A Nightmare Spilling from the West
A Nightmare Spilling from the West
After the battle ended and we'd secured two prisoners, I found out the reason why the wyvern I'd abruptly hijacked had started a voluntary pokémon battle, and Laika's actions were the explanation.
Even though Laika now behaved no differently from an ordinary dog, the Demon Sword's abilities hadn't entirely disappeared, and one of them was apparently the ability to read and grasp things like the user's stray thoughts.
There were some distance limitations, but we'd been close enough this time, so as I watched the bastard flee, all the various feelings I'd had in that moment flowed into Laika as well. Laika explained that the pup had commanded the wyvern without hesitation.
"Commanded? You can communicate with it?"
Honestly, I was surprised Laika could even read my thoughts a little, but I figured that was just some fantasy mechanism from having consumed my blood. The idea that the Demon Sword also had a built-in translation function was news to me, so when I asked again, Laika tilted that little head back and forth with eyes raised as if thinking, then answered as if it were nothing.
[More like giving it directions than speaking? I did it with Master's Magic Power, so Master can probably do it too!]
Since it was an ability Laika had tried so naturally and matter-of-factly, I couldn't get a satisfactory explanation even by pouring in Magic Power to activate Smart Laika mode. Still, if it had been done with Magic Power, maybe I'd be able to manage it somehow later with help from Master and Seneran.
Anyway. Thanks to that, the wyvern's standing skyrocketed as the one responsible for capturing the fleeing division commander and his accomplice. Even those who had been distant at first began approaching it first, praising it for being well-behaved and feeding it.
The guy had already enjoyed the luxury of devouring a whole live mountain goat on Alt Brigade Commander's orders, yet gobbled up everything offered without restraint, and through the unanimous opinion that 'a wyvern who knows to attack enemies on its own like this can't possibly cause problems,' it was now curled up and sleeping next to my tent. I'd wondered if the military might confiscate it, but there wasn't even a hint of such an attempt.
The leisurely part ended there, and thanks to achieving the brilliant feat of capturing the suddenly appeared Demonfolk division commander alive, the command post was in a tremendously hectic situation.
Key figures including the brigade commander were all holed up in the command tent in a meeting, while the rest of the personnel further reinforced the perimeter and threw themselves into constructing positions, beginning preparations for additional Demonfolk attacks.
When I heard that they'd called back some of the mages who'd been leading the city assault under Sir Radnelbandes and had them move the collapsed wall debris to erect barricades, I felt once more just how different war in this world was from my past life. At best, I'd only thought of palisades myself.
Because of that, most everyone from knights to low-ranking soldiers had been drafted and were busy, but for the current me, it was an unrelated story.
I was the greatest contributor and a patient. And unlike other patients, a VIP patient receiving healing and resting in a private tent.
"You're so damn proud of it!"
"Aack!"
I got slapped on the shoulder with a smack by Ragnis, but there was nothing I could do except scream. It wasn't that I'd lost my mind and fainted again, but I had such indescribably severe muscle pain that I could barely move a single finger.
"Wait! This time it's unfair!"
"What's unfair about it? You're saying you want to call it unfair just because a division commander came in while you were sitting still?"
"Uh...? Yeah, isn't it?"
"It's the karma you've racked up coming back to you!!"
Smack! Unlike in the old days, Ragnis was now truly getting muscular, so her palm swung in earnest was vicious as hell, and I let out another breathless scream.
What's that, I was fine when Sheryl planted a face kick? Back then I was using Magic Power for physical enhancement so it was just a light tap!
If I couldn't use even a speck of Magic Power, in the end it's just a human body, so there's no way to deal with the stinging pain. If it were a punch I could understand, but that right there was just a whip.
"Teacher, please. It hurts too much."
It genuinely hurt so much that only a hollow laugh came out, and as I begged and pleaded, Ragnis glared at me for a long while before eventually letting out a deep sigh and lowering her hand.
"I can't live like this... But at least you don't have a fever like last time."
"Ah, I suspect that might be the effect of the Spirit helping me."
They say I was out of it and suffering from a high fever, but I didn't hurt anywhere and felt refreshed, so isn't that a fairly reasonable deduction?
"More importantly, water... no, what did they decide to do with that division commander bastard?"
"Since he's a key figure, the likelihood is high they'll take him to the rear for interrogation. They say capturing a division commander-level prisoner is an extremely rare occurrence."
People at the level of Water Buffalo Horn usually either die fighting or get away, they said. Whether that's due to their belligerent nature or sense of duty.
It wasn't that the Kingdom forces had absolutely no one who could unilaterally capture a fighter of division commander level, but leaving such a skilled fighter to run amok on the battlefield was no different from watching with open eyes as the enemy rampaged freely and massively whittled down your average combat strength, so they'd counter by sending out similarly skilled fighters, resulting in a low actual capture rate, was Ragnis's explanation.
"Huh, someone who can unilaterally capture a division commander. Would you need to be one of the Ten Swords?"
"The Ten Swords are even higher, they say."
"That's insane, for real."
So even just being among the Ten Swords was above Water Buffalo Horn—just how strong had Sir Ekaf been? I couldn't really tell even living right next to him.
I felt a bit pitiful living a life stuck in the lower ranks of my own private power-level measuring chart, but it wasn't important right now, so I corrected my thoughts from drifting off on a tangent and asked Ragnis something else.
"Before that, will I be able to see him?"
"Alt Brigade Commander already acknowledged your contributions clearly and moved past it, so that shouldn't be difficult. Why?"
"The bastard knew about our village."
Ragnis's eyes widened, as if the answer was unexpected. Since I hadn't expected at all to gain this kind of harvest from a war I was participating in for the first time, it was a perfectly understandable reaction.
"Directly?"
"No, not that. But he probably knows more than me. Do you know when they're taking him to the capital?"
"They say they'll draft troops and send him off as soon as the follow-up unit joins. At the earliest, late tomorrow, and if things go as expected, two days from now."
"That's good."
Right now, unless I was being carried on Giant Laika's back, it was hard to even move.
"For now, rest up thoroughly today. I'll put the word in so that if your condition improves tomorrow, you can meet him right away."
I was slightly hungry from having stopped eating mid-meal, but the physical exhaustion was more severe than that right now, so I quickly fell asleep as Ragnis gave her firm reply.
I wondered if I might see the Spirit's face again, if I might be able to hear the rest of the story I hadn't fully caught then... but when I opened my eyes with the sensation of having nodded off and woken up, the cold dawn air had already filled the tent.
How much better could I possibly get from just one night's rest, but at least I could manage to move my body. Maybe it was the result of a priest coming by and diligently casting Holy Arts. If what I actually felt as muscle pain was really muscle pain, that is.
"I'm gonna fucking die, seriously..."
My joints ached too, and thinking back on how I'd moved yesterday, I must have put strain on my joints. Still, consoling myself that I was already tall enough that I didn't have to worry about height, I got up from my spot, and Laika, who'd stretched long, followed after me.
I'd only slept one day and woken up, but the surroundings had changed considerably. Torches stood here and there, watchtowers high enough to be visible had been erected, and in front of them, barricades mixing truly shattered wall debris and lumber had taken their places.
In many ways it must have been incredibly noisy, but I marvelled anew at the fact that I'd slept without waking up once, and moved my steps to Ragnis's quarters.
Because soldiers I encountered along the way greeted me with great politeness, I too had to respond politely, and after a minor incident of suffering from muscle pain, I arrived at her tent to find, fortunately, a light on. The sentries I hadn't seen before were blocking the front, so just as I was approaching while pondering what to say, the tent happened to open and Sir Renisa walked out from within.
"Ah, Sir Ega. I've heard of the feats of arms you displayed yesterday. Are you feeling all right?"
"I've improved a lot thanks to treatment. Has the Margrave risen? I have something to ask regarding the prisoner, so I'd like to see her briefly."
I'd worried the sentries might find it odd that I'd come early in the morning, and as I carefully broached the topic, Sir Renisa smiled faintly and replied.
"As it happens, I was just on my way out after receiving orders related to that very matter. There's a meeting from early morning, so I've been assigned to guide you in her stead. They said discussion with Alt Brigade Commander is already finished. Shall we go right now?"
A meeting from the morning, huh. The high and mighty sure had it rough.
There was nothing good about being late, so as I readily nodded, Sir Renisa naturally took the lead and guided the way.
"Yesterday, I showed you a shameful sight."
But the words Sir Renisa brought up were very much out of the blue. For a moment I thought she meant failing to stop Ragnis's intervention, but what followed was completely different.
"I had thought I'd trained reasonably to the best of my ability, but the division commander was strong. Even though several other knights and I rushed in together at someone already no different from collapsed, I didn't expect that driving my sword into his arm would be the best I could do."
Ah... was Sir Renisa among them too? I'd been out of it and had no time to see faces, so I'd had no idea at all. But that didn't mean what I should say in this situation was that I hadn't even known she was there, so I chose my words as carefully as possible and gave an appropriate response.