Chapter 336 - The Land of Gray Ghouls

The Land of Gray Ghouls

Rem threw the axe in his left hand. The instant his arm traced a circle, the axe hurtled toward Encrid faster than an arrow. To Encrid, it looked like a long, vertical flash of light. His dodging sense reacted, and his body followed. He raised the flat of his sword into the path of the spinning disc of an axe. To an observer, he would have seemed to move at the same instant as Rem's arm. CLANG! The axe bounced aside with a clear ring. The impact weighed heavily on his grip. There was considerable force behind that throw. While Encrid blocked the thrown axe, Rem swept his left hand past his waist, sending a pebble into the air. It looked meaningless. All he had done was toss a stone upward, hadn't he? The throw left an opening, and Encrid seized it. Closing the distance, he activated the Will of the Instant and thrust Spark forward. This was the sword technique he had named Lightning Stab. Starting with his thigh muscles, he used the spring of his entire body to launch himself forward as though flying. He had wandered battlefield after battlefield through his earlier todays. After witnessing a knight's sword, he had trained and trained until the stab had become utterly seamless. The ray of light flew as a single point, one even Rem could not ignore. CLAAANG! Rem turned his remaining axe sideways. As he blocked Spark with its flat, the axe blade caved inward, and Spark pierced half a handspan through it. The instant it broke through, Spark's blade began twisting sideways with a metallic screech. Rem had turned his wrist the moment it penetrated, redirecting the force. Otherwise, Encrid would have put a dot in his skull on the other side of the axe, too. Rem could use Flowing Sword as well, and with exceptional skill. When it came to handling weapons, he was the best in the company. Encrid acknowledged that. Encrid pulled back Spark as it veered sideways. CRACK! The blade came free of the metal it had pierced. With Heavy Sword's power added to the instant's acceleration, that much force was only natural. Encrid tried to strike again, but Rem had already drawn a sling from inside his clothes and whipped it once overhead. The motion neatly caught the stone he had tossed earlier in the sling's leather pouch. A whirring noise soon filled Encrid's ears. The sequence looked as rehearsed as a play. Rem had anticipated everything up to this point. Anticipation, prediction, calculation—using quick thinking to drive the course of a fight. It was an application of the Righteous Sword Technique. 'He got me.'

Having trained in Nameless's Righteous Sword Technique himself, Encrid realized his calculations had fallen a step behind. WHIP! The stone came flying the instant the sound reached him. Its speed was beyond even Jaxon's thrown daggers, several times faster than the axe that had come before it. His dodging sense rang an alarm. Encrid felt as though his eyes and head were burning. His concentration blazed as never before. With his dodging sense working at full capacity, he relied on his Sixth Sense to evade the stone. Pivoting on his left foot, he flung himself sideways. The pebble whistled past his hair and flew behind him. An explosive bang sounded behind him, as though a boulder had fallen out of the sky. Encrid had no time to catch his breath. He had dodged the stone, but his broken stance left him open to the axe blade that followed. "Hup." Cutting his breath short, Encrid swung the silver longsword straight up from below. He used the Heavy Sword Technique's vertical cut in reverse. But Rem's axe turned back before it reached him. 'Fuck.'

A feint. To deceive even the realm of Sixth Sense, Rem must have genuinely intended to attack until the very last moment. Then a second stone came flying. As Encrid dodged again, the axe blade nearly grazed his neck. Had it connected, it would have sliced halfway through his throat. In other words, he had nearly fucking died. Why had he survived? He had reflexively thrown his head back, and Rem had eased off at the last moment. "You could die doing that."

Rem spoke after taking a few breaths. "Then at least I'd go out having a proper good time."

Encrid answered as he rose from where he had fallen. "Getting yourself killed sparring?"

That was his idea of a good time? Rem asked, looking at him as though this bastard were truly a marvel. Encrid answered without a change of expression.

"Yes. It's thrilling." "Crazy bastard."

Rem could not keep his thoughts to himself. Even so, their sparring continued. Encrid, in particular, found himself learning more and more new things. Most notably, Rem taught him to wield a variety of weapons. "Know the best way to train against axes, spears, maces, flails, and the like?" He did not. He gave no answer, and Rem did not wait for one. The question came after a fortnight of sparring that truly felt like standing with one foot in the river of death. "Use them yourself." Encrid did just that. He spent the remaining fortnight trying maces, axes, spears, halberds, and more. Rem wielded every one of them as skillfully as he did an axe. Encrid's experience had long since passed the point of being negligible. He quickly picked up a few tricks and put them into practice. Once he knew those, learning the basics was not difficult. "No, fuck, how are you this slow?"

Rem, however, made his utter dissatisfaction clear. Even afterward, the cycle of sparring, training, and conditioning continued. Whatever else, this time was truly precious to Encrid. He felt its value, too. Soon, the moment came to put that precious time to use. The matter had already been settled.

"Now, these things are called Gray Ghouls. They're dangerous." It was Krais, who had been running about busily. He had brought them a job. More precisely, it was an arrangement with central command to credit them with distinguished service, but Encrid had no need to concern himself with the process. He was simply a little pleased at the prospect of real combat, something sparring could not provide. That did not mean they were leaving immediately. First, he had to finish what he was doing. His sparring was not over yet, and today was his day to face Audin. "Right, wait here. I'll finish up and come back." It was a spring day after winter's end. Krais could not stop his captain. No, there was no need to stop him. Dealing with the Ghouls was not urgent. He settled beside a brazier to wait for Encrid and the others. Though it was spring, the wind was still chilly. The brazier's soothing warmth heated his body. He felt sleepy. As he waited, Krais thought of this undertaking as the first step toward Border Guard's independent growth. He had plenty of reasons to think so. His eyes slowly drifted shut. Even as he dozed, what he needed to say fell neatly into place in his head.

* * *

From beyond the mind's landscape, the ferryman watched the human now bound and entangled with him. He saw death. Again and again. There was no wall, yet the man was practically striving to get himself killed. He was simply so mad about training that he paid no heed to his own life. Because he trusted today to repeat? No. The ferryman could tell just by watching. It was simply because the man was insane. But had he died? No. Even when he should have died, he barely managed to survive. Was it skill or luck? The ferryman judged it to be skill. The combined skill of the man and his opponent twisted certain death aside. 'What kind of bastard is this?'

Today's ferryman had a casual turn of phrase. He observed the man. He would offer no more lavish praise. The fellow only took those words as a stimulus to press onward. So now he would simply watch... "Crazy bastard." To reiterate, today's ferryman was mercurial. Unable to resist, he left his words in the mind of the briefly unconscious Encrid. Lavish praise. Having briefly entered the world within his mind, Encrid opened his eyes and tilted his head. The ferryman had lived a long time, and long-lived beings generally developed perceptiveness through experience. He read the words in Encrid's eyes and understood their meaning. Those eyes were asking whether he had nothing better to do. "I'm busy!"

The ferryman shouted, and the world within Encrid's mind blurred. In truth, he had nothing to be busy with. Watching was his life, his everything.

* * *

Encrid opened his eyes and recalled the final moment. Audin's fist had curved around and struck his head. The flow, the process, the trajectory—all remained vivid in his memory. 'I used my footwork.'

He had made an evasive maneuver, but Audin had moved his feet with him. Regardless of his size, the man's feet were absurdly nimble. Normally, a blow that hard could wipe out one's memory of the moment. But whether thanks to the heart of the beast or his efforts to imprint his opponent's afterimage, technique, traces, and presence on his body until the very end, Encrid had lost none of it. 'I turned just before it landed.'

He had moved his body to redirect the impact. It was a technique he had learned from Audin, now second nature to him. "I took inspiration from your Snake Sword, Brother Company Commander."

Audin had struck through it with a new technique of his own. Encrid was reminded that Audin, too, was a genius. He had watched Encrid's sword and created something to use himself. Rem, Jaxon, and Ragna had all borrowed from him in much the same way. They were all geniuses. That was hardly a reason to start feeling deprived now. Returning to the barracks after his spar, Encrid saw Krais at the table beside the brazier, nodding off in his chair. He seemed short on sleep. Esther was in a corner, too. She glanced at Encrid indifferently.

"Back?"

That was her greeting.

"Yes." She alternated between panther and human form, and today she was human. She still wore her black robe, but unlike before, she had a soft, dark-red shirt underneath. He had told her to cover up beneath the robe, and she had. It suited her very well. "Oh, you're back?"

Krais opened his eyes at the sound of their presence. He had only managed to mention Gray Ghouls before Encrid went off to spar, leaving him to take an unplanned nap. Brief as it was, he felt refreshed. "Ugh, I've been working far too hard lately. I could use some fine medicine. Isn't Jaxon coming back?" Jaxon had supplied Krais with all manner of medicines. Krais had procured a few for him in return, but Jaxon was the greater expert on medicinal herbs and restorative tonics. "He'll come when it's time."

Encrid genuinely believed that. Krais did not insist on looking for him, either. "Now, shall I begin?"

Krais spoke as he picked the sleep from his eyes. In any undertaking, the order of events mattered, as did cause and effect. Doing something with an understanding of it was different from doing it blindly. That was Krais's view. Rem and the rest of the company, however, thought differently. Ragna had been sleeping noticeably more of late. Rem declared that he couldn't care less and went to one side to make a sling or sharpen the weapons Encrid had acquired. Maintaining one's own weapons was a basic duty of a warrior. Though, by that standard, he seemed to have been rather careless with them before. Well, things were different now. A fucking knight had shown up. Rem had heard about it. 'If one shows up, I can't just stand and watch.' There were no knights where he had been born and raised. Instead, there were those called Heroes. The word meant a person of valor. There were reasons they were called that. Come to think of it, didn't Beastmen also call the exceptional among them Heroes? That was none of Rem's concern. What would he do if one of those knights appeared? What did he need to avoid simply being beaten? The same thing Encrid was doing. Conditioning and training. Rem had done just that. He had worked even harder where no one could see. Naturally, fatigue had accumulated. These past few months, he had driven himself without so much as a breath. 'Never worked this hard in my life.'

Except when he had first picked up a weapon. No, perhaps he had worked even harder than he had then. Encrid had improved, too, making him a difficult opponent. Every moment was like walking on thin ice. If things went wrong, Rem would lose—or kill him. Teaching Encrid to use unfamiliar weapons had reduced the danger somewhat. But he would not be a crazy bastard if that satisfied him. 'What a lunatic.'

Reaching much the same conclusion as always, Rem lay down. He had already finished and even visited the baths. The hot soak was now making him sleepy. Audin excused himself, saying it was time to pray. Dunbachel and Teresa were hardly brimming with interest, either. Esther had never cared in the first place—not one bit. Only Encrid remained, but Krais had expected that. Since when had any of these people listened attentively to an explanation? He spoke to Encrid alone. At least the captain listened. Thank goodness for that. Wouldn't it be a problem if even he refused? "Are you aware of the dangers scattered around Border Guard?" Krais's explanation was lengthy, but Encrid was an excellent listener as always. And lengthy though it was, Krais knew how to get the essential points across. The gist was this: three places akin to the Demonic Realm threatened the region around Border Guard, and they needed to deal with one of them. It was called the Land of Gray Ghouls. Lying southwest of Border Guard, it forced trade routes with the western territories to take a detour. "That's the situation." Krais also knew the political and internal reasons why no one had dealt with it until now, but...

'Would he listen if I told him?'

Encrid already looked uninterested. "Ghouls?"

See? Encrid cared only about the monsters he would cut down and kill. All this time, Krais had told everyone who came looking for Encrid the same thing.

["We're preparing for an important battle next spring. There will be changes in the region, so you'd do well to prepare for them."] ["What changes?"]

That had been a noble serving Count Molsen who had visited at one point. Naturally, it was not Viscount Vantra, who had attacked them before. Perhaps the earlier battle had left him bitter, for he had made no attempt to court Encrid. Seeing that, Krais was once again impressed by Count Molsen's sheer capacity.

'After everything he did, he can still ask the man to serve him.' How many problems had the count caused by turning a blind eye? He had even acted in secret, sending his own men to threaten Border Guard. Krais had no evidence, but he was certain of it. If he put his mind to finding proof, he could. Of course, it would mean nothing if the count denied it, so searching for evidence was entirely pointless. ["Border Guard will expand."]

Beyond a fortified city, into a territory. All he had to do was subtly suggest that they were preparing for that. Encrid was the sword that would make it happen. Then was Border Guard doing all this as it pleased? After its former lord Marcus had been summoned amid talk of treason? Expansion required authorization from the center. That meant the royal palace was directly involved. ["Hah."] If some petty neighboring noble poached Encrid, it would disgrace the royal palace. Having made such a bold claim, Krais naturally needed to follow it with action that proved his words. Exterminating the Gray Ghouls would be the first step. He had subtly woven those political considerations into his explanation, but Encrid had no interest. Krais finished speaking. What was the point in saying more? The man was already consumed by thoughts of going out to fight. That did not mean he would invite danger upon himself. That was the sort of man their captain was.

'He'll handle it.' The captain would do his part, and Krais would do his own. He already was.