Chapter 75 – Divorce (1)

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Translated by Seoulbound

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“Did you guys hear about Lieutenant General Max?”

“What about Lieutenant General Max?”

The barracks of the sentries standing guard in the most remote part of the zone.

A soldier who had returned from leave began to tell the other soldiers the story he had heard at the center.

“Lieutenant General Max confessed that he indeed ordered Second Lieutenant Bones’s murder, so the center is in an absolute uproar right now.”

“Lieutenant General Max really ordered that?”

“I don’t believe it. Is Lieutenant General Max the kind of person to do that?”

“Well, I don’t really believe it either, but since Lieutenant General Max confessed himself, it seems they can’t ignore it.”

“True, since the person himself said he did it, it doesn’t matter even if others think otherwise…”

“Honestly, I suspected Second Lieutenant Bones.”

“Me too.”

The incident where Colonel Sampson’s Team 2 was murdered during the subjugation battle was a case widely known even among ordinary soldiers.

Of course, Colonel Sampson’s testimony and the content that Lieutenant General Max instigated Second Lieutenant Bones’s murder had also spread within the zone, but since there were so many soldiers who normally admired Lieutenant General Max’s character, almost no one believed that testimony.

Some said it was suspicious that Second Lieutenant Bones survived when a colonel had set his mind to kill him, while others questioned whether a colonel and the veteran officers below him would die to a newly appointed officer even if Second Lieutenant Bones had started a mutiny.

But to think the matter would end unexpectedly with Lieutenant General Max’s confession.

“But there is a rumor that the real culprit is someone else.”

“The real culprit is someone else?”

“Well… General Josef passed away not long ago, right?”

“We all lined up during the funeral service too. Who knew he would pass away so unfortunately during training…”

“That wasn’t just an accident.”

“If it wasn’t just an accident, then what?”

“Divine punishment.”

“Divine punishment?!”

As the voice grew louder, the soldier telling the story was startled, placed a finger to his lips, and gestured to lower the volume.

“Quiet! You know the colonel will raise hell if he finds out we’re gathered talking about this stuff!”

“Ah, alright… But what do you mean by divine punishment? Did he get struck by lightning or something?”

“Exactly.”

“What?”

“Literally divine punishment. I’m telling you, he died from being struck by lightning. He was struck by lightning that fell during training and died right there.”

As the soldier made a gesture of cutting his throat with the edge of his hand, the other soldiers looked at him with expressions that said, ‘How could such a thing happen in this world?’

“But why is that divine punishment? Wasn’t it just bad luck?”

“And what does that have to do with the real culprit being someone else?”

“There is a saying that it was actually General Josef who instigated Colonel Sampson, and that he received divine punishment because of it.”

“What? Isn’t that stretching it too far?”

“But the source of that rumor is the executives. There isn’t just one or two soldiers who heard the executives talking like that.”

“Well…”

Since they said the executives babbled like that, it was hard to dismiss it as mere stretching.

Emotionally, General Josef felt more like the culprit than Lieutenant General Max too.

Because they were already inwardly denying that Lieutenant General Max could have done such a thing, it was rather comforting to think that General Josef was the culprit and had received divine punishment for it.

As the soldiers, lost in thought, fell silent, the soldier who had just returned from leave opened his mouth once more to ask significantly, as if he still had plenty of topics left.

“By the way, did you guys know this?”

“What else is there?”

“Don’t ask if we know, just tell us, you bastard.”

“Do you know the real reason Lord Haydam is called the Miracle of the Crevasse?”

“We know that. They said he fell down the crevasse but survived.”

“I find it harder to believe that he shot and killed four large monsters by himself with four shots than him returning alive from the crevasse.”

In reality, the ones Haydam dispatched were only two, but the subjugation officer’s review(?)—’Out of the five large-class monsters hunted in the subjugation battle, one was dispatched by some boy soldier, but Lord Haydam killed two, and the remaining two fell after being crushed under the monster Lord Haydam killed, so we were able to kill them easily. It is thanks to Lord Haydam that we are alive’—was being distorted among the soldiers to mean ‘Lord Haydam killed four.’

“Even if you can attribute the crevasse to good luck, hunting monsters is impossible without skill.”

“No, but I also heard the story of Lord Haydam killing four large-class monsters, but it’s my first time hearing that he killed them with four bullets.”

“Exactly. If so, it means he killed all of them with a single shot, but isn’t that a bit of an exaggeration?”

“That is probably true.”

“Really?”

“I asked if you knew the reason Lord Haydam is called the Miracle of the Crevasse. The reason he is called a ‘miracle’ isn’t simply because he returned alive.”

“Then…?”

As the soldiers leaned in close with curious faces, the returned soldier deliberately spoke in a grim voice.

“The reason Lord Haydam is called the ‘Miracle of the Crevasse’ is because a monstrously huge monster lay dead beside him when he was rescued. A giant monster discovered for the first time in the zone.”

“Oh, that…”

At the mention of a giant monster, one of the sentries who had been listening showed that he knew about it.

“Are you talking about that furry giant that entered the zone last time?”

“Yes.”

“Wow, the subjugation battle was already over, and I wondered where on earth they brought that from.”

“I heard that the monster threatened His Excellency, so he jumped down the crevasse on purpose to lure it away.”

At those words, the soldiers who were listening were simultaneously shocked.

“What? He didn’t fall in by accident, but jumped down on purpose to save His Excellency?”

“Wait, but you said that monster lay dead. Are you saying Lord Haydam even killed that monster while trapped in the crevasse?”

“Indeed.”

“No way.”

“Insane…”

“But do you know how that monster lay dead?”

Even what they had heard so far was surprising enough, but as the story did not seem over yet, the soldiers asked with tense faces.

“H-How did it die?”

“They say it died from its head being pierced by a giant icicle.”

“Wow, so the icicle fell and he survived?”

“They said he didn’t have a single injury even after falling from the crevasse, so his luck is indeed great.”

As all the soldiers seemed to think there was no way Lord Haydam had killed that giant monster himself, the storytelling soldier shook his head and said.

“This is where it gets really chilling. They say that icicle didn’t fall naturally.”

“Then?”

“They say he shot it with a gun to make it fall.”

“A gun?”

“Surely you’re not going to say Lord Haydam shot it?”

“What? Why would Lord Haydam shoot that?”

“Probably to drop the icicle on that bastard’s head.”

“No, then what? Lord Haydam shot the icicle to make it fall to kill that monster, and it accurately pierced that bastard’s head and killed it?”

“That’s what I’m saying.”

For a moment, silence fell inside the barracks.

Because it was far too absurd a story.

Returning alive from falling down the crevasse was something that actually happened, so they could believe it.

But it was not easy to believe that a ten-year-old child had made such a cold-headed judgment against a giant monster hundreds of times his size, put it into action, and succeeded.

“Hey, does that make sense? Isn’t the Commander’s residence just hyping up Lord Haydam?”

“I heard His Excellency actually hated sending Lord Haydam out to the subjugation battle.”

“No, why?”

“For fear it would be dangerous.”

“What? We go out every year! Is his own child the only child?”

“Well, that is a common mindset. Usually, the ones sent out to such dangerous tasks are orphans like us.”

This time, a solemn atmosphere fell over the barracks, quite different from a moment ago.

“Uh… but Lord Haydam still came out to the subjugation battle?”

“From what I hear, he apparently wanted to participate desperately. You know Lord Haydam changed this subjugation battle to a small elite force, right?”

“Ah, we know. Our colonel grumbled tremendously because he couldn’t participate in the subjugation battle.”

“The colonel was dissatisfied because he couldn’t build achievements, but we were honestly relieved. For ordinary soldiers like us, if we go out to the subjugation battle, standing in the front row and dying or getting crippled is a common occurrence.”

There was at least no soldier here who disagreed with those words.

This was the absolute outskirts of the zone.

A space where the risk of being ambushed by monsters lurked at any moment.

The place where orphans who enlisted to survive without being sponsored by any executive finally ended up working, pushed aside by sponsored soldiers.

They were also the soldiers who had been selected and sent out to the subjugation battle the most, and who had died the most.

“But they say the number of injured in this subjugation battle is less than thirty. And most of those injured are officers, not ordinary soldiers like us. The dead are only six, excluding the soldiers Colonel Sampson under instructions murdered. Have you ever seen this many return alive?”

“Never…”

“But why did Lord Haydam suddenly change it to a small elite force this time?”

“That is also the special part about Lord Haydam.”

As if he had picked up a great deal of gossip at the center, the returned soldier spoke boastfully.

“I heard that Lord Haydam lived in the slums the entire time after going missing in his childhood.”

“Missing?!”

“He wasn’t raised in the Commander’s residence?”

“Is that why he suddenly appeared? There was never any talk of him having a child before.”

“I thought they had been raising him in secret all this time.”

“So, unlike the people at the center, he seems to cherish our lives.”

“Come to think of it, hasn’t Lord Haydam been hosting charity parties every month?”

“True, he did.”

“Huh? Then did Lord Haydam return during that executives’ meeting where Lieutenant General Bartom died? The stories started circulating from that time.”

“I also heard that story at the center this time. Lieutenant General Bartom truly deserved to die.”

“Didn’t they say Major General Meursault shot him back then because of his attitude or something?”

“Actually, he insulted Lord Haydam’s biological mother in front of Lord Haydam.”

“What?!”

“Insane…”

The soldiers, who spat out curses reflexively at the mention of the insult to his mother, felt something strange and asked back.

“Wait… biological mother?”

“Surely Lord Haydam isn’t Lady Daphne’s child?”

“That’s right. It seems he already had a fiancée before marrying Lady Daphne.”

“No, then why did he marry Lady Daphne…?”

“I heard that because his fiancée suddenly disappeared from the zone, he had no choice but to marry Lady Daphne. I heard they might get divorced soon now that Lord Haydam has returned.”

“Wow, a divorce from Lady Daphne…”

While listening with interest, one of the soldiers felt a sense of incongruity and asked.

“But who on earth did you hear all this from?”

“Second Lieutenant Lucas.”

“Who is that? A newly appointed officer?”

“He was on Lord Haydam’s team during this subjugation battle. It seems Second Lieutenant Lucas also respects Lord Haydam tremendously. Hearing him talk about Lord Haydam, I thought he was in love or something.”

“Lord Haydam is barely ten years old, yet he commands respect?”

“Are you seriously considering age even after hearing all this?”

“It’s true that he is young.”

“That is why he is even more amazing. And Second Lieutenant Lucas must have personally witnessed Lord Haydam’s activity in the subjugation battle.”

“Hearing it like this makes me want to see him directly once too. To see if he really has something different from ordinary people.”

The barracks at the outskirts of the zone.

Around the time the soldiers were building their fantasies about Haydam.

Haydam, who indeed had something different from ordinary people, was forcing his father to get a divorce.