Chapter 9

Chapter 9.

The next morning, on the training ground.

The dew that had fallen overnight had not yet dried, and a chill rose from the dirt floor. The bluish darkness before dawn still wrapped around the drill ground. The soldiers stood awkwardly in formation with half-asleep faces, white breath spilling from their mouths.

Rian stood at the very end of the line, quietly steadying his breathing.

Because of last night’s lonely training, his palms burned as if scalded. Beneath the peeled skin, a sharp, itching pain continued, as though new flesh were trying to grow. But he no longer focused on the pain. Rather, that pain felt like proof reminding him that he was alive, and that he had to fight.

Then Sergeant Kairon stepped out in front of the squad members. His battle-worn face held a tension sharper and heavier than usual.

“Attention.”

His low, cracked voice cut through the cold dawn air and rang across the drill ground. The shoulders of the soldiers still drunk with sleep flinched and stiffened.

“Today, our squad will carry out a mission to cut off an imperial supply route.”

At those words, a small stir ran through the soldiers. It was the moment the anxiety they had forcibly suppressed rose to the surface. The reality of being driven once again onto a battlefield where real death came and went, something on an entirely different level from training, pressed down on them.

‘Combat again…….’

Rian also felt his heart sink coldly, but outwardly, his expression did not change at all.

As if the soldiers’ agitation was of no concern to him, Kairon continued.

“The target is one of their supply wagons. A very simple mission. If we succeed, every one of you is guaranteed a sweet special leave.”

At the words “special leave,” the eyes of several soldiers sparkled, but most still could not hide their unease. Kairon’s gaze swept over those soldiers one by one like an eagle’s.

His gaze lingered briefly on Den.

Den did not avoid Kairon’s eyes. Instead, he proudly puffed out his chest. Ambition and impatience flashed blue in his eyes.

‘This time for sure…… I’ll show my real skill in front of that lucky coward.’

Last night, he had seen Rian’s back as he slipped out of the barracks into the darkness. The sight of him pretending to train had been laughable. Den firmly believed that what was needed on the battlefield was not such petty tricks, but real skill and courage.

Kairon’s gaze turned to Rian this time. The desperate and bizarre sight from last night, of him thrusting the spear beneath the moonlight until he bled, flickered before his eyes.

Rian merely stood silently. He did not even stir under Kairon’s gaze. But his heart had already sunk coldly.

‘An ambush on a supply route…… It’s dangerous. The intelligence might not be accurate, and unexpected variables may appear. But…… I have to survive.’

He had no choice. To survive, there was no path but to follow orders. And the battlefield, ironically, was the only place where the power he possessed manifested.

Kairon opened his mouth heavily.

“Check your equipment and move out in five minutes. Don’t let your mind wander. A wandering mind leads to death.”

After finishing those words, Kairon turned around, and the soldiers reluctantly began checking their equipment. Grumbling and sighs broke out here and there.

Den rubbed the blade of his spear against a sharpened whetstone and cast a contemptuous glance at Rian. He thought the lucky survivor had made noise all night, only to stand there with a frightened expression in the end.

Rian deliberately ignored Den’s gaze. He handled the blade of his old spear with numb fingers. The wound on his palm stung again, but he endured it silently. Only one thing mattered to him now: surviving the coming battle.

***

An hour had passed since they left the unit barracks.

The forest path leading toward imperial-occupied territory was gloomy and quiet. Leaves grew so thickly that there were many places where sunlight could not properly enter. The damp smell of earth and rotting fallen leaves stabbed his nose.

Rustle, rustle…….

Only the soldiers’ footsteps and the sound of armor brushing against itself broke the silence. Everyone moved with their mouths shut, walking under extreme tension.

Kairon, who had been walking at the head of the formation, suddenly stopped the line with a hand gesture. It was a concise and familiar signal that made no sound.

The soldiers immediately lowered their bodies by reflex and watched their surroundings. It was a trained movement, but within it lay fear of real battle.

Kairon turned back and mouthed in a whisper.

“The ambush point is ahead. From now on, don’t even breathe loudly. Move silently.”

The place his eyes indicated was a section where the narrow path curved sharply. On both sides of the road, bushes taller than a person and large trees stood densely packed. A narrow passage barely wide enough for a single wagon to pass. It was the optimal place for an ambush.

Kairon’s fingers moved quietly, assigning each of them a position. The soldiers nodded and scattered.

Rian took position behind a huge fallen old tree by the roadside, hollow on the inside. It was a natural hiding place that could conceal his body perfectly.

He carefully lowered himself and watched the road through a small gap in the rotten bark.

Thump, thump, thump.

His heart pounded as loudly as footsteps. Damp sweat seeped into his palms. He closed his eyes, inhaled very slowly, then exhaled for a long time. It was his own ritual for suppressing fear.

‘It’s all right. I can survive.’

The moment he chanted that to himself, a strange sensation swept across his whole body. As if announcing that battle was imminent, the [Basic Spearmanship] talent sleeping deep inside him began to stir faintly. His muscles warmed gently, and his nerves stood on edge. It had not fully manifested yet, but it crouched inside his body like a beast on the verge of waking.

A suffocating wait passed.

Other than birdsong and the sound of leaves brushing in the wind, nothing could be heard. That silence instead tightened the soldiers’ nerves like ropes.

How much time had passed?

……Step. Step.

From far away came a faint tremor through the ground. It was not simple footsteps. It was a heavy, regular sound made by several people walking while wearing heavy equipment.

Kairon immediately turned his palm downward and gave the signal to “wait.” Everyone held their breath.

Rian fixed his gaze on the gap between the wood grain. His pupils narrowed.

From around the bend in the road ahead, a soldier carrying a red flag engraved with the imperial emblem appeared.

Behind him, soldiers in gleaming armor appeared one after another, armed with long spears and swords. Each had a sturdy build, and their faces held the coldness of men accustomed to war.

‘It isn’t a wagon…… A reconnaissance unit?’

Rian instinctively counted their number quickly. One, two, three…… eight, nine, ten.

‘More than ten……!’

The expected escort for a supply wagon should have been five or six at most. But what appeared before them was a well-trained imperial regular reconnaissance unit, numbering far more than ten.

At the very front walked an unusually large noncommissioned officer, his face covered in scars, scanning the surroundings with experienced eyes like a snake. The sword at his waist was far longer and more threatening than those of the other soldiers.

‘Yorn.’ That was the nameplate engraved on his chest.

Confusion and tension spread among the squad members like waves. This level of force was not something they could handle.

‘Damn it, was the intelligence wrong?! Or is this a trap?!’

Kairon’s face hardened. He had to order an immediate retreat. But it was already too late.

The imperial reconnaissance unit had entered the very center of their ambush point perfectly. If they moved carelessly now, they could be discovered first and slaughtered.

Kairon had to make a decision in a split second. With the feeling of coughing blood, he clenched his fist tightly. It was the signal to attack. If they were going to be discovered anyway, causing confusion through a preemptive strike at least gave them a better chance of survival.

Swish! Thud!

At the signal, two arrows from allied archers hidden in the bushes flew with sharp sounds of cutting through the air. The arrows accurately lodged in the throats and chests of two imperial soldiers.

“Gaaah!”

As two soldiers collapsed with screams, the imperial formation fell into confusion in an instant.

“Ambush! Scatter!”

Yorn, the imperial sergeant, roared like a beast. There was no sign of panic in his shout. Rather, he was calm, as if he had expected this situation.

“Attack!”

Kairon’s shout immediately shook the forest. At the same time, Kaien soldiers hiding throughout the woods burst out with battle cries.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

The narrow path transformed in an instant into a scene of carnage reeking of death.

***

“For Kaien!”

Den was the first to charge out. His eyes blazed red with the desire to earn merit and the impatience to wash away his past humiliation.

He thrust his spear fiercely toward the nearest imperial soldier. His spearmanship, as an honor student from the training camp, was fairly sharp. The enemy soldier, flustered by the sudden surprise attack, was busy blocking hurriedly with his sword.

But Rian did not leap out from behind the old tree.

He remained hidden, calmly observing the situation of the battlefield. Fear was still there, but over that fear, an unfamiliar coldness was settling.

“Den, you idiot! Don’t break formation!”

Kairon shouted as if coughing blood. But to Den, intoxicated with victory, those words did not reach him. Focused only on pushing his opponent, he was moving farther and farther away from the allied formation.

Then something strange caught Rian’s eye.

‘It’s too easy…… The enemy is being pushed back too easily.’

The imperial soldier being driven back by Den appeared to be blocking desperately, but his movements were somehow unnatural. He was not fighting; he was intentionally luring Den deeper into the forest.

And Rian saw it. The cunning, cruel smile on the lips of Sergeant Yorn, who had been watching all of this from the rear of the enemy formation.

‘It’s a trap!’

Rian’s heart dropped with a thud.

At the very moment he sensed danger, Den stepped several paces farther into the forest to deliver a decisive blow and cut down his opponent.

Swish! Swish!

With eerie sounds, two imperial soldiers who had been quietly hiding in the bushes on both sides sprang out like ghosts and perfectly blocked Den’s retreat.

In an instant, Den was surrounded by three enemies.

“Ghk……!”

The confidence that had filled Den’s face vanished in an instant, replaced by bewilderment and cold fear. Blades pointed at him from every direction, tightening around his breath.

The veteran spearman of the squad, “Borik,” witnessed that sight.

Borik was a veteran soldier in his forties. His worn-out armor and rugged face were engraved with the experience of countless battlefields. Though he usually scolded the greenhorns, he was the sort of man who always looked after them at critical moments.

“Den!”

Borik shouted shortly and threw himself toward the encirclement without hesitation.

With experienced, heavy spearmanship, he roughly knocked away the attack of one soldier pressing Den. With his addition, a small crack formed in the encirclement.

‘I can’t let this greenhorn bastard die here!’

Thanks to Borik, Den barely gained a chance to breathe.

But at that very moment, Sergeant Yorn, who had been watching as if waiting for all of this, moved.

His movement was like a silent snake. While the other soldiers fought noisily, he quietly slipped behind Borik’s back.

A cold, eerie killing intent from behind.

Borik, sensing danger with the animal instincts of one who had rolled through battlefields, hurriedly tried to turn around, but Yorn’s sword was faster.

Slice!

A sharp sound rang out chillingly. Yorn’s sword dug precisely into the side of Borik’s old armor, into the most vulnerable gap.

“Kuhh……!”

A horrible, blood-mixed groan burst from Borik’s mouth. His eyes widened in shock, as if he could not believe it. The spear he had been gripping fell powerlessly from his hand.

Thud.

Borik’s heavy body collapsed as it was.

Right in front of the old tree where Rian was hiding.

Only a few steps away, Rian’s eyes met Borik’s fallen body head-on. The light of life was rapidly draining from Borik’s eyes like an ebbing tide. His mouth opened and closed several times as if trying to say something, then stopped.

“Uncle Borik!”

Den screamed. The death of the veteran who had tried to save him paralyzed his reason.

But Yorn and the other soldiers pointed their blades back at Den with cold eyes. With Borik’s death, the encirclement became even firmer. Now Den stood alone before a perfect crisis of death.

The allied battle line was collapsing. The squad members’ faces were deeply colored by defeat. Even Kairon’s face was hardening with despair.

Rian held his breath and watched the entire scene from behind the old tree.

Before his eyes was a comrade screaming as he waited for death.

And within a distance where he could almost reach out his hand, the corpse of the veteran spearman who had been alive and breathing moments earlier was cooling coldly. The decades of spearmanship dwelling in his body remained there intact, having lost its master.

Fear, confusion, and the cold, cruel instinct that he had to survive collided violently inside his head.

In Rian’s trembling eyes, Borik’s cold, cooling corpse and Den’s despairing face reflected in turns.

The moment of choice was approaching him in the middle of hell.