Quickening
Quickening
The day after I returned from my outing with Sheryl.
An unexpected guest came to visit.
"Eldmia. A woman who introduced herself as the officer in charge of the Kingdom Army's Silver Eagle Independent Combat Brigade has come to see you. Did you perhaps have an appointment with her?"
I had been planning to start shaking off my laziness and spend the day preparing for the Levien recapture operation—waking up early and rechecking my equipment and consumables—but this guest was completely unexpected.
Not only had I never heard of that unit name before, but if she was the officer in charge, she'd be a commander, and there wasn't a single female commander among the people I knew, so it was truly an out-of-the-blue situation.
"...A unit name I've never heard before, but why does it sound familiar?"
"The Silver Eagle Independent Combat Brigade is a unit active on the Demonfolk front. And it's also the unit the soldiers who returned to the capital yesterday belong to."
"Ah! The Silver Eagle Independent Combat Brigade under the Kingdom's 3rd Army Corps?"
"That's right."
After hearing Tie's explanation, I remembered. It was definitely a unit I'd often heard about while I was at the Ogatorf estate. It was so famous that even I, who didn't give a shit about the military, had heard of it.
There had been a servant who, upon hearing that an acquaintance was being sent to the front as a replacement soldier, had prayed that he'd get into that unit instead, since it had been fighting since nearly the beginning of the war, achieved distinguished merits, and had relatively few casualties.
And to think that some of the protagonists of the various stories I'd heard coming and going were the ones I met yesterday—the world was truly small.
"Did she come alone?"
"Yes. She was fully armed, but there was no separate escort with her."
Being fully armed was conspicuous, but thinking back to yesterday, it was probably just a battlefield habit. If she had any sense, she came to apologize, not to pick a fight.
Since I'd be seeing her often anyway, I decided to meet her and give her a good impression while I was at it.
"She doesn't look like she'll just show her face and leave, so bring her inside and prepare some tea for me, will you? I'll be down soon."
"What kind of tea should I prepare?"
"Any... no, make it coffee."
Since she'd spent a long time on the battlefield, coffee was probably better than tea. There wasn't any solid basis for it, but seeing Tie nod in agreement, she seemed to have reached a similar conclusion.
After tidying up, I followed her down the stairs, and the visitor, who had just taken her coffee from Tie, stood up and offered a light bow.
"I am Ranje, of the Silver Eagle Independent Combat Brigade. Despite my sudden visit, you have received me hospitably, but I must apologize as I am unable to disclose my full rank and name under military regulations."
My first impression was that she was 'small.'
Of course, most people were short compared to me, but the woman who introduced herself as Ranje was, at best, about 10 cm taller than Esmue. That alone made her stand out, but her hair was also cut extremely short, which was rare, so I was a little surprised.
Did they call that a pixie cut? It wasn't like I hadn't seen female knights or soldiers, but I'd never seen someone with hair cut that short.
But what was most surprising was that I could feel aura from her. It wasn't as strong as Sir Ekaf, but the fact that I could sense her aura at all meant she was definitely a powerful warrior.
"As you probably know, I'm Eldmia Ega."
"I have heard you have achieved so many meritorious deeds that it's surprising your fame hasn't spread across the battlefield. I am sorry that our first meeting is due to such an unsavory matter."
It was clearly because of the ruckus yesterday, but given that I had extorted money and goods from her subordinates and knights in a public place, for her to act so humbly... That alone made her purpose crystal clear, so I smiled with ease.
"It's fine. It was just a small disturbance that arose from soldiers trying to do their duty. Besides, I've already received a settlement payment, so there's no need to apologize like this."
For a moment, the look of a middle manager's agony flickered across her face. It felt like she'd either misinterpreted my words or concluded that it couldn't possibly end so easily.
Eventually, as she hesitantly took a seat and kept offering various excuses for her subordinates, I humored her for a while. Only after a long conversation did she finally understand that I truly wouldn't make any issue out of yesterday's incident, and Ranje belatedly let out a sigh of relief.
"Thank you for your generous treatment. Although they are little shi— ahem, subordinates with many shortcomings, their hearts for devoting themselves to the kingdom are sincere, so I was worried another issue might arise."
Did she just try to call them little shits? Looks like she's a soldier through and through despite her small frame. From the looks of it, she probably throws around every kind of profanity on a normal day.
Anyway, the atmosphere seemed to have relaxed safely, so I casually threw out a question about something that had been bothering me since yesterday.
"Of course, I was a bit flustered at first. Being suspected of being a member of the Demonfolk all of a sudden. And not just by one or two, but everyone present seemed to share that opinion... May I ask why?"
"Ah, well... you might consider it a superstition, but..."
Given how well things had been going, I was a bit taken aback by her reaction, but after hearing what she had to say, it made sense.
It wasn't some magic tool; it was simply a sense that most of those who'd served long on the battlefield acquired, she said. Like sensing aura or killing intent. Not everyone could feel it, but the ones mobilized for this Levien recapture operation were elites, so most of them had awakened this sense, according to Ranje.
"It's not perfectly accurate, but on the battlefield it wasn't a big deal, so we basically hushed it up and let it slide. But that it could become an issue here in the capital..."
She probably hadn't expected it. How could she have predicted that a guy with Magic Power would get caught by human radar? If she'd been disciplined over this, she would've been furious at how unfair it was.
"Indeed, intuition is also important on the battlefield."
"Y-yes, that's true. Actually, thanks to this sense, we've caught quite a few Demonfolk trying to spy or carry out covert operations. Since they succeeded more often than they failed... I think we got a little, well, arrogant."
That's not arrogance...
"Hearing that, I'm newly curious. When I fought Envelde, who had just returned from the front, and his knights, I never heard anything about that. Is there some condition for acquiring that ability?"
"I... don't think so. If such a condition existed, every soldier on the battlefield would have scrambled to meet it to gain this sense. They... probably just lost the feel because they'd been away from the battlefield for too long."
I was learning a remarkable amount from such a short conversation.
Given that she called it 'this' sense, it was fair to assume this woman had the same kind of Magic Power detection ability as the people I'd met yesterday... and that they lost the feel for it after spending too long away from the battlefield.
Normally, you could compare it to losing your touch when you've been away from a job for too long, but from my perspective—already suspecting that something strange was happening on the front—this wasn't something I could dismiss lightly.
"I think I understand why you and the other soldiers are participating in this Levien recapture operation. It's reassuring in many ways. I look forward to working with you during the operation."
"...You look forward to...?"
"Of course, the Levien recapture operation. Margrave of Levien proposed that I join the expedition. I had no reason to refuse, so I agreed."
Her expression changed in an instant, so it seemed like she was hearing this for the first time. Well, it didn't really matter. Since we'd be comrades standing on the same battlefield, my aim was to coat things in sugar and keep things good-natured.
And that attempt was quite successful.
◈
"Thank you for sparing your time. Next time, I'll greet you properly."
As Ranje, having unloaded a heavy burden after finishing the conversation, gave her farewell, Eldmia, who had seen her to the door, responded with a polite bow.
"It will be on the day of the expedition, then. I'll look forward to it."
It ended much more cleanly than expected.
Watching Eldmia disappear behind the closing door, Ranje truly thought so.
If they hadn't been participating in this operation when this incident blew up, it never would have wrapped up so neatly. Already, she'd been chewed out in every possible way over the past day and had been force-fed a lesson on the person of Eldmia Ega, so her judgment was that.
He was the kind of guy who, simply because there'd been an assassination attempt, kicked down the door of a noble's mansion in the middle of the capital with his muddy boots and committed a massacre. And yet, after a light isolation that was no different from a slap on the wrist, he came out unscathed, so his political skill was clearly no joke either.
If he'd wanted to, twisting meanings and finding fault would have been nothing. The fact that he still let it slide so generously meant he was serious about the Levien recapture operation. He was a man who knew there was no reason to antagonize the troops he'd be fighting alongside, nor to undermine their morale.
He was strong, could use his head, and had standing. On the surface, he was just a wandering knight, but he'd be a major asset on this expedition.
"...Tch, for real."
The only problem was that he really did give off a subtle Demonfolk vibe.
In a corner of her mind, she'd wondered if her subordinates had collectively gotten the wrong idea, but that wasn't it at all. Eldmia had a strange Demonfolk-like quality. The sort of Demonfolk-ish aura you'd only feel from a high-level Demonfolk.
But having already made up her mind, Ranje decided she didn't give a single fuck about that.
"Fuck, so he's as strong as a high-level Demonfolk. Good is good, right."
I'll go back and buy those bastards a drink.
With that thought, Ranje hurried on her way.