A Grand Offensive, Doomed from the Start
It was a large-scale offensive—and already, from the very first step, the signs looked grim.
Hans von Seeckt of Germany is said to have once remarked:
I divide my officers into four types: the clever, the lazy, the diligent, and the stupid.
Most people possess two of these traits.
Those who are clever and diligent make excellent senior staff officers.
The stupid and lazy make up ninety percent of every army in the world—give them routine work and they will do it well enough.
The clever and lazy can handle any situation, and so make the finest high commanders.
But—
the stupid and diligent are dangerous, and must be removed at once.
In other words: a person with nothing in their head, yet tirelessly industrious—or burning with far too much zeal. Such a person can harm not only themselves but everyone around them, and must always be watched with caution.
Of every type of human being, this one is the most likely to cause disaster, and for that reason must never be entrusted with any serious responsibility. A capable commander, therefore, needs to identify and exclude such people before accidents can happen.
Unfortunately, however—
the world does not always flow so smoothly.
Human beings forever pursue perfection, and yet they can never become perfect. Because they are human. Because they are creatures who carry what is called human feeling.
In the course of any undertaking, they so often fail to focus solely on success and instead inject their personal emotions into the work. Those private feelings, expectations, and prejudices blind a person's eyes—and in the end, push everything into the abyss.
Just as they were doing now.
"All forces! Advance!"
"Victory!"
The moment the review ended, the great army began its march north. Watching the scene unfold, one man—Lee Jaemin, Vice Minister of National Defense of the Republic of Korea—felt a deep thrill at the spectacle before his eyes.
A force of a hundred thousand was advancing at his command. Today was the day they would finally abandon their long, passive defensive posture and launch a full-scale offensive against the Abysses.
Yet in this moment, his attention was fixed on only one person among the countless soldiers and hunters arrayed before him: the Guild Master of the 28th Hunter Guild, the very heart of this force—and his own daughter, Lee Sena.
At last it begins… the glorious moment when my proud daughter's name will be known throughout the nation—no, throughout the entire world!
There had been some unpleasant business recently involving the new adjutants, but the 28th Guild still commanded recognition for its brilliant past record. Using that reputation as justification, Vice Minister Lee Jaemin had assigned the 28th Guild a generous share of the critical missions in this large-scale operation—missions designed to let them rack up achievements.
Some had voiced concern over the 28th Guild's clear decline in combat power since the adjutant change, but the Vice Minister had shut them down without hesitation.
"That was nothing more than the result of being unlucky enough to receive a string of incompetent adjutants! Now that those days are over, there's no further need for worry! If anyone dares insult the 28th Guild—led by the finest Guild Master of all, S-class hunter Lee Sena—any further, I will not stand for it!"
Others muttered that he was shielding his own child far too much, but the Vice Minister paid them no mind. Whatever anyone said, she was his proud daughter, the one who had delivered nothing but the finest results for so long.
Her performance had dipped briefly during the confusion of the adjutant change, but that had been only a momentary setback. With the new adjutant now settled in, he was certain there was nothing left to worry about.
There's nothing left to fear now. She'll show us that magnificent form once more. The whole world is watching you in this moment. Go and display your full power—seize a glorious victory and return, my daughter!
Seeing his proud daughter off toward the front, the Vice Minister's chest swelled, and he began to look forward to the successive reports of victory that would soon arrive.
"All right! We advance! Go and wipe out every last one of those pathetic Abysses!"
Lee Sena spoke in a voice thick with excitement. In this moment she was thoroughly elated by the fact that she had become, for all practical purposes, the star of the entire operation.
She had been floundering ever since Lee Jinhyun left, but with the arrival of a new adjutant—someone with little ambition, who handled the grunt work well and never lectured her about this or that—she felt she had managed a modest change of atmosphere.
Perfect! The annoying adjutant problem is solved, so this is my chance to put everything back the way it was! I'll return to being the star of the battlefield and run wild to my heart's content! I'll burn it into the world's memory that the 28th Guild is invincible even without the likes of Lee Jinhyun!
There were uneasy thoughts. The possibility that Lee Jinhyun had truly been a capable man, and that she herself had merely danced on the stage he had prepared. Every time she made a fool of herself after his departure, that thought returned.
But whenever it did, Sena crushed it with fierce denial. He had never done anything well. Driving him out had been the right decision. And she would prove that fact beyond any doubt in this grand offensive.
Driving herself on again and again, Sena began to burn with a zeal stronger than usual—the determination to lead this war to a decisive victory with her own hands.
Yet watching her, the faces of the A-, B-, and C-class hunters of the 28th Guild were clouded with deep unease.
Is this really going to be all right…? Us, like this…
Looking at the missions we've been given, every single one of them is huge…
Things were somewhat better than when adjutants had been peeling away one after another—but even so, they knew full well they were in considerable danger.
Every mission assigned to them was the kind that could earn major glory. The vanguard would strike first and throw the Abysses into chaos, then they would be sent in to deliver the decisive blow. Or they would ambush Abysses that had been lured in from the flank and annihilate them. Every one of them was a mission that maximized enemy kills and, therefore, the kind of high-visibility achievement that made you the so-called star of the battle.
And yet that very fact only made the hunters more anxious. A mission that could deliver a decisive blow also meant that if coordination failed, you could just as easily take a fatal blow yourself.
You needed to open the attack at precisely the right moment, and when necessary combine a measured retreat with a fresh lure and a counterstrike—organic battlefield management. Looking at their Guild Master, the hunters could not help but wonder whether she was capable of any of it.
On top of that, though they had never fought a real battle with him, the new adjutant gave off the image of an unmotivated yes-man. Having to risk their lives under such unreliable superiors was a heavy burden.
Still… she wouldn't actually order a brainless frontal charge, would she?
For all her flaws, when it comes to one-on-one combat she's a veteran you can count on one hand…
Judging by how things have gone so far, the future looks pretty clear… but even she wouldn't pull some spectacular screw-up in an operation this massive.
If this had been a guild-only operation, it might have been different. But this was a large-scale campaign with countless other guilds fighting alongside them. Given that atmosphere, the hunters believed that even Lee Sena would not go off on some unilateral rampage and cause a disaster.
Or rather—more precisely—they wanted to believe it.