Anger.

Gradually, the surroundings fell silent.

Everyone waited without so much as twitching.

Waiting indefinitely like this was, in truth, a tremendous gamble.

The terrorists might throw another grenade, or they might do something else unexpected.

Above all, the soldiers belonging to Red Joe could not look to the side.

Because Taesu was glaring at them with his eyes wide open.

They could feel that gaze far too vividly.

If they had not agreed on a time, they would have charged in already.

“Why the hell hasn’t that bastard started yet?”

Everyone thought of Private Rachel, sending pressure by telepathy.

They had no idea whether it would reach him, but this was a moment when even using the radio had to be restrained, so there was no helping it.

Then Taesu’s low voice rang out.

“Two minutes to go.”

“……”

Drip.

Cold sweat trickled down Squad Leader Sam’s cheek.

Those two short minutes felt as if they would become the longest time of the entire day.

Just as their impatience was growing worse—

Bang!

A single gunshot suddenly rang out.

“Argh!”

A scream struck their ears almost at the same time.

It was the signal.

Whir!

Squad Leader Sam and Corporal Guspia rounded the corner at the same time, swinging their rifles up as they charged forward.

“Go!”

“Push them!”

Corporal Alton immediately followed behind them.

It seemed this side was not the only one that had begun, as other gunshots mixed in here and there.

And then—

“Uaaagh!”

“Aaagh!”

There were also someone’s screams.

Taesu still stood exactly where he was.

“One minute thirty to go.”

Silently, he measured the time alone.

The sight of Taesu standing motionless amid all that gunfire was beyond astonishing—it was almost chilling.

And about a minute later.

Only just then did the gunfire cease.

“……”

The alley grew quiet once more.

Slowly.

Taesu’s gaze turned toward the corner of the alley.

He was staring without moving an inch when—

Whoosh.

Squad Leader Sam appeared.

His clothes were covered here and there with dust.

He approached Taesu and said,

“We kept to the time.”

“The patients?”

“I figured I’d get chewed out if I made patients out of them, so I just……”

When Squad Leader Sam tried to talk around it, Taesu pointed out exactly what he meant.

“I mean the mother and daughter with gunshot wounds.”

“I came to escort you to them.”

“Let’s go right away.”

“This way.”

Whoosh.

Squad Leader Sam turned around and began to run.

Taesu ran with him and spoke calmly.

“You’ve gone through a lot because of my rotten temper.”

“Not at all. If you hadn’t done that, it would have taken much longer. I think it was a far better judgment for the sake of the battalion’s wounded as well.”

“Thank you.”

Even while running, Taesu did not forget to express his thanks.

Squad Leader Sam seemed to have nothing in particular to say to Taesu, who was so unfailingly polite.

There was one thing Taesu did not ask.

It was whether any soldiers had been injured.

The reason he did not ask was very simple.

There was no darkness to be read in Squad Leader Sam’s expression.

Taesu’s guess was exactly right.

None of the soldiers had been injured.

If one insisted on naming injuries, there was an elbow scraped from falling while running.

And there was also a soldier whose skin had been slightly grazed by a ricocheting bullet.

In a word, they were wounds so minor that it was embarrassing to even call them wounds.

Everyone was cleaning up the site where the fight had ended.

“You’ve worked hard.”

Taesu moved along, not omitting even a brief word of thanks.

And soon, he was able to reach the patients.

From here on, it was Taesu’s domain.

At a glance, the mother was hugging her daughter tightly from above.

For her, it must have been the way she could protect her daughter as safely as possible.

But the mother’s own body was exposed to danger.

Taesu took them in with his eyes and approached quickly.

Scrape!

As soon as he arrived, he first examined the mother lying face down.

The bleeding was from her side.

Her clothes were torn, and there was a wound where a fistful of flesh had been ripped away.

“Hnnn. Hnnnn.”

Her back trembled, and the sound of her groaning could be heard.

Without needing to see any more, Taesu first took out a morphine syringe and announced himself.

“Medical team doctor!”

He could not guarantee she would understand English.

Even if she did not, it was right to reduce her pain first.

When there was no response from the mother, Taesu injected the morphine into her shoulder.

Puk!

“Hnnn. Nn……”

As expected, her pain was so great that she did not even seem to feel the morphine shot.

The wait was not long.

Since morphine spread quickly, the mother’s groans rapidly subsided.

And soon, she lifted her head.

The moment she turned her head with a bewildered expression, Taesu was there.

“Hek!”

“It’s not like you need to be that surprised. I’m doctor.”

Taesu openly showed her his field bag and stethoscope.

Since she was a local woman, showing her like this could be more effective than focusing on language.

It seemed Taesu’s action was right.

The mother, who looked to be in her late thirties, hurriedly backed away.

Tap tap tap!

Supporting herself on her hands as she moved backward was an action that would aggravate her gunshot wound.

Yet she was not aware of it at all.

It was not only the effect of the morphine.

It was a mother’s urgency, asking him to look at her daughter quickly.

That feeling made her forget even her own pain.

Whenever Taesu saw such a sight, he paid respect inwardly.

‘Parents really are…’

Especially in the middle of war, or in villages just after a war, that kind of familial love felt even stronger.

To reassure the mother, Taesu turned his gaze to the daughter.

She seemed a little older than Lee Changgyu.

Even though she had fainted, her brow was deeply furrowed and her lips were trembling.

She had clearly been terrified by the gunfire that had continued since dawn.

“Tsk.”

His heart felt uneasy.

For that feeling to ease even a little, emergency treatment had to come first.

Taesu quickly examined the affected area.

There were diagonal wounds on her left shoulder and upper arm.

The bleeding was not that severe, and the wound itself was not at a level that could be called dangerous.

Taesu found that a little hard to understand.

The distance from the terrorists was, at most, about thirty meters.

If someone was shot from that distance, the rotational force would be strong, and the wound would become tremendously large.

Just looking at the mother’s wound, her side was gouged out by about half a fist’s worth.

Compared to that, this was too minor.

It was a wound made by a bullet grazing past from at least five hundred meters away.

As Taesu thought about it, he soon understood.

“Looks like she was hit by a bullet that ricocheted about twice.”

Looking around, he saw several signs made of sheet metal.

The lower side was a residential alley, and this side appeared to be a commercial alley.

Then a wound like this could be understood.

She had fainted from the extreme terror of thinking she had been shot.

Taesu immediately looked at the mother and gestured.

Tap. Tap.

She quickly came closer, bracing her hands on the ground.

As expected, she still had no idea how much pain she herself was in.

It would be useless for Taesu to approach and explain.

She would only feel reassured if he showed her the wound and helped her understand.

That was why he had called her over.

When the mother arrived, Taesu first pointed at himself and said,

“Doctor Choi.”

Point.

“Irish.”

This time as well, the daughter came first.

“Okay, Irish. You?”

“Samantha.”

“Mm. Samantha.”

When Taesu called her name, Samantha nodded.

Nod, nod.

Taesu gave her an “OK” sign.

Then he directly showed her Irish’s wound and explained with gestures.

“Bullet, from here, like this—whoosh. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“Pain? No.”

When Taesu said it did not hurt, Samantha’s eyes widened.

“@%#@$%#@.”

Pointing at Irish, she rapidly said something.

Taesu did not understand a single word.

However, by now, he had reached the point where he could boast some skill in the field of body language.

No—after continuing to meet patients he could not converse with, it felt as though his instincts had naturally sharpened.

Samantha’s eyes, expression, tone of voice, and so on.

Various pieces of information told him how she felt.

‘No. My daughter is in pain. Look properly.’

That was the feeling.

Taesu calmed her down and explained with hand and foot gestures.

Since English would not work anyway, he spoke freely in Korean.

“She’s hurt this much here. I’m saying this doesn’t hurt.”

“#@$%#@%#@$%.”

“As for why she fainted, when the bullet grazed her like this, she thought she had been shot.”

“@#$%@$#%.”

“No, what I mean is, look carefully at this stone. This is the bullet, and it goes swish, ping, and she goes, ‘Aak!’ Then flop. That’s what happened.”

Taesu explained with an impassioned performance using his entire body.

Fortunately, after he repeated the same explanation a couple of times, Samantha seemed to gradually accept it.

Even if she did not completely understand, she understood clearly that Irish was not in severe pain.

Nod, nod.

Samantha nodded vigorously.

Only after seeing that did Taesu give an awkward smile.

“Ah, this is damn hard to explain.”

But he had no choice but to explain until she understood.

In truth, his heart was a little hurried.

Even so, the reason he took the time was because they were not unrelated to the fact that these people had been wounded.

If they had not come down this road, the mother and daughter would not have been frightened or hurt.

The soldiers also focused on their guard and bought him enough time to treat them.

Still, it seemed their voices had been rather loud.

Ahead, Squad Leader Sam, who had been guarding the front, turned back and asked,

“Is everything all right?”

“The conversation is progressing very dynamically. More importantly, how are things around us?”

“There’s no particular movement.”

“I think our voices are a bit loud, so it would be better to widen the distance just a little more.”

Taesu advised seriously.

It was because footsteps could be buried under their voices.

Squad Leader Sam agreed on that point as well.

“Guspia, move ten meters farther that way.”

“Sir. The guys sent from the battalion went to look around the area.”

“Restless bastards. Anyway, Alton, widen the distance a bit more toward the alley on the left and keep watch.”

“Understood.”

Rustle.

Corporal Guspia and Corporal Alton moved quickly.

After giving his orders, Squad Leader Sam radioed the men dispatched from the battalion.

“Return to the engagement position. The situation is not over yet.”

The standard for the situation being over was Taesu’s emergency treatment.

Combat was important, but innocent people could not be allowed to suffer pain because of it.

Taesu was already treating Samantha.

Ampoules and empty syringes stood out more around him.

They were the injections and syringes he had used on Samantha and Irish.

Next, he was properly examining Samantha’s wound.

He had lifted her upper garment halfway.

The bleeding from the wound, gouged out to about half the size of a fist, had decreased considerably.

But since the hemostasis was mixed with dust, it had to be removed.

Click.

Taesu showed her the surgical tools and said,