A Firm Refusal

"What do you mean by..."

"You're a great deal sharper than your friend, Mr. Eun Ha-jun, so I expect you'll understand what I'm saying."

Of course I understood. Enlistment, though? That was absurd.

I hadn't gone in before the regression either, and I had no intention of starting now. Besides, in a few years you people would lose an absurd amount of power and become useless. If a regressor like me joined, the situation would change a great deal — but a soldier's status shackled your movements far too tightly. Absolutely not. I had no intention of leaving the clear road just to walk a gravel path on purpose.

Captain Seong offered neither word nor gesture. He only watched me, indifferent, through half-lidded eyes.

Even so, it was a kind of silent pressure.

Tch. Had the Seoul Station Crack incident forced the air into something this coercive? If that hadn't happened, the enlistment pitch would have come in the natural, gentle tone Captain Seong had described, and refusing would have been far easier.

...Probably?

"To put it bluntly, I — and my superiors as well — want you and Mr. Han Gyeol to volunteer for the Monster Special Forces. If you devote yourselves to the nation in a time this difficult, you will be hope to countless civilians, and a fine example to other Awakeners."

Pressure rode Captain Seong's voice. He meant to push our enlistment through, here and today.

"And according to the paperwork you filled out, you obtained a pet skill upon reaching level 2. I respectfully ask that a talent so precious lend his strength to the Republic of Korea."

"...I appreciate the offer, but the Monster Special Forces isn't under conscription, so I can refuse."

At that, Captain Seong's half-closed eyes opened at once.

"Yes. Which is why I'm persuading you now, isn't it."

"Haha. It looks less like persuasion and more like a threat."

"...Oh."

I spoke while doing everything I could not to shake. Captain Seong or not, he wasn't going to kill us in the middle of this disaster. He couldn't. The feeling that I might die was only my reason blurring after I'd taken the brunt of his combat pressure earlier. And I had experience and know-how that wouldn't lose to the man in front of me. I didn't like creating friction, but I also couldn't keep losing forever.

Enlistment. Enlistment, and only that — that was the one thing I would not do.

"You shouldn't threaten civilians like this. You've been suspecting innocent citizens since earlier, haven't you? All while building this frightening atmosphere."

"These are emergency conditions. I was being careful of the one chance in ten thousand."

"Even in an emergency. The military of the Republic of Korea has never had the right to crush civilians by force. And the newly enacted Awakener Act states it outright, doesn't it?"

Captain Seong fell silent and stared straight at me. My hands were beginning to tremble — he was definitely leaking an Awakener's combat pressure, enough to cow me, enough that I couldn't push back. As if I'd lose.

"...That's correct. Awakener Act, Article 1, Paragraph 2. Every Awakener shall recognize the difference between Awakeners and civilians, and shall not infringe upon the rights of civilians through supernatural power."

He said it, let out a short scoff of a laugh, and immediately drew his combat pressure back in.

"Are you aware that the two of you are no longer civilians?"

"..."

A strange silence settled. I had no idea how Captain Seong would move next, and the uncertainty left me on edge. Even so, I kept my eyes wide, refusing to lose the staring contest.

After a long moment of not looking away, he finally spoke.

"I'll apologize once more. I didn't intend to make you feel threatened."

A lie.

He'd been quietly pressing me with combat pressure right up until a moment ago.

"If the offer felt rude, I'm sorry. Truthfully, this atmosphere isn't my style either, but the higher-ups won't stop fretting that the unit needs to be filled at once. I'm under pressure myself. And I was honest about my intentions, wasn't I? There's no hidden agenda."

He shrugged and leaned back comfortably against the chair. The oddly deflated tone eased my tension, if only a little.

Honestly, the claim that there was no hidden agenda didn't hold water.

"...We made a mistake on our side too, so I'll accept the apology."

Let me say it again: I truly had no desire to fight the Monster Special Forces.

I glanced toward Han Gyeol. Whether he was listening or not, there he was, still glaring at nothing but the table. What are you thinking, you. The two of us nearly rotted away in the army just now. I'm a little pissed. But I have to hold it in. Han Gyeol is still basically a kid.

"You truly have no intention of enlisting? We can give you whatever treatment you want. It won't even compare to what the guilds outside are offering. Right now, our Monster Special Forces holds the most information and the most power."

Captain Seong asked without giving up. But I already had a blueprint drawn. When I shook my head without hesitation, his half-lidded eyes narrowed further.

"Was that decision already made, or was it because my approach was wrong?"

"It was already made."

At the firm tone that still wasn't arrogant, Captain Seong's brow twitched.

"...Then, since I've apologized, may I take it that there's no reason for things between us to sour?"

Good. Fortunately, he stepped back quickly. He clearly meant to handle us carefully on his side as well.

"Well. There was never anything between us that could sour in the first place, was there?"

At my words, Captain Seong looked a little surprised.

Of course I had no intention of falling out with him. If I wanted to move in and out of dungeons smoothly from here on, that was obvious. I wasn't the old twenty-one-year-old Eun Ha-jun, ignorant and full of nothing but hot blood.

"Is that so. Good. You must be tired from the fight, and I've taken too much of your time. You may go for today. I'll be in contact again."

"Mm. If it's about the enlistment offer, you don't need to contact us again."

"Haha. Yes. If I want to keep in touch with the two of you, I'll have to hold back for a while myself. Even if you refuse enlistment, there will be things the unit needs to ask of you. I'd prefer you not refuse those. They're for protecting people."

When I mixed in a bit of playfulness to soften the mood further, Captain Seong laughed and played along.

Whew. In the end, how lucky that his side didn't force the issue. He wasn't the type to drag things out as much as I'd expected. The odds were low, but if Captain Seong had been the sort to charge in blindly, it really would have been trouble. Being able to settle it at this level was a genuine relief.

While the mood's thawed, should I try using that? Honestly, I still don't have much sense of how to apply it.

I activated an Awakener ability. The skill, Soul Discernment.

Tss—tss—tsst. A translucent system window rose beside Captain Seong's face.

I had to work not to furrow my brow.

His condition is better than Gyeol's, but the sync rate is 21%. I can tell just from the conversation a moment ago. We don't fit. We don't fit at all. He isn't someone compatible with me.

Seeing the numbers, irritation welled up for no good reason. Why was his condition better than our Gyeol's? A-rank, and stable? He didn't look all that impressive to me.

This is the second time I've used the skill, and there's still no real change. Nothing extra activates. Is all it can do confirm things?

Even so, if I kept using it, the skill's proficiency would rise, and that would surely help. What good a higher proficiency in this skill would actually do, I honestly didn't know. Besides, the only person I used Soulmate on was Han Gyeol.

Haa. I want to go home already.

Captain Seong glanced at me, then opened the office door.

"Until next time."

"Then, take care."

The moment I stepped into the hallway, it felt as if something inside me had cleared. Truly, until a moment ago, I had felt swept up in a terrible storm. I had experienced it plenty before the regression, but being pressed down by another Awakener's combat pressure was unpleasant beyond words. After Han Gyeol's level rose, he had always shielded me from other Awakeners' combat pressure, so I had forgotten the sensation.

I needed to get stronger, and fast.

Clenching my fist, I left the building with Han Gyeol.

I expected them to refuse enlistment.

Watching the small backs of their heads vanish beyond the window, Captain Seong turned over what had just happened in his office.

I already thought they weren't ordinary. But this is beyond what I imagined.

He recalled the moment he first met Eun Ha-jun and Han Gyeol. It hadn't even been that long ago — extraordinary Awakeners who had appeared out of nowhere alongside the disaster the dungeon portal unleashed. Geniuses who had completely subdued Nol's unit at the very instant of their first awakening. And one of them was a precious, vanishingly rare S-rank.

The higher-ups had gone into an uproar over the report alone. With the Awakener Act turning Awakener enlistment into a volunteer system, the unit's numbers were already shrinking sharply. At a time like this, there was no way the military wanted to let an S-rank Awakener slip away.

But desperation didn't mean things went as one wished. Just as they hadn't, moments ago.

He looks clueless, and yet he's got a spine?

Han Gyeol, the S-rank, was one thing, but the one who drew Captain Seong's interest was Eun Ha-jun. Han Gyeol was young and rough. An S-rank had tremendous value on its own, but there was no guarantee he would ever be properly shaped. If an S-rank never came to heel — if he would only become poison — then better not to have him at all. That was how Captain Seong saw it. Only yesterday, after all, they had already recruited an S-rank.

But what about Eun Ha-jun?

A mere D-rank, and he didn't fear the combat pressure of a high-level A-rank like himself.

No. He is afraid. He's afraid, and he doesn't retreat. And for his age, he isn't ruled by emotion. He reads a situation quickly. He responds with flexibility, too. A clever one. I don't know how much he actually knows.

Captain Seong had a record of bringing many Awakeners into the service this way. Usually, Awakeners of a lower rank than the captain were completely swept up the moment he released his combat pressure, and led exactly where he wanted. Higher-ranked Awakeners were no exception. His ability to handle combat pressure was that good, and he could build an oppressive atmosphere without any particular gift for speech.

Thinking of it that way, Han Gyeol too.

An S-rank of only level 1. He had a long way to go before he could match this combat pressure. Naturally, Han Gyeol's own combat pressure was clumsy in the extreme. And yet, even while losing in pressure, he hadn't retreated at all. Captain Seong had been merciful enough to regulate his own, but the moment he withdrew it was the moment he realized the blow had landed on Eun Ha-jun, the friend.

The type that won't dodge even if it breaks him. A real headache. Types like this are hard to tame. Just thinking about it, the road of suffering is perfectly clear. But...

Captain Seong pictured Eun Ha-jun's somewhat indistinct face. A truly ordinary face, one that looked frail if anything. A child who hadn't even lost the down on his cheeks.

Even granting they aren't ordinary friends who simply grew up through times like these together — relying on someone to this degree, can that be counted as Eun Ha-jun's own ability?

He straightened the documents on the table. Papers recording every part of Eun Ha-jun's and Han Gyeol's lives, from birth to the present. In truth, from the moment he first met them above the Han River, Captain Seong had realized that the one holding the lead between the two was Ha-jun.

Did something tremendous happen to them? Well. Either way.

This meeting had convinced him: if he won over Eun Ha-jun, Han Gyeol would follow like a bonus. An S-rank tagging along as a free extra to a D-rank. Truly strange. And precisely because of that, what stimulated Captain Seong's curiosity even more was Eun Ha-jun.

Using a skill in secret right in front of me, of all things. If Han Gyeol is a tiger cub you can see with perfect clarity, then Eun Ha-jun is wearing the mask of an innocent puppy — and what, exactly, is inside?

A laugh burst out of him, and he covered his mouth with his forearm. If Lieutenant An caught him like this, she would fly into a rage. He knew better than anyone that this was no situation to be enjoying for personal reasons.

It's fun. The higher-ups will give me an earful, but for now I want to watch how Eun Ha-jun moves. Yes. Purely because it's entertaining.

He set the stack of papers neatly into his document case and left the office.

"Aagh... my whole body's wrecked."

Creak. When I stretched, joints all over my body groaned. This was all Captain Seong's fault. Combat-pressure strain from another Awakener recovered far more slowly than anything a monster did to you. It was the next morning, and I was still like this.

"Try a little harder."

"Myaaang~!"

The will-o'-the-wisp squirmed and wandered around, but I couldn't tell whether it was actually healing me or not.

"You're really going out today?"

"Yeah. I have to. We wasted all of yesterday because of the Monster Special Forces."

"For a wasted day, the reward was plenty. You could rest for a day."

Han Gyeol wore a dissatisfied look.

"...So where are you going?"

"Dongmyo."

Han Gyeol's brow pinched in an instant.