately ran out.
Watching him go, Ichan asked Arin,
“Are you going to do it?”
“I told you to attach ‘noona’ every time, didn’t I?”
At the murderous threat, Ichan took a few steps back and said,
“Noonim, will you be doing it?”
“Yeah. What else is money for? You use it at times like this.”
“Damn it, I’m jealous! I should’ve been born the owner of a chaebol family too!”
* * *
After running outside, Shinhyeok first looked for the logistics officer.
“Officer!”
Captain Ryu Jihyeon, who had finally found some leisure after a long time, flinched in surprise.
“Why, why?!”
“I’m going on leave. Is one week possible?”
“What? Why?”
Startled, he asked for the reason.
“I’m going to wreck someone. So please do me this favor.”
“Uh. But you don’t have that much leave yet—”
Shinhyeok immediately ran off.
“Hey! Where are you going!”
“To the boss!”
“Hey! Has he lost his mind? Hey! Someone stop him! He’s about to cause trouble!”
Those words were distorted and spread throughout the unit.
“Shinhyeok is deserting again!”
“Hey, stop him, all of you!”
The unit erupted into commotion.
Shinhyeok broke through everyone and arrived at the battalion commander’s office.
“No, stop him!”
Knock, knock, knock.
“Battalion Commander. Sergeant Bu Shinhyeok is here on business.”
Lee Gangyeol opened the door with a puzzled expression.
“Why?”
“Sergeant Bu Shinhyeok and two others request leave of one week or more. I ask that you approve it at your discretion, sir.”
Feeling something was off, he asked again.
“Why?”
“I can’t say.”
At the words “I can’t say,” Lee Gangyeol felt a considerable sense of unease.
“No group desertions.”
“If you send us now, it’s legal.”
“Whatever it is, no.”
“We won’t cause trouble.”
“Rejected. For now, no.”
Faced with that perfect blocking, Shinhyeok brought up yesterday’s conversation with sorrowful eyes.
“My father remained alone and lonely in the Gate, with no one to see him…….”
Lee Gangyeol’s expression changed completely, and he urgently shouted,
“Damn it, go! But go as a business trip instead!”
Shinhyeok smiled brightly and saluted.
“Loyalty! Thank you, sir! And I’m taking Priest Eijar with me too!”
“Why?! Hey! You said you wouldn’t cause trouble, didn’t you? Shinhyeok!”
After turning the battalion commander’s office upside down, Shinhyeok immediately headed to his next target: the workshop.
“I might have to stop by everyone once. Except Mr. Nyangnyang, of course.”
First, he visited the workshop of Bloom, the enchanter.
“What brings you here?”
“Is there a way to get into this workshop from outside?”
“Of course. Take plenty of teleport scrolls over there. The coordinates for this place should be marked on them.”
Shinhyeok smiled brightly and took several.
“I’ll see you soon!”
At his unusually bright demeanor, Bloom felt strangely pleased, yet also caught sight of the odd madness lingering in his eyes.
“Something’s strange.”
* * *
After leaving the workshop, Shinhyeok remained in the quarters and waited for Priest Eijar to arrive.
“When will he get here~”
Seeing Baek Arin return to the quarters, Shinhyeok asked,
“Where did you go?”
“Yes. I called one of the directors at the company for the first time in a while.”
“Oh.”
“He said he’d gladly help.”
At those words, Shinhyeok clenched his fist.
“Nice.”
Knock, knock, knock.
At the sound of someone knocking, Shinhyeok rushed out in his socks.
“Oh my. Priest, you must have had a hard time coming all this way.”
Priest Eijar, dressed in military uniform, smiled and said,
“A hard time? Of course I had to come. But what is this about?”
Shinhyeok smiled meaningfully.
“It’s something quite good. Priest, isn’t it about time you stopped playing around on a small neighborhood scale and moved on to a national scale?”
Hearing that, Hong Juyeon, who was standing behind Priest Eijar, looked at him in puzzlement.
Finding it suspicious, she stared at Shinhyeok for a moment.
When Shinhyeok met her eyes, he nearly felt himself being strangely drawn in.
[You resist telepathy with the Supreme Dragon’s Blessing.]
“Mm?”
Hong Juyeon glared at him with a regretful expression.
“Priest, since you’ve come all this way, please take some rest first, and—”
Eijar cut her words off flatly.
“No. Brother’s matter comes first. My intuition is pointing to Brother.”
The priest smiled benevolently as he looked at Shinhyeok.
“It seems something amusing and grand is about to happen. Shall we get to it?”
Shinhyeok nodded and led everyone.
“First, shall we leave this place?”
He immediately prepared to depart on leave with the priest.
When the five of them stood at the guard post, the battalion members murmured.
“Deserting again?”
“Come on, Sergeant Major, isn’t that legal?”
“Good grief, what kind of accident is he going to cause this time?”
“Of all people…… it’s those three again.”
Baek Arin awkwardly looked around before her eyes met the battalion commander’s.
They exchanged a subtle look.
Shinhyeok felt something strange at the sight.
“You didn’t tell anyone, did you?”
“I didn’t. You know my lips are sealed.”
Seeing Baek Arin’s eyes keep drifting to the side, he realized that was absolutely not the case.
“Forget it. Even if you did tell, it’d be the battalion commander. Knowing won’t do him any good!”
“This lunatic.”
Hong Juyeon, who was behind him, clicked her tongue at this deranged, cheeky soldier.
Seeing that she was still there, Shinhyeok asked,
“Aren’t you going anywhere?”
“No. I am not going anywhere. My superior pressured me to cooperate.”
“Tch. Come quietly. If you really interfere, I won’t let it slide.”
“I won’t interfere.”
“Let’s go.”
As the five left the unit, the Command Sergeant Major, who had been watching, asked the battalion commander,
“What are they going to do?”
“They say they’re going to stop the nationwide awakening using that priest.”
“Huh?”
“It’s the same method. They’re going to awaken people into whatever they want—as healers.”
At those words, the Command Sergeant Major looked dumbfounded.
“Where the hell does an insane idea like that even come from?”
“Khhhhh.”
Kim Hyeonsuk clicked her tongue at the truly insane idea.
“That bastard is even worse than his father.”
Lee Gangyeol smiled with satisfaction.
“Then we should cheer them on with all we’ve got.”
He took out his phone, sent a text to someone, and checked the contents.
“Gicheol?”
“Yeah, I asked him to pull some strings. Told him to properly cover for those kids.”
Watching the five depart, Lee Gangyeol said to the Command Sergeant Major,
“It seems it’s been a while since we had to bow and scrape to the Assembly members.”
“Which side?”
“In the current situation, from the opposition to the ruling party. Not everyone will have agreed. If that side is going to make such a mess of things, then we should do the same.”