Combatants Will Be Dispatched - Volume 1 - Chapter 2.5

5 

The knights are already back at the castle by the time we arrive. 

Even considering the time we took to load the captured supplies onto carts, it’s a little too soon for the main force to be back. A brief head count explains why—there’s a lot fewer of them now than there were this morning. The knights who did make it back are all wounded in one way or another. 

“Judging by the looks on their faces, it’s safe to say they lost. That’s convenient for us, really. It’s a good time to talk up our success in taking out the enemy supply convoy. Go find someone important and give them a rundown. Something along the lines of ‘You guys may have lost, but thanks to our successful attack, the enemy will be forced to retreat.’ Really remind them that we saved their hides.” 

Alice casually suggests rubbing a ton of salt into the army’s fresh wounds. 

“Leave it to me! I’ll make sure to repeat several times that our attack on the supply line was designed to make the enemy fall back. While I’m at it, I’ll also mention the fact that the five of us tied up one of the Demon Lord’s Elite Four by ourselves while everyone else got stomped.” 

“…I—I see you’re as scummy as ever. Still, it seems you’re someone I can rely on at times like this. And in truth, I don’t really mind that sort of thing. Calling out elites for their failures is one of my favorite things in the world. Just the thought of savoring their delicious shame is making me drool…” 

Given Snow’s career, she probably kicked quite a few people while they were down. I suppose that’s the attitude it takes to crawl up from the slums and join the Royal Guard, but it’s not exactly an attractive trait. I try not to let Snow’s blatant sadistic inclinations dampen my mood as I go to make my report. 

A ways from the capital sits a small shrine. The place looks like it was once a small cave of some sort, and upon its walls are countless carvings of disturbingly dark imagery as the wind howls through it. As I glance at Grimm’s body lying lifelessly on an altar at the center of the shrine, I’m kind of impressed by the fact that such a creepy spot exists so close to the city proper. 

“We’re gonna resurrect Grimm in a place like this?” 

Still riding the high of making the pretentious soldiers feel like garbage, I join Alice and the others at the altar. 

“That’s right. Although resurrection might be overstating it. All we’re going to do is put Grimm’s corpse on the altar with some offerings. Once night comes, she’ll wake up like nothing happened.” 

“…Offerings? …You mean that junk you’ve got piled up on the side of it?” 

Next to Grimm’s corpse are some raggedy dolls, threadbare clothing, some tools worn out from years of use, and… 

“Oh, these are my favorite socks. Since they have holes in them, I figured I’d use them as an offering for Grimm’s resurrection,” Rose admits with a faint blush as I gaze at a pair of worn socks sitting by Grimm’s pillow. 

Seriously? A pair of socks is enough to bring her back to life? Is a person’s life just not worth that much on this planet? 

“The god Grimm serves, Zenarith, prefers offerings of items that have sentimental value to people. Items that they’ve had for years and treated with care. There should be enough here to cover Grimm’s resurrection— Anyway, I’m going to grab something to eat and head back to my room. There’s a documentary tonight about Zolingeran knives. I’ve been looking forward to it all week!” 

“I’m going to go dig into the vast amounts of food we took earlier!” 

“I fired my shotgun quite a bit today, so I think I’ll do some maintenance on it. What about you, Six?” 

The others begin to head out. 

“Mm…I think I’ll stay here. Grimm’s coming back to life at night, right? I want to see what that looks like. Plus, it sounds kind of sad to come back to life and not have anyone around…” 

Dusk becomes night, and the shadows make the shrine look even creepier. There’s not much to do but sit and wait, so I get comfy on the ground, hugging my knees to my chest. My attention turns to a hole in the ceiling where the wind gusts through. I’m struck by the sheer number of stars in the sky above. So that’s what you can see when the sky isn’t clogged with smog and other pollutants. 

It helps that there’s not a lot of light pollution, with the capital having little in the way of large buildings or lighting. 

I consider snapping a few pictures to take back home. Which reminds me, pictures of the orcs and Gadalkand would’ve made nice souvenirs, too. My thoughts continue on this pointless track when I think I catch a bit of light shining from Grimm’s body. 

…No, I’m not imagining it. She’s actually glowing. 

A magic circle pops into existence around Grimm, and then a column of bright light rises from the altar. The column shines through the hole in the ceiling and pierces the sky, lighting up the room…then fades as quickly as it appeared. 

When my eyes adjust again to the gloom, I notice the offerings on the altar are gone. Grimm flutters her lashes and sits up. She rubs at her forehead, as though dealing with a headache, and turns to me a bit sleepily. 

“…Commander? What are you doing here?” 

“…I was waiting for you to come back to life.” 

Grimm glances around the room, as if looking for something, then turns back to me with a puzzled expression. 

“Wait, why were you waiting for my resurrection? …Oh. Are you here to punish me because I died before I could do anything useful?” 

“Huh? No, that’s not it. I just figured you’d be lonely, coming back to life with no one around. That and, well, I guess I was a little skeptical that all we had to do to bring you back to life was leave you on an altar with a pile of junk.” 

“A-ah… I was not aware that they treated my lifeless body so carelessly.” 

I probably shouldn’t tell her that there was a pair of used socks among the offerings. Grimm surveys the room but stops after a few moments when she can’t find what she’s looking for. 

She turns her gaze to me. There’s no trace of her usual twitchiness or anxiety, just a calm, steady gaze. 

“You’re an odd one, Commander. I’ve never known anyone kind enough to patiently wait around for me to come back to life. ” 

“That might be the first genuine compliment I’ve gotten since coming to this kingdom.” 

Grimm smiles at my words, her expression softening. 

“I mean it. Normally, people back away when they learn that I serve Zenarith, God of Undeath and Disaster. Then, once they’ve been sufficiently creeped out by my string of deaths and resurrections, they stop talking to me entirely. But you, Commander… Evidently, you can still talk to me like I’m just another girl. You’re also not bothered by the fact that Rose has demon blood. How very odd.” 

The truth is, the mutants at our corporation are so twisted that they make Rose look perfectly normal. 

“A word of warning for you, Commander. Rose and I are hard to kill, but that doesn’t go for the rest of this squadron… They always send the rejects into the most dangerous places. We’re expendable.” 

There’s a hint of sadness in her smile as she tilts her head toward the stars. Since she can cheat death, she must have survived while many of her companions met more permanent ends. Her starlit smile is a beautiful, fleeting thing. In this moment, she couldn’t appear more different from the lazy, good-for-nothing Grimm I’m used to. 

A unit of rejects, hmm? Conscript a bunch of expendable people and send them on high-risk, high-reward missions. If they get results? Great. If they die? No big loss. 

That’s pretty messed up. Makes the corporation look like a charity organization. I suppose I should report this method of doing things when I get back to Japan…but I get the feeling our Supreme Leaders would turn up their noses at such an inelegant solution. 

“So, Commander… This squadron is dangerous. You should quit while you’re still alive and get out of this kingdom.” 

There’s a loneliness and tenderness to Grimm’s tone. 

Upon hearing her heartfelt warning, I give my honest reply. 

“Huh? What’re you talking about? I’m not going anywhere.” 

Grimm is caught off guard by the frankness of my response. 

“D-don’t be silly, Commander. This unit’s going to get treated like a bunch of expendable rejects and be forced to face the most dangerous situations.” 

…That’s already happening! 

“Where I come from, it was pretty common to be sent to battlefields where we were up against hundreds of enemies all as strong as the Demon Lord’s Elite Four.” 

“…Wha—?” 

Grimm just stares at me. 

The invasion of America was especially brutal. They just had so many Heroes. 

“And in spite of all that, I’m still here and kicking. Even today, I was getting ready to beat the shit out of that Elite Four bastard who killed you, but he ignored me and flew off to the battlefield.” 

“U-um…well, that’s… Normally, one wouldn’t be able survive an encounter with a monster on the level of the Demon Lord’s Elite Four.” 

Well, that’s certainly true in this case, but… 

“For something of that level? With the right prep and weapon, I can take on at least five of them at once.” 

As a general rule, Heroes would always attack in groups of five. I remember being tossed into the fray against those teams despite being an average human… Couldn’t say I enjoyed the encounters, but I won and made it out alive. My expression sours as I think back to those battles, and Grimm just goes silent. 

“…Commander, just who are you? There’s also that strange weapon Alice carries around…” 

Whoops, I should probably cut off that line of questioning here and now. 

“It’s not worth worrying about. Plus, now that I think about it, I can definitely see a harem situation developing with our current squad members. You couldn’t pay me to quit.” 

Grimm giggles at my attempt to change the subject, her expression radiating joy despite the gloom. “Ah-ha-ha… I get it. We all have things we don’t want to talk about. Just try to stay alive, won’t you?” 

After her laughter dies down, Grimm tilts her head, her eyes fixated on me. 

“…Well, it’s getting pretty late. Do you have any plans, Commander? Since there was a battle today, tomorrow will be a day of rest.” 

“Huh…a day of rest after a day of work? That’s pretty generous… Back at Kisaragi, we’d get home after seventy-two straight hours of guerrilla warfare, only to be sent on our next errand by a boss.” 

And that boss would be Lilith the Black, the same lazy, mad scientist who couldn’t be bothered to leave her lab to fetch a few measly test subjects. 

“I…see. It seems you’ve had a rather hard life yourself, Commander. Maybe even harder than Rose or myself.” 

“That wouldn’t surprise me…” 

Now that I’ve been away from the corporation for a little bit, I’ve come to the realization that the work environment was a bit…harsh. 

“A-anyway…will you be free tomorrow, Commander?” 

“Yeah, I guess. There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot to do for fun in this kingdom. I wandered around the city a bit last night after unpacking, and the only places open were bars.” 

Okay, so I wasn’t expecting to find a twenty-four-hour convenience store or an arcade, but still there was nothing to do! …Hang on a sec, I bet I could find a brothel if I really put my mind to it. Sadly, since I haven’t been paid yet, I’m way too broke to go looking for one. 

Grimm chuckles and smiles at me. 

“Well then, Commander…how about we go on a date?”