Chapter 10
“Bring the wood over!”
“Hurry! We don’t know when those Lumidian bastards will get in!”
The noisy sounds of running footsteps, shouts, and axes striking.
The area around our house had always been quiet, but today it was so noisy it was hard to breathe.
When I opened my eyes, my head throbbed as though it were splitting apart.
I had stayed up late making plans and was exhausted.
The cold dawn air seeping deep into my lungs swept the drowsiness from my mind.
“This won’t do.”
The war had reached our doorstep.
I could tell from the noise outside alone.
Now that preparations for a siege had begun, the defenses would surely be even tighter.
The plan I had made yesterday had become completely useless.
When I turned my gaze to the side, all that remained was cold, abandoned bedding.
“We need information.”
I had to find out something—anything—to revise my plan.
Someone who might know useful information about the war.
Only one person came to mind.
“Neil.”
Asking him for help left a bad taste in my mouth, but I had no choice.
I seized the thick cloak hanging by the doorway.
“Move all the food to the central warehouse!”
“Sandbags! Where are the sandbags? Get the sandbags up first!”
“Please... Please let my mother in too!”
The inside of the castle was already filled with soldiers rushing about.
Among them, several men in clothes filthy with blood and dust were kneeling and clutching at passing soldiers.
Refugees.
It looked as though the lord was only letting in those he had chosen to help.
If only those bastards hadn’t been there, Father and I might have escaped safely.
Their cries overlapped with the image of Father amid the ashes that day.
The helplessness weighing me down, the inescapable despair, seemed to consume my entire body once more.
“Get out of the way!”
To escape that sickening sense of kinship, I roughly kicked the refugee blocking my path and continued running toward the church.
The man who went sprawling on the ground caught my eye.
Guilt brushed the tip of my tongue, but I swallowed it.
“Where had all those religious fanatics gone?”
All the priests who had been outside the church had disappeared.
When I forced the door open and entered, a priest blocked my way.
“Leave immediately. This is no place for outsiders.”
“A summons has been issued for workers to repair the gallows. I was told to confirm it directly with Captain Neil.”
He furrowed his brow.
“Unauthorized entry is—”
“Neil. Neil’s here, isn’t he? Bring him out now.”
“Oh, aren’t you the daughter of that unclean man who handles sinners’ blood? To think you would regard Captain Neil’s excessive kindness as though it were God’s grace. Surely you haven’t forgotten your duty.”
The insult directed at Father came from behind the priest blocking my way.
I held back my trembling fist.
I had no time to waste here.
“Please... step aside.”
“What is all this commotion?”
Just then, with the heavy sound of the door cutting through the air, a familiar voice rang out.
“Captain Neil. Someone who was not granted permission came all the way in here. I apologize for disturbing you while you were likely in the middle of a discussion.”
“…Bishop Nelson, may I step out for a moment?”
“We’ve discussed everything there was to discuss, so don’t mind me.”
His hollow eyes, devoid of any emotion, turned toward me.
“I came because there’s something I want to ask.”
“This isn’t a conversation for here. Follow me.”
Ignoring the icy gaze I could feel from behind, I followed Neil into a room.
“Neil. Can you get us out of here?”
“Every entrance has already been sealed. Getting you out is beyond my authority.”
It was the worst possible situation.
Father and I had been trapped in this remote castle.
“Then at least give me some information. We don’t have time.”
I paced anxiously around the room, firing off the questions that came to mind.
“When do the wall guards change shifts? Have the patrol routes changed? Are there any gaps or sewers that haven’t been sealed? Is there anyone we can bribe? Exactly where are the Lumidians stationed?”
“…Miss Ella. By the time I had found out all that information, the siege would already have begun. At that point, it would be meaningless.”
He rubbed his forehead, seemingly frustrated by the situation.
“Then tell me whatever you can right now.”
“According to the combined reports of our scouts and spies, they’re currently encamped half a day away. As for the shift changes... I can’t provide them all. However, there will be one gap in the patrol in the alley behind the eastern warehouse at midnight.”
“...”
Neil, who had been staring intently at me, continued.
“Even if you could get outside the castle on your own, I wouldn’t recommend it. Most of the food has already been moved to the central warehouse. You would have trouble obtaining even the minimum provisions needed to survive outside.”
“Then you’re telling us to die like dogs here?”
“I don’t want you to die. Even if this is only my own selfish atonement. There are sufficient resources within this castle. If you hold out here, reinforcements will surely come.”
He was still an irritating man.
A man who had once been blinded by faith and had given up on opening his own eyes.
Those rotten bastards would never send reinforcements.
If they had, there was no way I, my comrades, and that nobleman would have been left behind there.
“I’ll take care of that myself. Mind your own business.”
“…May God’s mercy be with you.”
There had not been a single piece of good news.
I had no idea how we could possibly survive.
When I returned home with nothing to show for it, I saw Noah loitering in front of the door.
“E-Ella! I’ve made up my mind. I’m leaving with you.”
“…Too late. We can’t leave.”
Noah stopped short as he ran toward me.
“The war has already begun. There’s no way out for us. Go home now, Noah.”
“...”
Ignoring him as he stood frozen, I went inside the house.
Just as it had been that morning, I was still alone in the house.
“Somewhere safe. We need to find somewhere safe.”
Escape before the war began was no longer an option.
Fighting back had never been possible to begin with.
We would hold out in a safe place until the city fell and chaos swept through its walls.
Taking advantage of that moment to survive was the best alternative I could think of for now.
According to Neil’s information, there was a time when the patrol around the warehouse would be absent.
We could siphon off some food then.
Fortunately, the groceries we had bought yesterday were still there.
Perhaps because even the soldiers found our house unsettling.
The attention we attracted had helped us in an unexpected way.
Noah was still standing blankly in front of the door.
“Noah. Snap out of it. You know the hidden places around the cemetery, right?”
“…Y-yeah.”
He had lived in this village longer than I had and frequented the cemetery that others never visited as if it were his own home. He might know places I didn’t.
“Hey, follow me.”
I grabbed his arm and started running, dragging him along while his legs remained rooted to the spot.
“W-wait, Ella!”
“Shut up and follow me. We don’t have time to dawdle.”
There was no one on the road to the cemetery.
“I... I know a place you probably don’t know about.”
Noah suddenly spoke as he pulled my hand away from his arm.
“Where?”
“There’s an ossuary near the cemetery. The overgrown brush will make it hard for anyone unfamiliar with the place to find. This way.”
After crossing the cemetery and going farther in, I saw a small stone building half buried in the ground.
It looked poorly maintained, with grass as tall as I was growing thickly all around it.
“Noah. We’re going to make a hideout here. I need your help.”
“H-how are you planning to do it?”
“When the enemy breaches the walls and chaos breaks out inside the city, we’ll hold out here and escape. I need to look around inside.”
The inside of the ossuary was filled with dust.
There was enough room for roughly five adults to lie down.
In the cramped space, I picked up an urn.
“Ella, wh... what are you doing! This is sacrilege! No matter what, this is a resting place for the dead—”
“Don’t talk nonsense, Noah. The dead can’t do anything for us. And no one can come here anymore. Just help me.”
I cleared out all the urns packed tightly inside.
A cool breeze slipped through a gap in the back wall.
Wild garlic to mask the smell.
Jars of water and food.
Oil-soaked cloth to stuff into the cracks in the door and block light and sound.
There was a lot to prepare.
We had no time to waste, since we had to finish everything before the full-scale siege began.
“Noah, bring some water here. And there’s still food at your house, right? The soldiers wouldn’t have touched it, would they?”
“Y-yeah... the soldiers haven’t come this far.”
I recalled the things Noah had bought yesterday.
If we turned them into preserved food and diverted even the provisions we were given, we could hold out here for a while.