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Chapter 25: The Legendary Platoon Commander (4)

Thud.

Hugo’s splintered wooden sword fell to the floor in an instant. Hugo stood frozen in place, still holding his word, while Henry, victorious with a single blow, thrust his wooden sword into the hard ground as if erecting a victory monument in the face of the loser.

The crowd looked on in stunned silence.

“How was it?” Henry asked Solomon.

“W-what…”

Even Solomon was left speechless.

‘H-how does this even make sense?’

Aura was not something that could be cut through so easily. Especially by a Learner-class swordsman who had yet to familiarize himself with it. But Henry was no ordinary Learner—he was a 5th-Circle wizard who had reached the Mage rank. Mages possessed a level of magical prowess that was far beyond that of a Sword Master. This was why Mages were given much more respect than Sword Masters.

But Hugo had no way of knowing this. He continued to stare at Henry with a blank look on his face, all while continuing to hold his broken sword.

“It was a good duel, sir,” Henry said with a smirk.

Hugo had suffered a crushing defeat and with it, an indescribable level of humiliation. An Expert…disarmed by a swordsman with no Aura.

Having easily overcome the test, Henry made his way through the silent crowd toward the administrative office. Before entering, he turned his head toward the company commander.

“Aren’t you coming in? We should begin our morning meeting.”

Seeing Henry acting so nonchalantly, the crowd was left dumbfounded once more.

* * *

There were only three people left in the office, Henry, Solomon, and Borg.

Hugo was so shocked that he went back to his residence without saying a word, and the other officers couldn’t bear to call for Hugo after witnessing such a humiliating defeat. The officers returned to the administrative office and tried to hold the morning meeting, but they found themselves unable to proceed.

“...I’ll be off. I have things to do. Well, then…”

Ultimately, Borg left the office as well. This was the first time Hugo and Borg left the office first, despite the meeting not even beginning. Now, only Solomon and Henry remained. Henry looked at Solomon, arms crossed with a dry expression on his face.

“Aren’t you going to start the meeting?”

Solomon broke out into cold sweat. Despite Henry being a new officer that had yet to even awaken his aura, Solomon felt tremendously intimidated by Henry, who had a presence that was reminiscent of the Commander-in-Chief.

Solomon could barely pull himself together to respond to Henry.

“T-this is the task assigned to you. Please read it and proceed with the task. I think I’ll have to rest for a bit…”

Solomon handed over the meeting papers to Henry and left the office with heavy footsteps.

“Foolish bastards.”

Only when all of the officers were gone did Henry finally curse at them.

‘I guess people will always judge a book by its cover.’

It was a foolish way to think, but because most people did it, Henry did not feel that it was something worth preaching about. He looked at the documents that Solomon gave him. They were filled with tasks that the rest of the platoon commanders, including Henry, had to do. Henry found his section among the lists of tasks.

However…

“What’s this?”

Henry’s first assigned mission was to patrol the Level Nine area of the Mystic Monster Forest and eliminate the Gehennas found there.

“You call this a mission?”

The unit was under the command of Iselan, so he was clearly the one who had assigned him this mission. Henry clicked his tongue in disappointment. However, he could vaguely understand what the Captain meant by assigning him such a mission.

‘It must be out of consideration. He probably expects me to learn step by step from the ground up what it means to be a commander since I’m new and I still lack experience.’

Demonic Beast Forest. It was the only place on the continent where demonic beasts appeared. At the end of the forest was a huge void, as if the air itself was ripped open. This was the so-called ‘Gate of the Demon Realm’.

The empire indicated the level of danger in an area according to its distance from the Gate of the Demon Realm. Closer to the Gate meant closer to the 1st district, and closer to the fortress meant closer to the 9th district. In other words, the 9th district area was the safest area on the outskirts of the forest.

‘Thanks for your consideration, but I’m not here to do these kinds of lame missions.’

Henry grabbed the paperwork, took one of the company’s horses and hurried to Iselan’s office.

* * *

Knock knock.

“Come in.”

It was uncommon for someone to visit Iselan at his office so early in the morning. He quickly put down the refreshments he was eating and went to meet his visitor.

It was Henry.

“This is Platoon Commander Henry of the Special Task Force reporting.”

Henry bowed his head in greetings as soon as he stepped into Iselan’s office. Iselan responded with a look of surprise.

“What are you doing here?”

“I came here to discuss the mission you assigned to me.”

“The mission?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Tell me more.”

“I think the details of the mission seem a bit strange.”

“Strange?”

“Yes.”

“What’s strange about it?”

“I was assigned to the special task force to take part in special missions. But today’s mission is a simple reconnaissance mission, something the infantrymen in the main unit can carry out.”

Both Iselan and Tini looked puzzled. Tini was just about to speak up when Iselan stopped her with a firm expression.

“I thought you were a smart lad, but perhaps I was mistaken?”

“No. I understand the reason why you gave me this mission, Captain.”

“And what’s the reason?”

“To help me build my experience step by step from the ground up?”

“That’s right. There is nothing worse than someone who can’t even get the basics right. Knowing this fully well, how can you come here and tell me that your mission is trivial?”

Henry had expected this reaction. In response, he told them the story of his battle with Hugo that had happened just earlier that day. It felt strange that he had to talk himself up, but at least his anecdote would help to emphasize his skills. Hearing Henry’s story, Iselan and Tini once again looked puzzled.

“You said you defeated that Hugo?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“And you broke Hugo’s Aura-enhanced wooden sword with a single blow?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“It’s a bad habit to lie to get out of undesirable situations, you know?”

“You can check for yourself if you don’t believe me.”

At Henry’s answer, Iselan quietly frowned. This was Hugo they were talking about, after all. The man who would become the next Sword Master with a few more years of training. How could Henry have defeated a man like that?

But Henry’s eyes held nothing but sincerity, and Iselan’s thoughts weren’t clouded enough by alcohol to be blind to the sincerity in Henry’s eyes.

“Crazy news for this early in the morning, eh?”

The decision was made. Iselan would have been greatly disappointed if Henry had simply come to complain about his assigned mission. But he couldn’t drive out somebody who had defeated the one and only Hugo. This was Iselan’s meritocratic understanding of the world.

‘I must have underestimated this guy all along.’

He knew that Henry had a natural talent, but he had no idea he would be of this caliber. Even a word like ‘genius’ was far from enough for someone like Henry. Iselan couldn’t help but smirk every time Henry came to him with another shocking piece of news.

“Kehehe…”

Iselan grinned sinisterly, revealing his white teeth. It was an overwhelmingly positive reaction.

“Alright, let’s hear it. You kicked aside your first assigned mission because you didn’t like it, so I’m certain you have other missions in mind, no?”

It was the answer Henry had been waiting to hear, but he wasn’t in the position to truthfully speak his mind outright. Thus, he decided to lie.

“I don’t have a specific mission in mind, but there is somewhere I would like to go.”

“Somewhere you’d like to go?”

“Yes. I’d like to visit the 6th district.”

“Why the 6th district?”

“Because I’ve never been there before. I heard that the 6th district is the main site of activities for special missions, so I would like to find out more, and I think that would be ideal for my first mission.”

Henry’s real reason for choosing the 6th district was simple; the treasure that he was looking for was located there.

‘I’ve marked it on the map, but it’s been quite a while. It’s good for me to take any advantage that I can get.’

Of course, there were landmarks that indicated where the treasure was hidden. However, Henry wanted to explore the 6th district under the guise of a mission, just in case.

Iselan thought briefly about Henry’s request. He could think of no reason to reject it, so he quickly issued an order of acceptance.

“Okay, I’ll approve it. After all, I was able to gain a lot of experience in the 9th district myself.”

“Thank you.”

But right after he granted permission, Iselan let out an insidious laugh that grabbed Henry’s attention just as he was about to leave.

“By the way, Platoon Commander Henry.”

“Yes?”

“It’s still a mission and all, so there’s no way you can just enter the 6th district as if it’s a stroll in the park, eh?”

“...That’s certainly true.”

“Since you’re going there anyway, how about I give you a fitting mission for it? How about it? Don’t you want it?”

“...Of course. Please give me your orders.”

Henry had overcome the one and only Hugo. It was natural for Iselan to be further curious about Henry. He wanted to test Henry one more time.

“Tini, go and retrieve the documents regarding Carter.”

“Yes, sir.”

Tini got up from her seat and left the office, towards where the filing cabinets were located. Once Tini left, Iselan spoke again.

“Do you know who the former platoon commander was?”

“I know that his name was Carter.”

“That’s right, Carter. And do you know how he died?”

“All I know is that he was killed in action during a mission.”

“Right. He was killed while on duty. But aren’t you at all curious what kind of mission he was on?”

The mission killed the former platoon commander. Only then did Henry realize Iselan’s plan.

‘You sly fox.’

This wasn’t just a casual mention either. Henry knew that for Iselan to mention it to him like this, the mission must have been extremely serious or urgent. But Henry couldn’t refuse. Iselan had already gotten started.

“Yes, I was curious about that, actually.”

“I knew you would say that.”

Henry was truthfully somewhat interested. One of the reasons was that he was curious as to why the entire platoon seemed so bereaved after Carter’s death.

“The details will be in the documents Tini went to collect, but long story short, Carter was chasing a particular demonic beast for quite some time.”

“A demonic beast?”

“Yep. But it wasn’t just any old demonic beast. People call it ‘Black’, but there isn’t much other information about it.”

“What kind of beast is it?”

“This is just a guess, but I think it might be a demon that’s taken a sinister liking to causing chaos.”

“Demon… you say?”

Demon. Henry hadn\'t heard that word in a long time.