The Mad Spearman of the Northern Front - Chapter 46

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Mad Spearman of the Northern Front (46)

 

There isn’t really any training to speak of on the Northern Front.

 

There’s only one reason why this has to be the case.

 

Since you never know when you’ll be deployed to the battlefield, you always have to maintain your personal condition.

 

So while it’s generally normal to have no particular restrictions.

 

“…These, these bastards…!”

 

Volgren, who had guided Arteon to the 3rd Platoon Barracks, frowned as he saw all the soldiers lying down asleep.

 

He had clearly told them that a new platoon leader would arrive today…

 

He never thought they would so blatantly ignore it like this.

 

Volgren moved forward with the momentum of someone about to beat those guys to death.

 

But then.

 

“Sergeant Volgren.”

 

“Don’t stop me, these guys just need to be beaten to death. How dare they make such an obvious provocation.”

 

“I’ll handle things here myself, so you don’t need to worry about it. Thank you for your consideration.”

 

“…Will you be alright?”

 

Volgren looked at Arteon with a worried expression.

 

He had heard the story.

 

How Arteon had become an officer, and how great his achievements in the Northwest had been.

 

Wasn’t he the protagonist of the merit ceremony held at the Imperial Palace for the first time in several years?

 

As all battlefields would be, but the Northern battlefield is particularly ruthless about results and processes.

 

They never inflate non-existent achievements to give rewards.

 

That’s why he respected Arteon.

 

However…

 

‘…Even I can see there are suspicious aspects.’

 

Arteon’s outward appearance looked far too young.

 

While his body seemed somewhat developed to call him a boy, his somewhat youthful face hadn’t completely escaped that of a boy yet.

 

‘If they actually see him, they might ignore him even more…’

 

And to Volgren’s worried expression, Arteon smiled leisurely and said.

 

“Don’t worry. And could you do me just one favor?”

 

“…A favor?”

 

At Volgren’s question, Arteon nodded and spoke.

 

Soon after Arteon finished speaking.

 

“Don’t worry about that. I’ll make sure to tell them clearly.”

 

“That’s enough then. I’ll leave it to you.”

 

“…Understood. Then I’ll be going now.”

 

Soon after Volgren left, Arteon looked at the 3rd Platoon members lying down sleeping.

 

They were divided by squads.

 

‘Roughly… about twenty people?’

 

The fortunate thing was that none of them seemed to be seriously injured.

 

However, that also meant that all the rest had died on the battlefield.

 

‘The personnel that need to be replenished… roughly about 10 people?’

 

But that’s for later.

 

First…

 

“Well then, shall we give it a try.”

 

Arteon came out of the barracks and looked toward the barracks where the 3rd Platoon members were.

 

And he shouted while infusing his voice with mana.

 

“Enemy attack! The enemy has infiltrated!”

 

Using precise mana control, he pushed the sound only toward the barracks where the 3rd Platoon members were.

 

Of course, that didn’t mean the sound couldn’t be heard at all from other directions.

 

But since he had already asked Volgren for a favor, there wouldn’t be any commotion.

 

After the shout, Arteon took out the pocket watch from his waist and checked the seconds.

 

’10 seconds… 20 seconds…’

 

The stopwatch moved quickly with ticking sounds.

 

Already inside the barracks, urgent shouts and crashing commotion had broken out.

 

And when roughly about a minute had passed?

 

“Where!”

 

“Platoon assemble! Move to combat position immediately!”

 

The man who had burst out at the front quickly shouted while looking at the platoon members.

 

The 3rd Platoon members quickly assembled around him.

 

What was praiseworthy even during this was that they had properly equipped all their armor and weapons within just one minute.

 

At this rather impressive first meeting, Arteon chuckled and said.

 

“The talk about an enemy attack was a lie.”

 

“…What?”

 

“What did you say?”

 

At the voice heard from behind, the 3rd Platoon members turned their heads to look at Arteon.

 

Soon the man standing at the front spoke with fierce eyes.

 

“This crazy little bastard… there are pranks to pull, who the hell are you?”

 

It was a face he’d never seen before.

 

It didn’t make sense for such a young soldier to be in this rough Northern battlefield.

 

Arteon looked at the soldier glaring at him and calmly held out the documents he had.

 

It was the 3rd Platoon Leader appointment letter he had received from the company commander.

 

“I’m the newly appointed 3rd Platoon Leader. What are your name and rank?”

 

“3…Platoon Leader?”

 

The man stretched his head toward the documents Arteon held out.

 

Suddenly the information he had received came to mind.

 

―A new platoon leader will come. But… I heard he’s very young.

 

―How old is he?

 

―From what I heard, 15? 16? Something… like that.

 

―…What?

 

That was the reason.

 

Why they had pulled such a childish stunt.

 

And looking at the guy in front of him along with that memory, it felt like a perfect match.

 

The documents the guy held out were the 3rd Platoon Leader appointment letter with the company commander’s signature.

 

If he did anything that could be considered insubordination, he would be disciplined immediately.

 

“…Acting Platoon Leader, Sergeant Grain.”

 

Grain bit his lips tightly.

 

The current situation where he had to speak respectfully to such a young guy was absurd.

 

But Arteon looked at him as if nothing was wrong and said.

 

“Sergeant Grain. Maintain current uniform, follow me running with the soldiers. If you don’t fall behind, I’ll give you a week of free time at the platoon leader’s discretion.”

 

“What?”

 

“A week of free time?”

 

“Crazy…”

 

Grain and the 3rd Platoon members looked at Arteon with bewildered expressions.

 

But Arteon approached one of the soldiers in formation, took off his helmet, and pressed it firmly onto his own head.

 

And…

 

Thud.

 

“Huh?!”

 

Something whooshed by, and the soldier whose spear had been snatched away showed a startled expression.

 

Arteon, holding the soldier’s spear as if it were nothing, spoke to everyone.

 

“This should make the weight roughly similar… I don’t want to hear any nonsense later about wearing a helmet or not wearing one.”

 

Arteon had instantly taken control of the atmosphere.

 

The soldiers just stared at Arteon with dumbfounded expressions.

 

“Unit! Attention!”

 

At his shout, they unconsciously snapped into a rigid attention stance.

 

Arteon chuckled and said.

 

“Run!”

 

With those words, Arteon began to run.

 

The 3rd Platoon members followed behind Arteon without understanding why, but soon their lips twisted upward in sneers.

 

‘Damn, whatever achievements he made in the Northwest, this is the Northeast.’

 

‘That bastard who had it easy in the Northwest… does he think all battlefields are the same?’

 

‘I’m confident in my stamina. I’ll flatten that youngster’s nose.’

 

The thoughts of the soldiers following behind weren’t particularly different.

 

Everyone was flustered by the sudden situation, but they didn’t doubt for a moment that Arteon would soon collapse from exhaustion.

 

Their minds were simply filled with thoughts of a week’s worth of free time.

 

However…

 

“…?”

 

“Uh, how long are we going to run…?”

 

About an hour later, the soldiers running after Arteon showed bewildered expressions.

 

Quite some time seemed to have passed, but the running pace hadn’t decreased at all.

 

Gradually, the armor they wore began to feel heavy.

 

The spears in their hands seemed to have become 2-3 times heavier.

 

When about 2 hours had passed.

 

There was no longer any composure left in the soldiers’ expressions.

 

“Huff…! Huff…!”

 

“Gasp…! Gasp…!”

 

Just how long were they going to run?

 

What they could see now were soldiers from other platoons watching them curiously and the spinning sky above.

 

“Bleurgh!”

 

“Urgh!”

 

More than half the soldiers finally couldn’t endure it and collapsed, retching.

 

When Arteon glanced back, he saw Grain, who was serving as temporary platoon leader, and five soldiers.

 

But even they had expressions as if they were on the verge of death.

 

Arteon’s lips curved upward.

 

‘…These guys are pretty decent?’

 

There was a reason these guys had survived this long.

 

Of course, he couldn’t evaluate soldiers’ abilities based on stamina alone, but this level was actually beyond physical endurance—it was in the realm of mental strength.

 

Even Arteon wouldn’t have been able to run this much if he hadn’t used mana.

 

His body wasn’t yet fully trained in terms of both physique and stamina.

 

However…

 

‘For a first meeting… it’s better to firmly establish dominance.’

 

Arteon spoke.

 

“Good, I’ll end this in 10 minutes. If you can stay within 10 meters of me until then, I’ll consider it a success!”

 

But no response came.

 

Only rough breathing sounds.

 

The guys who followed silently without even the strength to answer were filled with determination to endure the 10 minutes.

 

But then.

 

Tap tap tap!

 

Arteon, who had been running, increased his speed.

 

The guys flinched at the suddenly increased pace and tried to keep up.

 

“Urgh!”

 

“Can’t… anymore…!”

 

Thud!

 

“Huff…! Huff…! Huff…!”

 

“Just kill me… damn it.”

 

Unable to keep up for even a minute, they collapsed to the ground, gasping frantically.

 

Arteon looked at Grain and said.

 

“Take care of the soldiers and have them assemble in front of the platoon barracks. I’ll be there in 10 minutes.”

 

“Yes, yes…! Huff…!”

 

Grain struggled to get up from his position.

 

His eyes had changed somewhat from the beginning.

 

That was because the young superior he had completely dismissed possessed monstrous stamina.

 

Seeing their expressions, Arteon smiled slightly.

 

‘For now… this should be enough.’

 

There would be no more of that initial delinquent behavior.

 

The reason they had acted like delinquents, disrespecting their superior.

 

It was simple.

 

On a battlefield where their lives were at stake, the superior before their eyes was someone they ‘couldn’t trust.’

 

Think about it.

 

No matter how great his achievements, who could easily accept a kid who wasn’t even an adult yet coming as their superior?

 

But by proving himself this way, the atmosphere had completely changed.

 

Just by establishing dominance once through the simplest method of physical stamina, he could maintain basic military discipline.

 

Of course, there were still many things he’d need to show them…

 

‘You guys will need to be tested too.’

 

Whether they were qualified to survive here and seize glory, or not.

 

Or whether they were destined to simply become a handful of ash and fade away here.

 

“Everyone get up.”

 

At Arteon’s words, the soldiers moved sluggishly like zombies.

 

Watching such soldiers, Arteon turned his body.

 

‘Northeastern 4th Defense Line…’

 

The barren but familiar sight of the Northern Region came into view at a glance.

 

The reason he had come here despite the risks.

 

Arteon, recalling that reason once more, closed his eyes.

 

And when he slowly opened his eyes.

 

“Whew.”

 

Steeling himself for life in this new place, Arteon walked toward where the soldiers were.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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