No Apology Needed
"What the hell are you saying?!"
"Apologize to the Second Lieutenant."
At that, the flushed-faced man let out a sharp snort of laughter.
"Ha! Fuck, so what if that woman's a second lieutenant? I'm a captain! A captain!"
He thrashed and bellowed at the top of his lungs. The whole scene was pure chaos. One of them hung suspended in midair, roaring like a drunk at a karaoke bar, while the other flailed with completely ineffective punches.
Ashlyn clicked her tongue before she could stop herself.
He's completely out of his mind.
In the middle of the mess, Sergeant Vilef's face remained expressionless. But it wasn't his usual unreadable, withdrawn blankness. The cold light glittering beneath the brim of his cap made her chest go tight.
Dangerous.
If Sergeant Vilef so much as left a scratch on the man…
If something like that happens, I might be fine—but the sergeant would be the one in real danger.
The world truly was unforgiving toward Wildmen. If word ever got out that a sergeant had laid hands on an officer of the Willem Kingdom Army… the entire country would turn upside down. Overnight the papers would explode with screaming headlines: Violent Wildman Soldier Runs Amok, Werewolf Sabotages the Allied Pact. She had to stop that disaster at all costs. Ashlyn shouted at the man.
"Stop—stop it! Stop!"
But even her urgent cry didn't move the sergeant an inch. He kept his grip on the man's collar and only rolled his eyes toward her. Meeting that inhuman gaze, she was suddenly back in the trenches during the imperial raid.
Back then Sergeant Vilef had signaled her with his hands.
—Do we go in?
What did I answer him?
The reply came back to her instantly.
Go in, I told him.
She remembered exactly how he had obeyed that order. How could she forget? Right before her eyes the sergeant had become a monster. With shotgun, with shovel, with a crescent blade sharp as a new moon, he had torn the enemy apart without mercy. The memory made the floor drop out from under her feet—and at the same time the gravity of the present situation snapped into sharp focus.
Newspaper headlines aren't the real problem right now.
This could turn into something far worse. Ashlyn spoke with iron finality.
"Stop."
"……"
Once more, putting more force behind the words.
"I said stop. Sergeant. Can't you hear me?"
That was the moment he simply released the power in his hand. With a heavy thud the drunken Willem captain dropped onto the marble floor, landing hard on his backside and toppling over backward.
"You bastards!"
"I told you that was enough, man!"
While the enraged captain spat out slurred, unintelligible curses, Sergeant Vilef kept his eyes locked on Ashlyn. Without so much as a glance at the man on the floor, he answered casually,
"He looked drunk, so I was just steadying him."
"Steadying him, my ass—you sons of bitches, you Istar bastards think we're idiots!"
"Get lost while I'm still asking nicely."
"You fucking piece of—!"
The one companion who still had some of his wits about him dragged the sprawled drunk away, muttering the whole time.
"Th-this makes us even. Let's just call it even!"
"Who the hell is calling it even?!"
"Come on, man, enough already! What do you think you're gonna do picking a fight with a mage?"
"……"
At the word mage, Sergeant Vilef turned his head again and fixed them with that freezing stare. Under those eyes the two men scrambled away even faster. Ashlyn called to him once more.
"Sergeant Vilef."
"……"
"Sergeant Vilef, I told you I'm fine."
Pull yourself together. You're starting to scare me too.
Then, in a low murmur, the sergeant spoke.
"The apology…"
"…What?"
"I didn't hear an apology."
"……"
"Are you all right?"
Want me to go drag them back right now?
All the tension drained out of Ashlyn's shoulders at once. She gave a weak laugh.
"Ah, if that's all it is, forget it. What were you expecting from a couple of drunks who aren't even in their right minds?"
"Still…"
"Thank you for caring about my honor. I mean it. But there's no need to confront them head-on like that. You've been in the service long enough—you know that better than anyone."
"……"
She really was grateful that he had cared about her honor. Compared to the cocky trench rats back in Kran, it was almost touching.
"And this is precious leave time. Isn't it a bit of a waste to spend it dealing with a bunch of drunks?"
Somehow her voice had slipped into a coaxing tone. But the mention of wasted leave seemed to reach him; he gave a small nod.
"…Yes."
"Let's check in first."
She gave his elbow one last light tap and headed for the front desk. Standing before the clerks who were still pouring cold sweat, Ashlyn smiled politely.
"Two single rooms, please. The ones with the best view."
Once they had finished checking in, the two of them reunited in the ground-floor lobby. The sergeant was already there, sitting on a sofa with his arms folded and his eyes closed. Afternoon sunlight poured through the windows and spilled across his body as if he were sunbathing. Ashlyn paused on the landing between the second and first floors and simply watched him for a moment.
Looking at him like this, you can still see the boy he used to be.
The youthful face from the personnel file was still there. Not completely unchanged, of course—there were the deep furrows between his brows, the hard set of his mouth, the features that had grown sharper and more solid. And yet…
Why does he feel so familiar?
As if she had brushed past him somewhere before.
That strange sense of déjà vu vanished the instant she reached the first floor. He opened his eyes. Beneath pale lids, irises of an unnaturally vivid color appeared.
"Second Lieutenant."
He settled the cap he always kept on his knee back onto his head and rose. Ashlyn nodded.
"Today's plan is a movie, then dinner at a restaurant. Shall we?"
"…A movie?"
The sharp edges of his eyes softened the tiniest bit. That flicker of surprise made Ashlyn smile without meaning to.
"Yes, a movie. We've come all the way into the city—we ought to watch at least one, don't you think?"
Strolling through late-afternoon Parieri beside Sergeant Vilef, Ashlyn found herself thinking,
It's not nearly as awkward as I was afraid it would be.
Before they left on leave she had carefully planned what they would do together. Showing up with no plan at all would only leave them with bad memories. Honestly, she had no idea what topics they could even talk about. Their backgrounds, their environments, their values—everything was different. Most fundamentally of all, they were different races. Idle chatter could easily turn into an unintentional insult. Better to watch a film and then fill the evening talking about that instead.
Still… it really isn't as awkward as I expected.
Stepping out of the hotel with the sergeant, Ashlyn quietly exhaled in relief. Maybe it was the little incident with the Willem officers in the lobby, but she even felt a strange sort of closeness toward him now.
The languid air of late afternoon wrapped the clean streets of the New Town. Passing a row of shops with brightly colored signs, Ashlyn asked the man walking beside her,
"Sergeant. Have you been to Parieri before?"
"…More than ten times, I think."
"That many?"
"Most of the eastern operations stop through here."
What? And he said he never has anything to do on leave…
She felt oddly cheated.
"Then you probably don't need to stick with me the whole time. If you'd rather go off on your own—"
The answer came in less than a second.
"No."
"……"
"I'm fine, Second Lieutenant."
"O-oh… Right. If you say so."
A moment later the cinema came into view.
"…Well, at least we won't get lost."
Even from a distance there was no mistaking it for anything else. Enormous posters painted in the dramatic Parieri style, glowing signs, murals covering the walls—among all the colorful buildings it stood out as the most flamboyant of all.
As they drew closer and the posters grew clearer, Ashlyn's face twisted into a faintly sour expression.
Of course… a movie with a mage as the hero.
A man hurling bolts of lightning from both hands, a woman standing loyally at his side with a pitiful expression, and a third figure with a terrifying face—almost certainly a vampire. Somehow she already felt as if she had seen the entire story from opening credits to final fade-out.
Approaching the ticket window, Ashlyn asked carefully,
"What films are showing right now?"