Chapter 37. Surviving the Harsh Winter (3)

Ding ding ding.

The moment the distant bell sound faded, a black head popped up from the snow-covered field.

"Huh?"

Yuri, looking around like a meerkat, had a glint of interest in his eyes.

'So, the first dropout has appeared.'

To give up after just ten days.

He was so curious to see what kind of fool it was.

'Or, is ten days actually a long time?'

If the past ten days were the average for the other cadets, then ten days was indeed a long time.

But such shallow thoughts were fleeting.

He bent his upper body back into the snow and focused on his original task.

Swish-thud, swish-thud.

Each time Yuri's sword moved, the frozen ground was dug up with a puff of breath.

A work speed much faster than using a shovel.

It was hard to believe that a sword as thin as two finger joints could dig so quickly.

After a while of digging, Yuri straightened his back.

He gazed at his cherished sword in awe.

"Wow! As expected, Whitey! Look, not a single scratch!"

Not only was there no scratch, but over the past ten days, he had dug dozens of holes with Whitey.

Despite digging through all kinds of soil, roots, and pebbles, the white steel sword had not a single mark on it.

'So that's why everyone talks about white steel swords!'

Although he had confirmed the quality of the white steel sword in a rather unusual way, Yuri didn't mind.

After all, good is good, right?

"Hmm~."

Yuri hummed a tune and plunged Whitey back into the ground.

Swish-thud.

Before long, he stopped digging and pulled something out of the hole.

Thud.

In Yuri's hand was a root covered in mud.

"Ah! This one's pretty big, huh?"

What Yuri had dug up was not just any root but a root vegetable called Tosa-ba.

Due to its resistance to climate and ability to grow in poor soil, Tosa-ba was often cultivated as a famine food.

However, wild Tosa-ba was nearly impossible to find without knowing how to look for it.

But Yuri was different.

'Back when I was a kid, I must have dug thousands of holes just to find one Tosa-ba to eat!'

He had dug more holes than any rabbit in the mountains.

Now, with just a glance, he could estimate the size of the Tosa-ba he would find if he dug in a certain spot.

He was practically a Tosa-ba master.

And as if to prove it, Yuri dug up Tosa-ba after Tosa-ba as he moved through the snow-covered forest.

"Hmm~."

Yuri dug up Tosa-ba with a cheerful face.

One after another, Tosa-ba roots came out of the ground.

Click.

"Hmm..."

After a short while of labor.

Yuri, who had just dug up the last Tosa-ba, scratched his cheek as he looked at the pile of Tosa-ba that reached his waist.

"Too much, huh?"

It seemed he had gotten too excited.

With this amount, he could survive for a few days just on Tosa-ba alone.

But he couldn't just leave what he had dug up.

Yuri recalled his childhood days.

'When I managed to catch a rabbit and eat it, and then had to survive for five days on the broth made from the leftover bones...'

The broth from the rabbit bones was practically just water after five days.

The memory of that terrible taste made Yuri shiver, and he briefly scolded himself for thinking the Tosa-ba was too much.

'What a joke! If I store it, there will surely be a day when I need it!'

Yuri took off his shirt and swept up the Tosa-ba.

He didn't miss a single small root, gathering them all.

"Hmm~."

He hummed a tune and used his footwork to kick off from two nearby trees alternately.

In an instant, Yuri's figure landed on a tree branch.

Snap!

Using the slight bend of the branch, Yuri's figure shot forward.

The snow on the tree scattered like powder but blended naturally into the surrounding snow.

Thus, Yuri swiftly left the area without leaving any trace.

* * *

Three hours later.

A boy appeared at a spot not far from where Yuri had dug up Tosa-ba.

The boy's name was Claris Van.

He pushed through the snow with quick steps.

Huff huff.

Claris, breathing heavily, quickly scanned the surroundings.

'There must be some here.'

Claris Van was the scion of a family that could be called a 'true noble' among the 503 cadets.

Born as the heir to the Van family, he had been educated with a single philosophy.

[One who does not understand hunger has no right to lead the family.]

This philosophy, passed down from the founding patriarch, was deeply rooted in the Van family's history.

About 150 years ago.

The southern region, now classified as the Tabul administrative district, was a very poor land due to the cold climate, and the Van family started in a village on the western side of that land.

A severe drought hit the already poor land.

A young man with the surname Van rolled up his sleeves and worked hard to feed the starving villagers.

People were drawn to the young hero's dedication and soon formed a power base.

This was the beginning of the Van family.

Over time, the Van family's territory overcame poverty, but the descendants created a tradition to remember the past.

The adults of the family would live in the forest with the children for 100 days.

Although the adults helped, it was no easy task for children to survive in the cold forest.

Through this tradition, the Van family's children realized how precious the family's protection was.

They also learned what hunger was and how to solve it from the adults.

Hunting, identifying edible plants, and so on.

The Van family's children learned, at least in part, how to survive in poor conditions.

'Those days were really tough...'

But who would have thought that the knowledge he gained would be so useful now.

Huff huff.

"Please, this time..."

As Claris pushed through the snow that reached his thighs, his eyes widened when he spotted something.

"I found it!"

Claris's pace quickened.

He approached the conifer with dark red leaves.

A tree with dark red leaves.

This was a characteristic of trees growing in soil altered by Tosa-ba.

'It's certain! If the leaves are this dark, there must be a Tosa-ba colony nearby!'

Claris, slightly excited, approached the dark red conifer.

However, the closer he got, the slower his steps became.

'No, no way!'

When Claris finally reached his destination, a sigh of exasperation escaped his lips.

"Again... again?"

The ground was dug up everywhere.

It was clear to anyone that Tosa-ba had been dug up, and his eyes trembled.

The trembling soon spread throughout his body.

Shiver.

It was not from the cold but from anger.

"Who the hell is this guy!"

Claris had been searching for Tosa-ba for several days.

It was one of the crops that could be found relatively easily in such an environment.

With his own experience in finding Tosa-ba in the wild, Claris was confident he could find it easily.

Indeed, he had managed to find a Tosa-ba colony quite easily.

However,

'There were others looking for Tosa-ba besides me?'

Someone had already dug up the Tosa-ba before Claris.

Despite his first failure, Claris did not give up and continued his search.

He believed that in such a vast forest, he could find other Tosa-ba colonies.

Four days passed.

In the past four days, Claris had found ten Tosa-ba colonies.

But in every single one, someone had already dug up the Tosa-ba before him.

And they had done it thoroughly, leaving not a single root behind!

After a few days of the same situation, Claris noticed a common feature.

'There are signs of Tosa-ba being dug up, but no signs of anyone entering or leaving!'

Only then did Claris realize that the same person had been digging up all the Tosa-ba.

And the 11th Tosa-ba colony he found this time was no different.

Hiss hiss.

Claris's eyes turned red with anger as he exhaled roughly through his nose.

He couldn't contain his boiling anger and finally let it out.

"Hey, you conscienceless brat! At least leave some for others! Are you planning to sell Tosa-ba or something!"

Over the past few days, the Tosa-ba colonies that the conscienceless brat had dug up numbered eleven.

With that amount, one person could survive not just a month but the entire winter until next year.

"Ugh!"

Claris's angry shout made the snow on nearby branches fall.

But Claris didn't know.

The 'conscienceless brat' he was cursing wasn't just digging up Tosa-ba.

The forest of beginnings was suffering from Yuri's beggar-like greed and conscienceless desire.

And at the moment when Claris's angry shout echoed through the forest,

Swish.

Hundreds of Black Sword soldiers began to spread throughout the forest of beginnings.

* * *

In a certain underground cave at the edge of the forest.

After passing through a cleverly hidden entrance and walking along a narrow passage, a large chamber appeared where a dozen adult men could lie down simultaneously.

This was the best hiding place Yuri had found.

Crack crack.

A bonfire burned in the center of the cave.

Yuri, sitting nearby, had a pile of bone fragments next to him.

He tore off the last piece of meat from the meat he was holding and swallowed it, then threw the bare bone aside.

Thud!

The moment a bone fragment was added to the pile of bones, Yuri let out a satisfying burp.

Gurgle!

Then, lying down in a '大' (big) shape, Yuri patted his protruding belly.

"Ah... that's good."

The drowsy feeling that followed the sense of fullness, combined with the warm glow of the bonfire, was a luxury one could only enjoy in the middle of winter.

Feeling full and warm, this was true happiness, wasn't it?

Yuri's face, glowing with happiness, was more plump and shiny than when he first arrived in the forest.

A stark contrast to the other cadets, who were becoming more and more ragged as time passed.

And the cause of this change could be found behind Yuri.

A pile of Tosa-ba that could feed hundreds of people.

Smoked bird meat.

Various unknown herbs and roots, which seemed to be medicinal or spices.

Sweet-looking rock sugar and licorice.

Small pieces of wood that had been chopped and dried.

The amount of supplies he had gathered in just ten days of winter was hard to believe.

All of this was the result of Yuri's greed and beggar-like perseverance.

After rolling around for a while, Yuri sat up.

He looked at the dying bonfire and muttered to himself.

"Hmm... this test is too easy."

Of course, this was from Yuri's subjective perspective.

The harsh winter weather was getting worse every day.

Four-legged animals had completely disappeared from the forest.

Even the streams had no fish.

It was clearly an environment deliberately created to limit food resources.

In such a situation, perhaps Yuri was the only one who could casually say that the survival test was easy.

Yuri was well aware of this.

He couldn't help but notice it after seeing all kinds of fools over the past ten days.

A fool who couldn't even start a fire and crawled into the snow shivering.

An idiot who threw stones wildly trying to catch a bird.

A moron who ate snow next to a perfectly good valley and suffered from a headache.

A novice who struggled to climb a tree to eat its leaves.

'The world is wide, and so are the fools...'

Is this a gathering place for fools?

How can they be so broken by every little thing they see?

How can people who supposedly received higher education act like this?

Of course, there were a few who did well, but nine out of ten were just as clueless.

'To think I had to move and monitor these fools... it's embarrassing.'

Seeing all these fools over the past ten days made Yuri realize how easily he was passing the test.

He also understood how difficult the test was for the other cadets.

Therefore, it wasn't strange for Yuri to say the test was easy.

He had the right to say so.

However, the 'easy' he mentioned wasn't just about the perceived difficulty of the test.

It also included the method of the test.

'Is it really just about surviving for a month?'

Is the test really this simple and easy?

'There must be something I'm missing... what is it?'

For a few days, Yuri had been pondering this question and the unsettling feeling that came with it.

And as he continued to think,

"?!?"

Yuri picked up the sword next to him and sprang up like lightning.

Then,

Thud thud.

He glared fiercely at the passage of the cave from which small footsteps were heard.