A Ghost Lives There
A damp underground chamber.
The reek of mold and blood mingled so thickly that even drawing breath felt oppressive.
"Heh heh heh heh... Heh heh heh heh...!"
Water dripped steadily from the ceiling. Iron chains webbed the stone walls like a spider's nest, and at their ends hung a man whose head hung low as he chuckled under his breath.
Bashnel, upper assassin of Nocturne.
"A stubborn bastard, aren't you."
His arms and legs were already broken beyond use, his flesh torn open again and again by the instruments of torture. Blood had poured from every wound and pooled thickly on the floor, yet a grotesque smile still twisted across his lips.
"Speak now and I'll kill you cleanly. No more pain."
"Heh heh heh... There's nothing... you can drag out of me."
Refined killing intent swam thickly in his bloodshot eyes. At the sight, Lisiven glanced at Keiton standing beside her and gave a slight nod.
Sizzle—!
"Gaaaaaaaaaaah!"
A scream tore through the chamber, raw enough to split eardrums. Lisiven spoke over it.
"I'll ask again. Why did you target Lord Arteon, and what is your purpose? Next I start cutting off your fingers one by one and feeding them to you."
"Hah... hah... Heh heh heh heh...!"
His shoulders shook with laughter. Then he looked straight at her.
"Whatever you do... it's already too late. Even if you go to Aicled... you won't get what you want."
"...Aicled?"
Lisiven frowned, puzzled.
"Isn't that where Lord Arteon's next operation is set?"
At those words, killing intent flashed naked in Lisiven's eyes.
Her hand clamped down hard on Bashnel's jaw.
"Ghk!"
"You're saying they'll target Lord Arteon at Aicled as well!"
"Khk! Khaah!"
"Lady Lisiven, wait—!"
At Keiton's urgent call she released the man's jaw. The half-dislocated joint hung slack; blood and spit dribbled to the floor.
Bashnel trembled violently as he forced the words out.
"No... Nocturne... doesn't even need to move... That man... will die anyway."
Between the bloodshot eyes and the slack jaw, the corner of his mouth seemed to curl upward. He strained to smile at Lisiven.
"Because... a ghost... lives there. Heh heh heh heh heh!"
His laughter faded into silence that settled over the torture chamber. It might have been a joke, yet a strange chill clung to the words.
Lisiven picked up a long iron skewer still glowing from the brazier.
"From now on you'll tell us everything you know."
She seized his head in a crushing grip and brought the red-hot tip to his eye.
"Do me a favor and don't die. There's still so much I need to learn."
And then—
"Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
In the sealed chamber swallowed by darkness, only Bashnel's screams poured out without end.
Above the endless snowfields, nestled between dark-blue mountain ranges, the place looked like a fortress that throttled the very breath of the North.
...At least I'm not too late.
Arteon stood at the edge of a frozen hill and looked down.
Aicled.
A vital stronghold of strange terrain lying midway between Helikel Canyon and Elbarphiel Lake.
He exhaled a thin breath. Bitter cold clawed at him, desperate to sink into his flesh, yet the artifact clasped around his wrist pushed the northern chill away. He brushed the gathering snow from his shoulders without ever taking his eyes from Aicled.
"..."
The moment the name had left Velkain's lips, his heart had given a single violent lurch. To Arteon, Aicled was never just a place on a map.
Memories of the past raced through his mind.
—You have to run! Or we'll all die!
The memory of that crushing defeat. Yet given the geographical advantage Aicled held, retreat had never been an option.
Perhaps that was why.
—We hold this place no matter what! If it falls, everything ends!
The moment after Helikel Canyon and Elbarphiel Lake had been lost. Back then Arteon had not yet understood how critical this ground truly was. All that remained was the desperate cry of the superior officer who had stood against the tide at Aicled—still ringing in his ears.
Screams steeped in despair. Eyes burning with the single will to hold the line. Those eyes had become nothing more than a handful of crimson blood soaking into this earth.
Dark-red blood had scattered through the blizzard; countless comrades had been buried and vanished beneath the freezing snow.
If only I had been a little stronger then...
The survivor had been nothing but a coward, a defeated man who abandoned his brothers. The excuse of salvaging his life so he might fight another day. Arteon had fled, leaving the stacked corpses of his comrades behind him on the ice.
I barely escaped down the narrow path and lived...
The ferocity of that day. The thick stench of blood still rose as vividly as if branded into his mind. Only hollow regret had filled him, yet at the time there had been nothing Arteon could do.
"Hoo."
His quiet breath turned white and drifted away. The bracelet taken from the imperial treasure vault had raised his resistance to the cold, yet that alone would not keep a man from being buried in snow.
Arteon shook himself lightly and turned.
In the past he had been helpless.
This time... it's different.
Helikel Canyon. Elbarphiel Lake. Both now flew the Empire's banners—something that had never happened before. And now...
It's your turn to run.
If they took Aicled, the foothold for the push into the deep North would be complete. With Lisiven's merchant guild they could supply far more efficiently and drive northward at speed. Once that happened—
The center will have no choice but to move in earnest as well.
Arteon clenched his fist. His cold gaze stretched long across the snowfields. Then he began to walk, following the snow-covered path toward the temporary fortifications of Aicled.
Here and there lay the frozen remnants of campfires and patches of congealed blood—the last traces of those who had held this ground.
When Arteon stepped inside the fort—
"...Huh?"
His feet stopped dead. In the dim light at one corner of the camp stood a single soldier who had just entered his field of vision.
How is he here...?
The completely unexpected sight made Arteon's eyes flicker. He had been certain the man would not yet have set foot on the northern front at this point in time...
"...Who are you?"
A solid build and sharp eyes, yet still carrying the awkward air of someone not fully settled into military life. Arteon regarded the man who had spoken to him in silence. Then—
"Lieutenant Arteon, ordered to this post today. Name and rank, soldier."
"Ah—Iron Heart!"
At the introduction the man snapped a hasty salute and answered in a clear voice.
"Corporal Theobalt, sir!"
Theobalt.
On that day of slaughter, the comrade who had thrown away his own life to save Arteon.
Kereilkarun had commanded the Kar forces facing the Empire at Aicled for three years already. Their numbers were not large, yet the Kar Tribe fully understood the value of the position and had left its defense to elite warriors.
At Aicled the side that struck first always stood at a disadvantage. Kereilkarun simply sat alone atop a snow-covered boulder, gazing forward without a word. His frame was lean, yet his eyes glittered sharp as blades.
Then a subordinate came thrashing through the flurries, breathing hard.
"Taman! The imperial dogs are receiving reinforcements."
"How many?"
"Around a hundred... it seems."
"..."
Kereilkarun narrowed his eyes. That many additional troops meant—
So they finally move.
Yet he did not so much as twitch an eyebrow, regarding his subordinate with a languid expression.
"I see."
"...Sir?"
Unease flickered across the subordinate's face. He hurried on.
"Should we not prepare our defenses at once? They have already taken Helikel Canyon and Elbarphiel Lake. The Empire will have no choice but to throw everything at this place."
Kereilkarun shifted his gaze toward the narrow canyon where the blizzard howled. The wind knifed in as if it meant to flay flesh from bone. His thin lips moved slowly.
"Anyone who enters by that narrow path is no different from a man walking to his own suicide. No matter who they are, every last one who tries to pass will end up buried in this snow."
His fierce eyes pierced the distant snowfields. There was only the one narrow approach. How did they think they would manage?
A brief silence. Then Kereilkarun rose to his feet. If the imperial dogs were preparing to strike—
"I have no intention of simply sitting here and taking it."
"Do you have a plan, sir?"
"Tell them. Let no one who crosses the canyon live."
"...You mean those ones?"
"Heh heh heh heh. In that place, no one can stand against them."
Even he himself could not claim victory over those creatures. The subordinate bowed his head.
"Understood."
"And... is 'that' still being guarded carefully?"
"Of course."
Without it, controlling them would be impossible. It was the most precious thing they possessed—and their Achilles' heel.
Kereilkarun's eyes flashed sharply.
"Whoever tries to cross that canyon... will die."
No matter how many troops the Empire gathered, there was nothing to fear. Only so many men could move inside the canyon at once. And within that blizzard-choked gorge where even sight failed—
It will soon become hell for them.
The corner of Kereilkarun's mouth kept twitching upward.