When we returned to the base, the barrier construction was finished, and all the monster carcasses had been cleared away.
The forward base now looked like a small fortress with the rocky mountain at its back.
“The expedition team is returning! All team members and both researchers are safe!”
A shout announcing our arrival rang out from atop the wall, and the gazes of the people busily moving about gathered on us for a moment before scattering again.
Inside the wall now looked like the courtyard of a medieval castle.
Monster hides were spread out on one side, and beside them, laundry swayed in the wind.
People grilling meat, people carving wood, and even people carrying goods under the blacksmith’s instructions—everyone was busy moving around.
A scene I’d only seen in movies was unfolding before my eyes.
Looking at it, the nerdy researcher said,
“We need to develop this planet quickly too… It’s a shame it got pushed down the priority list.”
When the other team members looked at him, he tapped his lips with an awkward expression.
“One day, that mouth of yours is going to cause a serious problem.”
Even without the middle-aged researcher saying so, I could tell it was something he shouldn’t have said.
Which meant it was information useful to me.
‘The places with higher priority must be the other planets America originally had.’
The place where the advance party had gone first and obtained abilities.
The reason they were so diligently bringing black stones back to Earth was also to send people there.
Was this planet, to America, nothing more than a source of black stones?
Did the higher-ups in Korea think the same way?
As I was thinking that, Sof said,
[I’d like you to find out about that planet. The descendants who escaped from this planet might be there.]
Until now, Sof had never brought up the people who had escaped the planet.
I’d wondered if he had no interest in them, but it seemed that wasn’t the case.
I glanced over at Margreta.
When I looked at her, she smiled at me.
That was a business smile. It meant not to ask right now.
We crossed the courtyard in front of the base and entered the advance party’s cave where David was.
The advance party’s cave had changed as well.
Rabbit monster hides were spread across the floor, and in front of David stood a desk made of stone and iron rods.
David sat in a chair made in the same way and listened to our report.
“There were no particular problems. The researchers confirmed the ruins, and we didn’t encounter any monsters on the way there or back.”
At my report, David clicked his tongue.
“None there either… That’s troublesome.”
To him, it seemed the prey that would get them black stones was more important than the researchers’ study.
“But we got a lot of black stones from this defense, didn’t we?”
At Margreta’s words, I nodded as well.
Because the monsters had stormed the base, we had been able to secure in one go the black stones we would have had to collect over several weeks.
And yet he was saying that.
“That’s true, but the problem is next time.”
But at David’s following words, Margreta also let out a sigh.
“That’s true. It’s not as if we can send these in batches.”
Judging by how Earth had been hounding them all this time, it didn’t seem possible to stockpile a large amount and send them slowly.
But because of this incident, the monsters around the base had been wiped out.
Now it would be difficult to catch monsters on a day-trip hunt.
Listening to their conversation, I glanced at the spear on my back.
At the tip of the spear hung the black stone whose light had been hidden by Sof’s magic.
To my eyes, it was a black stone shining violet, but to others, it would look like an ordinary metal spearhead.
This black stone was on a completely different level from the black stones they were talking about, but I had no intention whatsoever of giving up my weapon.
Besides, that sort of problem wasn’t under my jurisdiction.
Leaving the worry to David, we tried to leave the cave.
“Then, we’ll be going.”
David stopped us.
“Wait a moment. It’s because of the Chinese…”
I had been concerned when we set out, but for him to suddenly bring up the Chinese…
From what I’d briefly seen on the way in, the Chinese were doing well.
They seemed to have hunted together with the hunting team, and they didn’t seem to have spread word that the war was over.
That much meant they were behaving well enough as observers.
But was there some problem I didn’t know about?
David said with a troubled expression,
“Could you take the two of them with you on the next expedition?”
This was unexpected.
“They said they wanted to observe the expedition team too, just as they observed the hunt. Carlo and I can’t move right now…”
Uncharacteristically, David trailed off.
At David’s words, Margreta let out a sigh.
“I knew this would happen. I told you our expedition team would end up shouldering everything, didn’t I?”
Then she raised her eyes and poured out her words at David.
“You know it’s unreasonable too, David. You know perfectly well that what our expedition team does is on a completely different level from the hunting team.”
“He said he didn’t mind dying.”
At those words, the corners of Margreta’s mouth rose. A frightening smile was about to appear.
“It’s fine if he dies, but it’ll make things annoying for us!”
Not long ago, Margreta had joked about sticking me with the Chinese.
Now that the situation had actually come to that, she was the first to get angry.
Certainly, taking along observers like that would be a nuisance.
Not only would we have to bring them back alive, but it would be just as troublesome even if they died midway.
It would be better to simply ignore them.
That was why David was troubled.
Moreover, the situation was no longer one where he could force me as he had before.
It was a situation where I could refuse if I wanted to.
But I didn’t decide right away.
“I’ll hear what they have to say in person and decide.”
At my words, both Margreta and David looked at me with puzzled eyes.
I went to meet the Chinese right away.
After dismissing the team members, I met the two Chinese, and as when I’d first seen them, their expressions weren’t bad.
A middle-aged Chinese man who looked like an official, and a young Chinese man with a sharp impression.
The middle-aged Chinese man was the observer, and the young Chinese man who had come with him was his guard.
The middle-aged Chinese man clasped both hands and expressed his thanks to me.
“I heard you decided to take us with you. Thank you. I was very worried, but I’m very glad everyone has treated us kindly.”
I hadn’t decided yet, but he spoke as if it had already been settled.
I didn’t refute him.
Instead, I asked him something else.
“More importantly, when you first saw me, it seemed like something displeased you.”
“Ah, I apologize. This man said something absurd… I now know it was a misunderstanding.”
He took a step back and glanced sideways at the young man guarding him.
I also examined the man.
A sharp face with several cut scars.
His palms and fingers were embedded with calluses, and dense muscles were hidden beneath his ordinary clothes.
Just as expected.
This young man was a soldier.
And a special forces soldier still active in the field.
While I looked at him, the man also studied me.
The man’s expression hardened again.
A flash of killing intent seemed to pass through the corners of his eyes.
Just as I had recognized him, he had recognized me.
The reason he had glared at me in the beginning, and warned the Chinese man he had come with, must have been because he had heard rumors about me.
‘Did he hear from Sergeant Kim?’
If he was a Chinese special forces soldier, then he would have heard rumors about me before.
Of course, officially, the Chinese army had never participated during the Korean War.
But during operations, I had encountered Chinese troops several times.
On North Korean soil, in Manchuria, I had encountered them, fought them, and killed them several times.
Naturally, rumors about me were bound to spread.
I didn’t know how he had come to realize that it was me, but until now, he seemed to have been half in doubt.
And now, he appeared to be certain.
Just as he became certain, I also made my decision.
I would take the two of them.
[There are still many traps left in those ruins you called the training center, right?]
[It’s a base they withdrew from after setting traps when the front line began to collapse. Since it was sealed with magic, there should still be many active traps.]
Even when I was in the unit, and even when I was deployed on operations, I hadn’t disarmed traps by myself.
There were engineers who disarmed the traps I found, and comrades who checked the traps.
Since coming to this planet, I had resolved everything alone, but now I had found someone to do that job for me.
Someone to test the traps first and disarm them.
Of course, it was extremely dangerous, but as long as the person involved didn’t know it was dangerous, that was enough.
Besides, if they were lucky, at least one of them might survive.
[Don’t tell me you intend to deliberately push them into traps.]
[Yes.]
I answered Sof’s question calmly.
It wasn’t as if I had any particular grievance against the two of them.
I hated fine dust, but I didn’t harbor hostility toward the country called China.
It was simply because of that guard.
That guard was a soldier of the enemy forces I had clashed with during operations.
I had not faced him directly, but his comrades had lost their lives to me.
My comrades had also been killed by Chinese soldiers.
He knew that, and I knew that.
If so, there was only one result.
Before the enemy killed me, I had to deal with the enemy.
Departure was the next morning.
There wasn’t much time to rest, but none of the team members complained.
That was because they had rested enough at the terraforming ruins.
In truth, even if they did have complaints, there was nothing to be done.
Next time, I had to go to Earth, so we had to finish the expedition before then.
“Having collected so many black stones becomes a problem at times like this too.”
Margreta grumbled briefly, but soon smoothed her expression and moved her feet.
The two Chinese followed well too.
The guard was as expected, but the middle-aged Chinese man also strode along bravely with his small frame.
“How do you find the ruins? Can you tell by looking at the path? Or do you possess an ability like that?”
On the way, the middle-aged man kept asking questions.
They were questions the expedition members no longer even asked, but he was different.
“You can understand it as me having an ability like that.”
I answered his question roughly.
The team members, who had also pricked up their ears to hear my answer, let out sighs after hearing it.
‘I thought they believed everything I said, but they were just pretending to believe it.’
It was different from what I’d expected, but it didn’t matter.
Either way, it meant the team members trusted me.
“So where are we going? Looking at the sun, it seems we’re heading northwest.”
Right now, I was following the magic line Sof had made for me.
The northwest direction the Chinese man mentioned.
Our destination was the end of a branch of the great mountain range that stretched from the west.
Nothing much happened until we reached the training center.
The guard and I both pretended not to know each other and simply did our own jobs.
The training center we reached after two days, unlike Sof’s expectations, was not sealed by magic.
The entrance leading to the surface had been smashed apart, and inside the room beyond the broken entrance, an injured person was lying down.
A woman wearing the mage attire I had seen in dreams and visions.
She was neither suspended by magic like Tenia had been inside the greenhouse, nor was she an illusion.
Seeing her chest rise and fall as if she were still alive, Hannah tried to run to her.
I blocked her.
Startled, Hannah looked at me and the others.
“Why?”
Sergeant Woo’s face was distorted, and the Chinese guard clicked his tongue.
I looked at the injured woman with a grave expression.
The injured woman was utterly ordinary.
The mage’s robe, the face twisted in pain, the wounds on her body—there was nothing strange about any of it.
And that was why it was truly strange.
At that moment, the wounded woman moved.
Her arms and legs twitched faintly.
The woman opened her eyes.
Black eyes looked at us.
Sof opened his mouth.
[Be careful! That is…]
“I know. That must be a booby trap.”
I was already aiming my spear at the woman.
I threw the spear at the woman who had awakened.
Thud!
The spear lodged in her stomach, and white blood spurted from the startled woman’s mouth.