Even though he didn't put me down, at least Kamil brought me closer to the window.
Outside the window, the castle door had been broken down, and waves of people were flooding in. When I saw soldiers wearing the insignia of the Densel army, I felt chilled to the bone.
– However, driving them like sheep, seeming like they were chasing and routing the enemy, were knights from the 1st Cavalry Platoon wearing our black tunics.
The 1st Cavalry Platoon was in high spirits as they trapped the remnants of the enemy army against the fort's walls. I witnessed Ergnade calmly strolling through the castle door, still dressed in black while surrounded by knights.
I'm glad he's okay.
He's in the back of the center formation of the army, and he's responsible for coordinating the left wing, the right wing, and the mobile divisions to stop the Densel attack against us.
Of course, his risk of dying in battle is quite high.
Although he's safe, there's still risk as there's nobody that could take his place.
He taught me the halberd, he served as my escort at the fort, and just like my previous life's parents – it felt like he was taking such good care of me just like them, even though I'm just someone he didn't know until he was ordered to be with me, even though I had locked away knowledge of how a family should feel like away in a corner in my mind ever since I killed mine, thinking there's no helping it.
Anyways, it seems that the battle on the Great Plains has been decided and things are turning back in our favor. I couldn't help but let go of my breath and sigh. I'm pretty sure that it's because I'm relieved.
I finally allowed myself to relax and calm down a little.
"-Please…… help…… me……"
I suddenly heard a faint voice, maybe it's because I was able to calm myself down and focus more on my surroundings.
It was a faint voice that I could barely hear on the wind. The first time I heard it, I even wondered if I was hearing things.
"Pl, -se…… he-…… me……"
"Kamil, do you hear something?"
"Hm? ……Ah, you're right."
It's the weak voice of someone crying out for help. As for whether it's coming from an enemy or an ally, I don't know.
I don't know where the voice is coming from, but considering the way this fort is built it can't be far from us. It must be coming from a location close by.
As I thought about the voice, either it's due to my relief, or that my brain has gotten some rest and is no longer in such a tense state, it was much easier for me to think things through.
"Let's go take a look. If it's someone we should help then we can help. If it's an enemy we can just leave them be."
"Charlie, that's……"
Kamil hesitantly disagreed with me. However, my fear and distrust of Kamil was still strong in my mind.
He hid his skill with the sword from me, and definitely deceived me about it. He also rushed here to Fort Jugfena for some reason without any orders of the sort.
However, all these suspicions are also making me weary and heavy on my heart.
I can't trust him. But, I don't want to doubt him anymore.
If I'm alone with him, I get even more stressed out. Since today has been completely out of the ordinary with a battle going on, and precisely because I saw for myself just how skilled Kamil is, I really don't want to be alone with him. I really want to get to somewhere with someone else around, so wanting to escape, I deceived him as well.
Meaning, I simply can't just trust Kamil right now. Even if he protected me from the bomb's explosion with his right arm and got himself burned and full of holes. Whenever I'm alone with him, I can't shake the feeling from my mind that he might point his sword at me at any moment.
"……Got it."
It seems that Kamil felt there was no helping it, so he finally left the windowside. Then, he opened the door to the closest room.
Nothing but silence greeted us in this room, there was only a simple desk and a bed inside. It doesn't even seem like this place was disturbed, it seems that wherever that voice came from, it wasn't from here.
"Maybe it's from the next room?"
Kamil casually opened the door to the next room.
There was nothing in the next room as well, and only dead corpses that wouldn't move were in the room after that, we checked to make sure that none of them were still living. It took us a few minutes to check through all the dead people, then we headed on to the next rooms.
Some of the rooms were locked. Just in case the enemy had stolen some keys and locked the rooms or some such, Kamil opened each of the doors with some sort of thin metal cylinder as a lockpick. At seeing yet another dangerous skill, I was quite shaken.
As we kept searching through the rooms, I could no longer hear the voice calling for help.
"It didn't sound that far away from us……"
"Maybe they're unconscious, or they even could have died by now."
"Even if that's so, and there's no helping it, Charlie won't be satisfied until we look everywhere, right?"
Kamil's arm was shaking slightly as he kept holding on to me.
I actually don't care all that much if we find the owner of that voice or not. However, I can't say that out loud right now. It seems that my lies are piling up more and more……
Since I remained silent without agreeing or disagreeing, Kamil also didn't say anything.
This is the last room. This is the room in the farthest corner of the barracks, and Kamil and I both listened closely for sounds.
I can't hear anything. Whether it's calls for help, panting, moaning, or even scratching sounds.
Kamil twisted the doorknob. He pushed the door open. I saw clearly into the room.
– There were signs that a battle had taken place in this room, but there was nobody in sight at all.
"No one's-"
here, is what I was just about to say when it happened.
I could feel the unmistakable taste of blood in my mouth spreading, and something shook my entire body. That's what caused me to bite myself terribly hard and start bleeding.
At the same time, there was a terribly harsh sound of an impact. Boom, and then I heard the sound of flesh ripping apart.
Kamil's body was slightly shaking. Urgh, I heard him moaning under his breath.