TMAM 02

Chapter 02 

**Strange Visitor**

The war was over.

At last, people put down the swords they had cherished like their own lives and returned to the pens or tools they had originally possessed.

The first to leave their garrisons upon the news of the armistice were the commanders of noble birth, followed by the knights, and then even the regular army soldiers scattered in all directions.

While the honorable knights were exempt, the lower-ranking soldiers took the small sum of money they had received and left to find a place to go.

But she had no place to return to, nor anything she needed to take up again.

The earliest memory she could recall was from eight years ago, at a military garrison located in the Ploheim Forest on the western border of the Regentra Empire. After that, it was all war.

She didn’t even know if she had any family, nor did she know her own name. The end of the war didn’t mean much to her.

“The war is over.”

“I know.”

She answered dryly to her only close comrade, Ian’s, question.

She had also heard with her own ears the Emperor’s declaration ending the eight-year-long war.

The empire had lost, and Regentra had earned the shameful name of a defeated nation, but she didn’t care. From the beginning, she hadn’t fought with loyalty or honor.

“But why do you keep wiping your sword?”

“That’s so that in case of an emergency…”

Flora, who had been diligently wiping the blade with a dry cloth, paused.

As Ian said, she probably wouldn’t need to carry this sword anymore. Her hand had moved out of habit.

But only for a moment. She immediately resumed moving her hand. For a swordswoman to neglect her sword maintenance meant she was ready to die at any moment.

The moment you feel safe is the most dangerous. Rather than regretting a rusty sword, it was better to maintain it now, even if it made her look foolish.

Knowing it would sound like an excuse, Flora added to his words.

“Besides, there’s nothing else to do here anyway.”

“That’s true, too. I hear the high-and-mighty nobles are in quite a predicament because of us.”

Though they were soldiers, they were treated like murderers within the military. With the war over, the disposition of the 12th Division, known as the most ruthless on the Western Front, became an obstacle for the empire, now steeped in peace.

Specialized only in killing, these individuals were alienated like outcasts internally, but other kingdoms paid them enough attention to inquire about their next moves.

Among them, the Kingdom of Vercelium, which had formed a coalition with three other nations to invade Regentra, was the first to press the issue of their fate.

The protracted meetings dragged on, and reaching a conclusion was slow. Meanwhile, Flora’s hair, which she had cut short, had grown long enough to reach her chest.

“Tch, how many months has it been now? Everyone else returned to the capital ages ago, but they’re keeping us here using training as an excuse. Even a passing dog would laugh. Do they think we don’t have heads?”

“…….”

“They worked us like dogs when it suited them, but now we’re an eyesore to those high-and-mighty lords pretending to be noble. What a godforsaken country.”

Ian, whose orange hair wouldn’t show dirt even if he covered himself in it, swept it back coolly, stretched his neck back, and looked up at the sky.

The clear, refreshing sky, not thick with the acrid smoke of shells, felt very unfamiliar.

It felt like flames could erupt at any moment, crisply burning all the greenery in the area. But all he could hear were birds chirping and leaves rustling in the wind.

That somehow irritated him, and he continued.

“And we, who slaved away to protect that godforsaken country, are even more godforsaken.”

The Western Front, where they currently were, had performed admirably thanks to their abilities, but the problem had erupted elsewhere.

The Eastern Front collapsed, and the Eastern Castle fell in an instant. The soldiers of the West and South could only helplessly hear the news of defeat from their respective camps.

That was how the war ended. It wasn’t a war fought out of patriotism for the empire, but it still left a bitter taste.

The one small saving grace was that the nation hadn’t been destroyed, so the prestige of the Regentra Empire could be maintained.

By the Emperor signing the humiliating documents acknowledging the massive reparations and the defeat, they were able to preserve their own safety and the name of the country.

“I didn’t.”

“Huh?”

Ian, who had been staring at the sun setting beyond the horizon behind the forest, turned his head as if asking what she meant.

Flora, who had been holding her fully wiped, gleaming sword vertically to check if her face reflected on the blade, continued without turning her head.

“I didn’t fight for this country. I did it for myself. To survive.”

“Ah.”

Ian finally understood Flora’s meaning and chuckled.

Her answer was perfectly correct, not a single syllable wrong. Within the 12th Division, there was absolutely no one who had joined to annihilate the enemy out of loyalty to the empire.

Unlike other unit members who were formally knighted, the commoners were little more than a collection of people who prided themselves on being somewhat strong and gathered to make money.

Therefore, most of them were of poor character, and causing trouble was commonplace.

Flora, who had voluntarily come to the notorious 12th Division, which was extremely avoided even for conversation or association, was a strange breed among strange breeds.

Ian nodded, stretched his arms wide, cracked his back, and then rested his head on his clasped hands. Then he just said what he wanted to say and watched Flora for a long time, silently wiping her sword until it shone.

*Who would have thought that a girl who used to carry buckets in a shabby skirt and suddenly asked to be taught swordsmanship would grow to surpass my own skills?*

Despite her delicate appearance and a body as slender as the sword she held, she possessed the best skills among the soldiers of the 12th Division. And she was the only comrade whose skills he acknowledged here.

*Comrade.* He wondered if she thought of him with that same word, though.

Smirking, Ian picked up the sword he had placed on a rock and stood up.

“It would be a waste of the sword you just polished, so how about a spar? I am your teacher, after all. I can’t just stand by and watch my student neglect her swordsmanship.”

“Have you forgotten that I surpassed that wonderful teacher a long time ago?”

“That was me going easy on you all this time, you know?”

At Ian’s pompous words, Flora also smiled, lifted her bottom off the ground, and brushed the dirt off her clothes.

The sun was setting, but that didn’t matter to them at all.

—

More than half a year of such meaningless time passed, and finally, people of high status visited the barracks where the 12th Division was staying.

There had been no news of anyone’s visit scheduled for that day, but the atmosphere had been mysteriously restless since morning.

Flora, returning from swordsmanship practice with Ian in the nearby forest, saw that none of the personnel who usually loitered outside were around, so she quickly placed her hand on her sword hilt.

“Hey, wait. There’s no smell of blood.”

Ian, telling her to calm down, walked past Flora and took the lead. Soon, murmuring voices were heard from the direction of the largest barracks where the administrator stayed.

“Looks like everyone’s gathered over there?”

Ian said jokingly, but Flora didn’t let her guard down. Even though the war was over, there were still many people who didn’t look favorably upon their existence.

“Let’s go in too.”

Flora agreed with a nod and removed her hand from the sword hilt.

As they pushed aside the thick curtain, indeed, at least thirty or more men were gathered closely together. Because of this, unlike the tall Ian, Flora couldn’t see what was on the side they were staring at.

“Want me to give you a ride on my shoulder?”

Ian, knowing her predicament—she was three spans shorter than the men—giggled and asked.

Flora shot him a look that said she’d rather cut off his neck and ride on it than climb onto his shoulder, then squeezed between the soldiers and looked up at the man standing on the platform.

“At last, the Council of Elders has decided the disposition of the 12th Division.”

The owner of this gruff voice was the administrator. The sole administrator they had, a man who didn’t treat them as fellow soldiers but always fiddled with his beard and acted arrogantly.

Normally, they would have ignored him as others usually did, but the content caught their attention.

*Would it be death? Would they be sold off and transferred somewhere? Or there was also the possibility that Vercelium would take them.*

“His Merciful Majesty the Emperor, regretting your outstanding abilities, has concluded that each noble house shall take you in.”

The lengthy praise, as if to say they must never forget the grace, was followed by words that finally allowed them to grasp the meaning.

*’So they’re going to dispose of us to the nobles.’*

Lifting her heels and craning her neck, she saw several men standing behind the administrator. All of them stood arrogantly, as if trying to cause trouble, with pale faces as if they had never once held a sword.

Then, one by one, names began to be called. The crowd that had filled the front seemed to slowly dwindle.

“Ian.”

Even after the last one, Ian, was called, the administrator only glanced at Flora and did not call her name.

There must have been no noble who claimed to want her. Perhaps thinking that women were quite trickier than men, who could be beaten into submission until they became like glue, no one readily stepped forward to take her.

Of course, there was one idiot whose eyes widened the moment he saw Flora’s face, and he reached out as if bewitched, about to take her.

But when the noble next to him whispered something in his ear to come to his senses, his face quickly turned pale and he hurriedly lowered his hand.

Nobles are the kind of people who go crazy for women and pleasure, but it’s a different story if that woman is dangerous enough to take their heads.

No matter how beautiful she was, like a goddess, it would be troublesome if she quietly lay with him at night, then suddenly changed her mind and stabbed him in the belly.

It means there’s no man who would willingly take on a wild mare like her, especially when obedient women are a dime a dozen. Even more so if that woman was rumored to be terrifyingly untamable.

“Well then, let those who were called follow their benefactors.”

The administrator, judging that no one would want Flora, tried to wrap things up hastily.

Just then, suddenly, a tall man from the very back, who seemed at least a head taller than the others, stepped forward.

The noisy barracks fell silent in an instant.