Chapter 64
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 64
Chapter Title: Taking Command
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Tyren couldn’t believe the sight before him.
“...Is everything alright?”
“What do you mean?”
Demian asked, getting up from his seat.
Tyren looked at the men on the ground, their heads bowed to the floor in what looked like a complicated situation.
Demian smirked and said,
“Ah, these guys? This is just child’s play. I was just warming up a bit.”
Then, he kicked the side of the man in front of him.
“Ugh!”
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
As the men toppled over one after another like dominoes, Demian commanded,
“Again.”
“A-Again!”
They shouted, pressing their heads back to the ground.
What in the world had happened in such a short time to tame these wild animals?
Demian said to Tyren,
“A half-hearted beating only breeds resentment. But it’s a different story when you beat them to the point they think, ‘Ah, I could actually die.’”
That’s how you handle guys like these.
“But what brings you back? I thought you said you’d be back in an hour.”
“Ah, that was the plan, but…”
Tyren scratched his head with an awkward expression.
“...Pleasure to meet you. My name is Hemus.”
“Are you a prisoner here?”
“...Yes.”
“I’m Demian.”
Demian spoke bluntly, ignoring the hand Hemus offered.
A prisoner who came to him with Tyren.
‘Is this guy the one in charge here?’
Demian looked at Hemus.
“How many prisoners are here?”
“...”
Something about this young kid spitting out informal words didn’t sit right with him.
Hemus looked at Demian, his expression hardening slightly. But Demian, seeing Hemus’s delayed response, spoke again.
“Answer the question quickly. If you don’t know, say you don’t know.”
“...There are roughly 140 men. We had quite a few casualties in the last battle.”
“I’ll give you thirty minutes. Gather everyone except for the seriously wounded. I’ll be resting here in the meantime.”
“Understood.”
Hemus bit his lip.
Tyren, on the other hand, watched Demian with a slightly dazed expression, taken aback by the complete change in his demeanor from before.
His entire presence had shifted.
“Well then, I’ll be on my way. If you need anything, please send someone to the outer unit at any time.”
“Thank you for your consideration.”
Demian replied with a small smile.
His expression was completely different from when he had spoken to Hemus just a moment ago.
Soon after.
“You trash over there. First two to volunteer get to clean my barracks.”
“I-I’ll do it!”
“I’ll do it!”
As the man who looked like the leader of the group shot up, the others flinched.
Demian looked at them.
“The rest of you, keep your heads down. And don’t sweep the sand away, just keep at it. Before I make you gather pebbles and press your heads on those instead.”
“Urk… Y-Yes, sir!”
The men answered, their faces beet red.
Demian ignored the two men hastily cleaning his barracks and lay down on the bed.
Somehow…
‘Feels like I’ve come back to my old home.’
This dust.
The bustle.
Even these unrefined men.
Demian closed his eyes and thought about what lay ahead.
‘A month from now…’
Of course, it didn’t matter if it took longer than a month.
He could just push all these men into the meat grinder, and then the regular army could deploy.
But…
‘Then I can’t call it my own achievement.’
He had wanted to train them with a little more time and then devise a strategy, but there wasn't enough time.
It felt like playing a game that started on the highest difficulty.
“Um… Sir Demian. Everyone has gathered.”
Demian opened his eyes at the sound of Hemus’s voice from outside the barracks.
He had considered various options, but this seemed to be the best course of action under the circumstances.
“Let’s go.”
Demian walked toward the area where the prisoners were gathered.
Excluding the seriously wounded, there were just over a hundred men.
Moreover, among those gathered, only a little more than half seemed completely unharmed.
“...This is grim.”
Demian muttered, looking at the disorderly crowd.
“Ugh… what’s with the sudden assembly?”
“Shit, my back is killing me, and they’re calling us out.”
“Hey, Hemus. Is that guy the new commander?”
“Hah… a commander.”
The area was noisy.
Seeing the complete lack of order, Demian walked toward a man at the front of the group.
Step, step.
As Demian approached, they flinched and watched him.
“Wh-What?”
“Why is he coming over here?”
Demian stopped in front of a man with brown hair and asked,
“Name.”
“...Huh?”
“Name!”
“P-Potz, sir!”
Potz shouted his name, his voice infused with mana.
For a moment, it felt as if the sound was swallowing him whole.
Demian then turned to the man next to him.
“And you?”
“P-Pel, sir!”
Just by asking for two names, he had completely seized control of the atmosphere.
Demian looked at them and shouted loudly.
“I’m only going to say this once, so listen carefully! This might be what saves your pathetic lives!”
Demian then looked at them and said,
“I don’t care whether you die or not, whether you get the gold mine or not.”
Demian’s voice echoed clearly in the silent grounds.
It wasn’t a loud voice, but his words were perfectly clear.
The prisoners found themselves focusing on Demian’s words without even realizing it.
Demian continued.
“And I have no intention of using you to achieve anything. After all, you’re all non-recyclable trash, and there’s nothing you can do anyway.”
As the cold insults continued, the prisoners’ expressions turned menacing.
A few of them glared at Demian as if they wanted to kill him on the spot.
Demian turned his head to look at them.
“But, regrettably for you, I happen to be an exceptionally capable person. How capable, you ask?”
He stopped.
Demian, who had been walking slowly from side to side, came to a halt. He then faced the prisoners.
All of them had hardened faces.
Menacing eyes.
Most were grinding their teeth, but.
Slowly.
Demian pointed at them and said,
“I’m skilled enough to clean up this shit-hole of a place even with trash like you.”
Demian continued.
“I’ll ask one thing. You don’t have to answer. But if there’s even one person here who is desperate, then speak up.”
“...”
“Is there anyone here who wants to live?”
Thump.
A sudden silence fell upon the grounds.
A chilling silence descended, and it felt as if something had struck them in the chest.
Their expressions had changed from a moment ago.
Demian asked again.
“Is there anyone here who wants to live?”
“I-I want to live!”
“I want to live too!”
“The hell! Who here wants to die?!”
“That’s right! Who would want to die?!”
In an instant, the area became chaotic.
As if venting their frustration with the current situation.
As if lamenting their fate in Makstri.
They unleashed the anger they had held in their hearts.
But Demian quickly silenced them.
“Quiet!”
At Demian’s roar, the marketplace-like clamor subsided. But in that moment…
“Just who do you think you are to say something like that?”
A prisoner with a large build stepped forward, his face scrunched in a scowl.
Demian let out a small sigh.
“Wait, this is getting tedious. Let’s do it this way.”
Demian looked over the prisoners and said,
“Anyone who thinks they’re the strongest one here, step forward.”
“...”
At Demian’s words, five or six men began to step out from the crowd.
The men who came forward growled at each other.
“You think you’re the strongest? Get back before I stick a knife in your gut.”
“What can you do with those tiny hands? Get lost before I snap your spine in half.”
When he called out those who thought they were the strongest, the inevitable happened.
Especially with men as impatient as these, it was only natural.
Demian shook his head.
“Enough. Your goal was to test me anyway, right?”
He was getting tired of this happening every time.
‘I think my body has grown a bit now.’
Thanks to his training with Leonhard, Demian’s body was much bigger and stronger than before.
He was now at a level where he wouldn’t lose out even when compared to a full-grown adult.
But this youthful face seemed to hold him back wherever he went.
‘Sigh, it’s not like I can carve a scar on my face like before.’
He used to have a rather intimidating face with quite a few scars.
Of course, his current face was much better, but it was still inconvenient at times.
Demian spoke to them.
“All of you, come at me at once. And if anyone else has a problem, step forward now. I’ll give you a chance, too.”
“...You’re not going to punish us if we win, are you?”
One of the men who had stepped forward asked Demian.
Demian replied.
“I give you my word of honor. No matter what happens here today, there will be no punishment. However, if anything like this happens again after today, it’s an immediate execution. No one will care if I kill trash like you.”
Grit!
At Demian’s words, the eyes of the men in front of him turned menacing once more.
And the large, muscular man shouted at Demian.
“You keep calling us trash, trash…! You think we wanted to end up like this?!”
Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump!
The pressure was immense, like a charging bull.
And his hands were huge, looking like they could easily crush a man’s head with one grip.
‘…It would be fun to pit him against Kyle.’
He wondered which of them was stronger.
Demian thought of Kyle, who was probably getting his ass kicked somewhere right now, and lightly clenched his fist.
For now, what mattered most was putting these guys firmly in their place.
A half-hearted display of dominance wouldn’t be enough to control them.
He needed an overwhelming performance.
Demian drew mana from his Mana Hall.
After spreading the mana throughout his body, Demian looked at the charging giant.
The man swung his fist, using his forward momentum.
But the movement itself was too simple.
The attack was so obvious that Demian lightly deflected the man’s fist to the side with his left hand.
Stagger!
The moment the man’s body swayed violently.
CRACK!
“...!”
With a sound like an explosion, the giant’s body was sent flying backward.
What on earth did one have to do to make that kind of sound just by punching someone?
Twitch… twitch…
The giant, who had been thrown back at least ten meters, lay unconscious, his body trembling faintly.
Demian looked at the remaining men and said quietly,
“What are you doing? Not coming at me? I told you to come all at once.”
And at those words, they looked at each other.
They couldn’t understand what was happening, but…
“You better keep your promise!”
“Don’t complain if you get a few cuts on your body!”
“Get him!”
The men finally began to charge.
The prisoners who were watching the ensuing scene could only gape in astonishment.
And so, on his first day of appointment, Demian seized control of the Makstri Unit.