Chapter 2
#2
Twelve years old, that summer.
Every time I stab my chest with a dagger, I always return to this time. And each time, Lucy always met her doom with a foolish choice.
It was truly foolish. Despite accumulating wisdom and honing her senses for so long, she couldn't live any other kind of life.
…This time. This time for sure.
Lucy, staring at the back of her hand with hazy eyes, jumped up, kicked open the door, and dashed out into the hallway. She hurriedly ran to her mother's room.
Bang! As she violently threw open the door, her mother, who was tending to her instrument, looked at her with surprised eyes.
"Oh… what's wrong, Lucy? Why are you sweating so much?"
Her hair, the same light sand color as her own, and her eyes, a shade darker, met Lucy with a gentle light.
Seeing her living mother always evoked an emotion that was difficult to describe. Lucy pressed her lips into a straight line, holding back tears, and finally embraced her mother.
Her mother, startled and flustered, soon extended her arms and embraced her in return.
"What's wrong? Did you have a bad dream or something?"
As the warmth of her body touched her skin, a sense of relief washed over her, along with the obsession to protect it. Lucy, her voice choked with emotion, pushed her mother away and opened her mouth with difficulty.
"Mother. I have a request."
Staring at her mother, who was looking at her with a puzzled expression, Lucy solidified her resolve.
This time, she would definitely protect her mother and herself.
No. Protecting them was a given, and she would retaliate against the one who made her repeat this cursed fate.
To do that, she needed a sword. A sword sharpened more keenly than anything else.
General Walter Heiberg.
She had to use him. She had to become his master.
The royal family and princesses could go to hell. None of that mattered; now was the time to acquire a sword.
If she could get that man, it would be like holding the most powerful card. And, fortunately or unfortunately, that man was currently within her sphere of influence.
Lucy grabbed her mother's hands and spoke in a firm tone.
"Please send me to the military academy. I want to become a soldier to protect my mother and the country."
⚜ ⚜ ⚜
Lucy's homeland, Parnassus, could not be considered a particularly powerful nation.
In the first place, national power came from capital, and while Parnassus had a solid foundation, it was somewhat lacking as a wealthy country.
However, thanks to a talented individual known as an invincible general, its military power could stand shoulder to shoulder with neighboring countries. What Lucy was aiming for was that very talent.
To meet him, she had to leave the royal palace.
No matter how she thought about it, choosing the military academy instead of playing princess in her mother's arms was a decision she would make a hundred times over.
However, when she had to run twenty laps around the training ground like now, she did have a slight doubt as to whether that decision was the right one.
"Haa, haa…."
As her side cramped up and she hesitated, a drill instructor rushed over and struck her back hard.
"Arsinoe! What are you going to do if you're already tired!"
A gruff voice, like shouting into an oak barrel, tormented her eardrums as if tearing them apart. At the same time, the vertical pupils, typical of wild beasts, stared intently at Lucy, signaling a warning.
Instead of saying she was tired, Lucy put strength into her dragging feet and kicked the ground a little harder. Soon, the drill instructor's gaze flickered elsewhere.
"Geronimo! Our great-grandmother in your hometown is faster than you! Pick up the pace!"
"I will correct it!"
"Barde! At that rate, you'll piss your pants before you even get to the latrine!"
"Sorry!"
Ears that perked up incessantly wriggled above a face that brought wolves to mind before humans.
"Move faster, you snail bastards!"
The Lykan drill instructor bared his fangs and berated the trainees in a ferocious tone.
Geronimo, who had been reprimanded, breathed roughly and grumbled in a voice that could barely be heard.
"Is a Lykan's running speed the same as a human's? Seriously…."
It was such a small voice that it was almost drowned out by his breathing.
However, Lucy let out a small sigh and stepped back about two paces from Geronimo.
Less than a few seconds later, a roar that sounded more like overturning the ground than kicking up sand, tu-pa-pa-pak, approached from behind.
"Hey, you!"
The drill instructor, who had already run over, lifted his upper lip and looked at Geronimo.
Sharp fangs gleamed menacingly below his long snout, and his ferocious expression, as if he would chew up his opponent at any moment, was truly beast-like.
All the trainees knew that that scary expression was a Lykan's smiling face, but they couldn't help but feel a chilling sensation every time they faced it.
The drill instructor moved even closer to Geronimo, who had closed his mouth with a pale face, and showed his upper teeth.
"I'm running on two legs like you, not four! Are you still going to say it's a foul!"
"No, drill instructor!"
"Aren't you going to run faster? You had a fear of heights, didn't you? If you come in last, I'm going to tie you to my back and make you crawl all the way up to the bell at the top of the school! The same goes for the others!"
Instead of answering the drill instructor's threat, Geronimo began to pick up speed with a pale face.
As the last-place trainee began to speed up, everyone else who had been lagging behind kicked their feet a little faster. Lucy also didn't want to be hung on the school bell tower as a spectacle, so she mustered all her strength and focused on running.
⚜ ⚜ ⚜
The training ended about ten minutes later.
Lucy, who had finished the final cool-down, didn't even have the strength to gather herself and collapsed on the dirt floor.
"I'm going to die, really…."
It had already been four years since she entered the military academy.
She had been trained by many drill instructors, but this was her first time being trained by a Lykan. The drill instructor, named Zen, tormented the trainees relentlessly with his enormous size and inexhaustible stamina.
"What special training is this supposed to be? It's just a lot of doggone suffering. Who can win by running with a wolf!"
Geronimo, still alive and kicking, grumbled softly as he lay on the ground. Then Barde, who was sprawled out next to him, caught his breath and retorted.
"Hey, what are you going to do if you get scolded again? Don't you know how good a Lykan's hearing is?"
"There's no way he can hear us from that far away."
Even as he said that, Geronimo raised his head and looked at the drill instructor's expression.
Amused by his intimidated appearance, Lucy chuckled slightly. Barde, who laughed along with her, patted his chest and continued.
"Still, that drill instructor is supposed to be quite famous. He's the general's direct adjutant. That's why he was invited as a special training drill instructor."
"The general? That general?"
"Yeah."
The name, which was referred to as a myth among the cadets, no, the entire royal army, came out, and Lucy felt goosebumps on her neck without realizing it.
"Don't lie! The general's subordinate is that drug-addicted wolf?" Geronimo said, shaking his head as if he couldn't believe it.
Barde turned pale at the words "drug-addicted wolf" and covered Geronimo's mouth.
The word "drug addict" was a taboo word for Lykans that was hard to express even as an insult. Just as he was looking around, wondering if the drill instructor had heard, Barde swallowed his breath as he saw a long shadow cast over his head.
"Did you know? Lykans are several times stronger than usual during the full moon."
At the gruff voice, Geronimo slowly raised his head with a horrified expression.
In his eyes, the face of the drill instructor, who was grinning with his fangs bared, filled his vision.
"If you lose your mind in that state of increased strength, huh? I might just tear you apart, huh? Isn't that why we inhale herbs to avoid going berserk? Are you still going to call me a drug addict?"
"Th, th, that's, that's."
"Do you think we like using those herbs? We have to inhale them for almost three days straight, feeling dizzy and unable to come to our senses. Isn't that why we can't get decent jobs and are ignored?"
"Uh……. Yes, that's right, yes."
"Calling us drug addicts is all for the sake of preventing humans from getting hurt. So don't be so dissatisfied with it. Got it?"
Unlike his fierce impression, the sentences he spoke to Geronimo were just plain calm without any emotional undertones. Geronimo looked at the drill instructor with a flushed face, then scratched the back of his neck awkwardly and lowered his head.
"I'm… sorry. I misspoke."
"Well, there aren't any Lykans at the military academy right now, so I guess it's unfamiliar. But if you start your military life in earnest, you'll meet a lot of Lykan guys like me. So be careful next time."
The drill instructor ruffled his hair roughly and grinned. Then he straightened his back, scanned the sprawled-out trainees, and raised his voice in a higher tone.
"Stop rolling around and go eat lunch! There will be a special lecture in the afternoon, so be sure to attend!"
⚜ ⚜ ⚜
"Noisy…."
Lucy, looking around the cafeteria, let out a small sigh. The cafeteria, which was never quiet even on normal days, was like a war zone thanks to the chatter of the trainees.
There were two reasons why the cafeteria was so noisy.
One was that instead of the cheap sandwiches they always ate for lunch, boiled sausages and freshly baked white bread were served. And the other was because of the rumors about the famous person who had come to the school.
Lucy shoved the last remaining sausage into her mouth and looked around the cafeteria again with an indifferent expression.
"Hey, hey, it seems like what Barde said earlier wasn't a bluff."
Geronimo rubbed his nose with one hand and slammed the wooden tray down with the other.
His nose was red and swollen, so it looked like he had bumped into someone or had a fight somewhere. Lucy, who was arranging her utensils, turned her questioning gaze as if asking what he meant.
"Why?"
"I overheard it while passing by the adjutant's office earlier, and that Lykan is really the general's direct adjutant."
The general's direct adjutant.
…The general.
The moment she heard the word, goosebumps rose on her neck without her knowing it.
