His Existence Becomes Known Across the Continent (3)
Even after that, Yuuri continued to encourage Zinor several more times before she finally brought up the real matter at hand.
"Anyway. You've heard the rumors too, right, Zinor?"
"You mean the incident in the north, my lady?"
"Yeah. The one about a white-haired man performing a ritual, and a boulder falling from the sky."
Zinor nodded at her words.
"Of course I have. It is currently the hottest topic on the entire continent, is it not? Every sovereign will be watching that man closely."
A man who had appeared like a comet — and then dropped a comet from the heavens.
It was certain that his name was already being chewed over endlessly on the lips of every feudal lord.
"Moreover, there are a great many witnesses who claim to have seen it with their own eyes. It does not appear to be a fabrication or some wild tale."
"Then… has a mage already appeared?"
Zinor let out a long, heavy sigh.
"That is the most likely possibility."
"We're a step behind, then."
"It is all right. If he needed to perform a ritual, then he has not yet reached the level of a true mage."
"Really? Still, if we can bring him over, wouldn't that be better? If he really is a true mage, it'd be a waste to leave him under Lin Brans, wouldn't it?"
"If that is my lady's wish, I will not stop you… though I am not certain he is the sort of man who would understand my lady's intentions. Compared to the Brans Army, ours is still a minor power."
"You were pretty skeptical about joining us at first, too. If we persuade him well enough, it might work out somehow, right? Or is it still too hard?"
At that, Zinor bowed his head.
"It is fine. Please grant me a little more time. If we can simply endure the great tidal wave that is the Brans Army, the goddess of victory will raise her hand for the Asius Army. When that happens, the white-haired man will naturally be drawn into our ranks as well."
Their conversation was clearly different from those of the other feudal lords.
Vanessa of the Karelia Army had insisted, He cannot be a mage, so he must have read the timing.
Jena of Serpina's Army had insisted, He cannot have read the timing, so he must be a mage.
But Zinor had simply concluded that the man was a mage.
It was distinctly different from the argument that, short of the impossible claim that he had read the timing, he had to be a mage.
It felt almost as if he had already taken the proposition mages exist as an established fact.
"I trust you, Zinor. And every companion who follows me trusts you too. Belonging to the Asius Army means entering a bond of absolute trust that will never be betrayed. I told you all of that on the day we brought you in, didn't I?"
Hearing those words, Zinor bowed at the waist and offered her his respects.
"I shall make certain to repay my lady's faith."
The scheme had failed — but that did not mean the Asius Army was finished.
The resolve he had carried when he left Choya.
The ideal of building a nation for his sovereign, Baranga Yuuri Asius.
Zinor had, in effect, staked the remainder of his life on the future she was drawing.
Before heading out to handle his business, Zinor stopped briefly at home — and a woman's voice reached him.
"Father. You've returned?"
"I have."
She was a young woman who looked to be about twenty.
A girl with long pink hair cascading down her back, and an expression that somehow seemed empty, hollowed out.
She called Zinor "Father," yet the age gap between them was considerable, and they shared not a single feature that might suggest a true father-daughter resemblance.
"How went today's training?"
"I have not yet reached the level you spoke of, but…"
She hesitated for a moment, then slowly opened her hand.
And before long—
A small spark of flame bloomed in her palm.
But only for a moment.
"…Hah."
She crumpled straight to the floor.
"I managed to create the flame, but… I still don't understand how to maintain it. I am reading all the ancient texts you gave me, but…"
"It is fine. Being able to give it form at all is no ordinary feat. Well then — can you sense it somewhat?"
"If you mean Mana… faintly, I suppose."
Zinor nodded.
"Good, Reika. Continue your training just like this. Your gift is one that will bring peace to this continent. Do you understand?"
"I will engrave Father's words upon my heart, again and again."
The pink-haired girl — Reika — only nodded in reply, her eyes still vacant.
Then, carefully, she opened her mouth once more.
"Um, Father. More than that, there is something I wished to say—"
"I am busy. I must leave at once. Is it related to your training?"
"…No."
After hearing Reika's answer, Zinor turned his back and set off somewhere without delay.
Becoming part of the Asius Army had improved the place where she lived — but her life itself had not changed in the slightest.
Sensing something called Mana, and training in the methods of wielding it.
A life like a bird trapped in a cage—
And Reika's heart was growing colder by the day.
Destroying and burning the fortresses one by one was not, of course, the work of the sovereign who had ordered it, nor of the officers who had overseen their construction.
It was the soldiers who had hauled every brick with their own hands, sweating through the labor of building them.
Those same soldiers were now tearing down every last fortress with those very hands.
Irony doesn't even begin to cover it.
I understood that the era left us little choice — but watching a scene like that unfold as if it were nothing still provoked a rejection response from whatever modern self I still had left in me.
The soldiers' expressions weren't great either; even they seemed to wonder what exactly they were doing.
Even if they weren't modern people, their sensibilities couldn't have been all that different from mine.
It struck me that there was nothing strange about Lunarien and Irene — the two women I had met so far — being so popular with the people of their territories and with the soldiers.
Unable to simply watch, I tried to help by putting my own body to work.
But whether it was my low Martial stat or something else, I was less of a help than a hindrance — and once I coldly recognized that fact, I stepped back out of the way.
Just hauling a few bricks and I was already drenched in sweat, gasping for air.
Still, the person working alongside the soldiers to help with the demolition was none other than Irene — so the image of me working with her probably didn't look all that bad. That, at least, was a small mercy.
And so we finished destroying every fortress.
On the night before our departure, I sat before a campfire, thinking about what I ought to do next.
That was when—
"Swen."
Irene, who had stuck close to me all day helping with the demolition work, approached where I sat, a tray in her hands, and spoke in a careful tone.
"May I sit?"
"Of course."
She settled in right beside me.
A little too close — close enough that I could feel her body brush lightly against mine now and then.
Ever since that moment of awareness between us, the distance she kept with me had grown strangely smaller.
"Here."
She held out a cup from the tray in her hands.
"This is… tea?"
"One of the soldiers had some. Said it was part of his standard kit."
"You confiscated a soldier's standard kit?"
At my words she shook her head in a fluster.
"Ah… n-no. I didn't confiscate it. I-I only borrowed it…! I thought it would be nice to drink with you, Swen… and the soldier said it was fine…!"
"I was joking."
At that, she puffed her cheeks slightly, her face flushing red.
She probably had no idea — but there was something undeniably cute about the way she carried herself.
"…You seem a little too free with your jokes toward your superior."
I laughed a few times at the sight of her, then accepted the tea she offered.
A warm sensation seemed to wrap itself fully around my body.
"What is it?"
"I was curious when you plan to make your decision."
Decision.
Right. Irene's heart had already left Lin Brans.
I had no intention of staying here long either.
But there was still no word that Lunarien — the one who was meant to become my sovereign — had raised her army.
Which meant I would inevitably have to leave once more and serve under some other lord.
So in the end, I'm stuck with the journeyman life again.
If I had simply kept a low profile in the Brans Army and performed just well enough, I could have wasted my time more comfortably.
But if I had done that, I would have lost Irene — the woman looking at me with those eyes right now.
That fact alone was enough that I didn't regret any of my actions or decisions so far.
So what if my body had to suffer a little?
I had a loyal red-haired knight who believed in me, right here at my side.
And her chest was large, too.
"For a while, I may have to spend time under another feudal lord."
"Another lord?"
"Lady Luna has not raised her army yet."
"…I see."
She nodded.
"It doesn't matter who. Wherever you choose to stay, I will stay as well."
The look in her eyes as she said it did not waver by so much as a fraction — utterly steadfast.
"Even so, while we remain here… I would prefer you not make it too obvious that your heart has already left. Just enough that Lady Lin doesn't notice. The way you used to. Can you manage that?"
Irene gave a bitter little smile at my words.
"You don't need to worry. That's the work I've always done."
Well.
Loyalty, noble spirit — those words were easy enough to say.
But the inside of her heart, all this time, must have been rotting away beyond anything words could describe.
"When the time comes, I will tell you at once."
"Mm."
And so the two of us sat in silence for a long while, watching the campfire.
And then, in that moment—
"…!"
I felt something lean against my shoulder.
It was Irene.
She was resting against my shoulder… using it as a pillow.
When I turned my head to look at her, I could see her face had gone as red as a ripe tomato.
Even her ears were bright scarlet as she carefully looked up at me… wearing the shy expression of a young girl, something I had never seen on her before, and asked:
"…Do you dislike it?"
"Well… I don't dislike it, exactly."
"…If you don't dislike it… then just let me stay like this for a little while."
I could feel her body heat directly.
The sensation of her full chest pressing against my arm was vividly, overwhelmingly real.
The fragrance of the tea leaves we had just drunk made the atmosphere even stranger still.
Yes. I had no choice but to admit it honestly.
My heart was racing, just a little.
…
Come to think of it, this game allowed polygamy.
A man could marry up to four women.
Did that rule apply here, too?
Thinking that foolish thought—
I spent the time before the campfire with Irene, each of us simply feeling that the other was alive.
Once the destruction of the fortresses was complete, we set out for Anel Castle at first light.
The number of wounded slowed our advance, but since we were still within our own territory, there was no real need to hurry.
Besides, Irene's daily nursing had not been meaningless — the number of soldiers in decent condition was far higher than it had been right after the defeat.
Anel Castle, which we reached after so long, was still bustling and peaceful. The calm was so complete that everything that had happened in the north felt like a lie.
Even the expressions on people's faces were distinctly different from those of the residents of Kelstein Castle.
If I simply walked around this place, I wouldn't even be able to tell that we were living in an age of chaos, or that a war was underway.
The first place we headed was, of course, the royal castle where Lin resided.
Part of me wanted nothing more than to return to the house in East Anel and leisurely drink tea with Irene — but we had work to do.
"…I will take full responsibility, so the rest of you need not worry yourselves overmuch."
For all his faults, Kalintz seemed to understand his current position well enough.
The decision to build the fortresses, the reckless sortie — all of it had been his choice, no one else's.
Irene and I had, strictly speaking, only done as we were told.
The fact that I had defied orders still nagged at me, but since my reason would have been "I wanted to fight for the country," it would probably be taken into account to some degree.
With Kalintz at the front, we made straight for the audience chamber the moment we arrived at the castle.
Time to put an end to this.
In a certain sense, the true final chapter of the northern campaign.
It was time to face our sovereign, Lin Brans.