By Zephyria 
105
“And then?”
Ho-eun’s reaction made the two even more excited, and they quickly continued.
“From then on, the Captain was just… just… Ah, shit, what should I say?”
“He flew around.”
“Yeah, that’s it. He flew around. Like a bird. No, like an eagle. I knew the Captain was fast, but I didn’t know he was that fast.”
“He just left his horse and ran straight to the hospital.”
“We followed him as fast as we could, but when we arrived, the Captain had already slaughtered half of those Eater Bugs. Everywhere, Eater Bug blood was just, like, gushing.”
“But even in the midst of that, he was rummaging through the building, lifting up all the collapsed walls…”
“Then one of the Eater Bugs bit the Captain’s back, and, damn, he didn’t even blink. He just rummaged through the building with that thing still attached to his back.”
“Later, he was about to lift the entire hospital building.”
At that point, Ho-eun frowned slightly.
“Why would he lift the building?”
Was it to find the Crimson Rain Brigade soldiers who were buried? But Man-soo looked at him as if asking if he was stupid.
“Why else? To find the Young Master.”
“……”
“In case he was buried underneath.”
“Ah……”
Ho-eun sighed softly. Right, Tae-muk wouldn’t have known where he was then. He hadn’t told anyone, hadn’t left any traces, just disappeared. He must have thought he was buried under the rubble with Gil-sang.
He had been so focused on his own situation at the time that he hadn’t thought about what Tae-muk might be doing. He had been short-sighted. How could his vision be so narrow…?
Ho-eun bit his lip, but Dong-ja continued in an excited voice.
“But after searching and searching the hospital like that, he found Gil-sang and, uh? All our kids, but Seong-im and the Young Master were nowhere to be found, can you believe it?”
“Do you know what the Captain did then?”
“What… did he do?”
Ho-eun swallowed hard without realizing it. He was nervous because he thought he would hear something unimaginable. His stomach was throbbing. As if knowing how he felt, Man-soo mimed cutting his own stomach horizontally with the edge of his hand.
“He cut open the bellies of the dead Devouring Ghouls.”
“Yes? Wh-why…”
“In case the Young Master had been eaten.”
“……”
Ho-eun stopped breathing for a moment. Instantly, the image of the Devouring Ghouls’ bellies in the hospital being torn apart flashed before his eyes.
“The Captain’s expression at that time was really…”
Man-soo smacked his lips. He stared into space for a moment, as if imagining the scene. In the meantime, Dong-ja interrupted in an angry voice.
“Shit, and then, of all times, that damn rain started pouring down. The Captain’s face as he cut open the bellies of the Eater Bugs while getting drenched in the pouring rain was really…”
Dong-ja also trailed off. Then, like Man-soo, he stared into space.
“……”
Ho-eun closed his mouth. He couldn’t imagine Tae-muk’s face that the two were describing.
Had he been sad? But that didn’t suit him. He was probably angry that he had disappeared. And with the rain falling, he must have been annoyed at how someone as weak and foolish as him had become his Bondmate.
But Dong-ja leaned back and said,
“The Young Master is a Bondmate, so he might not know, but our Gods of War… when they think their Bondmate is dead, their hearts just, just collapse. Especially since the Captain hadn’t met the Young Master for very long. He had been searching for 10 years and had just met him… how devastated he must have been to think he might be dead.”
She was rambling when she suddenly stroked Man-soo’s back.
“I’m not going to die.”
Man-soo raised his eyebrows and grinned. Dong-ja giggled. It was then.
“I am so sorry.”
Gil-sang, who had been silently eating rice balls all along, said in a choked voice.
“Hey, it’s okay, it’s okay. It’s not like you wanted it to happen. Who knew an Eater Bug would shoot a cannon.”
Man-soo slapped Gil-sang’s back. But Gil-sang’s dark face did not brighten. Seong-im quietly placed his hand on Gil-sang’s.
Around that time, Dong-ja bit into a rice ball. Then, with a happy expression again, he opened his mouth. It seemed the story was about to move on to the next chapter.
“So we also went around cutting open the bellies of those Eater Bug bastards. But no matter how much we searched, we couldn’t find the Young Master. Aren’t the Young Master’s clothes pretty? Even if they were torn or stripped off, they would have stood out, but we couldn’t find them at all.”
“From then on, the Captain started searching the town indiscriminately. And every Eater Bug he met, he just killed with one blow! Whack! Pow! Bang! Uh?”
Man-soo stretched his fists out into the air, imitating Tae-muk fighting. Around that time, Ho-eun recalled the conversation he had had with Tae-muk that morning. He had been wondering why he hadn’t seen a single Devouring Ghoul, and Tae-muk had said that.
‘I killed them all.’
‘I killed them all. They’re gone, that’s why.’
He didn’t know if it was a joke or the truth, but it was real. Not for any other reason, but to find him. He had caused so much… trouble, and he felt bad.
“We followed the Captain and stirred up the town, but no matter how much we looked, we couldn’t find him.”
“It’s because it was raining so much. No footprints left, no sound heard. Of all times, it had to rain…”
“Yeah, it’s because of that damn rain. If it hadn’t rained, the Captain would have found the Young Master right away.”
Dong-ja and Man-soo harshly criticized the rain. But Ho-eun felt as if they were criticizing him. He shrugged his shoulders without realizing it and dropped his head.
“I… didn’t know the General had such good hearing… If I had known, I would have called him sooner…”
As Ho-eun was feeling depressed, Gil-sang cleared his throat and offered a consolation that wasn’t really a consolation.
“It’s not like the Captain can hear things that are thousands of miles away. He can only hear you if you’re nearby. If you just shouted recklessly, the Eater Bug bastards might have come.”
“……Is that so?”
“If that weren’t the case, would Seong-im have told you to shout to the Captain?”
“Ah……”
“When you called out to the Captain, it just so happened that the Captain was nearby, and the church was a place where sound travels well, so he was able to arrive at the right time.”
“……I see.”
Ho-eun nodded briefly. Indeed, if that were possible, Seong-im would have told him to shout a long time ago. And at the time, the Devouring Ghouls were ramming into the church fence, and loud noises were constantly ringing out, but Tae-muk hadn’t come then. The rain must have been heavy, and he couldn’t hear it because he was far away.
He had believed that if he just shouted, Tae-muk would appear with a ‘pop’—but thinking about it again, he realized he had been believing in something truly absurd.
“……”
Ho-eun recalled Tae-muk appearing through the church window.
He had knocked down the Devouring Ghoul in one blow. He had looked at him. He had been panting heavily. He had said, ‘I don’t think I’m too late.’
He had really run with all his might at the sound of his voice. That’s why that great man was even panting. And he had complained to him about being so late… How foolish he was.
Ho-eun regretted the past and sighed deeply. Suddenly, Dong-ja grinned, revealing his teeth.
“But what happened after that is really fun.”
“……Fun?”
Ho-eun’s eyes widened at the unexpected words. Then Dong-ja sat even closer to Ho-eun.
“We weren’t as fast as the Captain, so we arrived at the church a little late. Around that time, the Captain came out carrying the Young Master.”
After that, Man-soo came closer this time. Then, as if telling a secret, as if Tae-muk across the forest shouldn’t hear, he whispered.
“But the Captain was like, the Young Master’s body is cold, call a doctor, find a warm place, bring a blanket, bring clothes.”
“……The General was?”
“Yeah. So I brought clothes, right? Well, the clothes we have to spare are like rags. You know, the kind that are yellow and worn out.”
“……”
“But when he saw that, he made a stern face and said, would he, meaning the Young Master, wear something like that? He got annoyed and told me to bring proper clothes.”
“……”
“I mean, I sometimes jokingly steal the Captain’s side dishes and steal his alcohol, but he’s never been annoyed, right? It’s not that he’s never been annoyed, but he’s never been genuinely annoyed. But he scolded me for bringing the wrong clothes…”
Man-soo, who had been talking like a machine gun, pouted his lower lip as if he was sad. Ho-eun scratched the back of his neck. He didn’t know why he felt embarrassed and sorry when he hadn’t been the one to scold Man-soo.
“I’m sorry……”
Man-soo shook his head.
“It’s not the Young Master’s fault. I did bring some clothes, like that. It was really rags. Really not suitable for the Young Master, right? Anyway, so I asked around the townspeople and found a fabric store, and I took what was there.”
“……”
“But he was so meticulous about choosing them.”
“……”
“This fabric is rough and not good, this is too thin to wear in this weather, this color is not good… Ha, geez! I never knew our Captain was such a picky person.”