Forest Drifter
The term felt foreign to me. So that was what they were calling me back at the outpost now. I hadn't paid it much mind.
All I'd done was hunt monsters, rescue the people I happened to see in front of me, and help them return safely to the outpost. I hadn't expected any reward for it. Why had I done it? I wasn't sure. I'd simply thought that saving them and sending them back was the right thing to do. Maybe I just couldn't stand it anymore.
I was sick of looking at corpses. My own included. Even before I died, I'd seen far too many dead bodies. That might have been why.
"I owe you more thanks than I can count," Garan said, nodding with a bitter expression.
At the same time, I felt the soldiers' eyes on me. They all wore expressions of surprise, as if beholding something wondrous.
"You're truly incredible. So you were the famous 'Forest Drifter'?"
"......"
Faced with the awestruck look of one soldier, I didn't know how to respond. It felt strange to have become a celebrity without meaning to.
"Are people really spreading stories like that?"
"Yes. I'd only heard the tales and couldn't quite believe them, but seeing you in person... Now that I look, you match the description I was given."
The soldiers scratched their heads awkwardly and spoke their honest thoughts.
"Um... I'm sorry to say this, but at first, you were a little scary."
"I see."
I gave a small nod. It was only natural. My current appearance could hardly be called presentable, even as a generous compliment. The things I wore could barely be called equipment—they were pitiful and shabby. A leather armor with its fixed iron studs falling out. A sword and weapons so dull or cracked that it would be no surprise if they shattered at any moment. Traces of monster blood staining everything. The marks of endless, desperate battles remained etched all over me.
"The condition of your weapons looks strange. They should have broken long ago... yet there are signs they've been forcibly patched and repaired."
Garan's observation was precise. He immediately recognized how I'd been maintaining and using my gear.
"That's not something an ordinary soldier could do. Were you originally a blacksmith?"
"...My father was a blacksmith. I simply watched and listened, then forced what I learned into use."
Even that hadn't been proper repair work. I'd crudely made a whetstone and somehow sharpened the dulled blades. I'd skinned the monsters I hunted and layered their hides over my leather armor to reinforce its lacking defense. Wearing such equipment, I was essentially a wild man living apart from human society.
"The level of completion is impressive. To be able to craft and use something of that quality in a place without proper facilities..."
"It's not something just anyone can do."
At Garan's admiration, the other soldiers nodded as well. They added that they certainly couldn't do the same.
"You should rest now. It would be best to organize things early tomorrow morning and return."
"Understood."
Garan nodded in agreement with my suggestion. Excluding the two soldiers already assigned to night watch, the others entered the tent.
"You should come in too."
"I..."
I shook my head, intending to decline Garan's kindness. I'd slept fine in this cave without a tent before. I thought it was too much consideration.
"You are the benefactor who helped us. Did you think we could sleep comfortably inside the tent while leaving someone like you outside?"
"......"
"It's fine. Come inside."
Garan smiled and gestured to me. In the end, I couldn't refuse his kindness.
"Ugh! Squad Leader! It's too cramped!"
The soldiers grumbled in dismay. It was only natural—the tent was already packed to capacity with its intended occupants, and now one more person had been added. Yet strangely, the gazes directed at me, the cause of the crowding, held no discomfort.
"Still, aren't we safe thanks to this friend? Let's just endure until tomorrow morning."
"Ha, guess we have no choice."
The soldiers chuckled and brushed off their superior's soothing words. Though they muttered complaints, it seemed they had no real intention of kicking me out of the tent.
"Is it too burdensome?"
"......"
Even without a direct answer, Garan read my expression and smiled.
"Then consider this our way of repaying you for helping our men return safely."
"At this rate, you'll end up building me a house later."
"If you continue helping us to that extent."
Despite his subordinate's teasing remark, Garan answered without concern, and the inside of the tent erupted in laughter. It was an incredibly awkward and unfamiliar atmosphere. I did my best to brush it off and lay down at the edge of the tent. The four-person tent was now occupied by five, so cramped that we had to squeeze our shoulders and bodies together.
Comfortable.
Yet even so, I felt a contradictory sense of indescribable comfort. I slowly closed my eyes.
"For today, just for tonight, sleep comfortably. Thank you for helping us."
With Garan's voice as the last thing I heard, I fell asleep.
Early morning, as dawn began to break.
Garan studied Han Jungwoo's hardened expression. For some reason, he felt he could guess what the man was thinking.
"You seem surprised at how deeply you slept. Am I right?"
"...Yes."
It was so obvious that he'd been caught off guard by having his inner thoughts read that it was almost amusing. Han Jungwoo unconsciously admitted it readily.
Even so, he and his men were in a forest where unknown dangers could strike at any moment. The fact that he'd fallen into such a deep, unguarded sleep must have shocked him. Garan understood completely.
It also means he had been pushed that far to the brink.
When Garan had first seen Han Jungwoo, he'd thought the man was someone driven to his absolute limit.
Three months, was it?
Han Jungwoo had said he'd lived alone in this wild forest for nearly three months, never knowing when or where a monster or danger might appear. Could that truly be called living? It was enduring. Holding on through gritted teeth. The mental and physical fatigue accumulating over time had been eating away at him, driving him to the edge in every way. To Garan's eyes—honed by long years on the battlefield—the traces were painfully obvious on Han Jungwoo.
His lips were dry and chapped. His eyes had lost their vitality, as if they could lose focus and glaze over at any moment. His heart beat and his blood was warm, but it didn't feel like the signs of a living person. That was why Garan's gaze kept drifting back to him.
He looks no more than twenty years old.
When they began moving, Han Jungwoo volunteered to take the lead position. Since two squad members had to support the injured, he would cover their absence at the front. In truth, Han Jungwoo's real intention was to personally hunt monsters and absorb their Heavenly Fate, but Garan and the squad members, unaware of this, found it strange.
Neither Garan nor any of his men had asked or expected it of him. Yet Han Jungwoo naturally found his place, as if it were the most familiar thing in the world, and fit himself into the formation.
He was a soldier.
He knew how to form proper battle lines and understood exactly what role he needed to play. It wasn't something one could know without having lived that life.
And moreover—
Crack!
Han Jungwoo's combat prowess as he swiftly dispatched monsters at the front far exceeded that of an ordinary soldier. The sword he'd been using continuously finally reached its limit and shattered.
"Tsk."
Han Jungwoo clicked his tongue softly, then stabbed the broken blade's tip into the monster's mouth. He released the hilt and swung his fist toward the creature's head.
Thud!
With a dull impact, the monster's head snapped around. From the soldiers' perspective, it was an extremely brutal way of fighting. Not only did he swing weapons to smash monster heads, but when those weapons reached their durability limit, he discarded them without hesitation and continued pummeling with his bare hands. Normally, when a weapon broke in one's grasp, many soldiers would panic at losing their means of resistance. Yet this man named Han Jungwoo used his bare fists as if it were the most natural thing.
Of course, there would be limits to the meaningful damage he could inflict that way. But it held meaning in buying time for the other soldiers to attack.
"Wow... That guy is seriously amazing. Is he even human?"
A wounded soldier being supported by others while moving clicked his tongue as he watched the front line. There had already been four engagements during their return to the base, and the other soldiers shared the same stunned reaction upon seeing Han Jungwoo's performance. His strength was one thing, as was his spirit to fight monsters with bare hands if he had no weapon, but what astonished them most was his stamina.
Han Jungwoo showed no signs of fatigue at all. To those who didn't know about his special ability to strengthen himself using Heavenly Fate, such an impression was only natural.
It was natural. Yet that was exactly what felt wrong to Garan. The way he acted as if it were natural. The way he accepted it as natural. It was far too alien.
His 'present' was weighed down by something far too heavy and bleak for his age. Garan wondered what it could be. He was curious.
"Squad Leader."
"Hm?"
The soldier providing covering fire from the side to protect Han Jungwoo and the vanguard spoke up. He was the assistant squad leader, directly below Garan in rank. The assistant squad leader glanced at Han Jungwoo's back as the man cleared out monsters and asked,
"It's bothering you, isn't it?"
Garan didn't answer the assistant squad leader's question. There was no need. The man had already sensed what Garan was pondering. That was what came from working together for so long.
"If you're going to take him, then do it. He doesn't seem like a bad guy to me either. And he'd be incredibly helpful."
"......"
Garan continued to wrestle with the decision.
Finally, the outpost came into view.
"This is as far as I go."
It meant that my time accompanying them would end here.
"Will you continue living like this?"
"......?"
I tilted my head, unable to read the intent behind Garan's question.
Garan spoke again.
"I asked whether you intend to keep wandering through this forest like you have been."
Even with the clarification, I still couldn't grasp the purpose of the question.
"If... if you're willing, how would you feel about returning to the base with us?"
"Ah."
Only then did I realize the meaning and let out a small sigh. Garan's proposal was so completely unexpected that I hadn't been able to anticipate it at all. In any case, it meant that in this short time we'd known each other, he had thought well enough of me to make such an offer.
But that was precisely why it left a bitter taste.
"...I cannot accept that proposal."
"Why not?"
Because I had to say it. Because I knew that the goodwill and grace they felt toward me would turn into disappointment and contempt.
I calmly spoke of my past.
"I am already a 'slave soldier' who was declared killed in action by headquarters."