Linus's House (5)
Even the faintest rustle of grass against their bodies was enough to freeze Dian and Linus in place, both of them scanning the ground ahead.
Fortunately it was early summer, the wind was up, and the cicadas had resumed their racket now that the bombardment had stopped. Nothing seemed amiss.
They settled onto their bellies again and crawled on in silence, reaching the second objective without a sound.
Easing the undergrowth aside, they could see it: an observation post standing alone, pushed out from the long trench line that stretched left and right in the distance, isolated toward their position.
That was the end of their infiltration route — the observation post Dian had chosen to hit.
An observation post jutted forward from the main trench toward the enemy, its purpose to spot an attack before it arrived and raise the alarm. Two demon soldiers stood watch in two-hour shifts. The pair on duty now had come on at first light and would rotate out in about an hour.
Both of them were crouched in the cramped pit, heads tipped against the wall, mouths hanging open in a dead sleep.
Just as expected. A week of watching had confirmed it: at this hour, every last one of them went under without fail. The surrounding ground offered no cover, so attacks almost always came at night. They kept a tight watch after dark and let themselves slacken during the day. They'd apparently taken the earlier magical strike as just another of the usual sporadic threats and gone right back to sleep.
Dian glanced back. Linus tapped the heel of Dian's combat boot — the signal that he was ready.
The two of them crawled in silence until they were right beside the post, then drew the daggers clenched in their teeth, one from each side.
The blades slid into the mouths of the sleeping sentries.
Cold metal on the tongue. The demons' eyes flew open.
Dian locked eyes with one of them and pressed a finger to his lips.
The terrified demon nodded slowly, his gaze trembling.
Once it was clear they wouldn't resist, Dian passed his dagger to Linus. While Linus held both blades in place with both hands, Dian pulled a coil of rope from his belt.
He bound their wrists thoroughly and left their ankles free. They were going to have to run like hell on the way back, same as before. Hauling these heavy bastards on their backs, one each, was going to be rough enough as it was.
Then, without warning, voices drifted up from the communication trench that linked the rear line to the observation post.
"Dian...! Someone's coming...!"
Linus hissed it under his breath. Dian snapped his eyes to the sun.
There was still a full hour until the shift change, and the trench patrol wouldn't be back for even longer than that. So what was this?
He caught a word in the demon tongue that meant either special or rations, and the situation clicked into place at once.
Those bastards. Looks like a special issue came in from the rear, and they're coming to share it out.
We need to hurry.
"Urgh! Urgrrgh!"
One of the demons shouted around the dagger in his mouth.
"Hostis est!"
The scream from the observation post sent demon soldiers pounding down the communication trench.
"Damn it!"
Linus froze. Dian did not. He drove the dagger deeper into the shouting demon's mouth without a second's hesitation.
"Krrrrrrrr…."
Blood poured as the demon died. Dian yanked the blade free and swung it at the other one.
"Uraaaaaaaaagh!!"
The demon's wrist and forearm sheared off. Linus stared at Dian, stunned.
"What the hell are you doing, Dian?!"
"We just need to get him back alive. This'll make it easier for you to drag this bastard by yourself."
"What are you talking about? By myself?!"
Dian tossed him the remaining rope.
"Tourniquet the stump however you can, throw him on your back, and run. I'll hold these guys off in the meantime."
"That's insane! How are you supposed to manage that alone?! Let's go together!"
"You think you can shake a pursuit with a demon slung over your shoulder? Move!"
Dian took a dagger in each hand and dropped into the communication trench.
"Damn it...!"
Linus bound the severed stump tight with the rope and heaved the demon onto his shoulder.
"Hostium incursio est!"
The moment Linus got to his feet, demon soldiers came pouring in, shouting as they came.
Dian crossed the blades and cut.
Two strokes. A demon's head and left arm went spinning into the air and tumbled outside the trench. Blood erupted like a fountain, and the ones behind flinched and stumbled back.
Dian seized the opening and drove them without mercy.
"That lunatic..."
Linus's mouth fell open. The demons were far bulkier than any human, and Dian was herding them like sheep.
A shrieking whistle tore through the air. Right on schedule, allied magic came screaming in and detonated behind the observation post.
Linus shouted over the blast, the demon still on his back.
"Dian! Time to go! Get over here!"
"You go first! I'll catch up!"
The second strike landed even closer. Linus clenched his teeth, scrambled out of the post, and broke into a dead sprint.
"Hah— hah— hah!"
He ran full tilt for the allied trench, breath tearing in his throat. The demon on his shoulder was crushingly heavy, but if he slowed down the barrage would swallow him whole.
"Over here! Over here!"
Soldiers poked their heads above the parapet, waving and shouting. Linus slid into the trench with the demon, and they caught them both.
"What the hell?! Why are you alone?! Where's the guy who went with you?!"
"We ran into unexpected enemy troops — he's still fighting...! I'll go get him!"
"Are you crazy?! You're going back out there?!"
They dragged him down the instant he tried to climb out.
"You'll die if you go out there!"
The magical bombardment was walking back toward the allied line now, reversing the path Dian and Linus had taken. The Demon King's forces had spotted Linus's retreat and opened counter-fire on top of that. Going out now was as good as suicide.
"Dian! God damn it...!"
Linus punched the trench wall, shouting himself hoarse. A whole week, and he was going to lose his battle buddy here...
"Dian was an outstanding soldier."
The battalion commander, who had come forward to the position, laid a hand on Linus's shoulder. His voice was grave.
"He sacrificed himself to achieve something great."
"Dian... He wasn't supposed to come back alone..."
Linus muttered it, thick with despair, and every soldier in earshot wore the same grim look.
"But we cannot remain here, lost in grief."
The battalion commander raised his voice, looking over his men.
"Taking Dian's precious sacrifice as our foundation, we must continue forwa—"
"Aaaagh!"
A scream, and then something came flying into the trench through the still-falling barrage.
"—rd! Oof!"
Whatever had dropped on the commander's head took him down with it. The two of them went sprawling unceremoniously across the trench floor.
"Whew. Almost died there. Huh? Battalion Commander? Sorry about that. Haha."
Covered in blood, hair slightly singed, Dian cackled as he hauled the fallen commander back to his feet.
Linus stared at him, the words catching.
"Dian...? How... how are you alive?"
"I didn't die, so I came back alive. This thing's heavy as hell."
He flung what he'd been carrying onto the floor.
Six severed demon heads, their horns strung together on a rope.
He'd even collected the enemy's heads on the way back...?
"Battalion Commander. This ought to be worth at least a one-rank field promotion, don't you think?"
At Dian's brazen question, the battalion commander slowly nodded, his face blank.
That was when Linus thought it: That guy is a lunatic.
A recruit who hadn't even been enlisted a month had marched straight up to the battalion commander and loudly declared he was going to capture a prisoner. His method? A deranged plan to time a charge with friendly artillery. And when the plan went sideways, he had stood alone with two daggers against six demons to cover the withdrawal. Then he had punched through a no-man's-land under a rain of attack magic — and even neatly collected the heads of the ones he'd killed.
That guy is insane...
Corps headquarters interrogated the prisoner and identified the unit they were currently facing.
It was a corps that had taken heavy losses on another front and been redirected to Avoca, a relatively minor kingdom. They had thrown every last soldier into the defense of Camel Pass, leaving their rear wide open.
The Imperial 8th Corps launched an all-out offensive and ultimately succeeded in recapturing the Kingdom of Avoca.
Dian and Linus, whose work had contributed significantly to the corps' operational assessment, stood side by side in Avoca's royal castle and received medals from the corps commander, along with the honor of a one-rank field promotion.
For capturing an enemy prisoner together with his Battle Buddy during the defense of Camel Pass, thereby contributing to allied operational assessment.
"Hey, Linus."
On the wagon ride back to their unit, Dian spoke up.
"Told you, didn't I? Things work out when you stick with me."
"You were right."
"So let's keep working together from now on."
Linus didn't answer. He sat quietly, turning it over in his mind.
He had fled his territory and enlisted in the Imperial Army because he couldn't stand by and watch the continent fall into chaos under the Demon King's wicked hordes. Better the Empire — and better still the 3rd Corps, under the Second Princess — than to serve a lord who was decent as a person and useless as a commander.
But Linus was a serf's son, and that had been enough to send him to the most neglected formation in the army: the 8th Corps. From there it had been a straight shot across the sea to the Kingdom of Avoca.
Months of grinding trench warfare. Night assaults that meant nothing and went nowhere. Soldiers dying without ever getting to swing a blade. He had been wondering whether this was really what he had signed up for when he met Dian — and together they had pulled off a prisoner capture everyone else had called impossible.
And in the end they had recaptured Avoca. A medal. A one-rank field promotion. Not to mention the number of times Dian had pulled him out of a killing spot on the push from Camel Pass all the way to the royal castle. That went without saying.
Dian acted like he had ten lives stacked in reserve. It was as if he could see the future. There was no other way a man could stay that relaxed on a battlefield. And then there was the way he talked about the Demon King's Castle.
"You and I could probably make it all the way to the Demon King's Castle."
"The Demon King's Castle..."
Whenever Dian spoke of it, his eyes were so full of certainty that even Linus — who was careful about everything — found himself entertaining the wild idea that it might actually be possible, if they went together.
"There's something I've been wondering, though. Why me? There are plenty of soldiers better than I am."
"Ah. That."
Dian grinned at the question.
"Because you're the protagonist of this world."
"What? What is that supposed to mean?"
"Wouldn't help if I explained it. Anyway — in or out? There's nothing the two of us can't do in this world. Let's cut that Demon King bastard in half and end this war."
Linus looked at the certainty in Dian's eyes. In the end he smiled, just a little, and nodded.
"All right. Let's do it, Dian."