Chapter 75

Chapter 75
“Hey, did you guys hear the news about General Max?”
“What about General Max?”
Within the guardhouse located in the farthest sector of the zone, a soldier who had just returned from leave began passing along the tales he gathered in the central district.
“General Max confessed that he actually ordered the assassination of Second Lieutenant Bones. The central command is completely upside down because of it.”
“So it really was General Max who set him up?”
“I find it hard to swallow. Does that sound like something General Max would do?”
“Yeah, I am having a hard time believing it too, but since he admitted it himself, people cannot just brush it aside.”
“True enough. When a man confesses to something like that firsthand, there is no use arguing otherwise…”
“To be honest, I always had my doubts about Lieutenant Bones.”
“Same here.”
The massacre of Colonel Samson’s Second Team during the subjugation mission was common knowledge among all the regular troops. Naturally, Colonel Samson’s claim that General Max commanded Lieutenant Bones to commit murder had also circulated throughout the zone. Yet, because so many of the men respected General Max’s integrity, practically no one believed it.
Some argued it looked suspicious that Bones survived when the colonel clearly intended to have him killed. Others countered that a rookie second lieutenant could never have wiped out a colonel and all his veteran officers simply by orchestrating a mutiny.
Even so, against all expectations, General Max’s own confession brought the entire matter to a conclusion.
“There is another rumor floating around, though. Word is that the real mastermind is someone completely different.”
“The real mastermind?”
“You remember how Commander Yosef passed away not long ago?”
“Yeah, we all stood in formation for his funeral. Never imagined he would go out like that during training…”
“It was not just an ordinary accident.”
“Then what was it?”
“Divine retribution.”
“Divine retribution?!”
Their voices climbed, and the soldier sharing the gossip flinched, pressing a finger against his lips and gesturing wildly for them to lower their tone.
“Keep it down, damn it! If the colonel catches us sitting around discussing this crap, he will lose his mind!”
“Alright, alright… But what is this about divine retribution? Did he get struck by lightning or something?”
“Spot on.”
“What?”
“I am serious—divine punishment. A lightning strike hit him during training and that was it.”
He drew a finger across his windpipe. The others stared back at him as though the universe had lost its mind.
“How is that divine retribution? Sounds like he just had terrible luck.”
“And what does any of that have to do with another person being the actual culprit?”
“The chatter is that Commander Yosef was the one who actually pushed Colonel Samson into it, which is why heaven struck him down.”
“Come on. That is stretching things pretty far, do you not think?”
“Except the rumor is originating from the officers themselves. Quite a few guys overheard the higher-ups discussing it.”
“Huh…”
If the officers were the ones spreading the story, it was much harder to dismiss as a complete fabrication. On an emotional level, Commander Yosef felt like a far more believable villain than General Max anyway. They had all quietly refused to accept that Max could do such a thing; the notion that Yosef was the true culprit and had been punished for it felt almost like a relief.
As the troops drifted into a thoughtful quiet, the returning soldier still had plenty more to tell. He opened his mouth again with a knowing expression.
“Do you guys know the real reason Hayden is referred to as the Miracle of the Crevasse?”
“What else is there to it?”
“Do not ask if I know—just spit it out, you jerk.”
“The real reason Hayden is called the Miracle of the Crevasse. Do you know it?”
“Sure. He tumbled into a crevasse and managed to crawl out alive, right?”
“I find it harder to believe that he took down four large-class monsters using only four bullets all by himself.”
In reality, Hayden had only slain two, but the officers’ post-operation chatter—”Out of the five large-class beasts hunted during the expedition, one was finished off by some kid soldier, two were brought down by Hayden himself, and the remaining two were crushed beneath the ones he killed, so we cleared them easily. We are only breathing because of him”—had transformed among the rank and file into the legend that “Hayden killed four.”
“Surviving the crevasse can be chalked up to pure luck, but defeating monsters like that demands actual skill.”
“I have heard the story about him bagging four large-class monsters, but this is the first time I am hearing he did it with four bullets.”
“Right? That would mean one shot per beast. Sounds like a massive exaggeration.”
“I think it is true.”
“You actually think it is true?”
“I asked if you knew why he is called the Miracle of the Crevasse. It is not just because he returned breathing.”
“Then…?”
The soldiers leaned closer, their faces lit with curiosity. The returning soldier purposefully dropped his tone into a low, ominous register.
“The reason Hayden is called the Miracle of the Crevasse is because when they hauled him out, a massive monster was lying dead right beside him. A giant the zone had never laid eyes on before.”
“Ah, that thing…”
One of the sentries perked up at the mention of the colossal beast.
“You mean that furry giant they dragged back into the zone a while back?”
“That is the one.”
“Damn. The expedition was already over—I kept wondering where the hell they managed to find it.”
“From what I heard, the monster threatened His Excellency, so Hayden lured it away by leaping into the crevasse himself.”
Every soldier listening snapped upright in astonishment.
“What? So he did not just fall in by accident—he jumped intentionally to protect His Excellency?”
“Hang on. You said the beast was already dead. Are you telling me Hayden dispatched that thing after dropping into the crevasse?”
“That is right.”
“No way.”
“Insane…”
“Want to hear how the monster died?”
What they had already absorbed was more than enough to make their heads spin, yet the tale was clearly unfinished. The soldiers pressed on with tight expressions,
“How? How was it dead?”
“A massive icicle had pierced straight through its skull.”
“Whoa. So an icicle just happened to drop and he got lucky?”
“I heard he did not have a single scratch on him even after tumbling into the crevasse. The guy has some unbelievable luck.”
They all seemed convinced that Hayden could never have slain the giant by himself. The storyteller shook his head.
“Here is where it gets genuinely creepy. That icicle did not fall on its own.”
“Then what happened?”
“Someone shot it down using a rifle.”
“A rifle?”
“You are not about to claim Hayden fired that shot, are you?”
“Why on earth would Hayden shoot an icicle?”
“To drop it right onto the bastard’s head, obviously.”
“Wait—so you are saying Hayden shot the icicle to destroy the monster, and it punched clean through its braincase?”
“That is precisely what I am saying.”
Silence settled over the barracks. The account was simply too far-fetched. Surviving a fall into a crevasse was a verified fact they could accept. But a ten-year-old boy calmly calculating against a beast hundreds of times his size, then pulling off the plan flawlessly and succeeding—none of them could swallow that easily.
“Come on, does that even make sense? Sounds like the commander’s residence is just hyping Hayden up for the public.”
“I heard His Excellency actually did not want to send Hayden on the expedition at all.”
“Why not?”
“Because it was far too dangerous.”
“What? We go out every damn year! Only his kid counts as a child?”
“Well, that is the standard way of thinking. It is always orphans like us who get shoved into the lethal assignments.”
The atmosphere in the barracks shifted, growing somber.
“So… Hayden still went on the expedition anyway?”
“From what I hear, he was desperate to go. You know he was the one who altered this expedition into a small elite unit, right?”
“Yeah. Our colonel bitched endlessly about missing out.”
“The colonel was pissed he could not rack up any glory, but honestly we were relieved. When regular grunts like us go on those expeditions, we stand in the front lines and wind up dead or crippled more often than not.”
Not a single man in the room disputed that. This was the outermost fringe of the zone—a place where monster assaults could strike at any second. It was where orphans who enlisted simply to stay alive, lacking any officer patronage, were ultimately pushed forward by the sponsored soldiers. They were the ones drafted most frequently for the subjugation runs, and the ones who died in the highest numbers.
“But this time the wounded numbered under thirty. And most of those were officers, not grunts like us. Casualties, excluding the ones Colonel Samson murdered, were only six. Have you ever seen that many people return alive?”
“Never…”
“So why did Hayden suddenly switch it to a small elite force this time around?”
“That is another unusual thing about him.”
The returning soldier puffed out his chest, clearly brimming with intelligence from the central district.
“I heard that after Hayden went missing as a child, he lived down in the slums the entire time.”
“Missing?!”
“He was not raised inside the commander’s estate?”
“So that is why he just popped up out of nowhere? There was never any talk of a kid before.”
“I always figured they were just keeping him hidden.”
“Maybe that is why he seems to care about our lives more than the folks from the center do.”
“Now that you mention it, has not Hayden been throwing charity gatherings every month?”
“You are right, he has.”
“Wait—so Hayden’s return coincided with that officers’ meeting when General Bartom died? That is when the gossip first kicked off.”
“I caught that story in the center this time too. General Bartom really had it coming.”
“I thought Major General Meursault shot him over some attitude problem?”
“Actually, right in front of Hayden, he insulted Hayden’s birth mother.”
“What?!”
“Insane…”
The soldiers who had automatically hurled curses at the mention of mother-insults suddenly sensed something amiss and asked again.
“Uh… birth mother?”
“Do not tell me Hayden is not Lady Daphne’s son?”
“That is correct. Apparently His Excellency already had a fiancée before he married Lady Daphne.”
“Then why marry Lady Daphne at all…?”
“The fiancée suddenly vanished from the zone, so he had no choice but to marry Lady Daphne. I heard that now that Hayden is back, they might get a divorce soon.”
“Shit, divorcing Lady Daphne…”
One soldier who had been listening with rapt attention suddenly felt a spike of unease.
“Hey, who the hell did you hear all this from?”
“Second Lieutenant Lucas.”
“Who is that? Some new officer?”
“He served on Hayden’s team during the expedition. Lucas seems to idolize Hayden too. The way he spoke about him, I thought the guy was in love.”
“Hayden is only about ten years old. Showing respect already?”
“You sat through this entire story and you are still hung up on his age?”
“He is still a kid, though.”
“That is what makes it even more impressive. And Lucas witnessed Hayden’s performance on the expedition with his own eyes.”
“Hearing all this, I kind of want to lay eyes on him myself. Find out if he is really that different from ordinary people.”
In a barracks on the furthest edge of the zone, the troops were busy fueling their fantasies about Hayden. Meanwhile, that exact Hayden—who was indeed something other than ordinary—was compelling his father to secure a divorce.