Battlefield Tour (7)
"Goddamn it. For real."
Dian spat the words as he wiped blood and scraps of flesh from his face.
Meanwhile, Linus had already reached the Human Alliance command post and was in the middle of raising hell.
"What do you think you're doing?! You're launching people from catapults!"
The legion commander, baffled by the young man who had burst in out of nowhere, looked around at his staff officers.
"Who the hell is this?"
"I believe these are the ones the Imperial Palace mentioned recently."
At a staff officer's report, the legion commander twitched an eyebrow and straightened his posture.
"My apologies. You look like some noble family's bookish young master on the outside. Special task force from the Imperial Palace, is that it?"
"What was that just now? Why are you launching demons from the catapults instead of shot?"
"Ah. That."
The legion commander glanced at another volley of demons being loosed, then said,
"Prisoners we captured. Rank-and-file soldiers, no real use for them, so we're sending them over to break the morale of the ones holed up in the castle."
"You think the demons are going to hand over the castle because of that? Can't you see they're answering in kind with our own prisoners?!"
"Aaaaaaagh!"
Half a dozen humans plummeted from the castle above and burst apart on impact. Some even collided in midair with enemy prisoners coming the other way.
"Fuck!"
"Bleagh—!"
Soldiers who'd been splattered with the wreckage cursed or retched violently as they scrambled back.
Seeing it, Linus roared in fury.
"Stop this at once! This is unconscionable!"
"What's allowed in war and what isn't? If it wins the fight, you do it."
"There is no law that permits executing prisoners like this. And all this does is get our own people killed on the other side!"
"Haha. Our special task force gentleman doesn't seem to understand."
The legion commander chuckled low and tapped his baton against the desk.
"We're fighting demons. Horned bastards who don't play by common sense or morality. This is a desperate gamble with two outcomes: victory or annihilation."
"That doesn't mean we get to become like them. Stop this immediately."
"And if I refuse?"
"Then I will exercise the special task force's authority within the bounds the Imperial Palace has granted us."
Arguing over the treatment of enemy prisoners on a battlefield this urgent was, frankly, out of place. Ivronik Castle was a critical stronghold for both the Demon King's army and the Human Alliance — it had to be taken, and it had to be held, no matter the cost.
But for Linus, a man destined to become a righteous Hero, launching prisoners who had already given up the fight from catapults to their deaths was an atrocity he could not endure.
"Who the hell are you to dictate this legion's operations?!"
At Linus's words, the legion commander suddenly exploded.
"Don't make me laugh! Laws this, prisoners that?! They started it! Look up at that cliff!"
He was pointing at the walls of Ivronik Castle. Corpses hung there in a long, chained line.
"Those bastards did that first! You just got here, so you wouldn't know — they weren't corpses from the start! They were all still alive!"
"What…?"
"They chained living prisoners to the cliff so we couldn't use our siege weapons!! If you didn't hear those people screaming as they died hanging there, then shut your mouth!!"
Linus was struck speechless. The legion commander, still fuming, barked orders at his staff.
"Keep launching the prisoners! Special task force or not — ignore them!"
"Easy, Linus. Calm down."
Dian, who had just arrived at the command post, clapped Linus on the shoulder.
"This isn't the time to be fighting each other."
"And who are you? If you're here to pick a fight, get the hell out!"
The legion commander spat as he shouted. Dian smiled and raised both hands.
"I'm not picking a fight. I'm trying to put an end to this goddamn mess as fast as possible. So how about everyone hears me out."
On his way to the command post, Dian had already been turning a plan over in his head. He laid it out for them at once.
"We'll infiltrate by the cliff, clear the interior, and open the gates."
The legion commander and his staff stared at him in horror, as if he'd lost his mind. Dian shrugged.
"Got a better idea? From what I heard on the way here, those bastards are using poison gas and mines. There's only one approach, and shoving infantry up it is suicide. Anyone else with a brilliant thought?"
He made a show of looking around with his hand raised. Nobody offered an alternative. With every approach sealed off, climbing the cliff was the only option left.
"But… how exactly do you plan to climb that cliff? It's not that we haven't considered it, but that height…"
"That's our job. Don't worry about it."
"Fine. Nothing to lose. But don't think you get to second-guess this legion's operations."
"Wouldn't dream of it."
The legion commander accepted Dian's plan. At midnight that same day, Linus and Dian launched their infiltration of the cliff.
"Hey, Linus. There's nothing we can do about it."
Before they started the climb, Dian clapped Linus on the shoulder.
"It doesn't look right to you, I know. But what can you do? The whole legion's gone blind with revenge."
"It's not that I don't understand. It's just… I can't stand it."
"Then let's get climbing. The only way out is to finish this fast."
The infiltration of the cliff was anything but smooth. It never could have been. They had to claw their way up through corpses plastered to the rock face, mashed into shapeless pulps of blood. And all the while, both sides kept hurling prisoners at each other from catapults.
Thwack—!
A demon soldier, thrown off-aim, smashed into the stone just above their heads and burst. Blood flooded Dian's mouth, along with something strange and lumpy — faintly squishy, slick, with a bizarre and nauseating texture. He pulled it from his mouth. An eyeball, veins and scraps of flesh still dangling from it, stared straight at him.
That was only the beginning. Shredded fragments of bodies, thick with sticky blood, rained down over Linus and me.
We punched through a waterfall of blood and corpses. At the castle wall, we had no choice but to use the hanging bodies as footholds.
"Ugh! I'm sorry…!"
The corpses, long exposed to the wind, could not take our weight. Every time one tore apart with a wet crack and fell, Linus squeezed his eyes shut and apologized to the dead.
They made it over the wall in the end, slaughtered the defenders, and rescued the Human Alliance prisoners who had been waiting their turn to be loaded into the catapults.
The survivors were vanishingly few. Even those had been left with permanent injuries — some rendered mute by the brutality of their abuse.
The look on Linus's face as he took this in was beyond desolate.
"Dian…. I don't know anymore…."
Despair hung heavy on his face as he asked,
"Was I… even right to protest to the legion commander about the demon prisoners…?"
"It's not a question of right or wrong. People have their own values and ideals, and those clash sometimes. That's just how it is."
"Is that so…"
"If it weren't, why would wars even happen? The Emperor and the Demon King would just sit down, have a cup of tea, shake hands, and call it a day."
Linus slowly shook his head.
"I think I was wrong…. Here, in this place, the legion commander was right…"
"I don't know about that. We're not stopping at recapturing Ivronik Castle, are we? Let's revisit this after we've taken the Demon King's head."
Dian grinned and tore the Demon King's army banner in his hands to shreds, then tossed it aside.
"Let's head down. We've got surviving soldiers to look after."
Dian and Linus walked side by side down the blood-soaked stairs of the spire.
"This is that very spire! This is where Sir Linus tore down the Demon King's army banner immediately after recapturing the castle."
The guide standing at the spire explained.
"You'll see it depicted in magnificent detail on the Ivronik Recapture Commemorative Mural inside the castle. If you'll follow me."
We descended stone stairs so immaculate you couldn't have found a trace of those old bloodstains if you'd scrubbed your eyes looking. As we headed into the inner keep, a few old men were pruning the courtyard trees with shears. Groundskeepers, apparently.
"When the Demon King's army occupied the castle, everyone remaining here was taken prisoner."
The guide paused in the courtyard to explain.
"The Demon King's forces did not observe the laws of war. Abuse and execution of prisoners were commonplace. Of the prisoners at Ivronik Castle, only a handful survived. Those gentlemen right over there."
The guide pointed to the old men tending the garden.
"Our veterans made a dramatic return alive, but the Demon King's army's abuse left them unable to speak. As a gesture of honor, the Ivronik Castle Administration Office has employed those surviving veterans who wished it as groundskeepers here, and we maintain a warm relationship with them."
At the guide's introduction, the old men turned, offered warm smiles, doffed their straw hats, and dipped their heads.
"Please join me in a round of applause for these veterans, who fought with their lives so that we could stand here today."
The students clapped, and the veterans bowed even more deeply in return.
"Now, if everyone would come this way! Next up is the mural of Sir Linus tearing the Demon King's army banner."
The students followed the guide deeper into the castle.
"Uh, uh, uh!"
I was bringing up the rear, just passing in front of the veterans, when one of them suddenly made a sound and pointed at me.
"Me?"
"Uh! Uh! Uhh!"
The other veterans saw me and came crowding over in a rush.
"Uhh! Uhh…. hhk…"
Fat tears rolled down their faces as they seized my hands in their calloused, rough palms.
I stood there bewildered for a moment, then understood, and smiled.
These people still remember my face.
"It's been a long time. Looks like you've all been well."
I opened my arms and pulled them in by the shoulders. The veterans wept even harder, hanging their heads.