Chapter 7. Survival (2)

"Okay."

The answer that came back was affirmative.

An answer without a hint of hesitation.

He accepted my proposal readily, shaking hands.

"Don't you need to think about it?"

"You're strong, and my instinct tells me you're not a bad person."

As he said this, his purple pupils glowed faintly with magic power.

Those mystical eyes that seemed to see right through me.

I knew why those eyes were glowing.

'He must have activated the Eye of the Sage.'

The skill [Eye of the Sage] was quite important for Yoon Kang-woo in the original story.

Its basic effect was 'understanding the target's disposition'.

It had the effect of discerning the good and evil of the person being observed.

In addition to that, it could defend against mental attacks, analyze the opponent's attacks,

And as the story progressed to the latter half, it became quite monstrous, encompassing various additional abilities.

By the end, it could even read other people's thoughts, and even see their fate.

As I was briefly thinking about this, Yoon Kang-woo released the handshake and spoke.

"Alright, now that we've formed a party, let's decide on a party leader. I think you should do it."

"Why me and not you?"

"I'm not cut out to be a leader."

Not cut out for it, huh.

He seemed to lead just fine in the original story.

'But this isn't bad.'

Things were going much more smoothly than expected, but was that a bad thing? Not really.

Just the two of us weren't enough to go on a siege anyway.

No matter how strong Yoon Kang-woo was, both he and I were lacking somewhat to be considered attack types.

So we needed to move to gather other team members according to the original plan, and it would have been a big loss if he didn't follow my orders.

Of course, even if Yoon Kang-woo was the leader, he would likely have listened to me.

"Let's go gather team members."

"Do you know where other people are?"

"More or less."

Saying that, I took the lead, and he followed behind me, speaking.

"For team members, it's those two, right?"

"If you mean the two you just mentioned, that's correct."

There were four main characters who ranked at the top in this exam.

The protagonist, Yoon Kang-woo.

Karen with the strongest firepower and Baek Seo-yun, the ghost of the sword.

And lastly, the onmyoji Rin.

There were more significant characters, but these were the ones who stood out from the beginning.

'The answer is decided.'

Baek Seo-yun, the successor of the Sword Saint and called the Sword Ghost, I wasn’t acquainted with her yet.

So the other two, whom I had at least talked to today, were the best choices.

Fortunately, their locations weren't too far from here either.

Among them, the first person we would look for was Rin, who was a bit closer.

"My lord is quite thoughtful about these things too."

"I have to use my head well at least."

We walked towards the location I knew for about 15 minutes.

Just as we were entering the area I remembered,

A sound was heard.

Kwang!!

A loud boom that anyone would recognize as the sound of fighting.

'...Fighting?'

Rin? Why?

There shouldn't be many people targeting her at this early stage...

No, that's not what's important right now.

"Kang Shin-woo. It seems we can reach there if we just go straight ahead, shall we go?"

"Let's go. It's probably the person I was thinking of as a teammate."

Crackle-

After that, the booming and thunder sounds continued.

If nothing else, the thunder sound was certainly Rin's attack skill, the thunder technique.

As we arrived at the source of those sounds, we could see.

"Aaaaah!!"

Rin, barely deflecting the bombardment raining down on her, and.

"..."

Karen, expressionlessly pouring magic at Rin.

Wait, why on earth were these two fighting?

At that moment, Rin, who was shouting and deploying onmyoji techniques, must have noticed me watching from the side.

Suddenly, she started running quickly towards me.

"Shin-woo! Please save me..!!"

"What's going on?"

"I'm going to die!!"

Rin, who had rushed to my side in an instant, perhaps using a buff from her techniques, hid behind my back.

The difference between the main characters of the novel was clearly evident.

But this wasn't so much about the difference in their importance in the original story...

It was a fight that shouldn't have happened in the first place.

'Rin is a supporter to begin with.'

Her attack magic was inefficient, and the fact that she had held out against Karen, that firepower monster, was impressive enough considering she was originally in a supporter position.

For now, I put aside my thoughts and focused on mediating.

"Both of you, stop for a moment. Why are you two fighting?"

In response to my question, it was Karen, who had somehow approached us, who answered.

As if to prove she was completely in battle mode,

She had her black eye mask called the 'Cat's Eye', which represented Karen, and her huge magic book open.

"Eliminating variables."

"Variables?"

"Yes. Strong people need to be eliminated early."

"We could just team up! I asked to team up!"

"..."

Karen turned her head without answering Rin, who was crying out pitifully from behind.

She then erased the eye mask with magic and sent the magic book back to a different space.

It was a sign that she had no intention to fight.

"Shin-woo. Let's team up."

"I'm fine with that. But we have to team up with these guys too."

I said, pointing to Yoon Kang-woo and Rin behind me.

Karen seemed to ponder for a moment, then nodded.

"Okay."

"Wait, am I included too?"

Rin, who had suddenly been treated as an extra, looked at me with a slightly surprised expression.

Did she not intend to join?

Should I tell her to join as a reward for saving her?

"You're not going to join the team?"

"No? I'll join even if I have to beg. This is such a crazy dream team!"

Contrary to my worries, she smiled brightly and came to my side, linking her arm with mine.

"Come on, let's go! Let's go for first place!"

Rin shouted brightly, smiling.

After watching her for a moment, Karen suddenly came to the opposite side.

She grabbed my other arm with her hand.

Not boldly linking arms, but gripping my sleeve tightly.

"..."

"...?"

She stared at me intently without saying a word.

While I was momentarily flustered by this ambiguous distance, neither fully linking arms nor completely holding hands,

Yoon Kang-woo spoke from behind, trying to hold back his laughter.

"Wow, was what I just said not imagination but reality?"

"It's not that, so don't fantasize."

After that, I had to spend quite a long time trying to convince Yoon Kang-woo to clear up his misunderstanding.

***

"Don't worry, I understand everything."

"Your words make it even more damaging."

To begin with, in the original story, Yoon Kang-woo was perfectly devoted from the beginning until the end of the world.

He even went so far as to sacrifice his own lifespan to save his lover.

He's probably already dating someone now.

Remembering this made his words even more impactful.

"More importantly, is this the right destination?"

As if to tease me, Rin said while clinging to one of my arms.

The question itself was very normal, but her voice was filled with mischief.

"Yes, this is the destination."

With the intention of just ignoring it, I opened the map and saw our location and the strongholds.

I looked at the stronghold situated across that map.

A stronghold that looked like a two-story house.

But it was clearly a stronghold, with a structure that seemed easier to siege than expected and magic applied to it.

Moreover,

"Break through no matter what! If we can't break through here, we're dead!!"

"Block them! Block them no matter what! Don't let them in at all!!"

Even before we arrived, a siege battle was already taking place at this stronghold.

The defending side, who seemed to have arrived first and occupied the stronghold.

And the attacking side, desperately trying to capture the stronghold.

The defenders were doing their utmost to protect the first floor entrance and the rooftop.

The attackers were desperately trying to push aside other applicants and get inside.

Both sides' protective barriers were visible to the eye, so it seemed both had taken quite a bit of damage.

'But one person is missing.'

As I watched the scene for a moment, I noticed one strange thing.

The attacking side was missing one person.

Was it simply because they couldn't find someone?

Even if their level was low, they should know the difficulty of a siege battle if they've made it this far, so for such a reason?

As I was pondering this, Yoon Kang-woo, who was behind me, spoke.

"Are you planning to enter after one side loses?"

"That would be the easiest. Let's not needlessly shed blood by going first."

"Yeah, that's rational."

In terms of combat power, our side was overwhelmingly superior, but survival was a war of attrition.

It might be different after capturing a stronghold.

It wasn't good to waste strength so early on.

'It seems like it will end soon anyway.'

Until just now it was a close fight, but the tide of the siege battle was gradually turning in favor of the defenders.

Defense is overwhelmingly advantageous in a siege to begin with.

In such a situation, there was no way they could win with just three people challenging them.

So as we were waiting for them to fall shortly after,

"Hey, you guys in the back, come forward."

Someone walked forward from behind the attacking side.

Scratching the back of their head as if annoyed.

"This is really frustrating. Can't you even do this?"

A slightly small stature for a woman, blood-red hair.

Black leather pants that clung tightly to her legs and a flashy jacket.

And above all, what stood out was.

The goblin mask attached to the side of her head and the two sword hilts tied to her waist.

'A goblin mask and dual swords.'

With just that, I could deduce who she was.

The Sword Saint, called the strongest of the Seven Stars.

The one called his only successor, the Ghost of the Sword.

Baek Seo-yun, the half-oni called the Sword Demon, was right there.

"Hey, and."

As she said this, her outstretched finger pointed to where we were.

"You guys hiding there, come out too. You look strong."

Fight me.

Pointing at us, that's what she said with her mouth.