TUK 02

Chapter 2

Rian scanned the enemies closing in from all sides.

The armed soldiers numbered roughly forty to fifty.

Aside from them, there were a little over a hundred people, but their clothes were shabby — laborers without weapons.

“Were they cleaning up?”

He finished assessing the situation.

The foes in front of him were a cleanup unit working the rear of the frontline after the battle had ended.

The laborers carrying large sacks gathered spoils from the enemy corpses; those pulling carts collected the fallen from his side.

The armed men supervised the recovery crews and hunted down those who pretended to be dead among the bodies.

“You unlucky bastard. If you’d stayed down and played dead, you might’ve lived.”

Naturally, the armed soldiers weren’t going to leave Rian — who they assumed to be faking death — alone.

“If you’re a noble, say so up front. I’ll spare your life, but don’t forget the ransom had better be hefty.”

“He looks noble enough. Maybe he’s an Azrion noble?”

“Drop your weapon and I might let you live. Heh heh.”

The Empire soldiers sneered as they tightened the encirclement. Rian didn’t bother explaining or answering.

He simply asked the first question that came to mind.

“How long have I been lying here?”

It was an absurd and pointless question to the Empire soldiers, but not for Rian.

He wanted to gauge the time.

It felt like he had briefly lost consciousness and then snapped back. But the same blue of the sky as when the battle started struck him as strange.

“A day? Or two?”

Looking around, it seemed the recovery operation was almost finished — the carts were full of bodies and spoils. In contrast, the Azrion soldiers whose armor had been stripped lay scattered on the ground.

“Why ask that? You’re going to be down again anyway.”

The Empire soldier maintained his taunt and showed no intention of answering. Of course, not all the Empire soldiers were like that.

“Maybe a day. The rear guard called us in near the end of the battle and we started gathering last night; we’ve just finished sorting things out.”

A helpful explanation.

Despite the helpful words, the blade in his hand still aimed at Rian’s throat.

“A day… if things go well, I could rejoin my company.”

Although the squad he should command had been wiped out, he was alive, and a soldier must fulfill his duty.

For the Azrion kingdom his father had fought so hard to protect.

To become the knight his father wanted — the rank his father had been forced to give up.

And he had to find out why he had not died and come back to life. So:

“I won’t run.”

Rian kept his scattered thoughts simple and focused on the present.

This was neither a regression nor a dream. The recent death was a vivid memory — utter reality.

The heart exploding, the sensation of burning as if plunged into a pit of fire.

Every time the blood rushed out, the crushing weight felt like a thousand catties pressing down — the vividness of death imprinted on his entire being.

That’s why Rian concentrated on the fact he was alive, determined never to feel those sensations again.

“Ah.”

Focusing on the present, Rian murmured, pleased as if he’d realized something.

He felt an exhilarating clarity in his body that surpassed the pain.

“What is this feeling?”

Not only was he freed from the fatigue of the previous battle, but he also felt a distinct improvement in his body as if his years of training were being rewarded.

In this state, he felt he could cut down the Empire soldiers closing in.

“Enough small talk. If we don’t deliver the spoils to the supply unit today, there’s no time. Get on with it.”

A commander-like Empire soldier barked impatiently.

At that command, the surrounding soldiers either put on sinister smiles or approached with murderous madness, tightening the ring around Rian.

About fifteen soldiers formed the immediate encirclement, mostly low-ranking. About a dozen others lingered nearby, and the rest kept their distance, watching the laborers they’d brought along.

‘This is manageable.’

Rian pictured the enemies in his head and gauged victory.

He didn’t become overconfident. Even if his body felt improved, death still lingered at his throat.

“Die pretty now!”

The Empire soldiers surged forward, as if to prove it.

They were courteous in their own way: they announced they’d attack first.

Slash!

As thanks, Rian offered a horizontal cut. The soldier charging with his spear was sloppy in his motion; Rian slipped aside and swung his sword at the neck, severing it. That was sufficient payment.

He cut the breath off clean and short so the pain would be minimal.

Rian felt strangely pleased.

For a moment, his opponent’s movements seemed slow. From then on, the motion of the hand wielding the weapon felt stronger, faster, and more precise than before.

‘Definitely different.”

Was this because he’d been spared death?

Maybe the goddess of fortune bestowed some blunt favor in compensation for all the training that had yielded no results.

‘Or could it be an aura?’

No — that was reaching. No light of aura had wrapped his whole body.

Besides, stories of knights opening their aura by crossing death were known, but no one on the continent had ever heard of a knight who opened their aura through immortality or undying power.

Even if such a knight existed, they’d be labeled a heretic or demon and tortured to death.

So the sensible explanation was that it was simply the thrill and renewed vigor from having recovered after death.

The Empire soldiers he faced now were cleanup troops from the rear — lacking real combat experience to judge the improvements in his body or skill.

Whatever it was, these were the enemies he had to sweep away.

“Crazy… everyone, get your heads straight! Don’t be careless! Strike together!!”

The commander’s order changed the soldiers’ behavior.

“I’ll tear you limb from limb!!”

“Drop your weapon if you want to die quietly!!”

“Close the distance! Stab! There’s only one enemy!”

They ran in formation, their steps measured and coordinated, but that changed nothing.

Thunk! Slash! Smack!!

Rian simply advanced in one direction, stabbing, slashing, and striking with his fists at visible enemies.

He broke the encirclement and charged toward the commander.

Knocking down the head would break the morale of the soldiers who followed orders — that was his thought.

He’d even calculated that he could incite the laborers, who looked like they’d been dragged here for hard labor, to ease the crisis if necessary.

But plans don’t always unfold as one hopes.

There are always people who push through recklessly without planning, and such people can ruin your calculations in an instant.

“Aaaaah!! Let’s die together!!”

One of the Empire soldiers ran at Rian with crazed eyes.

‘Damn this bastard!’

Thok!

Rian quickly plunged his sword into the man’s abdomen and stopped the madness, but the charging man lost his balance and fell.

Thud!

“Now! Kill him!!”

The Empire soldiers seized the opportunity.

“Aaaah!!”

“Die, monster!!”

Thunk! Pfbububuk!!

A barrage of indiscriminate stabs targeted Rian. They paid no heed to the fallen comrades piled on top.

The onslaught mixed madness, panic, and fear — Rian was being pounded into a bloody mess.

‘Was I arrogant?’

If someone asked him, he’d answer yes.

Thinking he could single-handedly annihilate forty or fifty soldiers was reckless and arrogant.

But should he have fled?

Should he have betrayed the kingdom by surrendering?

‘I couldn’t do that.’

He had to fight.

Cutting down the enemy commander was the best — and final — way to increase his chance of survival.

That was why he ended up on his back, getting slashed like a hornet’s nest.

“Hoo! Hoo!”

“He’s dead now.”

“If he’s not dead, is he even human?”

“Hey. Check.”

The stabs stopped and the soldiers puffed their chests, but no one stepped forward to move the corpse of their comrade or check if Rian’s breath had ceased.

Blood splattered, bones were broken.

Even a once-pretty face had been mangled, and yet the soldiers were frightened.

No wonder —

“What the hell is that sound.”

Gulg… gudeu deudeuk…

In the ears of the already nervous soldiers, the sound of writhing maggots filled the air.

“Wh-what the hell.”

Rian, wedged under his fallen comrades and drenched in blood, was twitching.

Bones found their place.

Blood that had been spilled returned into the body, and eyes that had burst began to reform.

The once-beautiful face was restored.

“Mon-monster…”

Such words were natural. It forced them to reconsider whether to kill him again or run.

“You shouldn’t have stopped.”

Rian said this through his newly repaired lips and pushed away the soldier who’d been on top of him while pulling the embedded sword free to stand.

Thunk!

As he rose, he slit the throat of the nearest soldier.

From that moment he stabbed and slashed every visible enemy, performing a death-dance with his blade.

“Aaaah!!”

“It’s a monster!!”

“Run!!”

Panic set in among the enemy.

Those who had seen his body regenerate were first, followed by those who had witnessed fellow soldiers stabbing him.

How could someone thought to be beyond hope of revival rise and hack like that?

Only someone who didn’t die could do that.

“Immortal!!”

“It’s a demon!! A devil’s inside him! Get a holy priest!!”

The soldiers reached conclusions based on their understanding and screamed.

Rian didn’t care.

Calling after him, he quickly cut down the startled and frozen enemies.

“If you don’t want to die, run!”

“Help! Somebody!”

“Prison or whatever — damn you!”

In the confusion, the shabby-clothed laborers abandoned their tasks and tried to flee.

“You damn cowards! If you run, you’ll be executed!”

“If you run, your families will pay the price! Stop!”

Some Empire soldiers tried to stop the fleeing laborers out of a sense of duty, but they only died struck by thrown stones or knives. They couldn’t halt the escape.

Rian let the fleeing laborers go.

In a way it might have been repayment for killing the Empire soldiers, but he didn’t concern himself with that.

‘Even if they run like that…’

They had to cross the border between the Empire and the kingdom, and even if they tried to go around, mountain ranges beginning from the Twin Gorge blocked their path.

If they attempted to cross the mountains or settle there, they’d only feed the local monsters.

Rian had neither the energy nor the interest to chase them and tell them so.

“Hoo… hoo…”

Immortal, demon — whatever the label.

Fighting dozens of soldiers alone was like clinging to the edge of death and begging for life; it was exhausting.

Those in panic fought back, and those who regained composure grouped and resisted.

He was torn, slashed, impaled.

Bones broke in succession.

The pain made him think death might be easier.

Yet he didn’t give up on life.

No — his body itself now repelled death.

He’d reached a state where he couldn’t simply choose to die anymore.

“Really… immortal?”

Rian stood amid the field of corpses, staring at his own hands.

Someone had shouted demon earlier, but that wasn’t it.

There were tales of demons possessing humans and slaughtering people, taking bodies, but he was clear-headed now.

To die and not die; to be wounded and regenerate — the phenomenon fit the word immortal.

But even calling it immortal felt ambiguous.

What if it happened two, three, or four times — would there be a next?

If there were a limit to how many times one could return to life, then what?

It wasn’t a simple conclusion. But Rian knew that if he pondered complexities, there’d be no end.

“I’ll die eventually.”

That was his conclusion.

As always.

He assumed death would always lurk behind him like a shadow.

So he decided not to think further about immortality.

He’d simply walk the path he wanted.

He had been saved at the cost of giving up his dream.

Still, he kept dreaming.

For Ellen Cade.

No — now for himself.

To become a knight.

He had to survive for that.

So he could protect lives, comrades, and the kingdom.

“First, rearm.”

Rian shrugged off his armor, ripped and soaked in blood.

He set out to find armor that fit him. There was no shortage of armor strewn around.