It always rained on the day a hero died.
So today, beneath the blazing sun and into the boiling mud, only the blood of mere mortals would flow.
It was impossible to tell whether the liquid soaking the body was blood or sweat.
The body had long since reached its limit, and only the desperate will to survive drove the arms to swing wildly.
There was no feeling left in the fingertips.
Only the old cloth that had bound the hand to the hilt before the battle kept the sword from slipping.
Cheers and screams crashed like waves against deaf ears, scattering into pieces, and in the blurry, muddled vision, it was only barely possible to distinguish friend from foe.
“Urgh!”
A heavy metallic clang struck between the eyes.
Sahyeon barely managed to block the incoming blade and looked up at the massive shadow looming just in front of him.
A pitch-black face with gleaming eyes.
A body pierced with a couple of broken arrows.
The enemy seemed barely strong enough to swing a blade to kill Sahyeon.
All he could do was press her weight against the sword and try to force it down toward his neck.
Blue veins stood out along his neck.
Between parted lips, clenched yellow teeth showed.
Every time Sahyeon’s arms trembled, the sword wavered like a sheet of paper.
Just a bit longer, just a bit more—this thought consumed his mind.
And then a question struck like an arrow.
“What am I even holding on for?”
Even if he survived today, the war wouldn’t end.
Even if he lived now, could he keep surviving tomorrow and the day after on the battlefield?
Dragged endlessly into this hellish war, suffering under the scorching heat and burning thirst—perhaps letting this person’s sword take his life now would be the easier way out.
Strength drained from his body all at once.
His knees buckled, and he collapsed into the mud, now a sticky mess of blood and rainwater.
Between the gaps of the shouting crowd, the sky appeared piercingly blue.
The tip of the enemy’s sword, raised high to strike, caught the bright white sun.
In that moment, the sunlight scattering off the dirty blade was so beautiful—Sahyeon suddenly wanted to live.
“UAAAAAAHHHH!”
He felt a heavy impact at the tip of his sword.
Dark red blood splashed all over him.
Feeling the enemy’s weight fall atop him, Sahyeon closed his eyes.
The battlefield’s roar drifted far into the distance—Like a dream that would vanish upon waking.
***
When he opened his eyes again, it was night.
“That bastard’s lucky. Survived again.”
The squad leader, one of the few who still remained, was squatting with the others, roasting something over the fire.
Despite his words, he was likely the one who had dragged Sahyeon—passed out beneath an enemy corpse—back to camp.
Sahyeon crawled slowly toward them.
Thin bugs were roasting over the fire, crackling.
“We ate your share. If you’re hungry, pick up a few bugs and eat them.”
He shook his head—not because he couldn’t eat bugs, but because he simply had no appetite at all.
Sahyeon just curled up by the fire like someone only there for warmth.
Tsk-tsk.
The sound of clucking tongues was followed by the crunch of insects being chewed.
“Did everyone die?”
Sahyeon, eyes shut tight, asked in a cracked voice.
There was no immediate answer.
The squad leader smacked his lips for a while before replying bluntly.
“Yeong-deuk’s dead. Chun-yeong got his arm cut off and was dragged off to the medics.”
“Will he come back?”
“Who knows. Might be dead already.”
“But that guy from Yangsan survived, even with his legs cut off.”
“And he died anyway, didn’t he?”
Sahyeon slowly opened his eyes.
The flames flickered red through his hazy vision.
“If you’re lucky, you live. If not, you die. You, though—you’ve got the face of someone with no luck, yet you’re still alive.”
The war had dragged on for months.
Most of the boys conscripted as child soldiers like Sahyeon carried supplies at night and were pushed to the front lines during the day, wielding spears larger than their bodies until one by one they became crow food.
When Sahyeon became the last survivor of his shield unit—composed entirely of children and old men—he was finally assigned to a proper squad.
Once he joined the current squad, even the measly half-rice ball he used to receive became a full portion.
But that small luxury didn’t last.
Days of rain made the food rot, and the rice balls shrank to even smaller sizes.
With supplies running low, the generals constantly pressed the soldiers: if they wanted to survive, they needed to defeat the enemy quickly.
So even in this oppressive, humid heat, the soldiers could not rest.
“Damn. Looks like it’s going to rain again.”
Blistering heat by day, torrential rain by night.
Even last night, soaked to the bone, Sahyeon had prayed.
That the rain would last long, and bring a quick end to this cursed war.
But perhaps the heavens, too, wanted the war to continue.
The rain stopped with the morning sun, and not even the river surrounding the camp swelled, thanks to the long drought before the downpour.
“Hey, did you hear? A high-ranking envoy from Yugang has arrived!”
As raindrops started to fall again, a squad leader from another unit brought exciting news.
The enemy nation Yugang, which had clashed with them for months, had sent an emissary to their country, Hahyeon, to propose peace.
“Is that true?”
“Yeah, they say it’s being discussed at the Supreme Commander’s tent. Brought a young child too, probably as a hostage.”
“So this godforsaken war is finally ending?”
“They were already talking about relocating the camp because of flooding, so maybe it’s good timing. I’m sick of digging trenches anyway.”
“Even if we go back, we’ve already missed the farming season.”
Silence fell between the two.
Sahyeon sluggishly stood up.
The stench of dried blood soaked into his body wouldn’t go away.
He thought he’d just sleep and let the rain wash him clean, but the swarm of bugs drawn to the smell made rest impossible.
Dragging his feet heavily as if he were being pulled underground, Sahyeon headed toward the river.
***
“Seems like the war really is ending?”
“If Yugang’s Grand Guardian came in person, it must be. I overheard a bit earlier—they said there’s an epidemic spreading through their camp, it’s a mess.”
“With this kind of weather, it’s about time for a plague. Even in the western army—”
“Shhh!”
The two soldiers who had been whispering suddenly shot sharp looks at Sahyeon.
He scratched his matted hair and walked past them slowly, pretending he hadn’t heard a thing.
Maybe it was because he wore their army’s armor, or maybe just because he was a kid they assumed would die soon anyway.
Either way, they soon lost interest in him.
Their conversation resumed behind him, sticking uncomfortably to the back of his mind.
“Seeing that brat reminds me—should we really just leave him alone?”
“Didn’t the general say to let him be? And besides, earlier he was so scared he could barely talk….”
“True.”
Pointless talk, even if he listened.
Her feet sank deep into the wet sandbar.
Sahyeon shook off their conversation and stepped slowly, leaving footprints behind as he approached the river swallowed up in blackness by the darkness.
Because of the continuous rain, the troops near the river had been withdrawn, and only a few soldiers lingered nearby, either washing up or getting water to drink.
He groped his way along the barely visible path toward where the river began—though he couldn’t see the starting point—and suddenly, cold water surged past his ankles.
The current was quite strong.
If he went any farther, his small body could easily be swept away in an instant.
He crouched down right there, scooping up the dark water with both hands.
Whether it was truly clear and clean, or tainted by the corpses that might be drifting nearby, it was impossible to tell now.
But either way, it probably wasn’t dirtier than the state Sahyeon was in.
He soaked his head in the river, peeling away the clotted chunks of blood that had become sticky and stiff.
Perhaps he wasn’t the only one rinsing his head in the river tonight.
If only the sun he saw just before giving up on life hadn’t been so beautiful—if only that sudden surge of desire to live in a life he thought had already shattered hadn’t welled up—then maybe someone else who had survived upstream in the Yugang camp would’ve been washing off their own bloodstains right now.
He squeezed the water from his hair and looked down into the river.
The dark, bluish water, dimmed of all light, didn’t even reflect her face.
Of course, the beautiful, scattering light he had seen earlier in the day was nowhere to be found.
It was just dark and still…
“Wh-what are you doing?!”
By the time he came to his senses, his head was submerged in the river.
Someone had come splashing toward him and grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, yanking him out.