Against the Encirclement (3)
“Over there! Their wagon is on the bridge!”
The spearmen rushed forward in a swarm and surrounded the wagon halted in the middle of the bridge. On the driver’s seat sat a blood-soaked man, head bowed and shoulders slumped, his strength utterly spent. The soldiers cautiously extended their spears and prodded the man’s chest with the tips.
“Is he dead…?”
“His shoulders are twitching now and then. He’s still breathing, I think.”
While they tilted their heads in confusion, a voice suddenly burst from the man.
“…Anyone there?”
“He’s alive! He moved!”
As the soldiers kept their distance and leveled their spears, the man slowly raised his head.
“You came after me…?”
“D-don’t move!”
“We’re taking you into custody!”
“Soldiers, huh…”
The man muttered with his head cocked at an angle, staring blankly ahead with hollow eyes.
“What the hell. Why’d you take so long? I almost left first. How lonely that would’ve been.”
As if he had reached his limit, he dropped the object he had been clutching. Every soldier’s gaze snapped to the ground. The round object rolled to a stop, its fuse already burning down. It was a bomb.
The man grinned.
“You all told your families you wouldn’t be coming home, right?”
In that instant, a thunderous explosion shook heaven and earth.
***
I dove into the river, grabbed Marcus by the collar while he was unconscious, and swam toward the shore. A thunderous blast echoed overhead. The moment I realized that Phelton had followed Harry into death, grief surged through me and the world seemed to collapse. Losing two comrades who had been my pillars of support in a single hour left me with no will to live. Facing a reality I could never handle alone, everything went dark before my eyes.
A question rose. Marcus was gravely wounded—what was I supposed to do? Could I really overcome this crisis by myself? What made the despair even worse was finally accepting that the time had come to abandon any lingering hope of escaping the bandit life and truly become a bandit. I was certain. Now that the soldiers and that female knight had seen my face, an ordinary life in this world was impossible. They would hunt me to the ends of the earth. From now on, I might have to spend the rest of my life treating the 15th Squad’s barracks as my home. Damn it.
“Hah! Hah! Glub! Glub!”
Dragging myself out of the water with great difficulty, I pulled Marcus along and hid beneath the bridge. The first thing to do was obvious: emergency treatment for Marcus. I stripped off my shirt, wrung out the water, and tore it into strips. After pulling the arrow from his thigh, I wrapped the torn cloth tightly around the wound to stop the bleeding.
“Ugh… ah… ugh…!”
Marcus groaned with his eyes closed. It was painful to watch, but at least it meant he was still alive. That was a relief.
“Don’t die, old man. If you leave too, I’ll be completely alone. Show me that same stubborn will to survive you had when you used to grind me down.”
I once heard that ducklings imprint on the first thing they see after hatching and think it’s their parent. Maybe I was the same. Now that Harry, who had been like a mother, and Phelton, who had been like a father, were gone, the only family I had left in this world was Grandpa Marcus. I had to protect him no matter what. In that sense, would cutting my arm and feeding him my blood help ease his bleeding? No. I should stop playing doctor when I had zero medical knowledge. Marcus wasn’t a vampire, and there was no guarantee it would even work. I shook off the foolish thought, hoisted Marcus onto my back, and stood up.
Though I had no place to turn in this cold, cruel city, when I thought about it, that wasn’t entirely true. The first place that came to mind was the inn in the slums guarded by the prostitutes. It was the same place Marcus, Phelton, and Harry had often visited for meals. Maybe I could get some help there. In movies, shady shop owners always had connections to criminal organizations. Perhaps that rundown inn was a sanctuary that helped bandits escape. If money was needed for the escape, I could just put it on the female boss’s tab. Ah, come to think of it, I picked out some pretty underwear for her at the women’s lingerie shop today, but I threw it away with the rest of the luggage earlier. It was a carefully chosen masterpiece, too. Oh well. I could just buy her another one later. With Phelton and Harry dead, thinking about the female boss’s underwear at a time like this made me feel insane. My head really must be messed up. Maybe the shock of watching people I knew die horribly right in front of me for the first time had knocked a few screws loose.
“Kang Hyun-woo. Get a grip.”
Even in this situation, I scolded myself for letting my mind wander and took a step forward when a trembling voice suddenly called out from behind.
“D-don’t move!”
I turned to see a single soldier standing there, his long spear pointed straight at me. I was inwardly shocked. What the hell? The golden ball hadn’t made a single sound. It always warned me whenever danger approached, so why hadn’t it reacted to this guy at all? Because he was alone? No. That female knight had clearly let her inner thoughts be heard when she was alone earlier. …Huh? Now that I thought about it, the female knight was the first person whose inner thoughts—not spoken words—had reached me. What was going on? Until now, I could only hear other people’s spoken conversations, so why had I heard her thoughts?
While I stood frozen in confusion, the soldier asked nervously, “Are you Hyunwoo?”
This guy knew my name? I asked warily, “How do you know that name?”
“Kelly is looking for you.”
“Kelly?”
I doubted my ears. Was this the same Kelly I knew? The same Kelly who had been calling me “master” just last night? Who was this soldier, and why was Kelly’s name suddenly coming up? What the hell was going on? My mind was in chaos.
***
Adelia returned to the unit. She needed to shower and change before attending the opening ceremony for the “Lion Heart Subjugation Force Nobern Regional Headquarters” in two hours. The day’s operation, which had begun before the unit was officially active, was still ongoing under the command of her subordinates. Since they were only dealing with low-ranking bandits, there was no need for her to personally oversee every detail all day long.
Knock, knock.
While she was removing her armor in the inner room after entering the office, a knock sounded at the door.
“Check who it is, and if it’s an outsider, tell them I’m briefly unavailable.”
At her words, the maid who had been neatly arranging the armor pieces on the stand hurried to the door. She opened it and checked the person standing in the hallway.
“Lady Sinclair. What brings you here?”
“I came to report the operation status to Lady Adelia. I heard she arrived at the unit a little while ago. Is she inside?”
Adelia’s voice came from the inner room. “Come in.”
The maid stepped aside, and her adjutant, Sinclair, entered, crossing the office toward the open door in the corner. The inner room consisted of a bedroom and a small living area. When Sinclair entered, Adelia had just finished removing her underwear in the living room and was completely naked. The maid quickly rushed over, gathered the scattered clothes from the floor, and carried them to the laundry basket.
“Any news that Marcus has been captured?”
“No report yet.”
Adelia, wearing not a single thread, proudly displayed her long, shapely legs and firm, pale buttocks as she stepped into the wooden bathtub filled with floating rose petals.
“Ah, it’s nice and warm.”
The moment she sat in the tub, her face already looked refreshed, as if all her fatigue had melted away. The maid rolled up her sleeves and approached, carefully pouring water over Adelia’s head with a ladle.
“Report.”
“Yes.”
Sinclair stood at attention, staring straight ahead as she spoke. “I will briefly report the information gathered up to this hour. Among the Elk Bandits who infiltrated the city, the deaths of Phelton and Harry have been confirmed. With support from the Blue Arrow Unit, we are currently tracking the whereabouts of Marcus and the young demi-human. During the operation, our casualties so far are 28 wounded and 16 dead, totaling 44. That is all.”
“We took far too many losses just to catch a bunch of small fry.”
Adelia’s brow furrowed. It was a scale of damage she had never experienced before. Moreover, they weren’t even the leader—just low-ranking members—and nearly a third of the unit’s strength had been lost. It was absurd.
Adelia changed the subject to the matter that had been on her mind. “Do we have any information compiled on that demi-human youth?”
“Since he is not a core member of the organization, information about him is extremely limited compared to Marcus, Phelton, and Harry. Nothing is known about his place of origin, name, or age.”
As the maid held a sponge and diligently scrubbed Adelia’s body, bubbles rose in the wooden tub and the water sloshed dangerously close to overflowing.
“He appears to be a new recruit who recently joined the Elk Bandits. Even without information, it shouldn’t be a problem. After all, bandit groups are foolish organizations that fall apart the moment their leader is removed. He is nothing more than a minor pawn filling their numbers.”
At Sinclair’s confident assertion, Adelia pondered seriously before shaking her head.
“No. Just in case, investigate his background.”
“Pardon? May I ask the reason?”
“I experienced something quite absurd today.”
The maid’s hands moved toward Adelia’s breasts. While the sponge, covered in white foam, gently cleaned the pink nipples atop her peach-like breasts, Adelia toyed with the floating soap bubbles and recalled the events of dawn.
“That demi-human youth I dismissed as a mere small fry threw me to the ground.”
“What?”
Sinclair’s eyes widened in shock. “I-is that true?”
Adelia nodded silently. Sinclair stammered in disbelief. “I-if he could defeat Lady Adelia, who graduated at the top of the knight academy, then that demi-human youth’s skill is extraordinary! In other words…!”
Adelia stated it first, as if concluding the matter. “Yes. It’s possible that demi-human youth is the leader of the Elk Bandits.”