Desi had climbed into a deserted mountain forest.
The daytime sun poured through the leaves, creating green shafts of light.
The wind blowing between the trees carried a refreshing feeling, making the threat of war seem unreal.
In one hand, he held a small paring knife.
“Hey, why did you come here?”
Leaning against a tree, Eirin asked indifferently.
Her blond hair shone like gold in the sunlight.
Her white dress was dazzling enough to hurt the eyes.
Fidgeting with the paring knife as he looked down at it, Desi swallowed before speaking.
“I wanted to check my abilities before going to the battlefield.”
“...You do not trust me?”
As Desi approached, Eirin answered in an irritated tone.
There were far more important problems, so Desi no longer let her words sway him.
‘Have I gotten used to her now?’
“It's not that I don't trust you. I just want it to feel real.”
Desi held out his hand to Eirin.
“I just need to be connected to you, right?”
Eirin looked down at his hand with an expression as though she had seen filth.
“...Ha, yes.”
With a sigh, she took his hand.
She was an Angel, but her hand was warmly human.
Still holding Eirin's hand tightly, Desi brought the paring knife to his arm.
“...Huff, I'm shaking now that I'm actually going to do it.”
The act of cutting his own arm with a knife took more courage than he had expected.
But he had to do it.
There would be far worse things waiting on the battlefield.
After taking a deep breath, he carefully cut his arm.
But perhaps because his hand was shaking, he cut more deeply than he intended.
His skin split open, and red droplets quickly welled out.
The hot, stinging pain felt as though it were burning down to the bone.
“What? When will it heal?”
Desi asked as he stared at his bleeding arm.
He had imagined it healing gradually, but blood was still soaking his arm.
Rather than answer, Eirin reached out over the wound.
“Wipe off the blood and look. What do you see?”
When he rubbed the blood away with his finger, the wound had vanished as though it had never existed.
Clean skin remained, as though it had been erased with an eraser.
“How is that? Impressive, right?”
Eirin bragged with a triumphant expression.
Desi wanted to take her down a notch.
He did not want to readily acknowledge someone who grumbled and snapped at him.
“It still hurts when I get injured.”
“What?! Of course it does!”
“Since you're a being of the in-between, I guess your ability is mediocre too~”
Desi ran, dodging Eirin as she swung her fist and chased after him.
Having confirmed the healing ability, it was time to test the ability called Intuition.
“So how can I test Intuition?”
At Desi's question, Eirin huffed, then answered reluctantly.
“Intuition is hard to explain. It isn't something you calculate in your head or see... you just know.”
As Eirin slowly explained and approached him, she threw a fist at Desi's face.
It was sudden and fast, yet somehow Desi had narrowly avoided it.
He had merely sensed Eirin's fist by instinct, and his body had reacted and moved.
Eirin looked at Desi, who stared back with wide, surprised eyes, then shrugged as if it were nothing.
“That's what it is: your body reacts. When something is wrong, that feeling comes rushing over you. And on the other hand, the right path fills you with a frightening certainty. It's different from logic, so even I can't explain it well. Your body just reacts first. It tells you that this is what you have to do.”
Desi was astonished by his own movement.
He had instinctively sensed the fist coming and instinctively dodged in the best direction.
“This seems... kind of amazing.”
At Desi's murmur, Eirin tried to hide her pleased expression, but the corner of her mouth ultimately lifted.
***
When they came down from the mountain, the village was somewhat noisy, unlike the forest.
“Residents of this village, listen!”
Several soldiers in shining silver armor stood in the village square.
Unlike usual, their expressions were weighed down, and shadows lay across their faces beneath their helmets.
“By order of the kingdom, full-scale war against the Orcs has been declared. Accordingly, a universal conscription decree has taken effect.”
A conscription decree.
At those three words, the villagers who had gathered could not remain still.
“Under this decree, all men and women aged sixteen to forty-five are subject to conscription. Assemble in the village square at sunrise tomorrow morning! Those assembled will undergo basic inspection and selection on site, then be transferred to units directly under the Royal Palace. Departure is scheduled for four days from now.”
A sixteen-year-old child hesitated, exchanging glances with their friends.
The elderly merely fidgeted with their wrinkled hands.
No one could easily speak, but the air shook with great unease.
“Remember this well! If you disobey these instructions or refuse conscription without just cause, severe punishment will be imposed under the laws of the kingdom!”
Having finished reading from the unfurled scroll, the conscription officer began to leave.
The sound of their heavy footsteps struck everyone's ears like the tolling of a bell.
The atmosphere in the square was terrible after the knights had left.
Lips that had been firmly closed began to open one by one, and voices spread through the air.
“This is ridiculous! Who in our village has even held a sword properly, huh?”
The bakery owner with a white towel over his shoulder shouted with an angry face.
“Those monster bastards are truly starting a war.......”
A man could not suppress his anger as he slammed the pickaxe in his hand against the ground.
“My child just turned sixteen... His birthday is still two months away!”
At the woman's trembling voice, the people around her quietly turned their heads.
Women carrying children on their backs glanced at one another and backed away, while young men gathered in small groups at the edge of the square and began smoking quietly.
No one spoke to anyone else, yet they all seemed to share the same thought.
‘Is there any way to get out of this?’
Someone's despairing voice rang out clearly.
“It is an order. It came directly from the Royal Palace. We have no choice.......”
At those words, the villagers' murmur quieted somewhat.
But it could not erase the fear hanging in their eyes.
For the first time, the square felt the weight of the word war amid the silence.
***
Desi's small house was quiet.
Toward evening, the table held soup that had not yet gone cold and boiled potatoes, but nobody lifted a spoon.
That heavy atmosphere was more than Desi could bear.
“Thank... you for the meal.”
At those words, his father raised his head.
The deep wrinkles beneath his thick eyebrows moved.
“...I heard the conscription officer came.”
Desi replied as he picked up his spoon.
“Yes, we are supposed to assemble in the square tomorrow morning.”
His mother quietly looked at Desi, then set down her spoon.
Her fingertips trembled slightly.
“What did Uncle Ar say? He can't get you out of it?”
At his mother's words, his father cleared his throat and signaled for her to be careful.
Desi gave a small smile as he answered.
“W-Well... it's an order that came from the Royal Palace, after all.......”
With his arms crossed, his father slowly nodded.
“Yes, and you are twenty now. You are an adult, so you will make your own judgment.”
His mother spoke as though releasing a sigh.
“But that doesn't mean I am not worried.”
Desi nearly cried at his parents' concern.
He had not yet eaten the still-steaming soup, but his insides felt hot.
“Still... it'll be all right.”
With a gentle smile, Desi soothed his parents' worry and sorrow.
His mother continued holding only a potato without saying anything.
Then she stood up without a word and sat beside Desi.
“Just come back safe. That is enough.”
At those words, Desi's eyes grew hot.
The heat within him was burning its way up to his eyes.
But after blinking several times and swallowing it back, he answered brightly.
“I will.”
A brief silence settled over the room.
That silence was not cold.
The savory scent of the boiled potatoes and the warmth of the soup drove back the night's chill.
Like dim daylight, a smile formed on his lips.
Outside, starlight had risen before he knew it.
.
.
.
Before long, the day to depart for the Royal Palace arrived.
Many men passed through the village in the issued field gear.
Kan and Desi walked among them as well.
Around them, parents sending off sons, women sending off lovers, and wives sending off husbands.
The tears and worried voices of many people rang out.
‘Ah... The weather is clear even on a day like this.’
In the crowd, Desi absentmindedly looked up at the sky.
At the sky, so clear that it irritated him.
“Desi! Kan!”
Makani's voice came from afar.
Makani pushed through the crowd and handed them a sheet of paper.
“Makani! You shouldn't be here!”
Desi spoke in alarm.
“Hey! Move back!”
When a soldier came to stop her, Makani urgently stretched out her hand.
Her thin, delicate arm flailed in the air.
“Make sure you come back! I will wait for you here!”
The knights dragged Makani away, and she grew more distant.
But the arm she waved did not stop until the very end.
It was like a clear tree branch, waving vivaciously in sunlight and peace.
“Makani.......”
Kan's quiet murmur did not reach Makani in the end.
Then Desi saw his mother and father in the distance.
His mother waved through tears, while his father stood with arms crossed, watching silently.
‘Father is sad too.......’
Even at times like this, Intuition worked.
He could feel his father's sorrow even from far away.
His father bit his lip, and his jaw trembled slightly.
The hand gripping his forearm was stiff with strength.
Sorrow, worry, and affection filled that grip.
Desi met his parents' eyes and smiled.
That he was all right, that he would return safely.
That he hoped they would stay healthy.
.
.
.
Several hours of marching, several rests.
The conscripted people were to travel to Refko's capital and receive their unit assignments.
It was a distance that would easily take more than five months on foot.
The peaceful sunlight had long since turned into a fire that scorched their skin.
“Ugh... I'm going to die before I even reach the battlefield.”
Desi felt blisters forming on his feet.
The bright weather had turned the ground into a griddle, and the cool wind that occasionally blew past left behind only momentary happiness.
As he struggled soundlessly in his misery, Desi felt it through Intuition.
‘I think we're heading in a different direction from our planned destination...?’
Then everyone suddenly began to stop.
The column had headed not for the Royal Palace, but for a garrison on the outskirts.
“What's going on? Are we resting here?”
Someone asked from behind with an anxious face.
But the surrounding soldiers wore the same confused expressions, and not one person answered.
After a while, a heavily armed officer dismounted from his horse.
When he climbed onto an old wooden crate, the murmuring among the crowd quieted.
“Silence, all of you!”
The officer's voice split through the crowd like a fierce wind cutting across a battlefield.
The tension in his voice made the soldiers' bodies stiffen.
“From this moment on, instead of heading to the Royal Palace, you will be sent straight to the front.”
An uproar immediately broke out.
“W-What do you mean?! None of us have even received combat training once!”
“We heard our village would be formed into a defensive unit?!”
“We need unit assignments! We need our unit assignments first!!”
Voices erupted from every direction, but the officer continued with a rigid expression.
“The Southern Front is collapsing rapidly. To the southwest, Count Duo's castle has been surrounded, and the enemy's main force is concentrated there. You will be deployed as a supply force and attack the Orc units from the flank. The order has already been issued, and refusal is treason.”
Someone's sharp intake of breath was heard loudly.
Kan and Desi looked at each other in silence as well.
“This is... suicide.......”
Someone's murmur slipped out from the crowd.
For people who had never even swung a sword, it was no different from being driven out to die.
They had never even held a shield.
Commotion began at the very back.
“I can't do this. It ends here!”
Someone dropped their field gear and began running.
In an instant, two, then three people ran after them.
The feet that had moved forward in sympathy with fear turned backward.
“Desertion! Stop them!”
At the officer's shout, several soldiers mounted horses and began pursuing the deserters.
Everyone trembled.
With terror and fear.
Desi shook the same way.
Even when he inhaled, strange air filled the depths of his lungs.
.
.
.
That night, the tent was quiet.
Some were praying, some silently sharpening their swords.
And others hid beneath blankets, swallowing their tears.
“Did you read this?”
Kan held the paper Makani had given them earlier.
Following Kan's lead, Desi pulled the slightly crumpled paper from his pocket.
On the paper he carefully unfolded were crooked letters and flowers.
[To my beloved friends.
.. I don't think I can write for long, because I feel like I'm going to cry.
Kan, Desi.
You are the most precious people fate has brought into my life, my friends.
I will always pray for you as you fight on the battlefield.
And when you return, I will work hard too, so that you will have somewhere to lean when you are hurt.
I will become a doctor and wait for you.
To my friends who always shine.
-Makani-]
“That's reassuring. We've got a doctor for a friend too.”
Kan spoke, then lowered his head deeply.
His shoulders shook.
Without a word, Desi sat beside Kan.
He did not know how to comfort someone, but his own silent consolation was to be by Kan's side.
The next dawn.
The steps toward the battlefield began again.
There was no turning back now.
They set foot on the battlefield, where people killed and were killed.