Turning Point
It was a turning point. Tae-oh calmly stared down at his open palm. The lingering sensation on his fingertips. The thrilling vibration he’d felt when he sliced that bastard’s throat in the last loop, and the dying words the man had spat out.
‘This is betrayal. You weren’t supposed to stand out in the previous battle.’
He hadn’t been a simple assassin. A cleaner sent to eliminate him—either under someone’s orders or with the silent approval of this very unit. A cold smile crept across Tae-oh’s lips.
So there really is a traitor among us.
He woke Rolls and headed straight into the forest. Rolls grumbled the whole way, but he sensed the unusual glint in Tae-oh’s eyes and followed without further complaint.
What Tae-oh sought in the woods were the ingredients he had painstakingly analyzed across hundreds of loops after being killed by the same poison. The antidote herb that could neutralize its lethal effects. And one more thing—the sleeping gas the assassin had sprayed into the barracks every time. He also gathered the awakening mushrooms capable of countering the dream-flower pollen that formed the gas’s primary component.
Back in the barracks, Tae-oh began his work in secret.
“What the fuck is this? It ain’t medicine. What the hell are you cooking up?”
Tae-oh answered casually. “Got a bad feeling. Doesn’t something seem off around here?”
“...You noticed?”
Just as he thought—Rolls had known. But with his personality, the man had probably chosen to sit back and observe first.
“Yeah. Only an idiot wouldn’t. Who the hell gives brand-new recruits their own separate barracks? No army on the planet pulls that shit.”
Rolls’s expression grew serious. “So someone’s really gunning for us?”
Tae-oh let out a short laugh. “I think so. You don’t?”
After a brief pause, Rolls asked with a dead-serious face, “Just who the hell are you? Where did you crawl out from?”
“Me? I was just a soldier.”
“Soldier? Which country? Doesn’t look like Roseion.”
Tae-oh’s eyes grew distant. “There’s one country that loves handing out every shitty order you can imagine.”
“Rank?”
“Staff sergeant.”
The rank system here was similar to the modern military. Made sense—this world had been a romance fantasy novel, after all.
“Staff sergeant? That’s basically a squad leader. Pretty high up, wasn’t it?”
“Well, I’d served my time.”
While pouring the bubbling green liquid from the pot into small vials, Tae-oh continued, “My guess is tonight. Get ready.”
“That soon?”
“What would you do?”
“...Tonight’s the best shot.”
“See? Get ready. Something’s coming tonight.”
He had successfully planted a sense of urgency in Rolls. Tonight, Tae-oh intended to deal with the assassin once and for all.
The night grew deep. The barracks lights went out, and the squad’s steady breathing filled the darkness. But they wouldn’t be affected by the gas. Thanks to the mushroom awakening agent Tae-oh had secretly mixed into their dinner water, they were simply sleeping. If anything happened, they would snap awake in an instant.
Tae-oh waited in the dark with his eyes wide open. A bitter lump of pre-chewed antidote herb sat in his mouth.
Then it came—the sound.
Tss—
A faint scraping noise. Hazy smoke seeped through the crack in the door. Sleeping gas.
Normally the entire squad would have been unconscious by now, unaware of what was happening. This time was different. The awakening agent was actively suppressing the gas’s sedative properties.
A shadow slipped through the door. An assassin in a black mask. He moved toward Tae-oh’s cot with practiced familiarity.
The moment the man raised his dagger—
“Now!!”
Tae-oh’s roar shook the barracks.
“!!!”
The assassin flinched, freezing mid-motion. At the same time, the eight squad members who were supposed to be asleep shot upright, weapons already leveled.
“W-what the!! I-it’s real! There’s a real assassin!”
Kyle screamed as he thrust his spear forward. Rian already had her bow drawn tight.
“Move!! He’s fast!”
The panicked assassin tried to retreat, but Tae-oh had already cut off his escape.
“Where do you think you’re going? You came all this way—at least enjoy the hospitality.”
“Hah? I only needed to kill one. Now you’ve gone and complicated things. All of you die here tonight.”
The assassin’s sword streaked toward Tae-oh’s throat.
Clang—!
But this much was child’s play now. Shock flooded the assassin’s eyes.
“H-how are you bastards still moving after breathing in that gas?!”
“That cheap sleeping gas? Smelled so bad it woke me right up.”
Tae-oh smiled coldly and unleashed a flurry of strikes. The assassin was rattled. His perfect pattern had been shattered; it was almost embarrassing to still call him an assassin. Yet his skill remained lethal.
“Rolls! Flank him! Rian, cover us!”
At Tae-oh’s shout, Rolls swung low at the assassin’s legs as if he’d been waiting for the signal.
Thud—!
“Argh!”
The assassin’s stance crumbled. Tae-oh didn’t miss the opening.
“It’s over.”
His sword drove through the assassin’s right shoulder and pinned him to the floor.
“Aaaargh!”
The man’s dagger clattered uselessly to the ground. Tae-oh grabbed him by the collar and ripped the mask away. An ordinary face stared back—plain brown hair, the kind you’d see on any soldier. But those eyes burned with pure venom.
“Who sent you?” Tae-oh asked coldly.
The assassin spat blood and laughed. “Keke… you bastards… aren’t getting out of here ali—”
Before he could finish, his jaw tensed—he was going for the suicide capsule hidden in his molar. Tae-oh had seen this move hundreds of times.
His fist smashed upward into the assassin’s chin.
Crack—
With his jaw dislocated, the man writhed in agony, unable to swallow the poison.
Tae-oh leaned close and whispered, “Dying comes later. Answer my questions first.”
But the assassin hadn’t given up. Even with his jaw hanging loose, he let out a grotesque laugh and pulled a small bottle from inside his clothes.
Smoke bomb? No—!
It was a vial of poison. Enough to kill even with a broken jaw.
“Damn it!”
Tae-oh tried to kick the man’s arm away, but it was lethal toxin. Even skin contact could be fatal. In the end, the assassin managed to pour the poison into his mouth.
“Kuhuhu… you monster…”
A bizarre, gurgling laugh escaped the assassin’s ruined mouth.
“Tsk…”
Tae-oh pressed his sword against the man’s throat. Since the poison was already inside him, the cleanest way to preserve the body for later inspection was a swift decapitation.
Slice—
The blade cut through flesh without hesitation.
The squad members stared in frozen silence at the scene—an assassin breaking into the new recruits’ barracks, and their comrade overpowering and executing him with overwhelming force. None of it felt real.
“C-Captain… what the hell is going on?” Kyle asked, voice shaking.
Tae-oh wiped the blood from his sword and answered calmly, “Can’t you tell? He came to kill us. Stay sharp. There’s no one we can trust.”
His firm tone made the squad swallow hard.
That night, Tae-oh’s platoon survived with zero casualties.
Hearts: 3/3
The next morning, after disposing of the assassin’s body, Tae-oh and Rolls crouched behind the barracks.
“Goddamn it, you were right,” Rolls muttered, blowing out a long trail of cigarette smoke.
“Told you.”
“The bastard’s corpse melted away too. Only our new recruits as witnesses… this whole thing stinks.”
Rolls’s observation was spot on.
“I can’t even tell where the strings are being pulled from. Desertion means immediate execution. We’re trapped. We came here to die.”
“Is there really no way to survive?” Rolls’s face was grim.
“Not sure. If we can figure out how deep this goes, maybe we can find an angle… If the company commander’s involved, desertion is our only option.”
Tae-oh nodded. “Then finding that out comes first.”
Rolls looked at him incredulously. “How? You got multiple lives or something? One wrong word and it’s a summary execution.”
Yeah, I do have multiple lives. Tae-oh wanted to say, but he simply smirked instead.
“There’s always a way. There’s no such thing as a hopeless situation.”
Rolls stared at him like he was crazy. “In this mess, you still see a path forward?”
“What, you’d rather just roll over and die?”
Rolls clicked his tongue in disbelief. “You’re something else… If you survive this, you’ll probably live until you’re shitting on the walls.”
“Thanks for the kind words. Anyway, let’s hear your thoughts. You must have some ideas.”
Rolls rubbed his chin. “My guess is we’re not completely written off.”
“Oh? Different take from mine?”
As expected, hearing other opinions was valuable.
“Otherwise they wouldn’t have sent us on reconnaissance. Scouting parties are more important than they look—they can decide the entire battle.”
Tae-oh nodded. “True. Recon is crucial.”
“In your old country you called them search parties? Anyway, forward reconnaissance is dangerous, but only capable people get assigned to it. Us being here isn’t completely out of left field.”
“So this is the work of one individual inside the unit?”
Rolls nodded. “Yeah. And maybe the higher-ups are trying to catch the guy too.”
“Hmm. A well-hidden internal enemy. This just keeps getting bigger.”
Tae-oh clapped Rolls on the shoulder. “Still, the good news is they’re underestimating us. They thought one assassin would be enough to clean this up.”
It was his eternal regret that he couldn’t tell anyone he had died hundreds of times to that single assassin.
“The whole unit probably isn’t compromised. Sending an assassin means they need to handle this quietly.”
At Rolls’s words, Tae-oh’s eyes sharpened. “We need to find the traitor. Cut his throat, and we live.”
Rolls ground his cigarette butt into the dirt. “Fucking hell. We’re already busy fighting a war and now we have to investigate our own side.”
When Tae-oh simply shrugged, Rolls let out a long sigh.
“Goddamn it, how the hell did I get tangled up with a guy like you… Fine. Let’s do it. My nose for this shit is pretty damn good, after all.”