By Zephyria 
110
But even with Ho-eun’s denial, Tae-muk’s irritation showed no signs of subsiding.
“So, you didn’t want to learn from me?”
“It’s not that either. It’s just… General, you’re busy… There’s no way you’d have time to teach a beginner like me… That’s why.”
“Is that all? Oh Gil-sang is just as busy, isn’t he?”
It was an tone that was hard to tell if it was a pursuit or sarcasm. Ho-eun felt it instinctively. He had to answer well here. Only then would he live. He quietly inhaled a breath. Then, he continued, his voice trembling.
“I didn’t want to show you, General, my clumsy side.”
“It’s okay to show it to Oh Gil-sang?”
“Yes. I’m not ashamed to show it to the Sergeant.”
“You’re ashamed to show it to me?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Why?”
“General… you are my God of War.”
Ho-eun didn’t even know what he meant by what he said. He just listed plausible words because his head was complicated, but it felt strange after he said it. Ashamed because he was the God of War. He would have nothing to say even if Tae-muk scolded him for what that even meant.
What to do. How do I fix this?
Ho-eun clenched his fist tightly under his sleeve, then unfolded it.
“……”
For some reason, Tae-muk’s face, which had been fiercely tense, gradually calmed down. He seemed to like Ho-eun’s answer.
Ho-eun, who glanced at Tae-muk every now and then, belatedly realized that his neck and cheeks were covered in blood. In an instant, the color completely drained from Ho-eun’s cheekbones.
“Are you hurt?”
Ho-eun quickly approached Tae-muk, stood on tiptoe, and examined his body thoroughly. The military uniform, illuminated by the moonlight, looked glossy in places, as if it had absorbed blood.
“It’s not your blood, is it, General?”
Without fear, he pulled on Tae-muk’s collar, peered inside his neck, pushed up his sleeves to examine his arms, and groped his chest and sides to check for any wounds.
But suddenly, Tae-muk wrapped his arms tightly around Ho-eun’s waist. Ho-eun, surprised, stopped breathing.
“……General?”
Tae-muk didn’t stop there and pulled Ho-eun closer to himself. His lean body was lifted up, and his toes dangled. Ho-eun kept looking around and pushed against Tae-muk’s shoulder.
“This is outside. There are many, many eyes watching. This behavior is not right-.”
“Shut up.”
With that rebuke, Tae-muk grabbed Ho-eun and walked around the tent, picking up things. In the process, he ran into many Crimson Rain Brigade soldiers and refugees, and Ho-eun was so embarrassed, ashamed, and mortified that he had to bury his face in Tae-muk’s chest.
How long had it been? Tae-muk, who had been busily moving around, suddenly supported Ho-eun’s buttocks from below. Ho-eun soared upwards, his gaze higher than Tae-muk’s.
“Ge, General?”
Ho-eun instinctively grabbed Tae-muk’s shoulder and widened his eyes. But Tae-muk stared between the trees and rocks without giving a proper answer, and suddenly started running.
“Ugh……”
It was an incredible speed. It was like riding a horse. No, it felt more like floating. The trees and grass swept past his ears so quickly that he couldn’t even take them in. Ho-eun’s clothes and Braided Hair fluttered wildly.
“General! Let me go, General!”
Ho-eun didn’t have the luxury of thinking about how a person could run so fast. It was because he felt like his body, pushed by the wind, would fly away somewhere.
He hugged Tae-muk’s neck tightly. Then, without any manners, he thumped his back. He thought he was sobbing, telling him to let him down, but he couldn’t remember well.
Tae-muk ran through the dark forest for a long time with Ho-eun in his arms. Occasionally, he jumped over rocks, slipped somewhere, and climbed steep slopes in just a few steps. By that point, Ho-eun couldn’t even scream and just squeezed his eyes shut.
And when Ho-eun’s cheeks were chilled by the night wind, Tae-muk stopped as if sliding.
“……”
Ho-eun, unaware that they had stopped, continued to hug Tae-muk’s neck. At that, Tae-muk put him down on the ground. No, he tried to put him down.
“N, no. I don’t want to… Don’t let go…”
But Ho-eun clung to Tae-muk’s neck and wouldn’t let go. He had told him to let him go earlier, but now he was telling him not to let go.
“……”
Tae-muk, looking down at Ho-eun, just stood still. Well, it wasn’t bad for Ho-eun to be attached to him. If Ho-eun wanted to keep hugging him, he could stay like that all night.
But Ho-eun soon slid down. It was because the strength in his hands had run out. Ho-eun desperately readjusted his hug around Tae-muk, again and again. But his body stretched downwards like melted taffy. And soon, his toes touched the ground with a thud.
But that sensation…
“Uh……”
It was fluffy.
Ho-eun, startled, opened his eyes and looked down. Densely grown grass was enveloping his feet. The path they had passed through had only dry leaves, but the grass here was a fresh green.
Ho-eun belatedly looked around.
There was a plain that was neither too big nor too small. Unlike the forest, which had become desolate for the winter, it was full of lush grass, and because there were no large trees around, the bright moonlight was coming down as it was. It was like daytime in the middle of the night.
Ho-eun slowly moved away from Tae-muk’s arms.
“Why are we here…”
But Tae-muk turned his back instead of answering.
“Wait.”
Ho-eun, surprised, grabbed his elbow.
“Wh, where are you going?”
“I’ll be right back.”
“……”
But Ho-eun couldn’t let go of Tae-muk. At that, Tae-muk looked him in the eye and said again.
“I’ll be right back.”
“……”
Ho-eun reluctantly let go. Tae-muk entered the forest thick with trees and darkness. Ho-eun stared at his back, biting his lower lip tightly. But Tae-muk disappeared in an instant, without giving him a chance to keep staring.
Ho-eun looked around with anxious eyes. The sound of the grass swaying in the wind, saaah, saaah, felt like the cry of some being. The anxiety that someone would suddenly attack on the wind filled him to the brim.
In the end, he couldn’t bear the fear and took a step in the direction Tae-muk had disappeared, when.
“……”
Tae-muk returned. He was holding something huge in his hand. He squinted because he couldn’t see it well due to the darkness. Soon, it was fully revealed in the moonlight.
It was a Devouring Ghoul.
Tae-muk was holding the Devouring Ghoul’s body in one hand and its head, torn from its body, in the other. It didn’t seem like he had just killed it; it seemed like he had brought the corpse of a Devouring Ghoul that he had killed while patrolling nearby during the night.
Tae-muk dropped it on the grass, as if throwing it, after dragging it along.
“Ugh……”
Ho-eun, who groaned briefly, stood next to Tae-muk without realizing it. It was because the Devouring Ghoul’s corpse, illuminated by the moonlight, was so grotesque. But he couldn’t take his eyes off it.
It was the first time he had seen a Devouring Ghoul so closely, in such detail. They usually moved quickly, and there was no time to observe them.
The Devouring Ghoul’s head was separated from its body, but it was still alive, perhaps because its Helmet Bone had not been torn off. But it had no energy. It snapped at Ho-eun and Tae-muk, but its mouth opened slowly and closed even more slowly. It was in a strange state, not quite alive, but not quite dead either.
Kieeee……
Ho-eun was staring at it when something flashed across his vision.
It was a sword.
“Here.”
Tae-muk, who lightly spun the sword half a turn in the air, handed the hilt to Ho-eun. It was one of the things he had rummaged through the tent to bring.
“M, me? Ah, yes.”
Ho-eun accepted it in a daze. But at the same time as he received it, his wrist bent right over, and the tip of the sword was stuck in the ground. The sword was too heavy. But Ho-eun didn’t panic, and he gritted his teeth and lifted it up with both hands. Soon, the tip of the sword pointed at the moon.
Tae-muk didn’t say anything even though Ho-eun’s sword was swaying, trembling, and shaking. He didn’t tell him how to hold the sword or correct his posture. Instead, he gestured with his chin towards the Devouring Ghoul lying sprawled out.
“Stab it.”
“S, the Devouring Ghoul?”
“Yes.”
Ho-eun was quite taken aback by Tae-muk’s command. It seemed like the pace was too fast. Gil-sang had said that it could take months just to learn how to hold a sword. Tae-muk was telling a child who couldn’t even stand, no, couldn’t even hold his head up, to run.
But Ho-eun didn’t rebel. If he was told to do it, he would just do it. If the pace was fast, he was even happier. He would be able to do his part even faster.
Ho-eun strode towards the Devouring Ghoul, quite boldly. But he couldn’t bring himself to strike the sword down right away. It was because the Devouring Ghoul was too huge. Its head alone was far longer than Ho-eun’s upper body.
“Wh, where should I stab it…”
“Where would you have to stab it to kill it?”
“The head…?”
Ho-eun answered. Tae-muk, Gil-sang, and the other Crimson Rain Brigade soldiers had all aimed for the Devouring Ghoul’s head first. Tae-muk nodded briefly. It seemed like he meant to do it if he knew.
Ho-eun took a deep breath. Then, he raised the sword high.
“Heup!”
He struck the sword down with a shout.