“KUH-HK, KUH-HUHHK...!”

The doctor started rolling on the floor.

The way it thrashed in pain was similar to before, but—

there was a difference.

If, just moments ago, that body had been collapsing...

now, that body looked perfectly normal.

“Does it hurt.”

{...It does.}

“Why does it hurt so much?”

Even so, for it to be suffering like that...

it was probably—

{The brothers I couldn’t save... their faces keep coming back to me.}

Pain of the mind.

“That’s all?”

At my words, its body began to tremble.

{After I left my homeland... I wandered across many lands and carried out experiments. And in the process... those used in my experiments were crying out in pain.}

“Of course they were.”

{And when I remember how I could do something so horrific and feel nothing... I can’t breathe.}

This pain—

was the very pain that had once driven it right up to death’s threshold.

I’d fixed its body.

But I hadn’t solved the cause of that mental pain—only made it able to feel that pain again.

Which meant...

the cause of the pain that had pushed it toward death, that heavy guilt itself, was still there.

And.

“I’m not going to fix that for you, too.”

If this had been a little while ago...

the moment I decided it would be useful to me, I might’ve tried to resolve that guilt as well.

There were plenty of ways.

But.

“Honestly, you don’t want that either, do you.”

{...That’s right.}

My thinking was a little different now.

This isn’t something that should be solved at my level.

Doing that might make things look neat and clean for now, sure.

But if something similar happened later—

I couldn’t be certain I’d be in a position to solve it again then, too.

{But then... what am I supposed to do, Legion Commander.}

“......”

{Is there truly no answer... other than being crushed under this pain and dying...}

At that, I shrugged and answered lightly.

“What do you mean, what do you do. You carry it.”

{...}

“What big method do you think there is? You can’t rip the past apart and rewrite it. You just... carry it and live.”

{But... I lost everything. All I have left is these painful memories... How am I supposed to live while holding only this...}

It wasn’t an easy question, but.

Luckily.

There was one thing I could tell it.

“Then live while atoning.”

{Atoning?}

“That guilt of yours isn’t something you can just step over and move on. What you did is your responsibility... and paying for it is something you have to do, too. Dying on the spot is just throwing that responsibility away.”

{And how... am I supposed to atone...}

Tap.

I sat down in front of it, met its eyes, and said—

“You know this already, but our world is walking a similar road to yours. The process might be different... but we’re steadily, faithfully taking one step at a time toward ruin.”

{...Meaning.}

“Help us.”

It had been honest with me.

So if I was going to ask it for something...

I needed to ask honestly.

“I’m the same as you.”

{...}

“I’m trying to resist the ruin that’s closing in on this land in my own way... but the result is a mess. I’m not beating ruin—I’m barely surviving day to day, and I almost died because I couldn’t even beat you... that’s how pathetic it is.”

It resembled me.

If there was a difference—

“But.”

In the end, it had failed.

And I still...

“have a chance.”

{...}

“Help us so we don’t go through a pointless ruin.”

Of course.

“But I’ll promise you one thing in return.”

I’m not enough of a bastard to make a request like this with no conditions.

“Under me, you won’t go through a meaningless death like that.”

{...!}

“Even if we fail... I’ll make sure it’s never something that feels meaningless in the end.”

At that, it asked in a shrinking, frightened expression—

{That’s... a lie...}

“No. I swear it on my name.”

As I said that, I reached a hand out toward it.

{Then...}

And then...

{I, who once betrayed the master I used to serve... will now serve you instead.}

It...

took the hand I held out and said—

{My new faith.}

***

‘...Faith?

I feel like I just heard a weird word at the end, but...

whatever.

“Then we’re comrades now.”

It...

had declared it would help us.

{Yes. I will do my best to be of help, even if my strength is foolish.}

This was a massive change.

Its overwhelming medical skill would be a huge help to our unit.

And more than anything—

“You said you carried out experiments while wandering across multiple worlds, right.”

{Yes.}

“...I want to hear that story in detail later, too.”

The knowledge it had—

would be a big help for us surviving on this land.

{...I’m not sure how much help it can truly be. My body is frail. I’m in a position where I cannot leave this place.}

“Oh, I’ll take care of that.”

{Pardon?}

With those words, I grabbed it where it lay collapsed on the floor, hauled it upright, and supported its body.

{W-What are you doing?}

“What do you think. We’re going outside.”

{What...!}

It recoiled in shock at my words.

{I don’t know what method you used to temporarily stop my body’s decay, but it is impossible to keep blocking it!}

“Huh? Is it?”

{Even I, who specializes in medicine, can’t possibly...!}

“Now you say that.”

At that,

I gave a light laugh.

“Then why do you think you can touch my body right now and be fine?”

{...That is.}

“Don’t «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» worry about that part too much. You’re not the first case I’ve dealt with.”

I was certain.

Right now, it was in a state where its resistance to illness had temporarily increased because of the healthy meal I fed it.

Which, flipped around, meant the moment my cooking’s effect ended, that resistance would vanish too, but—

—I remembered a conversation I’d had with Howard in Gyeonggi not long ago.

—Starting healthy meals out of nowhere didn’t make someone healthy in a single day. And eating unhealthy food didn’t usually make someone collapse the very next day, either. The nature of cooking as we knew it wasn’t a short-term change—it was a long-term change.

The nature of cooking—

was long-term change, not short-term recovery.

“Sure, if it’s just straightforward treatment, that might be your specialty. It’s practically impossible for me to catch you there. But....”

If it couldn’t consume my cooking periodically right now, it would be thrown back into a death crisis like last time.

But if it ate my healthy meals long-term...

and that healthy food became what its body was made of—

“Long-term health management is a cook’s specialty.”

{Cooking...}

Just like Seo Suhyeok’s mental problem had improved by taking my cooking long-term...

someday, it too would become a body that could overcome this world’s filth by its own power.

Not through some extreme method like evolution...

but through dietary therapy—

a truly healthy method.

“Worry about something else. We’ve got a lot to do from here on.”

After I took it to the vimana, even introducing it there would be work.

‘There are already unit members who’ve learned about the vampires.’

Right now, there was a lot of information I’d been keeping to myself and hiding from the unit members.

But not anymore.

From here on, I was going to start disclosing the information I had to the unit members.

There was so much shocking content that I’d need to control the pace so they didn’t take too big of a hit...

but in the end, I would lay it all out.

‘So that even if I’m absent, the unit members can judge for themselves and resolve a crisis.’

And...

‘That applies to this thing as well.’

I had no intention of hiding its past wrongs from the unit members.

I’d tell them what it had done.

And then I’d have to see if it could be acknowledged for still trying to atone.

{...The sins I committed are far beyond imagination. If it weren’t for your request, I would be crushed under that guilt and die on the spot.}

“Yeah... I figured.”

Honestly.

I’d expected it ever since it calmly recited that it was the one who finished off the last survivor of Seoul.

{Revealing all those sins and still being accepted... I doubt it will be easy.}

“It definitely won’t be easy.”

At that, I shrugged lightly and said—

“But after you get through that hard process, you’ll be able to become a true member of our unit.”

{...}

“Come on. Let’s work hard together.”

{...Yes.}

...By the way.

“Why are you suddenly speaking so politely? Talk the way you were.”

{Yes...? Is that allowed?}

Ah.

So now that it had become my subordinate, it thought it needed to be respectful, was that it?

“Your usual tone is what I’m used to. I think that’s better.”

{I-If you say so... then I will.}

And.

It’s kind of random to say this now, but—

“...Come to think of it, I don’t think we’ve even introduced ourselves yet. My name is Shin Youngjun. What’s yours?”

{...I’m called Luca.}

Luca.

“Okay. Luca, looking forward to working with you.”

Yeah.

We’d only just finally exchanged introductions.

In that Legion, it would come to learn much more from here on.

Like that, I climbed up to the surface while chatting with it about random things.

***

Getting up to the surface wasn’t easy.

Especially with this thing next to me being physically beyond frail—worse than a skeleton.

No matter how small it was, I still had to climb up through a hole while carrying what was basically a child.

Normally, that wouldn’t have been easy, but—

[Assistant Chef]

Luckily, it didn’t look like I’d need to crawl up that hole myself.

When I climbed onto the big griddle plate for iron-plate cooking with Luca on my back, the plate lifted on its own and began rising toward the hole above.

‘My mana’s hanging by a thread, though.’

Moving while riding Assistant Chef burns a lot of mana.

And it wasn’t just me—there were two of us on it, so of course the consumption doubled.

It was only manageable because thanks to the treatment I’d gotten not long ago, my mana efficiency itself had increased.

If not, I would’ve had to crawl up that hole the hard way.

Still.

As I headed toward the surface like that, somehow—

DING.

Words appeared before my eyes.

[You have achieved an achievement!]

[Achievement - Chef of Evolution.]

‘Ah.’

[Through cooking, you succeeded in correcting evolution that was achieved in a misaligned direction, and guiding it in a more proper direction!]

[As a result, the death fate that had been definitively imposed on the target is altered, and the possibility for gradual healing has been opened.]

[This is a great achievement worthy of being recorded on a page of myth.]

[You are granted a reward for this great achievement!]