"That is the medical officer’s seat."
A chair was an object meant for one person. Yet because of that single object, the path for two stretchers had narrowed first.
Ruan noticed the narrowed path first. Who would sit there was a matter for later.
The moment those words entered the tent, the gazes inside split apart. Eyes looking at patients and eyes looking at the chair were pushed in different directions.
Two stretcher-bearers entered the tent carrying an unfamiliar chair. It had a high back and even armrests. Unlike the folding chairs always used in the medical tent, the surface of the wood was overly smooth, and there was not a single scratch yet on the handles. A soldier who came in after them even set up a folding partition beside it.
Ruan looked at it as though it were an object that had come in after shoving aside a patient’s place.
It looked like a seat meant to keep one person there for a long time.
A thin screen and a new chair had entered the space where one more stretcher might have fit.
The shape of the tent changed at once.
To place the chair, a low stool was pushed aside. The spearman sitting beside it, waiting for his turn to have his bandage changed, folded his knees in to make the space even smaller. Sera set down the clean cloth she had been holding, and Orte looked back and forth between the chair and the partition with the register closed. Karen said nothing, but a different kind of wariness from when she had seen the buckle yesterday settled around her eyes. This time, it was not a trace of the past she was staring down, but the justification that had just entered.
"Who sent it?"
At Karen’s question, one of the stretcher-bearers answered hurriedly.
"From the camp of the Royal Third Army. They said the adjutant would be here shortly. We were told to set down the seat for the medical officer first."
A seat for him.
Ruan was the first to speak.
"This is not a place for seating people in honor."
Even at those words, the stretcher-bearers could not lift the chair again. Once the partition was unfolded, a small room-like section appeared inside the tent. It seemed to have been arranged with the person who would sit before the people who were lying down. Looking at that narrow section, Ruan felt a stifling sensation even clearer than the changed access line from yesterday. This time, it was not ropes and stakes; a place was being made inside.
The adjutant did not keep them waiting long. He crossed the tent entrance in polished boots, as if entering a banquet hall. The insignia of the royal direct army was affixed to his outer coat, and at his waist hung a short sword closer to ceremonial use than combat. His expression did not waver, as if he did not know the smell of blood inside the tent.
"Medical Officer Ruan Hesse."
Before Ruan could answer, the adjutant bowed first.
"I am Reman, adjutant of the Third Army. Our commander highly values your ability and devotion, Medical Officer. During this offensive, we wish to invite you to serve as his dedicated healer."
His tone was courteous, but the moment the chair and partition had entered first, it sounded as if permission had already been granted.
The adjutant glanced once toward the chair.
"You will be guaranteed a separate tent, supplies, and time to rest. Access will also be strictly controlled, so your safety will be better than it is now. Stabilizing the condition of a single commander may also make the judgment of the entire front less prone to wavering."
Without a single break in his breath, he continued.
"We will also assign a separate medicinal supply chest and a records clerk. We will prevent unnecessary entry and create a quiet environment as well."
Safety, courtesy, efficiency.
All the words had been polished only in the direction of good things. The new chair and the partition supported those words far too cleanly.
Sera’s expression hardened faintly. Orte pressed down harder on the corner of the register. Karen was looking not at the adjutant’s hands, but first at the positions of the feet of the two guards standing behind him. Her eyes were measuring who had come in and how far, and whether this offer would end only in words.
Ruan asked briefly.
"If I leave my post, who fills the empty place here?"
As though he had been waiting for that, the adjutant replied.
"We can assign temporary support staff separately. Rather, if you, Medical Officer, focus on one person, a greater judgment may be stabilized. This is also a position the commander personally requested."
Even after listening to the end, Ruan did not change his expression.
"I have no intention of leaving to serve one person exclusively. The hands that go missing here are not filled in as easily as spaces on paper."
The adjutant’s smile thinned ever so slightly.
"If the condition of a single commander collapses, the judgment of the entire army may waver."
"Here, too, once each person collapses, that’s the end."
At that brief clash, the air inside the tent tightened first. But before Ruan’s words could continue any longer, the tent flap was lifted again.
When Aizen entered, the two guards standing behind the adjutant adjusted their posture almost at the same time. Aizen swept his gaze in order over the new chair, the partition, the adjutant’s face, and Ruan, then did not stop, as if he had understood the situation immediately.
"What is this?"
The adjutant layered a little more courtesy over himself.
"The commander of the Royal Third Army has conveyed his wish to invite Medical Officer Ruan Hesse as his dedicated healer. We have also prepared a seat in advance."
Aizen’s gaze touched the chair once. He neither smiled nor grew angry. Instead, his voice went flat, like that of a man who had reached a conclusion too quickly.
"That seat will not be used. Remove it."
The adjutant lifted his eyebrows very slightly.
"The commander meant to show proper courtesy."
"I heard the courtesy."
Aizen took one more step inside.
"Ruan Hesse is not a pair of hands that can be taken away to serve one person exclusively. Right now, the mobile medical system, the evacuation line, and the triage line are all running according to the order of those hands. There will be no separate assignment."
The adjutant did not drop his smile. But the end of his words became a little firmer.
"If the condition of a single commander collapses, the judgment of the entire army may waver."
"I know."
Aizen cut him off without interrupting his words.
"That is why he cannot be removed from here all the more. Submit any necessary requests in writing. I will make the judgment."
The adjutant’s gaze narrowed for a moment.
"This request will also go up the higher reporting line as it stands."
Even at those words, Aizen’s expression did not change.
"The corps remembers debts as well. So leave a record first, all the more."
That sentence chilled the air inside the tent all at once. Karen’s eyes grew coldest at that point. The moment the word protection tightened around them even more strongly, her fingertips brushed the back of the chair, then immediately fell away.
The adjutant did not let his voice waver to the end.
"I will take this as a refusal."
"Do that."
It had been a short exchange, but the conclusion was arranged by someone else’s mouth.
Ruan looked at the low stool that had been pushed behind the screen.
The patients’ places were narrowing before his own.
The adjutant did not force the matter any further. However, before leaving, he looked back at the chair once.
"We will leave the seat here. Once you sit in it, you may change your mind."
Aizen did not immediately tell them either to remove it or leave it. That brief silence felt strangely more stifling. In the end, the adjutant had only the partition folded and left the tent with the chair still in place. The stretcher-bearers who had moved the chair glanced around several times, but in the end they could not lay a hand on it. An object for which it had not even been settled whose words should be followed remained in the middle of the tent.
As the sound of boots faded outside, Sera let out a small breath. Orte started to write something on one side of the register, then stopped the tip of his pen. Karen took one step toward the chair, but in the end did not touch it. Only her gaze swept in order over the chair’s legs and backrest. Her hands seemed not yet to have decided whether to remove it, break it, or leave it there and watch.
Just then, a wet cough rose once from a stretcher deeper inside.
Ruan looked that way reflexively. Normally, it would have been a place he could reach in two steps. But the legs of the new chair were eating into the middle of the route. He went around the chair as though brushing past it and headed for the stretcher. That short detour was more unpleasant than every sentence that had just gone back and forth.
Sera followed with a basin of water, only to catch briefly on the armrest. The spearman sitting on the low stool near the entrance thought his turn had been pushed back and started to rise, then carefully sat again when Ruan gestured. Only one chair had come in, yet the order inside the tent twisted by small degrees. One patient folded his legs to make space, and Sera had to push the medicine chest half a step back.
Kneeling beside the stretcher, Ruan spoke without looking back.
"Are you not going to ask what I think?"
Aizen delayed his answer for a moment. That delay was closer to calculation than hesitation.
"Right now, before asking your will, stopping whoever is trying to take you away comes first."
It was not wrong. That made it all the more stifling. Yesterday, soldiers’ feet had narrowed the outside of the tent; today, those words blocked the inside space first.
Aizen continued.
"Starting today, all external requests will be cut off at my level. Your movements will also be further restricted for the time being."
Karen’s jaw hardened ever so slightly. Aizen saw even that reaction, but did not take back his words.
"To protect you, it has to be that way."
Outside the tent entrance, a newly arrived sentry was stopping a messenger who had just come and checking his token first. Ruan saw that brief obstruction too, but could not ask anything more. He would not be dragged outside, but that did not mean he would be able to leave freely on his own feet.
Aizen turned away without further explanation. When the tent flap closed, the inside grew a little quieter for a moment. Sera moved the medicine bottles back to their original place, and Orte looked down once at the mark where the partition had been folded and unfolded. Karen, in the end, did not remove the chair.
Ruan stared for a long while at the high backrest left beside his work station. No one had sat in it, but the moment someone did, it looked like a seat where orders would move before his own hands.