Chapter 20 - Squad Leader Encrid

There were torch stands between the tents, and oil in the supply tent. Encrid had spent day after repeated day training his hearing. He could find everything nearby with his eyes closed. "I'll be right back." It was a simple matter to locate the patrol by sound and sneak some oil out of the supply tent. He splashed it roughly over the tent. The rest was even easier. All he had to do was kick over a torch stand. Since he had to avoid being seen, he crawled on his belly through the shadows and pulled the stand inward, toppling it over. The flame at its tip met the oil and flared in an exuberant greeting. "You're good at this," the Company Commander remarked evenly. Was that a compliment? Encrid wondered as he set the tent ablaze. Naturally, the oil-soaked areas caught first. Keeping clear of the flames, he smeared soot on his face and inhaled a little smoke. A genuine reaction was much easier than a clumsy performance. "Cough!" Coughing, Encrid hoisted the unconscious freckled soldier onto his back and left through the tear where the Company Commander had entered. He circled around and collapsed in front of the Medical Barracks. That should do it. "Fire!" He had deliberately timed the fire to coincide with the patrol's arrival. No, he had been forced to. The bastard standing sentry at the next tent was a master of sleeping on his feet. Nothing woke him. Encrid had wondered if the assassin had stuck him with a poisoned needle too. None of this had required much preparation. Steal oil from the supply tent whose location he already knew, then topple a torch stand. That was all. Yet Krang and the Company Commander had seemed quite impressed as they watched. "Honestly, if you'd joined a bandit gang, I bet you'd have made yourself chief in no time." Krang's parting words stuck with him. Was that supposed to be a compliment? He swept his hair back, and singed curls caught between his fingers.

'I could use a haircut too.' He lay down on the ground without even thinking to wipe the soot from his face. It wasn't a large fire. It wouldn't count as much of an accident either. No one had died, after all. He had already thought up a rough excuse for the sentry. 'Ask me tomorrow. Tomorrow.' Without the slightest exaggeration, he wanted to fall asleep right where he lay. It had been a long night. A truly long today. His head had gone beyond aching to numbness. He didn't want to think about anything. "Where's the survivor?"

"Over there. Though, um... I think he's passed out now." Encrid knew they were talking about him, but ignored them and closed his eyes. Exhaustion washed over him.

* * *

The freckled sentry might not have felt the same, but Encrid felt a one-sided closeness to him.

'You wouldn't know it, though.' Encrid had talked with him. He knew where the soldier came from, knew about the girlfriend waiting back home, and had heard why he joined the army. Those todays existed for Encrid, but not for the soldier. That was where the closeness came from. Besides, neither the fire nor the attack had been his fault. So Encrid supplied a suitable excuse: the soldier had shouted as soon as the fire started, then tried to rescue the men inside, only to inhale smoke and pass out. He was a recruit fresh out of training, and that training presumably hadn't covered barracks fires. It was an explanation everyone could readily accept. "I did that?" The soldier did ask in bewilderment, since he remembered none of it, but the supply Company Commander brushed it off.

"Must have lost your memory." Encrid had wondered whether anyone might suspect him, but no one did. His explanations fit together so neatly that someone might find it odd, he had thought. Fortunately, that hadn't happened. The supply Company Commander simply seemed relieved the supply tent hadn't caught fire. Encrid had been counting on that too, so things had gone as planned. A new morning had dawned. Today hadn't repeated. Encrid still had a headache when he woke, but he was satisfied nonetheless. He had made it through another "today." "You saved me?" Encrid had washed his face and body, changed out of his smoke-scented clothes, and roughly trimmed his hair with a dagger before setting out. Vengeance questioned him from his seat on a crate of supplies. "I couldn't just watch you burn to death, could I?" Vengeance worked his mouth at Encrid's answer. After mumbling something, he asked,

"... Why?" Did that really need a reason? With his head still throbbing, Encrid wasn't in the mood for a long conversation either. "We're comrades." He said it without much thought. Vengeance's expression stiffened. "Tsk." Looking at that stiff expression, Encrid spoke.

"The flower of the battlefield..."

"... Is the infantry." It was the infantry company's greeting. With that, Encrid turned away. He had just received orders to return to his unit. "All I've done is treat him like shit." Vengeance's grumbling drifted faintly to his ears from behind. He could hear something he would never have heard before.

'Hearing training.' Encrid reflected on the ability he had gained. He also recalled the Fairy Company Commander knocking his blade aside last night, and how he had evaded the stab and the assassin's attacks. A question came to him naturally.

'Am I still standing in the same place?' It wasn't a serious worry. He was simply curious. How different was he today from the man he had been yesterday? Suddenly, he wanted to have a bout with Rem. 'First things first.'

He needed to return to his own barracks and get some proper rest. His head still throbbed. "Lovely weather, though." After only a few steps, Encrid noticed his shadow stretching far to his right. He looked up at a clear blue canvas of sky. Patches of billowing cloud lay scattered across it, the breeze was cool, and the sunshine warm. Today was wonderfully clear. He felt as though walking alone might banish his headache.

* * *

Krais looked calm on the outside, but inwardly he was sighing over and over. Encrid had been gone exactly one week.

'How did we ever manage back then?' Faced with the scene unfolding before him, Krais's mind fled reality. He thought back to the days before Encrid. ["Now then, I'm the Squad Leader here. Now then, that means you have to obey me. Now then, assemble in front of the barracks."] There had been the Squad Leader who kept repeating "now then." He had thrown his weight around, then met a violent end in his very first battle. ["Follow me!"] He seemed to have heard some strange rumor: the troublemaker squad might be few in number, but their skills were first-rate. Had he really thought men like that would meekly follow him? He charged alone and took a spear through the head. When his helmet came flying back, Rem sent it flying again with a spinning back kick. 'Then there was the next Squad Leader.' ["I hear you can fight. Shall we test your skills? Anyone care to face me?"] Krais had heard he was a noble's son, serving in the army as punishment for some offense. He didn't know the details, only that the man was supposed to rough it here for a few months before going home. That noble had been full of confidence and utterly lacking in experience. ["Would you really allow me the honor of sparring with you, Squad Leader?"]

Rem had asked, scratching his head. ["Hmm, not you. Yes, you. Come out here. You with the reddish-brown hair."] He had chosen Jaxon. Rem looked every inch a thug; anyone could see he knew how to fight. But calling out Krais would have been too shameless. Jaxon must have looked like the easiest option. Naturally, it was a terrible mistake. ["Me?"]

["Yes. Come out. Let's have a bout. Ha ha, I've never lost before."]

["What if someone gets hurt during the spar?"]

["What sort of man fears such things? No one will be held accountable!"] The arrogant, conceited noble Squad Leader...

["Aaaagh!"]

...ended up with a broken forearm. ["I thought you'd dodge that, of course."] Jaxon was normally affable, but sometimes he turned into a real lunatic. That time, it had been Rem and the other squad members' fault for taunting him as they watched him take it easy on his opponent. ["You should've stepped forward with your left foot there."]

["What a joke. Just hook his leg and dump him on his ass."]

["Your sword hand's a little slack. Grip it harder. Underestimate your opponent and you'll get hurt."]

["Tsk. What a puny bastard. Couldn't even get a woman on her back. I'd have finished ages ago. Ah, how boring."] Those words had turned Jaxon vicious. And for breaking the noble Squad Leader's arm, he had earned the Company Commander's fury. ["You assaulted a superior officer?"]

["He insisted we fight and said no one would be held accountable."]

["That's right. That's right. A man's prick falls off if he goes back on his word."]

["He has but one mouth, yet his words keep changing. Ah, this sinner offers penance."] With the squad members each chiming in, the Company Commander had nothing to say. Facts were facts. They had agreed that neither would be held accountable before fighting. Naturally, the noble Squad Leader vanished with his tail between his legs. Back at his family home, there might have been any number of bought-and-paid-for swordsmen willing to lose to him, but this was a battlefield. The Company Commander hadn't seemed to intend to take him into battle in the first place. He had merely been given the title of Squad Leader. 'And the next Squad Leader, well...' They had all been much the same. The one who was always yelling had gone outside for a quiet chat with Rem, then stopped throwing his weight around and quietly requested a transfer. The others had all fled for similar reasons. Even those who lasted had done no more than coexist in mutual indifference. "Whew." Krais turned at the sigh behind him.

"At last."

Recognizing the face, he murmured in relief. "What the hell is this?" It was Encrid. He approached, pressing his right index finger repeatedly against his temple, and looked at the two men facing off in front of Fourth Squad's barracks. This was the reality Krais had fled. "Didn't I say that with the Squad Leader gone, I'm as good as his deputy? So when I give an order, you hop to it. Squad Member Ragna?"

"Don't use my given name. Address me by my surname, with a 'sir.' Barbarian."

"Hah. Has our picky eater put on a nobleman's skin?"

"I simply find it unpleasant to hear my name from a beast that falls short of being human."

"Oh, really? Guess that beast needs to tear you apart before you'll come to your senses." Veins bulged on Rem's hand as he growled. He looked ready to hurl his axe and split the other man's skull at any moment. The squad member called Ragna faced him without concern, standing casually with his hands hanging at his sides. That was Ragna's ready stance. Jaxon watched as though none of it concerned him. The one remaining squad member was quietly praying as he tried to stop them. "Brothers, strife and violence are wrong."

"Stay out of it, religious nut."

"Stand back. A sword has no eyes." Rem and Ragna answered at the same time.

'What a well-run squad.'

Just one week, and it had come to this. The headache that had faded on his walk returned. "Krais, got any medicine to spare?" Whether the others fought or not, Jaxon said what he wanted. He acknowledged Encrid with a glance as he put the question to Krais. "None right now. Squad Leader, you're back. I was just thinking of coming to see you. We've had a few things happen." Krais shook his head at Jaxon, then addressed Encrid. "Give me a moment." He had to stop those two first. Left alone, they really would draw blood. It had been like this on the day he arrived, too. Though that time, Rem's opponent had been the praying squad member, not Ragna. "There are many things that strife and violence cannot resolve." The fellow saying that wasn't normal either. "Hey!" Ignoring his pounding headache, Encrid stepped between the two men. There was a simple way to stop their fights. Words wouldn't stand a chance. He had to put his body in the way. He walked between them. "... Honestly, they say ignorance makes you brave. You're back?" Rem muttered, the veins twitching on the back of his hand going still. "Well, I can't cut you down along with him. Squad Leader, you're... Hmm, never mind." Rem and Ragna backed away from their staring match. Even as they retreated, they didn't forget to exchange their warm wishes. "Don't die on the battlefield. I have to kill you myself," Ragna said. "Huh? What's that? You want to drop dead tomorrow? You're dying for a taste of the great Rem's axe?" Rem shot back. "Enough." Between them, Encrid shook his head. Why did they hate each other so much? He didn't know. They had been like this from the start. The two were still glaring at each other. Really, the first thing he saw on returning had to be a fight. "Anyway, all sorts of things happened while you were gone, Squad Leader," Krais spoke up again from behind him. "Did they?" He could tell at a glance. When Encrid was in the Medical Barracks, Ragna had said the barracks were a shitshow. He had been exactly right. Encrid had expected as much. It was fine. After everything he'd been through, the trouble these men had caused barely bothered him. No one had taken meal duty, so they'd each sorted out their own meals. Someone had gotten into an argument with a squad member from the next barracks and punched the bastard in the jaw. They had ignored a summons from the Platoon Commander. 'Isn't this a bit much of a shitshow just because I'm gone?'

That thought did keep occurring to him, but it really was fine. Krais kept chattering, and Encrid learned that the troublemaker squad wasn't the only source of commotion. "A curse?"

Encrid forgot his throbbing headache as he repeated the word.

"Yes. They're saying the entire camp's been cursed." What kind of bullshit was this now? It was nonsense enough to make him forget his headache.