Chapter 93

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The sun was setting at the far edge of the gently undulating fields of Heiden. As the ruddy glow of sunset faded, bonfires were lit throughout the camp.

The tents came in every shape, color, and size, from cones to tents with triangular cross sections.

A large campfire blazed at the center of the encampment, where adventurers soothed the weariness of the day with drink and women. Wherever people and money gathered, merchants inevitably followed, and it was they who supplied the entertainment.

One might wonder what the hell they were doing, coming here on a military operation and carrying on like this, but it was a common sight in military camps of this era. Not that this was an army, of course.

Ricard wasn't particularly fond of such diversions. Sitting alone in quiet contemplation or chatting with his friends usually gave him all the rest and satisfaction he needed.

Right now, however, sitting still was an ordeal. All because of Daisy.

Marie had disappeared inside the tent, while Volka, Boribori, and Ice stared blankly at the pair.

"Who did you say she was?" Volka asked, pointing at Daisy.

"Hello. My name is Daisy, and I'm Riki's wife. We married a long time ago, but unavoidable circumstances kept us apart for a while. Now we've found each other again."

Daisy greeted Ricard's friends with a bright smile. Having spent her childhood wandering and being pursued, she wasn't easily intimidated by unfamiliar places.

She might look like nothing more than a lovely, pure, innocent girl now, but her childhood had been tumultuous in its own right.

"Really?"

Boribori looked at Ricard for confirmation. Ricard shook his head.

"No. Absolutely not."

"Riki's just shy. We exchanged rings and promised ourselves to each other, didn't we, Riki?"

"Don't frame me."

Half dazed, Ricard was like a machine that did nothing but spit out replies.

"I thought I heard you were a member of the church," Ice said, looking at Daisy.

"That's right. But I wasn't very devout even when I joined. It was simply a good fit for my gift of foresight, so I spent a few years there."

"Foresight? Don't tell me..."

"Yes, I'm a Sister of Prophecy in the church. So apart from being bored, I didn't particularly..."

At the words "Sister of Prophecy," Ice started, then hastily shut his eyes and turned his head. He might have left the church, but its teachings were apparently so ingrained in him that he dared not look a Sister of Prophecy in the face.

Boribori studied the beautiful yet somehow strange girl before speaking.

"Ice, I think the answer to your problem is right here. Just do what Riki does. Don't turn away any woman who comes to you. Take them all."

"W-what? Bori, what are you talking about?"

Boribori's unexpected remark snapped Ricard out of his daze.

"That's just how it looks to me. For the record, I don't think there's anything wrong with it. That's your business, Riki."

Friends could be mirrors, too. Hearing that once-innocent boy address him in his own manner left Ricard speechless.

It wasn't as though he went around saying nasty things to people, but he suddenly found himself wondering whether he had really been that harsh.

"So what's the prophecy?" Volka asked.

Even Daisy, who was uncannily good at controlling her expression, looked a little somber.

"God will rise again. You can't win. Turn back while you still can. I'm taking Riki away, too."

Volka and Boribori didn't seem to believe her, but Ice stiffened in shock. This wasn't just anyone speaking. It was a Sister of Prophecy.

"Well, you all say the same thing."

Volka sounded unimpressed. Every member of the Church of Judgment endlessly harped on about God's coming resurrection.

Unfortunately, Daisy had no special information to offer. They weren't short on information now; they had more than they knew what to do with. The difficulty lay in picking out anything useful.

After the incident last autumn, the authorities in Nibelungen had hunted down church members, even hanging hundreds of people a day. Naturally, there had been torture as well.

The process had yielded an enormous amount of information, but sorting out what was useful and discarding the rest was no small task.

Helauman, the current commander-in-chief, knew where the church's sanctuary was, how to infiltrate it, what life was like inside, and how much fighting strength it possessed.

The question was what to do with that knowledge. Everyone knew a tiger lived in a tiger's den. The problem was how to go inside and catch it.

Simply charging in en masse wouldn't do. How should they divide their units? How should they organize the chain of command, and how would they make it work? How long could the operation last? All of these were thorny questions.

As a branch head and Clan Master, Volka had attended the planning meetings and knew about these difficulties.

He couldn't spare any thought for nonsense about prophecies. Boribori, too, considered prophecies absurd.

Boribori placed a hand on Ice's shoulder.

"If prophecies always came true, what would be the point of our living at all? Don't worry about it."

But Ice couldn't dismiss it so easily. Prophecy posed another dilemma for him as well. If prophecies were nonsense, then he couldn't trust Armand's words either.

"I feel sorry for Marie. I'm sure you'll sort things out, Riki, but give her some attention. I'll come by if there's anything else to pass along. Get some rest, everyone."

Volka tapped Ricard's chest with his fist and left.

That seemed to settle what was to be done with Daisy, more or less. To the adventurers, she was simply a useless church defector, nothing more.

During last year's frenzy of persecution and hunts for church members, they might have demanded her immediate hanging. But she knew Ricard, and they understood that she wasn't the issue that mattered now.

Their biggest headache was that they had only about a month for the operation. Without a separate supply unit, even a month would be pushing it.

They had to finish the campaign within that time. Worse still, some adventurers hadn't even arrived yet.

That was reality. Trying to gather people to accomplish anything brought all manner of problems to the surface.

Of course, that was for the command staff to sort out, not Ricard.

What he had to worry about was the precarious tightrope he was walking between Marie and Daisy.

"Daisy, go with him. He used to be in the church, too. You should have something to talk about."

Ricard pointed at Ice.

"I don't want to."

"Riki, I think you'd be better off leaving her with Marie and staying out of it."

"W-what are you saying, Bori?"

"Right now, going back and forth trying to comfort them both seems to be making things worse."

"You're supposed to be on my side..."

"What are you talking about? I'm always on your side. I just want everyone to get along."

When it came to relationships, Ricard tended to be oblivious, while Boribori was perceptive and sensitive.

But did that make him right? Leave Marie and Daisy together? Ricard couldn't bring himself to accept that.

Then a thought struck him: what were friends for? He grabbed Daisy by the shoulders, abruptly thrust her at Boribori and Ice, and bolted into the fields at dusk. He was running away.

A man with diseased lungs, frantically running for his life until he was out of breath. Boribori watched in disbelief as he caught Daisy before she could rush after him.

"Let go."

"Be patient for now, if only for Riki's sake. Stop forcing your feelings on him."

"And what if we're separated again?"

"What?"

"Have you ever spent years pining for one person, never knowing if you'd see them again?"

"No. But why should your circumstances be my concern? We were getting along just fine, and you're the one who disturbed the peace. Right now, you're an unwelcome outsider. Act accordingly. You can understand that much, can't you?"

His own people—his friends—mattered more to Boribori than anything in the world. Frankly, he disliked Daisy for threatening those bonds.

He must have learned a great deal. Gone was his old stammering uncertainty; he spoke with remarkable clarity.

Unable to watch any longer, Ice stepped in. He kept his eyes lowered, unable to face Daisy directly.

"Sister, allow me to escort you."

Perhaps Boribori's words had had some effect, because Daisy let Ice lead her away for the time being. That didn't mean she accepted what Boribori had said.

Marie was alone in the tent, Volka was busy, Daisy had been moved aside for now, and Ricard had fled.

Left all by himself, Boribori sighed and set off to find Ricard.

"Ugh..."

Once, Ricard had practically raised him. Now their roles seemed somewhat reversed.

But the hardest things to spot were often right under one's nose. Ricard hadn't actually run very far.

He had hidden behind a nearby tent to watch, only slipping back out when things seemed to have settled down. Even now, his deceptive tactics were superb.

Ricard lifted the flap of Marie's tent slightly and peered inside. Not even a candle was lit, and he could barely make out the dark interior.

As he craned his neck and darted his eyes this way and that, Boribori suddenly appeared behind him and gave him a hard shove.

Even superb deception could be seen through easily by someone familiar with it.

"Whoa!"

Ricard stumbled into the tent, his heart lurching. Then he spotted Marie with her face buried in a pillow and froze. She seemed to have been crying the whole time.

"M-Marie..."

He hardly dared approach her. Still, he cautiously sat beside the bed. Even offering comfort was difficult. He had no idea what to say.

"I didn't cheat on you... It happened ages ago... It was just playing around when we were kids..."

None of that was comforting. It was nothing more than excuses. Still, he did feel a little wronged. Honestly, it wasn't as though he'd done anything wrong, was it?

At a loss, he reached out and touched her foot for no particular reason. Half playfully, he fiddled with her toes one by one. Marie jerked her foot away.

At least she had reacted. Ricard felt relieved.

"She's just a girl who's had a hard life. They say she was entrusted to the church, but wasn't she really abandoned? That doesn't mean I have any special feelings for her. You're the only one I've opened my heart to. I mean that. It's the truth. So much so that an oath shouldn't be necessary. But if you need one, I'll swear it."

"..."

Silence settled over them. All they could hear was the distant sound of adventurers drinking, laughing, and talking, with the occasional crude remark.

Ricard remained quietly at Marie's side.

At last she spoke, her voice thick and nasal from all her crying.

"... Swear it."

"What should I swear?"

"That you'll love only me."

It was a little childish, perhaps, but that was what she wanted right now. Steadfast and brave as she was, there were times when Marie wanted to be petulant with Ricard, and only Ricard.

But Ricard didn't dismiss her childishness as childishness. Without a moment's hesitation, he swore like a knight of unsullied virtue.

"I, Ricard, swear to love only Martellia. Unchanging, even in death."

Only after a little while did Marie turn her head, sniffling. Frankly, she was something of a mess, but her natural beauty made the sight simply pitiable. The pillowcase was soaked through.

Ricard wiped away her tears and snot with his hand, then rubbed it off on his own clothes. That wasn't enough, so he used his sleeve as well. Once he had smoothed her hair and stroked her face, she looked much better.

There was nothing he could do about the red tip of her nose.

"Been drinking a lot?"

"Huh?"

"Your nose is red."

At that small, silly joke, Marie finally let out a little laugh.

"Oh? If you laugh after crying..."

"Want to check?"

"Check what, exactly? I was going to say that laughing after crying means you're happy."

"Hmph..."

"You have quite a naughty streak, don't you?"

"Me? Whatever do you mean? What exactly were you going to check?"

"I wonder."

Things had been so serious only moments before, yet somehow Ricard and Marie were already trading banter as usual. But their eyes sparkled like stars as they looked at each other.

Without consciously trying, they naturally drew closer. That was enough.

These easy moments were so precious. Knowing they were reserved for each other alone was both moving and deeply satisfying.

No one in the world was perfect. Everyone lacked something, everyone bore wounds, and everyone could hurt others without meaning to. Even so, what mattered was giving one's whole heart.

Ricard and Marie gazed at each other as though following a star. Neither was perfect, but they shared a willingness to give their all.

Sometimes their hearts fell out of step and they hurt each other, like stumbling over a stone. Yet it took courage to rise again, look to the stars with a prayerful heart, and keep giving one's all.

Fortunately, Ricard and Marie were brave. They had lived different lives, but in that respect they were alike. They could not help being drawn to each other, like stars pulling one another in with their gravity.

But even moments that shone like stars could not last long. This was, after all, a battlefield.

Hard as it was to imagine overlooking something so obvious, the command staff hadn't considered that the enemy might attack. So engrossed were they in figuring out how to crush their opponent that they had developed a blind spot.

The stars bloomed in unusual profusion over the fields of Heiden. There, beneath starlight that poured down like rain, the first battle began.