Chapter 20. The Power of Authority
After finishing up my preparations to leave, I followed the Necro and the saint out of the shelter. In the field outside was a group of soldiers all armed with submachine guns. There was a group of soldiers all armed with machine guns in the field outside. They didn’t seem that different than modern soldiers.
“These people are the special task force?”
Necro shrugged.
“Pretty small eh?”
There was only about fifty of them.
“I thought there’d be around eight hundred.”
“Why so worried? There’s you and me.”
Necro seemed to trust me a little more than before. I wonder if I can ask him for some money if I manage to persuade him a little.
“There’s me too you know?”
The saint raised her hand and began jumping.
“What? You haven’t gone back home yet?”
I chipped in at Necro’s joke.
“Just throw her away.”
A little boldly.
“Throw me away? What?!”
The saint balled up her fists at me and Necro.
“I think we can just leave her here…”
I was being honest. The girl was just plain useless.
“Eyy!”
The saint used her tiny fists to beat away at my body.
Tudadada!
I could even see the afterimages of her strikes in the air.
“It hurts! It hurts! Stop!”
The saint only stopped after she was beating me up for a while.
“Ah, you two wait here for a moment. I need to deal with something.”
Necro walked over to the soldiers after saying this. Looks like he’s trying to say a speech before leaving. When Necro left, the saint began to tug on my clothes.
“…What?”
“Um…”
She took me behind the building.
“What is it?”
“I need to see a fairy for a second…”
“Bathroom fairy?”
“Flower fairy.”
Her face got closer to me.
“It’s a flower fairy!”
“…I get it, so go already.”
“I don’t think you get it, though… I told you, right? I put a magic on you. Be careful to not stray too far away from me. Always stay next to me. Like a slave. Like a dog.”
She’s really saying whatever she wants.
“I’ll get a warning noise in my head before I die, right?”
“You’ll hear my voice of death, so don’t worry.”
“…….”
“Ah! If you try to peek using your Floating Eye… There’s no need to explain what I’ll do, is there? I warned you?”
“Never thought about doing such a thing. Aren’t you a little too lewd? You’re just a high schooler.”
I got kicked.
“Just wait here quietly! I’ll quickly come back!”
The saint hopped into the building like a tiny squirrel. …Should I take a smoke while I wait? I took out my e-cigarette from the cartridge. It used a special mixture between nicotine extracts and mana potions, which allowed the user to increase his physical capabilities for a short amount of time. I lifted the visor of the helmet slightly and put the vape in my mouth.
Pii-
A green light lit up in the LED and the liquid inside the cigarette turned into vapor. When I took in a sip, my neck began to burn up as if I was inhaling some fire. I feel way better now. To think pain would be the only thing that makes this world feel a bit more real… How ironic.
Phew-
When I let out the smoke in my lungs, my body turned cold again. It was because my brain turned active again and recognized that my body turned cold. I’d have to smoke quite a bit to keep my body moving from now on. I leaned back on the wall and watched the people pass. The soldiers that weren’t involved in the mission were checking on the supplies for the mission. As I thought, they didn’t have cars, huh.
Our plan was to go over the hill by foot and take the train from Transgression Station. After that, we’d get off at Boiser Town. The place where we were headed was the [Sword Tomb], Volez. It was a town famous for its sword craftsmanship. Inside the document Necro gave me, it was said that the Warrior often got his gear checked out in this town. And since the man liked to travel, he didn’t have any guards with him. How unsafe. Or did he really have the strength to protect himself? But in any case, it was a foolish move to travel alone. The man was practically asking to be attacked.
“Hey!”
To think a brave like him, who’s wanted by the government, would have the gall to stay within the country. The government wouldn’t have decided to perform such a large-scale military operation on him if he was outside the country. All of this was caused by the Warrior’s needless confidence in his strength.
“The bastard’s ignoring us, isn’t he? Hey, you! Yeah, you! The one smoking over on the wall!”
I turned my head. I could see a young man glaring at me. He had a military cut along with tanned skin. He seemed pretty muscular.
“Damn- He’s quite strange, isn’t he? Looks like a mummy.”
The soldier threw the bag in his hand onto the floor. The bag that seemed to weigh around 10 kg fell down on the floor with a ‘thump’.
“What are you doing, you dumbass? Start working. You think you’re on a picnic?”
I get it. So I’m a soldier now, just like them? I should be closer to a volunteer though… What should I do? If I kill him, we’d lose manpower. If I let him live, he’d make things annoying for me later. But then again, leaving someone this rebellious alive would be annoying when I have to issue commands.
“Hey, take this as well.”
The soldiers around threw their bags at me as well. Everyone else began to follow them. They were probably thinking that I wouldn’t be able to fight back, considering their superior numbers.
“What the hell is he? Is he mute?”
“A person who just came into the military a month ago is supposed to be my superior? No way.”
“Battle Royale my ass. In the end, he’s just a criminal.”
“I heard you were with a high schooler. Did you have fun?”
The soldiers didn’t approach me. They all kept their distance. I could see hostility in their eyes, but I could also see that their bodies were all quite tense. Of course they would be. They probably heard the rumors.
“The reason why you’re picking a fight with me.”
The soldiers flinched.
“1. I killed soldiers while trying to escape. 2. Soldiers you know want me to be punished. 3. The top told you not to pick a fight with me. 4. You want me to be punished, but don’t know how to get me punished. 5. You think your superior numbers will render me unable to do anything. That’s what led you to pick a fight with me.”
That was what I could get from their actions.
“Am I right?”
“……”
Looks like I was. I suppose there was no way killing soldiers wouldn’t have consequences. I put the e-cigarette into the cartridge. I thought I was done with the major’s case… I suppose there were victims that I haven’t really thought about. I bowed towards the soldiers.
“I apologize.”
Fake apologies were the best course of action here. I could kill the soldiers, but that would bring about too many problems. Just taking their bullying wouldn’t be very smart either. If I just act a little apologetic here…
“What the hell are you guys doing?!”
Necro managed to appear just at the right time. The soldiers simultaneously turned around and saluted. This was partly because Necro was their leader, but more so because he was a ‘wizard’. Wizards in this world were subjects of fear and despair. There was no reason why the soldiers wouldn’t be afraid.
“Hah~ God damn it.”
Necro looked over the soldiers with a surprised face, then turned to me.
“What do you want me to do to them? Damn it, I’d have never expected anything like this to happen.”
Should I… Stop him? I think it’d be good if I went with the scenario of me being the unexpectedly good guy.
“Stop it. It’s all my fault anyway. I need to take my punishment.”
No need to find excuses. Excuses would just make people hate me more.
“What did you do wrong? These soldiers just made you bow down to them just because they didn’t like you, didn’t they? What kind of a crazy situation is this?”
The soldiers were at fault now.
“Pushup positions. Now.”
Dust began to rise as soldiers got in their positions. Nearly fifty people went into the pushup position.
“Should I punish them according to military law? Hey, Sergeant Kim.”
“Yes sir!”
The closest soldier near him shouted out loud. This guy was working as a soldier even in a different world… Well, I guess he didn’t have much of a choice, considering his only other option was prison. Necro walked over to Sergeant Kim.
“Let me ask you this. What happens in the battlefield if one disobeys the command of a higher officer?”
“The person will immediately be disposed of!”
“Correct. You may stand.”
He takes care of the man for being a fellow Korean…
“I’m not gonna do this again. Do this again and… You get it?”
The man was basically threatening the soldiers with death. I could see the soldiers turn pale after hearing this. They must be really regretting their decision right now.
“You should understand that I just saved your asses right now. Do you even know who you were trying to pick a fight with?”
Just what was he…
“If this guy feels like it, he could just wipe you in three seconds. You think I’m joking? Roll left.”
The ground shook.
“Oh? You guys are getting relaxed already, huh? Roll right.”
The ground shook again.
“They must be tired from all the work. You should really stop…”
Carrot after the whip. The saint appeared as she said this. If Necro was the boss, she must be his assistant.
“Did you go see your fairy’s extended family or what? You took so long.”
The saint kicked my shins. Ugh… The pain revived in my leg for a bit.
“…Stand.”
Dust rose up and the soldiers all stood up.
“I’ll think about what to do with you after seeing how hard you work today. Just know that I, as your leader, have become very disappointed with you. Understand?”
The response was small; Necro’s voice turned ferocious.
“You sons of bitches? Fine, I’ll give you what you want.”
He only became finished with them after making them roll for five more minutes. Even though the weather was quite chilly, the amount of sweat on the soldiers made it feel like otherwise. Their backs were drenched with sweat. Any sense of justice they might’ve had before was probably drained away by exhaustion at this point. Plus, they probably valued their life much more than petty revenge.
*
We walked up a steep hill. Brown leaves were scattered all over the path. It really was fall. A little while later, a forest filled with maple trees appeared in front of us. Inside the forest was a giant graveyard. The rows upon rows of grave posts made the entire scene quite eerie.
“This is?”
“The graveyard for the summoned ones.”
The saint seemed to be trying to hide some kind of emotion in her voice.
“There’s a lot of them.”
Around five hundred. I didn’t feel much. The deaths of others didn’t really have much to do with me. It was hard enough trying to look after myself. These other people were probably just unlucky.
“Accidents?”
“Well, there were accidents, but most of these are just failed summonings. They were summoned without their bodies or heads.”
The one to answer my question was Necro.
“Did you know? We had three failed summonings before we managed to summon you. I really thought we failed by the time you had arrived.”
“The success rate must be quite low.”
“Well, it is quite far away. And it’s not like a person would stay still for a long time. Trying to estimate their coordinates based on their movement is… Phew~ It’s impossible.”
Perhaps sitting in the electric chair ended up being a blessing for me.
“Isn’t it quite accurate already though? You’d need to calculate the planet’s revolution and rotation, and not only that, the rate in which the universe expands.”
One had to calculate a person’s exact location according to time.
“Ah, we already have equations for those. We aren’t wizards just for show you know.”
A plain appeared before us.
“Well, even so, it does get quite scary at times. One little mistake, and we’d end up summoning the sun or a black hole. This much is amazing already, but I can’t help but wish for a safety device…”
An ability to be able to locate a specific target and summon it into a different world…
“If it’s possible to summon a human, wouldn’t it be possible to summon wealth, food, and weapons into this world?”
If they didn’t do this, despite it being possible… I could guess just how much mana this operation usually took when I thought this much.
“How wonderful would that be? We could just summon things whenever we wanted it. But the thing is… The cost to summon one thing from a different world is worth a single year’s budget for the department of defense. You get how much money we spent on you now? You’re quite expensive~ You might not think of yourself as one, but the people at top already regard you as the nation’s property. You’ll probably have an inspector come for you later even.”
“Inspector?”
The saint answered this one.
“It isn’t much. He’ll just appear like a ghost, ask a few questions, then disappear. You just have to be honest. Never lie.”
“If I lie?”
“I don’t know. I never lied.”
Liar. The road in front of us began to slant downwards. I could begin to see a black train reveal itself in front of us as we made our way downhill.