Desi and Kan were assigned to the First Vanguard Unit.
It was deep in the night.
The dawn air heightened the tension.
The First Vanguard Unit lay in ambush on a small hill outside the village.
The scent of nighttime grass hung thick in the air, and the occasional chirp of insects broke the silence.
The frigid night air made their bodies tremble, reminding them that they were still alive.
Southern Gate Village had been built around a large central square, its buildings spread out like a spiderweb.
The First Vanguard Unit would first encounter the watchtowers and makeshift walls the orcs had built.
The heart of this operation was simply to charge.
Even if the man in front of them fell and collapsed, they were to keep running forward.
That was the key to the operation.
"Hey, what's your name?"
The man sitting beside him crouched down and spoke to Desi, who had been waiting.
"I'm Desi."
At Desi's words, the man flashed a grin.
"I'm Mako. Let's make sure we come back alive!"
The mood of the troops had changed after Ar's speech.
Everyone was going out to die, but since it had come to this, they said they would become legends who survived.
Desi grinned.
"Of course."
Hand signals were being passed from the front.
"It begins."
.
.
.
In the quiet dawn, a faint SHHK— sounded now and then, like a frog's croak.
After the sounds of cutting through the grass and bodies falling, the footsteps of the advancing troops began to echo.
The soldiers of the First Vanguard Unit ran, their feet trampling dirt and sweeping aside grass.
"An ambush!!"
An orc soldier let out a brief cry.
The orc was pierced through by a spear.
Mounted soldiers charged at the front with spears in hand, while conscripts and infantry advanced behind them.
"What—!"
"All of a sud—"
The orcs had let their guard down while surrounding Count Duo's castle.
Night watches had been no more than a formality. To them, victory had already been won.
Thanks to that, the watchtowers and makeshift walls were breached quickly.
'This isn't too bad...?'
Desi, who had only been running behind the others, muttered inwardly.
What was not manageable were the orcs' groans and corpses.
Their deaths forced the reality of killing upon him.
"Fire the signal flares!!"
The commander at the front shouted.
Red-glowing fire arrows poured into the sky.
The archers quickly entered the buildings.
To prepare for a possible ambush, a small number of Knights entered the buildings alongside them and guarded the archers.
"Keep advancing!!"
"ROAR—!!!"
***
"Lord Grashik!! An enemy attack!"
A subordinate orc suddenly burst into the bedroom of a hulking orc who had been snoring away and shouted unbelievable news.
"What? An attack? From the castle?"
Grashik rubbed his bleary eyes and rose from his bed as he spoke.
However, his subordinate shook his head, his green face pale as a blue leaf.
"No, sir. It seems to be reinforcements from the human forces. They are attacking from the rear."
"Reinforcements?! There is still a great distance to the royal palace. How did they get here so quickly?"
Grashik hurriedly gathered his weapon and armor before stepping out of his quarters.
"Report, now!"
"Yes! At present, the watchtowers and makeshift walls have fallen... The enemy continues their advance. The cavalry is leading the charge, with infantry behind them."
Grashik gritted his teeth.
The long fangs jutting from his lower lip trembled from side to side.
‘We let our guard down... Victory had been so sweet, so close at hand!‘
The entrance village was far from the castle where the battle was underway.
Reinforcements should have taken a long time to arrive.
"When in the world did their reinforcements arrive!!"
Grashik shouted as he mounted his horse.
"We cannot let the square fall. It connects to every road... Tell the retreating forces to fall back while throwing firebombs. Deploy shield infantry in the alleys as well and block the flanking routes!!"
Grashik hurriedly began leading the orcs toward the direction from which the enemy was pouring in.
Anger surged within him at his own complacency.
***
"Sir Ar! The First Vanguard Unit has successfully recaptured the watchtowers and makeshift walls and is advancing!"
At his aide's report, Ar broke out in a cold sweat.
"That is fortunate. Those orc bastards... they were indeed letting their guard down. But the real battle begins now. Second Entry Unit, advance quickly along the flanks!"
Ar also gathered his sword and set out.
Mounted on his horse, Ar shouted.
"The Second Entry Unit will advance slowly in a fan-shaped formation around the First Vanguard Unit, join them, and form an encirclement! Do not stop, no matter what happens. The moment we stop, the enemy will reach our families! Kill! Fight! Protect!"
With a roar of voices behind him, Ar began leading the unit forward.
***
"Run—!"
Their ears rang with everyone's cries.
Heavy feet shook the ground and drove away the calm night air.
Screams, shrieks, and shouts were swallowed by the war cry.
"Die!!"
An orc's sword came flying toward Desi, whose feet had frozen under his trembling breath.
WHOOSH!
Using his instinct, Desi avoided the blade in the optimal direction and rushed into the orc's guard.
But that was as far as he got. Desi could neither swing his sword nor throw a punch.
'My body's stopped.......'
"Desi, what are you doing!"
Along with Mako's voice, a sword pierced the orc's chest.
Mako pulled his sword free and slashed the orc down.
"Get a hold of yourself, Desi! Of course we're coming back alive!"
Desi's heart hammered as though it would burst.
He was out of breath, his head rang, and it felt as though he could hear nothing.
Arrows flew, and swords swung.
Desi used his instinct to avoid the attacks, but he could not fight back.
As though his body itself rejected the act of hurting an opponent—of hurting someone.
Each time, Mako counterattacked beside Desi, thrusting his sword into the orcs.
Mako began running with Desi.
"We became friends here... Follow me, you bastard! Your big brother's going to protect you!!"
.
.
.
How far had they run?
Now, among the orcs' corpses, he could see the body of the baker from his village and that of a man who had said he had a five-year-old daughter.
But everyone stepped over the bodies and advanced.
As though driven mad by something.
The act of killing in order to live unfolded before his eyes.
"Fire ahead!!"
The advance faltered for a moment.
The orcs had retreated while throwing firebombs and barrels of oil, and the main roads were engulfed in flames.
"Orc shield infantry are pouring in from the alleys!"
"From this alley too!!"
The First Vanguard Unit had been meant only to charge down the main road to the central square.
That was the operation, so the orcs formed an encirclement through the alleys while fire blocked the way ahead.
The scorching heat beat back the fighting spirit of the First Vanguard Unit's soldiers.
They faltered before the even hotter, materialized heat.
A feeling of surrender stirred within them, wondering if this was as far as they could go.
"Do not stop! Do not fear the flames, do not fear death! Fear them surviving!!"
The conscription officer who had come to the village shouted as he drove his horse into a charge.
His fervor made the other soldiers start running in unison.
A small flame caught on dry kindling and flared.
The village became a sea of fire in an instant.
Even the flames forcibly created under the name of fighting spirit had no choice but to blaze.
For the hometown and families behind them.
They had to burn and turn to ash.
They had to go mad.
Every soldier did.
Every husband, son, and lover held fire in his eyes.
"Fear them surviving!!"
Horses and people collapsed while burning, while others advanced over them.
Their steps did not stop.
They did not even look to see whom they had stepped on.
"BLEGH!!"
Desi finally could not hold it back and vomited.
"This... What is this?......"
The explosive crack of iron striking iron.
The sound of buildings collapsing, the sounds of someone dying.
In surroundings as though Hell itself had been brought there, Mako seemed too out of his mind to notice Desi. He ran on, leaving him behind, and beside Desi were only people rushing into the flames.
At that moment, a dull impact made his head ring.
CRUNCH—!
"Die, human!!"
An orc swung a mace at Desi's head.
CRUNCH—!
With several more CRUNCHES, Desi fell.
Perhaps the orc had gone mad as well, for he did not stop striking the fallen Desi with his mace.
The pain of his skull splitting plunged his vision into darkness.
In pain so unbearable that neither tears nor a voice could come, only his body twitched.
Amid nothing but the sound of CRUNCH, someone shouted.
[Get a hold of yourself, you idiot!!]
Eirin shouted in his head.
‘Enough... now.......’
He wanted to rest.
He wanted to stop.
The killing, and being killed.
All he had wanted was to live.
For someone who wanted to enjoy freedom and live an ordinary life, the pain of having his head crushed came upon him.
Someone who had never kicked a passing puppy.
Someone who had never punched another person.
To tell him to stand upon a battlefield and kill living people was like telling him to fly through the sky with nothing but his body.
In time with the orc's mace, Desi's body twitched several times.
***
“Those barbarian bastards charged through the flames?”
Grashik found it difficult to hide his surprise at the intelligence officer's words.
They had charged in without even giving the orcs time to spread the news of the ambush within their ranks.
Grashik steadied his breathing.
‘No... This is an opportunity. If they force their way in so recklessly, their losses will surely be great.’
”We have captured humans, do we not? Put several of them at the front line. Those bastards are the ones pressed for time. We will make this a war of attrition.“
Grashik began gritting his teeth.
It already seemed as though he could hear the distant sounds of his subordinates dying.
The orcs who had come to the battlefield following him.
Those who were someone's family and someone's beloved.
At the thought of their heads being mercilessly severed by human hands, Grashik's brain matter seemed to boil furiously.
***
“Orcs are tightening the encirclement from the alleys!!”
Someone's desperate cry rang out.
Jangk broke out in a cold sweat.
‘At this rate, we'll be surrounded before we even reach the square..!’
Jangk's body trembled with fear.
No matter how well trained a soldier was, even if he had risen beyond an ordinary soldier to become an officer, death could not be trained for.
But he believed.
Jangk believed in Ar.
“Do not concern yourselves with it! We are going only to the square!”
As he rode farther ahead, trampling orcs and soldiers beneath his horse, he saw civilians.
In the eyes of the hostages being dragged along tied to shields, fear burned like fire.
“You... bastards worse than beasts!!”
The orcs had tied the hostages to shields and were waiting before the square.
“What do we do, Sir Jangk?!”
At that moment, an arrow flew in from behind and lodged in a hostage's body.
“What?!”
Behind the startled orcs and Jangk, someone was riding toward them.
“Smash everything blocking the way ahead! Think not of what lies ahead, but of what lies behind us!”
It was Ar.
Ar was shooting arrows at the hostages.
“Sir Ar! Those people are residents of the village!!”
At Jangk's cry, Ar's expression did not change in the slightest.
He merely continued laying arrows to his bow.
“I know! So what? Shall we all die here together?”
Ar began drawing his bowstring.
There was not the slightest tremor in his hand as he drew it.
“Remember the soldiers we have trampled beneath us. If we fail... when we die, how will we face them!!“
”Sir Jangk! Reinforcements from the rear!“
Behind the orc shield infantry stationed in the alleys, the Second Entry Unit was pouring in.
”First Vanguard Unit, do not stop! Push into the square!!“
Under Ar's command, the humans slowly began to occupy the square.
***
[Hey, you idiot!! Get up!!]
At Eirin's voice, Desi stirred and rose.
”Wh-where am I...?”
Countless corpses lay strewn around him.
”Ah... I got hit in the head and fell.“
“Fell? What do you mean, fell!”
Eirin had somehow taken on a human form and was sitting beside him.
”It looks like everyone thought you were a corpse and left.“
Cries and groans still came from ahead, toward the square.
Looking in that direction, Eirin continued.
“Maybe this is an opportunity. An opportunity to run away.”
At Eirin's words, Desi's heart began to race.
He could get away from this hellish place.
But.
Desi struggled to his feet.
He walked toward the square.
“Hey! Where are you going?!”
At Eirin's call, Desi opened his mouth.
Dawn was already breaking.
Daylight—the sunlight that seemed so free in the sky—was filtering in.
“Where would I go if I ran away?”
Desi looked up at today's sky, pointlessly clear, and continued.
“I said I was heading off bravely, but if I go back having run away... how pathetic will everyone think I am......”
Desi turned his gaze toward the square where death had gathered.
“I have to go.”
At Desi's words, Eirin frowned.
“Why doesn't your own will figure into your choice?”
Desi hesitated at Eirin's words.
Because he had always been that way.
Because it was only natural.
“Yeah.“
Desi once more took steps toward death.
To him, choices were not something he made.
They were something done to him.