Keisha asked Elijah, who was feeling upset:
“Deputy Commander, what’s wrong?
If you have something to say, speak up.”
“…Is today’s training just that, really?”
The moment she asked her question, a faint smile spread across Keisha's lips.
For a moment, Elia saw the form of a demon in that smile.
Keisha removed his smile and replied:
"Yes, that's it.
You have to get back here before that sun sets in the west.
If anything happens, fire the emergency missile.
Theo and I will come.
But…"
Keisha finished slowly and then added:
“…If it turns out that you launched it other than a life-and-death emergency, we will completely reschedule all field exercises from the beginning.”
When everyone in the unit thought about starting over again the hellish training they had gone through in the past few days, their faces froze.
After Keisha finished his explanation, he ordered the unit members:
“Then go!”
•
The unit members entered towards the lower reaches of the mountain range.
Everyone's faces were surprisingly full of hope.
“At least, if we just hold out today, the training will be over!”
“Yes, no matter how bad things are, time flies!”
Everyone was cheering each other on and looking forward to the sunset.
Even the monsters did not appear in large numbers.
The unit members subdued the monsters with their skills acquired from previous training.
“At this level, we can eliminate all monsters even if we go to war!”
Everyone was in a state of joy.
"El, look!
I caught him!"
Lennox shouted in a confident voice, pointing to the monster's corpse.
It didn't feel like training, more like a hunting outing.
"What a really relaxing day today.
We'll just have to hang in there until the evening, won't we?"
But Elia did not relax her tension.
'Didn't he secretly release mid-level monsters?'
But there were no signs of that at all.
At that moment, she heard a loud sound coming from her stomach.
He decided-
Her stomach was starting to get hungry little by little, which meant it was probably lunchtime.
She looked around and saw Yusar already sitting in one place eating the bacon and bread he had brought with him.
Even the weather was very sunny.
There was not a single cloud in the blue sky, and the warm sunlight enveloped it comfortably.
'One moment...'
Elia's eyes widened as she looked up at the sky.
'It's unbelievable, this crazy Keisha...!'
If her thoughts were correct, then this training was truly crazy.
So much so that the previous two practices would have seemed like a cakewalk.
She hurriedly called Yusar, who was close to her.
“Yusar, come here.
Quickly!”
"What's wrong?
Are you hungry?
I'll give you some."
He offered her food, but Elijah refused.
“How much food is left?
We have to be as frugal as possible.”
When Yusar saw Ilya's unusual appearance, his eyes squinted.
“What's wrong?”
“Look at the sky.
Doesn't it look a little strange?”
Yusar answered, closing his eyes because of the bright sunlight that was falling on his face:
"I don't know.
All I see is that the weather is really nice."
Elia picked up a tree branch that was lying near her.
Unlock!
I stabbed it vertically into the ground, which was well exposed to sunlight.
The shadow of the branch was clearly reflected on the ground.
“You still don't see anything strange yet?”
At that moment, Yousar's face froze.
Only then did he seem to realize what was strange.
"This… doesn't make sense.
This can't be true."
His voice trembled.
The shadow of the branch stretched long to the west.
This means that the sun is still in the east.
“By this time, it should be at least noon, right?
The sun should be in the middle, not in the east!”
She was feeling hungry, and it had been a fair amount of time since the unit had hunted monsters.
Elia nodded and continued speaking:
“I thought about that too.
But considering this, it's no different from early morning, let alone the middle of the day now.”
“That means...”
“Kisha obviously used some trick.
I don’t know how, but he stopped time.”
Hearing those words, Yusar shook his head.
“Ah, this is nonsense.”
This was crazy, but it was possible if it was about Keisha.
“Why would he do such an act specifically?”
When Yusar asked, Ilya silently looked at the shadow of the tree branch as she gritted her teeth.
She felt that she understood very well why Keisha had done such training.
In the arduous military life, the only solace, no matter how harsh, was the fact that time was passing.
Even in their former lives, most soldiers would repeat that fact and eagerly await the day of their discharge.
No matter how tough the training was, they endured it because there was an end point.
Their knowledge that there was an end, no matter how desperate, was the only hope for the soldiers to maintain their psychological balance even in miserable situations.
But Kesha has dashed that hope.
“Plus, that was a meaningful threat for that purpose as well.”
She mumbled as she remembered Keisha announcing that all training would be restarted from the beginning if it turned out that the situation was not a life-and-death emergency.
It was clear that he had prepared for this in advance to prevent the unit's members from firing the emergency shell for this reason after they later realized that time had stopped.
Yusar asked with a sigh:
“So, how long do we have to train?”
“Only Kesha knows that.”
•
Theo asked Kesha:
“I cast a time-stopping spell on this training as well.”
“Of course.
Because today is the last training.”
Then Theo shook his head.
“These comrades will suffer a lot psychologically.
At this time, they must be hoping that the matter will be over once they hold out today.”
Theo guessed what the unit was thinking.
Because he himself was barely enduring the last day of grueling field training thanks to that thought alone.
Then Keisha continued speaking in a sharp voice.
“Such hope makes unity weak.
A real war is not fought for a specific period of time, is it?
It could be a week, a year, or even longer.”
Theo nodded as he remembered the war between humans and demons a few years ago.
The war with the monsters that was thought to end in one month has continued for more than three years.
“So, how long do you plan to stop time in today’s training?”
“So I can feel good.”
Keisha had previously asked the mages to cast a time-stopping spell on the lower reaches of the mountain range, the training site.
Precisely because stopping it completely was physically impossible even with magic, time was flowing extremely slowly within that mountain range.
“Well, anyway, time outside is flowing, so it can't be stopped forever.
By the time the sun sets here, inside they'll feel like almost a month has passed.”
It was horrific just thinking about it.
Theo was relieved that he was not a member of Keisha's unit, but served with him in the military.
“Didn't the wizards you asked say anything?”
“They said I was not sane.”
Keisha laughed sarcastically.
“I answered them: You cannot fight monsters with your full mental faculties.”
"This is correct."
Theo nodded in agreement as he remembered the war days.
Walls stained with the blood of monsters and humans, corpses piled up like mountains...
At first, he was stunned by the horror of it.
He is filled with nausea from the stench of blood spreading everywhere, and his mental faculties crumble when he sees a comrade who was completely alive moments ago die in front of him.
But over time, he becomes indifferent to the horror, and repeats the killing like a machine.
Because if he didn't, he would go crazy.
The battlefield was never a place where one could be at full sanity.
Kesha, who led the Grand Duke's army, defeated the monsters with overwhelming force and won the war, but he also lost a lot during the war.
Theo was well aware of that fact.
“Anyway, that boy might have noticed something strange by now.”
Keisha smiled mysteriously.
“You mean Erhan, right?”
Keisha nodded instead of answering.
But even if he found out, that boy couldn't break this magic.
Because the only tool that can break this magic is in his possession.
Since he is a boy who understands well, he will understand the true meaning of my command and will not fire the emergency shell.
“How will Erhan react in that situation and surprise me?”
His heartbeat pounded with pleasure.
At that moment, Theo changed the subject.
“More than that, Colonel, this is a somewhat different topic, but I have something to say.”
"What?"
“This field day training.
Doesn’t it look a little weird?”
Keisha answered while deep in thought.
“That landslide and the vortex, you mean.”
"exactly."
These were not the conditions they expected.
Of course, since they were simple problems that could be solved with their abilities, Keisha didn't worry too much.
And it was like that now.
“If any other problem occurs...”
“So, these boys will fire the emergency shell.
We can solve it then.”
•
“Isn't this strange?”
“Yes.
It seems like a long time has passed.
However, the sun is still high in the sky.”
The unit members were also slowly feeling that something was strange.
In addition, everyone was feeling hungry and their strength was diminishing little by little.
Because even if time stops, the body's metabolic activities cannot be stopped.
'I wonder, how long has Keisha stopped time?'
Even if their numbers were few and weak, monsters still existed in this mountain range.
It could become dangerous if the unit members are weakened.
Ilya advised Yusar to leave behind as much emergency food as possible.
There was no choice but to conserve their energy as much as possible.
The sounds of monsters howling were heard from there.
Axion would naturally cut down monsters every now and then.
He didn't waver at all.
'Isn't he hungry too?'
Thinking about it, Axion held out even when the restaurant's food became meager due to the embezzlement of the Grand Duke's servant, and he did not eat special food.
That was when she turned her head away from Axion, recalling that period.
Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow
An unusual, massive roar rang out, and the entire mountain range began to shake.
It was much more dangerous than the landslide in the first training.
"Ah!
What is this?"
“Save the people!”
Crack-
The ground began to crack and crack in giant lines.