Chapter 4: Dust and Ashes

Being in a forest during the day might still be tolerable, but with darkness slipping between the tightly packed trees, the situation turned far more unnerving.

I moved through the dim woods, accompanied by the chorus of night insects, owls, and other nocturnal creatures. The darkness made everything difficult, I kept bumping into branches, their leaves brushing against my skin and leaving behind an irritating itch.

Up ahead, Lieutenant Bulgers advanced with his rifle held out in front of him at about waist level. In that posture, he resembled a small bulldozer, forcing his way forward, bending leaves, snapping twigs, and pushing aside creeping roots with every step he took, carving out a narrow path as he went.

We had already moved at least dozens of meters away from my landing point. I couldn’t tell east from west, but according to Lieutenant Bulgers, we were heading west. For now, our priority was simple, survive first, then regroup with the others who had been scattered during the drop. We were completely spread out behind enemy lines.

Earlier, Lieutenant Bulgers had ordered me to observe our surroundings, to look for anything that could help determine our position, landmarks, direction markers, buildings, gates, anything identifiable.

But unfortunately, as far as my eyes could see, there was nothing but endless stretches of identical green leaves. The only thing I knew for certain was that we were in Lorvaine, a province of Lonfre located along the eastern coast. At the very least, that meant we weren’t completely lost.

After some time spent simply walking, Lieutenant Bulgers suddenly stopped and lowered his body. He signaled for me to do the same.

The two of us dropped to our knees on the root-covered ground. It seemed like he had sensed something nearby. From where I was, all I could see was the back of his helmet, shifting slightly with his slow, controlled movements.

I watched as his head turned, scanning the surroundings, as if he could see straight through the trees and shadows, searching for something hidden beyond them.

“Dust!” A sudden, raspy voice cut through the tense silence.

“Ashes!” I answered on reflex.

Those were the code words used to identify allies, something we had practiced countless times during training simulations. Ever since the beginning of training, I had always wanted to say one of those codes myself. Honestly, it just sounded really cool, so don’t blame me, hehe…

But then it hit me, if there was a highest-ranking officer present in the group, they were supposed to respond, not a medic like me.

So I glanced at Lieutenant Bulgers. He turned his head slightly toward me, and instead of getting angry, the corners of his lips curved upward. He gave me a faint smile, then tapped my helmet a few times with his hand.

…Was that supposed to be a punishment or something?

The rustling of leaves grew louder, and from the wall of shadows, three figures emerged. My heart, which had been hammering against my ribs, finally slowed down as the familiar dull green of Arken uniforms became visible under the faint moonlight.

“Lieutenant Bulgers, is that you? good to see you again, Lieutenant,” one of the figures greeted us in his usual carefree tone.

They were a set of faces that felt very familiar to me.

First, there was Pat, with that ever-cheerful expression of his. But now, that smile could no longer fully hide the fear lurking beneath it.

To his left stood a man fiddling with his submachine gun. He had a striking feature, a noticeable scar across his face. He was the same one known for his eagerness to kill Varexil soldiers earlier. I’m a bit embarrassed to admit it, but I still couldn’t remember his full name, it was just too hard to keep in mind.

And lastly, at the back, there was a tall young man standing stiffly, clearly nervous. His face looked far too young for his build, I suspected he had lied about his age during enlistment. As for him, I wasn’t ashamed to admit I didn’t know his name, he had only been transferred into our platoon at the very last moment. Come to think of it, I still remembered he was the one who tried to flirt with me back on the aircraft.

“Pat Borton, Olszewski, Bennett, good to see you too,” Lieutenant Bulgers returned their greeting, addressing the three members of his platoon.

So the young man’s name was Bennett. Back at the airfield, I vaguely remembered someone calling out “Ashton Bennett.” That was probably his full name.

As for the scar-faced one, his name was Olszewski. Not that it helped much, I’d probably forget it again in a few minutes. So I’d just stick to calling him “scarface,” like always.

“Elise, how you doin—” Pat walked toward me, but suddenly stopped mid-sentence. “Elise… were you crying?”

Damn it!

Was my face really still that much of a mess? I had already wiped it over and over before, yet somehow Pat still noticed it.

“N-no?” I couldn’t even manage to lie properly.

“Leave her alone, man. She just went through something crazy,” Lieutenant Bulgers said, placing a hand on Pat’s shoulder.

“Alright, I didn’t mean anything by it anyway.”

For the first time, Pat backed off instead of teasing me. But just like he said, it really didn’t seem like he had any bad intentions from the start. Strangely enough, I found myself believing that too.

“Sergeant Olszewski, give me your map. Mine fell and got lost during the jump.”

“Sure, Lieutenant.”

On the other side, Sergeant Olsz—um, scarface, slung his submachine gun back into place and began searching for the map inside his uniform pocket. After pulling out a folded sheet, he opened it and handed it over to Lieutenant Bulgers, who was already holding his military coat along with the flashlight he had borrowed from Pat earlier.

As soon as the map was in his hands, he immediately draped the coat over himself. Everything he did was to prevent the flashlight’s beam from spilling out. It was all part of the months of basic training, by doing this, Lieutenant Bulgers created a small pocket of privacy so he could focus on examining the map.

The rest of us instinctively crouched around him, forming a tight circle. Even though the thick coat was already enough to swallow most of the yellow light, being extra cautious wouldn’t hurt anyone in a situation like this. At least, that’s what our beloved instructor always said.

With the forced circular formation, I ended up closer to the young man named Ashton Bennett. He crouched beside me, gripping his rifle tightly, his eyes darting around, bracing for something even he didn’t want to face. His thick uniform couldn’t hide the rise and fall of his chest, his breathing was heavy, strained.

Slowly, I shifted my body, narrowing the gap between us just a little.

“Hey,” I whispered. “Your name’s Ashton, right?”

“Yeah, that’s right,” he turned slightly toward me, noticing I was speaking to him. “Why? Changed your mind about my offer back on the plane?”

“In your dreams,” I shot him down again. He really was the persistent type.

“Ah…”

We kept our voices low, careful not to be heard, not even by the others in our own unit.

“Ashton, Ashton,” I called softly again to get his attention. “You lied about your age, didn’t you?”

His body jerked instantly, as if my words had struck him like a spear straight to the chest. Even Pat, who was on the opposite side, noticed the sudden movement from the rustle of Ashton’s uniform. He asked if Ashton was alright. Ashton brushed it off with a quick lie, saying a mosquito bit him. I backed him up without hesitation.

Once Pat accepted it and returned to watching the surroundings, Ashton and I locked eyes again. But now, he no longer wore that easygoing expression from before. His brows were furrowed, his mouth slightly open, his teeth clenched tight.

A completely natural reaction. Who would want their biggest secret exposed?

“What do you want?” Ashton asked, wary of my intentions.

“Me? Nothing.”

Honestly, I had no intention of blackmailing him. I just wanted to confirm whether my suspicion was true or not, and judging from his reaction, that was more than enough.

“But seriously, how old are you?”

“Sixteen. Just last week.”

“Oh… happy birthday.”

Wow… so that meant he enlisted at fifteen. At that age, he must have spent about a year in bootcamp. Mr. and Mrs. Bennett were probably having a hard time right now… or maybe they didn’t care at all, and that was why Ashton tried to run from home. Well, that’s just baseless speculation.

I can’t remember his name, but even that doesn’t compare to a boy who voluntarily enlisted at the age of twelve. He actually served in the Pacific theater as a gunner on one of the United States’ battleships.

Oh, and he got married at fourteen, became a father at fifteen, and divorced by seventeen. What was wrong with that kid? Doing a speedrun or something? Geez… take it easy, boy.

Don’t be surprised, though. Administrative leaks like this were actually quite common back then, and in a way, they were considered normal. When total war was underway, manpower on the field was in desperate demand. Administrative departments were stretched thin, which meant proper verification often became a lower priority, sometimes even skipped entirely.

Make no mistake, administration is crucial in a war that requires massive organization. The problem is, on the battlefield, manpower disappears fast, and replacements are needed even faster.

“Well, what can I say? You’re really young.”

“Look who’s talking.”

Ashton replied with a hint of sarcasm. And he wasn’t wrong, in this world, I was actually at least a year younger than him. But he's still wrong about something.

“Ashton, I know you’re not that naive. In our case, things were decided this way from the start. You know that, don’t you?”

“Still…”

Yeah… people like us, Sustainers, had already been treated as state assets since the age of nine or ten. This thing we call “magic” was more like a parasite clinging to its host, making it highly unstable.

That’s why the host had to be trained at that age. Any later, and it would already be too late. Ages fifteen to twenty were considered our prime. Naturally, the military, being pragmatic, preferred deploying those around fifteen for a longer service period without needing constant replacements. Especially when no one knew how long this war would last.

"By the way, you are not really asking for anything in return, right? You are not planning to expose it, are you?"

"Hell no," I answered without hesitation, but then something crossed my mind. "Actually… there is one thing."

"There it is…"

"You thought I was going to ask for something nasty. I just want you to stay within my sight and cover me. I am… pretty vulnerable out here."

"Oh?" Ashton did not seem to expect that, but there was no trace of disappointment in his voice. "Then what about Lieutenant Bulgers?"

"No need to worry, he will understand."

In fact, this was originally Lieutenant Bulgers’ idea. After what happened earlier, he admitted he had already been thinking about it even before the jump, but the chaos of preparation made him forget to bring it up. He even gave me the privilege of choosing my own personal bodyguard.

"Wow, you could have just said from the start that you wanted to make me your guardian angel. No need to go through all that trouble blackmailing me."

My eyebrow twitched at his proud misunderstanding. Guardian angel? What kind of nonsense was that?

"Hold on, I thought you—"

"Are you two done enjoying yourselves?"

We were so absorbed in our conversation that Lieutenant Bulgers’ voice from behind startled both of us. When we turned around, we saw that he was no longer covered by his military coat. In fact, he was already standing there with the other two members of the unit.

We both quickly straightened ourselves in front of him as he let out a quiet sigh.

"You two… can’t you postpone talking about your marriage until we are out of this forest?"

Of course, Pat, who was nearby, wasted no time taking advantage of the moment.

"Shut up."

"Shut up."

Without realizing it, we both said it in perfect rhythm.