The dust settled, and I saw the face of my kin.
A man wearing sothing like a robe, desperately waving his hands. The mont I saw his face, my eyes widened.
I’ve seen him before.
But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t recall his na. It was strange. I was certain we’d t. Which ant he probably wasn’t one of the kin born after the war.
And yet, the na simply wouldn’t co to .
There hadn’t been only a few of us. A lot of ti had passed, too. And so among my kin were extrely uncomfortable around . If they were commoners, it was even worse—so would only bob their heads shyly and run away.
Even so, I usually rembered nas.
I was good at morizing faces and nas to the point that Reina Kyle often rushed over to with an SOS at social gatherings.
Or maybe it was like with Lee Seunghyun—soone whose na I simply couldn’t bring to mind.
“Target confird. I will take him alive.”
I’d deal with the complicated thoughts later.
I swung my sword widely.
KWA—GWA—GWA—GWA—ANG!
“Hrk!”
The kin recoiled in terror as the sword strike grazed past him.
“I—I don’t even have a weapon!”
The process dragged on.
If it were up to , I’d have rushed into the abandoned house and carried him out. But things never went that smoothly. The mont I tried to advance, a swarm of Creatures poured over the ridge. It would’ve been easier if they’d co toward , but instead they charged straight for the seniors repairing the damaged devices.
[Requesting support!]
Jonathan went to assist, widening the distance Trevain and I had to cover.
If I left my position, a hole would open in the defensive line.
He didn’t look like he was about to die, so I’d leave him for now.
As I cut down the pouring Creatures, the kin in the abandoned house moved.
He clumsily gathered himself and stepped out of the ruins.
The kin who erged from the wreckage sprinted straight toward the Core.
“Surrender!”
The man ran toward us with both arms raised.
“I surrender! I’ll go inside!”
[Do not let him inside!]
Richard shouted thunderously into my ear.
[Trevain! Switch positions with Taleb!]
So he wanted Trevain to take him.
I didn’t complain. After replying that I understood, I ran toward Trevain, who was charging toward my position. Seeing approach to switch out, the blond senior curled one corner of his mouth upward.
Bang!
He planted a bullet right where my foot was about to land.
Nice aim.
“Let’s see how you handle that.”
He whispered as he brushed past .
“Stay away from it.”
No complaints.
I didn’t strain to rember the man’s na either. Thinking about it wouldn’t change anything, so I focused on sothing else.
We needed to wrap this up fast and get back to Center Core within the day.
Driven by sheer determination not to postpone my Lexic noodle promise, I swung my sword relentlessly. While I defended a much wider area than before, Trevain captured the approaching kin.
He didn’t even have to try.
The man didn’t resist.
If anything, he seed terrified by the strength of Trevain’s grip.
“I—I—I’m really nothing! Please spare !”
“Shut up.”
Trevain roughly dragged the naless man along.
“Don’t even think about resisting. I’ll put a bullet through your forehead the second you try.”
“Hiiik!”
He was dragged away, arm in Trevain’s grasp.
I heard the sound of the Core opening. Then I heard the sound of the senior throwing the man into the gap of the opened Core. The man hit the dirt floor hard—THUD! He must have lost his balance when he was shoved.
Rough handling.
I thought that, but didn’t turn to look.
I felt nothing in particular. I wasn’t angry at Trevain, nor did I pity the man being handled roughly. If I were certain he was a complete civilian, I would’ve clashed with Trevain to make sure he was treated gently.
But I still couldn’t rember him, so I suspended judgnt.
I didn’t despise Trevain for treating a surrendered man roughly. This was well within acceptable bounds. I’d been born and raised in a far more barbaric era. There were no conventions like the Geneva Conventions. Only nobles were treated humanely upon surrender.
Frankly, the fact that he didn’t just shoot him on the spot was already restraint.
The standoff lasted three hours.
The last hour could barely be called a standoff at all. My kin eventually withdrew the Creatures. The road in front of the safehouse was completely torn up, but the devices were intact.
The air shifted into a lull.
Richard rearranged the deploynt. Trevain went inside. The Dobbs Squad mbers guarding the eastern devices also headed to the safehouse to monitor the humanoid Creature.
I wasn’t allowed inside.
Richard conveniently kept outside until the core device repairs were finished.
The problem was that Jonathan wasn’t called inside either.
Until the eastern device repairs were complete, Jonathan and I stood blankly outside the Core.
This is awkward.
I looked away and lightly kicked at a pebble.
Every now and then, I felt a gaze like that of a cat watching a bug, but I pretended not to notice.
[Hilde.]
While I stood there avoiding eye contact, Tom spoke to over the comm.
[Please try talking to him just once.... I think it’ll work out if you muster a bit of courage.]
If I replied, Jonathan might hear.
I gauged the distance with a sideways glance, then shook my head.
If Jonathan were watching , he’d probably think I’d lost my mind. Or that there was a bug swarming around .
[How about asking if he’s hurt anywhere?]
Shake.
[What about saying he can go in first if he’s tired?]
Shake.
[It must’ve been really bad when things ca out. I can’t really imagine it, but....]
It was.
[Are you even scared to make eye contact?]
When I gave a slight nod, Tom made a thoughtful “Hmm” sound.
Not a sigh—more like genuinely thinking. That was very Tom.
[Maybe things will ease up a bit once the mission’s over.]
How would Jonathan treat the kin inside right now?
The thought crossed my mind, but I didn’t dwell on it.
I’d find out soon enough anyway. What was the point of worrying in advance?
From beyond the comm, I heard Tom pondering. He didn’t need to worry this much. I felt sorry for making things uncomfortable around , but I was genuinely scared. I didn’t have the courage to speak first.
I wasn’t this timid before.
I guess my disposition changed after falling out with my kin.
Anyway, this isn’t so bad either.
After standing there motionless for a while, staring ahead, another voice ca through the comm.
[Co inside.]
The core device repairs were finished.
I quietly turned and followed behind Jonathan as he walked back into the safehouse.
***
The kin whose na I’d forgotten was bound.
A wide, dark space on the second floor of the safehouse. In the center of what must have once been a multipurpose room, my kin was kneeling. His hands were tightly bound behind his back with fishing line. Dobbs Squad mbers surrounded him in a circle, guns trained on him. The man’s face, positioned at the ends of multiple gun barrels, was completely drained of color.
Jason Trevain and Richard Green stood with their arms crossed, looking down at him.
Tom wasn’t there. He was probably in the control room.
When Jonathan opened the door and stepped in, everyone’s gaze snapped toward us.
More precisely, their gazes flew straight at .
Jonathan pretended not to notice the stares flying past his shoulder.
“Both devices are operating normally. No abnormalities.”
“Good work.”
Richard replied shortly.
“Step aside now.”
That left .
The mont Jonathan stepped aside, my view opened.
I took one step past the threshold and faced the kneeling kin.
Short brown hair. Light green eyes.
I looked down at him with my eyes wide open. A few steps ahead, I could see the crown of the man’s head, lowered as he knelt, bound.
Soone who felt familiar, yet whose eting place I couldn’t recall at all.
I could feel the seniors scrutinizing .
Ignoring those piercing gazes, I dug through my mories. Now I really wanted to rember his na.
And it felt like it should be ti to rember it.
Is it because I’m getting older?
Why does it feel like it’s right there, yet just out of reach...?
“Commander!”
The man lifted his head.
The squad mbers aiming guns at him flinched. Trevain, Richard, and Jonathan, who had been staring holes into , all snapped their heads around.
I widened my eyes slightly.
The man bead at .
“Knight Commander!”
My left hand remained on my sword hilt, unmoving.
Yet the distance closed.
Because the kin, smiling brightly as he looked up at , crawled forward on his knees.
The seniors tensed.
“Hey, don’t move!”
“Should I shoot?”
“Leave him.”
“It’s an honor to see you again.”
Dobbs shouted sharply, and the man who had been pointing at earlier looked anxiously at Richard as he asked. But Richard calmly gave the order.
Trevain’s index finger brushed the gun barrel, but didn’t settle on the trigger.
Jonathan gripped his sword hilt tightly with his right hand.
The air tightened the instant he moved. But the man didn’t care. With eyes filled with a mix of joy and relief, he approached, then stopped a few paces away and lowered his upper body.
This was how low commoners would bow when facing royalty or high nobles.
The man lifted only his head, light green eyes gleaming.
“I’m relieved you’re safe.”
“...Sorry, but what’s your na?”
I muttered without shrinking my gaze.
“I can’t quite rember. I feel like I’ve seen your face before.”
“Soone as insignificant as —of course you wouldn’t rember my na. Nor do you need to. But since you’re curious, I’ll tell you. I am Cheris.”
Nothing ca to mind.
The na itself was common. A na with plenty of people sharing it.
But strangely, the face and the na didn’t align.
He’d be a commoner, so no surna.
Without changing my expression, I examined the one claiming to be Cheris.
It felt off. Sothing about him didn’t feel like Cheris. The face was familiar, and the na was an Imperial one, but the two didn’t match at all.
Was he lying to ? Or was my instinct wrong?
It felt like the forr, but overconfidence leads to mistakes.
To be sure, I asked another question.
“Where did you live?”
“The westernmost edge of the Empire. I lived in Skybird’s Grave, where the lowly reside.”
That was a slum of slums.
“How old are you?”
“Born in Imperial Year 327.”
“What did you do in the Empire?”
“How could soone living in Skybird’s Grave have a proper occupation? I did whatever labor I could just to avoid starving to death.”
As he answered, the man’s eyes filled with swelling emotion.
The self-proclaid Cheris lowered his head, then moved closer to .
Click—
Jonathan’s sword slid slightly out of its scabbard.
I heard Richard stopping the senior.
“Wait.”
The man crawled forward slowly on his knees.
I didn’t move until he reached my feet, until his shadow covered the tops of my boots.
Because I was looking down at him, white hair spilled over one shoulder into view.
Without bothering to brush aside the white hair covering the corner of my vision, I watched my kin lower his head.
Watched him kiss my foot.
Ignoring the shocked seniors, he pressed his lips there, then smoothly withdrew and looked up at again.
Light green eyes.
They curved gently.
“O sacred wing of the Empire.”
A title I hadn’t heard in a very long ti.
“O most holy knight.”
That’s laying it on a bit thick.
In that mont, I realized who he was.
And why I had never been able to rember his na.
I looked at him and gave an order.
“Show your soles.”
He was a death-row criminal.
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