CH 43

For a week as an escort, Walm hadn’t moved far away from the treatment room, even today. Most of the seriously injured had returned to the battlefield, and the treatment was centered on the ones with minor injuries. The Four-Countries Alliance had been reorganized at a great distance from the layers, and no new attacks had occurred except for some scouts and spies.

Although not publicly disclosed, Ayane was unusually popular as a POW. It should be natural since she was someone who treated the heavily wounded and on the verge of dying soldiers. Moreover, when she was a young and beautiful girl, Walm gave up on the fact that the soldiers who felt lonely couldn’t be stopped from looking at her with love and looking at him with envy. Without saying, some sent a thankful gift. Even though Walm handed out non-dangerous-looking things, he couldn’t help but be amazed.

“Walm-dono, next is the soldiers who fell while working on the walls.”

A charming young bald soldier told Walm. He was a soldier named Moritz who belonged to the escort team and cared a lot for his surroundings. Originally a personal servant soldier of a staff officer at the headquarters, he had been praised for his loyalty and poison resistance skills and so assigned to be one of the escorts.

It was itchy for Walm to be called with honorifics by Moritz, who had a long military history, but he didn’t dare to call Walm normally because he was afraid of a “Knight” who also a user of 《Demon Fire》. 

Walm described Moritz as an amiable and attentive man, and that it was a shame such a person must be on the battlefield.

“Please bring him inside”

The soldier carried on the stretcher had a broken left leg and left arm. It was a stupid person who fell from the stairs of the wall miserably, but such a thing was not a problem since now there was a good healing magician.

“Uh, urghHH”

In pain, the soldier closed his eyes and clenched his teeth. Maia gave the soldier a wooden gag and a cloth in his hand.

“It’ll be hurt”

Maia said so and returned the man’s bent leg to the correct position. The soldiers groaned.

Ayane held her hand over the broken leg and treatment began. The painful face of the soldier who was sweating buckets loosened. Treatment of his arm finished earlier than his foot. As expected of a great skill. It took less than 5 minutes to completely heal a simple fracture. The gag and cloth were returned. The soldier who got off the stretcher thanked Ayane and Maia.

“I was saved. I can’t believe it’ll heal so quickly.”

The soldier’s hand, which had been held during the operation, remained tightly closed. Walm, who had seen the process of the healing for a week, felt uncomfortable. Most people who just had surgery would likely be in a relaxed state. But the man kept clenching his fist. Walm took a step closer while carefully running his eyes around.

The man noticed Walm’s approach. He laughed in a friendly manner, but Walm couldn’t feel the laugh from the back of his eyes. Slid his finger and pulled something out of his waist. Its true identity was a kind of hidden weapon.

“《Burst》!!”

While kicking up the ground, Walm who used wind magic accelerated at once. Grabbed Ayane’s arm and switched position.

A high-pitched sound echoed in the treatment room. The hidden weapon was flipped by Walm’s iron armor. With Ayane behind him, Walm pulled out a longsword from his waist and slashed from the bottom, but the man dexterously moved his upper body to dodge the attack and jumped away.

“It’s an assassin!!”

Moritz shouted. The assassin stuck out his arm as opposed to the one holding the hidden weapon. Feeling the momentary increase in mana, Walm was ready.

” 《Release》 “

A rod-shaped projectile (a type of hidden weapon) popped out in the hand was fired with compressed air. Walm, who realized that the aim was Ayane, smashed it with a longsword.

The assassin tried to reach his hips again, but Walm jumped in, pierced his shoulder with a longsword, and stuck him to the wall. Still, he tried to pierce Walm with his free hand. But, when Walm put fire to his wound, he screamed and stiffened. As it was, Walm held down his throat and arms.

“Tie him up. Gag him, don’t let him bite his tongue.”

A little later, Moritz and the other escort soldiers flooded in. 

The assassin was detained, but suddenly he opened his eyes wide, screamed over the gag, and stopped moving.

“Did he just kill himself?”

Walm took a breather at the assassin who kept his eyes open and didn’t move. Moritz broke open his mouth and began to search with his hands.

“Ah, it’s a poison. I think it was put in the back teeth. It’s extremely poisonous.  It’s a strong poison made from “Red Scorpion” mixed with a highly flammable poisonous plant. When I tasted it a long time ago, its exciting taste made me suffer abdominal pain for a week.”

Moritz, who was said to have a resistance to poison, said with an ecstatic expression.

“You’re still alive even after eating that?”

Even others than the offensive skill, “Skills” were something that could bend the logic of the world.

I’ll never put that thing inside my mouth.

“If you have recovery magic or a strong fire attribute, you can withstand it. Oh, it’s also on the hidden weapon.”

The assassin’s boldness and determination to slip down from a high place just to enter the treatment center made Walm feel cold on his spine. Turning his gaze back, Ayane stood in the corner of her room with a shocked face. As for Maia, she was standing on the wall.

“Are you both okay?”

Ayane nodded a little to Walm’s question.

“Why… why me…”

“Maybe Liberitoa or Ferrius, decided that if they couldn’t recapture, it would be better to kill you two.”

Craist wasn’t mentioned, but Walm didn’t have to bother to say it to make Ayane understand.

“It’s a lie, right? I, we’re, on the same side… right?”

“Heal those who are heavily injured, and bring back those who are standing on the brink of death. For any army, it’s a dangerous threat. I’m sorry for being rude, but killing you can be considered as indirectly killing enemy soldiers on the battlefield. It’s natural to aim for elimination. Well, it’s the same as farmers who provide food, or ranches where war horses are raised, there is no end to it. In short, It’s a “war”. When you’re branded as an enemy, your status and background are irrelevant.”

Hearing Moritz’s opinions, Ayane’s knees gave up and she sat down.

“That’s…”

From such a perspective alone, Ayane thought that Walm should be threatening enough to be on the kill list.

“Let’s stop today’s treatment. I haven’t ensured the safety. Also, both of you are shaking.”

Walm felt sympathy when he saw a girl who got swung around because of her high-level ability, but he understood that he shouldn’t hold it. He must be firm. He mustn’t deviate from the relationship between soldiers and prisoners. After all, it was Walm himself who took her away from her companions and brought her to a foreign battlefield where death roamed. To comfort her now, such a hypocrite act, as a human, his dignity couldn’t forgive himself to do that.

TN: I guess, Moritz’s Poison Resistant is more like a passive skill