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    “That’s…”

    “Yes, that was the Luttenberg Division.  All of the soldiers with mixed blood from all over the kingdom gathered together.  Among them were rookies who hadn’t even finished training and young amateurs.  Everyone had gathered to give their lives to save the kingdom.  If we could gain trust through fighting boldly, the weak wouldn’t have to suffer.  We thought they wouldn’t have to be subject to prejudice and discrimination.  It was a special division composed of those with human blood… We set out to the most important yet most hopeless battleground… Arnold, on the brink of defeat.  Think about it, although he hadn’t become a high level noble, he was still the legitimate child of the king.  There was no need for him to choose death.  There was no precedent for His Highness to set out to a battle with no hope of survival.  Stuffel commanded him to and Lord Weller said it would be an honor…  The outcome of the battle was decided the moment we arrived.  Even with the new recruits, we had a little less than 4000 and the enemy had more than 30,000… It was hell.”

    I desperately tried to calm the trembling of my body in order to not wake up Wolfram.

    “Arnold was hell.  The Shimaron army had exorcists, but they didn’t have much war potential on demon lands.  We were also sent soldiers who could use magic, but due to the catastrophic state of the war, there weren’t very many soldiers left who were skilled in powerful magic.  They could just barely use healing magic.  They had no use in combat.  In the end, it was a swordfight.  For those soldiers using light swords, after they cut several bodies they would become useless.  The blade would dull with fat.  For those using axes and heavy swords, the hilts would break and they wouldn’t be able to hold them anymore.  When that happened, they would throw away their weapon and take the weapon emblazoned with the Shimaron coat of arms from whatever soldier they just killed.  If there was a corpse of a comrade nearby and it was grasping a bloodless sword, they would use that as well.  When that became useless they would take another.  When that became useless they would take yet another weapon.  In the end, no one was using demon arms.  Ironically, a large amount of the enemy was taken out with the weapons they themselves had forged.  And that’s not all.  The worst part was that, by the hands of people who had the same human blood as them, they…  There’s the possibility that if you looked up their family trees, there might have been distant relatives among the enemy.  I might have killed a child or grandchild or nephew of my mother’s new family without even knowing.”

    With a look that seemed as if he might smile gently, Josak''s flame-colored eyelashes pressed together.

    “… Even so, we didn’t waver.  Enemies and allies fell on top of each other and there were so many corpses you couldn’t see the ground.  The grass shone red and, in the places you could see it, the ground was pitch black.  There was no time to avoid legs and arms and even if they were still alive you had to step across the fallen to move forward.  Arnold was hell, but at the same time it was equal.  Whatever blood flowed in their body, not a single person doubted their allies and soldiers who had just met the night before entrusted their backs to each other.  That was what we wished for.  Equality, faith.  In the end, we slaughtered the enemy until their numbers were less than a thousand and forced them into a miraculous retreat.  But many of our comrades had died as well.  Even if we survived, most of us were weak and wounded.

    “What was especially tragic was that the new recruits we had sought to protect by ordering them to retreat early had been drawn into another skirmish, but… Anyway, there were next to none in the battalion who were able to return in good health… Even Lord Weller had sustained injuries so severe he couldn’t move and he had half given up on life and ordered the few survivors to return without him.”

    Out of the scars he had shown me, the one on his side was the worst.  The person in question had laughed and said that he just kept walking while holding his guts in.  Just by remembering the twisted skin, the same spot on my body aches.

    “We lost many, but we defended Arnold in the southwest to the last and prevented the enemy from advancing.  Using this opportunity, The Great Demon Kingdom made a comeback and the tides turned in the Grantz and Karbelnikoff territories.  We didn’t pursue the enemy into their territory, but in naval battles the Dugald family and Roberski’s fleet of unsinkable battleships used their power to corner the Shimaron forces.  The reason we eventually reached a ceasefire was because we won at Arnold.  We believe that.  In fact, with the sheer amount of honor from that military achievement, Lord Weller gained a social status equal to the ten noble families.  It was this that Stuffel had not desired and it had been approved with unanimous acceptance at a special conference.  He had set out to get rid of the threat to his political power and had instead bestowed upon him an unshakeable position.  However, it seems like my Commander had no interest in social class.  Not that I ever asked him personally, but it seems there was something even more important that had happened.”

    “By the time Conrart had returned…”

    The weight from my shoulder had lifted.  When I turn my head, there was intelligence and strength shining in Wolfram’s eyes.

    My left shoulder suddenly grows cold.

    “… Julia had died.  And ever since then, Conrart has never attempted to return to military service."

    “Oh, did we wake you?”

    “Of course.  There’s no way I’d be able to sleep peacefully with all that fearful trembling.  You really are a coward if a story has you scared.”

    By Julia he probably means Lady Suzanna Julia von Wincott.  Was a woman that wasn’t even his lover that important to Conrad?  It might have been adultery… I swallow the question that I hesitate to even ask.

    Now that he was facing the younger brother of the person caught up in all of that, Josak’s expression softened.  Now he really has to pay attention to what he can and cannot say.

    “That’s right, he had finally gained the social status he should have started with, but then Lord Weller abandoned his successful career in the military. Not only that, he returned to his previous status and now,” for a short moment, he hesitated. “… He decided that there was no better life than protecting His Majesty.  And here I am, not having anything else to fall back upon, without my direct superior.  Now I’m serving under Lord von Voltaire, for lack of any choice.  Even now there are still a lot of people who want to see Lord Weller reinstated.  The sheer amount of those who want to work under him is endless… Well, that’s not unreasonable.  He would lead attacks to cut through enemy lines while roaring out a war cry, he was strong even when wounded, the way he pulled his sword from an enemy corpse.  His unwavering gaze that only faced forward.  He knew who he should protect, but his figure splattered in blood was ferocious.  If one saw that part of him easily mistaken for a monster of war, they would want to run towards the very brink of life and death for that man.”

    Like a scene in a movie, I imagined an image tinged with red.  A national hero in near jeopardy brings to mind flames and the scent of blood.  Josak Gurrier held back his tone with a slightly self-derisive look.

    “Not a single person there wavered in the slightest in giving up their life.  It’s likely that Lord Conrart Weller is the pride of Luttenberg.”

    Forever.

    You could almost hear in his voice the word he didn’t say.

    “But…” without thinking of the situation, I murmur to the fire.  “But I don’t like that Conrad.”

    After I say this, I notice the dumbfounded looks the two demons are giving me.

    “Uh, did I say something inappropriate!?”

    Josak gave a vague smile and Wolfram said ‘damn wimp’ to the sky.  I don’t know if he was astounded or if he agreed with me, but to my right Murata clapped twice.

    “Huh?”

    For just a moment, something cold touched my nose.  It melted immediately and became a water droplet.  I take off my smooth leather glove and hold up my warm palm to the sky.  Small, light and feathery objects are swaying back and forth as they fall.