By Zephyria 
37
But then.
Ugh!
Someone falling from above stomped hard on the Devouring Ghoul’s back. The sudden blow sent the Devouring Ghoul crashing headfirst into the ground with a thud. Blood stuck stickily to the bamboo it had pierced.
Ho-eun raised his gaze.
“……”
Tae-muk stood on the Devouring Ghoul’s back. He stepped nimbly on the massive Devouring Ghoul’s back, like a small hill, and soon stood on its neck. Then, he bent down and plunged his hand somewhere between the Devouring Ghoul’s skull and its mouth. And then, just like that.
Crackle, crackle, crackle.
The Helmet Bone was torn off in Tae-muk’s hand. The Devouring Ghoul’s brain and blood splattered everywhere, and it slumped, twitching like a fish out of water.
But Tae-muk didn’t stop there. He spun the torn-off Helmet Bone once in the air. The broad, concave bone, resembling a shield, whirred as it turned. Tae-muk held it vertically and then slammed it down on the Devouring Ghoul’s neck.
The Devouring Ghoul’s neck, thicker than Ho-eun’s waist, was instantly severed in two. Blood gurgled out of the severed neck.
“……”
Ho-eun flinched at the sight. It wasn’t because the dead Devouring Ghoul was gruesome.
It was because Tae-muk had smiled the moment he sliced the Devouring Ghoul’s neck.
His face was covered in blood, making it hard to see, but his lips definitely curved upward. Ho-eun had seen Tae-muk’s expressionless face more than anyone else, and he was therefore more sensitive to any other expression.
Why… is he smiling?
“……”
Ho-eun stared at Tae-muk with confused eyes, and Tae-muk’s gaze, which had been fixed on the dead Devouring Ghoul, shifted to him. Ho-eun, startled, stammered out his thanks.
“Thank… you for saving me.”
“……”
Tae-muk only stared at Ho-eun without answering. Then, he swept back his blood-dripping bangs with a deep breath and pulled out the bamboo that was stuck in the dead Devouring Ghoul. The Devouring Ghoul’s corpse twitched.
Tae-muk held the pulled-out bamboo horizontally like a spear, swung his shoulder powerfully, and threw it somewhere. Whizzing through the air, it pierced the Devouring Ghoul that Gil-sang was wrestling with right through its side. The Devouring Ghoul, impaled diagonally from head to neck by the bamboo, stopped moving.
Ugh, cough, gulp, ugh…
The Devouring Ghoul blinked its bloodshot eyes and convulsed intermittently. Gil-sang brought his sword down on its neck. It didn’t slice through in one go, so he had to hack at it three or four times. Finally, the flat head of the Devouring Ghoul dangled from the bamboo like a fruit, and its body collapsed to the ground.
Gil-sang gave Tae-muk a quick nod and hurried over to Ho-eun.
“Young Master, are you alright?”
“Yes, yes. I’m fine.”
Ho-eun answered, but he couldn’t take his eyes off Tae-muk. In the meantime, Gil-sang pried off the man’s hand that was tangled around his wrist. Only then did Ho-eun look at Gil-sang.
“Are you alright, Sergeant?”
“I’m fine too.”
“That’s a relief.”
Ho-eun nodded slightly and rubbed his wrist, where the man’s handprint remained. Then, he turned his eyes back to Tae-muk.
In that instant, Tae-muk was slaughtering another Devouring Ghoul. Really, it was a slaughter in the truest sense of the word.
He used the short bamboo like a dagger, hacking the Devouring Ghoul to pieces, and the long bamboo like a spear, piercing the Devouring Ghoul through. While other soldiers were clinging to one Devouring Ghoul in groups of six or seven, Tae-muk was swiftly lopping off the heads of the Devouring Ghouls one after another. His speed and power were simply inhuman.
In the end, two or three Devouring Ghouls fled, but he personally caught them and tore off their skulls.
And throughout the slaughter, Tae-muk wore a strange smile.
The Crimson Rain Brigade crossed the bamboo forest endlessly in search of a place to stay, but they failed to escape the forest. Eventually, late at night, they decided to stay in the middle of the forest. It was dangerous, but there was no other way. Many were injured in the battle that had taken place a few hours earlier.
Since they couldn’t pitch tents because of the bamboo, they all decided to sleep together. It was the first time they had camped out without tents, but strangely enough, Ho-eun felt relieved. He wouldn’t have to deal with Tae-muk tonight, he thought.
It was a terrible thought as his Bondmate, but he couldn’t help but feel relieved.
Ho-eun sat in the middle of the group. According to Gil-sang, when sleeping like this without any defenses, the Bondmates were placed inside, and the Gods of War surrounded the outside. This was to prepare for a possible attack by Devouring Ghouls.
Groans rose from here and there. Soldiers lying on the lush grass without proper bedding groaned in pain. Many had bandages on, some were unconscious or asleep, and some were still bleeding.
Ho-eun looked around at them and sighed deeply. He felt so embarrassed to be the only one perfectly fine while everyone else was injured and suffering. His wrists and ankles throbbed, but compared to torn flesh and bleeding wounds, it was nothing.
At home, he was the only one who was always sick, but here, he was the only one who was perfectly fine. He even had the childish thought that it would have been better if he had been injured a little.
“Ugh, I’m going to die, I’m going to die.”
Dong-ja, who was sitting next to him, lamented, tilting her head back. She was wrapped in bandages all the way from her neck to her chest. A Devouring Ghoul had bitten, or rather, torn off her collarbone. The part where her neck and shoulder connected was sunken in an odd way.
Ho-eun would have fainted if it had been him, but Dong-ja was nonchalant. Even though blood was still seeping out of the bandages, she was like that. She scratched her nose roughly and urged Man-soo, who was sitting next to her.
“Ugh, it hurts. Hey. Hold my hand tighter.”
“Okay, okay.”
Man-soo sat closer to her. Then, he took her hand, which he had been holding with one hand, with both hands. Dong-ja let out a languid breath.
In front of them were two empty wooden bowls. On the other hand, Ho-eun’s bowl was still full. Tonight’s dinner was rice in dried radish greens soup, which was easier to eat than rice balls and bibimbap, but he couldn’t bring himself to eat it. The blood and corpses he had seen during the day were still vivid in his mind.
He had often seen people injured by Devouring Ghouls in Hanyang, but it was different from this. How should he put it? Was it the difference between being injured and being dead?
“What were those people doing in the deep forest?”
Ho-eun, who had only been stirring the soup with his spoon, asked. Dong-ja tilted her head.
“Those people?”
“The people who were eaten by the Devouring Ghouls.”
“Ah, the porters?”
“Porters?”
“The people who carry loads. The ones who carry goods.”
Man-soo added an explanation to Dong-ja’s words.
“Why would porters be in such a place…”
“Because they’re porters, that’s why they’re there.”
“……”
Ho-eun blinked rapidly. There were indeed loads and carrying frames among the corpses. But why they were there was still a mystery. Dong-ja clicked her tongue at Ho-eun’s face, which showed that he didn’t understand at all.
“Ha, Young Master really doesn’t know the world. Young Master ate rice in Hanyang, right? You ate meat too, right? You wore silk clothes too, right? Do you think all that was grown and made in Hanyang? What was it, cho, cho, cho…”
“Chocolate.”
Man-soo gave her the word. Dong-ja nodded as if that was exactly it.
“Yeah, Young Master bought and ate chocolate because someone brought it to Hanyang.”
“Ah……”
Ho-eun nodded as if he finally understood. Of course, goods had to be exchanged between towns. From basic things like rice to clothes, daily necessities, food, or even chocolate. He had always eaten and worn them, but he had never thought about how they came to Hanyang.
But Dong-ja suddenly sparkled her eyes. She straightened her posture and said quite seriously.
“Being a porter is very lucrative. I heard that if you go back and forth a few times from here to there, you can even buy a house in Hanyang.”
Dong-ja turned her head to the left, saying “here,” and turned her head to the right, saying “there.” He didn’t know where those places were, but he roughly understood that it meant from a far place to a far place.
“Is that so?”
“Yeah. Who would want to be a porter when Eater Bugs are swarming everywhere? That’s why they pay a lot of money and even hire Gods of War. Retired Gods of War, that is. They don’t die easily from Eater Bugs, and they’re strong, so they can carry a lot of goods at once. It’s a win, a win, a win-win.”
“A win-win situation.”
“Ah, a win-win situation. I might become a porter later.”
Dong-ja muttered the last words to herself. Ho-eun turned his head sharply towards her.
“Wait a minute, did you just say Gods of War…?”
“Huh? Yeah. Gods of War.”
“Then are you saying that the people who died earlier were Gods of War?”
“Yeah, isn’t that right?”
“……”
Ho-eun froze with his mouth slightly open. He now understood why the hand of the man who had grabbed his wrist had been so strong.
“Do Gods of War… die too?”
Ho-eun asked in a faint voice, like smoke.
“What?”
Dong-ja, who had widened her eyes for a moment, soon laughed, giggling. Man-soo laughed along.
“……”
Ho-eun couldn’t laugh. He knew it was a stupid question. Moreover, he already knew the answer. Even his strong older brother had eventually returned to the earth.
But it was still shocking. He had encountered Devouring Ghouls several times, but neither Tae-muk nor anyone in the Crimson Rain Brigade had died. They had been injured, but they hadn’t died anyway.
But the people he had seen today… had died too horribly. Not ordinary people, but Gods of War. People who were strong and didn’t die easily. Those people had died.
Then, perhaps, in the future…
Ho-eun’s fingertips trembled slightly, but Dong-ja said in an indifferent voice.