Mission No.2 Fragmented Memory (2)
“This house will be fine.”
The unit commander found a place in good condition among the ruined houses and called the members together.
“Everyone pay attention! Use this house as a temporary supply depot. The material arrangements should be finished today. More.”
As soon as the unit commander finished speaking, the soldiers began to organize the supplies they had been carrying on their backs.
Among those soldiers was Elif.
“Hey, Elif.”
“Private Carrossa!”
With a clear smile, she gave her official rank, put down the supplies she was organizing, and turned to the veteran soldier who called her.
“Aren’t you supposed to get some more rest? Don’t overdo it and rest when you can.”
“Yes? What are you talking about?”
Horse dung horse dung.
“… If you’re tired, go in and rest…”
The senior soldier felt deja vu.
Clearly, Elif’s eyes were the ones she had when she didn’t know that Hasburg had been attacked.
That light was shining in Elif’s eyes right now.
Somewhere cloudy eyes.
Feeling chilled, the veteran soldier turned to the other soldiers, not even realizing how he had evaded his words.
Concerned that she had something to say, she called, Elif rearranged her supplies and sorted the supplies to be put in her supply warehouse.
This is a temporary supply warehouse. Elif was simply thinking about that.
“Put it in from the front! There is no time, before the sun goes down!”
The soldiers each carried supplies and carried them into the house.
Although it was a spacious house, the soldiers each grumbled at the sight of the building looking like it would soon be filled with supplies.
“Hey. I can’t even put it all in.”
“What are the heads of the upper heads going to do?”
And,
“It’s okay. There’s a basement over there.”
Moving her eyes wide open, the elf moved to a corner.
All the soldiers froze at Elif’s words.
While Elif was lying in the barracks, rumors that spread quickly came to the minds of the soldiers.
Rumor has it that Hasburg’s hometown, Elif, collapsed screaming when he found Hasburg turned into ruins.
However, as if she knew the structure of this house, she was walking on the other side, talking about her basement.
The soldiers got goosebumps.
“Here it is. This basement is quite large, so all supplies will fit.”
He hadn’t even opened the door down to the basement yet, but Elif said that as if introducing the house.
None of the soldiers moved.
“I’ll go in first.”
It seemed that Elif didn’t care about the soldiers’ reactions either.
No.
She was like nothing else to her.
And only the sound of her footsteps resounded in her house.
***
“… Isn’t Karossa crazy?”
“… Hey. If you think about the goosebumps I gave you earlier, wow.”
“He said Hasburg was his hometown. You saw him screaming and collapsing.”
“Of course not, man. If it were you, would you be sane when your hometown has reached this point? If I heard that all of her parents, siblings, and friends died, would she be okay?”
“… But how could he not know Hasburg was attacked?”
“I know. You noticed that Karossa didn’t know at all.”
“No, I have that supply depot earlier than that. How does Carossa know the structure of the house? As soon as you entered the house, you said there was a basement in the back and walked over. There’s a real basement there, whoa… , Crazy.”
“… Hey X. Stop. Because X is creepy.”
“Isn’t it strange? How do you know the first house you entered so well? And as he said, the basement is quite spacious. Isn’t that house the house of someone you know? Unless… Wait, then please…”
“aaa, shut up, man. It doesn’t matter what house he knows or not.”
“Hey, f*ck it, it’s because it’s creepy.”
***
“Karossa is gone.”
Close to midnight. A soldier who came in looking for the unit commander’s office made such a report without hesitation.
He was a veteran soldier who had the most conversations with Elif.
Of course, the unit commander, who had a ridiculous expression on his face, tilted his head.
“The kid who screamed and passed out during that march?”
“… That’s right.”
“Are you reporting that your friend has deserted?”
“Ah… I don’t know if it’s direct desertion or not. But, Captain. That guy is really weird.”
The veteran soldier told him everything from the time he left his former post to the present.
The unit commander, who had been listening to his story calmly, had to look at the veteran soldier with a serious face.
“… When was the last time you did a personnel check?”
“Today’s roll call was one stone.”
I mean it was before I fell asleep.
The unit commander immediately stood up and gave the order.
“I will mobilize all members of the unit to find it.”
“… You mean at this time?”
“Now, man!”
After shouting, the unit commander stretched out his finger and pointed at the senior soldier, opening his mouth.
“If you don’t want to see him hanging dead, move right away!”
***
“… Uh?”
Elif stood in front of the supply depot. There was a space in front of her that reminded her of a huge barrier with wooden boxes stacked one on top of the other.
I’ve been struggling all day today to fill supplies here.
However, she moved her head left and right very slowly with empty eyes, as if she didn’t recognize her wooden box.
And Elif,
“Is this our house?”
He spat out terrifying words.
“When did our house burn down?”
As she looked back at the front door she had opened and entered, Elif tilted her head. Come to think of it, when did you come home? Elif’s gaze, which was heading toward the front door, moved silently into the dimly lit house.
There was not much light, and even her eyes that were used to the darkness couldn’t see the space well. But this is definitely the house where Elif and her family lived.
Elif felt it with her whole body.
Goosebumps ran through Elif’s body as she took her steps.
It was only then that Elif remembered the task of sorting supplies in the morning.
She guided the soldiers, pointing to the basement.
Her baby, her house…
Her own house, where everything was burnt down…
Elif staggered as if about to fall and headed for her cellar.
No matter how dark it is, the structure of the house is familiar.
Elif’s foot kicked the air as she opened the door to her cellar and nearly jumped down.
After she fell hard, Elif rolled down her steps and was swept to the basement floor.
Her dust blew in all directions, but Elif hurriedly raised her body and looked around her.
I can’t see anything.
“Wealth, fire.”
She needed a light.
Taking her portable lantern from her waistband, she quickly lit it.
In an instant, the light from the lanterns dispelled the darkness, revealing the cellar in her field of vision.
Supplies piled up regularly.
But she didn’t even notice her supplies.
As if possessed, she walked slowly towards the corner of the cellar.
Even though it was winter, cold sweat broke out on her hands.
A chill ran down his spine.
Still, she didn’t stop her feet.
There is definitely something there.
There is something.
With her trembling hand, Elif groped around her.
Here?
Elif shook her head.
This place?
Elif’s face moved left and right more vigorously.
But soon her elf’s hand felt something and stopped.
The lantern in her right hand slowly came down in front of Elif.
Slowly, Elif’s face contorted in fear.
The moment the light of the lantern grotesquely illuminates her face,
“aaa!”
Holding onto the two corpses, only her skeleton, she let out a scream that would drain her lungs.
***
“… I want to send you a transfer.”
The unit commander, who found Elif ten days after her disappearance, made such an opinion to her immediate superior.
“Aren’t you just a deserter?”
“No.”
The unit commander shook his head.
“I have a fatal psychological problem.”
“… Any chance of getting better?”
After a bitter taste, the unit commander quietly opened his mouth.
“It is progressive. As of right now, we cannot have Elif Karossa in our Knights. I think it would be better to transfer to the rear.”
“… Are you a deserter?”
“No.”
In a firm voice, the unit commander strongly expressed his opinion.
“She is just very sick.”
***
Strangely, a soldier wearing heavy military gear walked with his blank eyes looking down. His whole body was drained of strength and his feet, which seemed to only crawl downward, grotesquely scratched the ground.
It was an elf.
Following her transfer order, she marched alone, looking haggard. As a deserter, she was walking alone as a unit in the rear without a guide or companion.
She was grotesquely strange, but nobody questioned her.
Walking alone with no escort or escort.
Elif was quietly exhausted.
From noble mtl dot com
“… ,”
The first few hours were just painful for her. The relief that she was freed from the indescribable stares of her troopers, who were heading towards her, lightened her steps just a little bit, but it was as if she could hear the sound of everything she had built collapsing in her ears, and she licked her parting lips occasionally with her tongue. It was only
However, as she moved her steps for over four hours without a break, she stopped thinking.
It’s better to be hard on the body. She no longer has people around who look at her with strange eyes. That alone made Elif feel at ease.
But her calm mind was shattered by a shrill scream.
“Kyaaagh!”
Female scream. Elif’s gaze, which was heading to the ground, moved quickly at the voice that was different from her scream.
Through the fading light as the sun went down, Elif caught sight of a mysterious woman running along her path. Her dulled senses suddenly sharpened.
Is it a robber? Elif quickly scanned the back of the woman running toward her. But the other person was nowhere to be seen.
Instead, her gaze caught the shadow of a large beast pursuing her woman.
‘… Wild boar?’
I’m glad I’m not human. Elif thought so. She can’t wield a sword against people, but she can wield a sword against beasts.
Curiously, she let out a sigh of relief and reflexively reached for the sword at her waist.
But she was there.
Just before grabbing the handle of her sword, she hurriedly withdrew her hand from the repulsive force that seemed to push her away.
“… Uh?”
Why? Isn’t that a human, just an animal? No, on the contrary, a stronger reluctance than when you tried to draw a knife on a person?
Elif gritted his teeth. The woman who was running away from the wild boar in a panic, found her elf in the shape of her soldier and was running straight towards her.
‘Why?!’
It’s a pretty big wild boar. With her foam in her mouth, it comes rushing at the woman with a force to tear it apart.
“Do, help me!”
Elif clenched his teeth. But her hand, which began to tremble, ran so wildly that she couldn’t even attempt to move near her sword.
Just a few meters. With her eyes fixed on her woman, the mad boar opened its monstrous jaws.
Elif’s knees bent slightly. As if avoiding her woman, her body landed hard as she sat down beside her.
‘If I can’t draw my sword!’
And Elif kicked the ground with her tremendous strength.
‘I have to do it like this!’
The boar’s body hit the wild boar’s side straight. Even the huge wild boar spewed out of breath at the unexpected blow and tumbled off the trail and rolled to the side.
Kwakwang.
The body of the wild boar, unable to overcome her running power, plowed the ground. The wild boar wriggled and bent over and stretched out several times before struggling to stand up and finally find the person who attacked it.
Standing tall in front of the wild boar, Elif’s legs were trembling, not even holding a weapon.
However, the wild boar took a step back from Elif, who looked dangerous.
“Kreuk…”
Even at the moment of her death, she was so terrified that she fell to her knees, but the grotesque living radiated from her entire body.
The tension of meeting her nemesis and the excitement of facing her prey enveloped the boar.
But the wild boar had no choice but to backtrack even further.
The wild boar, instinctively realizing that the risk it had to endure just to get that prey was unknowable, lowered its head even further and stepped back.
“… Please. Go.”
The wild boar, which had retreated for several tens of meters and could not take its eyes off Elif even once, finally twisted its body. Then, as fiercely as they had pursued, they began to flee.
Elif’s gaze wavered.
I was relieved by the fact that the wild boar had run away. Relief came over me that I had survived. But enough to overwhelm it, a great frustration swept over her whole body.
‘… Can’t even use a knife against animals now?’
Her knees were bent. Unable to withstand the heavy weight of her armor, she collapsed onto the road.
‘It’s just an animal?’
The saved woman came to Elif’s side in a new despair.
However, Elif had no choice but to slowly lower her upper body and let out her desperate cries.
***
“Mom!”
Elif jumped out of her seat and stood up.
She’s in bed again.
An unfamiliar ceiling lurked above her head.
At her strange sensation, Elif had to wipe away the goosebumps that were all over her body.
Where was this?
When in a room like this…
And a knock came in her elf’s ear.
“Are you okay?”
A very familiar and warm voice came along.
The door opened and Ewald appeared. For a moment, Elif felt relieved without even realizing it.
But in an instant, the image of her father was overlaid over Balt’s face.
Alas, Elif, who made her noise and shrunk her body, had to shake her body.
‘… Is it because I’m not better yet?’
Ewald sat down next to Elif while worrying about that.
It was only then that Elif felt the image of her father disappearing from Ebalt’s face.
Ewald looked at Elif with her worried face.
And she, Elif, she remembered all of her falling for Kswice.
She also remembered all of her days in Hasburg, where she was in the Fifth Order.
Her wincing winced, Elif’s lips opened.
“That… Didn’t I stab her dad?”
Ewald smiled and put his hand on Elif’s head.
That big hand slowly and gently stroked Elif’s head.
“From what I saw, yes.”
“Did I really not kill you?”
A hot thing welled up inside Elif.
“Am I not bad?”
Elif’s tear-stained face turned to Ebalt.
“I… I didn’t kill you, right?”
“Of course.”
And Ewald just smiled,
“Elf.”
He whispered softly to her.
“I am glad you are alive.”
Elif’s face twisted.
Ewald sent her unwavering faith to her, who seemed to burst into tears at any moment.
“Thank you for being alive.”