The house where he had spent most of his second life no longer retained its original form. All that barely remained were a charred, rotting main beam and the stone foundations that had once supported the pillars. Bits of carbonized building material, the remnants of their home, clung to the soles of his boots. There was no surprise in him. It was none other than Walm himself who had burned down his homeland, and he had long since prepared himself for this sight.

What troubled Walm now was his conversation with his eldest brother, Hayes. They had moved away from the gravestone and sat facing one another on a piece of weathered stone. It had been over two years since he had entered military service. There were countless things he wanted to say and just as many he wanted to ask. And yet, as though sludge had clogged his throat, no words would come out. Silence continued to dominate the village. Walm had endured countless battlefields, but to lose his voice when reuniting with his own brother was nothing short of pathetic. His lips were painfully dry. He steadied his breathing, swallowed, and finally resolved himself to speak but he was a fraction too late.

“Hey, Walm, remember? That time Rood ate too many of those tubers he dug up and wrecked his stomach?”

As if recalling an old story by chance during an ordinary day, Hayes spoke up. There was no need to search his memory. That event was etched clearly within Walm’s mind, and there was no way he could forget the name of his second older brother.

“Yeah… that happened. If I remember right, it wasn’t just that he ate too much… he snuck off and ate the tubers half-raw.”

Their play in the forest had often been directly tied to searching for food. They would dig up the ground without missing even the slightest vine, like hunting dogs in pursuit of prey. Of course, even if they had called themselves hunting dogs, the brothers back then were still children. At best, they had been little more than puppies.

“Heh, yeah. He was groaning with that awful look on his face. His pathetic cries echoed all through the forest, and even the adults came running to see what’s going on.”

Trying to outdo his brothers with secret snacking had come at a steep price. Rood hadn’t just let out groans like a wounded beast, he had continued to leak all manner of things into the grass. Although bothered by his brother’s disgraceful state, Walm had been urged by the adults who rushed over, and their food hunt had quickly turned into a desperate search for medicinal herbs to soothe stomach pain. What a mess that had been.

Drawn in by his brother’s tone, Walm found himself smiling faintly. A memory surfaced, and he spoke it outloud.

“…Speaking of Rood, remember when we beat up that goblin with the brats from the neighboring village? He ended up drawing the short straw then too.”

The earlier stagnation in their conversation seemed like a lie, and the words flowed without interruption.

“That was Fugo and his bunch, right? The goblin threw a lump of crap that smacked Rood square in the face. He went berserk.”

“Haha, and when he chased after it, he slipped on more of it and ended up covered head to toe in filth.”

“What in the world was that thing eating to stink so badly?”

Their exchange continued, beginning with childhood memories. Most of it was nothing but foolish old stories. On the battlefield, there had been no room to dwell on the past. And after the war, the people with whom he could have shared such memories were gone. The opportunity should have been lost forever yet now, here he was, laughing from the depths of his belly.

An hour passed, or perhaps two. After talking their fill, the conversation once again came to a halt. It wasn’t that they had run out of things to say, it was because both understood there were things that had to be said. Hayes broke the silence once more.

“Walm, when you and Fugo and the others left for military service, the village felt so empty. I know it’s the normal for second sons and younger to become soldiers, but there wasn’t a day I didn’t regret sending you off. I should’ve gone instead.”

Walm could tell this wasn’t just a courtesy or empty comfort. The air Hayes carried was different from the brother in his memories. The atmosphere around him, his expression, those eyes that had seen too much… Walm recognized it. It was the look of someone who had experienced a brutal battlefield as a soldier. His body had grown broader, and scars marked him here and there surely carved by repeated combat.

From Hayes’s perspective, Walm must have seemed the same. Because they both understood, they had avoided explicitly stating what had happened to the village and their family. As soldiers, as brothers… they were alike in that way.

Hayes finally began to speak after avoiding the topic.

“…Back then, Highserk was winning battle after battle. They defeated the Four-Nation Alliance at the Fortress of Sarajevo, and the Imperial Capital was swept up in a victory mood. For a farmer like me, it all felt distant. The old veterans who had served before would draw lines in the dirt like it was paper, arguing over how the war would turn out. As if anyone in a backwater like this could see that far ahead.”

Hayes’s voice grew lower.

“That day. Yeah… that day. I was transporting crops to the city with some of the village’s young men when we were attacked by a horde of monsters. The whole country must’ve been in chaos, and our village didn’t receive any warning.”

For many people of Highserk, that day marked the irreversible turning point of their nation, their hometowns, their families. It meant the Great Rampage.

“We had axes and machetes for self-defense. But against that tidal wave of monsters, they were no more useful than brushing a twig against a raging river. Still, we fought like madmen. When I came to, everything around me had gone silent. It was a horrific mess… so much blood I couldn’t tell whether it was mine or someone else’s. Rood was lying in the shade of a tree. He had a few wounds, but he just looked asleep. I shook him, again and again. Told him to wake up already. He never did… it must’ve been a bad hit.”

Before the death of a brother he had never been able to see off, Walm listened without uttering a single word, savoring each one Hayes spoke.

“I hid his body and ran back to the village. I felt guilty leaving him without a proper burial, but I thought I could at least warn everyone and protect the village. When I saw figures in the distance, I felt relieved. Thought I’d made it in time… I was too late. The monsters brought by the Great Rampage had turned the village into demonic territory. There were plenty of things still moving but they weren’t human anymore. Uncle… father… mother too…”

The memories must have surged back against his will when Hayes’s words faltered. Walm started to open his mouth, then stopped himself. His brother had not finished.

“I ran without knowing left from right. All I could think was I don’t want to die. That’s it. The strangers I happened to meet along the way didn’t understand the situation either. The only thing anyone knew was that heading toward the capital was dangerous. Losing people along the way, stragglers falling behind, we kept fleeing. I don’t even know how many monsters I killed.”

Walm’s mind filled with scenes from when he had been defeated at Dandurg Castle and fled toward his homeland. Defensive lines constructed in advance had been pierced by the Flame Emperor Dragon. Roads and command structures were severed one after another. Anyone who examined the traces of battle could easily tell that all across the land forces were annihilated, and organized resistance crumbled.

“When monsters cut off our path and the group we’d formed came to a halt, I thought that was it, that we were finished. A mother of a child I’d never met begged me to kill her kid quickly rather than let it be eaten by monsters. I nearly lost it. In the end, I didn’t swing my sword. No, I should say I couldn’t. I hadn’t fully prepared myself for reality yet, but unbelievably, help arrived. When I saw the monsters being wiped out, I couldn’t even feel joy, I just stood there. After that, I joined the army and for the past year and a half, I’ve done nothing but kill monsters. Now I understand, or maybe I was just lucky and what I went through is still mild compared to others. Walm… I’ve never once stopped regretting sending you to war. I’m sorry. For real.”

It sounded like a confession. Too many emotions churned at once to sort through them all. Still, Walm began with his honest feelings.

“It’s in the past. It’s the custom, and our family was poor. In the end, someone had to go. Even if I could go back in time, I wouldn’t shove that role onto someone else. And I’ve done plenty of filthy, horrible things on the battlefield myself. I can’t criticize you.”

He patted his brother on the shoulder and gave an awkward smile.

“How pathetic. Hard to tell which of us is the older brother.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment. By the way, are you with the eastern army?”

It had been a year and a half since the fall of the capital. When Walm asked which front Hayes had fought on, Hayes’s complexion visibly changed.

“…No.”

At the denial, Walm named the remaining fronts.

“Then the southern army?”

From Hayes’s expression, it was neither the eastern army nor the southern army. As Walm struggled to process it, Hayes spoke gently, as if to calm him.

“Walm, listen carefully. The unit that saved us… wasn’t Highserk.”

“Hayes… don’t tell me…”

“Libertoa.”

For a fleeting moment, the brothers’ eyes met. The warmth that had filled the air vanished, replaced by a coldness that seemed to cling to their entire bodies.

Translator – Lyxxna