Chapter 3 (1/2)

Doctor of the Demon World Chapter 3

<fortress of=”” the=”” believers=”” -1-=””>

It was the same as one month ago.

The blinding flash subsided after waiting, and s.h.i.+-Hyeok cautiously opened his eyes.

The sky, like a magic circle drawn on black paper, came into view first.

After that he saw the buildings. The rampart was standing straight, and here and there pointed towers were in rows. With swords and bucklers, the infantry wearing armor was standing atop the ramparts. A giant, stone statue also stood high.

He quickly studied his surroundings.

He thought it might be in the middle of a battle, but the situation was not so. At least from what he had scanned.

It was then.

A voice hard to express with words rang out from someplace deep within his consciousness.

[Go that way.]

That way?

There was no need to ask where it was. That ringing was filled with urgency; it was apparent where s.h.i.+-Hyeok needed to go.

Not just the direction, which route to go by and even how far he needed to go.

Should he say it was like something he had known since long before.

s.h.i.+-Hyeok felt surprise and terror at the same time. With the feeling that he must move hastily, he began to move on the path that arose in his mind. As he wasn’t very fit, even when he hadn’t run much, he began to pant.

What in the world could this be?

Even while holding onto many questions, he ran endlessly.

Once he pa.s.sed through the castle gates there were very vast fields. The ripe wheat was laid out without an end to be seen. As he pa.s.sed the wheat fields this time huge hills obstructed s.h.i.+-Hyeok’s path.

“You’re joking, telling me to climb that path?”

s.h.i.+-Hyeok looked at the hills and grumbled.

But the command given previously had a tone of absoluteness in it. It was possible to hesitate a little or go backwards slightly, but in the end, it was necessary that he follow the command.

Helpless, he started to ascend the mountain. Thankfully, there was a road paved with rocks, and it wasn’t difficult.

On top of the mountain there was a fortress. Thick ramparts enclosed it, and atop a high tower a magic defence armament was mounted.

s.h.i.+-Hyeok unreservedly went inside.

“Oh, a new doctor?”

A middle-aged man saw s.h.i.+-Hyeok and greeted him with a smile.

He was wearing a white, long gown. The gown had a hood attached to it and covered him from head to toe.

It was the same as the clothes s.h.i.+-Hyeok was wearing now.

It seemed like the man was also a doctor.

s.h.i.+-Hyeok bowed his head lightly.

“I am glad to meet you. I am called Choi s.h.i.+-Hyeok.”

“Glad to meet you as well. Call me Groyin. If we had met at some other place we could have had a better story of how we met, however that cannot be the case and it is a shame. Follow me, as the fighting will begin soon.”

The place Groyin led s.h.i.+-Hyeok was a single building located at the rear of the fortress.

Field hospital it was approximately like. Inside the two story building, white beds were arranged tightly. It was an infinitely better situation than when they had only laid the wounded on blankets.

After going inside, Groyin turned to look at s.h.i.+-Hyeok.

“The number of doctors in this fortress is five including you. Three people on the second floor, two people on the first floor is how it’s arranged. While our job is to treat the wounded, moving the ones that can’t be managed by us two to the second floor is one more duty.”

Workers were moving about in the infirmary and inside this building. Wearing rustic trousers with suspenders and blue s.h.i.+rts, they were unsophisticated-looking people.

Unable to belong to the army, these were people without whom it would be impossible to gather resources and construct buildings.

s.h.i.+-Hyeok questioned each one as he caught sight of them.

“Are there wounded that we can’t handle?”

It was a reasonable question.

Since, in his previous experience, if they were only breathing, whatever wound they had could be treated easily.

No. They weren’t all like that.

The patient whose body had caught on fire.

He had been unable to treat that patient. Rather, s.h.i.+-Hyeok’s treatment had become poison and, in the blink of an eye, the patient had lost his life.

Groyin looked at s.h.i.+-Hyeok with a queer expression.

“You, I guess you don’t yet seem to have much experience in Argus? What is your rank?”

“Rank? What is that? And what is Argus?”

“Well, well…”

Groyin clicked his tongue.

“It doesn’t seem like this is the first time you’ve been summoned? Well, I will explain since it seems we have some time to spare.”

This very strange and unidentified world s.h.i.+-Hyeok had been summoned to was Argus.

He was told it was originally a beautiful world where life had blossomed and civilization had been developed. But by some event, the entire planet was fragmented. At that moment the G.o.ds used their own existence to maintain the planet of Argus, and if they hadn’t done so, the planet certainly would have met its end. Even so, because they could not perfectly negate the apocalypse, the planet was, even now, marching towards its end.

And so the G.o.ds had managed an immense feat.

They had summoned all of the beings in this world.

Those who had been summoned competed against each other, and this rivalry became their livelihood. The more cutthroat that process became, it created powerful energy that could restore the planet of Argus.

s.h.i.+-Hyeok c.o.c.ked his head.

“You’re saying that energy is created when those who are summoned fight each other? How strange. It would seem that summoning and whatever else would consume energy.”

“I do not know the exact circ.u.mstances. However, I am very certain there has been an effect. Argus has much improved from earlier days. Do you see that over there?”

Groyin pointed at the sky.

Beyond the sky which was engraved with a white grid pattern, something like small stars could be seen.

At a glance, the planet was similar to the Earth, but there was a significant difference.

It was in a fractured state.

One half maintained its original shape, but the other half was unrecognizably broken. Shattered into a thousand pieces, the shards drifted, suspended in the vacuum of s.p.a.ce.

Groyin spoke as he gazed at those stars.

“Even at the time when the fighting began, it was said to have been grave. Since the planet of Argus was completely shattered. It has improved a bit now. Because the natives are living in sacred precincts that are owned by the lands or immortals protected by the G.o.ds.”

“But is there a reason for those who are summoned to fight like this? If they were just people like me, it seems they would merely hide somewhere.”

“There is. The victors in this compet.i.tion may win the right to become the G.o.ds of the restored Argus. Even if they were to refuse that right, they would be able to have great power in their own world. If they became a hero, they would be able to have even a small amount of that great power in their home world, even if they had been a n.o.body previously. In Argus, it seems like a small thing, but it is different in their home worlds. One could think that their lives become battle-tested. In any case, there is no right to choose, anyways.”

Of course, there wasn’t an absence of risk altogether.

If a person dies while fighting on the battlefield, generally there are no consequences. This is because the G.o.ds’ power protects the summoned.

However, that was not always the case. Once in a while the influence would affect someone. Those influences were sometimes positive and sometimes negative, but it was only when there was a negative influence that it would be problematic.

They could develop a disease that caused them to be unable to see or hear, or they could outright become a monster.

Hearing all this, there was one fact that s.h.i.+-Hyeok became aware of.