Return and Report
“My name is Michelle, the Holy Maiden of Gentle Rain!”
“My name is Pietro, the Inquisitor of Wax Wings!”
“Together we are Sunglaire’s White Binary Stars, Michelle & Pietro!”
The two men and women struck their pose.
In front of them sat an elderly man on a wooden crate. He watched their perfectly executed pose and applauded.
“Mm! I can’t get motivated for the day without seeing this! Michelle, and Pietro, good work on your safe return!”
“The mission was successfully completed!”
“Oh! Well done! …Really?”
“…Only partially.”
“Hey now!”
“Hiiiie!”
The old man stood on top of the wooden crate and puffed out his chest.
“Let me hear the specifics! How did the mission succeed, and how did it fail?!”
“Y-yes! As ordered by Temple Commander Isidro, we infiltrated Harpelian military territory, targeted the fortress supply lines, and destroyed ruts using water magic… Michelle’s magic succeeded in destroying one rut, but… unexpected interference occurred, and that was the extent of our results…”
“One?! Just one?! Pietro-kun… that’s no good! That can hardly be called disrupting logistics!”
“Hii! Th-that’s exactly right! I deeply apologize!”
The old man sat back down on the wooden crate and crossed his arms.
Within his wrinkled face that looked difficult to please, only his eyes blazed brightly blue like a young boy’s.
“Hmm, what kind of trouble?!”
“…Please listen, Temple Commander! When we were about to carry out the rut destruction operation, there was an incredibly strong swordsman on the other side!”
“Yes, that’s right! Two Harpelians were repairing naturally damaged ruts… We thought we could easily eliminate just two people, but one of them, a mixed-blood man with black and white hair, was a swordsman that even Pietro couldn’t handle…!”
“Hmm…! Stronger than Pietro who possesses ‘Wax Wing’?! That scene… interests me! Could you reenact it a little?! Pietro will play himself, and Michelle will play the enemy swordsman. Now, begin!”
When the old man clapped his hands, Michelle and Pietro faced each other with serious expressions.
They both readied their morning star and mace, emanating killing intent.
“I am Pietro! One of the Holy Knights of the Sunglaire Holy Kingdom! Before I crush you, let me hear your name!”
“What, so you are the honorable Pietro of Sunglaire’s Holy Knight Order! It’s an honor to meet you! My name is Mongrel! I am Harpelia’s strongest swordsman!”
“For the pride of our homeland, let us fight honorably!”
“Let’s fight!”
And so the two began clashing their blunt weapons together, creating a scene like an elegant sparring match.
The old man watched the battle while resting his chin on his hand on his knee, deep in thought.
“Hmm… The front lines aren’t going as planned either, and this infiltration was read in advance… I hear Lord Tubaris was seriously wounded, and Holy Knight Morsenu was killed in action… On top of that, even our desperate supply line destruction mission had strong enemies waiting for us…”
“Seiya!”
Pietro’s morning star sent Michelle’s mace flying high into the air.
“Behold, swordsman of Harpelia! This is the power of the Holy Knight Order!”
“Oh, what strength… This Mongrel is deeply impressed by Pietro-sama’s supreme technique…! Could you possibly grant this mixed-blood person like myself an opportunity to convert…?!”
“Hey! Pietro’s winning! That’s completely different from what you said! You came running back, didn’t you!”
“Hah?!”
“Honestly! You two are strong but you make mistakes over incomprehensible things! This retreat was probably also due to misjudging the battle situation!”
“No, that’s…”
“He really was…”
“In any case! If the logistics sabotage has ended in failure, then further deployment is meaningless!”
Standing up from the wooden crate, Temple Commander Isidro straightened his clothes.
“We of the Heliopose Diocese Army are withdrawing!”
“Wh-what?!”
“Why, Temple Commander?! The war has only just begun!”
“You two are fools! Sunglaire has had the worst start from the beginning! It’s a loss! A loss! At this rate, our Sunglaire soldiers will just die in vain! It reminds me of the old Strube quagmire!”
Temple Leader Isidro of the Heliopause Diocese.
Although he was a man entrusted with a unit of the Sunglaire army, he hadn’t been particularly enthusiastic about this war from the beginning.
Information about their invasion preparations being completely leaked to Harpelia had reached his ears, and he’d also heard that the enemy’s provisions were fully stocked from consecutive good harvests. Even if they managed to successfully cut off the Bradley territory, it was clear that the subsequent prolonged war wouldn’t continue. If they had been lucky enough to completely destroy the supply lines, the story might have been different, but if that had also failed, then it was hopeless.
It wasn’t worth it just for the sake of plunder. At best, it would serve to reduce the number of useless mouths to feed. And that mouth-reduction had already been achieved to some extent.
“There are many other temple leaders who aren’t enthusiastic about this either, so the discussion should wrap up quickly! We’re going home, Michelle! Pietro!”
“Yes, sir!”
The Holy Kingdom of Sunglaire wasn’t united as one.
Some plotted fierce invasions, while others wanted to focus on domestic problems.
Temple Leader Isidro was more of the type who wanted to devote himself to domestic government affairs.
“However, I’m hungry! Michelle! Pietro! Since you’ve finally returned too! Today you can generously eat two days’ worth of rations! It’s not going to be a prolonged war anyway!”
“Really!?”
“Yay!”
After driving away the Sunglaire duo, Michelle & Pietro, I then repaired the broken wheel ruts together with the following wagons, took plenty of time, and caught up with the wagons I had sent ahead. Well, I say caught up, but they had already arrived at the fortress.
“Mongrel-san is alive! Thank goodness!”
“Well, I wasn’t going to die—”
“But somehow it seemed like you were definitely going to die with that kind of farewell!”
Apparently I was being treated as someone who had sacrificed himself to help everyone escape. I certainly might have put my body on the line, but as you can see, I was unharmed.
But being worried about like this doesn’t feel bad. One way or another, I’ve built up the kind of relationship where these guys would worry about me.
Of course, I wasn’t just worried about—I also ended up having to explain the situation and what had happened.
I sat face-to-face with the unit commander at the fortress and was asked about various things.
I thought I might be suspected strangely since I’m half-Sunglaire, but there were several people who could testify that I was a swordsman who couldn’t use magic, and when compared with Risd’s testimony about the same encounter, there were no suspicious points.
There was no particularly unpleasant atmosphere—it was just a matter of explaining things matter-of-factly.
“So you encountered soldiers named Michelle & Pietro…”
“I did lightly threaten them with throwing knives. I don’t know if they were scared of that or what, but when I poured water on the wheel ruts, they retreated pretty quickly.”
“Hmm…”
“Honestly, it didn’t seem like I could win against them, so I was relieved when they retreated.”
The unit commander picked up a dented throwing knife that had been lying on the roadside and groaned.
Since my sword doesn’t have any nicks in the blade, this is about the only place where traces of combat remain clearly visible.
“A Gift that flies toward the sun… It’s not exactly suited for combat, but if you set up a strategy beforehand and use it for retreat, it seems like it would be easy to use. At dusk it could even be used for attack… Mm. Mongrel, was it? Good work. I don’t know if it’s an enemy the higher-ups already know about, but bringing back information about an enemy Gift user is good results in any case. As a result, the supply lines weren’t cut either.”
“Haha, thank you. …Speaking of rewards, if we could rest for a while… Our team seems to have gotten pretty worn out from this incident.”
“Mm, very well. Rest at this fortress for a while. I’ll speak to the follow-up supply units.”
Good. Now we can rest for a bit.
While I’m fine, the other rookies seem to be having a hard time, so if we don’t take a big break around here, it’s going to be tough.
I don’t know whether the war will drag on from here, but it’s certainly better to rest when we can.
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