After a few minutes of waiting—and with Eig growing increasingly annoyed by Eugene and Ned as they argued about who had won.
.....
Eugene sat on a wooden chair at a long table. Around it, the new knights and a few veterans sat on chairs as well.
The scent of amber spread through the air, mixed with the smell of meat and mint. On the table were roasted chicken, boiled potatoes, fruit juice, bread, milk from a blue cow, golden rice, and salad.
Everyone was eating quickly, while outside the atmosphere had grown calm and mild beneath the wings of the night.
Crunch… crunch… crunch.
Eugene ate a piece of chicken that had been slightly burned.
To his left, Ned was eating rice with a silver spoon.
"This food is delicious," Eugene commented as he took some rice from Ned's plate.
"Hey! Who allowed you to take my rice?" Ned complained, his tone carrying childish annoyance.
"Come on, it doesn't have your name on it," Eugene replied as he scooped another spoonful.
At the very same moment, Ned grabbed a carefully roasted chicken thigh.
"Hey! That's my chicken… are you comparing rice to a whole chicken leg?" Eugene said, clearly annoyed as he looked at Ned.
Ned replied in a teasing childish tone,
"Well, it doesn't have your name on it either."
Eugene lunged at Ned's food, and Ned did the same. The two of them looked like a pair of hungry ghouls devouring food that was about to run out forever.
"Ouch… ouch!"
Eig poked both Eugene and Ned with the tip of his fork. Eig was sitting beside Ned.
"Stop behaving like children. You're twenty-three, and he's sixteen. Both of you are considered adults."
"There are adults who are sixteen?" Eugene said with a tone of sarcasm and disbelief.
"Of course. Otherwise, how would someone come here without a guardian?"
Eugene raised an eyebrow, quietly mocking Eig's words in his mind.
Does he really have access to records?
He spoke in a slightly raised voice amid the growing chatter and sounds of eating among the knights.
"Don't you know I'm an orphan?"
Ned leaned his chair back, placing one hand behind his head while holding a piece of chicken in the other, his foot resting on the edge of the table.
"Yes, I know. But since you're a student of the Sun Academy, it officially becomes your guardian if you're an orphan—and temporarily your guardian even if you have parents."
"Wait… you're an orphan?" Ned looked at Eugene with surprise.
Eugene himself was surprised as well. He clearly wasn't used to someone recognizing him as the survivor of that mysterious incident.
Eig spoke while holding a cup of blue cow milk.
"Ned is like a cave man. He rarely knows anything about what happens in the outside world."
"Honestly, he even looks like one—not just in appearance but in his brain too," Eugene mocked while taking another spoonful of rice.
…
After everyone finished eating, they cleaned and arranged the place. Then they all headed toward their rooms as it had grown late.
Eugene opened his eyes, which were heavy with sleep and exhaustion.
"Damn… I hate this cursed stone bed."
He stood up from the bed, his back aching. While doing some light stretches to ease the pain, he heard a soft, beautiful, calm sound coming from outside.
Eugene took his knight cloak and stepped outside.
Snow was swirling across the area.
However, the fires that had been lit softened the harsh cold.
Eugene looked around. Many knights were standing on the wall and around it. The sky was filled with laughter and the moving shadows of people against the wall.
How do they endure this cold?
Eugene walked toward the sound, passing by houses where some loud snoring could be heard.
He kept walking until he reached a dense cluster of trees. Following the sound, he arrived at a small sandy hill. On a tree above it sat Ned, playing a harmonica.
"You've got golden lungs to keep playing without stopping."
Ned looked at Eugene in surprise for a moment and stopped playing.
"Why are you awake? And how did you even hear the sound of the instrument from that distance?"
"Ah… the beds here feel like torture devices. Besides, my mother and Rin always said I have sharp hearing… so I guess that's how I heard your music."
Eugene leaned against the tree while Ned resumed playing.
After a few minutes, Eugene spoke with boredom in his voice.
"Do you do this every day?"
"Yes."
"Don't you get bored doing the same thing every day for so long?"
"No. It's become a habit for me. I grew up among cattle herders in desert mountains."
"What about you?" Ned stretched slightly with a small smile. "What was the environment of the Yesso Mountains like?"
Eugene thought for a moment. Clear nostalgia appeared in his voice.
"It was a green mountainous land. Strong winds most of the time, and snow rarely fell. The air was filled with incense… along with the voices of children and their little troubles."
Eugene fell silent as he recalled the moment of interrogation with Fire.
"Was that village… never real in the first place?"
"So it's completely different from desert mountains," Ned said.
"Of course it is. They're called desert mountains—they're not going to be like a giant green mountain," Eugene joked while sliding slightly downward until his head faced the sky.
"Did someone teach you how to use a sword?" Eugene asked while looking at Ned.
Ned stopped playing and thought for a few seconds.
"Sort of."
"What do you mean 'sort of'?"
"I mean someone taught me the basics and a few techniques… and I developed and learned the rest on my own."
"And you? Your performance wasn't bad for a beginner," Ned said while resuming his playing, waiting for Eugene's answer.
"No. I relied on the martial arts I learned at the academy as support… to compensate for my lack of skill with the sword."
"Wait… they teach you how to use swords at the Sun Academy?!"
Eugene interlocked his hands while continuing to look at the sky, which was beginning to turn light blue as dawn approached.
"No. They only teach us about pistols. By the way… why are there swords if pistols exist?"
Ned placed his hand on his chin, thinking as he nodded slightly.
"I think… because swords are faster in attack, while pistols need to be reloaded. Also, some swords possess enormous destructive power."
"Ahhh…"
Eugene yawned heavily, his eyelids growing heavy.
"Listen…"
"What?" Ned sat upright on the tree branch.
"How far are the borders from the capital?"
Ned tossed the harmonica into the air, caught it, and repeated the motion.
"I think… about four thousand kilometers."
"Are there abandoned castles, lands, inheritances, and things like that within that distance?"
"Of course. Four thousand kilometers is a huge distance—there must be things like that around. But why are you asking?"
Ned looked down and realized Eugene had already fallen asleep.
The sunlight was just beginning to appear, shining on Ned's face and giving it a faint glow.
Foooo… fiiiin… hen hen heeeen…
Ned resumed playing while Eugene slept deeply.
…
"WAAAAKE UUUUP!"
Ned shouted loudly right beside Eugene's ear.
"Ah!"
Startled, Eugene jumped up and threw a punch toward Ned.
Thud.
Ned caught Eugene's fist with his hand, a smile on his face.
"Haha, don't panic, coward. I'm not a monster."
His tone carried teasing mockery.
Ah… now I understand how Rin felt when I annoyed her, Eugene muttered to himself while adjusting his stance.
"What do you want?" Eugene asked, still clearly sleepy, with a bit of irritation in his voice.
"Eig assigned you to my group. So we have a long scouting duty today."
"What are you talking about? What group? What duty?"
"At the border, the system divides people into groups. Each group has several units. Every unit has a certain shift before switching with another unit. After switching, the unit rests, then trains, then eventually rotates again."
"Huh?"
Eugene lifted one side of his mouth slightly while his sleepy eyes widened.
"Listen… I didn't understand a single thing you just said."
"Ahhh…"
Ned grabbed Eugene by the cloak and dragged him along a sandy path through the forest.
"You'll understand with time."
…
Eugene and Ned stopped at a water pond about two hundred meters away from the camp.
Eugene washed his face while sunlight shone on him.
It was a natural forest pond surrounded by tall green trees with long leaves hanging downward.
Eugene looked at Ned, his wet hair covering part of his face.
"Isn't there a toothbrush here?"
Ned leaned against a tree while polishing his sword, wearing his usual smile.
"No…"
"So how do you brush your teeth then?" Eugene's voice carried clear disgust and confusion as he narrowed his eyes.
"I wasn't finished talking. There are no toothbrushes…"
He reached out and picked a pink flower. Its leaves were long and pointed upward before bending slightly at the tips. Its stem was long and green, somewhat sturdy.
"We use these flowers."
"Are you people so poor that you brush your teeth with flowers?!"
"Haha, if Thor or one of the commanders heard you say that, they'd cut off your head. The Border Guard Organization is actually the third richest organization after the Light and Justice Organization and the Alchemists."
Eugene's expression tightened slightly, the corners of his lips lowering as he spoke calmly with sarcasm.
"I asked why you use flowers—not about the organization's wealth."
"Ah… you're impatient," Ned sighed.
"Anyway, we use these flowers because they're natural resources that grow everywhere. They whiten teeth, give the mouth a pleasant scent, and kill oral diseases."
Ned tossed the flower toward Eugene, who caught it.
Eugene smiled sideways while raising one eyebrow.
"You people are extremely obsessed with cleanliness."
"Cleanliness isn't the main reason," Ned said, pointing his thumb toward a place in the forest not far away where some smoke was rising. "It's so we look our best in front of the houris."
Narrator: flip flip flip — the sound of pages turning.
"Houris" is a term used for beautiful women. These guys really are womanizers.
"Hahaha… so how do I use this flower?"
"Peel the outer layer near the root at the bottom. A whitish stem will appear."
Eugene began rubbing his teeth with it and spoke with a barely understandable voice.
"Why does it burn my mouth?"
"Don't worry. You'll get used to it."
End of Chapter