Chapter 252 - The Horse Thought

Long after Encrid left, Torres heard a terrible roar erupt from the forest. "Shouldn't we send reinforcements?" an uninformed soldier asked. Hyoun, the defense force soldier beside him, answered instead. "Reinforcements? Those four monsters look like they could devour an entire territory." Hyoun was a proud swordsman of northern stock. Coming from him, that said something. Torres agreed. "Leave them alone. They'll come back on their own." Who were they to worry about those men? Torres ordered his soldiers to collect centaur sinews and undamaged demonic beast hides, then burn the remaining corpses. 'How many died?' Dozens had died in the earlier fighting. Torres himself had nearly died in the first battle, and Zimmer had almost gotten himself killed too. That was how desperate things had been. Torres had even wondered whether they ought to simply flee. In fact, he had advised just that. ["My lord—ah, Captain. We're finished if we stay here. There's only so long we can hold out with the gates barred."] They had watchtowers but no moat. What if the centaurs approached and kept pounding the walls with those clubs that looked like uprooted trees? What if they waited and waited for reinforcements that never came? ["And? Do you have an answer for what happens if we abandon the walls?"] the lord had countered. He hadn't. Outside was even more dangerous. The monsters were centaurs: cavalry by nature. Outrunning them would be harder than holding out behind the walls. 'No way forward, no way back.' Requesting reinforcements had been their only option. That was the sort of centaur colony they faced. And its unusual leader made men's knees tremble. Its shrieks made their balls shrivel. Some soldiers had actually pissed themselves. Yet fewer than ten people had come and ended that crisis. WHOOSH!

CRACKLE, POP. The corpses of monsters and demonic beasts, and three dead men. One had stumbled and fallen under a demonic beast's feet. The other two had strutted out to show the enemy eastern valor and gotten themselves killed. Only three people had died. The number of monsters and demonic beasts killed was impossible to assess. Presumed to be at least two hundred. The Lunatic Company hadn't killed most of them. They had merely been a blade ripping through the enemy at the front. The soldiers had killed the hordes that followed. It wasn't a sunny day. The sky looked ready to snow. A full day passed as Torres cleared the battlefield, snatched some sleep, then got up to make his rounds. That was when he saw the group returning through the gates. A drizzle was falling. A little colder, and it would turn to sleet. He had been running about busily since dawn. It was the day after the battle. A day they could smile because they had survived. And he could see the people who had given them that ordinary day returning: Encrid and the Lunatic Company, with faint sunlight at their backs. The heat of battle had long since cooled, and everyone had relaxed. Even so... "Colony killer." Someone called out first, and the soldiers gathered near the gates raised their voices together. "Colony Slayer!"

"Long live the Lunatic Company!"

"Woooo!"

"You're handsome!"

"Take me!"

"Fuuuck! Thank you so fucking much!" Their praise mingled relief at surviving the danger with the joy of victory, all for those who had shown such absurd might. The drizzle soon turned white as frost. With the temperature plunging, it was hardly surprising. Torres watched Encrid as the mixture of snow and sleet fell on him. A wild horse exuding a strange air followed behind Encrid. His companions carried what looked like chests, and Rem held the glaive the monster leader had used. None of that mattered. Torres stood straight before Encrid. He brought his legs together and pressed his right hand to his waist, then bowed his head in respect. A military salute, thanking him for saving his life and this territory. Encrid gave Torres a brief nod and passed. Rem, following behind, asked him a question. "Know any decent blacksmiths around here?"

"A dwarf's set up on the outskirts of the market."

"Oh." Rem moved on, and the rest passed without a second thought. The cheers couldn't hold them back.

* * *

"Heard there's a dwarf here?" Metallurgy, smelting, fine metalwork: dwarves were masters of craft, skill incarnate. Of course, not every dwarf was a master metallurgist. Fairies had their own metallurgy, and there were outstanding human craftsmen too. On average, though, dwarven smelting and metallurgy were superior, their baseline already exceptional. Naturally, a dwarf who had wandered into a human territory would draw their interest. They happened to need someone with those skills. Dwarves might be excessively fond of gems and payment, but no one here objected to pouring Krona into weapons. Wasn't it better to spend a little gold and have a decent sword? To those who lived by the blade, a good weapon was another arm, and good armor another life. Encrid's right hip did feel rather empty. 'Another sword would be nice.' A dwarven sword would serve him better still. As for armor, he was used to wearing whatever pieces he picked up. This time, he had even acquired demonic beast hide under-armor that wrapped around his body like bandages. On their way in, the lord of Martai had come in person to thank them. "We owe this to you."

"Not at all." Encrid had observed the appropriate courtesies. The lord told them to rest and turned away. "No private rooms. The inner castle here is just as bleak as Border Guard's," Torres said, following them. At any rate, Rem brought up the dwarf as they entered the quarters Torres had shown them. It was a shared room with eight beds side by side. Just as Torres had said, it was bleak. Those eight lonely beds were the only furniture. The room served no purpose beyond sleeping. "It's a wild horse. It won't want to go into the stables. Shall we drive a stake here and tie it up?" A soldier who knew how to handle horses approached, eyeing the wild horse as he spoke. PFFRRR. The horse shook its head, as if it knew they were discussing it. "Leave it," Encrid said casually. He had simply taken a liking to it and invited it along. It had come. That was all. If it wanted to leave, he would let it. Of course, the wild horse had no intention of leaving. With monster blood mixed into its own, making it half demonic beast, its herd could no longer come near it. Monster blood inspired instinctive fear in animals. For the same reason, it couldn't enter the stables. That was also why it had needed to leave its home. Only then could the rest of the herd live in peace. It was its duty as their leader. It had even dealt with the burning skeleton as a final task. More precisely, the human before it had dealt with that. Just as Encrid felt drawn to the horse, the horse felt a strangely strong affinity for him. The world called this a bond. "You've worked hard. Get some rest." NEIGH. It looked as though man and horse were conversing. Rem watched them for a while, then spoke. "That one doesn't turn into a person too, does it?"

"It doesn't." This was different from Esther. It was intuition, but he was certain. "Don't be so sure. Who expected that panther to turn human?" Rem kept spouting nonsense, and everyone ignored him. As they unpacked and sorted through the chests, Krais returned. "Uh, what's this one?" On arriving, he had spotted the wild horse loitering outside their quarters and taken a wide detour around it. Now he spoke uneasily, unable to take his eyes off it. Whatever he was doing wherever he kept going, he looked busy even in Martai. Those large eyes now held bewilderment. "A horse," Encrid answered. Krais stared at the wild horse standing idly outside the barracks, untethered. "Does that one turn into a person too?" Krais asked. One look told him it was no ordinary creature. He asked about turning human because there was the precedent of Esther. "It's male. Just telling you in advance. Go behind it to check, and it'll crack your skull." Encrid gave him fair warning. Esther had been fierce, but the wild horse had monster blood in it. Krais might end up with a hoofprint on his chest for his trouble. "Do you take me for Rem?"

"Who called you a moron?"

"I'm saying even I wouldn't go behind a horse to check its balls."

"Just looking out for you." The man was far too unpredictable. Krais wasn't normal either. "Fuck, you know I'm right here listening?"

"Yeah." The moment Rem heard the reply, he hit Krais over the head. THWACK! "Ow!" Given what they had just said, he had earned that, so Krais didn't pout. He rubbed the back of his head a few times and moved on to the next subject. More precisely, to the things that had caught his interest the moment he entered the room. He could smell them. Gems. "So, what's in those chests?"

"Gems." At Encrid's answer, Krais's eyes changed. Whenever Krona was involved, he performed the miracle of turning human eyeballs into gold coins. He inspected the chests one by one, then whistled. "Quite a haul." "Have you seen the dwarf who came to town?" Ragna asked, watching Krais examine the gems and gold. Hmm? Ragna was interested too? Had he grown tired of scavenged swords? As Encrid watched, pondering this, Krais answered. "Oh, I was just going to bring that up. A real dwarf. First one I've ever seen, and quite pretty, too." Pretty? They would have to see for themselves to understand what he meant. They sorted their belongings until late afternoon, then Encrid loosened up with a brief session of the Isolation Technique. They decided to explore the town tomorrow. More precisely, to visit the dwarven blacksmith. Encrid ate dinner and closed his eyes. Time for his usual routine. Review. 'What if I hadn't let it get away in the first place?' He had needed to pursue the monster leader because he had let it escape. During that pursuit, he had experienced a strange concentration of his senses. He had combined Concentrate on a Single Point with his sensory arts before, but the instant he threw his sword at the leader's head had been different. Had "Will" stirred? No, that wasn't it. He knew what "Will" was now. It was willpower, and the formless force founded upon it. A mystery difficult to explain in human language. In some ways it resembled an incantation or a spell, but it differed in being a power confined to the individual. It manifested in those who trained their bodies and wielded weapons, or made weapons of their fists. So that wasn't it. What Encrid had felt when catching the monster leader, when throwing the sword at its head, was something crushed and mashed into a single whole. He could see what he needed to do next. It had felt as though his five senses had fused and become something new. ["They're called sensory arts."] He recalled what Jaxon had said while teaching him. In truth, it had happened because everything had come together: countless bouts with Pell, all his prior experience, his realizations about life, his mindset, even the refusal he had attained through "Will." ["There's no need to separate Sixth Sense from your dodging sense. They're all sensory arts."] Goddamn Jaxon. The bastard explained things just like Rem. None of it had made any sense when he'd heard it. Encrid closed his eyes and crushed his five senses together. He entered the realm of Sixth Sense. He could hear, see, and feel without dividing his senses. Looking ahead through half-open eyes, he saw Audin praying. "I follow the Father's will. Watch over your lamb, that it may not lose its way." Was that a prayer for Ragna? That probably wasn't important. Encrid felt as though he had opened a third eye. Though Audin wore a thick tunic with a roomy coat over it, Encrid could sense his body: those solid muscles, that power ready to burst, the posture that never faltered even in prayer. His body was something complete. As this sensory revelation struck him, Encrid sank into thought, unaware that his mouth had fallen half open. He could see the direction he should take with the Isolation Technique. What he had gained by crushing his senses together revealed a new path. 'Without training my body, none of it matters.' Everything began with the body. It was an unexpected revelation. Yet it was also something he had already known. He was reminding himself of what he knew, but that, too, was a revelation. Encrid settled on a direction for his physical training. Of course, he would need Audin's help. Rem stared at Encrid in the midst of his revelation. "Hey, you said there's a shrine in Martai, right?" Rem asked. Beside him, Krais answered while polishing a few gems. "Uh, yes. There is." Smaller than a temple, but there would still be a priest. It had a bad reputation, but it did exist. "He's definitely broken," Rem muttered. Krais glanced up at Encrid, who was drooling with his mouth half open. "Looks like his usual self." It was hardly the first time they'd seen him like that. While no one else paid any attention, Dunbachel made a solemn resolve, opened her mouth halfway, and tried to drool too. From now on, she would learn from and follow everything Encrid did. As her first step, she was trying it herself to discover the reason for his behavior. "Want me to crush your skull? Why the hell are you copying that?" Rem scolded her. Dunbachel steadfastly drooled on. Lunatics indeed. The door to their quarters stood half open. Peering inside, the wild horse considered something for a moment. 'Should I go?' For a moment, it wondered whether it should leave. It hadn't understood Encrid and followed his directions for nothing. Even before receiving monster blood, the horse had been exceptionally bright and clever. It could judge things for itself. If it was going to leave, now was the time. That was what the horse thought.