Chapter 163 - Even at the Edge of a Cliff

On the first day, while Encrid was absorbed in training, the headman treated them to dinner. An assortment of food was brought all the way to their hut. “Please, eat.”

The person who brought it was a red-haired woman. Perhaps a couple of years younger than Encrid? “He doesn't mean any harm.”

She was defending the headman. “It's all right.”

Encrid's casual reply brightened her face. “I'm Shai.”

“Hello.” After their brief introductions, Shai left with flushed cheeks. Krais muttered behind him.

“Irresistible as ever. I'm telling you, you should open a salon with me.” Should he say he'd consider it if Krais's salon took the name of a knight order—something like the Ladykiller Knights or the Host Knights?

Encrid held his tongue. The best response to being called irresistible was no response at all. The table wasn't lavish, but white bread, watery stew, roasted beans, and corn were enough to fill their bellies. Asking for meat here would have been greedy. They couldn't ask for a separate Frog meal, either, so Luagarne ate raw vegetables. CRUNCH. “That's the good thing about insect-eaten greens. They come with little delicacies mixed in.”

She spoke while chewing a dandelion leaf riddled with holes. She was always delighted to find bugs among her vegetables. Encrid wasn't nauseated. It would take more than that.

Neither were Pin or Krais. One was a ranger, a scout who considered anything that grew from the ground or moved fit to eat. Krais, too, had endured more than his share of hardship. What was wrong with eating a few bugs? Encrid was no different. Dinner finished, he trained again, and then again, until bedtime.

“You really never get tired of it, do you?”

He kept training as he listened to Krais's observation. With no separate washroom, he had to wash at the well. The weather was warm enough that the cold water felt wonderfully refreshing.

Afterward, he checked his equipment for damage from the journey. All he'd done was swing his swords hard, so the blades should be all that needed tending. He wiped them with the sheep-fat oil he'd prepared, rubbed them with leather, and finished with a clean cloth. It left a rank smell, but that was better than letting the blades deteriorate.

He checked the edges for chips. They were intact. 'Excellent.'

Once again, Encrid marveled at the skill of the blacksmith in Border Guard. Not just anyone could make swords like these simply because they had Valeri steel and Noir wrought iron. Though there probably wasn't much of either expensive metal in them. That day passed, and the next came. As always, he rose at dawn and worked through the Isolation Technique and his other training. Pin went out to scout, saying she'd napped too much to sleep. The moon was still visible, but she'd said she was only going to look around.

Committing the surrounding terrain to memory must have been a ranger's habit. “Deutsch Fullman.”

As Encrid continued his training, a man with short, bristly hair approached him just as day broke. He had one eye and carried a broad-bladed glaive in one hand. The eyepatch and scar crossing his face made him look decidedly rough. “I'm from Zaltenburg.”

Deutsch spoke as he stared steadily at him.

Where was Zaltenburg again? Somewhere in the central region, he thought. “Encrid, Platoon Commander of Border Guard.”

A simple greeting and introduction. Then he continued training. He didn't know what the man wanted, but saw no need to stop.

* * *

Deutsch stared at the other man for a while before speaking.

“I hear you've come to take command.”

“That's right.”

Encrid's brief reply came as he swung his sword. Deutsch kept staring at him. What was he doing?

He was waving a wooden sword through the air, slowly and precisely. Once here, once there.

Did that actually help? “Are you busy?”

“Not particularly.”

Was he being mocked?

Deutsch frowned. Someone had come to speak to him. What the hell kind of response was this? He'd come to feel the man out, to see whether he was after Deutsch's position as guard captain of the Pioneer Village. But that attitude...

Deutsch didn't want to start an unnecessary quarrel and give the man an opening. 'Be patient.'

So he had to endure it. “Our palisade is sturdy. We've coated it generously with resin. More than enough to keep out most monsters and demonic beasts.”

“I see.” “We regularly organize strike teams to go out and deal with the demonic beasts. We've had no major difficulties so far.”

“I see.” “I brought over thirty men with me, and expanded the militia through training.”

“I see.” “You could say my men handle most of the quarry's management, too.”

“I see.” “We've built watchtowers, with two of my men on each one, keeping watch day and night.”

“I see.” Was there something wrong with this bastard?

It was only natural to start wondering. The man had come as a commander. Deutsch wanted to find out whether Border Guard intended to put pressure on the village, but he seemed completely uninterested.

Shouldn't he at least have something to say about the village's defenses? This went well beyond looking down on Deutsch as some lowly mercenary. Shouldn't he be poking around, finding faults to use as an excuse to tighten his hold on command? Deutsch felt everything he and the headman had discussed going awry.

'I think there's something wrong with him.' Come to think of it, those eyes might not have been normal to begin with. Even now, he was gazing vacantly into the air. Those eyes were blank.

What was he thinking about while swinging that sword? They said he played with wooden swords with the Frog. Was that really all it was? Otherwise, what had he come here for? A tangle of thoughts churned through Deutsch's mind. At last, he opened his mouth.

“Did you come here to train or something?”

“Partly?”

Only then did the man glance his way to answer. He'd only tossed the question out there. He really had come to train?

“We've already dealt with the monsters that formed the colony ourselves.”

“I see.” Leave him be. He wasn't normal. At least Deutsch now knew the bastard wasn't here to steal command from him. Whatever he was plotting, he'd reveal it himself in time. “Captain, monsters.”

Just then, a subordinate called to him. A recent recruit, but quick on his feet and quick-witted. An excellent subordinate who paid close attention to all the little details. “Right. Coming.”

He turned away. Encrid remained immersed in training, and Deutsch went about his own work: keeping the village's defenses strong and maintaining a vigilant watch over the surrounding area.

They'd already dealt with the colony before the visitors arrived. 'Just a bunch of mutts.'

What was the big deal about twenty or so hyenas gathering together? They knew nothing. Not how many monsters Encrid had killed on his way here. Not about the demonic-beast corpses littering the road to the village. Not that a band of Black Blade bandits based nearby had been wiped out. All Deutsch thought was:

'I'd expected the bandits to come looking for trouble.'

He listened to the reports every day and waited for them. Usually, the mere mention of a Pioneer Village would bring them drooling, as though treasure lay hidden there. Yet there was no sign of them.

It was quiet. Everything was moving along smoothly, without a hitch. 'Am I in luck?'

It seemed the goddess of luck had winked at him, and he'd simply missed it. Then, on the third day after the party from Border Guard arrived... CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! The bell rang. Its warning of an enemy attack pierced the dawn mist. 'Bandits?'

Deutsch sprang up and seized his weapon. He would give them a full demonstration of the skill that had earned him the name One-Eyed Glaive.

He kicked the door open and stepped out. “Everyone... ngh!”

Before he could finish, Deutsch pulled his weapon in front of him to block. CLANG! Metal met metal and rang. An axe blade struck the blade of his glaive, sending vibrations down the walnut shaft that made his hands tingle. “Hah!”

With a shout, he lashed the axe-wielding creature with the glaive's shaft. THWACK! The monster flew sideways from the blow.

What was this?

Deutsch was bewildered. He hadn't even put on his armor yet, and monsters were everywhere. “Gwoooook!”

The fallen creature let out a cry. The source of that strange cry was a monster with an elongated torso and spots covering its body: a Knoll. If one had broken in, what would the problem have been? He'd have smacked the bell-ringer over the head. Why make such a fuss over something they could simply deal with and report afterward? What if five or six Knolls and hyena demonic beasts had broken in? Ringing the bell would be justified, but he'd still be angry that they'd been allowed to reach him like this.

They couldn't handle even that? A former mercenary corps? But what was happening now? “Aaaagh!”

“Fight! Don't fall back!”

“Shoot! Shoot! Shoot the bastards!”

“Help! Heeelp!”

“Gaaagh!”

“Ghk!” A duet of cries for survival and dying screams.

He caught glimpses of his men amid it all, but couldn't even tell what state they were in.

There were so many. Hyena demonic beasts and Knolls were pouring in like a tidal wave. With another drawn-out cry, the number of Knolls before Deutsch swelled to five. Knolls worked in groups. That cry had been a call for companions to help fight him. “Hah!”

Deutsch fought fiercely against four Knolls with hand axes and one with a spear. When his glaive finally split two of their skulls... “Gwoooooooo!”

A Knoll cried again, and their numbers grew once more. “This is fucking insane.”

How was this even possible?

Deutsch sensed his death—no, he was certain of it. He stood at the edge of a cliff with no hope of survival. That was where he was.

* * *

Rising at dawn was an old habit for Encrid.

'There isn't enough time.' For every swing a genius or even someone of ordinary talent made, Encrid had to make ten. If that wasn't enough, a hundred. If a hundred weren't enough, a thousand.

Once, even swinging that much had brought no reward. 'Ah.'

A succession of small realizations. Traces of care tucked into Luagarne's lessons.

He found them, ate them, and chewed them over. Then he sought the flavors that chewing had released and gave them expression anew. His sword moved. Every day felt new to Encrid.

It had before, too, but all the more so lately. Above all, realizations now came to him suddenly even as he practiced the Isolation Technique.

'Coordination.'

The body's response at the instant he saw and sensed something. The difference lay in reaction speed. His dodging sense was a skill founded on that. Ordinary training alone couldn't easily make it second nature. Then what did he need?

'It's all right if I die. I'll do it even if I die.' Utter commitment to the kill. The resolve to do something even at the cost of his life.

When the heart of the beast gave him only boldness, rather than composure, Encrid realized something. All he needed was a small trigger. He had just organized his thoughts that far. GWOOOO! An ominous feeling spread through the air in an instant. As the blue light of dawn began to fade, screams rose ahead, along with... CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! CLANG! The alarm bell rang.

“An attack! Monsters! Monsters!”

Hm? Encrid had devoted himself entirely to training, but Krais had spent his spare time looking around the village. [“The palisade is pretty sturdy. Even if something happens, we should be able to hold out reasonably well inside the village.”]

[“They don't have siege engines like trebuchets or mangonels, but the palisade makes up for it. It's very sturdy. They seem to have built this place with holding out in mind. Here's the bottom line.”] That had been Krais's answer when asked whether the village might be in danger. [“It's fine. If anything happens, another city will send reinforcements right away. If they really dig in, they could hold out here for over a month, couldn't they?”]

That was what he'd said. Meaning a colony of monsters couldn't do anything to this place. “That's not what I'm seeing, Big-eyes.”

Encrid murmured. THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD!

GWOOOOOO! The sound of feet pounding the ground. Monsters' footfalls kicking up clouds of dust. The rush of demonic beasts.

He could see them charging without pausing for breath. So many demonic beasts and monsters that counting them was pointless. GWOOK!

KAOOOO! Exchanging cries, they raced along the road humans had built. A Knoll's axe fell onto a market stall.

Wood splintered with a crack, fragments flying everywhere. “Aaaah!”

A human's scream at the sight joined the noise.

Knolls and hyenas. The dangers of Knolls. Several things flashed through his mind.

First, they operated in groups. Even a lone Knoll brought hyena demonic beasts with it. That was what made them so troublesome. Second, each individual was absolutely, absolutely not to be taken lightly.

Third, they tended to pair up, but only with hyena demonic beasts. Thought was thought. The body was the body.

Encrid stepped forward, sword in hand. Behind the hut where he was staying were only villagers going about their work. The militia—and the place where that Deutsch fellow stayed—were toward the village center, so there would be few people here capable of fighting. “Huh? Uhhh?”

Behind Encrid, a quarry worker who had stepped out to piss flopped backward in terror. “Lua!”

In his urgency, Encrid shouted only half the Frog's name as he swung his sword.