episode_0022

Emma and Kilian, still unaware of the situation, had already seen Marianne go far away. Suddenly waking from deep sleep due to extreme exhaustion, anyone would react the same way. They couldn’t understand why their platoon leader had rushed towards Gran Biere, but one thing was certain—it was an emergency.

First, they woke up Mia, a fellow platoon member. Wigo, who was already gearing up with a musket, woke up without anyone having to rouse him. Wigo then woke up their sleeping superior, Lieutenant Claire, the most capable among them.

“Lieutenant, Captain of C Platoon has headed to Gran Biere alone.”

“….What?”

“C Platoon will depart first, so please lead A and B Platoons and come as soon as you’re ready.”

In a daze, Claire, seemingly unable to comprehend Wigo’s words, furrowed her brow for quite some time. After taking a few deep breaths and as the C Platoon members were about to depart on horseback, she shouted loudly.

“Platoon, attention!”

As if questioning when she had been asleep, Claire abruptly got up, forcibly waking those still curled up in their spots by kicking them. Although it was unclear what had prompted Marianne to go to Gran Biere alone, sitting quietly and waiting until her return was not an option, as Gran Biere was a dangerous area.

She armed herself with a musket and saber, then mounted her horse. It seemed that A and B Platoons were still not ready. Claire, thinking that their sudden readiness was still slow, resolved to train them for such contingencies when the opportunity arose, gripping the reins tightly.

“A and B Platoons, head straight to Gran Biere!”

Normally, as their superior, she would have led them all the way to Gran Biere, but she didn’t have the luxury to wait until they were ready.

“Move out!”

As Claire departed from the campsite, the members of C Platoon were already standing at the entrance to Gran Biere. As they entered the fortress walls, the sounds of explosions and gunfire echoed from the battle.

“It’s close! The platoon leader is still alive!”

In the absence of Marian in C Platoon, Wigo took on the role of platoon leader. His extensive military experience and the fact that Marian entrusted him with the temporary position of platoon leader during the 7th Leg Battle were some of the reasons. However, the biggest reason was that there was no one else he wanted to be under the command of, especially not someone of the same rank like Emma.

As they ran down the street and turned a few corners, Marian’s figure came into view. Several buildings around were completely destroyed, and sticky black fluid oozed from the dead monsters scattered around.

“Hey, you’re here?”

Marian appeared through the debris of the collapsed building. Her shining silver hair was matted with the black blood of the monsters and her own crimson blood, while her blue and white military uniform had large gaping holes. Despite the disarray, her eyes gleamed.

“Platoon leader, th-this is beyond words! Turn your eyes away, guys!”

Emma covered Marian’s upper body with her intact coat. It was understandable as Marian’s upper garment was so damaged that it left little to the imagination.

Marian, seemingly unaware of the state of her clothes, accepted Emma’s coat, then quickly realized the situation, blushing as she shrugged into the coat.

“By the way, platoon leader, did you handle all of this alone? It’s astonishing every time I see it.”

“These monsters look particularly revolting. Ugh.”

Kilian and Mia offered their observations as they looked around. Marian nodded. The members of C Platoon didn’t know that she had barely won after dying once.

“Platoon leader. What made you come here alone? How confident are you in your abilities to take on something like this by yourself?”

Wigo counted the fallen enemies on the ground. Thirteen. Quite a lot, but not enough to annihilate Gran Bierre. There must be more monsters. He continued without stopping his nagging.

“Even though it’s been less than a month since I joined the military as a sergeant, I wish you were more aware of your duty as a commander. You left the squad at No. 7 Bridge and went to the company commander again, and now you’re going to Grang Biel alone today.”

“Uh… sorry.”

“It’s okay if you understand. The rest of the company will be here soon. Since we’ve come into the city, we can’t just leave without searching.”

#

As Wigo said, there were creatures in the city besides the monsters we fought. They weren’t formidable, just small spider-like creatures similar to the ones we encountered in the Dark Forest. And wherever we went in the city, there were corpses.

“Seems like the squad leader was right. They haven’t eaten any of the corpses.”

Mia blinked her eyes and spoke. The area around the squad was piled with the bodies of the spider-like creatures. In the Dark Forest, with this number, the entire squad would have been wiped out, but now we were more relaxed. My own skills aside, the gap in abilities among the squad members was significant.

Monsters continued to appear as we ventured further into the city, but the battles had become routine for C Squad.

As we began to wonder if we had gone too deep, we entered a narrow square. The creatures that had been appearing near the square had vanished, leaving only an eerie silence. In the center of the square, there was a miniature cuboid structure, a reduced version of what we called the “accursed box,” surrounded by a vast number of corpses. The bodies, barely reaching a meter in height, seemed to be gradually absorbed into the small, barely one-meter-long accursed box. Black tentacles or appendages seemed to pierce the bodies, drawing them into the box.

“Ughhh-”

Mia retched. Seeing her vomit, I suddenly felt nauseous myself.

“Ughh-”

Throughout all the horrific scenes I’ve witnessed, I managed to endure them well, but this time, I couldn’t hold it in. I spent the whole day riding without eating much, only to vomit up thin gastric juices. After the vomiting ceased, I rinsed away the lingering bitterness with water and spoke.

“Have you ever seen an impious box? That’s it. It’s quite small.”

“I heard it’s only near the border between Sangmarg and the Muscovy Kingdom, but it seems the information was wrong.”

“Yeah. The enormous ones from Sangmarg and the Black Forest fell from the sky like meteors. But the box here… seems to be a naturally occurring one.”

This is the worst. Just dealing with monsters moving along the river and attacking nearby cities was already a challenge for the military strength of the Frankia Kingdom. However, these creatures were creating impious boxes on this land by using human corpses as fertilizer.

Deploying magic infantry to every city was too few in number. Defending against attacks along the river was practically impossible. As a result, the conclusion was reached that they had to somehow destroy the impious box in Sangmarg, the origin of the attacks. But that wasn’t something to think about now. First, breaking the small box in front of me was the priority.

“Squad, report the remaining magical energy.”

Four squad members reported back. More than half remained. I recalled the box being shattered by the Royal Artillery Battalion’s bombardment in Sangmarg. With sufficient physical force, the box could also be destroyed.

“Everyone, aim your mana shots at the center of that box. Output half of your current magical energy. Take aim!”

The magic stones of everyone began to glow blue. There was some unease about not having any guardians for the box, so I couldn’t command them to use all their magical energy. What if it doesn’t get destroyed? While pondering whether to wait for the entire platoon, I began to gather as much magical energy as I could contain. The magic stone began to tremble with a golden light, almost shaking.

Crackle.

The gold was spreading through the magic stone. It was reaching an unbearable level. If I hesitated further, I might not be able to execute the mana shot.

“Fire!”

Bang! Bang! Boom!

The four blue mana and the thick golden mana in the center converged, striking the center of the cursed box. Simultaneously, my Charleville musket’s mana stone shattered.

The box was cleanly penetrated. It was possible due to its small size. If it had been larger, even pounding it with a cannon dozens of times would have only slightly damaged the outer wall. The box, pierced at its core in one blow, was slowly turning into drifting dust.

“The box is disappearing!”

“It would be nice if it ended like this.”

Apart from the C Company members, no mana could be felt nearby. Monsters were not affected by this mana detection spell in the first place. I tried detecting for survivors, but it was in vain. No, someone approaching from this direction was felt. Who could it be?

“Mana detection at the rear!”

They might not be monsters, but we couldn’t let our guard down. Since those mimicking human voices had already emerged, it wouldn’t be surprising if a new entity disguised as a person appeared. C Company turned back, aiming their muskets. My musket’s mana stone had shattered, rendering it unable to shoot, so I equipped a bayonet.

“Marianne!”

It was Claire.

“Everyone, lower your guns.”

Before my order even finished, the squad members had already lowered their barrels. It was strange that they continued aiming without an order from their platoon leader, so there was nothing I could say when they didn’t follow my command and lowered their guns.

“Lieutenant Claire.”

“Marianne! Have you lost your mind?”

Thunk.

She grabbed my shoulders with both hands. Her face was filled with anger. It was the first time Claire had shown me such an angry expression.

“Do you want to be confined to bed again? Or do you want to die?”

“P-Please calm down…”

When Wigo next to her tried to restrain Claire, she finally calmed down a bit, letting out a deep sigh and releasing her tightly gripped hands from my shoulders.

“Phew. Solo actions are prohibited from now on. Do you understand, Corporal?”

“Yes. I understand.”

“Then, Marianne. What about that behind you? Ugh.”

Claire, who now saw the hill of corpses in the center of the square, was not exempt from feeling nauseous. Fortunately, it seemed more like a dry heave than actual vomiting. I patted her back and spoke.

“Listen without being surprised, there was a sacrilegious box on top of that pile of corpses.”

“What? A sacrilegious box?”

“It was small enough that we could have increased the output of Matan’s fire to eliminate it… It seemed like the sacrilegious box was decomposing human bodies into fertilizer.”

“Horrible.”

Even Claire, who was far from devout, was taken aback by my words.

“There are no survivors. We tried detecting magic, but the only one detected was the commander.”

“These wretched creatures… Marianne. When A and B platoons arrive, we’ll incinerate the city together.”

“Incinerate?”

“Yeah. If we leave the bodies as they are, it could lead to an epidemic, and there’s no guarantee they won’t leave these bodies as they are. There’s also no law preventing those who came through the river from making new sacrilegious boxes.”

Claire had a point. The problem was how to incinerate such a large city. It seemed far beyond what could be done with magic. That would be something to worry about once the rest of the platoons arrived.