Chapter 15

“General Vienna, wake up. Camp preparations are complete.”

The first day, the second day, and continuing onto the third…

Until the seventh night, our expedition received no attacks.

It felt like things were going too smoothly, but what could you do? Sometimes, days like this just happen, right?

This was far better than being ambushed by a great lord due to some absurd misunderstanding.

The soldiers sat around the bonfires scattered throughout the camp, smiles plastered on their faces, exchanging rather uninspired jokes.

The horses were exhausted and sound asleep, and the high-ranking mage Alter set up simple electric traps around the campsite, preparing for a possible night raid.

“General Vienna, time for dinner.”

I carefully brought a spoonful of chicken stew, personally cooked by the platoon leader, to my mouth, all the while reviewing the teachings Alter had given me.

“Thank you. The expedition is comfortable thanks to you, General.”

“…Huh?”

The platoon leader offered his gratitude to Lirr and me, who were using the light from the bonfire to read our notes and magic texts.

What now? What are you thanking me for?

All I’ve done on this expedition is transcribe Alter’s words, review them, and repeatedly fall asleep in the carriage.

What reason would the platoon leader have to thank *me*?

“…Ah!”

Was it because I, despite my high rank, always made sure to greet every soldier I met with utmost respect?

Ultimately, even the military was still a group of people, wasn’t it?

Even if your rank was a bit higher, it was always more beneficial for a young’un to treat their elders with deference than the alternative. Pleasantries like these were exchanged, after all.

“It was nothing, sir. Just doing what’s right.”

I smiled as brightly as I could and saluted the platoon leader.

Indeed, good manners were an important virtue everywhere.

…In any dimension, in any world.

“Thank you as well, Lir. I’d like to thank Alter, too, but he isn’t here right now. Thanks to you all, we’ve nearly reached our destination without a single casualty.”

…?

Fine, he’s thanking me, I get that, but why in the world is the platoon leader thanking Lir and Alter?

I looked back and forth between the two of them, my eyes full of questioning.

“…”

Lir met my gaze, then shyly pressed the brim of her hat down with a slender finger, bowing her head deeply. The pointed ears that peeked out from beneath the wide brim looked particularly red in the lamplight.

‘…Ah, I think I have a rough idea.’

Probably because Lir and Alter were setting up trap magic around our campsites each night, and the platoon leader was thanking them for it.

Come to think of it, we haven’t had to post sentries, and all the soldiers have been able to rest comfortably through the night.

Indeed, taking the slight risk of bringing Alter along on this journey seems to have been the right decision.

Thanks to them, the soldiers can relax at the campsite, and *I* can gain so much knowledge.

“Y-yes….”

Lir, with her hat pulled low, greeted me in a voice barely a whisper.

“It’s best to offer greetings with proper eye contact. And if possible, remove your hat.”

I, a mage sprung from the Land of Eastern Courtesy, pointed out Lir’s lack of sincerity with an appropriately grave tone.

“Shouldn’t the younger party show respect to their elders first?”

…Truthfully, I was just itching to say that to Lir, picking a fight for no real reason.

‘The younger party.’

Never in my life did I imagine speaking those words to an elf.

Not until I met this Lir, anyway.

How often does a human, destined to die before even a century passes, get the chance to call an elf, a race capable of easily living for 3000, no, 5000 years, young?

I couldn’t squander such a precious opportunity.

‘Hee hee…!’

My hipster gauge, the one that needs regular topping up, overflowed and detonated completely.

A silly laugh kept threatening to bubble from my lips. I clenched my hands tight, savoring the pleasure of the moment as it was.

‘Just how many humans have ever said that to an elf? Maybe I’m the first in the capital region? No, perhaps I’m the only one on this entire continent to have had this experience….’

Wow, geez, thinking about it like that is truly insane, isn’t it?

The thought of myself as a continent-sized hipster sent tremors of excitement through my body.

“Heh heh….”

“……”

While I luxuriated in a rare moment of fulfillment, Lir clutched her quill tightly, curled into herself, and remained frozen in place for a long while. Her eyes fixed on the floor.

While I savored my chicken stew with a blissful, contented smile, Rire, in stark contrast, gripped her bowl as if suffering from some inner torment, her skin flushed a worrying red.

Cursed with a body unsuited for haste, my pace of eating was never quick. Each swallow brought a heavy feeling, a bloating that fundamentally prevented speed.

And so, while I had managed to clear half my bowl, Rire’s stew remained untouched, the same amount as when she’d started.

“It’s getting cold, why aren’t you eating?” I asked, peering at her with a puzzled gaze.

“Oh, um…”

“…?”

“It’s… the ap…”

“Sergeant Tienne! Don’t be ridiculous, that’s impossible!”

“No, really! The rat from our old barracks had a tail as big as your head!”

Rire mumbled something almost inaudible, her voice lost in the boisterous laughter erupting from the other soldiers.

“Excuse me?” I asked, raising my voice slightly to indicate I needed her to speak louder, but her fragile shoulders immediately slumped, and she clamped her mouth shut as if struck dumb.

…It’s not like we have a communication barrier!

I placed my stew bowl on the ground, waiting quietly for her to speak, adding a silent message that I didn’t intend to be angry.

“…Should I…apologize?”

After nearly two minutes of stubbornly silent lips, the voice that finally emerged was barely louder than the squeak of a mouse.

“Apologize? To whom?”

“To that…platoon leader, was it? I don’t want to seem disrespectful…”

“…”

“By the stars.”

It seemed this elf was losing sleep and skipping meals all because of a single, carelessly tossed-off remark from me, meant to satisfy a frivolous whim.

…A little bit of guilt was starting to bloom within me.

“You want to apologize?”

Lir nodded, pressing down firmly on his low-pulled hat with one hand, ensuring it wouldn’t fall.

It wasn’t as if I’d committed some egregious offense that required an apology, but… well, who was I to stop him if he wanted to?

“Then go ahead. Take off your hat.”

I actively encouraged Lir.

After all, I couldn’t entirely absolve myself of responsibility for this situation…

“The hat, too?”

“It’s considered good manners amongst humans.”

“……”

Lir let out a small sigh, opening and closing his fist repeatedly before cautiously setting the stew on the ground and slowly approaching the group of soldiers surrounding their squad leader.

“Speaking of which, our old barracks were worse! Sergeant Tian, are you aware that if weeds aren’t properly managed, they can grow as high as the ramparts?”

“You’re talking nonsense! At that point, it wouldn’t be weeds but a sacred tree, you moron!”

Amidst the soldiers wasting time with pointless chatter, Lir stopped before the squad leader, who had placed his empty stew bowl on the ground and was listening to their stories with an air of amusement.

“Th-That is, earlier… I apologize!”

Lir swiftly removed the hat from his head, bowed deeply, and spat out the words in an almost cracking voice before spinning around.

“……”

While the squad leader and his men stared with blank faces, bewildered by this strange event, Lir quickly scurried back to the tree stump where I sat.

Then, as if struck by a sudden hunger, she snatched up her stew bowl from the ground and began to work the spoon with a feverish energy.

Watching her, I cautiously patted her back, a gesture of approval.

Lir seemed to startle violently at my touch, nearly dropping her spoon.

“……”

She paused, then carefully turned her head to look at me. Her cheeks puffed full of stew, she cast me a look of bewildered embarrassment.

… I hadn’t anticipated *this* reaction.

“Um, well. Good job, I meant.”

Ugh, this is awkward.

* * *

Soldiers murmured quietly, observing Lir, her hat pulled low, gobbling down the stew, and the white-haired boy patting her back.

It was plain to anyone that what they had just witnessed was not normal.

An elf’s lifespan was typically ten times that of a human, often surpassing even fifty times.

That elf mage, who couldn’t have looked older than twenty, was almost certainly the eldest among them.

And yet, *that* elf.

Had come to apologize for her impoliteness?

… That notoriously rude race?

“What in the world is going on?”

The squad leader asked his men, tilting his head in bewildered astonishment.

“… What did *you* do, Squad Leader?”

His squad members were just as clueless, equally at a loss to explain the situation.

“Whatever it is, don’t you think it might be what Vin asked them to do earlier?”

Anyone looking at the elf, head bowed low as if in utter shame, and the white-haired boy patting her back would think the same.

“Vin-nim?”

“Why on earth… would he make an elf do something like th- that?”

In the ensuing silence, only the crackle of the burning firewood filled the space between them.

Not one among them was clever enough to decipher the white-haired boy’s true intentions.

“…I know they say there are a lot of eccentrics among the mages. But this is truly beyond comprehension. Vin-nim is usually so gentle, and so kind to all of us…”

“Didn’t you two speak with him when the squad leader brought him and Lir-nim the stew earlier? Did something happen then?”

“Ah, now that you mention it… Vin-nim did reprimand Lir-nim, saying that it’s proper etiquette to remove one’s hat when speaking to others…”

It defied all reason.

Teaching *etiquette* to an elf?

To *that* arrogant, ill-mannered race, he taught human manners?

Elves were a race so far removed from courtesy and politeness that they would casually order an old man, well over ninety years of age, to fetch coffee, despite looking no older than twelve themselves.

They were a race who lived their lives completely detached from any sense of propriety, and yet, he was teaching them human manners.

And it was a boy who barely looked sixteen, seventeen at the most, doing it.

“Then one thing’s certain, Vin-nim made Lir-nim apologize. It’s a given. There’s no way an ill-mannered race like the elves would come to apologize first.”

“But… why? Why would Vin-nim go out of his way? It’s not like she was being rude to him personally.”

“Just because he thought it would be amusing…? There are a lot of oddballs among mages, after all.”

“I don’t think so. Vin-nim is usually so polite. I don’t want to believe that that’s all a facade.”

“Then… perhaps he simply can’t stand by and watch rudeness go unpunished, that he has an extremely sensitive nature when it comes to matters of etiquette…?”

Silence hung heavy, once more, after Sergeant Tian’s pronouncement.

Sadly, with the level of intellect amongst them, that deranged situation could only be explained by the theory he offered.

That young lad, Bean, was one who valued decorum enough to break down a high-nosed, proud elf and force an apology.

At least, for the soldiers huddled around this campfire now, that much had become truth.

“He always greeted us with a smile, so I thought he had such a mild temperament… turns out he was hiding his fangs.”

“Indeed… becoming a Sword Saint’s party member isn’t something just anyone can do…”

The soldiers began to rewrite the impressions they had held of Bean in their minds.

“Listen up, everyone. From today on, no matter what, we treat Master Bean with utmost respect. Even if he treats us kindly, don’t get lax. Absolutely, not even a little, should we try to climb above him. Don’t even think of equaling him. He’s not the type to let impudence slide, not even for a second.”

The Squad Leader, having finished his brief contemplation, impressed this upon the soldiers.

At that warning, a chill crept down the spines of the soldiers nearest the fire.

All it took was forgetting to remove one’s hat when offering a greeting, a truly insignificant mistake, and it had deeply insulted an elf.

If that discourtesy had been directed at them, rather than another, what kind of reaction would that boy unleash?

A storm of blood would surely sweep through the company.

“Absolutely. Absolutely, do not be impolite. Treat him with the utmost respect.”

That night, the soldiers could only spend a sleepless night retracing their actions over the past week.

* * *

“Awake, are we!”

“Good morning! General!”

The moment he opened his eyes to the morning sun, a thunderous chorus of greetings echoed from all directions.

“Ah… yes. Good morn… ing…”

“General, you’re awake!”

“Good morning! General Vin!”

Before I could even finish my own greeting, soldiers were rushing towards me as if they were determined to be the first to offer their salutations. Even their voices were brimming with an almost aggressive eagerness.

What is this?

Why are they suddenly like this? Did they all eat something strange together?

“Good morning, General Vin Kyeong! The morning roll call has already been completed! The horses are in perfect condition, and the wagon wheels have been thoroughly inspected! Assuming we don’t encounter any monsters or demons today, we should be arriving at the Enkel Plateau around 13:00 hours…”

Why is the platoon leader suddenly using my full name and honorifics so meticulously?

Please don’t do this.

I’m scared…

Completely bewildered by the overnight change in the soldiers’ behavior, I hastily stuffed the sleeping bag I’d used the previous night onto the baggage wagon, then quickly hid myself in a corner of the carriage.

What is this, really, what is going on with these people?

“Let’s depart!”

The infantrymen and their mounts, as if waiting for this very moment, cried out with energetic fervor, embarking once again on the expedition.

“…Everyone’s moving like they’re expecting some serious discipline.”

Alter glanced at me as he spoke, noticing the unnaturally spirited soldiers.

“Could it be because we’re arriving at the Enkel Plateau soon? Since we’ll likely be facing a dragon today…?”

I trailed off at the end of my sentence, lacking any real conviction.

As if I had any idea why they were all suddenly filled with such intense energy.

“…It’s probably because this will be the first time everyone actually sees a dragon.”

Lir nodded in agreement with my words, saying so in a quiet voice.

“They say men, even grown, are just little boys. I guess it’s true. Getting this excited about a dragon.”

A faint hint of smugness, almost imperceptible unless you looked closely, laced her tone.