Prologue – Prayer

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Imperial Calendar Year 431, Middle of January, Morning

A wind was going. Cold and stinging.

Each time a gust squeezed itself through the narrow path, it sounded like a cream. Shaela reflexively blocked her ears.

All of a sudden she recalled the time when her late husband――her husband succumbed to illness. At first she thought it was a common cold. But, no matter how much time passed, his condition didn’t improve. Instead, his symptoms gradually got worse.

Of course, she exhausted all possibilities. At least she thought she did. She had a doctor look at him and she even got medicine prescribed for her husband. She prayed to the gods and even relied on a soothsayer.

But, one morning――she found her husband’s body cold. His face gentle and calm. This alone gave her some salvation.

His last words to her were to not worry about him and that he’d be alright.

In her mind her husband smiling feebly due to his sickness and Chrono staying behind on the battlefield as rearguard overlapped.

The anxiety that she might never be able to meet him again dominated her mind and heart.

Shaela pushed that worry down and stepped forward.

A short while later, another gust of wind pressed through the narrow path. Thinking of the wind’s howl as Chrono’s scream, she couldn’t help but turn around.

There she spotted five riders. No one was visible behind them. Besides the path leading to the town of Marcab, no, to Chrono.

Probably because she had turned around so abruptly, the cavalrymen stopped as well.

“Is something the matter?” A voice rumbled from above.

Shaela lifted her face in reflex. The one riding a horse next to her was――

“Deputy Corps Commander Beltil? Why are you in a place like this?”

“We’re short on hands. I’ve got no time to spare for amusing myself despite being the deputy corps commander.”

She thought she had been rather rude to the man, but Beltil only smiled weakly at her.

“So, why did you turn back all of a sudden?”

“Ah, it’s nothing. I just did it unconsciously.”

“I see. Your loved one is fighting, so such things do happen as well, I suppose.” Beltil’s face distorted awkwardly. “But, right now I’d like you to keep walking. Your lover is is risking his love to buy us this time after all.”

“…I got it.”

Beltil lightly lowered his head while Shaela turned to the front again and started to walk. She joined her hands in front of her chest.

She wasn’t a divine practitioner, nor a pure virgin. Thus she knew that her prayers wouldn’t reach anyone. And yet, she couldn’t help but to pray for Chrono’s safety.