“The weather is nice today.”
Desi sat at the edge of the Guard Corps' drill ground, watching Kan spar with Ar.
Dust drifted through the air from time to time, and the crisp impact of wooden swords striking one another filled the clear drill ground.
Beside him, Makani watched the sparring match as she fidgeted with her fingers.
Whenever Ar's wooden sword narrowly passed by Kan's head, she flinched!
“If you are that worried, do not watch.”
When Desi spoke without taking his eyes off the match, Makani shook her head.
“No.......”
She barely even blinked, trying to take in as much of Kan as she could.
“Oh, Kan is better than I expected?”
Ebel plopped down beside them as he spoke.
In truth, Kan was skilled.
His wooden sword moved firmly and swiftly.
The legs that supported every movement without wavering stood out plainly.
The calluses made it clear that he had diligently practiced the fundamentals.
After parrying several attacks, Ar lightly struck Kan in the abdomen and ended the match.
“Your skill is good. But you are putting too much force into it.”
Kan merely nodded without a word.
He spoke far less than before.
“Now, Desi. You come out too.”
With his name called so suddenly, Desi had no choice but to pick up a wooden sword.
The result was disastrous.
Every swing cut through empty air, and Ebel clutched his stomach as he laughed.
Even when Desi gritted his teeth and swung, his wooden sword could not even come close to grazing Ar.
His movements were too broad, and his legs could not support them.
After falling and getting back up on the spot several times, Desi's sweat fell in heavy drops.
All he had done since coming to the Otherworld was tend fields and happily eat the potato bread his mother made.
For someone who had never fought anyone even in his previous life, sparring was intense exercise.
‘I have only ever been hit... I have never hit anyone.’
Desi struggled to his feet and gripped his wooden sword tightly once more.
Crack-!
But when Ar's wooden sword struck it with force, Desi's wooden sword flew backward.
“Your movements are too broad, and you do not seem to have the resolve to attack.”
Ar wiped his sweat lightly and patted Desi's shoulder.
“Your stamina is good, but... we will have to hone the basics first.”
“Yes.......”
***
Over the next month, Kan trained with the guards while Desi learned the basics from Ar.
He swung his sword until the blisters on his hands burst.
He sliced through the wind until he realized that the taste of sweat was not only salty, but sweet as well.
Makani came to the training ground every day, and Ebel always lingered by her side.
Just as they were gradually growing accustomed to that routine,
their first field assignment came down.
Around a hundred soldiers assembled on the broad drill ground.
As he issued live blades, Ar spoke.
“Today, we are going to arrest the Orcs whose location has been confirmed.”
Only a month had passed since he began training.
Desi could not believe that he was already being sent into the field.
But nothing waited for him to come to terms with it.
The unit immediately left the Guard Corps and set out for the Orcs.
The place they reached shortly afterward was a small village where Orcs lived together.
It was a ramshackle, neglected village built on the outskirts of Baron Seru's village.
Each house's old wooden planks barely sheltered the Orc families.
And then.
The planks were smashed and collapsed.
Amid the wreckage, the Orcs wept.
Their screams and wails bore witness to their shattered expressions.
“Please spare us!”
“Please, at least spare the children!”
Doors were broken down, and Orcs were dragged outside.
The soldiers beat the Orcs, while their families wailed.
An arrow flew toward a young Orc who was trying to run away.
Desi could not move.
Was this really right?
If anything, they looked like the invaders.
Then an adult male Orc rushed out with a kitchen knife in hand.
“What the hell is this, all of a sudden?!”
Ar quickly stepped in front of the soldiers.
“We have orders to arrest those connected to the riot organizers. Put down the knife.”
“I have nothing to do with that!”
When the trembling Orc swung his knife, Ar subdued him without hesitation.
The Orc's knife merely cut through the air as though it meant only to threaten, then rolled across the ground.
The Orc, too, collapsed beside that knife.
“Whether he is involved or not does not matter.”
After speaking coldly, Ar turned around.
“We follow orders.”
Desi could not say a word.
That was when it happened.
A young Orc, bound with rope, began to run away.
“Desi! What are you standing there for?!”
Ebel shouted.
But Desi could not move.
The child was terrified.
It was just a child.
“He is still just a child.......”
The words he forced out.
They were the barest form of resistance.
But Ebel asked as though he could not understand.
“So?”
In that instant, the past came to mind.
The child at school who had bullied him.
When Desi asked why, that child had opened his mouth with an innocent expression.
[What is wrong with that? It is just a joke.]
The same words.
The same feeling.
“Huff... Huff.......”
Desi clutched his chest and struggled for breath.
His head throbbed, and nausea churned in his stomach.
Cold sweat trickled into his mouth.
Ebel spoke earnestly.
“It is an Orc. The enemy.”
At that moment, Kan stepped forward.
Then he kicked the young Orc.
Thud-!
Desi heard it.
Kan's quiet mutter.
It was like the sharply scraping sound of a blade being honed.
“You try begging for your life too.”
That sound, those words, were what moved Kan.
After the operation ended, Desi left the Guard Corps in a daze.
Whenever he closed his eyes, he heard screams.
In the distance, he could see Makani waiting for him.
The clear, warm glow of sunset shone on her.
She looked like a girl dropped into red paint.
That red overlapped with the blood he had seen earlier.
In the end, he turned toward the rear gate and fled the place as though running away.
What he had seen.
What he had done there.
He could not accept any of it.
***
Baron Seru's study.
Sunset surged in through the window like red waves.
Everything in the room was slowly being dyed red.
Ar stood before Baron Seru, who was seated and sighing, and watched the sunset.
An even deeper red had settled over Ar's face.
His brow was tightly furrowed, and his jaw trembled from how hard he had clenched his teeth.
The Orcs' wails still rang in his ears like tinnitus.
“Sir Ar.”
“Yes, Baron Seru.”
Ar turned his head toward Baron Seru.
Serhu brushed back his long, curly hair and leaned against the backrest.
His expression held the purplish hue of a sunset that was gradually darkening.
“A royal decree has come down from the kingdom.”
“A royal... decree, you say?”
Ar's brow twitched as it furrowed.
A royal decree: an official command issued by the king.
Ar clenched the hands folded behind his back.
Serhu worked his lips, hesitated, then let out a sigh before speaking.
“Huff... It is a conscription order.”
Ar barely managed to withstand the weakness leaving his legs.
He clenched both fists until his nails dug into his palms.
“It seems... the situation is very dire.”
“Yes. They say those Orc bastards have formed an alliance with the Beastfolk.”
The Orcs and Beastfolk had long suffered species discrimination.
There had been worries that the two races might form an alliance, but the blow was severe now that it had actually happened.
The war between the humans and the Orcs.
The humans overwhelmed the Orcs in numbers, but if the Beastfolk joined them as well,
the scales of the battlefield would begin to tip.
Serhu glanced up at Ar.
“They say all of them—from young men and the elderly to children—will be mustered in the kingdom before being assigned to their units.”
“I see.”
“Which is why.”
Serhu rose from his chair and approached Ar.
His hand gripped Ar's shoulder.
“I would like you to remain by my side and protect this place. What do you say?”
Ar had once belonged to the Aurelia Knights.
His presence alone would make this place a fortress that neither the Orcs nor the Beastfolk could easily challenge.
Ar closed his eyes and drew in a breath.
“Sir Ar, forget the epithet you were called by on the battlefield for a while. Just become this place's guardian.”
Berserker of the Battlefield.
Ar, the Knight of Madness.
Ar stopped drawing breath.
What entered his slowly opened eyes was the red sunset receding, and the dark blue glow of the sky announcing the night.
”I am sorry, Baron Seru. I... must go to the battlefield.”
Serhu gripped his shoulder more tightly.
With the light at his back, his expression twisted in the darkness.
”It is an order, Sir Ar.”
”I am sorry.”
Ar took a step back.
Serhu's hand fell from his shoulder.
”My son will be going to the battlefield as well. How can I, as his father, hide away?”
”Sir Ar!!”
”Thank you for everything.”
***
That evening.
Ar called Desi, Kan, and Makani to Kan's house.
All the lights inside were out.
There was only the darkness of night and the faint light of the stars.
The cold air chilled the floor.
In that chill, Ar spoke.
“A conscription order has come down from the Royal Palace.”
Their varied expressions were visible in the darkness.
“The situation at the front is not good. I hear that the Beastfolk have begun supporting the Orcs.”
The war was growing.
A war between two races was turning into a war that would engulf the world.
After pausing for a moment, Ar looked at the three of them.
Kan's face was tightly drawn.
His brow was furrowed, and his lips were pressed firmly together.
Both of his fists were tightly clenched.
Desi's expression had fallen.
His eyebrows drooped, and he worked his lips.
His hands were growing damp with sweat.
Makani looked at the two of them as she fidgeted with her fingers.
“I am sorry. There is nothing I can do about this at my discretion. It is the kingdom's royal decree. The king's... command.”
He spoke seriously.
The words brought a deep reverberation into Kan's house.
“Even if you leave the village and run away... I will look the other way. Tonight is... your last chance.”
For this night alone, Ar had decided to bury the responsibility of a commander and a knight in the darkness.
But the first to speak was Kan.
“I will go.”
There was no hesitation.
“Kan.......”
“I keep thinking about the day my father died.”
Kan's voice trembled.
It felt as though his words were visible in the darkness.
“I cannot just sit still.”
No one could stop him.
No sentence, no language, no word came to mind that could change his heart.
Kan went straight into his room.
That action was a silent warning and declaration that he would not turn back.
The remaining people fell silent.
Then their gazes turned to Desi.
Desi clenched his hands tightly.
He did not want to go.
He did not want to die.
Nor did he want to kill anyone.
But for some reason, he could not say that he would stay.
It felt as though his past self were whispering to him.
Do not run away.
No, perhaps it was telling him to choose another kind of escape.
In the end, Desi raised his head.
“I will... go too.”
Ar let out a deep sigh.
Then.
“I want to go too.”
It was Makani's voice.
When everyone looked at her in surprise, her crumpling face gradually came into view in the moonlight.
She was trying desperately to hold back her tears.
“Lately, both of you have looked like you are having such a hard time.”
Her voice trembled.
“But I cannot do anything.”
The living room fell quiet.
“I want to be of help too. I want to be with you.”
Ar gently took Makani by the shoulders.
“That feeling alone is enough.”
“But.......”
“Going to the battlefield is not the only way to help.”
Makani eventually lowered her head.
Her shoulders rose and fell heavily.
Quietly, she covered her face with both hands.
Desi watched her for a moment, then smiled softly.
“Makani.”
“Hm?”
“We will come back.”
Makani raised her head.
In the living room, where at least moonlight remained, the darkness receded a little.
“Wait for us until then.”
Moonlight passed over Desi's face.
“Be the place we return to.”
Everyone knew.
They did not want to know, but this peaceful time had come to an end.