Chapter 113 - Yeah, I'm here.

"Today's quota is done."

It was the third day since they sortied.

It began as a close-quarters melee sparked by a light provocation.

Rem had gone out to the battlefield for three days straight, and he returned looking exactly the same.

Flicking the axes in both of his hands toward the ground, scattering blood.

Whenever Rem stepped out, he returned after killing exactly three guys. His exhilarating axe swings made those three look like something akin to firewood.

Living firewood that spilled out brains and guts when split apart.

The moment the allied and enemy forces clashed at the start, he would slice, chop, pop heads in an instant, and return.

If a commander didn't salivate at the sight of this, they should throw away their badge.

At the very least, he was a talent that anyone with eyes to see wouldn't want to miss.

And Rem wasn't the only one like this.

"I'm fine on my own, so why do they keep attaching soldiers to me?"

The soldier named Ragna, who dragged his feet as if bored out of his mind, was the same.

At first, he hadn't stood out at all.

He would half-heartedly fight every time.

He would hold out just enough and then return. Unless someone came at him, he didn't exactly risk his life fighting.

'What a waste of his skills.'

The Fairy Company Commander was one of the people who recognized Ragna's skills.

She had just left him be.

Then one day, he apparently got lost on his own while they were moving across the battlefield.

'How do you get lost here?'

Did they go around the mountain range, or sneak across the river to raid the enemy's main base?

All they had done was pull the main base back.

Regardless, the soldier named Ragna seemed to have accidentally wandered toward the enemy camp, which essentially meant he was a dead man, but...

He returned perfectly fine.

And leisurely at that, holding an enemy commander's severed head.

"Ah, I just felt like going left back there."

That was the remark he casually spat out upon returning. The enemy commander's head dangling from his fingertips was just a bonus.

"You got lost?"

Nod.

The Fairy Company Commander asked, and she heard his answer. That was all.

From the start, she had zero intention of forcing them to do anything when bringing them along.

They were the ones she had brought in under such conditions.

"Fill the void left by your Platoon Commander."

To them, the name Encrid was synonymous with magic.

"No, the higher-ups sent him away, so why are you telling us to fill the void?"

"If you slack off, it will seem like Encrid ordered you to do so. Are you going to cause trouble for him?"

She didn't even say much, yet the people who hadn't even snorted at the order to sortie began packing their bags.

"Three a day, I'll do exactly that much."

That was Rem.

"Let's do that."

That was Ragna.

Jaxon quietly nodded.

"According to God's calling."

Even the religious zealot Audin moved.

Andrew, Mac, and Henri were naturally people who had to do what they were told, so it went without saying.

The guy named Krais had requested leave and was currently absent.

Andrew, with a dark bruise on one eye, actually seemed to welcome heading to the battlefield.

The same went for Mac right beside him, who had a dark bruise on the opposite eye.

"The battlefield, a fight, we sortie!"

They showed such obvious joy the moment they heard the Company Commander's orders.

"You like it? You shouldn't like it."

Looking at the two of them, Rem grinned. In that smile, the Fairy Company Commander briefly saw a demon.

But in the blink of an eye, it quickly vanished.

These were the people she had brought along.

The skills of those named Jaxon and Audin were also similar to the other two.

The guy named Jaxon only pretended to work moderately hard, yet the enemy soldiers who blocked his path couldn't even leave a scratch on him.

"Why aren't you getting hit, pant pant, just you wait."

An enemy soldier finally spat out such words, but Jaxon didn't even answer. He treated it like a passing dog barking.

He often returned just like that, without killing the enemy soldiers or getting hurt himself.

Audin had stepped onto the battlefield exactly once so far, and as soon as he appeared, he snapped an opponent's forearm with his bare hands.

Those who witnessed the sight firsthand said their fine hairs stood on end even though they were allies.

An arm breaking? What was so great about that?

However, what did it mean to carefully grab an opponent's wrist and snap it cleanly like breaking a thin twig?

It was a sight that made people wonder if that was even human strength.

"Fuck, don't come any closer, stay away!"

How would that look to the enemy soldiers?

When even their allies found it eerie.

The soldier named Audin drew everyone's attention by his existence alone.

Though smaller than a giant, he had a brutal build with a height two heads taller than regular soldiers and broad shoulders.

With this, how could he not stand out?

'There aren't even ten of them, yet their combat power...'

How should she say this... it felt like the number of skilled people similar to herself had multiplied tenfold.

Merely calling them excellent wasn't enough to describe them.

If used well, they were a move that could torment the opponent far beyond their numbers.

'This must be the reason.'

This had to be the reason why they had survived until now despite causing all sorts of incidents, accidents, and trouble.

Because she had brought them, the Fairy Company Commander took responsibility and watched over them.

Exactly this much.

This was the fight they permitted.

Then, what would happen if someone demanded more than they permitted?

"You undisciplined punks, where do you think you're retreating to early?"

It was a clueless soldier at the level of a Platoon Commander. He was also a commander who had recently joined.

He didn't know them. Neither the troublemaker squad, nor Rem who was famous for assaulting a superior, nor Audin who didn't hesitate to separate flesh from bone if it was God's teachings.

Nor Jaxon, who silently emitted killing intent.

Ragna, well, he was a guy who rarely got up from his seat anyway.

The one who blocked the path of that clueless Platoon Commander was Andrew.

Rem's mood was already looking very foul.

'If I leave this be, there will be blood.'

It would be a relief if it just ended with seeing blood. He might split the head of anyone who came at him with his axe.

"We belong to the Independent Platoon. Therefore, our operational command lies with our direct superior."

Andrew had experienced military life for a while now. He countered by the book.

"What? So you're going to just sit in the back and watch?"

The newly appointed Platoon Commander couldn't accept this.

They fight half-heartedly, retreat whenever they feel like it, and laze around in the barracks? Some people risk their lives fighting while others just play around?

Have they all lost their fucking minds?

Independent Platoon or whatever, as a superior, he couldn't just stand by and watch this.

In the man's demeanor, Andrew saw his past self, back when he used to look down on Encrid.

Back then, he had been a clueless retard.

"Sigh."

Letting out a sigh, Andrew looked up at the sky once and lowered his head. An aloof man who had given up on something stood there.

"My name is Andrew Gardner, the eldest son of House Gardner. This is a unit that a noble belongs to. Just piss off."

It was a statement he didn't even mean. His expression was aloof and exhausted. It was hard to call this the expression of an arrogant noble.

Andrew simply couldn't afford to care about his expression.

Mac silently approached and patted his back, as if offering encouragement.

"F-Fuck, is being a noble everything?"

The Platoon Commander, sensing the strange atmosphere, twitched his lips and opened his mouth.

"Hmm, I really should take a look at his guts."

When Rem reacted to those words...

Andrew requested a duel with the man. As Andrew proceeded to beat the Platoon Commander down, there was no need for Rem to swing his axe.

Instead, only Andrew himself got chewed out thoroughly.

"Noble or whatever, this is the military."

The Fairy Company Commander approached and scolded Andrew.

"I will reflect on my actions."

As she spoke, the Fairy Company Commander patted his shoulder. She scolded him with her words but comforted him with her hand, letting him know that she understood and it was okay.

Encrid's Independent Platoon.

It was no exaggeration to say that Andrew was the primary contributor to keeping these guys, who were now called the Lunatics Platoon, from causing trouble.

He quelled Rem's murderous urges by frequently becoming his sparring partner.

And he occasionally dealt with the clueless fools who picked fights with them.

Thanks to that, the morale within the unit was a total mess.

A part of the reason lay with the Lunatics Platoon.

Of course, there were plenty of other reasons as well.

The area where the 1st Infantry was currently stationed lay northeast of the Border Guard.

It was a gravel field with the Penn-Hanil River to the left and a few small hills that could be crossed in a day extending to the right.

Grass crept up in patches across the gravel field, and near the riverbank, weeds that grew up to an adult's waist could occasionally be seen.

On the Green Pearl Plains, a portion of the knight order and the main forces had sortied and were currently facing off against the enemy's main body.

The role of the Border Guard's 1st Infantry was to block the enemy forces here.

They served as a wall to block any flanking maneuvers or the deployment of enemy detachments entirely.

In a way, they were a force whose fate would be decided by the outcome of the main battle.

If their allies made a move first, they would deploy a portion of the knights here to sweep the enemy away.

If the opposite happened, they might have to face the enemy's knights without any knights of their own.

That was certainly how it was at first.

But as both sides cautiously gauged each other, this battle somehow turned into the preliminary skirmish and the vanguard clash.

An infantry battalion and one independent company.

The combat power and conditions were the same.

With both main camps stationed on the Green Pearl Plains, they were closely monitoring this battlefield.

So far, the Naurilia army had been pushed back every time.

There were rumors that a giant soldier had appeared among the enemy forces.

A few enemy soldiers stood out, provoking anyone who thought they could fight better than them to step forward.

All of this shook the allies' morale.

In this situation, they needed a variable.

A variable to seize the victory.

Such a variable caught the Battalion Commander's eye.

The Lunatics Platoon, they were absolutely the most eye-catching bunch, were they not?

"We just need them to fight properly. Do they have any demands? It looks like they'll all bounce back if we try to force them."

The Battalion Commander was wise. He recognized the state of the Lunatics Platoon at a glance.

The Fairy Company Commander had somehow managed to bring them, but they were an uncontrollable force.

He would suppress them with force if necessary, but now was not the time.

'We haven't lost yet, either.'

The battle had only just begun.

Battalion Commander Marcus was a Warmonger, not a fool.

If he could persuade them reasonably rather than forcing them, the soldiers' morale would increase several times over.

"They need their Platoon Commander."

The Fairy Company Commander answered, and the Battalion Commander gave his permission.

"Bring him here."

That was all.

The Company Commander gave a military salute and turned around.

This morning, Rem had declared it like a proclamation.

"Bring our Platoon Commander here. Fighting without even knowing if that man is dead or alive just kills the mood."

It sounded like a threat to stop killing three men a day if he wasn't brought over.

A swift-footed recon messenger was immediately dispatched.

Three days after the messenger departed.

Platoon Commander Encrid stood before the Company Commander.

She had just brought the Lunatics Platoon all the way to the rear to welcome Encrid.

Thanks to that, they were able to meet after only three days.

"Shouldn't you have returned immediately after coming back? Did you not miss me?"

Facing Encrid, the Company Commander threw a fairy-style joke.

Seeing Encrid's expression crumple, she felt satisfied.

Looking at that scowling face finally eased the frustration in her chest that she had felt while watching Encrid's ridiculously disobedient Lunatics Platoon members.

'Meatheads.'

The Company Commander's gaze landed on Encrid's right wrist.

"An injury?"

"I got into a fight with a thug in the city."

"Was that thug a Frog or something?"

At those words, Krais and Esther, who had come with him, shot their gazes at the Company Commander.

Only Encrid remained calm. Since this was likely another joke.

"It's not a major injury."

His wrist wasn't broken. There was some damage to the bone, but it wasn't to the point where he couldn't hold and swing a sword.

It required treatment, but it wasn't a fatal wound. It was worth all the effort he had put into training his wrist with the isolation technique.

"Anyway, welcome to the unit."

The green-eyed Company Commander said.

Encrid gave a military salute. At his salute, the fairy also nodded her head.

"Then, get going."

Encrid immediately headed to where his platoon members were gathered.

He had wanted to hurry over there anyway.

They caused trouble even when he was with them, but the scale of the trouble they caused when he was absent was on a whole other level.

* * *

'Should I quit.'

At first, a clueless Platoon Commander had at least picked fights with them.

Now there wasn't even anyone like that.

Toying with Andrew was also getting pretty boring by now.

'I don't really need to be here either.'

Then he could just leave.

Rem thought it was about time to consider discharging.

He wasn't thinking of an honorable discharge like other people.

Well, he could just disappear without a trace.

It was a thought that came to him the longer he was separated from Encrid.

'If he doesn't come today, I'm leaving.'

And yet, Rem repeated the days. It was a tedious and utterly meaningless time.

Days where even going out to fight on the battlefield couldn't spark his interest.

"Die!"

Tedious. So tedious.

If you're going to kill me, just thrust your spear quickly—why open your mouth?

Not even realizing that the tip of the spear was shaking because he lost his breath.

Rem swung his axe vertically.

The axe blade struck the spearhead.

CLANG!

"Ghk!"

With just that one strike, the enemy soldier's grip tore, and he dropped his spear. Dropping your weapon in the middle of a fight on the battlefield?

This bastard wasn't even a fraction of a fraction of the Platoon Commander. No, even comparing them was a sin. A sin.

CRACK!

His axe split the enemy soldier's head. It was still a boring task.

Killing three men and returning just like that. In this repeating cycle harmonized by boredom and tedium, the thought of quitting suddenly sprang up in Rem's mind. This place was losing its meaning to him.

Now that they had even moved to the rear, there were no more battles. There was absolutely nothing to do.

Ragna was in a similar state.

More than anything, he lacked motivation.

'Did he die?'

Otherwise, why was there no news.

Without the Platoon Commander, he had reverted to how he used to be.

He simply couldn't muster any motivation. Misery? It was too bothersome to even feel that.

Ragna half-assed everything and spent his time doing nothing.

Except for the one time he got lost and slaughtered over a dozen enemy soldiers, he did absolutely nothing.

Audin offered a prayer to God and asked.

'Is it time for me to return?'

Audin's master answered as always. By respecting his will through silence and muteness.

Since there was no answer, what mattered was Audin's own heart.

'Will I return, or will I not.'

Audin asked himself, and he had yet to answer.

Jaxon had chosen to join the military because he had a goal.

Since he had now roughly achieved that goal.

He could just leave. There was no need to waste time here.

Thinking about it coldly, that was true. An unnecessary task, a meaningless task.

A continuation of such days.

It was the height of inefficiency that he could never imagine normally.

Then why was he still staying here?

'Tonight.'

Jaxon made up his mind to leave.

Of course, he had been making the exact same resolve for three days straight now.

It was an ordinary day where each squad member spent their time in their own way.

The time when the sun went down and dark shadows began to fall over the surroundings.

Someone walked into the barracks, which had now earned the nickname the Lunatics Platoon.

"I've returned."

A calm remark.

It was the same as always.

Encrid had come back.

Everyone inside the barracks fell silent. While only gazes were quietly exchanged.

An unexpected person dashed forward first.

"Uwaaaah! Why, why, why so laaaate, whyyyyy, whyyyy are you so laaaaate!"

Andrew greeted him while pouring out tears.

His bruised eyes were proof of the sorrow he had endured.

His crying clearly conveyed his true feelings.

Upon seeing Andrew's face, Encrid couldn't help but burst into a chuckle.

"Why the hell is that guy faster than me? You're here?"

Rem's voice was heard from behind Andrew. Behind him stood Ragna, Audin, and Jaxon.

Even Mac and Henri were in a corner.

Everyone's gaze landed on Encrid.

"Yeah, I'm here."

It was his return report.