Inside the city gate,
Yun stood at the edge of the square with Gareun.
The people’s stares had not yet fully eased.
Whenever a cart came in, heads quietly followed it.
Yun confirmed the four people approaching with the cart.
Gareun looked at Bido first.
A haggard face, dried blood, and eyes that had endured by sheer force.
Gareun’s expression hardened with sorrow.
Aslo bowed his head first.
“You were waiting for us.”
Yun swept his eyes over the state of all four of them at once,
then bowed his head briefly.
“You’ve been through a great deal.”
“We’ll take charge of handing over the wounded. For now… catch your breath.”
Gareun gestured toward the cart.
“This way. The medical staff are standing by.”
Yun quietly added,
“And if there is anyone you have lost, that as well.”
“I’ll prepare the procedures.”
Bido’s eyes wavered for a moment.
Her lips parted, but no words came out.
Aslo raised his head.
“There’s a place we used to stay.”
“Right now… if we go into an inn or somewhere like that, too many eyes will be on us.”
Yun smiled faintly.
Then bowed his head again.
“Understood.”
“Then I’ll see you again this afternoon. There is much to sort out.”
The four of them said nothing more.
For now—
before any long story, they needed a place to go.
—
It was an alley not far from the square.
From far away, the murmuring of the people could still be heard faintly,
and here, the smell of wet wood and dust was thicker.
An old wooden building, no different from those around it.
The four stood before it.
The oldest place in Bido’s memory.
The place where she had grown up, from the farthest reaches her memory could touch.
Home.
Truly—
she had returned home.
Aslo pushed open the small door.
It was not locked.
As if someone had forgotten to “lock” it,
and only time had flowed on.
Inside was a mess.
That day.
The air from the day Bido had received the box wrapped in chains and left
had hardened there unchanged.
Following Aslo inside, Bido slowly looked around the place where she had lived.
A single chair, a single mark left on the wall—
everything was so familiar that it felt all the more strange.
Then the twins spoke almost at the same time.
“Hmm… so this is…”
“Where Aslo and Bido used to live.”
Aslo set upright a chair that had fallen over and said,
“We’ll stay here until our quarters are decided and the members arrive.”
The four put down their belongings and sat wherever they could.
Ria looked around and murmured,
“It feels unfamiliar… a place like this, like a real home…”
Rion laughed.
“Does this mean we’re finally out of the cave?”
The two looked at each other and laughed briefly.
That laughter lingered in the room for a moment.
While they were easing their exhaustion for a while, a knock came at the door.
Knock, knock.
It was a small, cautious sound.
Aslo immediately rose and went to the door.
Then he opened it just a little.
A boy stood there.
Dark brown hair, a young face dotted with freckles.
An ordinary city boy.
“Ah… Mr. Aslo…”
“Y-you really came back…?”
Aslo answered in a low voice.
“Yes. Noel. It’s been a while.”
Bido reacted to the name.
“Noel…?”
Noel’s eyes widened.
His gaze stopped on Bido’s face.
For a moment, his words cut off.
“Bi… Bido…!”
Instead of stepping aside, Aslo pulled Noel inside and closed the door.
“Inside. Keep your voice down.”
Noel started to run toward Bido, then stopped short.
Up close, Bido’s face was far too haggard.
“Where on earth did you go…”
“And why do you look like this…”
The twins, seated nearby, snickered and whispered.
“He’s… the one, right? The one who… Bido… hehe.”
Bido laughed in embarrassment.
“Ah… it’s just, some things happened.”
“It’s been a while, Noel. Have you been well?”
Noel nodded, then hurriedly began to speak.
“Ah… I’ve been, well…”
“No, Bido. I heard from Uncle Digger.”
“The rumor that you and Mr. Aslo… are with the Silver Moon Corps.”
He bit his lip.
“Is it true…?”
Bido caught her breath for a moment, then said softly,
“It is.”
“…I’m with the Silver Moon Corps now.”
For a long while, Noel could not respond to Bido’s words.
His lips merely parted, then closed again.
“…The Silver Moon Corps…?”
He looked at Bido’s face again, as if to confirm it.
Then he quickly nodded.
As if he wanted to believe it, as if persuading himself.
“I… I saw the notice too.”
“The one posted in the square.”
Noel continued quickly,
“It said the Empire had left… and that the Silver Moon Corps… would temporarily be something… a partner corps…”
“Then, then now… you’re not leaving?”
The last words trembled strangely.
He had thrown it out like a question,
but it sounded like a wish.
Bido could not answer right away.
Something caught in her throat.
It was true that she felt she had “returned,”
but that did not mean she could say she would “stay.”
Nothing was certain yet.
“…That.”
Bido spoke with difficulty.
“I… don’t know either.”
Noel’s expression stiffened for a moment.
He tried to smile, but his expression soon crumbled.
“Ah…”
“I see…”
The end of his words trailed off.
Noel took one step toward her, then stopped short.
Bido’s haggard face,
the marks of dried blood,
the shadows beneath her eyes held him back.
“…Please.”
Noel said, almost like a breath.
“Please… don’t leave.”
The next words broke in his throat.
The words “If you’re not here” never made it out, crumbling inside his mouth.
Noel lowered his eyes.
His fingers clenched into fists, then loosened.
Aslo quietly cut in.
“Noel. Go now.”
Noel flinched and raised his head.
Aslo added,
“Bido needs to rest right now.”
Noel stood there for a moment.
In that time, silence settled over the room.
“Sorry.”
Noel barely managed to say.
“I… came so suddenly…”
He looked at Bido again.
There was lingering regret in his eyes.
But because he did not want that regret to be noticed,
he made his voice needlessly light.
“…I’ll come again.”
“No, I mean… see you again.”
Bido nodded faintly.
Instead of an answer, she left an “all right” in her eyes.
Noel backed toward the door.
He took the handle, then looked back once more.
Though he knew he should not say anything more,
his eyes could not leave her face.
Then he carefully closed the door and left.
Click.
The sound of the door closing
remained in the room for a long time.
The twins smiled and said to Bido,
“Bido. That little guy likes you, doesn’t he?”
Bido started and lifted her head.
“What?? Ah, no! Noel is just a friend.”
Ria clapped her hands and laughed.
“Oh, come on. It was written all over his face.”
“He likes Bido.”
Ria jerked her chin toward Rion.
“Right, Rion?”
Ria tapped Rion’s shoulder and laughed even more.
Rion nodded as well.
“She’s right. Our Bido is quite the popular one.”
Rion playfully raised his brows.
“What about you? Hm?”
“N-no!”
Bido shot up from her seat.
The chair creaked.
The old smell of dust hanging in the room rose once more.
“Don’t tease me. Seriously.”
The twins spoke at the same time.
“What, is Bido sulking?”
“Hm?”
Bido scrunched up her face.
“Ugh… seriously… I don’t know.”
“Think whatever you want.”
Bido went over to the bed and flopped down.
The old blanket thinly covered her body, and the wooden floor creaked slightly.
Bido turned her head and looked at the wall.
“I’m going to sleep.”
The twins were still laughing.
“Hehe. Sure, sure.”
“Sleep well. Dream of Noel, okay?”
Bido tried to keep her sulky expression,
but without realizing it, the corners of her mouth lifted ever so slightly.
Her breathing felt a little lighter.
An everyday life that seemed to have returned.
That warmth
quietly heated Bido’s heart as it was growing cold.
—
The military police infirmary was using an emptied warehouse building inside the city gate as a temporary facility.
When the door opened, the scent of medicinal herbs mixed with the smell of blood spilled out.
Stretchers were lined up across the floor, and low groans flowed over the cloth.
Yun stood by the wall.
Raymond came in and stood beside Yun.
For a moment, without speaking, he looked over the stretchers.
Hands wrapping bandages, hands giving water, and covered cloth.
Raymond said in a low voice,
“…I see.”
“There are casualties as well….”
Yun nodded.
“There are.”
Raymond swallowed a sigh.
“The handling of the dead… what do you intend to do about the procedure?”
Yun lowered his gaze for a moment.
“We’ll follow the city’s procedures.”
“However… we won’t rush. The living come first.”
Raymond nodded.
“We’ll treat the wounded at the infirmary first.”
“I’ve assigned additional carts and manpower.”
“Those who can be moved to the protected zone will be sorted out by the end of the day.”
“For the time being… even if the blockade is lifted, we’ll keep this area controlled. Rumors will spread first.”
Yun said briefly,
“I understand that.”
“We have no intention of becoming a nuisance either.”
Raymond looked at Yun’s face for a moment.
“A nuisance.”
The word seemed unsuited to him.
But right now, Arku was being run not by what “suited” things, but by what was “needed.”
Raymond turned his gaze back toward the stretchers.
The hands of a military police medic changing bandages trembled for a moment.
The toes revealed beneath the cloth did not move.
Raymond quietly asked,
“…How bad are the losses?”
Yun did not delay his answer.
“Not small.”
“Even so… we only prevented them from becoming larger.”
Raymond nodded.
He already knew.
The report that had come in from the Empire’s side.
The number of wounded, the supplies lost, the holy knights killed in action.
And,
the “withdrawal support” the Empire had requested of its own accord.
Looking only at those numbers, victory and defeat were clear.
But what made Raymond stop breathing was something else.
The Silver Moon Corps’ losses.
Against that Empire.
While outnumbered.
In the span of one night.
And—
they had ended it with astonishingly “small” losses.
Awe came first,
and fear immediately followed.
“What if they had been our enemy?”
With only Arku’s guards and military police,
they would not have been able to withstand a clash on that scale.
Far more corpses would have lain before the city gate.
Instead of official notices posted in the square, funeral announcements might have gone up first.
Raymond looked at Yun again.
This organization
must not become the city’s enemy.
Raymond said in a low voice,
“Yun.”
“The conclusion the council reached today.”
Yun raised his gaze.
“I know.”
“The next full moon.”
Raymond continued,
“The city will judge again. Public opinion, fear, calculations.”
“Depending on what you do then… the direction will change.”
Yun was silent for a moment.
Then he said calmly,
“We will not run away.”
“Not because we need a place to hide… but because we need a place to stand.”
Raymond nodded.
Because those words sounded not like a threat but like a vow, they felt all the heavier.
Raymond looked once more among the stretchers for the last time.
And in his heart, he reached a conclusion.
If the Silver Moon Corps became Arku’s,
the Republic would be safer.
That safety would not be “warmth.”
But what they needed now was not warmth.
Raymond said to Yun,
“I’ll see you again this afternoon.”
“We have to begin the registration and oversight body.”
Yun answered briefly,
“Yes.”
Raymond turned around.
As he stepped out the door, he breathed in the smell of the infirmary once more.
Medicinal herbs and blood.
The smell of war.
And Raymond knew
that smell would not disappear easily from now on.