MDHO 17

“…What’s that?”

When I walked into the laundry area carrying a bundle of clean clothes, Aquila glanced back at me with a displeased look.

“Hm? Why?”

“Just look at his expression.”

Karon was trotting right behind me with shining, eager eyes.

He ignored Ishina and Aquila, who were already in the laundry area, and his gaze was fixed only on me.

“That’s so unfair! He’s still a kid.”

“You’re only a year older than him. And if a monster is younger than you, you don’t have to kill it, right?”

“Hey! Don’t talk like that! The kid hears you!”

When I lightly smacked Aquila’s arm, he opened and closed his mouth a few times, then finally sighed.

I leaned close and whispered into his ear so Karon wouldn’t hear.

“Even though he acts cheerful, he’s having a really hard time. Last night I found him secretly crying in the laundry and comforted him.”

“…Do you think someone that weak can survive?”

“Why~? You said you’d help him last time!”

“Sigh… do you even have the capacity to take care of someone…?”

Just as Aquila was about to say something to me, Blair and Topio, trainees from the 85th intake, entered the laundry area.

Without even thinking who should speak first, Aquila and I fell silent.

Those two seniors were so similar—maybe because they were of the same intake—that their personalities were both ruined. So far the only juniors were Ishina, me, and Aquila, yet those seniors always picked on us and required constant caution.

“Hey, you rookies just standing around—what are you doing?”

“I’ll put them out.”

When Blair glared at Karon behind me, Karon visibly shrank closer to me. I handed Blair the laundry, watching his expression.

‘These guys have no sense of decency even toward rookies.’

A tense silence stretched over the laundry chores for a long time.

‘Why does laundry never end no matter how much you do?’

If we were going to live like this, at least do it messy—military life always demanded floors without a speck of dust and clothes without a stain. Even though we washed clothes every day, there always seemed to be fewer dried items than needed.

Finally, the laundry was finished. As soon as Blair and Topio left the laundry area, I tossed the last piece of clothing into the basket I was holding.

“Ishina-nim, I’ll take Karon and hang out the rest.”

“Ah, okay? You can come with me if you want. Won’t you need an extra hand?”

“I’ll go.”

Aquila’s voice cut in immediately.

“Why? You don’t need to come too.”

Aquila’s face twisted sharply.

“When did you complain you didn’t like hard work?”

“But I can’t act immature in front of the youngest, can I?”

“So now I’m unnecessary?”

“Oh come on, when did I ever say that~? You sulking now?”

I set down the laundry basket and slipped my arm through Aquila’s arm with a playful tone; his expression softened compared to earlier.

Yeah, I had been a bit indifferent.

Aquila needed to feel that I needed him—that I and our fellow trainees were still alive and that he had an ally. That’s why he relaxed when I showed dependance.

‘Taking care of Karon is one thing; I have to keep an eye on Aquila too.’

I always needed Aquila anyway, but if I didn’t show it, he wouldn’t know.

“Alright, come with me, okay? Here, hold this.”

I pushed the laundry basket forward and Aquila accepted it with a satisfied look.

Seeing Aquila in better spirits, we walked on together; then I suddenly remembered I’d left a mop in the laundry area.

“Ah, I left the mop.”

“Want me to go get it?”

“No, I’ll get it! You go ahead!”

Forcing them into some alone time together would help them bond.

Leaving Aquila and Karon to work alone, I hurried back to the laundry area.

“Hey.”

Aquila spoke as Sarubia walked away from view.

“Y-yes?!”

Karon looked frightened at Aquila’s fierce gaze and answered quickly.

Unlike his comrade Sarubia, Aquila had clearly disliked Karon from earlier, so Karon had reason to be scared.

“Why were you crying last night?”

Aquila’s question was the kind Karon didn’t expect. Karon blinked his round eyes and answered in an innocent voice.

“I thought about my family….”

“…You said they’re dead, right? So you still have some memories of them?”

“Yes, I still remember some. I heard my birth parents both served as officers in the Border Defense Corps and died because of monsters, but I was raised by foster parents. I was thinking about them.”

“That must’ve been sad.”

Aquila answered as if indifferent, but Karon continued talking.

“My foster parents kept beating me and made me do all the housework. Then one night the house caught fire….”

“…Was the fire an accident?”

“Yes, that’s right. So….”

Karon spoke with such guileless tone.

“I regret that I suffered so long under my foster parents and didn’t think to set the fire myself sooner. No matter how I think about it, living with the Border Defense Corps is much better. I felt so wronged; that’s why I cried.”

A flash of caution slid across Aquila’s face. His usually calm gaze had grown sharp.

“…You mean it?”

“Yes, why?”

Hearing Karon speak as if what he’d just said meant nothing, Aquila suddenly understood what Sarubia had meant when she said, “Karon is incomplete.”

He was incomplete.

So lacking a sense of right and wrong that he didn’t know what was proper.

‘Did losing memory take his ethics with it?’

No, that probably wasn’t it.

Losing memory alone wouldn’t erase ethics to that degree… It was possible he’d always been somewhat antisocial.

But because others treated him as strange, he seemed to believe, “I originally had ethics, but I lost them in the accident,” as if to excuse his own nature.

In short, Karon mistook his innate lack of ethics for “having lost common sense after losing his memories.”

‘…No, it’s okay for now.’

Aquila mulled it over and then spoke.

“What do you think of Sarubia?”

Karon’s eyes lit up.

“Sarubia-nim is so nice! So kind and gentle—I think she’d be just like an older sister if I had one!”

“Good.”

Aquila looked Karon directly in the eye.

“Remember what you just said.”

Karon, puzzled by the meaning, tilted his head. At that moment Sarubia came running back; Karon’s face brightened and Aquila recovered a neutral expression as if nothing had happened.

In a voice low enough that Sarubia couldn’t hear, Aquila whispered.

“Think of him as your actual older sister, like you said. Then I’ll always help you too.”

“Y-yes, I understand…?”

When I returned to Aquila and Karon, the atmosphere between them had loosened compared to before.

‘Aquila acts like he doesn’t care, but he’s actually fine once you play him right.’

I spread the laundry along the line in a cheerful mood and pointed out where Karon should peg the clothes.

“Alright, from now on you can do this on your own, right?”

“Yes, I can!”

Under my gaze while hanging laundry, Karon suddenly brightened as if he’d remembered something.

“By the way, Sarubia-nim, I’m curious about something.”

“Yeah? What is it?”

“Which unit are we affiliated with? The platoon leader told me, but I can’t memorize it yet….”

I suppose it’s understandable he was confused about our unit. Even someone with my decent memory took some time to remember the full name of our unit.

“Okay, we belong to the Border Defense Command, 72nd Special Operations Division, 108th Mountain Brigade, Cledor Mountain Battalion, 18th Company, Alpha Platoon.”

“…I didn’t catch that?”

“Just remember ‘72nd Special Ops Division, 18th Company, Alpha Platoon.’”

“Yes, understood….”

Karon answered with a puzzled look. I could empathize—when I first heard the unit’s full title from Ishina, I felt the same.

“Anything else you’re curious about?”

“Ah, I don’t know the seniors well yet… I get confused.”

“You still can’t remember everyone’s faces?”

From the moment I’d first arrived, I couldn’t remember the faces of the other privates and trainees, but I memorized the sergeants—the ones running the ‘only violence and fear will save us’ training—astonishingly fast. Karon still had trouble with that.

“Listen carefully.”

“Yes, yes!”

I started the essential explanations needed to adapt to this unit and Karon’s eyes shone bright.

“First, 69th intake April-nim. She’s the only female among the sergeants, the senior-most, and uses a plant-attribute aura… please be careful. Don’t trust appearances. Watch your breathing in front of her, just be careful all the time and don’t stand out. No, just avoid her, seriously!! That crazy woman—don’t stand where she can see you!!”

My voice, starting calmly, grew earnest and ended in a desperate scream. Karon, not knowing April well, nodded with a puzzled look.

“70th intake, Louise-nim, a long-haired one. Very skilled in swordsmanship and taciturn.”

“Ah…”

“72nd intake—Leon-nim and Brave-nim. Leon is playful. Brave is an expert in violence-and-fear rhetoric. Both have that annoying attitude—don’t take it personally; they’re just like that.”

“Oh…”

“Finally, 74th intake Plato-nim. He’s the lowest-ranking among the sergeants, so he’s always busy and tired—watch out. But he’s not that bad. Compared to the other sergeants, he’s normal….”

“Four of them….”

“Actually, most of them don’t pick on pointless things… no, correction—hardly any of them do. Just do your job and don’t make mistakes. Of course you can’t avoid mistakes entirely.”

“What happens if I can’t do my job…?”

“You’re not asking because you don’t know, right? It’ll be ‘violence and fear will save us,’ I guess.”

I replied nonchalantly, and Karon looked frightened. His expression was cute so I patted his shoulder.

A while later, we were all sitting with our heads bowed. Our knees were numb, but we couldn’t move.

“Hey, who fucked up and ruined the blade? Didn’t you get maintenance training?”

This moment ranked among the worst in my military life—the gathering. If I had to pick the top five worst events, this would be one of them.

‘Who the hell managed the blade like that…’

I cursed under my breath and noticed the pupil of Karon across from me trembling.

‘Oh shit…’

Yes, messing up and getting beaten was something every rookie in this unit had to go through….

‘But he’s my immediate junior…’

“Come on, confess already.”

Leon taunted in his usual tone and Brave stood beside him with a furious face. I finally made up my mind.

‘Damn it, I’ll just take the punishment.’

Alright, I’d either get my head banged or be stuck with endless drill-ground cleaning—just take it and be done.

Just as my right hand started to inch up, I felt the person next to me move quickly and looked up in surprise.

Aquila, expression unreadable, raised his right hand.

“I believe I am the one who made the mistake.”

‘What the—.’

Surprisingly, Aquila stepped forward and took responsibility on behalf of Karon, the kid he’d seemed so indifferent about.