Orc Subjugation Battle (6)
The orc settlement, where the screams had finally died down, was now belching smoke and dust from every corner. I flicked the orc blood from my blade and drew a deep breath. As I steadied my ragged breathing, I looked around.
“It’s over….”
“We made it. Fuckin’ hell….”
Some of the soldiers were leaning on each other’s shoulders, sighing in relief. The sheer comfort of having survived this fight. None of them had probably dared to believe they’d live through a battle against orcs.
The danger level of mid-tier magic beasts like orcs was on an entirely different scale from low-tier ones. With ordinary soldiers’ strength, victory wasn’t even on the table—survival itself was never guaranteed.
Once the fighting wrapped up, the soldiers began gathering around Seo Hayun one by one.
“Priestess! My arm’s messed up!”
“Ughhh… Please heal me first….”
Whether from the wounds they’d taken or the exhaustion of battle, the faces of those crowding around her looked grim.
“Just a moment. I’ll treat the most critical cases first.”
Seo Hayun calmly organized the chaos with practiced ease. She assessed the severity of their injuries, sorting the lightly wounded from the heavily wounded. Still, there was only so much one person could do.
I immediately stepped up beside her to help.
“I’ll assist you.”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
She gave me a familiar, gentle smile and accepted my help without hesitation.
I examined the soldier at the front of the line. His right arm was broken and badly swollen.
A fracture.
But the skin wasn’t torn. It looked more like he’d broken it tumbling across the ground rather than taking a direct hit from an orc. I quickly gathered some nearby branches to use as a splint and secured his arm with cloth.
“Please wait a little longer.”
“What? It hurts like hell! I feel like I’m gonna die here!”
The soldier with the broken arm scowled at my words. Splinting the fracture was only emergency first aid. Compared to Seo Hayun’s direct magical healing, it wouldn’t do much for the pain. Irritation from the agony made him snap, but there was nothing else I could do.
I glanced sideways at Seo Hayun. The number of soldiers she had to examine and treat was overwhelming.
“I’m sorry—”
I was about to politely ask him to wait again when someone cut into our conversation.
“Whoa, easy there, buddy. You said you’re dying of pain, right? Let’s not get all worked up, yeah?”
It was Kalant. With his usual good-natured grin, he wedged himself between us and mediated.
“See that guy over there?”
Kalant pointed toward Seo Hayun, who was fully focused on healing. More precisely, he pointed at the patient she was treating—the one with a massive tear in his side. Shattered ribs were visible through the wound, and blood kept pouring out in steady streams.
“That’s what ‘about to die’ actually looks like.”
If he didn’t receive treatment immediately, that soldier would die. He couldn’t even hold himself upright and had to be carried over by several others before being laid in front of Seo Hayun. Without her, his death would have been certain.
“So count yourself lucky it’s just one arm, and not even that bad.”
“…….”
The irritated soldier fell silent. He looked back and forth between his own splinted arm and the man with the torn-open side, then let out a small sigh.
“…Sorry. I was in pain and said some stupid shit.”
The soldier with the broken arm lowered his head. I gave a small nod in response to his polite apology. It was probably just the stress of the pain making him sensitive. Since he’d realized it and apologized—even if a bit late—I didn’t feel particularly upset.
I turned to Kalant.
“Don’t say things like ‘feels like I’m gonna die.’ It’s bad luck.”
“This guy… I step in to defend you and this is what I get? Well, you’re not wrong.”
I watched Kalant scratch the back of his head with an awkward grin.
“Are you injured anywhere, sir?”
“You ask that pretty late, kid. But I’m fine. None of our guys took any serious hits.”
“That’s a relief.”
Soon after, the other senior soldiers approached us.
“Vice-captain. Let’s go.”
“Yeah. Come on, maknae. We should help the priestess too.”
“Yes, sir.”
And so we spent what passed for rest helping Seo Hayun treat the soldiers. The ones in relatively good condition went off to search the ruined settlement. Since it was an orc village, they held out hope of finding loot or something useful.
About two hours passed between the healing and the searching.
“…….”
I suddenly sensed a shift in the atmosphere of the orc settlement we’d occupied. Because stray orc scouts might return at any moment and spark another fight, I had kept my senses sharpened the entire time. That was why I noticed the change immediately.
Enemies? No… this is…
The source of the shift wasn’t the discovery of hostiles. It was coming from our side—specifically, the temporary command tent Arisha was using. The place where the officers and squad leaders were holding their meeting.
The aura leaking from the tent was one of confusion, urgency, and considerable agitation. It meant something unexpected had occurred—something they hadn’t planned for.
“What’s going on? Why are you staring like that?”
Kalant must have found my fixed gaze on the command tent strange.
“It’s just…”
Before I could answer, people began emerging from the tent one by one. Among them was Garan, who had been part of the meeting. His expression was dark.
“Huh? The vice-captain doesn’t look too happy. Did something happen in the meeting?”
As if to answer that question, Garan walked straight toward us.
“Jungwoo. You free for a moment?”
I nodded.
“Follow me.”
Garan led me toward the command tent. When I stepped inside after him, Arisha—seated at the desk—greeted me.
“Come in.”
She gestured to the chair across from her. Understanding it was an invitation to sit, I took the seat and waited for her to speak.
“Given the circumstances, I don’t have anything decent to offer you to drink.”
“It’s fine, ma’am.”
I glanced around. Inside the tent were only Arisha, Garan, and myself. The fact that she had called me in alone right after the meeting meant this was both important and confidential.
I was both curious and tense about what she wanted to discuss.
“You mentioned you participated in the Beltar Plain operation two years ago, right?”
I had never told Arisha directly, but Garan knew. I had died there, then revived and wandered the area around the Beltar Plains. I’d discovered a goblin pack, wiped out their den, and used the cave as my base of operations. Since telling the truth—that I had actually died and come back to life—wouldn’t be believed, I had simply said I was mistakenly recorded as KIA. Arisha would have heard about it anyway, so there was no need to be flustered by her bringing up my past.
Still, I wondered why she was mentioning it now.
“Yes, I did.”
Arisha pointed to a piece of cloth on the desk.
“Is this… a flag?”
“That’s right. Have you seen this emblem before?”
It was an old scrap of fabric stained with blood and dirt. I followed her finger to the symbol embroidered in the center. This emblem and flag were the mark of a specific unit.
The question about whether I had participated in the Beltar Plain operation two years ago, and whether I recognized it, suggested it belonged to a unit that had been there at the time.
“…I’m not sure. There were dozens of units involved back then.”
“I… see….”
She seemed to have been hoping for a different answer. Arisha looked quite disappointed by my response.
“Hayun might recognize it. She was a priestess, after all.”
Priestesses who used light-attribute magic were overwhelmingly rarer than other mages. Because of that, during large-scale joint operations, Seo Hayun had often been busy moving between units to provide support while working with us.
Arisha shook her head and declined.
“No. It’s fine. I don’t want to call someone that busy over here.”
Having failed to get the answer she wanted, her expression grew complicated. She simply pressed her lips together and stared intently at the emblem on the flag.
Then, as if realizing something, her eyes suddenly snapped toward me.
“And you.”
“Yes?”
Arisha stared at me for a moment before speaking again.
“That magic you use. You called it Hoshin-ganggi, right?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
It was a representative basic spell of the metal attribute that hardened a target’s surface to steel-like toughness, dramatically increasing its durability and defense. It was meant to be cast on metal or solid objects, not on living human bodies. Applying it to a person literally turned their body into something like metal. The disadvantages far outweighed any benefits.
“It’s far too dangerous. If used incorrectly, your blood vessels and meridians could harden like metal.”
“I haven’t had any problems so far.”
More precisely, I had used Heavenly Fate to completely recover from any potential damage, but there was no need to explain that much.
“So far? What about from now on?”
“…….”
“Are you saying you’ll carry that risk for the rest of your life? That’s practically suicide.”
Her point was entirely reasonable. In truth, every time I used Hoshin-ganggi, I could feel my skin, blood vessels, and meridians hardening like metal. I might have survived until now, but I couldn’t deny the danger I was shouldering.
When I remained silent, unable to refute her, Arisha let out a small sigh.
“From now on, I’m going to teach you a new formula. Learn it.”
“Pardon?”
“Didn’t you hear me? A spell formula. I’m going to teach you, so pay attention.”
I couldn’t follow the sudden shift in the conversation and tilted my head in confusion. I had no idea why she would suddenly offer to teach me magic. We were in the middle of a dangerous zone where mid-tier magic beasts of high threat level could appear at any moment. There was no time to be learning spells.
“…Does it have to be right now?”
“The way you use magic… I can’t just let it continue like this.”
This was troublesome. I had felt it when I first learned magic from Arisha, but I really seemed to lack talent in this area. Thanks to Heavenly Fate, I had miraculously gained the ability to use magic after reviving, but actually learning it was a completely different matter.
I somehow managed to learn the theory…
But the process of looking at countless spell formulas and hammering them into my head had been hellish. It was the first time I realized just how terrible I was at memorization. Even memorizing the single formula for Ferro Skin—the magic I had referenced when creating Hoshin-ganggi—had taken an enormous amount of time and effort.
“Um, now doesn’t seem like the right time. Maybe after we return to the unit and—”
“No. Learn it right now.”
Arisha was being unusually forceful. I tried to stand up and leave the tent, but someone grabbed both of my shoulders. It was Garan.
“Just give up. The captain has never known the meaning of the word ‘quit.’ There’s no way you can overcome her determination.”