At the top of the steeple, the bell that was supposed to be there was gone now, leaving a vast stone floor and large windows covered in sleet. The windows surrounded the whole room, offering a view of all cardinal directions.
Citri approached the window facing west. It was almost dusk, but thick, black clouds blotted out the sunset glow. In the distance, over the empty plains of what would have been Neunarkis, hung a mist full of sleet. She looked out to the distance, her eyes red and puffy from crying too much and her cheeks stained with tears.
“—I always thought that city was like a palace made of moonlight.”
Her hometown. The city, consumed by the Legion, that she longed to return to.
“It was my favorite fairy tale, you know. A prince living in a lunar palace made of the golden light of the full moon. Every night, the spirits of the starry sky that were reflected in the lake would cross a bridge made of a midnight rainbow to meet him.” She turned to face him, smiling through her enfeebled lips and her pale complexion. “If that prince really existed, I’m sure he’d be a lot like you, Yuuto.”
Yuuto smiled despite himself. “…That’s the first time anyone ever said anything like that about me.”
People did say he was like a Juggernaut. A few times, even. They called him a combat machine who had no emotions, like a Legion, a Juggernaut. Because he always looked at things coldly, accepting everything as it was. He was able to survive, but he wasn’t strong enough to protect others, and it always seemed like everyone by his side had a way of dying and leaving him behind. And so without ever letting any of them linger in his heart, he survived the Eighty-Sixth Sector.
“…The first time,” Citri said, giggling. “Then I’ll say it more. Your hair is pretty, like the color of the moon, and your eyes glow like nostalgic fire.”
Citri, blind as she was to Yuuto’s worst traits, kept speaking of him in terms that didn’t fit him, with words so beautiful that they caused him pain. He never tried to shoulder any curses, but being cursed would have been preferable to this. Presented with the cowardly self-effacement, those words felt so much heavier.
Like a beautiful, cruel fairy of the starlit lake.
“I’m the first girl who ever said anything like that about you. So you’ll probably never forget me. I will—”
✦ ✦ ✦
—be your curse, then.
✦ ✦ ✦
For a moment, Yuuto closed his eyes. And then he managed something akin to a smile.
“Right. Let’s go together, Citri.”
Citri smiled blissfully. “Thank you.”
Who were those words directed at?
Her slender fingers reached for her hair, undoing one of the ribbons holding it tied together. He accepted the ribbon and, after a moment’s hesitation, kissed the back of her hand. This was his oath, his way of saying—I have accepted your curse.
Citri smiled and, holding that smile, took a step back, then another. This really was the end.
“And let me ask you to do one more thing. Don’t look at what’s about to happen. Don’t look at me.”
I want you, of all people, to remember me as I was. To think of me as pretty.
“…Yes.”
He turned on his heels, like he was shaking free from her gaze. Behind him, he could feel Citri lean out through the window, like she was returning to the heavens. She did it so the stone steeple—and its spiral staircase—wouldn’t crumble before Yuuto could get off.
✦ ✦ ✦
An explosion rocked the spiral staircase’s gloom, its rumbling traveling through the walls.
Yuuto never turned to look.
✦ ✦ ✦
They rendezvoused with the remaining force at their gather point in Nakiviki City within the Montizoto territory, then headed northwest before looping back to Rüstkammer. Shin left Undertaker—overused from the trip back—with its designated mechanics, Guren and Touka, and stood in the hangar’s corner. As he sipped on a mug of soup that civilian volunteers from the supply team had given him, Second Lieutenant Perschmann approached Shin.
“It’s good to see you back, Captain.”
“We’ll be deploying again as soon as maintenance is complete. How’s the fortification setup going?”
“It’s finished. I have the map right here, and we’re preparing to distribute data containing it to all Reginleifs. We’ll be handing out copies to the Wulfsrin who’re already in position.”
✦ ✦ ✦
✦ ✦ ✦
He spread out the map and began memorizing all the trenches, anti-tank impediments, and artillery positions drawn on it as he asked more questions. The engineers and heavy-machine-gun handlers already retreated. That just left—
“What about Fortrapide City’s civilians?”
“The engineers couldn’t take them along, so we’re having them stay at the base. The city is confirmed empty,” Second Lieutenant Perschmann said.
“We’ve got our families and the little ones all huddled in one place, Captain,” a female Vargus soldier who’d come with her appended.
Many of the Wulfsrin boys, who were in their early teens, were moving about the base as runners and combat-engineer staff. Those younger than that were small children who were of no use on the battlefield, but they had to be evacuated, too.
Or so Shin thought, but then the female soldier coolly continued:
“The little ones are still Wulfsrin. We raised them not to start bawling if a shell lands. Even if the civilians panic, the little ones’ll calm them or at least keep them in one place, so you can rest easy.”
So they weren’t targets for evacuation, but rather in charge of keeping the peace in the shelters. It was only now that Shin thought the tradition of having the Vargus as border guards was a pretty terrible one. Meanwhile, the female soldier started talking in a phony, coquettish manner.
“By the way, Captain, what’s your age range? If you’d like, you could try fooling around with an older woman like me after this.”
She was joking, of course. This was just her way of trying to break up the mood and give this young officer a moment’s reprieve; he must have felt so much stress, exhaustion, and fatigue after hours of fighting and retreating while slogging through mud, with only a defensive battle with no end in sight coming up.
And it worked; Shin snickered. It was only a brief exhaling of air, but he was able to laugh, even if it was a bit forced.
“Sorry, but I have a girlfriend. Try someone else.”
“I did think that someone like you might have a woman, or two, or three, or four. That’s why I said, ‘fooling around.’”
“I only have one, plus it’s one of this base’s commanders. And a queen on top of it all.”
He’d be in trouble if he had a second or a third girl. This made the soldier straighten her back at once.
“Aye, I’ll keep my mouth shut. If I pick a fight with Her Majesty, she might have my head chopped.”
For some reason, Perschmann nodded stoutly next to her, in a way that seemed to say, Wise decision.