The Unexpected
Delphin bound the captured soldier and lashed him to the saddle, setting him up as a living shield against both flight and ambush.
"Lead the way. Take us along the route you used to get in."
"B-but—! The Red Wyvern might still be there!"
"Which frightens you more? A monster you may or may not run into — or my sword, which you can meet this instant?"
The moment her hand closed on the hilt, the soldier folded and offered to guide them. A monster might spare him. Delphin would not. Once that simple arithmetic sank in, he became remarkably cooperative.
"Anne. Keep an eye on him, would you? Make sure he doesn't lead us somewhere we shouldn't go."
"Yes, Lady Del. For now… the direction he's pointing does look like the mountain path."
They could not afford to let their guard down. The man was a soldier of an enemy nation. He seemed to have genuinely deserted — but what if they crossed paths with his own side? A change of heart could come at any moment. Caution was the only sensible course.
They put the bound soldier at the head of the column. Delphin and Anne followed close behind, every sense alert.
"The Lind Kingdom. I never imagined anything like this."
"I was surprised too. People from the Lind Kingdom do come through from time to time, but they've always been wanderers — folk who drifted in because they had nowhere else to go."
"Are there many former Lind Kingdom people in Nosland?"
"There are five just in our village."
Five was no small number, given the size of the settlement. For all the difficulties of administering the region, this was still Imperial territory. That so many refugees from the Lind Kingdom had found their way here…
I'll have to report this to His Majesty as soon as I return.
It was possible the Lind Kingdom army had used those same paths. Word of a safe route might have spread among the wanderers, and if the enemy had followed it, no one in the Empire would have known a thing.
"Th-there. From there on."
The soldier stopped and pointed ahead. His voice was thick with terror; his face was a mask of raw fear. Delphin wondered if it was a trick — but no one could have feigned a look like that.
"Please. I beg you. I don't want to go any farther."
"Quiet. Keep walking."
"That horse can only carry two people! You two could at least run for it, but I—"
"I've already shown more than enough mercy to an enemy soldier who invaded the Empire. Whatever happens next is your fate. Walk."
Delphin's warning cut like a drawn blade. In the end the soldier pressed forward, his whole body trembling.
"I'm sorry, Anne. I was a little harsh with him. Did it startle you?"
"No. If the Lind Kingdom army truly came through here, they would have passed our village. They would have been worse than bandits — not better."
Wanderers who came seeking a life were one thing. Soldiers who came seeking an ambush were another. Those who offered their hands, and those who raised them. Those who would sweat, and those who would bleed. Anne's distinction eased something in Delphin's chest.
"Lady Del. There!"
"There really are burn marks everywhere."
They halted the horse and the soldier, and Delphin surveyed the site. A cart reduced to cinders. The weapons and armor that had been loaded inside, blackened and warped.
He said they set the fire to lure the Red Wyvern…
Something about it felt strange. An odd energy lingered in the ashes, as though the flame that had devoured them had been no ordinary fire — as though it had been something special.
A closer look at the surrounding ground confirmed it: the traces of hundreds of people. They had succeeded in infiltrating this far. They could have pushed farther still. But they had encountered the Red Wyvern, and every last one of them had fled. Footprints bound for the Empire lay overlaid with footprints turning back the way they had come. Just as the deserter had said — they had been driven off by a monster and had retreated along their own trail.
It was astonishing. The pieces had fallen into place with uncanny precision. No one in the Empire had known — not even the people of the north. A Lind Kingdom incursion would never have ended as a mere disturbance. And then the being they called a Red Wyvern had appeared. As if it had known all along. As if it had been waiting.
Look closely and there isn't a corpse — there isn't even a drop of blood. That means it never hunted them. It never even attacked.
Wyverns were among the most troublesome monsters a human could face. The aggression. The cruelty. And they could fly. Even Delphin, drawing on her own past encounters, felt her skin crawl at the memory. Their brutality showed itself most clearly when they struck their prey — a plunge from the sky, a snatching talon, a body torn to pieces. Visit any wyvern attack site and the victims' blood was smeared across everything.
This place was nothing like those she had seen. And a wyvern would never have simply let humans get away. The longer she looked, the more the questions multiplied.
"Lady Del. What do you make of it?"
Anne asked in a worried voice. If it truly was a Red Wyvern, the village was in danger. Their homes might already lie inside its territory.
"That the Lind Kingdom army came this far is a fact, Anne."
"Ah…"
"But the Red Wyvern — I don't think that's right. There's no sign anywhere that a monster that vicious ever made its home here."
Her survey complete, Delphin returned to the others.
"Please. Please, let's go. I'd rather you handed me over to the Imperial army. Anywhere but here — I don't care where."
The memory of that day seized the deserter all over again. Whatever he had seen, it had been terrifying enough to bring him to the edge of a fit. In the end Delphin gathered Anne and the deserter and left the site behind. Even as they went, there was no wyvern anywhere in the sky. Only the sun, hanging in the far distance, looking unusually red.
No matter how I turn it over, what they saw was not a Red Wyvern.
After turning the problem over and over, Delphin finally reached her conclusion. She had thought about it the entire way back. Was it truly a wyvern? Was something that dangerous lurking nearby? She could not afford to miss even the slimmest possibility. Anne's village was close. Innocent people lived there. A single error in her judgment could cost hundreds of lives. So she retraced her reasoning again and again, testing every angle. And every time, the answer came out the same.
"Anne. I don't think there's a wyvern here after all."
"I thought so too, actually. I've been thinking the same thing."
"You have?"
Anne nodded at Delphin's surprised reply.
"I've never seen a wyvern in all the time I've lived in the village. Not even while traveling around this area."
"If that's the opinion of someone who actually lives here…"
So it was not a wyvern. Both of them felt a weight lift from their shoulders. One question, however, remained. If not that — then what had the deserter seen that day? Why had the Lind Kingdom army fled in such a convulsion of terror?
This is… probably…
This is… certainly…
There, Delphin and Anne arrived at thoughts that were similar — and entirely different.
It's that being. That great red bird. I'm sure of it.
It's Him. The Red Bird. He saved the village again!
One of them touched her chin, making no effort to hide her curiosity. The other smiled, offering her thanks in silence. The Red Bird. The one that had painted the sky and the world in flame. A presence that inspired fear and reverence, terror and joy, all at once.
"You've worked hard, Anne. Here — the reward I promised you."
"Ah! Thank you, Lady Del! …Oh? Wait a moment, Lady Del. This is more than we agreed on…"
"Use the extra for the village. I'd like to do more, but this is all I brought with me."
Anne could not quite hide how uncomfortable the answer made her. Receiving more than she had been promised clearly sat ill with her.
"You have a good heart. That's all the more reason to take it. People like you need a little luck now and then."
"Luck… I see."
Luck. Now that she thought about it, she had received so much of it lately. She could not go on only receiving forever. She would pass this kindness on. Anne swore it to herself, and swore it again.
"Will you be heading back now, Lady Del?"
"Yes. I need to report this as soon as I can. And I have to hand this one over while I'm at it."
The Lind Kingdom had tried to strike the Empire from behind. As a knight of the Empire, delivering that news was a matter of the highest urgency.
They were nearly to the village when Delphin spoke.
"Wait, Anne."
"What is it?"
"Something's odd about the village."
"C-could the bandits have come back?!"
Perhaps she was thinking of the little brother she had left at home. Anne stamped her feet, at a complete loss.
"No. There's no smoke, and no screaming. Which means that is…"
Delphin's eyes went wide. In the distance, a familiar banner had come into view.
It was a curious thing. In more than a hundred years here, I had never seen anything like it.
What is it this time.
First there had been a dragon, and the humans chasing it. Then the ones who looked at me and called me a monster, or a phoenix. Not long ago I had even run into armed soldiers. Every one of them had been fighting — or had come looking for a fight. By that measure, today was a very unusual case.
That procession is extravagantly splendid. The clothes and armor those humans are wearing gleam like anything.
There was still so much I did not know about this world. Even so, one look was enough to tell me that someone important had arrived. But why, of all places, were they heading into Anne's village again? And if, by some chance, they had come to do harm — what then?
I settled on the mountainside and kept watching the village. If anything steeped in malice showed itself, I meant to stop it. If innocent blood was spilled, if lives were snuffed out, I would intervene. Even if Blue Sky raised another objection, I did not care.