LIGHTNOVELSTORY Chapter 37 - Surviving the Harsh Winter (3)
Chapter 37. Surviving the Harsh Winter (3)
Ding, ding, ding—
The distant sound of bells faded quickly as a black head emerged cautiously from the white snowfield.
“Huh?”
Like a meerkat, Yuri’s head darted around.
His eyes gleamed with a hint of interest.
‘Looks like the first dropout.’
To give up after just ten days.
He was curious to see what kind of idiot it was.
‘Or maybe it’s a lot to endure for ten days?’
If the last ten days were any indication of the cadets’ average endurance, ten days was actually a long time.
But those shallow thoughts were short-lived.
He bent down again, returning to his task in the snow.
Swoosh—thud—swoosh—thud—
Each time Yuri’s sword moved, the frozen ground was dug up smoothly.
It was much faster than using a shovel.
It was hard to believe he was digging with a sword barely the width of two fingers.
After digging for a while, Yuri straightened his back.
He looked at his sword with admiration.
“Wow! Look at my White! Not a single chip!”
Not only was it not chipped, but he had dug dozens of holes with White over the past ten days.
Despite digging through all sorts of dirt, roots, and gravel, the White Steel Sword remained unscathed.
‘So this is why everyone praises the White Steel Sword!’
Although it was a somewhat unconventional way to test the sword’s performance, Yuri didn’t mind.
After all, a good result is a good result, right?
“Hm-hm~.”
Humming, Yuri plunged White into the ground again.
Swoosh—thud—
And soon enough, he stopped digging and pulled something out from the pit.
Thud—
What Yuri held was a dirt-covered tree root.
“Oh! This one’s pretty big.”
What he had dug up was not just any root but a root vegetable called ‘Tosaba.’
Tosaba, which grew well in harsh conditions with little climate influence, was cultivated as a crop for famine relief.
However, wild Tosaba was hard to find unless you knew how.
But Yuri was different.
‘Back when I was a snot-nosed kid, I must have dug thousands of holes just to find one Tosaba!’
He had dug more holes in the mountains than most rabbits.
Now, he could tell at a glance, ‘If I dig there, I’ll probably find a Tosaba of this size!’
He was practically a Tosaba expert.
Proving this, Yuri wandered through the snow-covered forest, digging up Tosaba wherever he went.
“Hm-hm~.”
Yuri dug up Tosaba with a cheerful expression.
Tosaba roots continued to follow in his wake.
Thud—
“Hmm…”
After a short period of labor, Yuri looked at the pile of Tosaba, as high as his waist, and scratched his cheek.
“…Isn’t this too much?”
He had clearly overdone it.
This amount could last him several days.
But he couldn’t just leave what he had dug up.
Yuri recalled his childhood memories.
‘After luckily finding a rabbit and eating it clean, I couldn’t find food for days… I survived five days by boiling rabbit bones.’
Boiling rabbit bones for five days was practically just drinking plain water.
Shuddering at the memory of that terrible taste, Yuri reproached himself for thinking the Tosaba pile was too much.
‘Too much, my foot! If I stockpile it, I’ll need it someday!’
Yuri took off his outer garment and started to gather the Tosaba.
He made sure not to miss a single small root.
“Hm-hm~.”
Humming softly, he used the Cloud Step to bounce between two nearby trees.
In an instant, Yuri was up in the branches.
Creak—thud!
Using the branch’s elasticity, he propelled himself forward.
The snow on the branches scattered like powder, blending naturally with the surrounding snow.
Jumping from tree to tree, Yuri quickly left the area.
Without leaving any trace.
* * *
Three hours later.
A boy appeared a little distance away from where Yuri had dug up the Tosaba.
His name was Clarice Van.
He trudged through the snow with quick steps.
Huff, huff—
Clarice scanned the surroundings quickly.
‘There has to be some.’
Clarice Van was from a distinguished family among the 503 cadets.
Born as the heir of the Van family, he was raised with one principle.
[One who does not understand hunger is unfit to lead the family.]
A principle passed down by the first head of the family to the heirs.
The Van family’s tradition was linked to their history.
About 150 years ago, the southern region now classified as the Tabul Administrative District was a harsh land due to the subarctic climate. The Van family originated from a village in the western part of that land.
In an already harsh land, a severe drought struck.
A young man named Van, who rolled up his sleeves to feed the starving villagers.
Impressed by the young hero’s dedication, people gathered around him, and this grew into a faction.
This was the beginning of the Van family.
As time passed, the Van family’s territory escaped poverty, but they created a tradition to remember their past.
The family elders would live in the forest with the children for 100 days.
Although the elders helped, it was never easy 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 resolve it from the elders.
How to hunt, how to identify edible plants, and so on.
The Van family’s children learned basic survival skills in harsh environments.
‘It was really tough back then…’
But to think that knowledge would come in handy now.
When Clarice realized that the Black Sword Corps’ test theme was survival, he almost cheered.
Since then, Clarice had been surviving the harsh winter relatively comfortably, unlike the other cadets, thanks to the knowledge he had learned as a child.
If the Black Sword Corps were scoring their survival, Clarice was confident he would be first.
…Until a few days ago.
Huff, huff—
“This time, please…”
Clarice’s eyes widened slightly as he spotted something while pushing through the thigh-deep snow.
“Found it!”
His pace quickened.
What lay in his direct path was a coniferous tree with dark red leaves.
A tree with dark red leaves.
It was a sign of soil altered by Tosaba.
‘Definitely! If the leaves are that dark, there must be a Tosaba colony nearby!’
Excited, Clarice quickly approached the coniferous tree.
But the closer he got to his destination, the slower his steps became.
‘No way…?!’
Finally, upon reaching his goal, Clarice muttered in disbelief.
“Again… Again…”
The ground was dug up everywhere.
Anyone could see that Tosaba had been harvested there.
His eyes twitched.
The tremor spread through his entire body.
Trembling—
It was a shiver born of anger, not cold.
“Who… Who the hell is it!”
Clarice had been searching for Tosaba for days.
In this environment, Tosaba was the easiest crop to find.
With his experience, Clarice was confident he could find it easily.
He had indeed managed to locate Tosaba colonies.
However…
‘Someone else was searching for Tosaba, too?’
Someone had harvested the Tosaba before Clarice could.
Despite his initial failure, Clarice didn’t give up and kept searching.
He believed the forest was big enough to find more Tosaba.
Four days passed.
In those four days, Clarice had found ten Tosaba colonies.
In every one of those places, someone had already harvested the Tosaba.
Every root, without exception!
After days of repeated frustration, Clarice noticed a common feature.
‘There were signs of Tosaba being dug up, but no tracks of someone coming or going!’
Finally, he realized that it was the same person taking all the Tosaba.
And the eleventh colony he found today was also cleaned out by the same person.
Huff, huff—
Clarice’s eyes were bloodshot with rage.
Unable to suppress his boiling anger, he let out a cry.
“You heartless bastard! Have some decency! Are you planning to start a Tosaba business or what!”
In the past few days, the heartless bastard had cleaned out eleven Tosaba colonies.
The amount of Tosaba collected could last one person not just a month but through the entire winter.
“Argh!”
Clarice’s furious shout caused the snow on the nearby branches to fall.
But he didn’t know.
That the ‘heartless bastard’ he cursed was not just hoarding Tosaba.
The Forest of Beginnings was suffering from Yuri’s greedy and shameless behavior.
As Clarice’s angry shout echoed, the forest was beginning to spread.
Swish, swish—
Hundreds of Black Sword Corps members began to disperse throughout the forest.
* * *
A hidden cave on the outskirts of the forest.
If you walked past a cleverly concealed entrance and through a narrow passage, you would find a chamber large enough for over a dozen adults to lie down.
It was the best hiding spot Yuri had found.
Crackle, crackle—
A campfire blazed in the center of the cave.
And next to it was Yuri, surrounded by a heap of bones.
Munch, munch—
Yuri bit off the last piece of meat from the bone and tossed the remaining skeleton aside.
Thud!
The new bone joined the pile, and Yuri let out a loud burp.
Buuurp!
Lying spread-eagle, Yuri patted his protruding belly.
“Ah… This feels good.”
The lethargy that followed a full stomach.
The warmth of the campfire was a luxurious comfort in the middle of winter.
Full and warm, this was true happiness.
Grinning happily, Yuri’s face was plumper and shinier than when he first arrived in the forest.
While other cadets were turning into ragged figures, Yuri was experiencing the opposite.
And the reason for his transformation was behind him.
A pile of Tosaba large enough to feed hundreds.
Smoked bird meat.
Various herbs and roots, likely for spices.
Delicious-looking honeycombs.
A stash of firewood.
It was hard to believe this was gathered in just ten days in the middle of winter.
All were results of Yuri’s greed and resourcefulness.
After rolling around for a while, Yuri sat up.
Looking at the dying campfire, he muttered softly.
“Hmm… This test is too easy.”
Of course, that was a subjective opinion.
The increasingly harsh weather.
The complete disappearance of four-legged animals from the forest.
Even the streams were devoid of fish.
Clearly, the environment was designed to limit resources.
In such conditions, Yuri might be the only one calling this test easy.
He knew that well.
He couldn’t ignore it.
In ten days, he had seen countless scenes.
Idiots burrowing into the snow, unable to light a fire.
Fools throwing stones madly at birds.
Morons eating snow despite having a perfectly good stream nearby.
Dumbasses climbing trees for leaves.
‘The world is vast, and there are plenty of idiots…’
Is this a gathering of idiots?
Every sight seemed to have a loose screw.
How could these so-called educated people be so stupid?
Some were doing well, but nine out of ten were just idiots.
‘To think I’ve been competing against such idiots… It’s embarrassing.’
Seeing all kinds of idiots over the past ten days made Yuri realize how easy his test was.
And how painful it was for the other cadets.
So it wasn’t strange for Yuri to call the survival test easy.
He had earned the right to say that.
But when Yuri said ‘easy,’ he wasn’t just referring to the difficulty of the test.
It included the test’s structure.
‘Does the test really end after a month of survival?’
Is the test really this simple and easy?
‘I must be missing something… What is it?’
The doubt and unease that had arisen a few days ago made Yuri ponder the cause.
As he continued to think.
“…?!”
Yuri grabbed his sword and sprang up like lightning.
Then—
Footsteps echoed from the cave’s passageway.
He glared at the sound with sharp eyes.