I Became the Hero Who Banished the Protagonist chapter 73

73. In memory (2)

Arjen sat on the wreckage far away from the village and stared at the sea. The island was broken, the land was submerged, the city was gone, but the sea looked peaceful. A small wave crashed over an area where debris piled up to form an unintended breakwater.

“Move! Not that one!”

“I think it would be better to push it away.”

The voices of people clearing the rubble could be heard intermittently. Arjen looked at the people with narrow eyes, then turned his head back to the sea. A little big wave hit and covered the wreckage. The wind was not strong. The sea is as calm as a cradle.

“Let’s go, gather them together and move them.”

Arjen looked at a worker approaching him. In the fall, the wind started to cool, but the workers were still sweating profusely.

“I’m sorry, brother, it’s dangerous around here. The rubble may collapse.”

Arjen leaped from the wreckage. Arjen looked at Arjen in amazement when he landed from a height twice his height and Arjen did nothing.

“You were a great man, bro. Aren’t you sick?”

“Fine.”

The worker looked at Arjen curiously. Arjen shrugged once and started walking along the beach. guilty. Arjen looked at the wreckage and came up with a word. Illroy did not hold himself accountable. I didn’t try to poke the guilt of others. Arjen sighed.

squash. squash.

I could hear the waves crashing through the wreckage. Reflecting on the past wasn’t something Arjen liked. However, the conversation with Illroy kept reminding Arjen of things from the past that he didn’t want to recall.

“… color.”

The name I didn’t want to think of again. Arjen closed his eyes as he watched the rushing sea.

—

Arjen Elmion was born in the disputed border area of the Kairos Kingdom. It was not unusual to see a body. Corpses of enemy soldiers. Corpses of kingdom soldiers. There were few dead bodies with their eyes closed. Soldiers usually died with their helmets off and their eyes wide open. Arjen knew the dead man’s eyes. White, gray iris and pupil. Crows flew in and pecked at the decaying corpses.

“Hey! hey! Don’t touch anything there.”

Arjen would occasionally stare blankly at the corpse, and a patrol would walk up and scold Arjen and drive him away. Arjen saw the crow’s beak peck at the dead eye. Crows are not one. When a dead body is found, it caws, caws, cries and calls out to its companions. Hundreds of crows thrived in fields and forests. Soldiers brought in the kingdom’s corpses to be burned, while the enemy’s corpses were left to be eaten by crows.

“Young children don’t see things like this. How many times are you, this time?”

With a voice filled with irritation, the soldier grabbed Arjen by the back and took him to the village. Arjen glanced at the sword rattling at the soldier’s waist and pouted.

“I will one day pick up a sword and fight. they are bad guys those guys.”

“You don’t have to fight. Go and help your father.”

Since Arjen was discovered so often, most of the nearby soldiers knew Arjen’s face. The soldiers called Arjen a crow-like guy. Both were animals with black fur and black eyes that were found near corpses.

“It doesn’t work right here anymore. Because the world is noisy.”

“If you say that in front of other people, you’ll get in trouble, crow.”

Saying that, the soldier ruffled Arjen’s hair and walked back to patrol. Arjen’s father was a woodcutter. He was always drunk, but he wasn’t the one who hit Arjen or Arjen’s mother. He was a good-looking man with black hair similar to Arjen and a roughly shaved beard.

“You’ve been there today too.”

Arjen’s father said that to Arjen. At first, he was scolded harshly by his father, but now he seems to have given up too. Mother looked at Arjen with a worried expression.

“I’m thinking of moving out of this town soon.”

“Moving?”

Father shook his head slowly.

“Because a woodcutter can live anywhere as long as he has wood.”

like that. Arjen nodded and looked at the old ax leaning by the fireplace. Father looked at Arjen and spoke again.

“If you don’t want to do anything in particular, learn how to handle an axe.”

“I will become a soldier.”

At Arjen’s words, his father’s expression hardened terribly. Father’s drinking glass rattled. Arjen thought that his father would send him another blow, but he soon took up his drink again.

“Why did you think that?”

At his father’s question, Arjen frowned. Arjen had never thought so deeply.

“Because I wanted to defeat our enemies.”

“… Did you?”

The father’s voice in reply was powerless. I don’t know why, but I thought it was fortunate that I didn’t oppose it. My father knocked on the table with a thoughtful face.

“You have to think about what you are wielding your sword for.”

Father said so. Little Arjen could not understand what his father was saying. Because he thought he said why he wanted to be a soldier.

And, it was only a week later that Arjen understood his father’s words.

“Kill!!”

The day after the conversation with my father, the kingdom launched a massive raid. It was an air strike that mobilized all the soldiers Arjen knew. The enemy country failed to offer proper resistance and was pushed back. The kingdom took territory very easily and raised its flag. Arjen congratulated himself on the victory and looked at the returning soldiers with envy.

“Hey, the war is over soon. If we take all of that area, we win.”

After the battle, the soldiers Arjen met were smiling triumphantly. Arjen put down his sword and looked at the soldiers who had taken off their helmets. Blood of unknown origin was smeared on their cheeks and armor, hardened brown.

“If we win, we won’t have to worry about wandering around here anymore. You won’t even see a dead body.”

The soldiers said they were happy and stabbed the ground with the tips of their swords.

“I want to be a soldier too.”

The soldiers burst into laughter as they saw Arjen.

“Arthur, Arthur. This is not a good thing. It may look cool to you now, but it’s a completely different thing from actually holding a spear.”

“Otherwise, I would become a woodcutter like my father. It won’t be much fun.”

“Lumberjacks have a much better job than us. It is better to cut trees than to cut people.”

The soldiers giggled as they said that. Arjen shook his head in disbelief.

“Well, you still have plenty of time, so think carefully, crow. Although I think you’d be better off just listening to the grown-ups than thinking about it.”

And, that was the last meeting with the soldiers in Arjen’s memory.

That night, the enemy launched a counterattack targeting the Kairos Kingdom soldiers who had infiltrated deep into their territory. The forces of the enemy country, which had been ambushed near the border, surrounded the territory and quickly ate the troops of the isolated kingdom. The enemy country drove their momentum and advanced into the kingdom’s territory.

“right. You learn quickly, Arjen.”

And when they started to advance in earnest, Arjen was practicing cutting trees in the forest with his father. Swish, without straining your wrists and arms too much.

snap.

An ax stuck in the trunk of a tree. My father’s old ax fit the hand just as well as Arjen’s from the start. My father silently watched Arjen hitting the base of the tree. The traces of the pine were getting deeper and deeper. A little more hit and the tree will fall.

“I won’t stop you from becoming a soldier.”

At his father’s words, Arjen turned his head while wiping his sweat.

“yes?”

“yes. If that’s what you really want… .”

thud.

Then, I heard the sound of something collapsing. The noise did not stop at once, but changed to scattered noise and spread like paint dropped into water. The father’s expression became contemplative. And then he started running towards the village. Arjen grabbed his ax and ran after his father. Dad was quick. Arjen gasped and ran, barely reaching forward to see his father.

“Find the Kairos bastards! If you resist, I will kill you without mercy!”

The noise he heard as he came out of the forest hit Arjen’s ears. Arjen stopped at the exit of the forest. The village was burning. In the meantime, Sura-do was unfolding. It wasn’t just the soldiers of the enemy country. The soldiers of the kingdom and those of the enemy country were intertwined and fighting.

Dying, dying was overflowing. Arjen stared blankly at the sight, forgetting even to follow in his father’s footsteps. It is better to cut trees than to cut people. Arjen witnessed the soldier’s neck being pierced by a spear.

“Arjen!! Hurry and run away to the forest!!”

father’s call. Arjen didn’t hear that and followed his father’s voice blindly. House. where was the house The sound of someone screaming and collapsing came from Arjen’s side. Quadang. With the sound of the door in front of the house collapsing, the father and a soldier rolled over and fell to the ground. Father’s eyes and Arjen’s met in the air.

“Arjen!! What are you doing! Hurry up and run!!”

hooked

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My father’s chest was pierced by a knife. The blood doesn’t spurt, but flows down the chest. Arjen saw his father’s blood soaking the ground. The father turned over and struck the soldier in the face. The soldier struggled and twisted his sword, and the father poured blood from his mouth. The other soldiers clung to it and thrust their spears into my father’s back. I didn’t want to think about what my mother would have become.

“Arjen!!”

In the meantime, Father looked at Arjen and screamed. Arn staggered, then started to run away. My heart was beating at an odd rate. A strange smell lingered on the tip of his nose. It was probably the stench of burning human flesh.

Run the same way you came back. The blazing sun and the pouring blood. Arjen kept running. To the forest, where should I go? The only place Arjen remembered was the one where he and his father cut down trees. When Arjen emerged from the bushes, the soldier who had taken off his helmet rose from his seat. It was not the armor of Kairos Kingdom.

“what. What kind of kid came out?”

The soldier seemed insane. Half of his face was covered in blood. The soldier staggered and approached Arjen.

“It would have been nice to have been there quietly.”

The soldier drew his sword and looked down at Arjen with bloodshot eyes. Arjen took a slow step back. The sword fell. Arjen did not dodge backwards but dug forward. The soldier was swinging a sword at an adult. The soldier’s sword did not reach Arjen. The soldier’s body leaned forward.

“Remove your strength.”

Arjen murmured and grabbed the ax with both hands and swung it. The ax flew without resistance and cut the face of the helmetless soldier.

Kwajik.

The soldier collapsed on the spot and died. Blood splattered on Arjen’s face. Arjen dropped the ax and sat down in a daze. The blood soaking his legs was warm. Arjen heard the rustling of the grass. Popularity was getting closer.

“This bastard… .”

Are you a soldier’s colleague? Arjen looked at another soldier wearing the same armor and standing blankly with a shocked look on his face. His eyes were wide open and his hands were shaking. The soldier raised his sword. Aren didn’t have the strength to pick up the ax again.

There was no time to think about dying. Arjen’s eyes moved along the falling blade. And.

hooked

Someone’s knife pierced the soldier’s back. The soldier stiffened and turned his back to look at the one who had stabbed him.

“You guys… why do you guys… .”

The soldier said so in a trembling voice, then collapsed on his side and died. Arjen blinked when he saw the one-eyed woman and men appearing behind the fallen soldier.

“If you try to kill a child, write it. Swing a knife before it dries.”

The woman spoke in a harsh voice and bent her knees looking at Arjen. The woman looked alternately at Arjen, the ax in his hand, and the fallen soldier, then frowned and sighed.

“Guys. Didn’t anyone just see it? Let’s get out of here at once.”

“… I won’t stay still if I get caught, Captain.”

“How are you? You won’t even notice it in the first place. Are we done with our work? I also got paid in advance.”

The men shook their heads. The woman looked at Arjen with a sharp smile and asked.

“How are you, crow-like kid? Won’t you come with me?”

Arjen grabbed the woman’s outstretched hand without even realizing it. The woman’s smile deepened a little.