Chapter 37
Shortly before the raid, Seraphina returned to the command tent and stared blankly down at her own hands.
The tent was chilly. Normally, that cold would have transformed into an icy pain that seemed to bore into her very bones and torment her. But tonight was different; the night air merely felt refreshing.
"……This is impossible."
She wrapped her arms around her shoulders. What had happened moments ago in Max Jaeger's tent came vividly to mind—the sensation of his hand stroking her back.
"Ugh…."
Just thinking about it made her body feel hot. As if exposing her upper body in front of a subordinate officer hadn't been enough, she had even moaned and melted beneath his touch.
But she didn't regret it. No—in fact, it was quite the opposite.
'Is this… what ordinary people feel in bed?'
She carefully lay down on her cot. Normally, pain would force her to toss and turn and adjust her position again and again, but tonight, for the first time in far too long, she could spend the night without suffering. Her eyelids grew as heavy as lead. Max Jaeger's voice echoed in her ears.
[It's a secret I'll take to my grave.]
[You'll be fine for the time being.]
"…Arrogant brat."
With a faint smile on her lips, she sank into the depths of sleep.
She dreamed.
She stood alone in the middle of an endless snowy plain. Hunched over and trembling from the cold and pain amid the raging blizzard, she had to endure it alone, as always.
Then it happened. Someone came walking through the blizzard. A man wearing a black military uniform. His face was too indistinct to make out, but his presence was incredibly familiar.
Without a word, he approached the crouching Seraphina and embraced her from behind. His embrace was warm. His touch warmed Seraphina's cold back.
The Seraphina in the dream did not resist. Craving his touch, she burrowed deeper into his embrace.
[It's all right now, Captain.]
His low voice tickled her ears. Intoxicated by it, Seraphina thought she never wanted to wake from this dream.
"Enemy attack! We're under attack!!"
"Everyone, wake up! To your positions!!"
Sharp shouts shattered the sweet dream into pieces.
"…Gasp!"
Seraphina's eyes flew open as though she had screamed. Cold sweat trickled down her spine. The commander had slept until the enemy was practically at their doorstep. Without even having time to straighten her clothes, she seized her pistol and rushed out of the tent.
"2nd Company! Don't panic!"
It was at that moment that she rushed outside, shouting.
"……Huh?"
A dazed sound escaped her lips. The scene unfolding before her was not the hellish chaos she had expected.
Whoooosh-! Boom!
A flare shot into the night sky, illuminating the pitch-black darkness like broad daylight. Beneath its light lay a scene of one-sided slaughter.
"Gaaah!"
"Ghk!"
The heads of the charging orcs burst like watermelons.
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat! Boom! Boom!
The machine-gun barrels spat fire without pause, while the riflemen mechanically worked their bolts. The orcs were melting away without even managing to get close.
Seraphina lowered the hand holding her pistol and stared blankly at the scene. There wasn't even an opening for her to intervene.
"1st Squad, eleven o'clock! Concentrate fire on where the flare fell!"
"2nd Squad, don't hold back on the machine-gun fire! Keep their heads down!"
"3rd Squad on the right flank! I see some trying to circle around! Throw grenades!"
A cold, clear voice rang out through the darkness.
Max Jaeger stood in the middle of the soldiers. As though he had known all of this would happen in advance, he directed accurate counterfire against every enemy the moment they appeared.
Seraphina's gaze fixed on his broad back. It was the figure from her dream, now standing cold and resolute in the middle of the battlefield.
When the two images overlapped, she felt a strange dizziness. It was different from the pain caused by [Mana Reflux]. Her lower abdomen tingled, and her heart began beating irregularly—a strange sensation.
Seraphina bit her lower lip.
*
"The situation is over. Check for casualties."
"Understood!"
At my orders, the soldiers moved. Thanks to the [Minimap], the ambush ended with the attackers being completely routed. As the darkness lifted from the forest, the orc corpses sprawled before 3rd Platoon's position were revealed.
I relaxed and slung my rifle over my shoulder. When I turned around, I spotted Seraphina standing in front of her tent. She looked refreshed, as though she had slept soundly.
I slowly approached her and saluted.
"Loyalty. Captain, are you awake?"
"…What's the situation?"
"It was an enemy night raid. Their force was roughly one platoon. They appear to have been a scouting party from the Ashen Claw Tribe. We suffered only two minor injuries; the enemy was completely wiped out."
After hearing my concise report, she let out a small sigh. It was a sigh of relief.
"…Impressive. You dealt with all of this while I was asleep."
"I was merely lucky. I happened to notice that something was off while I was looking around the forest."
I covered it up with a plausible lie. I couldn't exactly say I had seen them on the minimap.
"…That luck of yours again. You always say you were just lucky."
Seraphina looked half convinced and half unconvinced by my excuse. But unlike before, she didn't seem particularly displeased.
She holstered her pistol and asked,
"Why didn't you wake me?"
"You seemed to be sleeping so soundly."
I added with a grin,
"Isn't managing the commander's condition part of an operation, too? I judged that there was no need for you to take the field just to deal with a few stragglers, Captain."
Seraphina's blue eyes flickered faintly.
"…How arrogant."
Seraphina pretended to say it coldly, but there was no edge to her voice.
'Status Analysis.'
[Emotion: Pride in the subordinate who had perfectly filled in during her absence, a sense of duty to maintain her authority as commander, embarrassment at the fact that she slept so soundly.]
Her thoughts were written all over her face. I deliberately lowered my head with a serious expression.
"In accordance with regulations, I should have reported immediately and awaited your instructions. I acknowledge that this was an obvious overstepping of authority. If you wish to punish me, I will accept it."
"……."
My overly deferential response seemed to fluster Seraphina. She cleared her throat and looked away.
"…The outcome was good, so I'll let it pass. I'll take care of the report myself. …But wake me next time. Understood?"
"I'll keep that in mind."
"And…."
Seraphina hesitated for a moment, then, after confirming that there were no soldiers nearby, added in a very small voice,
"…Thank you, Lieutenant."
She spoke in a voice far gentler than usual.
"Thanks to you… I slept soundly for the first time in a very long while. I didn't even dream…."
Her cheeks turned the faintest shade of red.
"…I'm glad to hear it. It seems the treatment… no, the tuning, was effective."
The moment I mentioned treatment, her cheeks grew noticeably redder.
"……! Well…, I will admit that my body does feel lighter……."
She cleared her throat and made a point of avoiding my gaze. Then she pointed toward the forest as though trying to change the subject.
"I'll leave the aftermath to you. I… need to go inside and change my clothes."
"Understood. Go inside and get some rest."
Seraphina disappeared into the tent as though she were fleeing.
Not long afterward, dawn began to break. As the darkness lifted from the forest, the slaughter we'd inflicted throughout the night was laid bare.
Only then did the other platoon commanders arrive, having finished preparing and hurried over.
"You stopped all of this… by yourself?"
Lieutenants Walter and Franz stood speechless at the mountain of corpses. Erika, who had arrived last, bit her lip in frustration.
"This is impossible…."
Despite being fully prepared for battle, she had done nothing but arrive after the fighting was over. Her face flushed bright red, and she couldn't say a word. I brushed off their reactions and ordered the unit to reorganize.
That was when Gunther, who had been searching the corpses, called out to me urgently.
"Lieutenant! You should come over here for a moment! Their equipment is rather unusual!"
"What is it?"
I asked as I approached the spot Gunther was pointing to. When the soldiers made way, a horribly mangled orc corpse came into view.
"What do you mean, unusual?"
"Take a look at this. They've got things like this hanging from their necks."
Gunther held out something he had torn from the corpse. It was a necklace made from a blackened bone fragment, hanging from a crude leather cord.
I took the necklace Gunther handed me. An unpleasantly lukewarm heat crept up through my fingertips.
'Status Analysis.'
[Target: Ashen Pact Token]
[Grade: Shamanic Artifact]
[Effect: When its bearer dies, it transmits their location to the grand shaman.]
[Details: An item issued only to the personal guard of 'Gromnar Ironfist'.]
"……!"
The moment I read the status window, a chill ran down my spine.
'It transmits their location when they die…?'
If so, that meant this wasn't merely a night-raiding force. In an instant, the battle from earlier that day flashed through my mind.
'Something had seemed strange.'
Thinking back, Kardor, that monster, had plunged into 2nd Company's vulnerable flank without the slightest hesitation. He had charged in with exact knowledge of our position, as though he could see through every tree in the forest.
It wasn't because his senses were exceptionally sharp. The vanguard we'd killed first had transmitted our coordinates via these necklaces. There had to be one hidden among the corpses that our search party had failed to find.
'So something like this had been hidden among them.'
It was an incredibly efficient method. If they sent scouts out one at a time to search the forest, finding the human main force would be difficult even for orcs. But if they distributed necklaces among the scouts and had them search the entire forest simultaneously….
'Then the main force could head straight to the coordinates transmitted by the dead scouts.'
Gromnar had laid a foolproof trap at the cost of his subordinates' lives. And our unit had walked right into it.
What this meant was brutally clear.
'Their main force will come crashing in any moment.'