CH 92

“You shouldn’t be afraid of losing soldiers on the battlefield. You can just replenish them again, right? Besides, the adventurers will continue to flock over here anyway, and they are the type of people who will jump headfirst into a dragon’s jaw if someone tells them that they can grow stronger by doing that. Those reckless people are immortal, after all. Our soldiers, you say? Aren’t we being sent reinforcements from all over the continent?” Fallschirm nonchalantly said with a shrug.

“But the officers…”

“Of course, the officers are indeed a valuable resource since the number of freshmen knights we have this year is less than three hundred, or so I believe, and ten of them were unfortunate enough to be sent here as soon as they were knighted. However, a person’s pedigree is what’s most important to them. What’s the background of Squad Leader Carell of the Alligator Squad again?”

“He’s the son of a remote province’s… feudal lord…”

“His father, Biermann, won’t be able to utter a single word even if his son dies a dog’s death here.”

“…”

“There are two kinds of people in this world. The kind that you can treat however you want and those who have to be treated well. Carell is in the former. We just have to use him until his dying breath and replace him with someone else. I’m sure there’s some poor knight somewhere who’s from the same or even less of a house than he is from, so we shouldn’t have much trouble replacing him.”

Fallschirm’s words were heartless, and this was the reason he earned the moniker ‘Heartless Fallschirm’.

“Set your useless emotions aside and submit a report about the matter.”

“Yes, I was about to—”

“Our battalion exterminated a C Rank colony. Sounds good, right?”

“Huh? Battalion? But this operation was carried out by the Alligator Squad alone…”

“Isn’t the Alligator Squad a part of our battalion?”

“That is correct, but…”

“How long has it been since you were promoted to lieutenant commander?”

“…!”

“You will have to be a lieutenant colonel at least to be able to get a nice position at the capital in your later years… Hmm… now that I think about it… I believe it is time to sign your performance evaluation for this month…” Fallschirm said as he retrieved a document with the officer’s name on it.

It can be hard to make great work when its stolen from "pawread dot com".

“The report…” the officer muttered. He clenched his fists and said, “I will write it as you have instructed, sir. ‘Our battalion exterminated a C Rank colony’ does sound appropriate for the report.”

In the end, the officer had no choice but to give in to what Heartless Fallschirm wanted.

“Good,” Fallschirm said with a smile.

Bam!

He stamped a parchment of paper with his seal.

The details on the paper were…

[Sorscimus de Smallball]

[Rank: Captain]

[Position: Officer]

[Performance Evaluation: S]

[Battalion Commander, Fallschirm de Coldhand (sign)]

***

The Alligator Squad’s return with most of their members alive was enough to surprise the entire battalion.

“Huh? They survived?”

“They came back alive?”

“Huh?”

The other squad couldn’t hide their confusion and surprise.

It was indeed a surprising turn of events.

Why?

The Alligator Squad had always returned defeated and at the brink of annihilation.

“Squad leader-nim,” Siegfried called out.

“Ah, Private Sieg!” Carell responded with enthusiasm, and then he proceeded to compliment him, “You were truly—”

However, Siegfried immediately cut him off and asked, “Do you have a minute?”

“Huh? Me?” Carell asked in response, seemingly confused.

“A new recruit wishes to get some counseling from his superior. Haha…” Siegfried replied, albeit awkwardly.

He decided to meet Carell in private since he felt that there were simply too many things that seemed off.

***

Behind the tent at a spot away from people’s eyes and ears…

“Squad Leader Carell-nim.”

“Yes, Private Sieg.”

“Is your father Baron Wegmann-nim of the Biermann territory?”

“Are you acquainted with my father?”

“It was around… six months ago? I went to your father’s territory by chance and built a—you could say—a relationship with your father?”

Siegfried was about to explain what took place at the Biermann Territory in his early days as the Debuff Master when…

“D-Don’t tell me…!” Carell muttered in surprise with his eyes wide open.

“I somehow ended up being handsomely rewarded by your father and received a few presents, too…”

“Carell of Biermann greets our hero-nim!” Carell exclaimed as he instantly got down on one knee and paid his respect to Siegfried.

***

“Come on, sir. Don’t do this, sir,” Siegfried said as he pulled Carell back to his feet, “What are you going to do if someone sees us? They might misunderstand what’s going on…”

“I have heard of your exploits from my father, hero-nim!”

“I am not a hero, and you are a squad leader and a captain, so you shouldn’t be doing these things to me, a private.”

“Not at all! Besides, isn’t your status much higher than mine? Your Majesty, Siegfried van Proa?”

It seemed that Carell was well-versed in the events happening around the world as he was also aware of Siegfried’s victory in the World’s Greatest Survival Tournament and the fact that he became a crowned king.

“You have saved me twice now, hero-nim.”

“Not at all, hahaha! Ah, that aside. What is going on here?”

“Please, talk to me as if I am one of your subordinates, Your Majesty.”

“Come on, how can I do that?”

“Your Majesty has saved my life twice now, and I am just a son of a baron few people have ever heard of. Please, I request you not to address me formally, Your Majesty.”

“Hmm… if you insist… I’ll speak like this when it’s just the two of us. A hierarchy exists in an army regardless of age and status after all.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Carell replied with a smile.

“Anyway, what is going on here?” Siegfried asked what was on his mind, “This is the military, I know, but does it make sense for them to give such an outrageous command? How does it make sense for them to slap you with a ‘captain’ title and send you off to a C Rank area when you just graduated?”

Siegfried couldn’t understand it.

“The most promising descendant so far is my son, but… he’s nowhere near enough as well. He is currently studying at the kingdom’s academy, but he still hasn’t managed to get past the early stages. Well, I reckon he just isn’t talented enough.”

Carell was a late bloomer compared to other people based on what Baron Wegmann had told him. As such, Siegfried was all the more confused about why he got stationed here at the Arachnid Temporary Outpost and in a C Rank area nonetheless when he just graduated and became a knight.

On top of that, Siegfried could also tell from the information he had gathered that the Alligator Squad would always be assigned dangerous tasks far more times than any other squad in Area C-21.

“That’s…” Carell muttered with a downcast look. He bit his lips for a moment before saying, “Ha… what is there to explain? I am the one at fault. That is the best way to put it…”

“Hmm? What do you mean by that?”

“I will just be spitting on my own face if I explain. Please, do not ask me any further regarding this, your Majesty. I feel—”

“Forget about that,” Siegfried cut him off, and then he said, “Tell me.”

“I cannot do that.”

“Who are you going to tell if it’s not me? Will you go crying to your father?”

“T-That’s…”

“Do you know what Baron Wegmann gave me?”

“…?”

“An upgrade coupon from the Mercedes Workshop.”

“Heok…!”

“That’s right. He gave me your family’s treasure. That’s what I received.”

“Your Majesty is deserving of such a reward. Our territory would have been decimated if Your Majesty did not—”

“That’s what you think. People don’t usually give this much as a reward. However, Baron Wegmann gave that to me. And do you know what he said as he gave it to me?”

“What is it?”

“He asked me to take care of you if I ever run into you.”

“Ah… Father…” Carell muttered as tears welled up in his eyes.

“Just think of me as your uncle or brother and tell me what’s going on. You probably have been keeping it all to yourself for so long, right? It’s good to let it out once in a while so that you can feel refreshed, too.”

“Then…” Carell fought back his tears and suppressed the sorrow welling up from inside him before he composed himself and said, “I will tell you at my tent.”

“Shall we?”

“I think I will need a drink… is that alright, Your Majesty?”

“As you wish.”

“Please follow me,” Carell said as he led Siegfried to his tent.

***

“Please, have a drink. It is not an expensive liquor, but I hope it will suit your taste, Your Majesty,” Carell said as he poured cheap vodka into Siegfried’s glass.

“So, what happened?” Siegfried asked while pouring Carell a drink in kind.

“Actually… it’s nothing big…”

“Nothing big?”

“It was seven years ago…” Carell said while staring at his glass of liquor.

Carell’s dream ever since he was young had always been to become a knight, and he managed to enroll at his country’s, the Macallan Kingdom’s Knight Academy through his perseverance and painstaking effort.

“I have admired and respected Sir Bleigh since I was young. He’s not a strong knight, but he honored the knight’s code more than anyone else I knew…” Carell said.

“I agree,” Siegfried replied. He smiled when he remembered Bleigh.

Bleigh was a hopeless knight whose abilities weren’t even in the realm of a Sword Expert when his abilities were questioned, but he was second to none when it came to his honor and valor as a knight.

“It was difficult, but I managed to enroll at the academy in the end. Well, it was difficult since I placed 300th out of three hundred applicants…”

It seemed that he barely managed to put his foot over the line to enroll at the academy.

“Things started to go downhill after I enrolled…” Carell said as he bit his lips.

“Hmm…” Siegfried listened on.

“The Royal Knight Academy is the kingdom’s top academy where all sorts of geniuses gathered, so there was no place for an average person like me. It was normal for me not to be able to keep up with the classes, and I was always at the bottom of my class. My classmates were all from prestigious houses that could afford to educate them from an early age…”

It seemed that he had somehow gotten lucky and managed to enroll at the academy, but the Royal Knight Academy’s standards were simply too high that an ordinary person like Carell couldn’t keep up with it.

“I worked my ass off. I gritted my teeth every day and endured everything thrown at me.”

Was it perhaps the fruit of his efforts?

He managed to graduate from the academy and become a fully-fledged knight in the end. Although he retained for three consecutive years before graduating because of his grades…

“I was appointed as a second lieutenant after I was knighted, but the first command I received was… to become a squad leader here at the Arachnid Temporary Outpost…”

“Why?” Siegfried asked. He couldn’t understand what the hell they were thinking, ‘Have they gone nuts? They sent a fresh graduate to be a squad leader in a C Rank area?’

He would have understood if it were the E Rank area, and he would also have understood if it were the D Rank area, although that would be a stretch. However, assigning someone like Carell to become a squad leader in the C Rank area was no different than telling him to die.

“I am the son of a provincial lord. I don’t have any money or anyone’s backing. How could it be possible for me to get a good position? I did manage to become a squad leader in just three months because there were too many vacancies after the senior officers died, but what good is that to me?” Carell lamented before he downed his glass.

‘I think I know what’s going on now… I guess the shitty privileges, connections, and what-not are exactly the same whether in reality or in a game… tsk…’ Siegfried grumbled and clicked his tongue after hearing Carell’s story.

Siegfried was sick and tired of such stories that he couldn’t help but feel enraged whenever he heard them.

Someone privileged had a bright future rolled out in front of them, while the less privileged were left out to fend for themselves and die.

Siegfried couldn’t understand why humans were so cruel, and he couldn’t help but wonder if oppression, discrimination, and favoritism were the key traits of being human.

“My dream was to become a knight like Sir Bleigh and return to my hometown after finishing my military service. Then, I wanted to inherit our territory and become a respected lord, but…” Carell said with a trembling voice before trailing off. Then, he said with a weak voice filled with despair, “I don’t think I can achieve that dream now…”

“Why not?” Siegfried asked.

“Well… I’m going to end up becoming another nameless corpse in this place…” Carell muttered.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Siegfried retorted, and then he said, “Who’s going to die? No matter how the world out there works… Nobody can defeat a lucky bastard.”

“W-What do you mean… Your Majesty?”

“You’re a lucky man.”

“I am?”

“Yeah,” Siegfried said with a nod before he suddenly grumbled in a low voice, “Ah… Master told me that trash shouldn’t attempt to teach another trash…”

“Pardon?”

“Ah, forget about it. Anyway, why don’t you get hit for now before we go any further?” Siegfried said before suddenly throwing a punch at Carell.

Pak!

Siegfried’s fist dug into Carell’s face.