MBD | Chapter 7

“What the hell did you just say?”

Everhart literally kicked Wolfgang’s balls with all his might and casually picked his ear.

It was so hard that blood started dripping between Wolfgang’s legs.

Wolfgang flipped his eyes back and passed out. Some shocked cadets immediately swung their fists at Everhart.

One threw a punch—only to find himself in a bizarre situation the next moment, with his head slamming into the ground and his back hitting the floor.

“ARGHHH!”

“AAACK!”

“You’re all dead. What? You little punks?”

Everhart wasn’t as weak as he looked. And on top of that, Kang Woojin was once the youngest army colonel and had a special forces background.

Whack. Whack. Thud. Thud.

Other than Wolfgang, the rest were just a bunch of second-rate noble brats.

Everhart was practically grateful for the excuse to beat them like stray dogs on Boknal¹.

They weren’t real soldiers, just cadets. And who do you think would win—a bunch of soft rookies or a guy who had been through every hell imaginable?

There was one thing these cadets could never understand.

Kang Woojin wasn’t just a regular soldier. He was a full-blown psycho in the army.

You don’t just become the youngest colonel by being normal.

After roughly dumping Wolfgang in the infirmary—

“Begin repetition drills! One!”

“We, we are—!”

“Two!”

“Trash!”

“Who the hell just collapsed? First-year? You’re not just slacking off—you’ve lost your damn mind. You wanna go to the infirmary too? You wanna lie next to Wolfgang?”

“N-no, sir!”

“A first-year dared to pull that crap on a sunbae?!”

“Well… the other sunbaes told me to follow them, so… I’m sorry!”

“Fifty laps around the training grounds! Not moving? You wanna go to the infirmary instead?”

The vivid memory of Wolfgang’s balls getting crushed flashed in their minds. Their faces turned deathly pale.

Kang Woojin was a master at training new recruits—he knew exactly how to break in rookies better than anyone.

Everhart even pulled out a whistle from God-knows-where to personally boost their morale.

“……”

Then, all of a sudden, he felt a gaze on him.

He turned his head. Taking the whistle out of his mouth, Everhart took a deep breath.

“What? First time seeing a training session?”

“You’re insane.”

At Karl Heinrich’s muttered comment, Everhart blinked, a question mark practically floating above his head.

Compared to you, who’s running a dictatorship in the name of ‘saving the country,’ wouldn’t that make me the normal one?

…Not that he had the guts to say that out loud.

Even after Karl Heinrich left, the sound of Everhart’s whistle and Wolfgang’s gang wailing like cattle echoed across the training grounds.

࿐⋆˚𝜗𝜚˚⋆

Everhart’s ‘lesson’ spread through the academy in an instant. Some cadets protested against his brutality, but their complaints were promptly dismissed.

Man, being a noble is nice.

Thanks to some miraculous magic healing, Wolfgang recovered from his obliterated balls in just a day.

…Although, apparently, one of his testicles wouldn’t be able to produce sperm anymore.

Well, not Everhart’s problem.

In the end, the whole incident was wrapped up with just a scolding from one of the instructors about how he had gone too far with Wolfgang.

Sure, Everhart’s response had been overkill, but if you looked at the root cause, Wolfgang’s gang was the one in the wrong.

“Sunbae-nim.”

“What?”

“How the hell did you hold back your psycho tendencies until now?”

After the mock battle, Everhart and Weber Schmidt had quickly grown close. They’d known each other before, but not to the point of joking around like this.

“I’ve always been like this.”

“Yeah, yeah. Sure.”

“Anyway, did you bring it?”

At Everhart’s words, Weber slyly pulled something out from inside his jacket.

Cigarettes.

“Hehehe… Hehehehehe.”

One of the most frustrating things about possessing Everhart’s body was—no smoking.

He wasn’t exactly a chain smoker in his past life, but Kang Woojin’s body practically ran on nicotine.

“Ahh, now I can finally breathe.”

Blowing out a cloud of smoke, Everhart looked like the happiest man alive.

“Sunbae-nim, didn’t you say you didn’t smoke cigarettes?”

Weber lit one himself, watching him curiously. Most nobles, himself included, were cigar people rather than cigarette smokers.

Everhart had been the same.

If cigars were the symbol of nobles, cigarettes were for commoners and the middle class.

Everhart, who once refused to touch cheap cigarettes, suddenly asking for one made Weber raise an eyebrow.

But Everhart just took a deep drag, savoring the smoke filling his lungs.

“I dunno. Just felt like smoking.”

There was no way he could explain how his preferences had changed overnight, so he just brushed it off.

Weber, having witnessed all of Everhart’s insanity—from the mock battle to the Wolfgang incident—simply shrugged it off.

“Oh, right. Is it true Wolfgang’s a eunuch now?”

“…How the hell would I know?”

Everhart’s act of bursting Wolfgang’s balls became the source of countless rumors. But the reason Everhart did it wasn’t simply because Wolfgang had messed with him.

If that were really the only reason, he wouldn’t have been that angry.

Everhart and Wolfgang, both from the Five Great Noble Houses, had maintained a passably cordial relationship as fellow cadets.

‘That bastard.’

According to the future Everhart knew from the original story, Wolfgang would graduate from the academy in a few years and marry Everhart’s younger sister, Elizabeth von Friedrich. And because of that marriage, Elizabeth would take her own life.

Of course, it was a political marriage. Arranged marriages between the Five Great Houses weren’t just common—they were expected. But honestly, anyone could tell just by looking at him.

Wolfgang was a colossal piece of shit. Serial affairs, illegitimate children, domestic violence—he didn’t even hesitate.

‘Elizabeth wasn’t happy about the arrangement either. She already had someone she liked.’

That person was none other than Hermann Schwarz, who, after Karl Heinrich seized power, would become the future warden of Valkenz Prison Camp—a hidden but terrifying figure in the shadows.

After Elizabeth’s suicide, Hermann Schwarz blamed Everhart for arranging the political marriage between her and Wolfgang.

It was also Hermann Schwarz who had tortured Everhart cruelly in the prison camp.

I mean, sure, maybe Everhart had terrible judgment back then, but even he should’ve known better than to push his own sister into a marriage with Wolfgang!

‘Not happening this time. No way in hell.’

Everhart crushing Wolfgang’s balls was just a tiny act of revenge for what he had done to Elizabeth after Everhart had entrusted her to him.

“Come on, just tell me.”

“What? If you’re that curious, go ask him yourself.”

Everhart was annoyed. Why did he have to sit here and listen to people gossip about whether Wolfgang had become a eunuch?

“Oh, sunbae-nim. Do you want me to die? There’s no way I’m doing that.”

“Forget it. Just hand over the other one too.”

“……”

“I said, give it to me.”

Everhart stretched out his hand like he was simply reclaiming something that already belonged to him.

Weber, who had a cigarette in his mouth, hesitated.

This was the real reason Everhart had called Weber out in secret.

“You’ll give me a cigarette, but not that?”

“Do you really need this?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you really sure?”

“I just said I was.”

Weber kept asking again and again, until Everhart got so frustrated that he raised his voice.

“Hand over the invitation. Now.”

“…Do you even know where that place is?”

“Why the hell would I ask for it if I didn’t?”

[The May Charity Event Invitation.]

Every May, in the capital of Eisenwald, Feldheim, a charity event was held by the Bergents, the rising capitalist class.

It was nothing more than a noble society imitation disguised as a sponsorship event, but it was famous for attracting tons of Bergents and capitalists every year.

Because it was such a well-known event, it was hard to get in without a recommendation or an invitation.

Weber Schmidt looked like any other common street kid, but his family, the Schmidt family, was renowned in the telecommunications and transportation industries.

After the Magic Stone Tech Revolution and the emperor’s abdication, they would eventually rise to become the telecommunications tycoons of Eisenwald.

“Sunbae, why are you even going there? Why?!”

Weber, unable to hold back anymore, raised his voice in frustration.

“I have business there. So what?!”

“If a sunbae from the Five Great Houses shows up, the whole place is gonna explode.”

“I’m not even the head of the family, so I can at least go take a look, right?”

“You’re not going there just to look! You’re definitely scheming something!”

“So, are you giving it to me or not?”

“Ugh, fine! Take it!” Half-resigned, Weber pulled the invitation out from his coat.

Knew he’d have it on him.

“Thanks, man. I’ve got a great hoobae.”

“I know nothing about this.”

Weber sighed as he stubbed out his cigarette with the tip of his shoe.

Come on, man. The invitation literally has your name written on it. “I know nothing,” my ass, Weber Schmidt.

࿐⋆˚𝜗𝜚˚⋆

May was the month with the most public holidays in Eisenwald—the country’s Founding Day, the Emperor’s Birthday, Independence Day, Veterans Day, and many others all lined up back to back.

Even at the Royal Eisenwald Military Academy, there were no official classes during this time. Not everyone got time off, but cadets who wanted to could apply for a few days of leave.

Everhart, having received his leave permit, headed toward Waldstein Train Station.

“This way, please.”

A train attendant checked his ticket and opened the first-class compartment for him.

Inside the private room, sitting across from Everhart like the most random coincidence in the world, was Karl Heinrich.

“…Sir?”

“Are there any other seats available?”

“I’m very sorry, sir. The train is fully booked.”

Well, of course it was—this was Eisenwald’s golden holiday season.

…Should he just stand the whole way?

“Stop talking nonsense and just sit down.”

“Ugh…”