BlazBlue:Spiral Shift - Hyokujin no Eiyu Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Mucro Algesco: Yukianesa/ Laughing man

Part 1

In the midst of the gunfire, Jin hid behind the trees that filled the dense forest.

No matter which way he turned his head, whether he looked up or down, he could only see dense foliage, branches, trunks, and grass. The smell of earth was so thick that it was almost nauseating while there was no breeze to be felt at all.

It was terribly hard to hide his breath in this. The sweat on his forehead had never seemed so annoying.

After being prodded by the siren and shortly briefed on the enemy's formation, Jin ran into the forest under Grimwood's command.

He ran and stopped repeatedly, following the others, for what seemed like... over twenty minutes. There was a gunshot somewhere, and Jin knew that the battle had begun.

Grimwood immediately split the squad in two. The four soldiers, including Karenjina, went ahead. Grimwood, Jin, and Honoka stood by at this spot.

During the instructions, Karenjina kept her hands on the ground and listened intently. Eventually, she stood up and said…

“I can go.”

As if on cue, the advance team of the ninth squad dispersed into the forest.

Jin, who had been assigned to the waiting group, gripped the large pistol that had been provided to him, ready to attack at any time, and leaned his back against a thick tree trunk to focus on the sounds around him.

He didn't have time to get a detailed explanation of what kind of strategy the squad was going to take. The only thing he was told by the huge captain was that enemy soldiers were wandering into the area and that they should be defeated.

"...The enemy, do you think they'll come this way?"

At Jin's feet, Honoka, clutching his gun, which was also supplied to him, shrank in the shade of the overgrown grass, He peered hurriedly at the other side and then pulled his head back.

Taking one glance at it, Jin tilted his head shallowly.

“Who knows.”

He had meant to say, "Don't waste your breath," but it seemed that Honoka hadn't heard him anyways.

He peeked his head out once more, then quickly pulled it back and let out a long, yet very low sigh.

"Ah, I'm so nervous. I can't believe we're going to have a real fight as soon as we get here."

“That’s right.”

At first, he wanted to warn him about the private conversation, but all that escaped from Jin's mouth was a murmur of agreement.

Since they had come to a war zone, they were prepared to fight at any time, but they didn't expect it to start so suddenly.

It felt like reality was being thrown into their mouths one after another when they were not ready to swallow it. It was not a good feeling, by any means.

"Lieutenant Kisaragi."

"Ah!"

Honoka's voice hardened as he gasped for breath. Earlier, Jin had focused his consciousness sharply.

Grimwood raised his hand at face level as he disappeared into the jungle. Behind him were only Jin and Honoka.

His hand cleaved the sky. Forward.

Jin moved as if he were sliding. Immediately after that. A soldier with his muzzle pointed in the wrong direction came flying out of the forest ahead.

He was a soldier of the Ikaruga Federation.

Instantly judging the situation, Jin attacked the soldier who was about to turn around from behind. He grabbed the soldier's arm with his gun in his hand, twisted it, and threw him down on the ground. Without waiting for the soldier to breathe, he slammed the bottom of the gun into the base of the neck, causing the Ikaruga soldier to faint in a daze.

“Damn it, get out of here!"

"What the hell are they doing, where did they come from?!"

Panicked voices were heard from the front again and Ikaruga soldiers appeared one after another from behind the bushes. It was as if they were being chased by something.

When the four soldiers finally found Jin, they jumped out and hurriedly raised their guns. However, a large battle axe snatched all four of them in one fell swoop.

It was Grimwood who was swinging the big axe.

The battle axe, which was even taller than his large frame, had a large blade and took up a lot of space. But despite its apparent unsuitability for the dense jungle, Grimwood skillfully wielded it.

The long handle shot straight through the intervening vegetation and accurately struck an enemy soldier between the eyes at a distance.

An axe with a large blade can fell a tree as thick as Jin with a single swing.

Without letting his momentum get the better of him, he knocked down a poor enemy soldier who had jumped out of the bushes to the ground.

But it was the back of the axe that took the enemy soldier in one swipe, which saved Jin from getting the blood of the soldier blown up in front of him.

This was not for Jin's sake, but simply for the ease of fighting. In the forest, where footholds are poor, the scattering of flesh and blood is a hindrance.

"...It seems like he isn't just big muscled, huh?"

A few words of truthfulness spilled out of Jin's mouth.

Because of his rough appearance, he thought that he would be more of a rampaging fighter, but it seems that Grimwood was not that simple of a man.

Rather the opposite. While wielding his axe with gusto, he instantly judges from which direction the enemy soldiers are coming and prepares to intercept them.

And from the direction he had turned his attention, the enemy soldiers would indeed appear, as if they had escaped from somewhere.

(Escaped? No, wrong. We're being driven into a corner here.) Jin thought and before he even knew it, he prepared himself to follow Grimwood's sharp consciousness and steel up for the enemy soldiers.

The ones who were driving the enemy soldiers back are undoubtedly Karenjina and the others who were ahead of them. They spotted the enemy troops, disrupted them, and led them to the rear where Jin and Grimwood were.

It was Grimwood who commanded them and gave them detailed instructions. Occasionally, he would glance into the distance or raise his axe as a signal to Karenjina and the others.

While firing bullets from behind the bushes at the enemy soldiers who reappeared, Jin looked sideways at Grimwood.

He was a rugged man for whom the battlefield suited him well. However, his weapon was not his well built body or the axe he wielded with his strong arm, but his excellent leadership, flexible grasp of the battle situation, and precise instructions.

(This is like a hunt.)

Jin thought, and strongly convinced himself.

That's right. This was a hunt.

Unleashed hounds find their prey and drive them away, while their masters wait and kill them.

But in order to do that, you need a good commander who can give precise instructions to the troops, a good sense of direction that keeps you on track even in the forest, and the sense of smell of a beast that can find its prey.

Jin wondered if that's what Grimwood and his team were carrying as a whole squad.

Suddenly, Jin remembered. The ninth squad of this base is sometimes called the Hound Squad. This may have originated from their fighting style.

(But how is that even possible?)

When Grimwood gave him a look, Jin turned and pointed his gun at him. Three Ikaruga soldiers appeared ahead of him, and without a moment's hesitation, Jin shot the first one in the shoulder.

He closed the distance between them and kicked the first one in the side of the head, knocking him into a coma. Then, he immediately switched to his gun and hit the second one in the face with the bottom of the gun, followed by a knee to the stomach.

"Damn... it..."

The third person finally understood what was going on and raised the muzzle of his gun. Jin kicked him in the arm and elbowed him in the chest. After firing a few more bullets, the soldiers were all stretched out on the grassy ground.

“Not bad.”

Grimwood chuckled a little further away. Jin returned a cool glance.

That was Jin’s line, too. Before he knew it, there were three new soldiers lying at Grimwood's feet.

His skill was unquestionable. In addition, he had an excellent ability to command his men. He was not stupid.

Karenjina and the others under her seemed to be quite useful soldiers, as they were able to disperse the enemy soldiers and guide them to here.

So why is it that this frontline base is struggling to the point of being called the "worst" while having troops like them that can be called "excellent" without question? Jin wondered.

In fact, even now, the battle situation was clearly in their favor. Ikaruga’s soldiers have already lost all semblance of control and there was no such thing as a formation.

If Grimwood and his men were so inclined, they could toss around soldiers of this caliber and take over this jungle and push the front line to the stronghold beyond.

(So why don't we do that...?)

Either the other troops are blindingly incompetent or there is a secret about Ikaruga that Jin has yet to see.

Otherwise, there is a more different reason.

He was tracing the barrel of an unfamiliar gun with his gloved finger.

From his side of the line, he heard a strange rhythmic sound of gunfire. It sounded like a joke for a gunfight. Jin looked up to see what was going on, and Grimwood lowered his axe at almost the same time.

"It's about time. All right, let's get out of here."

"Wh-what?"

Grimwood's words, as he lowered his broad shoulders, caused Honoka to roll out of the bushes in dismay.

“By "retreat," you mean withdraw, right? Why is that? I've already gone through so much trouble today and now this~..."

It looked like they were going to win. Although they faltered and broke off, Honoka's words were clear.

Jin also looked at his large superior with a puzzled expression on his face.

Grimwood placed the blade of his axe down on the ground like a staff and leaned against it, his lips hanging up in a smile. It was a wry smile.

“This is our 'job'.”

“What's that supposed to mean?"

It was Jin who asked the question. He didn't know what Grimwood's smile meant, nor did he know what the words meant.

"We're also known as the Hound Squad. Have you heard of us?"

“Yes.”

"As the name suggests, we are 'hounds'. We find our prey, drive them away and then let our superiors (alternatively 'masters') 'hunt' them."

While Grimwood was talking, Karenjina and the others came back from the deep forest. They were much dirtier than when they had left, with small scratches here and there, but none of them seemed to have any life-threatening injuries.

After confirming that his men were safe, Grimwood nodded his head.

“Let's go back then. Job's done."

A rough voice was heard from the center of the allies, so that it might have been mistaken for his words.

“Go, go! Ikaruga’s soldiers are nothing to be afraid of, kick them all to the curb!"

It was the voice of that commander.

Through the trees, He could be seen charging straight into the enemy line with many of his men, making his presence known to the enemy in the dense jungle where visibility was poor for better or worse.

The soldiers surrounding him had a somewhat different atmosphere than Grimwood and the others. They were more unfamiliar with the battlefield, and smelled like the well-behaved and well-mannered guards of the Librarium headquarters that Jin had seen every day until a short while ago.

They charged into the enemy lines, which had already been thrown into chaos by Grimwood and the others, and began to "hunt" the remaining Ikaruga soldiers with loud gunfire.

"...So that's how it works."

As expected, Jin understood. He could feel his emotions cooling down.

In other words, this is a battlefield, but it is also a hunting ground.

The guards of the Librarium were originally born into respectable families and were treated with a certain amount of favor. They may be relatives of political executives or of aristocratic lineage. It was a hunting grounds for those who go into battle as guards in order to acquire the prey of victory.

The skirmishes never connect to a decisive victory because they are wreaked by "superiors" who don't know or understand war very well.

But as long as this is a hunting ground, it must continue to be a battlefield that is exposed to moderate danger.

So this is war. The "worst" front?

(Trash...)

(Is this what I came here for? I came here to be a dog that chases down its prey for the sake of "masters" who mistakenly thinks it is something special.)

The thought of the head of the Mutsuki family, who had taken on more responsibility than anyone else for this war and was probably still busy in his office or somewhere else, flashed through Jin’s mind.

Did he know about this reality? Did he send Jin away knowing this? If he did, what were his feelings about it?

But, at the end.

“...it doesn't really matter."

Jin muttered in a faint voice that no one could hear.

He didn’t care what kind of place this is or how many petty pretensions and agendas it's infested with. It didn’t matter who dies and who survives for it.

With that in mind, he shouldered his gun.

And then... came the moment.

Suddenly, there was an explosion in the forest.

“Wh-what happened!?”

Honoka shouted in a voice that was raised in surprise.

The area was shaken by the aftermath of the explosion and orange flames shot up in a corner of the forest.

Some kind of scream echoed through the jungle. It was not a human voice. This was a howl... the howl of a "Seithr Beast".

"There they go again, those idiots!"

Looking back at the roar, Grimwood's voice rang out in anger, but his anger was not directed at anyone here. It wasn’t known who it was directed at.

But more than that, Jin gasped at the unpleasant presence. When he sensed the unfolding of an unknown Ars Magus around the roar and flame, he rushed out at full speed.

“Hey, wait!”

Grimwood and the others wanted to stop him, but the voice of restraint was already out of Jin's consciousness.

He shook off the thin branches sticking out of the ground, roughly shoveled through the thick grass and headed straight for that presence.

It took a few dozen seconds. After passing through the ivy-covered and crooked trees, Jin shook off the bushes and jumped out of the way, only to see the soldiers looking up at him, speechless, and inching backwards.

It was the uniform of the Librarium.

Kicking the dirt again, Jin turned to meet their gaze.

"Gaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!"

The roar of that Seithr Beast came from right in front of him. The owner of the voice painted with destructive intent, which a human throat could not possibly emit, was a giant whose entire body was made of rock.

Its height was still less than two Grimwoods combined. The huge demonic beast, with its eyeless and noseless face, was looking around from side to side and rampaging, reaping trees and people at random.

There was no longer any distinction between friend and foe.

The Ars Magus that Jin had sensed earlier had probably been used to summon or manipulate this giant, however, it had already escaped the control of said Ars Magus and was no longer capable of making decisions on its own, but only of reaping and crushing those around it.

Someone was crushed by the rock fist that swung down. One of them, covered in spattered blood, screamed insanely and fled into the forest.

With that, everyone scattered and ran away, shouting something incomprehensible.

There was not a shred of 'order' or 'leadership' in it.

Some of them ran without thinking and collided with someone they didn't know and fell down, only to be crushed to death by the giant.

The sound of flesh crushing flesh was drowned out by the horrible screams and helpless gunfire.

“Jin, are you okay?”

Grimwood and the others caught up with him, scrambling through the bushes behind Jin.

But as soon as they realized what was going on, they both stood back.

“I've never seen a Seithr Beast like this before in this forest!”

Karenjina’s voice was strained and disconcerted. As Grimwood held his ax up to protect his men, his face twisted into a bitter, grim expression.

"This one... we are not going to be able to handle it with our current equipment. We'll have to retreat and join up with the main force."

It would certainly be difficult to take on this guy with bullets or an axe. Grimwood's judgment was spot on. With that in mind, Jin stepped forward, interrupting Grimwood's words.

“Hey, back off, Jin!"

Grimwood reached out to stall him, but the sliding Jin slipped through his fingers and stopped in front of the giant.

The rock giant was still surrounded by the hapless figures of soldiers who had failed to escape. Keeping them at the edge of his vision, Jin threw away the gun in his hand.

A clatter with a frivolous sound bounced off the dirt.

"Ji-!"

Grimwood's impatient voice was absorbed and faded from Jin's consciousness.

Standing quietly, Jin lowered the sword he had been carrying on his back. A blue scabbard with a green handle. He held it horizontally in front of him, looking straight at the giant and gripped both handle and scabbard firmly.

The air was cold.

The forest was so hot that if you just stood still, you would sweat instantly, but as if the scene had changed completely, cold air flowed in from somewhere and spread.

At the center of the coldness was Jin.

Or, more accurately, the sword he held.

The air grew even colder.

Still, even more.

It was as sharp and cold as the edge of a sharpened blade and it surrounded Jin and the rock giant.

—Kill

There was a whisper in Jin's mind.

It is like a voice but not really a voice actually, like a will that is not a will actually.

It was like a vibration, a tremor of something dark that was born and lit deep in his chest.

Gradually, it began to circulate through Jin's bloodstream. As he savored the sensation of it spreading, Jin glared coldly at the rock giant.

Seithr Beasts are beings that are made and affected through seithr and this giant was summoned by an Ars Magus that uses seithr as its medium.

Jin's neck muscles buzzed with the presence of the dense seithr swirling around inside his huge body.

—Kill, Kill...

—Kill, Kill, Kill, Kill, Kill, Kill, Kill.

——Kill it.

The moving boulder swung its misshapen arms high in the air. The faceless head looked down with an eyeless gaze at Jin, who remained motionless with his sword at the ready.

I thought I heard someone shouting.

I wonder who it was. Was it... the voice of my brother, who I had parted from in death on a distant childhood day?

No way. He's dead. He was murdered.

Then what are these voices? It was noisy. It resembled the moaning of a beast.

(Shut up! Be quiet! Stop interrupting me!)

Jin exhaled. It was an icy cold breath.

The wind roared overhead. The giant swung their arms down in unison.

He looked up at that.

“Activate, Yukianesa.”

The moment Jin whispered the words, everything froze.

In accordance with the words, the freezing began to take root. The ground that Jin stepped on, the grass that surrounded him. The tree beside him, the ivy running through it, and the rock giant who was about to swing his fist down at Jin.

After a beat, a cool sound like hitting ice was heard.

Immediately, the giant's body split into four pieces and fell to the ground. It was as if it had been slashed crosswise with a very sharp blade.

The blade was none other than the sword that Jin was carrying. However, no one present could see the moment when Jin pulled out his sword.

It was all over in a blink of an eye.

“What the hell was that...?"

Karenjina muttered in a stunned voice as she was dumbfounded

It was Honoka, who had retrieved the gun that Jin had thrown away.

“It’s a Nox Nyctores. Nox Nyctores Causality Weapon: Mucro Algesco: Yukianesa.”

Honoka's voice trembled with joy and his cheeks were pale with elation.

Beside him, Grimwood was staring desperately at the unbelievable reality.

"That's the Nox Nyctores... It really exists...?"

Karenjina’s agitation, Honoka's excitement, and Grimwood's astonishment did not reach Jin's ears.

The blond-haired recruit, who had slashed and discarded the giant in an instant, lowered his sword in its cold blue scabbard and quietly turned on his heel.

Before he knew it, the sky had taken on the color of dusk. In the distant sky, a small star twinkled dimly, as if it were a piece of scattered ice that stuck to the sky.

Part 2

The inside of the tent was filled with shadows. The result of the light from a lantern on the desk was kept to a minimum, and the subdued light directed in all directions cast black shadows all around the tent walls.

In the small light of the lamp, a man sitting on a chair laughed, and the shadows on the tent wall also laughed.

“More than anything, it went well.”

"Yes, sir. There was no problem in activating the Nox Nyctores. We've confirmed that it was activated successfully."

There were two men in the tent.

One was a middle-aged man with a broad belly on his belt, the commander of a battalion of the Novus Orbis Librarium which was camped in the jungle of the Ikaruga Federation.

The other was a slender young man, wearing a black suit, black hat, with green hair and a thin smile on his mouth.

“So. It was more than planned... or is it on schedule? That's Jin-Kisaragi for you."

It was the general commander who sat on the chair and talked pompously.

“But it's really powerful, this Nox Nyctores thing. To conquer and bury that many beasts. I'm looking forward to the day when it’s put to practice as a real weapon.”

“I couldn’t agree more. Thanks to you, the data collection is going well. Thank you very much for your cooperation.”

The words of a man in a black suit, which sounds exaggerated, seem to be comforting for the battalion commander. He was very pleased with the attitude of the other person, who was overly abasing himself.

With a scheming look on his face, the battalion commander smiled greedily.

The man in the suit looked at it from behind his hat and smiled.

Part 3

Jin, Grimwood and the others returned to the base just before the sun went down and the forest was enclosed in darkness.

Here and there in the base, generators powered by seithr were working with a low hum, providing minimal lighting to the tents and serving areas. The iron frames that held the dirty white light bulbs were quite rusty from exposure to the wind and rain and looked as if they had been here for years.

Jin and the others returned to their tents, receiving thanks and praise from the fleeting soldiers who had escaped with them, and even more gratitude and praise from their comrades who had heard their stories after that.

Feeling a little fed up with the different welcoming mood from when he arrived, Jin ducked into the dark and quiet tent and turned on the white light.

As he took off his gloves, which were stained with dirt and blood from the enemy soldiers, he thought he could finally take a break, but this time Jin was met with compliments from the soldiers of the 9th squad.

"That was amazing earlier, Lieutenant Kisaragi!"

As soon as he put down his gun, one of the soldiers ran up to him with a glow on his face and a hint of excitement, but then another one grabbed Jin's shoulder with a friendly smile, a far cry from the daytime.

"I've never seen such a powerful Ars Magus before ...I apologize for having been so rude."

"...No, You don’t need to worry about it. And besides, I was helped a lot by your leader a while ago. It's thanks to you all that I came back mostly unscathed from my first battle."

It was uncomfortable to suddenly be praised openly. The words came out as a way to gloss over the issue, but what Jin said was the undeniable truth.

Grimwood's troops were excellent. In a battlefield where you never know what tomorrow will bring, Jin thought he may have been lucky to be assigned here.

The two soldiers who spoke to him smiled tantalizingly and shook their heads.

“No, it's my pleasure. It's very encouraging to have someone like Lieutenant Kisaragi as the captain's adjutant."

“Adjutant?”

Jin couldn't help but ask back at the unexpected appearance of the word.

This made the soldiers roll their eyes rather puzzledly.

“After Captain Grimwood, the next highest in rank is you, Lieutenant Kisaragi. Wouldn't that be obvious?"

The other soldier, who had been fiddling with his gun a little off to the side as if something was bothering him, looked up and said.

“Now that you mention it, that’s right.”

Jin was less impressed and more convinced.

He hadn't paid much attention to their ranks because he wasn't interested in them, but as he recalled, Karenjina said she was a corporal. He didn’t remember asking the other three what their ranks were, but if they didn't say, it must mean that they were lower than Karenjina.

(So that's what it means.)

Jin looked at Karenjina, who was untying her equipment.

Perhaps she was also concerned about this, and soon their eyes collided. Karenjina frowned in a sullen manner and turned away.

“I'm going to wash my face.”

She spoke that over her shoulder, then quickly got out of the tent.

Grimwood arrived at the same time.

"Oh, the food's ready. Make sure you eat well after you get some rest."

As he spoke, he placed his favorite weapon, the large axe, in a corner of the tent. Jin walked up to it.

"Grimwood. There's something we need to talk about..."

The slight hush in his voice was to let him know that it was a confidential conversation. Grimwood immediately sensed this and looked at the back of the tent.

“Do you want to go inside?”

“No, preferably..."

He wanted to get rid of all eyes except for Grimwood. This time, the soldiers sensed his intentions and emptied the tent so that they could eat dinner. If this flexibility was also a tribute to his earlier achievements, then it was worth to defeat that rock giant.

The entrance to the tent that had been shoveled closed back up with a heavy thud and they waited for the outgoing soldiers to leave for a good minute.

In the meantime, Grimwood sank his strong body into a simple chair.

The tents assigned to each of the squads were too spacious for two people to occupy, no matter how big they were. A lonely ambiance hanged in the air.

“I told the commanding officer to gloss over the earlier matter.”

“Is that so? Thanks, that saves me some trouble.”

Jin replied briefly to Grimwood's words. The case in question was Yukianesa. As the name implied, a Nox Nyctores is a unique weapon. It was not a good idea for anyone to know that a new recruit was carrying one. Jin asked him to keep it under wraps and Grimwood said he understood and will assume responsibility for it.

But Jin's talk was a different topic.

There was no one in the vicinity of the tent. After looking around him once more, Jin placed a hidden object in front of Grimwood.

It was a stone block half the size of Jin's face. A yellowish-gray stone with fine black sand in it. Grimwood could see what it was at a glance.

“Is this a piece of the giant from earlier?”

“Yes.”

“How did you get this...?”

He looked down at the lump of stone lying on the table.

"This was created by a non-Librarium Ars Magus."

Ars Magus is a kind of artificially created form magic that uses seithr to create various phenomena. In order to activate it, you need to have an aptitude for it, as well as something called a "Grimoire".

It is also the Librarium that gathers and manages the countless number of Grimoires in one place. The number of Grimoires managed by the Librarium is enormous and for this reason, it is sometimes sarcastically referred to as thr "Library" by rival organizations such as Sector Seven.

In other words, most of the Ars Magus in the world are under the control of the Librarium.

The fact that other Ars Magus are being used in the civil war suggests the possibility that Ars Magus are being developed somewhere that is not under the control of the Librarium. There is a fear that the technology of Ars Magus owned by the Librarium may have been leaked, or one can imagine a more sinister scheme.

With all this in mind, Jin turned his sharp gaze to Grimwood.

"When you first heard the explosion, you said 'those idiots'. What did you mean by that?"

It wouldn't make any sense to try to trick this guy or probe him in a roundabout way. It would only put him on unnecessary alert. Determining that, Jin asked the question too directly and straightforwardly.

“...You are indeed the owner of a Nox Nyctores."

His mouth twisted into an indescribable shape that was both bitter and amusing, then Grimwood grabbed the stone block that Jin had placed infront of him.

Suddenly, he put a lot of strength into his hand and crushed the lump of stone as if it were a glass ball. He had a tremendous grip.

“It seems that Mr. Commander was not aware of the Nox Nyctores... am I right? Jin, 'who' is the one who sent you here?"

The way he shrugged his shoulders caught Jin's attention. It was as if he had found something he shouldn't have.

Jin scowled. If Grimwood knew 'who' sent him here, then would it be inconvenient for him?

"I'm the one asking the questions. Answer it."

He said as if he was thrusting words at him.

Instead of answering, Grimwood dropped his gaze. He opened his stone-crushing hand lightly and fragments of sand spilled from between his fingers onto the desk.

Grimwood did not answer. The silence clearly meant that there were some circumstances.

Should he have asked again? Just as Jin was about to open his mouth, the cloth at the entrance of the tent was pulled open.

“Grimwood. There's a transmission for you from Yabiko.”

The one who got inside was Karenjina, the petite woman with brown skin and dreadlocks. Grimwood immediately stood up.

"Yabiko. Okay."

Jin chased after him, his voice slightly hoarse, as he made his way out of the tent without hesitation.

“Wait, we're still talking!”

"Headquarters's on the line. Do not interfere."

Quickly turning around, Karenjina blocked Jin's path.

As he was leaving the tent, he thought he saw Grimwood looking at him for a moment, but in the end, the muscule packed captain left without saying a word.

The heavy cloth at the entrance came down, and now Jin was left alone in the tent with Karenjina.

Grimwood's heavy footsteps moved further away.

As he listened, Jin glared at Karenjina, who looked up at him as if she was looking down at something annoying.

Looking back at the cold ice green eyes undauntedly, Karenzina lifted the edge of her lips sarcastically.

"That Art you just used. Is that the 'Nox Nyctores'?"

She said, somewhat mockingly. Her hands rested on her smoothly curved hips, her eyes fixed on the pale scabbard in Jin's hand. She gave him a depreciating look.

"You've brought in some pretty extravagant stuff, but using a person from the Duodecim... It seems even a privileged family like the Kisaragi family can be used as 'guinea pigs'.”

"Guinea pigs? What are you talking about?"

He didn't know what Karenjina was talking about. When Jin frowned and clouded his voice with doubt, Karenjina raised her eyebrows up in mockery.

"Didn't you realize it yet? What a pity. You're just like those noblemen around here who flaunt their great power conceitedly."

“I don’t understand what you are getting at. What are you trying to say?"

There was a dark feeling of pent-up resentment in the way Karenjina spat out her words at him.

He well understood the fact that she was accusing him of being a member of a prestigious family and she made it clear that she felt ill will towards people of that kind. However, just because of that, it doesn’t mean Jin could just be convinced with her taking it out on him as an individual. That was a different matter.

“The lab animals are getting high and mighty is what I am saying. It's really annoying that they're forcing their 'nuisance' onto our troops."

Saying this as if spitting it out from the bottom of her heart, Karenjina glared at Jin without hiding her aggressive tone.

It was not even a matter of shunting. He was no different than being directly accused of being an abomination.

Jin was not so gentle as to try to keep a calm attitude after being told so much. He was going to let some of it slide, but it was frankly unpleasant for him to have to go on like this forever.

“You seem to be trying to irritate me, which is annoying. If you don't like me, that's fine. Don't talk to me."

"How can a recruit be so high and mighty? Are you saying that the Duodecim are more important than a bunch of rogue mercenaries? Or do you already feel like a superior?"

“I don't mean to, but I'm not going to play along with your paranoia either. Are you really that unhappy that you were forced out of your position as second-in-command? If you don't want to be despised as a mercenary, you should learn a little more about the military organization.”

"Wha-!?"

Karenjina raised her voice, her dark skin flushed with red. She took a big step forward and tried to grab Jin's chest, but just as she was about to do so, a different hand reached out from her side and pulled her away.

"Hey, hey, hey. You two need to calm down."

It was Honoka who half-heartedly and forcefully stepped in between Jin and Karenjina, who were staring at each other. Jin didn’t know where he’d been before and come to think of it, he couldn’t find him until now. As he pushed the chests of his two superiors apart until they were barely out of reach, Honoka looked from side to side and smiled wryly.

“You can't have a fight on base. We're all in the same squad after all, right?”

Honoka, while repeating the last bit many times over, tried desperately to persuade the immature adults to calm down. Jin had no choice but to put his unsettled emotions in check when that boy, who was probably much younger than him, said that.

Karenjina seemed to think the same way and with a bitter expression on her face, she reluctantly stepped aside.

“It's not like we were fighting."

She said this in an attempt to disguise her lack of decorum, her arms crossed as if she was holding her taut chest.

Sighing, Karenjina slipped past Honoka with a supple gesture, then headed for the place where Grimwood had been a moment ago. She stopped in front of a chair and looked down at the pile of sand and pebbles scattered on the table.

It was the remnants of the stone that Grimwood had crushed moments ago.

“...You were asking the Captain about this earlier if I recall correctly?"

Unclasping her crossed arms, Karenjina softly spoke up.

Her voice was quiet. She looked down at the small pile of sand with an indifferent gaze and dug her finger into it, taking a scoop in the palm of her hand.

"This is some experimental Ars Magus."

The sand spilled from Karenjina's hands and fell again onto the table. Jin's eyes blinked. It was just as he thought. Hearing the faint sound of his breathing, Karenjina turned around with a thin smile on her face.

“You're not so stupid after all."

She said that with a girlish softness, rather than the stiff, masculine voice of a soldier. This must have been the real tone of Karenjina's voice. It was a throbbing voice that suited her well.

"I don't know how they make Seithr Beasts, but the Librarium gives it to “them” as new weapons. To the stupid nobles, to specific."

Said Karenjina, who had stopped behaving in her stiff demeanor,as she crumbled the pile of sand with her fingers. With a cold glare, she flicked a small piece of the stone with her fingertips and rolled it around as if this object holds height to her.

"Those fools use it with glee. They think they're the chosen ones, without thinking about how dangerous what they've been given is."

The nobel people who were born and raised in this area come here on a regular basis to take advantage of the hunting grounds, to build up their military prowess. Without merit, there is no promotion. So if they were given special weapons for that purpose, who wouldn't use them on the battlefield? After all, they are coming to this base to earn merit. In the first place, those who truly want to participate in the war as soldiers and fight for the Librarium are the troops that will be sent to a more proper battlefield.

“Of course, there are times when the new weapon will produce unexpected results, but most of the time it doesn't. Sometimes it'll just kill lots of people and other times it's..."

"...taken by the enemy."

A murmur spontaneously escaped from Jin's mouth as he scooped up the muddled end of Karenjina's words.

Karenjina didn’t say anything, but her closed lips spoke affirmation.

Subconsciously, Jin clicked his tongue.

“Just as I expected, that giant was originally an Ars belonging to the Librarium, wasn’t it? But, It was used by the Ikaruga Federation...”

As a result, the rock giant summoned by the unofficial Ars Magus lost control and went berserk.

Perhaps one of the several bright red blotches on the ground at that time was the casters who had summoned the giant. Whatever the actual situation was, the fact of the matter lied in how more than a few people had died in vain thanks to that annoying "new weapon".

Karenjina brushed the sand off her fingertips and leaned over the table.

"The Library and Ikaruga guys are both the same. They don't give a damn about human life."

She must have encountered scenes like today's one many times. Probably the other soldiers of the 9th squad, and Grimwood as well.

"This is not a 'battlefield'. It's a 'testing ground' for those idiots."

There are enemies, there are allies and there are reasons to fight. There is no better place than the lively battlefield to test a large-scale new weapon such as new Ars Magus. It is also a good place to get data on the actual situation, to see how much damage the weapon will cause to the enemy and the allies.

(So this will continue to be the "worst" battlefield with no progress or retreat?)

It was a hunting ground for noblemen to earn achievements and a testing ground to measure the results of weapons development.

Therefore, no matter how hard you fight, the war situation will not move. There is no need to move it. In fact, it is "meaningless" if it is moved. Jin gripped the scabbard of Yukianesa in his hand tightly to the point it could break if it were a normal scabbard.

(Then why was I assigned here?) Jin asked himself.

At least it was not to change the situation at this base. They were not expected to be a force to be reckoned with in order to win the battle and push deeper into Ikaruga.

If that is the case.

(...Yukianesa.)

Finally, Jin understood what Karenjina meant by "guinea pig" earlier.

It is not Jin himself who was being sought after. It is Yukianesa, Jin's personal possession.

The purpose of this research was to find out how powerful the Nox Nyctores sword would be on the battlefield, and whether it would be able to withstand actual use as a weapon. Jin guessed the purpose was to investigate such things.

That's why Jin was sent to the "testing ground" instead of the "battlefield. That was probably, no, that was the reason.

Jin chewed on his lips in secret. He felt a lingering twinge of annoyance.

He hadn't originally intended to stand on the battlefield for anything. Jin hadn't become a soldier for the sake of the Librarium, nor for a sense of righteous indignation and definitely not for justice, but because the Kisaragi family, who raised him, demanded it.

So he had no intention of playing a leading role in dramatically changing the situation of the civil war. But he didn’t want to be made into a clown playing a farce. More importantly, he was uncomfortable with the idea that someone unknown would be using this sword.

“Anyway, I don't want to die 'cus I'm caught up in your aristocratic complacency. Just remember that."

Once again, with hostility and rejection in her voice and eyes, Karenjina said in a biting tone.

Jin remained silent, but stared back at the brown-skinned female mercenary with an unsettling look in his eyes. The information he was able to get out of her was useful, but that doesn't mean he was going to accept this attitude. In between Karenjina and Jin, who were once again creaking the air, Honoka dropped his shoulders and sighed like he was fed up.

"Now, now. Corporal Karenjina Parsett, I'll pretend that I didn't hear you say anything 'rebellious' against the Librarium, so why don't we make up now?”

Honoka may have meant to soothe the situation, but his comment was even more offensive to Karenjina. The word "rebellious" was particularly wrong.

Karenjina, who steeply lifted the corners of her eyes, glared at Honoka as if he was her enemy. But before she said anything, things were brought to a close by another voice.

"Just as he said. Leave it at that."

Karenjina raised her eyes at the calm, powerful, and deep voice. Grimwood had come back through the entrance of the tent. As soon as she saw Grimwood, Karenjina turned her head in an uncomfortable way and her tone faltered.

"I'm sorry, I... I was out of line."

She bowed lightly to Grimwood, not to Jin, with whom she had been arguing and walked quickly out of the tent.

“She’s not a bad girl, but she's a mercenary, She's got a lot on her plate. Don't be offended."

“I don't really care about ......."

Jin answered in a composed tone, without any excess facial expressions.

Yes, there was no need to worry about it. All he had to do is do the work that was required of him in the way that was required of him. That is all.

There was nothing anymore left for him to do in his life but this.

She bowed lightly to Grimwood, ignoring Jin and walked quickly out of the tent.

“She’s not a bad girl, but she's a mercenary, she's got a lot on her plate. Don't be offended."

“I don't really care about it."

Jin answered in a composed tone, without any facial expressions, without a hint of emotions.

Yes, there was no need to worry about it. All he had to do is do the work that was required of him in the way that was required of him. That is all. There was nothing anymore left for him to do in his life but this.

After becoming aware of what this base was, it was still the “worst” frontline base in the world.

Attacks from the Ikaruga Federation took place at morning and night. Sortie orders were issued as many times a day as needed.

Whenever that siren sounded, Jin took his weapon and went into the forest to engage the so-called "enemy soldiers". Then make up a winnable battlefield and retreat.

He had become accustomed to working as a "hound" through repetition.

As many battles as he had, Jin had shown his outstanding strength to the members of the 9th squad, and his strength had built a certain amount of trust between him and the members of the 9th squad.

But Karenjina was different.

On the battlefield and at the base, she did not acknowledge Jin. She never accepted him. She never looked at Jin the way she looked at her friends. Jin also didn't want to try to repair his frayed relationship with her. If she didn’t want to be acknowledge him, then that is fine. If she didn’t want to accept him, then that is also fine. In Jin's opinion, it had nothing to do with the fighting.

Karenjina and Jin mutually felt the same in that regard.

However, there was still something concealed in her heart. At the bottom of it something was obvious, but how could he trust someone who wouldn't show it to him?

The people around them became accustomed to the stinginess of their relationship before anyone else tried to mediate between them. Occasionally, there was an exchange of sarcasm, and there were also voices raised in frustration. However, They weren’t obsessed with trying to completely eliminate each other, and before they knew it, many days passed...

Before he knew it, Jin's life at the frontline base had lasted more than a month.

Back to Chapter 1: The Human of the Kisaragi Family / Distorted recognition

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