By Zephyria 
I took a few deep breaths, but my insides wouldn’t calm down. If someone came, I’d probably end up vomiting and getting stabbed in the back. But my vision was too blurry to move right away.
After a while, I finally lifted my head.
“Why is the sky yellow?”
I frowned and muttered, then suddenly felt a chill down my spine. Before I could even think about dodging, my body moved on its own. As I turned my head to the side, I felt a hot, searing sensation on my cheek.
I swung my arm to block the sword rushing towards my neck, but my body was lifted off the ground. But something felt off; the weight from the sword wasn’t as heavy as I expected.
Didn’t they say I could take down a bear with my bare hands? Of course, compared to a normal person, I was unbelievably strong, but it wasn’t as amazing as I’d imagined.
I rolled my eyes in mid-air. One guy who swung the sword at me, and another running at me from the left, two in total. I wondered why they were so weak, but then I noticed they were bandaged up, probably injured.
The guy running at me seemed more injured than the one who initially swung the sword. I kicked off the wall, changing direction and leaping to the side.
He seemed surprised that I came for him first, his eyes widening slightly, but he quickly readjusted his grip on the sword. Even if I wasn’t in perfect condition, I wouldn’t stand a chance head-on. After all, we were both injured.
I quickly scanned for his most injured spot. The bandage wrapped above his elbow was barely white anymore. The unnatural movement of his arm made it a perfect target.
First, I clashed swords with him quickly about three or four times to get a sense of his strength. He was much stronger than the guy who tried to kill me earlier. My wrist was already throbbing, but thankfully, his movements were sluggish, so there was no need to parry.
Dodging the sword, I spun around and clung to the man’s back. The moment I wrapped my arm around his neck, a rough hand grabbed my wrist.
“Kill him!”
The man roared, grabbing me and trying to throw me over his shoulder. If I let go, I’d be cut in half by the other guy’s sword for sure. I desperately held on, digging all five fingers into the blood-soaked bandage on his forearm.
“Kill who? Don’t you know who I am?”
“Aaaagh!”
It must have hurt to have his injured spot gouged out, because the strength in his grip weakened. I used everything I could grab—his skin, hair, anything—and clung on like a monkey.
Then, as if to show the approaching man, I plunged the sword straight into his shoulder. Despite being stabbed, the man only staggered, not even screaming, and continued to hold onto me.
Was he hoping the approaching guy would kill me? Either way, after repeatedly stabbing his chest, neck, and face, the giant man collapsed forward.
Actually, to kill him, I didn’t need to swing my arm so many times. One strike to a vital point would have been enough, but stabbing wildly was inefficient. However, there was a reason why I deliberately mutilated the corpse as much as possible.
“Y-you…!”
The man who had been running towards us, dragging his injured body, witnessed his comrade being brutally murdered right before his eyes. His eyes bloodshot, unable to even speak properly, the man was consumed by rage, turning into an enraged beast.
Which made him all the easier to catch.
It took a little longer because I had to be careful not to get hit, as one wrong blow could break a bone, but I killed the remaining guy as well. Since I had sensed movement inside the building earlier, I deliberately butchered this man’s corpse too.
I cut open his stomach, pulled out his intestines, smeared blood all over, and acted like a madman before turning my head.
“…”
“…”
“…”
The three men were much smaller than the two I had just killed. The spears they held didn’t look very sharp either.
They had completely lost their will to fight, staring at me blankly as if they were seeing a ghost.
I wiped the blood off my face with my hand. My hand was even dirtier, so the blood probably didn’t come off at all.
Deliberately getting close, I wiped the blood for a while before speaking.
“How many more of you are nearby?”
Of course, there was no answer. I considered slitting one of their throats as an example, but decided against it.
“First, the guy hiding behind the tree, I already know you’re there, so come out. If you don’t come out by the time I count to three…”
Before I could finish, the guy behind the tree came rushing towards me with a loud crash. Like the three men in front, he knelt before me, his face pale and trembling as if he had seen a ghost.
I looked at the four men kneeling in a row and paused to think.
Maintaining the morale of soldiers already exhausted from a long war wasn’t easy. The second reason I bothered to mutilate the corpses and act like a madman was for this very reason.
When witnessing the mutilated corpse of a comrade, some would be enraged, while others would feel fear. Moreover, if the one wielding the sword was a child like me, how bizarre and strange would that sight be?
It wasn’t something easily handled with an already worn-out mind. Even if they came to their senses later, that brief hesitation could be a great opportunity for me.
Either way, whether they were angry or despairing, it was all beneficial to me, so there was no reason not to adopt this method. So, in fact, I had planned to brutally kill these guys too, then hang them where everyone could see, to erode the morale of the nearby soldiers.
But when I was about to kill people who had lost their will to fight, I didn’t feel like it. If they had rushed at me in anger like the earlier guy, I would have killed them without a second thought.
“…”
I closed my mouth and was lost in thought, and because the surroundings were so quiet, I began to hear noises that I hadn’t noticed before. They were so faint, as if coming from far away, that I couldn’t quite make out what they were.
Focusing more, I could feel the ground vibrating slightly.
“Did the commander go to the front? If you don’t want to answer this time either, stick out your tongue.”
“Yes.”
He must not have wanted his tongue cut off, because the answer came quickly.
To capture me and still go to the front? There’s no way the barracks wouldn’t know I’d disappeared, so it couldn’t be the general’s unilateral decision. Then there’s only one possibility.
The Crown Prince is here.
The moment I thought he was here, my legs suddenly started to tremble. But I steeled myself and bluffed, lying through my teeth.
“His Highness the Crown Prince must have come, right?”
“Yes, that’s what I heard.”
“Do you know who I am?”
“Prince…”
“Then why would His Highness come here?”
The four men looked at each other, then shook their heads, their faces pale. I clicked my tongue, displeased.
“He came because I sent a letter. ‘I have infiltrated successfully, commence the operation.'”
“…”
“That means my capture was part of the plan from the start.”
Well, half of it was true, so it wasn’t a complete lie. No, not half, about a third? Anyway, that’s not the point.
“This long war will end soon, are you going to make a last-ditch effort?”
At my words, one man shook his head, two men shook their heads, and one man remained staring at the ground, still dazed. And the remaining man muttered weakly.
“The war is already over, what will change even if low-ranking soldiers like us make a last-ditch effort…”
They already had no will to fight, and my timely lie extinguished even the last embers of their fighting spirit. Only then did I feel a little relieved, and I sighed and plopped down on the ground. My whole body ached, and my vision was hot.
I thought of the Crown Prince, who would be fighting below the fortress. I didn’t know why, but for some reason, I had a feeling he would, so I spoke without any basis.
“If you surrender, His Highness will open a path to survival.”
“Can we live?”
All four of them snapped their heads up to look at me. Then, with suspicious eyes, they stammered.
“I heard all prisoners are killed…”
“What would we do with you guys after the war is over? Who’s going to clean up this mess?”
“…”
“Why? Are you going to pretend to surrender and create a suicide squad for revenge?”
I tried to lighten the mood with a joke, but no one responded. Thinking about it, there might actually be guys who would do that. But I don’t know about that. The Crown Prince will take care of it.
I pushed myself up from the ground, using my knees for support. I wanted to collapse as I was, but I had to lower the drawbridge. That’s the only way the war would truly end.
I took a deep breath and exhaled, lifting my head. The sky was still a strange color.
“But why is the sky so yellow here?”
At my question, someone asked back in confusion.
“Excuse me?”
“I’m asking why the sky is that color.”
“…It’s normally blue, though?”
I couldn’t help but furrow my brow at the bewildered voice. I was about to say something when I suddenly felt my lower body getting hot. It happened so quickly that I didn’t even think about moving.
Goosebumps rose all over my body, and cold sweat trickled down. I wondered if I had ever been this embarrassed in my life. Of course. I had put on all sorts of airs, even revealing myself as a prince…
I forgot to breathe. I just turned pale and slowly looked down.
A circular pool of blood had formed around the spot where I was standing. Had the wound on my back burst open?
I didn’t know what it was, but I let out a sigh of relief.
“Phew…”
I thought I had peed myself.