Credit to Mek who proofread this. Thank you for reading this.
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Chapter 2: Discovery
Three days after the army division takeoff, the long day of walking long distance has finally over. Everyone prepared their tent before dusk. The soldier's military training begun after the tents were prepared. Like usual, the slaves and workers were left to do various tasks such as tending the mounted, preparing foods, and managing the equipment.
The day was truly over just before midnight, when everyone preparing to sleep. But not once since four months ago, the kids residing in the orphan tent could sleep peacefully before they saw a scene.
The youngest slaves, Hans, took the beating like usual. He cried like any seven years old but the beating didn’t stop and no one trying to help him.
“I told you, we were slave, we don’t need to read a damn book!”
*sniff*
“B-But I need to be fairly educated to meet my family expectation!”
“Fuck your family expectation, in this world you just need to survive! And to survive you don’t need a fucking book!”
“B-But my parent said….”
“Fuck what your parent said, the last time I heard they drop dead with that shitty education.“
*Sniff*
“Y-You are cruel!”
“And this cruelty let me live! You fucking-moronic-noble-boy.”
Crow continued to beat the little boy as he was annoyed with Hans stubborn attitude. He makes sure to beat Hans as hard as he could to the point his fist hurt, his legs numbed and his body broke sweats.
*huff* *huf*
And by the time Crow needs to catch his breath, the beating stopped. He threw the books far from the tent and kicks Hans out with it.
“You can read all you want outside, you don’t need to sleep inside tonight!”
Hans body was filled with bruised, his mouth gushed out bloods and they were few broken bones. Like every other night, he was forced to sleep outside. There were some exceptions, where he didn’t bring books and allowed to sleep inside the tent.
He spent most of his night outside, where the moon as his blanket and the cold hard ground as his mattress. Even after all the beatings and warnings, Hans kept reading his books every night because it was his promise to his parent.
He usually read books in a secluded places somewhere inside the army’s camped. Using used cooking oil, broken cups, and used cloth thread, he makes his own lamp. As the wind blew, Hans worried more whether the lamp’s fire would extinguish rather than the chilly wind that could hurt his body. Even with all the bruises and bleeding, his trembling hands held the book tight. His legs guided him in no particular direction as his body was in a lot of pain until it dulled his train of thought.
fwoosh! fwoosh!
While looking for a place to read his book, Hans found someone he knew in the middle of sword training. The boy in front of Hans regarded as the unofficial leader of the young slaves as he was the strongest among the kid.
There were few times Hans found Dirt by chance. At first, he thought Dirt was a genius whose naturally gifted in fighting. But that encounter confirmed that Dirt also putting an effort to become stronger.
‘My dad used to said that nothing more frightening than a genius who work harder than anyone’. Hans thought as he admiring his awesome leader.
Dirt stops his training as he noticed Hans watching him in awe. He takes a rag beside him to his sweat before he approached Hans.
“Crow beat you again?”
“Mhm.”Instead of talking, Hans making a sound while nodding his head.
*sigh*
“Crow shouldn't hit you this bad but it also your fault for disturbing everyone sleep. Some people can’t sleep while you lighted the candle to read books.”
Hans just looking down while hearing Dirt, he could understand Dirt reason, but he still wants to read his books. His promise to his parents was one thing. Over time, his hunger for knowledge growing and he couldn’t live without reading books.
“B-But he could just let me slept outside every night. Instead, he beat me half dead every time I tried to get out of the tent to read books.”
“Heh, you are quite stubborn you know that?”
Dirt just smiles as he leaves his remark while looking at Hans. He recalled when he was about Hans age, he just obeyed whatever people told him to do.
“You know, in this era no matter how much knowledge you have, it will be useless if you can’t protect yourself.”
“I don’t think I can protect myself even if I learn how to fight. Only people gifted with the power to protect themselves think like that.”
“Hehehe….That is true too. I start to like you kid.”
Chatting with the small boy in front of him, Dirt finally discovers how deep Hans fondness of knowledge. In his mind, Dirt tried to think about how to save Hans from Crow’s beating.
“I can’t just tell Crow to just let you read in the tent as it was unfair for other kids. If we just let you get out of a tent every night, the whole group will be punished if by any chance you got into trouble. How about this, let’s leave the tent together, no one will dare to hold you back if I am with you.”
“T-Then, I can read all I want?”
Dirt just nodded as he heard Hans remark. The bright smile the five years old boy had, leaving petal of flowers in Dirt heart. He couldn’t help but felt good as he saw how happy Hans was.
“Now, let’s go to the medics tent and treat your wound first.”
“No, don’t worry about it, I can handle this much. I don’t want to disturb their sleep.”
“What? You don’t need to be afraid, almost all of the medic worker are kind people.”
“Hehehe… This supposed to be a secret, but I can heal myself.”
Surprised at Hans remark, Dirt widens his eyes as he looked at the five years old boy. Hans closed his eyes while concentrating his mana with his palms. Then he made a gesture with his arms as if he hugged himself before he finally used his skill.
‘Heal!’
A bright light surrounding the boy's body and in an instant, healing all the bruised and bone fractured in his body. After a while, Hans's injury completely disappeared.
“Oh? It seems you had the affinity to learn magic, how rare.”
Unlike the elf race, humans didn't always have the affinity to learn magic. In the entire 500,000 people in the 36th division army, the only one that could use magic was the head of the medic squad, Wasolf.
It was an extremely rare ability among humans. Although it doesn’t affect the human much, anyone who could use magic was highly regarded in human society.
“Hehehe...My parent said I shouldn’t show this to anyone because the country would take me away and force me to fight.”
‘That was only if you are still a noble child’. Dirt’s thought. Since Hans was no longer a noble, becoming the country puppet may actually better than risking his life here, as a slave of the front line army. While looking at Hans, Dirt promised himself he will introduce Hans to the higher-ups when he had the chance.
As the moon shines, Dirt continued his training while Hans with his reading. Late after midnight, Dirt noticed Hans was asleep, he went back to the slaves' tent to get a blanket for Hans. While carrying the blanket, he saw Crow watching him outside of the tent.
In the darkness of the night, Crow figure was quite terrifying despite his slim body. He glared at Dirt as if he did something wrong. When Dirt about to walk passed him, Crow spoke.
“How about you just sleep in here?”
“I will after I send this to that boy”.With the blanket on his arms, Dirt spoke while looking back at Crow.
“Tch, you are soft, if this goes on that brat will get us into trouble.”. Crow spoke without looking at Dirt’s face.
“And whose fault was that?”. Dirt tone filled with sarcasm as he smirked to Crow.
“What?!” Crow finally looked back to look at Dirt’s face as he was surprised with Dirt’s remark.
“I thought the one teaching that boy ‘Silent Step’ was you.”. Dirt continues to spoke in sarcastically.
“T-That was accidental! Who knew he could learn that skill after he saw it once! ”. Flustered, Crow spoke while denying with his hands' gesture.
“Just let it pass. If we can’t convince him, we protect him.”
“That option will bring us trouble.”
“And what? Do you want to continue beating him every night? You have been doing it for months and no result.”
“Pfft! Find, do whatever you want. If anything goes wrong, I had nothing to do with it.”
“Yeah, right.”
As Dirt went away, Crow grit his teeth while kicking pebbles beside him in frenzy.
“Fucking brat, he will get us killed with that attitude!”
Dirt smiled wryly as he walked away.' And after all that, he didn't snitch!'
*****
On the next day, as the day was over. In the children’s tent, instead of preparing to sleep, the young slaves preparing bows, stacking arrows, sharpening knives, and took out their rag like bags.
They prepared this equipment in advance by storing it from the blacksmith tent as they helped with polishing and repairing equipment. Each night as the day was over before they went to sleep, the young slaves would adjusted the equipment to suit their size.
As the midnight past and everyone has gone to sleep beside the watch guards, the determined young slaves prepared to sneak out of the army encampment.
The food provided for the young slaves were the least among the army. It was quite bad on normal days as they needed to fight hunger and they rationed the foods. But it was worse in war, as the soldiers died in the battle, the young slaves died from hunger as the army took away their foods.
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Strategies such as burning the supplied tents and ambushing the supply aids from the capital were often used by both sides.
Battled that took over a month was hell as the food supplies weren’t enough to even for the soldiers. Often the slaves do not get foods for days while their workload tripled.
Before lots of young slaves died because of hunger, Dirt, and Crow used to steal foods from the supply tents and nearly died when they get caught. Crow used to fight and get in trouble a lot because of the foods. If not because of Dirt, Crow would die countless times because of his temper.
Two years ago, finally Dirt came up with the idea of sneaking out of the army camped and hunt for food. Hearing about the idea, Crow came up with the plan to sneak out.
With years of experience stealing from the army, Crow teaches the young slaves ‘Silent Steps’, the skill they used to sneak out of the army camp unnoticed.
Crow diligently teach the ‘Silent Step’, anyone who couldn’t catch his teaching would be beaten half dead. They never get caught while sneaking out but hunting was something unknown to them.
The first few attempts failed as they returned without a single catch.There were also some occasions where their friends killed by the monsters. But as they gradually learned hunting, they managed to avoid dangerous monsters while hunting animals.
Over the year, the food problem finally doesn’t affect the young slaves much as they had their own secret food stocks. Since then, many of the young slaves died due to various other reasons. But with Dirt and Crow lead, their hunting ritual went on.
As the little hunting party sneaked out of the tent, like usual, Crow checked the party member to make sure no one left behind in the camp.
“Hmm? Where is that Hans brat?”
As Crow spoke, Hans just arrived as he was catching his breath trying to keep up with the group.
*huf* *huf*
“H-Here, I’m sorry.”
“What’s wrong with you? You only carried an empty bag and yet you are the slowest one?!”
“I-I’m sorry.”
Hans just looked down as he received Crow scolding. As it was only the fourth time he joined the hunt, Crow only gave him an empty bags to carry their future catches.
Normally, everyone should have a small knife for protection, but Hans was having none of it.
“Blame yourself for reading your fucking books instead of preparing things like a knife.” Crow’s said.
As the hunting party entering the forest, everyone starting to get tense. They carefully walked silently to not alerting any dangerous monsters while searching for their first prey.
Acting as a scout, Dirt was further in front as he scouting the area while guiding directions to the party. Crow acted as the second lead as he monitored the party positioning while following Dirt’s guide.
In the thick forest where the light doesn’t shine even in the morning, the ten kids slowly advance the dangerous forest as they were looking for their prey. Sometimes they stay still while holding their breath as they waited for giant monsters that taller then all their height combined with a body as big as three tiger lump together.
The kids knew with their slow-paced they may not find anything until morning. Regardless they decide to play it safe as Dirt and Crow has experienced too many death while hunting.
Dirt’s party has been sneaking around the forest for hours, midnight has already past and some of them start to breathe heavily as they get tired.
As he saw the hunting party conditioned, Dirt signaled with his hand gesture to tell Crow they should rest a bit. While pointing his index finger to his mouth, Crow spoke in awfully low voices. “Rest quietly, don’t speak and don’t move unnecessarily.”
“O-Oka….”
“Don’t answer, just nod.”
The young slaves just nodded to Crow demanded, they quietly sit and rest while trying to avoid any unnecessary sound they made. Even for taking a rest, the hunting party can’t take it easy. As he sat and watched his party from some distance, Dirt heard a rustling sound between the bushes near him.
Dirt intently looks towards the sound to determined whether it was a threat or their future prey. As the rustling sound escaped the bushes, Dirt saw it, a white animal with long ears and two teeth stuck out in front of its mouth.
‘A rabbit! ’ Dirt mind’s cried as he smiled widely while signaling Crow to ready the party for the hunt.
As Crow saw the signaled, he quickly told the rest to ready their bow and ready for the hunt.With his hand gesture, Crow commanded three of the members to go to the left sides while three others to the right side to block its escape path.
Crow, Dirt, and one more young slaves, Raven, prepared to shoot their arrows at their prey from the front. The three nervously launched their arrows when their target draws near.
woosh! woosh! woosh!
“It miss!”
“Shit!”
“Fuck!”
They quickly realized their mistake and immediately chases their prey in silence. While running silently to chase their targets, Hans closely followed Dirt’s squad from behind. Unlike others, he only has bags to carry things, so his job was just to follow the party around.
The right side squad, Mud, Ash, and Blood closing in the target for the pincer attack. The left side squad, Swamp, Wood, and Leif, doing the same thing as the right squad.
As the party hunting for their prey, the danger level was tripled because they may attract dangerous monsters while hunting.
The party continued to chase their prey while shooting arrows. But the sly rabbit avoided all the arrows while running away swiftly.
It gets between the thick bushes while running in zigzags to avoid the arrows, the grown-up rabbit seems to be exceptionally skilled in escaping.
The rabbits have live years in the forest while running away from various predators every day. Monsters, predator plants, bigger animals, humans, anything, the rabbit managed to live to this day because of its escaping skill.
The young hunters were no match for the rabbit as he has survived the worst predators. As the young slaves chasing the rabbits, finally they saw the rabbit in plain sight. It was a chance for a clear shot, Crow loaded the arrow to his bow as he prepared to shoot.
woosh!
As Crow about to shoot his arrow, an arrow fly from a different direction and pierced through the rabbit body.
Shocked, Crow stopped to shoot. ‘ Heh, I guess our mate has become this good!’ Crow’s thought. But the rabbit still moved, limping as it trying to escape. Crow and Raven tried to shoot but Dirt stopped them as he felt something wrong.
‘That arrows not ours!’ Dirt signaled his squad to be quiet, both of them followed as they finally realized something was wrong.
woosh!
Another arrow came from the darkness accurately aimed at the rabbit. The rabbit struggle for the last time as his life force sap out from its body.
A figure came out from the darkness to pick his prey. Instead of the hunting party members, it was a humanoid creature with a fur and doglike head, no, to be more accurate, it was a humanoid creature with a fur and hyena-like head.
‘A gnoll?! ’ The three of them had the same thought. The army supposed to fight the gnolls in two weeks at ‘Fort Levi. Based on the information, the gnolls have to try to invade the ‘Fort Levi’ for two weeks already.
‘The gnoll supposed to focus their forces at ‘Fort Levi’. Why did he here, scouting our army?’ All kinds of questions lingering the three head with no answers, but when another three gnolls came out and spoke with the first gnolls, they had the cold sweat as they realized the situation was worst than they thought.
As the three silently watched from the thicket, the gnolls spoke with each other.
“Did you got the rabbit?”
“Yes, this makes ten of them, I guess this is enough extra supplies for our army to survive tonight. We will ambush them tomorrow anyway.”
“Yeah, I guess so. Next time we should bring more foods, our general gave us too little food supplies.”
“Stupid, if we brought too many things, our enemies will notice and the ambush will fail. Our general went a great length to hide half of our army forces here from the start.”
“Yeah, I thought he was stupid when he tried to attack the unbreakable ‘Fort Levi’ with half of our forces, but it turns out his real attention was to annihilated ‘Earth Breaker’ faction infamous vanguard army.”
‘What?! The whole army was here? Annihilating vanguard army, it was our army!’ As Dirt heard the gnolls, everything has made sense to him.
If the gnoll's target was to annihilate the vanguard army, the ambushes were plausible. By some chance, when the gnolls ambush the army from the south, the gnolls army at the ‘Fort Levi’ would turn away from ‘Fort Levi’ and attack the army from the north, making a pincer attack!
If something like that happened, ‘Fort Levi’ can’t afford to help as the marching elven forces near the border would attack as they saw the chance.
As Dirt realized the situation, he knew he needs to tell the army about what happened. Crow and Raven also realized how grim the situation was.
Relaying the information was one thing, but the first thing they need to do was to survive. They tried hard to stay composed, breathe slowly, and stay still as they knew gnolls were sensitives creatures.
When the gnolls about to go away, two more gnolls appear from the darkness while holding something.
“Hey, look at what I found.”
The two gnolls threw three bodies to the ground, it was Swamp, Wood, and Leif. They were heavily beaten up and it seems the three of them were out unconscious.
As he saw the kids, a gnoll that looks like the leader of the bunch smirk, showing its canines and dropping its saliva.
He was bigger than the other gnolls, he had a large scar on his face. The leader-like gnoll walked toward the kids. While looking down at the kids he spoke.”It seems we had little rats.” The gnoll in deep thought before he continued.
“And I wonder…... how many rats we have.”
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