The Captive in the Carriage
Her name was Dana.
“Speaking of which, hey, 12th Squad. Are you properly recruiting people for the 15th Squad?” Bernhardt asked, staring at the 12th Squad Leader.
The 12th Squad Leader, whom I’d heard about from Marcus before, handled personnel matters—essentially HR for the company. He sold captured prisoners to the slave market, tried to persuade them to join, or lured in disaffected youths from the cities and countryside to swell the bandit ranks.
“Lately, those Lionheart bastards have been stirring up trouble in every village, so the kids are too scared to join,” the 12th Squad Leader said, scratching his head.
“So you’re just going to leave the 15th Squad like that? With Marcus gone, there’s only one person left who can actually work. You think that’s going to fly?” Bernhardt raised his voice in irritation.
The 12th Squad Leader glanced around nervously and replied in a shrinking tone. “I-I’ll find some as soon as possible. If I can’t, I’ll just kidnap them and force them to join.”
“Kidnapping’s good! Kidnapping!” Bernhardt slammed his palm on the table. “Don’t bother with formalities. If someone looks useful, just snatch them. Lock them up in the prison, starve them for a few days, and they’ll be begging to join while crying their eyes out. Wahaha!”
I had nothing to say. I didn’t harbor any hostility toward Bernhardt, but I couldn’t possibly agree with him right now. I looked around at the squad leaders’ reactions, wondering if anyone else shared my thoughts, and happened to meet Gladia’s eyes. She was resting her chin on the table, smiling with her eyes, and suddenly winked at me.
In the past, I would have looked away, feeling burdened, but things were different now. As a playful reply to her show of favor, I winked back. She looked startled for a moment, then burst out laughing with a “Pfft!”
“What’s so funny?” Bernhardt and the others turned to look, puzzled. Gladia quickly waved her hands and laughed it off, saying it was nothing. Once everyone’s attention returned to Bernhardt, she glanced at me. Her lips curved in amusement, as if to say, “What an interesting guy.” I shrugged and turned back to Bernhardt.
“I have a suggestion for the Great Squad Leader,” Marcus said, opening his mouth. “Could you leave the matter of replenishing the 15th Squad’s numbers to me?”
“You got someone in mind?”
“No one specific, but I’ll do my best to fill the spots as quickly as possible.”
It was just a feeling, but I suspected Marcus was volunteering to pick the new members for my sake. He probably thought work was more enjoyable with people you got along with. If trash like Vick joined as squad members, it was obvious there would be conflict with me, who was currently only half a bandit. Marcus was likely worried about that.
“Fine, do it. Old man, pick two or three people yourself. As fast as you can.” Bernhardt agreed without a moment’s hesitation. The speed at which he made decisions was almost refreshing to watch.
“Then let’s wrap up the discussion about replenishing the 15th Squad’s numbers here and begin the main meeting. First, I’ll announce the decision made at last night’s top-level meeting. Our boss has decided…” Bernhardt looked around at the squad leaders, paused for effect, then grinned. “As of noon today, we will declare war on Chen’s Bandits.”
The single word “war” sent a wave of heat through the room. The squad leaders’ expressions grew tense, and I swallowed hard.
“If anyone has any good ideas on how to crush them, speak up.”
The meeting continued for a long time afterward, discussing ways to attack Chen’s Bandits. That same day at noon, as Bernhardt had said, the female boss declared war on Chen’s Bandits in front of the entire bandit group.
“Strip them of everything they have!”
With that, all activities of squads 1 through 15 were now focused on Chen’s Bandits. To weaken their forces even slightly before the full-scale war began, they decided to launch localized attacks. The primary targets were Chen’s bandits operating outside their main base. The plan was to assassinate members active in various villages, ambush those out hunting or raiding, or kill supply carriers and seize their wagons—cutting off the flow of food, military supplies, and daily necessities into Chen’s base before the full war erupted.
Our squad was also assigned to surprise attack operations, just like the others. However, as someone had casually mentioned during the meeting, I had to join another squad as an extra. Marcus, with his injured leg, had already been excluded from combat, and since I was the only member left, there was no choice. So I ended up attached to the 6th Squad.
The 6th Squad was tasked with ambushing Chen’s bandits along a path they frequently used. I headed to the operation area with five members of the 6th Squad.
“Your name’s Hyunwoo, right?”
“Yes.”
“Let’s do well today.”
I followed the 6th Squad Leader, who knew the way well, walking quietly along the forest path. Suddenly, a woman’s scream came from nearby. I stopped and looked around. In the dense trees, I saw familiar faces: 4th Squad Leader Vick, Freyr, and three other squad members. Two middle-aged women were being raped by them. They had probably entered the forest to gather herbs and unluckily run into the 4th Squad.
Among the demons committing gang rape, Freyr was also working hard. He was forcing his genitals into the mouth of a woman being raped by another member, a mad grin on his face. I wondered if that guy had finally become a demon too.
Over a month of life in the bandit group had clearly changed Freyr. If I had changed a little, he had changed 180 degrees. Before, he had often shown guilt and remorse for his evil deeds, but lately, there was no trace of that. He seemed to have let everything go. He also hadn’t been hanging around with me much either. After I beat up the 4th Squad Leader, his visits became less frequent, and lately, there had been no contact at all. It felt like we had grown distant.
“You wanna go join in too?” the short-haired 6th Squad Leader chuckled and patted my shoulder as he passed by. I gave a wry smile and moved my feet. At the same time, the reality I had momentarily forgotten came rushing back, and tension surged through me. This wasn’t the time to space out thinking about Freyr. I was on my way to kill people. If I wasn’t careful, I could end up dead myself.
“You, you, and you hide over there. You and you, we’ll set up an ambush here.”
As soon as we arrived at the ambush site, the 6th Squad Leader pointed at the members with his fingers and assigned hiding spots. Divided into two groups, we hid in the bushes and watched the forest path—just wide enough for a single carriage—waiting for Chen’s subordinates to pass by.
However, after two hours with no one passing, tension and drowsiness mixed on everyone’s faces. Though worried about the mission, boredom made yawns keep coming, and concentration began to waver.
While idly staring at the forest path, my gaze naturally fell on the sword in my hand.
“What would it feel like to stab someone with a sword?”
I lifted the sword and stared at the blade. It gleamed with a silvery light so bright that my facial contours were clearly reflected in it. It was so beautiful it seemed like a work of art. In the center of the blade, an inscription was engraved vertically:
—No storm can block the light of the Hildegard family.
So this knight’s family name was Hildegard. How many people had Hildegard killed with this sword? She looked highly skilled, so she had probably killed quite a few. Quite a few…
As I was thinking, my eyelids began to droop without me realizing it. Then someone urgently whispered, “They’re coming!”
My eyes snapped open. I quickly corrected my relaxed posture, lay flat in the bushes, and suppressed my presence. The sound of at least two horses walking reached my ears. Looking toward the sound, I saw a covered wagon approaching. On the driver’s seat sat three men in bandit-like clothing, chatting away, while the cargo area was hidden by the canvas cover, so I couldn’t tell if anyone else was inside.
“It’s Chen’s guys,” the 6th Squad Leader said with conviction, narrowing his eyes. Tension filled the air. We exchanged glances and quietly waited for the carriage to pass. Then, just as it was about to pass right in front of us…
At the 6th Squad Leader’s signal, we rushed out from behind the carriage.
“Aaaagh!”
“Kuhk!”
Red blood splattered on the hindquarters of the horses pulling the carriage. The 6th Squad Leader and two members swiftly slit the throats of the men on the driver’s seat, while the rest of us, including me, dealt with those who scrambled out of the cargo area in a panic.
“You bastards! Who the hell are you?!”
One man shouted and charged at me. With a tense expression, I licked my lips. A sword fight with a person—I’d never done this before. In the moment of crisis, instead of thinking about swinging my sword, my body reacted first. What I was used to came out reflexively. I pulled out a throwing star from the pouch on my left forearm and hurled it at the man with arrow-like speed.
Damn it. The moment the three throwing stars left my hand, I knew I had missed. I had aimed for the man’s face, but due to lack of skill, the direction went off.
Thud!
“Aaaagh!”
Two throwing stars missed, but the last one fortunately embedded itself in the back of his hand. The man dropped his sword and clutched his hand. At that moment, one of our members appeared.
“I’ll finish him off!”
The 6th Squad member who appeared behind the man drove his sword into the man’s back. The man’s eyes rolled upward, and he collapsed with a thud.
“Thanks.”
I gave a thumbs-up to the 6th Squad member. He returned the gesture. I was grateful for the help, but at the same time, I felt disappointed. I needed to experience killing someone as soon as possible. Clicking my tongue, I looked around. The situation had already ended. Maybe because their job was being bandits, their movements were all ghost-like. The 6th Squad members were rummaging through the corpses sprawled on the ground, stuffing anything useful into their pockets.
“Hey, you and you. Check if anyone’s hiding in the cargo area.”
The 6th Squad Leader, stuffing money he’d found from searching the corpses into his pocket, pointed at me and a nearby member. The member who had been called together grabbed his pant leg and approached, saying, “After hiding for hours without being able to go to the bathroom, my bladder’s about to burst. I need to take a piss first.”
“Yeah.”
The member started urinating against a nearby tree, while I gripped my sword and walked to the back of the carriage, quietly checking inside. Then I flinched in surprise.
At first, I thought I was looking at a protein doll. A blonde beauty in a short-skirted black maid outfit and stockings, gagged and tightly bound with ropes, was sitting huddled in the corner. Had she been kidnapped by Chen’s guys? As I stared at her in shock, she looked back at me with emotionless eyes. Her gaze wasn’t filled with fear either. It was just… just a look without any thought behind it.
What was with this woman? How could she be so calm in a situation surrounded by bandits?
“Anything in there?”
The member who had finished urinating pulled up his pants and walked over. Suddenly, the image of the women being gang-raped by the 4th Squad flashed through my mind. I quickly climbed into the cargo area and grabbed a blanket to cover the woman’s body. The member who came to the back of the carriage peered inside and asked, “No one hiding?”
With my back to the woman, I pretended to look around calmly. “Just some looted goods.”
“Getting free loot like this—lucky us.”
The member shouted toward the 6th Squad Leader standing by the driver’s seat. “There’s nothing but stuff in the cargo area! Let’s get out of here before their guys come after us!”