Following the Footprints (2)
As soon as Garan issued the order, the search unit sprang into action with flawless coordination. They maintained formation while cutting swiftly through the forest, following the trail of footprints. Their goal was to locate any further traces of the survivor they had discovered.
“Looks like it’s just one person,” someone observed. The tracks continued in a single line—only one set of footprints marked the survivor’s relentless movement.
“Squad Leader, take a look at this.”
One of the men pointed to a fresh mark along their path. It was blood. Still-wet, recent blood. That could only mean the survivor was somewhere close.
Garan understood instantly. His expression grew solemn as he gave a firm nod.
“We need to hurry.”
They had to pick up the pace. An injured survivor on the run was in grave danger. Garan followed the command by ordering the unit to heighten their alertness. The presence of wounds also meant they had to account for the possibility of combat nearby. No one knew when or where a monster might strike, so the search unit kept their guard razor-sharp.
They advanced in tense silence, minimizing every sound.
“The smell of blood…” Seo Hayun murmured softly.
If even she—walking near the center of the formation—could detect it, the rest of them had likely noticed as well. The scent told them the distance between them and the survivor was shrinking with every step. Vivid bloodstains stood out clearly on leaves and patches of earth. Seo Hayun studied the marks they had passed, calculating the severity of the survivor’s wounds.
“With this volume of bleeding, the injury must be critical,” she said.
Kalant frowned. The mood grew heavier still. The damp, hushed forest sharpened every sense, turning quiet into something oppressive.
Within the expanded perception granted by circulating my Heavenly Fate, something snagged. Rough breathing. Feet pounding the ground. The rustle of underbrush being pushed aside. The sounds drove straight into my ears.
I pointed toward the source and whispered, “...There’s something there.”
Though my voice was low, every member of the unit heard it. Footsteps halted. I felt their gazes lock onto the direction I had indicated. A few tilted their heads, hearing nothing, but the veterans didn’t doubt me for a second. My heightened senses had saved the unit more than once on previous missions. No one questioned them now.
Garan spoke with careful precision. “Stay in combat stance. The instant an enemy appears, attack on my signal.”
“……”
No one answered aloud. Yet every man understood perfectly. In silence they checked their weapons, adjusting grips with practiced hands—ready to annihilate whatever appeared. Not only their blades but their very killing intent grew keen and sharp.
In that taut, heavy atmosphere, I sensed Seo Hayun’s fingers tightening around her staff. I didn’t need to turn around to picture her expression. After two years spent rotating between units and devoting herself entirely to healing soldiers, this would be her first taste of real combat in a long time.
I hope she doesn’t get hurt.
Even as worry gnawed at me, I stepped forward. That was my role.
There was no time to care about branches whipping across my face. A low growl rolled from behind—growing closer with every heartbeat.
“Haah… haah… haah…! Damn it all…!”
The soldier felt his lungs burning. He spat out ragged breaths that scraped his throat raw and kept running in blind panic. The leather armor clinging to his body rattled violently. Each jolt reminded him of its weight. The very gear that had once protected him from monster attacks now felt like shackles dragging him down.
It was reliable armor in a fight, but while fleeing alone it was nothing but dead weight.
“How the hell did it come to this?!” the soldier cursed his fate.
The subjugation mission had been proceeding smoothly. Just like always, the 2nd Subjugation Squad had fought and triumphed over the monsters. They held formation, carried out their roles, and seized victory. He had been certain he’d performed his own duty faithfully—until he saw them.
“Why?! Why are there orcs here?!”
It was a cry that would receive no answer. He hadn’t expected one. He was simply screaming against the cruel absurdity of his reality.
No one had predicted an encounter with orcs. In nearly two years, they had never once appeared.
Two years ago, a nightmare had swept across the Beltar Plain—an onslaught of intermediate monsters. Countless soldiers died before elite forces finally eradicated the horde. Since that massacre, the western region including the Beltar Plain had remained eerily quiet. No one had even considered the possibility of orcs returning.
Orcs were monsters no squad-sized force could ever hope to face. Far larger and tougher than humans, built from thick muscle and heavy bone, their raw physical power dwarfed human limits. Worse, orcs never traveled alone. They moved in tribal packs of twenty or more, organized under leaders with their own brutal society.
He had heard that subjugating an orc tribe required a specially formed unit of fifty to a hundred soldiers. Of course, those were only stories to a man who had never seen an orc in two years—distant, almost mythical tales.
A disaster.
The sudden appearance of an intermediate monster he had never faced was pure catastrophe. He had watched a comrade torn in half before he could even lift his weapon. The sight had been utterly helpless, utterly horrifying. He had recovered the bodies of fallen soldiers before, but this was different. Imagining his own body ripped apart, guts and blood spilling across the dirt—reduced to nothing but a lump of meat for beasts—had shattered something inside him.
The moment that image burned into his mind, the soldier ran.
It’s impossible.
Fighting them was suicide. He could never win. So he fled. He ignored the squad leader’s desperate shouts to hold formation. He ignored his comrades’ screams for help. He blocked out everything and ran. Even the crushing guilt that bloomed in his chest was wrapped in the excuse that there was nothing else he could have done.
The soldier abandoned the battlefield.
“Huff… huff…! Haah!”
He reinforced his body with mana and ran with everything he had. There was no time to count the minutes. The instant he escaped the orcs’ territory, another monster had picked up his trail. Hounds—this time three of them. Against one he might have stood a chance. Against three, running was his only option.
The snarls of the sleek predators seemed to nip at his heels. The soldier ran with everything he had left. Blood poured from a wound on his arm—he didn’t know when he’d received it and had no attention to spare. His breath scraped his throat, his mana ran dry, and his mind teetered on the edge of collapse. Blood loss blurred his vision.
Then—
Thud!
A heavy impact. A pained yelp.
The hound that had been chasing him screamed.
“Huh…?”
The soldier’s feet stumbled to a halt. The murderous presence behind him had vanished. In its place he sensed a new presence—human.
He turned slowly.
There stood a man calmly flicking monster blood from his blade.
“I’ve come to rescue you.”
“Ah…”
The soldier’s mind could form only one thought.
I’m saved.
The consciousness he had clung to so desperately finally snapped.
“I’ve come to rescue you.”
“Ah…”
The moment the words left my mouth, the soldier collapsed. Perhaps the relief had been too much. I couldn’t be sure. I slid my sword back into its sheath and knelt to examine him.
“...This isn’t good.”
Just as Seo Hayun had predicted—the bleeding was severe. Left untreated, he would die. My decision to report to Garan and sprint straight after him had been the right one.
“Let’s get him out of here quickly.”
I lifted the soldier onto my shoulder. That Seo Hayun had come with us was the only piece of luck in this entire misfortune.
When I returned, Garan and the rest of the unit flinched at the sight of me. For a split second they must have thought I was a monster launching an ambush—their hands flew to their weapons, eyes sharp with caution.
“Shit, you scared the hell out of me.”
“I thought my heart was going to drop, kid.”
“Sorry. It was urgent, so I came back fast. Hayun.”
I gave the relieved veterans a small nod of apology and called her name.
“Yes. Let me see him. Lay him down here.”
Seo Hayun immediately understood and cleared a spot on the ground.
“This guy…”
“He’s from the 2nd Subjugation Squad, right?”
The veterans recognized him at once. Different squads, same outpost—they knew one another’s faces.
“Then it really is the 2nd Squad. I remember hearing three days ago they were heading west on a mission.”
“So something really did happen?”
They began piecing together possibilities among themselves.
“But this guy…”
Kalant examined the soldier’s condition, his expression turning grim. “Don’t tell me he ran.”
“……”
The man’s ragged appearance screamed deserter. The veterans fell silent, clearly sharing the same uncomfortable thought.
“How is he?” Garan asked.
Heal
“...He lost far too much blood,” Seo Hayun answered. “I’ve stopped the bleeding with magic, but he won’t regain consciousness immediately.”
“Thank you. That alone is a tremendous relief.”
Garan’s gratitude was sincere. The knowledge that a gravely wounded soldier could be stabilized so efficiently was an enormous advantage on any mission. He was keenly aware of just how vital Seo Hayun’s presence had become.
“Still, we cannot afford to wait for him to wake.”
“Given the situation, I agree,” Kalant replied.
The two of them, the other veterans, and I all shared the same conclusion. This soldier was a deserter who had fled the battlefield. Which meant the critical question was what exactly he had fled from.
If the 2nd Subjugation Squad had encountered a threat severe enough to break a trained unit…
Garan weighed the options. The original mission—exploring the northwest—versus locating and rescuing the 2nd Subjugation Squad. His deliberation was brief.
“Effective immediately, we are reclassifying this as an emergency operation. We will abandon the northwest exploration mission. Our new objective is to locate the 2nd Subjugation Squad and bring them home.”