Chapter 40: Unraveling the Thread (3)

After the trash, no… the snow that piled up from dawn had been cleaned up, the atmosphere surrounding the outpost had fallen down to the depths of the abyss.

The corporals thought that they would only be asked to clear up the snow but now they were being told that they had to do more work in the near future. Once they heard that they would be reinforcing and strengthening the guard posts, their expressions distorted one by one. And since the expressions of the corporals were gloomy, the atmosphere surrounding the privates and the private first classes had also started to change for the worse.

Sergeant Sean even added to the tense atmosphere as he turned the dormitory in a mess. As soon as the soldiers returned to their dormitories, Sergeant Sean went hysterical. He looked like he turned into a rabid dog. The privates avoided him and stood to the sides in cold sweat while the private first classes tactfully cleaned up the things that Sean threw out.

Normally, the corporals would turn obedient as they tried to stop him, calm him or praise him to the heavens. But no corporals could be seen this time. They went somewhere to avoid Sean chewing them hard.

‘Are you going to leave Sergeant Sean’s line? He’s clearly being targeted by the outpost leader.’

Talks like that began to spread from the morning. If Sergeant Sean did not have any backing, he would have already been beaten and bullied by the rest of the platoon.

“Ah. I think the food tastes extremely good today?” 

“I think so too?” 

Iron was currently eating with the vice outpost leader. Today, both of them felt like the meals that they were eating were extremely fragrant.

The soldiers came in the mess hall late. Each and every single one of them looked like they ate shit as they sat down to eat their food.

“Sergeant Sean?” 

“He said he did not have an appetite.” 

Iron glared at the corporal when he heard his words.

“He’s doing whatever he wants and not eating without my permission?” 

“That… That’s…” 

“Bring the bastard over.” 

The corporal immediately realized that Sergeant Sean was screwed when he saw Iron’s glare. He immediately ran to fetch Sean else he became the target of the outpost leader. After a while, Sergeant Sean came into the mess hall with trepidation clear on his face. 

“Sergeant Sean.” 

“Sergeant, Sean Wicks!” 

“You’re tired?” 

“No, sir!” 

“So, why aren’t you eating?” 

Sean’s expression was servile and obedient when he answered Iron.

“I’m… My body is not feeling well…”

“But you were quite energetic earlier, were you not?” 

“No, sir. I think I caught a cold.”

“Really? Then, I’ll report that.”

Iron’s tone was amiable. However, the more friendly Iron’s tone became, the more nervous Sean became. He was wondering if something wrong would happen to him.

“Your cold… It will get better in around two or three days, right?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I have some dried lemon in my room, right? Let’s have you drink that. Rest for three days so we can work once the snow stops falling.”

“…I understand.”

Sergeant Sean’s expression remained gloomy while Iron’s expression turned happy and refreshed. Iron sat back down as Sean went back to the dormitory.

The corporals who saw this scene became gloomier. Today marked the day when they ate the most uncomfortable meal in their lives. All of them felt frustrated. They finally realized that none of them could escape from the work that was already planned for them in the near future.

Iron enjoyed a delicious meal after giving the sergeant and the corporals a sufficient and fair warning. Then, he returned to his office.

“I don’t think you slept last night, why don’t you go and get some rest?”

“No. I’m on duty today so the vice outpost leader should be the one to take a rest.”

Before the vice outpost leader could retort, Iron had already pushed him out of his office and closed the door. Making sure that he wouldn’t force him to rest while he rested instead.

Once he was all alone, Iron walked towards a small bookshelf and pushed it to the side. A wooden board filled with papers appeared into view as soon as the shelf was pushed away.

Iron was lost in thought as he stared at these papers.

The board was filled with pieces of information that were vital to him at this point in time. On the left side of the board were papers with information about the monster wave while on the right were information about the divine beast. These were all information related to his mission as a Ghost. Meanwhile, the center of the board was filled with information and missions related to his special search unit. There was also information about the two captains that were at odds with each other as well as problems related to the outpost. 

Looking at the missions from his two units, he could see that there weren’t that many difficult missions unlike his missions from Ghost. However, since this place was the special search unit and not the regular search unit, there were still a variety of missions that came in.

One of the missions given to him in the special search unit was searching and investigating the Winter Mountains. If his mission as a Ghost was to find the relationship between the monster wave and the divine beast, then his mission as a part of the special search unit was to investigate and detect the monsters’ and the problems related to them early on. So their main mission in this place was to search and investigate the areas in the Winter Mountains that surrounded the guard posts under his command.

If one was assigned to the special search unit, they would find that they weren’t given any training period. Instead of this, they would be asked to roll around and complete various missions. So during the army’s training season, their unit would be given plenty of special missions to hone their strength and know-hows.

“We have a lot to do.”

Seeing that his missions overlapped, Iron realized that he wouldn’t need to do his mission as a Ghost alone. As long as he could tie it up well together, he could probably be able to do his mission as a Ghost while doing the special search unit’s missions. This would improve his efficiency in completing the missions and would help lessen the time it took for him to finish them all. And since the mission season would be arriving in 2~3 months, he thought that he could also use the excuse of doing missions to  roll his soldiers hard. There were several missions that they could do including platoon missions, company missions and battalion missions. This meant that he had plenty of ways to roll his soldiers hard.

They had as much as 10 missions allotted to them per year under the easiest missions, the platoon missions. In addition, they were only allowed to do these missions during the season so the whens, wheres and hows were all left under the sole discretion of the outpost leader. In other words, everything was up to Iron. Whether they would do all the missions at once or just do it roughly and pass it on to others, all of it was under his jurisdiction. And Iron had no intention of passing any of the missions to others at all.

“I also want to live a comfortable military life but…”

Iron couldn’t help  but sigh deeply after mumbling those words to himself. 

He had served in the modern military and had also participated in hundreds of large-scale battles as a commander in his previous life so he wanted to at least live a comfortable life this time. However, if he did that in his place then he was sure that his life would definitely become miserable. And since the soldiers under him tried to climb over his head he wanted to show them that he was not an easy prey. So, he would beat their arrogance down and watch them rolling hard in relish.

Iron continued to ponder as he stared at all of the information that he had gathered. He sighed deeply before returning the bookshelf back to where it was.

On that very day, Sergeant Sean was reported as someone who tried to get out of work under the pretext of being sick.

When he said that he would report that Sergeant Sean had a cold, the corporals thought that the outpost leader would use that as an excuse to call for him and reprimand him harshly. However, Iron did not do that. He did not touch him at all during the duration of his so-called sickness. It seemed like he was telling him to rest up while he still could. Anyway, it did not matter to Iron whether they got relaxed during this time or not. Once they worked with him, they would realize that they wouldn’t have any time left to rest.

And although they weren’t aware of it yet, things wouldn’t end with just the repair works. The army was a place where there were a lot of things to do. Iron thought that he should take Sean Wicks and these corporals to roll harder under the pretext of doing missions after he finished rolling them hard with work.

“Come to think of it, doing this will further reduce my training time.”

He had long set the path for the 4th Stage but he was still yet to make a lot of progress. But since his training time was currently much less than the training time before he graduated so his growth was extremely slow. He felt that it was a pity however there was no helping it since doing these things were also extremely important.

“Ariel is still growing, right? I don’t know if Cardro will catch up to me soon either.” 

Iron mumbled to himself before shaking his head and staring at the document in front of him.

There was a lot of fake information written on the document so everything was a mess. However, he could easily see the difference after comparing some of the documents together. When he finished looking through it, he could see that the things that they had done wrong had accumulated and had become enormous.

“I don’t even want to become the devil but…”

In modern times, his life’s motto was to live properly. He was also able to get discharged from the military safely after following this motto. But when he came here, he felt like he would become the perfect target to get killed if he continued to live like that. So, he had to roll hard to live a bit longer.

Besides, this was the military. This was a place where rolling around alone did not make any sense. So, he would drag around his soldiers to roll around with him too. After all, he was a commissioned officer, and a commissioned officer would only be able to survive if he rolled his subordinates around. However instead of just rolling them perfunctorily, he planned on rolling them even harder to make sure that those who had been ticking himself off from the very beginning would receive proper education. 

Iron quickly made up his mind and waited for the day that they would go to work. 

Finally, Sergeant Sean had recovered from his cold and the weather had turned sunny. 

“Are all of you here?”

“Yes!”

The sergeant and corporals answered Iron firmly. All of them were wearing and carrying their complete military gear as well as all of the necessary items that they needed for work. However, although the things that they carried looked a bit heavy, it was still an easy burden for them since their bodies had mana and they were extremely healthy.

Compared to their heavy and fully loaded gear, the things that Iron brought looked a lot simpler. He had also packed a portable tent, enough rations and the weapons that he would use. But the things that he carried looked extremely light when compared to what the soldiers brought. 

“Shall we go then?”

“Where will we be going first?” 

“We will start with the first outpost.” 

Iron left those words and walked forward. The soldiers followed suit and began to climb the Winter Mountains with their luggage.

The faces of the corporals and Sergeant Sean began to distort and harden the more guard posts they passed by. And the corporals’ complaints about Sergeant Sean began to pile up. 

They knew  that all of the things that they were experiencing right now were because of Sergeant Sean. None of them said anything to him but they all thought that they should keep a certain distance from Sergeant Sean. After all, nothing good would come out of associating with someone who was being targeted by the outpost leader.

All of the soldiers present thought that he would immediately touch him as soon as they started. But contrary to their thoughts, Iron did not act hastily.

Iron was still wary of Sean’s backings. Marquess Maldini’s indirect line as well as Captain Paulo were both very dangerous people. Captain Paulo acted openly in the Northeast to the point that he was willing to break the custom of not revealing their family.

Iron did not know how far he would go for Sean but it wouldn’t hurt if he became more careful. 

Seeing that he wasn’t making a move, the corporals just continued to complain deep inside while they watched the situation. However, their anger couldn’t be quenched that easily so they planned to rebel the moment he made his move. 

Meanwhile, Sean was also busy grinding his teeth as he thought of ways to bring down the young outpost leader. It had already been a long time since he abandoned the idea of bringing the outpost leader to his own line so it did not matter to him what method he would use to deal with the boy. His head was currently filled with thoughts about how he would curry favor with Sergeant First Class Maldini to drop the young outpost leader to the abyss. 

The sergeant and corporals’ heads were all filled with different thoughts as they followed Iron.

Then, Iron stopped walking.

“We will start from here.”

“Yes?”

Sergeant Sean asked foolishly when he heard Iron’s words. Iron just smiled as he answered him.

“Didn’t the Sergeant suggest this? You said that the stairs are dangerous because it’s frozen. So, we will start by breaking them.”

“Ah…”

“Start.”

Brian, one of the corporals who had eaten less jjambap than the rest, placed his bag down after hearing Iron’s orders. Iron grinned when he saw him do this. 

“What are the rest of you doing? You’re not going to do it together? Ah. Is it because the amount of work is too small? Don’t worry. Can you see that?”

“…All the way over there…?”

“Of course. You have to do them all. So, leave your bags here and grab your pickaxes.”

The expressions of all the corporals changed once again when they heard Iron’s cheerful words. 

Everyone was grumbling deep inside. But their complaints were all directed to Sergeant Sean and not to Iron, their young outpost leader. After all, this was something that Sean had suggested in the first place. 

Making such a suggestion and giving us more work like this.

However, there was another reason why their complaints about Sean were increasing. This was because Sean, the one who suggested this tiring work, was the one who was working the slowest among them. 

They knew that Sean was trying to do it in moderation while he read the atmosphere. After all, the corporals also had eyes. But they still couldn’t speak up because they were afraid of his backings.

This time, Iron spoke up. His words directly expressed the feelings that the corporals were keeping deep in their hearts. They were like a refreshing cider to their irritated hearts.

“Sean, what are you doing? You should take the lead. Go to the first guard post. I’m sure you’re the one who will do the best since you have eaten the most jjambap, right?” 

“…Yes.”

“Good! Then, move quickly!” 

Sean answered Iron’s words half-heartedly as he walked towards the first guard post.

Seeing that he was finally moving properly, Iron also began to work as he directed the corporals. 

‘The first move to untangle the thread has started… I wonder how those highborn bastards would react once they heard the news?’ 

This thought flashed through Iron’s head as his expectations on how the threads would be untangled increased. 

He had already thought of all the countermeasures so he was confident that he would be able to respond properly especially if the outpost next to them tried to find mistakes with him. Sergeant Sean might have a hard time during the process. But Iron believed that he needed to be rolled harder. After all, he had been licking honey for a long time so it was high time that he paid for that luxury. 

“Very well! Let’s all work hard for our successors!”

***

Notes

[Highborn bastards] 양반 – Yangban, literally means nobleman, gentleman. It’s a derogatory term they use to call noblemen from what I saw so I will use highborn bastards as the TL for this.

TL’s corner!

I saw comments about replacing jjambap. And no. I won’t do that. I had explained this before. It’s a slang that I did not want to get lost in translation. Yes, I can use experience/inexperience but it wouldn’t sound alright to directly translate it like that and leave it lost in translation. Besides, it doesn’t mean just experience or inexperience. It’s a form of respect for the language. Besides, I have already explained the meaning so I’m pretty sure all of you would know the meaning by now. If not, please refer to Chapter 12: Jjambap Doesn’t Go Anywhere (1) and read the Notes to know of its meaning.