Lars's Frozen Heart

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Chapter 1

The summer night swelters. The air is still. A roar of flame
climbs over the darkened suburbs and into the starry sky.
The labor camp beyond the barbed wire burns.
An alarm signals an emergency.
"We're under attack!" cry the guards.
The workers' footsteps become a frenzied pounding as they seek escape.
The sudden fires throw the inside of the building into chaos.
A small girl of meager years races down the burning corridor,
her wails echoing off the walls.
"Quickly! This way!"
A guard grabs her hand and attempts to pull her away.
His plan is to take the sobbing girl away from the fire and outside to safety.
But instead, she looks up with frightened eyes and digs her heels in tight.
Her response is understandable.
For she is a worker at the camp.
Her life has been a litany of abuses at the hands of the military, including guards like him.
So when he grabs her hand, her fear instinct kicks in, and she is unable to move.
His irritation rising, the guard raises his voice.
"Do as I say, girl! Take advantage of the chaos and get out of—"
His words grind to a halt.
The girl stares at the blade that now protrudes from his chest.
Someone has stabbed him from behind with a rapier.
"You..."
The guard musters what remains of his hate to turn and face the figure behind him.
It is a slim young man with silver hair.
In his fading consciousness, the guard recalls a wanted poster he has seen countless times.
It showed the image of the young man who now stands before him; of this there is no doubt.
The army has been searching for him,
for he leads a group of insurgents who attack labor camps such as this.
And it is him and his people who caused this chaos.
The bloodied blade slides from the guard's body.
His corpse slips into a puddle of blood on the ground.
"Nnngh..."
The girl trembles to see the tragic sight before her. Her legs are heavy weights.
The young man wipes his bloody blade on the fallen
guard's clothes before turning his attention to the girl.
"Come on. We're getting out of here."
There is one reason he and his comrades attack the army's forced-labor camps:
They seek to free children captured by the Infant
Abduction Strategy and absorb them into their ranks.
The Infant Abduction Strategy.
It is a secret operation in which this country's army kidnaps genetically
superior children from foreign countries and trains them to be soldiers.
Those who prove ill-suited for warfare are instead thrown into labor camps.
The young man was abducted as part of this operation.
And though he fought for his new country for a short time,
he deserted once he learned the truth of his background.
Now, he attacks their camps alongside those who are also fueled by a
desire for revenge, freeing the laborers before taking them in as companions.
One day, he will find and kill the man responsible for the Infant Abduction Strategy—the man
who tore him from his parents and made his life a misery.
But in order to accomplish this task, he needs fighters of his own.
A dozen or so of his people wait for him outside the burning camp.
The children who had been working there gather around them.
As the young man sends the girl over to the others, one of
his compatriots—a man with freckles—offers a report:
"He's still not back."
He is one of their fellows who often acts outside of orders.
"Again?"
Unable to hide his irritation, the young man clicks his tongue.
"What's the plan?" asked the freckled man.
Even if they decide to launch a search, the camp is engulfed in flame.
And while they are safe at the moment, enemy reinforcements are surely on the way.
But...
"Take the kids and get out of here. I'll catch up."
There is no hesitation in the young man's voice.
Once he finishes speaking, he steps back inside the burning camp.
Flames billow in every corner. Superheated air burns in his lungs.
But the young man with silver hair continues to search
for his compatriot—and at last, he finds him.
A boy sits on the ground, his back leaning against the wall.
His pitch-black hair—a rare feature in this part of the
world—shines brightly in the light of the billowing flames.
He has taken a gunshot wound to his leg—but though it
has rendered him immobile, it does not appear fatal.
The young man sighs in relief before offering a cutting remark:
"Pretty sure this wasn't where I ordered you to be."
"I'm not apologizing."
The black-haired boy is defiant. His gaze drops to the dead
soldiers scattered on the ground around him.
"I don't care about saving kids; I just want to kill as many of these bastards as I can."
After being taken through the Infant Abduction Strategy,
the boy was deemed ill-suited for combat and sent to a labor camp.
He now harbors a deep hatred for the soldiers that abused him.
As his leader, the young man finds this desire for revenge to be the height of selfishness.
But he reprimands the boy no further.
Instead, he slings him over his shoulders and silently moves back up the flaming corridor.
Eventually, he manages four words:
"I'm glad you survived."
They fall from his mouth without warning.
The young man understands why his subordinate acts as he does.
When he was part of the army, he also made the same mistakes
over and over in an attempt to avenge his parents.
And every time, it was his captain and squadmates who pulled him from the fire.
The black-haired boy reminds the young man so much of his earlier self.
And when he thinks of it that way, he finds he cannot abandon him to fate.

Chapter 2

When he was yet small, the young man's parents were killed by an enemy army,
after which he became a soldier so he might avenge them.
But...
Once his revenge was complete, he was forced to face an empty truth:
Those he believed were his parents were actually not.
They were merely a couple attempting to raise a kidnapped child into the perfect soldier.
And...
The person he killed to avenge his parents was his true father.
On that day, he found his resolve.
He would seek out and kill the man who devised the Infant Abduction Strategy.
The top-secret military operation that had ruined his life.
So he gathered people who harbored the same resentment,
a group that grew more powerful by the day.
They made their headquarters in a corner of a destitute area,
acting as a kind of vigilante group in the region.
Violence had once been a staple of life in the area, but since the young man and his group arrived,
it had grown safe enough for children to play outdoors.
But...
Today, things are different.
A symphony of gunshots and heavy bootheels fills the air.
The young man's compatriots fall in a hail of bullets, their bodies trampled without mercy.
Innocent villagers are caught in the crossfire.
The group has attacked so many labor camps that the
enemy army was finally able to locate their headquarters.
As the young man shouts orders in an attempt to repel the siege,
the gears in his head continue to turn.
The enemy had marched right into their stronghold without
activating any traps or setting off even a single alarm.
Even the best-trained soldiers could not accomplish such a feat.
It's as if they knew exactly where to step.
Is it possible? Could someone on the inside be providing them intelligence?
As doubt scrambles for purchase in the young man's heart, he shakes his head.
Everyone on his side fights for the same objective; none would ever do such a thing.
He shouts another order and draws his sword. As he does,
the freckled man rushes to his side.
"I'll hold them off," he says. "Take any who can still fight and get out of here."
The young man opens his mouth, thinking to reject
the man's proposed course of action.
But he falters under the man's straightforward gaze.
The freckled man continues:
"We need you to live."
His eyes bear down on the young man with determination and confidence.
He will entrust all that is left to him so he might accomplish
their mission: revenge on those who ruined their lives with the Infant Abduction Strategy.
And...
He could not find it in his heart to betray the resolve of his compatriots.
That is the answer the young man arrived at.
He takes any who can still move and escapes the burning stronghold.
Dawn is still a distant dream.
The remaining dozen or so fighters sit together in a remote ruin and speak of what is to come.
They have somehow evaded any pursuers along the way.
But the army knows the direction in which they took flight, so they cannot escape them for long.
And yet, the young man can't let the responsibility he has been entrusted with go to waste.
"We need to kill the man in charge of the Infant Abduction
Strategy before we're found. Only then will our revenge be complete."
They know their target is stationed in a domestic military facility.
The young man produces a sketched set of facility blueprints
they obtained for just this moment, then begins laying our their plan in a hoarse voice.
The remaining dozen or so fighters will infiltrate the facility and kill key military personnel.
It is a plan most reckless.
But if they are going to be tracked down and cornered anyway, fighting is a better option than running.
Or at least, that's how the young man sees it.
"I'm not asking you to come with me," he continues. "I want as many of you to survive as—"
"I'm going."
Who interrupts, other than the black-haired boy?
The one who acts of his own accord; the one who has caused the young man no end of grief.
"I didn't stick with you all this time to survive," says the boy. "I did it for revenge."
When he speaks, the rest nod in determination before raising their voices in support of the plan.
And though the young man has nowhere left to turn, he at least has his comrades.
Dawn breaks. Faint light flickers in through rural foliage.
The silver-haired young man and black-haired boy patrol the area around the ruins in which they hide.
Suddenly, the boy comes to a halt, staring up at the vanishing stars.
The gruff air he typically carries has faded into the shadows.
"If we fail, we'll die," he murmurs.
"Pretty much," replies the young man.
"But what happens if we succeed?"
The boy levels his gaze on the young man.
"I've always wondered that: How am I supposed to live once I have my revenge?"
The young man has no answer.
At first, he lived to exact revenge on the foreign soldier who killed his
parents, only to learn the man was actually his real father.
Since that day, he has lived for revenge on those who kidnapped him as a part of the
Infant Abduction Strategy. That thought alone carries him through the endless days of fighting.
Now that he thinks about it, vengeance has been his entire reason for living.
He has forgotten what it is like to live without it.
"We'll figure it out once it's over," says the young man finally. "Until then, we just need to survive."
The black-haired boy gives a sad smile unlike his typical brusque self.
And...
The young man returns from patrol and falls into his bunk. When he wakes up, he finds the boy gone.
All that remains are his belongings.
They search his bag and find a single piece of paper. Written on it is the day's
temperature and weather, as well as a description of the townsfolk.
The boy's comrades tilt their head at the nonsensical letter. Why has he left this?
But the young man understands.
"It's a code."
It is terribly similar to one the military uses, which means they
cannot decipher it without a matching decoder.
But the question the young man had is now solved.
The army had known exactly what to expect when they attacked, and that was most certainly due to...
The young man decides to accept his betrayal.
But...
He remembers how sad the boy's smile was at dawn.
The image is seared into his mind. He will never forget it.

Chapter 3

The young man wades through waist-deep water along
with a dozen or so of his compatriots.
In the dead of night, they are making their way through a sewer.
It connects to a canal that surrounds the military facility,
and is the optimal path for sneaking in while avoiding detection.
Their destination is the facility's control room.
The man responsible for the Infant Abduction Strategy—the program that took
them from their homelands and ruined their lives—should be waiting there.
They will kill him, and in doing so have their revenge.
That is their plan.
The sewers are silent, save for the occasional ripple of disturbed water.
The enemy does not seem to know they are there.
But they all know that is likely not the case, and so proceed with the utmost caution.
The black-haired boy always acted on his own accord.
He left proof he had been working with the enemy before vanishing from the group.
But before he did so, they informed him of their plan to infiltrate the facility.
Though the young man changed the date, time, and route of the operation,
it is likely the black-haired boy told the army enough for them to be on alert.
This will doubtless be the most difficult of fights.
At last, they arrive at a ladder leading to the surface.
The young man turns to his allies and speaks in a heavy tone.
He tells them there is one thing he has to do before
killing the person responsible for the Infant Abduction Strategy.
He must find the boy who vanished after
leaving proof of his betrayal and ask him why.
The young man continues:
"If he really was communicating with the enemy,
he wouldn’t have left proof for us to find."
"I saw in his eyes how much he hated our enemy. None of that was false."
Even now, he trusts the black-haired boy.
For he is just as reckless as the young man used to be.
The young man knows his request to find the boy
is selfish; they don't even know if he is in the facility at all.
"Anyway, I won't ask any of you come with me,"
concludes the young man as he casts his gaze downward.
The rest of his group chuckles.
"We've always known how selfish you are,
yet we chose to stick by your side.
We burn with the same need for revenge as you,
yet we also know the boy wouldn't betray us without some reason."
These are their words.
While the need for revenge may be the warped strand
that keeps their group together, they also have a firm bond of trust.
"Thank you," says the young man.
Together, they climb the ladder and move into the base.
The group had steeled themselves for a battle against
uncountable enemy soldiers, but security is unnaturally lax.
"They'll be here any second! Send out the patrols and ready for a counterattack!"
Hearing enemy soldiers yelling orders, the group freezes in place and attempts to
get a better idea of what is happening. But...
"Intruders! Intru—"
The guard's voice suddenly cuts off of amidst a burst of gunfire.
The group has no idea what is happening, which makes the situation
all the more dangerous. Yet they have no choice but to take advantage of the chaos and act.
They carve a path with blade and bullet,
proceeding through the base in search of the black-haired boy.
Their destination is the control room, where the young man feels certain he will be found.
His trust in the boy has not wavered; not even when presented with proof of his betrayal.
His heart is bound not by logic, but by faith, and it now tells him where to go.
And then...
As the group nears the control room, their eyes widen at the terrible sight before them.
Bodies of dead soldiers lie scattered across the quiet hallway.
Bullet holes scar the walls around them.
The young man has an awful feeling in his gut. His heart pounds in his ears.
He takes a moment to calm his breathing, then begins to follow the trail of blood.
Silence hangs heavily around them.
Not a single guard stands watch outside the control room—the place where
the man responsible for the Infant Abduction Strategy should be.
At a wordless signal from the young man, his companions batter down the door.
But...
The room is silent. There is no sign of the enemy leader they are looking for.
Instead, there is someone else lying on the floor.
His black hair is matted with blood. Breath rattles in his chest as life slowly abandons him.
The young man's eyes widen.
As one, the group breaks into a dash and rushes over to the boy.
"H-hey, boss..."
The corner of the boy's mouth, thick with blood, quirks upward in a half-smile.
The young man crouches down and tells him not to speak. As he inspects his wounds,
his mind whirls, wondering if there is a way to save him.
But his body is riddled with bullets; everyone can see his time is nearly gone.
The boy croaks out a hoarse voice, apologizing for his actions before attempting to explain.
The enemy had approached him, offering to put him in
contact with his real parents if he turned traitor.
But when the army invaded the destitute district and began
slaughtering people indiscriminately, he immediately regretted his decision.
So he turned his coat again, using his position as their mole to infiltrate the
facility and kill the man responsible for the Infant Abduction Strategy. It...did not go well.
As the young man listens to this tale of regret, a thought comes to him:
Perhaps they should not forgive the boy for divulging information to the enemy.
But...
Would he have done differently in his place? The young man is not so sure.
Can he blame the boy for being led astray because of a desire to find happiness with his family?
"It's fine," says the young man. "Don't worry. I'll finish the job."
"Thanks... And maybe one day..."
A melancholy smile spreads across the black-haired boy's face.
"You can tell me what comes after revenge..."
His words stop. He lies still.
The young man watches as his life ends, then quietly gets to his feet.
They must keep going. Vengeance will not wait.
The boy has killed the guards and plunged the facility into chaos.
They cannot waste this opportunity.

Chapter 4

The black-haired boy infiltrated the military facility as a mole.
But after pretending to serve them, he bore his fangs and killed countless guards,
causing chaos to descend upon the facility.
And though he ultimately perished...
His compatriots and allies followed the path he carved and successfully
reached the core of the facility.
Now, they continue searching for the man
responsible for the Infant Abduction Strategy.
An inhumane project wherein the country kidnaps children from
neighboring lands to raise as either soldiers or laborers.
The boy and his companions are victims of this operation,
and their goal is to kill this man and get their revenge.
Dawn approaches.
At the gate behind the facility, several shadowy figures mill about in the dark.
"Why aren't the damned reinforcements here yet!?"
The man who cursed wears a uniform decorated with several medals.
He is the person responsible for the Infant Abduction Strategy,
and he now runs a nervous hand through his long beard.
Unable to hide his irritation in the face of his guards' failure,
he is resorting to chewing out his subordinates.
"The reinforcements will be here in less than ten minutes, sir,"
one of his personal retinue tells him.
He gestures to a waiting car, inviting the man inside.
They will ferry him away to a safe place until the commotion dies down.
But...
Gunshots ring out.
Bullets pierce the guards' heads, sending blood flying.
The man realizes what is going on, but by the time
he attempts to make his escape, it is far too late.
The thin blade of a rapier suddenly pierces his neck from behind,
its steel shimmering in the pale light of night.
The man feels cold spreading across his body,
as well as fear of his upcoming demise.
Suddenly, the voice of a young man whispers low in his ear:
"You have no right to mourn your death; my friends all
faced more gruesome ends because of you."
He then begins to speak of all of the lives he's seen
ruined because of the Infant Abduction Strategy.
The children who grew into soldiers, forever ignorant of their pasts.
Those children locked in dark, cramped rooms
and forced to labor until their last breath.
And those who learned of the top-secret operation and met their ends as a result.
As the boy quakes with fury, the man attempts to articulate an apology.
But the boy cuts him off.
"Not to me. Apologize to the dead."
And with that, the man's light goes out forever.
The young man has found his revenge, but in so doing has lost his path home.
The rest of his allies had volunteered to hold off the enemy and catch up later,
granting the young man a path to vengeance.
But none of them have arrived. Instead, all that follows the young
man as he flees are reinforcements sent by the military.
Several hours have passed since he escaped the facility.
The sky lightens, the sun gradually starting to show its face.
Though the young man hid every time he encountered the enemy,
he has taken numerous bullets, and his body now nears its end.
He rests on his knees, alone in the shade of a building. The blood
that flees his body reddens the ground as it greets the dawn.
As the young man sits beneath the rising sun, he feels his consciousness fade.
And yet, he does not mind such an end.
His revenge is complete.
It is all over.
......
............
..................
"I'm glad you survived."
There comes a voice from the darkness.
It is an old voice, one he heard many times in the past,
and one that comes with many memories.
It is then he realizes:
Though he cannot move and his vision is clouding, he still lives.
Off in the distance, he sees a small light.
In the light, people wave.
They are...
His parents: the ones who raised him, despite being part of a plot.
His real father: the one he killed with his own hands.
His real mother: the one who brought him into this world.
His squadmates: the ones for whom he caused so much trouble,
yet who forgave him all the same.
His compatriots: the ones who believed in him and led him to this point.
It is then that he remembers.
We need you to live.
His allies had risked their lives to ensure his survival.
He cannot forget this.
They have entrusted so much to his care, and he has somehow survived this long.
And...
Maybe one day, you can tell me what comes after revenge...
He must fulfill his promise to the black-haired boy.
And that
is why
he can't
die just yet.
But...
......
............
..................
Earlier this summer, fifteen boys launched a revolt against a military facility.
Their objective was to kill the man behind the Infant Abduction Strategy.
And while they accomplished their objective, reports claim they paid for it with their lives.
The Infant Abduction Strategy was the military's best-kept secret—its existence
unknown to all but a few in power—and they attempted to clean it up in secret.
However, one soldier blew the whistle on the inhumane
methods of the operation, and was quickly labeled a hero.
As a result, the vice-like grip the military once held over the government is now in decline.
And now...
A lonely young man walks atop an abandoned railroad,
flanked on either side by rows of sunflowers.
His body is scarred with signs of battle; he had once been so
consumed by vengeance that he became a soldier.
He is the one who led the revolt.
Reports claim all the children involved in the incident had perished.
But he alone had been saved by a hero. He alone survived.
He walks along the old railroad.
He walks by himself, no blade or pistol at his hip, in search of what comes after revenge.
This is his path.
Summer is coming to an end.
A cool breeze dances among the flowers.
As though gently encouraging him forward.

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