Chapter 27
“It seems like you can move around without much problem now. Right?”
“……”
“Honestly, I’d like to let you rest more, but food costs quite a bit here.”
“…What do I need to do?”
“Don’t be so tense. We’re not people without compassion. This is very simple.”
Han Jong-wook spoke as if to reassure me, but that only made me more anxious. His grinning face seemed to know this and was smiling deliberately.
“At night, we take turns standing guard in groups of four or five, and you’ll do that. You’ll also manage the fires throughout the village to make sure they don’t go out. Without fire, monsters come near the houses every night, so it’s a job that must be done. You won’t usually encounter monsters… Maybe once or twice out of ten times? Ah, because of the circumstances I mentioned earlier, we can’t give you a gun. We’re a bit short on them too… you understand, right?”
Why don’t you just tell me to carry straw and jump into a fire pit? I opened my mouth in disbelief. But Han Jong-wook didn’t care about my expression at all.
“Other people have guns, so you’ll be fine if you just stick close to them. I’ll tell the people on duty today, so please do well. Don’t forget what I told you.”
Han Jong-wook waved his hand as he walked away from me. I frowned, mulling over his words. If this is how it is, I don’t understand why they brought people here in the first place. No, actually I think I do. Didn’t Han Jong-wook come and say it? That there’s a higher chance of survival when people stick together. That’s probably the purpose for bringing in useful people.
Besides, what does he mean by “don’t forget”? Is he talking about the person they kidnapped? Is he telling me not to think about doing anything else? If they’re that suspicious, they could just exclude me and monitor me separately.
Maybe including me in this duty shift is a way to test me, I thought. Or it could be a test that also checks if I can be useful. I clicked my tongue, sensing that things ahead would be difficult.
* * *
“Number.”
“One, two.”
“Three.”
The men’s gazes gathered on me. I raised my hand with an awkward smile.
“Four.”
“Check complete.”
A scarred man with patchy beard twitched his face and dusted off his hands. As soon as the man who introduced himself as Hwang Jang-ju finished speaking, the others jeered.
“There aren’t even that many people, do we really need to go through with this numbering nonsense?”
“I feel like dying of embarrassment every time we do this.”
The man also seemed to agree, but his head moved independently from his face.
“Being momentarily embarrassed is better than dying.”
Everyone finally shut their mouths, but I was puzzled. Noticing my confusion, they cleared their throats and explained. Though they showed signs of reluctance, I was surprised at how readily they provided information. These men had initially shown openly unpleasant expressions. After Han Jong-wook, who had guided me, left, there was no one to introduce themselves or even speak to me. Yet now they’re explaining everything.
“…We once had a terrible experience with monsters while standing guard at night.”
“I wasn’t in this village at that time, so I don’t know much.”
“I was here, but I don’t know much either. I was asleep.”
As soon as Hwang Jang-ju closed his mouth, everyone else opened theirs. I saw curiosity settled on their faces, except for one person. Isn’t this a story they all know? It was strange. Hwang Jang-ju, who had first brought up the story, waited until his companions finished speaking, then slowly began.
“I wasn’t on night watch either… That was, well, the day I first arrived here after struggling through hardships. They told me they were short on people here, so I was asked to stand guard the next day. At that time, I think I didn’t take night watch seriously… I thought, now that I can live comfortably, what’s the big deal about standing guard? Right? We had food and could sleep well. But I couldn’t sleep that first night. Honestly, I couldn’t sleep because I was thinking about how I had survived.”
He paused, rubbing his calloused hands. Hwang Jang-ju’s face was now colored not with relief but with anxiety and fear. And I could understand the reason for their curiosity. Apparently, they only knew about this through hearsay and had never heard it directly from the person involved.
Still, this situation felt very strange to me. There’s nothing more vivid than one’s own experiences, and it must have been something they all went through. I couldn’t guess what they really wanted to hear. Meanwhile, Hwang Jang-ju’s story continued.
“So I went outside to chat with the people on night watch. I think I was thinking about having a drink or something like that…”
When the talk of alcohol came up, everyone made hungry expressions. My expression was probably the same.
“But when I went outside, there was no one there. Only the bonfire was blazing.”
Hwang Jang-ju nervously rubbed his hands. Throughout his narration, he kept looking around. His anxiety quickly spread through his words. Before long, all five of us were immersed in fear, scanning our surroundings.
“I thought the village was a safe place, so at first I thought the night watch had ended. But that wasn’t the case. A man came running from over there, gasping. No, ‘running’ isn’t the right word—he was half crawling. Covered in blood all over… I screamed when I saw the state of him with his chest hollowed out. When I heard him speak, I realized he was one of the men who was supposed to be on night watch. Surprised, I supported him, and he grabbed me and said: ‘It hid among us, pretending to be human. We shouldn’t have felt safe just because we had guns and fire.'”
Suddenly remembering the monster I had encountered at the restaurant, a shiver ran down my spine.
“What happened to that man?”
The men’s gazes gathered on me as I asked the question. The way they all turned their heads simultaneously was somewhat dramatic. Their startled movements also seemed like a scene from a play. Hwang Jang-ju looked at me briefly, then slowly shook his head.
“He died that night.”
His attitude suggested it was extremely sad, but his tone was terrifyingly calm. And his eyes, reflecting the bonfire, were fierce. I instinctively suspected that this Hwang Jang-ju might be similar to Han Jong-wook. He exuded the feeling of someone who would do anything to survive.
Just then, his gaze fell on my back, which had no gun, and I got goosebumps. If Hwang Jang-ju’s eyes, which had been staring at me briefly, hadn’t looked away, I might have shuddered. I once again mentally cursed Han Jong-wook. Damn bastard.
As gloomy as the story was, a coldness circulated among us. But no one tried to speak or lighten the mood. All eyes and nerves were focused outward, and the forest was exceptionally dark that day.
Just as it was becoming difficult to endure with nerves on edge, one of the men who had been scanning the inside of the forest let out a thunderous scream.
“Ahhhhhhh!”
Everyone, including me, jumped. We quickly gathered around the bonfire. Having no weapon, I was even prepared to grab a burning stick with my bare hands. I glared at the place where the man had been looking when he screamed. Something black was undulating in the darkness.
At first, I clung to the bonfire in tension, but as time passed, I felt something was strange. That wasn’t the movement of a monster, but rather like… When the slowly approaching figure showed itself near the bonfire, the men holding hunting rifles displayed relief, deflation, vigilance, and anger. In contrast, I was even feeling glad that it wasn’t a monster.
“Are you on night watch?”
The man dressed in black clothes, the one who had confronted Han Jong-wook, looked around at us while swinging a knife.
“Yes.”
Hwang Jang-ju glanced at him with a displeased face, but the man didn’t mind. When the man’s wandering gaze stopped on me, his expression changed slightly.
“A newbie. Already working?”
At that moment, Hwang Jang-ju’s face changed to one of extreme displeasure. Contorted as if he had swallowed a large fireball, he glared at the man. The others didn’t look as bad as Hwang Jang-ju, but they all had expressions as if they’d swallowed small sparks.
I recalled the story I had heard from the middle-aged woman. Was it because the man, who had not even a bean-sized sense of belonging, referred to me as a newbie?
“Somehow it happened…”
As I shrugged and gave an ambiguous response, the man smiled without particular meaning. The gazes that had been busily traveling between us paused momentarily.
“Do you know each other?”
Hwang Jang-ju said, fiercely twitching his stiff muscles. Looking at him becoming increasingly hostile, I guessed that Hwang Jang-ju might be one of the people who had fought with the tall man.
“We do know each other.”
The man casually accepted the words, but I was taken aback.
“Once yesterday, once now. Two times… no, three times? Anyway, we have met, so it’s true that we know each other.”
Since my head was already hurting enough without adding iron stones to it, I corrected my statement. The man laughed as if finding it amusing. I tried my best to ignore the man’s laughter, but Hwang Jang-ju couldn’t. He looked at me once more with a suspicious face, then turned his gaze to the bonfire.
A cold atmosphere encircled the bonfire again. This was true even though the man was checking his knife at a distance, not approaching the bonfire. People glanced at the man from time to time, and Hwang Jang-ju wore a displeased expression. I also closed my mouth and poked at the bonfire when someone, gathering courage, stammered as they began to speak.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
