A Long Night Ahead
"W-what are you talking about?!"
Burren's eyes flew open, as if he couldn't believe what he'd just heard.
"Exactly what I said."
Raon stepped forward, meeting the gaze of every trainee present.
"The mission isn't over yet."
"What is that even supposed to mean? We killed every last monster and finished the cleanup — why would the mission not be over?!"
"What was our mission?"
"Huh? That's…"
Burren frowned, then found the words again.
"Monster subjugation and protection of the village."
"Right. Our mission wasn't just to wipe out the monsters. We were also charged with protecting the village."
"And that's done! We killed all the monsters — that's the end of it!"
"No."
Raon shook his head, his eyes turning back along the road they had walked, toward Sebu Village.
"Until a little while ago, we were being watched. That gaze only lifted about an hour ago."
"What?"
"Th-that's impossible!"
"Is that true?"
The stunned trainees surged to their feet.
"I-it must have been an instructor."
Burren forced a crooked twist onto his mouth. He didn't seem willing to believe that a watcher's gaze had been on them at all.
"An instructor sent to keep an eye on us, obviously…"
"If it were an instructor's presence, I would have known whose it was. That presence wasn't watching us alone — it was observing the entire village. And besides…"
Raon pointed back along the path they had taken.
"The moment we put half a day's distance between ourselves and the village, the presence vanished. And it vanished in the village's direction."
"Then — another enemy?"
Burren's mouth fell open. His eyes trembled as they turned toward the village.
"Are you serious?"
Marta, who had been silent until now, scowled and pushed herself to her feet.
"I'm certain."
"Then when did you first notice that gaze?"
"From the moment we reached the hill where the village came into view."
"Wait. Then handing command over to Burren was…"
"That's right. I hid my presence so I could get a clearer read on that gaze."
"Hah…"
Marta swallowed dryly.
What the hell is this guy…
The instant she heard him, the hair on her arms stood on end. He had sensed a gaze and a presence that even she hadn't felt, handed the head position to Burren, then melted in among the trainees to study that gaze in secret. The sheer acuity of his senses — and the depth of the scheme behind them — left her without a word.
"Th-that's why you gave me command?"
"Because I figured that if you took command, you'd handle the trainees even better than I would."
"I… I…"
"You showed me a head trainee far better than I expected. Thanks to that, they took you for the leader and never even noticed I was there. Just as you said — it was a performance worthy of Zieghart. When we get back, I'll recommend you be appointed vice-leader."
"That's not it."
Burren kept his head down, his lips trembling.
Damn it!
He was too ashamed to lift his face.
I thought I was doing well…
He had believed his flawless command had left Raon speechless. It hadn't been that at all. The bastard had been hanging back the whole time, keeping a watcher in check that not a single one of them had even noticed.
While Burren had been buried in the small matter of who held command, Raon had been looking somewhere far more distant, and far higher.
His teeth ground together. The funny thing was, hearing Raon's praise, he didn't actually feel all that bad. Shame and a swelling pride tangled into a strange, unsettled feeling in his chest.
"You wouldn't know this, but orcs, goblins, and kobolds are not monsters that cooperate. Whoever was watching us used some kind of method."
Raon said nothing of Eden. He laid out only what they could see and feel for themselves.
"Our first duty is the protection of the village. Until we know what that watcher is thinking, our mission is not over."
He gathered his pack and stood.
"We return to Sebu Village. Not announcing ourselves the way we did before — we move quietly enough that not a soul notices."
He swept his gaze across them all before he went on.
"Camouflage gear would be ideal, but we didn't pack any, so for now even our gait will have to—"
"I-I have some, actually."
Dorian, who had been standing there half-dazed, raised a hand.
"Have what?"
"Screens to conceal our packs, and bands for fastening foliage to our clothes."
"One or two won't do. That'd just make us stand out more—"
"I have enough for everyone."
Dorian rummaged in his Belly Pouch and spilled out screens and bands in a clattering heap. Carrying all of that around — Raon had no idea what to make of him.
"How did you even…"
"I brought them just in case."
"You walk around with forty sets of camouflage gear just in case?"
"Preparation should be thorough, sir."
"W-well. Good work, anyway."
"Yes, sir!"
Dorian was the only one who broke into a sheepish grin at Raon's praise. Of course, his face darkened again just as quickly at the thought that they might have to fight once they returned to the village.
"There's enough to go around. Camouflage yourselves the way you learned at the training grounds. Assemble back here in ten minutes. And…"
Raon was the first to drape a screen over himself. He lifted his head.
"Crain."
"Huh? Y-yeah!"
"Run to the Zieghart branch right now and repeat everything I said, word for word."
"M-me?"
"You've got fast feet."
Dorian was faster, but there might be a need for him yet.
"A-all right!"
Perhaps it was the joy of being acknowledged. Crain nodded at once and sprinted off in the opposite direction from the village.
Raon watched him go, then turned back.
"From this moment on, you will obey my orders without question. There is no refusal."
"They've all gone."
A man in a mask engraved with a staring eye dropped to one knee.
"You're certain?"
A young man holding a green helmet turned his head.
"Yes. I confirmed they spent half a day drunk on victory before they left. I checked the opposite approach as well, just in case — no irregularities."
"Then we may begin."
The young man gave a short laugh, then lifted a featureless helmet and set it upon his head.
"Reversion."
At that incantation-like word, green molten metal poured from within the orc helm.
The liquid clung to the man's body as if it were a living thing, spreading and hardening into the shape of armor. A searing hiss filled the air. Enormous muscle swelled along his arms and chest; his fingers set as hard as flint; his legs thickened like the roots of an ancient tree.
This was no ordinary knight's plate.
From the depths of the Orc Champion's helm, red eyes packed with murderous intent flared open.
"GRAAAAH!"
A monstrous roar tore from the man's throat — a sound no human throat should have been able to make.
"WAAAAAGH!"
As if answering that roar, orcs came flooding out behind him in a seething mass. A guttural rumble rolled from his chest as he pointed a hand wreathed in crimson energy toward Sebu Village.
"GRAAAAH!"
"GYAAAAH!"
The orcs shrieked and hurled themselves down the slope. Their charge was incomparably more savage than anything the trainees had faced.
The man in the Orc Champion's armor watched the monsters surge forward like a breaking wave, a savage smile cutting across his face.
Raon and the trainees reached the hill that looked down over the whole of Sebu Village.
"Nothing's happening yet."
Burren frowned at the village below. The only thing rising from it was the peaceful thread of cooking smoke.
"Wait. And keep your voice down. Keep your body down, too."
"Mm…"
At Raon's order, Burren shut his mouth and bent at the waist.
"From here on, be careful even of the sound of your breathing. The moment we're spotted, we could be wiped out."
"Nnh…"
"Hup!"
The trainees clamped their hands over their mouths, their eyes trembling.
"Wiped out, he says…"
"Who cares what comes out? We're Zieghart…"
A few of the collaterals, unwilling to take Raon at his word, muttered under their breath. Drunk on their first victory, their confidence was at its peak.
"Quiet. You can complain after we've confirmed what's going on — it won't be too late."
Only when Burren stepped in did the collaterals close their mouths and sink down onto their heels.
"Fill your stomachs with jerky now, and put on your cold-weather gear. Even if the night turns bitter, we can't risk a fire."
The trainees grumbled under their breath, but they followed Raon's instructions to the letter.
The sun sank behind Mount Sebu, and a dim night settled over the land.
At the foot of the darkened mountain, hundreds of red lights flared to life. With a gleam like rubies, green monsters came pouring out.
"Hup!"
"O-orcs! It's monsters!"
"I-it was real?"
The trainees swallowed hard at the vicious light in the orcs' eyes.
"Nnh…"
Burren bit down on a dry lip. They had searched Mount Sebu and everything around it thoroughly, and they hadn't found a single monster. For a force of this size to appear this quickly simply didn't make sense.
He was right.
Just as Raon had said, monsters were flooding out — and these were more savage, and stronger, than the ones they had already put down.
The clang of an alarm bell rang out from the palisade, where a villager on watch had seen them coming. Lights flared to life in a village that had seemed swallowed by the dark, and a rising murmur of voices carried all the way to the hill.
"Damn it!"
Burren clenched his teeth and surged to his feet. He drew his sword and let out a ragged breath.
"Let's go. This time we finish it for—"
"Sit down."
Raon jerked his chin, his eyes gone cold.
"What?"
"I told you. There was a gaze watching us. That wasn't some monster — it was human. We still don't know who they are."
"B-but Sebu Village's garrison can't hold off that many orcs!"
"Even so, we wait. One wrong move and we're the ones who get wiped out."
It was a precise judgment, untouched by sentiment. Until the enemy's numbers and strength were properly known, they could not afford to move.
"You said it yourself! Our mission is to protect the village! Then we should be moving right now!"
"The instructor also said that giving up — or withdrawing — is a valid choice on a mission. This is not the time to move."
"I-I can't just sit here."
Burren's hand trembled on the hilt of his sword.
"Leaving them to die like that is not something a Zieghart swordsman would do!"
The orcs' charge flickered, sharp and painful, in his green eyes.
"He's right."
"We're Zieghart. We can't see the weak in danger and just fall—"
Raon's cold voice cut through the trainees, whose will had been burning so fiercely a moment before.
"E-Eden? Eden of the Five Demons?"
"Those lunatics?"
"Eden's famous for controlling monsters. There's no other way a force that size appears out of nowhere."
"Uh…"
"The F-Five Demons…"
At the name of Eden of the Five Demons, the light in the trainees' eyes went dull, as if something had eaten into them. They all knew it — how powerful Eden was, and how terrifying.
"I know how strong Eden is. But they didn't attack us. That means they fear the name of Zieghart."
Burren clenched his fist until it bled.
"I will not turn my back and run from people like that. Drawing my sword for those villagers, here and now — that is the Zieghart swordsman I believe in."
"I'm not saying we don't help them at all. Once we've read the situation, if we can fight—"
"Then it'll be too late. Half the people in that village will be dead by then."
He looked at Raon, his eyes unsteady.
"Listen. I acknowledged you. After I saw your effort, I admitted it in my heart — that you were more worthy of the Zieghart name than I was! But this isn't it! If you try to stop me, I'll fight my way to that village if I have to."
Burren drew his sword then and there. The well-polished blade caught the moonlight and threw it across the hard set of his face.
"You don't all have to follow. Anyone who thinks as I do — come with me!"
Wrapped in a deep green aura and an unyielding will, he broke into a run down the hill.
"We're going too. Let's show those Five Demons bastards a Zieghart blade!"
The collaterals all rose. They didn't even draw their swords as they chased after Burren.
Raon clicked his tongue — and someone stood up beside him.
"I'm going too."
Blue frost coiled around Runaan's blade as she leapt down the hillside.
"We'll go with you!"
The trainees of the vassal houses drew their swords and fell in at her side.
"W-we're going too!"
"Yeah. We're Zieghart trainees as well!"
Caught up in Burren's and Runaan's conviction, the commoner trainees drew their swords and raced toward the fires of the village.
Raon turned without a word. Only Dorian and the trainees who had followed him since their days as temporary recruits remained. More than half were gone, but Raon was not the least bit shaken.
I expected this.
He had known they were that kind of people. Them going down the hill was part of the plan. He had even sent Runaan an aura message, telling her to go and help Burren.
The most unexpected person, however, was still here.
"Why didn't you go?"
Raon looked back at Marta, who was leaning against a tree.
"I told you. On this mission, I'd follow your orders no matter what you said."
There was genuine conviction in the way her dark eyes shone as she spoke. It seemed she had settled on a creed of her own.
"That so."
Raon huffed a quiet laugh.
"So what are you going to do? Sit here and watch?"
"No. We're going too."
Raon shook his head and rose. The orcs had already reached the village palisade. The people's terror and the orcs' frenzy seemed to bloom into a rising red mist.
"We're not charging in the open the way they did, of course. Kill your presence. Keep yourselves loose — be ready to move at any moment."
Having given the order, Raon turned his gaze not on Sebu Village, but on the mid-slopes of Mount Sebu. Inside that treeline, an intense, dense killing intent was coiling and uncoiling.
There you are.
He could have stopped the trainees. He had let them go for one reason only: he knew who was up there. A monster that had borrowed the power and fighting spirit of an Orc Champion was looking down on the village from the mountain's midriff.
Head-on, it would not be an easy fight. Assassination, however, was a different story.
If they can just hold its eyes… I can take it.
Raon rolled his wrist, his red eyes gleaming like the moon overhead.
Tonight is going to be a long night.