Chapter 51

(Sphere of light... fairy?)

I turned to look at the fairy from my mother, who was flying anxiously near the leader.

It was yellowish-green, but its size and round shape were the same as my mother's fairy.

"Mil, Kugaru, are you okay!?"

Everyone who was worried came running over.

I realized that the black-clad men had also disappeared from the scene. They must have fled while we were being attacked by that bird.

Could the two who attacked me and Kugaru at the same time be accomplices?

"That bird was a spirit... right? Do you know it, Mil?"

The one-eyed knight, while fixing my hair that was messed up by the wind and the necklace with the red stone that had shifted to my back, started checking if I was injured.

Tina was examining Kugaru, who was resisting.

"We don't know it. And I think it's probably not a spirit but a fairy. In the end, it dissolved into light, right?"

"…So, the main body is somewhere else. The bird seemed to be targeting only Mil and Kugaru. Do you have any idea why you were attacked?"

"No."

"Kugaru?"

"No, I don't know him either."

"Hey, one-eyed knight. Wasn't that bird working with those humans?"

I looked up at the one-eyed knight.

Even a spirit as cooperative with humans as my mother would lend its power to a country, not to an individual.

But I thought that a spirit like me, an oddball, might lend a hand to a human it liked.

"Yes... I see..."

The one-eyed knight nodded, thinking about something, but then stood up and turned to the captain and the sub-captain.

"About those men earlier... I recognized one of the men I fought. I don't know him well, and he was hiding more than half of his face, so I'm not completely sure, but it doesn't seem like a coincidence."

He prefaced and continued.

"I had seen his face several times in the knight's order when I was in the capital."

"...So, they are knights of this country?"

The captain frowned, and the one-eyed knight twisted his lips, looking uncomfortable.

"Yes, I don't know his name, but... I know who his superior is."

"Who is it?"

Before the one-eyed knight could answer the captain's question, the sub-captain interjected.

"Wait, I also recognized the eyes of the man Kicks was fighting. I don't know his name, but he is—"

The sub-captain hesitated for a moment, then continued with a bitter expression.

"—Captain Sarell's subordinate."

Everyone except Kugaru gasped at the name.

The one-eyed knight quietly agreed.

"I've also seen that man several times behind Captain Sarell."

Thinking that those men were Captain Sarell's subordinates and that this attack was ordered by Captain Sarell, it seemed quite plausible.

Captain Sarell is aiming for the position of sub-captain at the northern fortress.

According to Kicks' information, he is a scheming and unpleasant person, and it wouldn't be surprising if he thought, "If I want something, I'll knock down the person who has it and take it."

The captain, touching his short beard, said,

"I don't want to believe that Sarell has fallen so far..."

"But he might, you know."

Kicks, who argued, started saying the same thing I had thought.

"For example, if Captain Sarell thought that Sub-Captain Cromwell was in the way and set up this incident..."

"Jumping to conclusions isn't good."

"Even if it's just a hypothetical scenario, Tina. But if Captain Sarell was the mastermind, it would explain why those men knew about Mil and Kugaru's true identities and tried to kidnap them. If the two of them, being children of spirits, were kidnapped, all of us—especially the sub-captain—would be held responsible in the knight's order. Plus, we would lose the trust of Snowlea and the disappointment of the royal family."

"The result would be that I would have to leave the northern fortress."

After the sub-captain, who was talking about his own situation calmly, the one-eyed knight spoke.

"However, the man the sub-captain knows and the man I know might have already left the knight's order and are no longer Captain Sarell's subordinates. It's been years since the sub-captain and I were in the capital."

"Yes, we need more information to conclude that this was Captain Sarell's doing. Kicks, you used to be under Captain Sarell, right? Did you recognize any of them?"

The sub-captain looked at Kicks and asked, but

"Even though I was under him, I was just a low-ranking new recruit, so I rarely met Captain Sarell, and I remember that he always had his entourage around him. But if you ask me if the man I fought was part of that entourage... hmm, I'm not sure. He was hiding his face, so I couldn't tell. I didn't have the time to observe the other four men's faces either."

Kicks just crossed his arms and tilted his head.

"Then, Captain? Did you recognize any of those men?"

In response to the sub-captain's question, the captain also crossed his arms and grunted, "Hmm..."

"I don't remember."

"You don't remember?"

The sub-captain's expression turned cold as ice.

"You are usually in the capital, and you meet Captain Sarell at every meeting, right? As Kicks said, Captain Sarell usually brings his entourage or close subordinates, so you should have many opportunities to see them."

Under the sub-captain's questioning, the captain broke out in a cold sweat and became flustered.

"Well, I'm not good at remembering faces. Especially when I meet Sarell, he always finds fault with me, telling me to trim my beard or put on a jacket, so I avoid making eye contact. That's why I don't know the faces of the subordinates around Sarell."

"You are..."

The sub-captain sighed like a school teacher, and the captain hurriedly said,

"Wait! I also have useful information. The valley in the territory of the D'Almon Duke, Sarell's family, has a deep gorge."

I tilted my head, wondering what this had to do with anything.

The sub-captain also had a merciless look, as if he wouldn't tolerate any nonsense, but his expression changed when he heard the next words.

"Recently, a 'Wind Spirit' has visited there."

"Wind Spirit?"

"Ah! The bird from earlier! It must be a fairy created by the Wind Spirit!"

Following the sub-captain, I stretched my neck from below to join the conversation.

I felt like I had been forgotten since the serious talk started.

"It seems the Wind Spirit is fickle and moves around the world, changing its residence. About a week ago, it appeared in the D'Almon valley and decided to stay there for a while. The D'Almon Duke must have visited to greet it with his subordinates and Sarell. However, since government officials were also present, Sarell probably didn't have a chance to talk to the Wind Spirit personally, but he might have tried to contact it again after the officials left."

The captain said to the sub-captain and the others.

Since he wasn't looking at me at all, I wondered if he didn't realize I was part of the conversation, so I tried to speak up louder.

"Captain Sarell must have 'persuaded' the Wind Spirit, right? Isn't that it?"

"Whether by what means, it's possible that Captain Sarell has gained the cooperation of the Wind Spirit."

The sub-captain, with a troubled look, said something similar to what I had just said, overlapping my words.

That's because I said it first!

"Exactly! I don't know what means he used, but—"

"Both the men who attacked us and the Wind Spirit are related to Captain Sarell, right? Isn't it conclusive? We should act on the assumption that we are being targeted by Captain Sarell."

I growled and bit Kicks' boot, who had interrupted me.

You jerk, you jerk!

"Ouch, what's the matter!?"

"Indeed, we shouldn't let our guard down. If their goal was to attack Mil and Kugaru and make the sub-captain responsible, they failed this time. They might try something again. ...What's wrong, Mil?"

The one-eyed knight, while picking me up as I was lashing out at Kicks, asked.

"Hey, isn't Captain Sarell smart?"

Regaining my composure, I asked the one-eyed knight,

"Yes, he is. Each commander in the headquarters has a staff officer, but it's said that Captain Sarell doesn't need one."

I received this answer.

(If he's that smart, he might be able to manipulate even a spirit as his pawn...)

It's usually impossible for a spirit to lend its power to fulfill a human's selfish desires, but if the Wind Spirit was persuaded by Captain Sarell?

I thought about it, recalling his emotional eyes, which seemed to genuinely dislike me and Kugaru.

If Captain Sarell was the mastermind, what did he say to persuade the Wind Spirit?