episode_0007

We were crossing the forest. In the black forest, where trees with long branches covered the sky like a ceiling, there were as many forks in the road as there were trees.

If you pass the tree, another tree appears. From this tree to the left, from this tree to the right, it wasn’t us who chose the direction, it was the thorn bushes blocking the path.

If you simply want to move forward, you may be able to do so even if you trample on it with thick shoes.

“Because you are like this, you are causing trouble.”

There was a crippled person on our team who used a wheelchair. Even though the terrain was a bit rough, I had no choice but to choose one that didn’t have any bushes or vines that could get the wheels caught.

Even if it was a slope that a wheelchair couldn’t roll, it was still possible to get over it with someone else carrying it.

Crippled- Borjigin Horozaya bowed his head deeply.

“sorry….”

“It’s okay~! Isn’t this a group evaluation including that?”

When Horajaya apologized as if he had been shamed, our team’s commander smiled softly and responded. His name was probably Daland Dutchman or something like that. He was a Boer with a slightly black appearance. Are you black and white?

Contrary to his appearance that made one question his ancestor’s sexual orientation, he was a very gentle and sweet guy.

Every time Horozaya’s wheelchair stopped, Dalant was lifting it and moving it. I’m thankful because if it wasn’t for this guy, I would have had to do it myself.

I praised the talent with gratitude.

“I guess it’s because he’s a Boer, so he’s strong.”

“Haha~. Right? I’m not sure if it’s because I’m a Boer, but I’ve been confident in my strength since long ago.”

“Would you like me to give you a buff?”

“I would appreciate it if you did so~”

The Boer smiled and nodded. good. I need to test my newly acquired skills with him.

I trained my vocal cords to sing the passages from the Spanish ode from memory. Something inside my body… I felt something like a strange inspiration welling up in me. Something with pulsating energy, a torrent of power, a great flow, came out from deep in my lungs in the form of a voice.

That’s how the first verse began.

“Soñar lo impossible soñar─♬”

A Spanish ode to chivalry. An epic poem that tells the story of a mad knight who mistakes a windmill for a monster.

The ode was passed from mouth to ear and heart to heart. The emotions contained in the lyrics and the appreciation contained in the melody are the kinds of things that are inevitably conveyed even if language is not used.

Odes to chivalry seeped into the hearts of everyone, regardless of whether they were Boers or Mongolians.

The chivalry in the story was not different from the heroic morals they had hoped for when entering the academy. They gained courage from the Order of Chivalry and strengthened their resolve from the Knight’s Vow.

“Con fe, una estrella alcanzar─♬”

That’s how the ode ended.

The talented Dutchman slightly opened his mouth in admiration.

“What is that voice….”

“What?”

The efficacy of Songga was better than expected. Energy welled up throughout my body, my mind became clearer, and I was able to look at my surroundings more clearly.

The Dutchman, whose mind became clearer, tilted his head and said as if something suddenly occurred to him.

“But wasn’t Dohan a lineman? He’s a close combat class.”

“It looks powerful anyway, so you take the lead.”

“It doesn’t matter since I’m also skilled in swordsmanship… Uhm, okay~”

While the Dutchman and I were changing positions.

Borjigin Horozaya suddenly raised his bow. And he spoke in a low voice.

“It looks like the ordeal is about to begin.”

The shadows of the trees became darker. The world has become a little darker. The sound of grass insects was loud and the surroundings were filled with the noise of the forest.

The ordeal of dealing with monsters. What we need to overcome is the environment.

The Dutchman let go of his hand holding the wheelchair and drew his sword. I also tightly grasped the Palcheokbong. If a monster comes out, I’ll have to beat it with this.

Soon, a shadow flickered beyond the shadow of the forest. I heard something rustling as I trampled on the bushes.

At the moment when Horozaya was about to move towards the shadow.

The Dutchman raised his hand and stopped Horozaya.

“Wait a minute! I think that’s a person.”

“what…?”

The Dutchman took something out of his arms. It was a cylindrical metal object with a string attached to it, and when it was pointed toward the sky and the string was pulled, a signal shot out like fireworks.

The light wasn’t that bright. Because of the tree branches that lined up like a ceiling, there was barely enough light to be seen through the gaps.

In other words, the light was barely visible from nearby locations.

‘Shadow’, which confirmed the signal we had fired, approached us. They were other students from Class A.

“As-salāmu ʿalaykum! Peace be upon you!”

“Muslim…?”

hmm. Should we make it peaceful?

I thought for a moment while fiddling with the club in my hand. Since that Muslim’s team members were on guard at the back, it would be better to postpone it for a later time.

A Muslim with a handsome beard raised his voice and spoke.

“Thank you for the flare! We mistook it for your Shaitan! Allah’s wand, we almost shot it!”

“Okay. Thank you.”

I did well not to swing.

There was a scary wand shooter.

The Dutchman began to pretend to be friendly with the Muslim in order to exchange information.

“I’m glad I didn’t shoot you. But have you ever seen the golden bell you mentioned? We haven’t found one yet.”

“I saw it! Just head towards Mecca from here!”

“Which direction is towards Mecca…?”

“This is the direction to pray!”

The Dutchman was confused, so I told him.

“West-northwest direction.”

“Oh! Are you Muslim?”

“Ying~ Assala malaicum~.”

“Wa ‘alaykum s-salaam! Peace be to you!”

After briefly greeting each other, we parted ways.

The Dutchman looked at me blankly and asked.

“Dohan, are you Muslim?”

“Are you sure you’re Muslim?”

Muhammad, that bastard is a pedophile who loves Halkas.

I would rather believe in Happy, the Chihuahua next door, than in the religion of a potential terrorist or parasexual.

“Haha~. Dohan is fun~.”

“I guess it’s just the way you speak. Who did you learn Korean from?”

“Infinite~challenge~!”

“What?”

You learned Korean through entertainment.

Filled with emotion, I shouted the national entertainment slogan along with the Dutchman.

“Muyaho~.”

“Muyaho~.”

Then Horozaya, who was listening next to him, asked curiously.

“What is muyaho?”

“Ah, you don’t know… I won’t tell this to someone who doesn’t know….”

“I want to know too….”

“Horoja, who did you learn Korean from?”

“I learned it from my grandmother. She really liked Solongos’ dramas….”

Horozaya suddenly started rumbling about the past without even asking.

Since I had nothing to do while passing through the forest anyway, I decided to listen for now.

“My grandmother was a very strong person… Under the vast ger called the sky of the plains… She was the wisest and courageous warrior. She was especially skilled at wrestling and archery.”

“Ssireum is a traditional Korean game?”

“Mongolian wrestling, or buch, is a sport. It is the most popular sport in Mongolia. My grandmother was also beautiful, so she was called the white princess.”

“There were no separate white Tatars.”

“Hahaha! Ah! My ancestors stayed in Russia too much! How much did they say?”

“Buh (Бөх).”

“Yes. My grandmother was a great warrior. Even though she had a woman’s body, there was no one who could beat her in martial arts and wrestling. I also wanted to be like my grandmother, but… you see, I wasn’t born with this body.”

“Lamb?”

“Deogreung (доголон, leg disabled). Yes, a child who could not drive a horse did not deserve to be called a warrior of the plains. My grandmother was my hero… but it was also an ideal that I could not reach. Everyone in the grasslands dreams of being a warrior. “Children, adults, men, women… But it was not a dream that was allowed to a crippled person.”

While I was briefly contemplating whether or not to make a joke, ‘Isn’t the squat gunner completely backward compatible with the fixed battery?’

Horozaya continued to talk about her memories.

“The person who told me it was okay… was my grandmother.”

“Isn’t the squat gunner completely backward compatible with the fixed battery?”

In the end, I tried to say it later, but it was buried because I missed the timing.

Haha, she told her grandmother’s story, smiling as brightly as the grasslands of Mongolia.

“When I was young, my grandmother told me the story of a Khan (Qan). The story of a lame Khan called Timur the Lame (Timur the Lame)… It was a very gentle way of permission and recognition. The heroic story of a disabled warrior. “Did the grandmother already know how much comfort this child received and what a wonderful dream he had?”

The sight of the crippled man smiling and missing his grandmother also touches my heart.

I comforted Horozaya with tears in my eyes.

“Your grandmother will be cheering you on from heaven.”

“Thank you, but my grandmother is alive. She must be watching Solongos’ drama in the family ger.”

“This bastard?!”

“Hahaha—! I’m sorry I misunderstood you. But you never said a word that your grandmother passed away, right?”

Fuck. Give me back my emotion

This is why barbarians on horseback are not allowed to interact with each other.

As the boy and I laughed and joked, the Dutchman, who had been listening blankly to the story, asked with an expression of confusion.

“Uh, am I the only one who didn’t understand what was being said…?”

“This is why Europeans… lack sensitivity to the grassland.”

“I’m an Afrikaner?!”

You will probably never understand.

.

.

.

Training is over. We found and struck a few more golden bells, but we never encountered any monsters.

Apparently, the monster was placed quite deep inside. If there were monsters deep in the forest that were difficult for us to reach due to our lack of mobility, it wouldn’t be surprising if we never encountered them.

“Thank you all for your hard work. Your training process has been recorded, so if necessary, you can download it from the school website and take the time to review it. Now, I will try to calculate the results of the training… By any chance, there is a group that encountered a monster among them. do you have?”

Several students raised their hands in response to Professor Ethan’s question.

Then Professor Ethan smiled and spoke firmly.

“Any group that raises their hand now is eliminated. Actually, there are no monsters in that forest.”

“yes?”

Then a murmur spread among the students. Some students opened their mouths in disbelief, while others narrowed their eyes in suspicion.

Our team members didn’t understand what was going on because we didn’t get very far from the forest entrance in the first place.

“There is a magic in that forest that amplifies anxiety. Fog, shadows, darkness, wind… The anxiety that covers your eyes is the true nature of the monster lurking in the forest. Many students are so frightened by the shadows… other students They attacked. Everyone did this even though they knew each other was wandering around in this forest. Fear of monsters, eagerness to get ahead in training, all are important emotions, but if you are a marksman… and a hero, you must not be eaten by those emotions. ”

“….”

“Your strength is for protection. I wanted you to know that, so I prepared this little prank. That’s the real meaning of this ‘friendly fire’ training.”

Silence fell on the training ground.

“Please remember that the arrow flies not when you pull the protest, but when you miss the protest. No matter how much anxiety and darkness obscures your eyes, you must not let go of your hand. You never know what the arrow may pierce. Even more so.”

“….”

“Do you understand?”

“yes!”

“This is the end of today’s class. Ah, the group whose name is called should receive a gift. The group that rang the golden bell the most is… group 3.”

“yes!!!”

It’s a surprise.

He suddenly started yelling, so someone asked and it turned out to be Kang Su-ho. Suho’s group is first place.

‘I’ll have to see what the gift is and if it looks good, I’ll ask to share it.

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Academic Affairs Administration Office.

Professor Yeo Soon-yang of the Department of Swordsmanship spoke to Professor Lee Dan, who was watching today’s training video. The two people, who had been friends since their days at the academy, tended to talk quietly in private.

“Professor Ethan, what are you looking at so intently?”

“Ah. I was watching the training video of the new students today.”

“Aha. Did you capture any interesting scenes?”

“No, um. Should I call this fun…?”

“What?”

“Do you want to take a look at this?”

In the video, when Kim Do-han sang Irregular Ode, the expressions of the other two people visibly calmed down.

After hearing the song, Professor Yeo Soon-yang was purely impressed.

“The voice is breathtaking. Ode… It seems to be of the bard type. Is this Spanish?”

“Don Quixote. The Knight of La Mancha.”

“aha.”

“Keep watching.”

After the ode, Kim Do-han and the Dutchman switched positions.

The Dutchman took charge of the front line with Horozaya’s wheelchair, and Kim Do-han guarded the rear guard.

“Position change? It’s definitely unique, but… they’re almost stuck together because they’re pushing wheelchairs anyway, right? Isn’t it meaningless?”

“That’s not necessarily true.”

And soon the shadows of the forest became thicker, and the two groups faced each other with the shadows between them.

The gunner in the group with the Muslim students and the crippled Horozaya each aimed beyond the shadows. It was an imminent situation.

“Here, this student named Dutchman fires a flare to confirm that he is a student.”

“Good preparation.”

“Isn’t it a bit odd? I changed positions with a commander student who had a flare, and immediately ended up using the flare. I even activated the Blessing of Courage, which was not necessary in a situation where I was moving through the forest.”

“This student named Kim Do-han predicted this in advance?”

“Well, maybe it’s just a coincidence. It’s just… this is the only group that hasn’t had a single case of friendly fire. Maybe it’s because the distance traveled is short.”

“Hmm? It’s definitely… interesting. When was my class?”

“It’s the last day. Are you saying you want to put it off as long as possible because it’s annoying?”

“Ah! That’s right! Oh my, it’s so hard to hold back. Isn’t that old man, Myrdin Wilt, going to apply the spit first?”

“Tsk, tsk. Who wants to put it off until later?”

“Ugh.”

Professor Yeo Soon-yang smiles like a child and moans playfully.

Professor Lee Dan clicked his tongue as he looked at Professor Yeo Soon-yang.

Following the entrance ceremony, it was once again the moment when the name ‘Kim Do-han’ was engraved in the minds of the professors.