A Distant Reverie

Chapter 48

The screams went silent.

A trail of cold steel flashed across the night forest. Shortly after, the body of an Eden cultist crumpled to the ground. A decapitated head rolled along the earthly floor, leaving behind a ghastly trail of red.

Marine's eyes darted about, searching for the next enemy. Gazing over the pile of corpses scattered around her, she found no more enemies in her vicinity. Behind her, on the other side of the camp, the sound of combat was also beginning to lull.

"Kersen, are you alright?"

Her fixer was on his knees, gasping for air. His dignified face was smeared in blood and dirt, grimacing with fatigue. His hands shook incessantly, still holding his bloodied dagger with an ironclad grip as if his life depended on it.

"Y-yes, Ms. Houshou," his voice trembled, "I think I'll be fine."

Looks like that was his first time killing someone.

"Resolve yourself. The next time you hesitate, the head rolling on the ground might be yours instead," Marine said, cruelly kicking aside the decapitated head of the fallen cultist.

"My apologies."

"Once you've composed yourself, give me a report of our status."

"R-right!" Kersen stood up with a salute before running towards the direction of the camp. Marine fought the urge to sigh as she watched her young fixer disappeared amidst the chaos.

Did I expect too much out of him?

In contrast to the rest of her ragtag legionnaires, Marine had been quite impressed with Kersen's skills during training. The young fixer had well-polished fundamentals and a solid physique. His issue became glaringly clear after this ambush—his mentality and inexperience.

He could turn into someone formidable one day.

If he survives this expedition.

-----

Marine was in the midst of cleaning her swords when Kersen returned.

"Reporting. Twenty-five legionnaires were killed in the ambush. Thirty-two more sustained light injuries."

We lost 25 men? Marine narrowed her eyes, "How many cultists were there?" she asked, straining to keep her voice neutral.

"I counted roughly one hundred killed in action. Most of them seemed to have been downed by Ms. Houshou and Mr. Noir."

Marine clicked her tongue. Despite being ambushed, Marine hoped her legionnaires would have performed better in this confrontation. She had stayed awake a bit longer than planned out of paranoia from Lady Ouro's earlier warnings. In that sense, they lucked out. If she had been asleep, or if the bulk of the cultists had arrived on the other side of the camp, the casualties would have been undoubtedly worse.

Should I have issued a warning? Marine frowned.

No. We're still five days away from Mount Iya. It would have been unreasonable to anticipate an ambush on the first night of the expedition.

The fact that the Eden was this close to Kalinga was troubling. Something was missing from the intel they were provided. Either Eden's operations had expanded farther than what was originally reported, or—

—maybe they knew we were coming?

It was a possibility that Marine couldn't dismiss.

"Ms. Houshou, I have a few more things to report," Kersen said, snapping Marine back to reality, "Aside from a few tents being destroyed, our supplies remained mostly undamaged. However, besides the twenty-five legionnaires killed in action, there was also one medical staff that passed."