Chapter 16 - Lack of Skill

The third today.

He did his grip strength training and combat review just the same.

Encrid did not waste any time.

It was the exact same day; nothing happened during the daytime.

At least, on the surface.

'I just hadn't noticed.'

Today was different from usual.

Krang skipped breakfast and only returned after lunch.

The Medical Barracks soldier was also away from his post for a long time.

Normally, it was that soldier's job to always guard the barracks.

Other than that, it was the same.

It was similar how there were a few patients in the other Medical Barracks nearby.

Encrid sat in front of the barracks and observed the soldiers coming and going around him.

Since this was the rear, the combat forces were indeed fewer compared to the front lines.

The wheel of one of the hand-drawn carts broke, causing the cart to tilt and collapse to the side.

The groans of the sick and wounded could be heard from here and there.

Some soldiers were spitting out complaints because of the strong wind.

Taking everything into account, it wasn't exactly a high state of alert, but...

'It's still not at the level where they'd miss a few assassins.'

His goal hadn't changed.

It would be over once he confronted the assassin and caused a commotion. He braced himself.

He spent the rest of the day just as he usually did.

"Aren't you sick of that?"

There was Krang's everyday question.

"Just wait until we get back, you bastards."

There was Vengeance's meaningless muttering.

The night deepened.

Encrid lay down in bed, then got up and sat with his ass halfway off the cot.

While sitting, he went over the information he knew.

The time the assassin comes is...

'After the third night watch shift changes.'

The weapons used are a poison dart and a blade.

A physique that looks like a woman or a child.

The suspected culprit is the newly appointed Company Commander.

The target is probably Krang.

This was all he knew.

This much was enough.

It wasn't like he was the target; he just needed to cause a commotion.

Watching the night watch change shifts, Encrid stood up from his spot.

"Yawn, taking a piss?"

The soldier standing guard asked with a yawn.

"No, I just can't sleep."

"They say we return to the main unit tomorrow, right?"

The soldier on night watch flashed a slight smile. He was a mild-mannered soldier with freckles and droopy eyes.

Since Encrid held the position of Squad Leader, his rank was indeed higher than a regular soldier's.

"Right."

"Are you unable to sleep because you're nervous?"

"No, because the moon is bright."

At Encrid's words, the freckled soldier tilted his head up.

It was a pitch-black night.

It was a night sky where the clouds thoroughly obscured the moonlight.

Although brightly shining stars twinkled far in the distance, the darkness was so thick that one couldn't see an inch ahead without a torch.

"The moon?"

"I'm joking."

Encrid said that as he casually glanced at the night watch of the adjacent barracks.

No matter how much discipline was enforced, there were bound to be soldiers like that.

He saw a night watchman leaning his back against a tent pole, dozing off.

"Haha."

The freckled soldier let out a stiff laugh.

"Actually, I can't sleep because the torches are too bright."

"You're quite sensitive."

"I've been like that since I was young."

It wasn't an empty statement.

Encrid was more sensitive than the average person.

He heard well, smelled well, and distinguished tastes well.

His five senses were sharp.

'And yet I've already been taken out twice without even noticing.'

It was an opponent with a considerable talent for stealth.

Then again, if an assassin wasn't confident in stealth and infiltration, what would they be confident in?

It was dark. Looking at the stars in the night sky and the light blazing on the torch stand, Encrid offered a few more trivial words.

Stories about where his hometown was and how he ended up joining the military.

The freckled soldier rattled off his own story without hesitation.

Encrid didn't listen closely.

Because even as he spoke, his nerves were entirely focused on his back.

While doing so, he kept touching the area around his neck with his hand.

'The poison took effect immediately because I was hit in the neck.'

If he had been hit in the forearm instead of the neck, he would have had enough time to react.

It was a precaution.

As long as he was awake, he would have enough time to shout...

"Laura said she'd wait for me..."

The freckled soldier was in the middle of talking about his girlfriend back in his hometown.

At that moment, with a *SHK! *, something pierced right through the freckled soldier's neck.

'A blade!'

A blade jutted out from the front of his neck, about the length of a finger.

There was no sudden gush of blood.

Because until that blade was pulled out, it would serve as a plug to stop the bleeding.

The freckled soldier staggered to the side, and before anyone knew it, he collapsed soundlessly with his mouth covered.

*FWIP! * And something flew toward Encrid.

All those movements happened in a single breath.

Encrid reacted too. He reflexively covered his neck with his hand. A poison dart lodged into the back of his hand with a *THWIP! *.

Now it was his turn to shout.

There's an assassin here!

It's an ambush!

Or something like that.

At the very least.

Aaaaaargh!

Even a meaningless scream like that would have been enough.

And yet.

GRAB!

Something clamped over his mouth.

There was no sound and no warning.

Encrid felt someone grab his cervical vertebrae and twist.

CRACK!

Following that, he felt a blade plunge into the back of his neck, accompanied by a burning pain.

Having been stabbed so many times, he was now at the point where he could roughly gauge the depth of the incoming blade and the severity of the injury.

At this rate, he wouldn't last long before dying.

Encrid collapsed to the ground, still impaled.

Warm blood flowed from the nape of his neck, soaking his chest.

The opponent did not deliver a finishing blow.

Encrid didn't have the luxury to check on that side's situation.

'What about Krang? And Platoon Commander Vengeance?'

While gushing blood that was akin to his very life force, Encrid checked the two sprawled in front of him.

One was the freckled soldier.

He had died with his neck pierced. Blood gushed out thickly, soaking the tent floor.

'What was that guy's name again?'

They had talked about all sorts of things, but he hadn't focused on a single word.

Inside the tent entrance, Platoon Commander Vengeance was also visible.

He, too, was sprawled out with his eyes glaring wide open, as if he had been strangled.

But Krang was nowhere to be seen.

Squeezing out his last ounce of strength, Encrid lifted his head and cast his gaze into the tent.

As he moved, the embedded blade shifted, bringing with it a horrific pain.

"Gguhurk."

A groan slipped out unbidden. Even so, he stubbornly propped his body up and looked.

He saw a slender-built woman.

Behind the torn tent, he saw a Fairy woman blocking the front.

'So it was you after all.'

It was the newly appointed Company Commander.

No matter how unobservant someone was, it was impossible not to recognize her.

"Already pull..."

Another person's voice mixed in with hers.

This was the end of his memory.

"Cyprus! Cyprus!"

Today had begun again.

'Fuck.'

A hollow chuckle leaked out on its own.

The opponent was an assassin.

Heart of a Beast, Valen Mercenary Sword Technique, or whatever else—there was absolutely nothing he could do.

He had to at least face them and fight to do anything at all.

But without a single word, they just suddenly stabbed his neck and fired a poison dart first.

As he forcefully kicked his blanket off and got up from his spot...

"Have you lost your damn mind from the morning?"

Platoon Commander Vengeance asked, half-covered by the blanket that had flown onto his head.

"A-Ah, no."

This wasn't what was important.

"Alright then, let's fight to the death. This is insubordination, right?"

Encrid ignored Vengeance, who was limping to his feet, and stepped outside.

"Hey! Are you running away? This little shit! You're dead when I catch you!"

Behind Vengeance's shout.

"What's so loud this early in the morning?"

Even the voice of Krang, who had just woken up.

It was the same repeating day once again.

'Let's give it a go, dear assassin.'

Encrid prepared for the fourth night.

This time, he also brought along a few daggers.

Along with that, he coaxed the freckled soldier into coming inside the barracks.

"Everyone to guard is in here, right?"

Persuasion was easy. This naive country youth was completely won over by Encrid's words.

He brought a torch stand inside and planted it.

The inside of the barracks immediately brightened.

'Now then, dear assassins. Will you be able to work in such a bright place?'

They could.

He didn't even know when they slipped in.

Nor did he know how they approached so closely.

An assassin dropped from the top of the tent with a *THUMP! *.

The falling shadow lodged poison darts into the necks of the freckled soldier and Encrid.

Right before he died, Encrid saw the tent being sliced open with a *SLICE! *.

A white blade.

A black silhouette beyond it.

Thanks to the torch stand brought inside, the light flared and illuminated the opponent's face.

It was the newly appointed Company Commander.

"Cyprus! Cyprus!"

The fifth today dawned.

"Alright."

He had fallen for it even though he knew. That was the fourth time.

Stubbornness welled up within him.

He tried again using a similar method, but this time, he truly concentrated all his nerves.

The result was not much different.

The beds in this barracks were the type that were elevated off the floor.

From under there, a black shadow darted out and threw a short arrow. It was a throwing-type hidden arrow weapon.

The arrowhead was coated with poison.

It was a deadly poison.

An agonizing pain on a completely different level from being stabbed to death hit him.

It felt like ants were biting and eating his heart.

His breath caught in his throat, and he couldn't keep breathing.

Thus, he died without being able to do anything.

The sixth today was also similar.

Occasionally, there were slight variations.

Right before he died, he heard the group of assassins saying something.

"You, per..."

"You..."

"This is a warn..."

"Fair..."

Of course, hearing that didn't change anything.

He needed to be able to actually understand what they were saying.

At best, it was just a few words.

No matter how much he racked his brain to connect them, an answer wouldn't come out.

Since his competitive spirit was provoked, Encrid tried all sorts of different things.

Not knowing how to give up was a strength, but in a situation like this, it could also be a weakness.

Since it was a universal truth of all ages that the body suffers when you're stupid.

An endless challenge was not always the answer.

Fortunately, Encrid was no idiot.

Twenty failures.

'Even screaming is out of the question.'

The assassin's skills were just that outstanding.

Once, he even tried shouting that it was an ambush before the opponent even attempted anything.

Soldiers from the surrounding barracks gathered where Encrid was.

He also saw Krang waking up and rubbing his eyes.

Since it was roughly after the third night watch arrived, it could be called a preemptive strike timed perfectly.

"An ambush? Where?"

As a result, he only got kicked in the shins by the Platoon Commander next to him.

Nothing happens if he shouts first?

If it went like this, would he just get past today?

Then getting kicked in the shins was nothing.

After the commotion ended and Encrid made a rough excuse about having a nightmare...

"How did you know?"

Encrid heard the assassin's voice for the first time.

It was a man with a metallic rasp in his voice.

And then he died.

With a blade lodged in his neck.

If he had made that kind of attempt, there were other attempts too.

"Platoon Commander Vengeance. By any chance, are you pissed off because of me?"

"What, you fucker?"

"It's not because of me, but Krang, right? Isn't it because Krang keeps talking bullshit?"

Encrid refreshed their minds with light talk and warned them.

"An assassin will come. Tonight."

"... Go crazy quietly. You absolute lunatic."

Vengeance didn't believe him.

"Do you have some secret birthright? You? Why would an assassin come?"

Krang didn't believe him either.

They were people lacking in faith.

It was a failure.

The attempts varied, but the cause of failure was similar.

'Lack of skill.'

Because it all boiled down to one reason.

The assassin's skills were far too superior.

He needed to find a method.

Not the Heart of a Beast, nor the Valen Mercenary Sword Technique.

None of it was helpful right now.

'Should I bring Rem over in the middle of the night?'

Couldn't that be a method too?

If it were Rem or the other squad members, they wouldn't be taken down easily.

'As long as it's not Big-eyes.'

They wouldn't be taken down.

But how would he bring them?

There was no way.

He was a mere Squad Leader, and they were mere soldiers.

Putting skill aside, their ranks were like that.

What if he tried telling the Platoon Commander in charge of the medical platoon?

'Yeah, like they'd listen.'

And what excuse would he give?

There were things that could work and things that simply wouldn't.

Bringing his squad members was out of the question.

Then was there no other way?

There was.

The repetition of the same today.

Encrid knew the time and place he would see Big-eyes.

'Should I try asking for advice?'

His squad members all possessed fiercely outstanding talents.

'Even if I don't bring them here.'

He could at least hear their opinions.

It was a better method than just holding out through sheer stubbornness.

Encrid lifted his ass to go meet Big-eyes.

"Where are you going?"

Platoon Commander Vengeance asked from behind.

Krang had also been away from his spot since morning.

He seemed to ask because even Encrid was leaving.

Encrid inwardly tilted his head and answered the question with a question.

"Are you feeling lonely?"

"What, you fucker?"

"Never mind then."

"Hey, you, you little, shit."

He ignored him, stepped outside, and walked.

"Just wait until I'm healed!"

Platoon Commander Vengeance shouted from inside the barracks. Encrid picked his ear.

Finding Big-eyes wasn't difficult.

His expression was foul, though.

What did Big-eyes's expression matter?

He himself was repeating today twenty times over without even seeing the opponent's face.

"Big-eyes."

Big-eyes, who was walking hurriedly to wherever he was going, turned his head at the call.

He furrowed his brow before spotting Encrid.

"Squad Leader? You're fine now?"

"Can we talk for a bit?"

"Ah, I'm a bit busy. Um, if you need someone to talk to, Jaxon is over there."

As if he were truly busy, Big-eyes pointed his thumb backward and walked away with quick steps.

There wasn't even a chance to stop him. Anyway, Big-eyes wasn't his main goal; he was just going to tell him to fetch another squad member.

Encrid headed toward the tent Big-eyes had pointed out.

It wasn't a large tent but a small one.

It was a maintenance barracks for supplies that weren't used often. Since it was a tent where broken goods were gathered, it wasn't a place people frequented.

It was a small tent sandwiched between those maintenance barracks.

It looked like it would perfectly fit just two people.

"Squad Leader?"

Jaxon was there.

Auburn hair and brown eyes with a reddish hue.

A squad member who showed an unoffending smile.

And according to Rem's evaluation:

The sketchiest bastard of the bunch.

A perverted punk who enjoys picking at blind spots and stabbing from behind rather than facing opponents head-on.

He had also said that.

SCRATCH.

Encrid scratched his head with his finger as he asked.