Chapter 45

Returnee II

Sword Marquess, though mad, possessed remarkable abilities.

To intuitively understand just how remarkable, a bit of explanation is necessary.

This world hates humanity.

Teens, caught in their second year of middle school delusions, often mutter, "It seems the world hates me." As they grow, they gradually learn that, surprisingly (or perhaps not so surprisingly), the world is indifferent to their existence.

Honestly, from the world's perspective, there are other things to worry about. Like turtles that have swallowed plastic or quantum entanglement.

But now, that's no longer the case. Something fundamentally changed with the Gate incident. It just changed.

From that day on, the world decided to dislike humanity a bit more.

The Void.

Otherwise known as the Abyss, or Hell. Previously, the term 'Gate' was used, but increasingly, people began to refer to it as the Void.

-Hey, what's that?

-Huh? What is it?

-That flower. Why does it have teeth?

In the Void, the petals of the Rafflesia sprout shark teeth. Spiders grow thirteen legs. Dragonflies develop six side eyes. Headless elephants roam around.

If monsters and anomalies are left unchecked, massive genetic mutations occur in the affected land, leading to a rapid increase in deformed creatures.

Thus, the Void's poison.

It instantaneously deforms the civilization and knowledge humanity has painstakingly built up over centuries.

Have you ever seen fields stained blood-red? Rice grains that resemble aphids and flies? Instead of rice grains, lilies bloom. A farmer once dug up his field and found that all the rice plants were interconnected underground like a bamboo forest.

Despite being grown in the same field, with the same species, water, and sunlight, the rice on the left side of the field looked different from that on the right.

Human civilization was established on 'reproducibility'. When humanity realized that spring would come again a year after all the changes, they built a tower of gold. At the sharp top of this gold tower, time finally transformed into history.

Now, the tower has crumbled.

Time flows. It flows unpredictably. Like a desert storm, it covers the once-brilliant surface of the tower with sand.

What is humanity? What are 'we'? Are we the same as that being whose head sprouts flowers and whose tongue grows fish gills?

From those gills, the cries of a newborn can be heard. Eventually, they only communicate with the sound of a child's cry, and we cannot understand what those sounds mean.

Occasionally, time flows quickly near Incheon and slowly near Seoul. Nothing repeats. Nothing is reproduced. It just flows.

"Cities are connected......"

Thus, I, the Saintess, the Nomads, the Samcheon Guild Alliance, have declared war against the Void devouring our world.

"Humanity needs to return to the times when it was overwhelmed by nature."

Isn't that regression? The Nomads shook their heads.

"Like evolution and regression are merely human distinctions, this too is merely an adaptation to the environment...... Giving up the rule of areas for the rule of lines."

From area to line.

From line to area.

That was the motto of the National Road Management Corps.

"Then, we can escape from being isolated by the Void and maintain our community......"

Like a knight fitting a disabled person with a prosthetic, the National Road Management Corps has paved the way for humanity.

At last, isolated points, cities, and people have transformed into stations where they can briefly rest.

-I'm continuing to fix the broken railways of this world one by one.

I was able to keep Dang Seo-rin's last will.

It took many years.

And it will take many more years.

-From history to history, forever.

The National Road Management Corps did not represent Busan. It could not symbolize Seoul. The National Road Management Corps was simply humanity's last cradle, the last unit, and the frontline.

"We can do it. No, we must......"

Every time they set off, the patrol units of the National Road Management Corps could not guarantee their lives.

The patrol unit that left for Gangneung never returned. After two years, all thirteen members of a patrol unit exploring the North returned transformed into sunflowers that walked, their heads turned toward the flags they held when they departed.

Still, we did not hesitate to stand at the forefront.

"Heh. This season will be a good harvest too!"

Sword Marquess was indeed a support unit for this frontline.

"With this much grain, we can surely feed Samhan[1] well and have leftovers! Truly, it is the providence of heaven!"

No matter how much we pave the way, people need to eat. Whether it's three meals a day, two meals, or even one, the need to eat is my body's urgent fate.

I did not take this hunger as hardship or sorrow.

Infected with the New Buddha virus, one could escape the fate of hunger at any time. It meant transitioning from being human to becoming a being of the Void. The hunger was tragic, but it was a human tragedy, and still, it was the tragedy of beings born and raised on this land.

However, I did not live to see human horrors as human beauty. We needed to eat.

The chef responsible for the rice power of the Korean Peninsula was none other than Sword Marquess.

"Wouldn't it be alright for me to enjoy a little sightseeing this summer?"

"No, no... Your master has already passed away, hasn't he? Then, you are the eldest in the Mount Hua Sect, and there’s a tradition of juniors visiting their seniors, not the other way around. They should come to you, why should you move...?"

"Oh? That is indeed a wise saying."

"If you entrust me with a letter, I'll send it to China on your behalf. If they understand their duty, they should rightly come here to see you..."

"Oho! The advice of the head of the post station is absolutely right!"

"Then I'll also look forward to the autumn harvest..."

"Hmm! Leave it to me!"

The National Road Management Corps was a post station, and there the head was the postmaster.

After displaying her miraculous skills in hand and tongue, Noh Do-hwa turned to me and smirked.

"That's why I prefer the elderly to the young... they understand, you know...?"

I won't nitpick over her argument.

But even with Noh Do-hwa's full-hearted play, there was a limit. Sword Marquess was a madman, and madness was incurable.

"I must visit Mount Hua at least once before I die."

With the change of seasons and each harvest, Sword Marquess kept murmuring like someone afflicted with nostalgia.

"I must see it before I die..."

Since the establishment of the National Road Management Corps, Sword Marquess repeated this mantra through the 54th, 55th, 56th, and 57th cycles.

Time passed.

Finally, the 108th cycle.

During the holiday season, I visited Sword Marquess. In the very early part of his first year, Sword Marquess was still living in his hometown, Ulleungdo (yes, he had no reason to be nostalgic).

"Lord Sword Marquess."

"Hmm?"

An old man watering the flowers in the front yard of a humble house turned to look at me. Water trickled from his watering can.

"Who might you be, young one?"

"I am a knight bestowed with a title from Yuldoguk."

"What?"

A normal person would have called the police or at least swung a broom if a foreigner suddenly walked into their front yard claiming a title from a micronation.

"This one is my compatriot! Welcome!"

But, true to his nature, Sword Marquess was extraordinary. I had suspected he had been playing nobility since coming to Ulleungdo, but it seems he had lost his mind even before that.

"But your honorifics are strange. I am not Sword Marquess but Sword Man. Why have you come seeking me?"

I made the saddest face possible. Method acting wasn't particularly hard. It was easy to recall the scene when Dang Seo-rin died.

"Sadly, I must report that Yuldoguk has fallen."

"What?"

"The wicked reach of the Demonic Cult has extended even across the sea to Yeong-gil-ri. Not only Yuldoguk but also the eastern region of Yeong-gil-ri has been devastated, and the Archduke himself did not escape harm."

"No...! How could such a thing happen...!"

"Lord Sword Marquess."

Thud. I knelt in the courtyard. Then, with a solemnity unmatched in the world, I cried out.

"Though the court of Yuldoguk has fallen, how could we accept that the people should bear the grief of a ruined nation? Is it not loyalty to continue the nation with the remaining people?"

"......!"

"As you are now the only remaining noble of Yuldoguk, it is only fitting that you establish a new court on this land. But, as a person, I cannot forget the grace of the Archduke; please ascend to the title of duke and revive Duke's Nation!"

Incidentally, Sword Marquess's house was humble.

And a humble house was in a humble neighborhood.

And a feature of a humble neighborhood is that it's quite easy to peek over the fence when something unusual is happening next door. All the neighbors were looking this way.

Their gaze, in a nutshell, was like, uh, staring at a dick.

"Heaven has not yet abandoned me!"

Sword Marquess paid no mind to the neighbors' stares.

"Get up! How well you've understood my will!"

"I apologize."

"You, you are indeed like my eldest son!"

Basically, that meant best friends.

The 108th cycle.

That day, I became best friends with the prospective Sect Leader of the Mount Hua Sect.

Footnotes:

[1] Samhan, or Three Han, is the collective name of the Byeonhan, Jinhan, and Mahan confederacies that emerged in the first century BC during the Proto–Three Kingdoms of Korea, or Samhan, period. Located in the central and southern regions of the Korean Peninsula, the Samhan confederacies eventually merged and developed into the Baekje, Gaya, and Silla kingdoms. The name "Samhan" also refers to the Three Kingdoms of Korea.

[2] Li (Chinese: 里, lǐ, or 市里, shìlǐ), also known as the Chinese mile, is a traditional Chinese unit of distance. The li has varied considerably over time but was usually about one third of an English mile and now has a standardized length of a half-kilometer (500 meters or 1,640 feet or 0.311 miles).

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