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More than his post as a centurion, it was the fact that he was the eldest son of a marquis’s house that cowed the guards so thoroughly.
“Open the gate, if you would.”
“Y-yes, sir.”
The gate guards sent the signal to open the gate without another word.
Creeeak.
With the dull clatter of heavy chains, the massive gate began to rise. Damon watched it lift with an indifferent gaze. When he had left this place, he had been with his master, Doyle, but now he had returned alone. As he was staring blankly at the gate, Dietrich came closer and whispered in his ear.
“Please go in.”
It seemed he had done so because the soldiers might find it strange if they heard him speaking so respectfully. Damon nodded silently and moved toward the gate. Just then, someone stepped in front of him. It was a middle-aged centurion who looked quite rigid and uncompromising.
“No one may enter this place unless their identity is verified. You, too, must state your rank and name.”
“He is with me.”
The centurion glanced at Dietrich, who had spoken up beside him, and replied as if it made no difference.
“Of course, your identity has been verified by presenting your crest, Centurion. By the same token, this man must also prove his identity before he can pass. Please wait a moment until his identity is confirmed.”
“I, I served with him. At the Carnatic defensive line.”
“Procedure cannot be ignored. Only those whose unit, post, and place of origin are clear may enter Feldrian.”
The centurion looked as though he would not yield an inch. Dietrich’s face quickly flushed, lacking experience as he was. Flustered, he had even begun to stammer.
“There, there is urgent business. Time is of the essence…”
Dietrich’s attitude only deepened the centurion’s suspicion. He signaled to the soldiers under him, then firmly gripped the hilt of his sword with one hand.
“I cannot allow it until his identity is revealed.”
Damon, who had been listening to their argument, stepped forward.
“I feel as though I’ve seen your face before.”
At the sudden remark, the centurion’s eyes widened.
“You’ve… seen me before…?”
“I once served here. As a member of the 57th Wall Guard.”
“You served here?”
“It’s already been a year. Back then, the orcs’ air raids were in full swing. Hm. I wonder if you know of this incident. One day, the orcs infiltrated by hanging from wyverns. There were more than five times the usual number of orc raiders. They landed on the wall all at once. Do you remember the man who went out alone before the horde of orcs then?”
“D-don’t tell me.”
At this unexpected revelation, the centurion’s eyes narrowed. He looked as though he were searching through his memories. Damon nodded as if to say he was right.
“That was me. At the time, I believe you were the senior soldier of the 64th Guard. I don’t know your name, but I remember your skill at commanding your men was excellent… Am I wrong?”
“Th-that’s right. Back then, I was in charge of the 64th Guard.”
Only then did the centurion’s doubts finally clear. The situation at the time had been extremely dire. If not for Damon, the wall guards might have been annihilated. For that reason, the centurion still remembered the existence called Damon.
“A small build and foreign features. I see. Because of the burns, I didn’t recognize you.”
“After serving here, I was transferred straight to the 8th Legion. There, I served as a guard and fought in the Carnatic defense. As a guard for the mage unit.”
“You managed to come back alive. I heard there were almost no survivors… At any rate, welcome back.”
The centurion reached out and patted Damon on the shoulder, then looked behind him and shouted.
“Identity confirmed. Let them pass.”
“Thanks.”
“What are thanks for?”
Damon and Dietrich walked through the soldiers standing with spears and swords raised, and moved into the city of Feldrian. In particular, Dietrich’s face bore an expression as though there was something he could not understand.
As soon as they entered Feldrian, Dietrich began pelting him with questions.
“You were stationed here?”
“That’s right. As a wall guard.”
“You truly are a man shrouded in mystery. To think someone with that level of skill served as nothing more than a wall guard…”
“Why? Is there some rule saying a skilled man can’t serve as a guard?”
“Not exactly, but with your skill, you could have taken on a position far beyond that. A Royal Guard knight, for instance… I had no idea someone like you existed here.”
Damon wore an irritated expression.
“I did serve as a guardsman once. But that was when I had no strength. In any case, would you shut your mouth now? From here on, we’re going to do something extremely dangerous…”
“D-dangerous?”
“Revenge. Of course, if we beat up the duke of a nation, the Royal Guard knights won’t just stand by and watch. We’ll probably have to fight as if our lives depend on it. We certainly won’t be able to guarantee that we’ll survive.”
Dietrich’s face turned pale.
“I-I see.”
“What? Now that you’ve returned to Feldrian, are you frightened? If you don’t feel like it, you can back out. This was my business to begin with…”
“No. I am not afraid.”
He shook his head firmly, but unfortunately, his voice was trembling faintly. Of course, it could not be helped. Duke Sergey was a high-ranking noble who flaunted absolute power in Feldrian. Since they were going to deal with such a man, there was no way he could avoid being tense. In the worst case, the repercussions could even reach his father. His father, too, was ranked below Sergey. Even so, Dietrich steeled his heart.
‘If I cannot overcome this, I will live the rest of my life as a weak-willed man. This can only be the perfect opportunity given to me.’
In any case, it was true that Duke Sergey had abandoned the soldiers and fled. Therefore, one could say they had a proper justification. Thinking that as long as they did not kill him, the damage would not reach his father, Dietrich clenched his fist.
“I was a man who should not have come back alive anyway. It’s all or nothing.”
“It’s better not to be too tense. We’ll have to deal with a few Royal Guard knights before we can get our hands on him.”
“Understood.”
“First, you open the way to the palace. If you make use of your status, we should be able to get in front of him without much difficulty…”
“I will.”
Having entered the city of Feldrian, the two headed straight toward the palace.
“Phew! This is exhausting.”
Having just finished the council meeting and stepped out of the conference room, Sergey let out a long sigh. Since he had borne all manner of criticism and rebuke from the rulers of each nation over the defeat, his head was still spinning. The council had already continued for fifteen days, and during that time Sergey had suffered considerable hardship. It could not be helped, for he alone had been made to shoulder responsibility for the annihilation of the eighty thousand troops on the Carnatic Plain. There had even been a proposal to dismiss him from his post as commander-in-chief of the allied forces. However, Rosengart IV had actively defended him, and thanks to that, he had fortunately been able to keep his position. Still, it was an unavoidable fact that Sergey’s standing had fundamentally weakened considerably. Remembering that fact, Sergey narrowed his eyes.
“But for our survival, there was no other choice.”
Abandoning eighty thousand troops. Their resulting destruction. Of course, it was true that Sergey, who had given the order, did not feel at ease. But it had been an unavoidable decision in order to win the war.
“If they had not bought us time, it would have been unclear whether the plan would succeed. That was why, even knowing they would be annihilated, I had no choice but to order them to hold their position…”
Muttering quietly, Sergey entered his office.
He saw Benitez with his head buried in his desk, immersed in his work. Letting out another sigh, Sergey went to his own seat. As he was walking, something seemed to occur to him, and Sergey looked at Benitez.
“What do you think?”
“Pardon? About what, sir?”
“Do you think we can truly win this war?”
“W-well… As for me…”
After gazing for a moment at Benitez’s troubled expression, Sergey sank into his chair without a word.
“I can only hope the plan succeeds…”
Sergey slowly closed his eyes, paying no heed to Benitez’s advice that a strategy meeting would be held shortly and he should prepare.
A little later, all the nobles who led Icarot had gathered in the strategy meeting hall. It was a large meeting, with only the Royal Knights, who had to attend upon the emperor, absent, and most of the other nobles present. Here, they would hear the decisions made at the gathering of rulers. Since the presiding official had not arrived, they waited in boredom for Duke Sergey to come. He was normally late, but today Duke Sergey was particularly slow to show himself. In the end, he appeared only around the time the nobles were becoming impatient.
“You must have grown bored waiting.”
Though he said that, Sergey’s brazen expression contained not the slightest hint of apology. The nobles had no choice but to greet him while suppressing the emotions boiling up within them. In any case, he was the foremost power in Icarot, favored by the emperor. Since carelessly falling out of his favor might result in their being assigned to the front lines, the nobles kept their silence. Looking over their faces, Sergey began in a low voice.
“Then let us begin the meeting. As decided at yesterday’s gathering of rulers…”
At that moment, a sudden roar burst out from the entrance. It was a sound that could only have come from someone kicking the door hard. At that sound, the nobles’ gazes all turned toward the door at once. And most of them could not help crying out in shock.
“Such insolence…”
“Th-that bastard wants to die?”
There stood a small figure in exceedingly shabby clothes, striding inside. He was so covered in dust that his attire could not even be identified. As if he had suffered severe burns, not only had all his hair been completely singed away, but his whole body was covered in blisters, making him quite a sight to behold. Seeing the muddy footprint clearly marked on the splendid door, it was easy enough to guess the source of the noise just now. The intruder swept his sharp gaze around the inside of the conference room. His manner fairly reeked of defiance.
“Th-that damned wretch.”
In the nobles’ eyes, a blaze of fury flickered all at once. What place was this? Was it not where the highest-ranking nobles of the Icarot Empire had gathered? For some unseasoned whelp to barge into such a sacred place and cause a disturbance… One noble of imposing build rose to his feet. He was a handsome man with a splendid mustache, and his sharp gaze evoked a whetted blade.
“Who are you? State your purpose in coming here.”
However, the intruder merely looked around the conference room without uttering a single word in answer. And the answer came from a completely unexpected place.
“He is someone who survived the Carnatic defense together with me. Father.”
The noble turned his head, and his eyes widened. Was his son, whom he had believed dead, not standing perfectly well at the entrance? The noble’s name was none other than Bricks.