Arc 24: Teibeon (5)

I returned to the waiting room with Robert.

I had sent Selena back to the mansion. Having her around seemed likely to invite trouble wherever we went. I had told her to lie low, whether at the Ten Thousand Capes or the mansion, so she would have found somewhere to go.

Once all the knights, myself included, had gathered in the waiting room, a man entered.

“Good to meet you. I am Sanders, commander of the Shroud Knights. As of today, I will be taking command here in Teibeon. I look forward to working with you.”

He had a stern face and a solid build. A brief gleam appeared in the knights’ eyes at his introduction—not so much at the name Sanders as at the mention of the Shroud Knights.

The Shroud Knights were one of the oldest knightly orders on the continent. Put simply, the order had existed since before Ospreet, Constel’s President, had reached his prime. They had also stood beside the other Zodiacs when they established the boundary between humanity and monsters.

Much time had passed, and they had since relinquished their place as the continent’s finest. Still, knights placed great importance on tradition and discipline, and many continued to aspire to join them.

“Some of you may resent leaving your own orders to stay in unfamiliar surroundings. But for as long as you are in Teibeon, you will obey my orders.”

That went without saying. A knight without a chain of command was no knight at all. Everyone in the waiting room nodded silently.

Sanders looked at me.

“Frondier, you may not be a knight, but the same applies to you. Be prepared.”

“Yes, sir.”

“I don’t care whether you’re a nobleman’s son or a student. This is Teibeon. Since you chose to come here, you will receive no special treatment.”

“Yes, sir.”

I gave both replies in the same flat tone. Sanders regarded me for a moment, worry and unease in his eyes.

He looked as though he were watching a small child left alone by the water. Though this situation was worse.

“... And today, Her Highness Princess Aten will personally inspect our troops and facilities.”

This time, the knights let out cries of delight.

I quietly sighed. Aten really had come all the way here.

“She will be here shortly, so stay alert and maintain disci—”

KNOCK, KNOCK.

A knock came at the door before Sanders could finish.

“It’s Aten. May I come in?”

It was a familiar voice. Clear and composed, yet easy on the ears, without a trace of imperiousness.

“Oh, yes. I’ll open the door at once.”

Sanders hurried to open the door, and a woman of pure white slowly stepped inside.

The knights breathed in admiration. Even I was a little surprised.

Aten was already so strikingly white, and today she wore silver armor that suited her perfectly. Even in her school uniform, she had been as clear and pure as snow. Now she positively shone like winter sunlight.

“I am Aten. Though I scarcely deserve my position, I have come in the hope of offering you even a little help.”

Aten was Aten wherever she went. She was just as courteous and calm as when I had first met her at Constel.

As she looked over the knights, her eyes landed on me. Then her gaze moved naturally elsewhere. Of course it did.

“Let us inspect the wall first.”

* * *

Later that night, Lidwe felt a headache coming on as he looked at Saibel standing confidently before him.

“... And where did you come from, girl?”

“Wow! Isn’t that a little too different from how you treated Aten?”

“What, you expect me to treat Her Highness and some kid who wandered in from who-knows-where the same?”

That was so reasonable that Saibel could only press her lips together, unable to answer.

But Lidwe was being polite in his own way. Any other girl would have been turned away at the door.

‘Her Highness did say she was a friend.’

Lidwe studied Saibel.

There was something subtly coquettish about her expressions and gestures. With looks like hers to boot, she must have charmed most of the boys at Constel.

... But hadn’t he seen someone similar just recently?

CREEEAK.

Just then, the mansion door opened.

Aten entered. It must have started snowing at some point; she brushed the snow from her hair outside before stepping in.

Snow fell in Teibeon even outside winter. Here, “winter” was merely another name for the frenzy that food shortages drove the Outside monsters into.

“My lord, the wall is in poor condition.”

“Hmm, I am aware.”

In truth, “poor” hardly covered it. Its condition was dire. Cracks had already formed at its outer edges, and the gaping holes were being patched with whatever materials they could scrape together.

The Outside monsters were particularly intelligent. It was only a matter of time before they discovered the wall’s weaknesses.

“Shouldn’t we devise some countermeasure?”

“Of course. But Your Highness, if I may be so presumptuous, there is something I would like to ask.”

“Yes? What is it?”

One corner of Lidwe’s eye creased deeply.

“Just out of curiosity, might you have some sort of relationship with that Frondier lad who arrived before you?”

“Certainly not.”

Aten answered immediately, as though the very idea were absurd. Her face betrayed no emotion.

“Hmm, I see. Forgive my rudeness. It seems I grow more indiscreet with age.”

“Not at all. Our immediate concern is the wall. Shouldn’t it be reinforced at once?”

Aten brushed it aside and returned to the matter at hand.

Lidwe stroked his chin.

“Indeed. But that is no easy task.”

“What makes it difficult?”

“The intervals between monster attacks have begun to shorten. We have no time to reinforce it. Though fewer monsters come with each attack.”

Aten’s eyes narrowed at his answer.

“In other words, the monsters are deliberately preventing repairs to the wall?”

“That is how it appears to me. But however intelligent they may be, monsters still value their own lives. How can they keep wasting themselves like this...?”

The monsters’ frequent attacks left no time to repair the wall. But from an individual monster’s perspective, an offensive like that was simply a pointless death. Their intelligence should have made them all the more aware of it.

So how was this possible?

“They have a leader.”

The answer to Lidwe’s dilemma came from elsewhere.

It was Frondier, descending the mansion’s central staircase. Selena was beside him.

“A leader?”

“Yes. The monsters have someone in command, just as we do. Whether monster or human, it takes an order to make someone march to a pointless death.”

“Oh?”

Intrigued by Frondier’s hypothesis, Lidwe asked,

“Then who is it? You’re saying there’s something stronger out there that can bring the Outside monsters together? I’ve never seen anything like that.”

“They don’t necessarily have to subjugate the Outside monsters through strength. For example...”

While Frondier and Lidwe held their serious discussion, Aten and Saibel had their gazes fixed on one spot.

On Selena, standing beside Frondier.

“...”

“...”

Aten and Saibel stared at Selena expressionlessly.

Utterly expressionlessly. Like people who had never learned what an expression was.

To an onlooker, it was so unnerving that even Selena, who had maintained her composure, briefly flicked her eyes toward them.

“... Ah, I got carried away and neglected to greet Your Highness. My apologies.”

Noticing Aten, Frondier greeted her.

No, he had known she was there from the start. He had spoken because her expression seemed troubling. It felt awkward to suddenly treat a fellow Constel student as an imperial princess.

He assumed Aten’s silence meant she was offended by that, but she answered without her expression shifting even a millimeter.

“... Yes. Good to see you, Frondier.”

Was she a machine or something?

Frondier also greeted Saibel, who stood beside her.

“Hi, Saibel. I really didn’t expect you to come here too.”

“... Yeah. Me too. Good to see you.”

Her expression was exactly the same as Aten’s.

By now, even Frondier was starting to get seriously frightened. It felt like watching a horror movie.

Then Aten raised a hand.

“And who is this?”

Seeing that she was pointing at Selena, Frondier replied,

“Oh, I hired a bodyguard. This is Teibeon, after all. Being here alone felt a little unnerving, not to mention dangerous.”

He offered the excuse he had prepared beforehand.

“I see. A bodyguard. Right. I see.”

Saibel murmured as though turning the words over in her mind.

She was repeating exactly what she had heard, yet somehow she didn’t seem to be listening.

“... Well, I’ll be going. I need to check the night-watch and sentry rotations.”

Feeling inexplicably uncomfortable, Frondier left. Selena followed him.

Until the moment Frondier walked out of the mansion, neither Aten nor Saibel said a word. Not even the corners of their eyes twitched.

Then, once he was completely gone, Saibel drew in a sharp breath.

“What was that? Who was that girl? Who was that maid in that pointlessly sexy maid outfit?”

“I know exactly who you mean.”

“That’s a bodyguard? What kind of bodyguard is that? What bodyguard wears clothes like that? What bodyguard has a body and a face like—”

“I know exactly what you’re trying to say.”

Lidwe watched the pair chatter away with a look of disbelief.

Still, he had learned one thing.

Aten’s claim that she had nothing to do with Frondier was an outright lie.

* * *

As Lidwe had said, the monsters would attack frequently in small groups over the next few days.

They would give their lives to deny us even the time to repair the wall. The plan was to find a definite weakness and break through in one stroke. Until then, the strategy treated the monsters as expendable.

There was a commander rallying the powerful, intelligent monsters of the Outside.

For the time being, though, that suited me.

I needed to adjust to Teibeon, and there was still plenty of training I needed.

CLANG, CLANG, CLANG, CLANG, CLANG!

A loud bell rings out. Far beyond the wall, a sinister presence seethes.

The prison gates open, and prisoners crawl out one by one into the narrow passage leading to the exit through the wall.

The soldiers took their places behind them, while the knights lined up atop the wall.

“Hey, lunatic.”

A knight called to me from beside me. Apparently, “lunatic” had already become my established nickname among the knights.

“Do your best for me. I bet on ‘today.’”

He grinned and clapped me on the shoulder.

That wager from earlier. How many days it would take me to die.

Still, betting on my very first day of battle? This wasn’t him underestimating me. He was just a gambling addict.

“Don’t think you’re safe just because you’re up on the wall. After the prisoners and soldiers, we’re next anyway. Plenty of those things climb the walls, pound on the gates, fly, or leap through the air all the way up here. Getting the picture now?”

The knight kept prattling on, much to my annoyance.

Meanwhile, the monsters came into view. Emerging from the distant fog, every last one of them was charging toward us like mad.

“Don’t let your guard down just because it isn’t winter! A single Outside monster can cause countless casualties!”

Sanders shouted at the top of his lungs.

Everyone assembled to defend the wall took their stance. Most had probably prepared themselves for death.

The winged ones were especially dangerous. Those creatures that bypassed the wall were the leading killers of knights.

So the knight prattling beside me wasn’t wrong. Keeping my eyes ahead, I searched for the flying ones too.

“Prepare for battle! Take aim!”

Sanders’s command rang out, and I counted the winged monsters in my field of vision.

... Hmm. If that was all there were.

“Menosorpo.”

“... Huh? What?”

The man chattering beside me asked stupidly.

Menosorpo

Weaving in Midair, Simultaneous Replication

Imperial Palace Armory

Spear Category, Nos. 1 Through 10

Leveling up had increased the number of simultaneous creations I could make to ten.

An assortment of spears floated in midair around me. Every one of them was aimed at the monsters approaching so fearlessly.

The knight beside me fell silent and stared blankly at them. Some knights had yet to notice, but those around me were gradually turning their attention to the sight.

“Fire!”

That was what Sanders said.

He had definitely said to fire.

I launched all ten of my woven spears, and each one struck a winged monster dead.

What did the monsters I killed look like? Well, I’d only given them a cursory glance, so I couldn’t really say.