Chapter 60
For a moment, I couldn’t take my eyes off the west.
Then, still holding the communicator filled with screams, I picked it up and reported:
“Here is Osten, Osten. L-5. Reporting departure from post due to detecting an abnormal phenomenon.”
Johanna had clearly said it.
She would ‘never’ issue orders through the communicator.
And some things could tamper with it.
So…
I didn’t trust it.
In this world, trusting often costs more than not trusting. A sad truth.
—
[Wow, an abnormal phenomenon at last. Hmm, what kind of creature could have interfered with the narrator like this?]
—
I immediately left my post and headed to the waiting area. I drank the medicine placed at the center.
Up until that moment, the communicator, noisy and trying to drag a response out of me, suddenly fell completely silent, like a dead mouse.
“Here is Osten, Osten. L-5 guard reporting. After taking the medication, the abnormal phenomenon has disappeared. Reporting that the anomaly was auditory hallucination through the communicator.”
After finishing the final report, someone came up the stairs into the waiting room. Another guard.
He spoke to me.
“I’ll take over. You can return to your quarters for today.”
It was just before dawn anyway.
It was probably time for shift rotation.
Just a little earlier than usual.
I nodded and asked:
“How is the west?”
“The west has already been cleared.”
Fucking hallucination.
I nodded again, relayed the remaining details to the replacement guard, and headed straight to my room.
A damn noisy day had passed.
***
Five days had already passed.
—
[Remaining time: 25 days]
—
Adapting wasn’t that difficult.
Aside from the cold and the slightly medieval fantasy atmosphere, people were generally kind, and the monsters weren’t too hard either.
Lee Hoin seemed to be stabilizing more and more, as if this kind of structured life suited him.
Meanwhile, I…
“G-goo, goo-good afternoon…”
Met Shin Yerim.
“Hello.”
She looked barely over 150 cm tall. Her long brown hair covered most of her face, reaching down to her waist in a dry, unkempt state. The little that could be seen of her eyes was shadowed heavily by dark circles.
—
[Shin Yerim of ‘The Ruined World’ (□□□ Praiser)]
Importance: 3/5
□□□: 0/5
<Records>
This is a character whose actions are only confirmed in certain chapters.
Search for a chapter below to track their actions.
—
Shin Yerim.
She appeared in fewer than ten chapters in total.
In a long novel spanning over a thousand chapters, that meant she had very little presence.
Yet her importance rating reached 3 for one reason.
She had, by sheer luck, obtained a skill here.
That skill was…
‘Brocken’s Oath.’
A necromantic summoning art that binds the dead to one’s soul unilaterally.
Originally, it was inherited from an NPC of this world, Leon Wolf, upon his death.
A half-gamble method succeeded beautifully, granting her this powerful skill.
The method was simple:
Right before Leon died, she killed him herself, took his story stone, and consumed it.
Even then, there was no guarantee she would obtain the desired skill.
But Leon permitted it.
And Shin Yerim accepted it.
‘It was meant to give her the greatest weapon.’
At the same time, it plunged her into inescapable guilt.
For the people of this world, such things were normal.
If they simply died, their story would return to the Narrator.
But if killed by someone else, everything they had built… their entire story… would belong to their killer.
To pass on his legacy, Leon made the most appropriate choice.
But Shin Yerim’s fragile nature couldn’t endure it.
Even when she killed him, it was practically as if Leon had thrown himself onto the blade.
And she only absorbed the gallstone after Johanna’s persistent persuasion.
Even after absorbing it, she vomited several times.
Though “consuming” the story stone was the term used, it actually dissolved in the mouth instantly upon choosing to absorb it.
There was nothing to swallow.
Her vomiting was closer to a reaction of overwhelming stress and trauma.
“I–I came to get some ointment…”
“Ah, ah! O-ointment! J-just a m-moment… no, w-wait… j-just a moment…”
“Take your time. I’ll wait.”
As Shin Yerim hurried inside the medical room in a fluster…
A thunderous voice cut in.
“You slow lump of straw! What are you scurrying about so noisily for?! I can’t sleep because of you!”
An old man with completely white hair.
His posture was upright, but his face was sickly. His sunken cheeks and neatly combed-back hair gave off a distinctly hysterical air.
Even for an old man, the people of Hermadion were tall, and especially him…
He was a giant who had spent his life on the walls.
Even after shrinking with age, he was nearly 190 cm tall.
In his prime, he must have been enormous.
Standing before him, Shin Yerim’s tiny frame evoked something beyond pity… something almost tragic.
Her body trembled as she spoke:
“I-I’m s-sorry…”
At her weak, fading voice, the old man clicked his tongue and turned his head sharply.
Then his eyes met mine.
“Why are you staring with those wide eyes, you brat?”
I lowered my head.
“I apologize.”
“If you’re sorry, you shouldn’t have done something to be sorry for! None of you has any respect for your elders. Is Johanna even doing her job properly? That girl, full of sympathy despite her size… probably crying somewhere instead of maintaining discipline!”
Lee Hoin glanced at me, slightly startled.
During these five days, I’d realized something.
Johanna held an absolute position of respect here.
Everyone admired her.
They trusted her decisions without question.
She was a veteran of countless battles.
A commander who led victories, defended Hermadion at the front lines, and treated her soldiers humanely.
Even the lord of Hermadion trusted her.
There were almost no people who could insult such a commander openly.
‘Except one.’
Johanna’s commander, and her uncle.
Leon Wolf.
The living legend of Hermadion.
Even after retiring for over 20 years, he had never once been treated like a useless old man.
“Look at the way you greet people. Where did you brats learn such half-baked manners? The world really has gone to ruin. Even punks like you are stepping on Hermadion’s walls now. I’ll give you two weeks. You’ll either lose a limb or your life by then.”
The old man glared at me and Lee Hoin with fierce eyes.
He was over 80.
Even Lee Hoin probably looked small to him.
“Why aren’t you moving? Planning to waste time standing there like idiots? Where did something like a tiny squirrel like you roll in from to ruin Hermadion’s discipline? If we’re letting that pathetic body of yours work, you should at least do it properly. Isn’t that right, you little squirrel?”
“I-I’m s-sorry…”
“Still whining? You can’t even take care of yourself, who do you think you’re going to save, running around like that?”
At those words, Shin Yerim shrank further.
Lee Hoin stepped forward as if to intervene…
I stopped him.
Leon may have retired and now lives mostly in the medical unit, his health failing…
But a legend remains a legend.
If it came to a bare-handed fight, Lee Hoin might land a few hits…
But Leon Wolf’s skill had not aged.
‘Brocken’s Oath’ does not age.
If anything, the value of Leon’s story stone, backed by a lifetime surviving alongside countless heroes, would be immeasurable.
Shin Yerim eventually fled to fetch the ointment, almost as if escaping.
Leon continued to complain about everything.
Mocking us as brats pretending to be warriors.
Yelling about improper salutes.
Scoffing that we looked like children wearing oversized armor.
People passing by would bow respectfully to him… and then carry on, thinking, ‘there he goes again.’
A hysterical old man.
A war veteran.
Johanna’s uncle.
The living legend of Hermadion.
“Quiet!”
Suddenly, Leon shouted at the empty air.
“You damn chattering pests… how dare you…!”
Leon Wolf… Was the story most coveted by the ‘Third Parties’ in Hermadion.
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