Chapter 63 – Promise (6)

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Translated by Seoulbound

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“By a monster…”

Looking at the bloodstains, Plato asked in a trembling voice.

“Have they already… been got?”

However, both the commander and I immediately shook our heads at that question.

Thinking the commander had also recognized the identity of this bloodstain right away, I waited a moment for him to speak, but the commander just quietly stared at me as if telling me to explain.

I let out a small sigh and said.

“This is not a monster’s doing.”

At those words, Plato asked back in surprise.

“If it is not a monster, then what on earth are these bloodstains?”

“You probably wouldn’t know. Since you have never shot a person before.”

“Excuse me?”

Plato tilted his head for a moment, as if he did not understand what I meant, but soon realized the meaning of my words and stared at the bloodstains with shocked eyes.

“Does that mean those are…”

“Yes. It is not a monster, but traces of a human shooting another human.”

“A human, not a monster…”

Plato turned his gaze to look back and forth between the commander and me.

“It seems Your Excellency thinks so as well. How on earth did you two recognize that?”

“Look closely.”

I pointed at the bloodstains with the muzzle of the gun I was holding and said.

“The blood is scattered like a mist. Small blood droplets mean that the blood spread at a fast speed upon being struck by a weapon, and if the droplets are that small, it must be considered a firearm. Since there is no way a monster shot a person with a gun, this is a human shooting another human.”

As the commander also nodded as if I was right after my explanation was finished, Plato’s mouth fell slightly open.

“No… put Your Excellency aside, but how do you know, Lord Haydam? Is it not the same for you, in that you have never shot a person either?”

“Even if I have never shot one, I have seen many people who were shot.”

“Ah…”

At my words, Plato seemed to remember that I was present at the execution site of Lieutenant General Bartom.

I had been hit by blood droplets of a person who was shot, and I had also been hit by a bullet fired by a guy from the Unicorn zone, so how could I not recognize bloodstains splattered from a gunshot?

Of course, besides that, it was also something that often appeared in crime dramas I watched before possessing this body.

Perhaps the commander thought I had seen many such things before my regression, as there was not a trace of doubt on his face.

“Was it an attack from another zone?”

He immediately thought of the possibility of an attack from another zone at the mention of a human shooting a human.

Of course, it was not that I did not think of the Unicorn zone player, but we had headed north to chase the monsters.

The Cola zone was the northernmost zone among all zones.

There was no reason for bastards from other zones to attack us from our north.

Since beyond this was even a crevasse zone.

Moreover, looking at the shape of the bloodstains, it seemed there was no further engagement after exchanging fire once.

“If it were an ambush, the bloodstains would be left in a more chaotic manner. This was fired between people who know each other.”

At my words, Plato asked back with a face of disbelief.

“Then you mean they shot a soldier from the same zone?”

“That would be the case.”

“How could that be…”

Plato, who stared at the splattered bloodstains on the snow with lost eyes for a moment, scraped together whatever hope he had and said.

“Could it, by any chance, have been an accidental discharge? Seeing that they took the bodies with them.”

“Seeing that the amount of spilled blood is not large, they seem to be alive, though.”

“It wouldn’t be an accidental discharge.”

This time, the commander stepped forward and spoke.

“Since the bloodstains face different directions… it seems Team 2 scattered in different directions after exchanging attacks.”

As I lowered my body to inspect beneath the thickly piled snow, things that were not easily visible due to the blizzard caught my eye.

Just as the commander said, the bloodstains led in different directions.

Military boot prints that were not yet covered by snow were also discovered, but no boot prints that seemed to belong to soldiers from other zones could be found.

The footprints and bloodstains directed toward different paths.

As if they had moved away from each other while bleeding from gunshots.

“If it were an accidental discharge, there would be no reason to head in different directions… It seems certain that there is a problem with Team 2.”

‘It’s a good thing I came out to find them.’

If we had not followed them out, these traces would have been buried and disappeared under the snow, and even if the new officers did not return, we would have thought they were just got by monsters.

Since the leader of Team 2 had pointedly taken Lucas and Bones, he had another scheme from the start.

A purpose other than promotion.

* * *

“Damn it, fuck…”

Supporting the bleeding Bones as he walked, Lucas spat out a quiet curse.

When Lucas cursed, Bones smirked.

“I didn’t know you knew how to curse too.”

“Are you in the mood to laugh right now?”

Lucas and Bones had been selected by the leader of Team 2 to go out on the search.

The one who realized during the search that the team leader was leading them in a strange direction was another veteran soldier.

“Team leader, I do not think this is the way. Can you not see Team 3 over there?”

When the soldier pointed out that they seemed to have moved incorrectly, the team leader said:

“I am implementing separate instructions.”

Since the team leader, who was the commander’s team member, said so, the other team members were doubtful but followed him.

However, when the team leader did not return even after the retreat signal went up, the team members only then realized something was wrong and protested to him.

Then, the team leader scolded them instead.

“Did you feel nothing upon seeing Lord Haydam? If you are a man, you should think about establishing achievements before returning!”

The team leader had intended to chase the monsters from the start, and said they could return if they wanted to.

Naturally, several team members, including Lucas and Bones, insisted that they must return immediately, but because the majority of the team members stepped forward saying they were also men and would return after establishing achievements, an atmosphere to continue the search a bit longer was created.

By this time, the highly suspicious Bones was already sensing something strange.

Bones stuck close to Lucas and whispered quietly.

‘Lucas.’

‘Why are you whispering?’

‘Be careful. We’re surrounded.’

‘Surrounded?’

At those words, Lucas was startled and looked around, but all he could see were their own team members.

‘There are only team members.’

‘I’m talking about them.’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘Look closely. They are walking while surrounding us.’

At Bones’s words, Lucas pretended to guard the surroundings and looked around once more.

Indeed, for a formation going out to search for monsters, they were walking while excessively conscious of Bones and Lucas.

Around this time, Lucas also noticed that the situation was unusual.

Because the team members who argued for returning were walking behind without much thought, but the team members who argued for continuing the search were holding their muzzles toward Lucas and Bones.

What on earth was the situation?

Just as the confused Lucas was about to ask the team leader something.

“Halt.”

As the team leader walking ahead turned around with his gun raised, Bones immediately loaded his gun and aimed at the team leader.

While the team leader, who was about to shoot Bones, hesitated, surprised by Bones’s quick reaction speed, a bullet flew toward Bones from the side.

As the first shot grazed his arm, the team member who spat out a curse raised his gun to aim at his head next, but Lucas shot that team member’s arm first, causing the bullet to graze past above Bones’s head.

While enduring the burning pain flowing down his elbow and his scream, Bones did not lose his grip on his gun and pulled the trigger, and the team leader was hit in the shoulder and blown backward.

As another team member aimed his muzzle at Bones, Lucas blocked his way, but.

A few more people stepped forward in front of them to form a wall.

They were the team members who had argued to return after seeing the retreat signal earlier.

“Why are you shooting the new officers!”

These people seemed to have received no instructions from the team leader.

Excluding Lucas and Bones, it was a team reorganized by the commander and Meursault, so those who were not subordinates of the Team 2 leader were also mixed in.

As the leader of Team 2 had his shoulder treated to stop the bleeding by other team members, he swept his eyes over the faces of the team members blocking him, and then opened his mouth to speak as if he had found a familiar face among them.

“You also became an officer under the sponsorship of Lieutenant General Max, didn’t you?”

The team leader, who barely raised his body while stopping the bleeding in his shoulder, said in a sarcastic tone:

“Lieutenant General Max said this. The cute puppy fella thinks he is a wolf and is running wild, so let us just boil and eat him.”

At those words, the gazes of the team members present all directed toward Bones.

There was no one in this place who did not know that Bones was an ardent follower of Lieutenant General Max.

Bones, as well as the team members blocking his front, had faces that could not accept this.

“Make sense. How much wrong could a guy who just graduated from the military academy have done that even Lieutenant General Max would step forward to order Bones’s death?”

“You guys must have heard about it too. About the rebellion at the graduation ceremony.”

This subjugation battle was composed of a small elite force, most of whom were from the military academy, and it was a famous story among senior officers that the junior officer fellows graduating this time had argued for abolishing the recommendation system and implementing an entrance exam system.

However, no matter how much that was the case.

“You’re killing a young officer like this just because of that? You expect us to believe that?”

“It is not ‘just because’. If you guys don’t want to die either, lower your guns and step back.”

“Don’t make me laugh. Even if Lieutenant General Max ordered it, we cannot do that.”

In the end, Team 2 was split in half, aiming at each other.

One of the senior officers glanced sideways at Lucas, who stood supporting Bones, and said:

“Lucas. Take Bones and run.”

“But…”

“There is no ‘but’! Run until the soles of your feet sweat and join another team.”

Lucas grit his teeth and began to run while supporting Bones, whose complexion was turning pale white.

After running like that for some time.

Lucas had to admit that they were lost on the snowy field.

An endless snowy field stretched out before his eyes.

However, what was more painful than the fact that they were lost was the sound of gunfire heard from afar during their escape.

How many of them survived?

“Fuck!”

Lucas let out a curse just like Bones, and Bones, who was letting out painful groans, chuckled and weakly pushed Lucas away, saying:

“Hey… don’t exert yourself in vain and get lost.”

“What do you mean, get lost?”

“Leave me here and get lost. It will be easier to find the way that way, won’t it?”

“Don’t talk crazy. You’ll die like that.”

“I mean leave me to die.”

“Bones!”

Lucas bellowed, but Bones shouted in an even louder voice.

“Lieutenant General Max wants me to die!”

At those words, Lucas was also temporarily speechless.

He still could not believe that Lieutenant General Max had instigated the soldiers to kill Bones.

Lieutenant General Max was a general famous for treating his adopted children and ordinary soldiers without formality.

Although Lucas was sponsored by another executive, he had thought Lieutenant General Max was a respectable person.

But did he really give an instruction to drag a new officer far away and kill him just because he did not listen to him?

“He, he wants it. My father wants me to die… Then… isn’t my dying the only way to repay his kindness…!”

“Is that something you should say when there are senior officers who sacrificed themselves to save you right now?”

As Lucas, momentarily flared up by his continued talk of Lieutenant General Max’s kindness, released his supporting hand, Bones collapsed onto the snowy field just like that and began to wail.

“How…! How could father do this to me…!! Being recognized by father was my everything, and I became an officer for father…!!”

“Bones…”

Bones usually always called him ‘Lieutenant General Max’.

Even while thinking of Lieutenant General Max as his father, he spoke as if it would be a disaster if he called him father.

Only when faced with such a moment did the word father burst out.

Since Lucas also knew that Bones truly regarded Lieutenant General Max as a father, he could not bring himself to continue speaking.

If the officer who sponsored him had contracted his murder, the one wailing on the ground by now would have been himself.

Bones sobbed and murmured while lying on the ground.

“Rather leave me to die here… Even if I return, there is nothing left for me…”

Lucas also understood Bones’s despair, but he could not abandon Bones and leave as easily as he said.

-Rumble…

Losing his balance due to an unknown earthquake, Lucas also sat down plop next to Bones.

As if responding to Bones’s despair, the ground shook consecutively.

It was immediately after the shaking stopped that a long shadow cast over Lucas.

“Uh…”

Lifting his head with an ominous premonition, a giant monster looking down at them entered Lucas’s view.

“What…”

Facing the monster, Lucas was temporarily lost for words.

As if the large-class monsters they fought in the morning were nothing at all, its wondrous size made it feel like they were standing before a giant cliff.

The monster, covered in white fur from head to toe, stared blankly down at them with its mouth heavily smeared with blood.

Lucas barely managed to call Bones’s name.

“Bon… es. Ge… t up…”

Watching him murmur in a voice small as an ant, the monster raised the corners of its mouth and wore an unpleasant smile.

“Bones! Get up, you bastard!!”

Snapping out of it, Lucas held his gun and backed away, but Bones remained lying down with a resigned face.

“Pull yourself together, Bones! Are you really going to die in a place like this!”

Although he shouted, it was doubtful if his voice could be heard properly by Bones right now.

Even if I abandon Bones and run away now, will I really be able to survive?

Even knowing that it would be difficult to save his life even if he fled now, instead of running away, Lucas chose to aim his trembling muzzle at the monster.

And.

“Get down.”

A familiar voice was heard from beyond the monster, and.

With a bursting sound, the abdomen of the monster standing before them blew open, showing the other side through the pierced hole.

Standing there was Haydam, holding a thick firearm that did not look like a child could possibly handle the recoil.