Chapter 83
Chapter 83
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 83
Chapter Title: Go
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Snow falls.
A snowy landscape feels desolate.
The sparkling flurry from the sky seems pretty at first, but when you look down, harsh reality closes in.
What to do. It's snowing.
Especially if you're fleeing from enemies—the sorrow hits even harder.
After successfully thwarting Logot's transport operation, the Count decided to retreat with all twenty thousand troops.
This massive group was pushing west, then further west, through the cold snap and treacherous uncharted lands.
Every day, they woke up somewhere new, spending their waking hours in shaking, freezing wagons.
No sign of the enemy, yet they pressed on relentlessly, as if pursued every moment.
When supplies ran low and the sick piled up, they finally halted at Blade Edge Gorge.
They pitched tents for a day, tending wounds and running resupply missions.
The wind bit deep.
On night watch, pacing to stay awake, dry coughs echoed from tent to tent—hack, hack.
"Huuu...."
Kang Geohan let out a deep sigh, overcome by a sudden loneliness.
'What will happen in this war?'
Would everything end if they just retreated like this? Or was this only the beginning? Could they retreat without incident?
A swarm of worries clouded his mind.
'It's all because I can't exercise.'
During the retreat, he was stuck in the wagon all day, no workouts. Even here at the gorge, resupply duties left no time.
Just a bit of bodyweight stuff during night watch like this.
"Huu...."
Gazing into the distance, sighing heavily, he spotted a girl standing gracefully on the upraised palm of a towering Gigant.
It was Helena White, cheeks and nose red from the chill wind, face pelting with snow.
'Somehow... it reminds me of riding the kingdom train Mimir.'
Back then, crossing the blizzard zone, Helena had stood outside in the snow too.
Not even half a year ago, yet it felt like ancient history.
He never imagined a war like this back then.
Kang Geohan climbed up the Gigant and stood beside Helena White.
"What're you thinking about so hard?"
"Oh, Sir Kang Geohan Black."
She acknowledged him once, then stared straight ahead, lost in thought again.
Her purple eyes glimmered in the darkness.
Kang Geohan glanced at her profile and asked,
"You got ridiculously strong all of a sudden, huh?"
He recalled the last battle. Every glimpse he'd caught, Helena was putting on an incredible show.
Piloting an advanced trainer Cyclops against the enemy's main force Titans.
Without her exploits, none of his comrades would have survived—Kang Geohan was convinced of that.
But... how did she get so strong so fast?
Helena answered casually.
"I took my family's elixir too. Not as good as the Balrog core you ate, though."
"Your family's elixir?"
Kang Geohan blinked. First time Helena mentioned her family.
Family...? That sounded like...
"What, like fallen nobility or something?"
"Right."
Helena admitted it plainly.
"Noble. Fallen, but I became a Gigant rider to restore the family honor... and ended up here."
Kang Geohan stared blankly at her profile. She suddenly felt unfamiliar.
"Wait, you weren't hiding it...? Never mentioned it till now... just using White..."
"I was."
Her eyes flicked to Kang Geohan, then back forward.
"But not anymore. And drop the formal speech. I hate it."
"Why the sudden change?"
"I've made up my mind."
What mind had she made up...? But Helena clamped her mouth shut, signaling no more talk.
Kang Geohan eyed her cautiously, then asked,
"So... what's your real family name? Curious now."
Helena whipped her head around to face him.
Her pale skin, red nose and cheeks from the cold, lit up bright before his eyes. Purple hair swayed like a mystical night sky.
She flashed an elegant smile he'd never seen before and said,
"Sir Kang Geohan Black. I'm grateful for the interest, but I must inform you that our relationship isn't yet close enough for me to reveal my family name."
What a roundabout way to say it... quintessentially noble.
"Tch... You tell me you're noble, but won't give the name? What's that about?"
"Just is."
"Ah~ Yes. I shall take that to mean you consider it just so."
Mimicking her stuffy tone to tease,
"Kuk."
Helena laughed. Eyes fixed ahead into the pouring snow, her purple irises curved like half-moons.
Didn't expect her to laugh...
Felt kinda good.
Kang Geohan stretched and changed the subject.
"Anyway, surprised me. Never thought Count Carly Stehold would order a retreat. Seemed so attached to the eastern border..."
"Really? Makes sense to me."
"It does? Why'd he do it?"
"Nobles must protect their people. Above all else, that's the foundation. The Count judged he couldn't safeguard his people—these twenty thousand—with just eighteen Gigants."
"So... he gave up the fight to the death and chose retreat?"
"Exactly. They'd already destroyed the Origin Furnace—done more than enough, even beyond. Regret lingers, but no remorse, I think."
Kang Geohan stared ahead. Through the swirling snow, scattered campfires flickered.
Tent silhouettes danced in the firelight, looking ragged and weary like overgrown thickets.
"Will the people appreciate that...?"
Or would they just gripe about being dragged around? In the end, wasn't life under Logot or Linekar much the same for commoners?
At his mutter, Helena snapped her head to face him.
"They have no choice but to."
Her voice carried a strange fervor.
"Logot barbarians show no mercy. If it suits them, they slaughter babies without hesitation. Captured alive? Slavery. Do you know how miserable Logot slaves live?"
Kang Geohan, a lowly serf from a distant border estate, had no clue.
Helena, though, spoke with vivid rage, as if she'd witnessed it firsthand.
"So... the Count's all we can rely on. All our fates depend on it. No choice. Every one of those people must be counting on him."
Her voice trembled faintly.
Words long buried in her chest clawed their way out, reopening wounds.
"I'm... worried about that."
She said worried, but to Kang Geohan, it sounded like fear.
"This night. Right now on watch—if the alarm bells suddenly ring out, Logot scum charging in? If they breach our defenses, torch the civilians' tents, trample people under Gigants and spears? Those folks you laughed with during workouts, splattered in blood one by one! Strewn like trash on the ground...! Flames roaring, in that hell... what about me? Will I freeze up, powerless...? I'm worried. Can I endure? Stay cool and fight?"
Her voice teetered on hot tears.
As she gazed at the snowy scene,
She looked noble as a raven, but inside, she might have been battling surging tension, rage, fear.
Kang Geohan patted her quivering shoulder.
"Helena."
No reply. She was forcing back ugly tears.
"You know how I moved when everyone froze under the Wolf Queen's presence?"
Her damp purple eyes flicked to him, curiosity winning.
"I always tell myself, 'Just like always...'"
"Just like always?"
"Yeah. Can't squeeze out sudden courage against scary foes. What moves your body then? Just the moves drilled in day after day."
"Drilled-in moves..."
"Right. You train as obsessively as me, don't you? Next time, mutter it too. Just like always... Like all those drills. Move the body, that's it. No need to fret over looming doom or outcomes. Just like always. Fight—that's all."
Blink.
Her purple eyes blinked, lids fluttering. A soft eye-smile made them sparkle like stars.
"Are you comforting me right now?"
"Nah... Just comrades helping each other."
She said,
"I'm jealous of Sir Kalz Black."
"Huh?"
"Having a liege like you."
Tap.
She patted Kang Geohan Black's shoulder lightly.
"I'll head in. It's cold—don't stay out too long."
Helena opened the Gigant's chest hatch and slipped into the cockpit.
Hooo—
Kang Geohan breathed white mist, gazed at the scene a moment, then hopped down from the Gigant's palm.
Hack, hack.
Coughs mingled as the night deepened.
* * *
Next dawn.
Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding!
Alarm bells clanged wildly.
"Enemy sighted 5km out! 53 Gigants...! Troops over ten thousand!"
"No way...! How'd they catch up so fast?"
"We retreated that quick!"
Unbelievable, incomprehensible—but real.
Heavy, chilling tension crushed every chest. Hard to breathe.
Rumble-rumble!
Gigants lifted off everywhere, prepping for battle.
Knights checked gear; soldiers rushed to posts.
Running, they thought,
'What is this? What am I doing? Dying like this?'
Hopeless odds. Death, or worse—slavery more miserable than death.
Teeth chattered uncontrollably.
-Kang Geohan Black!
Count Carly Stehold, aboard his Gigant, called him.
"Yes, milord!"
Shing!
The Count's machine, Fenrir, drew a long sword and leveled it at Kang Geohan's shoulder.
As he flinched, the Count spoke coldly, sternly.
-Sir Kang Geohan Black. As of now, I appoint you commander of the Eastern Border Fortress.
"......Pardon?"
-Order. The commander will lead all soldiers and civilians in immediate retreat. Kalz Black, Raphael Black, Helena White, Gerot White, Loen White, Harkrux White—escort the commander. Three more days' march reaches settled lands. You'll be safe. Until then... do not let the enemy capture you. That's an order.
Sudden, but the meaning crystal clear.
-This terrain's a straight-line grand gorge. We'll hold them here. Retreat swiftly.
The Count intended to die here.
-Go.