"So, I'm setting out."
Annanu stood before the army he had assembled himself, looking at the eighteen warriors as he spoke calmly.
"I will go to the Underworld, and in the end, I will return."
Other than Ruslan, who had known beforehand and silently looked away with a trace of struggle in his eyes, every warrior wore an expression of disbelief.
"Commander, why—?"
Adekate stepped forward, staring at Annanu in disbelief.
"This is to prove my courage and determination to the gods." For some reason, Annanu did not tell them the truth. His eyes shifted slightly as he lied.
"That is the Underworld," Adekate emphasized.
The Underworld—the final destination of all things, a world belonging only to the dead.
Adekate did not want Annanu to die, and neither did the other warriors.
So, like Adekate, they took a step forward and closed in on Annanu.
"Commander, don't go to the Underworld."
The darkness there will swallow you whole.
Annanu looked at the warriors before him, somewhat puzzled.
"Why do you not want me to die?"
He was curious. He wanted to understand the warriors' thoughts.
Adekate's expression was complicated.
"After all the life-and-death struggles and setbacks I endured, it was you who finally gave me the power to protect what I wanted to protect. How could I possibly wish for you to go to the Underworld after receiving such kindness?"
"The training you arranged for us was exhausting, but the growth in our strength has been plain to see. It hasn't even been that long, yet we can already do what Brother Kaderki was able to do back then."
"We are grateful to you, Commander. We do not hate you."
Annanu looked at this old man in his thirties and blinked.
Then he smiled. Rarely, he showed his subordinates a