Chapter 114 - Because He Advanced Even by Crawling

The soldier who guided Encrid to his quarters quietly rubbed his eyes.

He felt as if he had seen something wrong.

'Is this right?'

It did not seem right.

It felt like something was wrong with his eyes.

The moment he saw the Platoon Commander, the soldier called Ragna rose from his seat.

'Why are you suddenly standing up?'

Ragna was the man called the lazy lunatic even among the lunatic platoon, because he almost never rose from his seat.

And that bastard had gotten up in one motion?

It was a sight that would make everyone who had watched him until now, especially those who had seen him recently, slap their thighs and spring to their feet.

'What the hell is wrong with him?'

He was the kind of bastard who startled the people around him just by standing up.

That son of a bitch.

Was he not that insane lazy bastard who would not listen no matter how many times people told him to get up, to go out, that enemy soldiers had charged in right before his eyes until their ears grew calluses?

"I am late."

Ragna tossed out the words, then picked up his sword.

"I should check whether you have regressed in the meantime..."

As if getting up was not enough, he suddenly asked for a spar?

And he was the one asking first?

Within the squad, harsh words were exchanged now and then, but he was a bastard who usually acted as if he had not heard a thing.

That bastard had proposed a spar.

He gripped his sword as if his body was itching and burned with eagerness.

Anyone could see he was in a posture that said he wanted to step forward and swing his sword right away.

"Have you lost your mind?"

Rem blocked the path of Ragna, the lazy lunatic.

"Didn't you know I'm always the first sparring partner? Ain't that right?"

What was wrong with this one now?

This one was the bastard simply called a lunatic.

In other words, the craziest bastard in this platoon.

A lunatic who swung his axes for no reason.

A lunatic who would be the first to have a fit if someone picked a fight.

That lunatic was smiling now.

It was not a smile mocking his opponent, nor was it a smile filled with killing intent.

It was a pure smile.

When it overlapped with his barbarian-like appearance, it even looked like an innocent smile.

"You hurt?"

On top of that, he was even worrying about someone else.

That insane barbarian knew how to worry about people for something other than splitting their heads open with an axe.

The soldier was one of the Battalion Commander's direct adjutants.

He had been assigned to guide the Platoon Commander named Encrid and, while at it, find out what sort of man he was.

But the scene before his eyes was far too strange.

"Doesn't seem broken."

That one was stepping forward too.

So that bastard did have a mouth.

They said there had been a time when he had acted friendly with most members of the unit.

Recently, however, he had become a lunatic soldier who did nothing but glare.

He spoke so little that the adjutant had thought he had cut his tongue off somewhere and eaten it.

Was his name Jaxon?

They called that bastard the clear-eyed lunatic.

He only stared straight at people, yet that clear gaze somehow made goosebumps prickle over their skin, which really made a man feel like shit.

"Did you apply medicine?"

It was strange enough that the clear-eyed lunatic, in other words, that bastard, was talking, but he even stepped forward and examined the wrist of the man called the Platoon Commander.

'This really feels like a dream.'

Why had these bastards changed so much?

Last was the holy lunatic.

The four of them were already notorious throughout the unit.

Each of them was said to be uniquely insane.

Among them, he was the most eye-catching.

His huge build brought a boulder to mind, but he walked around with a faint smile on his face.

Above all, unlike the other lunatics, he was kind.

Not that he listened well.

He was a member of the unit who, when seen praying at times, even seemed to have a halo shining behind him.

He was the insane son of a bitch who looked like he could chew up an entire enemy unit just by stepping forward and giving them a few taps, but said he could not fight because there had been no call from god.

In the adjutant's eyes, this bastard was the one who was truly insane.

A priest whose prayers are answered proves himself with divine power.

But this man did not use divine power.

Then what else could it be?

Unanswered prayers, meaning he was not a proper priest.

'What word of god?'

Every day, he looked for god and used that as an excuse to slip away.

If he had joined the army, was he not supposed to obey his superiors' orders?

No, if he was going to be like this, why the hell was he even here?

The holy lunatic opened his mouth with the same smile as always.

"Brother, your training was lacking. Have you been playing around all this time? You get hurt because you are usually lazy. Train. Train."

Whether he believed in god or not, the lunatic who had always been kind in everything harassed a man with a smiling face.

'The plain lunatic is grinning. The clear-eyed lunatic is glaring at his wrist with clear eyes. The lazy lunatic looks diligent. And the holy lunatic is harassing people?'

What was this?

Explaining this situation felt extremely, very, terribly goddamn awful.

There was only one man who could sort out all of this.

The adjutant's gaze turned to Encrid.

Whether the man beside him was watching or not, Encrid said only what he had to say.

"It isn't broken."

After saying that, he glanced around and continued.

"I just need a little rest. That's not the problem. What the hell have you been doing all this time? Why is it not the troublemaker platoon anymore, but the lunatic platoon?"

It had been eight days at most.

Why had troublemakers become lunatics in that time?

Encrid's question was reasonable.

And Rem answered proudly, as usual.

"I think it happened because the Platoon Commander wasn't here. It's all the Platoon Commander's fault. Anyway, that's how it is. It's all the Platoon Commander's fault."

The plain lunatic spouted crazy nonsense.

"So the spar?"

The lazy lunatic took that and ran with it.

"If you underestimate a minor injury, it will cause trouble at an important moment. Let us remove the bandage first. Lunatics, you say? Who says that? This is the first I have heard of it."

"I know nothing of this, Brother Platoon Leader."

Then the clear-eyed lunatic and the holy lunatic also gave answers full of personality.

The adjutant thought Encrid would scold them harshly.

A lunatic platoon.

No matter how absent their Captain had been, was that not a problem?

Above all, there was Andrew beside them, who had now stopped crying.

He was a platoon member with a blackened eye.

That eye was the very proof that there was trouble inside the platoon.

"Why is his eye like that?"

Sure enough, Encrid pressed them.

"I gave him a spar. For the sake of improving his skills."

At the plain lunatic's words,

"Hmm, that was well done."

he accepted it.

That was well done?

When a comrade's eye was blue?

Bright blue?

It was so swollen that his eyeball could barely be seen.

"I'm still not leaving. I'm staying under the Captain."

The moment the man named Andrew saw Platoon Commander Encrid, the air around him changed strangely too.

Usually, far from talking back, he only watched other people's moods, but now he looked as if he was openly defying them.

"Yeah, that's why I like you. Want to roll around once? Wait. I'll go play with our Platoon Commander a bit and come back."

One could tell just by looking at Rem's face.

He was smiling constantly.

It looked like a happy smile.

At least, that was how it looked in the adjutant's eyes.

After that, he waited for Encrid to harass the unit over the lunatic this and lunatic that.

"Go find out. Why he was summoned. Why that lucky fellow is needed."

The adjutant had volunteered to guide a mere Platoon Commander, and of course that had been the Battalion Commander's order.

So he had to report whatever this man did, and he waited for Encrid to take some kind of action.

But that was the end of it.

The clear-eyed lunatic removed the bandage.

A black panther that appeared from somewhere blinked its blue eyes and yawned.

MEOW.

Encrid stared straight at him.

Then the other members of the unit also turned their gazes toward the adjutant.

"Are you not leaving?"

Encrid asked.

It did not sound like an invitation to stay here with them and chat.

"Ah, yes. I'm leaving. Rest well."

The adjutant turned around.

After he left, Rem tilted his head and asked.

"Why did that thing follow you here? For days, all he did was keep rolling his eyes around."

"Eyes?"

"He kept staring. I thought he was asking me to kill him, so I was planning to give his head an axe decoration around tomorrow."

"You crazy son of a bitch, then that isn't assaulting a superior, it's murder."

"Is that so?"

He was probably not asking because he did not know.

Especially when he was grinning like that, he was definitely doing it while fully aware.

"Leave him be. Don't make trouble with a superior for nothing. Especially that man. He's directly under the Battalion Commander."

"If things go wrong, I can just leave the army."

Of course, that would not be a normal discharge.

Rem's discharge would be something like an escape from the army with two axes.

While Encrid and Rem went back and forth, Jaxon took out his ointment, knelt on one knee, and smeared it thickly over Encrid's wrist.

A tingling cold sensation spread through his wrist.

It was a strange feeling, cold, cool, and itchy.

It did not seem like ordinary medicine.

Was it because they had not seen each other in a while?

Why was he so eager to treat his injury?

In any case, Encrid said what he had to say.

"Let's live while playing along a bit with what the higher-ups say."

He had heard on the way why they had called him so urgently.

The battlefield situation was on the verge of going completely to shit, morale was falling, and there was a commotion inside the unit.

The nickname lunatic platoon was a nickname that proved the commotion.

If they cut off all their heads to raise the army's discipline, their skills were too valuable.

But if they endured it and tried to handle them, every single one of them seemed likely to cause an unbelievable amount of trouble.

'The Company Commander must have protected them too.'

The Fairy Company Commander.

He did not know what she was thinking, but knowingly or unknowingly, she tended to look after him and his unit members.

She had probably brought his platoon members here for a similar reason.

The moment their organization was changed to an Independent Platoon directly under the Company Commander, they would not step forward because their Captain was absent?

Encrid knew how big a problem that would seem.

That was why she must have brought them.

Separate from worrying about how she had brought them, Encrid understood that much.

Of course, Krais had also explained it to him the whole way here.

However, there was one problem they had overlooked.

'It's not like they listen just because I say it.'

Even when he stopped their fights, words did not work, so he had to shove his body between them.

They were not the kind of great men who would fight just because he told them to go out and fight.

It was the same now.

There was not a single one who so much as let Encrid's words brush their ears.

They all let it slide.

They had no intention of playing along with what the higher-ups said.

'What can I do?'

This was the troublemaker squad, the lunatic platoon.

After rewrapping the bandage, Jaxon lowered his eyes and said,

"You should not overdo it, but if you suffer later, that will also be your share to bear."

Even if he tried to stop him, he would not listen.

Jaxon took a step back.

"Yeah. The suffering is mine."

Once they had exchanged words up to that point, Krais, who had been standing behind them, finally opened his mouth.

"Am I invisible or something?"

"Hm? You came?"

"I did see you."

"You have arrived, Brother."

The three, excluding Jaxon, spoke one after another.

Jaxon only gave him a slight greeting with his eyes.

In any case, he had gotten entangled with Krais over various matters.

It was mostly a relationship of exchanging information, getting introduced to prostitutes, and selling medicine.

Krais knew well that he should not expect anything from them, so he was satisfied with this much.

After that came sparring time.

When they all poured out in front of the barracks, Henri finally acknowledged him.

"It was frightening even to speak to you. In a way, Lord Andrew stepping forward so suddenly is almost worthy of respect."

Henri's face was fine.

In one sense, that meant he knew how to conduct himself well.

'In another sense, it means this is exactly his limit.'

He had no friction with any of the unit members, but that also meant he had not been able to become close to any of them.

Encrid did not judge people carelessly.

Even so, he knew his unit members' eye for people.

The fact that none of them kept Henri at their side meant

they did not expect this man to do his part within the unit.

Even so, he did not spout nonsense like he should go home now,

or that it would be better if he left the army.

Who was he to say that?

Even though everyone had told him to quit and told him to give up, he himself was still holding a sword even now.

Yes, he had not given up.

Not once had he backed down.

He had advanced even by crawling.

That was the Encrid of today.

It was the result of crawling forward, even half a step at a time.

Even though his wrist had been ruined facing a Frog, he could show them.

Something that had changed.

Something he had built up all this time.

He felt he could do that even now.

Only to the extent that he did not strain his wrist.

That did not seem difficult.

"I said I'm first."

Rem stepped forward and swung his axe with a smile.

There were no words announcing the start.

Encrid also swung his sword to meet him.

Rem's arm bent like a whip, and the axe blade looked the same.

As if it stretched and curved.

Encrid's sword facing it also bent.

Because he swung it at high speed, afterimages remained, and the axe blade and sword blade met.

CLANG!

A single collision, one exchange.

That alone twisted Rem's lips upward.

"Look at this?"

Rem murmured, and the smile on his face deepened.

The sound of iron striking iron, the noise ringing out in the middle of the night, caused an uproar nearby.

"What is it?"

"The lunatic platoon again?"

"What is it today?"

Then, once they realized it was something happening in the lunatic platoon, the group of soldiers naturally became spectators and crowded around.

It was not them fighting among themselves as usual, but there was a new face, and that made for a good spectacle.

Of course, there were also people who knew that face.

Vengeance, for example, or Bell, who had fought alongside him on a previous battlefield.

There was also the Squad Leader who had sewn for Encrid, some members of the Border Guard, and even those who had faced Encrid in the promotion match.

CLANG CLANG CLANG.

Iron met iron, sparks flew, and noise burst out.

Everyone watched Rem and Encrid's spar for a while, and every one of them lost their words.

"W-Well, what is this?"

Someone's murmur spoke for all the spectators.

Encrid.

That Encrid.

Even if he had recently been promoted to an upper-grade soldier,

he was still an opponent whose skills had once been remarkably below their own.

He had even been an object of mockery and had been called the idiot Squad Leader.

That man

CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG!

swung, knocked away, and thrust his sword too fast to see, matching Rem's axes.

He was evenly matched with Rem, who had recently raised his name even higher as a lunatic by cutting down ten enemy soldiers, and who had even earned admiration from some of the allied troops.

At least, that was how it looked in their eyes.

That was not the end of it either.

"Let us continue the rest of the story later. There are many bastards waiting."

During the spar, Rem stopped.

After him came Ragna.

After him came Audin.

They took turns fighting Encrid, and Encrid was not easily pushed back by any of them.