Chapter 5

The Genius Knight Who Devours Memories

Chapter 5

When he was being ostracized in the village, his mother had said.

- Children like food. If you want to approach them first, share food with them.

Rohan went hunting and shared food with the children.

He did not feel any need to become close to them, but he wanted to listen to his mother.

The children especially liked meat.

Rohan, who was good at hunting, eventually became close to the children.

To Rohan, Kaisen standing before him now did not seem much different from the children in the village.

“Where did you get this? The rabbits around here should’ve been hunted to extinction by now.”

“Who knows. They were nearby.”

For Rohan, who had hunted countless rabbits, it was not particularly difficult.

Because he knew all of their behavioral habits.

The current Rohan could find a rabbit burrow even with his eyes closed.

Kaisen snorted.

“Hmph. How do I know a bastard who kills people without batting an eye didn’t poison it?”

“Then don’t eat it.”

Rohan sat down and tore a leg off the rabbit meat.

The pale flesh of the well-cooked meat was revealed.

As the flesh tore apart, steam rose from it, and the rich aroma of fire-roasted meat spread throughout the tent.

The squad leader showed no particular interest in the meat, and Johanna merely glanced at it before arranging her bedding.

Kaisen also cleared his throat and turned his head away.

“Ahem, potatoes sure look delicious. Mashed potatoes are the best.”

Yet Kaisen’s eyes were fixed on the rabbit meat.

Rohan casually stuffed the meat into his mouth and chewed.

He could see Kaisen’s Adam’s apple bobbing up and down.

“Eat and come out for morning training.”

Creed put on his outer clothes and headed outside.

He had spoken at length with Supern the night before, but showed no particular reaction.

He did not even glance at the meat.

To begin with, he was not especially interested in food.

Johanna, who normally skipped breakfast, also followed the squad leader out without saying anything.

Only Kaisen remained, unable to decide what to do, staring at Rohan.

Chew, chew.

Gulp.

The sounds of food being swallowed and saliva being gulped alternated.

In the end, Rohan ate both rabbits entirely by himself.

Kaisen watched him as though bewitched.

When Rohan stripped the last bit of meat from the final bone, Kaisen suddenly came to his senses and stood up.

‘Fuck, what am I doing?’

He had been sitting there watching some kid stuff himself with meat.

He felt like he was being toyed with, and his pride was wounded.

Rohan had asked him once if he wanted some, and when Kaisen refused, he had simply eaten all the meat himself.

‘What kind of kid is this?’

Wasn’t it common courtesy to offer one more time?

Of course, even if he had asked again, Kaisen would not have eaten it.

Growl.

Unlike his mind, his body was honest.

His tactless stomach kept howling in response to the smell of meat.

After smelling the meat, even looking at the mashed potatoes made him feel like vomiting.

“Damn it!”

Kaisen shouted and left the tent.

It was time to go to morning training.

___________

There was nothing particularly special about a wartime routine.

Run ten laps around the training ground in the morning, then rest.

Afterward, everyone trained together in basic forms that differed depending on the day of the week.

Then came lunch after a short speech from the Knight Commander.

Lunch was mashed potatoes again.

Having eaten his fill of rabbit meat that morning, Rohan did not touch lunch, while Kaisen and the other squad members scraped the bucket clean, even eating Rohan’s share.

The afternoon was reserved for personal maintenance,

but since the enemy could attack at any time, most people focused on conserving their strength.

The camp was peaceful, yet an inexplicable tension hung in the air.

Because this was a place where they could lose their lives at any moment.

The daily routine focused more on rotating guard duties than on training.

Most people rested inside their tents or went hunting,

but the members of Creed’s squad scattered and trained individually.

Meanwhile, Rohan looked around the barracks.

It was not much different from Hans’s memories.

The place he kept hovering around was the bulletin board in the center of the barracks.

A large wooden board stood alone in the middle of the camp, mainly serving as a place for soldiers to communicate.

- Krin of Sixth Company, First Platoon, Second Squad, come find Hansen of Eighth Company right now. If I get to you first, you’re dead.

- You XXX from Eighth Company, pay back 2 silver. If you don’t pay by today, I’m revealing your real name.

- Ah, I want to go home.

Usually, messages like these were written there.

But Rohan was looking for something else.

Because this bulletin board was what the spies used to arrange the schedule for their meetings.

They normally used coded messages that were difficult for ordinary people to understand, but Rohan already had the decryption method in his head.

Now that Rohan had appeared, they would surely want to discuss matters quickly as well.

The reason he had asked for a one-week deadline was because he was certain they would gather within that time.

‘Nothing today.’

Today’s bulletin board was clean.

One day out of seven had passed.

After making one circuit around the camp, Rohan headed toward the training ground.

‘I need to build up my stamina.’

Rohan thought.

When he ran ten laps around the training ground that morning, Rohan had finished almost last.

And even then, he had only finished slightly ahead of soldiers who had been slacking off and taking it easy.

Because of that, during personal maintenance time, Rohan voluntarily ran another ten laps around the training ground.

He returned to the tent completely out of breath, only for the squad leader to call him.

“Rohan.”

“Yes.”

“Follow me. Bring your sword.”

He led Rohan out to the training ground.

There was nothing particularly special about the training ground. It was simply a wide dirt clearing with exercise equipment and weapons lined up here and there.

There were also soldiers training in various places.

Standing on one side of the training ground, Creed spoke with a displeased expression.

“What do you want?”

At the abrupt question, Rohan looked as though he did not understand what he meant.

Creed rubbed his face once and added an explanation.

“The Knight Commander ordered me to grant just about anything you ask for. He told me not to ask questions even if I’m curious, and not to press you if you refuse to answer.”

Rohan gave a faint chuckle.

‘He said something like that?’

It meant Supern had ordered them to give him full support in catching the spies.

Though Creed did not seem to know about the spies themselves.

Of course, Rohan assumed Creed had probably also been told to simply kill him if he did anything foolish, but Creed did not bother saying that aloud.

‘He really is a soldier.’

Creed was the kind of man who would die immediately if his superior ordered him to.

A soldier who neither asked nor questioned.

Perhaps that was what had driven him to become a squad leader.

Rohan grinned and said.

“Give me command of the squad.”

“What?”

Creed’s expression crumpled.

The request was so absurd that he had to replay what he had just heard in his head.

No matter how much Supern had told him to listen to the brat, this was a demand he absolutely could not accept.

And for the boy to make such a request directly to him, the squad leader, made Creed wonder for a moment whether he had misheard.

“Do you think the military is a game?”

“Why? Wasn’t it the Knight Commander’s order? You only have to lead the squad according to my wishes once.”

“Are you fucking with me?”

Creed growled.

If it were not for Supern’s orders, he looked ready to beat Rohan senseless.

Barely suppressing his anger, he spoke through gritted teeth.

“That will never happen.”

“Are you disobeying orders?”

“Haah...”

Creed sighed and picked up a wooden sword placed on one side of the training ground.

Then he said to Rohan.

“Draw your sword.”

Shing-! Rohan drew his sword without hesitation.

It was the sword he had kept ever since killing the first Noxis soldier.

Creed raised the wooden sword with one hand and pointed it at Rohan.

“If there’s something you want, you should know how to seize it. Show me everything you can do. Give it everything you’ve got.”

“Then will you give me command authority?”

“If your sword so much as grazes me, I’ll hear you out.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Rohan’s gaze changed.

For a moment, Creed felt something strange.

It seemed less like the gaze of a human and more like that of a beast.

The amount of killing intent in it was almost absurd.

“You need a beating.”

The best answer for a disobedient beast was the rod.

Creed raised his sword.

“Come at... me.”

Before he could even finish speaking, Rohan charged.

____________

Clack! Clack!

The sounds of a wooden sword and a real sword colliding echoed through the air.

‘Is this bastard seriously insane?’

Creed thought.

During their first exchange, he had nearly been cut.

Rohan had charged in and thrust his sword before Creed had even finished speaking.

He had rushed in with a real sword without the slightest hesitation.

There was even enough killing intent in him to suggest he truly would kill his opponent if given the chance.

Clack-!

Rohan’s sword and Creed’s wooden sword locked together in midair.

Creed had dismissed him as a brat, but his skill was better than expected.

‘Not bad.’

His sword strikes might even be better than those of half the soldiers here.

But that was all.

The trajectory of Rohan’s sword quickly became clear in Creed’s mind.

That was likely due to the difference in experience and absolute strength.

Rohan was skinny and lacked muscle.

That led to large, slow movements.

Moreover, Creed had survived countless wars.

The reason he had survived was not simply a matter of talent.

It was thanks to relentless effort and study.

To survive, one had to understand the enemy’s intentions first and respond accordingly.

‘Straight ahead.’

The moment Rohan’s shoulder twitched, Creed immediately twisted his body to the side.

The sword thrust straight forward.

‘Diagonal from the right.’

Rohan’s leg twisted and the muscles along his side stood out.

Creed stabbed his sword toward the center of the predicted path.

Clack. The blade heading diagonally from the right stopped precisely in midair.

‘He’s just a brat after all.’

Rohan’s movements never exceeded the range of Creed’s predictions.

Pow! Creed’s wooden sword struck Rohan in the solar plexus.

Since his opponent was serious, Creed decided to take it seriously as well.

No enemy on the battlefield would go easy on him.

“Huff, cough!”

Rohan bent over, coughing.

Looking at Rohan, Creed said.

“I won’t go easy on you. In a real battle, no enemy will care about your circumstances.”

Rohan coughed for only a moment.

Then he spat thick saliva onto the ground, widened his eyes, and charged again.

‘He’s got guts.’

Creed thought as he deflected Rohan’s sword.

Rohan truly seemed to be using every sword technique he could perform.

Creed did not know when he had learned all of them, but he decided not to wonder about it.

Because that was Supern’s order.

‘Oh, did he reinterpret this one?’

When all his swordsmanship was blocked, Rohan began introducing variations.

A strike that should originally have dug in from the right was instead thrust diagonally.

His understanding of swordsmanship seemed exceptional, but to Creed’s eyes, he still looked slow.

Clack, clack! Clack! Pow.

Head, shoulder, side.

Rohan was struck again and again.

To finish, Creed kicked him in the stomach and sent him rolling across the ground.

‘That should knock some sense into him, right?’

He had not hit him lightly.

Creed intended to crush that rotten attitude while he had the opportunity.

But Rohan sprang back to his feet.

He raised his sword again and charged.

For a moment, a chill ran through Creed.

‘What kind of kid is this...’

Clack, clack, clack! The speed at which the sword and wooden sword collided increased.

As he continued fighting Rohan, Creed gradually began to feel something strange.

Rohan’s swordsmanship did not feel consistent.

One moment it was Karnia swordsmanship, the next it was Noxis swordsmanship, and then there were even movements like those of wild animals.

It was almost as though...

‘I’m fighting several people at once.’

It was confusing.

The boy was displaying swordsmanship completely different from anything he had shown until now.

At one moment, it felt like facing an experienced soldier,

then at another, he would see the reckless strike of a young soldier,

and at times, even the defensive swordsmanship of a coward.

Most people’s swordsmanship naturally settled into their own style, but there was no such thing as a style in Rohan’s sword.

No, how should he put it?

Each individual sword strike had its own character, but they did not seem to blend together as one.

‘I need to finish this quickly.’

Creed instinctively realized that he was being pushed back.

There was certainly a difference between Rohan, who charged as though trying to kill him, and Creed, who was merely trying to teach him a lesson.

But even taking that into account, the fight was gradually becoming more difficult.

Rohan continued charging like a wild beast that had lost all reason.

In the end, Creed thrust the wooden sword hard into Rohan’s throat and, the moment Rohan’s right leg lifted, kicked him high.

Pow-! Thud!

With a choking sound, Rohan was launched into the air and crashed onto the ground.

“Haaagh, cough, hack!”

The pain seemed considerable, as he clutched his throat and rolled around for quite some time.

It was excessive treatment for a child, but Creed did not particularly feel sorry.

His opponent had genuinely charged at him while radiating killing intent.

Besides, the boy had demanded command of the squad, and Creed was already displeased by such a blatant disregard for his commander.

Creed approached Rohan as he rolled around on the ground.

The sight of him writhing in pain with saliva spilling from his mouth looked almost pitiful.

Just as Creed extended his right hand to help Rohan up.

Slash-! His vision turned hazy and his eyes burned.

“Agh!”

Startled, Creed clutched his face.

Fragments of dirt had gotten into his eyes, making it difficult to open them.

He hurriedly rubbed his eyes and looked ahead with reddened eyes.

Rohan was standing motionless before him.

“You little bastard...”

“I won.”

“What?”

Rohan cut Creed off.

Creed felt something warm trickle from his throat down toward his chest.

Only then did his neck begin to sting.

When he touched it, blood stained his palm as though he had been lightly cut by a sword.

‘This lunatic went for my neck...!’

Even in a spar, aiming a real sword at an opponent’s neck was something not even seasoned soldiers would do.

One wrong move and the person’s head could truly be cut off.

Yet the boy before him had not only grazed his neck with the sword, but wore a completely indifferent expression.

A chill ran down Creed’s spine, but he showed none of it and clenched his teeth.

“Where the hell did you learn such a cowardly trick?”

“From you, Squad Leader.”

“What?”

Creed was dumbfounded.

Creed had lived more honorably than anyone.

What part of him had supposedly taught the boy cowardice?

“You said no enemy on the battlefield would go easy on me.”

“...”

“So I didn’t go easy on you either. Because this is a battlefield.”

Creed could not think of anything to say.