Chapter 4 Part 18

“If I’m lucky, I might encounter certain individuals less. But it’s only ‘less’; inevitably, we’ll all receive the same training at some point.”

“Of course, even if not, everyone gets endurance training on the weekends.”

His colleague, who had been mumbling, suddenly grabbed Jeong Tae-ui’s hand and said.

“When it’s endurance training, everyone participates in a survival competition, so another opportunity will come. An opportunity to send that guy straight to his grave.”

“…It sounds like the day I go straight to my grave is coming.”

Jeong Tae-ui lost his appetite and put down the bread he was eating. He forced the food down with milk, but it caught in his throat and wouldn’t go down easily. At this rate, he wouldn’t digest it well either.

Then, Jeong Tae-ui suddenly mumbled, ‘Huh.’ He stared at the bread in his hand for a long time, then tilted his head.

“Wait, the weekend? …What kind of training do we have on the weekend? We should be resting. Wasn’t it free time from Friday 5 PM until Sunday?”

When Jeong Tae-ui asked, lines creasing his face, his colleague sitting next to him asked back as if confused.

“Didn’t you hear that we can’t leave I-do Island during the joint training period?”

“What are you talking about? For fifteen days, there’s no rest whatsoever. It’s just continuous training. In fact, it’s better on weekdays because training is only during regular work hours. But on weekends, from Saturday afternoon until Sunday noon, they release people into the forest for life-or-death survival training.”

“What is that?! What about my walks then!”

Jeong Tae-ui’s face stiffened, and he slammed the table, shouting. The milk sloshed over, spilling onto the table.

His colleagues stared at Jeong Tae-ui in bewilderment, then looked utterly perplexed.

“Walks? What walks?”

His colleagues all asked as if they didn’t understand, but Jeong Tae-ui couldn’t even think of an answer, frozen in dismay.

Training on weekends was completely new to him. It turned out his colleagues thought it was so obvious that no one had told him. He hadn’t heard from his uncle that there were no holidays during the joint training either.

—I hope the weather is good.

Suddenly, he remembered what his uncle had said earlier with a smile. And before that, Shinru’s mumbling to himself, tilting his head, ‘Did I misunderstand?’

“Damn it… So this was what it was.”

Jeong Tae-ui suddenly lost all energy and slumped onto the table. It felt futile that he had resolved to survive until the weekend, even if his life had less than half a month left.

“Hey, why are you crying? Well, I certainly understand not wanting to do endurance training.”

“Hmm. If you’re going to die, that’s probably the most likely time. …And if there’s someone you want to get rid of, that’s the best time to target them.”

Gloomy words exchanged above Jeong Tae-ui’s bowed head.

Just a moment ago, he had been able to steady his heart with a thread of hope remaining even in despair, but that hope had vanished too. All that remained was despair.

Seeing Jeong Tae-ui slumped over the table, motionless and dispirited, Tou patted his shoulder as if he understood everything.

“It’s okay, it’s okay. We’re here, aren’t we? Do you really think we’d just stand by and watch you die?”

“Right. If you’re in danger, this time I’ll take the Colt from Morrer and shoot for you.”

They pushed Morrer, who was yelling at them to stop with their nonsense, aside and offered words of comfort one by one. However, such words were far from comforting; they merely served as a clear prophecy of an even gloomier future.

“Cheer up, Tae-ui. What’s the point of being so dispirited already? We’re going to start spilling blood in earnest this afternoon.”

“Ah, right. Let’s try to loosen up these stiff bodies. It’s been a while since I’ve hit a human punching bag.”

Suddenly, the voices around him grew louder, as if meant to be heard. Then, the Europe Branch members, who had been sitting over there, chatting boisterously among themselves, began to shout roughly.

“Those who will be beaten senseless as soon as it starts, all they’ve learned is how to bluff.”

“Does the Asia Branch only teach how to fight with your mouth? And they’re terrible at that too.”

Here we go again. Jeong Tae-ui, who had been slumped over the table in a gloomy mood, was now forgotten, and they began to fight like a pack of dogs. The two sets of shouts, which had only been directed at each other, were getting closer and closer.

Jeong Tae-ui lifted his head, a crestfallen look on his face. Everyone was standing, facing the Europe Branch members, showering them with offensive insults and shouts, and the coarse language coming from the other side was just as bad. From behind his colleagues, who stood like a wall in front of him, Jeong Tae-ui looked at Morrer, who was sitting behind him as well, and asked with a weary expression.

“So, every day for the next fifteen days will be like today…”

“Well, today is less intense because it’s the first time seeing them in a while. As the days go by, it’ll really get heated.”

Morrer still glared sullenly at Jeong Tae-ui, but grumbled out an answer. Jeong Tae-ui mumbled sadly.

“And in the afternoon, we’re really going to start sparring with those guys.”

“Hmm. Today, for free individual sparring, boxing, judo, hapkido, kendo, whatever you like, just pick two and follow their rules, and the rest is unlimited freedom.”

“What’s that? If you allow the rules of both martial arts, then there are practically no restrictions. What kind of sparring is that? It’s just a fight.”

“Of course, it’s no different from a dogfight. If it were a formal sparring match under strict rules, would such resentment have built up?”

“No, but still, training with other branches would have been similar, so why is it only like this with the Europe side?”

“Well, I can’t say for sure since this is my first joint training with the Europe Branch, but I suppose I’ll find out a bit more as I get beaten by those guys during the training.”

…

Although he had never experienced the pandemonium between the Europe Branch and the Asia Branch before, Morrer had some experience from rolling around at other branches, so he understood the current situation better than Jeong Tae-ui.