The Sugar Cube

The instant the words Yellow Dragon reached me—

A window of pure blue flared, and Black Wolf's memories rose with it, sharp and vivid, as if they had always been mine.

"...This motherfucker lived one hell of a colorful life."

"Eh? C-Captain?"

I left the flustered Ruby where she was and packed the anger down—anger that had surged for the first time in a long while—pressing it in until it fit. If I had followed my heart, I would have grabbed hold of anything in reach and led with my fist. But—

The results had never been good when I let myself go. I forced the anger down, and only then did the blue window trembling in front of my eyes come into focus.

Calm down.

There was still time enough.

One thing at a time. Step by step.

Composure settled back over me, and I turned my eyes on Ruby, who was still standing there stunned.

"Ruby."

"Yes, Captain!"

I had to learn what power I actually held. I had to sort through the original work and the setting collection, and through the incidents still waiting ahead. Beyond that, I needed a plan for how to move as Black Wolf and as Yellow Dragon, and another for how to use the Black Wolf company at all. The things I had to do immediately were piled like a mountain, and what I needed most, right now, was this.

"As of this moment, I am going for a walk."

"Ah! This time, take me too—!"

"No. Alone."

Time to myself. A walk was the code Ruby and I used for the hours I spent out in the world as Yellow Dragon. She understood it at once. Her brow knotted, and she shot the question back.

"Whaaat?! F-for how long?"

"A week ought to be enough."

"A weeek?!"

The words were barely finished before she stepped in and seized my hand.

"A Black Wolf with no captain! Do you have any idea how dangerous mad dogs are once the leash comes off?!"

"It is fine. It is only a week."

"Don't you remember the last time you vanished for two days on Yellow Dragon business? The vice-captain took three members and wiped an entire kingdom off the map!"

Yeah. Of course I don't remember.

"And when you were gone for half a day—didn't Ruby go and charm a whole city? Oh, and there was the time Peter founded a cult! Do you know how hard I worked cleaning all of that up?!"

Yeah. That must have been a genuine nightmare.

No, more importantly—how did she even clean it up?

Ruby. She might be more useful than I had thought.

Well. Anyway.

Her whining had fixed one fact in my head for certain.

Give them something to do before I move.

The original plan had been simple enough. Step out under the name of a closed-door retreat, drift through the capital, take the measure of my strength and of what I knew, and build the plans from there.

"It's because of all that cleanup that we sold the mansion and ended up in a shabby place like this!"

A Black Wolf that had lost the hand on its leash looked, from where I stood, like nothing but mad dogs. Which brought the problem back around.

What do I have them do?

If I simply told them to wait and keep still, that would be an order too. Wouldn't they obey?

"Then I will give an order. Stay put."

"And when you ordered us to stay put, what happened then? Don't you remember Ruby sitting quietly in the hideout and sending the little ones to raid the Mercenary Alliance?"

"......Ruby. That was you."

"Hehe. Correct."

Ruby. Please.

Then what the hell do you want me to do?

Hole up in the hideout, look into this and that, make my plans, and wait? No. What if that only made them suspicious? If my identity came out, they would come at me with their eyes on fire, the same as the Ruby standing in front of me now. And I had to move not only as Black Wolf, but as Yellow Dragon besides.

I pressed my fingers to a throbbing temple and stared, blank, out at a dawn that had not yet decided to brighten. That was when Ruby, wearing a soft little smile, tossed her long red hair and leaned in.

"Anyway, Captain."

A soft tap. Slender white fingers found my chest and pushed, unhurried, toward the stairs.

"You know, don't you? If it weren't for the Captain, every last one of us in Black Wolf would be dead."

My body, worn thin with exhaustion, met the stairs, and a heavy languor spread through all of me. The hideout was still dark. Wind came through the cracks in the walls, and riding that wind, a thick scent of roses. I lifted my head before I knew I was doing it, following the fragrance, and the red woman was standing there. She leaned down over me, smiling, and whispered.

Deep affection. And beneath it, madness, hidden far down. I stared, blank, into eyes that had the depth of a rose torn open at its red heart.

"Hup."

Ruby drew back from me, set her feet on the ground again, and laughed as she shook the madness off.

"Anyway, think it over carefully. Like you said, it's only a week. Would we really lose our patience and cause trouble? However far apart we are, you'll come back and hold us, the way you always have."

"......Right, Captain?"

Was it my imagination?

The question seemed to carry a thin thread of anxiety. I nodded and got to my feet.

What matters most right now is taking stock of the power I have, and putting the information in order. And carrying out the commission given to Yellow Dragon.

Stock and information, if I hurried, would not take even half a day. The commission laid on Yellow Dragon was the real problem. But that, too—

If I carry it out with ■■, Black Wolf's fifth member, it should not take even a day.

I took the span I had already cut as short as it would go, added a single day of rest, and gave it to Ruby.

"I will shorten the time away to three days."

"It did get shorter, but...... three whole days?"

"Enough. I will hear no further objections."

"...Yes, Captain."

Ruby bowed her head low, accepting that the decision was final.

"And there is no need to worry over the members. I mean to leave an order that will keep them docile for at least three days, and then go on my walk."

"...!"

Her eyes, which had been fading toward a dead dimness, began to glitter red again. I met that gaze straight on and spoke the order I had settled on after turning it over.

"Cleaning and repairs."

Let me try living in a clean house for once.

Ruby looked around the hideout as if following my words, then nodded with a grave face.

"It really was about time we cleaned. I'm sorry, Captain. I should have stepped up and seen to it first.... Ah. Then that thing from the other day was the Captain too?"

Is she talking about the recycling?

I nodded at once.

"Yes. I held it in as long as I could, and then I gave the order. Even so, the place is still filthy."

"The Captain is right. Cleaning and repairs have to be tended regularly. The members were in the wrong."

Damn it. Ruby, Ruby......

A member who finally understood the importance of cleaning. I was nearly moved.

"I'll pass it on to the members. Don't worry, and be careful on your walk."

"I will. I am going, trusting you."

"......!!"

I take back calling her a crazy bitch. In any case, I was about to step out of the hideout when it came back to me.

"Ah."

I turned. I had remembered the sugar cube I had pocketed before sleep, to top up my blood sugar. In the world I used to live in, sweets had been everywhere. In this one, even a cube this small was a luxury you had to steel yourself to buy. I had just met someone who, for the first time in a long while, had opened her eyes to cleanliness, and the gladness of it made me hand it over as it was.

"......This is?"

Ruby took the square piece the way a squirrel takes a nut and looked up at me with shining eyes. I let out a short breath of a laugh.

"Let it melt. Take your time eating it."

"Don't tell me......? ......Yes. I understand completely."

"......?"

Telling her to melt it slowly isn't something you need to think that hard to understand, is it?

Anyway. I think I played that off well enough......

Shall I go see just how much stronger I've gotten?

A few hours after Nahan stepped out of the Black Wolf mercenary company's hideout—

"Uuugh...... It is mealtime—yes."

"Ugh, Sis, I really can't moooove......"

"Don't be a baby, Luna. I went easy enough."

As always, the members of Black Wolf gathered to eat their morning meal. What greeted them, though, was not the usual gentle morning. It was a woman the color of blood.

"You're all late."

"The Captain?"

"Please, sit first."

Ruby offered them their places while she forced a rising madness back down. Lactea ignored her as though she were not there to be seen, and asked again.

"The Captain?"

"Haa...... So if you would just first—"

The sentence never finished. Steel left its sheath with a thin shearing sound and kissed past Ruby's cheek.

"—!"

"......Hic. She really had been going easy."

Hanryang and Luna stared, eyes perfectly round. Lactea asked again.

"The Captain?"

Fresh blood welled from the thin split and ran down Ruby's cheek. She licked it away with her tongue. Her eyes began, slowly, to churn and to deepen—but at the voice she remembered, the anger came loose like a thread pulled free, and she was smiling again when she answered.

I am going, trusting you.

"He has gone out."

"For how long?"

"Three days."

That was all the information she needed. Lactea rose.

Go find him.

She would not lose him halfway, the way she had yesterday. She would follow him to the end and be with him through every moment.

"He said he would go alone."

Noisy. Grating. She endured it.

Protect Black Wolf.

Because this was a promise of that kind.

With a click she settled over her face the mask the Captain had given her, and she was about to step out of the worn-out hideout when the voice came again, grating as before.

"He ordered cleaning and repairs."

"I hear he held it in and held it in before he gave the order. And even then he called it filthy, and ordered it a second time."

This, she could not ignore.

"......Hanryang. Luna. Did I not say this, last time?"

Lactea's cold golden eyes moved, slow, onto the two of them.

It was not a joke. A terror of death welled up, cold enough to flood the room.

"W-wait, please be calm—yes!!"

"No. I am absolutely not dying."

"Ahaha...... This is why I told you, Captain. That even three days was too long."

Every member but Lactea rose on instinct and backed away. Ruby swallowed, hard.

Ah. That face. I want to pick at her more. If I do, I might actually die.

She drew something from her bosom, moved without hurry, and set it down on the table.

"The Captain must have been quite frustrated himself. He even left a hint behind when he went."

A sugar cube. Where fingers had touched it, the surface had melted just a little, and the once-sharp corners were worn round: a square packed from pure white, sweet powder. The members' scattered stares changed. They sharpened, and fixed on the thing. Ruby picked it up again, grinned wide, and added the rest.

Bewilderment had been rising over Hanryang's face. Luna's was draining toward ashen. Lactea's, which had never worn an expression at all, wore one now. From all three mouths, together—

"......Slowly. Taking our time."

A chilling smile rose.