Pin had discovered the enemy's tracks and realized they had split into three groups. She then followed the group she estimated to be the largest.

She was more than half a day's journey from Encrid's lunatic unit. An awkward distance, or a reasonable one, depending on how you looked at it. If she ran flat out, even she could close that gap quickly rather than taking half a day.

That would have been true anywhere but the Penn-Hanil Mountains. But wasn't this place a cradle of demonic beasts, much like a Demonic Realm? Unless someone could sprint while concealing their presence like a ghost, half a day's distance would remain half a day's distance.

'Bad. This is bad.'

Had she been unlucky and let her guard down? She had to admit she had. If Captain Sinar saw this later, she would probably tell her to go off and fucking die.

But Pin hadn't had much choice. Once she spotted the tracks, she had to watch them and follow. They couldn't afford to miss the enemy because it took another route. Her mission was to ensure their forces encountered the enemy here, and she had carried it out faithfully.

That had brought her to this moment. Now, thinking the enemy might have left those tracks deliberately to be discovered, she had one thought.

'They turned the tables on us.'

She didn't want to think so, but the situation pointed to precisely that. The enemy had left just enough traces for her to notice, leading her to judge that she could get away without being caught by their scouts.

'We were trained by a Fairy.'

Hellish training, at that. Try being put through your paces by a Fairy who told you to run without the slightest trace of a smile. How could you not gain confidence? Above all, Pin and every one of her scouts had passed that Audin's basic physical training.

["Audin."]

["Aaaagh!"]

There had been a time when those three syllables alone could send them springing out of bed.

They had survived those days and gone on to run around the Penn-Hanil Mountains with only moderate injuries, even if they couldn't quite call the place their playground. Simply staying alive was an achievement.

Had that confidence contributed to their current predicament? Perhaps. Whatever the case, she didn't want to call it a mistake. This was her job; she simply hadn't been skilled enough. Nor had she truly lost in a contest of skill. The enemy had overwhelmed them with numbers, and for all but a chosen few, numbers were a decisive factor that could secure an overwhelming victory.

Not everyone surpassed their limits just by staying beside Encrid. In that respect, Pin was a thoroughly ordinary person. At least, that was how she saw herself. By ordinary standards, of course, she was indeed highly skilled, an excellent soldier, and a fearsome ranger.

'I thought I'd been careful.'

She felt an urge to smack her lips in frustration. Knowing her limits, she didn't constantly do insane things like Encrid. Pin was ordinary. She didn't charge the enemy with nothing but a sword, declaring she would protect everyone's backs.

Behind her lay a slanting slope, ahead a small clearing, and to either side tall trees. Conifers screened the sky overhead. A few broad-leaved trees rose above the pointed needles. Sunlight filtered through to illuminate the clearing and its surroundings.

It was early morning. The deep blue of predawn had passed, and daybreak lit the world around her. Cursed or not, the Penn-Hanil Mountains still harbored life. Trees grew here, and insects and mountain birds could be seen. Walking through these mountains, you often heard insects chirring and birds calling.

At some point, those sounds had abruptly stopped. That told Pin the situation had turned to absolute dogshit. She crouched low beneath a tree's shadow, in stark contrast to the sunlight. Her concealment would hold unless someone searched closely.

'Is this where I die?'

With that thought, she tucked her chin and continued breathing slowly in and out.

She had walked rather than run from the start, so she wasn't panting. Training had taught her to gauge exactly how quickly she could walk without getting winded. Her deep breaths felt a little hot, but unless the enemy included a Fairy born with heat-sensing eyes, her position shouldn't have been exposed.

Her padded boots made almost no sound against the ground. There were too few of them to cause a commotion, either. Only ten, three of whom she had stationed farther back: three in front, four in the middle, and another three in the rear. With the formation stretched out that way, only three could really be said to be at the front.

Leading them, Pin had raised her fist. The two subordinates who saw her hand signal had stopped, steadying their breathing just as she had. That had been moments ago, when she halted her people and sank into thought.

She envisioned two possibilities. In one, they would face off like this, then go their separate ways. The enemy might do that if it had no reason to attack them needlessly and alert the main allied force following behind.

The second was an abrupt battle. Neither side had expected to meet here, but having stumbled into one another, they would size each other up and attack. Both of Pin's assumptions were wrong, however. The enemy was already fully prepared.

Abnaire hadn't sent only knights here. One prodigy Beastman wasn't the sole gain from the policy of integrating other races. Krais had predicted much, but he wasn't a god. How could he anticipate the existence of a unit he knew nothing about? Naturally, he couldn't foresee everything that happened on the battlefield, either. Those situations had to be assessed and handled on the spot.

RUSTLE, RUSTLE, RUSTLE.

It came from the undergrowth stretching from beyond the clearing around to both sides. The moderately tall growth had concealed her people until now, but it seemed to have become a passage for the enemy. The shifting grass was enough to shake Pin's composure.

'So many.'

She couldn't gauge their numbers. There were more than she'd thought.

'We're being surrounded.'

She had to choose again. If she bought time, the seven left behind would live. But she would die. She was certain of that. What if they attacked instead? They would all die together. Pin was a soldier. She made her living by the blade. Countless times, she had steeled herself for a death like this someday.

Had no one died while she served as scout captain outside Cross Guard? They had. Of course they had. This time, it was simply her turn.

Pin gave a hand signal. She would buy time; they were to fall back. As in any unit, obeying orders to the letter was a virtue. That was how it should be, in her opinion.

TWEE.

Instead, an allied signal sounded, mimicking a mountain bird's call. Her deputy could make that noise with cupped hands, imitating it well enough to fool real birds. As if answering that signal, repeated blasts of a whistle came from farther back.

"Are you insane?"

Pin spoke aloud. With the whistle already blown, another word would make no difference. Their exact location had been exposed to the enemy.

RUSTLE.

The enemies approaching through the undergrowth raised their heads, too. Pin frowned, then smoothed her brow. Sinar had once told her something.

["Fight anyone you like, but if you meet a group of Fairies in a forest, don't fight them. You'll die for nothing."]

Those words came back to her. No wonder she'd thought the enemy's skill at concealing its own presence was extraordinary.

"Dying for nothing, then."

She glanced from side to side as she spoke. By her count, there were more than twenty at the very least. Perhaps more than twenty-five?

"What else could we do?"

It was her deputy, close behind. How could they retreat and leave their captain alone? That was presumably what he meant.

"Shut up. Insubordination means summary execution."

"We're going to die anyway."

Her two subordinates were shamelessly affable fellows. They always had an answer for everything.

"I'm not going down for nothing."

Pin lowered her left hand. All the scouts, who had gathered around her before she knew it, did the same.

'If the enemy committed everything, we should have done the same.'

Shouldn't they have brought their entire force rather than ten scouts? The thought crossed her mind, but it was just a distraction. The dead couldn't eat bread. This was a time to leave the past in the past. Regretting entering the water while a wave bore down on you was fucking stupid.

The Fairies rising from the undergrowth had blue skin, and their hair carried a blue sheen as well. Just as humans had white skin or black skin, Fairies had their own branches. These belonged to one of them: the Moonlight Fairies.

"Can we talk?"

"No talking."

The voice came from a little above. Pin raised her gaze slightly and saw a human: a woman crouching in a tree, a leather quiver strapped to her back.

Her balance was so good that she looked as steady sitting up there as someone standing on solid ground. She was small, holding a long bow ill-suited to her frame. One look was enough to tell she was no ordinary opponent.

During that brief exchange, Fairies holding crescent-shaped swords rose one by one and began approaching. Pin and her subordinates would have faced even a Ghoul with a smile, but this was unsettling. The Fairies' eyes held no emotion, and their footsteps made no sound. They looked like ghosts waking and drawing near.

She couldn't let fear leave her unable to fight and get her killed. She showed none, but even Pin felt a chill.

'We left markers behind.'

She had done what she needed to. Even if she died, she had left the enemy's location.

She sighed inwardly. Pin knew the importance of striking first. Ghosts or not, whoever attacked first had the advantage. That was an unchanging truth passed down through the ages.

"You seem to be talking just fine."

As she spoke, Pin thrust her left hand forward. At that gesture, all the gathered scouts spread into a line to either side and extended their left hands with her.

"You've come too close. All of you."

With her words came the sound of bowstrings snapping from inside the armor covering the back of her left hand.

THWIP-THWIP-THWIP!

Every scout had been issued one. Krais had improved upon a device taken from bandits they had encountered before: a small crossbow mounted over the back of the hand.

Bolts a handspan long sliced through the air and struck six of the Fairies approaching like ghosts. Ten bolts had been fired, but without agreed targets, some had aimed at the same ones. The Fairies didn't scream even as they died. A brief, strangled groan was all they made. That, too, was unsettling, but the fight had begun.

"What a pointless struggle."

At the words from the tree, the Fairies broke into a run. Faint swishes reached her ears.

The things that looked like blue ghosts swung their swords. Overhead, crescent moons became full moons and rained down. A sharply curved blade plunged toward Pin's head.

She wore a helmet that left her ears uncovered so she could hear. But wearing a helmet was no reason to test whether its steel was stronger than the enemy's weapon. She fell backward as if lying down, then rolled back.

"Everyone, focus on getting out alive!"

"Hah!"

Her subordinates answered with the shout they had learned during basic physical training.

In the fighting that followed, Pin showed no regard for her own life. Despite telling everyone to save themselves, she leaped straight in whenever one of her subordinates was in danger.

'I'm just an ordinary person.'

This was beyond her.

'I'm not Encrid.'

Even so, her body moved on its own.

CLANG!

She knocked a blade aside with her shortsword and drove it away hard. Pin had the advantage in strength. The problem was those curved swords. Their shape let them catch and deflect almost any attack.

Encrid was behind her, but at least half a day's journey away. Even if he came after her, it wouldn't be now. These were the Penn-Hanil Mountains, a place where even Sinar would struggle to close half a day's distance in an instant. If her subordinates had left her and withdrawn earlier, they would have lived.

"So you're giving up?"

It felt as though Encrid were asking from somewhere.

'Fuck no.'

Answering inwardly, Pin closed in on the wielder of the blade that had just slashed past her shoulder. She drove her sword into the Fairy's belly and pulled it free.

CRRUNCH.

The Fairies all wore wooden armor, though its shape varied slightly. The wood gripped tight, making it quite an effort to thrust her blade in and pull it out. But she had left a proper hole in that belly. This one was as good as dead.

Blood pulsed from the hole, and the Fairy's eyes lost focus. Watching the enemy fall forward like a bundle of straw, Pin raised her sword again. In return for killing one, her pauldron had been sliced halfway through, and a burning sensation spread through her shoulder.

'Is it a deep cut?'

A sharp pain stung when she moved her left arm. Still, it moved.

'Good enough, then.'

Pin took her stance again. Her weapon was called a guard sword, with a broad blade on the short side. Fighting blade to blade, she'd managed to kill just one. Not a single one of these enemies was easy prey.

"Come on. Come at me."

Keeping her guard up, she took two steps back, intending to put her back against a tree. Killing intent stabbed at her from behind, and she immediately rolled forward.

WHOOSH!

Crazy Fairy bitches. Blue flickered between the trees. Her odds were poor even in a head-on fight, but one by one, these things hid themselves and behaved like real ghosts. If she lost track of their presence, it felt as though blades came flying out of thin air.

"I'm telling you, it's no use," said the small woman in the tree.

"Just you wait. Once I'm done with these things, you're next."

Pin put on a brave front. Not a soul there believed her.

"Suit yourself."

The woman spoke from above, and the Fairies' ambushes and blades came again. Pin fought desperately, and so did her people.

CLANG!

She swung her blade, parried, and threw daggers at anyone who left an opening. Then, as she rolled across the ground, she caught sight of her remaining subordinates nearby. How lucky could they be? Not one of them had died. They were all bleeding and looked exhausted, but they were still in one piece.

Then it struck her how bright the sunlight was. Why was the sky so clear, the sun so warm? Was it a perfect day to die?

"None of you are dying."

Once again, Pin said something no one would believe.

"That goes without saying."

An answer came. It wasn't one of her subordinates. It came without any preceding sound or presence.

Pin looked up. The voice had come from above her head. Yet its owner was already standing behind her to the right. The man who had approached had reddish-brown hair. Blood dripped from the two short swords in his hands. Human or Fairy, blood was red, and this blood was very red indeed.

Luck wasn't what had kept Pin and the others alive. While Pin fought desperately with her back to the wall, someone had been tearing into the Fairies from behind. Without a sound. Without a presence.

["To fight a Fairy, you would need to be at least a first-rate assassin or better just to gauge one. Even then, I consider fighting several Fairies at once beyond you."]

Sinar had said that, then added one more thing.

["But there will be some who defy everything I've just said."]

Jaxon Bensino. Master of the Morning Dew. Master of Georg’s Dagger. The foremost assassin on the continent today, without equal.

He had heard his captain's order to join Pin, and was also carrying out the earlier order given before their departure.

["No one dies on this battlefield."]

Encrid had said it, and Jaxon intended to make sure of it.