Chapter 112 - March Out at Once

It had lasted only an instant, but...

'I saw it.'

A way to defeat the Frog, to kill him, to win. Words had appeared on the signpost, and a path had opened before him. Wouldn't this make for another satisfying today?

He had taken a full day's rest before coming, keeping himself in perfect condition for the today he would repeat. Now all he had to do was die and start today again.

But the Frog's sword did not fall. His killing intent and fighting spirit were unchanged, yet the blade would not move. It stopped short in midair, as though someone had caught it.

BURBLE.

The Frog merely puffed out his cheeks and let them subside, over and over.

'Why?'

Outside Encrid's field of vision, the Frog was looking behind the human who had cut his arm. There stood a panther with eyes that seemed to hold brilliant blue lakes.

A Lake Panther. In some regions, they were considered extraordinary creatures, even revered as guardian deities. But Frogs were not a race that cared about such things. To them, a beast was a beast.

In other words, he had not stopped merely because a Lake Panther was glaring at him.

'Fucking hell.'

The Frog cursed inwardly. Rather than sweat, his smooth skin secreted a similar, slimy substance. It was a physical response Frogs had to tension.

The Frog with the white scar on his neck was experienced, and that experience included quite a few encounters with mages. Mages: those bizarre beings who manifested their spell worlds in reality. They were nothing but trouble to fight.

He sensed that same aura emanating from the Lake Panther's black skin and eyes. Traces of mana, visible to the talent reader's eye honed through countless experiences. Either the panther itself wielded a spell world, or it was, at the very least, something connected to one.

The Frog knew instinctively. He could kill this man if he brought his sword down now, but...

'I'd have to stake my own life on it too.'

The spellcasting panther was not the only problem. The human sitting before him was no pushover either. After relentlessly targeting his heart, he had swung at his arm instead?

That final move. The sword that had raced along his broad blade, its edge, the determination, the fighting spirit. It had not been a simple motion. The man had moved his feet and put his weight into it, producing strength that rivaled the Frog's own, however briefly.

His frame was small compared to the Frog's. There was only one conclusion: his muscles were of an exceptional quality. And then there were...

'Those fucking eyes.'

The light in them had not died. Even now, the eyes looking up at him held the same fighting spirit. How could he look like that when he had no chance of winning?

He was like a human fashioned from the word determination itself. It felt like looking at something that would never break, no matter what happened. He did not seem to be relying on the magic-wielding panther behind him. He simply burned with pure fighting spirit.

'Crazy bastard.'

BURBLE.

The Frog's cheeks swelled to their fullest. He did not like this situation one bit.

He took out a set of scales in his mind and weighed his options. Was this someone he had to risk his life to kill here? Or should he leave it for another day?

He wanted to kill him if at all possible. This was the kind of human who needed to die. But if his own life hung on the other side of the scales? He would have to reconsider.

The talent reader's eyes scrutinized Encrid. He calculated carefully. Frogs were known for fighting when they wanted to fight, eating when they wanted to eat, and loving when they wanted to love. But his life was at stake, and he was already bound to one place, with duties to fulfill.

Did he need to kill this man even at the risk of his life and in disregard of his duties?

The scales tipped to one side. There was really nothing more to consider. This city, the frontier fortress city called Border Guard, was not all that important.

Soon the Frog's cheeks deflated. He lowered the blade he had been poised to swing. His fighting spirit faded.

'His limit.'

That was the Frog's judgment. The human before him would have difficulty becoming any more skilled than he was now.

His muscles were of fine quality, and the strength that briefly rivaled a Frog's was impressive too. His swordsmanship and individual tactics were excellent, while his unbreakable spirit made him seem like a creature the Frog had never encountered in his life.

Even so, the Frog knew instinctively.

'Half of that was luck.'

That final move had cut his arm, but he had smashed his opponent's right wrist in return. Which meant the man's trick had relied on luck. He could kill him the next time they met. All he needed was another encounter.

"Do not forget, human. My name is Meellun."

That was all. His fighting spirit vanished without a trace, and the Frog stepped back.

Meellun met Esther's eyes behind Encrid.

'I'll leave quietly, so you back down too.'

That was the message in his gaze. Esther did not respond. She simply watched him in silence with her lake-blue eyes.

Meellun retrieved his cloak from the floor and backed away. The Frog strolled out of the mansion, and no one stopped him. A few guild members looked around uncertainly, but...

"Stop looking around and get out of the way. Our guest is leaving."

Krais held them back. Even with one arm out of action, a Frog was still a Frog. And so the Frog left.

* * *

Thanks to the grimoire Encrid had brought her, Esther had found a loophole in the shackles binding her body. She could not return to human form just yet, but she could manifest part of her spell world even in a panther's body.

'Of course, I'll suffer for it every time.'

She would have to expend her stored mana, and part of her spell world might become corrupted. It was a method from the grimoire of a mad bastard who used corpses to construct his own spell world. A shortcut among shortcuts.

Still...

'I'll use it someday.'

It would be useful to know. That was why she had practiced it. And that day might have been today.

Feigning calm, Esther had revealed her presence. She made the Frog aware that she was a mage. Bring that blade down before me, and I will drive something into your heart as well.

What was determination? Determination could become mana. For an instant, she had made herself appear not as a panther, but as Esther the mage.

This was the result. The bastard called Meellun, or Melon, or whatever, had backed down.

It might have been different if her body had been whole. In her current state, even if she and Encrid had gone all out together, their chances of winning were only fifty-fifty. That was her conclusion after weighing everything.

So the reason their opponent had withdrawn...

'Luck.'

There was no other way to see it. Encrid's unrecognizable improvement? It had surprised her. Esther had been very surprised indeed. But that alone was not enough to make a Frog retreat.

Of course, before she called it luck, the situation had taken a turn. The man she had stayed beside out of her own need had brought about that change.

'The left arm.'

The arm, not the heart. Had Encrid kept aiming for the heart and then backed off, that bastard would have stood his ground too. But he had cut halfway through his left arm.

At that point, cutting it off and growing a new one might be faster than reattaching it. He was a swordsman missing an arm now. An opponent they could take on.

'Damn it.'

How had she ended up like this? Sighing, Esther tapped the back of the man who had nearly made her squander all the mana she had accumulated in a single instant. Why wasn't this idiot getting up?

"Es—urgh!"

Encrid must have been barely holding himself together as well. He retched. Esther hopped back, and Krais approached.

"It's all right. No, but, um, about my asking for Ragna. You understood what I meant, didn't you?"

"Whew."

The bout of retching seemed to have settled his stomach a little. Encrid straightened his upper body and spoke.

"You spent six days holed up here instead of deploying, and you don't even know where the squad went? You call yourself a fucking information broker? You?"

His tone was not reproachful. It was matter-of-fact.

"Huh?"

Only then did Krais realize what he had overlooked. When he thought about it, the squad members were faces he always saw whenever he went back. He had heard about the deployment, but who would take those men without Encrid? Unless it was a commander who wanted a hole in the back of their head.

A superior-killer, a lazy bastard with no sense of direction, a soldier who vanished at the drop of a hat without a word, and a religious nut who claimed he couldn't fight without his god's permission. Seriously, who would take a bunch of freaks like that? Naturally, he had assumed they would stay at the base and wait for their Squad Leader.

He had miscalculated.

"They're gone. Every last one of them deployed."

"I wasn't expecting that. Then it's just you and Esther, Squad Leader?"

"Yes."

Krais slipped his hands under Encrid's arms and helped him to his feet.

"Are you badly hurt?"

"Apart from my right hand, I'd say it's manageable."

As he answered, Encrid thought he was in better shape than expected. Then a question came to mind.

'Why did he just leave?'

One swing of that sword would surely have killed him. Krais too.

'Why?'

Encrid's gaze settled on the panther, Esther.

'Did you do something? Really? Against a Frog?'

He was keenly feeling the weight that the word Frog carried. What could that little panther cub have done? He did not know. It made no sense at all.

"Meow."

Sensing his gaze, Esther opened her mouth as if to scold him. She seemed to be asking how he could let something so minor knock him down.

Encrid steadied his breathing and sorted out his thoughts.

'I don't know.'

Would dwelling on what he didn't know produce an answer? Of course not. Experience had taught him that. What he didn't know, he didn't know. Instead, he chose to be satisfied with the experience he had gained for tomorrow, the impetus to keep walking.

'It worked.'

How should he put it? For an instant, he had felt as though he was overwhelming the Frog. He had drawn the Frog into the setup he had devised, and cut him.

He had cut the arm. The arm, not the heart. It would regenerate, surely. It would. But not while the Frog was fighting him.

If only he had dodged that final strike at his right wrist.

'If I had...'

The fight would have taken a different course. This Review would have much to teach him.

With that thought, Encrid headed for his quarters. Krais supported him. Rather than leaping into his arms, Esther glanced behind her and followed close at his side.

They reached his quarters, and he was just about to go inside and rest.

"Where have you been?"

It was the Second Company Commander, Platoon Commander Vengeance's superior. His forehead was drenched in sweat, as though he had been searching for Encrid. What kind of Company Commander ran around in person like a messenger?

Thinking that, Encrid was about to salute when the Company Commander spoke first.

"March out! At once!"

"I'm a little injured." He would have liked another day or two of rest before leaving, if there was time. His presence or absence alone would not make much difference on the battlefield. He was just one soldier of Platoon Commander rank who had only recently returned. He thought they might be willing to accommodate him.

"What? How?"

The man would already know he had returned from the mission in one piece.

"I got into a fight with a thug."

"What were you thinking, at a time like this?"

The Company Commander scolded him, then shook his head as though there was nothing to be done.

"It isn't your swordsmanship we need right now, Platoon Commander. If you can move, I'm asking you to go at once."

He did not force the issue. His tone was practically pleading. To Encrid, that sounded like trouble had broken out at the front.

'Why?'

He had yet to hear how the battle was going. After returning, he had spent an entire day doing nothing but resting. Today, the next day, he was on his way back from a sword fight with a Frog.

"Ranger Pin has agreed to accompany you. Can you leave immediately?"

"What's happened that's so urgent?"

Krais, who had been listening quietly, voiced his question. The two were acquainted, and the Company Commander readily answered.

"Well, they say they won't fight anymore unless we bring their Platoon Commander..."

The Company Commander trailed off, but Encrid understood at once.

"You mean my men?"

"You can consider this a deployment to persuade them. The request says you may rest in the rear, so long as you remain at the battlefield. It comes from your own Company Commander."

It seemed he would have to go. There appeared to be no time to rest over a troublesome wrist. It wasn't as though he couldn't hold a sword at all.

'Rem.'

The moment he heard the news, Encrid was worried too. He could hear about the situation at the front along the way. All he needed was to put some ointment on a few scratches before leaving.

"Yes, sir."

Encrid saluted, signaling that he would leave at once.