Torn Asunder by War, A Sword Saint for Tomorrow X The Knight Wizards!! – Chapter 104

Chapter 104: I Can’t Run Out of Treats for Taming ‘Click’
  As I unexpectedly became free, I was concerned about Kotono, who had briefly crossed my mind during the previous conversation, and I looked around the inside of the campsite, half-hidden in the forest.
  
  Considering that she wasn’t in the grassland workshop covered by the double stone pillar walls created by the earth magic installed in the Captain’s Clawsolas, or in the bustling central area, I took a moment to ponder and made a rough guess.
  
  ‘Deep in the forest, huh… That’s a bit dangerous.’
  
  Even though the scout squad was out on patrol, several of them had followed the retreating artillery-type enemy Clawsolas on horseback to investigate the Imperial Faction’s formation, so they were more shorthanded than usual.
  
  I couldn’t rule out the possibility that, just like us, enemy spies might be lurking around, or that ferocious magical beasts might appear in the shallower parts of the forest, so acting alone or in small groups wasn’t recommended.
  
  “Well, I’m in the same boat…”
  
  Lightly stroking the pommel of my Cursed Forged Blade, I walked a little way into the darkening forest and found Kotono leaning against a tree, sitting at its base with Iris beside her.
  
  Suppressing the mischievous urge to startle them as a warning, I approached, making enough noise with my footsteps to announce my presence, out of consideration for the two who had just finished an unfamiliar interpersonal battle and any lurkers in the shadows.
  
  “Ah, Kurato-san, good work.”
  “It’s not a good idea to stray too far from the expeditionary force, you know.”
  
  “Hmm, is that one of Dino’s scout soldiers? He’s keeping watch nearby, so I’m taking advantage of his kindness and calming myself down in a quiet place.”
  
  As the black-haired girl said, seemingly more composed than expected, there were many relatives among the soldiers who had connections to knightly families.
  Although it presented problems from a chain of command perspective, the main families could be somewhat flexible, so perhaps the blue-haired knight, recently influenced by Lise and becoming more caring, had been thoughtful.
  
  “Anyway, it seems like you’ve managed to sort out your feelings.”
  
  “No, not at all! I just haven’t fully grasped the reality of killing someone with a Clawsolas, and I think I’ll get depressed… But there’s also a strangely calm part of me that says it’s war, so all I can say is that I’m in the middle of a huge mess.”
  
  As I carefully observed Kotono, dressed in a female officer’s uniform and sitting with her legs tucked under her, shaking her head left and right with her black ponytail swaying behind her, I noticed her hands were trembling slightly.
  
  Iris, whom I glanced at sideways, nodded silently, implicitly conveying that Kotono wasn’t as okay as she appeared.
  
  ‘Even in similar circumstances, the mental burden seems lighter on the mage’s side. Is it a difference in values?’
  
  In a parallel world where a life-or-death struggle against the non-human “Hour of Ruin” is a familiar reality, perhaps they’ve already made up their minds to live through battle rather than sit and wait for death.
  
  If I hadn’t been a misfit trained to the death by a muscular old man, I probably would have been properly agonizing like a young man born in Japan, a country where peace is a prerequisite.
  
  “During battle, your body moves instinctively, not logically, to kill the enemy or everyone’s lives will be in danger… But it’s inevitable that the aftereffects will hit you later. Don’t push yourself.”
  
  “Hmm, then, can we just do warning shots next time?”
  “Sure, there are no plans for any more large-scale battles.”
  
  After responding to her request, made with a cute upward glance, I took out a pair of baked goods wrapped in Japanese paper from a small leather bag attached to my uniform’s sword belt and handed them to her.
  
  Kotono, who received them with both hands, opened the wrapping, and Iris, who was beside her, also peeked in with interest.
  
  “This is… the taming biscuit that Revia sometimes nibbles on, right?”
  “Don’t you want it?”
  
  “No, I’m happy because sweets are precious.”
  “… Claude-sama, I don’t think it’s fair.”
  
  My jacket was tugged, and I found myself being stared at by the mage girl with a covetous look.
  
  Although I didn’t have many left, merchants who traded with the Valer family were accompanying the Zephyrus Domain army, and I could restock if I just stopped by the canteen they had set up, so I handed Iris a package of the same baked goods.
  
  As I watched the two girls munching on the biscuits like small animals and felt myself being healed, I suddenly wondered if it was appropriate for the Knight King to go to an allied camp without any particular business and head straight for a temporary shop to buy snacks.
  
  ‘I’ll almost certainly get lectured by Raizes for about an hour.’
  
  The meticulous Vice-Captain would launch a logical and irrefutable verbal assault, so it wouldn’t be wise to carelessly step on that landmine and anger him.
  
  Perhaps because she was the only daughter of his deceased best friend, I had even seen Izana being severely reprimanded for careless remarks and looking dejected.
  
  ‘Discretion is the better part of valor…’
  
  While it was good that his “straightforward” nature led to valuable advice, it would be safer not to commit the folly of deliberately engaging in questionable behavior.
  
  As I was thinking about asking someone else to buy the sweets to appease Revia if I happened to upset her for some reason, I heard a faint rustling of leaves from diagonally behind me.
  
  “Rain, what’s up?”
  “No, it’s just… I came to call Kotono and Iris, not Your Majesty.”
  
  “Me?”
  “Yeah, it seems they’ve got an open-air bath ready. We can’t leave you out, can we?”
  
  Kotono, taking the impulsive female knight’s hand, slowly stood up, bowed her head slightly, and walked back to the camp with Iris, her partner.
  
  As a side note, the alchemists from the maintenance crew, covered in sweat and oil, also insisted on cleaning themselves up, and since they had temporarily dismantled the wagons and built two wooden-framed, iron-bottomed Goemon baths with the materials, I was also able to go to sleep clean.
  
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