My Students Regret It After I Retired

32 – Sacrifice for the Herd, Shattered Beliefs

Alik, the leader of the Imperial Execution Squad, slowly pushed through the undergrowth, advancing forward. So far, they had chased away or killed all those they’d encountered. Alik quietly walked, praying the ones that tripped his detection artifact were Leos.

“Halt.”

At Alik’s command, Tyro and the other squad members froze in place, observing the situation. What they saw were two young boys outside, cooking a chunk of monster meat.

“Hyung… I keep thinking, it seems too dangerous. There are loads of monsters around… Wouldn’t it be better to cook it inside the cave?”

“Theon, are you crazy? Have you forgotten we almost died last time trying to make a fire in the cave?”

“…Or, how about we just eat it raw…”

“Have you forgotten how sick you got with food poisoning? Just trust me. We’ll quickly cook it, put out the fire and run. I told you, I checked everywhere, there are no monsters.”

His younger brother, Theon, looked around nervously, fidgeting.

“Even if there are no monsters… what about people? There could be people.”

“Well… that’s true.”

Tedre looked at his brother, Theon, and said,

“Let’s just quickly cook it and go, we’re wasting time.”

As the crackling of the fire echoed several times, both the elder brother Tedre and the younger brother Theon kept constantly on guard. From afar, Alik, the leader of the Imperial Execution Squad, gestured to his members.

“Stand by, there is an airborne floating artifact nearby.”

Tyro and the others flinched, looking all around. No matter how much they searched, they couldn’t locate the airborne floating artifact.

“Where the hell are you? I can’t feel anything…”

“He’s hiding in the undergrowth at 11 o’clock. The enemy’s spotted our position. LEO…I mean, if my hunch is correct, that’s likely Leo who took those aerial reconnaissance shots of the marauders a while back. It doesn’t make sense for there to be multiple people using aerial artifact tech in a place like this. It’s reasonable to assume Leo is around here.”

Alik lowered his stance and immediately started running.

“Follow me. We’ll take hostages first.”

Most aerial artifacts are equipped with mana bomb capabilities. Now that the enemy knows our location, we’re all going to get wiped out sooner or later.

Alik quickly started running toward the two boys roasting a monster carcass in front of him.

“G-get away! If you come any closer, I’ll attack!”

A panicked Tedre stood in front of his younger brother, Teon, drawing his sword to protect him. But going up against Alik, a trained execution squad leader, was impossible.

-Clang!

The sound of metal clashing rang out, and Tedre’s sword flew straight into the air. Not missing the opportunity, Alik slashed at the boy’s ankle with his sword.

-Swish

The sound was followed by younger brother Teon, running towards them in tears.

“Hyung… Hyuuung!”

“Don’t come… run away… Teon… It’s too late for me, hurry…!”

Tedre desperately reached out, but Teon didn’t run away, clenching his tiny fists and throwing wild punches. To knock down the enemy who so casually violated his brother’s ankle. But for a boy who hadn’t received any combat training, the level difference with Alik was overwhelming.

Alik dodged Teon’s punches without even drawing his sword, then kicked him away.

“Guh-ack…”

Teon immediately started coughing up blood in pain. But Alik didn’t care, tossing Teon back towards Tedre before gathering all the execution squad members to one spot.

With Teon and Tedre in the center, surrounded by the execution squad leader and his men, Alik smirked and shouted towards the sky.

“Leo, I know you’re watching. Surely, you wouldn’t be such a monster as to blow us all up together with these two.”

Alik, saying this, shoved the sword against Tedre’s throat.

“If you want to save that innocent boy, return the levitation artifact. Don’t even think about pulling a fast one. The only place to get a levitation artifact at the Red Gate is the Interrunner shop. Assuming you and LEO are the same person, it’s perfectly understandable that you know a lot about the gate, and that someone in this situation would be carrying a levitation artifact.”

Levitation artifact. A spiral came flying through the air, closing in until it was right above Alik.

The executioners mumbled in stunned expressions.

“No… it actually existed? I thought the Commander was mistaken.”

“How did it get this close without us noticing?”

Alik looked at the other executioners and felt a wave of contempt. Conversely, his opinion of Leos was changing in real time.

Levitation artifact. An artifact notorious for its high difficulty to manipulate. The fact that he could control it as easily as his own body spoke volumes about his immense ability.

‘If I hadn’t noticed it beforehand, things would have been really bad.’

Alik had sensed the spiral approaching rapidly from the start, but deliberately acted like he hadn’t. He was afraid that if he showed he had noticed, it would attack immediately.

But as time passed, the spiral didn’t attack, and Alik formed a hypothesis.

The fact that the enemy had found him but didn’t attack meant that there was a reason.

Immediately, Alik started looking around. That’s when he spotted two boys a short distance away, cooking a monster corpse. Seeing them, Alik understood.

The reason the spiral was just observing and not attacking was because it was afraid of harming them.

‘It could just be a scouting mission, though.’

If it was just a scouting spiral, there’d be no reason for it to keep following the executioners. The fact that it only followed the imperial executioners despite there being other people around was a clear expression of hostility.

Just like on the battlefield, if someone’s pointing a gun at your head but not firing, it means something’s wrong.

Alik, with his long experience, realized it instantly. That ‘something’ was Leos’ humanity.

‘He must not have been able to bring himself to kill innocent boys.’

Thinking that LEO was Leos, and that the spiral was only pursuing and not attacking, could all be just a leap of his imagination. But Alik trusted his keen senses. He was the only one who’d found the spiral, after all, thanks to his innate sensory ability.

As expected, Spirell, about to drop a mana bomb, veered off and moved elsewhere.

“Shit…”

Alik let out a relieved sigh.

“We blocked Spirell’s attack, but he’ll be around. Stay alert. He could drop a mana bomb on us anytime. Quickly set up the defense equipment we prepared.”

As Alik’s command ended, mana bomb prevention devices began to plunk down one by one. Alik, watching them, murmured with a satisfied expression.

“Anything goes to achieve our goals. The moment he stopped attacking to save those little brats, our victory was sealed.”

Watching the Imperial Executioners busily moving, Theon screamed, almost in a shriek.

“Please…please let us go. My brother is badly hurt… If you leave him like this, he might die!”

Now that he looked, Tedre’s ankle had been slashed, but he was bleeding profusely, having hit his head on a large tree root when he fell. Alik clicked his tongue, then sliced Theon’s ankle with his knife.

“Kuh… Kuaaa!”

As Theon writhed in pain, Alik spoke with emotionless eyes.

“Your brother is critical, so I’ll have to use you as a hostage. Don’t resist, and behave yourself. Then, I might let even you live.”

“My brother… if you leave him like that, he really… he’ll die…”

“It can’t be helped. Think of it as a small sacrifice for the greater good. We’re here on an Imperial mission. We have to survive and complete the mission no matter what. If you also have the Empire’s best interest at heart, then gladly accept your fate.”

“What the fuck are you talking about!”

Theon screamed and, clutching his ankle, began crawling towards Tedre.

“Bro… bro… open your eyes… bro…”

Tedre’s breathing grew increasingly shallow.

Theon looked around, tears streaming down his face.

They had only been trying to get a meal. Their supplies had run out, so they almost died of suffocation while trying to light a fire in a cave to eat monster corpses, and almost died of food poisoning after eating raw monster flesh.

After that, Tedre, unable to watch Theon starve for days, risked it all to try and cook a monster corpse. All he wanted was to eat a dead body, but the price was devastating.

“Please…save him…I beg you…take me hostage instead…please, heal my brother…heal my brother…”

Alik, clearly annoyed, kicked Theon away, yelling,

“Shut your mouth. Can’t you understand the situation? What kind of healing are you expecting right now? If you utter another word, I’ll kill your brother right here and now.”

Just as Alik raised his sword, the Empire’s Extermination Squad Captain, Rakart, walked forward with a grave expression and spoke,

“Hah…have I ever seen such crazy b*stards.”

“Rakart?”

Alik shouted, puzzled. Behind him, Paron slowly stepped forward. And finally, Leos walked out from behind the men.

The moment he saw the scene, Alik gritted his teeth, muttering,

“So, LEO, it was you, Leos. But still…you fucking b*stards…how dare you betray the Empire?”

Alik glared at Extermination Squad Captain Rakart with murderous intent. Rakart shook his head and gestured.

“As you said, the Spirell has been handed over, so release those innocent kids there.”

“And if I don’t want to? Withdraw all your surrounding troops. Then I’ll think about it.”

Right after Alik spoke, Leos said with a blank tone,

“Surrounding troops? There’s nobody else around here but us.”

“…Don’t spout nonsense. You came to resist us with so few troops?”

Instead of answering, Leos gestured. Then the Spirell began to fly around, blasting the nearby forest with mana bombs.

-BOOM!

-BOOM!

-BOOM!

A massive sound ripped through the air, obliterating all the surrounding undergrowth. A clearing, a void of about 500 meters in radius, was left in its wake. Leos glanced around, then spoke.

“See, told you, no one’s here. Why are you so distrustful?”

Alik, having witnessed the scene, scoffed and yelled.

“So it’s really just you guys? That’s basically a suicide run. You’ve been ambushing us with spirales to kill our men up to now. But now you can’t even use a spirale. What are you relying on to act so cocky?”

Leos didn’t answer the question, instead asking,

“I know you were sent by the Empire. Why are you tracking us?”

“Because the Empire needs your ability. More specifically, they need your Red Gate sealing ability.”

“Deal with it yourselves. I’ve been out of the Empire’s reach for a long time. After all, they were the ones who chased me out in the first place.”

“No, as long as you live within the Empire, you’re a member. When the Empire calls, you must come and dedicate yourself. I’ve heard your circumstances, but to disregard the Empire’s crisis because of such matters is foolish. The sacrifice of the few for the many. Consider that.”

“What if I refuse?”

“We’ll either take you back or kill you, no matter what it takes.”

As Leos slowly started to walk forward, Rakarte stepped in front, as if declaring he would handle things. But Leos waved him off, as if telling him to move aside, and continued his heavy steps forward.

“This feels so fucking dirty. You pathetic fucks who can’t do anything on your own, acting like you know all about my situation and spouting that crap is just fucking revolting.”

Alik, laughing, lifted up the fallen Theon, and held his sword against his throat.

“Come any closer and he dies. Drop your sword.”

Leos paused for a moment, then looked at Alik and asked.

“Was taking those innocent boys hostage also ‘the sacrifice of the few for the many’?”

“One could look at it that way.”

“Ah… I see, I get it now. Just how fucked up those words are. They were just your way of rationalizing your actions.”

Leos finished the words, then immediately hurled the chainsword.

-WHOOSH!

The chainsword surged forward with incredible speed. It blasted the sword right out of Alik’s hand. The intense recoil sent Alik’s hand flying back. Leos, not missing the opportunity, instantly darted forward.

After shoving Teon aside, Leos whispered towards Alik, who was stumbling backward.

“I seek to change the Empire for the sake of the few. Unlike you, I want the sacrifice of the masses for the greater good.”

“You crazy b*stard…how dare you…”

“If you want to uphold your beliefs, then stop me.”

“…?”

Leos wrapped the chainsword around himself, then with a violent spin, plunged it straight into Alik’s shoulder.

“Ugh… Ughhh….”

Alik staggered, clutching his pierced shoulder, his face twisted in agony. Leos, expressionless, watched him and whispered.

“Why? You killed countless people for ridiculous reasons, and now that it’s your turn, you’re afraid?”

Leos began to whirl the chainsword in the air as he added.

“Why are you constantly backing away? You’re supposed to stop me, aren’t you? You’re supposed to give your life for the Empire, aren’t you? That’s your reason for living. That’s your glory, right? So don’t run away, come here. I’ll fulfill your desires myself.”