The officer looked at the student. "Does this answer your question?"
The student nodded and stepped back.
The student hadn't thought that these three masked men were most likely traitors from Duke Mithril's side.
Their status also explained their need for a mask.
Everyone hated traitors, no matter to which faction they belonged. Someone that backstabbed their home was very easy to hate.
One of the masked men slightly lifted his hand in a nonchalant fashion.
The officer gestured for him to speak.
The man looked at the student. "Not everyone wearing a mask is wearing one because of the reason you might think."
"Some of us are just not interested in getting embroiled in politics."
"We are here to do our job. Nothing more, nothing less."
The man stepped back and went silent again.
"Of course," the officer said with a smile.
Then, the officer took out his spear and turned around. "We need to get going. We have to reach our goal by nightfall. Since we don't have much time to spare, I will be dealing with all the different beasts we find."
The group of soldiers gathered their things and prepared themselves.
Then, the officer charged forward at an impressive pace, and the soldiers followed behind him.
All of the soldiers were running at around 80kph, which wasn't their top speed, but still very tiresome.
This was probably a test from the officer to see which of his soldiers were worth anything.
The group ran towards the northwest, completely ignoring the road, and after just a bit, they had already entered the Wild Forest.
Some of the students became nervous. The group was charging through the wilderness without any care for safety. This was far too reckless!
However, the other warriors didn't care.
They were 30 warriors at the General Stage. The only thing that could endanger them was a Late General Stage beast or stronger, and those didn't exist this far to the north of the Wild Forest.
"Why don't we introduce ourselves while we run?" the officer shouted from the front. "Let me start. I'm Lance, and I'm a sergeant in Duke Whirlwind's personal army."
The officer's voice reached all the soldiers, even though they were loudly charging through the forest.
"I will go next," one of the soldiers that was obviously here to make a good impression shouted. "I'm…"
The soldier introduced himself with a voice brimming with confidence and charisma.
After him, the other guards that wanted to make a good impression spoke up, introducing themselves.
The former bandits and masked people quickly gave this group of soldiers a name.
From this day forth, the group of soldiers that wanted to impress their superiors was dubbed the Bootlickers.
After the Bootlickers were done introducing themselves, the students came next.
Half of the students managed to appear competent and smart, but the other half seemed nervous to speak to so many foreign people while charging through the wilderness.
The former bandits and masked people dubbed this group Rookies.
After the last student was done introducing themselves, no one spoke for a while.
"I told you to introduce yourselves," the officer shouted from the front with a stricter tone.
Eventually, one of the bandits took the initiative, but he didn't say much.
He gave an obviously fake name and said that he was here to earn money.
The other bandits followed suit, giving out fake names and seemingly random reasons for why they were here.
The Bootlickers and Rookies were disgusted by the clear disrespect coming from these barbarians, which gave this group the nickname Scumbags.
Lastly, it was time for the three masked individuals, which were, by far, the smallest group.
"You can call me Zero. I'm here to earn money, and I hate politics, which is why I'm wearing a mask. I have no interest in being scouted by any faction. I don't care about your beliefs. I don't care about your promises. I'll do my job, and you won't see me again."
The masked individual that had just introduced himself, Zero, was around 185 centimeters tall and had long black hair. He wore a black mask with elaborate designs that only revealed his mouth.
On his back, he wore a gigantic, curved sword. It was wide and was seemingly made of rough, black stone. His weapon oozed violence and brutality.
"You can call me One. I'm also here to earn money, and I'm wearing a mask because I don't want people to find out my identity. I don't want to drag my family into this conflict. Just like the person before me, you won't see me again as soon as the job is over."
The second masked individual was around 175 centimeters tall, had short black hair, and wore a blank, black mask, which covered his entire face.
On his back was a long, slightly curved sword with only one edge. It wasn't nearly as massive as Zero's sword, but it was just as long. His weapon spoke of a battle style that preferred speed and quick but devastating strikes.
"I'll follow the trend of the other two and will take on the name Two. I'm here for the money, and I'm wearing a mask because I don't want my former colleagues to know who I am."
Some of the soldiers threw curious glances at the last individual.
He introduced himself with the very identity that a masked individual tried not to be associated with?
What was his plan?
Two had medium-long black hair, was around 180cm tall, and wore a star-shaped, black mask that only revealed his mouth and nose.
On his back was a rather short, black spear. In comparison to most spears, it didn't have a wide head, making it resemble a giant needle more than a spear.
After the introduction, the other groups of soldiers dubbed the group of masked individuals Numbers.
"Let me extend one more welcome to all of you!" the officer shouted from the front. "Now that we all know each other, I will be telling you about your job and your new home for the foreseeable future!"
As everyone continued running, the officer introduced everyone to the history of the battlefield and what had happened in it ever since the Ice Wyvern had taken over the Zone.
Some minutes into the explanation, the group left the Wild Forest and entered the wilderness of the Ice Wyvern Zone.
From then on, some of the soldiers noticed some weaker General Stage beasts from time to time, but none of the beasts attacked them.
Beasts weren't stupid, and this group of people definitely didn't feel easy to kill.
An hour later, the group passed a town.
Another hour later, the group passed another town.
In the past hours, many of the soldiers began to talk to each other while the officer briefed everyone from the front.
But some hours later, some of the weaker-willed soldiers stopped talking as they concentrated on keeping up.
Running for so long at such speeds was draining their concentration, and they didn't want to talk right now.
Of course, everyone stayed within their group.
Two hours later, most of the soldiers stopped talking as they were concentrating on keeping up.
Some of them were already starting to lag behind.
Near the beginning, the Bootlickers had been at the front, followed by the Rookies, followed by the Scumbags, followed by the Numbers.
Now, the Bootlickers were at the front, but they had stressed and strained expressions.
Following them were the Numbers, which showed no exhaustion.
Behind them were the Scumbags.
And in the last place were the Rookies.
The officer noted how everyone was performing in silence.
"Stop!" the officer shouted as he raised his spear.
The group stopped behind him.
"We are now at the border between the Old Ice Wyvern Zone and the New Ice Wyvern Zone. From now on, things might get dangerous since there are no typical, categorized wildernesses in here."
The officer smiled as he looked at his soldiers.
"Who knows? Maybe we will meet a Commander Stage beast."
Some of the soldiers became nervous.
The officer looked at everyone, and he took special note of the three Numbers.
'All three of them seem to be powerful and experienced warriors,' he thought.
He looked for a longer time at them to remember their features.
Zero, the tall man with long black hair and his gigantic curved sword.
One, the shorter man with short black hair and his long, one-edged sword.
Two, the average man with medium-length hair and his very peculiar spear.
The three Numbers stood near the front, waiting for the officer to continue wordlessly.
One of these three was Shang.
But which one?
