The day before the march.
With the decisive battle ahead, it was not only the knight orders who had grown busy.
"Is the quality inspection on the potions finished?"
"Yes. Every unit we brought is in top condition."
"And the Grimwald Knight Order roster?"
"That is still......"
The twenty Physicians dispatched from the Medical Institute's Tower of Special Medicine were also moving busily beneath flickering candlelight.
"The march is tomorrow and you are dawdling? Personnel records on every knight are essential in order to log potion tolerance as well."
"But are we supplying potions to Grimwald too? I had not heard that far."
"The Grand Physician instructed us to respond to every contingency, so prepare it for now."
"Mm, understood."
When casualties occurred inside the dungeon, responding immediately from the rear was their work.
Judging and reporting whether Erosion was present was an especially important element of a dungeon subjugation.
Only then could the commander construct a strategy for how to deploy the knights.
A knight who had been eroded so repeatedly that potions no longer took had to be removed from the fighting strength.
If the Physicians failed at their role, the tragedy occurred of having to fight an Outer God's minion who had been an ally until the day before.
"Journeyman Physician Marcen, why are you standing there blankly. Organize those documents and hand them over."
"Associate Physician, are we truly all right setting out on the subjugation like this?"
Marcen, a man of large build, knit his brow and poured out his complaints.
"I mean the Grimwald young master. Surely he will not treat the place under the dungeon as his own front yard and give us orders there too? If he does, I will not stand for it."
"We follow the Grand Physician's judgment above all."
"They say that man commands the Grimwald Knight Order. It is obvious he will overstep and do the same thing again. Does that not bother you at all, Associate Physician?"
"Now, now. Mind your tongue."
The Associate Physician patted Marcen's shoulder to calm him.
"Marcen, I know how you feel. With the Associate Physician promotion examination right in front of you, you showed yourself as incompetent in front of the Grand Physician."
"Who is incompetent. I did no such thing."
"Yes, yes. Your true worth will show in the dungeon. From what I hear the young master is a bastard on top of being a notorious degenerate. There is no chance he sees patients better than a man with formal education like yourself."
Marcen answered with his chin thrust out, thoroughly unconvinced.
"The Grand Physician took that much interest in a mere self-proclaimed doctor who is not even a Physician. There is no question he possesses some strange knowledge."
"There are occasionally fine doctors even among wandering plague doctors. But those who have treated patients solely by their own experience, without establishing a discipline, have clear limits."
"That is right. Folk remedies can never match us. What an institution of tradition and history the Medical Institute is."
Calming the worked-up Marcen, the Associate Physician said.
"You need only prove it to the Grand Physician in this subjugation. That you are far superior to the Grimwald young master of unknown origins."
"Yes."
"Then get back to work."
Only then did Marcen begin sorting documents and potions.
But.
'Dunker Grimwald.'
That name kept circling in his head.
***
"Everyone here!"
"Yes!"
"Anybody backing out!"
"No one!"
"Good voices."
A great black hole punched open in the ground, as though made by a meteor impact.
—Hooooooo......
The entrance to the dungeon, the Swamp of the Abyss, let out a throbbing sound as though it had been waiting for Dunker and the knights.
One hundred knights in knife-straight ranks. Only First Platoon, guarding the entrance, and a skeleton crew would remain in the county.
One hundred knights composed entirely of aura users. It was fair to say Grimwald's fighting strength had effectively been assembled in full.
"Looks like we're going on a picnic."
Dunker offered his impression as he looked at the mountain of supplies.
"We have to carry all of the Lionheart Knight Order's supplies too, that's why. It is a bit much."
"Can we even carry all of that?"
"Ten men is plenty to lift it."
Hammer shrugged as though it were nothing.
Were knights' strength standards set at mammoth level or something? Dunker was dumbfounded.
"The Lionheart Knight Order is arriving."
Stomp, stomp. Knights in matched ranks came in.
One hundred Grimwald knights, one hundred Lionheart knights.
The numbers were the same, but the Lionheart side carried twice the intimidation.
"The density of their aura is no joke."
"They have gotten stronger than when we first saw them."
They were on another level from when they had just arrived in the territory, weakened by scurvy.
Thanks to treatment and rest, the Lionheart was in peak condition and possessed the fighting spirit of one man worth a hundred.
'It stings the pride to be outdone by an imperial knight order.'
'But joining with them, the dungeon subjugation will be a piece of cake.'
The Grimwald knights received a strange sensation, a sense of defeat and rising hope at the same time.
"Good morning, Doctor Dunker. Perfect weather for subjugating a dungeon."
"Even your jokes have dignity, Grand Physician. Did you sleep well?"
"Mm."
With the knights watching, Archibald shook Dunker's hand.
"Are the supplies sufficient?"
"Nothing lacking. I have also finished training the Healing Knights to respond to surgical injuries."
"Precisely the right direction. The Tower of Special Medicine's medical corps will manage Erosion injuries primarily. If your side covers surgery, there is nothing more to ask."
"Speaking of that Erosion treatment."
Dunker asked with an expression full of ease.
"I understand that at present, response to the Erosion phenomenon is possible only with potions."
"That is true."
He had deliberately used the word response rather than treatment.
Dunker's phrasing was accurate.
The Erosion Resistance Potion did not cure the Erosion itself. Its principle was to dull the symptoms so that a knight's natural healing could win out.
Strictly speaking it could not be called "treatment."
Archibald felt the depth of a man who had not missed even that fine distinction.
"Inferring from the paper you showed me, I believe the response to Erosion is not potions alone."
"You saw through it exactly. Did you predict the specifics of the treatment as well?"
"That I cannot know. You only showed me one page."
"If you are curious about what comes after, the Medical Institute's doors are always open."
Sly old fox. He would not show his trump card to the last.
'Wait, I feel like I've seen this old man's strategy somewhere.'
Looking at Archibald's cunning expression, he remembered.
It was the face of a professor running a glowing recruitment drive for graduate students on the strength of a paper.
"If you were to cooperate actively with our medical corps, there is no reason I could not tell you."
'Somehow I feel like I'm being played.'
Put a foot wrong and he would be abducted and made to do nothing but research. Dunker took a quiet step backward.
"The Outer Gods' Erosion arises with the Seed of the Curse as its main pathogen. Beyond prescribing medicine, it can be removed with rapid surgical response."
"That too is a good method. The place posting the highest results in the Medical Institute at present is the Tower of Pharmacy. They monopolize potion brewing and distribution. The Tower of External Medicine is showing considerable activity to match."
"As expected."
"But at our Tower of Special Medicine we go beyond that, defining the clear principle of the Erosion phenomenon and researching a perfect treatment."
"If Erosion could be completely cured."
"You could leave your name as a great figure of history."
It did whet his appetite.
To become the first doctor to cure the most lethal and threatening unknown disease there is.
In his past life it would have been an achievement worth a Nobel Prize.
"It would be a technique absolutely necessary down there."
"Mm."
The two men looked back at the dungeon entrance.
A pitch-black hole that blocked light sources abnormally.
To the knights it was a battlefield; to the doctors it was the front line against the worst of diseases.
"Her Highness the Princess is arriving."
"All units, attention."
While Dunker was talking with Archibald, pure white armor appeared. The Lionheart knights parted like an ebbing tide to make a path, and saluted.
Dunker and Archibald offered their respects at the same time.
Third Princess Schnellia swept a sharp gaze over the assembled knights.
"The organization?"
"Deployment complete as ordered: four platoons, five squads each."
"Third Platoon takes point and handles reconnaissance. The medical corps to the rear. The Special Duty Unit will escort them. Command of each platoon remains with its platoon leader, unchanged."
"By your command."
"Young Master Dunker Grimwald."
"Yes."
Dunker stepped forward before Schnellia.
"The Grimwald Knight Order is organized for search and rear defensive line. Split into two formations and take charge of support and rescue in emergencies."
"Understood."
"And one more thing. I announce this to all knights."
Schnellia's voice, brimming with authority, seeped into every ear.
"As of this moment, Dunker Grimwald takes supreme command of all units."
"Yes!"
The Lionheart's answer rang out thunderously.
The ones actually shocked by the Third Princess's declaration were the Grimwald knights, and the Physicians of the medical corps.
"This one takes the vanguard together with Third Platoon. This is a large-scale operation, so a commander is separately required to watch over and respond to all forces from the rear. Do not report to this one for every matter; follow Grimwald's command."
"Yes!"
The Young Master taking supreme command? What was going on? Amid the Grimwald knights' murmuring, someone ran out to the front.
"Your Highness, I offer counsel at the risk of discourtesy!"
It was Journeyman Physician Marcen. He shouted with an attitude of complete refusal to accept it.
"Our medical corps belongs to the imperial court. Should it be Your Highness's order we would carry it out at the cost of our lives, but I beg you to reconsider handing command to an unverified illegitimate son of a count's house!"
Marcen's objection was natural enough. The other Physicians held similar opinions. They had been dispatched to support an imperial knight order, and there was nowhere any reason for them to act for Grimwald's sake.
For an instant.
The air froze.
'......Ngh.'
It was the oppressive weight of the aura Schnellia gave off.
At her icy expression, even Marcen, who had stepped out so boldly, tensed as though a blade hung at his throat.
"Who are you?"
"J-Journeyman Physician Marcen of the Tower of Special Medicine, Your Highness."
"A mere Journeyman Physician raises objection to my tactical organization?"
"Not an objection. Only counsel, entirely for the sake of the subjugation's success......"
Schnellia sent him a look as though she were regarding an insect.
Her attitude said he was not even worth explaining to. Instead an escort knight of the Special Duty Unit stepped forward and called out.
"Journeyman Physician. Her Highness has made a tactically rational judgment. Loss of strength is reduced when Her Highness, the greatest fighting force, stands at the vanguard. But that correspondingly narrows her field of view for commanding the whole force."
"That much I understand, but......"
"Placing the commander in the rear with the medical corps is standard tactics in cramped terrain such as a dungeon."
"Th-Then could that role not be entrusted to us! The Grand Physician is also a man who once served as a commander and crossed countless battlefields alongside His Majesty the Emperor. If the Grand Physician were to command instead, I could accept......"
Someone blocked the path of the agitated Marcen. It was Grand Physician Archibald.
"I apologize on his behalf for the discourtesy, Your Highness. I ask that you understand a young Physician's spirit with magnanimity."
At Archibald's apology, Schnellia nodded.
"I forgive it. But your subordinate, who parades his ignorance all over the neighborhood without knowing it is ignorance, appears to need education."
"I shall see to it."
Marcen bit his lip.
"G-Grand Physician......"
"Her Highness's judgment is absolute, Journeyman Physician Marcen."
"But......"
"Doctor Dunker already has experience commanding a knight order and clearing the dungeon. He will be familiar with the terrain as well, so he is more than suitable as commander. That is enough."
"......My apologies."
At Archibald's firm attitude, Marcen withdrew.
Just as the mood at the assembly point had sunk into disorder.
"Monsters! Caution-class, three of them!"
A sentry shouted urgently.
Pitch-black serpent-beasts were crawling up out of the dungeon entrance.
Monsters leaking a viscous curse as they launched a sudden assault. Tension spread in an instant.
"M-Monsters?!"
"They came up reacting to the aura!"
The Physicians panicked. Marcen too saw the monsters' hideous forms and recoiled, backing away.
Schnellia reacted immediately, her eyes going wide. It was the moment aura whirled in her pupils.
"First Platoon, raise the palisade and fall back. Second Platoon, square formation. Fourth Platoon, encircle in goose-wing formation."
Someone stepped forward with a calm voice.
Dunker Grimwald.
At his order the Grimwald Knight Order responded at once, raising swords and spears in perfect unison and taking position around the dungeon entrance.
"Hup!"
"Haaap!"
Knights massed densely behind the palisade. They herded the monsters in at a stroke.
Fwaht! Countless spears shot out at once like a wall of thorns.
—Shaaaah!
The wounded monsters' momentum grew fiercer still. They threw away their lives trying to devour the men.
"Charlotte."
"Yes."
"Can you finish it?"
"You need not check with me on every matter."
Charlotte, who had been guarding Dunker's side, ran out. The blade of the longsword she raised was overlaid with green aura.
"I make a Covenant."
At Charlotte's declaration, aura surged through her body.
A Covenant.
A declaration that breaks the laws of the world, which only aura users who have risen to the rank of Expert can employ.
"For the next sixty seconds, my lungs cease to breathe."
She binds a physical restriction upon herself.
An oath sworn upon the heart releases transcendent power for a moment.
"In exchange, I place the lightning of the North Wind into this blade."
Shweeee! A sharp wind whipped up as though a typhoon had suddenly risen.
"Haap!"
Charlotte's sword traced its arc.
Above the heads of the monster pack, intense wind pressure created by a gap of vacuum was loosed.
—SHWEEEEE!!
Wind that distorted the field of vision crashed down.
—Shaaaaa......!
The black shapes melted away without a trace.
"Haah."
Charlotte ended the Covenant, breathed again, and wiped her sword clean against her arm.
It was an utterly clean fight.
"G-Good heavens......"
Journeyman Physician Marcen, having landed flat on his backside, stared blankly at the sight.
"Subjugation complete. All hands, fall back. Mage corps, carry out follow-up."
Snap. The knights lowered their weapons and reformed ranks. The mages burned away every trace of the monsters.
Dunker spun a half-turn and bowed his head toward Schnellia.
"I will see to it that Your Highness can exercise her finest skill. Leave the rear to me."
Schnellia lifted the corner of her mouth lightly.
She passed Dunker and took the vanguard.
"Lionheart, advance. Toward victory."
She drew her sword.