Dark Moon
The freeze lasted only a moment.
They raised their rifles, backs pressed together, and swept the surrounding dark.
"Who's there!"
"Show yourself, now!!"
"Shit…."
Second Lieutenant Ollok let his men's noise wash past one ear while he quietly took stock of the ground around them. Not a single human presence registered. The steady chirp of insects hidden in the undergrowth steadied his nerves.
"Don't move carelessly. This is an air trap."
"Sir. I've—I've never heard of that. What kind of trap is it?"
"A magic trap. Military secret-arts magic, from what I know. I haven't run into many myself. Damn it. That woman called herself a battle mage—looks like she picked up something annoying."
He dredged up what he remembered of air traps and laid it out for his men.
An air trap was an invisible snare. Once triggered, it either released a shockwave or a wind cutter. Corporal Gralton had taken a wind cutter straight through the crown of his skull and died on the spot.
I heard the trigger conditions for air traps are strict… but she set them damn well.
What mattered was how to deal with them.
First option: mana detection. Use mana yourself, or carry something that could sense it—either made things easier.
…Neither is available to us.
To sense mana, you had to feel mana in the first place. That meant possessing the talent called mana affinity.
If I had mana affinity, I wouldn't be stuck out here doing this.
Most people couldn't feel mana at all. That was normal.
The other option… wait until the air traps dissipate. I heard they don't last long without a medium to anchor them.
But if they sat here for an hour and called off the chase, their quarry would slip away. This was Rumel Forest. Push deep enough into it and even a man who knew the place had to start worrying about survival.
Money and a woman flickered behind his eyes. He was too hungry to give either one up.
…The trigger for an air trap is contact. The moment something touches it, it fires. Mana isn't infinite, so there's a limit to how many she can plant…. If we don't chase in a straight line—if we keep shifting our angle a little at a time—we should be able to slip past them.
Second Lieutenant Ollok led his men back into the pursuit. The smiles that had once sat on their faces were long gone.
One of the soldiers trailing Ollok felt something wrong underfoot. He stepped, and something soft crushed beneath his boot.
BOOM.
The ground erupted. No flame. The air itself detonated, and a shockwave tore outward.
"AAAAAAGH!"
The man whose legs had been blown off screamed and thrashed across the dirt. Ollok looked down at him with cold eyes, then pulled the trigger of his rifle. A single crack. The soldier went still.
"He was already past saving. I only shortened his suffering."
"…But, sir."
"Think about the Major. You really believe he'd send us to a hospital if we got hurt?"
"……."
No one needed a lecture on what kind of man Major Vague was. Every mouth closed.
"No time to dawdle. Keep tight on my back. Air traps only fire if they touch you. Watch the ground I step on and the way I move, and copy it. Clear?"
"Yes, sir."
Ollok felt his nerves draw taut. Air traps could be set in open air as easily as on the ground. One unlucky moment and a head could go flying.
I'm avoiding the places that look like trap sites, but it's not perfect. Damn it. I'd love to put a man out front…. But these bastards have no loyalty whatsoever….
Do that and the three remaining soldiers might simply turn their muzzles on him—kill him and run the other way.
Whiiing.
A hair-raising sound, and an air trap fired. Wind cutter this time. Ollok registered that he was still intact and turned his head.
Two of his men lay on the ground, bodies cleanly bisected. Blood and entrails spilled from the perfect cross-sections.
"Hiiiiiik!"
Ollok's last remaining soldier let out a thin, broken scream and collapsed where he stood—the most timid of the lot.
"…What the hell happened?"
"Th-the sergeant just stumbled a little, and then there was this wind sound…."
"Right. Rotten luck."
Cold sweat ran down Ollok's face as he dragged the corner of his mouth upward. He decided this was actually convenient. He leveled his rifle at the last man.
"From now on, you take point."
"S-sir?"
"If you don't want to die, follow the order. Don't take it personally. I've been carrying the risk so far. Now it's your turn."
"P-please, spare me."
"Don't be an idiot. Move."
The soldier started forward with a face that looked ready to cry. Watching his back, Ollok sketched the larger picture in his head.
The second I spot them, I hose them down with magic rounds and pin them. Kill the man. The woman just needs her torso intact. Then I kill this one too. Grab only the expensive gear and run. I'm sick of military life. Defecting to the Republic wouldn't be the worst idea.
Lexy and I sat with our backs against a massive tree, resting. Our eyes stayed fixed behind us. Someone was walking this way.
"Ha… haha. Finally found you."
A man with a second lieutenant's rank insignia at his collar. His uniform was soaked in blood. His right arm was gone. Shreds of intestine clung to his chest and lower body—someone else's, most likely.
He's lost it.
His pupils had rolled off-center. Spittle ran from the corner of his mouth. His hair was plastered with cold sweat.
The death-fear of invisible air traps had finally broken him.
Not every soldier has a weak mind. Some end up in uniform the way I did—no real choice….
I felt no pity.
He had come to kill me and strip my gear. He would have tried to take Lexy as well.
The man raised his rifle one-handed. The muzzle locked cleanly on me.
I didn't need Charna.
The magic was already live.
KRAAANG!
The air trap I had planted answered my will and detonated in a shockwave. The man's upper body burst apart, scattering across the ground. I stood and checked what was left of his equipment.
Most of it had been caught in the blast, but what I wanted was the ammunition.
"…Huh. This one was carrying magic rounds. Forty of them."
"Yeah. Cheap stuff. Still useful. Take what we can."
My pack grew heavier.
I had desperately wanted a variable to appear on this mission, and the sky had answered the wish.
"…We're screwed. The intel was wrong."
Twelve hours into Rumel Forest.
Looking at the completely empty enemy position, Lexy's shoulders sagged.
I understood the situation the moment I saw it, but I played ignorant and asked her anyway.
"Did the information leak?"
"No. Look around. The traces of people staying here are faint. This place has been abandoned for at least a month. The intel was fabricated from the start."
"The one who faked it… Major Vague of the 105th Unit."
"He didn't want to look incompetent to command. Hiding that was one of the reasons he tried to kill us. Frustrating. If we could use a radio, this would be so much easier…."
A peculiar wavelength ran through Rumel Forest and killed radio signals. Ordinary methods couldn't reach the outside. Nothing mystical about it—plenty of places blocked transmissions besides this forest.
"Do we abandon the mission and head back?"
"Normally, yes. This one can be called command's mistake. We wouldn't take heat for walking away."
"…Major Vague is the problem."
By now he would have realized his own men had been turned around and killed.
Would Major Vague simply back off? If he were the type, he never would have started this in the first place.
"With our combat power, couldn't we handle the 105th?"
"Vague isn't an idiot. He won't only send the 105th. He'll have partners from the smuggling operation—probably an entire organization. Their strength is an unknown. I don't know the numbers, but the two of us alone would have a hard time."
"Sneaking back out… isn't realistic. They'll be watching with their eyes on fire."
Major Vague had been demoted to the 105th. Whatever mess he had made, this posting was his last chance. The moment we walked out of the forest alive, his military career ended. Straight to a court-martial and a death sentence.
"…So what do we do now?"
"What should we do? What's your take?"
Lexy asked for my opinion often. She treated it as a form of training. I usually gave deliberately wrong answers, or ones that were about twenty percent short, to keep my real ability hidden.
"I think we hold. Strategic Command values us higher than the 105th. If we go missing, they'll come looking."
In the Battle Mage Project, I was one of the most successful cases. My existence was the project's result. Strategic Command would not throw that away lightly.
More than that, the slave brand sat on my right forearm. They would know I was still alive, and they would track me by any means necessary.
"Solid judgment. From Strategic Command's seat, you and I are pieces too good to discard."
"How many days do you figure before Strategic Command and the 667th Unit move?"
"About ten?"
"Later than I expected."
"We've built a record on missions. Command will trust us at first. Then they'll sense something off and open an investigation. By that point, Major Vague is finished. Until then we take it easy and keep working the mission. The resistance fighters are probably holed up somewhere else."
"Ten whole days in this forest… worst case."
Slap.
I smacked the side of my neck with my palm. When I looked, a mosquito's corpse was stuck to it. I used Water, a 1-Class spell, and washed my hand with the conjured water, scowling.
I put on every show of disgust, but inside I was cheering.
I was already wondering how to stay longer in Rumel Forest, and the situation just handed it to me. Lucky break.
Lexy pulled out a map and marked it with a pen.
"There are six sites we think might be resistance bases. We'll check them slowly, starting with the closest."
"Right now?"
Darkness had already settled over the area. I didn't know about Lexy, but I was exhausted. My legs ached and my eyelids felt heavy. Handling mana made my body stronger than an ordinary person's, but compared to warriors of the same tier, my physique still lagged behind.
"I said take it easy. Sleep at night, move during the day."
Fortunately, Lexy was flexible about most things.
We prepared a place to sleep. I found a relatively clear patch, flattened the ground with wind magic, and laid out a magic blanket—not issue gear, but one Lexy had brought herself. It was enchanted to stay dry and drive off small insects. Over it we raised wooden poles and stretched a cloth, making a simple tarp. Even if it rained, we wouldn't end up soaked through.
While I set the bed, Lexy planted alarm magic around the perimeter—the kind that rang the moment a person or monster came close.
We lay down on the blanket at the same time. The enchantment made it surprisingly comfortable.