Ch.308Episode 13 – There Is No Country for Wizards

It was a chaotic world.

The battle against enemies with indescribable power had taken away many things.

Stability, peace, opportunity, trust, lives.

The bone-chilling cold and the long darkness had driven everyone into a corner.

However.

Neither the cold north wind nor the endless winter darkness, though they might take things away, could break the human spirit.

“……”

On a park bench where the cold wind blew fiercely.

As I watched the accumulated snow, I exhaled a cloud of white mist. Then, as I was about to throw my cigarette butt into the trash can after tapping off the embers, I suddenly bent down to look at the ground.

Snow slightly melted by the warm sunlight. Between the icy pavement blocks. A tiny sprout had silently emerged.

After gently caressing that small leaf, I brushed the snow off my pants and stood up.

“……”

After the season of cold north winds had passed, spring arrived a little early.

With my hands thrust into my pockets, I walk through the quiet streets as dawn breaks, heading toward the hospital.

This was a day about a week after the battle with the demons had ended.

Episode 13 – There Is No Country for Wizards

After finishing my stroll, I returned to the military hospital.

I handed an energy recovery potion I’d bought at the convenience store to the drowsy medical officer at the reception desk, then used the snoring duty officer’s key card to open the iron door.

Thus I entered the secure ward of the military hospital.

As I was tiptoeing down the corridor, I ran into a military doctor coming out of the night duty room.

“Huh?”

“Ah….”

“What are you doing here?”

I froze when I saw the military doctor while trying to muffle my footsteps. He also seemed quite surprised to encounter a patient in the corridor so early in the morning.

“But what’s this smell? Don’t tell me you’ve been smoking again?”

However, that emotion didn’t last long. His surprise turned to astonishment and then instantly to anger.

“Oh, patient! I told you not to smoke! Last time you opened the window and smoked right after surgery in the ICU, and now you’ve snuck out of the ward to smoke in secret?”

“Ah, well… you see.”

As I tried to make some flimsy excuse, I bowed my head and apologized to the military doctor.

“I’m sorry….”

“I told you to refrain because it could cause problems with your recovery.”

Sigh.

The fuming military doctor stopped speaking and began massaging his stiff neck. Then, as if trying to calm himself down, he remained silent for a while before suddenly letting out a deep sigh.

“Fine. You probably wouldn’t stop even if I asked you to anyway. Since your treatment still has a long way to go and your return to duty is difficult, I’ll just report this to your unit.”

“Ah, that’s a bit….”

“Rules are rules.”

The military doctor began examining the medical records of the secure ward.

However, the document he pulled out didn’t have a unit name written on it. After examining the paper thoroughly and even searching the intranet, he finally let out a deep sigh and took out a notepad and pen.

“Patient, which unit are you from?”

*

In the underground parking lot of the military hospital.

A heavily tinted van was parked in an area with few other vehicles.

“……”

“……”

A blonde-haired, tanned delinquent with his arm resting on the driver’s window frame, and a dwarf looking at me with an incredulous expression with the door wide open.

The dwarf, who had been staring at me silently, broke the silence with a sigh-mixed exclamation.

“Wow…. I know many company people who’ve been to military hospitals, but you’re the first manager who got caught smoking in the ward and had them call us.”

“…Shut up.”

The delinquent with his arm on the window frame and one hand on the steering wheel pushed up his sunglasses and smirked.

“Leave him alone, Pippin. He nearly died, so one cigarette should be fine, right?”

“…You shut up too.”

“God, this is frustrating. Seriously, Manager. You still want to smoke after what happened to you? How did the Empire manage to transport you safely when you couldn’t even wait that long….”

Under Pippin’s gaze that seemed to find me pathetic, I buried my face in my palms and apologized with a miserable feeling.

“Alright. I’m sorry….”

“You behave so well abroad, but as soon as you come back home, you start embarrassing the unit. You’re truly magnificent, Manager.”

As Jake chuckled, Pippin smacked the back of his head.

While Jake clutched his chest in shock, his eyes nearly popping out, she let out a light sigh as if her anger had subsided, tucked her hair behind her ear, and said:

“Stop looking so pitiful in the parking lot and just get in.”

“…I will.”

I loaded my bags full of belongings into the van.

*

A week had already passed since the demon extermination ended.

Many changes had occurred during that week.

First, the date had changed.

The December calendar I had been tired of seeing all month went into the trash, and a new calendar took its place on the corner of the office desk. The year had changed.

The New Year, especially the beginning of the year, is quite important for intelligence agencies, but for me now, the changed year didn’t even count as a significant change.

“Have you all been well?”

I asked casually about their well-being as I settled into the seat.

“How do we look to you, Manager?”

“Well. I can tell that Pippin is pissed off, for one.”

Jake in the driver’s seat snickered and looked at me through the rearview mirror.

“You’ve got a good eye, as expected.”

“Shut up!”

As Pippin, who was closing the car door and drawing the curtains, shouted angrily, the van’s wheels began to move smoothly.

Leaving the quiet underground parking lot and ascending to the road, the van blended naturally into the gaps between other cars.

Jake, skillfully turning the steering wheel, tucked his sunglasses into the front of his shirt.

“Pippin and I have been doing fine. We underwent a brief investigation right after returning to the country. We’re currently on leave by Director Leoni’s orders.”

“Leave? That’s nice. Sorry for calling you out suddenly during your break.”

“It’s your business, Manager, so of course we had to come. No need to apologize.”

“Thanks, Pippin. Is Charnoi on leave too?”

Pippin nodded.

“He worked hard too….”

Jake, adjusting the speed while pressing the accelerator, chuckled.

“No more than you did, Manager.”

“Shut it.”

After lightly suppressing the guy’s nonsense, I leaned back comfortably in the seat and looked out the window.

The capital was quite bustling at the beginning of the year.

The roads were full of vehicles. The colorful stream flowing like a river left no room for gaps.

The streets were crowded with people.

I could see a couple walking with a child’s hand in theirs, perhaps a family outing.

The matching rings on their ring fingers plainly showed that they were each other’s companions. Next to that family passed a young couple exuding a fresh atmosphere.

There were also people pulling suitcases, following a priest holding a flag.

“Tourists?”

“Probably. Looks like people going on a pilgrimage, with a priest and all.”

Pippin and Jake casually observed the scenery of the Abas capital while chatting.

However, perhaps because I had lived in an area under martial law, I felt a strange disconnect from that peaceful scene.

Eventually, I turned my gaze from the window to look at Jake in the front seat.

“…? What is it, Manager?”

“Nothing. How are the others? I heard many were injured.”

“They were injured badly. Not as much as you, but they’re all recovering from serious injuries.”

Including myself, Camilla, Lucia, and Francesca were all injured during the extermination.

From minor injuries like torn skin or burns to major ones like fractures, concussions, internal bleeding, traumatic pneumothorax, and other life-threatening conditions requiring immediate surgery.

“Well, thanks to Saint Lucia and Saint Veronica providing timely first aid. Without them, we might have been attending a series of funerals by now.”

Fortunately, thanks to the efforts of Veronica and Lucia who were at the scene, we were able to avoid the worst.

After receiving first aid, we were immediately transferred to a hospital in the rear.

“Was it a hospital managed by the Imperial Army?”

“Yes, their military hospital. We thought we were going to die trying to get the four of you out of there.”

“Why didn’t you just let them perform the surgery there? Why go through all that trouble?”

“What power do we have? The higher-ups insisted that we should do whatever it takes to prevent you from being sent to the Imperial military hospital. So what choice did we have? We had to follow orders.”

“It couldn’t be helped because of security concerns, Jake. We should understand.”

The Department of Defense brought me to Abas as I was being transferred to the Imperial military hospital.

The surface reason was issues with communication between me as a patient and the medical staff, treatment facilities, etc., but the real reason was the security of the hospital itself.

“Well, with necromancers, monsters, and demons… all sorts of creatures were running wild in the north, so it would be strange to just sit back and watch.”

“Yes, and for the same reason, the Church and the Magic Tower sent people too. They wanted to take Saint Lucia and Administrator Francesca to secure facilities in their home countries.”

By the way, Camilla apparently followed Francesca to the Magic Tower.

It’s a bit disappointing not to see her face, but health comes first, so it can’t be helped. I tapped a cigarette pack, bit the filter end with my teeth, and lit it.

“Any news from the north?”

“We don’t know much about that either. We’re on leave.”

Pippin flipped through a notebook filled with memos as she continued.

“I heard from a junior in the analysis team that the embassy is sending reports to the company, but we’ll know the details when our leave ends and we go back.”

At that moment, Jake, who had been concentrating on driving, began to glance at me.

“Um, Manager.”

“What.”

“That day, I heard in passing at the military government headquarters that the Grand Duke appeared in the north. Is that true?”

“……”

I stared out the window with an expressionless face.

“…Sigh. You blockhead, did you really have to ask that now?”

“What did I…?”

“Shut your mouth and turn on the radio, Jake. The audio is off.”

At Pippin’s scolding, Jake pouted and turned on the radio.

With crackling static, a sweet melody gradually became clear.

The soft strains of classical music filled the car.

In the distance, the main gate of the Military Intelligence Agency appeared before us.

*

The Military Intelligence Agency I returned to after a long time had changed quite a bit. The building structure, interior design, office supplies, and even the toilet paper in the bathrooms had all changed.

After parking the car in the parking lot and scanning my ID to pass through the main gate, I walked through the company lobby with a slightly relieved feeling.

The reason was simple.

“Hey, Pippin, Jake. I’ll get leave too, right?”

Pippin, Jake, and Charnoi all received leave upon returning to the country. To be precise, Leoni gave them leave.

“Before you go, you’ll have to write statements and reports, and tell the case officers what happened in the north….”

Pippin, who had been trailing off, nodded and answered.

“Well, we already have materials prepared by the three of us, so it shouldn’t take long, right?”

“Still, the investigation won’t take just a day or two, so you probably won’t be able to go on leave for long. Even though we caught the demon, the operation will continue until the conflict ends.”

“How much leave do you think he’ll get?”

“Maybe 3 nights, 4 days?”

“That’s too little.”

“They’ll probably make up for the shortfall with a cash bonus. Honestly, looking at the results alone, doesn’t he deserve a medal?”

“Ah, that’s true. The north still hasn’t properly recovered from the damage, so immediate commendation might be difficult, but they probably won’t keep completely quiet about it for appearance’s sake.”

“But if someone from the Red Team receives a medal, would they be recognized as a national merit?”

“Are you crazy?”

I could hear voices chattering beside me, but my attention was entirely focused on the leave.

Although the operation wasn’t over yet, after all that hardship, wouldn’t it be reasonable to rest for a few days?

If they had any conscience, I firmly believed the company would consider my efforts and grant me at least a short leave.

But.

This is.

What…?

-Thud!

An envelope was placed in front of me. It was a thick money envelope.

A thin letter-like object was placed on top of it.

Curious about what it contained, I examined the contents, and a thin ticket popped out.

As I read the text, my hand holding the ticket began to tremble.

“……”

As I stared blankly at the ticket, Clavins’ voice reached my ears.

“I’ve received reports about everything that happened over the past month. Verification and investigation are still pending, but there’s plenty of time.”

“……”

“Don’t overthink it. Just think of it as an overseas trip provided by the company, and it’ll be easier to understand.”

He patted my shoulder lightly and said:

“Enjoy your time in Fatalia.”

The ticket clearly read “Warp Gate Pass to Fatalia.”