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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Yuziro
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“Captain, why do you want to live so badly?”
I frowned at my subordinate’s question.
“What kind of a stupid question is that? Are you asking me in a roundabout way if I want to die? Playing with those barbarians must have made your brain go savage. I should just wring your neck right now…”
“Aagh! Stop nagging! You’re an orphan too, Captain. I was just wondering if there was a special reason you’ve survived this long.”
“Does a person need a reason to want to live?”
“That’s what normal people say. After rolling around in this goddamn war for ten years, living isn’t really living anymore. Just last week, a few new recruits committed suicide…”
The light had gone out in the eyes of the man tilting his head crookedly as he muttered.
He wasn’t the only one.
Four years in the south, six in the north… after a total of ten years rolling around on the battlefield, it was only natural to have that look in your eyes.
I was probably the same.
“Captain? You’re a little different from us dead-fish-eyed folks. How should I put it… there’s a solid core? A pillar? Something like that in your eyes. I followed you because of your eyes, Captain.”
“Right. I’ve been hearing that for ten years.”
“So, you’re not going to answer?”
“Well… it’s from when I was young…”
At that moment, I saw a spear falling towards the man’s head.
Reflexively, I kicked my subordinate and swung my sword.
*Clang-! *
“Ambush! The enemy is Shadow Snakes!”
Focusing my aura into my eyes, I saw the eyes of the damned snake bastard.
Barbarians who could blend in with their surroundings with their characteristically quiet movements and camouflage.
They were an assassin tribe known for dipping their swords in ash, staining them black.
They launched night raids five times a week, so we always had to be on high alert.
“You’re nothing without your surprise attacks! Die!”
I roared, striking down the enemy’s sword from above – one move.
I slashed diagonally upwards, sending his sword flying – two moves.
With the third and final move, I took off his head.
The snake bastard didn’t even scream before he died.
Roughly wiping the greenish-blue blood off my face, I checked on my subordinate.
“You alright?”
“Ugh- I’m not dead. Close, but not dead.”
“Then get up quickly and…”
I couldn’t finish my sentence.
I saw the countless arrows stuck in his thigh.
The Shadow Snakes’ specialty: silent arrows.
And, as befitting a tribe specializing in assassination, the arrowheads were likely poisoned.
“Shit…”
“Sorry, Captain. Looks like this is where we part ways.”
“What do you mean ‘part ways,’ you idiot? You’re not dying.”
A year ago, it would have been a deadly poison with a mortality rate of over 90%, but now, with the antidote developed, it had dropped significantly to less than 5%.
Judging by the injection in his thigh, he wouldn’t die.
I cursed because my competent subordinate was going to be transferred to the rear.
He wouldn’t die, but he would suffer from aftereffects for days, maybe months.
“Wait in the rear and have it easy. I’ll wipe out those bastards and be back.”
“That’s my Captain. Then I’ll just close my eyes for a bit…”
His eyes closed.
The antidote was taking effect, pulling him into sleep.
“Tsk- I wonder when this fucking war will end.”
Grumbling, I tore a scroll.
The magic contained within was concealment.
Since it was a supply item, the effect would only last about thirty minutes, but that was enough.
“Anyone who needs support, yell!”
“Aagh!”
“Okay! You’re getting special training after this!”
“Aagh!”
Cutting down the snakes with my aura-infused sword, I recalled old memories.
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A damn clear sky.
A stark contrast to the filthy streets.
I was crouched on the dust-filled ground.
Otherwise, the pain would have been unbearable.
“Gasp… Gasp… Even after this…?!”
I inadvertently looked up and got my neck stomped by a boot.
This was unbearable, so I coughed up whatever was in my lungs.
I held my breath, thinking only that I shouldn’t show I was in pain.
But I couldn’t stop my body from trembling.
“Ugh~ Hack, ptooey! Don’t come back here! What bad luck, first thing in the morning.”
Seemingly satisfied with my suffering, the man spat and walked away.
I couldn’t remember exactly how it happened.
Whatever it was, I must have annoyed him and got beaten.
“…Shit.”
I cursed blankly.
My whole body ached terribly, but what was even more fucking awful was the hunger that wouldn’t go away even after being beaten like that.
“Why am I… this…”
One day, maybe four days ago… I woke up and I was a boy named ‘Allen.’
A dirty, weak child with no memories other than his name.
There was no way to know if this phenomenon was possession, reincarnation, or the mental illness of a starving orphan.
This world was certainly not the world of novels or manga that I remembered.
Possession or reincarnation, whatever it was, couldn’t I have started in a decent family?
Even if I was just an extra, it would have been much better to be a commoner.
Better than being a penniless beggar like this.
“…Should I just die?”
Since becoming a beggar, all I’d eaten were yesterday’s raindrops and an apple that fell off a cart.
Extreme hunger, a hazy mind, and an invisible future were pushing me to the brink of collapse.
If it weren’t for the savory smell of bread wafting from somewhere…
“Are you alright?”
A glossy, light brown and golden yellow harmony, imbued with the scent of butter.
And on top, small white grains were dotted here and there.
“……!”
It was my favorite salt bread.
I instinctively snatched the bread in front of me and shoved it into my mouth.
For a fleeting moment, I tasted the sweet, savory, and salty flavor.
“…Cough!”
“You can eat slowly. Drink this too.”
Choking, I coughed.
Only after drinking the milk she offered was I able to regain my senses.
“Who… Ugh!”
Trying to quickly create some distance, I stumbled and fell.
Before I could even feel the throbbing pain, I frantically waved my hands and backed away.
The image of the orphan being kidnapped last night flashed vividly in my mind.
Tensing my body, I cautiously looked at the owner of the voice.
“……”
Hair that shimmered brilliantly in the sunlight.
A girl with snow-white skin looking down at me with a smile.
And beside her, a man who looked like a knight, gazing down at me with dark brown eyes.
“Since you seem to have regained your strength, it would be best if you left.”
“Mmm~ Wait a moment. I’ll just heal your wounds. Is that alright?”
“Sigh… Hurry up and finish. This isn’t a place to linger.”
“Hee hee, thank you.”
The girl smiled at the knight and then looked at me with the same smiling expression.
Her jewel-like eyes sparkled in the sunlight.
In the dark and desolate alley, only she shone brightly.
“My name is… ….”
The girl’s eyes twinkled like stars. Then something unknown flowed from her. Witnessing the unfamiliar energy sent shivers down my spine.
‘What, what is this?’
My bewilderment was short-lived.
Reflexively, I cringed at her approaching hand, and a sharp pain shot through my body.
“Aagh!”
“You shouldn’t move like that. It hurts a lot, doesn’t it? Just bear with it for a moment.”
As the girl’s hand touched my body, a bright light burst forth.
Amazingly, the pain began to disappear.
It was the first ‘magic’ I had seen in this world.
“How is it? Are you alright now?”
“…It doesn’t hurt.”
“That’s good. I was a little nervous because it was my first time using healing magic.”
Smiling softly, the girl held out a small pouch to me. I stared at it blankly.
“Take it.”
The girl opened my hand herself and placed the pouch in it.
Dressed in a pure white dress, she looked like an angel.
Feeling warmth for the first time, I stammered,
“Th, thank you… Angel…”
There must have been better words to say.
Thinking back, it was a rather inadequate expression of gratitude.
The girl chuckled at my words.
“Even if it’s hard now, you never know what might happen later. …Right?”
The girl tilted her head and asked, and the knight, who had been standing silently, let out a small sigh.
“…You’re probably right.”
“See!”
At those words, the girl puffed out her chest proudly, looking at me.
“You like salt bread, right? I like salt bread too. So we can be friends!”
“That’s… why… friends?”
Perhaps because I hadn’t had much to say, my voice wouldn’t come out properly.
Thinking back, it was a rather foolish way of speaking, but the girl didn’t mind at all.
“Because there’s no one bad who likes salt bread!”
“……?”
Unable to understand what she meant, I just blinked.
Displeased with my reaction, the girl pouted.
“It’s just a feeling. A friend made over a shared love for salt bread… Isn’t that quite romantic?”
Romantic… was it?
It was a word I hadn’t heard in a long time.
It was then that the knight, who had been watching silently, interrupted the girl.
“My lady, we must be going.”
“I don’t really want to go back…”
“My lady.”
At the knight’s firm expression, the girl nodded, looking somewhat dejected.
“Let’s definitely meet again later and eat bread together! I’ll do my best, so you have to do your best too! Okay?”
Her eyes, as she said those words, looked as if she wanted to escape.
Because my eyes, reflected in the rainwater puddles on the ground, looked exactly like that.
Hesitating for a moment, I remembered the taste of the salt bread I had just eaten and mustered up my courage.
“It’s… okay to run away.”
“Huh?”
The girl’s eyes widened, and then she grinned mischievously.
“Then, later, take me and run away with me. I’ll be the princess trapped in a high tower, and you’ll be the prince on a white horse.”
Somehow, I knew.
That those words were the girl’s true feelings.
“I promise…”
I hesitantly held out my pinky finger.
The girl blinked and then extended her pinky finger in return.
Carefully, I linked it with her soft, delicate, snow-white finger.
It was the first promise I made in this world.
“Let’s definitely meet again.”
“Yes. I’ll be looking forward to it.”
“My name is… Allen.”
Until the very moment the impatient knight pulled the girl away, she chattered to me in a cheerful voice.
Looking at her, I thought she was like sunshine.
“……”
Perhaps the girl was an angel sent for me, who had been unfairly dropped into this world.
All my wounds had disappeared, and the pouch she gave me contained several gold coins that shone like her hair.
Even though I didn’t know the value of money in this world at the time, I instinctively knew it was a large sum.
“…Shit. Alright! Let’s do this!”
With this much money, I felt like I could live like a human being.
Filled with the anticipation of being able to satisfy my beggarly (literally beggarly) hunger, I shouted.
Of course, I didn’t know then.
That in the slums, a girl with such a striking appearance was rare and would attract attention.
That the fact she had given me money would quickly spread.
And finally, that for a young beggar like me to carry gold coins in the slums was suicidal.
The vagrants of the slums taught me that fact thoroughly.
With the very kind method of ‘violence.’
So, I fought to the death, and somehow, I won.
Thinking back, it must have been thanks to the girl’s magic.
“Ugh…!”
Stomping on the head of a fallen vagrant, I sighed.
Losing the money pouch was one thing, but my body, which had been healed thanks to the girl, was injured again.
“Hoo… Shit.”
It was a fight with nothing but losses, but I did gain something.
At least I learned then that this body of ‘Allen’ was quite sturdy and talented in fighting.
If it weren’t for that girl, I wouldn’t have even thought of fighting.
Until I volunteered for the Imperial Army, I lived day by day, wandering the back alleys.
I didn’t know then that this Empire was at war.
If I had known I would be fighting monstrous creatures called barbarians, I wouldn’t have made that choice even if I had to die.
That’s how I ended up volunteering for the Imperial Army.
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“But why volunteer? There must have been orphanages or… something.”
“I saw that ‘poster.’”
“Ah, that’s hard to resist.”
The poster with a grumpy old man pointing his finger and saying,
The Empire Wants You.
The funny thing was, it wasn’t 2D, but 4D.
If you made eye contact with the old man for more than three seconds, he’d suddenly pop out of the poster and shower you with sweet talk.
That a man should go, that they’d feed and house you for free, that it was a chance to climb the social ladder…
And above all, there was one sentence that really struck a chord:
Will you continue to live a shitty life like this? If you want to fulfill your desires, enlist now!.
Mesmerized by the magic contained in the poster, I applied to volunteer. …
After enlisting, I heard it actually had a ‘brainwashing’ spell on it.
“Wasn’t brainwashing magic prohibited?”
“They said it was cast very weakly. You have to be in a state of lower mental strength than a normal person to be affected.”
Was my mind shaken by the shock of losing the money pouch?
Was that why I was affected…?
“Shit, next time I go to the Magic Tower, I’m going to raise hell.”
“You want to commit suicide even though the war is over? And the guy who planned that has already retired and gone back to his hometown.”
“…Shit.”
This was the rearmost of the rear, the military hospital located in the Imperial capital.
The war was over.
It ended after three more years of rolling around even after parting ways with that guy.
There was a lot to say about what happened during that time… but if I did, I might have to lie in a hospital bed instead of him, so I’ll leave it at that.
“What are you going to do now, Colonel Allen?”
I had been promoted to Colonel for my achievements in the war.
The first out of body soldier- Colonel or something.
They praised me a lot, but honestly, I didn’t really care.
“Well… I haven’t thought about it yet.”
“How about coming to our family? I think my parents would be pleased.”
“A Duke’s family, right? The one called the twin pillars of the Empire.”
“Yes. You’ll receive benefits equivalent to a Count, but there’s a world of difference between a Count and a Duke.”
He appealed to me with a proud tone.
Aile Helios.
One of the few subordinates whose names I remembered.
He was my adjutant until he was transferred to the rear… but what kind of adjutant can’t even take care of himself?
He wouldn’t have anything to say even if I demoted him back to a subordinate.
“I’ll think about it and let you know.”
“Where are you going?”
“The old man called for me.”
“Ah… Anyway, please consider it positively. The war is over, so we have to return to our daily lives. You don’t really have anywhere to go back to, do you?”
“That’s a low blow, you bastard.”
Watching Allen casually wave and leave, Aile sighed.
“I don’t understand what he’s saying half the time.”
He respected his superior officer, but sometimes he said incomprehensible things.
Excluding the three years he was out of commission after being hit by the Shadow Snakes, they had been together for ten years.
The only word he had become accustomed to during that long period was “shit,” a word that strangely rolled off the tongue.
It seemed like a curse word, but he used it so indiscriminately that it was hard to tell.
He was sure that his unusual superior officer must have muttered “shit” even when the war ended.
That’s why he was suspected of being a barbarian.
“The youngest Colonel…”
Few people accurately grasped Allen’s prowess. So, now, before his value skyrocketed, Aile quickly made his offer. Allen was the most talented person he had ever seen.
“Whatever happens, I hope you live well, Captain.”
Thirteen years on the battlefield at a young age.
A man who had practically lived his entire life in war. Having witnessed his harsh life, Aile believed he deserved a happy one.
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“Why did you call for me?”
I swung the door open and walked in confidently. The nameplate read Commander’s Office, but I didn’t care.
My relationship with the ‘old man’ was that deep.
“Now that you’re a Colonel, you’re just barging in?”
See? He wasn’t even angry, just grinning.
“I did that before I was a Colonel. What’s the big deal?”
I shrugged and sat down on the leather sofa. Hmm, it was damn comfy, probably because it was the Commander’s Office.
I put all my weight into it, sinking into the cushions.
“Come to think of it, why is there a Commander’s Office in a hospital?”
“It’s a military hospital, so it’s part of the military. Of course, I’m not the owner. I just borrowed it.”
The old man answered calmly.
What rank was the director of the capital’s military hospital?
Probably a Grade 1 official, but even he wouldn’t be able to stop the old man.
After all, the old man was the Taurus, one of the twelve Zodiac Knights, an asymmetric warfare asset recognized by the Empire.
“Wow, aren’t you taking advantage of your new star, old man? Stealing someone else’s office.”
“Stealing? I said I borrowed it. A senior can borrow from a junior.”
Look at that shameless expression.
“So, why did you call me?”
“I called you to hear your answer. You said you’d tell me after the war ended, you rascal.”
“Ah.”
Only then did the old memory buried deep in my mind resurface.
It must have been eleven years ago, when the war in the south was in full swing.
Anyway, the old man had suddenly suggested that I become his adopted son while I was rolling around as a soldier.
Or rather, his grandson. He was a bit too old to take me in as a son.
Paulo Robert, head of the esteemed Robert Marquisate. That was the old man’s name.
I still didn’t understand why the head of such a prestigious Marquisate would entrust his family to his son and come to the battlefield.
“What use would you have for someone who only knows how to kill people? It’s not like you don’t have a successor. And the war is already over.”
“Do you think I’m the kind of old man who thinks of his children as tools?”
“Aren’t all nobles like that? Taking in orphans who wouldn’t matter if they died and adopting them to send them to the army in their place. That’s the average noble, isn’t it?”
There was a law in the Empire that required nobles to have one of their children serve in the military for a certain period.
Most of my subordinates were there in place of some noble. Aile was a special case.
Noblesse oblige or whatever, would those rich and powerful bastards obediently follow such a law?
In most cases, innocent commoners or orphans received a large sum of money to serve in their stead.
Well, I would have closed my eyes and gone too if they offered me a few hundred million for one tour of duty.
If I survived, I could live a decent life afterward.
…The problem was that they all died.
“That’s why you handed over the head of the family position to your son and came to the battlefield, old man. Because you didn’t want to send your son to the army.”
“Well, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have those feelings.”
One of the reasons I liked the old man was that he treated everyone equally, regardless of their status, but also because he didn’t push his responsibilities onto others.
Honestly, what father would want his son to suffer on the battlefield?
“…We’ll talk about that later. So, what’s your answer?”
“I refuse.”
I had told Aile I’d think about it and give him an answer, but I was actually planning to refuse.
My perception of nobles had become completely messed up while rolling around on the goddamn battlefield.
Anyone would become like this after following absurd orders under shitty commanders.
Even if the old man was a good noble… I didn’t want to become one. I didn’t want to be treated the same way, and now I could live well without becoming a noble.
“Hmm, I expected that…”
The old man stroked his beard thoughtfully and then nodded.
“If that’s your decision, I’ll respect it. Just don’t regret it later.”
“Yes, yes. So, are we done?”
“I’m done as your old man, but I still have something to say as the Commander of the Imperial Capital Defense Force.”
“…Shit.”
I sighed.
How long had it been since the war ended, and he was already giving me orders?
If the old man was telling me this directly, it must have been an order from the Imperial family.
Regardless of its difficulty, I didn’t really want to hear an Imperial order.
Seeing my sour expression, the old man shook his head.
“It’s not from the Imperial family.”
“Hoo- Then what is it?”
“Have you ever thought about going to the Academy?”
“…What?”
I blinked at the unexpected question.
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I am assuming as a PE Teacher because this guy knows nothing from being at war.