The Conscript Wants to Be Discharged!

After escaping from the Defense Captain’s office, I returned to the barracks where the Hundred-man Unit was staying and gathered my subordinates.

“Is everyone here?”
“Yes!”
“Good.”

After looking over my subordinates lined up in the appropriately sized yard in front of the barracks, I explained the mission I had received from the Defense Captain.

“Ehhhhh.”
“Aren’t we on combat rest?!”
“Booooo!”
“I want to rest I want to rest I want to rest I want to rest I want to rest I want to rest.”
“Evil Hundred-man Captain! Guarantee your subordinates’ rest time!!”
“Guarantee it! Guarantee it!”

The fervent support of my subordinates came back.

“Yes, yes, you all want to rest too, I understand that feeling.”

No matter how much we are soldiers, how can we just work without resting? Soldiers also need appropriate rest and compensation.

“If we complete this mission and return, an additional week of rest is guaranteed.”

So I presented appropriate compensation to the subordinates expressing their dissatisfaction.

“A week? Well, that’s…”
“Our rest time is doubled? This is unacceptable!”
“Kyeol!”

While some were satisfied with that compensation, there’s always a shadow under the light.

“This is the Hundred-man Captain’s scheme to cover our eyes with shallow compensation!”
“Soldiers are not slaves!”
“Even if we get a week’s compensation, won’t you just force us to work later when you need to?!”
“Booooo!”

There were those who were not satisfied with the compensation and still expressed dissatisfaction, so I decided to conduct one-on-one interviews with them personally.

“Alright, I understand your dissatisfaction.”
“Ohhh!”
“Therefore, accepting your complaints, from now on I’ll conduct one-on-one interviews with me, so those who have complaints, take out your weapons!”
“Oh… oh?”
“I’ll talk to you physically, like a true man of Flanders!”
“…”

Thus, with my generous magnanimity, when I gave them the right to present their complaints through physical one-on-one interviews, all the subordinates were moved by my thoughtfulness and no longer expressed dissatisfaction.

‘You think I want to go either?’

I too don’t want to go for civilian support, but I have no choice but to go.

‘If I don’t have human rights, you don’t have human rights either!’

“If you’re unhappy, why don’t you go complain to the Defense Captain yourselves.”
“…”

Anyway, after suppressing my subordinates’ complaints, I led them towards our destination for civilian support, where they were reportedly suffering damage from ghouls.

“Oh my! Welcome! My lord!”

When I arrived at the village reportedly suffering damage from ghouls, leading my subordinates, I received an enthusiastic welcome from the village chief as soon as we entered the village entrance.

‘What? Shouldn’t they be scared when we come in such numbers?’

Although we’re just lightly armed conscripts, when 100 armed men rush in, it’s natural to be cautious, thinking ‘Are these passing bandits?’ But the village chief, seeing us as the village’s saviors, came running as if leaping off the ground.

“Pleased to meet you, I am Hundred-man Captain Yujin from Sordan Fortress.”

“Ah! Welcome, Hundred-man Captain, I am Oldman, serving as the village chief, just call me Chief.”

“Yes, Chief, so about the monsters you want us to deal with?”

When I asked about the ghouls that had prompted the chief to come to the fortress himself to request help, the chief pointed to the dense forest outside the village with a dark expression.

“A week ago, when the village youth went to the nearby forest to gather wood…”

According to the chief’s explanation, which began with him pointing at the forest: One day, ghouls began to be occasionally spotted in the forest near the village. At first, thinking they had appeared to feed on dead animal carcasses, people stayed far from where the ghouls were spotted when moving through the forest. But at some point, the ghouls’ range of activity expanded, and finally, young men who had gone into the forest outside the village to gather wood were killed by the ghouls.

“Hmm. So the ghouls attacked people.”

In this world, ghouls are not undead like zombies, walking corpses.
They are living monsters with a humanoid form but hairless, with skin like a Sphynx cat, long limbs, and protruding snouts like monkeys.
They usually act as cleaners in the forest, disposing of dead animal carcasses or human corpses, like otherworld hyenas. But they move in packs and when there’s no food nearby, they sometimes attack nearby houses.

The fact that they attacked people means there’s no food nearby, so it’s a situation where they could come to the village at any time. There was a reason the chief had come all the way to the fortress to ask for help.

“Then, were all the young men who went to gather wood killed by the ghouls?”

“No, there is one survivor, but…”

“But?”

“He lost his mind from the shock of seeing the villagers being eaten, and now he’s locked himself in his house and won’t come out.”

It’s natural to be shocked when people you saw in the village just yesterday suddenly become food for monsters.
He must feel anxious if he doesn’t hide in a safe place, but since he’s the only one who can provide at least minimal information about the ghouls, we need to have a conversation with him at least once.

“Chief, would it be possible for me to talk with the young man who survived?”

“Hmm… It might be difficult, but it should be possible. I’ll guide you.”

“Thank you.”

I stationed my subordinates in a wide area inside the village and followed the chief towards the house of the young man who had reportedly survived the ghouls’ attack.

-Knock knock knock.

“Giselda? Giselda, are you in there?”

The chief and I, who had come to the young man’s house, approached a house that looked like any you might see in a village, and the chief knocked on the door.

“Who is it?”

“Ah, Giselda, you were inside.”

The person who opened the door was a middle-aged woman, probably the young man’s mother? Anyway, the chief introduced me to the woman who had opened the door.

“Giselda, I’m sorry to bother you at this difficult time, but I have someone to introduce. This is the Hundred-man Captain from the nearby fortress who has come to help us.”

“Pleased to meet you, madam.”

Along with the chief’s introduction, I greeted the middle-aged woman, but the response came not from the woman but from someone else.

-Clang!

“Hun- Hundred-man Captain?”

“Huh?”

An elderly man who seemed to be a villager, passing behind us, stared intently at me who looked like a soldier, and upon hearing my title, dropped the farming tool he was holding.

Then he ran to me, grabbed my trouser leg, and started wailing.

“What? Why are you suddenly doing this?”

“Oh! Oh! Hundred-man Captain! Please find my son!”

“Ah…”

The elderly man seemed to be the father of someone who hadn’t returned alive from the forest.
His face, showing traces of age and hardship until now, was full of deep sorrow, and in his wrinkled eyes, tears he had been holding back as the head of the family, unable to shed easily, began to flow as the dam of endurance broke.

“Please, please find my son, even if it’s just his corpse, please…”

Seeing the man start to cry pitifully while grabbing the pants of a soldier who hadn’t even lived half his life, I thought of my parents back home.
My father, who took my small hand with his rough and coarse hands that had held farming tools all his life and took me to the fields.
My mother, who, though uneducated herself, went to the temple to ask the priests to teach me writing because I seemed smart.
My parents, sitting in a well-ripened wheat field, teaching me songs while watching the wheat sway in the wind.
And my younger siblings, holding my lonely hands as we walked home together.

‘They probably felt the same way when I said I was going to the battlefield.’

“Don’t cry, sir. We will… I can’t promise, but we will definitely bring back at least some belongings of those who didn’t return.”

“Even that, thank you, thank you so much.”

After comforting the man who was kneeling on the ground and wailing, I lifted my head and shifted my gaze to the middle-aged woman.

“Madam, would it be alright if I spoke with your son?”

“About what happened in the forest?”

“It must be mentally difficult, but it’s absolutely necessary.”

The middle-aged woman’s expression darkened. She seemed very worried about asking questions that might stimulate her son’s trauma when he wasn’t in a good state.
But seeing the man prostrate on the ground and wailing, she fully opened the door she had slightly opened with uncertainty.

“Come in.”

“Thank you, madam.”

I entered the house through the door she opened, along with the chief.

“He’s over there, inside.”

“…”

Entering the house and looking at the young man who had returned alive from the ghouls, I could see at a glance that his condition was very poor.

Hugging his knees and shaking like an aspen leaf, the young man’s face was no different from a living corpse.
Dark circles under his eyes and deeply sunken cheeks, probably from not eating properly.
His fingertips were bleeding, perhaps from biting his nails in anxiety, and his trembling gaze was tinged with fear, as if monsters might appear from somewhere.

“Son? Look this way for a moment.”

“Uh, uhhh,”

Even at his mother’s call, the young man just shook violently without turning his head. The expression of the woman looking at her son like this was filled with sadness.

“…Hey.”

Watching the young man’s condition, I approached him and touched his shoulder, and when my hand touched his shoulder, he had a seizure.

“Aah! Aaah! Don’t come! Don’t come near me!”

Shaking his body violently and moving away from me, he crawled under a long chair in the corner of the house and hid his body. He started muttering something in an anxious voice.

“I, I’m not tasty, don’t eat me. I, I’m not tasty, don’t eat me. I, I’m not tasty, don’t eat me. I, I’m not tasty, don’t eat me. I, I’m not tasty, don’t eat me.”

Repeating words that he probably shouted while escaping from the ghouls, the man hid his body deeper under the chair.

“He’s been like this ever since he returned from the forest. He gets scared even at the sound of wind and doesn’t eat food, so at this rate, at this rate our child will… hic…”

Watching the man’s behavior, his mother finally showed tears.

“His condition is serious.”

In this state, we can’t have a proper conversation. Without knowing the approximate location where he encountered the ghouls, we’d have to comb through the entire forest.
If suddenly many people start moving around the forest, the frightened ghouls might run away and the search could be prolonged.

If they’ve stayed in the forest for a long time, it’s highly likely that they’ve made a nest there.
Even if we temporarily drive them away with our presence, they’ll eventually return to their nest and continue to be a threat to the village.
Therefore, before they run away, we need to completely destroy their nest and exterminate the ghouls, otherwise this civilian support mission will end in failure.

“Madam, would it be alright if I take a moment?”

“What?”

With the woman’s permission, I took off the gauntlet on my hand and approached the young man who had hidden under the chair.

“Hey, let’s talk for a moment.”

“N-no! Don’t come! Don’t come near me!”

Seeing the young man having a seizure at the sight of my face, I reached out and grabbed him by the collar.

“Hup!”

“Huh? Huh?”

I pulled the young man I had grabbed by the collar out from under the chair in one go, and to the young man who looked dazed from being suddenly pulled out,

-Slap!

“Ugh!”

I used the medieval method of conversation.

“Do you feel like talking now?”

“Uhhhhh.”

-Slap!

“How about now? Are you coming to your senses?”

“Ah, a-”

-Slap!

“Where did you see the ghouls?”

“I-I’ll tell…”

“It seems you still haven’t come to your senses.”

Seeing that the young man still seemed unable to have a proper conversation, I raised my hand again.

“What, what are you doing, you crazy bastard!!!”

The young man’s mother, Giselda, rushed in and started pulling my hair.

“W-wait! Calm down, Giselda! He’s a soldier! He’s here to help us!”

“Ma-madam, please calm down! This is a necessary conversation…”

“Shut up, you crazy bastard!”

Calling me a crazy bastard is too much.

‘I even took off my gauntlet and didn’t bring a sword, aren’t I being gentlemanly enough?’

I was just using a conversation method full of medieval romance and courtesy, but she didn’t seem to understand my polite conversation method.

Anyway, she only calmed down after a brief moment passed until her son, who had come to his senses due to my conversation method, called out to her.