Omniscient Reader

Like a breaking gla.s.s, the sky above cracked apart with black lines running through it .
Yi Hyeon-Seong stared at the heavens filling up with rifts and asked me . "Sergeant Kim Dok-Jnim? Are we really going to be alright?"
" . . . . "
I too had to look up after listening to him . The world seemed to be crumbling down .
The reason for that was clear – someone was attacking from the outside . Not just anyone, but incredibly powerful beings, no less .
I turned back and discovered my companions looking at me; Yu Jung-Hyeok, Han Su-Yeong, Yu Sang-Ah, Jeong Hui-Won . . . . .
I didn"t have to say it, but we already knew what our choice would be .
"It"ll be fine . Do you think I"m a sergeant just for a show? Don"t worry about a thing . "

*

The sky was breaking down . Yet, how could he say it was all fine?
Yi Hyeon-Seong couldn"t quite understand it . Was the military originally like this?
⸢Kim Dok-Ja simply smiled quietly . ⸥
A calm, collected smile floated upon his face .
Sergeant Kim Dok-Ja would only say this . "Even the squad leader will tell you it"s fine . "
Indeed, the squad leader really did gather the soldiers in the training ground a short while later and began her speech .
She might be small-statured, but still, was overflowing with charisma . With an unreadable expression on her face, she scanned the rest of the troops and opened her mouth . "Your squad leader, me, is really disappointed in you . "
That unexpected opening caused the soldiers to tense up .
"You have not read webnovels during your downtime . "
Yi Hyeon-Seong inwardly flinched . It was true . Even yesterday, he didn"t read webnovels during his break but practised the military gymnastics routine with Yu Jung-Hyeok .
"And so, this squad leader is planning to leave this base . "
Yi Hyeon-Seong became stupefied by that unexpected declaration .
… . She was leaving? Hushed murmurs could be heard coming from here and there .
"And Yi Hyeon-Seong . "
When he regained his wits, she was already beside him, her hand resting on his shoulder .
"Private second cla.s.s Yi Hyeon-Seong, ma"am!"
This would be his first time seeing her up close . Her name and rank could be seen on top of her neatly arranged uniform .
Captain Han Su-Yeong – that was her rank, and her name .

⸢"How long are you planning to stay dazed? You better start moving! You wish to see Kim Dok-Ja kicking the bucket?"⸥

Why was this? For a moment there, a stinging pain accompanied a set of strange memories brus.h.i.+ng past his mind .
What was that just now . . . . ?
"Look, you"re stupefied again . "
"P-Private second cla.s.s Yi Hyeon-Seong!"
The squad leader stared at him with unreadable eyes before lightly patted him on his cheek . "You better read more books, okay? You"re slow, so you simply have to read lots more books . You"ll survive for longer that way . "
Squad leader Han Su-Yeong left behind indecipherable words and left the base .

*

Two days after Captain Han Su-Yeong left .
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The cracks in the skies were growing larger . It was like seeing the first signs of a world coming to an end .
"Yi Hyeon-Seong, have you memorised the exercise routine yet?"
He looked behind to discover Private first-cla.s.s Yu Jung-Hyeok .
"Private second cla.s.s Yi Hyeon-Seong! I"ve memorised everything!"
"You"ve filled up the army-issue canteen, too?"
"I"ve filled it up with exactly two litres!"
Yi Hyeon-Seong felt a bit scared by that pair of sharp, angry eyes . He hadn"t made any mistakes, yet they remained critical .
"What about the barracks code of conduct?"
"P-Private second cla.s.s Yi Hyeon-Seong!! T-that, I haven"t . . . . !"
The moment he said that, he inwardly went, oops, I"ll get scolded again . He swallowed nervously and just as he tried to squeeze his eyes shut, heard Yu Jung-Hyeok"s voice .
"You should be able to memorise it soon . It"s not that long, anyway . "
" . . . . Pardon? Ah, you must"ve heard me wrong . No, I have not . . . !"
Advertis.e.m.e.ntWhat on earth was going on here? He made two consecutive mistakes just now, yet Yu Jung-Hyeok didn"t criticise him .
Not only that, those scary eyes were no longer angry when looking back at Yi Hyeon-Seong .
"I will be s.h.i.+pping out tomorrow . "
" . . . . I don"t quite follow, senior?"
"Yi Hyeon-Seong, you can"t refer to the field manual on everything . You won"t find a senior willing to aid you every single time . "
Why was this?
Why did Private first-cla.s.s Yu Jung-Hyeok"s back turning around to leave feel so familiar to him?
"There will come a time when you must make a choice not found within the manual . "
Those were the last words left behind by the Private first-cla.s.s Yu Jung-Hyeok .

*

Members of the squad began disappearing one by one . First, it was Captain Han Su-Yeong, Private first cla.s.s Yu Jung-Hyeok, followed by Lieutenant Yu Sang-Ah . When he regained his wits, the non-commissioned officer, Sergeant first cla.s.s Jeong Hui-Won had become the squad"s top presiding commander . (Even though the situation made no sense, Yi Hyeon-Seong told himself it couldn"t be helped because it was emergency . )
Yi Hyeon-Seong"s daily tasks after performing the morning and evening roll call were to check the base"s infrastructure or accompany Sergeant Kim Dok-Ja to the barracks" library .
"The military nowadays even stock wuxia novels? Wow, this is a really old book, too . "
Kim Dok-Ja loved books . Actually, it went beyond a simple love affair – he was the kind of a man who spent the whole day reading books .
Yi Hyeon-Seong would sit next to him and quietly observe him excitedly flip the pages .
"Don"t you want to read, too?"
"Uh, no, I, I"m . . . . "
Before Yi Hyeon-Seong could reply, yet another boom spread out from the sky .
Kim Dok-Ja"s expression faintly hardened .
When the boom was heard for the first time four days ago, Captain Han Su-Yeong went away, and after the second boom two days ago, Private first cla.s.s Yu Jung-Hyeok disappeared next .
Yi Hyeon-Seong grew restless .
"Kim Dok-Ja Sergeant-nim . "
"Ng?"
"By any chance, are you also leaving, sir?"
People were leaving him behind . He was continuously losing something .
Kim Dok-Ja smirked softly . "Probably . I"m a sergeant already . I gotta get discharged soon . I"m definitely not planning to make a career out of this place . "
" . . . . . I see . "
"You also want to get out of here as soon as possible, right?"
Yi Hyeon-Seong was about to reply with, "Yes, I do", but then, his eyes suddenly caught the sight of barbed-wire fences outside the windows . They looked so st.u.r.dy and intimidating .
Why did he feel this, though? He felt fearful of going outside those fences .
"I . . . . "
If he carelessly went beyond the fences, he"d definitely get hurt . However, they would become barriers protecting him as long as he stayed inside .
When he thought like that, he felt his heart calm down .
The skies were falling . There was an unknown world outside where code of conduct for living in barracks or the military gymnastics exercise held no meaning .
He s.h.i.+fted his gaze back to discover Kim Dok-Ja staring at him . The sergeant"s lips bobbed up and down as if he wanted to say something, but then, a sly grin suddenly formed on his lips . "Hey, if you wish to leave, you better read more books, man . "
" . . . . Will reading lots of books reduce the period of active service?"
Kim Dok-Ja"s lips twitched after hearing that question . "Reading a book and writing a report on it might be enough to get you a vacation . "
A book report?
"See, there will be a book report contest being held within our division . Read that and apply for it . If yours get picked, you"ll get time-off as a prize . "
The noticeboard Kim Dok-Ja pointed at had a poster advertising the army"s book report contest . Yi Hyeon-Seong learned for the first time that such a thing existed .
Ah, so it was true, this book report thing . If he wrote that, he"d be able to earn some time off the base .
"When you"re finished, you gotta let me read it, okay?"
It was after the following morning"s roll call that sergeant Kim Dok-Ja had vanished .

*

"It"s only us two remaining, so who cares about daily tasks?"
Sergeant first cla.s.s Jeong Hui-Won grumbled loudly .
Yi Hyeon-Seong smiled sheepishly and pulled out weeds growing near the base . "Well, we don"t know what might happen, ma"am . The squad leader might suddenly return, and . . . . "
Jeong Hui-Won sat on a bench and while resting her chins on her hands, watched Yi Hyeon-Seong as if he was a mysterious new lifeform .
"Do you like this place?"
The usual Sergeant first cla.s.s wouldn"t have used such a tone of voice . However, her voice still managed to elicit this inexplicable sense of longing in him .
Maybe it was that longing allowing him to reply honestly right away .
"It"s neither like or dislike, ma"am . "

A place that he neither liked or disliked . That was exactly what Yi Hyeon-Seong"s impression on the "military" was .
"Except that, I don"t have to think about anything while I"m here . "
That"s right – that was the reason why he chose the army .
While he was here, he could forget about the outside world . Employment, enrolment, gazes of others, issues of the outside world, family affairs, dilemmas he could never solve no matter what he did .
" . . . . But then, I"ve been thinking lately that I kind of like it here . "
What did he exactly like about this place, anyway? He couldn"t describe it properly .
⸢"I like you . "⸥
And why did his heart ache so much?
Sergeant first cla.s.s Jeong Hui-Won looking straight at him suddenly spoke up . "In that case, you stay here, Yi Hyeon-Seong . Wait for us until we come back . "
He couldn"t reply with "I didn"t quite catch you" .
Because he simply couldn"t mishear what she was saying .
"We"ll protect your world . "
The moment he wanted to say something, blinding rays of light poured down from the sky, and the Sergeant first cla.s.s Jeong Hui-Won disappeared from his view .
Ku-dududu . . . .
Before anyone had noticed it, the cracks in the skies had already swallowed up half of the heavens .
And so, Yi Hyeon-Seong became alone .

*

Just what am I doing?
Is this place really an army base?
The army that I knew is . . . . .

Yi Hyeon-Seong repeated his daily tasks and continued to protect the base with no one in it . He woke up at the fixed time, did his roll call, and did the military gymnastics routine . After that, he finished disciplining his mind and began his daily tasks .
However, he had no more things to do now . He even finished pulling out all the weeds found in the base yesterday .
" . . . . The book report . "
He belatedly recalled Kim Dok-Ja"s words .
He was told to write a report . To read a book, and write his report on it .
Yi Hyeon-Seong went up to the barracks" library . As if to let the world know that Kim Dok-Ja used to be here, there was a pile of books gathered up on that spot .
He reached out to the book on top of that pile, all the while sensing this strange feeling . The book itself was a familiar one .

⸢The Wizard of Oz, ver . 999⸥

Even he had heard of this book"s name from somewhere . However, he had never read it before . Yi Hyeon-Seong flipped the cover open and began reading the first sentence .

⸢The tin soldier was scared of having a heart . ⸥

A tin soldier, was it? It must"ve been the Wizard of Oz"s protagonist . He continued to flip through the pages .

⸢The first comrade the tin soldier met was a really scary man . The tin soldier called him "Captain" . ⸥

The moment he read that line, his head pulsed in pain . Captain?

⸢The tin soldier then became comrades with a beautiful angel . When that angel became angry, she"d often morph into a devil . ⸥

For some reason, his heart ached when he read those lines .

⸢The tin soldier became comrades with a warrior wearing thick armour . The warrior used his own sword to test out the tin soldier"s strength now and then . ⸥

Why, why did it feel like this description would come to life right before his eyes at any second?

⸢The tin soldier became comrades with a dragon spitting out fearsome flames . The dragon sometimes acted like a nuisance, too . ⸥

But, I"ve never met an existence like that before?

⸢And then, a demon king coming from another world stole away what was most precious to them . ⸥

Every time he read a sentence, all sorts of chaotic scenes and screams flitted in and out of his vision . He was unfamiliar with those spectacles . Even then, Yi Hyeon-Seong"s entire body s.h.i.+vered .
He couldn"t understand it . He didn"t get what this story was about .
He simply didn"t get what the author was trying to convey .
Worse still, he couldn"t understand why tears were welling up in his eyes .

⸢And at the end of this story, the tin soldier realised what the aching in his heart was . ⸥

⸢That aching eventually became his heart . ⸥

As soon as he read that line, Yi Hyeon-Seong recalled it .
I too once had comrades like them .

⸢"I"d love to hear your story, Hyeon-Seong-ssi, when all these tragedies come to an end and our stories are no longer treated as scenarios . "⸥

The first comrade was a polite and warm person . Everyone followed his lead .

⸢"Until then, everyone being safe is the utmost priority . "⸥

The second comrade was a kind person . Everyone believed her words to be correct .

⸢"No, hang on . It"s more important that everyone survives, even at the cost of one person . Of course, that "one person" must be Kim Dok-Ja . That fool knows how to come back from being dead, anyway . "⸥

The third comrade was a wise person . Everyone thought that the strategies she cooked up will succeed .

⸢"No one will die . Leave this place to me and go . "⸥

The fourth comrade was a powerful person . Everyone could entrust their backs to him .

⸢"You know, Mister Hyeon-Seong . If I ever forget about you, then . . . "⸥

And, the fifth comrade was . . .

⸢"… . Then, please kill me . "⸥

His memories were coming back to him . Slowly, so very slowly, his heart began beating . So slowly, yet with a distinctive feeling, each beat did its very best to emphasize that they were hurting this way, that this was where such ache existed .
How could he have ever forgotten about them?
Yi Hyeon-Seong clenched his fists, his body s.h.i.+vering away . He shouldn"t be in this place .
He looked up at the skies outside the windows . The cracks of the skies had covered the entirety of the heavens by now . It became rather clear where his companions had gone off to .
They went away to protect this world he was stuck in . All the while facing off against the calamities that measly North Korea couldn"t even compare to .
⸢Yi Hyeon-Seong thought to himself . "Do I possess such powers?"⸥

[Constellation, "Master of Steel", is looking at you . ]

His Sponsor was now looking at him .
Tsu-chut, tsu-chuchuchut!!
However, something felt different from before . It must"ve been his Sponsor, yet there was a slight, vague difference in the gaze he sensed .

[Constellation, "Master of Steel" asks if you"re hurting . ]

Yi Hyeon-Seong nodded his head .
⸢This emotion, this heart, I wish to protect it . ⸥
He was scared . Scared of forgetting this moment again, scared of his heart stop beating again . Scared of everything freezing up within the cold silvery light .
It was then, his Sponsor spoke to him . [[You can protect it . ]]
His voice resembled forged steel, tempered for tens of thousands of years .
[[However, you may end up in agony for all eternity as the consequences of failing to protect it . ]]
"Even then, it"s fine . It"s better than not even having a chance to protect them . "
He was only familiar with the things he had lost already . The important part was about not losing them again .
[[Your name is the Emperor of Steelsword . ]]
He saw the barbed wire fences in the distance crumble away . The world of manuals he had been protecting was disappearing .
Yi Hyeon-Seong stepped forward, towards his own story .

*

"Dok-Jssi . "
We were currently protecting the crumbling .
With the decline of the Fables of the Master of Steel, and the ⸢the Wizard of Oz⸥, "s anti-air defence system was crumbling down .
I could see hundreds of battles.h.i.+ps surrounding Oz . We shared our strength and protected the planet with a hole in it from that armada .
Even then, we were reaching our limit .
The other side relied mainly on the long-range attacks from their s.h.i.+ps . The only methods we had of defending against that effectively were Yi Ji-Hye"s [Turtle Dragon], and s.h.i.+n Yu-Seung"s [Chimera Dragon] .
The problem here was that neither Yi Ji-Hye"s vessel and s.h.i.+n Yu-Seung"s dragon had fully recovered from the damages incurred during the "Great War of Saints and Demons" .
We originally came here to address that issue, but this . . .
"The anti-air defence will be rendered powerless soon!"
We got ready for the final showdown .
Jeong Hui-Won asked . "Still can"t contact any other Constellations?"
"Something bad must"ve happened . "
It was likely that these guys attacking us were involved in that .
Han Su-Yeong grumbled loudly . "You really aren"t going to regret this? Should we really be doing this?"
I nodded my head . "Yi Hyeon-Seong always fought for us in the frontlines . It"s our turn to repay that debt . "
My companions agreed with me .
Yu Jung-Hyeok was currently on top of the tallest building on the planet, while Jeong Hui-Won was emitting powerful Status that didn"t lose out to anyone, her resolve firm, unwavering .
⸢We"ll believe in Yi Hyeon-Seong . ⸥
I wasn"t sure exactly how much time we could buy here . Just that, I could only pray it was enough for Yi Hyeon-Seong .
"Incoming!"
Kboooooom!!
Hundreds of battles.h.i.+ps in the distance spat out flames simultaneously . Magical sh.e.l.ls, their numbers more than enough to utterly decimate a planet in its entirety, rained down .
We unleashed all of our Statuses . We needed to withstand this wave of attack no matter what .
After gathering all of our magical . . .
Right next moment .
A vast silvery light suddenly enveloped the whole world .
The enormous protective barrier made out of Fable metal spread out among the heavens . Through the semi-transparent barrier, I saw the sh.e.l.ls of the battles.h.i.+ps powerlessly explode on the outside .
"Being left alone in a place like that was not a happy experience, you know . "
This was not the Fable of ⸢the Wizard of Oz⸥ . No, it was a new type of Fable, with a somewhat different origin .
⸢In that world, he was referred to as the Emperor of Steelsword . ⸥
Kwkwakwakwa!!
Chills ran down my spine .
Steam covered the entire planet . Metals spreading out like a giant tree"s branches began blanketing the surface of the planet itself .
This was the hardest material found in , the only Fable metal capable of dealing with the Myth-grade Constellation"s frightening weapons .

[A large number of Constellations are astonished by the scale of this Fable!]

And here it was, the Stigma powerful enough to completely envelop a planet with that metal . That was the anti-air defence system that the planet proudly boasted, the [Last Steel] .
"Captain Yi Hyeon-Seong from the Giant Monsters Special Command, reporting . "
The man I was familiar with, blessed a height taller than Yu Jung-Hyeok"s, and boasting the st.u.r.diest body .
"I have been discharged from the active service today . "
Stars of the skies could be seen staggering back now .

[Constellations from Nebula are astonished by the revival of the "Master of Steel"!]

And now, it was the time for the counterattack .

Fin .