Hell's Gate
“…There’s what sitting right in front of our camp?”
Lucas asked back with a look that said he couldn’t quite believe what he’d just heard. The two cadets who had gone out on recon immediately tripped over each other trying to explain.
“We were about to head out on patrol when we saw something in front of our camp.”
“At first we thought it was just a little snowdrift, but…”
“It was wriggling!”
“When we looked closer, it was a little kid thrashing around, all tied up with rope.”
“I seriously thought my eyes were playing tricks on me.”
“So you’re saying it looked like Lord Haydam?”
Lucas raised a hand to cut off their excited babbling and asked the question. Both cadets nodded rapidly.
“The only little kid inside the training grounds right now is Lord Haydam, isn’t it?”
“No, but… why would Lord Haydam be dumped in front of our camp looking like that?”
“I think… he got abandoned…”
“Abandoned?”
Lucas’s brow furrowed. Another cadet spoke up.
“Shouldn’t we go check?”
“Hmm…”
It reeked of a trap. But after hearing that Haydam had been left bound and dumped right in front of their camp, they couldn’t exactly ignore it. If it was a trap, Team A would be lying in ambush nearby—so hitting them from behind and wiping them all out was still an option.
…And, honestly, Lucas kind of wanted to see it with his own eyes.
To be frank, he was convinced the recon pair had simply misidentified something.
Until he saw it for himself.
“…It’s real?”
The Team B cadets stared, stunned, at the genuinely small child lying bound and face-down in the snow.
“What the hell is that?”
“They actually left him like that and walked away?”
“How could they even…”
“Even for a trap, that’s going too far.”
Lucas, like the others, was briefly shocked. He recovered quickly and started giving orders.
“There might be an ambush nearby. You lot search the perimeter. The rest of you cover me.”
“Yes, sir!”
Leaving his teammates to cover him, Lucas hurried over to Haydam. Up close, the boy’s entire body—including his eyes and mouth—was covered with cloth.
What in the world…!
He had just told the others it might be a trap, but the sight made Lucas’s face go pale with disgust.
Did they really need to go this far?
This was only a training simulation. Haydam had already proven his ability in previous sims against these same people. Even if he won this one, the most he would gain was restoring the honor of a few teammates. Why would the Commander’s sole heir throw his own body into this kind of sacrifice just to save the pride of cadets who had already lost to him?
And more than that—
If even one of Lord Haydam’s teammates dies, the exercise ends.
If Team B found him this helpless and simply decided to shoot him, the whole game would be over.
This isn’t a trap.
Having reached that conclusion, Lucas hastily sat Haydam up and pulled off the blindfold and the gag stuffed in his mouth.
“Lord Haydam! Are you all right?”
Still unable to open his eyes, Haydam answered in a tiny voice.
“C-cold…”
“Damn it.”
Lucas scooped him up and stood. The cadets who had gone to check the surroundings had already returned and gathered around him.
“Nothing nearby. Doesn’t look like a trap.”
“Then what the hell is this? Don’t tell me Team A actually…”
“He looks freezing. Let’s get him back to camp first.”
“What are you talking about?”
One teammate immediately objected to bringing him into camp.
“Lord Haydam is still on Team A. Taking him into our camp doesn’t make any sense.”
“If we take him as a prisoner, isn’t that fine? Just in case, we haven’t finished untying him yet.”
“What?”
Everyone had been staring at the small figure in Lucas’s arms; only now did they realize the ropes were still on.
“No… is this even okay?”
“You’re not going to untie him?”
“Well, untying him would also be weird, wouldn’t it?”
While they argued, Haydam’s body kept shaking violently. Lucas let out a short sigh.
“We’re taking him back for now.”
Once they were back at camp and Haydam had regained some warmth under blankets and the fire, the story he finally managed to tell was more than enough to leave the Team B cadets stunned.
“They tied Lord Haydam up the moment the exercise started?”
“Yes… it’s humiliating, but…”
Haydam couldn’t even lift his head; his voice barely rose above a whisper.
“They said they never agreed to a rule where one death means defeat… If I really wanted to lose so badly, they would offer me as a sacrifice and tell me to go die… They said that even Team B wouldn’t be able to proudly walk around claiming victory after killing a little kid first…”
The Team B cadets’ jaws dropped in pure outrage.
“Holy shit… what kind of bastards…”
“No wonder those cowards actually showed up at the training grounds.”
“They figured they couldn’t win anyway, so they came just to take out their grudge on Lord Haydam.”
“So how long are we leaving him tied up? Let’s just untie him already.”
One cadet, now feeling sorry for Haydam after hearing the story, spoke up. The expressions around him turned complicated.
“I feel bad too, but… we still can’t just untie him…”
“He’s pitiful, but this is training. We can’t release an enemy right in the middle of our camp.”
“What? Didn’t you hear what Lord Haydam said? He doesn’t want those assholes to win either! Or what, are you still suspicious of him? You still think this is a trap?”
One more emotional cadet started raising his voice. Lucas stepped in to calm him down.
“We’re not trying to doubt Lord Haydam. Training has to be treated like the real thing. Being careful is the right call.”
“That’s true, but…”
A few cadets still looked thoroughly uncomfortable. The one who had originally opposed bringing Haydam into camp at all snorted as if the whole debate was pointless.
“If you want him free so badly, why don’t we just kill him here and end the exercise?”
Every other cadet immediately rejected the idea.
“That’s exactly what Team A wants!”
“Bones, you seriously gonna go around bragging that you won by killing Lord Haydam?”
“Why the hell not? Looking at your IQ, you’re about on his level anyway.”
“Bones!!”
“Enough.”
Lucas, having had enough, shut them down.
“Are you planning to start infighting over something this stupid? Leave him tied. Lord Haydam was prepared for at least that much.”
“Senior! Are you serious? We’re proud cadets of the military academy. Are we really going to keep a little kid like Lord Haydam tied up because we’re scared of him?”
“Proud cadets, my ass. You’d just let every kid who cries ‘please spare me’ walk free on a real battlefield too?”
“What the hell did you just say?!”
Even after Lucas’s warning not to tear themselves apart over this, the argument over whether to free Haydam dragged on and on. Sensing the growing fracture, the cadets who had stayed out of the fight started clinging to Lucas in a panic.
“Senior… things are getting weird…”
“Lucas, do something.”
Lucas scowled. The arguing cadets all turned to him as well.
“Yes! Let’s just go with whatever Senior Lucas decides!”
The one who had been pushing to free Haydam looked at him with desperate eyes.
“You’re going to untie him, right? Right, Senior Lucas?”
“We can’t untie him. Kill him instead!”
“Are you an actual psychopath?!”
Voices were rising again when a childish voice cut cleanly through the middle of them.
“Kill me.”
It was Haydam who said it, so every Team B cadet stared at him in shock. His face was pure resignation.
“Just kill me and end the exercise.”
“Lord Haydam… are you serious?”
“I was too careless. I got cocky after one successful experience, so I have no right to complain about ending up like this. So… just kill me and finish it.”
The cadets exchanged uncertain glances.
“But… we don’t want a dishonorable win like that. Shooting a prisoner who isn’t even resisting…”
“I’ll explain everything that happened here to the other cadets myself. I’m so ashamed it came to this.”
“Lord Haydam…”
Even the person at the center of it all was telling them to just kill him. He promised he would clear things up afterward, yet not a single cadet stepped forward to actually do it. Even the one who had been arguing for killing him a moment earlier shut his mouth with a complicated look.
“Lucas… what are you going to do?”
Someone asked. Lucas let out a quiet sigh and drew the military saber at his hip. Several cadets flinched hard.
“Lucas!”
“Y-you’re not actually going to kill him and end the exercise, right?”
Even knowing it was training, the idea of finishing the exercise by killing a bound little kid made the faces of the cadets who had opposed untying him turn sour. Logically they knew he shouldn’t be freed, but none of them had actually wanted to win this way either.
“…Lucas!”
Finally the cadet who had been advocating for killing him spoke up.
“I think I was wrong. Don’t kill him. Untie him and just put a watch on him. We need someone to guard the flag anyway.”
“R-right, Senior Lucas!”
“Cohen and I will stay behind.”
“Yeah, Harry and Cohen are reliable enough.”
Opinion was gathering around freeing Haydam and posting a guard. Lucas simply stared at the boy with an unreadable expression.
“Lord Haydam.”
“Yes…?”
“Training is not a game. I trust you understand that now.”
As he spoke, Lucas adjusted his grip on the saber. The cadets panicked and shouted.
“Lucas…!”
“Hey!”
They thought he was about to stab Haydam and tried to stop him. At the last second Lucas simply slid the saber back into its scabbard and began untying the ropes. Relief flooded their faces.
Haydam stared up at him, still half in a daze, as the bonds came off.
“Why… didn’t you just kill me…”
“I’ll untie you, but there will be a guard.”
“Are you sure that’s all right? I’m still the enemy…”
“That’s not something for the enemy to worry about.”
Having cut Haydam off cleanly, Lucas turned to his team.
“Harry, Cohen. You two stay. Fire a signal flare if anything happens. If Lord Haydam does anything even slightly suspicious, don’t hesitate—kill him.”
“Y-yeah, of course.”
Haydam looked thoroughly ashamed.
“I really don’t know what to say. Because I caused all this unnecessary trouble, all of you have to go through this…”
“It’s nothing. People like that only learn their place after they get their noses bloodied.”
“Just rest, Lord Haydam. Cowards like Team A are something we can beat with our own strength.”
“Yes… thank you, everyone.”
Receiving Haydam’s thanks left the cadets a little awkward as they gathered their gear.
“Everyone except Harry and Cohen, we’re heading for Team A’s camp. Finish this quick and clean.”
And so…
the gates of hell opened for Team B.