Chương 101: What Peace Left Behind

The longer the truce lasted, the more paper accumulated. Reports called the human units that shared hunting grounds cowards. On the demihuman side came complaints that they could have taken more mountain goats but had opened the road to the enemy. The bridge repaired by both sides became a supply route. It also produced a report saying it would someday become a road for an enemy advance. The names of soldiers who had sat at the same griddle during the prisoner exchange entered a list of suspected collaborators.

Officers whose military provisions Kichan had taken wrote that their commander had deliberately let the thief escape. Market residents who had eaten royal flour became accomplices who shared stolen goods. After hearing the documents read aloud, Kichan asked,"Is everyone in our market a thief?" Theor folded the list.

"By their standards, yes."

"Then they got it right."

"Do not accept it that quickly." Kichan turned the list over and wrote down how much salt the market needed. A royal military supplier arrived that afternoon. He checked the crests on the flour sacks and announced that he would reclaim them all. The goods had come from a human military storehouse, and anyone who accepted them was an accomplice to theft. Marena spread an empty sack before him.

"The flour is gone. We ate it."

"Then pay its value."

"Whose portion are you collecting first?" She opened the ration sheet. Human children, a demihuman elder, and soldiers returned from captivity shared one page. The supplier could not decide which name should become the first debt. Kichan asked from behind him,"Want the empty sacks instead of money?" The supplier loaded only the empty sacks and departed. That night, another report appeared saying Kichan had threatened a royal supplier. People worried about the papers and crossed the bridge anyway.

Marena spread wet leaves to dry. A demihuman herbalist divided mandragora roots into pieces the width of a person's finger. Ern, returned from captivity, tied tents with knots he had learned on the other side. The children rolled sheets of paper into swords.

"That is a ledger." Theor spoke.

"There's nothing on the back."

"It remains a ledger."

"It's just a list of thieves."

"All the more reason to preserve it." The children ran away with their paper swords. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. The first accident happened that afternoon. Seru, a white owl, flew in from across the river. A document tube marked with both human and demihuman seals was tied to one ankle. A human recruit newly assigned to an outpost raised a bow.

"Enemy scout!" The soldier beside him had no time to intervene. The arrow grazed Seru's left wing. The owl circled once over the bridge, then fell onto a market tent. Batu ran beneath the sagging cloth and caught it on his back. Seru slid down the fabric, struck Batu's armor, and rolled onto the ground. Marena put down the teapot and ran.

"Bring cloth first!" Kichan came running with the material board. Seru dragged one wing and held its beak open. When Dust clung to the metal ring on the document tube, Kichan picked it off. He reached for the tube, and Seru stabbed his hand with one talon.

"Hold still. I'm on your side." The owl struck him again.

"That hurts."

"Do you expect to persuade an injured animal with words?" Riphiel asked.

"It works on you."

"I am not an animal." Valkyrie spread itself over a water bowl and sent a thin stream of clear water across the wound. Kichan shaved two molly stems and placed them along the wing. He washed the injury with water mixed with a small amount of mandragora powder and wrapped it in cloth. Holding the splint with the tip of the wake-up rod, he gathered biological alchemy in his fingers until the separated bone inside returned to place.

Argaon picked up the bloody arrow and looked toward the outpost as though measuring the distance.

"It was not far enough for him to miss the marker. Fear came first." Seria opened the document tube. It carried an order from both commanders extending the truce by another half month. Both seals were present. The recruit stood frozen with the bow still in his hand.

"I did not see the messenger mark."

"Would you have held your shot if you had?" Kichan asked.

"Yes."

"Then look before you shoot next time." The recruit could not raise his head. By evening, a different story was already spreading. The human camp said a demihuman scout owl had tried to steal the mediation document. The demihumans said the human army had shot the messenger to reject the truce. The rumor crossed the river first, even while the living Seru sat on a beam in the shelter with the document tube in its beak. Both commanders learned that even an order they sent themselves could be cut off along the way.

After that, every document traveled in duplicate. One copy went with Seru, the other with Haven. If even those ran late, the commanders hid short notes inside each other's medicine pouches. At first, Seria and Theor still waited for Kichan to finish this problem too. He had set the owl's bone, sent the recruit away, and preserved the truce order. Theor cautiously suggested that Kichan had enough strength to overpower at least one side's command and stop the war. Kichan set down his bowl of soup.

"Don't talk about war in front of people eating." Theor closed his mouth. Kichan placed one extra piece of meat in the bowl of the child beside him. When the child looked up, he washed the ladle with an expression that said it had not been him. Seria watched his hands. From the next bowl onward, she took the ladle. The following day, they changed the owls' flight path to help them avoid arrows. Missing people from both sides went onto the same sheet.

Theor began counting the wounded moved that day rather than the number of times the wake-up rod vibrated.

"Thirty-two."

"What is?"

"The number of people moved into the treatment tent today."

"What about yesterday?"

"Twenty-seven."

"That's more."

"Fewer would be better."

"You still moved a lot." Theor had no answer and accepted the next bowl. Several days later, a long truce was declared. Both armies withdrew across the river. Prisoner exchanges and the movement of winter food began formally. The shared market and neutral shelter became the justification. Kichan liked hearing that the market would open every day more than hearing the war was over. The Pope also judged that the inspection and rescue he had first requested were complete.

Seria held out the sealed box containing the Fragment of God's Word.

"The compensation we promised."

"It's mine now?"

"Yes."

"Don't ask for it back later."

"We will not." Kichan did not touch the fragment with his bare hand. He placed the entire sealed box inside the magic bag and brought the wake-up rod close. Two tiny notes sounded from within. Outside, the revived market was opening for evening trade. Theor pushed the two reports from that day into the same file box. One said the market was operating normally. The other said the list of suspected collaborators had grown. The papers had become so thick that the lid would no longer close.