Arthur put the bowl of soup he had resting on his knees down on the ground and, as if pursued by something, hurriedly left the place where the two people were.
A nauseating sensation churned in his stomach, and it felt like something was about to spill out from the corners of his mouth.
Arthur quickly hid himself in the forest behind the barracks, where there were many rotten trees.
The boy looked strangely at Arthur, who had suddenly gotten up from his seat.
Gridia could only sadly ask the boy to understand Arthur.
“Gwaaack!”
Arthur, hiding beyond the rotten trees, abruptly vomited up whatever had been forcefully rising in his body.
Due to not having eaten anything for over thirty hours, Arthur’s vomit was almost completely transparent—pure gastric acid. This made his throat feel incredibly irritated.
“Phew, spit.”
Arthur spat a few more times to clean out his mouth.
Why this sudden onset of vomiting from his stomach, he couldn’t fully understand himself.
“…No common sense.”
Arthur’s left arm began to shake violently with sharp pain.
It hurt.
It was hot, and yet numb, too.
Lifting his robe, Arthur looked at his bleeding arm, which he hadn’t seen in a long while. The sudden reappearance of this long-forgetful pain remained a mystery to him.
“Ha…”
A sigh.
Followed afterward by a sudden, despondent laugh.
Arthur kept laughing for so long that he doubted whether he had gone insane.
After such a long while of laughing like a madman, Arthur finally left the shade of the rotten tree and returned to the bonfire.
The sound of the fire drying the mud blended with the vibrating thick strings of the guitar as I clutched the chords. My left hand still hadn’t developed calluses, so the discomfort was intense.
Looking at the empty soup bowl on the ground, the shadows of the bonfire danced. That was when Arthur, who had been hiding in the shadow of the decaying trees, revealed himself.
He returned to his seat as if nothing had happened and picked up the soup bowl that he had placed on the ground.
“…”
The Holy Maiden, Gridia, silently grabbed Arthur’s hand as he sat next to her.
For a moment, Arthur looked at the hand that held his, then redirected his gaze back to the soup. He took a spoonful of it and swallowed.
“Things that seem insignificant at a glance often enrich our daily lives. Like a warm bowl of soup filled with meat… or liquor, cigarettes, and music.”
Gridia, speaking as she brought Arthur’s pipe to her own mouth, said so.
…She must have enjoyed the music.
“Thank you. I’m not particularly knowledgeable about music, but I could perceive some sort of complex composition. Please play for us again sometime.”
“…!”
Upon hearing Gridia’s words of gratitude, I looked at her with wide eyes.
“Is something wrong? Did I say something strange…?”
“Isn’t it? It’s different from regular songs. Normally, songs based in a major scale have a modulation or escalation in atmosphere within 50 seconds to a minute, right? But this one had no such modulation. Instead, it maintained a calm and low introduction, like the faint smell of bread, for three minutes, with the ‘modulation’ in between merely making the listener anticipate, ‘Oh, is the atmosphere about to escalate now?’ But ultimately, it returned to the original note and rhythm…”
“…”
Gridia only blinked a few times after listening to my explanation.
“You seem to appreciate music.”
While taking a spoonful of soup, Arthur cynically started his comment upon seeing me suddenly getting chatty.
“Stop bothering Gridia too much. She’s already tired enough…”
“It’s fine. I’m knowledgeable about music.”
“…Hmm?”
Arthur looked at me with an unusual expression, slightly confused, unlike his usual demeanor.
“You just need to nod. Knowing a bit about music is not going to harm you, right? As Gridia said, music enriches our lives.”
Interrupting Arthur before he could speak, I continued my explanation.
Why would anyone be so rude when someone’s offering a thoughtful explanation? If you’re going to say you’re tired, at least keep quiet and listen.
“Sorry, but no matter how hard you try to explain, we won’t understand. We’re not well-versed in music. You should talk about that with someone else…”
“It’s okay. I know a lot.”
“…Hmm?”
Arthur looked at me, startled in disbelief.
“You just need to nod. It doesn’t hurt to know a little about music, right? As Gridia said, it enriches our lives.”
Again, I cut off Arthur’s words and continued the explanation without pause.
“G, well, it includes the soup and cigarettes as well…”
“Shh! Stay quiet!”
I interrupted her, then began elaborating on the intent, structural features, and differences in my piece from other ordinary songs. It was clear neither Arthur nor the Holy Maiden understood.
…In fact, Holy Maiden Gridia seemed to even regret mentioning the ‘interesting composition’ bit in the first place.
But what am I supposed to do?
It’s your fault for provoking me in the first place. Both of you said you found my music moving and that its structure was unique.
I hadn’t touched a single note of music for the last two months, let alone even mentioning it.
I was barely surviving, overwhelmed day by day playing the part of a prodigy to the point of suffocation.
The phrase ‘almost died’ is literally meant here. I could have easily been ‘a meal for a giant spider’ or ‘melted away in the hands of marauders.’
It was a wretched two months.
“Uh, I’ll head back to the barracks first…”
“Come on now!”
Even today, I rode Daizhin through the battlefield skies, evading marauders who charged at me like flames in their eyes, with sheer intent to kill.
Through the electric currents coursing through the body of the deer beneath me, I soared 500 meters above the clouds!
Do you understand how it feels, riding a frantic baby deer while hundreds of magical bolts race towards me, only to have the deer completely ignore them…
Do you have any idea how unsettling, how terrifying that feeling is?
So, you are obligated to listen to my story.
It was you who complimented my music first.
Take responsibility.
Even if you look at me now with the unspoken plea, “Why are you treating us this way?”, I will not forgive you.
You fell right into my trap—you guys.
“And… hmm, hmm!”
Perhaps from talking non-stop for nearly 20 minutes, I felt my throat swelling up.
The air around us was thick, combining poorly with my abysmal stamina stats, making it difficult to even speak.
And I still hadn’t even explained one-tenth of the philosophy in my music…
“Ah, is that the end? That took a while.”
“…Really? Wow, what happened next?”
Arthur had seemed distracted, staring blankly at the fire before suddenly looking at me and asking.
Gridia, meanwhile, had probably drifted off to sleep and reacted with a dull, half-hearted tone.
“For now, let’s finish here.”
I said, gently rubbing my sore throat.
This seasoned veteran clearly had well over ten ways to ignore someone talking nonsense all day.
“Ei, tsk.”
Their reactions aren’t interesting at all.
I’ll pick on Lir later.
“Well, I think I’ll stand up now.”
Having lost interest, I picked up the empty bowl and stood up. My belly was full, and my throat was sore, so I thought it was time to just sleep.
“Oh, right.”
As I stood up, Arthur lifted his head as if realizing something and spoke.
“The kid Add… he’s broken.”
…What does that mean again?
I quietly placed the guitar next to my bed in the barracks, then slipped outside.
And I walked towards the tent where Add and my comrades were.
…The meaning of Arthur’s words still eluded me.
It surely wasn’t about broken bones. Such minor injuries could be healed by the priests deployed here within minutes, so there was no need for Arthur to specifically report it to me.
So I sought out Add’s tent to clearly understand what Arthur meant.
“Master Bin!”
As soon as I entered the tent flap, a lively voice reverberated in my ears.
Lir, the Elf wearing a broad-brimmed hat, saw me and quickly got off her bed to approach me.
“You came?”
“Lir, would you like to hear about my music philosophy?”
“Huh?”
Lir looked at me as if she didn’t understand what I was talking about.
I wanted to test how quickly her happy face would turn into one filled with worry and pain within minutes, but unfortunately, my throat wasn’t in good condition right now.
“…Nah, never mind. Where is Add?”
“Ah.”
Her cheerful face that had been beaming just moments before froze instantly upon hearing Add’s name.
…I had thought the two just didn’t get along, but I never expected her to dislike him this much.
“What’s wrong with him?”
“It’s just… I heard something is broken, so I thought I’d check to see if it’s serious enough to send him back to the capital.”
“What exactly is broken? Last I remember, his wounds were almost completely healed thanks to the Holy Maiden. Anyway, Add left about 20 minutes ago.”
Alter, wiping the mud off his staff and ring, interjected in our conversation.
I nodded, gave a quick farewell to both of them. My purpose here was to find Add.
Lir seemed a little reluctant to see me leave, and Alter reminded me the officers would send a new book soon, so not to neglect my studies.
Neither of them seemed like they’d snapped or fallen into despair—not yet.
…It’s been three days since we arrived in Valleland, after all. It’s probably expected.
“Well, rest well.”
After a light farewell, I left the tent and walked through the muddy ground. Nearby, I saw not just the officers but soldiers sitting around bonfires, pipes or cigarettes in hand.
They laughed raucously, talking about things I couldn’t fully understand.
‘…Something’s bugging me. What exactly was that about ‘broken’?”
“Salute! General Bin, sir!”
I was lost in thought when a new voice caught my ear from the corner of my vision.
“Yes? Oh, yes. Salute.”
It was an officer holding a pipe. His name escapes me, but I had seen him report to Arthur multiple times. This was our first direct conversation.
“Pleased to meet you, lieutenant colonel.”
…Is he a lieutenant colonel? I can’t recall precisely now.
“Hey, I’ve heard you purchased cigarettes, liquor, even meat, using your own money this time. Thanks to that, the morale of soldiers who were kicking the ground is somewhat up.”
An officer with a medal on his chest gave me a slightly unhinged laugh while expressing his gratitude.
It seems he’s a colonel after all.
“Moreover, that performance today! You really soared on that electric deer through the sky, raining lightning—like something straight out of myths or fairy tales! I could feel hope return to the soldiers’ eyes after so long. Haha!”
Though his words held good intent, his laugh had something off that made it hard to believe him entirely.
“Luckily, the soldiers’ morale has risen a little.”
“Today, there was only one suicide! Judging by the level of decay, the corpse we found was someone who had actually died about a week ago. So strictly speaking, we had no suicides today! Haha!”
“…”
Uh.
Oh.
Okay.
You. Need to blink and recalibrate a bit.
“Anyway… Do you know Private Add? He’s one of my direct soldiers. Heard he’s broken somewhere, so I want to check his condition. You know, the guy with the bristly hair like a porcupine.”
Deciding to change the topic, I pondered how to respond appropriately to that unsettling conversation.
I didn’t feel like spending much time chatting with someone who could laugh so heartily about topics like this.
Sure, it’s fortunate that no one died, but honestly, it’s scary. You can’t tell someone this kind of story like “No suicides! Yay! Wahaha!” It’s inappropriate, even thinking about it.
“Oh, I saw him smoking earlier near that hill, talking with Sergeant Rex.”
After briefly pondering, I greeted the unhinged colonel and hurried toward the hill he pointed towards.
I didn’t have the courage to keep chatting with this guy for much longer.
Oh, man, this is chilling.
Following the colonel’s directions, after passing the large tent area where the officers resided, the forest of rotten trees and the tall, muddy hill blocking it came into view ahead.
“…He’s here? What’s the broken thing Add has that made him climb this high hill?”
I sighed once, then started climbing the muddy hill slowly. By now, I’ve learned a bit about handling this awful body, so instead of going straight up, I angled my path, shifting directions intermittently as I ascended.
Going straight up would make the pitch too steep, causing my legs to hurt quickly, but angling up makes the gradient more gentle.
This is what they call seasoned wisdom in life, right…
“Do you intend to desert right now?”
“Excuse me?”
Before I could think further about this seasoned wisdom, Rex’s fiery voice echoed suddenly in my ears.
“Yes.”
And the person responding to that fiery call was Add.
…What’s going on up there, I wonder?
