Even in This Life (6)
The Archmage sighed as she watched Sangun depart. At her feet remained a few characters the Mountain Lord had laboriously traced with his tail.
They were words announcing that there was a rightful reason for Sangun’s departure, and that no one ought to bar his path.
“He’s leaving……”
“Truly……?”
Yet being unable to stop Sangun and watching the people’s spirits crumble were two entirely different matters.
Even the soldiers who had just escorted her through the wind and rain wore faces steeped in despair. The grace Sangun had granted them had been a considerable pillar of support, so the backlash hit all the harder. Even the lone knight assigned to her could not manage a pleasant expression.
“Great Sage, the conversation……”
“He was never meant to linger here long. He said he only lent a hand because he pitied us humans, and that the time has simply come. At the very least he is not leaving out of anger toward us, so do not fret.”
But what could be done about what had already come to pass? Especially when, by rights, they should have been enduring this situation without any such grace at all.
She pointed that out as she tried to rally those around her. It did not seem to take much hold. All because of the rain. The fierce wind and rain dragged everyone into a deeper gloom.
“Let us return.”
Sensing as much, the Archmage secretly let out another sigh. This damned situation always seemed ready to improve only to plunge straight back into the abyss. It was stifling.
“I wonder when things will get better……”
At the very least they needed to reach a point where she could step away without anxiety. Would that day ever come? If she put down roots for half a year rather than a month or two, would the conditions here improve?
…And when that time came, would they be able to reclaim the one they had let slip away?
Unable to feel certain of any of it, the Archmage pushed through the rain. An oil-treated cloak covered her from head to toe, yet she could not keep her feet or hands from getting soaked. The wind had forced open the gaps in her collar as well, of course.
They trudged onward in silence, keenly aware of their plummeting body heat.
“……?”
Yet just as they made it back to the edge of the tent village, the Archmage spotted a figure standing outside the golden barrier. It was a face she knew, so she could not simply ignore them.
She hesitated a moment over the platinum-haired woman standing at a distance, then gestured to the knight.
“You go on ahead.”
“I will remain as escort.”
“Someone must report to the lord that Sangun has departed. Even if I explain the details myself, the simple fact that he left when the time came remains the same.”
“…I will leave two soldiers with you.”
“There is no real need……”
What fault had those soldiers committed that they now had to stay behind in the rain with her? A trained body did not mean one felt no cold.
Still, the knight left two soldiers behind and went. Feeling a little guilty toward them, the Archmage set off toward her new destination.
“Why are you out here?”
“Mage.”
As if she had been spacing out, Berserk lowered her head half a beat late. The unusually subdued air about her ever since the battle sometimes made Berserk seem like someone other than Berserk.
Like the one she called “Sister,” only younger, and more exhausted. Like that.
“I found the turtle.”
While the Archmage was still holding impressions she could not voice, Berserk dropped the words. Turtle. The Archmage understood what it meant a second later.
“Ah, you found it?”
She had only searched a little the day it vanished and then stopped, so the Archmage had assumed she had lost interest. But had she been searching in secret, alone? Perhaps because she worried about burdening those around her?
The Archmage felt a little melancholy at how quickly her thoughts had stretched that far. She simply had not known Berserk cared that much about such a small turtle.
“But……”
Then why was there no turtle in the hands of the woman who claimed to have found it? Not on her shoulder, not in a pocket, not even nestled in her clothes. Why?
Surely not?
Just as the Archmage’s deep powers of deduction reached the most dreadful possibility, Berserk opened her mouth.
“It went back where it belonged.”
An answer different from what she had feared—thankfully. Though it still left a little room for an unpleasant reading.
“I… see.”
Well, of course. When those words came from a figure standing blankly in the rain, they rather sounded like a euphemism for death.
The Berserk she had known until now preferred either blunt confession or silence over roundabout speech, but……
She was not a good judge of people. Just as the Demon Knight could do the unexpected, there was no law saying Berserk would not either.
“It didn’t die.”
“Ah.”
She had gotten ahead of herself. The Archmage felt relieved.
“Then… it returned to the sea?”
“I don’t know. But it went well.”
Yet she still could not make sense of it. Had Berserk not found it and released it herself? Or had she merely witnessed it heading somewhere and spoken that way……? If she had released it herself, she would not say she did not know.
“…If it went well, that is fortunate. Then you… came out to see it off?”
“Well……”
Truly baffling. While the Archmage suffered under too many thoughts, Berserk trailed off and finally agreed.
“If it’s a send-off, then this is a send-off too.”
In her hand was a metal fragment the Archmage had never seen before.
“Why are you out here, Mage?”
“I stepped out briefly to ask Sangun something.”
“Is that so?”
“It is.”
Before the Archmage could even examine the object, Berserk turned. Even in the rain, an undimmed, heavy golden light glanced toward a barrier of an entirely different nature from her own.
“Are you heading back?”
“The conversation is over, after all. And you?”
“I have no more business here either.”
“Then let us go together.”
She had been on her way back to begin with; she had only stopped because she saw Berserk.
If Berserk was returning, the Archmage had no reason to remain. Pitying the soldiers who were getting even wetter on her account, she waited for Berserk’s answer.
“All right.”
Fortunately, no refusal came. She had half expected one—though she had no particular reason for thinking so—and felt a little relieved. Even if they would walk together for only a few minutes at most.
“Going back to work?”
“Nothing good comes of lazing about.”
“I do not think anyone would call it lazy if you rested a little…… Where are you working now?”
“Helping dig drainage ditches outside the barrier.”
“I see……”
Of course it would be the hardest place of all. She was a warrior who could casually lift what several grown men could not, and her stamina was excellent, so the placement was optimal—yet as a companion, the Archmage could not help worrying.
After carefully choosing her words several times, she asked her not to overdo it.
“Mind the cold. Rest when you need to.”
Berserk only listened and offered no particular reply. Whether she simply chose not to answer or meant it as a refusal would probably become clear later.
It was time to part ways for their destinations.
“Oh, right. Do you happen to know where Meister is, or have you seen him anywhere?”
Just as one was about to head to the work site and the other toward the area occupied by the temple and the lord’s forces, the Archmage asked one last question.
It sprang from both the determination not to waste the opening Cheongsanho had given her, and the sense of duty to inform Cheongsanho of his grandson’s safety.
“Do I need to find him?”
“The man who is his grandfather is anxious about his grandson’s well-being. If you do not know, there is no need to go looking. Just tell him I am searching for him if you happen to meet.”
“Understood. I will pass it on if I see him.”
Berserk did not refuse that much, at least.
The two parted once more. Their steps belonged to people who had no idea who awaited them where they were going.
“Why are you already back? Couldn’t find them?”
“I did find them.”
Meanwhile, Daniel bowed his head to the senior who had taken over his duties so he could act freely.
Indeed, he was here as part of the support force. Without his senior, both the work of asking the residents about the black-flame demon and the decision—after concluding they had nothing to offer—to go meet the Proxy’s companions would have been delayed considerably.
“However… they said they had business of their own, and told me to come later.”
“Well, fair enough. Though it’ll be hard for them to spare time later.”
“We arranged to meet again this evening. You needn’t accommodate me any further.”
“That’s a relief, then.”
Yet the brief window his senior’s consideration had bought him had been rendered meaningless by the other’s refusal. Not completely meaningless, since they had set a time, but still.
“Thank you once again.”
“Thanks for what. Just don’t get caught by the captain. I told him you went to the latrine.”
“…Yes.”
If he had known it would turn out like this, maybe he should have simply waited for the free time allotted that evening. There was no guarantee the demon that had appeared was even the same entity as his nemesis.
But Daniel knew how unrealistic the thought he had just entertained truly was. Before securing the appointment, he had been so unable to settle his heart that he had only stood trembling—so of course.
In that sense, without even this much of a promise he would still have been glancing around anxiously in every direction. Some might call it a waste of time, but in the way it eased his restlessness, it was not entirely a bad thing.
He simply felt sorry toward the senior who had lent him the time.
“Don’t take it so hard. You think I don’t understand how you feel?”
“…I’m sorry.”
“I said don’t take it hard.”
The one stroke of luck was that his senior was a truly generous man. And so Daniel, grateful for that generosity, focused on the work that should originally have been his.
The relief supplies had already been moved, so all that remained was to pitch the tents they would occupy. Even that only required a few new ones, since the existing temple forces had already set some up.
“Once the tents are up, we’ll eat while we take the handover.”
“Seems they’re short-handed.”
“Looks that way.”
But his senior shook his head at the idea that anyone would immediately assign hard labor to people who had just come through wind and rain. Even Inquisitors, famed for their toughness and resilience, would run out of stamina after a forced march while soaked to the bone—so it was a reasonable prediction.
“Public order itself is almost stable, so we’ll probably end up on watch or security duty.”
Digging drainage ditches or repairing and reinforcing tents was more intense work than maintaining already-stable public order. It was the kind of thing that could be handled by mobilizing residents rather than elite personnel—though they would have to offer rations as incentive.
So they would likely be assigned the work that could not be left to the residents.
“Maybe supply distribution. I hear there’s still frequent trouble on that end.”
“You already have a thorough grasp of the local situation.”
“Thorough grasp, my foot. You would’ve heard all this too if you hadn’t stepped away, you little brat.”
His senior gave him a painless smack on the back and handed over the work. The frames were already up, so they only needed to secure the canvas.
“If you’re not going to give us rations, at least let us eat the horses!”
“Yeah, there are dozens of them!”
But not long after they began, word arrived that Sangun had left. The arrival of a throng of starving people was a bonus.
“One horse could feed dozens—why are you hoarding them!”
“Damn……”
The plot they had chosen for their tents was near the existing temple’s sphere of influence, and the crowd had flocked to the temple side to shout, so the voices hammered into their ears whether they wanted to hear them or not. In the end, several who had been finishing up stopped working and looked that way.
“…It’s because of the rain. Once the weather clears they’ll ride out to hunt.”
“If everyone had the leisure to think that far, none of this unrest would have happened in the first place.”
“True enough.”
They well understood both the value of the horses and the desperation of people driven to the brink. So rather than say anything, they merely expressed pity. It was also the only choice available, since there was nothing they could do.
“Martin, Daniel. Go lend a hand over there.”
That changed a little when they finished pitching all the tents and were assigned their respective duties—along with a meal. Daniel was to go with his senior to help manage the horses.
The reason was that, while it was unlikely, it would be troublesome if people started targeting the horses.
“Four Inquisitors assigned just to guard horses……”
Including eight soldiers, a full twelve people were being used to protect horses. Wondering if it was not an excessive investment, Daniel reflexively frowned.
“Don’t take it too badly. Those of us who can see the bigger picture have to bear it.”
“Yes.”
Yet it would not be useless work. The game soldiers brought back on warhorses, and the firewood and other supplies packhorses carried back and forth, would yield far more benefit than the resources obtained by butchering a single horse.
Believing that, Daniel waited for the handover. One of the two on duty had, of all times, gone to the latrine—and it was not even the scheduled shift change—so he had no choice but to wait.
“How is the situation?”
“Not the absolute worst, but……”
Then, suddenly, a familiar horse came into view. It was while his senior and the Inquisitor they were relieving were speaking with each other.
“That horse……?”
A warhorse of considerable size with glossy fur, a mane with a slight wave, an appearance even someone who knew nothing of horses would call magnificent, a temper that kept the other horses at a distance, and the way it snorted uncomfortably the moment it recognized him.
No matter how he looked at it, it was a horse he knew.
“What’s wrong?”
“Is there a problem, Brother?”
“No… it’s nothing. I simply spotted the horse of someone I know.”
Why is that horse here? Daniel pondered a moment before quickly realizing how foolish the question was.
Of course—the horse’s owner traveled with the Proxy, and the Proxy was still here, so what else could such a stupid concern be?
It was a little strange that he had not heard a single word about the Demon Knight since arriving, but the situation was what it was. And the Demon Knight was not the type to go around advertising his deeds in any case.
“You can tell which one it is?”
“It has a very distinctive appearance. Forgive me for troubling you.”
“I don’t think it’s anything that requires an apology……”
So that was why no information had reached him when he sought the Proxy or their companions for more details on the black-flame demon.
Perhaps they had simply been ranging too far outside for the residents to know.
“Wait—is that distinctive horse by any chance that one? The one standing alone?”
“Pardon? Yes. It is, but……”
“Then do you know the owner well?”
Yet Daniel’s expectations shattered in a different form.
“I wouldn’t say well… but I have spoken with them. Why do you ask……”
“You’ll have to come with me.”
The same ominous feeling that had struck him when he heard of a comrade’s death slammed into his skull. It would not take long for that premonition to transform into rage.