By Zephyria 
The Lost Ankle
It was nearly sunset when the Crimson Rain Brigade finally managed to escape the bamboo forest. After staring at similar-looking bamboo all day, Ho-eun felt dizzy.
Ho-eun thought that once they left the bamboo forest, they would find another dense forest like before. But instead, a vast field of grass stretched out before them. It looked more like a wasteland than a mountain.
There were trees, but they were sparse, and in their place, lush grass grew as tall as Ho-eun. The grass was so tough and resilient that it barely swayed even in the wind. It seemed difficult for even a person to pass through, let alone a horse.
“……”
Ho-eun looked around with concern.
The soldiers were exhausted. They had been injured in the battle in the bamboo forest and hadn’t had a proper rest the night before, so it was only natural. If these grasses continued, they would have to camp out in the open again tonight…
Ho-eun turned his gaze forward. Tae-muk and a few soldiers were discussing something, alternating between looking at a map and a compass.
Soon, the group began to move again. Some of the leading soldiers moved ahead of Tae-muk, cutting through the grass with spears and swords to clear a path. The grass was sometimes long, sometimes short, sometimes dense, sometimes sparse, sometimes round, sometimes sharp.
How long did they walk like that? The sun had completely set, and the moon had risen.
“……”
Ho-eun smelled a strange odor. It was more like a stench than a smell. It was sour, fishy, acrid, and musty, making his stomach churn. It was a smell he had never encountered before. Without realizing it, Ho-eun covered his lower face with his sleeve.
But the smell only grew stronger. Eventually, his nose stung so badly that his eyes watered. Unable to bear it any longer, Ho-eun looked at Gil-sang.
“What on earth is this smell…”
He sent a look asking if he knew the answer.
“……”
Gil-sang glanced at Ho-eun but didn’t answer. The other soldiers were also moving silently. None of them showed any change in expression, as if they couldn’t smell anything.
And when the stench reached its peak.
The tall grass seemed to sink down, and a field-like space appeared. The grass was still lush, but it seemed like a good place to set up camp.
And there, Ho-eun discovered the source of the stench.
“……”
Scattered among the clumps of grass were corpses, or rather, traces of people. The corpses, torn and broken, seemed to have been left there for a long time.
But they weren’t old enough to be skeletons. It seemed that enough time had passed for the flesh to rot and soften, with bones visible here and there. Judging by the blood and the haphazardly crushed bones, it seemed to be the work of a Devouring Ghoul.
The corpses were swarming with large and small insects. Flies buzzed noisily around. The clothes, soaked in blood, were black and decayed.
Weapons were scattered everywhere, and there were traces of grass being pressed down and trampled irregularly. There were even three or four Devouring Ghoul corpses. It was a scene that vividly conveyed the fierce battle that had taken place.
Ah, what could be done about these meaningless and tragic deaths?
Ho-eun turned his head away from the gruesome sight. But everyone else was entering the scene as if nothing was wrong. Surprised, Ho-eun asked Gil-sang.
“Oh, are we spending the night here?”
“Yes.”
“But…”
Ho-eun didn’t think he could sleep in a place like this. Not because it was disgusting, but because it was scary. He still couldn’t forget the man whose head had been bitten off, so how could he sleep next to corpses? And how could he endure this stench?
But Ho-eun didn’t say anything more. It wasn’t as if the others wanted to sleep here. It wasn’t as if they didn’t smell the stench and were pretending not to notice. They were just enduring it.
So Ho-eun had to endure it too.
The soldiers split into several groups. One group cleared away the corpses that were so rotten that little remained, one group cut the grass and removed the stones, one group set up the tents, and one group guarded the perimeter with their weapons.
After the corpses were removed, the stench lessened somewhat. Perhaps his nose had become desensitized. Ho-eun couldn’t tell if that was fortunate or unfortunate.
The soldiers who had set up the tents sat down in groups of three or five to eat dinner. Unlike usual, everyone was quiet. They were exhausted. They were silently filling their hunger, with bandages wrapped around various parts of their bodies.
Ho-eun, who had received a wooden bowl from Chilbok, didn’t eat but sat still. He had no appetite. The afterimage of the stench remained in front of his eyes, not just in his nose. After staring blankly for a long time, he asked Dong-ja, who was sitting across from him.
“Who were the people who were here? Were they from another unit?”
Ho-eun thought that the dead must have been soldiers. There was no reason for anyone other than soldiers to be in a place like this. But Dong-ja shook his head.
“They’re porters. Nine out of ten people who die in a place like this are porters.”
“Porters? But… I didn’t see any luggage.”
The porters they had met in the bamboo forest had a lot of luggage. The blood-soaked bundles looked like huge clots of blood. All that was here were rusty weapons.
“It’s gone because they took it.”
“The Devouring Ghoul?”
At Ho-eun’s wide-eyed question, Man-soo, who was sitting next to Dong-ja, chuckled. He wiped the rice grains from his mouth with his hand and said.
“You’re funny, young master. Why would Eater Bugs take that? People took it.”
“People?”
“Yeah.”
Ho-eun’s brow furrowed slightly. What did he mean by “took it”? Did they steal it? Even if it belonged to the dead, taking it without permission was theft.
Well, that wasn’t strange. He had seen in the newspapers that there were thieves who dug up graves and thieves who killed perfectly healthy people and stole their valuables.
But Ho-eun couldn’t believe that there were thieves in a place like this, a place swarming with Devouring Ghouls. Who would risk their lives to steal?
Seeing Ho-eun’s puzzled expression, Gil-sang, who was sitting next to him, provided an answer.
“Some people are more afraid of being hungry than they are of Eater Bugs.”
“Huh?”
The expression slowly drained from Ho-eun’s face as he unconsciously questioned.
Hunger. Starvation. Food.
Yes, it wasn’t just Devouring Ghouls that ate. People also had to eat to live. But since there was nothing to eat, they were rummaging through this wasteland swarming with Devouring Ghouls to steal.
“……”
Ho-eun felt as if he had encountered a huge pit that he hadn’t known existed. He knew that he had lived in a narrow world, but he didn’t realize he was so ignorant…
Ho-eun stared blankly into the air with a dazed look on his face. Then, he saw Tae-muk in the distance. He had a cigarette in his mouth and was striding towards the dark grass.
Ho-eun craned his neck.
“Where is the General going again?”
“Looks like he’s going to kill Eater Bugs.”
“Again? But he didn’t get any rest yesterday either…”
Tae-muk had only returned yesterday in the pale dawn. And now he was going to fight Devouring Ghouls again. Even Tae-muk would be tired. Ho-eun watched the departing Tae-muk with concern.
“The Captain can’t rest anyway.”
Dong-ja said, shaking his spoon.
“Yes?”
“He can’t rest until all the Eater Bugs are dead.”
“What do you mean…”
“What did he say? He said that whether he kills them now or kills them later, he has to kill them anyway, so he might as well kill them in advance?”
Then Man-soo nodded and added.
“Yeah. He said that since we have to keep fighting until those bastards are all gone from the world, if we kill even one more, it’ll end a day sooner.”
“……”
Ho-eun blinked slowly. The end. The end of the Devouring Ghouls. He had never thought about it. Unlike Tae-muk, Ho-eun had only just been thrown onto the battlefield, so it was only natural. For him, this moment was not the end but the ‘beginning’. But that wasn’t the case for Tae-muk.
“I wonder if the day will come when all the Eater Bugs are dead…”
“We’ll be lucky if we don’t die before that.”
As Man-soo muttered, staring into the air, Dong-ja chuckled. But at that moment, Ho-eun put down the wooden bowl he was holding and jumped up. Then, without even bothering to straighten his crumpled military tunic, he headed straight for the forest. Dong-ja raised his chin and asked.
“Young master, where are you going?”
“To the General.”
Ho-eun remembered his tired face that he had seen this morning. His burning body temperature was still seeping into his palms. He had seen it, he knew it, and he couldn’t send Tae-muk alone.
But Gil-sang, who was slowly continuing to eat, shook his head.
“Don’t go. The Captain will call if he needs you.”
“Still… what if something happens to him if he goes alone?”
“Even if that’s the case, what can you…”
Gil-sang trailed off. But Ho-eun could easily guess the rest of the sentence. ‘What can you do?’ That was right. Ho-eun couldn’t do anything.
But still, he could at least hold Tae-muk’s hand.