episode_0002

It was overwhelming in its appearance. Covered in a hard, obsidian-like dark skin, with patches of human-like crimson blood smeared all over, and with each breath, steam rose from its body. Every time its reverse-jointed legs leaped forward with tremendous force, a life inevitably vanished. With its thick arms, it savagely tore off the head of the last remaining member of Unit A, seemingly aiming for the facial area, effortlessly splitting the skull open like a watermelon.

“Unit halt. Slowly retreat the way we came,” Claire’s voice trembled at the sight, a slight quiver barely audible to me from behind.

Although B Unit was quite a distance away, it must have been deemed too perilous to approach any further. The monster seemed to have sensed our presence.

Fortunately, much closer than us, a sizable group of Moscovian Commonwealth soldiers emerged from one side of the forest. They must have come to investigate the meteorite crash as well. The creature, or rather, unidentified entities, were not alone. Unnoticed by the Commonwealth soldiers, five of them had stealthily reduced their numbers near the vicinity of the Commonwealth infantry.

Eventually, the Commonwealth soldiers began to scatter and flee. Some, whether out of bravery or resignation, attempted musket fire. The magical gunfire from the mages seemed somewhat effective, but the regular musket shots only resulted in inflicting wounds.

While they inadvertently bought us time, we quietly made our escape from that place. Or at least, we tried to. Due to my mistake of riding behind Claire without anyone else aboard, we ended up running in the wrong direction, catching the attention of those creatures. The large ones we had seen before were still hunting the Commonwealth soldiers, but smaller quadrupedal entities, about the size of a large chicken, poured out from the cube-shaped object, swiftly engulfing their horses.

“Retreat! Full speed back to the main base!!”

In a flash, Claire shouted as she shot magic at the small creatures approaching from this side, causing the one hit by her magic to burst like a firecracker. Infusing the horse with a small amount of magic to restore its vitality was no problem, but the terrain was a snow-covered forest, and our speed was not optimal. Moreover, Claire and I riding together on one horse made us even slower.

Even after running for about ten minutes, the creatures didn’t give up and continued to chase us. Jang and Alphonse had gone so far ahead that they were out of our sight, and Claire had given up shooting and was now fully concentrating on replenishing the horse’s energy with magic. My back felt thoroughly soaked. The small creatures were now so close that they could almost be kicked by the horse’s hind legs. At this rate, both of us were in mortal danger.

The monsters seemed familiar from somewhere, and now I remembered what they were. They bore a striking resemblance to a very famous extraterrestrial life form from my past life. They, too, showed an aversion to fire. With a sense of hope, I decided to give it a try.

Once determined, there was no time to hesitate. I swiftly removed my blue coat, which had quite a lot of buttons. Trying to unbutton them one by one in such a dire situation only seemed to make my hands less agile. As I struggled to take off the coat from behind, midshipman Claire, who had been focusing on replenishing the horse’s energy, asked,

“Lieutenant Marianne! No matter how tough the situation, you mustn’t lose your composure!”

I thought she mistook my panic for taking off my clothes.

“That’s not it. I thought if it’s fire, they might not be afraid…”

“Fire?”

“Yes, since those things look somewhat like beasts.”

I couldn’t exactly say I got hints from a movie in my past life. Claire seemed somewhat persuaded by my words. I hung the coat I had removed on the muzzle of the musket and raised it like a torch.

Then, after some time had passed since magical exhaustion, I concentrated a fair amount of recovered magic into the coat. The flame burning with magic was blue. As the magic supply ceased and the coat began to burn, it quickly turned into a red flame.

“It, it’s effective!”

The small creatures, which had seemed as if they might leap onto the horse’s back at any moment, slowed their pace upon seeing the burning flames and soon ceased their pursuit.

“Whew. Marianne, that was quick thinking. Hold the reins for me.”

Although the flames quickly consumed the coat, it was no longer needed since the monsters had been driven away. As I no longer needed to infuse magic into the horse, she handed me the reins and leaned against me, clearly exhausted.

“Lieutenant Claire?”

“Captain, hold steady. When I was suffering from magical exhaustion earlier, you supported me, remember?”

As I took the reins from behind, she almost nestled into my embrace. It seemed like she had already gotten used to hugging my waist tightly earlier, but when I slightly lowered my head, her face being too close felt different. Lowering my gaze, I noticed her tied-up blonde hair and the white nape of her neck. Wasn’t she from a noble family? A radiant being. Why did you make me be born as a woman?

“Marianne, are you looking down at your superior? Keep your eyes forward.”

“Yes, yes!”

It seemed like I had stared too blatantly. Due to using the coat for monster repellent, there was only a single blouse between Claire’s back and my chest, allowing me to feel every breath she took. Additionally, our heights were almost the same, and her head was leaning right next to my cheek.

The journey to the battalion headquarters felt longer than usual. I tried to maintain a stiff posture and focus elsewhere, but my mind was already with her. Even the natural movement of my hips while riding felt odd. Could this also be part of the initiation ceremony? I even began to wonder if it was some deliberate breach of military discipline. Enduring the uncomfortable time, we finally arrived at the battalion headquarters, where chaos awaited. Alphonse and Jang, who had arrived earlier, had already reported to the battalion commander, and preparations for withdrawal were underway.

“Hmm. I’ll take it from here. Captain, prepare for a serious move.”

I handed the reins back to Claire and headed straight for the platoon’s tent. It was hard to believe that the battalion commander actually trusted such an absurd report. Normally, no one would have believed a report claiming that monsters had indiscriminately devoured soldiers from both the kingdom’s army and the republic’s. Were they considered secret weapons from another country?

It didn’t take long to complete the serious move. Due to the nature of the Rapid Deployment Platoon, we often had to relocate, so we had set up our camp as efficiently as possible. A Company had suffered heavy losses from those monsters, significantly reducing the size of the platoon. Just a few wagons and the belongings strapped to the horses of the platoon members.

Even I, who had lost my horse in the previous battle, was able to receive a spare horse and retrieve the coat I had left behind. If I had been part of a regular infantry division, even if I were a magical infantryman, I would have had to walk without any means, but being part of the Rapid Deployment Platoon, all magical infantrymen were issued horses like this.

“Are we heading back to the kingdom?”

“Yeah. With one platoon completely wiped out, it’s a significant blow to the size of the battalion.”

From what I gathered from Sergeant Alphonse’s words, it seemed that we weren’t just moving based on our platoon’s report and that there was more to it. We had to reorganize due to A Company’s annihilation, and if the report was accurate, there would be quite a number of casualties from the republic’s army, indicating an imminent large-scale advance by their forces. The reason for the serious move was probably more about our side.

For now, it seemed that once we reached where the 93rd Independent Alert Battalion was stationed, the battalion itself would decide where to move next. I saw some messengers already rushing out.

“Lieutenant Claire, what does the battalion commander say?”

“He doesn’t seem to trust the reports from Jang and Alphonse much. He doesn’t seem to trust the report I, as the platoon leader, provided either.”

“It’s probably hard to believe. If you and I hadn’t seen it with our own eyes, it would be an unbelievable story, wouldn’t it?”

Hmm. Major Erdwa probably doesn’t believe in such empty reports. However, is it really wise to ignore the sacrifices of A Company and the barely surviving B Company? It made me wonder if it’s sensible. We’re not dealing with a modern 21st-century military here, and in this era, can we really stop those guys with muskets on the battlefield?

Sure, musket fire works against foot soldiers. It seemed like regular musket fire could easily kill the small fry, but those big guys seemed impervious to anything less than cannon or musket fire. Moreover, even with musket fire, I hadn’t confirmed how many hits it would take to kill them. The only solace was that the impact point of that meteor-cuboid was within the territory of the Muscovy Kingdom.

“Come to think of it, Lieutenant Marianne.”

“Yes, sir?”

“When the company returns, her pulse seems a bit fast. Could it be some kind of magical exhaustion? Have her checked by the medics at the battalion headquarters.”

Ah, I see. When I took over the reins, my heart rate unknowingly increased as well. It was an unavoidable physiological response, but Claire thought it might be a simple magical exhaustion issue. I guess I should consider myself lucky.