Ch.213Episode 11 – All Quiet on the Northern Front

Fortunately, there was a place to stay.

We entered the lodging where civil servants working at the Rift resided. Since Francesca also lived here, we were able to easily enter the building.

The problem was that three people had to sleep in one room.

“…Why am I here?”

“Because there are no rooms left. We can’t just kick out everyone who’s already staying in decent rooms, can we?”

Unfortunately, the accommodations built near the Rift weren’t in the best condition.

Since it was a nationally important facility with strategic significance in the north, civil servants and civilians working at the Rift were well-treated, but as the conflict dragged on, there were no resources left to repair the increasingly dilapidated lodgings.

I heard that a few weeks ago, one entire dormitory building burned down, forcing what used to be two-person rooms to become six or eight-person rooms.

“I’m being accommodated because I’m from the Magic Tower. I’m probably the only one with a private room here.”

“……”

I looked around the room with a blank expression. I hadn’t noticed earlier, but now I could see that it was too shabby and worn-down to be quarters for an administrative officer from the Magic Tower’s Secretariat.

Even the hotel provided by the Military Command wasn’t in great condition, but this was something else entirely…

As I was lost in these useless thoughts, Francesca approached me as I paced around the room.

“Since there’s only one bed, I think the Hero should sleep there first. I’ll sleep on the sofa.”

“I’m sorry about this. I didn’t expect things to turn out this way…”

“I don’t mind. I’ve been feeling lonely staying by myself, so it’s nice to have someone to talk to.”

Francesca smiled casually and added:

“Oh, and Officer, your spot is over there.”

Francesca pointed to a corner of the room.

Looking where her finger was pointing, I saw a blanket and sleeping bag haphazardly spread on the floor.

“…You want me to sleep on the floor?”

“Yes.”

“…With this cold coming up from below?”

“Drink one of these potions before sleeping. It has properties that boost your vitality, so you should be able to withstand the cold from the floor to some extent.”

“……”

Honestly, at this point, sleeping in the car seemed like a much better option.

Episode 11 – All Quiet on the Northern Front

The capricious weather of the northern region is world-famous.

Usually, clouds block the sun, making it dark even during the day, but sometimes the dark clouds disappear in an instant, clearing the sky. Other times, lightning suddenly strikes and blizzards rage under a clear sky with bright sunshine.

The weather in the northern part of the Kiyen Empire was nothing if not unpredictable.

“…Hmm.”

Francesca looked up at the dark sky and elegantly shook her head.

“I don’t think we can go down today.”

The sky was filled with dark clouds, making everything gloomy.

Despite it being midday with the sun high in the sky, our surroundings were incredibly dark. The warm sunshine was nowhere to be found, and only the cold blue light emitted from the Rift illuminated the surroundings.

It would have been better if it were just dark, but now fog had set in, making it impossible to see ahead.

A thin mist of unknown origin enveloped the basin like a siege, making it impossible to see the mountain peaks on the opposite side.

“…Hmm, this really reminds me of ‘The Mist.'”

“What’s that, Hero?”

“It’s a movie where monsters come out of the fog. When I was very young, I watched that movie and couldn’t go outside on foggy days. It brings back memories.”

Francesca tilted her head repeatedly with a puzzled expression, not quite understanding Camilla’s excited explanation.

It seems even a magician from the Magic Tower, known as the ivory tower of knowledge, doesn’t know everything. Though it would be strange if she knew about the movie Camilla was talking about.

Anyway, judging that it was impossible to understand Camilla’s words with her own intellect, Francesca turned to me for help.

“I thought you and the Hero were close friends. Perhaps you could tell me what this ‘Mist’ movie is… Wait, why do you look like that?”

I glared at Francesca with a pale face.

“…D-don’t know. D-d-don’t talk to me.”

“……”

I didn’t want to stutter, but I couldn’t help it. My jaw was trembling.

The reason I was shaking was simple. The lodging was too cold.

Whether it was due to drafts or an inability to block the cold, despite wearing a sleeping bag, blanket, and even an overcoat, I couldn’t fall asleep because of the bone-chilling cold.

In the end, after repeatedly falling asleep and waking up, I was forced to get up when I heard Camilla and Francesca rustling around.

“I-I-I’m f-freezing to d-death. S-s-shit…”

“…Oh my.”

Francesca’s face filled with sympathy. However, judging by her slightly upturned lips and twitching eye corners, she didn’t seem genuinely sorry.

She didn’t even try to hide it anymore. Without attempting to pull down her twitching lips, Francesca spoke to me.

“Was the potion I gave you yesterday ineffective…?”

I shook my head. The potion had been effective enough.

Before being an administrative officer of the Magic Tower’s Secretariat, Francesca is a magician. And her area of expertise is alchemy.

According to the documents Leoni handed over during her time as the director of the Royal Intelligence Agency, many of Francesca’s papers and research results are registered with the Ivory Tower of the Red Desert.

Even the alchemists of the Red Desert, who have delved into alchemy for thousands of years, establishing their ivory tower and integrating with local religions, acknowledge her skills. How could Francesca’s potion be ineffective?

In fact, when I first took the potion yesterday, I slept soundly as usual. The problem was that I woke up when its effects wore off.

“Perhaps the dosage was insufficient. Would you like more potion?”

“I-if there’s any l-left, p-please give me some…”

Francesca smiled and handed me a vial, and I immediately downed the potion.

Watching this from the side, Camilla suddenly asked:

“What does it taste like?”

“Like children’s cough medicine.”

“Ugh.”

*

The capricious goddess of the north seemed unwilling to let us descend the mountain range.

In the end, Camilla and I had no choice but to stay in the basin where the Rift was located.

“Can’t be helped. We’ll stay here for a bit and head down when the weather clears.”

Given the situation, we had to visit the military unit in charge of the Rift. Fortunately, Lyudmila, who had come along with the escort troops for translation, took care of this part.

After waiting for a while at the campfire where we had stayed yesterday, key personnel rushed over to greet us.

“Welcome to the Rift, Hero and Officer. Lyudmila has briefed us on the situation.”

The officer with a colonel’s insignia introduced himself as the unit commander.

Behind the older-looking colonel stood officers of field grade and non-commissioned officers of sergeant first class and above. There were hardly any company-grade officers or staff sergeants and sergeants.

After touring the Rift with the help of the higher-ups, I examined the unit in charge of this place and made my own assessment.

“Hmm… These folks are more elite than I expected.”

“What do you mean?”

“Look, Camilla.”

I shared the information I had just analyzed with the aspiring spy, Camilla.

“Do you remember the ranks of the people who came to us earlier?”

“Of course I do. The colonel and the sergeant major… that is, the colonel and the master sergeant greeted us first, and then we shook hands with the field-grade officers and sergeants.”

“Doesn’t that seem strange?”

“In what way?”

“There are high-ranking officers crowded into this tiny basin.”

Normally, field-grade officers or sergeants first class and above don’t congregate in one place unless it’s a headquarters.

Moreover, there are so many field-grade officers here, but far fewer company-grade officers.

“Young officers are usually lieutenants or captains, and young NCOs are staff sergeants or sergeants. At best, they’d be captains or sergeants first class, but here there are far more older officers than younger ones.”

“…Now that you mention it, it is strange.”

“Units with many young officers, especially elite ones, have certain characteristics.”

The characteristics of areas with many young elite officers are as follows:

First, promotion is advantageous.

Second, it’s a unit with key positions.

Third, the military considers the area strategically important.

Conversely, if there are many young officers but they’re not from elite backgrounds, the story changes slightly.

Such units are typically not in strategic locations or are in places not worth occupying.

“And in both cases, they generally don’t handle particularly important military secrets.”

“Hmm…”

Camilla let out a small groan and muttered with a voice full of contemplation.

“Does that mean… junior officers can only handle limited confidential information?”

“That’s right.”

While junior officers can handle quite a bit of information, they rarely have access to truly core information. Therefore, units with many junior officers don’t require strict security and don’t handle highly classified information.

In other words, they’re not targets that intelligence agencies need to pay much attention to.

But units with many senior officers are different.

“Units with many older officers and NCOs generally handle important secrets and require strict security. They’re located in key strategic points or strongholds.”

“For example?”

“Naval bases operating nuclear submarines, units managing ballistic missiles, air defense units protecting the capital region, and so on.”

Units in key strategic locations or tactical strongholds, or those handling core weapons, are truly important.

Such units handle high-level secrets and require strict security. That’s because they receive the love and attention of foreign intelligence agencies.

The unit in charge of the Rift was exactly like that.

Many senior officers but few junior ones, yet the unit size wasn’t particularly large.

“One characteristic of such units is their very high level of armament. Like those armored vehicles and tanks over there.”

I pointed to the armored vehicles parked nearby. Armored vehicles and tanks covered with waterproof tarps were lined up.

“It was too dark to notice yesterday, but there are bunkers all over the place. I guess if trouble breaks out, they’ll move those armored vehicles and tanks into the bunkers for defense.”

“…I suppose that means the Rift producing magic stones is that important?”

“Of course.”

I continued as I led Camilla, who was looking around.

“But we can say that because we know there’s a Rift here and those people are defending it. If we didn’t know about the Rift, if we hadn’t previously recognized that this was a defense unit…”

“If we hadn’t?”

“You should be able to predict, ‘Ah, there must be something important here’ just by seeing those things.”

Camilla nodded once and asked in a murmur:

“Do I need to learn that too?”

“Your question is wrong. It’s not that you need to learn even this; it’s that if you don’t know this much, you should quit.”

If you’re not doing your job properly, you shouldn’t be getting paid for nothing.

Anyway, I continued educating Camilla while we explored the Rift (and the Imperial Army in charge of it). Encountering a military unit of this caliber isn’t easy, so it would be a good experience for her.

We had nothing else to do anyway. Camilla decided to enjoy the sightseeing she hadn’t been able to do before, and I accompanied her, trying to memorize everything I saw. I planned to report everything in detail when we returned to the embassy.

“Won’t we be suspected of being spies at this rate?”

“I’m a diplomat, so it doesn’t matter. What else would I use diplomatic immunity for?”

“What about me? I’m not a diplomat, so how can I get out of trouble?”

“I’m not sure about that… Camilla, how about visiting a detention center while we’re at it? I went to one when I was working in Iran, and it wasn’t that bad.”

“I don’t care about detention centers, but I’d like to nail someone’s coffin shut.”

“I’ll write in my will that if I die, Camilla should be buried with me. Is that okay?”

We laughed and chatted as we explored every corner of the Rift. At one point, Francesca seemed to sigh deeply and move away from us, but that didn’t seem to concern us.

Anyway, it doesn’t matter.

Anyway, that’s how it is.

*

The tour guided by the Imperial Army officers had long ended, but we decided to explore the surroundings a bit more.

As this was a core area producing strategic resources, ordinary people couldn’t move around freely, but unfortunately, no one was bold enough to stop Camilla, who was respected by the Military Command.

Thanks to that, we could proceed without anyone’s interference.

We parted ways with Francesca in the middle. She said she had to escort someone and needed to go.

“Who do you think she’s escorting?”

“I don’t know. Probably people from the Magic Tower.”

Although Francesca was Camilla’s colleague, she was officially affiliated with the Magic Tower.

She was important enough to have staff assigned to assist her from the Secretariat, and to be personally escorted by pro-Imperial Oracle committee members.

“It’s probably Magic Tower people. Whether they came to research the Rift, start mining operations, or set up residence here, what does it matter?”

“But she’s a colleague… aren’t you worried?”

“Worried? Why would I be?”

When we meet her again, she’ll kindly explain who she escorted, why, and where.

“Anyway! Let’s set aside worrying about Francesca and worry about yourself. Stop lagging behind and keep climbing.”

“…Yes.”

After wandering around for quite some time, we eventually reached a high point.

Since it offered a view of the entire basin, I took out my camera to photograph the Rift and the buildings around it.

Although it was foggy, the outlines of the buildings were faintly visible, making photography possible.

Camilla agreed to keep watch. I even gave her binoculars to survey the surroundings better.

As I was concentrating on taking photos…

“…Excuse me.”

Camilla tapped me as I was putting all my effort into photography. Her whispering voice reached my ear.

“What? Is someone coming up?”

“No, it’s not that. Doesn’t that look strange?”

“Hold on a moment. This is an important moment. If I can just get this one good shot, I might even receive a medal…”

“No, look at those people gathered down there.”

Camilla, with her face buried in the binoculars, tugged at my clothes.

“Where?”

“The building with the blue roof. Can you see it?”

“Ah, yes, I can see it.”

I took the binoculars Camilla handed me and checked where she was pointing.

I looked through the binoculars and let out a big yawn.

“What am I supposed to be looking at? I don’t see anything but people.”

“Look at the people. The people! This is so frustrating!”

“I am looking, but what’s the problem…?”

“Don’t their clothes seem a bit unusual?”

Look carefully.

At Camilla’s impatient urging, I stubbornly stretched my neck and peered deeply through the binoculars.

“If this turns out to be nothing, I swear I’ll roll you all the way down to the bottom.”

“Alright, just look carefully.”

In the foggy basin, I crouched under a rock to shelter from the wind, waiting for the blurry moving figures to become clearer.

After 1 minute, then 3 minutes, then 5 minutes…

Through the whitish fog, the figures of people huddled together briefly appeared.

“…Do you see anything?”

“…Just a moment. Wait a bit. I think I saw something just now.”

I carefully examined the people moving in the fog. More specifically, the clothes they were wearing.

They were wearing clothes of a distinctly different color from the drab military uniforms or work clothes.

So,

That is,

What is…

“…Academy?”

They were Academy uniforms.