“...So, I’m asking because I really don’t understand.”

A short while later.

After I helped the people who had been collapsed on the floor back to their feet.

I sat down at the negotiation table where Sergeant Lee Minjae had been sitting and spoke.

“The reason you demanded the Legion hand me over was... what, exactly?”

However.

There was no one sitting in the chair across from me.

It was not because the other side had disappeared or anything like that.

“Exactly, sir? Such respectful speech is far too burdensome for us...!”

Because all of them.

Had taken several steps back, showing me their respect.

“Please, speak to us comfortably...!”

The old man spoke while bending at the waist in a perfect ninety-degree bow.

'...Even the privates in our unit didn’t bow that straight.'

The attitude was so excessively polite that I found myself worrying it could not be good for an old man’s back.

“Fine, fine. I get it. Just explain it to me again, would y— No, explain it. Why were you looking for me?”

“Ah, I can tell you as many times as you wish.”

At my question.

The old man opened his mouth with an attitude so respectful it was almost absurd.

“It was to rescue you!”

“...Damn it. I didn’t hear wrong.”

And.

After hearing that, I rubbed my throbbing head and thought.

'What is this? Why does it still make no sense even after hearing it again?'

It was something I simply could not understand.

Then.

One of the people lined up behind him.

Lee Haein stepped forward and spoke.

“I am Lee Haein, one of the priests of the Church.”

“Ah... I remember you. I saw you in Seoul.”

“Ahhh... you recognize me!”

She clasped her hands together with eyes full of emotion.

Only after a moment did she suppress that feeling and open her mouth again.

“Do you remember the words you bestowed upon us then?”

“That...”

Of course.

I did remember.

“I told you to build up your strength, probably.”

“Yes. That is correct.”

But.

That had not been something I said with any particular meaning.

'We had cleared away Seoul’s illusion, but every faction had gathered after receiving Jang Youngwoong’s invitation.'

I had needed to placate those factions and send them back.

And inside the repetition Jang Youngwoong had created.

I had experienced that when I spoke to them that way, they listened.

But.

“As you commanded, we silently built up our strength.”

“......”

“For the day we would someday stand with you...!”

Apparently.

They had taken those words extremely seriously.

***

“After that meeting, once we returned to our base, we decided to expand our forces and grow stronger as quickly as possible. We eliminated the monsters in the surrounding regions and brought in survivors, increasing our numbers.”

Words I had tossed out without much thought.

But.

They had accepted those words with terrifying seriousness.

“Then one day, while we were building our strength smoothly, an offer of alliance arrived from the Legion.”

However.

If that was the case, there was one thing I could not understand.

If they had decided to cooperate with me.

“When contact came from the place you belonged to, we intended to gladly accept the proposal.”

Why.

Had they been clashing with the Legion?

“But not long afterward...”

The reason.

Was fairly simple.

“We realized that you were absent from within the Legion.”

“...Ah.”

After hearing that, I understood.

That day.

They had clearly answered that they would build up their strength and cooperate with me before leaving.

And to be precise.

'They decided to cooperate with me, not with the Legion.'

From my point of view.

I was the guild master of the Legion.

Helping me was essentially the same thing as helping the Legion.

But that was only from my perspective.

“We asked Lieutenant General Kim about your whereabouts several times.”

From their point of view.

I was not the head of the Legion, but one of the soldiers belonging to it.

“But... the answer we received was always the same. Sergeant Shin was away for the moment and could not show himself...”

And.

Joining and leaving a guild was relatively free.

They must have thought that I, a mere guild member, could leave the guild at any time.

In other words, they did not recognize that I was effectively the Legion.

“After realizing that, we tried to declare that our cooperation with the Legion was off...”

But then.

Lee Haein, who had been continuing her explanation, pressed at her head as if it had begun to ache.

“Lieutenant General Kim’s way with words was... rather impressive.”

Pressing hard against her own head.

She spoke with an expression of disbelief.

“We were certainly trying to refuse the joint operation and say we would provide no cooperation until they confirmed Sergeant Shin Youngjun’s existence for us...”

“And?”

“Yet somehow, after we actually met Lieutenant General Kim and talked to him, the conversation would always end with us agreeing to clear difficult regions the Legion was struggling to capture in their place...”

And.

Lee Haein was not the only one reacting that way.

“...Even thinking back on it now, I truly do not understand how the conversation flowed that way.”

“It wasn’t just once, but every single time... We even changed the people we sent. We formed a response team and memorized scripts word for word...”

“We went there intending to argue with him, but when we came to our senses, we were returning after receiving the next mission. Haa.”

As if they had suffered something completely incomprehensible.

They muttered with expressions recalling a horrifying memory.

'Lieutenant Kim... no, Lieutenant General Kim Hyeon-seok...'

Seeing that.

I stared blankly with my mouth half open and thought.

I knew Lieutenant General Kim’s ability, using the skill [Meeting Expectations], was outstanding.

It was an ability so absurd I wondered whether even I could do the same with every method available to me, including cooking.

But even so.

“To be honest, we even suspected he had used some hypnosis-type mind-control ability on us...”

He had taken people who had come to argue with him.

And made them cooperate instead.

And as a result.

“When we came to our senses... we had ended up actively cooperating with the Legion until the occupation of all South Korean territory was complete...”

In the end.

He had actually succeeded in occupying this entire vast land.

'What the hell did you do...?'

...And he had not even used [Special Sauce] like me.

Just.

With nothing but that incredible way with words...!

***

The Legion had planned to finish the occupation quickly, then send troops to rescue me.

They would have rushed as much as possible for that plan.

'...Lieutenant General Kim must not have been picky about his methods.'

As one part of those “not picky” methods.

He had tried to actively use the strength of these people, the Church.

“By that point... fear came over us that if we kept getting dragged along like that, we would truly be finished.”

Perhaps her conversations with Lieutenant General Kim had remained as trauma.

She was even sweating coldly.

“When we heard Lieutenant General Kim was coming to speak with us again, chills ran through our whole bodies. If we accepted that meeting, it felt as though we might unknowingly end up laying our entire Church at that man’s feet. And so...”

“You refused to speak with Lieutenant General Kim.”

Lieutenant General Kim Hyeon-seok was currently staying in the flying fortress, not on this front line.

This was the reason.

“Even having him nearby was something we had to guard against.”

“......”

“The moment he used any means to speak to us, the odds were far too high that we would fall for his words again and things would proceed exactly as he wanted. So we had no choice...”

And so.

Not only had they driven every person related to the Legion out of their territory.

They had refused to speak with Lieutenant General Kim.

They had even drawn a hard line saying he could not be nearby at all.

“...Even so. Was there really a need to go this extreme? I heard you even attacked Legion territory.”

“Ah. That part was for a reason somewhat separate from our fear of Lieutenant General Kim.”

“A separate reason?”

“We simply... thought we needed to hold as much as possible.”

“You needed to hold as much as possible... Why?”

At my words.

She answered calmly.

“Because that would allow us to sit in even a slightly more advantageous position during negotiations.”

Negotiations?

Just as I tilted my head, wondering what she meant.

“Lieutenant General Kim made various excuses, saying you were in a state where you could not appear before us. But from our standpoint, those words were unacceptable.”

The old man who had introduced himself as a cardinal.

Jeong Suhwan spoke with a respectful attitude.

“When we saw Lieutenant General Kim grit his teeth and refuse to show us any proof of your existence...”

In this world, joining and leaving guilds was free.

And.

...It was also a dangerous world where even powerful awakened could not let their guard down.

“We judged that there was a high probability you were being detained within the Legion.”

“Ah.”

They.

Had thought I had been put through something terrible.

“Even if you had been severely wounded, they could still have shown us proof of your existence from a distance... Yet they said they absolutely could not show you to us.”

“......”

“And even if you had left the Legion after quitting the guild, we could not obtain even the smallest eyewitness report about you. Even though you should have been somewhere in this country.”

No.

I really had been in another country.

“Unless you had suddenly evaporated, it made no sense.”

Uh.

I really had suddenly evaporated.

“You were being forcibly detained somewhere deep inside the Legion... No other possibility came to mind.”

No.

That is a bit much...

At those words.

I quietly turned my head and looked behind me.

“......”

“What in the world is this?”

The other squad leaders as well.

Were listening to the story with expressions of disbelief.

If there was one exception.

“Hm. They may be a little foolish, but their intentions are not bad.”

It was only Jeong Sua.

Who was looking at them with a strangely triumphant expression and a smile.

...Well.

Even hearing it again, it was not exactly easy to accept.

But separate from whether I could accept it, I roughly understood how things had unfolded.

“Why...”

The problem was.

There was one most important part I simply could not understand.

“Why did you go that far for me?”

I could understand them mistakenly thinking I had been detained.

But why.

Had they tried to do something that dangerous in order to rescue me?

'It would be one thing if the Legion members did something like that.'

I had no relationship with these people.

Even in Seoul, they had shown me goodwill for some reason.

And I still did not know why.

There was just... one thing I could guess.

“As I said, we are servants who worship the great god. And.”

At my question.

They clasped their hands together as though praying and answered.

“Because the one who receives that god’s greatest love is you.”

At those words.

I heard the answer I had suspected.

“We are messengers who carry out that god’s will, so if there is one who must lead us, it can only be the one who receives that god’s greatest love. It can only be you...!”

I had guessed it.

But I had still thought, surely not.

“That great god of yours.”

I decided to ask about that part.

“Does that god... maybe have another famous name? Jesus, Buddha, something like that?”

“Ah, of course.”

And.

At my words.

“We fear profanely putting that name in our mouths, so we call the god the great god, or simply that god. If there ever comes a time when we must call that name, we do so with respect as ‘the System.’”

“The System?”

At those words.

One thing came to mind.

[Paladin of the System]

The two words clearly embedded in their class names.

“However... there is another name by which that god is known to many, and which that god uses when revealing itself.”

Once I heard that word.

I could feel certain of the suspicion I had held.

“Many call that god...”

They spoke.

With reverent attitudes, as I put that name into my mouth.

“The System.”

The very name.

I had suspected.