The Second Escape (1)
All three of us were a complete wreck.
The Valkyrie was bruised from head to toe. The Saint had a long gash across her abdomen. As for me, I couldn't so much as twitch my right arm or my side.
"Three patients, and not a healthy one among us."
"The mage took the worst of it. Without him, we'd be dead by now."
"The Major's right. So try a little harder with that support, will you?"
"My apologies. I've got nothing left. This is the best I can manage."
The two servicewomen took positions on either side of me and propped me up. Though whether this counted as support or simply clinging to me was an open question. Uh… it was support, right?
"…Heavy."
"What did the mage just say?"
"He says you're heavy. Major, ease up on your side."
"With all due respect, Colonel, you seem to be the one having trouble staying upright."
"I said you're heavy, people!"
We lurched left, then right. Coming down the mountain, we nearly toppled over more times than I could count. Not a single one of us had a working set of limbs. Three cripples, that was all we were.
The sun was going down. We'd somehow made it off the mountain, but the coast—and the lifeboat—still lay some distance ahead.
"Ugh, I can't see a thing in front of me."
"Should we make camp?"
"There's nowhere decent to stop. What if we pick up the pace instead? If we move faster, we might clear the forest before the light's completely gone."
In the gathering dusk, the Valkyrie nodded. She jabbed a finger into my back and forced the words out with effort.
"Mage… light."
I scraped together what little mana I had left and activated the one glowstone I'd brought along. I'd packed it just in case—and it turned out to be an excellent decision.
"Whoa, I can actually see now. You could've mentioned you had something like this, you know. Geez."
"Let's cut him some slack. He probably didn't have the luxury of explaining."
"Major, you're taking the mage's side an awful lot, aren't you?"
"Absolutely not. I'm simply stating the facts as they are."
"I heard you earlier, whispering a sweet little thank-you for saving you. Every word."
"It was nothing more than a courtesy."
The Saint giggled to herself, clearly enjoying something. I was starting to feel left out. If they were going to trade jokes, the least they could do was include me.
But it was fine.
"Major."
I had David, after all.
"Shall we play a word chain game?"
"Sure. You start."
"Foothills."
Never mind.
God, I was tired.
"Just a joke. I actually have something else to report."
"What is it?"
"Earlier, at the mountain summit, I sensed the Battalion Commander's presence."
Well, of course he did. I was his Battalion Commander.
"Not the current one. The former Battalion Commander."
My feet stopped dead. The sudden halt drew protests from the Valkyrie and the Saint.
"Why'd you stop all of a sudden?"
"Did you twist something?"
"…No. It's nothing."
I started walking again. David had been careful to add that he'd only sensed a presence—nothing confirmed. But the words had already driven themselves into my skull like a nail, and they weren't coming out.
The former Battalion Commander… Surely not.
No. As David said, nothing was certain yet.
First, recover. Climbing that mountain again would have to wait until I was back at full strength.
Whether it was because we'd taken down the ghoul or for some other reason, no more monsters appeared. Aside from the darkness, nothing stood in our way as we pushed out of the forest.
"I see the lifeboat!"
"We're finally here! Ah, I've missed you so much…!"
The three of us were utterly spent. The moment we arrived, we scrambled into the lifeboat without so much as assigning a night watch.
"Ugh."
"Haa…"
"Tsk."
The instant the tension drained away, the pain doubled. The interior of the lifeboat filled with groans. It might as well have been an intensive care ward.
Me. The enemy servicewomen.
All of us reduced to this for the price of one ghoul.
What would have happened if even one of us three had been missing?
"Without this mage, we would have been that monster's next meal."
Without the Valkyrie, the Saint and I would have been eaten long before we ever brought the thing down. Without the Saint, we might have managed to kill it somehow—but we never could have exorcised the ghoul's soul-form on the spot, and the fight would have dragged into a war of attrition that finished us all.
Either way, defeat.
In the end, each of us had needed the others.
I wasn't the only one who'd figured that out. The eyes of the two women who'd shared life and death with me today looked different from the day before.
"True mage. How's the body holding up?"
"I feel like death."
By my count, we'd forced a march of over ten hours. Exhausting enough on its own—and then there were the injuries on top of it.
"Rest for today. I've already cast holy arts for antibiotics and hemostasis, so infection shouldn't be a major concern. I'll give you a proper treatment tomorrow."
"Thank you. Though… you've started calling me a true mage now."
"I've decided to acknowledge it, at least a little. The world doesn't only have mages—there are true mages as well. My perspective was narrower than I realized. I need to reexamine what my faith has really meant all this time. Thank you."
The eyes of Tiria Caston as she offered that gratitude were truly those of a Saint.
Not someone who merely chased a manufactured creed, but someone who forged her own belief through free will. Those eyes shone as bright and gentle as stars in the night sky.
"Close your eyes now, true mage."
In any case, the Saint changing what she called me was a positive sign.
My gaze shifted next to the Valkyrie. She was lying on my right, and she kept lightly scratching at my right arm with her fingertip.
"What?"
"You okay?"
"Am I okay?"
She nodded.
"I, uh… I don't know if I should even say this to you. But I feel like you got hurt badly because of me, so… I'm sorry."
There was a different emotion in the Valkyrie's voice than before.
"…Haa. I really don't know. Forget it. I'm too tired to think straight."
She said her piece and closed her eyes. Judging by her tone and body language alone, I didn't think it was a negative signal—at least not that.
Had taking those iron needles in her place actually earned me some goodwill?
No. Impossible.
With the Saint, maybe. But my relationship with the Valkyrie was nowhere near that simple. We had each killed the other's comrades. Just remembering that day at Tatancour still set my teeth on edge. If it was this bad for me, how much worse must it be for her?
The Valkyrie was far more rational and pragmatic than I'd given her credit for. She almost certainly knew I was offering her goodwill for my own benefit.
Once we escaped this island, we'd drift apart again. One of us might even die by the other's hand.
A thought crossed my mind unbidden.
If I met the Valkyrie on a battlefield again… would I be able to fire magic at her the way I had that day?
Your problem is that you have too much soft-heartedness in you.
I honestly didn't know.
An officer must not carry personal attachments onto the battlefield. It may sound cold, but it's the truth. It's the only way you'll survive.
Admiral Dietz's words kept surfacing. At the time, they'd sounded like comfort—don't grieve your comrades' deaths too deeply. Now they also sounded like a warning: show the enemy no mercy.
What had become of the Admiral? I hadn't seen him once since the battle began that day. Alive or dead—I had no idea.
"He was a good man."
All I could do was pray he was still alive.
The wandering thoughts kept sleep at bay. Before long, soft breathing from either side tickled my ears. The Saint and the Valkyrie had both fallen completely under.
I stayed alert a little longer, watching for monsters, then simply lay down. I was finished. With the ghoul gone, the other creatures seemed to have vanished as well.
Two months now since the shipwreck.
The final battle had been midsummer, which made this early autumn. Time moved fast. The air did feel a touch cooler than it had on that first day.
"…Nngh. Cold."
The Valkyrie mumbled in her sleep and shifted. Lying on her side, she draped her arms and legs across my body.
"Ooooh."
I was going to lose my mind.
I closed my eyes last. Consciousness winked out, and I slipped into a dream.
In that dream, I had a fox-like wife and an elf-like child, and I was living happily ever after.
On the day they returned after defeating the ghoul, Rachel dreamed as well.
It was the same vicious nightmare as always. A plague-stricken village. Houses on fire. Rachel was trapped in a room, crying.
Help me!
Is anyone there?
No matter how hard she screamed, the only answer was the snickering of mages.
Then the flames pressed in toward her face. Rachel gasped for air. No. Stay back. Get away from me—!!
In that instant, a true mage stepped through the fire.
Erihi Ronshstein.
He shattered the skulls of every mage who'd been mocking Rachel with a pair of calipers, then blasted a hole through the wall with magic to clear an escape route. Before long he held out his hand, and Rachel took it.
Warmth bloomed in their joined palms for only a moment before it wrapped her entire body—the true mage had pulled her into his arms and leapt.
A soaring sense of release washed over her, and Rachel turned her head.
An endless field of flowers in full bloom stretched out before her.
"…"
At that point, Rachel's consciousness returned to reality. A dry, sticky feeling. The salt-tinged smell of the wind. She was still on the deserted island.
"Haa."
Rachel dragged a hand down her face. A faint heat lingered there. Was she coming down with another cold?
Either way, today's dream had been half nonsense.
She sighed and slowly worked the stiffness from her body.
The mage and Tiria were already up, preparing breakfast. The mage noticed Rachel waking first and raised a hand in greeting.
"Good morning."
"Uh… y-yeah. G'morning."
The corner of the mage's mouth twitched upward.
And that smile of his was starting to get under her skin in a way she couldn't quite name.