Chapter 85

Episode 85

Seeing the grave look on Ejekail’s face, the servant could not even ask what was wrong and hurriedly backed out of the bedroom.

Ejekail sank deep into his chair and waited for Merlo to enter. Each passing minute and second made him feel as though his blood were drying up.

Merlo, summoned at the crack of dawn, stood before him with a bewildered expression.

“You called for me, sir?”

Ejekail fixed the errand boy with a piercing gaze. The errand boy stiffened, bracing himself, and straightened his posture.

“Merlo. You saw Rose in Derosa, didn’t you?”

At Ejekail’s first question, Merlo drew in a breath.

“Why… why do you ask, sir?”

Ejekail asked in an icy tone.

“Is there something wrong with the description of Rose that I’ve been searching for?”

Merlo nearly took a step back without realizing it. His heart dropped with a thud.

“Pardon? I’m not sure I understand what you mean.”

Was he asking because he knew something?

Or was he probing despite not knowing?

He had answered as though nothing were wrong, but cold sweat slid down his spine. Merlo quietly stole a glance at Ejekail’s face from the corner of his eye.

Ejekail was a master far more refined and discerning in conduct than Akenaus, but he was by no means a gentle one. In particular, the scene in which he had ruined Akenaus’s eye in the very same way and expelled him was still spoken of again and again. They said the force with which he had subdued Akenaus in an instant and, without the slightest hesitation, pulled the trigger and shot him in the eye had been so chilling that the servants who witnessed it had not even been able to breathe, let alone stop Ejekail.

“I’m asking you exactly what I said. Have I been mistaken about Rose?”

After secretly visiting the woman at the camp, Merlo had kept his mouth firmly shut in accordance with her wishes.

“Miss, do you want to live?”

The woman’s calm shake of the head in response to his question was vivid in his mind.

He had known his luck was rotten. Even though he had no choice but to face Major Ejekail Valdemaera when he received work or was summoned, the man was an uncomfortable, difficult, and frightening master. If Merlo had his way, he would have liked to quietly avoid him.

If it were revealed now that he had seen the woman imprisoned in the camp and had kept his mouth shut all this time, pretending not to know, what kind of thunderbolt would fall on his head?

He could not even predict it. Just imagining it made him shudder.

If he had kept his mouth shut until now, he had to keep it shut from now on as well. Once he had pretended not to know, he had to remain ignorant to the very end. Merlo did not have the nerve to take responsibility for the consequences that would come crashing down.

“No, sir. Who would know better than you, Major, when you kept the young lady by your side?”

Though the change in his expression was not great, Merlo caught the relief that briefly crossed Ejekail’s face.

“I know her best?”

“Yes, sir.”

“So there’s nothing wrong.”

“…Yes, sir.”

“…Good. You may leave.”

Ejekail sent away the errand boy, who was clearly tense. Although his excessive shrinking over such a simple question was somewhat unpleasant, the errand boy had always frozen like a mouse before a cat whenever he faced Ejekail.

In any case, the errand boy, who knew Rose’s face, had vouched for her appearance, so he could feel somewhat relieved. But now that he had started confirming things, it seemed it would not hurt to make it a little clearer.

Ejekail wrote a new letter to send to Madam Serva. If Madam Serva, who had first selected and managed Rose, also replied that she was a young lady with red hair and green eyes, then he would be able to put his mind completely at ease.

“See, Rose. I told you I’m not in my right mind.”

I even dared to see your image overlapping with that damned woman.

When you’re nothing like a woman like that.

When you must never be the same as her.

Even the slightest thought of “what if” was revolting. A stinging pain rose from within him, as though a demon had seized and kneaded his heart. Even though it had only been a hallucination brought on by the drug, he felt sorry toward Rose.

She was a woman who had remembered a brief connection at a school mistakenly swept into the battlefield, and upon hearing ill rumors about him, had come running out of simple goodwill, saying she would repay him. If she learned that the man she had struggled to save, shedding blood and sweat, had become confused after being swallowed by an absurd illusion despite all her efforts, even the generous Rose would be angry.

Ejekail traced the differences between Rose and Lizan. Their appearances were different, their personalities were different, and their actions were different. And the presence he remembered was…

Come to think of it, he had never properly heard that woman Lizan’s presence. The moment she had come face to face with him, she had swallowed poison without a single scream and collapsed on the spot, then had continued lying down on the pretext of illness. There was no way he could have had time to judge anything about her.

That must have been why he had seen a false vision. Because the parts he had failed to grasp about that woman Lizan had remained as a subtle unease in one corner of his mind.

“It’s urgent. Deliver this to Madam Serva at the Derosa estate and bring back her reply immediately.”

After reporting to work, Ejekail entrusted the letter to one of his subordinates. This was a matter he needed an answer to at once. The slow feet of an errand boy were not suited to satisfying his urgency. Soldiers experienced in running day and night, regardless of whether it was across flat ground or mountain paths, could shorten the time far more than an errand boy could.

With this, there were now two replies that needed to return.

Polina’s decision and Madam Serva’s response.

Until answers came back from both of them, he fought the temptation of Rothernum and spent his nights almost entirely sleepless. He was reluctant, fearing that if he became improperly intoxicated by the drug, he might once again see Rose overlapping with that woman. Once Madam Serva affirmed that Rose and that woman were entirely different people, the disturbance of his senses caused by imagination would no longer occur. Waiting for that day, Ejekail left the medicine bottle by his bedside.

A few days later, the subordinate he had sent with the letter requesting cooperation to be delivered to Polina through Serva returned first with Polina’s reply.

Polina’s answer was concise.

She did not even ask how Ejekail would escort her carriage. Her only requests were that the king’s army protect her to the best of their ability until the operation was over, and that they return her safely to her husband. Polina seemed to have complete faith in the reputation of Major Valdemaera, who had sealed Astrie’s borders during the war and moved freely across them in every direction.

Ejekail immediately called a meeting. These days, when he could not tell whether he was living through each day or merely enduring it, it was fortunate that there was at least a matter he could immerse himself in like this.

He spread out a military map and, moving his hand without hesitation, marked one by one the routes by which they would bring Polina to Claris. She was from the east, not particularly far from Claris.

At last, after drawing symbols at several points along the midpoint of the journey, Ejekail lifted his hand away.

“Judging by the way people keep gathering around and scattering from the men holding Akenaus, we can consider that side their command. The locations reported by the tails we attached to them have shifted slightly each time, but there doesn’t seem to be any major change from this area, just a little north of Claris.”

“Most likely because that’s the direction of Davis.”

“If things go wrong, they’ll have to cross the border and flee, so pushing too far south would be burdensome for them. Considering their psychology and the terrain, the points where we can set an ambush would be roughly these three or four places.”

His subordinates studied the map carefully.

“Will we split up and lie in ambush?”

“It’s difficult to predict perfectly where their surprise attack will happen, so for now, we’ll split up and set ambushes.”

“They’ll try to bring as many men as possible for the attack. If we scatter into three or four groups on our side, won’t we be short on strength?”

“Then each of you can shoot more of them. Is there a problem?”

The subordinates looked at one another. The people of Astrie tended to harbor a secretive fantasy about Ejekail’s company, which had thrown enemy lines into chaos through concealment, surprise attacks, and infiltration. But in truth, the fact that they had changed the tide of battle through special operations meant that they had often been at a disadvantage in terms of strength. If they had had enough numbers, there would have been no need for operations. That number itself would have been the strategy of battle.

Familiar smiles slowly began to rise.

“None, sir.”

“This suddenly reminds me of the old days. When we went out scouting and reported that the enemy’s forces seemed to be about twice as many as ours, you said something similar then too. That meant each of us only had to deal with two men, so the arithmetic was nice and simple. You said it in the tone of, ‘Then each person simply has to eat two loaves of bread.’”

The memory of the past brought up by one subordinate eased the tension.

“It’s not particularly surprising. When have we ever fought comfortably?”

“Ambushes are supposed to be done with a small number of people. Otherwise, we’ll be discovered.”

Light jokes went back and forth. Ejekail watched his subordinates for a moment. The men who trusted and followed him no matter what he asked of them were reliable comrades to Ejekail as well.

“But even among these, the place we must focus on the most is here.”

Ejekail pointed to the byroad leading northeast from Claris.