Chapter 47 - Squire or Apprentice Knight

After the battle, the Fairy Company Commander learned that the medium for the spell had been a flag.

Then who had broken that flag?

When she traced the battlefield situation backward like that, the answer emerged.

'The troublemaker Squad Leader.'

That was why she was here.

It was something the Battalion Commander had not even paid attention to. He did not seem interested in who had broken the medium for the spell, either.

He thought some foolish spellcaster had simply failed.

In truth, there were many frauds among the continent's spellcasters, so that did sound reasonable.

Even if that were not the case, the Battalion Commander would have had a hard time keeping his wits about him right now.

After all, someone of even higher standing than his direct superior had come to the unit.

"What do you mean, sir?"

An answer came back to her question of whether it had been him.

"The spell, the flagpole, the medium."

With three short words, she said everything she wanted to say.

No one had asked him, that was all; Encrid had no intention of insisting he had not done what he had done.

"Yes. I did it."

"How?"

The short question came back.

"I picked up a spear like this and threw it."

"There were five decoys."

There had been six flagpoles in all, and only one had been real.

"I guessed."

"And that the flagpole was the medium?"

"I saw something while I was out scouting, and I also knew a bit about spells beforehand."

There was no hesitation in his answers. The fairy's sharp intuition did not judge that the other party was lying.

However, even without the fairy's intuition, it was clear that he had no intention of telling her everything honestly.

How should she put it?

It felt as if he had done it, but was reluctant to explain it in detail.

The Fairy Company Commander looked into Encrid's blue eyes, then nodded.

"Understood."

"Is that what you came to ask?"

"Yes. And to see your face while I was at it."

Then the Company Commander swallowed her words for a moment, took a brief breath, and spoke.

"It seems we are connected by fate."

Leaving those words behind, the Company Commander turned away. It was a statement with plenty of room for misunderstanding. Rem jabbed Encrid in the side as he stood frozen in absurd disbelief.

"What's your secret?"

"What?"

"Tell me the secret to seducing a fairy. I'll listen real careful."

"Impressive."

Ragna added a word as well.

"I don't think it's like that."

Encrid's looks were something Big-eyes acknowledged. Even without grooming himself separately, women sometimes approached him when he was in a city.

Naturally, he was not a virgin.

Nor was Encrid so naive or dense that he would mistake signals passing between men and women.

So the conversation just now had absolutely not been that. There had been no signals whatsoever.

If anything, only an uneasy feeling had been left behind.

And she was the superior of his direct superior, no less.

"You wouldn't have had time to meet separately either, ah, I get it. Was it then? When you were in the Medical Barracks? That's the only time!"

"I said it's not, you crazy bastard."

After that, Rem talked about the same subject for four hours.

Ragna went off for a nap halfway through.

Jaxon, who came in later, nodded meaninglessly and made Encrid feel at least a little better.

Big-eyes, who came in later, was about to babble something, but after hearing what Rem had said, he stuck close to Encrid's side and spoke.

"I'm telling you, stop rolling around on battlefields and run a noblewomen's salon with me."

"I'm not doing it, you crazy bastard."

Big-eyes said his dream was to save up a huge pile of money and open his own shop.

A noblewomen's salon, in other words, a shop where pretty-faced men spent time flirting with noble ladies, was apparently his dream.

He said he would open a shop and sell liquor and snacks too.

Since the purpose was clear, he had said people would come on their own even if he sold the liquor and snacks for several times the price, and had asked Encrid to do it with him.

It was a proposal he had not brought up often since he had nearly gotten beaten up after saying the same thing to Rem, and now it had come out again after a long time.

"Don't say that to me. I'll split it with my axe. Your head."

Rem said from behind him with a broad smile.

"Ah, I won't."

Big-eyes said in a voice like he was dying.

"He only pretends to be a barbarian at times like this."

Big-eyes grumbled quietly. He did not seem to have the courage to say it loudly.

No, if anything, this much meant he had remarkable courage. There was no way Rem had failed to hear what he had just muttered.

As Rem tried to glare, Big-eyes clapped his hands together.

"Ah, right! This is what I came rushing over to talk about, but I almost forgot because of the Squad Leader story."

Forgot, his ass.

He had just blurted it out before Rem could snap back.

Encrid knew it, but let himself be fooled.

Because any story other than the love story between the Company Commander and himself would have more value than the current topic.

"They're coming."

"Who?"

"Ah, they already arrived."

Big-eyes whispered. His expression was so serious that Encrid's head naturally leaned that way too.

"A squire from the knight order."

"... The Red Cape Knight Order?"

Encrid asked back.

"Yes."

The division Encrid and the others currently belonged to was named Cyprus.

That was also the name of a knight who belonged to the Red Cape Knight Order.

Usually, an army's name was taken from a knight, and that knight belonged to a knight order.

Of course, there were not many who deserved to be called knights.

Knights were possessors of talents uncommon even across the continent.

That was why the kingdom's knight orders were not made up only of knights.

Those who might become knights one day.

Squires who accompanied knights as attendants and disciples, or apprentice knights.

After their apprenticeship ended, if they were acknowledged by a knight, they soon became probationary knights. That was how the structure worked, and they would then serve with the knight order.

Normally, squires did not participate in battle apart from their knights. For such a person to have come to the battlefield now meant...

'A body soon to become a probationary knight.'

What was a knight?

According to one minstrel,

"To see a knight as the same as an ordinary person is a very, very mistaken idea. Yes, that's right. They are people who have gone beyond human limits, beyond a certain category. If not, how could they clash with the likes of Frogs?"

Knights were said to be beings who had surpassed human limits.

Then what was a probationary knight?

It referred to those who, before becoming knights, had the potential to become knights.

Probationary knights were experts in combat and fighting. If knights were those who had overcome human limits, then probationary knights were those who had reached those limits.

A squire who would soon become a probationary knight and serve with the knight order.

He wanted to see one. He was curious about their skill. The knight he wanted to become was not merely an honorable position.

In this era, knights were symbols of force. A part of that symbol had come here.

"You've got a look on your face like you're dying to see."

Rem said, looking at Encrid.

"Why wouldn't I?"

"They say the sortie preparations are already finished."

Big-eyes said.

"Did he come alone?"

Rem asked, crossing his arms. Big-eyes nodded.

"Yes, they said one was enough."

At those words, Encrid understood why their allies had not withdrawn.

'If Aspen prepared a spell...'

This side had made force their trump card.

Both Naurilia and Aspen.

They had placed variables into a place where tedious local skirmishes repeated every year.

'Were they intending to swallow up part of the plains with this?'

If the spell had worked properly, then whether a probationary knight or whatever else came, there would have been nothing for them to do.

But not now. The spell had been stopped, and conversely, their allies had seized victory.

If the squire had arrived just a day or two earlier, they would have intended to drive forward as they were.

'They are a bit late.'

At this point, the enemy army would have finished reorganizing too.

"Prepare to sortie! The entire army moves at once!"

Encrid cut off the thoughts that had continued after the sound from outside.

It was the Platoon Commander's voice.

Then the Platoon Commander suddenly stuck only his face into the tent.

"Hey, did you hear, uh, guess you did."

The Platoon Commander started to ask, then saw Krais and answered himself.

"Everyone is sortieing. They say we're taking this chance to push the Green Pearl Plains position up to the front."

"Are you supposed to announce the operation that openly?"

Encrid asked, looking at the Platoon Commander.

"There's nothing to hide. We're moving out right away, see? Are you going too?"

"I do want to watch."

Encrid raised his aching body. His injuries had not fully healed yet. Normally, he should have refrained from going to the battlefield, but...

"I'll stay beside him."

Krais raised his hand and spoke. He was a bastard who always looked after his own life well from the rear.

Encrid could stay beside him.

The Platoon Commander did not cherish Encrid like family. He was also fairly old, so there were many times when dealing with him felt burdensome.

Moreover, since Encrid was the Squad Leader commanding the troublemaker squad, they had clashed often.

Even so, Encrid's death weighed on him. He was a hard worker who swung his sword every day and did not let any moment pass idly, to the point that he sometimes drew frowns from those around him.

Watching a person like that become a corpse did not sit well with him at all.

"Take care of yourself."

The Platoon Commander said and left.

"If you want to go watch, then you should go."

Rem nodded. Ragna began rummaging around and preparing to deploy.

Jaxon belted on his sword and packed several throwing knives. It was equipment he usually did not even bother carrying.

"I'll be beside you."

Jaxon said.

"Beside me?"

Rem joked. Jaxon shook his head.

"You smell so gamey that even sharing the same barracks is difficult."

Rem was good at needling his opponent little by little, but Jaxon was also good at making someone's displeasure surge in a single blow.

"Squad Leader, I think I want to split that bastard's head before Aspen's. What do you think?"

"Hold it in. Let's just go watch. Aren't you curious how well the squire fights?"

"He'll fight damn well, I guess."

Rem answered and picked up his axes.

As Encrid lined up to sortie, limping, Vengeance approached.

"Are you mad to die?"

After the battle ended, Encrid had thanked him, and Vengeance had grumbled and come all the way to his barracks.

Then he had gotten excited all by himself, saying the debt was repaid, that this was enough, and that he felt relieved.

When Encrid asked what debt he meant,

"The fire at the Medical Barracks back then. You already forgot?"

"Of course not. How could I forget?"

He had forgotten. It was a side effect that came from repeating today so many times.

Even so, it was not something he could forget completely.

Krang, the assassin, and the fire.

The fire had been started by Encrid. Vengeance believed Encrid had saved him from nearly burning to death, but in truth, he had saved him from the assassin's hands.

'Saving him is saving him.'

A debt was a debt. If the other party found it easier to think that way.

Thanks to that, had he not run straight toward Encrid and saved him?

Looking at Vengeance, who glared at him on the battlefield as if asking why he had come here, Encrid opened his mouth.

"Who wants to die?"

"Then why are you out here?"

"Because I wanted to watch."

"What?"

"I heard a squire came."

"Ah, hey, don't step forward too much. I won't save you twice."

Vengeance said that and returned to his formation.

"Why's that bastard suddenly acting friendly? Wasn't he the one who used to pick fights with you all the time?"

Rem asked from beside him.

There had been a time like that. Vengeance had truly hated Encrid. How long ago had that been?

"He's not 'that bastard,' he's a Platoon Commander. After spending time around him, he turned out to be a decent person."

"Don't treat people too softly. If you get stabbed in the back later and start wheezing that it hurts, it'll be too late."

"You worry about yourself."

The unit formed up and moved out in an instant. Their lines were not arranged neatly. They began marching in a broad, spread-out radial formation.

At the head of the march, someone could be seen standing alone.

A red cape fluttered in the wind.

The one at the front could be seen walking steadily with the cape draped over them.

From the outside alone, the greatness of a squire, of a probationary knight, could not be glimpsed.

"Hmm, judging by the way they walk, they know what they're doing."

Rem said from beside him, arms crossed, frowning.

"It's more than a little. Their posture is set. Unless the other side has, say, a Frog or something, this will be a boring fight."

Ragna said as well.

Jaxon also threw his gaze forward. His eyes seemed to trace the back of the red cape.

Big-eyes, who was beside Encrid, brought up something else.

"Let's fall back to the rear now. We need to fall back now. Otherwise we'll get swept up."

Big-eyes was gauging the timing to retreat.

And at that moment, the red cape fluttered sharply. The cape rode the wind and flapped behind them. The owner of the cape dashed forward.

Encrid had to blink and confirm that what he was seeing was right.

Afterimages remained behind the person running at the front.

How fast did a person have to run for that to happen?

"Looks like they put will into their legs."

Ragna muttered as he watched.

Encrid did not understand what he meant, but he did not want to ask right now either.

It was time to shut his ears and focus.

Seeing the owner of the cape running, the startled enemy army shot arrows.

As if they had not separately deployed crossbowmen like before, a cluster of arrows flew in over their heads.

It seemed at least a hundred archers had pulled and released their bowstrings.

A rain of arrows poured down over the caped knight.

Instead of raising and swinging a sword, the squire accelerated.

BOOM!

The ground, the dirt, shot up like a fountain, and the owner of the cape was already almost upon the enemy army.

They had escaped the arrows' area of impact by running alone.

It was movement that had clearly gone beyond human limits.