Chapter 333 - Inspiration Spreads and Spreads (2)

Inspiration Spreads and Spreads (2)

"Is it all right to just leave him there?" Lord Graham's adjutant looked at his superior as he asked. He wasn't sure they should have done that. They had just left Encrid to deal with some noble or trading-company head, whatever the fellow was.

The man had asked for Encrid, so perhaps that was proper, but couldn't the lord have handled someone of that standing himself? Unable to voice everything running through his mind, the adjutant kept his question short. Graham answered with a sword in hand.

"What else should I do? I'm still the lord. If he doesn't like it, he can come take my head." The adjutant thought his lord had been rather careless with his own head lately, but had nothing to say. Even he could see that becoming lord would be no trouble at all if Encrid set his mind to it. Above all, Graham seemed more than willing to surrender his head. "Yes, sir."

The adjutant accepted it. There was nothing else to say. Instead, he watched his lord, who was more absorbed than he had ever seen him. Eyes half closed, Graham slowly brought his sword down. 'Crushing Sword?'

Had Encrid's display of swordsmanship affected Esther alone? No. For the first time in a very long while, Graham's heart raced. It pounded wildly. Irrepressible want and desire spiraled into a blazing fire. Emotion became the fuel that drove his body. 'Ah.'

As he kept swinging, a small realization struck him. He remembered his training yesterday, the day before, and throughout the past week. He hadn't neglected it. But had that been his best? Had he truly given it his all?

No. He hadn't. He had merely sunk into routine and stayed where he was, too busy maintaining what he already had. Had he used his duties as lord as an excuse? Had he thought there was nowhere higher to climb? When had the spirit he possessed when he first picked up a sword faded away?

Could he say any of that in front of that fellow? Encrid, of course. The man who dreamed of becoming a knight. Who now walked that path. Who had earned nothing but ridicule when he first joined the unit. Who had endured ugly rumors that he was selling his body to his own men. Who had barely been a low-grade soldier. Graham had witnessed Encrid's transformation. Perhaps it was only natural to find inspiration in it. That realization through the sword prompted him to look back over his entire life.

'There's no rule that says a lord must put down his sword.' Graham knew he wasn't particularly clever. That was why he handed most of his work to his adjutant. He also entrusted work to the Lunatic Company's Big-eyes, whose cunning was said to be positively breathtaking. He reduced the time he spent dealing with people to a minimum.

Right now, he was desperate to swing his sword. The adjutant couldn't stop him. Was he himself any different?

"Would you care to spar?"

He, too, belonged to the heavy infantry Company, a man people called a veteran and an elite soldier. Now he was none other than the lord's adjutant and bodyguard. Naturally, he had watched Encrid as well. He had seen the transformation, the man Encrid was now, and his recent fighting. It would be a lie to say he felt nothing. "Let's have a bout. I'll show you the difference between us."

The lord nodded. It wasn't just those two. The effects had spread throughout the army. The Fairy Company Commander was no exception.

Sinar held Nidle and repeated the same movement over and over, honing her finesse and precision. What had inspired her was the sight of Encrid's back as he faced the knight. 'I'll stop it.'

Sinar had seen that vivid blade of emotion, distilled into three short words. Her sensitivity let her feel emotions, which sometimes became a means of reading another's mind. She couldn't read everything, but an intense desire was surprisingly easy to perceive. The stronger the other person's determination, the more that held true.

That was why she had felt Encrid's emotions as he stopped the knight. 'Even if I die. Even if it kills me. Even if my heart is cleaved apart.'

He would stop it.

What kind of human could do that? A human who focused so completely on one thing that he forgot everything else. And what of the fragments of emotion that had slipped in among it all? Nothing but exhilaration that forgot all fear. It wasn't that he felt no fear. It wasn't that he didn't know pain and suffering. He merely enveloped them in the exhilaration of enjoying himself. Enjoying the moment let him forget the pain. He set aside the agony that would follow and gave himself wholly to the present.

He seemed like someone who lived only for now. 'He's insane.'

Sinar could say that with certainty. He suffered from madness. His head was broken. And yet she couldn't help the thrill she felt when she thought of him.

Fairies controlled their emotions; she shouldn't have felt such a thrill. But now she forgot all about that control. Nidle began to dance at her fingertips. What began with precision moved beyond forms and constraints. The vital energy she had held within her body for so long moved of its own accord.

She let it. She didn't control it. Right now, she wanted only to swing her sword.

The sight of Encrid's back had made her this way.

* * *

"No reason I can't do it too, is there?"

Naturally, Encrid's exploits inspired the soldiers, especially those who knew their way around a sword. Several had even followed him all the way from Green Pearl after seeing him fight on the battlefield.

Since arriving at Border Guard, they had gone around openly boasting that they could fight, that they were skilled, and that they would join the Lunatic Company. That was bound to draw attention. Naturally, one of Border Guard's original soldiers stopped one of them.

"You any good in a fight? You sure talk a lot." The soldier from Green Pearl didn't let the provocation pass. More precisely, he was the soldier who had mouthed off to Encrid. His name was Janson.

He turned his head.

"I'm pretty good."

He had fought on the front line in the recent battle. Seeing Encrid had also driven him to train every day, harder than he ever had before. It was only natural for that confidence to show. "Go easy on him, Bell."

Another soldier behind them glanced at Janson as he spoke. Somehow, that stung his pride. The man in front of him, this Bell fellow, nodded and stepped forward, plainly inviting a fight. "You'll get hurt," Janson said. "You will."

"Sure. Let's see about that," Bell replied. Bell had trained under the Lunatic Company, even receiving intensive instruction from time to time. That day, the soldier from Green Pearl saw stars in broad daylight. Bell took his punch on the forehead and struck back, hitting his temple and laying him flat.

A difference in skill. More than that, a clear difference in mindset. "Does it hurt? There are plenty like me around here."

Bell rubbed his forehead as he spoke. The fallen soldier raised his head.

"Name's Janson."

"All right. Welcome aboard."

And so Janson joined Bell's squad. It wasn't just Janson. Everyone who had seen Encrid fight threw themselves into training. They sweated like mad. Even without the Lunatic Company's training sessions, they put themselves through the wringer. In a way, the barracks seemed full of nothing but madmen. Of course, some rested rather than working themselves to the bone. A few opted out. It was all voluntary; no one forced them. But even they knew instinctively.

'If everyone else trains like this while I alone take it easy...'

The difference would inevitably show on the battlefield.

And so the inspiration spread. Was Rem any different? He, too, began swinging his axe. Winter might have been drawing to a close, but seeing Rem without his warming hide was still a rare sight.

"Are you feeling sick?"

Even Krais, hurrying past, was concerned enough to ask. "Piss off unless you want an axe ornament stuck in your head."

Krais promptly pissed off. Following Rem's example, Dunbachel trained with desperate intensity, as though someone were chasing her. Rem no longer went out of his way to torment her as before, but he mixed in sparring, training, and advice whenever needed. "Are all Beastmen as stupid as you?"

"That's racist."

"So what? You want to fucking die?" At times it did look as though Rem was taking out his frustrations on her, but all was well that ended well. Dunbachel learned everything she needed to, even as she got beaten. Audin noticed the changes too. Ragna had changed, and so had his Captain. What did that make him feel? A great deal. And so, for a little while, Audin found himself with much to think about.

He even thought it fortunate that at least it was Ragna.

'If it had been Rem who changed...'

The barbarian would have charged straight in demanding a spar. He would have enjoyed holding the advantage in skill. Ragna didn't do that. He was still lazy. Unlike before, he now swung his sword and often sparred with the Captain, but he didn't go out of his way to provoke Audin and Rem just to put them in their place. Above all, whatever was on his mind now, he merely stared blankly and rarely ventured out of the barracks.

Even so, it bothered Audin. 'To think he got ahead of us.'

Audin considered it.

'Has the time come to undo the bindings?'

If, hypothetically, Rem had changed like that, he would have seriously considered it. But not now. Audin had found something resembling an answer, but he didn't think it would satisfy those who had placed the bindings on him. And so:

"Retrace the path you have walked, for within it lies the answer to that which bars your way. So He said."

He would recite the scriptures and pray. And that was what he did. He spent the rest of his time training every part of his body anew. Building steadily, layer upon layer: that was the source of Audin's strength. He revisited the process from the beginning, from his very first steps to the present. He retraced each change his body had undergone.

That was what he did. As Encrid advanced, those around him advanced as well. Inspiration spread and spread, stirring the entire barracks.

Quietly, but with heat. With heat, but subtly.

The barracks was changing from within. Others had received similar inspiration before, but this time it included even the lord, changing the mood of the entire city.

* * *

"Could you possibly find better terms than these?"

Encrid had forgotten the man's name. He tried to glance back at Graham, only to find him absent. Starting with Count Molsen, Graham had shown his face whenever someone important came calling. Yet when a fellow like this turned up, he dumped him on Encrid. 'Is this how you treat a war hero?'

Calling himself a hero was embarrassing, but dumping all these people on him? This was their lord?

Encrid felt a fresh surge of desire to spar with Graham. There seemed to be plenty he could learn from the man. How to fall properly, for instance. How to take a hit. How to pass out without pain. "She may be my daughter, but she's the greatest beauty in our territory."

The toadlike noble and merchant spoke, and the woman who looked more human than toad smiled shyly, meeting Encrid's eyes before looking away.

Should he kill him? Out of the question, of course. Beat him up, then? ["Are you Rem? Is that who you are now, Captain?"]

He could almost hear Krais nagging him from afar. And of all days, Sinar said she was busy today. There was nothing he could say to that. Esther had shut herself away for some sort of meditation and showed no intention of coming out. Should he have brought Rem, at least? Then he could have made a token effort to restrain Rem's rampage and gotten this over with quickly.

He was supposed to have sparred with Rem this morning. He didn't like having that plan disrupted either. But he couldn't take his frustration out here. While continuing the conversation outwardly, Encrid began an imaginary spar. Before long, his mind was busy contending with the likes of Rem's light-fast axe.

'He used a sling, didn't he?'

What would be the best way to dodge that? He didn't know. He would simply do his best. The process of learning through experience awaited him, and he was desperate to get to it. Patience aside, Encrid could feel how pointless this meeting was. He thought he had devoted enough time to it. Hadn't enough time passed to drink an entire cup of tea? Though he had, of course, downed the tea in one gulp. "Well? Hmm? What do you think?"

Whatever the offer was, it didn't matter.

"I'll be going, then."

With that breezy farewell, Encrid stood. "What? Now see here, I'm a nobleman and the owner of the trading company that handles commerce in this region!"

The man recited his credentials. Encrid didn't even give him a look that said, So what? He was desperate to run off immediately and pit his sword against Rem's axe. Whether the fellow handled the region's trade or not, wasn't that the absent lord's responsibility? If the man had mattered, Graham would have stepped in to handle him. So none of this was Encrid's responsibility.

It was outrageous self-justification, but it wasn't wrong. With Encrid fleeing like that, the trading-company head and nobleman left behind could only sit in disbelief. No, it went beyond disbelief. In truth, he wasn't the only one whose feelings had taken such a turn.

Had Encrid turned away only one or two people? No. There had been many. Some had come to harbor something like a grudge. "That bastard."

The nobleman and company head clenched his teeth. His jaw muscles stood out sharply beneath his skin. The daughter he had brought, who fell on the human side of the spectrum, was on the verge of tears. Sorrow welled up at the thought of a man who hadn't once met her eyes despite her sitting right in front of him.

Krais watched it all from the drawing-room doorway. "We're leaving!"

The man, closer to an unwelcome intruder than a guest, departed. Krais knew that leaving things as they were would lead to something like a catastrophe. How could it not? It was obvious. Painfully obvious.

And yet the people who ought to resolve it had all gone mad. He had every reason to be furious, but Krais was enjoying himself instead. There was only one thing that could make him this happy: Krona.

Gold coins were at stake. "You'll regret this!"

The nobleman and company head bellowed in anger, but Krais wasn't worried in the slightest. A woman peered out from behind him and asked:

"So you want me to shield you from the local merchants as well?" At her question, Krais opened his large eyes wide and blinked.

"Pardon? Whatever do you mean?"

"Playing dumb, are you?"

She seemed to have left an unspoken 'you bastard' off the end. Krais continued to feign ignorance. She was right. If the neighboring trading companies were making all this noise because they coveted Border Guard's trade and markets, and if they did so because that position seemed vacant, then all he had to do was hand it over to someone.

Last night, he had heard that the most suitable person had entered the city. The Gilfin Guild's news traveled faster than the guards'. "I should have greeted you properly first. My apologies for the delay, Madam Head Leona Roquefried."

"Yes, how very prompt of you."

Leona's eyes curved into a smile at Krais's greeting. Both of them had plenty of ulterior motives. Even if they began negotiations, they wouldn't reach an agreement easily.

Of course, Krais had no intention of spending too much time on something like this.