Clean Your Neck and Wait
Clean Your Neck and Wait
"......No signs of consciousness at all?"
The Chief of Staff, who had visited the medical unit, said it the moment he saw Daniel lying in the hospital bed.
Bandages wrapped around his shoulder and hand, an IV drip in his arm—he looked exactly like a patient who had slipped into a coma.
There was no room for doubt, so the Chief of Staff didn't ask anything as pointless as, "Has the Division Commander really fallen into a coma?"
"That's correct."
Lucy, seated beside Daniel's bed, answered in a sorrowful voice.
"As of now, it is impossible to say when he will awaken."
The moisture welling in Lucy's eyes deepened the Chief of Staff's despair.
"At such a critical moment...... damn. I understand. For now."
With those words, the Chief of Staff strode out of the room as if urgent business called him away.
Only after the footsteps had fully faded did Daniel cautiously open his eyes.
"......Is he gone?"
"It seems so."
Only after receiving Lucy's confirmation did Daniel sigh with relief.
"Thank you. Your acting seems to have kept him from getting suspicious."
"My original profession was a spy. Something of this level is simple."
Perhaps because she had been praised, she wore a faintly inexplicable expression of pride.
Daniel, who had been awkwardly watching Lucy, gave a dry cough.
"Anyway, I was thrown off when he barged in without warning, so this is a relief. Still, this nonsense isn't easy. Lying here all the time, I feel like I'm going to get bedsores."
"There is no chance of that. After all, I'll continue to look after you from your side."
Lucy's gaze, as she answered nonchalantly, rested upon Daniel.
"More than that, it's already been a week. I know it's to deceive the enemy, but I'm worried you may be overexerting yourself, Division Commander."
She meant it was pitiful for him to lie in a hospital bed for a week, playing half a corpse.
Naturally enough, to avoid suspicion, bringing any food in here had been completely forbidden.
If food were seen going in and out of the sickroom of someone in a coma, it might raise suspicion.
Which meant he was receiving no proper nutrition aside from the IV fluids.
Occasionally, Lucy had hidden food on her person and brought it in, but the quantity wasn't large.
The conditions were harsh enough that it wasn't easy on Daniel, but it was something he had to endure.
"The rule is that you must deceive your allies completely for the enemy to be deceived as well. By now, the Republic will have accepted as fact that I've fallen into a coma, so they'll likely make a move."
"When you say a move?"
"They'll judge this moment, with the chain of command thrown into disarray by my absence, to be the opportune time and launch a general offensive. The fact that Frien is detained will also play a part."
Daniel's plan had been to induce carelessness, provoke the enemy into attacking, and then counterattack.
He had resorted to this extreme measure because he'd judged that under normal circumstances, the enemy would not attack.
Lucy, having grasped Daniel's intent, nodded silently.
Daniel, who had been watching Lucy, raised his upper body and leaned against the backrest of the hospital bed.
"But, Adjutant. Have you, by any chance, ever felt a sense of déjà vu here?"
"......You mean a sense of déjà vu?"
"Yes. Even something trivial is fine. If you've ever experienced or witnessed any abnormal phenomena, tell me."
Lucy, who had been mulling it over, spoke.
"There's one thing. Occasionally, my nerves would stand on end as if static electricity were passing through. When I came to my senses, I'd find myself staring toward the adjacent city, Lakedrapol."
"......It seems you're feeling a pull."
"A pull? I'm not quite sure, but it could be interpreted that way."
Daniel, who had been looking seriously at Lucy, turned his head away.
He remembered Lucy mentioning revenge with certainty in Frien's memories.
Clearly, it hadn't been a revenge without purpose; she had definitely fixed upon its target.
Adding to that the fact that Lucy was a test subject who had undergone human experimentation, and the game company's statement that Seraile was connected to Lucy, he could arrive at a single conclusion.
'As I thought. From a macroscopic view, Seraile is Lucy's origin, then.'
He couldn't assert it with absolute certainty, but this possibility was the highest.
'If that's the case.......'
If he could exploit this characteristic, it was as good as having a newfound hope of bringing Seraile to justice.
*
"Hhk!"
Inside the mansion, Seraile stumbled away from the astronomical telescope, clutching her eyes.
The eyes that had gazed upon the star of fate burned hot, as if about to ignite.
To be precise, they had been burned while she tried to observe Daniel's fate once more.
Seraile hurriedly conjured healing magic into her grasp, gritting her teeth.
'Damned......!'
Seraile recalled what she had just witnessed.
In a space where the fates of countless humans lay like the Milky Way, Daniel's star was blazing fiercely.
Since it was emitting all manner of light like a sun devouring the darkness, it was troublesome from Seraile's perspective.
Because of Daniel, the other stars around him had become impossible to see, veiled by the curtain of light.
'Why.......'
Originally, Daniel had been in a state close to a white dwarf.
He had been faintly emitting light, but not to the degree of devouring all the surrounding stars.
But starting a week ago, he began to glow, and now he was shining brilliantly at a luminosity akin to the sun itself.
'What on earth could have happened?'
Not knowing that Daniel had shared memories with Frien, Seraile couldn't help but feel deeply bewildered.
In the midst of all this confusion, the door swung open violently.
She took a deep breath and turned her head to find that the Republic's intelligence agent had entered to deliver a regular report.
"......Archmage?"
Seeing that Seraile's complexion was poor, the agent faltered.
Seraile steadied her breathing and lowered her hand.
Perhaps thanks to the healing magic, the skin that had flared up from the burn had returned to its original state.
"Good. You've come at just the right time. I had something to tell you."
"Something to tell me?"
"Yes. To be precise, it's something to tell Palome, not you, but that doesn't matter. Since you'll be relaying the message anyway."
Since it wasn't a very difficult task, the agent nodded.
Seraile, seeing this, rose from her seat.
"Tell Palome that that bastard Daniel might not actually be in a coma. So do not move the army until everything is perfectly understood......."
Seraile stopped mid-sentence and closed her mouth.
Because the agent's face was awkwardly contorted, as if he were troubled.
"......What? Why are you making that face? Are you showing off your ugliness or something?"
Seraile's blunt verbal abuse followed, but the agent had no time to feel insulted or shamed.
Because he knew that the answer he was about to give would be more than enough to earn Seraile's wrath.
The agent, drenched in cold sweat, opened his mouth as carefully as possible.
"Archmage, I apologize, but Division Commander Palome has already led his forces and advanced to the high ground. I understand he gave the order for a general attack."
At that, Seraile felt her thoughts go blank.
She swallowed dryly, then soon exploded with rage.
"That stupid, goddamn, rock-for-brains Palome......!"
On top of that, an unidentifiable anxiety began to well up from deep within her heart.
*
The Republic's Division Commander, Palome, had ordered a general attack.
It was a fact that could be summarized in a single line, but the 14th Mixed Division, defending the Filoena Highlands, could not accept it so simply.
"Those sons of bitches! They're baring their fangs, taking advantage of the Division Commander's absence!"
"Now's not the time to curse them! We have to prepare, whatever it takes!"
"That's right. From what I can see, there's also a possibility that this is a deception masquerading as a frontal attack. What about dispersing our reserves to the flanks?"
"If we disperse our reserves to the flanks and the enemy breaks through the front? Will you take responsibility for those losses? Come on, tell me!"
"Calm down! His point isn't without merit! They're the ones who lost a battalion's worth of troops to us in a reconnaissance in force not long ago! Naturally, we have to keep the possibility of a feint attack in mind as well......."
A heated debate raged inside the command and control room.
The Chief of Staff, far from rallying them, was merely holding his forehead and groaning.
Pelf, the Intelligence Staff Officer observing this scene, realized just how severe Daniel's absence was.
'The most important thing in the military is morale, and morale creates unity.'
Conversely, if morale fell, unity became impossible, making the force no better than a disordered rabble.
No matter how competent a group the Imperial Army might be, without someone to command them, they couldn't continue a proper fight.
Pelf, letting out a sigh, left the command and control room and headed to the medical unit.
Even though Daniel had fallen into a coma, he was still, to the end, this unit's Division Commander and the only general Pelf acknowledged.
So even if he was unconscious, Pelf was going to report the current situation to him.
'I'm not sure what meaning this act holds.......'
He had judged that it was better than doing nothing.
Having arrived at the medical unit and entered the sickroom where Daniel was, Pelf stopped short after opening the door.
Because Daniel, who had been lying on the hospital bed for days, was standing before a full-length mirror.
What's more, he was dressed in a neatly arranged military uniform.
"You've come."
Daniel spoke indifferently, but Pelf could not answer.
Just as he was wondering what on earth was going on, Daniel spread both arms wide.
At that, Lucy brought a winter coat and helped Daniel into it.
Having put on the winter coat, Daniel looked into the mirror and adjusted the position of his tie.
"Don't just stand there blankly; give your report. How long until the enemy clashes with our forces?"
Only then, having come to his senses, did Pelf hurriedly open his mouth.
"It appears there is one hour remaining until the clash."
"An hour, is it."
As Daniel calmly tightened his tie upwards, Lucy held out his service cap and handed it over.
"That's sufficient."
Receiving the service cap, Daniel dusted it off with a tap, tap.
"Intelligence Staff Officer. Release Frien from confinement immediately, and then inform all troops. Tell them the Division Commander has returned."
Raising his hand to put on his service cap, Daniel looked into the mirror.
"The time for counterattack has come. Today......."
A chill lingered in the two eyes visible beneath the brim of the service cap.
"We will dye these highlands red with the blood of the Republic."