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“Mnn…”

Ian stirred, feeling the numbness in his arm.

The pain in his shoulder was completely gone. It seemed that the mana had healed him just like the system said it would before he had fainted.

It was a relief. If it wasn't for them, he could have died or completely lost the use of his left arm.

I didn’t think those guys who could use mana could heal like this…

He wasn't surprised with this world or himself anymore; he had naturally come to terms with things.

How ironic.

The same applied here; the wound from the magic missile attack had been healed by mana.

Ian raised his head to look at his arm. It was still numb.

“Pfft.”

He chuckled.

Gionelle, the girl he had rescued, was sleeping on his arm. It appeared as though she fell asleep while watching Ian late into the night.

Ian carefully tugged his arm out, holding on to her while he laid her back down where she slept.

He felt relieved seeing her sleep peacefully. Ian stroked the child's hair once and left the room.

"Ian! You're awake?"

"I have just woken, Senior Jamie."

Jamie was the only woman in Squad 8.

Although she was an archer, her position was a long-range dealer, like Ian.

"So stiff. Just call me Noona¹.”

“…”

She was one of the Squad 8 members who was standoffish when Ian first arrived. 

He paused momentarily, not knowing how to respond to her completely different persona.

Jamie didn’t pay attention to him and put her hand around his shoulder.

"Forget it if you’re not comfortable."

"I will call you Noonim²."

"Yeah, yeah. If you call me Senior, it sounds like I'm older. Anyway… Hamilton’s looking for you."

"The Section Commander is?”

"Yeah. We can't let this incident slide. It’s absolutely unforgivable that something like this happened within our domain." She said as she tapped Ian's chest.

The gesture didn’t make him feel uncomfortable, but since Jamie was the first person to act this way toward him, he ended up flinching slightly.

"What the…? Why does a man have one of these?”

Jamie shrugged and lowered her arm from Ian's shoulder.

"How are we planning to handle this case if we’re not letting this go?”

"From what I heard, we’re going to gather some information from the Green Orc Village and then beat the crap out of that sorcerer."

Ian bobbed his head at Jamie's reply.

There was nothing more to be asked. If the Devil Platoon were intent on capturing the sorcerer, they would be able to.

Had Ian swung his sword just a second faster, he might’ve been able to catch him.

"By the way, is your shoulder all right?"

"I think it's okay. For starters… it doesn't hurt."

"I was utterly shocked. The wound had almost healed entirely after about 12 hours since you passed out. We didn't use that many potions on you either.”

"Potions work on me well. Haha."

"I did hear there were people like that, but it's amazing."

Since Ian couldn’t tell the truth, he made something up, but Jamie seemed to genuinely believe him.

In fact, it would make the most sense for her to. There were a minority of individuals for whom the potion’s effects would be more potent on them than other people.

The two of them chatted about all sorts of things, and before he knew it, they were entering Hamilton's room.

"I heard you called for me."

"It's been two days since you arrived... but you've done quite interesting work, Private."

“…”

"You went to the Demonic Forest to collect Orc ears, didn’t you?”

"Yes."

"So, how many did you get?"

Ian took four ears out of his chest pocket.

Hamilton laughed gleefully.

"Hahaha. To think that you collected four ears and saved a child within that short time frame. We sure got an impressive recruit on our hands. I can see why you said something so arrogant.”

"I apologize if I offended you."

"No, no. Don’t say sorry. You know, I’m taking a real liking to you now. I believe the other squad members feel the same as well.” Hamilton said, glancing at Jamie.

Then he stared at the paper in front of him before he spoke again.

"The Commander told us to handle this incident by ourselves. Ian, it may be a bit difficult for you because of that shoulder injury, but... I’ll need your help until we finish this case."

"I will do my best." Ian answered at once.

It was evident that he wouldn't be able to collect all of the Orcs’ left ears if he helped with this case. However, that wasn't important. He, too, wanted to see this through to the end. Moreover, when he saw how Hamilton and Jamie reacted, acquiring all the ears seemed pointless now.

It feels like… I’ve already been accepted.

Ian grinned.

"Jamie, help Ian and find out the scale of the damage, then catch the sorcerer. It doesn't matter if you kill him or not; just make sure you capture him. He’s food for the monsters." Hamilton said, looking Jamie in the eye.

"Okay, when do we depart?”

"As soon as you're ready."

"I’ll be taking Gionelle with me, too, right?”

"Yeah. The child may have a hard time, so bring a lot of snacks."

"Got it! I'll bring all the snacks!" Jamie answered with exuberance. She patted Ian's shoulder, then turned around and left the room.

"Start packing immediately, and get ready to depart any moment now. I'll take care of the provisions and snacks for Gionelle, so grab your weapon and a two-person tent."

"Understood."

The platoon wasn’t that formal, and they didn’t uphold military discipline, but Ian liked it there quite a lot.

Ian was just as excited as Jamie was and smiled the whole time while packing their luggage.

He was looking forward to it greatly since he had never been to an actual village yet.

***

Ian was walking along a ragged dirt road with Jamie and Gionelle.

It took two days to reach Green Orc Village, the nearest village from their platoon, on foot. As a result, Ian unintentionally had to run errands for two days. He couldn’t order his senior, Jamie, to do something, and letting Gionelle do work was out of the question.

“Oppa³, Oppa. Look at that.”

Gionelle kept following Ian around. He found her cute. Despite the huge crisis, he was proud of her for not being hindered by it or losing her cheerfulness.

"Wait a minute. Let me do this first." Ian said as he tore up the beef jerky into tiny pieces for Gionelle then put them in the water.

The jerky was pretty tough, so it was a little difficult for a child to eat.

It's tough for me, too.

The beef jerky was a tad different from the one he had in South Korea. It was salty and hard. Ian almost spit it out when he had first tried it.

Then what about the child, Gionelle?

"Gionelle, here’s beef jerky."

"Oh, thank you for the food!"

Gionelle took it and put it right into her mouth. Then she raised her hand and pointed to the huge tree in front of her.

"Look at that over there."

"What about it?"

"That tree looks like the one around my village."

“Really?”

Ian was pleased to hear that. Although Gionelle said they only looked alike, considering how much distance they walked, they were likely going to come across that same tree around Green Orc Village soon.

We're almost there, Ian thought before turning to Gionelle.

"Gionelle."

"Yeah?"

"Why is the village’s name Green Orc Village?”

"Um... because there are many Orcs around? Actually, I don't know either. My dad said so."

Ian chuckled at her response and patted her head. Gionelle smiled, walking happily.

"It's because it's hard to memorize the villages’ names if they’re complex. That's why they used their features for naming." Jamie explained from the side.

As soon as he heard her explanation, Ian could understand the reasoning behind the village’s name. Like Jamie said, it wasn’t easy to remember the names if they were complicated. Hence it was better to keep it as simple as possible by using the village’s features for naming. This was likely the reason why their village was named that since monsters frequently roamed around there.

It was a pretty simple world.

"How many villages pop up and disappear? You can't use complex names."

Ian didn't say a word to Jamie’s response. Her practicality and bluntness made him glance at Gionelle.

Perhaps it was because she was always on the border between life and death. The child didn't seem to care too much.

Seeing Gionelle’s lack of reaction made Ian feel as though he didn’t belong. It was so different from South Korea. While there were things that he could naturally accept, there were also things that still bothered him.

He sighed, shaking his head. He then looked toward the village which was gradually appearing.

It was the Green Orc Village.

However...

"Um… This seems like a huge problem…?”

The village was in shambles.

***

Ian and Jamie swiftly entered the village. 

It was in far worse condition than what they had seen from the outside. All the shabby barricades were broken, and half of the houses had collapsed.

"Is anyone there?" Ian shouted, searching for signs of people.

He sensed the energy of the wary villagers, and yet, no one was coming out.

Gionelle had turned pale and was silent, holding on to his hand tightly. Ian stuck by her side as he placed his hand on his sword.

"I've brought Gionelle back! Is no one here?"

He heard the hushed voices of the hiding villagers then. Soon enough, a middle-aged man appeared. He had a typical farmer's face, simple and honest.

"Gionelle? Is it really you, Gionelle?"

"D-Dad…!”

Gionelle let go of Ian's hand and ran to the man.

Ian let out a sigh of relief when he saw her reaction. He didn't know what he would’ve done if her parents had passed away.

The villagers, who had watched Gionelle return to her father’s embrace, also began to show themselves, one by one. However, while Gionelle was bawling, they remained on guard toward Ian and Jamie.

Jamie stepped forward and spoke up.

"I am Jamie from Squad 8 of the Devil Platoon. What happened here?” She asked, but the villagers stayed silent.

They didn’t speak for a while, so Ian, unable to wait any longer, also stepped forward.

"I am Ian, the one who got Gionelle out of the Demonic Forest. I am also with the Devil Platoon.”

He walked up to the villagers slowly.

Was it because he was the one who rescued Gionelle? The villagers were wary, but they did not move back.

"We need to know the situation in order to assist you. If you can share with us what you know, we'll do all that we can to help.”

At that moment, Gionelle scuttled to Ian and hugged him.

"G-Gionelle!"

Shocked, her father tried to catch her, but it was too late.

Ian smiled and gently patted Gionelle.

"My mom was taken… Waah… Are you really going to help?”

"Of course, I'll definitely save her.”

Ian lifted his pinky and made a promise with her and then raised his head to look at Gionelle’s father.

The man stared at Gionelle, exhaling before he spoke.

“It was the Orcs.”

Ian's brows furrowed at the unexpected reply.

Footnotes

¹누나 / Noona: A term used by males to call females “older sister,” regardless of whether they are related or not.

²누님 / Noonim: A term used by males to call females “older sister,” regardless of whether they are related or not. This is an honorific version. It is more commonly used for women much older than the speaker.

³오빠 / Oppa: A term used by females to call males “older brother,” regardless whether they are related or not.