Chapter 13
D‑2877 until discharge.
From that day on I slowly began to adjust to squad life — the kind I’d always wanted to desert from.
Instead, my current worry was…
“Hey! Sword training now! Get up, everyone!”
At Leon’s shout we grabbed our swords and hurried to the training ground.
My biggest worry these days was survival.
‘Will I be able to keep living from now on?’
In the Border Defense Corps the period you need to pay the most attention to for survival is the first two years. After two years, unless you’re hopelessly incompetent, you’re unlikely to get killed by monsters.
Yuri said that since I’d even survived a dragon, if I kept my will strong and trained hard I could survive most monsters… but—
‘That was pure luck.’
In the original story, Sarubia died, so to avoid that fate I had to work even harder.
To be honest, it was a miracle I was still alive.
I’m an Arcon, sure, but I’m physically weaker compared to the other Arcon men in the unit.
There are two other women in the unit besides me.
April. She’s a genius who can use plant‑attribute aura.
And Yuri. She’s taller than me, physically strong, and very skilled at swordsmanship.
But I don’t have any special aura, and I’m not particularly exceptional physically or technically.
‘I memorized monster information faster than others by using the original, but that won’t help forever. Eventually everyone memorizes it too.’
No matter how I look at it, I have the feeling my death in the future is getting closer and closer…
“Yo, Sarubia. What are you doing?”
At that moment, a cocky voice sounded behind me. I turned to check who it was and quickly answered.
“Altair‑nim?”
Altair, currently a first corporal, 78th batch.
Blue hair, blue eyes — a swordsmanship prodigy. He was three years my senior and a comrade of Winter and Yuri.
Formally his batch number was 378, but in this unit they usually only call the last two digits, so they just called him the 78th. My formal batch number was 390, but the unit called me ‘90.’
And the 78th batch particularly stood out in this unit.
Winter, Altair, Yuri of the 78th. Winter — perfect in everything with ice‑attribute aura; Altair — sword genius; Yuri — physically as capable as any man. The 78th were thought of as the ‘genius batch.’
Come to think of it, they all looked cool. Winter with black hair and gray‑blue eyes, Altair with blue hair and blue eyes, Yuri with black hair and black eyes. The Cool‑Mint trio.
‘Perfect timing.’
Since I ran into one of the 78 geniuses, Altair, I might as well ask him for advice or help.
“Um, Altair‑nim, I have a question.”
“What is it? Say it.”
Unlike the cool Winter and Yuri, Altair always spoke in a nonchalant tone, but he was friendly and smiled easily.
“So… did you get so strong just from the unit’s sword training?”
I asked to see if he had some special training method of his own.
“Yeah. I just practiced the absolute basics.”
“Really?”
“Would I lie? Thrust, eight‑direction cuts, blocks… just those basic moves.”
‘That’s like saying, “I only studied from the textbook.”’
Was Altair born a genius too? I stared at his blue eyes, stunned.
“Oh, but I did those basics a lot.”
“…How much training did you do?”
“Eight‑direction cuts a thousand times each per day, a thousand thrusts….”
‘Damn. He memorized the textbook.’
I shook my head and backed away. There was no way I could train like that.
I was about to leave when Altair said,
“You’re looking for a way to get stronger, right?”
“Yes, I am.”
“…I think Winter might… no, never mind.”
“Did I hear you wrong?”
“No, I’ll tell you later. Fine.”
He waved his hand for me to go. I sighed deeply — I hadn’t learned anything useful.
‘Yeah, if I keep up with that brutal training maybe someday I’ll act like a proper human, damn it…’
The unit’s training was so brutal it was a problem.
Still, trying to get help from others, I consulted many unit members afterward.
“Yuri‑nim, how do I get stronger?”
“Just train swordsmanship harder, no?”
“No matter how much I train, I don’t seem to improve.”
“Is that so? Show me.”
I demonstrated the sword techniques I’d learned so far in front of Yuri, but her expression only said I was far from satisfactory.
“Sarubia, you can’t even break that log with strength, can you?”
“H‑how? Can you break a log with strength?”
“Why are you so weak?”
Hearing Yuri say that made me want to bang my chest in frustration.
No, I’m already several times stronger than that of a typical adult man.
‘Why are these people’s standards so high?’
So my plan to get help from Yuri failed too.
I even tried Ishina as a last resort.
“Sarubia, read the monster’s movement.”
“How do you read that…?”
“Hmm, don’t you just see it?”
Damn. Even in worldviews, the mastermind characters perceived the world differently from me.
‘How do you even read a monster’s movement?’
The more I thought about it, highly developed fantasy worldviews sometimes felt indistinguishable from cult thinking…
So I couldn’t get any help from anyone about how to get stronger, and I had to keep doing this pointless training.
“Are you even swinging that thing like a sword? Annoyed? Can’t you put strength into your arm? Want me to make you really powerless?”
‘Damn, I want to desert…’
I forced my aching arm, sore from repetitive motions, to lift and repeated the basic movements.
Sucky rookie life…
“All right, five minutes to drink water. Training resumes in five minutes.”
Finally, as the announcement signaled rest and the corporals disappeared, I let my arms drop and sighed deeply.
“No matter how much I do it doesn’t get better….”
Before I knew it, it had been two months since I joined the Border Defense Corps.
In that time I’d gone out on three monster hunts, but apart from the first dragon incident, they were all Rank‑3 monsters, so as long as I followed my seniors’ instructions my neck stayed attached.
But the peaceful days wouldn’t last forever… someday I’d have to face a Rank‑2 monster, so I needed to build my skills by then.
At that moment a shadow fell over my head as I sat hunched.
“You.”
“Winter‑nim?”
Winter looked down at me with cold gray‑blue eyes. Not sure what he would say to my drooping posture, I quickly stood up.
“You’re not the type to hold a sword.”
“Pardon?”
I wore a blank expression but Winter showed no change and said sharply,
“You should use a weapon other than a sword.”
“Oh, you mean…?”
There were quite a few people in the unit who used weapons other than swords.
The most typical was the firearm — Commander Elliot used a huge gun. Among the first corporals, Carrot and Eldo used guns.
Or like Corporal Brave, who used a massive axe, or Commander Chris who used a long spear.
But that was after people had some seniority. During recruit training the primary specialty assigned by default was bladed weapons, so you practiced swordsmanship day and night.
And choosing another specialty later wasn’t just a matter of wanting to — seniors only allowed it when they judged you had far more talent with that weapon than with swords.
“But shouldn’t I be using a sword right now?”
“It’s a waste of time.”
Winter said that with a cold gaze, then motioned for me to follow him.
Without understanding, I followed him and he led me to the shooting range nearby.
It seemed to be rest time there too — the first corporals sitting inside the range looked up at us.
“El, come here for a moment.”
“Winter‑nim?”
El, who was a first corporal and junior to Winter, came over clutching his gun with a puzzled expression. You didn’t take weapons from your chest without reason; the seniors’ violence and fear would descend again otherwise.
“Hand Sarubia that shotgun.”
“Ah… is that okay?”
“You have talent.”
El didn’t protest and handed me the gun he’d been cradling. Because Winter was highly regarded by the seniors, people assumed this was an order from above.
The gun El passed me looked a bit large to me. My hands trembled with nervousness as I took the heavy weapon.
The rifle’s brown body felt much lighter than I’d expected.
‘Military rifles aren’t standard in this age yet…’
In this low‑fantasy world guns weren’t yet widely developed for military use, and swords were convenient for storing aura, so most Arcons used swords.
But if someone felt guns fit them better, they used them — like El for example.
Winter took me to the corner where El had been sitting earlier. A target for shooting practice had been set up in front of us.
“Put the stock to your shoulder and lean forward. No, more than that.”
He helped me get into the correct stance, and even demonstrated loading a round.
‘He’s supposed to specialize in bladed weapons — how does he know how to shoot?’
He was thoroughly the perfectionist type. I wouldn’t be surprised if he could use axes, spears, even cannons.
“I heard you have good memory. Can you memorize this?”
“Ah… yes.”
Because I knew the original, maybe it was well known I’d memorized monster info quickly.
But was it really okay for me to take a gun?
A scene from the original where Winter spoke with the heroine Dalin came to mind.
“Can I not shoot a gun?”
“No, you can’t.”
“Ah—does that mean I’m really lacking…?”
“…No, guns are dangerous. I’m saying this for your sake.”
Winter had even snatched Dalin’s gun away and said that.
Still, Winter had told Dalin not to use a gun because she’s a brutal torturer — letting her hold a firearm might lead to a mass shooting…
While I was recalling the original, Winter began explaining how to load aura into a gun.
“If you put aura into the bullet it could have high destructive power, but it’s impossible to fill aura in that short moment. Instead, we surround the entire gun with aura to dampen the sound.”
“Surround to dampen the sound?”
I tilted my head. I hadn’t seen earplugs for noise suppression either.
‘I’ve heard gunshots are very loud.’
Apparently Arcons could suppress sound without earplugs.
“Think of wrapping aura around the whole gun except for the muzzle in a circular way.”
“So you can wrap aura around things other than swords?”
“When training to handle aura for the first time we use swords because they’re easiest to visualize. We can put aura into anything.”
At first the explanation didn’t make sense, but I tried to imagine putting aura into the gun as Winter described. If it failed, seniors’ violence and fear would save me, I thought.
Surprisingly, coral‑colored aura began to glow from my gun right away.
‘It works….’
