CH 38

I’ve been traveling for a few months.

Iris smelled the scent of a distant sea breeze. The smell of summer. The wind that blew from sea to land in the daytime was humid and hot. The wagon slowed to a crawl as they reached the forest’s edge. Bactins was a harbor city built on a deep bay formed by a narrow channel. Long ago, glaciers had carved out the landscape.

“We are almost at Bactins.”

The coachman’s voice called out. I turned from the window to look at Arjen sitting across from me. The mercenary wasn’t in the best spirits the entire ride. I called out to Arjen, who was still lost in thought but then gave up and turned my attention back to the window. We passed by a tree. It was broken… no, completely obliterated. A large chunk of stone lay beside it.

There was still a long way to go to the harbor, but the debris was everywhere. Some of the boulders looked impossibly heavy but lay in the middle of craters, destroying all the vegetation around them.

“…This is terrible.”

I muttered. The words were swept away by the sea breeze. I thought I was used to the battlefields, but revisiting them brought back unpleasant memories.

‘How did I end up here again?’

I propped my elbows on the window sill and rested my head on my hands. Slowly, the conversation I’d had with Bishop Andrei in the restaurant a few weeks ago flooded my mind.

***

“Where do you think you’re taking her?”

If Arjen were at a level that could be ignored in the first place, it would have been a matter of concern to the Bishop that someone so weak interrupted him.

“I don’t know why you would ask that. I told you, you’re a complete outsider now.”

Bishop Andre cut Arjen off firmly.

“I’m not trying to interfere with you, and I’m not trying to punish you, but please stop. What do you think you, a mere mercenary, are supposed to do in a matter between the Holy Land and the Kingdom of Kairos?”

Arjen’s expression twisted. Iris shifted uneasily between the two of them.

“…I didn’t ask to be an outsider. It’s not like I don’t have something to say after he unilaterally kicked me out.”

“No, you don’t. I don’t think you have anything to say. I’ll tell you something, Mr. Arjen. If you meddle any further than that, the Kingdom of Kairos and the Holy City will work together to have you arrested. Recognize your position. Recognize the power you wield.”

Bishop Andrei’s ashen eyes flashed through his sockets.

“You are not at a level where I can send you out quietly. Are you deliberately trying to escalate things?”

“Yeah? You think I would withdraw if you threatened me a little?”

“Enough.”

Impatiently, Iris reached out and pulled them apart. She breathed out slowly. Her thoughts were swirling in a vortex in her head. She sighed heavily and turned to face Bishop Andrei.

“Please take Arjen with us.”

“Iris. We can’t always smile and say yes to your insistence.”

He replied, and Iris raised her voice.

“He is a mercenary I hired to protect myself, so please let him join us.”

“….”

The Bishop stared at her momentarily, then sighed. Arjen shut up, finally realizing that if he kept pushing, he would put Iris in a lot of trouble.

“Well, at least I can listen to your story now.”

Bishop Andrei allowed Arjen to accompany him, then turned.

“Follow me, both of you.”

They followed the Bishop to an unassuming-looking restaurant. Arjen was on constant alert, and when Bishop Andrei gave him a sidelong glance, he shook his head. The Bishop nonchalantly ordered a bean salad and met Iris’ eyes.

“…What is it that you want me to do?”

“Go back to Bactins.”

‘Bactins?’ Her eyes widened in surprise, and then she frowned.

“Why there so suddenly….”

At Iris’ confused response, Bishop Andre let out a long sigh.

“I really don’t know, Iris.”

In Iris’ head, she first felt a sense of repulsion. She couldn’t understand why Bishop Andrew was uttering such a sigh. However, she soon realized that the Bishop’s sigh was not a sigh of ridicule or frustration but a heavy sigh from criticizing himself and pity for her. Iris’s face was stained with embarrassment.

“It’s about repairing the damage. The scars left by the Third Disaster.”

At that, Her expression crumbled once more.

“That is the business of the Kingdom of Kairos, but we cannot turn a blind eye to that Disaster either. It is only right that we, as followers of the Puritans, tend to the wounded.”

Arjen’s face remained venomous, but he did not speak.

“When you left the party to follow that mercenary of your own accord, the Hero didn’t ask for you to be found. Instead, he wanted you to aid in the post-war recovery and tend to the wounded.”

‘The Hero? Elroy?’ Iris thought of the time she announced her intention to leave the party. She remembered how he’d said something to try and hold her back, then frowned and thought about it. Then simply let her exit the building.

“…No, that’s not what I thought…”

She was the healer at the party. A healer who could quickly heal battle wounds and get them ready to fight again. I left because I could not imagine being under a dictator using the facade of the Hero.

“Whether you thought so or not, the Hero said so, Iris.”

The Bishop picked up his red wine.

“As for you, mercenary… well, I don’t mind if you follow her; I’m sure you would behave yourself in a recovery site.”

“I’m sorry, but it’s not me who was acting out. It was the Hero.”

“You can do as you please. You are no longer part of the Hero’s Part. Your employer, Iris, will take full responsibility for your actions.”

Bishop Andrei snorted as if he didn’t want to deal with them further and sipped his wine. Iris stared down at the table, still confused.

“I will arrange a carriage to take you to Bactins, Iris. I’ll send a few priests from the Holy Land to join you, so go and see what you can do.”

***

Approaching the outskirts of Bactins, the coachman halted his horse. The sliding door connecting the carriage to the front opened, and the coachman’s wrinkled face appeared.

“This is as far as I can go, Saintess.”

“What’s the matter?”

“The road is completely ruined, and the carriage can’t go any further. I think you’ll have to get off here.”

The coachman said, gesturing ahead. I opened the carriage door and stepped out to see the road ahead. The coachman paused momentarily, then dismounted, putting his hands on his hips and shaking his head.

“… It’s a mess.”

“It sure is. I doubt Bactins will send someone to pick you up from here, so you must get there on foot.

I glanced behind, where the wagon carrying the priests who had come to assist in the recovery had also stopped.

“Saintess, we’ll have to walk from here.”

I nodded at the priests’ words. Arjen slowly dismounted from the carriage we were riding in and looked around. The expressionless mercenary’s eyes held no emotion.

“It’s okay; we’re past all the monster-infested areas anyway.”

I looked at Arjen. He shrugged his shoulders and walked toward me. The wind blew through his dark hair.

“The road will be rough, but it is still usable. I can clear a path for you, so let’s keep moving.”

Arjen said, looking ahead.

The roads that led to the center of Bactins had disappeared. Dirt and the remains of collapsed buildings were all I could see. I blinked, taking in the devastation, then hardened my expression and stepped forward.

“Let’s go.”

Arjen began to walk ahead. I watched his back as he walked away, thinking about their fight against the Third Disaster.

***

Arjen and Elroy hadn’t gotten along, but they’d managed to keep their balance up until the battle against the Third Disaster. Yes, the struggle with the Disaster was what drove them apart. Arjen and Elroy seemed to hate each other from that day forward.

“We can’t face that creature from the open sea. We must bring it in the narrow straits to attack it from the land.”

“Don’t waste our men for nothing, Elroy. To truly kill the Kraken, we must wait for it to come ashore and strike it from both land and sea simultaneously. Otherwise, there’s no way.”

And the two men fought like hell. Their conversation, a verbal shouting match, became increasingly harsh, and neither Georg, who would have been willing to let it go, nor Nella, who would typically side with the Hero to harass Arjen and Iris, kept their mouths shut for the moment.

“That is not acceptable, Arjen. Do as I say.”

“Don’t we have to kill the Disaster? Please, come to your senses, Hero. This is not a fight you can win by playing games. You’re not strong enough to take down the Disaster alone, so what kind of tactic is this?”

“Then you will wait for the creature on land alone. I’ll tell the commander-in-chief that I’m going to sea with my party.”

Arjen grabbed Elroy’s shoulder before he could get up.

“Don’t be silly, Elroy. If you want to kill yourself, do it alone, asshole.”

“If you want to kill everyone in Bactins, go for it.”

“Everyone in the city was evacuated three days ago, Elroy. We can fight it there without worry.”

Elroy gritted his teeth and began to speak.

“Do you think that the Kraken will be alone? His minions will follow him into Bactins like a tidal wave. They are faster than our horses. They’ll be faster than the tens of thousands fleeing on foot. They’ll catch up within two days, and the monsters will slaughter the citizens without the hope of help ever existing.”

Elroy took a step forward.

“And more soldiers will die trying to stop it. All those men you ‘care’ for will die for nothing.”

He reached out and grabbed Arjen by the collar.

“So let’s say you bring the Kraken on land, tie its body to the shore, and defeat the Disaster. But what about the rest of us? Will you take responsibility for all the lives and damage of bringing it on land?

“If you go out there and don’t kill the thing, the outcome will be the same anyway, you fool.”

Arjen shook off Elroy’s arm and made a face. Then he drew his sword and pointed it at Elroy. Elroy drew his sword and returned the favor. The two continued to fight. But there was no way Elroy could defeat Arjen with pure swordplay, so Arjen struck Elroy down, then pushed through with his plan. He reported it to the commander-in-chief, who trusted the Mercenary more than the Hero.

So – the Kraken landed on Barktins.

They were lucky. Really lucky. Mages and knights sacrificed their lives to bind the Kraken’s movements. Bound, it wiped out everything in sight, not distinguishing between friend and foe. In its rampage, many monsters were killed as they attempted to land. The knights and mages who remained all attacked the Kraken’s body. Arjen led the battle while Elroy laboriously cut its throat with his Holy Sword.

It was the right thing to do.

Letting the Kraken come ashore allowed them to take it down was their only strategy. This was the sentiment of everyone present. Iris, who only thought about defeating the Kraken, believed it was right, too. The Hero’s Party was escorted away as soon as the battle was over. The joy of conquering the Disaster covered her eyes like a blindfold.

***

Iris exhaled sharply as she gazed at the shores of Bactins. The terrain had changed completely. What had been a city was nothing but ruins. The area close to the sea was fully submerged and could hardly be considered land. The entire port had been sunk into the giant bay.

As I stared out at the sea in disbelief, a Bactinian magistrate approached her.

“Saintess, welcome. I hear you’ve come to Bactins to help with damage control.”

“…It is a pleasure.”

Seeing my dazed expression, the district officer spoke in a bitter voice.

“The Kraken’s landing virtually eliminated Bactins as a city. However, since you subjugated it quickly, the damage was minimal. If not for that, the entire city would have been reduced to rubble, or worse, underwater.”

The magistrate was grateful, but it fell on deaf ears.

“The residents of….”

“Many residents who said they wouldn’t evacuate and would support the expedition are dead. Not to mention most of the soldiers who stayed to help and protect the people.”

The magistrate looked at the rubble at his feet and sighed.

“Those who evacuated have returned, one by one… but quite a few were killed in the evacuation, some attacked by creatures that somehow managed to escape the battlefield. Many more died from flying debris.”

I followed the magistrate, trying to ignore my throbbing headache. There was a makeshift settlement far from the city.

“Please have mercy on the wounded, Saintess.”

The groans of agony rang in my ears.