Ron’s patrol training did not end until late at night.
When they removed their equipment at the command post and returned to the barracks,
“Ah, I’m exhausted. Are we going to have to keep doing this for the rest of the practicum?”
Joseph grumbled and threw himself onto his bed.
Anesia did not give any particular answer.
Just as Joseph said, if they had to go on patrols like this several times a day, fatigue was certain to pile up.
But there was something else that bothered Gale even more.
The strange atmosphere hanging over the 3rd Guard Unit.
Starting with the junior soldiers’ lack of respect, and then Miguel’s behavior of showing no respect for his subordinate—none of it was normal.
After organizing his clothes, Gale lay on his bed, looked at the moon hanging high outside the window, and recalled the moment he had met Miguel.
In his previous life, Miguel had gone beyond the level of a Sword Expert and reached the level of a Sword Master.
He had been especially talented at handling artifacts, and among knights of the same level, he was known to be so strong that no one could compare to him.
Of course, Miguel’s level at this point in time was surely lower than it had been back then, but the moment Gale faced him earlier, he had known that the gap in their abilities was enormous.
‘Since I’ve gone back to the past too, maybe that’s only natural.’
No matter how extraordinary Gale’s talent was, and no matter how much of a genius he was for reaching the 3rd Tier at such a young age, he was certain that killing Miguel with his current strength was impossible.
Gale rolled up his sleeve and checked his remaining lifespan.
12,905 DAY
Roughly thirty-five years.
Even now, the Golden Dawn Society was growing somewhere in the Empire, and the day when they were at their weakest was today.
Since he would be fighting them, there was no need to hesitate in selling his lifespan to immediately close the gap he lacked. But because the lifespan he possessed was finite, he had to use it as rationally as possible.
‘Let’s not get impatient. There might be a better way.’
Ron Howard, the traitor.
Gale thought that the existence of the man who had worn an Imperial Army uniform and swung his sword against the Empire might perhaps open a way forward.
***
Starting the next day, patrol duty in Yoshiura began in earnest.
The practicum students were all split up and assigned to duty as assistants beside senior duty personnel, and Gale’s senior duty personnel was Ron.
The reason Ron, the deputy commander, had been assigned to duty was because the 3rd Guard Unit was suffering from a severe manpower shortage.
In any case, the fact that he had time to speak with Ron personally was a positive situation.
As the scheduled duty time approached, Gale immediately headed to the command post.
When he entered, Ron was waiting there, fully dressed in his Guard Unit duty uniform.
“You’re here. You’re far better than the previous shift’s duty personnel, but you are all still in the position of learning, so prepare a little earlier next time.”
“Understood.”
The previous shift’s duty personnel had been Joseph.
Gale smiled faintly and put on his duty uniform, when the other senior soldiers nearby asked Ron,
“Deputy Commander, are you going with a practicum student too?”
“I am.”
“We know your style, Deputy Commander, but still, please do not scold the practicum students too much. If the kids run away, we’ll be in big trouble.”
It was a dreadful way of speaking, with no respect for rank to be found at all, even though they were in the Imperial Army.
Ron seemed used to it, and merely prepared in silence with a hardened expression.
“If you’re ready, we’ll depart.”
“Understood.”
When Gale followed Ron outside, the wide-open, clear sky made his chest feel as if it had been opened up.
The sight before him was the complete opposite of the Yoshiura he had seen during the patrol training that had continued late into the previous night.
Clean streets.
In front of the closed doors, everything was so neatly arranged that not even a single fallen leaf rolled about.
It was a peaceful scene, to the point that one could never imagine this was a city created by gathering criminals.
As Gale looked around and slowly walked along the patrol route, Ron asked, “Is this your first time in Yoshiura?”
Yoshiura was such a famous city that Gale had heard all kinds of stories about it.
He had kept putting off visiting while thinking he would go someday, but in the end, by the time Gale had set foot on this land, the place had already completely collapsed.
Gale recalled the sight of Yoshiura that had reflected in his eyes at the time and said,
“Yes, yesterday was my first time.”
“I see. It may feel unfamiliar, but to the people here, noon is like midnight for ordinary people. Right now, everyone is asleep.”
Gale quietly listened to Ron’s words.
“But even if it is daytime, the people who live here do not change. Some cannot sit still and cause trouble from broad daylight. Whether it is day or night, what we must do does not change.”
“Understood.”
Just then, they ran into the previous duty personnel returning after reaching the turnaround point.
It was Joseph and his senior duty personnel.
The two approached with their faces full of smiles.
“Deputy Commander, this one’s a real treasure. If you’re assigned with him next time, you’ll definitely have fun.”
The senior soldier said it warmly, placing an arm over Joseph’s shoulder.
“You seem to be in a good mood.”
“Out of all the practicum students who’ve come here, this one probably has the best gift of gab. Couldn’t you assign me with him next time too?”
“Duty will be assigned sequentially and evenly.”
“You’re strict as always. Understood. Then have a good shift, sir.”
After the noisy pair left, Gale asked, “Deputy Commander. May I ask you one thing?”
“What is it?”
“The 3rd Guard Unit seems a little different from the Imperial Army I knew.”
Gale brought this up to sound Ron out.
You know it too, don’t you?
That even if it had happened in front of an imperial citizen, the sight of a superior striking down his own subordinate and the sight of subordinate soldiers showing no respect at all were not normal.
At Gale’s question, Ron smiled bitterly.
“Different, you say…. How does the 3rd Guard Unit appear in your eyes?”
“It feels like I am looking at a unit where discipline is not being maintained.”
He turned his head and looked at Gale.
“Then let me ask you one thing. If you disliked the changes a new superior created, how would you act?”
Gale recalled the atmosphere of the 3rd Guard Unit and said,
“Wouldn’t I try to change it into a proper atmosphere?”
“No, that answer is wrong.”
When Gale looked back at Ron, who had stopped walking, Ron spoke with a face stiffened as if declaring an unshakable will.
“The answer is obedience. As you know, within the Imperial Army, the principle is that subordinates obey their superiors. Remember that the weight of responsibility that comes from stepping outside that principle can be heavier than you are able to bear. Are you prepared to shoulder that responsibility?”
At those words, Gale could say nothing.
If someone else had asked, he might easily have answered that he could. But Ron’s question before him now by no means carried a light meaning.
It felt as if it were being asked by someone who had that responsibility right before his eyes.
“…That was too much idle talk. Let’s go.”
Gale looked at Ron’s back as he walked ahead.
He had never actually seen Ron in his previous life, but Gale thought that if he had met the Ron Howard who had started a rebellion in person, he would have had eyes like those.
***
When Gale arrived at the barracks after finishing patrol, Joseph, who had finished his duty and was lying alone on his bed, greeted him.
“How was duty with Deputy Commander Ron?”
Gale recalled what Ron had said and smiled bitterly.
“It wasn’t bad. You looked like you were having a good time.”
“You have no idea how talkative that man was. Whew…. Oh, right. There’s an interesting story. Interested?”
“An interesting story?”
Then Joseph approached like an excited child and began telling him all kinds of stories he had heard from his senior duty soldier.
Most of them were so filthy that Gale wanted to wash his ears out, but among them was one fairly interesting story.
It was about the relationship between Ron Howard and Miguel Wiseburn.
“Is that true?”
“I’m telling you, it is. Ah, of course, I didn’t see it myself, but it seemed like it’s already a famous story among the unit members.”
To sum up Joseph’s words, it had begun when Ron’s father fell into gambling and took on a massive debt, bringing a crisis upon House Howard.
In order to repay the debt, his father eventually put Ron up at a slave market, and in the process, friction arose with the Imperial Army.
Among the nobles within the Empire, buying and selling slaves was done in secret. But under imperial law, slave trading was plainly illegal.
In the end, the story went that the Imperial Army arrested his father and the slave trader, and Ron was rescued.
“They say the person who took in Deputy Commander Ron when he had nowhere to go back then was Major Miguel.”
“So that’s what happened.”
If that was the case, he could understand why the 3rd Guard Unit had fallen apart.
Miguel, the commander, was lenient with his subordinates, but Ron, who valued principles and discipline, could not rebel against him.
The subordinates knew Ron would not defy Miguel and exploited that, creating the current 3rd Guard Unit.
“For some reason, the Guard Unit captain felt charismatic and scary from the first meeting, but I’m glad he seems like a good person.”
“A good person…?”
“Ah, I mean, I ran into him while patrolling earlier, and he told me to work hard before leaving. It felt like he cared about his subordinates, or something like that.”
“…You’re free to believe whatever you want.”
“I heard a rumor going around that the person controlling Yoshiura’s criminals is Major Miguel, but no matter how I think about it, that’s got to be nonsense.”
The moment Gale heard that name, his eyes widened.
“Major Miguel?”
“Oops… They said this was supposed to be a secret.”
“Tell me in detail.”
Joseph hesitated and said, “Well, they said that after Major Miguel was appointed here, Yoshiura’s crime rate dropped tremendously.”
“Isn’t that just him doing what he’s supposed to do as a member of the Imperial Army?”
“That’s what I’m saying. But apparently, there are soldiers who believe it’s because Major Miguel is controlling the criminals from behind the scenes. Honestly. It makes no sense.”
He could not be certain yet, but,
‘It’s a completely possible story.’
If it was the Miguel Gale knew, it would not be strange at all for him to truly act that way.
In the current situation, dealing with Miguel alone was already more than enough to handle. If Miguel was also commanding Yoshiura’s criminals, it would be close to impossible for Gale to deal with all of them on his own.
If Gale, who possessed knowledge of the future, had a fatal weakness, it was that he had enlisted in the Imperial Army late in his previous life and therefore had no background knowledge at all regarding the personnel inside the current Imperial Army.
That was why Gale had always stayed on guard, thinking that if he failed to save the Empire from the Golden Dawn Society, the cause would be a lack of information.
But now that a situation like this had come right before his eyes, he felt so frustrated that he wanted to put a blade to the neck of a passerby just to confirm the truth.
He had to obtain information as quickly as possible.
At the very least, he needed someone who could properly point out the current situation to him right now.
Gale rose from his seat and said, “Joseph, the practicum students have personal maintenance time after their duty ends, right?”
“Huh? Yeah. Deputy Commander Ron said that yesterday.”
Originally, even at a practicum duty station, there should have been a set daily routine of sorts for the practicum students.
But this place was structured to focus solely on duty, and the atmosphere was such that, outside duty hours, no one particularly cared what the practicum students did.
Gale recalled the many plans he had only thought through in his head until now.
Although he had ended up carrying out a plan at an unexpected moment, Gale was not particularly dissatisfied.
He was merely doing right now something he would have had to do someday.
He already knew, after all, that unpredictable situations would arise as he pursued the Golden Dawn Society.
“I’m going out for a bit.”
“Suddenly? Where are you going?”
“There’s someone I have to meet.”
Here in Yoshiura, there was a person who could fill in what Gale currently lacked.
Nike.
In his previous life, she had been in the same platoon as Gale. She was a person who had been born in Yoshiura and had lived here her entire life.
He recalled how she had always talked endlessly about her childhood until he was sick of hearing it.
‘I don’t know if this will work… but it’s worth trying.’
If she did not seem likely to help, he could simply find someone else.
Gale grabbed his coat and left the barracks.