18

1. Short-Lived Homesickness
Nick, a soldier with the Frontier Army, had been on guard duty at the watchtower of Alterna’s north gate since ten o’clock the night before. He was on what you’d call the night shift, lasting until the first bell tolled at six o’clock in the morning the next day.
The north gate’s watchtower had no roof. At twenty-seven years of age, Nick was of middling height and weight, but the moderately high walls of the watchtower only came up to his chest. He looked out over them, his eyes cautiously monitoring the area outside the barrier that protected Alterna. He was almost completely exposed to the wind. It was a chill wind that left him feeling awfully cold. On top of that, with dawn approaching, a thick fog had been hanging over the area.
“I’ve got no luck at all,” Nick muttered, rubbing his face with gloved hands. He was standing next to the watch fire for warmth, but his nose had been running pretty badly for a while now.
“Why’s it gotta be so damn cold? And the fog makes it impossible to see too...”
“Quit your bellyaching,” his coworker Chad, a man the same age as him, said with a laugh. “It’ll be dawn soon enough, and we’ll be relieved right after that. You can hang in there a little longer, can’t you?”
Nick cast a resentful sideways glance at the buddy he never seemed to be able to get rid of. “Hey, Chad.”
“Yeah?” Chad took a long swig from his leather water bottle. “What is it, Nick?”
“I’ve been wondering about something.”
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“Yeah?” Chad responded with a generous shrug. “About what? Out with it, man.”
“About that water bottle,” Nick said, snatching it as soon as the words had left his mouth.
“Ah! Hey, you jerk!” Chad hurriedly tried to snatch it back.
“Oh, shut up. Who’re you calling a jerk, you jerk?” Nick countered, blocking Chad’s hands with one arm as he took a whiff of the contents of his bottle. It was faint, but he smelled something. “I knew it. Booze.”
“No, it’s not—” Chad said in a panic before slipping into a more coaxing tone. “D-Don’t be silly, Nick, buddy, you’ve got it all wrong. It’s not booze. Not at all. Of course it isn’t. I mean, if it was, I’d get drunk, right? Right? If I was drinking the whole night while I was on guard duty, I’d end up totally sloshed. Do I look drunk to you? I don’t, do I?”
“I’ll know for sure once I take a swig myself.”
“Oh, I dunno about that. Maybe you shouldn’t? I mean, I put my lips on that bottle and all. Not that it would bother me if you wanna go ahead with it. But you’re the sort who makes a big deal about stuff like that, aren’t you?”
Nick didn’t let that stop him from taking a sip.
“A-yep... This is some watered-down shit. There isn’t much, but it’s in there. Definitely. This’s got booze in it. Without a doubt.”
“Fine,” Chad said, putting a hand on Nick’s shoulder. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, you got me. That’s what it was.”
“Oh? Trying to go on the offensive now?”
“Just listen to me. I admit it, Nick. Like you said, I mixed a little booze into my water. Only a little, though. So little, you can barely tell it’s
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there. The perfect amount, really. If it doesn’t affect my work, what’s the problem, am I right?”
“Do you really think Commander Jin Mogis would let that slide?”
“I’m not talking to the commander, I’m talking to you. So, let me turn the question around. It’s cold, right? And we’re on night duty. At night. That’s why it’s called night duty. It’s tough, isn’t it? Of course it is. Yeah, I’m gonna mix a little booze into my water. It’s the least I can do. It’d be crazier not to. You get me? Nick, buddy, you’re the one who’s a little crazy here. What I’m doing is totally sane.”
“What the hell? I’ve got a crazy guy telling me I’m crazy now? What even is this? Chad, pal, what do you think common sense and regulations are for?”
“I’m telling you, it’s fine.” Chad took the bottle back from Nick and took a swig before winking at him. “Totally fine, buddy. You don’t need to worry. Come on. Think about it. Our Frontier Army and those uppity volunteer soldiers just finished slaughtering the enemy at Mount Grief, right? If you’d actually use some of that common sense, you’d realize there aren’t any enemies around here. No way. Times like this, we can afford to loosen up regulations a little. Yeah? We’re just human. Let’s take it nice and easy, okay?”
“But, man, there’re goblins right over in Damuro, aren’t there?”
“They aren’t gonna come attack us. What do you think the commander forged an alliance with them for? To tame those barbaric little shit-monkeys, right?”
“And you trust them? They’ve got no scruples. They’d eat you without a second thought; eat their own kind too while they’re at it.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Chad started massaging Nick’s shoulders. “That’s the thing. What an idea, forging an alliance with creatures like that. It’s crazy, isn’t it? Absolutely insane, that’s what our commander is. I hear he’s secretly been feeding us goblin meat too.”

“Huh...? The hell?”
“It’s just a rumor, but...” Chad lowered his voice. “A guy on duty in the mess hall looked inside one of the barrels in the larder, and there was a goblin, all sliced up and pickled in brine...”
Nick covered his mouth, feeling a sudden bout of nausea.
“Are you serious...?”
“Like I said, man, it’s just a rumor,” Chad said with a laugh, handing Nick the bottle. Nick accepted it, taking just a sip of the water that tasted faintly of alcohol.
“But...knowing the commander, he might well do it. I mean, sure, we’ve got guys out gathering up the livestock that were being kept in the outlying villages, and looking for other stuff we can eat. Question is whether that’s enough...”
“They say the commander’s got a stock of supplies hidden away. And there’s talk about how we’re getting regular shipments from the mainland resupplying us.”
“The mainland, huh?” Nick returned the bottle to his fellow guard, crossing his arms as he looked off into the distance. A light sigh escaped his lips. “Wish I could go back,” he said. “But even if I did, I’ve already cut ties with my folks, and I’ve got no other way to make a living. Nothing I can do about it...”
“That’s north, Nick. Mainland’s the other way,” Chad said with a laugh, shaking the bottle to check how much was left.
Nick sniffled. “I know that. I’m just being attentive in my duties. Getting clobbered by our superior officer for messing up’d be one thing, but damned if I’m gonna get myself executed by the commander.”
“Yeah, you’ve got a point...” Chad looked outside the wall. “He might suddenly start purging the ranks to enforce discipline. I wouldn’t put it past him... Oh. The mist’s—”
“Yeah.” Nick looked out over the area around Alterna as the fog dissipated. “It’s clearing—”
Then, as he was looking almost straight down, Nick stopped short.
He grabbed Chad’s arm.
“Hey.”
“Hmm?”
“There’s someone there. In front of the gate,” Nick said, squinting.
Chad stood on his tip-toes and leaned out over the chest-high wall.
“Oh, yeah...?”
The ground was still hazy. Someone was standing in front of the north gate, and he could see well enough to tell they were human but couldn’t make out their face. It was a man, though. Bearded. The guy looked filthy. Nick scowled.
“A dog...?”
The man wasn’t alone. He had a critter with him, four-legged and dog-like. But was it really a dog? It looked awfully well-built.
The bearded man looked up. Probably at Nick. He waved his hand.
“Chad!” Nick shouted, and Chad grabbed the crossbow that was lying against the chest-high wall.
“What do we do, Nick? Should I shoot him?!”
Chad looked ready to pull the trigger any second. His shoulders heaved. His nostrils flared. Seeing his colleague all fired up, Nick’s head rapidly cooled.
“Hold up. The guy looks human.”
Chad took a deep breath.
“Sure does.”
“Who goes there?!” Nick shouted at the bearded man. “What are you doing?!”
“Waiting for the gate to open,” the man answered in an awfully calm voice. “I’m Itsukushima. I used to be in Alterna’s hunters’ guild. I don’t know what the situation is here, but I’d like you to take me to someone in a position of authority.”
 
 
2. Bonds Don’t Break, Even When You Cut Ties
“Haru-kun! Hey, Haru-kun! This is huge, Haru-kun!”
Shaken awake by Yume, Haruhiro hurried to the basement of Tenboro Tower with Ranta, Kuzaku, Merry, and Setora. Neal the scout, in his deep-green cloak, called after them to stop, but the group ignored him and headed downstairs. Neal didn’t force the issue, instead following them to the basement.
The man had been relieved of his possessions, stripped of even his cloak and boots, and shut behind a set of iron bars in the dank, cold stone dungeon. He was unshaven and lacking in cleanliness, looking more like a beast than the unkempt man he was.
“Master!” Yume cried, clutching at the bars with a level of intensity that made it look like she might sink her teeth into them. “It’s you! Yume’s been so worried! Thank goodness you’re okay!”
“Y-Yeah...” The scruffy man looked more weirded out by this display than relieved. “Sorry about that. I hate to worry you... Oh, right. I was too. Worried about you, that is. You know, just thought I’d say that...”
“Erm...”
As Haruhiro was looking at the man sideways, trying to figure out the situation, Ranta gestured at the man with his chin.
“He’s Itsukushima, of the hunters’ guild. He’d be the equivalent of a mentor in the thieves’ guild, or a lord in the dread knights’ guild. The hunters’ guild called theirs fathers or mothers, depending on gender. So, that makes this guy Yume’s father.”
“He looks like a savage.” Setora never minced words.
“Well, thanks.” Itsukushima didn’t seem to mind. “It’s true, I prefer living in the remote mountains to being among people.”
“So, the thing about Master is he’s kinda like Yume’s dad. Right, Master?”
“Yeah, um... Your dad?” Itsukushima clearly didn’t know what to say. “Y-Your dad, huh? I’m Yume’s dad...”
“And if you’re Yume’s dad, then that makes Yume your daughter, right?”
“Y-Yeah, I guess by that logic you would be...”
“You’re a fitting pair,” Setora commented, and it was hard to be sure if she was being sarcastic or just blunt about how she felt.
Haruhiro leaned over to whisper in Ranta’s ear. “Don’t you need to introduce yourself?”
“Huh...?!” Ranta jumped into the air, overreacting. “Introduce myself?! Huh?! Wh-Wh-Wh-Why?!”
“Well, I mean, this is Yume’s dad and all.”
“Not her real dad! A-A-A-A-A-A-And even if I did meet her real dad, I still wouldn’t need to! Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-Why would I have to do that, you moron?!”
Merry scowled and shook her head. “The echo in here just makes him louder and more annoying...”
“Wah! Wahhh! Wahhhhh! Take that and suffer some more, dumbass!” Ranta shouted.
Haruhiro sighed. “You’re as bad as ever...”
“Hold up...” Kuzaku’s brow furrowed. “What’s Yume’s master, or father, or whatever he is, doing in jail?” That was the problem, yes.
It turned out that around when Alterna fell, Yume, Itsukushima, and Ranta had been working together for a time. Yume and Ranta went on to rejoin the Volunteer Soldier Corps, but Itsukushima headed north.
“Master was sayin’ he’d go up to the Killing Game Mountains with Poochie.”
Yume’s explanation honestly didn’t make a lot of sense. Her master stepped in to help.
“Poochie’s one of the guild’s wolf dogs. And it’s the Kurogane Mountains, not the Killing Game Mountains, okay?”
“Ohhh, that’s the place with the, uh...” Kuzaku said, scratching his head, “the something-or-other kingdom. Where those dwarven people live.”
“The Ironblood Kingdom. And just calling them ‘dwarves’ is enough,” Setora said, looking at him coldly.
Kuzaku seemed suddenly deflated. “’Kay... I’ll try to say that from now on.”
“Gah ha ha ha ha ha!” Ranta let out a vulgar laugh. “That’s right! You’d better watch yourself! In all sorts of ways!”
“You’re the last one I want to hear that from, Ranta-kun...”
According to Yume’s master, he had friends living in the Ironblood Kingdom. If the enemy had a next target in mind after Arnotu in the Shadow Forest and Alterna, it was probably the Ironblood Kingdom. That’s why he’d gone up to the Kurogane Mountain Range to warn his friends there.
It went about as he’d expected. More than a month ago now, a massive army of orcs and undead had invaded the Kurogane Mountains. With centuries of history on their side, the Ironblood
Kingdom was a massive underground fortress. The dwarves who lived there had dug it out of the bedrock. It was basically an interconnected series of mines, both large and small.
The enemy had tried to storm the entrance on the surface, the Great Ironfist Gate. That was the main way into the Ironblood Kingdom, located near a massive river called the River of Tears.
Of course, according to Itsukushima, the dwarves weren’t totally without any plan for how to handle the situation.
“The dwarves never got on with the elves of the Shadow Forest, but the iron king made the bold decision to take in refugees from Arnotu. And I gave them what little intel I had too.”
“The dwarves knew what the enemy was up to, then, huh?” Ranta said, nodding like an insufferable know-it-all. “Which means they had time to prepare for the attack.”
“How did they fare?” Setora asked.
Itsukushima responded without any real emotion. “I left the Kurogane Mountains twelve, thirteen days ago. They hadn’t fallen then, at least. The enemy seemed to be struggling to seal their victory.”
“Hweh.” Yume’s eyes widened. “That’s amazin’! The dwarfies’re real tough, huh! Mwungh-hungh...”
“Arnotu went down in no time, though,” Ranta said, keeping up the know-it-all act. He probably felt the need to look cool in front of Yume’s master, seeing as he was like her dad and all. “And, Yume, how long are you gonna go on making weird noises? You sound like an idiot—”
Suddenly, the iron bars rattled, causing Ranta to let out a squeal of surprise and start trembling.
It was Itsukushima. He hadn’t so much pressed on the bars as smacked them with the palms of his hands. “An idiot? Did you just call Yume an idiot?”
“Ah...! No, I didn’t say she’s an idiot, I just said she sounds like one...”
“Take it back. Or I’ll chop you up and feed you to the bears.”
“S-S-Sorry. I-I-I take it back! I-I-I-I-It was just a turn of phrase, or something...”
“Bears? Scary!” Kuzaku looked less than amused. As for Yume herself, she was blinking in confusion. She didn’t seem to get what had happened.
“So, here’s the thing...” Itsukushima said, clearing his throat loudly as he tried to get back on track. “I didn’t know about it until this most recent time I went to the Ironblood Kingdom, but the dwarves have a secret weapon. Thanks to that, not only has the enemy been unable to get through the Great Ironfist Gate, they can’t even encircle it.”
Haruhiro touched his cheek. A secret weapon. Just hearing the words was a bit embarrassing, but at the same time they set his heart all aflutter. Ranta was beside himself with glee, his eyes needlessly sparkling.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoaaaa! Are you seriously serious?! Secret weapons are for real?! Hot damn, I want one! A secret weapon! Gimme one too!”
“Uh, no, they’re not gonna give them away...” Kuzaku told him, sounding exasperated, but he couldn’t completely mask his own interest. “I would like to see for myself, though. What’re they like? Secret weapons, I mean...”
Setora let out a thoroughly exasperated sigh. “You people...”
It seemed Itsukushima had long been treated like some kind of representative of the human Kingdom of Arabakia in the Ironblood Kingdom. It had just ended up that way because he’d tell the iron king about Alterna when asked, and no other humans from Alterna were around.
Itsukushima and his dwarf friends had participated in the battle to defend the Kurogane Mountain Range, but only until the second day of the fighting, when things intensified, and both sides started taking a substantial number of casualties. In that two-day period, the Ironblood Kingdom lost twenty-seven people, while the enemy piled up hundreds of corpses.
From then on, there were only sporadic clashes, and the Ironblood Kingdom was ready to strike back if the enemy showed any openings.
From the enemy’s perspective, an attack from the rear would be devastating, so they couldn’t afford to carelessly retreat. Itsukushima took an opportunity during an audience with the iron king to suggest that they simply let the enemy withdraw without pursuing. He was told that wasn’t an option.
“The iron king’s impressive. I don’t know how to describe it. Like an amalgamation of everything good about the dwarves...”
According to Itsukushima, the iron king wasn’t bellicose by any means and was in fact very thoughtful, but dwarves as a race tended to be hot-blooded. It was easy to rile them up, and they were incredibly tenacious too. As was sometimes said, “A dwarf’s fire burns for a hundred years.”
When they fought, they went all out. Such was the way of the dwarves. And in this case, the other side had started it. There was no reason to let someone who’d picked a fight with them slink away unharmed. The dwarves had a saying: “Always hang a robber.” If someone tried to force their way into your home, just capturing them and roughing them up wasn’t enough punishment. If you didn’t string them up, it reflected poorly on you. That’s what it meant.
Ranta snorted smugly.
“Once things get started, it’s kill or be killed, nothing else, huh? Can’t say I’m against that. Actually, I like it. I bet I could share some good drinks with the dwarves.”
“Do you know how much booze a dwarf can consume?” Itsukushima said with a nasally laugh. “They could drink even our hardiest barflies under the table. That’s their Achilles heel, though.”
Yume nodded enthusiastically. “They’re a bunch of whiners. Always have been, right?”
“Uh, yeah...” Itsukushima looked like he was going to both smile and cry. “I don’t think that’s the word you were looking for. Winos, maybe? Sorry to be picky...”
Yume was troubling him, but he wouldn’t have had it any other way. He even looked happy about it. That said, Haruhiro couldn’t let this drag on forever, so he tried to help.
“The dwarves can’t hold their liquor? Is that it?” Itsukushima shook his head.
“No, not at all. They drink booze like water and are totally fine. It’s normal for them to drink for good cheer in the middle of a battle.”
As a massive underground nation, the Ironblood Kingdom maintained food stores large enough to feed their people for several years. But alcohol was another matter. For the dwarves, booze was a necessity. Obviously, they brewed and distilled it themselves, and had significant amounts in storage. However, they drank a lot more in wartime than when they were at peace, so their stocks had been gradually falling. Normally, they’d be able to import more from the Free City of Vele, but with an enemy force out in the Kurogane Mountain Range, they couldn’t count on that.
If they ran out of booze, they ran out of booze. Was it really something to make such a big fuss over?
Yes. Yes, it was. For dwarves, running out of alcohol was a huge problem.
According to Itsukushima, when rumors had spread that they might not be able to partake freely anymore, the whole Ironblood Kingdom had immediately started to get brutal. All dwarves drank a lot, but even among them there were some who were especially heavy drinkers, and they became the targets of a sort of condemnation. If you’re going to drink so much, then I am too! The situation turned into a sort of pathetic competition to see who could drink the most. Their consumption grew explosively. They’d get hopelessly inebriated, fists would fly, and kicks would follow. There were bloody fights all over.
The way things were going, people were going to get killed. Worse yet, the booze might run out. It was their own fault for drinking so much of it, but ultimately the primary cause was the enemy army. They had to pay for this.
The infighting over alcohol among the dwarves of the Ironblood Kingdom had intensified, setting their hostility and battle fervor ablaze.
“The truth is, the iron king is struggling hard to keep all those drunken dwarves from exploding.”
And as that was going on, they’d received information that a human faction had managed to retake Alterna.
The news had made it to the enemy forces first somehow. The Ironblood Kingdom had only come to learn of it through their intelligence gathering activities.
“So the iron king gave me a letter to bring back to Alterna. I never would’ve imagined it was retaken by reinforcements from the mainland, though.”
Haruhiro glanced over at Neal the scout, who was watching from a short distance away with a smirk on his face.
“Yeah, reinforcements...”
“Hey!” Yume yelled at Neal. “Yume wants you to let Master out of this jail! Master’s real nice, you know! And Yume loves him!”
“I’m not the one you need to talk to,” Neal said with a shrug and a smile. “Why not ask Commander Mogis directly?”
“He’d probably force us into doing something again...” Merry muttered. Setora was quick to agree.
“It’s possible. No, it’s more or less guaranteed.” Haruhiro rubbed his stomach. It suddenly felt heavy, like a solid lump had formed in it.
“Yeah... You’ve got a point.”
“Nnnnnurrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhh...!” Yume filled her mouth with all the air she could, letting a snarling sound escape through her nose. She was absolutely livid.
“Anyway, I gave Jin Mogis the letter,” Itsukushima said, trying to calm Yume down. “I don’t get along well with people who are that full of themselves. Maybe I should’ve flattered him, even if it was a lie, but I couldn’t. Look, he probably only jailed me to try to be intimidating. He’s not gonna kill me. I’m technically an envoy from the iron king, you know?”
“Masteeer...” Yume stuck her fingers between the bars.
Itsukushima seemed unsure what to do for a moment, but he ended up gently stroking her fingers.
“I’m all right, Yume. You just worry about your own comrades.” “Heh...” Neal smirked. “You’ve got me tearing up here.”
How about I make you cry for real? Haruhiro thought, but he didn’t say it out loud. If he was going to do it, he was better off not announcing his plans first. No need to give his opponent any time to prepare himself.


 
3. Memory
Still, what exactly should I do?
It felt awkward hanging around in the room Jin Mogis had given them in Tenboro Tower. No, more like downright unpleasant. So Haruhiro and the team decided to go outside. The weather today was dismal, with a cold rain falling on and off since morning. Sometimes it even turned into freezing rain.
Kuzaku shivered. “Sure is cold...”
“Perfect for helping you cool your head.” Setora was fine with the weather.
“Looks like we’ve got another problem on our plates now, huh?” Ranta said from behind his mask, raising two fingers. “First, there’s taking Shihoru back. And now we’ve gotta save that old guy, Itsukushima, too.”
Merry was looking around constantly. It was a given that Neal the scout was tailing them. If they kept their voices down, he wouldn’t overhear. Still, she couldn’t help but worry.
Kuzaku groaned, cocking his head to the side with a frown. “Y’think Shihoru-san’s really in the Forbidden Tower? I mean, it’s forbidden and all.”
“Yeah, that’s strange, isn’t it?” Yume was still upset that Itsukushima had been jailed. Her expression was harsh. But only by Yume standards. “They call it the tower that doesn’t open, right? Well, if it doesn’t open, what’s she doin’ in there? How’d she even get in, huh?”
“Well, yeah. That’s the thing,” the masked man said, nodding. “We call it the tower that doesn’t open, but it’s not like it can’t. If it really couldn’t, there’d be no way to get in from the outside.”
“You sure solved that one quickly, huh?” Haruhiro said, causing the masked man to cough awkwardly.
“Wh-Wh-What?! It’s not that hard, man. We’ve known each other for how long? Give me a break. Yeah, I get it. This is a whole thing with you. You’ve got the thing with your memory, so this kind of thing might not make sense to you, but it’s a normal thing, being able to understand her.”
“This is a thing. That’s a thing. So many things are ‘things’ with you...” Kuzaku said, sounding exasperated.
“Grahhh...!” The masked man sprang toward Kuzaku with the terrifying speed of a bird of prey zeroing in on its target. Then he stomped on Kuzaku’s foot.
“Owww?!”
“Yahoo!”
“Wh-What was that for?!”
“You should’ve been able to dodge that, you loser! If we’ve gotta rely on a dunce like you to tank for us when your only good point is your size, then honestly, I’m worried about us. Get good, you blockhead!”
“I’m not slow; you’re just too fast! But hearing that’ll make you happy, won’t it? Man, you’re such a shit! You’re absolute trash! And listen, I’m not just big, I’m sturdy too!”
“Can’t you come up with anything more?” Setora asked in a dry voice. Kuzaku crossed his arms and thought about it.
“Huh? Anything more? Hrmm, what else is good about me...?”
“I’m sure there’s something,” Haruhiro said, but, awkwardly, nothing was coming to mind. “There has to be, right? All sorts of stuff. Gotta be. I mean, there can’t be nothing...”
“Oh, yeah?” Kuzaku asked. “Really? Like what?”
Yume clapped a hand on Kuzaku’s chest. “You’re real good at followin’ Haru-kun’s orders, yeah? Oh, and probably, this’s just what Yume thinks, you’re good-natured too.”
“I’m good-natured? Uh, sure, I guess. What Haruhiro says is absolute, though.”
“Are you a moron?!” The masked man interposed himself between Yume and Kuzaku before pointing at Haruhiro. “Seeing this worthless loser’s word as absolute? That’s so stupid, I don’t even know where to start with you, you imbecile! You dumb, dumb bum!”
“I may be dumb, but I’m not a bum!”
“Shouldn’t you be making the opposite objection?” Setora said in a sneering tone. Kuzaku looked at her blankly.
“Oh, yeah. Guess you’re right. Ah ha ha.”

Chapter end