Ch.18: Snow Stamp
The investigators who had scattered throughout the fishing village gathered at the riverside to the northwest, even though they hadn't coordinated beforehand. In the muddy ground between the bushes, wagon wheel tracks had hardened.
Basim was busy teasing and muttering, 'Sir Knight, our Sir Knight’, but Hadiya, who was in charge of reconnaissance and tracking, was examining the horse manure.
"Let me have a taste. Yum yum."
"......Do you have to make that damn sound every time you taste it?"
"Basim, if I don't do this, I feel like I've become less than human."
"You should say you're more like a beast than a human. You've been rotten as a human from the start."
"Is it okay for you to say that? All the Cottontails are human except for you."
"......Damn. That's annoyingly right!"
Right after that, as if they had never been joking around, Hadiya's expression became serious.
"Considering how hardened it is, it seems like more than 20 days have passed, and seeing how it chews softly, they fed it good feed. Looking at the size and depth of the hoofprints, it's definitely a warhorse. The narrow stride shows they left leisurely. In other words, at least when they left here, it wasn't an urgent situation. There wouldn't have been any attack."
"Hmm."
Calix listens to his words carefully and stores them in his mind.
It wouldn't hurt to learn tracking skills.
"Calix, why are you backing away?"
"......Um, I couldn't help myself."
Of course, he couldn't help being shocked by the fact that he had eaten beast excrement. However, even in the midst of this, he points out what needs to be pointed out.
"But isn't this a bit strange?"
"What is?"
"The mission proposal said they were transporting military supplies. For that kind of cargo, the wheel tracks seem too shallow."
"......"
"......Hadiya?"
When he looks up at the unexpected silence, he sees Hadiya and Basim exchanging meaningful glances.
"I told you. That guy knows how to strike quite sharply. Oh wait, not 'that guy'. Our Sir Knight is very wise."
"That's right. Unlike someone."
"Huh? Unlike who? Who is that? Why are you suddenly bringing up someone else?"
"......"
The young scout sighs deeply and provides an answer to the earlier question.
"Anyway, Calix, you're right. That's why it's an expensive commission. As you said, if they had transported iron armor, the ground would have been dug deep, but the cargo itself was light from the beginning."
"That means......"
"Right. It seems to be neural accelerator or physical enhancement drugs."
Considering how precious those things are treated, it's not a very desirable outcome for the mercenary group.
That's when it happened.
Dust clouds rose from beyond the riverbank.
Purururur, neighing!
"This!"
Swoosh, swoooosh!
Dozens of warhorses reached the other side of the river in the blink of an eye, made eye contact with the mercenary group, and soon found shallow water to cross the narrow riverbank.
Piiiiiii!
Naturally, an emergency signal fell upon the mercenary group, and when Hadiya blew the whistle, the main force quickly rushed out to form a battle formation.
"Captain! If it's cavalry, it would be better to fight inside the village!"
"......No. Lower your swords."
Captain Royce checks the flag at the head of the cavalry and orders them to drop their combat stance. The flag bears a silver warhorse and two crossed spears.
"It's House Hoover. They're not enemies."
***
Thud thud thud thud-
The sound of hoofbeats shakes the earth, and the villagers who prostrate themselves on the ground as soon as they confirm the flag pattern.
The majesty of the light-armored cavalry is impressive, but especially the appearance of the knight at the front is enough to make one lose fighting spirit.
The silver armor appears free, as if weight doesn't exist, and even without drawing his sword, the composure of a strong warrior seeps out.
However, the tense atmosphere easily softens with a single greeting.
"Sir Estante, have you been well?"
"......Royce, so it was you after all. Have you survived fiercely?"
"Haha, yes. I'm surviving fiercely."
The head of the cavalry that had stopped even breathing was brief. The rookie mercenaries witness the Captain's calm demeanor and only then take a breath.
"Damn shit. I thought today was the day I'd die."
Volga also seems to have felt considerable fear as he spits out profanity, and Hadiya pats his shoulder to comfort him.
"That's understandable. But you can relax. It's House Hoover, right? We've fought together on the battlefield. It's also the place that offered the Captain a knight position."
"House Hoover offered a knight position? The great family that rules the West to a mere mercenary? And the Captain refused it?"
"Um, that's right?"
"My goodness."
However, the anxiety doesn't easily subside.
Come to think of it, this commission was bothering him.
"Wait a minute. Aren't we almost enemies with Duke Saitz, our client? Are we really okay?"
"Hoover is a family renowned for fairness. At least they know what honor is. Don't be so scared...... And don't whisper in my ear. It gives me goosebumps?"
"No, well...... Am I the only one scared? Calix is completely frozen, too."
Volga was half right.
It's true that he's staring at Knight 'Estante' as if rooted to the spot, but it's not born from fear.
'That's...... A knight.'
Is it because he awakened the abilities of heroes Ashapel Raimund and Ranita? It's different from when he saw them in childhood at House Ashapel.
From his nape emanates the same purple light as the Captain or Gregor, but there's a difference that's hard to distinguish by simply thick or thin.
'It feels solidly condensed. There's no trembling of the light. And......'
There are two lights.
One at the back of his neck, one at his chest.
Just as he wonders if knights originally received two implants each, Gregor's voice pierces his ears. The old man had lost the main threads of memory but retained fragments.
"Full plate mail. It's been so long since I've seen that. Cook comrade, if you encounter such an enemy, avoid them if possible. It may look clumsy, but magic stones are embedded in the armor itself, giving even greater strength and speed."
"Ah, so that's what it was."
"And yet he's still mounted on a horse. The horse is also armored. So what does that mean?"
"There was...... One more magic stone. I see it now."
"Exactly that. Magic stones are embedded in the horse armor, too. That's a 'real' knight. While it might be insufficient to call it a calamity of ten thousand years, it's enough to be called a calamity of the battlefield. Think about it. Just charging with the power of magic stones - imagine what situation would unfold."
***
The pleasant reunion quickly comes to an end. Knight Estante left the fishing village to report to the Marquis, and the mercenaries also followed the traces of the trade wagon upstream along the river.
And soon, the information conveyed by House Hoover's knight circulates among the mercenaries.
"We're really fucked. Duke Saitz also dispatched troops? No matter how I think about it, this feels like we'll get stabbed in the back. Why else would they give us 70 gold coins? That's not the price for building a doghouse. If they wipe us out, they don't have to pay, right?"
"But they said it's not elite troops. They sent a knight from a subordinate Baron's house. Since this is a place where House Hoover's influence reaches, those bastards can't directly interfere."
"Anyway, Saitz is always the problem. I'd like to cut out their bottom hole completely."
"Hehehe, what can someone who only has a mouth do?"
Calix's thoughts aren't much different.
Important military supplies like neural accelerators or physical enhancement drugs.
Commissioning mercenaries while additionally dispatching troops.
Even excessive commission fees, though he can't feel it yet, since his financial standards aren't established.
'There's not a single positive element. But we can't refuse a designated commission either. The best we can do is...... Resolve this without encountering Duke Saitz's dispatched troops.'
However, two nights later, the Cottontails end up encountering those they didn't want to meet.
While Hadiya discovered the first attack site and the mercenary group was following behind, they were discovered by dispatched troops who were lost.
"So you're those mercenary bastards. You should know your place. You did well to come this far."
"......I'm Royce, Captain of the 'Mountain Rabbit'. Whatever the commission, achieving what our employer expects is our goal."
Fortunately, only one person on horseback appears to be the commanding knight.
The magic stone embedded in the horse armor emits light that seems about to extinguish any moment, unlike House Hoover's knight, and the knight's neural accelerator is also blue, one level below Captain Royce.
However, unfortunately, the equipment the knight wears itself shows a clear qualitative difference in weapons between the two sides, leaving Royce's expression rigidly hardened.
"From the way you talk, you show signs of being uneducated. Keeping your head stiff in front of a baron is grounds for punishment!"
"I've committed a discourtesy. I haven't learned proper etiquette...... Please forgive me."
If he had frowned at the knight's squire's arrogant behavior, that would have been reassuring instead.
"Caton."
"Yes, Baron."
"There's no time. The price for discourtesy will be paid later."
"Yes. You bastards, the Baron is clearing the way! If you don't want to be punished, hurry up and find the traces!"
"Understood."
Captain Royce resumes tracking with Hadiya at the front while raising his guard to the maximum. Calix felt the same way.
"The soldiers' level is high."
"How can you tell?"
"......Calm gait, undisturbed posture, orderly formation, etc."
"You sound more like a real knight when you talk. Those bastards are just fucking rude."
He lets Volga's whisper go in one ear and out the other.
The soldiers' neural accelerators are all green.
The total combat personnel is about 40, and while veteran mercenaries can fight them adequately, it's impossible to predict how much damage they'll suffer.
'Looking at the Captain's hardened expression, I should assume that subduing or killing the knight won't be easy either. The skill gap should be considered filled by the difference in equipment level. No, we might even be pushed back.'
If that happens, another chaotic battle will unfold, and in the worst situation, the best breakthrough...... Only one remains.
Clang!
"Ah, sorry. Carrying cook comrade's plate too, oh my. The plates keep bumping into each other."
"......It's fine. Don't worry about it, Gregor."
Gregor would need to regain his complete sanity and turn the tide of battle.
But would that be enough?
Would it be wise to leave it to chance?
Crack!
Then suddenly, Calix looks down at his feet at the sound of something breaking. It took some time to identify what the finely shattered object was.
"......It's glass and feathers."
"Hm? Glass wouldn't be in such a remote place. Noble people use it, or when transporting magical items- mmph!"
After instinctively raising his palm to cover Gregor's mouth.
Calix hurriedly quickens his pace to approach the front row. At the right moment, Hadiya was also examining a corpse with Vice-Captain Marik, wearing a serious expression.
"Marik, this soldier has no sword wounds."
"His chest is dented. As if...... Kicked by a horse's hoof."
"Would a soldier with a neural accelerator get kicked by a horse's hoof?"
"It's possible."
The two people look back almost simultaneously. At the dispatched troops pursuing them as if surrounding the mercenary group, and at the knight mounted on a horse in their center.
"But that alone isn't enough. Killing a noble is a serious crime. Even if we get help from House Hoover, giving them a hundred concessions, we need solid evidence."
"Glass and feathers."
"......?"
Calix interrupts and presents what he found earlier.
Glass shards and brown feathers.
"I found them less than ten steps away. The glass pieces seem to have been used to carry enhancers, and the brown feathers would be decorative. For example-"
"Like decorating that bastard's armor?"
"Yes."
"......Marik, these are hawk feathers."
"Hadiya, are you sure?"
"Brown base with black stripes. Pointed tips and overall long oval shape. You can never get these in the West. Even nobles don't decorate with such luxurious items. Usually, you can find them between the central and southern regions, and the great lord of that region is...... Coincidentally, Duke Saitz."
"Same color, same type, and same as what's attached to that knight bastard's armor."
Vice-Captain Marik meets eyes with Hadiya, then shoots a meaningful look at Calix.
Those who fight well are fearless and thus ignorant, while smart ones are cowardly enough to protect themselves as much as they're smart. But Calix has only the advantages of both.
Then what about his comprehensive judgment?
"Calix, what do you think? If we decided to fight, where and how would it be good to fight? Any opinion is fine. Speak comfortably."
"......"
The answer is decided.
"Let's go into the forest."
"The forest...... Why?"
"I remember what Hadiya said before. I think we should fight in a space with limited visibility. They won't attack first until they recover the cargo, so if we disappear from their sight at some point and then attack sporadically, they'll be tense every moment and exhaust themselves from constantly running their neural accelerators before even fighting. Reducing casualties on our side is a bonus."
"......"
"That's just...... My personal thought. Was I out of line?"
At this, Marik gazes intently at Calix, then heads toward Captain Royce while stroking his lips.
He's trying to hide the corners of his mouth that are rising without him knowing it.