The Military Chef of a Ruined World

[Withdraw.]

“…!”

“What was that voice just now?”

“What, what is this?”

A voice suddenly rang out.

The people who heard the voice mutter in bewilderment.

But I was surprised for a different reason.

‘Why… can I understand it?’

The sound that reached my ears was somewhat incomprehensible for others like an alien language.

But in my mind, the meaning of that sound was clearly understood.

An absurd phenomenon.

To be honest, I was quite perplexed.

‘Calm down.’

I soon composed myself and thought.

‘The dungeon itself is an abnormal phenomenon from the beginning.’

Even creating the dungeon.

The ability to forcibly understand the language was also an abnormality.

In other words,

the owner of this voice was likely ‘The Boss Monster.’

An entity capable of creating such a dungeon.

No matter what they do, it would not be strange.

-My, a very delicious scent of blood is coming from inside.

Affirming my guess.

The Vampire Baroness spoke from the shadows.

-It’s a bit pungent, but this is a delicacy in its own way.

‘Come to think of it, Ariella did mention about consuming high quality blood to strengthen herself.’

The fact that she said the smell is delicious…

…It’s meaning was not that hard to understand.

‘The monster inside must be a powerful existence that can make the Vampire Noble salivate.’

Then,

[Why are you invading our territory?]

The voice coming from inside spoke to us again.

“Huh. Why are you asking why we’re invading?”

“Invasion? What are you talking about?”

“…Don’t we have to answer them?”

The soldiers hesitated a bit.

If it were a mindless monster, they could just fight hard and defeat it.

But this was the first time they encountered a monster that suddenly spoke to them,

so, they were confused about how to respond.

‘Sigh. There’s no help for it.’

This was the heart of enemy territory.

It would not be good to let the confrontation drag on.

Moreover,

‘I’ve also wanted to talk to them once.’

***

“I don’t understand what you mean by that… Let’s start by pointing out the things that don’t make sense.”

“Why do you claim this is your territory?”

You said we invaded your territory.

What nonsense was that?

[My kin and I claim the seas. Your kind, the natives, claim the skies.]

The response was short, but the meaning was clear enough.

“So, the waters are their domain, and the land belongs to humans? Is that it?”

Ridiculous.

“This city is human territory, part of South Korea. You’re the ones illegally occupying our land.”

[Grrr… You wish to argue about legitimacy?]

I wanted to refute the nonsense, but the only response I got was a sneering laugh.

[A country, you say. You’re trapped in a well, unable to see anything clearly.]

“Huh?”

[How pitiful. Even the natives know less about this world than I, an outsider.]

…This bastard.

‘Does he know something?’

Our unit was stuck in the Gangwon Province.

We don’t even know what’s happening in other cities, let alone the outside world.

Even as mere soldiers, we’ve somehow managed to survive and keep our unit intact.

I believed the country of South Korea would still be standing as well.

‘But… there’s a chance it’s not.’

I wanted to hear more details.

[If I have offended you, I apologize. But your argument is meaningless. We claim the seas, and you claim the skies. Has that not been the agreement throughout time?]

“Instead of spouting nonsense, explain what you just said—”

[We are paying the price for yielding the land. We are defending you from external threats.]

“…?”

I wanted to hear more about the state of the country, but his words seemed completely out of place.

“You’re protecting us from external threats?”

“That monster… What the hell is he talking about?”

The people in the city seemed to find the idea offensive.

Defending us in exchange for yielding the land? To them, it must sound like utter nonsense.

But…

‘I have a hunch.’

From our outsider’s perspective, it didn’t seem entirely out of the realm of possibility.

[Natives, do you know how many of your kind still live beyond these walls?]

“What’s he talking about?”

“Well, I’m sure they’re all living just fine.”

[Less than a tenth of your population remains compared to before. And most of them wander the land, unable to die properly.]

“W-what did you say?”

As soon as they heard those words, the awakened ones in the city widened their eyes and stared at me and the soldiers.

‘Is that true?’

That seemed to be the question in their gaze.

We had told them about the appearance of monsters outside, but…

‘I hadn’t bothered to mention how many humans had died.’

I thought revealing that would only dampen their resolve to venture outside.

But now, it was coming back to bite me.

‘The most shocking thing when we entered the dungeon was the number of people.’

Despite the unique environment of the dungeon, this place had an unusually high number of living humans.

[It is because I have been keeping external threats at bay.]

So that was this creature’s doing?

[That’s not all. I also purified the disease that once plagued this space. Don’t you think I’ve paid enough for the land you’ve been given?]

In this damp, filthy environment, it was strange that there hadn’t been any sick people, even though disease should’ve spread long ago.

“That’s absurd.”

Then, a man muttered in a voice full of hatred.

“You monsters devoured my fiancée and chewed down her bones. ‘Given land’ in exchange? Is this what it looks like to live peacefully after yielding land?”

[As long as your kind didn’t invade our territory, we didn’t attack anyone.]

“Let’s be real here, fish-head. It’s not that you didn’t, it’s that you couldn’t. You can’t even breathe properly once you leave the water.”

[……]

It was Chang-su.

[I know who you are. You’re the native who’s killed the most of my kin.]

“It’s an honor to be recognized, really.”

[Even if we combined all the natives we killed, it wouldn’t equal half the number of my kin you slaughtered. Do you know that? All the ones you killed were children.]

“…That was—”

[It’s true that your numbers have dwindled. But most of it was caused by your own internal conflicts.]

We had heard rumors of a major conflict among humans.

[Stand down.]

His voice softened a little.

[All we want is a place of refuge. We have no intention of invading anyone.]

“….”

[We will respond if you invade our territory, but we have no desire to make you, our enemies. If you retreat, I promise we will not interfere with you. We have even tolerated your fishing in our waters, so leave us in peace.]

Despite all his long-winded talk, his message was simple.

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