Taesu glanced down at his radio and muttered.
"I need to pack a few more next time."
His mouth tasted bitter.
It was absolutely not because he lacked supplies.
The emergency treatment had only just begun.
And yet, they were already approaching thirty minutes since arrival.
This was barely the second dispatch.
In that moment, Taesu's instincts flared violently.
It was a bad feeling.
No, no.
Taesu quickly shook his head and muttered.
"How could anything possibly be worse than this?"
He denied it to himself, over and over.
Nothing worse than the hell unfolding before his eyes could exist.
With that conviction, he quashed the bad premonition.
Taesu suddenly thought of Jeong Minsu, who had been moving alone.
He couldn't see him, and with no radio contact, Taesu reached out first.
"Minsu, what's your current location, and what's the situation over there?"
*Click.* Hoo. Twelve confirmed fatalities so far, and another person just passed away right before my eyes.
"Where the hell is that?"
Taesu looked around widely, but he couldn't see Jeong Minsu.
Still, a voice came through the radio.
*Click.* I'm in the building behind the container.
"Over there, was it hit by artillery?"
Taesu inferred, looking at the awkwardly shattered state.
He hoped it wasn't, but Jeong Minsu's answer came heavily.
*Click.* Yeah. It seems a lot of people were gathered here. I think there are probably people buried under the rubble too.
"Minsu, hold position for a moment. Mr. Hyeokgwon."
As soon as Taesu called, Kim Hyeokgwon's breathless voice came through.
*Click.* Hah, hah... y-you bastards, making us do dog drills... hah, hah... is that it?
"You're already coming back... Ah, I see you over there. I can even see you turning around."
*Click.* Hah, hah. Damn it.
The radio cut off with a single rough word of irritation.
The Kim Hyeokgwon visible over there was already moving further away.
Having confirmed with his own eyes, Taesu pressed the radio again and explained to Jeong Minsu.
"The evacuees and those with minor injuries are helping out right now. He went to ask them for help and then headed off again."
*Click.* I see. I'll try to keep even one more person holding on, so wrap things up there and come over.
"Okay."
*Tap.*
Taesu, having answered, lowered the radio heavily.
It was so heavy-hearted that it was difficult to keep holding the radio.
It was because Taesu had already experienced the kind of shock Jeong Minsu must be receiving.
The Nepal earthquake had been eerily similar to this sight.
But that had been a natural disaster; this was a massacre created by human hands.
He was clearly distinguishing between the two.
Taesu swallowed his heavy heart with effort and tried to move.
But.
He froze.
His feet stopped.
No one had grabbed him, nor had he gotten snagged anywhere.
His feet were truly glued to the ground, completely unmoving.
"Hm?"
Startled, Taesu tried to move his feet again.
*Slide.*
This time, they moved.
Just in case, he moved them several more times, but there was nothing wrong.
Why just now?
It was all the more strange because this wasn't a time for his condition to flag.
After a moment of worry, Taesu soon shook his head.
"I must have gotten snagged on something."
That wasn't important right now.
He had to take care of the patients filling his sight.
It was time to focus properly.
His eyes gleaming, he moved vigorously.
This time, both legs moved without issue. Because it was such a natural thing, Taesu didn't give it another thought.
But it was then.
— Hnng, hnng.
— Hnnn.
Faint sounds of a baby crying reached Taesu's ears.
A baby?
*Swish.*
Taesu quickly perked up his ears and looked around.
He examined everywhere carefully, but he couldn't see any babies, nor could he hear the crying anymore.
"Now I'm hearing every damned noise there is."
*Scratch, scratch.*
Dismissing it as an auditory hallucination, Taesu scratched his ear roughly and started running again.
But this time, his foot really caught on something.
*Trip.*
"Ugh."
Having lost his balance while completely off guard, Taesu was about to fall forward.
The athletic instincts he had honed all this time proved their worth as he twisted his body and tumbled into a breakfall.
"Kuh. Why is everything suddenly going wrong?"
As things kept getting tangled up one after another, irritation surged massively.
But it was then.
Lying on his side like this, he saw a gap between the rubble of the collapsed building ahead.
It was a low position, impossible to see while standing.
It wasn't for no reason that Taesu's gaze was drawn there.
Through that gap, he saw cloth.
A scarf?
He couldn't be sure, but that was the feeling he got.
It could just be clothes lying there.
Yet Taesu's attention kept being pulled in that direction.
Clearly, even at this moment, there were countless other emergency patients groaning all around.
Yet it was strange.
Visible patients and an unknown guess swayed up and down on either side of a scale.
A doctor should judge things and treat patients with an extremely rational and cold gaze.
Taesu was definitely a doctor.
But.
*Step. Thud.*
His body was already heading that way.
"I just need to check quickly."
If he didn't, he felt the nagging unease filling his body would never be resolved.
It wasn't that far.
Soon arriving at the rubble, Taesu lowered his posture and pushed aside one large chunk.
*Thud.*
Beneath it, a scarf had indeed been unfurled lengthwise.
"Huh? ...Huh."
Following it with his gaze, Taesu was greatly startled.
What was holding the end of the scarf was none other than a person's hand.
That meant there was a person underneath.
Taesu quickly looked around, but there was no one to help, nor any useful tools.
"Damn it."
*Hup. Hup.*
Taesu immediately began clearing the rubble with his bare hands.
He didn't know how many times he bent and straightened his waist.
Only after clearing away a considerable amount did a person's outline gradually emerge.
"Hm?"
Taesu's hands moved even faster.
And with a few more movements, the outline became distinct.
It was a real person.
Judging by her clothes and the length of her hair, she appeared to be a woman.
Since she was lying face down, he couldn't check her face.
But with only the arm holding the scarf outstretched, it seemed she had already breathed her last—there was no sign of life.
Could that scarf have been an SOS signal?
He couldn't be certain, but he guessed that was the case.
"......."
Taesu couldn't hide his anguish at the pain she must have suffered, crushed beneath this heavy rubble.
But she was already deceased.
It was regrettable, but he had to tend to the living first.
"I will return and make sure to recover you."
*Bowing deeply,*
Taesu spoke calmly and politely lowered his head.
It was then.
"Hnnng."
"Hnng."
For the third time, identical baby cries were heard.
Much clearer and more vivid.
He perked up his ears, narrowed his eyes, and focused on the sound.
The wandering end of Taesu's gaze stopped at the deceased he had just found.
'No way?'
The moment Taesu muttered inwardly.
"Hnnng."
"Hnng."
The cries pierced his ears again.
At that moment, he was certain.
"Are there babies beneath her?"
Then this was no time for this.
Taesu quickly lowered his body, sincerely apologized, and held the deceased.
"I'm sorry. I just need to check... Ngh."
*Slide.*
He carefully moved her aside.
Right beneath her was a basket.
And in that basket were twins.
"Hah."
Taesu was startled and an exclamation burst out of him before he knew it.
There really were babies.
"Hnnng."
"Hnng."
The cries were unmistakably the same weak sobs Taesu had kept hearing.
Taesu quickly picked up the basket.
Had they been born about half a year ago?
They were infants who had just passed the newborn stage.
Their condition was an utter mess.
Their skin had turned blue from the cold, and they showed clear signs of exhaustion from how much they had cried.
"You little ones. Damn."
Taesu's face was filled with pity.
It was no time to just look.
*Tap.*
Setting the basket down briefly, Taesu quickly took off his outer coat and wrapped them up snugly.
Even if he wanted to examine them, it was difficult here.
The moment he tried to pick up the basket again to move to a place where examination would go smoothly.
"......."
*Swish.*
Taesu's gaze abruptly turned to the deceased.
Seeing her side profile, she was a young woman who looked to be in her late twenties.
She was unmistakably the babies' mother.
But that wasn't why he was looking.
Beneath the rubble Taesu had just cleared, there had been nothing to support it.
The basket had been covered by the babies' mother's body.
Which meant that frail body had been supporting the heavy rubble.
"......."
Taesu's gaze shifted in a complicated way.
A person couldn't possibly bear several hundred kilograms of building rubble on their back.
Even Taesu, a robust adult man, couldn't have done so for even a single moment.
Yet the babies' mother had made the impossible possible.
Taesu was certain of that.
Having seen it with his eyes and cleared it with his own hands, he couldn't disbelieve it.
Scientific proof?
Verification?
To hell with that.
If asked to present real evidence, Taesu could say it with confidence.
Mother.
Those three letters were enough.
After thinking something over, Taesu soon went to the deceased.
Approaching close, he lowered his posture and reached out.
He wrapped his hand around hers, which was holding the scarf she had gripped until the very end.
It was cold as a block of ice and hard as iron.
That confirmed it.
Stretching out the scarf had been an act to reveal the babies' location.
It was an utterly ordinary scarf.
But if those babies ever learned of this later, it would become a treasure unlike any other.
He wanted to leave the babies with their mother's love and a trace of it.
So he needed it.
Taesu did not try to pull the scarf away by force.
Holding that hand quietly, he spoke in a low voice.
"The children say they're cold."
Was that the starting point?
*Slip.*
The scarf moved into Taesu's hand without any resistance.
Taesu took the scarf and covered the deceased with a white cloth.
"I'll come back to recover you later."
*Bowing,*
He paid his respects and turned around.
Returning to the basket, Taesu wrapped the babies halfway each in the scarf.
"Hnnng."
"Hnng."
Perhaps because of their mother's scent, the babies immediately whimpered.
Carefully lifting the basket, Taesu spoke in a low voice.
"Let's come back again."
Finished speaking, Taesu walked heavily away, carrying the basket.
The look in Taesu's eyes was gradually growing fierce.
All of this was the catastrophe wrought by war.
"Why the hell does it have to be like this, you bastards."
Taesu headed for Alpha point to administer emergency treatment to the babies.
It wasn't far.
But the scene had changed significantly.
What stood out most was the area around the container.