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Chapter 1002: You Reap What You Sow (9)

“Damn it! This is an order! Leave the wounded and move!” he ordered.

“...”

“Move it, you fools!” he yelled.

The soldiers looked hesitant, and it was definitely not easy for them to leave just like that. I could see it from the way they were looking back. I[1] also couldn’t help but look back despite giving them the order to move.

It wasn’t easy to leave, as there were troops trapped under a pile of rubble, along with comrades rolling around while grabbing their faces and people groaning in pain upon getting crushed by the debris.

It was especially hard to leave them because we had been together for a long time.

However, I had to look away and ignore them.

‘Because we’re soldiers...’

The troops of the Federation were devastated by the 27th Legion Summoning Incident. It happened quite a while ago, but the Federation had yet to recover from the damage they suffered at the time.

Even now, the Federation was still recovering, and the Federation had to give up on many things. Even if one were military personnel working for the country, one wasn\'t excluded from the destitution that followed, so ex-soldiers naturally became mercenaries.

And as soldiers, we had to…

‘We have to follow orders.’

Of course, that wasn\'t the only reason. We were hired mercenaries from the Federation, so we had to follow orders and complete our mission. There were many competent adventurers throughout the continent, and if we wanted to beat them at their own game, we had to ensure that our credibility as mercenaries wouldn\'t get tainted.

For the sake of every Federation mercenary across the continent, we had to look forward rather than look back.

"Rooooooooooooooooar!!!"

Kabooooooooom! Craaaaaaack!

There were loud explosions everywhere, and I\'d stop moving every time I heard a voice. Of course, it was only for a second—no, it wasn\'t even a second. More than half of the troops were swept away to attract the monster’s attention.

“Hold up your shield! Move while holding up your shields!” I ordered.

“U-Understood, Captain Sophia!” the troops replied.

“Move faster instead of replying, you fools! Faster!” I shouted.

I was sure a fight broke out somewhere, but I wasn’t sure whether it could even be called a fight.

As I ordered my troops to move while blocking the debris that was falling down on us using their shields, I couldn’t help but keep thinking back to the scene I saw just now.

I saw the expedition members moving around, fighting Bahamut, a ruthless and terrifying monster.

Boom! Kaboom!

“Move! Faster! You bastards!” I shouted.

The puzzle pieces were falling naturally.

To be honest, I had no way of knowing what was going on, but it was an undeniable fact that all troops in the Underground Temple were involved.

It felt strange. It was like there were strings attached to us, and someone was controlling us. It was like we were moving according to a script that someone had written in advance—no, it was like everything was going as planned.

‘This isn’t right.’

“Captain Sophia! The road is blocked,” a soldier informed.

“Commander?” I asked.

“The route is the same, Captain Sophia! Keep moving forward,” he replied.

“We keep moving forward,” I ordered.

“What? But the path—”

“I can see it, too,” I interrupted them.

“I’m sorry,” a troop said.

I saw the broken bridge as well, and it was highly likely that parts of the Underground Temple had shattered due to the battle. Despite that, the route marked on the coordinates was telling us to cross that bridge.

I flinched, but there was no need for us to stop because I saw another unit loading up a giant ballista.

“Fire! Fire!”

An arrow with a rope tied to it flew and pierced the wall on the opposite side.

I heard heavy arrows piercing into the walls as if they’d been waiting for us to arrive here.

‘We can use those ropes to go across.’

We weren\'t the only ones moving.

The other units and parties were crossing using the ropes that weren’t too far from us.

"Rooooooooooooar!"

The loud noises sent a tremor across the building, and debris started falling again.

I saw some people flinching due to the large debris, but large barriers manifested and protected them. The others used the barriers above them to move as quickly as possible and head upstairs.

“Move fast! Faster!”

“Move it!” a soldier shouted.

“Move, move!” another yelled.

“Cast your spells! Adjust your coordinates!”

I heard voices everywhere.

“The target is approaching! The target is approaching! Move faster! We don’t have time! Time…”

‘What time?’

I heard a voice when I was almost on the other side.

I instinctively looked back and saw a familiar figure.

‘Kim Ye-Ri?’

It was Kim Ye-Ri, who was known as the Daughter of the Blue Guild.

Behind her, I saw a monster that looked like an enormous bull.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

“Move!!! Move!!!”

“Bahamut… will punish all of you!” the monster yelled.

‘Damn it.’

Kim Ye-Ri, who was running at an incredible speed, headed toward the bridge while barely managing to dodge the monster’s attacks. She was moving as if she were an acrobat, and then she landed steadily on a rope.

The enormous bull tried to catch her, but the Daughter of the Blue Guild was already on the other side of the rope, so the monster’s actions were useless. She moved so fast that she even went past me.

And that was when the troops, who went upstairs with the barrier, fired spells at the monster…

Wait, they were also aiming for the floor where the monster was standing.

Kaboooooooom!

The enormous bull fell underground.

‘This isn’t right.’

“Mission complete. Let’s get moving.”

“Mission complete. Order acknowledged.”

“Let’s move.”

‘This… This isn’t right.’

“You’re here,” a man said.

“Yeah, Mister Ki-Mo,” Kim Ye-Ri replied.

A combat priest wearing a broken pair of glasses talked to Kim Ye-Ri, who was juggling her daggers.

“What’s our mission?” Kim Ye-Ri asked.

“Wait for five minutes,” Ahn Ki-Mo answered.

“Looks like I can take a break,” Kim Ye-Ri said.

“...”

“...”

“Hey, hang in there. Um…”

“I-It’s Sophia,” I told him.

“Hang in there, Sophia,” Ahn Ki-Mo said.

“Y-Yes, sir…”

‘How can he be so calm?’

It was strange to me that they could talk and laugh in a situation like this.

‘Did this not affect them at all?’

They were being chased by a bull-like boss monster just now, so I found it unrealistic to see the combat priest joking around and Kim Ye-Ri kicking his shin.

“We have to move, Captain Sophia.”

“Ah, I’m sorry, Commander,” I said.

I shook my head, realizing that I had been staring at the Daughter of the Blue Guild. Then, I started moving. I started having a headache as I walked, and it was intensifying as the seconds ticked by.

“You just need to be on standby after reaching your destination.”

“Yes, sir,” I said.

"Rooooooooooooar!"

Kabooooooooooooom!

The loud noise that sounded like it was far away was getting closer to us.

‘It’s coming back.’

The Gray Warrior was leading the monster to us.

I heard magic spells being cast, screams, commands, and a variety of noises.

I was sure it wasn’t all that different from earlier. Just like the time just now when we had abandoned the wounded, the expedition members were probably fighting the monster right now.

The priests would move to support the Gray Warrior, and the mages would become his shield in a place where they couldn\'t be seen. The spears and siege weapons would keep attempting to pierce the monster’s outer shell.

Each unit and party member in the Underground Temple were here to protect and support each other. Whether it was important or not, the missions assigned to each unit—no, the process of carrying out that mission involved every single individual.

‘This… really isn’t right.’

I was sure our mission was still the same as earlier. Our mission was probably to buy time so that the Gray Warrior could create enough space.

“We\'ve reached our destination,” said the field commander from the Sacred Democratic Country.

Kabooooooooom!

The monster of pure violence broke through the wall.

We saw Bahamut again.

The Gray Warrior immediately flew up, but the monster’s attention was fixed on us.

‘It remembers.’

The one second not too long ago. The one second that incapacitated half of the troops.

"Woo…"

The monster remembered that moment, and it raised its hand.

‘Do we run? No, it’s too late.’

We weren\'t ordered to run away.

“Shields… Put up your shields!”

I gritted my teeth, and the monster’s colossal hand made a beeline for our unit. I was sure we’d get help. A mage, priest, or a named being with transcendental power would definitely come and help us.

However, no one was looking at us.

‘Did we fail?’

No, we didn\'t fail. Perhaps this was our final mission.

‘How much time did we buy him?’

The Federation mercenaries managed to buy time for the entire expedition.

Our unit was not important at all, but we managed to grab the monster’s attention.

In the end, we delayed the boss from chasing after the Gray Warrior. Just like the time when there were casualties but we managed to delay the monster by a second, they were going to use the Federation mercenaries to delay the monster by a few seconds.

It didn\'t seem like much, but it was a big achievement for us.

It was pretty common for an army to sacrifice its troops to gain the upper hand in the war.

“Haa…”

And that was when the ground beneath us trembled violently.

Before I could figure out what was going on, the ground collapsed.

The monster’s colossal hand was still in the air while my troops and I felt weightless.

“What the! What the hell?!”

I saw Bahamut roaring and chasing after the Gray Warrior again. A levitation spell was cast on the entire unit. The troops, who thought they were going to fall to their deaths, landed safely.

“There are ten seconds left before the start of the mission.”

“...”

“The mission is starting in ten seconds, Captain Sophia!”

The bull-like monster that had fallen from the bridge earlier was getting attacked by the expedition members. I also saw a face with a familiar mustache, and he was firing magic bullets through his finger.

“Colonel… Smith?” I said.

“It’s been a while, Captain Sophia,” he greeted.

‘This… This isn’t right.’

“Let’s catch up later. We were actually lacking vanguards… I never imagined you’d end up here,” Colonel Smith said.

“Are you the one who destroyed the ceiling?” I asked.

“I was simply following orders,” Colonel Smith answered.

“...”

‘This doesn’t make any sense at all. T-t-this isn’t right. No matter how much I think about it, this is abnormal.\'

Goosebumps broke out all over me, and I couldn\'t describe the bizarre feeling that engulfed me along with fear.

I frowned because it felt like I was being controlled, but…

— The mission starts now

I unknowingly raised my shield.

1. Captain Sophia’s POV ☜