“To think they’re even using commoners—it goes beyond inefficiency. It must be one of two things. Either it’s bigger than we imagined, or…”
Eileen furrowed her brow for a moment before continuing.
“It’s unbelievable enough to be extraordinary.”
&
A short while later, the carriage reached the entrance to the Pilre Estate.
The sun had already set.
The night sky had sunk into darkness,
and only the entrance to the estate at the end of the road lay faintly open.
Though it was lit, it strangely held no warmth.
A shabby estate without even an outer wall.
No stone walls,
no proper inspection point.
And yet the village stretching inward was larger than expected.
That discrepancy made it even more unpleasant.
Rather than a place where people gathered to live,
it felt like something long abandoned was still barely breathing.
“The Pilre Estate is temporarily managed by barons who take turns at set intervals.”
Eileen, looking out the carriage window, spoke in a low voice.
“No one treats it like their own land. So there’s no way it would develop.”
I did not answer,
and looked deeper into the estate.
There were lights here and there,
but no human warmth could be felt.
Not even the shadow of a guard was visible.
An estate with no one to protect it.
No, an estate where even the will to protect it had vanished.
As the wagon entered, its wheels crushed into the mud.
Squelch.
Muddy water splashed.
It was embarrassing to even call it a road.
The ground was gouged out,
and the mud that clung to one’s ankles carried the stench of long rot.
From between the alleys, a musty foul odor crept out.
The carriage stopped at an inn.
Its exterior alone was serious enough.
The door hung crooked,
and grease stains clung to the windows, making the light inside even murkier.
The moment the door opened, the smell of stale food mixed with old liquor stabbed at my nose.
The innkeeper, who had been leaning behind the counter, merely lifted his head.
“Welcome. Got plenty of rooms, and if you want food, say so.”
There was no welcome,
nor wariness.
It was the face of a man whose mouth was merely spitting out the words one had to say when someone arrived.
“Just a room, please.”
I held out a few silvers.
Normally, I would have taken out a gold coin,
but we had not come here as nobles.
If the scent of money was too strong, gazes would cling to us.
Eileen’s plan was to look as much like unremarkable travelers as possible.
Not two rooms, either, but one.
“That will draw less suspicion.”
Eileen had said so inside the carriage.
She was right.
She was certainly right, but.
“…”
“…”
The moment the door closed, that very rightness made things extremely, subtly awkward.
One old bed.
One creaking chair.
The thin blanket smelled damp.
It was cramped.
Eileen seemed conscious of it as well and turned her gaze slightly away.
“Ahem.”
She cleared her throat for no reason.
“Y-you wash first.”
“Pardon?”
My voice jumped without my realizing it.
Eileen’s eyes widened, as if startled by what she herself had said.
And a faint flush soon rose to her face.
“No, I didn’t mean it that way.”
She quickly continued.
“I mean… it would be more natural if we at least pretended to wash, wouldn’t it? If we went so far as to take a room and there wasn’t any sound at all, that would be stranger.”
“Ah.”
I nodded, but silence settled again.
Eileen looked at me, and I looked at her.
The awkwardness only became clearer.
It could not be helped, since what had happened in the carriage kept coming to mind.
So I withdrew my gaze first and approached the window.
When I pushed the window frame with my fingers,
night air flowed in with a creak.
It was cold and damp,
and the alley was quiet.
I stuck my head out for a moment to look around, then said,
“It would be better to move as soon as Sir Jerome arrives.”
Eileen, breaking through the awkwardness at my words, came closer as well.
“Is there a reason you want to move right away?”
“The innkeeper had no interest in us. From what I saw, it didn’t seem like he would contact anyone no matter what we did, so I think it would be better to save time.”
Eileen looked at me for a moment.
Her eyes settled calmly.
“Very well.”
After that short answer, she smiled faintly and continued.
“When it comes to instinctive judgments in a place like this, Mr. Rayon, you will be better than I am.”
“…”
For a moment, I could not answer.
It was strange.
The feeling that Eileen Belmardian trusted me and moved accordingly felt far too strange.
“What is it?”
“Nothing.”
Not long after, Jerome joined us.
We went outside through the window at once.
The moment we stepped down behind the inn, the ground beneath our feet sank damply,
and something that might have been water or filth clung stickily to the soles of our shoes.
There were people in the alley.
However, no one stared at us for long.
An old man leaning against the wall.
A woman with her eyes closed, holding a child in her arms.
A man crouched on a threshold.
All of them were haggard.
Rather than being alive,
they looked like people being worn away day by day.
We moved quietly, checking the flow of the main road and the alleys.
The location of the cathedral,
the arrangement of the warehouses,
the directions people avoided.
As we committed those things one by one to memory,
Eileen stopped walking.
“There it is.”
Where she pointed with her chin stood the cathedral.
To be precise, the old warehouse right beside the cathedral.
I looked at that building for a moment.
“The cultists are quite bold.”
“No one would easily think they’d make a base right beside a cathedral.”
Eileen’s gaze quickly swept the surroundings.
“They’re clever. Unpleasantly so.”
There seemed to be no sign of people around the warehouse.
We lowered our breathing and approached little by little.
The mud clung stickily beneath our feet,
but no one made a sound.
It was then.
Jerome’s gaze and mine shot to the left at the same time.
The instant our gazes snapped over,
something in that darkness moved.
Jerome drew his sword from its sheath in an instant,
and at the same time, I drew mine as well.
Pat!
Papap!
Two shadows split the alley.
Clang!
Jerome received one of them.
The sound of sword striking sword burst savagely through the narrow alley.
And the remaining one.
The bastard stepped through the mud and rapidly closed the distance.
Footwork without a single wasted movement.
His body was low,
and the tip of his blade did not waver.
It was threateningly concise.
I immediately lowered my stance.
Defense.
I intended to receive it first and read the flow.
At that moment, the tip of the bastard’s foot stamped deep into the mud.
Papap!
He vanished from my sight for an instant.
“…!”
He had not vanished.
He had changed direction in a single instant.
Not toward me, but toward Eileen.
Her ankle, just as she tried to take a step back.
Her silver hair, swaying in the wind.
The sword point sliding toward her neck.
At that moment, the flow of my thoughts changed.
The mud.
Jerome’s sword.
My own breath.
All of it grew faint.
What remained was a single sword.
A silver line, just before it reached Eileen.
I thought I had to block it,
but my hand was already moving first.
Not my right hand holding the sword, but my left.
At some point, I had drawn the dagger at my waist,
and as my wrist twisted,
the blade cut through the night air.
Shuak!
Clang!
The dagger struck the body of the bastard’s sword.
The sword point headed for Eileen’s neck veered off by an inch.
The moment the bastard’s eyes shot to the side,
in that brief opening, I was already inside striking distance.
I abandoned defense.
The tip of my sword was moving for his eye.
Clang!
Sparks burst before my eyes.
Beyond that flare of light, the bastard’s pupils trembled.
Very briefly.
Three attacks followed.
Clang, clang, clang!
Our swords clashed rapidly.
While meeting the incoming blade, I did not push force into it, but let it flow away.
The moment the bastard’s blade slid aside,
I stepped one pace farther inward.
A distance close enough for our breaths to touch.
The bastard showed a trace of surprise for an instant, but twisted his wrist.
A thrust toward my neck.
It was fast and orthodox.
A deadly counterattack without waste.
It was threatening enough that I ought to evade, but I did not retreat.
Instead, I dug in even deeper and tilted my head at an angle.
A chill sensation grazed the side of my neck, shallowly opening the skin,
and blood seeped out.
This time too, I saw the opponent’s startled gaze.
At this distance, this counterattack was one that an ordinary human would instinctively have to dodge.
And yet I had dug in without hesitation, so he could not help but be shaken.
Because of that, I too seized an opportunity that would send a chill down his spine.
My sword shot upward from below.
A strike that could precisely cut through the opponent’s chest and all the way to his chin.
Kak!
However, he drew back his sword and blocked with astonishing speed.
Even so, the timing had been overwhelmingly in my favor, and the bastard’s stance collapsed.
The distance was extremely close.
Using the locked blades as an axis, I wound my body around.
The moment the bastard tried to pull his sword free,
my shoulder drove into the inside of his arm.
Thud!
The dull sensation of bone and muscle colliding traveled up my arm.
“Kh.”
For the first time, the bastard’s breath leaked out.
In that opening, I leapt up and pulled my knee upward.
As though aiming for his chin.
The bastard reflexively leaned his upper body back.
Even as he tilted, he maintained his balance,
and tried to bring the tip of his sword back to aim at my heart.
At that moment.
I did not raise my knee all the way.
Because that had never been my goal to begin with.
In midair, the direction of my foot changed,
and my heel drove into the center of the bastard’s exposed chest.
Thwack!
“Kh!”
The bastard’s body was pushed backward.
But he did not fall.
Instead, he took the force that had driven him back,
and sprang in again as if rebounding.
Seeing him continue the attack in that situation, he was indeed no ordinary man.
The sword point flashed before my eyes.
A straight line.
Fast and accurate.
If I dodged backward, the attacks that followed would almost certainly create a far more dangerous situation.
So this time as well, I instead placed my center of gravity forward and took one step ahead.
The moment the sword reached my eyes, I snapped my head back.
The bastard’s sword grazed before my eyes and cut my hair.
An inch.
It truly was a difference of an inch.
But at that moment, the bastard suddenly stopped his sword and tried to change its direction downward.
“!!”
Faced with a reaction I could hardly believe, I gritted my teeth and was about to put strength into my hand.
Then Eileen’s shout rang out.
“Wait!”
Amazingly, at Eileen’s voice, the bastard’s sword stopped.
Just before it touched my forehead.
Then the bastard’s gaze turned toward Eileen, and he slowly removed his hood.
When I saw the face revealed beneath it, I was startled.
“I-Ian?”
It was Ian Lucevalt.
He also confirmed my face,
looked at me in astonishment, and then saw my sword beneath his own chin.
Then he laughed as if dumbfounded.
“Ha.”
His breath was still steeped in the heat of battle.
“Friend.”
Ian’s eyes narrowed.
“What the hell are you?”
I slowly lowered the tip of my sword.
Then I wiped away the line of blood flowing down.
“I only learned enough to protect myself.”
Ian chuckled,
but his eyes did not laugh.
“Stop talking, Ian.”
Eileen cut in.
“Why are you here?”
“That’s my line.”
Ian shrugged and slid his sword back into its sheath.
“I’ve already been moving together with Prince Baron since a year ago.”
A year ago.
I repeated those words inwardly.
Had it been the same in my previous life?
I could not know.
Because back then, I had been missing far too much.
Tsk.
If only I had been a little more alert, there would have been far more things I could make use of now.
But regret was pointless.
Who could have known I would come back to life?
Ian turned his head toward the warehouse.
“They said there were collaborators, so I guess that was you. In any case, we don’t have time to talk more. Let’s move.”
We immediately pressed ourselves against the warehouse.
The knight who had come with Ian put his ear to the door and checked the inside, then gave a signal.
It was empty.
“We came only to confirm things today.”
I spoke in a low voice.
“Are we going in right away?”
“Today is the day those bastards gather.”
Ian stood before the door.
“No need to waste time. We’ll clean them out right away.”
He lightly tapped the door to check its structure,
and the moment he confirmed there were no devices, he drew his sword.
There was no hesitation.
The tip of his sword brushed through the extremely narrow gap in the door.
Slash!
Before there was even time to marvel, the door opened.
Ian’s escort knight went in first,
and Jerome followed after him.
We entered the warehouse as well,
but the inside of the warehouse was empty.
A few dust-covered boxes.
Old sacks.
Broken pieces of wood.
Outwardly, that was all.
But everyone naturally examined the surroundings and the floor.
At that moment, Jerome moved while tapping the floor with his scabbard, then stopped at one spot.
Thunk.
A hollow sound.
He knelt and felt along the floor.
But no handle was visible.
No matter how much he looked, it was the same,
until Eileen found it beside him.
“It’s made so the grooves align perfectly with the floor.”
She moved her fingertips along the grain of the floor.
“Here. They’ve hidden it so it’s almost invisible.”
I immediately slid my dagger into the gap.
At first, it seemed to catch on nothing, but when I pushed a little deeper and twisted my wrist slightly,
the tip of the dagger caught on something.
When I applied force, part of the floor rose ever so slightly,
and when I grabbed the handle and lifted it, stairs were revealed beneath.
Without delay, we descended the stairs.
Ian’s escort knight and Jerome moved first,
then Ian, Eileen, and finally I followed after them.
The air below the stairs was different.
A musty smell.
The dampness of rotting stone.
And over it all, an unidentified fragrance clung heavily.
Sweet, yet nauseating,
a smell that stuck viscously to the inside of the lungs.
I knew instinctively.
Something was in progress.