Chapter 72 - Because He Trained Every Moment (1)

There was no need to agonize over the choice, so he chose Jaxon. For a commission, it made sense to take whoever was best equipped to carry it out. Jaxon had taken on more commissions than anyone else in the troublemaker squad. He had experience, and plenty of people sought him out. It went without saying that his keen senses would help with escort duty. He was also less likely than the other squad members to clash with their client. “Very well.”

Jaxon nodded as though the choice were obvious. Rem promptly raised hell, refusing to accept it. Ragna chimed in to say he thought something was wrong with the choice, too. Audin wondered whether it went against God's will.

Naturally, Ragna and Rem started picking a fight. Then Jaxon needled Rem from the sidelines, Ragna stepped out, and Rem and Jaxon went at it instead. Encrid broke them up again and again before finally telling them not even to look at each other. “If you want to spar, do it with me.”

With that final addition, Encrid finished the day by taking turns sparring with his squad members. It might have been mentally exhausting, but it wasn't. This was everyday life in the troublemaker squad.

More importantly, this was nothing to a man who had spent so many years swinging a sword, struggling all the while with his lack of talent. If this much could wear him down, he would have dropped his sword and picked up a plow long ago. “That's our Squad Leader.”

Watching him, Krais raised his thumb again in renewed praise of his mental fortitude. Encrid gave him a perfunctory nod. The escort commission began tomorrow. It concerned the succession of a midsized trading company, and the assignment was confined to the city. Three people had been assigned: the Fairy Company Commander, Encrid, and Jaxon.

There was no need to set out at dawn. Their client was due to arrive in the city around noon.

* * *

When Encrid woke the next morning after a good night's sleep, Esther had somehow found her way into his arms.

“What was that about yesterday?”

He asked with sleep still crusting his eyes, and Esther tapped his chest with a paw. He didn't know what had made her angry, but that seemed to be a peace offering. “All right. Enjoy another day of lazing around.”

What else did Esther have to do? At night she crawled into his arms to sleep, and in the morning she stirred, got up, and spent the day lounging about. She occasionally went outside, so he thought she might be catching rats near the city.

He didn't usually provide her meals, though he often gave her jerky as a snack. Surprisingly, every member of the squad looked after her. Krais was particularly attentive. “Lake Panthers shed their claws when the time comes. She won't object if I take them then, will she?”

Apparently, they shed their claws much as they shed their fur. Krais had a practical reason for treating her well, then. “You little thing.”

Esther gave a little chirrup.

The way she turned her head aside so primly was both cute and fascinating. He scratched the top of her head a couple of times with his fingernails, then got up. It was time for breakfast. “Let's see how well you do after abandoning me.”

Rem was on breakfast duty. He shot Encrid a dirty look, and Encrid threw a punch before he knew it.

TAP.

Rem caught the fist in his palm. “So you can do this job with a broken arm, can you? Challenging me first thing in the morning.”

“No, I saw your face and it just happened.”

“That's even more insulting.”

Fair enough.

Despite his words, Rem didn't attack. Encrid was leaving on a mission today. Sending him off injured might ruin a job that would otherwise have gone well. Breakfast was a dish of pork tenderloin, flattened and grilled, mixed with boiled potatoes. It tasted awful.

“It's good for you. Meat makes your muscles strong, brother.”

The Isolation Technique built the body, and food was the finishing touch to that process, wasn't it? At Audin's urging, Encrid forced it down. Even without being told, he knew the importance of eating well. He spent the remaining time warming up with the Isolation Technique, and then it was time to leave. He washed at the well and gathered his equipment.

He put on the leather armor he had taken during the raid on the Gilfin Guild. It covered only his torso, but it was thin and supple enough to be comfortable. As he strapped the sheath for the whistle daggers over it, Jaxon asked from beside him, “What's that?”

“Took it off the assassin I killed before.”

“Thrifty of you.”

Was that what it was? In any case, he had kept it because he thought it would be useful. The more weapons of this sort he had, the better. He finished equipping himself with a thick gambeson and went outside. He walked alongside Jaxon to an inn in the city. All the way there, Jaxon explained how to listen and look more carefully, never forgetting to add,

“You're slow.”

Encrid remained unbothered. He had always known he was slow. The Company Commander was already waiting when they reached the crossroads with four inns at its center.

“Has our client arrived?” Encrid asked after a brief salute.

“Not yet. Should be here soon.” He had heard their client had quite a personality. Krais had told him. Since taking over the guild, he seemed twice as well informed as before.

'They came to settle the succession, was it?'

Encrid wondered just how difficult their client would be, but he wasn't particularly worried. Louts on Rem's level were rare. Spend a month in the troublemaker squad, and any other lout might start to look endearing.

He was perfectly at ease. Jaxon had little on his mind. To him, a commission was a commission. Protect the client for three days. Once the trading company's succession meeting ended, so did the job. All they needed to do was ensure the client's safety within the city. He had committed the details to memory. There wasn't much left to think about. Looking at the back of Encrid's head, the Company Commander recalled why she had brought him along. The leader of the troublemaker squad was an assassination target for Aspen. That was indirect evidence that he had no shady connections.

More importantly, she liked how he had dealt with the thieves' guild, and how he had handled the aftermath. He had kept the bribes flowing while transforming a criminal guild into an information guild. Thanks to that, there had been no friction with the Battalion Commander. She had let him proceed despite knowing that destroying the criminal guild would cause problems. If the bribes stopped and the higher-ups objected, she had planned to pull a few strings. But that Squad Leader hadn't even let it come to that.

'Things aren't going quite as I envisioned.'

Still, this wasn't bad either. As they waited for their client, the Company Commander spoke.

“Were we sleeping together?”

Encrid had been resting a hand at an angle on his sword's grip. His whole body seemed to freeze. Like a finely carved statue, he slowly turned his head toward her.

“What do you mean?” “I thought you'd know already, if even I've heard about it.”

“It's a misunderstanding. An unfounded rumor. Things have been so quiet lately, with nothing to do, that some people have been passing the time spouting nonsense.”

“Have they?”

“Yes.”

“So there's nothing between us?”

“We're a superior and a subordinate.”

“I see.” He had to brush it off as idle nonsense. That rumor had certainly spread far and wide.

“Ahem.”

Jaxon cleared his throat beside him. A sidelong glance revealed what looked like a twitch at the corner of his mouth. He was suppressing a laugh.

“You think this is funny?” Encrid mouthed.

“I wasn't laughing,” Jaxon mouthed back. The Company Commander was a Fairy. A slight sideways glance was all she needed to read their exchange. Lip-reading was hardly a difficult skill for a Fairy.

“It seems you've been put in an awkward position.”

“No,” Encrid answered immediately.

“You look uncomfortable.”

“I'm not.”

“Did you enjoy it, then?” Why was she doing this?

“Nooo.”

His reply came out oddly drawn-out. It would have helped if she at least smiled after saying those things, but her face was expressionless. She wasn't even meeting his eyes, instead gazing off across the city.

'Fairy humor...'

He just couldn't get used to it. “Here they come.”

Jaxon's words rescued Encrid from his predicament. Their client was approaching.

CLIP-CLOP, CLIP-CLOP.

The ground trembled as a two-horse carriage drew near. Encrid thought dealing with their client would be several times easier than dealing with the Company Commander. “I was enjoying that.”

The Company Commander's almost whispered mutter behind him sent a shiver down his spine. Even in his cloak lined with warming hide, he felt a sudden chill. The carriage soon stopped, and someone stepped out. It wasn't quite what Encrid had expected.

'Not a greedy toad with bulging cheeks, then.'

She was an attractive woman with long blond hair and brown eyes tinged with red. Her beauty was striking. CLICK.

Her boot heel struck the ground. The woman stepped down from the carriage, looked straight at the Fairy Company Commander, and said,

“I'll be in your care.”

There was no need to introduce themselves as the escorts sent by the standing army. From then on, she spoke only to her own party. The middle-aged woman at her side, introduced as her nurse, relayed her wishes.

The blond woman had apparently just turned twenty. Whether she had an unusual temperament, he couldn't tell.

'I'd have to talk to her to know.'

They hadn't even made eye contact. What could he say? “This should be an easy job,” Jaxon said.

Encrid nodded. Since she had requested escorts, he had wondered if she was coming alone. But she had brought five swordsmen as trading-company guards. Three carried shields, while the other two had slender rapiers. Encrid put what he had learned to use.

[“Age, posture, positioning, the look in their eyes. It's all information, brother.”]

As Audin had taught him, he inferred their builds from their posture and made his assessment.

'Am I right?'

He wasn't certain. Frogs could reportedly gauge an opponent's ability by instinct, but humans couldn't. That was why they needed knowledge and experience, wasn't it? [“Keep at it, and you'll get there, brother.”]

Audin had said that, but it didn't seem like something he would learn overnight. Encrid wasn't impatient. He occupied himself with calmly observing them. One of the five was left-handed. Judging by the protesting creak of a chair when they took a table and sat down, they seemed to be wearing heavy equipment. None of them wore chain mail, though.

It was winter. Who would wear metal armor in the bitter cold of the last of the four seasons, the season of endings? There was no particular reason to. A thick gambeson was ideal for someone walking alongside a carriage as an escort. That was what these men wore, too. His experience and common sense meshed with what Audin had taught him. He was gauging their skills by their equipment and posture. He wouldn't be right ten times out of ten, of course.

'All five of them.'

They seemed less capable than the border guards. In the soldier grading system, that put them at special-grade or below. Encrid reflected on what he had learned.

'Not bad.'

Assessing someone's ability from their posture and equipment alone was something he normally wouldn't have dared attempt. Sensing that change in himself, he savored the joy of improvement once again.

That pleasure never grew old. It was always fresh and exhilarating. His swordsmanship, his other combat techniques, his martial skills were developing. He was improving. The exhilaration continued. It was fun. Nothing could be more enjoyable. Even if this mission never gave him cause to draw his sword and fight, he enjoyed being able to put his new learning into practice without leaving his seat.

“Would you care for an interesting game?”

Jaxon's suggestion struck home. It was an entertaining idea. No, a training method. “It's called Guess the Sound.”

“Let's play.”

Jaxon was no less passionate about teaching than Rem, Ragna, and Audin. It was a passion like a cold flame, hidden from sight, but Encrid couldn't fail to notice it. He was the one benefiting from its heat. So this was surely more than an invitation to play a game. His guess was correct. Jaxon's suggestion was one of the training methods for the sense for the blade. It wasn't an easy one, of course.

* * *

“Someone clicking their tongue.”

At Jaxon's words, Encrid furrowed his brow.

“Too slow.” Escort work was generally dull. All the more so here in Border Guard. With the trading company's own guards present, the reason they had hired the three of them was obvious. Attacking people who had paid Krona for military escorts meant picking a fight with Border Guard's standing army as well.

Border Guard was the king's own domain. Attacking the kingdom's soldiers within that domain? Even Rengadis, the most prosperous trading company on the continent, famous for its blank promissory notes, would have found that a daunting prospect, never mind their client's midsized company. “The third man at the table to your left.”

How could he be so precise from sound alone? Encrid thought he himself had reached the point where it was as if he had eyes in the back of his head.

It was a simple but difficult game. All Jaxon did was name a sound, and Encrid, listening closely to everything around them, had to identify its source. “A blade being sharpened.”

The kitchen? No. Higher than that.

Encrid even activated Concentrate on a Single Point. Sweat trickled down his forehead. The fireplace might have warmed the interior, but a chilly draft ran through the spot where he sat. “Upstairs.”

“The direction is correct. Which floor?”

The inn had three floors. Should he guess? No, that would defeat the purpose of training.

“Room 102, I'd say.”

Jaxon supplied the answer. Time was the crux of the game. He had to answer quickly enough. After a few rounds, the Company Commander approached.

“I'll join you.”

She was a Fairy, a race whose senses were twice as keen as a human's. To Encrid, she seemed even better than Jaxon. “A short blade being sheathed and drawn. Repeatedly.”

Another question came. Encrid kept missing his chance, while the Fairy Company Commander answered without even pausing for breath.

“Outside the inn's entrance.” “Someone breathing with their mouth covered.”

How the hell could he tell something like that?

Encrid was dumbfounded, but the Fairy Company Commander's flowing voice continued supplying the right answers.

“Outside the window.”

“Someone sitting and holding their breath.”

“Under the table to the right as you face the entrance.”

“Someone sneaking glances around.”

“Behind you.” Partway through, Encrid tilted his head. At some point, the questions had stopped being about sounds at all.

Their client was the heir to a trading company. The company had brought its own guards, and they had taken over one side of the inn's main hall as though they'd rented it out.

Then, “An attack is likely.”

“Agreed.”

The moment Encrid understood the exchange between Jaxon and the Fairy Company Commander, Jaxon rose and shoved his chair backward. SCRAPE! THUD!

“Oof.”

Encrid saw a man struck in the thigh by the back of Jaxon's chair. He saw the startled eyes and the blade in the man's hand. It was a dagger painted black. The listening exercise had kept Encrid's senses on constant alert. Seeing Jaxon move, he turned around himself. A man holding a dagger was just about to stab him.

Startled by Encrid's sudden turn, the man's eyes widened, and he froze for an instant. Encrid used that opening to reach out and seize his wrist. CRACK.

He twisted the wrist outward and pulled, bending his other arm at a right angle.

“Urk.”

With his wrist twisted, the man was dragged helplessly forward. Encrid drove his elbow into the center of his chest. CRUNCH.

The man's breastbone broke, and he dropped the dagger. Encrid snatched the falling weapon and ducked.

WHIZZ!

A dagger flew through the space he had just occupied.

THUNK!

It buried itself in a wooden pillar. An onlooker might have said he had barely dodged it. But Encrid had anticipated it. He had evaded it easily.

'I suppose all sorts of things come in handy.' The assassin's attack in the Medical Barracks had been aimed at Krang, but the attacker had needed to get past Encrid. Every time, he had fought tooth and nail to survive, repeating today.

Later, he had faced the mixed-blood Fairy assassin's whistle daggers. That had been recent, too. Again, he had repeated today. He had experienced, through countless repetitions, what someone else might encounter once or twice in a lifetime. This was the sum of everything he had been through. Now he could counter this sort of attack with ease.