The Military Chef of a Ruined World

Crackle.......

“Gyaaaaaaah......!”

The poison that had touched Jang Woohyuk’s head began melting his skin.

Then.

He tried to gather all the mana in his body and resist that poison.

'The reason I was somehow able to defeat these bastards one by one was, ultimately.'

I thought as I watched him.

'Because the bastards who thought I had lost my strength were kind enough to move around individually.'

The people I had encountered that way, too.

Because they thought I had lost my strength and let their guard down, I had been able to succeed with surprise attacks.

If all of them had maintained serious vigilance, I might not have been able to hold out until now.

Yes.

The reason I had been able to hold out until now was not so much because of how impressive I was.

The main reason was that my enemies had let their guard down.

“Gya, aaaaaah......!”

And then.

While I was watching his resistance, breathing roughly as I waited for my wounds to heal......

At that exact moment.

“Huh?”

Suddenly.

His eyes began to shake.

He was not looking at me.

Nor was he looking at the poison flowing over his head.

Where his gaze had turned was—

“Cardinal, Your Eminence......?”

Somewhere in empty air.

“......!”

The moment I confirmed that.

I stopped even catching my breath and rushed at him.

Then.

Crack!

Before he could react to the “something” he had seen.

I twisted his neck around.

Srrk.......

Once his neck turned.

The poison that had been trying to burrow into his head also flowed down to the side.

The vitality of awakened beings exceeded imagination.

That much probably would not kill him.

Still, he had eaten my cooking too.

He would have trouble regaining consciousness for a while.

But.......

“......Haa, damn it.”

Even so.

I could not feel relieved by that fact.

Right.

'The reason I had been able to hold out until now was because those bastards had been letting their guard down.'

Because.

'To put it the other way around.'

At the final moment.

He had looked not at me, but at “empty air.”

What that meant was simple.

The thing I had been most worried about until now.

'From the moment they stop letting their guard down.......'

They.

Would start being wary of me.

***

“From the moment he stopped responding to guild messages, I expected something like this might have happened.”

A believer who had been kneeling as he examined a man.

He rose and spoke with a grave expression.

“As Your Eminence predicted, he appears to have been hit by a powerful poison.”

“.......”

“It melted through his ankle entirely and severed it. Just how strong must that poison be?”

He looked at the Cardinal with worried eyes and said,

“His life is not in danger. Even so, it is a severe injury.”

“Is treatment impossible?”

“It is possible, but it will take quite some time for him to make a full recovery. And.......”

“And?”

“It seems something else was done to him besides the visible external wounds. I do not know exactly what was done, but...... because of whatever it was, he seems unable to regain consciousness. Most likely.”

“It must be similar to what happened to several of the other believers we saw on the way here.”

“Yes. I believe so.”

At his words.

Not only the Cardinal.

But all the other believers stared at the man collapsed with his mouth hanging blankly open.

'I understand that man is a soldier of the Legion. I also understand that he is handling some special chemical weapon manufactured by the Legion.'

It was still understandable that awakened beings in the level 20 range had been taken down.

They, too, were people one could not call anything less than superhuman.

But if they had been caught off guard, it was possible for them to suffer fatal wounds from something like a military trap.

They could accept it as them having been struck by a special weapon made by the Legion and move on.

But.

'Sir Jang Woohyuk was an awakened being over level 30.'

'You’re saying it was strong enough to bring down even someone like him......?'

This man was different.

“......I know because I have sparred with Sir Jang Woohyuk often.”

Another officer who had joined them before anyone realized it.

Cha Gyeonghwan spoke with a frown.

“He is someone who could react even if a claymore exploded right in front of him, and even if a trap installed with poison sprang at him, he would be able to pull his body out before suffering a fatal wound.”

“That means.”

“No matter how much he let his guard down...... he is not someone who could be subdued with the physical ability of an ordinary human.”

Then.

Gritting his teeth, he raised his head.

“The brothers who reported that the Maxim had activated properly.......”

He spoke while looking into empty air.

“They must have lied......!”

Then.

Through the guild message, Cha Gyeonghwan began pouring out his anger toward those who had activated the Maxim.

“B-but why would they have any reason to do that.......”

“Indeed, there is no other way to explain the current situation.”

“Even Your Eminence......!”

That anger did not seem to belong only to Cha Gyeonghwan.

The enraged Cardinal, too, wrote a guild message rebuking them.

The fury was so great.

The others could only shrink back as they looked at the two angry men.

But then.

“Everyone, please calm yourselves.”

As if she did not care at all about their anger.

A woman sitting in front of Jang Woohyuk opened her mouth.

“This blood here.”

She touched the blood that seemed to have flowed from Jang Woohyuk’s body and said,

“It appears to be Sir Jang Woohyuk’s. But it belongs to someone else.”

“......?”

“It was likely a trap meant to make it look as though he had suffered a severe wound, so that any witness would rush over and touch the chemical substance scattered over his body. But...... this blood is not Sir Jang Woohyuk’s.”

Lee Haein.

She rose and looked at the others as she said,

“It belongs to [Him].”

“......Then that means!”

At that.

Cha Gyeonghwan, another officer, spoke with a delighted expression.

“Does that mean that side was severely injured as well? Although Sir Jang Woohyuk was defeated, he still distinguished himself against such a strong opponent......!”

“I do not intend to belittle Sir Woohyuk.”

However.

Lee Haein shook her head at his words.

“But you know, do you not? Sir Woohyuk’s skill...... even if evaluated generously, does not reach Sir David’s.”

“......That is true, but.”

“In particular, he lacks seriousness, so rather than doing something great in an important situation, he was the sort of person more likely to make a mistake.”

It was not merely a difference in technical mastery or personality.

Unlike David, who was a level 34 awakened being, Jang Woohyuk’s level was 32.

The higher one’s level rose, the greater the difference of a single level became.

A two-level gap was quite large.

“Sir David, cautious by nature, asserted that he absolutely could not win against this opponent. Sir Jang Woohyuk does not possess the ability to seriously injure such a person.”

“But did you not say that blood was not Sir Jang Woohyuk’s?”

“That is correct. I am only saying this because you said he distinguished himself against a ‘strong opponent.’”

She looked at the two people who had been angry.

“Therefore, please stop rebuking innocent believers.”

Cha Gyeonghwan and the Cardinal.

“The [Maxim] is working properly.”

“......!”

“That person has certainly been weakened.”

At that.

The Cardinal, receiving her gaze, frowned and said,

“Are you telling me...... that Sir Jang Woohyuk was defeated by a mere ordinary person, Priest Lee Haein?”

“I did not see the scene myself, so I do not know what happened. However, it is certain that the Maxim is active. To begin with, the Maxim is a holy relic bestowed upon us by the system. There is no way its great power could falsely activate.”

After saying that.

She stared intently at Jang Woohyuk’s collapsed body.

“In any case, this is fascinating. What method did he use, exactly......? Even if Sir Jang Woohyuk had let his guard down, how could a body that is not even an awakened being take down Sir Woohyuk.......”

“......Priest Lee Haein.”

“Poison? A trap? A gun? None of them seem realistic. Did he lure him with words like Lieutenant General Kim Hyeon-seok and then activate a trap? Ah, how could such a thing be possible? I can hardly even imagine.......”

“Priest Lee Haein!!!”

Lee Haein seemed about to continue speaking.

But.

“What exactly is......!”

The Cardinal cut her off and shouted,

“What exactly are you so pleased about......!”

“Pardon?”

At the Cardinal’s words.

Lee Haein touched her own face with startled eyes.

“Ah.......”

And.

Only then was she able to realize.

“Excuse me. I.......”

Right now.

The corners of her mouth.

“Am not very good at holding back laughter.”

Had curved upward.

Far upward.

“One who is no different from a pillar of the Church has collapsed, on top of dozens of believers already being subdued......! This hardly seems a situation worthy of delight.”

“Please do not misunderstand.”

When the Cardinal spoke as though interrogating her.

Lee Haein brought a hand to her mouth and said,

“I was not delighted by the harm they suffered. Rather, when I think of the pain those brothers and sisters must have endured, I can hardly hold back tears.”

“Then why......!”

“However.......”

“However?”

“To be honest, I was greatly worried.”

Lee Haein reached up and pressed down the corners of her mouth as she spoke.

“Whether he was truly someone worth paying such a sacrifice for.”

“.......”

A man named Shin Youngjun.

In the process of capturing him, the Church had consumed most of the holy relics it had gathered.

Not only that, the Church’s major combat forces had suffered serious injuries.

In order to make him the new leader of the Church.

The Church had been forced to accept a tremendous amount of damage.

“Even if this follows doctrine, there is no guarantee that one beloved by Him will necessarily become a splendid leader.”

They were not fools either.

A high-level awakened being was not necessarily a fine human being.

If anything, because one was a high-level awakened being, the probability was even higher that they were a madman who had committed absurd acts in order to reach that high level.

“What if the person we enthrone as our leader after going this far is, in truth, more incompetent than expected?”

“.......”

“What should we do if the Church is placed in danger because of that......? That was my concern.”

Lee Haein was pulling down the corners of her mouth with her hand.

It was her own attempt to hide that smile.

But.

“Yet even while the [Maxim] is active, he subdued one of the pillars of the Church.”

Unfortunately.

She could not hide the emotion mixed into her eyes.

“Ah...... does that not make you look forward to it?”

Until just a short while ago.

Her eyes had been filled with anger, just like everyone else’s.

Now, those eyes.

“How great the one who will lead us from now on must be......!”

Were filled with rapture.

***

“Ah...... does that not make you look forward to it? How great the one who will lead us from now on must be......!”

At those words.

“.......”

The Cardinal looked at her in silence.

And as he did, he thought,

'Madwoman.'

With a grinding sound.

The old man clenched his teeth.

'The one who will lead us from now on?'

Certainly.

According to doctrine, that man would become the Church’s new leader.

But that was only something that would happen in the future.

'Right now, is he not a great sinner who made us lose so many holy relics and wounded the believers?'

Clink.

His hand gripped the sword at his waist.

'Is it truly so worthy of anticipation that such a man will become our leader?'

Squeeze.......

The strength in the hand gripping the sword gradually increased.

'More than me, who has led the Church so excellently until now?'

And soon.

Smile.

“You said Sir Jang Woohyuk is the sort of person who lets his guard down often.”

He opened his mouth with a strange smile.

“Now, there will be no more carelessness.”