47.Laments for the Fallen

Editing/Standardisation: Medicine Melancholy
Original Translation: Medicine Melancholy

Iris

My healing magic spread across the battlefield, and one by one, the fallen soldiers rose up, their faces bewildered.

…However, only half of them came back to life.

The other half were left lying there with nothing happening to them.

I thought I was prepared for this, but it is excruciating to actually see the bodies of the deceased in front of me. However, there were things I have to do now. I only offered a silent prayer and pushed it away to the corner of my thoughts.

“Can you keep going?”

“…Yes, I’m a little tired, but I think I can still cast a few more area-of-effect healing spells.”

“Alright, I’m going to let you down now. Don’t stay too far from me.”

Saul-niisama slowly descended and gently lowered me to the ground. Reiji-san, noticing this, joined us once more.

“Reiji-san, are you hurt anywhere?”

“Those things barely landed a single strike on me. So, what’s next?”

“Can I entrust you with cleaning up those still inside the town? I’ll work with the remaining soldiers to prevent any further incursions.”

“Loud and clear!”

They clapped their hand together and split off in opposite directions, Reiji-san toward the town and Saul-niisama toward the gate. I followed the latter suit.

“…Is anyone left in command here?!”

One soldier raised his voice in response to Nii-sama’s loud call.

“Me! I’m their commanding officer!”

“Rally the surviving soldiers and gather them at the gate. My companions are coming to the rescue, so please don’t panic and hold the line until they arrive. Reiji… our friend, was already on his way to deal with the enemies inside the town.”

“Roger that!… I really appreciate your assistance.”

“Okay, if you or anyone gets wounded, just retreat and stay back alright?”

“…Understood. You heard the man! All hands, regroup!”

The soldiers, having come to their senses, took up their positions.

Outside the gate, Milly-san and Lenny-san high-firepower magic was bombarding the enemies, drawing their attention away from us, so only sporadic attacks came this way…

The cleanup did not take much time.

“…Is this… over?”

A soldier mumbled.

As far as the eye can see, there was no more monster left standing.

“Yeah, it’s over…”

“We’ve won… We’ve endured…!”

The soldiers, finally realized that the battle had ended, let out a few cheers of victory.

Soon, however, their voices faded, and once the survivors were identified, they began recovering the bodies of their comrades.

…Many people had died. These were people who had been with them just yesterday. How much regret must they be feeling right now?

“It’s not your fault, miss. If anything, it wouldn’t have been like this if it weren’t for you.”

“Yes, I probably wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t come along… Thank you so much for that.”

The people who were working with a somber look on their faces still called out to me not to worry as they passed by.

“Um, can I help…”

I was about to approach when a soldier stopped me. He was the one who collapsed near Reiji-san at that time… I think.

“No, you’ve helped us enough. We would be sorry if we had to bother you any longer… Please take a rest, you’ve earned it.”

“…Yes.”

With that admonition, there was nothing more I could do. I turned on my heel to leave.

“Allow me to tell you this too! I was about to give up on everything back there, but thanks to you… I can still return home, and I won’t make my soon-to-be-married girlfriend cry! I’m forever grateful to you!”

“That’s…” 

I turned my head around, and gave him the best smile I could muster…

“That’s good to hear! I hope you return home safe and sound!”

…After squeezing those words out, I walked away.

As I stood there, standing helplessly outside the circle of soldiers who were seeing off the corpse of their comrades, who were to be taken to the capital for a funeral, someone tapped me on the shoulder.

“Now that I think about it, this is the first time since we’ve been here that we haven’t been able to save someone right in front of us.”

“…Nii-sama.”

“Let’s not get in their way here. Come with me.”

With that said, he pulled back his hand and took me to the shadows of the outer wall, to an empty place.

Then, when no one could see us, he held me close to his chest.

As much as I was surprised, I also felt that Nii-sama’s body was trembling slightly, and I realized that I was not the only one who is frustrated.

With only him patting on my back for comfort, I cried in silence…

After having calmed down, we looked around the area where the battle had taken place, tilting our necks as we reflected on what had just happened in the battle.

By the way, Reiji-san, who was the first to burst into the scene, was currently surrounded by the soldiers and looked troubled by their praise.

As for me, I was desperately trying to stave off the embarrassment of hearing those looking at me from afar occasionally calling me “Saintess…”.

Nii-sama looked at me with a wry smile.

But I digress. The sun had set, and the area was in the midst of cleaning up the battlefield, with fires burning the bodies of the goblins in various places. In the town, the fighting had stopped, and the townspeople were beginning to show up on the streets.

“…But those goblins were certainly weird, weren’t they?”

“Yeah, it’s like fighting undead or something… I couldn’t sense any will from them when we fought.”

Unlike the goblins from before, they lacked any kind of tactics and just charged at anything in the vicinity. Thanks to this, they were attacked from two different sides, and their forces were dispersed in a disorderly manner, so in the end they were easy opponents…

As I walked past one of the goblin corpses on the battlefield… I felt a sharp pain in my head. I turned the corpse over and examined it…

Immediately, I found the anomaly.

“What’s this…”

“Iris, did you find something?”

Nii-sama noticed the situation and peeked from above.

“…Take a look at this, Nii-sama.”

I rolled up the edges of the clothes the corpse was wearing, and there was a previously familiar crystalline body of something that had lost its luster and cracked, buried in the body.

“So it’s just like that time… No wonder those goblins acted weird.”

The shadowy monster formed from the bandits’ remains some time ago also had a similar-looking crystal in its body. So it seemed likely that this attack was related to the “Wound” that opened up a few days ago…

“Excuse me, officer, can I ask you something?”

“Oh, it’s you… Thanks to your help, the damage was minimal. Please, ask away.”

Nii-sama called out to the officer who happened to be passing by. He was giving instructions to those around him, but still, when he saw us, he gladly complied.

“Do you know if there is anything unusual or different going on in that direction?”

“Oh, that…”

Looking in the direction I pointed, the captain looked as if he was biting a bitter bug.

“…So there’s something?”

“Yes… A stone’s throw away in that direction will lead you to a new mineshaft occupied by goblins. There were a lot of people walking along that path, so you’ll be able to find your way easily… However, we haven’t been able to investigate due to the strong opposition from the mayor in charge of this town. We sent a message to our headquarters in the capital and were waiting for the reply from the lord to give us permission to investigate… then all of this happened.”

“That’s strange. When the town’s main industry was taken away and there was even a goblin raid, I’d expect the mayor to be more cooperative…”

The mayor’s actions were awfully suspicious no matter how we look at it.

“…Is there something he doesn’t want anyone to see?”

As Nii-sama mumbled something, the officer, who was staring at his profile, called out to him fearfully.

“Um… I’ve always wondered about this… but are you His Highness Saulquez, by any chance?”

“…?! N-no, what are you talking about…?”

Uh oh, Nii-sama lost his cool. Don’t worry, I understand how you feel.

Come to think of it, it’s not often that Nii-sama get caught in this kind of situation…

“…I’m sorry, I have my own reasons. I would appreciate it if you would do your best to keep this matter as private as possible.”

“I see… If you really are… then the young lady here must be…”

“Ahaha… Sorry, I have my own reasons too.”

“Uh…”

“I’ll talk about the details later on when I have the chance, so please keep it to yourself for now.”

“Please, I ask of you.”

“O-okay, I get it, you don’t have to bow your head like that! I’ll keep this matter a national secret!”

When I bowed my head, the officer got flustered and quickly made a promise to us.

Nii-sama, who had been caught off guard because these developments usually come to me until now, hurriedly put on the hood of his own cloak, and I laughed at the sight of him.

The fleeting moments of tranquility were interrupted when the town became more noisy and bustling. For some reason, all the soldiers around us turned tense.

“Ohhhh… I had heard that some unknown travelers had joined you, but I can’t thank you enough for protecting our town…!”

A middle-aged man in a very rich-looking costume and accessories walks toward us from the back of the town, shouting loudly. When his gaze turned to me for a moment, hawking his surroundings, I felt a chill run down my back. It was like he wasn’t looking at me as a person, just how much money he could get from me.

As I huddled closer to Nii-sama, he nonchalantly changed his position to hide me behind his back, perhaps noticing this.

…What a nasty gaze. I tried to hold back my knees from shaking as bad memories that I thought were long healed haunted my mind again.

Behind us, the officer whispered to our ears.

“That’s the mayor… He was the one who brought in a large number of ruffians from who-know-where disguised as miners in his service, so be careful around him. Neither he nor his cronies are pleasant to be around.”

“…If that isn’t obvious enough.”

Accompanying the mayor was someone who definitely looked more like a gangster than a governor’s attendant, looking at those around him menacingly… And to think that he didn’t even lend a hand to help in the battle just now.

People change as places change. Because the people in the previous town had been so kind to me, I was now keenly aware that this was not going to be the case here.