NOVEL WEB Chapter 9: (1)
“…Do you know me?” Jeff asked in surprise.
Kaiyan was surprised that Max knew Jeff’s name, too.
“Hehe, You’re a celebrity, Jeff Kallein the Orc Slayer! I don’t think there’s a soldier in the Outer area who doesn’t know you.” Max replied.
“Alas, I’m……. I thought you knew me personally, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen an acquaintance on the battlefield…….” Jeff sighed.
“Jeff Kallein, the orc slayer… That’s your title!” Kaiyan exclaimed.
Kaiyan remembered playing in the early days and occasionally hearing stories from other soldiers. At the time, he thought it was just a joke between soldiers, but when he heard it from Uncle Max’s mouth, it felt different.
“Haha… this is embarrassing.”
“There are many people in my unit who owe their lives to you! I’m so glad to meet you.”
“Of course you are. Uncle Jeff is an Aura user.”
It would be even more odd if an aura user hadn’t been able to help out in the outlying battlefields, which were mostly small monsters.
As Kaiyan was admiring Jeff’s newfound awesomeness, he was reminded of Max, who urged them on.
“Oh, come on, let’s talk on the road! We don’t have much time left.”
As they made their way toward the Special Unit, Max thankfully gave them a lot of information.
He’s obviously been in the military for a long time, so he knew more than Jeff.
“So, it’s a good idea to stay no more than a certain distance away from the commander.”
Max held up a finger for emphasis, and Jeff’s eyes lit up.
“So the safest place to be was near the commander?” Jeff asked.
“That’s right,” Max replied, “since the Special unit knights don’t usually go to the front. However, we shouldn’t get too close, so we’d better keep a reasonable distance because we’ll be the ones who suffer if they get upset.”
“Ah, that makes sense, I’ll keep that in mind,” Jeff said.
Jeff and Max were having a conversation that Kaiyan didn’t understand at all.
Unable to contain his curiosity, Kaiyan looked at Max and asked, “Why? Aren’t the knights supposed to be upfront?”
“Phew, their role is different than a regular knight,” Max replied. “Their job is to protect their commander, and they don’t care if dozens of soldiers are dying.”
“That’s why he said that they were toys,” Kaiyan thought.
As it turned out, the Special unit was, as Uncle Jeff had first said, the toys of the nobles.
They were the sacrificial lambs for the aristocrats.
“Well, that’s the way to go,” Jeff said.
Further in from the center, the flags of numerous special Unit units waved in the wind.
He stopped in front of one with the number seven on it and looked at Max. It was time to part ways.
“So, Uncle Max….” Kaiyan started
“I guess I’ll have to part ways here, I’m with the 7th Special unit.”
“What? We’re in the 7th Special unit too?”
Uncle Max was in the same 7th Special unit as them. It was strange, or should he say, unlucky.
Max smiled as if he liked that fact.
“Well, it’s a good thing you’re in good company, hehe! Let’s get going, we don’t want to be late,” Max said.
When they arrived at the 7th Special Unit, there were already a lot of people gathered.
What was a little strange was that their faces all looked dark and disgruntled.
It seemed that most of them had been dragged in suddenly and forcibly, just like them.
“Form up, everyone! Move fast!”
After a few moments of waiting and watching the soldiers, a knight in plate armor appeared, shouting loudly and ordering the soldiers to form up.
“Phew… this is just the beginning,” Kaiyan thought out loud.
“Kaiyan, again, you must stay close to my side,” Jeff said seriously.
Uncle Jeff said, looking at him with a wistful face to see if he was worried.
“Yes, don’t worry. Oh, and Uncle Max is coming with us too, right?” Kaiyan asked.
“Ah, you’re beating me to the punch, it’s good for me to be traveling with the likes of you, because the Central Battlefield is no place for the faint of heart,” Max replied.
Central battlefield.
He was actually a little scared, but not so much that his whole body was shaking.
Of course, that was only because he had the privilege of being in the player system.
He wasn’t the fragile Kaiyan of the past, but the Kaiyan who had grown through levels and reward boxes.
‘Maybe this is an opportunity,’ Kaiyan thought.
On the one hand, he was looking forward to leveling up.
Stronger monsters, far more powerful than the ones on the outskirts, were waiting for him on the central battlefield. He wondered how much experience they would give him.
Entering this dangerous central battlefield could be his chance to take another step forward. Provided he didn’t die.
“Adjutant, are you ready?” As Kaiyan was lost in his thoughts, he heard a voice in his ear, a voice that didn’t belong on the battlefield.
Turning his head towards it, he saw a knight, or rather a nobleman, clad in fine armor.
Kaiyan squeezed his eyes shut, desperately hoping he was wrong.
“Yes, Tarien-nim, I have gathered only the best of the best, totaling 800 men!”
“Good work, everyone, listen up, I’m Tarien, commander of the 7th Special unit!”
His voice crushed Kaiyan’s expectations.
Kaiyan didn’t think so. The nobleman who introduced himself as Tarien was too young. Even if Kaiyan overestimated his age, he could be 13 or 14 years old.
Kaiyan expected it to be a nobleman’s child, but he didn’t expect it to be this bad.
“Ha… I don’t think this is real.”
A sigh escaped Kaiyan’s lips, and it seemed he wasn’t the only one.
“I know… I know… I can’t believe a kid like that is in command….”
“This… I knew it.”
Voices of frustration and dissatisfaction erupted from everywhere.
Kaiyan was not the only one who thought so. He couldn’t believe he had to fight monsters under the command of a kid who looked younger than him.
“Be quiet. If the knight hears us, we’ll be executed.”
“Yes…….”
Kaiyan took Uncle Max’s advice and closed his mouth.
It was true that he had a lot of grievances with the young commander, but he didn’t want to die right now.
Pooh-ooh-ooh!
As they waited in formation, the war trumpet sounded, signaling the start of the battle.
Kaiyan hated the sound of the horns, which he usually liked to hear.
‘It’s just beginning. This is what happened… I’m going to enter the center of the battlefield.
It was hard for Kaiyan to calm his nerves at the thought of actually entering the center of the battlefield the moment the commander’s order was given.
Gulp.
Kaiyan was pretty nervous without realizing it, so he let his saliva slide loudly down his throat.
“Everyone follow me, attack!”
“…Huh?”
“What?”
Suddenly, Tarien, the young commander of the 7th Special Unit, shouted attack in a loud voice.
Despite the fact that the attack order from the commander-in-chief had not yet fallen.
“No… No way!”
As if he hadn’t already assessed the situation, he jumped onto his handsome black horse, drew his sword high, and charged forward alone.
Did he think he was the hero of a fairy tale? What a stupid thing to do.
“Oh no. All knights, protect Tarien-nim!”
The knights who had been guarding him began to hurriedly follow.
“Ha… Uncle Jeff, what should we do?”
With the commander suddenly running off by himself, the soldiers of the 7th Special Unit, including Kaiyan, were at a loss for words.
They had never had a commander do such a stupid thing during the war.
“We’re still waiting… When the commander-in-chief gives the order, then we can charge.”
“That would be… That would be nice.”
They were Allied before they were Special Unit. So, as Uncle Jeff said, even if the commander gave the order to attack, the commander-in-chief’s order took precedence.