Chapter 25: A Fucking Farming Ground

’THIS FUCKING BASTARD!!!’

"Yes, Corporal?" he replied, with a trembling smile on his face.

Tagum gestured toward the Sergeant. "You’re going with the Sergeant."

Zishan stared at him, acting innocent. "Me? No, no, no. I was just reassigned here, so I’m quite incompe—"

Then, Tagum cut him off, the grin on his face becoming even more pronounced. "You have combat experience, mobility, and according to your records, you can use Healing Magic. You feel special, right?"

Zishan pointed at himself, ignoring the last remark, but his mind was already full of curses. "I literally just arrived."

All he wanted to do was make the boss eat a cow’s dung. ’AHHHHHHH!’

"Then, you’ve had enough time to settle in."

"I haven’t even seen my bed yet! I want to rest first!"

"You know where it is, regardless," Tagum replied dismissively.

"THAT’S NOT THE SAME THING!"

The Sergeant looked between them with growing curiosity.

Noticing the change in his tone, Zishan coughed lightly and said, "I’m sorry, Corporal. I was just agitated, because I really wanted to be by your side."

Tagum shivered when he heard him say that. This kid was really different and strange.

Then, his face became completely serious.

But something about the man’s eyes convinced Zishan that he was enjoying this far more than a superior officer should.

"The Healers need protection," Tagum continued. "You’ll protect them until they’re relieved. If casualties need to be moved, you’ll assist. If supplies need to be carried, you’ll assist. If enemy forces break toward the medical position, you’ll help hold them back."

Zishan slowly processed every responsibility being piled onto him. "So I protect the Healers, carry wounded people, move supplies, fight anyone who gets too close, and somehow avoid dying."

Tagum nodded.

"That’s like four jobs..." Zishan muttered.

"Did you say something?"

Zishan stared at him in disbelief, seeing how the man acted like he was deaf. ’Just rip off your eardrums at this point, man!’

This bastard absolutely hated him to the core.

He had been here for less than twenty minutes and had already been assigned to what sounded like one of the most exhausting jobs available. He could even die!

’Commander Holtz knew exactly what he was doing.’

[The System finds it increasingly difficult to disagree.]

’THAT OLD BASTARD SET ME UP!’

Tagum gestured at him. "Move."

Zishan wanted to complain again, but a familiar sound rang inside his head.

[DING!]

His mouth immediately closed. ℴℴ𝘮

Tagum noticed the sudden change and frowned.

Zishan’s eyes moved toward the greenish panel appearing in front of him.

[FIELD QUEST]

[Protect the Forward Healers!]

[Objective: Assist Forward Medical Section Three until the immediate threat has passed.]

[Additional Objectives may be generated according to battlefield conditions.]

[Base Rewards]

[2,000 EXP]

[All Stats +5]

[Verdant Weave Mastery Level +1]

[Bonus Rewards will scale according to contribution.]

[PRECEDENCE AVAILABLE]

Zishan stared.

The anger inside him weakened slightly.

’Rewards will scale? And the base rewards are already this good right from the very beginning?!’

[Correct.]

His eyes moved toward the words again.

Additional Objectives may be generated according to battlefield conditions.

Something warm entered his heart. It might have been greed.

Yes! It was definitely greed!

The Sergeant had already started walking when Zishan hurried after him.

Tagum watched them leave. For some reason, the boy no longer looked angry, which somewhat baffled him.

He had intentionally assigned the boy to one of the most demanding requests currently available within his section, partly because the boy’s recorded abilities genuinely made him suitable for it and partly because Tagum wanted to see whether a few hours of serious battlefield work would finally remove that irritatingly casual expression from his face.

Instead, Zishan was smiling.

Tagum’s brows slowly drew together. ’Why is he smiling? Why do his steps look like someone so happy about something?’

"Soldier Walker!"

Zishan turned around while still walking backward, whistling. "Yes, Corporal?"

"If you come back, you’ll be assigned to casualty transport afterward."

The Corporal honestly expected some kind of complaint.

Zishan’s eyes brightened. "Does that count as another assignment?"

Tagum paused. "...Yes."

’This kid is really strange—just like what the reports say!’

Zishan’s smile widened. "THANK YOU, CORPORAL!"

Then, he turned around and hurried after the Sergeant, still whistling.

Tagum remained standing beside the coordination table. One of the nearby Soldiers carefully looked at him.

The Corporal slowly turned toward the man. "What?"

"Nothing, Corporal."

"Then, work."

The Soldier immediately returned to his crates.

Tagum stared toward the direction Zishan had disappeared. Something was wrong with that boy. Very wrong.

And for the first time, Tagum began wondering whether Commander Holtz had assigned Zishan to his unit because the Commander trusted him... or because Commander Holtz simply did not want to deal with him anymore.

Meanwhile, Zishan followed the Sergeant through the outer defensive section while cursing Corporal Tagum with surprising creativity inside his head.

’That fucking bootlicking asshole. I hope his pillow stays warm on both sides forever. I hope every time he wears socks, one of them somehow gets wet. I hope he orders food and they forget the sauce.’

[The System has detected an alarming escalation in hostility.]

’I’M NOT TAKING REVENGE. I’M JUST EXPRESSING MY FEELINGS.’

And he genuinely meant it.

Zishan had no intention of getting revenge on the Corporal. Revenge required planning, effort, patience, and usually resulted in more problems afterward.

He already had enough problems. Besides, the farther they moved toward the forward positions, the more his attention wandered away from Tagum.

The battlefield was becoming louder.

Explosions shook the air often enough that nobody around him reacted anymore. Soldiers rushed through reinforced passages carrying weapons, supplies, and injured comrades. Healers in pale uniforms moved between casualty stations while flashes of different kinds of Mana repeatedly illuminated the smoke farther ahead.

Then, Zishan noticed something else.

There were enemies out there, Magic Beasts, wounded soldiers who needed help, and probably a ridiculous number of military objectives waiting to happen. Any one of those could potentially turn into a Quest.

The Sergeant glanced back and found the strange new Soldier staring toward the battlefield with increasing interest.

Zishan had spent the last several minutes mentally wishing minor inconveniences upon Corporal Tagum, but those thoughts were rapidly becoming irrelevant.

He glanced at the Quest panel floating beside him before looking toward the battlefield ahead. By the time his eyes returned to the panel, a stupidly excited smile was already creeping across his face.

’...Wait a fucking minute.’

Tagum probably thought he had just punished him, but this place had more fighting, more danger, more people needing help, and probably more Quests than anywhere Zishan had seen since arriving in Cyrune.

The more Zishan thought about it, the more it seemed like Corporal Tagum had accidentally done him a favor.

’Isn’t this basically a fucking farming ground?’