Reconnaissance (2)
There was an order to the way a Star appeared on the battlefield.
First came the rumors.
Then people vanished, corpses were found, and at last a name was attached to the thing.
When we moved out, it was still only rumors.
So we could have turned back.
We could have reported that we had seen nothing, that it had all been groundless gossip, and returned to our ordinary lives.
We should have done that.
I had soaked Senior Sergeant Misty’s uniform through with tears and snot before casually lifting my head from her chest.
Ah.
Maybe that had been a bit much?
Tears from a frail, beautiful girl could be packaged as a lovely scene, but snot was… a matter of taste.
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s all right.”
Senior Sergeant Misty said that and carefully took out a handkerchief to wipe my face.
As though she were handling something fragile and easily broken.
Hm. I wished she wouldn’t be so kind.
It was starting to give me ideas.
Of course, I didn’t mean that I was the one getting ideas. I meant she might be.
If you were kind to a perfect little beauty like this, before long you’d develop a protectiveness you never noticed, and that protectiveness would turn into affection, and affection would become obsession.
—
How do I know?
…Well. I didn’t know much about it back then, but now I think I do. What obsession feels like, I mean.
Ugh, haah… I’m getting used to it now, you know?
Did you think I was some easy woman who’d shut up the moment you touched me? What a shame!
Wait. H-Hold on!
—
Unfortunately, reality was cold.
“Private Winterland. Have you calmed down?”
“Yes.”
“Then put on the winter gear over your uniform.”
Senior Sergeant Misty kindly unfolded the insulated outerwear and helped me slide my arms into it.
It was because I still hadn’t fully recovered.
When your lifespan was reduced by overusing mana, the aftermath lingered in the body.
Say an ordinary person who could live to a hundred suddenly lost ten years of life.
You might think that as long as they still made it to ninety, that was fine.
The point was that something had happened to make those ten years vanish in the first place.
Yes. It meant my body had taken a shock.
A shock severe enough to burn away years of life in an instant.
How much did I lose?
Once I’d finished enjoying all the sadistic pleasure, a practical worry arrived late to the party.
At the time, I hadn’t thought much of it while parading around as a frail beauty and farming pity, but looking back, maybe I was in serious trouble.
It definitely wasn’t the sort of incident my former goal had prepared me for—living thinly, but long.
Ah, by the way, a beautiful girl who can’t even get dressed on her own—wouldn’t that have decent demand?
“…Private Winterland.”
“Yes.”
“What are you thinking about?”
“I wasn’t thinking about anything.”
“That’s a lie. You’re poor at hiding your expressions.”
I’d kept playing the part while fretting over my face even as I dressed, so was this finally going to pay off?
Senior Sergeant Misty was staring at Anais Schoen’s letter, which she had placed on the table.
I slowly moved my gaze in the same direction.
“…You may keep it, Private Winterland.”
“It’s all right.”
“……”
“If you want, I’ll take it.”
As I said that, I carefully tucked the letter into my inner pocket so it wouldn’t wrinkle any further.
I’d wanted to keep the letter myself anyway.
It made for an excellent prop for sadistic amusement.
.
.
.
The moment I stepped out of the tent with my winter gear, ammunition belt, and rifle, I was greeted by a pure white snowfield.
The cold air was stabbing stupidly at my lungs, and my chest gave a faint ache in response.
On top of that, the thunderous roar of the Flowing Snowy Mountain kept hammering at my ears.
In more than one sense, it was the worst possible place to have a child.
Kwaaaah—!
A liquid mass of snow and water cascaded down the cliff, then surged back upward in reverse.
No matter how many times I saw it, the sight made no sense.
And in front of that spectacle stood the reconnaissance platoon.
Thick winter gear, rifles slung across their backs, ammunition belts, folding shovels, communications equipment and stretchers, mana lamps and magic stones—everything stood out starkly.
…Those are magic stones, right? In a world like this, blue pebbles can only be one thing. Batteries!
I quietly joined the line and took in the atmosphere around me.
Tools for killing people and tools for saving them standing side by side in the same row. War really was the pinnacle of irony.
Just as I was about to start complaining about how I’d ended up in this mess, an all-too-familiar voice came from behind me.
“You’re here?”
Lieutenant Mauer, floating in the air, waved the moment she saw me.
Her face was, as always, smiling.
“Hm, did you cry?”
“……”
“Your eyes are red. Pretty!”
Senior Sergeant Misty gave Lieutenant Mauer a cold look.
It seemed like she was snapping at her for saying something so thoughtless to a child who had just learned of a friend’s death through a letter.
But Lieutenant Mauer paid no mind whatsoever.
She only laughed and spun in place in midair.
Even behind her goggles, that gaze never stopped pressing on me.
—
Clap.
Lieutenant Mauer gave a light clap to gather the platoon’s attention.
She seemed to have skipped the introduction to Chloe Winterland, the new recruit—me.
…Well, a recruit who’d collapsed from excessive mana use the moment she arrived at the platoon and spent several days sprawled in bed was probably already a celebrity, so there was no need for an introduction anyway.
“I’ll explain the mission. If you have questions, raise your hand.”
She began her briefing.
“An unusual signal was picked up along the eastern ridge of the Flowing Snowy Mountain. An Imperial signal flare was fired, but there aren’t any Imperial units deployed on the eastern ridge. Strange, right?”
“Might it be Federation camouflage?”
When someone raised a hand and asked that, Lieutenant Mauer shrugged.
“Maybe. Someone has to confirm whether it’s a decoy or the real thing. There’s also the possibility of isolated missing persons around the Flowing Snowy Mountain. There are a lot of missing people and deserters in this area, you know.”
“Could there be a firefight…?”
“I can’t say there isn’t any chance of that. But since we’ve got a new recruit, I’d prefer an easy mission!”
“……”
“Ah, though who knows? I heard one of the Federation’s Stars has been sent to the northern front this time.”
Whenever people said things like that, the mission usually turned out to be hard.
I couldn’t help feeling uneasy.
Senior Sergeant Misty, standing beside me, spoke in a low voice that wouldn’t interfere with Lieutenant Mauer’s briefing.
“Please ask for my permission before using D Magic. I can use that sort of magic as well.”
“Yes.”
“The same goes for opening fire.”
“Yes.”
“Do not overdo it.”
“Yes.”
“Don’t just say yes—follow my instructions.”
“Understood.”
Only then did Senior Sergeant Misty seem satisfied, and she turned her gaze back toward Lieutenant Mauer in the sky.
Ah, that felt a little unfair.
When had I ever agreed and then failed to do it?
I had no one to complain to, and my little toy friend had gone and died on its own, so it looked like it was going to be a suffocating day.
Unaware of my feelings, the reconnaissance platoon began moving ahead on its own.
Toward the eastern ridge of the Flowing Snowy Mountain.
“…Ah.”
A fair amount of time passed like that.
The terrain of the snowfield was far rougher than I had expected.
The snow had piled up past my ankles, and beneath it something slick—ice or rock, I couldn’t tell which—lurched in wait to catch my feet.
Every step forward sent my leg sinking with a soft crunch, and the sound crawled right under my skin.
I was trying to pant prettily and reasonably while acting like a frail beauty, but I just looked like a patient on the verge of losing consciousness.
“Private Winterland, we’ll slow the pace.”
“I’m fine.”
“Lies are not helpful.”
Senior Sergeant Misty seemed to have noticed my condition and recommended rest.
But if the whole platoon stopped its operation because of me, I was afraid of what would happen.
If rumors spread that some insane piece-of-shit recruit had requested rest because she was tired, then no matter how pretty a girl I was, I wouldn’t be forgiven.
“I’ll say it again, Private Winterland. We’ll slow the pace.”
“…I’m fine.”
“Your stubbornness—!”
Senior Sergeant Misty suddenly stopped midsentence.
Kwaaaah—!
The area around the Flowing Snowy Mountain was always filled with roaring noise.
Because that mingled fluid of snow and water kept climbing and descending the mountain in endless repetition.
But now…
Silence.
It was far too quiet.
You had to shout to speak, and if you didn’t shout you couldn’t even hear the person next to you.
And now it was so quiet you could hear the breathing of the person beside you.
The sound had cut off.
Some time ago, it had simply stopped.
The entire reconnaissance platoon froze at once.
As soon as the sound that had filled the world vanished, a ringing began in my ears instead.
I raised my head and looked at the Flowing Snowy Mountain.
It neither poured down nor surged upward.
The wonder that had become a perfectly ordinary mountain now stood there, motionless.
“…Get down.”
Lieutenant Mauer muttered, as if possessed.
Only belatedly did Senior Sergeant Misty shout.
“Everyone, down!”
The mountain that had stopped begins to move again.
The Flowing Snowy Mountain collapsed.
The white wall began to crash down toward us.
Inertia. Inertia. That fucking inertia was swallowing us whole.
What happened when a fluid mixed from water and snow suddenly stopped moving? The answer was simple. It kept trying to flow in the direction it had been moving before.
Someone’s curse mixed with someone else’s prayer.
Should I use magic?
If I did, I’d die. If I didn’t, I’d die. It was a two-choice question, and both answers were the same.
Ah, Chloe Winterland, short life, concluding here.
At that moment of utter despair, someone slammed into me from the side.
“Hold your breath!”
It was Senior Sergeant Misty’s voice.
Snow and water, ice and rock pressed down on my body.
The white world came crashing over us.
Everything disappeared.
