Frost on a Scorching Hill
“Brrr, something gives me the chills…?”
“Don't just follow the regulations, Sergeant! You have to act according to the situation!”
Lee Yung was practically tearing his hair out. By any measure, this bordered on insubordination, but Woo-sam wanted nothing more than to get out there himself, so he could understand the young man's desperation.
“Khh…”
“Commander, you have relatives out there too, don't you!”
At that one remark, Woo-sam's resolve wavered — the very thing he'd been trying not to think about.
“Hit me!”
“I'm sorry, what?”
“Hit me, I said!”
“With what?”
What on earth was the man talking about? If this wasn't outright mutiny, what was it? No matter how well-connected Lee Yung's family was within the military, this was a catastrophic offense.
“Officially, I was knocked unconscious in a surprise enemy attack — and you men marched out to avenge me!”
“I'm sorry, sir, what?”
Did that even make sense? How would the enemy possibly have gotten here? If he was going to fabricate a story, couldn't he at least make it plausible?
“Just do as you're told!”
“Understood, sir! I'll act first and think later!”
Lee Yung had gone all-in. Desperation had driven him to commit first and answer for it afterward.
“Alright, now just let me—”
CRACK.
A fearsome sound rang out, and
Oh… kid… go easy on me…
Woo-sam's consciousness sailed off into the far distance. Well, what else would you expect from a military family? Not a single second of hesitation.
“Everyone, grab your weapons!”
“Let's go!”
Altogether, about fifty men had gathered — and it was obvious these were the ones who'd already paired off with the girls, the ones who'd had a reason to act quickly. They had all come rushing at the first word, and since they'd all been exchanging glances with the girls, they were men in their early twenties at most, with Lee Yung, the longest-serving among them, at the front.
“Move, move!”
“Hurry!”
Weapons and armor already donned, they began running toward the north side of the village — toward the wasteland the girls had fled into.
Fifty-odd girls were sprinting across the wasteland, and behind them, what looked like hundreds of Inca warriors came howling in pursuit.
Arrows kept flying at their backs as they ran — not exactly aimed to hit, but hitting nonetheless.
Thwip.
“Agh!”
“No!”
A casualty fell among the girls who had been fleeing for their lives.
She had been angling toward the hill to dodge the arrows, and the slowing of her steps had been her undoing.
“Uuuh. Rari! I'm scared… *sniff*…”
“Hang in there, just a little farther!”
The arrow had struck her leg. It wasn't immediately fatal, but her strength was draining away, her steps growing slower by the moment. Rari, supporting her friend's weight, was falling farther and farther behind the others.
“Come on, you can do it!”
“No! Rari, go without me! Hurry!”
Her companions vanished one by one over the crest of the hill, until only Rari and the wounded girl remained.
I wanted to go to Daehan… No! I can't give up yet!
Rari seized hold of the weakness threatening to overtake her heart. Beyond that hill was surely a slope. She'd roll down it if she had to.
“Quickly!”
BANG! BANG-BANG! BANG!
As she climbed the hill, she could see the girls who'd gone ahead firing their guns.
“You fools…”
Tears blurred her vision. The sisterhood of these girls was enough to bring anyone to their knees — some of them were on the hilltop, sobbing as they reloaded with shaking hands.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Fortunately, the Inca warriors had been sprinting from such a great distance that their pace had slowed considerably. And when their vanguard crumbled and the formation wavered yet again, the girls found fresh strength in their legs.
“Just run! Get out of here!”
“How could we leave you two behind!”
“Hurry up and come!”
Resolving to see it through to the very end, Rari half-carried her friend up the slope and onto the crest of the hill.
“*Sob.*”
Had she, too, finally given up? The girl who had never once shed a tear while leading her companions now wept openly, uncontrollably.
And all fifty-three of the girls wept with her.
“Hey! You sons of bitches!”
“We'll kill every last one of you!”
“Run faster!”
Rough-edged but warm-hearted men were charging up toward them — running full tilt under the blazing armor that didn't seem to bother them at all, without even a heat shield wrapped around it.
“Rari!”
“Lee Yung!”
Through the tear tracks on Rari's face, a radiant smile bloomed — because at the head of that charge was the man she loved.
Come to me, my love.
She stepped forward to throw herself into his arms. A lovers' embrace and kiss, blooming amid the battlefield!
Rat-tat-tat.
The girls felt exactly the same way.
“Die, all of you!”
“Do you have any idea where you are?!”
“How dare you!”
RUMBLE-RUMBLE-RUMBLE.
And yet the men swept past like the wind…
“Ah…”
“…”
“What… just happened?”
Not a single one had stopped. Every last one of them had run straight past the girls and on toward the Inca.
The sun blazed and the day burned hot, yet it felt as though frost had settled over the hilltop.
The Inca warriors, for their part, had run themselves half to death.
“We've nearly caught them! Hurry!”
Spilling blood the whole way, they'd closed to within arm's reach of the fleeing girls.
“Just a pack of women!”
They were fuming with humiliation — it felt as though they were losing a battle to females. And even if they won this fight, who could they ever tell about it?
“Capture them all!”
“Don't kill them!”
One look at their bloodshot eyes made it clear: anyone captured would live a life of utter misery.
“We got one of the bitches!”
“Wahaha! We've got them all now!”
The girls had vanished over the hill, then fired another volley — but seeing that they hadn't even tried to run afterward, the Inca assumed they had given up.
“We're almost there!”
“CHARGE!”
As they threw their last reserves of strength into climbing the low hill, a strange sound reached their ears.
The ring of striking metal, and a roar like some monster howling in anguish.
“What is that?”
Moments later, figures began to appear over the hilltop, gleaming so brightly they were painful to look at.
“What is that? What are they?”
“Never mind that! Shoot, now!”
“Enemies!”
TWANG TWANG-TWANG TWANG-TWANG.
The girls had thinned their numbers considerably, but hundreds of men had originally charged out, and now hundreds of arrows began to fly like rain.
“What is that thing?”
“Am I seeing things?”
Warriors came running on, deflecting the arrows with their bare bodies — no shields, nothing.
“The arrows are just… bouncing off?”
“What are you doing? Keep shooting!”
The Inca loosed arrow after desperate arrow, but not a single enemy fell.
“Hiiii! Could they truly be warriors of the gods?!”
“Not one of them is going down!”
Fear began to spread through the Inca ranks like wildfire.
And then, when the warriors had come close enough that their footsteps could be heard—
BANG! BANG! BANG!
The gunfire they'd been hearing from a distance now erupted right in front of their faces, and smoke blanketed everything in sight.
“GuhAAAAGH!”
“AAAGH! My leg!”
“Hurk.”
Men toppled in an instant, and in the brief moment they stole a glance backward at the carnage, the gleaming figures burst through the smoke and reappeared.
BANG! BANG!
Gunfire thundered again. Hands rose into the air through the haze, and with each horrifying crack, more men went down dead.
“UAAAAAGH!”
“They're demons!”
Terror spread rapidly among the Inca. If arrows couldn't touch them, what were they supposed to fight with?
And then the gleaming warriors strode up to them, calm and unhurried, and drew axes from their belts.
“They have axes!”
“Then we fight too!”
“The thunder has stopped!”
Having spent all seven of the bullets they'd loaded into their chambers, the Daehan soldiers now charged with axes raised, and the Inca met them head-on, axes in hand as well.
CRACK. Crunch.
“What! My axe broke!”
While one Inca warrior's attention was held from the front by his comrade, another swung his axe down at a silver-armored head from the side — and the axe shattered to pieces.
Kiii-eeek.
Was it his imagination, or did that grim, grinding sound of the man's head twisting around seem ominous? Watching his opponent turn toward him, he had the sinking feeling he had touched something that should never have been touched.
“I-I'm sorry! Please spare me!”
CRACK.
There was no way the man could have understood his plea — and even if he had, he certainly wouldn't have let him go.
His skull split open in a single stroke.
“UAAAGH!”
“They're not human!”
Not one Inca weapon worked. Even the poisoned darts they'd smuggled in proved utterly useless.
“The messengers of God have descended to punish us!”
“UAAAAH! Please, spare me!”
“I want to go home!”
Already hundreds lay dead without a single enemy fallen in return, and the terrified Inca began to flee. Behind them, the Daehan soldiers reloaded and fired their pistols once more.
Kuraka, who had led five hundred men, had lost nearly seventy chasing the girls, and nearly three hundred more in the blink of an eye the moment he met these gleaming soldiers.
“DIE!”
Even if he turned back now, he was a dead man. Fury carried his axe in a wild swing — a precious thing, forged of bronze.
TANG!
“What the—?”
But it meant nothing. He managed to leave a slight scratch on the armor, and that was all.
Kii-giik.
The screech of the gauntlet rising toward him sounded like a demon's sneer — and in the very instant he thought so, his head split open and his breath left him.
“What is this thing?”
To the people of Daehan, bronze was the stuff of museum relics.
“Who carries something like this around?”
He gave the axe, covered in ornamentation and looking less like a weapon than a plain stone hatchet would have, a curious look — then turned his head back to the business of finishing off the enemy. Blood ran down armor scorched hot by the blazing sun, sizzling and steaming where it struck.
“Bunch of nobodies, strutting around like that.”
“Clean this up and we head back!”
“Yes, sir!”
So they swept the battlefield, and then turned toward the hill to see the girls who would be waiting to welcome them.
“Huh?”
“Where'd they all go?”
“Looks like they went into the fort over there?”
“Let's go too, then!”
“Guess they headed back early so they wouldn't get in the way of the fight?”
They might have been right, they might have been wrong — but either way, the soldiers chattered happily about the day's victory as they began the long walk back.
“What is it? It's hot as blazes, so why do I have the chills?”
“Huh? You too? Same here.”
“Is it just my imagination?”
“Or maybe my body aches from moving for the first time in ages?”
An inexplicable chill came as a bonus.
The girls who returned to the village were hailed as heroes. They had fought, prepared to sacrifice themselves, for the sake of their people. It was also the moment that shattered the long-held belief that battle was the province of men alone. The seed of gender equality had been planted in a primitive society — entirely by accident.
“There's a girl who took an arrow!”
“A casualty? Everyone, clear the way!”
Pushing through the crowd, a medic hurried over.
“Over here!”
“Mm, you did exactly right leaving the arrow in. Give me just a moment. It's going to hurt — bear with it!”
He readied the Holy Water and a clean cloth, drew out the arrow, and began pressing down on the wound without mercy.
“KYAAAAAGH!”
“Hang in there!”
He pressed the wound shut and poured the Holy Water over it without stinting, sweat beading down his face. He was still in his early twenties himself, and this was the first battle wound he'd ever treated, so the sight frightened him more than a little.
“*Sob*… There's going to be a scar, isn't there?”
“Nothing to be done about it…”
“There goes any hope of marriage…”
A scar not on her hands or the soles of her feet, but on her body — the girl began to sob in despair.
“It'll be fine.”
“*Sniff*…”
Once the bleeding seemed to have stopped, the medic pulled his hands away — and there, smooth and unmarked, was her leg.
“Huh?”
“All better now?”
“Thank you!”
Overjoyed, the girl — who was, by his reckoning, quite pretty — threw her arms around him with a beaming smile, and the memory of that smooth leg he'd just seen came rushing back. His face went red, and then redder, until he felt like his nose might start bleeding.
With a crowd of young men and women in their twenties gathered together, it took only an instant for eyes to meet.
He did feel a pang of pity for the Aymara lads about to be left without a partner — but then, they'd never been in the running anyway.
Should be fine, right?
“Rari?”
“…”
“Hm? What's wrong?”
“Nothing.”
It was because of how he'd run straight past her on the hill — but Lee Yung couldn't have guessed in a thousand years.
Honestly, who in the middle of a firefight pauses for a tearful, grateful reunion and a hug? But the women, it seemed, had seen it differently.
Lee Yung and every one of the comrades who had charged up that hill with him found themselves in much the same situation.
“What did we do wrong?”
“Beats me?”
“Anybody have a clue?”
“If we knew, would we be sitting here like this?”
The men, who had spent every recent night in the company of their respective partners, were gathered around a meal with their old friends for the first time in a while.
“Ugh…”
“Haaah…”
“What on earth is going on?”
“I asked, and not one of them would answer…”
They would probably die and come back to life without ever figuring it out.