Future Knight

Chapter 114

After the soldiers left.

The green elves, emaciated like mummies, scrambled to lick up the phlegm the soldiers had spat out.

One of the green elves, who had been struck by a stone, looked at them with a despondent urge to cry.

However, no tears came.

They were dying of thirst under the scorching midsummer sun.

It had been five days since they had been captured by humans.

The humans gave water to the dozens of green elves only once a day and left them under the blazing sun.

They did not give them any food at all.

The green elf prisoners, feeling extreme thirst, were slowly dying.

The reason the humans did not kill them immediately and left them like this was to lure out the remaining enemies.

So, the green elf prisoners were trapped in a place highly visible from the enemy’s camp.

The Allied soldiers did not leave them alone.

Every day, they were bombarded with stones, curses filled with hatred and resentment, and a shower of phlegm.

The hope for life gradually seemed to extinguish in the eyes of the green elves.

As Kang Chan happened to pass by the camp, he noticed something and doubted his own eyes.

“Gasp! How, how could it be!”

Kang Chan felt as if he had been struck on the head with a hammer.

“J-Jaina?”

Among the green elves, there was one who looked exactly like Jaina.

Kang Chan, unconsciously, approached the prison and stared at the female green elf.

Her small stature, her facial features, and even her blonde hair were all exactly the same.

Only her skin was green; the green elf looked like Jaina’s twin.

Of course, Kang Chan knew better than anyone that she was not Jaina. The dead could not return as green elves.

However, even knowing that, Kang Chan couldn’t help but shed tears upon seeing the face he had longed for.

He had never thought he would see her face in his lifetime.

The green elf woman, who resembled Jaina, also looked at him.

At first, she was very wary of Kang Chan, but soon her expression turned curious.

It was because the man was crying as he looked at her.

She had no way of knowing why he was crying, so she silently watched his lonely figure as he turned and walked away.

That night, Kang Chan returned to the prison where the green elves were held.

“Who goes there?”

The guard, startled by the sudden appearance of Kang Chan, who was dressed entirely in black, shouted loudly in the darkness.

“I am Kang Chan of the Visman Empire’s Helrainer Knights.”

“Gasp! L-Lord Kang Chan!”

“It’s Lord Kang Chan!”

The soldiers guarding the prisoners were taken aback by the name Kang Chan.

They looked at him with eyes full of reverence.

Recently, Kang Chan had become a rising star among the Allied soldiers.

A Sword Master who had risen from a conscripted soldier to the regular knighthood.

His feats with the Special Forces Unit Black Wyvern, wreaking havoc in enemy territory, had made him a legendary figure among the common soldiers.

Moreover, the fact that he was always accompanied by Zikyon, who was known to people as a priestess, added to his mystique.

Thus, Kang Chan, who was often seen with Zikyon, was grandiosely called the “Sky Knight.”

“Sky Knight! It is an honor to meet you!”

“You must be mistaken. I am not the Sky Knight.”

“Aren’t you Lord Kang Chan who leads the Black Wyvern Unit?”

“That is true.”

“Then you are indeed the Sky Knight. Salute!”

“…….”

‘Could it be that I am being called the Sky Knight now?’

Finding himself with an undeserved nickname, Kang Chan felt a bit embarrassed.

Moreover, the name Sky Knight… it did not suit him at all.

If anything, Dark Knight would be more fitting.

“But what brings such an esteemed person to this humble place?”

“I came to see the prisoners.”

The guard, surprised that someone as important as a Sword Master had come to see the dying green elves, asked again.

“Pardon? You mean the green elf prisoners?”

“Yes.”

“Ah, understood!”

The guard, although very curious about why Kang Chan wanted to see the green elves, could not dare to ask due to their difference in status and hurriedly opened the way.

“Loyalty!”

“Well done.”

Kang Chan passed by the guards and arrived in front of the prison.

Under the intense heat of midday, everyone had collapsed and was sleeping like corpses.

Kang Chan approached the green elf he had seen during the day. Sensing his presence, the green elves quickly stood up, wary and glaring at him.

Even at night, people who held grudges against them would occasionally appear to throw filth or threaten them with weapons.

There were thirty green elves trapped in the cell.

Among them, twenty were orc elves, and the remaining ten looked like ordinary elves.

Kang Chan searched for the elf who resembled Jaina.

She also glared at Kang Chan with intense wariness.

Kang Chan fell into deep sorrow again as he looked at her.

The green elf woman, who had become the focus of Kang Chan’s gaze, felt puzzled once more.

The man who had come during the day and shed tears while looking at her had now returned in the evening, staring at her with sorrowful eyes again.

The green elf woman wore a perplexed expression as she saw Kang Chan’s sad eyes.

That expression made her look even more like Jaina, and Kang Chan, unable to be satisfied just by looking, spoke to her.

“What’s your name?”

“……”

Extremely wary, she did not respond to Kang Chan’s words.

“Are you afraid of me?”

The green elf woman silently nodded.

Because of their beauty, similar to that of elves, many soldiers had targeted them.

They had lured them with promises of bread and water if they showed their chests.

Of course, those soldiers wouldn’t give them any food even if they did show.

“Rest assured, I hold no ill feelings towards you.”

Though he said this, there was deep emotion in Kang Chan’s words. The fact that he had come at such an odd hour made his words seem unconvincing.

Kang Chan saw that the lips of the green elf woman, who was staring at him, were cracked like parched earth, so he handed her the water bottle he had brought.

“You must be thirsty. Here, drink.”

When Kang Chan offered her the water bottle, she was startled and grabbed it, drinking hastily.

However, she only took a few sips.

She shared the remaining water with her comrades.

But the amount of water Kang Chan had brought was far from enough to satisfy them all.

“Do you want more?”

She nodded silently.

“Wait here for a moment.”

Kang Chan stood up and asked a soldier to fill a large container with water for the prisoners.

The prisoners eagerly drank the water Kang Chan provided, showing signs of life and joy.

As the water bottle was about to run dry, Kang Chan heard the green elf woman’s voice for the first time.

“Why… are you helping us?”

Her voice, harsh and cracked from being under the scorching sun for five days, was originally a beautiful one.

“Just… nostalgia for the past, I suppose.”

“Do I resemble someone you know a lot?”

Her sharp question startled Kang Chan for a moment, but he pretended otherwise and asked back.

“Why do you think so?”

“I could tell from your eyes.”

Kang Chan was momentarily speechless.

“So, I’m right.”

“Yes, you resemble a woman I know. Very much so.”

“I see, I thought so.”

There was a moment of silence between them, and Kang Chan silently stared at her face.

From the front, she really looked a lot like Jaina.

The green elf woman also stared back at Kang Chan.

Although he was an enemy, she didn’t entirely dislike the look in his eyes.

Kang Chan took something out of his pocket and handed it to her.

“Take this.”

“What is it?”

What Kang Chan handed her was a pill used by astronauts.

“You’ll know when you take it.”

“……”

The woman looked at the pill Kang Chan had given her, puzzled, but then she silently smiled and spoke.

“Yes, it would be better to die, wouldn’t it?”

It seemed she thought the pill Kang Chan had given her was poison.

Indeed, in such a situation, taking poison and ending one’s life might have been a relief.

Kang Chan denied her words.

“That’s not poison.”

“Then what is this?”

“You’ll know when you take it.”

“……”

Following Kang Chan’s advice to just try it, she swallowed the pill without any hesitation.

Even if it were poison, she had nothing to lose.

However, moments later, her eyes widened.

“How… how is this possible?”

She felt her hunger gradually subside and, astonished, looked at Kang Chan.

“With just one of those pills, you won’t need to eat anything all day.”

She was overwhelmed with the feeling of fullness for the first time in five days.

Kang Chan handed her a small metal box.

Confused, she accepted the box.

When she opened it, she found dozens of the pills she had just taken inside.

She looked at Kang Chan with surprised eyes.

“I don’t know if this will help you or harm you, but this is all I can do to help…”

Driven by his lingering feelings for Jaina, he had extended this kindness, but he knew he couldn’t do any more.

She was not the real Jaina.

She was just an enemy he had to kill.

“Take care.”

Resolving himself, Kang Chan turned towards his tent.

As he walked away, the green elf woman spoke softly.

“My name is Platina…”

When she told him her name, he responded with his.

“I am Kang Chan.”

After Kang Chan’s visit.

The green elves who had taken the pills he provided visibly improved in condition.

However, even though they managed to deal with their hunger, water was more crucial than food, and their suffering didn’t change much.

This was because the humans had completely stopped providing water.

A person can survive for three weeks without food, but without water, their life is at risk after just three days.

For both elves and humans, water was essential for survival.

Since that night, Kang Chan often thought of Platina.

He tried not to, but the more he tried, the more he worried about her suffering under the scorching midsummer sun.

Her suffering face, which resembled Jaina’s, pained him.

Even though she was an enemy green elf, her resemblance to Jaina was enough to make his heart ache.

For Kang Chan, seeing Jaina in pain was the most horrific thing in the world.

“Are you thinking about those things in space again?”

Zikyon, who had approached the brooding Kang Chan, spoke in a worried tone. Kang Chan avoided answering and turned away from her.

“Hey, are you still upset?”

“……”

“Fine, I won’t talk to you until you’re no longer upset.”

As Zikyon, disheartened, was about to leave Kang Chan’s tent, he suddenly called out to her.

Although he was annoyed, he couldn’t continue ignoring her forever.