Chapter – 69
“Have we met?”
“Huh?”
“This is my first time meeting you, sir.”
“Is that so?”
Maranello looked at Kudo intently and then spoke.
“You there…”
Kudo, as always, smiled gently with his eyes narrowed.
“Oh my. It seems I’ve mistaken you for someone else. My apologies.”
“It’s alright. There are many people who look alike in the world.”
Carlisle, who had been quietly listening to their conversation, sensed a strange undercurrent and frowned.
“Do you two know each other?”
“No.”
“It seems this old man was mistaken for a moment.”
Kudo and Maranello shook their heads simultaneously.
“Hmm.”
Carlisle felt something suspicious but didn’t press further. Given the atmosphere, it didn’t seem like he would get any meaningful answers even if he asked…
“Private Carlisle.”
“Yes?”
“Brigade Commander Selena is looking for you.”
“Why?”
“It seems she will be departing soon. Perhaps she wants to have a word with you before she leaves.”
“What kind of conversation?”
As Carlisle let out a hollow laugh, Kudo spoke as if he had been waiting.
“The message is for you to come immediately. She added that it’s an order, so if you don’t go, you might be court-martialed for insubordination.”
It seemed Selena had anticipated that Carlisle wouldn’t come obediently.
“Let’s go.”
“…Fine, whatever.”
Carlisle grumbled under his breath as he got up from his seat.
“I’ll be back.”
“The young lady is waiting, so you should hurry along.”
“Take care, young master.”
“Nom nom. See ya. Nom nom nom.”
Maranello, Evangelin, and the baby dragon saw Carlisle off.
“Well then, I’ll take my leave now. It was a pleasure meeting you.”
Kudo gave a slight nod and followed Carlisle.
On the way to meet Selena.
“You and the butler aren’t acquaintances, right?”
“How could that be?”
“Is that so?”
“How could a mere lowly soldier like me be acquainted with the Divine Emissary of the North? Haha.”
When Carlisle asked just in case, Kudo waved his hands as if it were impossible.
“Hmm.”
Carlisle glared at Kudo with suspicious eyes, but Kudo’s eyes were always narrowed, making it nearly impossible to read his expression. Although sometimes, when his emotions ran high, a terrifying bloodlust would flash through his long, narrow eyes…
Knock knock
“Come in.”
Selena was waiting for Carlisle in Helen’s office.
“What.”
When Carlisle spoke as if annoyed, Selena’s face instantly contorted.
“‘What’?”
“You must have a reason for calling me.”
“How dare you!”
Selena glared fiercely.
“You, how dare you speak so informally to a flag officer? A mere private second class?”
“Ah, yes. Brigade Commander. You called for me. Loyalty.”
“This guy, really…!”
“What, are you going to hit me again?”
Carlisle spoke, recalling memories from his childhood—more precisely, the memories of this body’s original owner.
“Enough, let’s not talk about it.”
It seemed Selena thought beating up her younger brother now that he was a grown adult wasn’t right, as she made an effort to calm her anger.
“Anyway, I’ll be leaving here soon. The northern front is urgent, so I don’t have time to stay long.”
“So?”
“What do you mean ‘so’? I’m saying take care.”
“……?”
“It’d be a bit rude to just leave without a word. We’re siblings, after all.”
“You don’t need to worry about that. I’m fine with it.”
“What…?”
“I mean, between people who are uncomfortable with each other anyway, there’s no need to bother with formalities.”
The reason Carlisle reacted that way was that he genuinely felt uncomfortable. He had been an only child in his previous life, and being in someone else’s body, he felt strangely uneasy about getting along warmly with that person’s siblings.
“You really… Sigh.”
Selena let out a deep sigh and nodded as if she understood.
“Alright, fine. Go and rest. I’ll be on my way now too.”
“Okay.”
Carlisle turned around.
Step, step—he had taken maybe two steps.
“Um…”
Carlisle, standing at the door, opened his mouth.
“What, why? Do you have something to say?”
“Thank you.”
“Wha…?”
“Thank you for coming to rescue me.”
“I’m go…”
“I’m going.”
Carlisle went out the door before even hearing Selena’s reply.
“What am I going to do with you…?”
Selena shook her head as if she couldn’t handle him.
A faint smile had appeared on her lips.
The next morning.
Post-war processing began.
It started with the belated arrival of reinforcements.
Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!
When the two-company-strong force sent by the 2nd Army Command entered Bowden Fortress, complaints erupted from the soldiers.
“Those bastards! What took you so long to crawl over here?”
“What, were you waiting for us all to die first?”
“Gah, spit!”
The soldiers’ sentiment towards the reinforcements was extremely hostile.
How long had Bowden Fortress waited for reinforcements?
And how desperately had they wished for the withdrawal order to come?
If they had arrived on time, if the withdrawal order had been issued on time…
It goes without saying that the number of casualties would have drastically decreased.
“What the hell are you looking at, you sons of bitches!”
“Did you come to collect corpses?”
It was so bad that some of the more hot-tempered soldiers openly picked fights and growled at the reinforcements.
“Why are you giving us shit?”
“Are your comrades’ deaths our fault? Huh?”
“Goddammit. It’s not like we were out having fun somewhere. What the hell.”
From the reinforcement soldiers’ perspective, getting cursed at out of the blue was bound to make them angry too.
“What the hell are you looking at?”
“What did you just say?”
The atmosphere was so tense that a brawl could break out at any moment. Carlisle let out a snort of laughter.
“Heh.”
“Is something amusing, sir?”
“It’s just funny.”
Carlisle answered Kudo’s question.
“The ones at fault are the idiot higher-ups, but the soldiers are the ones fighting amongst themselves.”
“Is it alright to speak of your uncle-in-law like that?”
“I never said ‘uncle-in-law’, but so what? It’s common to curse even the king behind his back.”
“Hah. I suppose you’re right.”
Kudo nodded as if in agreement.
“Well, it’s not a one or two-day occurrence for commanders to mess up and earn curses. Let’s just accept it.”
“We have to.”
Carlisle shook his head.
“I was just thinking I’d watch the brawl from the corner if it breaks out.”
“Watching a fight is indeed the most entertaining.”
However, Carlisle’s expectation did not become reality.
The command’s method of quelling the soldiers’ discontent was ‘very’ simple.
One hour later.
“Everyone, attention.”
Helen gathered the soldiers of Bowden Fortress in the training ground and spoke.
Even with her body tightly wrapped in bandages, she hadn’t stopped performing her duties.
“I have just received an order from the Command. The Command, in recognition of our unit’s distinguished service, has decided to grant a special reward leave.”
“……!”
“The target is all personnel. Without a single exception, a two-week special reward leave will be granted.”
“Woooooooooooh!”
Cheers erupted from the soldiers.
Helen allowed the soldiers to chatter for a moment before speaking again.
“In two days. Our unit is scheduled to withdraw from Bowden Fortress. The reinforcements that just arrived will replace us. This means that in two days, we will all be on a two-week special reward leave.”
“Yahooo!”
“Woooooh!”
“Leave! Leeeave!”
The soldiers cheered as if their anger from before had never existed.
“Of course, additional allowances will also be paid, and those who distinguished themselves will receive medals as well as additional rewards, so please take note.”
“Oooooh!”
“So, for the remaining two days, let’s put our efforts into the post-war processing. That is all.”
After saying that, Helen limped away.
“It’s been so long since we had leave!”
“I need to see my youngest! Haha!”
“I was just missing my mom.”
The excited soldiers, each voicing their thoughts, chattered happily.
Indeed, it seemed the greatest gift for soldiers was nothing other than leave.
The soldiers of Bowden Fortress, who were to go on reward leave upon withdrawal, began full-scale post-war processing.
The post-war processing was frantically busy.
They had to recover the bodies of fallen comrades, repair the collapsed and broken fortress, maintain or replace their respective weapons and equipment—there was a mountain of work to be done within two days.
On top of that, they had to hand over information about Bowden Fortress to the newly arrived reinforcement troops, so everyone had no choice but to move about busily.
The Scout Platoon was no exception.
They had to inform the new scout troops about the basic reconnaissance routes and various precautions.
Meanwhile, Maranello and Evangelin did not leave Bowden Fortress with Carlisle.
Since they had come all this way, they planned to return to Dekaron together when Carlisle went on leave.
Although civilians (?) were not allowed to remain in military zones, no one dared to pick on Maranello, the butler of the Sigmarund family and a legendary knight, or the young lady who would become a retainer of the Sigmarund family.
“This path looks safe for the first time ever.”
Carlisle muttered incredulously as he walked.
Carlisle was currently deployed on a mission with the scout platoon members to recover the bodies of the fallen.
Just a day ago, this area had seen fierce fighting, so there could still be remnant forces of the Butcher Tribe or other threats lurking.
Nevertheless, Carlisle felt safe because Maranello was by his side.
With a powerhouse strong enough to play around with Zarkan using a mere dust brush by his side, he felt ‘not at all’ tense even during the mission.
Moreover, wasn’t Evangelin, an earth spirit user, also by his side?
‘So I’m just killing time like this until leave, huh.’
Around the time Carlisle thought that.
“It’s over there.”
Murder took the lead.
“Peeeeep!”
From the sky, Hugin, who was conducting aerial reconnaissance, let out a long chirp, as if he had found something.
“Ah.”
The scout platoon members who arrived at the scene let out sighs.
There, mixed with the corpses of the barbarian warriors, were several bodies of the fallen.
“All personnel, observe a moment of silence.”
At Begman’s words, the scout platoon members simultaneously knelt on one knee and bowed their heads towards the fallen.
The moment of silence was the first procedure and ritual when recovering the bodies of the fallen.
The civilians, Maranello and Evangelin, also bowed their heads in silence.
Paying respect to the fallen was not a choice but a duty.
As fellow northerners, as people of Dekaron…
Carlisle also knelt on one knee and bowed his head towards them.
Ding!
A notification window appeared before his eyes.
[Notification: Traces left by the deceased have been detected.]
[Notification: A residual thought remains somewhere nearby.]
After the moment of silence, Carlisle moved as if drawn somewhere.
Where Carlisle stopped, a single small military boot lay.
‘This is…’
Carlisle recognized at a glance that the small boot belonged to Gwen.
He remembered that one boot had been missing when her body was recovered, and his heart ached.
Swish, Carlisle bent down and picked up the boot.
[Notification: Residual thought found.]
[Notification: Reading the traces left by the deceased in this world.]
Gwen’s final memories unfolded.
