Chapter 112 - Deploy at Once

For only a single instant.

'I saw it.'

The way to catch the Frog, the way to kill him, the path to victory.

Letters had been carved into the signpost, and a road had appeared before his eyes.

Would this not become another satisfying today?

He had rested fully for a day to keep himself in perfect condition for the today he would repeat.

Now all he had to do was die and start today again.

But the Frog's blade did not come down.

The killing intent and fighting spirit remained the same.

Yet the blade did not move.

As if someone had grabbed hold of it, it stopped dead in midair.

RUMBLE.

The Frog only repeated the motion of puffing out his cheeks and letting them sink back down.

'Why?'

The Frog's gaze, invisible to Encrid's eyes, was fixed behind the human who had cut off his arm.

There stood a panther with eyes that seemed to hold a deep blue lake.

A lake panther.

In some regions, they were treated as spirit beasts, and at times even revered like guardian deities.

But the Frog was not a species that cared about such things.

To them, a beast was only a beast.

In other words, he had not stopped just because a mere lake panther was glaring at him.

'This is fucking annoying.'

The Frog cursed inwardly.

Instead of sweating, his smooth skin secreted a similar kind of mucus.

It was a physical change Frogs showed when they were tense.

The Frog with the white scar on his neck had plenty of experience, and among those experiences were quite a few encounters with magicians.

Magicians, those bizarre beings who manifested the world of spells into reality.

Things that were nothing but troublesome to deal with.

He could feel that kind of aura from the lake panther's black skin and from around her eyes.

Countless experiences, traces of mana visible through the eyes of a talent appraiser.

That panther herself either used the world of spells, or was at least something connected to it.

The Frog sensed it by instinct.

If he brought his sword down now, he could kill this man.

'But I would have to stake my life too, is that it?'

Nor was the spell-using panther the only problem.

The human sitting before him was no easy opponent either.

After aiming constantly for his heart, he had swung his sword at his arm?

That final move he had shown.

The sword, the blade, the will, the fighting spirit that had run along the Frog's broad blade.

It had not been a simple motion.

He had moved his foot, put his weight into it, and for an instant, shown a level of power similar to the Frog's own strength.

Compared to him, the human had a small build.

Then there was only one conclusion.

The quality of his muscles was extraordinary.

On top of that.

'Those damn eyes.'

The light in his eyes had not died.

Even now, the eyes aimed at him still held the same fighting spirit.

How could he be like that when he had no chance of victory at all?

He seemed like a human forged entirely from those two letters: will.

It felt as though he was looking at something that would never break, no matter what happened.

He did not look as if he believed in the magic-wielding panther standing behind him.

He simply burned with pure fighting spirit.

'Crazy bastard.'

RUMBLE.

The Frog's cheeks puffed up more than ever.

Because he did not like this situation one bit.

He had to think about it differently.

Was this a bastard he had to risk his life to kill here?

Or should he wait for another day?

If possible, he wanted to kill him.

He was the sort of human who ought to die.

But if his own life was placed on the opposite side of the scale?

He had to think differently.

The eyes of the talent appraiser examined Encrid.

He calculated carefully.

Fighting when he wanted to fight, eating when he wanted to eat, and loving when he wanted to love were the Frog's specialty, but...

His own life was on the line, and as someone already bound to one place, he also had obligations.

Did he have to risk his life and ignore his duties just to kill him?

The weight of the scale tilted to one side.

There was no need to think any further.

Because this city, the frontier fortress city called Border Guard, was not all that important.

Soon, the Frog's cheeks deflated.

The blade that had looked ready to come down at any moment also lowered again.

His fighting spirit faded.

'His limit.'

That was the Frog's judgment.

He thought it would be difficult for the human before him to become more skilled than he was now.

The quality of his muscles was good, and the strength that had matched a Frog's for even an instant was good too.

His swordsmanship and personal tactics were also excellent, and his unbreakable heart truly felt like a creature the Frog had never seen before in his life.

Even so.

The Frog knew by instinct.

'Half of it was luck.'

His arm had been cut by that final move, but he had also smashed the other man's right wrist.

That meant the trick his opponent had pulled had relied on luck.

If they met again, he would be able to kill him.

As long as they met, he could do it.

"Do not forget it.

Human, my name is Merlune."

That was the end of it.

His fighting spirit vanished as if washed clean, and the Frog stepped back.

Merlune met Esther's gaze behind Encrid.

'I'm just leaving, so you back off too.'

He sent out a look with that meaning.

Esther did not react.

She merely watched him silently with her lake-like eyes.

Merlune picked up his cloak sprawled on the floor and stepped back.

The Frog leisurely walked out of the mansion, and no one stopped him.

A few guild members did watch for an opportunity, but...

"Don't test your luck.

Everyone move aside.

Our guest is leaving."

Krais stopped them.

Even with one arm unusable, a Frog was still a Frog.

And so, the Frog left.

* * *

Thanks to the grimoire Encrid had brought her, Esther had found a shortcut to undo the shackles placed on her body.

She could not return to human form right away, but even in the body of a panther, she could manifest part of the world of spells.

'Of course, it will be a struggle every time I do it.'

She would have to use the mana she had gathered as well.

Part of her world of spells might even be contaminated.

It was a method found in the grimoire of a crazy bastard who used corpses to build his own world of spells.

It was a shortcut among shortcuts.

Still.

'I'll use it someday.'

It would be useful to know.

So she had made it part of herself.

And that someday could have been now.

After feigning stillness, Esther revealed her presence.

She made the Frog conscious of the fact that she was a magician.

If you bring that blade down before my eyes, I too will drive something into your heart.

What was will?

Will could also become mana.

For one instant, Esther made herself appear not as a panther, but as the magician Esther.

That was the result.

The fellow called Merlune or Moron or whatever had backed down.

If Esther's own body had been intact, it might have been different.

But in her current state, even if she and Encrid attacked with full resolve, their chances of winning were fifty-fifty.

That was the conclusion she had reached after weighing everything.

So the reason their opponent had withdrawn now.

'Luck.'

That was the only way she could judge it.

Had Encrid's skills changed beyond recognition?

She had been surprised.

Esther had been very surprised too.

But that was not enough reason for the Frog to withdraw.

Of course, before calling it luck, the situation had twisted.

The one who had created that was the man who had come to stay by her side because of her own need.

'The left arm.'

Not the heart, but the arm.

If he had kept aiming for the heart and then backed down, that bastard would have kept holding out too.

But he had cut his left arm halfway through.

At that point, cutting it off and growing a new one might be faster than reattaching it.

He was a swordsman who had lost one arm.

He had become someone they could try to deal with.

'Damn it.'

How had things ended up like this?

Esther sighed and lightly smacked the back of the man who had nearly made her blow through all the mana she had accumulated in a single moment.

Why was this bastard not getting up?

"Esth, urgh!"

It seemed Encrid had only barely been holding on as well.

He started retching.

Esther hopped back.

Krais approached.

"Are you all right?

No, but, uh, what about finding Ragna?

You understood what I said, right?"

"Hoo."

Perhaps vomiting once had settled his stomach a little, because Encrid lifted his upper body and spoke.

"You skipped deployment and holed up here for six days, and you don't even know where the squad went?

Are you really a bastard who deals in information?

You?"

His tone was not scolding.

It was a calm voice.

"Huh?"

Only then did Krais realize what he had missed.

Now that he thought about it, squad members were faces he saw whenever he went back.

He had heard they had deployed, but who would take the squad members without Encrid?

Unless the commander wanted a hole in the back of his head, anyway.

A superior-killer, a lazy bastard with no sense of direction, a soldier who disappeared at the drop of a hat without answering, and even a religious nut who supposedly could not fight without his god's permission.

No, who would take a group of oddballs like that?

He had naturally assumed they would remain with the unit and wait for their Squad Leader.

He had been wrong.

"They're gone.

All of them deployed."

"That's unexpected.

Then it's just Esther and you, Squad Leader?"

"Yes."

Krais slipped his hands under Encrid's armpits and helped him up.

"Are you badly hurt?"

"Aside from my right hand, well, I would say it's a reasonable amount."

As he answered, Encrid thought his body was in better condition than expected.

What came to mind afterward was a question.

'Why did he just leave?'

One slash would certainly have killed him.

Both him and Krais.

'Why?'

Encrid's gaze reached the panther, Esther.

*'What did you do?

Really?

Against a Frog?' *

He was fully feeling the weight carried by the two letters, Frog.

What could that small, young panther have done?

He did not know.

He truly could not understand it.

"Meow."

Feeling his gaze, Esther opened her mouth as if scolding him.

It seemed to say, how could he collapse from only that much?

Encrid caught his breath and sorted out his thoughts.

'I don't know.'

Would holding onto something he did not know produce an answer?

Of course not.

He knew that from experience.

What he did not know, he did not know.

Instead, Encrid decided to be satisfied with having gained experience for tomorrow and the driving force to keep walking.

'It worked.'

How should he put it?

For one instant, he had felt something like overpowering the Frog.

He had drawn the Frog into the board he had laid and cut him.

He had cut his arm.

Not his heart, but his arm.

It would regenerate.

It would regenerate.

But surely not while he was fighting Encrid.

If he had only avoided the attack that aimed for his right wrist at the end.

'If I had.'

The course of the fight would have changed.

This review would teach him many things.

Thinking that, Encrid headed toward his lodging.

Krais supported him, and instead of leaping into his arms, Esther glanced back and followed along at his side.

That was how they arrived at the lodging and were just about to go in and rest.

"Where have you been!"

It was the 2nd Company Commander.

The superior of Platoon Commander Vengeance.

He must have been looking for Encrid, because sweat soaked his forehead.

What kind of Company Commander ran around in person like a messenger?

As Encrid was thinking that and about to offer a military salute...

"At once!

Deploy."

The Company Commander spoke first.

"I'm a little injured."

If he had the leisure, he wanted to rest for another day or two before going.

On the battlefield itself, the presence or absence of one man would not make a big difference.

He was one platoon commander-level soldier who had only recently returned.

Depending on how one looked at it, he thought they might make an allowance for him.

"What?

How did that happen?"

He should already know that Encrid had returned fine during the operation.

"I got into trouble with some thugs."

"What are you doing at a time like this?"

The Company Commander scolded him, but shook his head as if there was no helping it.

"What we need right now is not your swordsmanship, Platoon Commander, so if you can move, I request that you go at once."

The Company Commander did not force him.

This was practically closer to a request.

To Encrid's ears, that sounded like something had happened at the front.

'Why?'

Encrid had not even heard how the battlefield was moving yet.

As soon as he had returned, he had spent a day doing nothing but resting.

And today, the next day, he was on his way back after a round of sword fighting with a Frog.

"Ranger Pin has agreed to accompany you.

Can you depart at once?"

"What happened that makes it so urgent?"

Krais, who had been listening quietly, voiced his question.

They were acquainted.

The Company Commander opened his mouth easily.

"They said they won't fight anymore unless we bring their Platoon Commander..."

The Company Commander trailed off, but Encrid understood immediately.

"You mean my platoon members?"

"You could consider this a deployment to persuade them.

A request came in saying you may rest in the rear, so long as you remain on the battlefield.

It is a request from your direct Company Commander."

It seemed he had to go.

There did not seem to be time to rest just because his wrist was creaking a little.

It was not as if he could not hold a sword at all.

'Rem.'

Encrid too became worried as soon as he heard the story.

He could hear about the battlefield situation on the way.

He only needed to apply some medicine to a few scrapes before leaving.

"Yes."

Encrid gave a military salute.

It meant he would depart immediately.