BW C200

Chapter 200

“Ugh……”

Taemuk was dragged in front of someone and thrown down.

“Lieutenant Colonel, we found a survivor.”

“A survivor?”

A rough voice was heard. Taemuk raised his head following the voice. On a horse sat the one called Lieutenant Colonel. He was so fat it was hard to tell whether he was a pig or a human. His thighs spread like kneaded dough, and between his unbuttoned uniform, his belly bulged out like stuffing bursting from a pillow. The horse carrying him looked pitiful.

The Lieutenant Colonel, pulling his chin in so that the fat under it folded thickly, looked at Taemuk and frowned.

“Why did you pick up something like this? Throw it away, throw it away. It might spread disease.”

At that, the soldiers who brought Taemuk laughed awkwardly.

“Sorry, sir. We thought we might find out what happened……”

“Everyone’s dead anyway, what does it matter what happened. I told you to find food, you idiots……”

The Lieutenant Colonel clicked his tongue as if looking at insects. Each time, his sagging cheeks wobbled. At that, the soldiers lowered their heads and lifted Taemuk. To ‘throw him away’ as ordered. But then—

“Lieutenant Colonel.”

A soldier standing behind him rode his horse forward. He was a First Lieutenant, looked to be in his mid-to-late 40s, had a thick beard, and his face, neck, and hands were covered with large and small scars. Unlike the Lieutenant Colonel, his body was disciplined.

The First Lieutenant spoke quietly to the Lieutenant Colonel. As he did, he carefully looked over Taemuk’s condition. Taemuk, drenched in blood, clothes torn to pieces, yet his body itself was clean without a single wound.

At that, the pig-like Lieutenant Colonel also looked Taemuk over. Then he flicked his fingers, stopping the soldiers.

“Wait.”

Soon, the First Lieutenant got down from his horse. Then he walked toward Taemuk, taking out a small knife from his chest. Reaching Taemuk, whose neck was held like an animal, he grabbed his small arm and—shhk. He sliced the forearm.

“Aaaah!”

At the sensation of flesh being cut, Taemuk screamed. The stinging and burning pain made his skin crawl. Though he had been beaten countless times by the Young Master and the lord, it was his first time being cut by a blade.

Taemuk twisted his face and struggled wildly. But he could not escape the First Lieutenant’s grip. Taemuk was only eight, and the man was an adult.

The First Lieutenant did not even blink and stared at the wound. Red droplets of blood formed along the long cut. And just as they were about to flow—

the wound suddenly gathered on its own, closed, and healed completely.

For the first time, the First Lieutenant’s eyebrow slightly lifted.

“Lieutenant Colonel! He is indeed a Military God.”

He reported, looking at the Lieutenant Colonel. At that, the Lieutenant Colonel raised his drooping eyebrows in surprise.

“How can that little brat be a Military God?”

“He is definitely a Military God. The wound healed.”

“Huh……”

The Lieutenant Colonel let out a hollow laugh as if it were absurd. Meanwhile, Taemuk was still struggling. He could not understand what the adults were saying about him. He did not want to. He only felt uncomfortable at the touch of a strange adult man. It was a different discomfort from when the Young Master grabbed his hair.

“Should we take him?”

The First Lieutenant asked. The Lieutenant Colonel looked at Taemuk suspiciously.

“……Won’t he just eat up food for nothing? Kids eat more.”

“But he is a Military God nonetheless. Wouldn’t he help our military strength?”

“What can that little brat do?”

“If we leave him here, he will die anyway. Let’s take him and have him participate in battle at least once.”

The Lieutenant Colonel scratched his greasy hair roughly. Then, as if displeased, he exhaled through his nose and pulled the reins.

“Do as you want.”

With that, the Lieutenant Colonel slowly left, and the First Lieutenant once again examined Taemuk’s arm. The way the wound healed instantly was not just strange—it was eerie. That such a small child had already manifested as a Military God was also strange.

A monster? Or… something else?

As the First Lieutenant looked at Taemuk with a deep expression—

Taemuk twisted his arm free and shouted.

“Let go!”

The First Lieutenant looked surprised.

“You… can talk?”

“……”

Taemuk glared at him. He had never spoken to him, yet he was surprised he could talk. Idiot. It annoyed him.

“I said let go!”

Taemuk struggled again, flailing his limbs. The First Lieutenant leaned in and asked.

“You know that if you are a Military God, you must enlist and fight Shikgoe?”

Taemuk did not know what a Military God was, nor what enlistment meant. But he simply hated it.

“I don’t know! I don’t want to! Let go!”

At his shouted refusal, the First Lieutenant smirked. Then, gripping Taemuk’s cheek stained with dried blood, he said—

“Even if you don’t want to, it can’t be helped. That is the law of the Korean Empire. We will take you in. Come with us.”

And so, at eight years old, Taemuk became a soldier.

In the unit, Taemuk was not treated like a lowborn, but neither was he treated like a child. He was treated strictly as a soldier.

When the Shikgoe attacked, or when they went to attack the Shikgoe, Taemuk had to participate in battle as a soldier. Wearing an oversized uniform dragging on the ground, holding a spear larger than his body or a sword with chipped teeth, he went out to fight the Shikgoe.

It was called fighting, but if he went out ten times, he was eaten ten times. His arms were torn off, his head pierced, his stomach ripped open. He saw the inside of a Shikgoe’s mouth more often than the clear sky.

Taemuk was in pain. And afraid. And sad.

He wanted to die instead—but he could not. Even when his body was torn apart by a Shikgoe and he lost consciousness, he would soon open his eyes again. On the battlefield, in the mud, in pools of blood, or among abandoned corpses—he revived dozens of times.

“Father… please save me… please save me…”

One day he called for his father.

“Mother, it hurts… sob, Mother…”

Another day he called for his mother, crying. Holding his torn arms or legs, curling up his body, he cried and cried. Sometimes he hid in a corner because he did not want to go to the battlefield, but then, strangely, Shikgoe would invade the camp and chew him up.

And so, Taemuk died continuously for a whole year. Yet strangely, the speed at which his torn body healed became faster. Because of that, sometimes he had to die twice in a single day.

It was horrific, but he did not think of running away. Or rather, he could not. The place he was in was a battlefield, and the moment he left the camp, he would face swarming Shikgoe.

Taemuk was afraid of the Shikgoe.

Their teeth, their red eyes—everything was frightening. Being torn apart by them every day, it was impossible not to be afraid. Shikgoe sometimes appeared in the camp as well, but it was still safer than outside.

So, for Taemuk, the camp was a less frightening hell than the outside.

And after another year of dying over and over, when he somehow turned ten, Taemuk saw the First Lieutenant at the camp by chance.

It was the first time since that day in the town. Taemuk was nothing more than a new recruit worse than a stone, while the other was a First Lieutenant—so it was natural.

The First Lieutenant was smoking while talking to someone. Through the thick smoke, his face appeared and disappeared. At times, he even laughed lightly, as if something amused him.

Seeing that, Taemuk became furious.

You bastard!

You bastard who dragged me into this hell!

And you’re laughing like that!

Taemuk grabbed a spear and rushed at the First Lieutenant. Did he want to kill him? Yes, probably. He wanted to make him pay for his pain and fear.

But the spear did not reach him. The First Lieutenant lightly struck it down with his hand, then slid his grip along the shaft and grabbed it. Then he looked at Taemuk and instead seemed surprised.

“You… you were alive?”

Those words were so sorrowful that tears came.

“Because of you! Because of you! Why did you bring me here! Why!”

Taemuk shouted and cried like a child—no, like a proper child. He also wildly swung the spear, trying to stab him somehow.

“……”

The First Lieutenant stared at him. Taemuk, who had grown a handspan taller, lost weight, had grime running down his face, and eyes shining like a starving beast. He also felt the strength in Taemuk’s grip on the spear.

Then suddenly, he pulled the spear toward himself. Taemuk fell forward with a thud. The mud covering the ground smeared his face.

As Taemuk sputtered and wiped his face—

“Do you hate getting hurt?”

“……”

“Are you afraid of the Shikgoe?”

The First Lieutenant asked. It was not a condescending gaze. Nor did it seem like he wanted to torment him like the Young Master. It was simply the gaze of an adult.

“……”

Taemuk glared at him, face covered in mud. He hated getting hurt, and he was afraid of the Shikgoe—but he did not want to admit it. Because of pride.

But the First Lieutenant seemed to like that look. He slowly crouched in front of Taemuk, met his eyes, and said—

“Then kill the Shikgoe.”

“……”

“You have the power to kill the Shikgoe.”

After saying that, the First Lieutenant looked at him for a moment, then threw the spear back and left. He did not explain how to kill them, nor what power Taemuk had.

“……”

Taemuk only stared blankly at his retreating back.

And a few days later—

he began swinging a sword at empty air.