Chapters Chapter 286: Kang Chul-In, the One-Man Army! (3) (1/2)
In the land of Zolushka inside the arch-shaped passage at the entrance of the inner castle...
Gulp gulp!
Kang Chul-In drank his ninth potion.
“Don’t these things ever get tired?”
Heh.
Kang Chul-In had a smirk on his face.
There were no better small fries than these Shatyameba soldiers. How many did he slay so far? A mountain of corpses had already piled up, but the Shatyameba soldiers continued to swarm in.
“You go first...”
“N-No, you go first…!”
“Eeek…!”
The Shatyameba soldiers were getting tired as well. Or rather, they were more scared than they were fatigued.
“Eek… how do we even enter that passage!?”
“There’s a murderer there...”
“That’s a straight road to hell… everyone’s dead… n-now’s our turn!”
Before they were sent into the arch-shaped passage, the Shatyameba soldiers backed away like cows in a slaughterhouse.
“Get your asses in there!”
A Shatyameba officer coerced his men.
“You are soldiers! You have to fight your opponent with your lives at stake! How can you fear the enemy and still call yourselves soldiers! Now, charge! Bring your family honor and victory!”
Utter bullshit. Theoretically, he was right. A sacrifice for the greater good! “It was a soldier’s duty to sacrifice himself for their nation,” as An Jung-Guen [1], a famous Korean activist, once said.
Tsk tsk...
However, the officer’s true thoughts were far from ideal.
Poor bastards… sucks to be you all… literally human shields… tsk tsk...
He was encouraging the soldiers with euphemistic terms, but even he himself agreed that charging into the passage was an act of suicide. They were mere expendables to him.
This was a totally contrasting view from Kang Chul-In’s, who treated every soldier as his family.
“Go!”
The officer bellowed in a threatening tone.
Creeeek!
The archers began to pull the triggers of their magic-engineered propelling devices, which amplified the kinetic energy of their arrows, and aimed at the backs of their fellow soldiers.
“W-What the f.u.c.k…!?”
“Hey… boys… aren’t we on the same side… huh?”
“Lieutenant colonel Jayce … p-please… we are all going to die...”
“M-Mercy…!”
The soldiers pleaded.
“Hurry!”
The officer roared. As a result,
“Argh, f.u.c.k!”
“Are you telling us to die?”
“Hey, you f.u.c.kers! Might as well tell us to commit suicide!”
“F.u.c.k.i.n.g bastards… just because you aren’t the ones fighting...”
His words provoked an uproar from the soldiers.
“Argh, since we are going to die anyway...”
“So you wanna do this...”
“C-Come at us!”
“Rather than going in to die for naught...”
The soldiers turned around to face the officer.
“Y-You bastards…!”
The officer was caught off-guard.
“Are you disobeying my order…?”
At that instant, a soldier cut him off.
“Hey, you f.u.c.ker!”
His name was Dopinde, a man who worked as a rickshaw driver in Shatyameba’s capital, ‘Apu city.’ He was dragged into the battlefield via the conscription policy.
“Are you telling us to go in there? Even though it’s guaranteed death?”
Dopinder snarled.
“D-Did you just call me f.u.c.ker…?”
“That’s right, f.u.c.ker.”
“...!”
“F.u.c.k, you don’t even treat us as humans, do you?”
Dopinder was overwhelmed with rage.
“You f.u.c.kers… don’t we even look like humans to you? To you upper-rank officers, we may appear as mere human shields… but we too… we too are humans! Why the f.u.c.k do you keep driving us into the corner…? At least pair us up with some strong knights… at least make the fight a little bit more even...”
It was almost a cry of despair, coming from a man who had his rights completely trampled on.
“Alright… kill us… just kill all of us…! Our nation? That’s right, just kill my family living in this shitty nation…! Why do we even live? We are going to starve to death anyway…! Come on, kill us… kill…!”
“You f.u.c.ker… you must have gone insane… A mere soldier...”
“Yeah… I’m insane… but still...”
Flash! Dopinder’s eyes gleamed with rage and sadness.
“Let me take your head first...”
It was a clear declaration of rebellion.
It was already a cardinal sin for a soldier to curse at his commander. But to threaten to kill him was an instant call for a death sentence.
“Right, since we are going to die anyway...”
“Motherf.u.c.kers...”
“Let’s all die together...”
However, Dopinder and his fellow soldiers didn’t care about military law anymore. They were destined to die, anyway. Instead of dying a meaningless death in the passage, it was better for the soldiers to get the pent-up rage off their chests before death.
“You bastards...”
The officer gritted his teeth.
“Shoot them all, all of them!”
In the end, the commander ordered an immediate disposal.
Pang!
Pang, paaang!
The archers pulled the bowstrings.
“Arghhhhh!”
“You f.u.c.kers!”
“Kill us, kill us!”
Dopinder and his comrades charged towards the officer regardless of the incoming rain of arrows.
Hmm?
Kang Chul-In was quietly watching this situation unravel from inside the passage.
It’s good that they are fighting with each other, but...
Somehow, he didn’t want Dopinder and his comrades to die. He was a commander himself. In fact, he was a great general who commanded over 100,000 soldiers. Even from his point of view, the Shatyameba officer’s decision was just too brutal.
A war of attrition could be a strategic move, but this Shatyameba officer's decision appeared to be nothing more than ‘population reduction.’ As Dopinder mentioned, the fight had to be somewhat even for attrition to even occur.
I shall take them under my wing.
Kang Chul-In decided.
Whoooosh!
A vortex whirled, forming a barrier of wind.
Ting!
The arrows bounced off helplessly.
“W-What the?”
“What is this!”
“What just happened?”
The soldiers of Shatyameba and also the rebellion crew comprising Dorian and his comrades... Both parties were stunned.