Chapter 16

Chapter 16: The Battle for the Porter - Imperial Capital (4)

"As I thought — you weren't fighting at full strength."

She said the moment I caught up. She'd been cutting through monsters in a straight-line breakthrough. I handled everything around her from behind so she could focus on what was ahead. She took one direction; I covered three.

"The more I see, the more impressive you are. How does someone so young achieve so much?"

"I'm not that young."

"Ah, my apologies. Yensi people do look young for their age. How old are you?"

A background check in the middle of monster blood raining down. Was this the poise of a veteran? I felt the need to set an age for myself. A person needed an identity, after all.

What age should I go with? I'd split the difference between my current appearance and an age that allowed me to act freely.

"Somewhere between nineteen and twenty."

"How is there a 'somewhere' in one's age?"

"I'm an early-year birth."

"Is that how they count in Yensi? I've never heard of such a thing in Trafviche."

In my original life, I really was an early-year birth, so answering this way was just habit. If they didn't get it, so be it. If you could drink at nineteen, say nineteen; if it was twenty, say twenty.

"In any case, you look younger than you are."

"Thank you."

Before I knew it, chatting had carried us straight through the monster lines. Faster than expected. Maybe because I'd covered most of the directions. Kanna looked slightly surprised too.

"The lines seemed thick, but I didn't expect us to break through this fast."

"It's all thanks to you, Captain."

"Excessive humility borders on discourtesy, Appari. I may not have looked behind me, but I can sense what happens at my back."

She reprimanded me. Not a stern dressing-down, though — more of a light sting. Fair enough. False modesty was annoying in its own way.

"Where would the Mother Tree be?"

"That's your job now. That's why I brought you along. Your strength too, of course."

Kanna said.

"Find the Mother Tree's root. You haven't officially transferred yet, but consider this your first mission."

My senses weren't fully sharpened yet. But all I needed was to trace the roots extending underground. Activating Reconnaissance, I could see capillary roots spread like a spider web across the entire subterranean layer.

"The roots are absolutely everywhere."

"I know that much. The Mother Tree committed fully to swallowing us whole. Find the one connected to the deepest root."

So she was dumping the legwork on me. She could've done this herself. It was just complicated. Trace the tangled lines and find the longest one — that was all.

But how was I supposed to follow each one individually? Even a simple ladder game got hard past five people.

I drew the sword from my new-recruit kit. Drove it into the ground. Then discharged mana through the blade's tip.

More, more. The ground glowed blue with mana, then turned red.

"What are you doing? You'll collapse from exhaustion!"

"I'm searching."

Searching wasn't quite right. I was severing every root. They snapped one after another. The mana kept extending toward the earth's depths. I could feel my mana spiraling underground.

Come out on your own at this point. I could feel it now — the pulse of a mother who'd lost countless children.

"Found it."

I said, and turned to Kanna. She wore an expression I'd never seen before.

"Just how much of a monster are you?"

"The monster's down below."

The underground was now a cleared space of pure mana, as if all the soil had been hollowed out. One light stomp, channeling a sliver of mana through my foot, and the surface shattered. We dropped.

"KYAAAH!"

Kanna, composed through everything until now, apparently hadn't seen this coming and screamed. The highest note I'd ever heard from her.

I landed first, bracing myself, then caught her. Kanna glared at me with raw resentment.

"If you're going to do something like that, at least warn me first!"

"My apologies."

Kanna then looked up and her jaw dropped. It was deep, all right. The widening sinkhole gaped above us, and we were at the narrowest point.

"...I'm at a loss for words."

"The air is poor underground. Please don't talk."

"You never let anyone have the last word."

Kanna smirked. By now, she must have sensed where the Mother Tree was. Because it was right next to us.

Time to move in.

***

Major Barit, the 1st Guard Commander, felt the monsters' vigor drain. The classic sign that the Corrupted Tree — the core of dark miasma — had been destroyed.

"The strike team succeeded."

Barit muttered. He'd thought it possible. Veterans knew how to handle a Mother Tree. Executed without mistakes, a Mother Tree was actually straightforward to dispatch.

But he hadn't expected it to happen this quickly. The trees ringing the Wheel Formation stopped bearing fruit, and their branches were visibly withering.

"Trafviche Fire!"

Barit shouted. The guardsmen scattered in all directions like shrapnel from a detonated grenade.

Trafviche Fire was Trafviche's signature projectile weapon — thin glass vials filled with explosive fire mana. Mana grenades, essentially.

"Kill them all! Without the trees, they're weak!"

Barit himself broke free from the wheel's hub and began cutting down monsters. When the guardsmen — who had been fighting defensively — shifted to offense, the air erupted with the brilliance of mana discharges and the atmosphere trembled.

Most monsters were swept away like autumn leaves, and the rest fled. Not that fleeing would help — with the Mother Tree destroyed, they'd die naturally or be devoured by wild predators.

As the troops were reforming their lines, two silhouettes appeared in the distance. Two figures of similar height, casting long shadows, walking slowly toward them.

Everyone knew who they were.

"All units, attention!"

Barit halted the bustling guardsmen.

"Receive the vanguard!"

Every soldier of the Guard straightened their backs and drew the small matchlock pistol strapped behind their waists. Limited range, but effective as a close-quarters sidearm.

"Fire!"

Every pistol discharged skyward. Gray smoke and sparks blossomed across the sky.

***

"Good grief. The Major really does go all out."

Kanna watched the small bursts of light blooming in the distance with a sheepish smile. I had no idea what this was about.

"A Trafviche military tradition. A salute for those returning from a dangerous mission, you could say."

"It wasn't that dangerous, though?"

"Only because you were there."

Kanna paused, then continued carefully.

"Don't reveal that strength of yours too readily."

"Why not?"

"Wait until your path is set, then show your power. Your strength has too much potential to be exploited."

"My path is already set."

"What is it?"

Romance. But saying that would earn her contempt. I changed the subject.

"Captain Kanna, what's your ideal type?"

"Out of nowhere? Hmm, hard to say."

"Has there been anyone you thought was, you know, impressive?"

"Impressive would be Prince Gatess. Though I've only seen him from a distance."

Great. So I'd have to show everything anyway. If I wanted the wealth and prestige to match that, there was no way to avoid it. In the end, you're the same as everyone else, Kanna.

"But he's not my ideal type."

"He isn't?"

"My ideal type is a good person, not an impressive one."

"What counts as a good person?"

"These are hard questions."

Kanna flushed and dodged the topic. Made sense. She was only in her early-to-mid twenties. She probably hadn't thought about it seriously. She was a knight, not some typical noblewoman.

"I don't think now's the time for difficult thoughts."

"Isn't it?"

CRACK, CRACK...

Another round of tiny fireworks — just for us — bloomed in the distance.

Far more beautiful than the ones I'd watched from a boat at Yeouido.

"Captain Kanna, may I stop for a moment?"

"Why?"

"I just...... need a moment to think."

The people waiting for us in the distance. Something about them overlapped with the crowds who'd cheered when I returned from commissions. If I'd actually slain the Leviathan, the celebration would've been flashier, though perhaps not as moving.

I didn't know this novel's ending. But given the author's previous work had ended in ruin, this one's conclusion made me deeply uneasy. It was a romance fantasy, yet characters died in it. I'd thought that was none of my business, but not anymore.

"Appari?"

Kanna asked, her voice tinged with worry.

- Ju Hwanyeong, Ju Hwanyeong, Ju Hwanyeong!

There'd been a show once, back in my broadcasting days. I'd thought I was just going on a variety program, but all the people I'd saved were sitting in the audience as part of a surprise segment. I'd nearly broken down right there.

I looked at Kanna. I didn't know how the author had ended the story. But I wanted these people to be happy.

And of course, I needed to find happiness myself through romance.

"I've finished thinking."

"You looked like you'd gone somewhere far away."

"I visited a place I want to go but can't. I won't be able to go there again."

Could I change this world? Of course. I believed every person had the potential to change the world. I couldn't exclude myself from that equation.

I wanted the novel's plot to stay as intact as possible. But several developments weren't to my liking. Of course, a novel was only fun when it defied the reader's expectations, but still.

This wasn't a novel anymore — it was the world I lived in. I needed to tailor my world to my taste.

That was the moment my goal crystallized.

"Captain Kanna."

"Hmm?"

"I think a lot of things are about to change."

"Like what?"

"That's just what I've decided."

Kanna didn't understand what I meant. I wanted to live somewhere other than inside this doom-specialist author's romance fantasy. I was going to make it a kinder, more conventional romance fantasy.