As Emma was running to tell all of her other friends, we'll cut back to Hayatsu(A few hours later) who was busy marching with the rest of his troop.

  He was a little dazed, as he didn't like having to march for such a prolonged period. But still, he managed...Or at least physically. In his mind, he was racing. And can you blame him? If you think about it, only around a week or two ago, he was a scholar at one of the largest estates he'd ever been to. He found all the classes easy, and he was receiving some of the richest food he had ever tasted.

  In other words, he was living the life of a prince.

  And then, thanks to the help of satan himself, he was now forced to do more grueling work than ever before, much, much more than the amount he had done on his 16 years on earth. And it ddn't help that in general he wasn't very athletic. It was a whiplash problem.

  And so, he was just about dragging along, barely even thinking by this point.

  And that was enough for Jahsea to notice.

  Jahsea was, interestingly enough, completely fine with all of the walking. He didn't complain; He just followed his orders, and he followed those orders well.

  "...Hatsyoudo--"

  "That's Hayatsu to you."

  "Er... Alright, Hayatsu. Anyway, You don't look the best. I'm honestly not that surprised, everyone seems to be in their own hole of problems."

  "What?"

  "Look around you."

  Hayatsu had been so caught up in his web of problems--his own head, that he had never stopped to look around himself, and to see how the rest of the group had been doing.

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Not good.

  Looking around, he could see that almost everyone in the group of boys was limping, walking unhealthily, or at least looking like they were desperate need to sit down.

  Looking behind him, he saw that some of the boys had collapsed, and the masters and leaders of the school were beating them with sticks to get them to stay up.

  And compared to them, Hayatsu felt like the strongest of the pack.

  "Oh...Compared to them we aren't doing that bad."

  "No, we aren't at all."

  "Heh."

  Hayatsu didn't know what to make of it. On one hand, he could where they were coming from, having to walk for such a long time, with very little water or food. But on the other, goddammit, he was making the climb! Despite barely ever doing anything athletic in his life, he was still making it, just barely. He also understood that it was the need for him to save lives, and understood where the draft was coming from.

  So he was caught in the middle.

  ***

  Hayatsu and the rest of his pack didn't see much else for the rest of the evening or even the week.

  They marched well into the woods, before setting up a makeshift camp for the group.

  "Well, you are getting the rest you wanted, correct?"

  Jahsea and Hayatsu had stayed up a little later than everyone else, and, along with a few other boys, were swapping stories and gossip, mainly about the marching.

  "Yeah, we kinda are, huh?"

  "Yes, she's been searching the whole group for that boy."

  "Wonder how she knew he was dead?"

  "...You never know with these kind of things."

  "I guess not. But Emma doesn't seem like the type to fake this kind of stuff. I dunno, I feel like if that were the case, she wouldn't have cried, or shown the sort of emotion that Haganezuka said she did. And she doesn't seem like the type of person that could act very well."

  "Well, she does want to be a dancer..."

  "Since when did those two things collide?"

  "That's quite a good point."

  "Nah, I can understand where you're coming from. You can only tell a person by their ethics like you could on earth: By waiting for them to show their true colors."

  "...You know, that makes me think: Where is Ginosullivan located?"

  "........................"

  Hayatsu had never actually thought about that.

  Jahsea continued.

  "You know, I went to catholic school," He continued. "And there, I read the bible--The full thing. When I read it, it left me with so many more questions than answers. For example: If Adam and Eve were the first humans in existence, and they started in Jerusalem, then how did the first known civilization start in Mesoamerica."

  ".......I never thought about that."

  "But now we know that got exists for sure. And this world has questions, too."

  "....God, that's deep!"

  Jahsea shrugged.

  "It's just an opinion when you think about it. An opinion mixed with facts"

  "If that's the case, is it an opinion?"

  Jahsea paused, replacing the sound of Hayatsu's voice is the notable chatter of the other late-night soldiers.

  "Okay, now you've given me something to think about."

  F.S.D. Thrush