Ch.216Episode 11 – All Quiet on the Northern Front

The silence was not long.

“…Hah.”

Something that could have been a sigh or a lament rose from deep within his chest.

“I understand what you’re trying to say. No matter what happens, you’re going to hunt the monsters first, right?”

“Hmm, I feel bad for being so inconsiderate to you, Sir.”

“If you know that, then don’t say such things. Sheesh.”

I removed the magazine and counted the bullets. Then I checked the condition of the gun one last time.

“What can I do? These aren’t children—they’re grown adults who insist on doing things their way. I can’t stop them.”

Click.

I firmly gripped the pistol with both hands, safety already off, ready to fire at any moment.

Just then, it seemed Camilla and Francesca had also finished preparing for battle. Francesca held a sword and a vial of reagent that she had produced from thin air, while Camilla tied her hair back with the string she had been holding in her mouth.

I looked at both of them with concerned eyes.

“Both of you, remember just one thing. If it gets dangerous, retreat to the defense line immediately without looking back.”

“Don’t worry.”

Flames blossomed from Camilla’s fingertips.

“None of us will get hurt.”

As if in response to her words, someone’s shout echoed through the rift.

“Corpse spiders are coming! Everyone to your positions!”

It was the signal for the battle to begin.

Episode 11 – All Quiet on the Northern Front

Sirens echo through the mountains shrouded in noise.

The alarm raised by the unit defending the rift bounces off sheer rock faces and twisted, withered trees, echoing again and again.

No matter how loudly one shouts, voices are drowned out by a siren so piercing that even the hard of hearing would cover their ears with both hands.

In this place where echoing sirens spread in all directions, the most distinct presence was neither screams nor monstrous howls, but gunfire.

-Bang!

A single gunshot split the air.

As the rifle spat fire, a shell casing flew up, and the acrid smell of gunpowder stung the nostrils. The loud report spread through the northern winter sky, cold enough to freeze even hot blood.

But it seems that even the General Winter, who has waged war for over a thousand years, couldn’t steal the heat from the shell casings. A soldier who was unluckily struck by a flying casing from nearby flinched at the burning sensation on his face.

In the past, a soldier hit by an ejected casing would have immediately kicked the other’s helmet with his boot. He was a veteran among veterans, and no one entering the fortification outranked him.

However, he did not kick his junior’s helmet this time.

“Kuh, kuhak…!”

“Alexei!”

One soldier grabbed another’s shoulder. The soldier called Alexei, instead of answering, clutched his throat and made choking sounds.

The soldier with a palm-sized spine lodged in his neck quickly tried to cover the wound with his hand, but the bleeding showed no signs of stopping. Instead, it spurted like a fountain with each heartbeat.

His watch quickly became soaked with blood.

The gunfire continued unabated.

-Tadadadadada! Tadada! Tadadadadadada!

The heavy machine gun mounted on the fortification poured out bullets with ferocious intensity.

The gunner kept his body firmly fixed, gritting his molars as he swung the machine gun from side to side. Normally, he would have been scolded for wasting ammunition, but the person who would have done the scolding was likewise pulling a trigger and sweeping his gun from side to side.

Because the enemy was everywhere.

And the name of that enemy was monster.

“Corpse spiders are climbing up!”

At the familiar shout, a soldier looked up.

Letting go of the hand of someone who had been alive just moments ago, he ran to the radio, dodging bullets flying overhead.

At a fortification positioned somewhat to the rear, the soldier looked around quickly, then grabbed the radio operator who had been leaning halfway out to fire and asked:

“Hey! Where’s the magic medic?”

“What?”

“Where’s the mage, you idiot! The one who came with the support unit the other day!”

The momentarily stunned radio operator pointed somewhere with his finger. The mage was at a forward outpost.

It should have been a fortified position, but now it was at the center of a swarm of approaching spiders.

Just then, a large explosion occurred at the location the radio operator had indicated.

Though the fog was thick, one could vaguely see ice shards laden with cold sweeping the area and shooting up into the sky. The spider creatures had stepped on mines that had been planted earlier.

Understanding the situation, the soldier spoke to the radio operator again.

“Report that the mage is dead and we’re short on firepower. And tell the guys at the other outposts to get over here right now!”

“They say they’re all under attack and can’t come!”

“Then request support from headquarters! What are they saving the mortars for? Huh?”

“I already did! 20 minutes ago! But the communications—”

The radio operator’s words were cut off. More precisely, they were drowned out by gunfire.

The soldier twisted his hand that was holding the radio operator to check his watch. The ridiculous watch his friends had given him as a discharge gift was still ticking away even at this moment.

The watch, which he had vowed to throw into the river in his hometown upon discharge, showed no signs of leaving his wrist for over five years.

-Bang! Bang bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Suddenly, the soldier looking at his watch realized something. The fierce machine gun fire that had been ringing out until just now had stopped.

Looking up toward the front, he saw the machine gun left alone on the fortification and a monster stirring the inside of the position with its hairy legs. There were no more people there.

Once again understanding the situation, the soldier bit his lower lip and spoke.

“…We’re retreating. It’s impossible to hold here. Get ready to run to the main line of resistance.”

Just as the radio operator was about to nod at the veteran’s instruction:

“Ugh!”

A soldier who had been pulling himself up from the fortification with all his might fell backward with a death rattle.

The soldier who had taken a spine like a dagger to his chest collapsed into the fortification. The color drained from his contorted face, his lifeless eyes stared into space, and as the strength left his grip, something fell with a thud.

The soldier’s eyes widened as he identified the object.

“Gre-grenade in the foxhole!”

“Take cover!”

One of the soldiers in the fortification threw himself on the grenade. An explosion erupted behind the backs of soldiers who were trying to escape with urgent movements.

The soldier was instantly thrown and landed face down on the ground.

“……”

There was no need to understand the situation.

The grenade had exploded, and he had been caught in it. Judging by the burning sensation in his stomach, he had taken a direct hit.

It’s hot.

It hurts.

“……”

Turning his head, he could see people rolling in the snow.

Some were completely motionless, others grabbed fallen weapons with trembling hands, and some dragged the wounded toward the defense line, staggering with bodies that barely moved.

There was no more gunfire. No, he couldn’t hear any sound at all.

The soldier, clutching his stomach, lay on the ground and looked up at the sky. Through the thick fog, he could see the gloomy northern sky.

Just like the sky of his beloved hometown.

“……”

Drowsiness washed over him. Once, his hometown friends had worried that he might die serving in the north, but now their concerns seemed unimportant.

Though he had never been much of a student, he now understood. At least in this final moment of his life, death was not the glorious end that the recruitment officer who frequented the academy had babbled about.

I knew it was bullshit, but I didn’t expect this.

With these final musings, whether self-talk or contemplation, his eyes closed.

Between his slowly closing eyelids, beyond the skin that would never open again, the last scene imprinted on his retina was:

Flames turning the sky red.

And a black-haired foreigner who appeared from somewhere, looking down at him.

*

A soldier just died.

Thrown by the explosion, the soldier spilled his entrails on the ground and breathed his last. There was a somewhat comical watch on his wrist, but with its glass broken and soaked in blood, it looked more eerie than funny. Especially since the second hand had stopped.

I reached for the soldier’s corpse and removed the rifle that had been slung over his shoulder until the end.

Checking the magazine, I found it was almost empty of bullets. The battle must have been fierce.

I stripped the chest rig containing ammunition pouches from the corpse and roughly hung it over my suit. Blood soaked my white shirt, but I didn’t particularly mind.

After collecting the limited ammunition, I raised the rifle and put a bullet into the head of a spider that had approached within arm’s reach.

-Bang!

The corpse spider with a new air hole in its head collapsed to the ground, forgetting its fierce momentum. Filthy fluid flowed from the hole, and several crushed eyeballs poured out like porridge.

-Bang! Bang! Bang!

I shouted to Camilla and Francesca while dispatching several monsters.

“The outpost has fallen! If we keep getting pushed back, monsters will reach the defense line!”

“I know that!”

Whoosh. As Camilla extended her hand, the air began to ripple. Like someone using telekinesis, a spark ignited in the rippling void.

The small spark turned into a flame. The flame that had blossomed from thin air became a blaze, spreading in all directions as it consumed dry trees, monster corpses, and someone’s body.

The spreading flames formed a small barrier around us. The corpse spiders that had been approaching us bristled and hastily retreated.

-Kieeeeeeek!

-Sssssst!

Terrible screeches echoed through the northern mountains. The corpse spiders stared at us with predatory eyes, repeatedly retreating and approaching cautiously.

Francesca’s eyes narrowed as she observed the spiders’ movements.

“…Hmm. This is definitely strange. Corpse spiders that don’t retreat when faced with fire.”

“In the past at the Order, monsters as big as mid-sized cars would charge at Camilla, right?”

“That’s true for large species. They’ll charge at anything that invades their territory, be it human or animal, regardless of danger. But small species like corpse spiders are different.”

Francesca watched the corpse spiders while handling her sword. The clustered monsters were so numerous they could easily be called a swarm of corpse spiders.

“It’s strange. Could the rift’s magical energy be affecting the monsters’ instincts…?”

“What nonsense is that?”

“Similar research results came out recently in the Moritani continent. It’s actually a field I’m interested in, and I was planning to invite them to the Magic Tower soon….”

How surprising that Francesca’s field of interest is monster ecology. It’s just like Veronica—peel away one layer and there’s always something new underneath. I’ve learned something new today.

After humming and touching her chin for a moment, Francesca licked her lips and spoke.

“Well, that’s not important right now. It seems we’ll be surrounded if we stay like this. What do you want to do?”

Instead of answering Francesca’s question, I turned my head. In my line of sight, reinforcements from headquarters were rushing to the defense line with wounded soldiers who had been defending the outpost.

After glancing at Camilla, who was controlling the fire to block the monsters from crossing, I spoke to Francesca, who was drawing her sword and swinging it through the air.

“Administrator.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Can you hold for 10 minutes? Just 10 minutes?”

Francesca, who had been swinging her sword, grinned.

Her violet eyes, reminiscent of violets, rippled and turned a flickering crimson.

“I could hold for 30 minutes. Want to bet?”

“Such bravado.”

I raised my rifle and shot the corpse spiders that were approaching while avoiding the flames.

The gunfire, which I had heard countless times before, cut through the snowy mountains of the north.