"I said it before, but there is a person… or an entire group that's running around the state and trying to mess up a lot of stuff," Leynel revealed, all according to Leon's wish. "We were chasing after their trail all the way to here. But as there are no further paths to travel east from the Gleenwood village, we literally reached a dead end."
"That is, only if you assume they were traveling through the roads as well," Leon replied.
He took only a single look at the map. Even now, when they were talking about locations, he didn't bother looking at it again.
And from Leynel's reaction of having his face tense up, Leon could tell he hit the jackpot.
"And that's why we," Leynel cleverly used 'we' instead of 'I' pronoun, spreading the responsibility for the task through all the officers rather than shouldering it on his own, "want you to check the forest."
"Is that why you couldn't tell me whether it's a huge group or just a small one?" Leon then asked, going back to what the officer said before.
"That's not it." Leynel shook his head. "This isn't the first village where they took the potential conscripts before leading them elsewhere. It happened to most of the villages we visited while chasing after them."
"So you want me to fight them off if I only find the troublemakers while holding back my arm if it's those poor, fooled conscripts?"
"That's exactly right," Leynel said as he nodded his head. "It's not their fault that they were fooled. And the state still needs them in…" the officer cut his sentence short before he could say too much.
'So while everyone knows there is going to be a war, it's not something that can be said out loud,' Leon thought, noticing the most likely reason behind Leynel's weird pause. 'That might prove helpful in the future,' he thought, holding back a small smirk from appearing on his face.
"Since it's not something you can talk any further about, let's move on to the important bits," he stated while allowing a wide smile to appear on his face.
"Bactrian!" Leynel shouted, turning his head to the very same officer Leon saw him with back during their first meeting. "Get him the weapons he wanted," the officer then ordered only to turn his eyes back to the person at hand. "Everything else…"
"After the job," Leon said in half-voice, nodding his head only to then roll his eyes around. "You don't know me, you don't trust me," he said, raising the right corner of his mouth. "I would take you for an idiot if it was supposed to work any other way."
"It's good that we have an understanding," Leynel smiled. He then shook his head. "Now, fuck off!"
"Come," Bactrian said, standing up from his spot behind the commander of the banner.
He threw one, angry look at Leon. The sub-officer then averted his eyes as if Leon's face was too foul for him to look at.
The two of them got out of the tent that turned completely silent after Bactrian's bit.
'Whatever they were discussing out there, they clearly don't want me to be a part of it,' Leon thought, taking a mental note while following after the officer.
"You need a sword, a short spear, and a bow, right?" Bactrian muttered, anguished by his role of guiding the outsider to what any formation of soldiers would consider its greatest treasury, the armory.
And yet, rather than leading him towards a distinctive tent, he approached what appeared to be his own place.
"Wait here," Bactrian ordered as he dived inside his lodging. And then a moment later, he came out with the first two items off the list.
"A sword and a spear," he muttered, passing the tools of murder over to the outsider.
Leon took the sword first, leisurely stashing it under his belt. Yet, as soon as he grabbed the spear's handle, his face twisted in an ugly grimace.
"Don't you have anything shorter?" he asked, playing around with a spear with the agility only someone from the future could present.
Or in other words, swinging it in a fanciful manner that had absolutely nothing to do with actual means of using the spear in a fight.
"This is a standard issue," Bactrian barked, his face twisting as Leon's playful behavior clearly annoyed him to no end. "Take it or leave it, your call."
"This thing will be of no use in the forest," Leon muttered under his nose. And then, he allowed a smirk to appear on his face. "And that means…"
Leon changed his hold over the weapon, bringing one of his hands near the spear's blade while moving the other to the very butt of the weapon.
"Hyup!" he uttered a small call, rapidly bringing the spear down while kicking his knee up, roughly at half of the weapon's length.
"Wha…!" Bactrian screamed out in agony as he could do nothing but watch as his precious partner snapped in half over Leon's knee.
"Now, that's better," Leon muttered with a smirk, throwing the broken handle of the spear over his back only to then look around.
"Go and find me a bow and arrows," he then ordered, not paying any heed to how annoying it had to be for a stickler for the rules that Bactrian appeared to be.
And then, before the sub-officer could even shake off his grief after watching the drastic end of his trusty partner, Leon approached one of the fireplaces where the common soldiers spent their time eating and drinking.
"Sorry guys, but would you mind lending me your fire for a bit?" he asked with a charming smile, sitting down between the soldiers before they could even respond.
"Who are you?" one of them asked after the initial shock of Leon's intrusive behavior passed.
"Just a man," Leon replied, pushing the broken end of his now short spear into the fire and watching how it burned the uneven end down. "A man who was given the job that you guys weren't deemed fit to do."