Extra, Chapter 456: I’m thinking of Advancing Like This (2)

Kang Chan had lost two men and left Smithen, Haller, and Forman behind. Hence, only seven of his team headed to the next village. Thankfully, no one wanted to opt out of the operation.

Clank. Clank.

As their commander, Kang Chan walked at the forefront. He had his rifle slung around his right shoulder and his right index finger on the trigger.

Now, the other soldiers could observe Kang Chan. Unlike Caucasians, who looked stocky in military uniforms, their commander looked tenacious.

In combat, whenever they’d see him charge toward their enemies, they had always thought,

‘We’ve been smiling around and talking with such a monster all this time?’

Fortunately, the monster was on their side. Looking at him made them feel as though they were looking at a strong older brother with excellent combat skills.

Moreover, despite being a relentless killing machine, Kang Chan found the deaths of his men more painful than anything in the world. If one of them were to die, he would agonize over it, just as he had agonized over their fallen colleagues a moment ago.

After watching him act in such a way, it would’ve been more strange if the soldiers still thought that Kang Chan would recklessly lead them to their deaths.

Special forces soldiers of the Foreign Legion naturally had to face the humiliation of being excluded from combat like Smithen if they acted cowardly just to survive.

Only those who had passed the special forces training could apply to join special forces units. It wasn’t meant for those who would beg for their lives in the middle of combat.

That was why the other soldiers looked at Smithen as if they were sickened with disgust. It was also the reason Haller and Forman stared pitifully at Reznov and the others, begging to be taken with them.

Now, even if Haller and Forman went to another unit, they would only be assigned insignificant duties. After all, they selfishly let their colleagues die for their own sake.

Losing their balls and being rushed to the hospital would have been much more honorable than earning such a reputation.

Soon after they started to walk, they saw smoke in the distance. A revolting scent then rushed towards them.

Rustle! Rustle!

Gritting his teeth, Kang Chan climbed to the top of a dune and silently glared ahead.

They were already too late.

The enemies had piled the natives’ corpses in one place and lit them on fire. Unusually dark smoke also rose from the bodies that were scattered near the entrance. Moreover, a small amount of smoke was rising from the wooden roof of a mud hut.

Rebels would only burn corpses right before they left.

Rustle! Rustle!

Kang Chan went down the dune. The soldiers followed him in heavy silence.

Upon entering the village, the sight that he was already expecting greeted them.

“Form teams of two and search through the village,” he ordered.

The soldiers went deeper into the village with their rifles at the ready.

You repulsive fuckers could’ve at least poured enough gasoline to burn them completely.

Their enemies probably did this to ensure no one would survive. However, they made it so that only the villagers’ skin would be burned. The thought made Kang Chan feel bad just by looking at the corpses.

As he slowly examined their surroundings, he heard one of his men yelling from further inside the village.

“Stop! Hey!”

Whoosh!

Ignoring the soldier, a child dashed out toward the entrance, but Kang Chan quickly caught them.

Clank! Clank!

The soldiers chasing after the child stopped in their tracks.

“

Agh!

” the child yelled.

“Hey! It’s okay! Calm down!” Kang Chan said.

“

Agh! Argh!

”

As he had expected, the child was a boy. Girls rarely survived tribal massacres since they often met fates worse than death.

Kang Chan lifted the struggling boy by the waist and walked deeper into the village, preventing the boy from seeing the bodies of the burnt natives, whom the boy would’ve been living with until now.

“

Aaaaaah!

” the boy screamed again.

Clank. Clank.

They walked past the smoking huts that let out acrid stenches. Eventually, they saw the desert again.

Kang Chan put down the child and quickly grabbed him by the shoulders to prevent him from running away.

“Look! It’s okay, so calm down!” Kang Chan said.

The frightened child couldn’t even look at him properly.

The boy had nicely parted hair, eyes as big as a camel’s, long eyelashes, and a tall nose common to Egyptians.

“We’re a special forces unit of France’s Foreign Legion. We came here to help, but we were too late. Just calm down, alright? We’re not here to hurt you, do you understand?” Kang Chan explained slowly and softly.

Finally, the boy nodded.

Kang Chan turned his head to his men and told them to give him water. One of them handed a bottle to Kang Chan, who then unscrewed the cap. The boy just kept staring at him.

“Have some water. Drink slowly,” Kang Chan said.

The child shifted his gaze between Kang Chan and the water. He was likely scared and suspicious. To put him at ease, Kang Chan had a sip of the water first without touching the rim of the bottle.

“See? It’s fine. Drink it slowly. I’ll stay here with you if you want, so don’t worry about anything else,” Kang Chan said afterward.

The boy took the bottle of water with both hands and drank it carefully.

The more he returned to his senses, the more reality seemed to set in for him, evidenced by the sorrow slowly enveloping his expression. Finally, after drinking, he hung his head and cried while hitting himself.

Kang Chan stood next to the child like a loyal subordinate. His shadow had stretched past the child, who was facing the sun.

Clank. Clank.

“We’ve secured the area, sir,” a soldier reported. “We found nothing of interest.”

He then glanced at the boy as if he was trying to report where they found him. However, he decided that there was no need to do that right now.

“Have some of our men guard the perimeter. Let's take a short break,” Kang Chan ordered.

“Oui.”

Reznov went to the front with four soldiers.

After about ten minutes, the boy looked at Kang Chan, exhaling shakily. There was nothing Kang Chan could do for him right now other than look back at him.

“They killed everyone,” the boy said.

Kang Chan just kept his gaze on him.

‘I know. I saw their bodies.’

“They killed everyone in our tribe.”

The boy gritted his teeth and violently slapped his head again as if remembering the horror.

A moment later, as if getting a hold of his emotions, the boy revealed, “They told us to give them the artifact of the sultan.”

Kang Chan had never heard of that before. Had the Sunni Muslims been doing all this bullshit because of that artifact?

He hoped that the boy wouldn’t notice the look in his eyes. After all, he didn’t want the boy to be suspicious of him and wonder if he was interested in the treasure.

Thankfully, the boy was looking at the ground. Soon, however, he quickly raised his head. “We don’t know where it is!”

‘I’m not interested in things like that, so you don’t have to tell me.’

“Why was I the only one carried into the hut and told to hide?! They didn’t even tell me to get revenge. They just told me that Allah would protect me!”

The boy looked straight into Kang Chan’s eyes. Though he was extremely nervous, it seemed he was slowly calming down. Fatigue, drowsiness, and hunger now showed in his gaze.

“Do you want to eat something? You can get some sleep after. I’ll protect you,” Kang Chan said.

The boy quickly shook his head.

“You won’t be able to travel long distances in this condition. Get some sleep; I’ll protect you,” Kang Chan insisted.

For a moment, the child appeared to contemplate what to do. Soon, he pointed toward the desert.

Kang Chan looked at where the child was pointing. There was nothing there.

Rustle.

The child stood up awkwardly but hesitated.

“Go. I’ll follow you,” Kang Chan said.

Clank. Clank.

After leaving the village, they walked about twenty meters. The boy looked behind him every two steps, checking to see if Kang Chan was following him.

Eventually, he stopped and knelt in front of where the sand started to appear again. He then lifted a square stone slab.

Shkkkk. Shkkkkk.

Kang Chan discretely looked inside, finding dirt stairs that led down into complete darkness.

“If you think you need to go in there to feel better, then go ahead. I’ll protect you from here,” Kang Chan said.

The child shook his head.

“You want me to go inside with you?”

This time, the child nodded.

This kind of request is nothing.

Kang Chan nodded at the soldier behind him to signal that he was going to go down the stairs.

“Let’s go,” he then told the child.

The child pressed his hand on the ground and climbed down the stairs. Not long after, he checked to see if Kang Chan was following him.

Clank. Clank.

It was dangerous to go anywhere that they hadn’t searched through yet, but it didn’t feel right to tell the boy that he couldn’t go inside in this situation either. Hence, he just wordlessly followed him.

“We have to block the entrance,” the child said.

“Wouldn’t it be too dark? Do you have fire to light up that hole?”

“We can close the opening with the stone slab.”

Fine. I’m already trying to make him relax anyway.

Kang Chan went down the stairs a little more and then picked up the stone slab. Afterward, he used it to block the hole again.

Rumble. Rumble.

Little by little, the beam of light narrowed until it was completely cut off.

Rumble.

The darkness hiding inside the hole rushed toward them, revealing a faint glow further inside the hole.

What’s that?

Kang Chan looked at the child blankly. It seemed to be coming from a small fluorescent bulb that was covered in cotton.

Perhaps it was because the light was completely blocked out, but his vision gradually adjusted to the darkness.

There wasn’t much inside. It just seemed to be a hole dug into dirt that was as hard as rocks, making it look like a hallway that was about ten meters long.

All of the walls were giving off a faint light likely because of fluorescent minerals. Kang Chan figured that the natives had used this place to store their food.

The child took a few more steps into the cave. He then crouched and leaned back against a wall. Since it was fairly cold, Kang Chan worried that the child would catch a cold.

The boy wrapped his arms around his knees before burying his face in between them.

“Aren’t you hungry?” Kang Chan asked.

He nodded.

Kang Chan sat in front of the child and leaned against the wall. He then raised his left knee and placed his rifle on his right thigh.

“There’s a legend about this basement,” the boy started, sounding as if he was sleepy.

“If you’re talking for my sake, I’m fine. Just get some sleep.”

“Apparently only those who wash themselves with the light of the Agadez can earn the true power in the sultan’s artifact.”

The boy seemed to be talking to Kang Chan because he was afraid and to make sure that he wasn’t alone. It was no different from any other kid going to a public bathroom and calling out to their mom to check if they were still there.

“We don’t have the artifact of the sultan,” the boy said.

“Don’t worry about it.”

“They killed everyone.”

As Kang Chan was exhaling softly, the child’s breathing changed. Although he had just been talking clearly, he quickly fell asleep.

The faint light surrounded Kang Chan and the child as if it were cleansing them.

Kang Chan didn’t even know the boy’s name yet. He hadn’t told him his name either.

Kang Chan didn’t know what the child would become when he grew up. He could suffer from nightmares for his entire life out of fear or get filled with so much madness that he’d end up becoming a murderer who slaughtered Sunni Muslims.

Of course, he could also overcome the pain and turn out to be an excellent person. The chances of that happening were very, very low, but it existed.

The child started to breathe heavily but then calmed down again. He seemed to be having a bad dream.

Wherever their sultan was, Kang Chan hoped that he would wash away this child’s pain with this strange light—the light of Agadez.

Kang Chan decided to forgive Smithen. He had to do that much before he could ask the intelligence bureau to look after the boy. However, it would be under the precondition that the child would willingly go with Kang Chan.

***

Watching the soldiers that were retreating to the Bisons’ Nest, Sharlan gritted his teeth.

According to the information from the British intelligence bureau, there was definitely a treasure related to the Blackhead in Agadez.

That was the reason Sharlan was ignoring the 11th unit in the first place. If by chance its remarkable Asian commander found the treasure first, things could become complicated. Kang Chan had never been the type to hand over something he found strange.

On the contrary, he would definitely hold out the treasure like some kind of coupon and request something absurd from the DGSE.

Sharlan sighed.

Unfortunately, their operation had failed. The two special forces units they had deployed lost more than half of their men. The two Foreign Legion companies had it even worse.

“Transport the wounded first. Count the casualties and damages and report back to me after,” Sharlan briefly ordered.

He then turned around. Now, he was thinking of heading back and dispatching a helicopter through the radio to retrieve Kang Chan’s unit.

‘Please die before the helicopter reaches you.’

Sharlan disliked Kang Chan.

He hated the man’s tenacity, which was unlike other Asians’. He also disliked Kang Chan’s glinting eyes and charisma, which easily captivated soldiers.

However, what Sharlan loathed the most was Kang Chan’s ability to always return alive even from the most dangerous pits of hell that Sharlan had thrown him into.

If others asked him why he hated Kang Chan so much, he would simply reply, “I just do. What else do you want me to say?”

Whenever Sharlan looked at Kang Chan, he always felt as if he was facing a leopard that was baring its fangs toward his neck.

Am I feeling uncomfortable because I’m worried about the British intelligence bureau being involved in this? Or is it because that man is acting high and mighty and refuses to compromise with injustice?

Sharlan sighed softly, trying to get rid of the uncomfortable feeling. He remembered the look in Kang Chan’s eyes in Ndulele when the bastard held his ground instead of obediently answering him.