Chapter 32
“…Isn’t the youngest here you?”
“Ah… I just finished the laundry, sir.”
“Rookie, this is usually the youngest’s job.”
“But why should I do that?”
‘That bastard — from earlier when he looked right at me, his attitude’s been so arrogant.’
I wanted to chew him out right then, but I was still only a trainee, so I had to hold back.
Alright, let’s try to calm this anger in the most positive way possible.
‘We’re taking a step toward a more advanced barracks life.’
Yeah, come to think of it, it wasn’t originally his duty, so of course he’d be annoyed that I made him do it. Everyone doing their own tasks — that’s how you move toward a proper, advanced barracks.
I’ve been here long enough that I’m starting to blend in with this place and become a geezer too.
‘When we look deep into the old-timers, the old-timers look deep into us too.’
Yeah — living among the old-timers made me turn into one of them. I should reflect on that.
I’d been thinking up until now that the youngest should manage things like the bathroom supplies and the laundry room, but maybe that was a prejudice.
‘We all use these things, so obviously we should all take care of them… wait a second.’
I stopped rationalizing the moment something hit me.
‘I’m pretty sure each person’s role was officially assigned?’
It wasn’t some unreasonable custom — within the squad the tasks were clearly divided according to rank.
For example, I, still a trainee, don’t stand guard, but from Private First Class onward people take guard duty.
Standing watch for a few hours every day is pretty tiring. In exchange, trainees take on chores like laundry.
And among the senior corporals, the youngest ones of their cohort are responsible for training the newer recruits and managing the unit’s supplies, while the upper cohorts lead the training of the whole unit….
Right — this isn’t prejudice, it’s just officially assigned work!
Only then did I realize that what Zaiden told me wasn’t some “shortcut to advanced barracks” but nonsense, and at that moment the laundry-room door opened.
“Hey, rookie — do you know where Gagne is?”
“I heard he went to the bathroom.”
“Oh, okay.”
It was Blair peeking his head in through the crack in the door.
Blair nodded at Zaiden’s answer and started to leave the laundry room, but after checking something he pointed and said,
“Hey, rookie. We’re out of soap. Bring one.”
“Yes, understood.”
‘…what the—?’
While I was making a bewildered face, Zaiden walked out of the laundry room…?
“What the—?”
Only after saying that out loud again did I realize.
Zaiden wasn’t leading the squad toward better barracks — he was just ignoring me.
“…damn.”
Finally a curse slipped from my mouth.
As usual, trying to hold back and be patient got me exactly this.
‘Thanks to you, I know how to treat the juniors except for Karon, you jerk…’
I smiled with the corner of my mouth and made up my mind.
I’ve never had much patience anyway — from now on I won’t hold back….
“You jerk, you picked the wrong person.”
“Hmm….”
One day when the squad was out to exterminate Rank-3 monsters.
Holding my weapon tightly, I glared at Zaiden who was on my left.
Zaiden had been assigned to the same second fireteam as me.
A fireteam doesn’t mean much in daily squad life, but when exterminating monsters we rotated in fireteam units, so how you placed members in the team mattered a lot.
Since the previous incident I hadn’t directly clashed with Zaiden, but having him sit next to me in the fireteam made me feel uneasy.
‘They said it’s a snake monster today.’
Even with border patrols, there were monsters that were hard to stop before they crossed over — one of them was the snake monster. Snake monsters move through the ground, so you often can’t detect them until they’re almost across the border.
‘But it’s only a Rank-3 monster, so it won’t be hard.’
Relaxed, I stared at the soil that seemed to be writhing as something moved underneath.
“First fireteam, second fireteam! Attack at the same time!”
At Leon’s command, I quickly leveled my sights at the snakes that surfaced.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
I felt the rounds hit the snakes in succession.
I saw Winter launch an aura blade of ice to bind the snakes’ movement. Others using different weapons finished off the nearby snakes.
‘This is getting easy now.’
While I was thinking casually and keeping my gun trained, thud—!
I suddenly stepped back and dodged.
A gray aura blade had swept past the spot where I had been standing.
Startled, I lowered my gun and looked to the side.
It was definitely Zaiden’s aura.
“Ah.”
Zaiden looked flustered; it seemed he hadn’t meant to fire it incorrectly.
‘He’s going to get chewed out when we get back to the unit.’
I felt a little sympathy imagining Zaiden getting scolded for misusing his aura and putting a teammate in danger.
“Ah, shit…”
Zaiden scratched his head with his hand and kept attacking the snakes.
‘…what’s that about?’
I wasn’t going to interfere since the upper corporals would probably chew him out anyway, but isn’t now the moment when he should say sorry to me?
He almost got me hurt and then casually said “ah, shit” in front of the seniors — is that allowed?
‘When we get back to the unit I’ll find a way to kill this guy…’
At that moment I remembered that a character named “Zaiden” appeared in the original novel. Right, there was such a guy!
And the Zaiden in the original….
“This son of a—.”
Recalling his role in the original, I ground my teeth until they creaked and raised my weapon again, aiming at the snake.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Because I had to reload after three shots, there were small pauses, but I moved my hands without stopping and fired.
While Zaiden watched me with a slightly pale face, I lowered my voice to whisper so other seniors wouldn’t hear.
“Do you think I’m easy?”
“…No, sir.”
“It’s fine. You seem to want to get into some real trouble with me….”
I glared at him and said,
“Let’s see how that goes for you.”
“What was that earlier?”
After the monster hunt we returned to the squad, and Aquila asked me that behind a deserted building.
“What do you mean?”
“You were saying something to Zaiden earlier. Did something happen?”
“Hmm, you saw it, huh.”
When I made a disgruntled expression, Aquila gently put his warm hand around my shoulder like he was trying to soothe me.
“Did he act arrogantly toward you? Why do you look so upset?”
“Hmm, that’s part of it. But that’s not the reason I’m upset.”
Earlier I was irritated for the reasons Aquila mentioned, but now it was different.
What made me uncomfortable now was that I remembered what kind of person Zaiden was in the original story.
“Then why are you in such a mood, hmm?”
“Uh, I don’t know….”
That’s what I said for now, but Aquila’s warmth spread through my body and I felt better little by little. I let my voice trail off and leaned closer to him. Hmm, I do feel a bit better.
“By the way, Aquila, why do you have that look? You look off too.”
I glanced at Aquila, whose expression was a touch fiercer than usual, and shrugged.
“…I have reason.”
“Uh-huh.”
After replying vaguely to Aquila, I began to recall Zaiden’s actions in the original.
Zaiden — although his enlistment time was a year and three months different from ours, he was someone who opposed Aquila in the original.
Between Karon, him, and the others there weren’t many other soldiers, and he was competent at his job, giving him a certain influence in the original.
When Aquila tried to look after the original heroine Dalin, Zaiden would bother Dalin and interfere with Aquila’s efforts at every turn.
In the original the story progressed more around incidents than character emotions, so the reason Zaiden disliked Aquila wasn’t described in detail, but Aquila told Dalin this:
“…If anything happens with Zaiden, tell me.”
“Yes…. But why does Zaiden dislike you so much, Aquila?”
“Probably jealousy. Don’t worry — I’ll handle it.”
“Jealousy….”
He was probably jealous of Aquila, who was an elite in the unit.
Usually, it’s the runner-up who is jealous of the first place rather than the last place. Zaiden had ability but was overshadowed by Aquila and couldn’t get noticed, so jealousy made sense.
‘I won’t let him get away with it.’
Thinking of Zaiden’s petty attempts to ruin Aquila’s work made me furious.
Of course I was also livid that Zaiden ignored me and put me in danger without even apologizing. But the deeper reason I felt bad was….
‘It’s because of you, you idiot.’
Anyone who messes with my motivation won’t be left alone.
“Hey, Aquila! Listen.”
I grabbed Aquila’s hand with a resolute expression.
“If anyone bothers you, I’ll definitely kill them.”
“…Okay.”
Aquila simply nodded, perhaps taking my serious words at face value.
‘Zaiden, you jerk — if you annoy my motivation like in the original, I’ll kill you.’
Aquila opened his eyes fiercely but glanced down at Sarubia, who looked anything but fierce.
He intended to say she didn’t look scary at all, but thinking that telling her that might make her pull her hand away, Aquila kept his mouth shut.
‘If Ishina saw this she’d probably grab her neck again.’
Aquila thought of Ishina, who seemed to consider him trash. He needed to work harder on Ishina’s things to keep Ishina from speaking up.
‘…and that rookie from earlier.’
Aquila frowned as he remembered the rookie Zaiden who had caused trouble a little while ago.
He didn’t like Zaiden. Putting aside the rude way he spoke to Sarubia…
‘He doesn’t know his place.’
There was plainly ill intent in the way he looked at Sarubia.
