The Wandering Priest (1)
A grotesque howl echoes through the forest as trees topple. Kuuuoooo! The undergrowth shakes violently. Five massive magical beasts emerge from the foliage. Their hulking frames resemble wild boars, with thick hides and protruding tusks on either side of their mouths, from which rough breaths billow. “Bull Boar.”
I mutter the name after confirming the creatures ahead. Dealing with them is straightforward. Bull Boars average 2.5 meters in height and possess tremendous leg strength to support their massive bodies. Their charge is a straight-line assault that hurls their overwhelming mass straight at prey. The power is devastating in a direct contest of strength. Yet that very simplicity makes the attack predictable—it only threatens targets directly in its path. If you can evade the linear trajectory, you can exploit their flanks and underbellies, their obvious weaknesses.
‘Of course, striking those weak points isn’t easy.’
Even if you dodge to the side, chasing down their ferocious sprint is no simple task. So instead, I plant myself directly in their path. I know full well how suicidal this must look to the rest of the search unit.
“Rookie! What the hell are you doing?!”
As expected, Kalant cries out in alarm. “Those boar bastards will end you if they hit you head-on! Get out of the way…!”
He grabs my shoulder, desperately trying to yank me aside. “No. It’ll be fine.”
“What? No. Captain, what are you—”
Kalant must have found the situation incomprehensible. The one who stops him from interfering is none other than Garan. With a bitter smile that suggests he has some idea of what is about to happen, Garan speaks to Kalant.
“Let’s just watch for now.”
Kalant clearly doesn’t understand, but since it is an order from the captain, he obeys. Now free again, I face the charging Bull Boars and say, “Please handle the flanks.”
“Understood.”
After hearing his ready agreement, I step forward. My foot kicks off the ground. The reinforced muscles in my legs swell as if about to burst. Hoshin-ganggi.
Kuuuoooo! The lead Bull Boar seems to have spotted me. Steam erupts from its snout. The moment it locks onto its target, its excitement surges, and the thunder of its hooves grows even fiercer as it kicks up the earth.
Soon, the lead Bull Boar collides with my sword. Kiiiiiing! It is not the sound of flesh being carved. It is the metallic ring of steel striking steel. Then comes the crushing weight of its charge. The speed added to that enormous mass slams into me like raw violence. The sword I swung and my arm meet the impact head-on, sending a tremendous shock reverberating back through my body. If I relax even slightly, the force will hurl me backward and send me sprawling—an impact like a massive bombardment.
“Kuh…”
But I hold. Even as the ground craters beneath me and I am driven back, I do not fall. My legs supporting my upper body dig in like roots, anchoring me to the earth. The destructive force of a Bull Boar’s charge is momentary. Once I successfully halt its advance with the first impact, the next move is mine.
Kuuuoooo! Heavenly Fate flows through my meridians, enveloping the muscles of my upper body. Before the beast can even register its failed charge, I cleave its head from its shoulders. The tough, resilient hide parts under the forced cut. ‘In the past, even this would have been difficult.’ Now that I have mastered methods of explosive physical enhancement, even their sturdy defenses can be forcibly torn through by raw power.
The Bull Boar thrashes in pain from the wound I inflicted. Taking advantage of its inability to steady itself, another blade rushes in to exploit the opening I created. Thud. It is an attack from the flank by a search unit member. The unit had already spread out to both sides, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Garan had given the order on the assumption that I would stop the Bull Boars’ charge.
“Whoa, what the hell are you?”
The senior who delivered the finishing blow to the Bull Boar from the side stares at me with an expression of awe. To him, the sight of me stopping a Bull Boar’s charge with nothing but my body must have seemed grotesque. No matter how much mana one used to reinforce the body, this was a response that would burden any ordinary soldier.
Leaving the mixture of wonder and admiration behind, I speak. “Not yet.”
My attempt to meet their charge head-on has already blunted the momentum of the Bull Boar pack, if only temporarily. The flanking assault seizes that opening, and the battle between the Bull Boars and the search unit begins in earnest. The fight has only just started.
“Ah, right. Our rookie’s so extraordinary I forgot what we were doing. Haha!”
Even after being corrected by me, the senior laughs while wearing an awkward expression. He immediately joins the other members and begins attacking the Bull Boar pack.
The battle ends smoothly. It is a complete victory with not a single casualty or even injury. “Wow, Captain. Catching Bull Boars this easily and quickly… This has to be a first, right? At least within our unit, it’s like a new record.”
Kalant, unusually, makes a fuss. Garan also offers a wry smile in agreement at the unexpectedly great results. “If only we could always handle that simple-minded charge so easily.”
“Isn’t that the hardest part? There’s nothing more terrifying in this world than something both simple and stupid.”
“……”
“No unit would ever use a strategy where a soldier stops a Bull Boar’s charge head-on, would they? Especially not when we’re not even Special Grade.”
Kalant is exactly right. This is on a completely different level from the standard method for dealing with Bull Boars used by the allied forces. It would be impossible without a Special Grade, the highest combat power designated by the Central Command of the allied army. Even I would never have considered stopping them head-on if not for the magic I created—Hoshin-ganggi.
For a moment, my eyes meet Garan’s. We say nothing, but we can roughly guess what the other is thinking. He is probably considering the order he received to keep my ability to use magic a secret from Arisha. Even to the search unit members who know I was once a slave soldier and are covering for that fact, he seems conflicted about whether this secret must also be kept from them.
“Captain. There’s something I absolutely must suggest.”
Perhaps because the battle ended so easily, Kalant, still brimming with energy, continues speaking excitedly. “…What is it?”
Garan and Kalant’s conversation reaches my ears naturally. “It’s about our rookie. We absolutely cannot let him go.”
“Hm?”
“That guy is going to stand out no matter where he goes someday! If he ever gets transferred to another unit later, it’ll be a disaster for us. We need to treat him well and hold on to him tight from now on!”
I quickly put distance between myself and them so I cannot hear the conversation. Their nonstop praise makes me uncomfortable. “Oh man, this lucky charm of a guy!”
“Thanks to you, we’re about to have an easy time on this mission!”
“…Please stop.”
Even though I deliberately move to the front to create distance, the search unit members advancing alongside me chuckle and throw in their own comments. One of them throws an arm around my shoulder or ruffles my hair. Their attitude, as if teasing a much younger little brother, is extremely annoying. Of course, outwardly I have only just shed the last traces of boyhood and am the youngest in this unit. Still, dislike is dislike.
“What, you don’t like it?”
“If you don’t like it, then be born earlier, you brat! Hahaha!”
That is how I carry out the mission while being teased by the search unit seniors.
◆ ◆ ◆
On the way back to base after completing the mission, we engage in a total of four battles. Even though that is more encounters than usual for a standard mission period, the expressions of the returning search unit members are bright. The biggest reason is that all four battles ended without any casualties. It also eased the mental and physical burden of fatigue. Seeing the 4th Search Unit maintaining such a lively atmosphere with constant smiles, the other soldiers at the base find the difference from usual quite strange.
“Hey! You guys just got back?”
While Garan is away reporting the return and mission results to Commander Arisha, one soldier calls out to us. “Yeah? What’s going on?”
Kalant, who is leading the unit in Garan’s stead, asks the soldier. The man, who looks to be around the same age, seems to be an acquaintance of Kalant’s. “A priest just arrived. If anyone got hurt during the mission, go get treated right away… Looks like there aren’t any injured. What’s with the bright mood?”
Normally, when returning to base after several days of search missions, the atmosphere is gloomy due to the stress and fatigue accumulated from camping and fighting. Yet the soldiers’ unexpectedly energetic appearance after their return draws a puzzled expression from him.
“A priest?”
Meanwhile, I tilt my head at the soldier’s words. In the months since enlisting in this unit, I have never once seen a priest at the forward base. “What, are you curious?”
Kalant gives me a sly look. “You little rascal. Yeah, you’re at that age where you’re interested in the opposite sex.”
“…I didn’t even know it was a priestess.”
I frown slightly at his expression, which is clearly intent on teasing me again. Since there are no notable injuries, there is no need to meet the priest. As I follow the other search unit members back to the barracks, one face rises in my mind. ‘A priestess.’
There is only one person who comes to mind when I think of a priestess. ‘I wonder if Hayun is doing well.’
She is the woman who carried guilt over my death. Until the moment I died, she kept apologizing, saying she could not heal the arm I had lost. I shook off her attempts to persuade me to stay and returned to the battlefield. And in the end, I could not escape death. Seo Hayun might have blamed herself for that as well. For failing to help me again.
“Idiot.”
The word slips out unconsciously as I picture Hayun in my mind. She should have long since abandoned someone like me and lived her own life. “Huh? What was that, you brat? That wasn’t about our seniors, was it?”
Did they hear my muttered words from the back? The seniors ahead turn to ask. “…It was just to myself.”
“Don’t lie. Spit it out. You were talking about that idiot over there, right?”
One senior throws an arm around my shoulder and laughs, poking my side repeatedly. “Cut the crap. It was probably about you.”
The seniors chuckle as they walk down the corridor. Then, they suddenly stop upon seeing someone ahead. “Huh? Isn’t that the priestess?”
“Yeah? What’s she doing here?”
Following the direction of their gazes, I turn my head as well. And there, standing in front of our barracks door, is a woman. The familiar priestess robes. Long black hair reaching her shoulders. Delicate features and clear, obsidian-like eyes. It is a face as familiar as the robes she wears.
“No…”
The voice that slips out trembles. The situation is so unexpected that I could never have imagined it. ‘No. Why is she here?’
“Really…”
She must be just as bewildered and disbelieving. After all, the man who should have died in battle is standing alive right before her eyes. “You were really alive, Jungwoo…”
Seo Hayun is crying. Even though the reality is impossible to believe, she seems to be shedding tears from the overwhelming emotion.