Although the sun had not yet risen, every member of Unit 06 had assembled on the training ground with luggage strapped to his back, as though preparing for a long journey.
“Is everyone awake?”
“Yes, sir!”
The members of Unit 06 answered Kyle’s shout with broad smiles.
Was it because the day they had longed for had finally arrived?
None of them could conceal the excitement written across their faces.
“We have quite a few guests.”
Kyle looked outside as he spoke.
Following his gaze, everyone turned and saw a crowd gathered beyond the base, each person appearing desperate to cross Unit 06’s threshold immediately.
The moment Unit 06 left, they would probably rush inside like a pack of wild dogs.
Kyle had prepared several things for those people.
‘I hope they enjoy themselves.’
A wicked smile spread across his face at the thought.
While they waited, the gates of Unit 06 opened, and the Corps Commander arrived.
“Forgive me for being late.”
“Not at all, sir.”
Had he been working himself to exhaustion over the past several days?
Silvio stood before Kyle with dark circles deeply etched beneath his eyes.
Having ultimately failed to leave the military before Kyle, Silvio extended his hand with a bitter expression.
“You have worked hard all these years.”
Hearing the sincerity in his words, Kyle responded just as sincerely.
“I hope you also manage to leave the military safely, Corps Commander.”
“…I hope so as well.”
Silvio smiled bitterly.
Even though he was already awaiting discharge, he could not completely avoid the chaos that would erupt the moment Kyle left the military.
In the end, he would suffer until his final day of service, then leave the military alone and exhausted.
That was the future awaiting Silvio.
“The Commander originally intended to come personally, but… unfortunately, I was the one who had to deliver these. He asked me to convey his apologies.”
Silvio then presented the compensation for the military achievements Kyle had accumulated over the years.
Kyle was not the only one receiving it as their representative.
Silvio personally handed each member of Unit 06 a Spatial Expansion Pouch containing his compensation.
Kyle’s achievements were so monstrous that they tended to overshadow everyone else, but the members of Unit 06 were also formidable monsters in their own right.
The proof was that Kyle’s other subordinates, who had already escaped, were now making names for themselves outside the Empire.
Anyone worth knowing had already heard of Kyle and Unit 06.
The moment they escaped the Empire’s grasp, countless powers would come running with hungry eyes.
‘Did he say they were heading south? A recruitment war might break out over there.’
From the nation’s perspective, allowing them to leave was an idiotic decision.
However, this was hardly the first time the higher-ups had made a foolish choice, so Silvio simply accepted it.
Besides, he planned to flee to the western autonomous territories immediately after his own discharge, so it would soon cease to be his concern.
All he needed to do was deliver everything quickly and leave this base before it turned into hell.
“This certificate proves that your achievements and evaluations over the years were falsified. It will probably be difficult to announce the truth officially.”
“That does not matter.”
Silvio chuckled at Kyle’s answer, which made it clear that he had never expected anything in the first place.
At this point, everyone in the capital already knew that Unit 06 had annihilated the assassins without suffering any casualties, so concealing the truth was meaningless.
Everyone already knew that Kyle’s career, supposedly filled with nothing but defeats, had been fabricated.
Was there really any point in hiding it now?
In truth, none of that mattered anymore.
‘I envy him.’
Silvio looked at Kyle, whose expression made it clear that he no longer cared what nonsense the higher-ups attempted, with undisguised envy.
Then, with genuine emotion in his eyes, he offered his congratulations.
“…I sincerely congratulate you on the freedom you won for yourself.”
Kyle smiled and nodded.
He knew that, at least, had come from Silvio’s heart.
‘He will remain trapped even after his discharge.’
Silvio had quickly understood the danger and hurriedly submitted his discharge application, but he had already been too late.
Even after leaving the military, he would probably be unable to leave the capital for quite some time.
He possessed neither the strength nor the weapons necessary to escape their grasp.
“That concludes the discharge ceremony.”
With those words, Silvio left through Unit 06’s gates with the subordinates who had accompanied him.
The Corps personnel hurried away, terrified that lingering around Unit 06 after it descended into chaos might drag them into the trouble.
Seeing no reason to wait any longer, Kyle began lifting the luggage they had prepared.
“Let us go!”
Kyle moved first as he gave the order to his subordinates.
They had gone on countless operations outside the base, so one might wonder what significance there could be in merely walking through its gates.
Today, however, was different.
It felt as though the countless shackles that had bound them all these years were finally falling away.
The moment Kyle crossed the gates of Unit 06, he seemed to hear a resounding CLANK beside his ears, as though something had finally been unlocked.
Overwhelmed with happiness, Kyle stepped outside and turned around with a radiant smile to welcome the soldiers following him.
“Congratulations on your discharge, everyone!”
The Battalion Commanders and soldiers emerging behind him wore the same joyful expressions.
The moment they crossed the gates, they looked up at the sky with faces filled with relief.
“All right! Let us get out of this fucking place first. Our guests are waiting.”
Everyone laughed and headed toward the train station.
They were curious about the reactions of the people who would receive the gifts they had prepared, but more than anything, they wanted to leave this tiresome capital immediately.
To the members of Unit 06, the capital had been an even more miserable place than the horrific north.
Even without being ordered, they marched rapidly toward the station.
“Are they gone?”
“They really left.”
The observers watched the sun slowly begin to rise and stared in disbelief as the members of Unit 06 truly departed.
They watched the soldiers travel down the street and disappear into the distance before turning their gazes back toward the base.
“It looks like it has already started.”
People were climbing over walls and entering from every direction.
Not merely one or two, but what appeared to be several hundred people flooded into the base.
Strangely, however, most of them began emerging again shortly after going inside.
“Why are you already coming out?”
“It was a waste of time! More importantly, we need to search outside!”
His companion stared at him as though he were speaking nonsense.
“What? There must have been something inside. Surely they did not leave everything outside.”
The man sighed before answering.
“Everything inside is military intelligence. It looks like anything connected to us was hidden elsewhere.”
He showed them the clue he had managed to retrieve.
He complained that with everyone charging in at once, even securing that single clue had been difficult.
His companions told him that they should move immediately, and the group hurried away.
Following their example, the people emerging one after another began rushing toward different destinations.
Every one of them left with an enraged expression while cursing Unit 06.
When military personnel finally entered afterward, they immediately understood why.
“Haah….”
Unit 06 had been reduced to a complete disaster.
Amusingly, most of the locations secured behind convincing locks contained nothing but ordinary military intelligence.
Even those were often pranks that read, ‘The next clue is located at XXX!’
Meanwhile, classified documents were occasionally found mixed among stacks of papers left openly on desks.
Thanks to that, a few people who entered late unexpectedly stumbled upon considerable prizes.
The Intelligence Bureau agents were the ones who suffered as a result.
“Search every last corner! We have no idea where those bastards might have hidden something!”
“You lot, follow me!”
They had to search every inch of Unit 06 as though hunting for a needle in a desert while also pursuing the noble families’ private troops that had already left.
Every part of it fell to the Intelligence Bureau.
That did not mean the military could remain idle.
It still had to secure the military intelligence scattered throughout the base.
Unfortunately, that was not their only problem.
“How dare you enter this place!”
An officer drew his sword with a furious expression.
The man in front of him immediately fled while clutching several promising-looking documents.
“Catch that bastard!”
At the officer’s command, the soldiers all began chasing him.
The problem was that he was only the beginning.
As information about Unit 06 spread throughout the capital, thieves also began targeting the base.
They did not necessarily need to steal anything as significant as classified intelligence.
They intended to take anything that appeared moderately valuable and store it away.
Who knew?
Perhaps the information they obtained would prove extraordinarily important.
Like pirates sailing in search of an enormous fortune, thieves began pouring toward Unit 06.
The documents had not been gathered neatly in one place.
Unit 06 had hidden them throughout the base specifically to torment anyone searching for them, so uncovering everything might take several days.
During that time, thieves would constantly attempt to slip inside.
From the soldiers’ perspective, being forced to search for the documents while stopping every thief was nothing short of torture.
Meanwhile, every member of Unit 06 had reached the train station.
“It must be complete chaos by now.”
“They will be too busy to think straight for several days.”
Korn and Coutinho spoke with amused smiles.
Even the taciturn Parshu was smiling as he imagined the suffering awaiting those they had left behind.
“They will be occupied for a while, so they will have difficulty paying attention to us. We will cross the Empire’s border during that time.”
Everyone nodded at Kyle’s words and entered the station.
Had the people inside recognized them?
Whispering voices spread through the crowd as passengers stole glances at the members of Unit 06.
“It seems we have become rather famous already.”
“It certainly appears that way.”
Kyle chuckled at his subordinates’ remarks and walked toward the train.
A man wearing a black fedora approached them through the crowded station.
“We have cleared two entire train cars bound for the south. This way, please.”
The consideration revealed just how determined the Intelligence Bureau was to remove Unit 06 from the capital as quickly as possible.
Kyle chuckled and led his men in the direction indicated by the agent.
He suspected that the Intelligence Bureau might have tampered with the train to eliminate the troublesome soldiers.
Perhaps the agent had anticipated that perfectly reasonable suspicion.
“Our agents will also be riding on the same train.”
Having said that, the Intelligence Bureau agent boarded first.
The members of Unit 06 followed him inside one after another.
Once every soldier had boarded, the train slowly began to move.
With a rhythmic clattering, it gradually gathered speed and pulled away from the station.
“We really have been discharged.”
Parshu murmured while gazing through the window.
His expression appeared even more relieved than when he had crossed Unit 06’s gates.
Beyond the glass, the capital’s scenery slowly began receding.
After being practically dragged there from the north, they had not once been permitted to leave the capital.
At long last, they were escaping it.
“Shall we have a drink to celebrate our discharge?”
Kyle pulled a bottle of alcohol from his bag.
“Everyone, you have worked hard.”
““You have worked hard as well, sir!””
The members of Unit 06 comforted one another for everything they had endured and drained their drinks in a single gulp.
“Ah! That is incredible.”
They smiled at the exquisite taste of alcohol enjoyed as free men and watched the capital gradually disappear into the distance.
“What a magnificent side dish.”
Kyle beamed as the sight of the wretched capital shrinking behind them accompanied his drink.
Watching him from a distance, an Intelligence Bureau agent unknowingly spoke his true feelings aloud.
“…I am jealous.”