by Y. R. Shin
As the queen had done, Olzore fell without leaving anything behind. Thus began the great war that shook the continent.
Chapter Twenty-Five
The soldiers were full of energy on the road back to the Gerad border in the aftermath of Olzore, unlike when they had come. Their excitement was hotter than the dry sunlight.
At Paseid’s orders to move with the Olzorean people who had now become prisoners, Reuyen came to be treated not quite differently from a mere criminal. She felt nervous, as though she were naked, in the unfamiliar situation of having to bear the soldiers’ eyes pricking at her bare body uncovered by armor. She could imagine how the soldiers viewed the strange woman who had been granted a red brassard and was now treated like a guarded prisoner. But she did not make a single sound of complaint.
She had let go of the obsessive grudge when Olzore fell, and that was enough. She did not even care about how many of the enemy returned, how many died, or how many surrendered.
After enduring a long period of inconvenience for days on the road, she arrived at the main camp. The place felt rather empty. As she overheard from the knights who came out to greet the returning force, most of the soldiers still standing joined forces in the fierce attack at Camp Anf and left to pursue and destroy the Morganaan army.
“Make a list of prisoners from Olzore who may be useful in negotiating with Morgana and report back,” said the knight who was guarding her. “And Reuyen Detua, you follow me. Sir Calandok has ordered us to temporarily seize your horse and have you reside in the central tent.”
Leaving the lines of Morganaan prisoners, she followed the knight.
The central tent…
Reuyen swallowed a sigh. It was the safest place in the camp, a location permitted only for high-ranking nobles or knights of such families who had not yet found a place to stay. In short, it was not a place for Reuyen at all. She could easily guess Paseid’s intentions. It being the safest place meant that it was the most heavily guarded and the farthest away from the outside, so he clearly intended to nip any escape plan she might have in the bud. Still, she could not care less.
The atmosphere in the main camp was heavy.
The smell of dry dirt coupled with the smell of sweat and tension wafted in the air with a hint of metal. She stopped her thoughts and calmly took in the scene. Greetings of those returning at the change of plans resounded from here and there, and fires lit up to prepare for an untimely meal.
Seeing a familiar man running through the scene of soldiers and knights, Reuyen froze her face, feeling uneasy.
“Where is my sister…? Reuyen, hey, hey!”
It was Sidan, running through the crowd of soldiers like someone who had just spotted a ghost. With his eyes as red as a rabbit’s, he charged at her like a bull. He frowned at her tattered look, being dragged off like a prisoner, then hugged her without a word.
The knights frowned at the sudden reunion of the brother and sister, exchanged gazes, then ignored them. They had families as well, and this considerate move was for the soldier rejoicing at his sister’s safe return, not for Reuyen.
Reuyen smiled faintly, then tapped on her brother’s large arm wrapped around her. “Enough, you’re embarrassing me. You didn’t leave your post without permission, did you?”
“I got the captain’s permission. Are you…are you okay?”
He must have been startled at the news of Olzorean army’s dispatch not long after Paseid’s army went east. The size of their army was not that small, either, so the main camp would have been engulfed in extreme anxiety. Her younger brother’s breath, uneven with relief, rang in her ear. Perhaps because of that, the small amount of contempt for Sidan that had remained in her disappeared into thin air.
“I heard the crazy bastards of Olzore came all the way over there, so I was thinking that maybe something had happened… I was so, so…”
In the rusted sorrow, Reuyen suddenly recalled something that she had let sink down deep in her mind.
The warmth from another body pressed against her skin in the present, filled with worry and fervor. Finally, she felt like she had actually returned. Yes, she was here for this child.
The beginning was for this child.
“You know better than anyone how amazing your sister is,” she told him. “Don’t worry.”
“You really are stubborn, you know that?”
“Do you want to give up, then? Since you’re so worried?”
Reuyen lightly patted Sidan’s back.
Suddenly coming to his senses, Sidan pushed her away, his face flushed. “Shut up! I’m—I’m still mad at you!”
“All right. It doesn’t even seem like it would be possible right now, so let’s talk about that later.”
Instead of insisting, Reuyen gently let the subject go. Sidan narrowed his light-brown eyes at the unusual response from his sister, then stared at her empty left arm. “By the way, why aren’t you wearing anything?”
“Oh.”
“What’s going on?”
“They took it.”
“Took it? Your ordination…”
“Duke Brionake did it.”
As soon as she gave him her answer, Sidan clamped his mouth shut. His eyes darkened with anxiety. Did you…did you do something bad? He was unable to ask that question because of the knights standing near them.
Then, the knight who had given them a bit of time walked in between them. “Enough now. Return to your post, soldier. Woman, follow me.”
“Whe—where…?”
Unable to find something to say, Reuyen simply smiled. Stunned, Sidan looked at her walking away surrounded by knights, and scrunched up his face, heartbroken. She became rather sorry at the sight of Sidan’s pale face appearing in her periphery. She supposed she didn’t have the right to be mad at the Detua men anymore, for Sidan would be watched with suspicion because of her actions.
But even if Paseid thoroughly investigated her and Sidan, the children of Detua were not the type of people he would find any dirt on. She was relieved. So, she followed the knight in peace.
The rainy season was extremely humid and sticky. The rain poured for over ten days straight, sometimes stopping for a moment, only to start pouring again. The army greeted the dark clouds covering the sky like they were their old friends for the first couple days, but as the rain continued on for nearly two weeks, complaints arose.
The courageous soldiers of Rarke were busy with training and missions even during the bad weather. Reuyen’s days were infinitely fixed compared to theirs. At first, she was so preoccupied with the people busily walking around her that she didn’t have the time to feel bored. The days would just pass by as she did nothing but sit around and watch what they were up to. But now, she was reaching her limit.
She heard from Sidan that Paseid asked around about her. He apparently even sent someone to their town. But seeing that he still had her locked up in the tent, it was certain that he hadn’t found anything satisfying enough.
Tap, tap, tap. The sound of the rain was overpowering. Reuyen sat on the damp bed that was growing fungi in the humidity. It seemed like it had been over a month and a half since she’d come back here. It had been around two months since Olzore fell.
Olzore.
When she felt like that damn thing crumbling down in mere seconds didn’t actually happen, those chatting about the collapse of Olzore outside her tent reminded her of the reality.
She might have looked like a lucky woman who was provided with room, one whole tent for herself, and board, but she was under extremely strict surveillance, such that even just asking where Den was caused them to reinforce the guards. It was truly boring. There had been a fair number of people who took an interest in the woman who was temporarily ordained, and wanted to start a conversation with her; now, there were none at all.
The only people who did have a meaningful encounter with her were Sidan, who visited under strict permission when he had some free time, and Jacalrin, who strutted around
like the world belonged to him.
Sidan was still holding a grudge against her for sending him away to the rear echelon. As he was a man honest about his own feelings, he didn’t hesitate to blame her, either. But it was apparent that most of the grudges had disappeared since she came back from Olzore, so Reuyen took all his complaints quietly. When she thought of this deeply affectionate child pacing about, consumed with worry upon hearing the news of the fort’s army, her heart grew heavy with the thought of their parents who were still waiting for them back in the town.
Sometimes, she found herself not able to overcome the boredom, and she glanced outside the drape, waiting for Jacalrin’s visits. Seeing someone who did not care about strict manners or suspected her was quite delightful.
The recent news was that Jacalrin was extremely busy setting up more camps around Camp Anf and on Plain Ishas in Morgana, which explained why he didn’t visit her as often. But alas, he was a man who could not be trusted to not turn up out of the blue and start talking about something odd.
The funniest of them was when he poked her side, asking her to whisper into his ear her secrets as if he were her old friend. How did you know? Who told you? I won’t tell anyone! Come on, don’t you remember me taking your side? After pestering her several times that amounted to nothing, he finally stopped protesting and gave up when she said, I know you will go straight to Duke Brionake and report every single thing I say the second I tell you, sir.
But his abandoning his stateliness as a knight, needless to say his dignity as a noble, and looking at her with puppy dog eyes and puffed-up cheeks was honestly kind of cute.
Everywhere was getting humid with the intensifying rainfall. At the time when even the shouts of the soldiers got swallowed and suffocated in the rain, Reuyen stretched her body after trying to beat the boredom with a nap.
Jacalrin wasn’t coming, and neither was Sidan. In the midst of stretching like a cat, she blinked at the appearance of an unexpected guest.
“May I come in for a moment?”
“Yes, sir.”
It was Evinbur. The drape opened and the cool sound of rain rushed in. Reuyen gazed at the drops of rain falling from the wet raincoat Evinbur was wearing, then lowered her eyes.
It just happened to be that the one person she found most difficult to face at this moment was Evinbur. The old knight’s wisdom and insight had followed her the whole trip back from Olzore. Unlike the others’ suspicion, his watch was persistent. Their doubts were valid, and she had no complaints about her treatment, but his gaze made her uneasy.
“You seem to be doing just fine. I thought I would pay you a visit.”
“It’s all thanks to you, sir.” Reuyen didn’t know what else to say.
“Is everything all right?”
“Yes, sir.”
“It will get better soon.”
Evinbur studied her stolid face, then rubbed his wet chin. “Once the reply comes from the royal road and your rewards are determined, you may be able to be officially ordained and receive a title to negotiate your position, or even leave with your brother with an honorable discharge. But I hear you are not interested in titles at all.”
Unable to think of an appropriate answer to the question, Reuyen remained silent. It was not like she could tell him that titles meant nothing to the woman who had once been a queen, when no one stood above her. She would much rather live as a lowly commoner than feed her greed with their meaningless praise. That was most likely her pride.
“Who are you, if I may ask?” he said after a moment.
Realizing that he was speaking with respect to her, Reuyen raised her gaze to him.
She had heard that there was a reason for the saying that with age comes wisdom, and indeed, Evinbur’s intense gaze made her sigh. “Who do you suppose I am?”
“It has been over twenty years since I first set foot on the battlefield. I have never seen someone like you. You are not just an ordinary country woman. Of course, I do not suspect you are a spy. I do not know if you simply recited the oration, or if you can read and write the ancient language, but…it seemed to this old man that the characters of Rarkalia engraved on the valley wall were to count the days. Did you know that too?”
The tips of her fingers flinched. Evinbur’s speculation was precise. But it was a bit more than that. The characters not only counted the days but also the number of the dead.
Many had died there, and many days had been spent there. That wall in the valley covered with characters was the register of all the days and the dead. Even that was no doubt buried under the erupted earth now, so that no one would pay tribute to their deaths.
She lowered her eyes halfway and carefully chose her words. “Did it seem so, sir?”
“Why do you not wish for the suspicions against you to be lifted?”
Trying not to reveal anything personal to Evinbur, who was speaking like he was speaking to a pitiful child, Reuyen politely answered, “I believe you, Sir Haldroff, must possess eyes that look upon the world differently from the young, for you are a fierce general with age and wisdom. Who in this world would wish to live with suspicions? Of course, I want to be trusted, sir.”
“Well?”
“I believe there are matters one can only keep silent about, for there is no other way. Like you devoted yourself to war for various reasons, consider my silence rooted in such reasons, sir.”
“Why not try, at least?”
“I have already told you my honest situation, sir. But I have not gained your trust.”
Evinbur’s eyes grew rather serious. Reuyen waited for his answer for a moment, then continued like she was defending herself. “Do people not live hearing fictional tales of double rainbows appearing in the sky, three-headed horses being born, and a snowstorm engulfing the south, sir?”
“Do you mean to say you are as fictitious as those?”
“I do not mean to say that I am fictitious, sir. It’s different from a secret. Truly, I swear that I…I can only tell you that I knew such things by coincidence.”
“Quite a mysterious woman you are…”
Reuyen smiled at Evinbur’s muttering. He looked into her deep, deep eyes for a long time, then fixed his raincoat. He shook his head.
Reuyen looked up at him. “Rarke will win, right, sir?”
“So it shall be.”
Reuyen saw him off through the small gap between the drape and the wall. The old knight walked away through the heavy rain, not even looking back. She looked at his strong back for a while, then crouched down like a turtle retreating into its shell.
Had Guitella relayed her wish on his way to utopia? She would never know. Afraid the part of her she let go of would come back, she buried her face between her knees. It would all be fine if she left this all-too-familiar battlefield without any delay. Then, all would be well. All had to be well.
Reuyen waited for the royal messenger with a longing as dire as someone being chased.
Chapter Twenty-Six
It had been about a year and a half since the outbreak of the Great Battle against Morgana. At the beginning of the last summer, Fort Olzore, often called Morgana’s best defensive military base, had fallen, and Rovantis’s force had retreated following a battle over the Anf region of the Gerad border. Thus, the Rarkian army had achieved the splendid feat of winning the entrance to Ishas.
Messengers and pigeons carrying the news of the collapse of Olzore swept every region of Rarke. In less than a month, the entire country of Rarke rejoiced as if a festival had commenced. Even the incessant rain could not put out the fire of joy.
Jacalrin had gone to Plain Ishas with Tabajen and busied himself with the duties of a director who oversaw the establishment and maintenance of the new camp. Preparing for the main army’s moving fell to the other knights as well as Paseid. In accordance with Paseid’s will that there was no need to shed blood within Rarkian territory, the large army bustled to move over to Plain Ishas. Jacalrin had to stay there for days, since h
e had to establish a big enough camp for that large an army.
But, for some reason, that man who should’ve been across the cliffs suddenly appeared, covered in blood, and barged into Paseid’s tent.
“Sir—Sir Chesa!” cried Paseid’s guard. “You cannot…”
“Oh, even if he yells at someone, I’ll be that someone, so don’t worry!” Jacalrin waved away the guard trying to stop him. Paseid’s personal tent had withstood the year of time since the beginning of the war and looked rather finely equipped, unlike the barren headquarters tent or the equally barren ordinary tents for soldiers.
There were no fancy decorations, since Paseid had a rather simple taste, but the tent had an elegant, light-brown table, a small desk, and a bookshelf, even. There were even books on that massive bookshelf. Most of them were journals containing information on strategy and tactics, but some of them were empty diaries. Jacalrin stared at the red wolf banner hung on one side of the tent, unintimidated by the furniture’s grace or the feeling of distance they somehow gave to the spectator, then inhaled.
“Sir Calandoooooook!” he shouted.
There was no answer.
Instead, a small noise came out from behind the bookshelf that was completely silent, as if no one was there. Jacalrin stomped in, leaving wet, bloody footprints on the antique carpet.
“Paseid, Paseid—I mean, Commander, sir!”
“What is the meaning of all this?”
Paseid was standing as straight as a pin behind the bookshelf with a book opened on his palms, not even looking at Jacalrin. The familiar design engraved on the side of the old, tattered book was something Jacalrin knew as well. Jacalrin squirmed restlessly with his eyes on the side of Paseid’s face buried in the book.
“I would just wait if this were any other day. But I barged in here looking like this because it really is a pressing matter. Can you just, for a moment, listen please?”