Chapter 30 : Merits awards (4)

“Yes?”

Harrison asked back again.

He could only do so.

‘What is he saying so suddenly? No, before that, who are you?’

The one in front of him was of a similar age with him, no matter how he saw him.

If it wasn’t because of the badge of rank that was stuck to the armor, he would have thought that he was a soldier in training.

‘He should be confused.’

Roan had already guessed how Harrison felt.

He lightly shook the hand he was grabbing.

“I’m a 5 class adjutant from rose troop.”

“Sir. I’m spearman Harrison from the 15th squad of thorn troop. But……”

Harrison blurred the last part of the sentence and cautiously looked at Roan.

“You heard rumours about me………?”

Roan nodded.

“Right. They say that there is a really light and clear-eyed soldier among the spearmen of thorn troop.”

“Do, do you mean that’s me?”

Harrison asked back as if he couldn’t believe it at all.

Because even he hadn’t heard those rumours.

Roan took a step back instead of replying and nodded.

“If it’s fine with you, should we go outside?”

“Yes. Yes, i’m fine.”

Harrison followed Roan’s back with a half-absent-minded face.

And then, one rumour passed by his head.

‘It’s Roan of Rose troop, he’s that ghost of the battlefield!’

A feeling that he got startled awake.

‘They said that it was a spearman that just finished his training. The rumours were true.’

His sight fell on Roan’s back, that was walking in front.

‘Then that means that he’s the same age as me…… But to already be an adjutant.’

He felt Roan, that was in front of his eyes, to be incredible.

Roan, that didn’t even know Harrison was thinking like that, crossed the camp and stopped in front of the tent of one squad.

‘Here is?’

Harrison, that was following him, frowned.

‘This is the archers tent.’

He remembered the words he told him.

‘Maybe? Was he telling the truth?’

When he thought up to there, Roan brought a bow and some arrows.

Harrison hurriedly shook his hands.

“Um, um sir adjutant Roan. I have never fired an arrow until now.”

Urgent voice and expression.

Roan just looked at Harrison acting like this.

‘He was also like this back then.’

Harrison was the same in his past life.

At the order of an adjutant telling him to fire an arrow, he got surprised and shook his hands.

‘But everything changed the moment he grabbed the bow.’

Roan smiled brightly and after hitting Harrison’s shoulder, he moved his feet.

“Ah, it’s, it’s true. I have never fired an arrow……”

Harrison frowned and followed his back.

They walked out of the camp stood in front of a fence.

‘There’s a tree at a suitable place.’

Roan smiled at the tree that was at the other part of the fence.

Give.

The arrows and bow given by Roan.

Harrison laughed awkwardly and shook his head once more.

“Sir adjutant Roan. It seems like there’s something wrong you know about me, but i’m a spearman. A spearman. I have never fired an arrow.”

“I know.”

Roan stubbornly lent him the bow and arrows.

And grabbed Harrison’s hands once more time.

“My eyesight is good. In my eyes, you have more talent in archery rather than spearmanship.”

“Ey. Even if it’s good, how can you at the first time…….”

Harrison couldn’t believe it.

Roan smiled and shrugged his shoulder.

“Harrison. Looking that your eyes are sharp, your chin is small and your neck is long, you are from Owell region, right?”

“How did you…….?”

Harrison grabbed his chin and neck and put a surprised expression.

Roan continued saying.

“Looking at your hardened skin on your palm and the muscles of your arms, you originally trained with the blade. And it’s only been 5 months since you became a spearman.”

“Ho!”

Harrison opened his eyes roundly and gulped down some air.

However, he shook his head and twisted his nose.

‘It seems like he saw my records.’

If that wasn’t the case, he couldn’t guess where he was from and what he trained in with just the sight.

And of course, Roan was reading Harrison’s thoughts.

“And……”

The sharp sight is directed to Harrison’s left hand.

“You have injured your left hand badly. Your pinky doesn’t bend well, right?”

“Huk!”

Harrison got surprised in a big way.

“Tha, how did you know that………..?!”

He hurt his left hand immediately after he entered the training camp.

He received a blade swung by a comrade while training, and the bone in his hand broke.

However he hid it thoroughly from his comrades, squad commander and adjutants, for fear of getting dismissed. And because of that, this truth wasn’t put in any records.

‘It, it’s true. The eyesight of this person is the real thing.’

There was no one that noticed that he had a problem in his left hand.

But Roan noticed it the first time he saw it.

“Because of that, it’s difficult to use the spear, right?”

“Yes? Yes.”

Harrison slowly nodded.

‘This person is a real ghost. A ghost.’

A really admiring expression.

Roan looked at Harrison and put a bitter smile.

‘Actually, you were the one that taught me all of this.’

It was obvious about his background, but also the injury he was hiding.

All of these things were directly told by Harrison.

Roan smiled brightly and hit Harrison’s shoulder.

“How is it? You will be able to believe me, right?”

“Yes. I can believe that…….”

Harrison looked at the bow and arrows and slurred the end of the sentence.

Roan pointed at a far away tree with a confident expression.

“Just three arrows. If you can’t hit that tree after three arrows, I won’t keep bothering you.”

“Three, three arrows?”

Harrison put a surprised expression and asked back.

“I have really never fired an arrow before.”

An earnest face, as if he was asking to believe him.

Roan nodded.

“I know. Just at first sight, it seems like that. But if it’s your talent, you will be able to hit that tree.”

A voice and expression filled with affirmation.

‘Even in the past life was like that. You hit the tree with the third arrow. And a tree that was even farther than the one here.’

But of course, the time and place was different from then.

However, Roan believed.

‘If it’s that talent that made everyone amazed, you would be able to do it plentily.’

He looked at Harrison’s eyes fixedly.

Not shaking eyes.

‘Whew. I can’t do anything about it.’

Harrison couldn’t say anything else and grabbed the bow.

‘Was it grabbed like this?’

He imitated how archers grabbed it.

A really awkward shape.

Harrison charged an arrow and looked at Roan.

“I don’t know if you get disappointed.”

Roan just smiled meaningfully instead of replying.

‘Ey. Whatever.’

Harrison pointed the tree and pulled the bowstring.

Kiigiiikik.

The bow that bend greatly.

“Kugh.”

Harrison gritted his teeth at the bowstring carving at his fingers.

Tung!

One arrow pierces through the air along a heavy sound.

Sueeeee!

A sharp sound.

Roan and Harrison follow it.

Paat!

The arrow missed with a big difference.

‘Well. Right.’

Even so, Harrison that was expecting something a little bit, smacked his lips and looked at Roan.

“You saw right? I have never fir……..”

“There’s still two arrows left.”

Roan lifted two fingers.

“Whew. Understood.”

Harrison let out a deep sigh and charged an arrow again.

‘Damn. Even if I can’t hit it, I would like it if it passes by close.’

Even if he was an adjutant, he didn’t want to show an embarrassing sight to Roan, that was the same age as him.

A conspicuous colour shines in Harrison’s eyes.

‘How did the arrow fly again…..’

He unconsciously started to change the posture of holding the bow and the posture of pulling the string, little by little.

It wasn’t because someone taught him, but he realized it by himself.

A smile appears on Roan’s face.

‘Right. That’s the real appearance of the genius archer Harrison.’

And then, a noise was heard.

Sueeeeee!

The second arrow was fired.

Spat!

The arrow scratched the tree and passed by.

“Huh?!”

Harrison looked at Roan with a surprised expression.

Roan smiled brightly and shrugged his shoulders.

“There’s still one arrow left.”

At those words, Harrison nodded slowly and charged the last arrow.

“Whew.”

He took in a breath and pointed the bow towards the tree.

‘The last one got bent down towards the right.’

Tung.

Sueeeeeee!

A sharp noise.

Gulp.

Harrison gulped dry saliva and followed the back of the arrow.

‘Pl…ease…….’

When the body got twisted on its own.

Puuk!

The arrow got stuck in the body of the tree with a dull sound.

“Nice!”

Harrison unconsciously clenched his fists and yelled.

His chest was beating with strength and his face became bright.

The thrilling shudder flowed on all of his body, which he couldn’t feel when he battled as a spearman.

“How is it? You feel good, right?”

Roan smiled brightly and approached him.

Only then did Harrison release his fist slowly and coughed.

“Hm. Hm.”

His bright face turned red.

Roan grabbed Harrison’s shoulders.

“Harrison.”

A low voice but with strength, and the hot and transparent eyes that don’t have any lies.

“Let’s go together with me.”

Kung.

At that moment, Harrison felt a big rock hitting his head and heart.

The breath that gets clogged.

They had certainly met today.

However, the Roan in front of his eyes showed him a new world.

Actually, Harrison was afraid of going to the battlefield as a spearman.

Because of the injury in his hand, his spear skills fell compared to that of his comrades.

A feeling of becoming a weight to his comrades.

Until now, he had endured that oppressive feeling.

But if it is the feeling when he fired an arrow.

‘I think I may be able to enjoy battling.’

Harrison’s hand unconsciously moved to his armor.

His voice came out as if he was vomiting something hot.

“Sir! Understood!”

*****

For now, Roan returned alone to rose troop.

‘I wanted to bring him immediately……’

But he wasn’t in a situation where he could bring him immediately, as they were in different troops.

‘On top of that, this isn’t the correct time.’

Roan looked at the south sky.

‘I have to go to Potter region.’

A scandal that happened in the past 20 years, and one of the best and biggest scandals that could be picked with your fingers.

Roan waited for that huge scandal until now.

‘There’s two months left until the landslide happens.’

Before that, he had to go to Maiel’s mountain that belonged to viscount Potter.

‘First, I will have to request for a vacation when the merits awards end.’

A plan that will last one month, or three months if it takes long.

‘If I finish what I had planned, I will get back to the squad.’

His life will start anew from then.

‘Until then, it’s obvious for Harrison, but I also have to polish the skills of Pierce, Glenn, and the other members of the 12th squad.’

His chest beat.

‘I will make my own squad, my corps with them as the center.’

And as he walks step by step, he will one day surpass being a great general, and become a monarch.

Magnificence and heroic temper fills his heart.

*****

The next day, the soldiers that participated in the monster subjugation in Pedian’s plain, started to withdraw in order.

The 7th corps were the very last.

After finishing the preparations plentily for 10 days, the genuine withdrawal started.

‘A lot of things happened in this short time.’

Roan’s feelings were new.

It was marvelous having returned to the times when he was an 18 year old greenhorn, but most of all, it was more marvelous having become a 5 class adjutant in only some months.

‘Until now, is it quite a successful life?’

He also gained reliable subordinates.

‘From now on, what kind of things will happen?’

He remembered most of the big scandals, but there was no guarantee that those things will happen exactly as his memory.

‘However, I have the 20 years of experience with me.’

If he got a hold of himself and acted calmly, even if some urgent situation came, he would be able to overcome it.

His chest kept beating fiercely.

‘Has life been so fun like this?’

A smile appears on his face.

The march was certainly exhausted, but his smile became denser.

Everything in the world seemed beautiful.

< Merits awards (4) > End

Translator’s note:

Thanks for reading!