Chapter 37

Watching the sinking sun, Garmon and Nagi sat side by side, gazing out at the wasteland.

Garmon wondered to himself just how long it had been since they had interacted this peacefully, like real brothers. He had returned home, certainly, but between his duties and the lack of time, they had never shared a moment of silence like this.

As for who was responsible for driving his brother to such an edge, the answer might vary depending on who you asked. However, Garmon, at least, believed the fault was his own. For Nagi, he was the only person who could truly be called family.

At the very least, after joining the Knights, he could have suggested Nagi move to the Royal Capital, or he could have put down his spear and chosen a desk job at headquarters where leave was easier to get. Yet, it was Garmon’s own will that kept him gripping the spear.

“The sun’s going down. About time for the Orcs to start moving…”

Nagi muttered, his eyes narrowing.

As the leader of the Kliffia Militia, the ones Nagi truly had to fight were those loathsome Orcs, not his brother. Garmon had thought Nagi was too blinded by personal feelings to see his surroundings, but as far as he could tell, a clear sense of duty resided in Nagi’s eyes.

In that case, he could have at least picked this fight after the business with the Orcs was settled… Garmon let out a sigh at his younger brother’s thoughtless behavior.

“Honestly, what if your nonsense affects tomorrow’s work—”

He cut himself off, startled.

Right—he had been so absorbed in the brawl that he had half-forgotten about his precious subordinate.

“That’s right! I have to treat Varna-kun immediately!!”

“Nah, there’s no need for treatment. He isn’t hurt.”

“Don’t be stupid! You put Varna-kun through all that… and he was dripping blood!! Reflect on your actions instead of talking like it’s someone else’s problem!! Hang on, Varna-kun!”

“Now, now, please calm down, Senior. I’m not going anywhere.”

“How can I stay calm?! As his senior in the Knights, I’m the one who put him in danger—in… danger… huh?”

Garmon thought to himself. Wait, something is strange.

Garmon had leaned forward, about to shake off the two people restraining him, but on second thought, why were there two people stopping him? Besides Varna, who should have been lying there unable to move, there was only Nagi and himself. So, who was the person who just called out to stop him?

‘What… what is this incredibly bad feeling…?!’

With movements as stiff as a rusted tin toy, Garmon creaked his head around to confirm the truth.

“Man, that was a real nail-biter. I told you to settle it before the sun went down, but you really dragged it out. I thought the ‘Anti-Senior’ measures I set up yesterday were gonna go to waste.”

“Shut it, Varna! You were the one who suggested this method because you said Brother isn’t a strong fistfighter! If you’re gonna complain, complain about your own poor planning for misjudging his strength…”

“Well, you can’t beat him if he has a spear, can you?”

“Don’t say that!! It hurts my soul in the worst way!!”

There stood Nagi and Varna.

Varna was standing next to Nagi, his ropes undone, looking for all the world like they were the best of friends.

“…I see. No, actually, I have no idea what it is I ‘see,’ but for now, um… eh? …Eh?”

The fact that Varna, who was supposed to have been brutalized, was perfectly fine and had untied the ropes himself could be dismissed with the mysterious reputation of “well, if it’s Varna, I guess that makes sense.” Even so, the scene before him was abnormal enough to plunge Garmon into a vortex of confusion.

It was a mysterious sense of alienation and a cold sweat, as if he had burst onto a stage because he mistook a play for a real crime. It was that frustrating sensation where the answer is already right in front of you, but you’re panicking too much to fit the pieces together.

Noticing Garmon’s gaze, Varna raised a hand to quiet the shouting Nagi.

“What’s wrong, Senior? You look like a pigeon that’s been pierced by the Cooking Squad’s arrows.”

“That would mean I’m dead on the spot!! …That’s not it!! Varna-kun, were you not attacked?!”

To that question, Varna answered flatly, without a hint of guilt.

“Not at all? I was mostly just napping.”

“What about the wounds and the blood on your face?!”

“The blood is tomato paste. As for the bruises, Baum-chan, who I met at the tavern, drew them on with crayons. Great work, right? I was careful about the angle so the shadows from the sunset would hide it, so it seems you didn’t notice at all!”

“Uuu… uwoooooooh!!?”

As his perception of reality was shattered by these solid answers, the data-processing capacity of Garmon’s brain let out a scream. Along with it, Garmon himself let out a strange cry. Behind Varna, Nagi was clutching his stomach, trembling as if he couldn’t hold back his laughter.

He desperately didn’t want to admit it, but an incredibly cruel truth had already formed in Garmon’s mind. It was a truth so awful he wanted to jump off the cliff before confirming it. Still, he asked another question, praying his theory was wrong.

“But there are rope burns on your arms?!”

“Well, Nagi-kun had a lot of trouble with the ‘knots that untie easily’ part. Plus, he brought such rough rope. In the end, I had the Vice Captain of the Militia do it for me. I was doubling as the mediator in case things didn’t go according to script, so I needed to be in a state where I could slip the ropes at a moment’s notice.”

“In other words, this kidnapping… was all a setup from the start?! T-The documents! The important papers regarding the Orcs?! Was that a lie too?!”

“Those actually exist, but I left them with Nonoka-san during the afternoon. We’ll likely identify the nest during tomorrow’s investigation, and since there will be a few days of preparation, the idea was that both you and Nagi-kun could heal your wounds enough so it wouldn’t affect the subjugation. Oh, of course, I explained the situation to Nonoka-san.”

“She was an accomplice tooooooo?!”

Overcome by a sudden loss of strength, Garmon collapsed on the spot.

In his mind, he could almost see the teary-eyed Nonoka-san laughing mischievously and asking, “How was it? Nonoka’s masterpiece performance!” To the current Garmon, it wasn’t the smile of a little imp; it was the grin of a true demon. They say tears are a woman’s weapon, but even if one wasn’t Bevion, anyone would have been fooled by that.

Seeing his brother’s pathetic state, Nagi finally couldn’t hold back anymore and started talking, making no effort to hide his grin.

“Pukuku… V-Varna was the one who came up with the p-plan… though I was completely serious about the fight halfway through… Buh-ha!! Dammit, this is hilarious!! Dah-hah-hah-hah—hagu?! The bruises from the fight hurt—?!”

“You idiot.”

“Harsh?! This is all your plan’s fault, you know?!”

To put it simply, it wasn’t that Nagi had taken advantage of Varna’s goodwill; it was a grand trap where Varna and Nagi had teamed up to exploit Garmon’s good nature. Beyond anger or exasperation, Garmon felt terribly embarrassed that he had gotten so worked up over such a scheme.

“Why use such a wicked method that could have resulted in serious injury for either of us?!”

“It was to improve the relationship between you and Nagi-kun. Or rather, this only happened because of you, Senior.”

“What do you mean it’s my fault?! If you had just told me from the start that you wanted to have a heart-to-heart…!”

“If you could do that, things wouldn’t have gotten this complicated~”

Varna’s words bluntly cut down Garmon’s idea of what would have been a “safer” choice.

“Because you’re a good person and your perception of Nagi-kun is massively skewed, you would have just lightly brushed off any attack he made. That’s because you believe that’s the ‘right’ way to act. Adults don’t jump into fights easily because they know nothing good comes of clashing as equals.”

“That’s… that’s just how it is for someone who has entered society. Children are one thing, but an adult’s quarrel lingers and invites harsh judgment from those around them.”

Behaviors permitted for children become impossible once one becomes an adult.

This is because a person develops an awareness that they are part of the social order, leading them to choose a stable path that avoids making waves. Upon becoming an adult, one must suppress themselves. Otherwise, everyone around them becomes an enemy.

Varna nodded at those words.

“For an adult, that’s true. But that’s exactly why… I needed you to get angry and let out your true feelings like a child, Senior Garmon, in a place where no one was watching.”

“Even when I tried to pick a fight, you’d just back down and say it was your fault, Brother. But you actually had more you wanted to say, right? If you stayed as an ‘adult,’ you would have just kept it locked in your heart to avoid making waves. So, Varna said we had to create a situation as close to ‘real’ as possible to drag out your true feelings.”

“Gugugu…!”

He couldn’t bring himself to say they didn’t have to go that far.

The truth was, it was only by going this far that Garmon was finally able to clash head-on with Nagi’s true feelings.

Garmon didn’t know if Varna had thought that deeply, but he had his pride as an older brother. Having been in the position of providing for Nagi for so long, he certainly felt that if he wasn’t a firm adult, he wouldn’t be setting a good example for his brother.

An invisible wall between adult and child.

Varna might have prepared this stage specifically to break it down.

“So, what is it? Is everything my fault?”

“To put it bluntly, yes.”

“That’s right, it’s your fault, Brother.”

“And the only one who was all worked up was me, while there was no kidnapping and no stolen documents… and we just had a brotherly spat while Varna-kun was napping nearby?”

“If we don’t settle for ‘brotherly spat,’ you’ll actually be charged with a crime.”

“It would’ve gone faster if you’d just played along with the fight from the start… well, my acting was only for the beginning, I was serious about the brawl, so you don’t have to doubt that!”

“A… a… a… gh…”

His brother’s face, bruised and lumpy from the fight, gave a firm thumbs-up. He looked incredibly refreshed… and had such a loathsome smile that Garmon wanted to ask if he could punch him just one more time.

The reality was that he had been dancing in the palm of Varna’s hand from start to finish. Even though he thought he was the adult, he couldn’t say a word back to Nagi, who was pointing out that Garmon had been the problem child all along. In the end, he had cleared the air and understood the logic, but he still had something to say.

“To think you all deceived me and set me up… and to be betrayed by the people I trusted most, of all people…!”

That wasn’t just unfair; it was unreasonable. He never would have dreamed that the brother and subordinate he doted on so much would team up to trap him. An uncontrollable impulse surged through his lungs, up his throat, and launched into the darkening sky.

“ISN’T THIS TOO MUCHHHHHHHHHHH????!!!”

Garmon’s somewhat pathetic wail, exploding with full force for the first time in ages, echoed vainly across the wasteland.

Incidentally, it was said that an Orc, mistaking this cry for a beast’s intimidation, jumped in fright and fell off a cliff, suffering a major injury—but that was a matter entirely unknown to the humans.