My Beloved Oppressor

on killing and stealing the flags rather than looking for them and took a total of two flags.

 

After leaving Amy, Heiner headed in the direction of 5 o’clock as per the information.
Just as he was about to jump over the creek, he sensed the slightest sign and reflexively lowered his upper body.

 

Bang!

 

A flying bullet struck a tree near his head.
Heiner, who escaped death by the slightest margin, quickly hid behind the tree.
He heard a familiar voice from the other side.

 

“Damn, you’re filthy quick.”

 

It was Benjamin Holland, one of the men who had lynched Heiner.
Benjamin lightly tapped the muzzle of his gun and said.

 

“I’ve been looking for you and just this is how we’re meeting.”

 

 “Hey, that guy really almost died.”

 

“Then you want to save him?”

 

“I don’t want to kill him.
I’m just wondering if there’s another kid who looks like him in the training center.”

 

Grumpled Olivia, who had told her colleagues not to touch Heiner’s face.
Heiner stood leaning against a tree and watched the dynamics.

 

There were four opponents.
They were all a herd that had tormented Heiner badly.
They were about to graduate anyway, so they seemed to have given up on the score and were trying to survive.

 

“Hey, is this your friend?”

 

Grita, famous among the seniors for being an idiot, kicked something over.
It rolled through the grass to Heiner’s side.
It was a dead body.

 

Heiner’s eyes narrowed slightly as he checked the corpse’s head, which was lying on its side.
The head had  shoulder-length hair and was relatively small in stature.
It was a familiar figure.

 

“If we’re on a different team tomorrow…………”

 

“Let’s just keep each other alive.”

 

It was Ethan.

 

They tried to help each other, but he had died sometime.
Judging by the fact that he had not yet developed rigor mortis, it looked like he hadn’t been dead for too long.

 

Grita and Hayden chuckled and taunted Heiner.

 

“Your friend wasn’t even f*cking good at fighting.
How have you survived so far? Did you give your body and survive?”

 

“Did you give your hole to that bastard?”

 

“I’m sure he gives it to the instructors.
One sausage after another, hahaha.”

 

They chuckled at their own low-grade jokes.

 

Heiner took his eyes off Ethan’s body and looked around.
It looked like a good place to take cover as it was dense with trees.

 

Four opponents.
Benjamin and Grita in particular were quite capable.
If they were outnumbered and confronted head-on, they were likely to lose.

 

Olivia and Hayden were relatively less talented, but they too were seniors.

 

Considering their survival rate to graduation, they were at least in the upper-middle range.

 

Heiner quietly regained his grip on his pistol.
Laughter and trivial jokes went on.
His opponents seemed to be completely relaxed.

 

Ethan had once told him.

 

“Why do you keep getting beat up all the time? Frankly, if you die, they’ll be in trouble.
You have to show them that if they touch you, they’ll fall too.” (E)

 

Ethan’s not entirely wrong.
Despite being a third-year student, Heiner was bigger than his peers and was the trainee that the instructors were watching closely.

 

The first or second graders in senior classes could not overpower him.
However, despite his strength, Heiner had never attacked them back.

 

“…It is forbidden to kill trainees in any situation other than survival training.” (H)

 

 

“No.
Who told you to kill them? Just show them your strength.” (E)

 

“It won’t end there.” (H)

 

“What?” (E)

 

“It won’t end unless you break or kill them.” (H)

 

There were different types of violence.
Heiner knew very well about the violence that takes place in closed spaces.

 

He had experienced it countless times since he was a child, when he couldn’t remember much.

 

It was impossible among the trainees, just as it was among ordinary groups.
Among them, Benjamin’s group was the leader.

 

In the training camp, power was absolute.
As seniors, they would never have tolerated the humiliation of being trampled by third-year students.

 

An ambiguous victory would only lead to greater violence.
If there was one thing Heiner learned most clearly at the orphanage, it was precisely that.

 

Violence was something inescapable in his life.
The sequence of his life growing up from a child to a boy was imbued with that kind.

 

If he had to face it anyway, it was better to avoid the greater violence.
Unless the very person to whom the violence was inflicted was removed.

 

Heiner exhaled slowly, holding the pistol to his chest.
Whoosh.
The grass that encased Ethan’s body swayed in the wind.
A faint light drifted in his indifferent gray eyes.

 

In survival training, murder was condoned.

 

It also meant that he could see the end.