Chapter 72: End of winter (Kerox hunt)
-Did you hear? He said he’ll run away.-
-No, I think he meant you need to drink it like someone’s chasing you.-
-Oh, is that it?-
-But take seconds if you refuse? I welcome it wholeheartedly.-
-Right. If I refuse twice then do I get more?-
-You’ll just get beaten up.-
-He was drinking so well though.-
-Did you see him naked while rolling on the snow?-
-Yeah. He ran around the camp like a madman.-
-Fortunately, there weren’t any women. He got some good stuff on him.-
-Mayze would’ve liked it.-
-Oh right. But I never saw him lose it like that.-
-I guess he was just careful until now.-
-There he comes, keep quiet.-
-I’ll talk later.-
-Oh, good weather! Good for hunting! Hah!-
*
It was a great party. Joonbum felt as if he was now part of the group as he finally took care of the knots that were left on Earth. But he couldn’t remember what happened after some point. It was the whispers of the warriors that made him realize what he had done.
‘Ugh. I was crazy.’
All of the warriors witnessed what happened with their own eyes and it became the main topic of their discussion. Some even exaggerated what happened.
“Ugh!”
Joonbum couldn’t believe what he had done. He couldn’t believe he ran around naked.
‘Was I crazy? But even then! Ugh!’
Joonbum ran from camp and quickly returned to town. He began training with a full suit of armor on him when he got back.
“Hey, it’s okay. It’s natural. Oh, and you put up great fun when you ran around the camp naked. People loved it, you know.”
“Doral.”
“Yeah?”
Joonbum called to him as Doral talked casually about what happened while munching on his apple.
“There are only two of us who are back from camp at the moment. But how does the whole town know about it already?”
Doral grinned.
“Oh? I told everyone.”
“No way!”
Joonbum felt his heart sink. Doral grinned and continued talking.
“They’ll know eventually. It’s better for them to know the truth before hearing an exaggerated version coming from the other tribes, don’t you think?”
“So you’re saying you helped me?”
“Of course!”
Joonbum frowned but Doral didn’t seem to care. He finished his apple and washed his hands.
“But what’s with that face?”
“What about my face?”
“You seemed to be very entertained by this.”
“Naw! No way. It’s not like you did something bad! Don’t be ashamed. Everyone was happy to see you enjoy it! You were freer and purer than anyone else!”
“R-really?”
Joonbum blushed inside his helmet at such flattering words.
“Or maybe you were just drunk.”
‘Ugh. Right.’
Doral stood up before Joonbum could respond.
“Stop thinking about that. We have no time to waste. Other warriors are still hunting in this cold weather. Let’s get to work!”
Doral charged at him with a sword before Joonbum could say anything. It was a fierce attack.
Joonbum moved instinctively to block Doral’s sword with his. A heavy impact was transferred through the sword. It then withdrew and was thrown again at the waist area. Joonbum took a step back, dodged it, and Doral grinned.
“Good! Do it faster! Going again!”
Doral spun himself and threw his sword at Joonbum’s head. He pulled his head back and heard the sound of a sword slashing the air in front of him.
“Good!”
Joonbum pulled his body forward, then thrust his sword at Doral, which was blocked immediately.
“Ugh!”
They clashed swords for a slight moment, then Doral quickly pushed Joonbum and followed up with an upward slash. Joonbum managed to block it, but his balance was lost and he stumbled back.
“Always keep calm, save your energy! Don’t push all of yourself into the sword! You need to be prepared to retreat whenever you can! There are a lot of skilled warriors who will specifically aim for such a moment!”
Doral shouted as they hacked their swords away at each other. Joonbum forgot about what happened as they kept going. He felt the hot air filling the inside of his armor even in such cold weather.
‘I thought it was made to insulate well.’
Joonbum ranted in his head. The armor dulled his movements and it was hard to move around in, let alone the hotness it created even in the middle of the winter. It was too hot, but he needed to adapt to it. That’s why he was training with it on.
Doral’s sword slashed into his body, landing a blow on him. Joonbum swung at Doral, but it was too late. Rather, Joonbum was vulnerable after the swing, so Doral hacked toward his head again.
“I told you not to follow your opponent’s attack! If you failed to block, then be prepared to block another one. What’s done is done! Don’t try to get revenge like that!”
They kept fighting as Doral shouted his teachings.
“Good! You can do it! More!”
Doral cheered at Joonbum as he started moving better little by little. Joonbum was much better at moving and was now able to see the openings.
Joonbum let out a loud shout as he swung his sword upward. A loud sound was heard as Doral jumped back to avoid the sword’s impact.
“Nice! We’ll stop here!”
Doral was heavily breathing as he shouted. Joonbum wanted to answer, but he was completely out of breath. He took off his helmet and sweat dripped to the ground.
Doral said, “You should keep your armor on all time.”
“All the time?” Joonbum was wiping the sweat off his face.
“Yeah. It looks like you’re still not used to it.”
‘That’s true.’
He knew what Doral meant. It was still awkward to walk around with the armor on. It was like he was wearing a full suit at a swimming pool.
“Let’s do shooting training after we take a break.”
“Yeah.”
They also practiced using all kinds of firearms. There were various targets to practice with using all sorts of guns that Joonbum brought over. He used to wear a vest for training, but he now kept his armor on. Doral and Joonbum competed with each other to see who would finish the shooting round in the shortest amount of time.
“Shall we start?”
The weather cooled down quickly as he stood up.
“Son! I heard you have had some fun at camp! Shall we have a word? I would like a detailed explanation.”
“Huh? Wh-what-”
Joonbum frowned. He turned to Doral for help but he was already far away, showing his back.
‘Ugh! You said you were just helping me!’
“Son, I met a lot of college students at the restaurant I worked… They sure did drink! Drink! A lot. We should talk!”
“N-no, Mom… I am in the middle of training so…”
“Mother, we’ll take a break for an hour!” Doral shouted from a distance.
“Oh! I guess we have an ample amount of time! I heard you were naked? Haha! What an amazing story!”
“Right! I want some details about that too.”
“Oh? Sure. You can join us.”
“M-Mayze? Nn-no. You don’t need to hear it!”
Sunsook and Mayze watched Joonbum with smiles on their faces. But he knew they were not truly smiling.
Carols could be heard everywhere on the road as people on the street were preparing themselves for the end of the year. Sungjae kept begging Joonbum to come out for the alumni meet. He almost threatened Joonbum to come, but he didn’t want to go there.
He pondered on the idea of going. Unlike before, he was more self-confident now and there was a part of him that wanted to show off what he had accomplished. However, the main reason why he did not want to go was because he did not want to make any more new relationships as he was going to leave this world for a long time.
Instead, he concentrated on training with all the time he had. He almost used the entire day except for four hours of sleep for training and he was now able to fight with Doral at a similar level. He also sparred with the other warriors to learn new things.
The Ainos also learned new things from Joonbum. Warriors began learning how to use rifles and how to take care of them. Women also learned as they needed to protect the town while the warriors were out hunting. There were 500 M-16 rifles provided to each of the villages and the women learned to use it specifically. They also learned how to make ammo with the machine. They quickly learned all the related skills.
