Chapter 19 - Fire

Endure today. Train and practice, over and over. That was what Encrid had done. And this was the first time he had made it this far in this repeating day. 'Am I going to die?'

That was his first thought at the Company Commander's reaction. He soon reconsidered.

'If she meant to kill me, she'd have done it earlier.' When on earth had Krang slipped out? He hadn't sensed any movement from that direction.

'Tsk.'

Even in this situation...

'Still not good enough.'

Encrid found his trained hearing wanting. That was simply his nature. As a result, he missed his cue to answer. The newly appointed Company Commander, a Fairy woman, was staring straight at him. You're alive? Was that what she'd said? How was he supposed to answer that?

Encrid opened his mouth.

"... Was I supposed to die?" "Hmm. No, not really."

Only her lips moved as she answered. She continued staring at him for a while before turning away. Then she retrieved the poisoned needles from the ground and checked Vengeance and the sentry she'd brought inside, lifting their eyelids to examine their eyes. 'Even now, she's checking whether the soldiers are dead.'

Then she brought a poisoned needle to her mouth and touched it lightly to her tongue.

'Looks like she knows her herbalism, too.'

He had occasionally seen mercenaries do that. Many Fairies had an affinity for nature, so it was entirely plausible that she knew a great deal about poisons and medicines. Encrid simply watched from where he sat on the ground. He had no desire whatsoever to get up. Of course, if someone went for his throat even now, he would roll or twist out of the way, but exhaustion was exhaustion. It wasn't as bad as the first day he'd repeated, but this was exhausting all the same. The first time had drained his physical strength. This time, he felt as though he'd scraped the bottom of his mental reserves. He had evaded attack after attack by sound alone, without suffering so much as a scratch. Naturally, that was no coincidence. How many times had he fallen victim to those attacks? Sometimes he had been struck without sensing a thing, but plenty of times he had narrowly dodged the opening attack. Repeated patterns could be learned. The assassin's actions had patterns, too, and Encrid had absorbed them until they became reflex.

'I've been through this once already.'

Was it a little easier the second time? No. It was by no means easy. Anyone who had witnessed his repeating days, who had lived through them alongside him, could never have said that.

But no one could. In his isolated today, he was always alone. Still seated, Encrid pressed his fingers firmly against his temples. For now, with the excitement still lingering, his head merely throbbed. In time, it would become a headache. He knew it instinctively. Something slid toward his neck from beside him. Sensing it, Encrid reflexively twisted sideways and thrust out his palm. He saw Krang pretending to chop at his neck with the edge of his hand. "Do you really have eyes in the back of your head?"

Krang sounded fascinated.

"I don't think this is the time for jokes."

What an immature bastard. Krang smiled and replied in his carefree tone.

"Ah, sorry."

Had the assassin really come for this bastard?

'Then why not just kill him? Why me first?' Was it just bad luck? Could it really be nothing more than bad luck? Surely not. For a start, Krang must have been the target. No matter how he looked at it, sending an assassin after him and Vengeance didn't make sense. 'If it were me and Vengeance, it'd be easier to frame us for something and have us killed.'

Why go so far as to hire an assassin to dispose of two powerless soldiers? There was no need. Why send an assassin at all? To quietly finish someone off. Kill them and be done with it before anyone could raise a fuss. As for the bodies left behind, just set the tent on fire. Who would care about stab wounds on a charred corpse? Even without that, there were plenty of ways to dispose of bodies. They could erase the blood and other traces and dump them somewhere remote. People would assume desertion, not conduct a search on the likelihood of abduction and murder. Besides, these were the Medical Barracks on the outskirts of camp. Just a temporary facility for enlisted men, not officers. A place no one paid much attention to. Not that just anyone could get admitted, even here. "They were probably after me."

The Company Commander had more or less put things in order inside and was taking a quick look outside the tent when Krang, crouched beside him, casually dropped the remark. "Hmm. Why?"

"You don't look very surprised."

"I am. Plenty surprised."

"You've got a good poker face." Was that really what he should be focusing on? Encrid almost snapped at him, but held his tongue. He had spent enough time with Krang to know his easygoing nature.

'Though he can get serious when he needs to.'

It had happened in a today already gone, so Krang wouldn't remember. But the sight of him speaking as though drawing everything around him into himself remained etched in Encrid's mind. "You aren't considering telling him who you are, I trust?"

The Company Commander had approached without a sound. When had she come over?

Krang gave a perfunctory nod and spoke again.

"Anyway, like I said, I'm sorry."

Did that even count as an apology? With that, Krang rose. He glanced around, then met the Company Commander's eyes.

"I don't consider myself in a position to give anyone orders, so I'll ask a favor." Krang spoke just as casually to the Company Commander as he did to Vengeance. Only a high-ranking noble could get away with that. Otherwise, he would have no grounds to complain even if someone ran him through and left him dead. Nor did he merely speak. One step. He had taken just one step forward, and it was like that time before. The same atmosphere settled over them as when Encrid had asked who he was. Krang quietly accepted their gazes. Two spectators, one actor. But that actor was a vortex, greedily drawing in and swallowing everything around him. "May I? I'll consider it a debt, and repay it."

"Please, go ahead."

The Company Commander bowed as she answered. Krang spoke with a gentle smile.

"I'd like no one else to die today." Soft yet firm, quiet yet like a storm. If a voice could hold magic, this would be it. His tone and cadence made a person want to grant his request. How did he make them feel this way? Encrid felt an odd sense of déjà vu. He had experienced this once before. The vortex that had drawn in everything around it soon subsided. Having spoken, Krang held out his hand to him. "Your legs gave out, right?"

"No, it's not that bad."

With mixed feelings, Encrid took his hand. "... Is he why you changed your mind?"

The Company Commander asked as she watched them.

"Let's say he is," Krang answered.

Encrid couldn't make any sense of their conversation. Nor did he feel inclined to ask.

'They don't seem likely to tell me anyway.' The Company Commander let out a quiet, thoughtful sigh, then addressed Encrid.

"Can you keep quiet about what happened today?"

"Yes, of course."

She asked as though she would put a hole in his throat on the spot if he refused. What other answer could he possibly give? He'd caught a glimpse of his new Company Commander's skill earlier. Just a single move, but...

'You can deflect it like that?'

A push outward with the back of her hand. One gesture, and Encrid had lost his balance and fallen. He wanted to see it over and over, if possible. All he had to do was die. Repeat today. What if he refused to keep quiet? Would she kill him? No. That wouldn't work. There were plenty of ways to silence someone without killing them. It would be pointless. Besides, he didn't want to deliberately kill himself. "Please."

Above all, there was Krang's request. It had only been a few days, only a handful of conversations, but Encrid realized he had grown quite fond of this man. Regardless of how little time they'd spent together, they were strangely close. "Keeping my mouth shut is my specialty."

Those weren't empty words. How many secrets did he know within his own squad alone? Some were important, some weren't, but he had never spoken of any of them anywhere. "Then all that remains is to deal with this situation."

The Company Commander looked at the torn tent and the two unconscious soldiers.

"When I said no more deaths, that included those two."

At Krang's words, she nodded as though it were no great matter. No one knew yet what had happened here. But what if they found out? From the looks of things, revealing Krang's identity would be awkward. The Company Commander was considering her options. "When that sentry wakes up, will he know he was attacked?"

Encrid brushed the dirt off his backside as he spoke.

"I assume not. Even if he does, he won't have seen anything."

She sounded fairly sure. Encrid thought so, too. How many times had he been taken out without knowing a thing? That freckle-faced sentry must also have lost consciousness without realizing what was happening.

In that case... "Please carry one of them outside."

The Company Commander turned to him.

"I have a simple, convenient solution. I might catch some flak for it, though. I think you could shield me from that, Commander."

He explained his plan. Krang laughed, and the Company Commander nodded without a trace of amusement.

* * *

FWOOSH! "Hmm?"

The sentry nodding off at his post in front of the barracks opened his eyes at a sudden sting on his cheek. Once awake, he could feel warmth coming from somewhere, too. Still half asleep, he turned to look beside him and froze. 'Is that fire?'

It was. Flames climbed the front of the tent, scattering sparks. CLACK! The sound of his spear hitting the ground jolted him fully awake.

"F-fire! Fire! Fire!"

The soldier who had dropped his spear shouted, his tongue tangled in his alarm.

"Fire! Fire! Fire!" He couldn't even manage "It's on fire!" He just kept repeating the one word. But the urgency in his voice made every cry ring in the ears of those nearby. "It's on fire!"

A patrolling sentry who happened to be nearby shouted a clear warning.

"The Medical Barracks are on fire!"

The quick-witted patrolman's voice rang out.

"Bring water!" Only then did other soldiers begin poking their heads out, one after another, to see what was happening.

"Fuck, what about inside?"

"Was anyone in there?"

"Of course there was! That fucking soldier!" The fire, which had caught only the front at first, quickly climbed and engulfed the entire tent. Pandemonium erupted in the middle of the night. Black soot and smoke billowed upward. Even a fairly brave soldier would not have gone inside in those conditions. "I said bring water!"

The supply Company Commander bellowed. Soldiers who had hurried off returned with buckets and other containers full of water. SPLASH! They threw the bucketfuls over the flames. Smoke surged up for a moment, but then came another order.

"Form a line and pass them along!"

The supply Company Commander was putting his experience hauling supplies to use. Passing things along meant standing in a single long line to move the cargo. The soldiers lined up and began passing buckets of water forward in the same fashion. CLATTER! Some idiot dropped a bucket on the ground.

"Are you kidding me? Pick it up!"

"I'll fix it, sir!"

The commotion grew. Firelight lit the soldiers' faces. The supply Company Commander stamped his feet anxiously. The burning tent wasn't the issue. If the fire spread to its neighbors, they would have a real disaster on their hands. To him, the fire spreading mattered far more than a few men dying inside. As the bucket brigade gradually subdued the flames, he inwardly sighed with relief.

'But why a fire all of a sudden?'

Was this the season for fires? The weather wasn't that dry, was it? Fortunately, the fire did not spread. As though that was all it had been waiting for, it consumed just the one tent and died.

"There are people over there!"

Amid it all, a soldier with good night vision shouted. "Bring them over. Lucky if they're alive."

The supply Company Commander didn't mean a word of it. The fire not spreading was a hundred times more fortunate than their survival.

* * *

Encrid laid the freckled soldier beside Platoon Commander Vengeance, whom the Company Commander had carried outside.

"Over here!"

At his shout, people hurried over. "Are you all right?"

"A fire, out of nowhere..."

"What happened?"

Encrid coughed and spluttered, his face smeared with soot. To anyone looking, he had just escaped the burning tent. "I don't... cough, ack... really know either."

He spoke between coughs.

In the end, the midnight fire was written off as an accident.

* * *

HOO-HOOO. The cry of an owl or some such bird sounded in the distance. Probably from the forest. Listening, the Fairy Company Commander matched her current position to the map in her head, found her bearings, and walked. Her destination was a pebble-strewn stream not far from the camp. Once there, she spoke.

"You would have been in danger if not for that Squad Leader." A glance around the barracks had told her what the assassin intended.

'Eliminate the one by the entrance, then immediately eliminate the target.'

Encrid had been the one by the entrance. They had survived thanks to him. If he had held out for even a little less time, he would have died. Both he and the man she was protecting would have died. "Is that so?"

Krang drew a deep breath and let it out. Watching him, the Company Commander turned away.

"Until next time."

A simple farewell. Her light Fairy footsteps made not the slightest noise. Her current posting was commander of Fourth Company, Fourth Battalion, Cyprus Division. It was time to return to camp. She stepped into the darkness and soon vanished from sight. Watching her go, Krang recalled Encrid's dream.

'A knight.'

["Seeing you, I think I'm getting a sense of how I should live my own life."]

That was how he had answered when Encrid told him his dream. Those hadn't been empty words. Krang might deceive people, but he had never offered empty words to someone who approached him with sincerity. There was a secret surrounding Krang's birth. But he liked neither his birth nor its secret. He had avoided the matter all this time, but now...

'I'll face it, too.' He had gauged Encrid's skill at a glance. Yet that man dreamed of becoming a knight. Five out of ten passersby would call that dream absurd. The other five would be too busy laughing at him. And still he dreamed. He would not give up. It had only been a few days, but watching him silently clench and unclench his fists, over and over, Krang had intuitively known he wouldn't change. People like that did not change easily. "He really was an interesting fellow."

A strange sense of closeness lingered. The clouds parted above Krang, and moonlight began to peek through once more. He walked on. A life a little different from the one he had lived until now would be waiting ahead.