Flames and Fangs
The soldiers drew their weapons the instant Johan gave the order, without a second of hesitation — proof enough of how well they had been trained.
The bearing of a disciplined army was recognizable even from a distance. The moment the heavy infantry fanned out into formation, the men who'd been chasing them pulled up short. Any bandit with two eyes to rub together knew better than to tangle with dozens of well-armed fighters. The brigands began backing away.
"Shall we pursue?"
"No need."
Johan held Marco back. There was nothing they couldn't win by fighting, but he had no intention of wasting time on a brawl in the middle of nowhere.
'Against who knows what kind of people, no less.'
Just as Johan and Suetleug found the whole affair absurd, it seemed Kaenerna was equally dumbfounded by the situation. She trudged her way over, leading her horse, and stopped in front of them.
"What miserable luck, wouldn't you say?"
"......"
Though Suetleug had called her, there was no reply. For some reason, Kaenerna's face looked drained. Johan spoke up.
"Should we offer her a word of comfort?"
"Spare me. A viper dies if it eats anything but venom. Don't bother with comfort."
"Lady Suetleug, vipers actually eat the same ordinary prey as any other snake..."
It struck Johan, as it often did, how narrow a band of knowledge the people of this world carried. Anything outside their own field they either didn't know at all or knew through hopelessly garbled rumor. He'd once watched, in all seriousness, someone declare that fermented horse urine is the finest cure for a cold.
"...Is that so? I hadn't heard. In any case, don't offer that mage any comfort. She'll take it for mockery."
"And if it sounds like mockery, that would be thanks to a spiteful heart as twisted as her own fortune, wouldn't it?"
"......"
Suetleug was quietly impressed.
Johan was no silver-tongued orator, but every now and then his words flew out like an arrow honed to a razor edge, pinning his target to the wall. Had Kaenerna heard that one, she'd have been trembling as if she'd actually taken the hit.
When Johan approached to console her, Kaenerna, surprisingly, did not snap at him. Her reaction was something else entirely.
"...Would it be all right if I traveled with you for a time?"
Johan made no attempt to hide his disgust. Catching that look, Kaenerna's eyebrows shot up. She was the Emperor's own advisor, a mage of considerable renown — and this knight had the gall to recoil from her so openly...
"I'll have to ask Lady Suetleug about that."
"Hold on."
"?"
"My renown rivals that of the sage of the Ipael River, and I hold the post of court mage."
There was nothing quite so pitiful as a mage trumpeting her own fame, but once in a while even that had to be done.
From Johan's perspective, however, the only response it earned was: so what do you want me to do about it?
"Right. And what exactly am I supposed to do with that...?"
"...Never mind. Forget it."
"It must weigh on her mind."
"What would that be, my lady?"
"The ill fortune. Mages are a superstitious lot. To suffer misfortune three times over and fail to grasp some omen in it — she'd have to be no mage at all. A proper mage hears the voice of fate in such signs. Kaenerna works with prophecy too, so perhaps she heard something in all this bad luck."
"You mean a voice like, it's auspicious to stay at the knight's side?"
"When you put it that way it sounds utterly cheap... Well, no, maybe not a voice that blunt, but it would surely feel like a kind of revelation. Frankly, if I'd been struck by misfortune three times running, I'd try anything. I haven't lived it myself, but to Kaenerna, who has, it must look different."
"So it's all right to have her travel with us?"
"Why are you asking me? That's your decision to make."
"I'm asking whether she might poison the water I drink."
"Ah. That business... As I said before, you needn't worry. How many times have you saved that woman's life by now?"
A mage's debt ran several times heavier and deeper than Johan gave it credit for.
"And she's talented enough to be of genuine use, if you travel together."
"But...?"
"She's the Emperor's mage, isn't she. Saving her life, fine — you're an honorable knight, so she'd accept it in that light. But traveling at her side is a different matter. Bear in mind that others may draw the wrong conclusions."
Has Johan been bewitched by a mage? It was entirely possible that Zarpen's men, the Abner household, or the soldiers might think just that.
To anyone who wasn't a mage, a mage was a far more suspicious creature than most people realized.
"It doesn't matter."
"Oh. You're sure?"
"Yes. They're not the sort to be shaken by so little."
Johan trusted the people who traveled with him — and the example of himself he'd shown them. Their faith was not the kind to waver at news of a court mage in their company.
His prediction proved correct. Even with Kaenerna tagging along, the mercenaries and the household men barely blinked. If anything, Marco was the more startled of the two.
"Is it truly all right, with the Emperor's mage traveling with us?"
"Sir Johan must have his reasons."
"But she serves the Emperor..."
"And aren't you the Emperor's knight?"
"......"
With nothing left to say, Marco fell silent.
Kaenerna looked at him and asked,
"You're the Marquis Crucho's bastard, aren't you? So you survived."
"...Yes... Is the Marquis well?"
"How well could he be?"
Having staked his own authority on moving the army only to be defeated, no marquis could walk away unscathed. The man had withdrawn into seclusion, refusing even an audience with the Emperor.
Marco's face darkened.
"So why are you here?"
"I've offered my sword to raise his ransom."
Kaenerna nodded. It was a perfectly ordinary arrangement, as such things went among knights.
"Um... if I ever return home, would you tell him I'm sorry..."
"For what?"
"The defeat... it was because of me..."
Kaenerna let out a low laugh.
"The Marquis doesn't even remember you exist."
"......"
"Don't make that face. I don't mean it as an insult. But Marquis Crucho is truly not a man worth remembering for you. Every other knight ran — why do you suppose you alone were captured? Have you ever stopped to wonder about that?"
"To stand and fight when one's sworn lord is in peril is a knight's..."
"Yes, yes. An honor, a privilege, and a duty, I know. In fact, no — you needn't say it again."
Kaenerna waved a hand as if she'd heard it all before.
"But if every other knight fled and you alone were taken, something there doesn't add up. I'll say no more. Just remember this: Marquis Crucho is not a man worth such devotion."
Telling the truth to a young knight was always a pleasure. A puppet freshly re-strung made for such satisfying play.
Kaenerna delighted in steering people to suit her own interests.
Just then, Johan called to her from across the camp.
'If only that man were half as easy to handle as the bastard.'
Several days of travel together, and Johan remained a puzzle. For Kaenerna, who could read people like open books, it was a rare experience.
"Kaenerna. Just the person I wanted."
"What do you want?"
"Would you light this fire for me?"
"......"
For an instant, Kaenerna wondered if Johan had called her over just to insult her.
But there was no discernible malice on his face.
Suetleug, seated beside him, spoke up.
"That was my fault. My apologies."
"?"
"I mentioned that a mage's flame is more potent and wondrous than ordinary fire. When he heard that, he seemed curious."
"...I can read your future, if you like..."
"No, no divinations, thank you. A fire, if you'd be so kind."
Johan held out his stripped armor and a dagger. He could have handed the chore to a servant, but unless the matter was urgent, Johan preferred to do things himself.
With an expression caught somewhere between a dozen emotions, Kaenerna lit the fire.
"Oh. Impressive."
Kaenerna and Suetleug exchanged a glance. The exchange translated roughly to: he marvels at that? Disgusting. — I understand completely.
"Off you go, then."
"......"
Kaenerna turned and walked back. Once she was gone, Suetleug spoke up carefully.
"Hmm. I did tell you to handle it as you saw fit, but..."
"?"
"Do try not to treat her so roughly."
"Er, I wasn't planning to kill her."
"There are more attitudes in this world than murderous and kind! There's a whole spectrum in between, you know!"
From Johan's standpoint, the complaint made no sense.
Kaenerna was the Emperor's woman, yet Johan hadn't laid a finger on her. He'd offered her no particular insult in her treatment, set no guard over her, and seated her at meals with the same fine food and drink as the nobles of the company.
"Sometimes, Johan, a single slight wounds a mage more deeply than a hundred insults."
"?"
"...Ugh. What I mean is — just show her a little attention. You were interested in my magic when we first met, weren't you?"
"Ah, that's right. You were losing at daeguk, Lady Suetleug. Wasn't it manban, in the end?"
Suetleug flushed at Johan's razor memory.
"You have no interest in Kaenerna's magic at all?"
"I already received her advice on channeling spirits, and the flame-handling spells do intrigue me, but..."
"Then call her over and ask!"
"She's someone I'd rather not be alone with, given the chance. Don't you find that suspicious at all?"
"......"
Put that way, there was nothing to be said.
What could one answer to a man who simply declared it suspicious?
And in truth, Kaenerna was a suspicious person. Given the shallowness of her loyalty, Johan's wariness made perfect sense.
-Grrrrrowl!
"!"
Suddenly Karamaph's fur bristled and the beast began to growl. Night had fallen past evening, and the plain around them lay pitch-black without a single light — only the campfire's glow rippled against the dark.
"What is it?"
"Stay alert, all of you. Wake up, everyone! Prepare for an attack!"
Johan's thunderous voice roused the camp. At the sudden shout, the mercenaries scrambled up from their bedrolls.
The surrounding country was nothing but flat, open plain without a single hill. Ambushes were rare in such terrain, which was exactly why the mercenaries were thrown. What kind of fool would come charging across this darkness?
"Light the fires! Get your armor on!"
"Crossbowmen to the perimeter!"
Kaenerna, who had been tending the fire before returning to her tent, marveled. Not at the mercenaries' competence — though competent they were, soldiers of this caliber could be found anywhere.
What astonished her was that they were moving without a shred of doubt.
In the dead of night, against enemies neither seen nor heard, not one man hesitated before acting. That could only mean one thing:
Johan held these people in the palm of his hand.
The more seasoned the mercenary, the more inclined to judge for himself — and even they moved on his word alone.
"Karamaph. Where are they coming from?"
-Grrr.
The wolf turned its head, marking a direction. Johan stared hard into the darkness. Something with the killing intent of a beast was drawing near.
Johan drew his bow and nocked an arrow. The bowstring bent back to the point of snapping; the shaft trembled. Even amid the surrounding blackness, the arrowhead seemed to darken with a shadow of its own.
"Balkalmur!"
The malevolent spirit stirs — the thrown arrow drinks the shadow-demon's curse, seeking its prey with unerring malice.
In that instant, the demon spirit answered Johan's cry and laid its curse upon the arrow. The released shaft tore through the air with a vicious, hungry shriek.
'Did it hit?!'
Hitting something he couldn't even see — the shock struck the shooter harder than anyone.
A beast's howl burst from the darkness. A few of the veteran mercenaries heard it and understood at once what they were facing.
"Ah, shit... Werewolves!"
"Werewolves! On your feet, you dolts! If you don't want to die, get out here NOW!"
"Goddamn the East. Who the hell lets werewolves roam a bloody plain?!"
Johan nocked another arrow in a flash. Unlike him, the creatures had superb night vision. One werewolf, realizing Johan's bow was trained on it, tore across the ground in a blur and lunged.
-Krrrungh!
Karamaph exploded with raw wildness, jaws clamping onto the creature's throat and tearing. Enraged, the werewolf raked out with its claws — but Karamaph had already put the distance between them.
"Good work, Karamaph."
Johan's mace came around in a full sweep, and the sound of a werewolf's skull caving in split the night.