A single line written in the margin of the notebook had been catching her eye the whole time. "Did you abandon it, or did you run away?" The ink had long since dried. She'd written it as a question directed at the sword's former owner——but before she knew it, those words seemed to bounce back at her. Eutie Silvanus closed the notebook. Outside, it was still dim. Mist from the Schwarze Primeval Forest was creeping past Glentzar's wooden palisade. White breath appeared for a moment on the office window glass, then vanished. On the desk, reports lay stacked from last night's continuous writing. Records of the fog-wrapped insect suppression, measurements and material analysis of the recovered sword, footprint data of the armed group, precision terrain maps of the forest's outer edge——there was no superior officer to report to yet, but her hands wouldn't stop. This was Eutie's way. Record. Convert to numbers. Leave what you don't understand as unknown, but measure everything that can be measured. 【《Appraisal》——Military Sword (Recovered Item)・Material Analysis Log Updating】 【Blade: Steel Alloy・Imperial Military Standard・Degradation Value 34/100】 【Engraving Removal Site: Intentional Scratch Marks・Emotional Work Traces Present】 (After all, someone deliberately erased it.) That's when it happened. Knock, knock. The office door sounded. If someone was visiting here at dawn, Nila Volt came to mind first——but the presence leaking from beyond the door was different. Heavy. Large. Something like the pressure of a person. Eutie stood and opened the door. Standing there was a large man. Short black hair with gray mixed in. Sharp blue-gray eyes. A shallow old scar running diagonally across his left cheek. A frame that had to be at least 182 centimeters was evident even under his overcoat, and on his arms were old-style arm guards——looking closer, they bore the embroidered insignia of the Imperial Army. Not from the active knight orders. From an older, defunct division. 【《Appraisal》Activated——Target: Adult Male】 【Basic Combat Power Value: 74/100・Old Scar Density: High・Muscle Fiber Distribution: Long-term Combat Type】 【Southern Border Conflict Characteristic Scar Pattern——Match Rate with Distribution Confirmed in Textbooks: 91%】 "I'm Dario Herbeck, District Commander." It was more declaration than greeting. A low, composed voice. The voice of someone who could present their own weight along with a name and title. Eutie stepped back and cleared the way. "I'm Eutie Silvanus. Please come in." Dario entered the office. Boot sounds on the wooden floor. He surveyed the room once, quietly. His expression didn't change. It wasn't so much appraising as——assessing the current situation. His gaze stopped on the notebook and reports stacked on the desk. Dario didn't ask permission. He simply took the topmost notebook as a matter of course. There was nothing strange about a superior officer checking a subordinate's work——except Eutie's mind briefly scanned through every line in the notebook. (No problem. I haven't written anything touching the essence of my ability.) Dario turned pages. Fog-wrapped insect suppression records. Terrain mapping of the forest's outer edge. Footprint data. Measurements and material analysis notes of the sword. As he read on, Dario's expression shifted subtly. He wasn't the type to show emotion on his face, but the angle of his eyebrows changed. The tension around his mouth loosened for a moment. Then tightened again. Eventually Dario stopped at the final page of the report. A sheet of paper was pasted there in meticulous handwriting. A heading that read "Frontier Duty Precepts・Examination Memo on Applicability of Article 42——Regarding the Institutional Positioning of Pre-Patrol Route Records in This Investigation Case," followed by seven bullet points. Dario's eyebrow moved slightly. A long silence. Moisture from the mist seeped in through gaps in the office walls. "……Is there any exaggeration?" "There isn't." An immediate answer. There was no reason to hesitate. Three seconds of silence. "Then I'll go confirm it." He returned the notebook to the desk and said just that. That's how today's joint investigation began. --- The outer edge of the Schwarze Primeval Forest was dim even in the morning. The canopy blocked out light, and in this region where fog occurred over 220 days a year, the leaf litter at ground level was constantly damp, and fallen leaves absorbed sound. The footsteps of the two were strangely quiet. Dario went ahead. The way he walked through the forest was fundamentally different from Eutie's. He proceeded without checking a map. He used mid-distance vision rather than looking at his feet. He confirmed wind direction while judging something. Eutie silently followed his back. Running appraisals as she went. 【Target: Dario Herbeck・Movement Pattern Analysis In Progress】 【Estimated Field of Vision: 140°・Time to Danger Point Prediction: Approximately 2.3 Seconds】 【Old Scar Density and Distribution——Inner left arm, right scapula area, outer right thigh——Wound Pattern Unique to Southern Border Conflict Battlefields】 (He sustained that many injuries in the war twelve years ago.) Dario never once said "this way." He simply walked. Yet Eutie's appraisal confirmed he reached every danger point it identified before she did. Experience accumulated as numerical precision competed with a different pathway. About an hour in, Dario spread out a map. "Confirming current position." Eutie stood beside him and looked at the map. Three seconds later, she pointed. "This river's depiction is wrong. It's actually positioned thirty meters northeast. And this rock reef's height notation is eight meters lower than actual measurements. This path fork too——it shows as a binary split on the map, but there's a three-way split on site. And this notation as well." Eutie pointed out five locations total. Results of cross-referencing with last week's field measurements. Dario paused for a moment. "……You're meticulous." "Maps live and die by their numbers." Dario swallowed something and faced forward. The sound of the map being folded. Dario found a fallen tree and stopped. He took out his water bottle. Took a sip and offered it to Eutie. She accepted and drank just a little. It tasted like water. For a while, there was only the sound of wind. "During the southern conflict," Dario began speaking. Without preamble. "There was a time I didn't trust a report written by one of my subordinates." He didn't continue. Not the result, not the reason. Just the fact that "it happened," placed on the fallen log. Eutie had no response. There were no words to respond with. "A person abandoned in the frontier guards the frontier." Dario's tone of voice didn't change. It had the temperature of a soliloquy. "I think that's my job." It wasn't self-justification. There was the weight of someone who had transformed regret into action. Eutie stayed silent. She judged that silence was appropriate for this moment. --- About an hour after venturing deeper into the forest, Eutie's appraisal reacted. 【Abnormal Life Response——Lower Bedrock・Wide Range】 【Fang-Jaw Beast——Mid-sized magical beast with steel-grade jaws——Individual Count: 11・Juveniles Present】 【Status: High Alert Mode Unique to Breeding Season】 "Stop, please." She said it quietly. Dario's feet stopped. "Thirty meters ahead, there's a Fang-Jaw Beast nesting ground beneath the bedrock. Eleven individuals. Juveniles are included, so alert levels are elevated." Dario's expression changed slightly. Not surprise——a confirmation look. He was considering how his experience would process that information. "Don't make contact. Just record." He said it in a low voice. The two carefully maintained distance and positioned themselves before the bedrock. Eutie began writing numbers in her notebook. Individual count, estimated weight, approximate nesting range. Then the wind shifted. A momentary lapse in judgment——even experienced Dario misread the wind direction. That was all. But it was enough. One head emerged from the bedrock's shadow, sniffed the air——and moved. A charge. In terrain with many stone fragments, Dario's evasion was off by one step. His boot caught on gravel, his stance collapsed. In response to that one beast's movement, the remaining ten reacted all at once. Three options appeared simultaneously in Eutie's mind. One——keep it secret and handle it with a short sword. High probability of Dario being injured. Two——attempt to secure a retreat. Geographically impossible in time. Three——use her ability. Her secrecy collapses. 【《Appraisal》——Emergency Combat Support Mode Deployed】 【Target: Fang-Jaw Beast 3 Heads (Vanguard Group)——Muscle Power Value: Each 81・79・84/100】 Eutie moved in less than a second. She rewrote the numbers. Three beasts' muscle power values to zero. Thud, thud, thud. Three dull sounds hit the ground in succession. The charging momentum vanished without warning. Three beasts slid across the ground like potatoes. The following group reacted to the abnormality and hesitated for a moment. In that gap, Eutie pulled Dario's arm and retreated backward. The group hesitated twice and withdrew. Watching the Fang-Jaw Beasts' backs disappear beyond the bedrock, Eutie finally breathed. Dario leaned his back against a rock, catching his breath. After a beat, he looked at Eutie. No words of interrogation came. No voice of surprise either. Just one quiet statement was delivered. "Whatever your power is," Dario's blue-gray eyes looked straight at Eutie. "If you can protect this land, I won't ask." That was all. Eutie said nothing. She searched for words but found none. Instead, she opened her notebook and recorded the current situation. She felt there was something in this moment that couldn't be converted to numbers, but her hand kept moving. --- The return journey was evening. Slanting light from the west cut through the forest trunks like a blade. In the orange glow, the shadows of trees stretched long and thin. The two walked side by side. There was no particular conversation. All necessary words had already been said. At a place where tree roots bulged above the surface, Eutie's foot caught. She stumbled, her body tilting forward. Dario behind her, without a word, grabbed her arm. It lasted less than a second. The warmth of a large hand. The thickness of skin hardened by steel. The texture of a hand forged through long time on the battlefield touched Eutie's arm for just a moment——then released. Dario was already facing forward. Eutie confirmed her footing and walked again. 【《Appraisal》——Target: Dario Herbeck・Right Hand——Finger Skin Hardness Value: Estimated——} Eutie stopped the appraisal midway. (Why was I trying to quantify it?) She didn't understand herself. She noticed she was trying to process it not as numbers but as "one person supporting another," and Eutie tilted her head slightly. The forest exit came into view. Glentzar's wooden palisade and evening smoke blurred beyond the mist. --- Back at the office, Dario first checked the desk without even removing his overcoat. His eyes stopped on the recovered sword kept as salvage. He picked it up. Confirmed its weight. Looked at the blade. At the position where the Imperial insignia should be——after a long silence, Dario exhaled once. "Red Machete Corps." "Red Machete Corps——" "Remnants of the former 14th Raiding Squad. The southern border conflict——the three-year war between the Empire and the neighboring Dravitsa Principality twelve years ago——I was on the same battlefield as them. They were cut loose after the war without receiving their promised compensation. Now they've taken root as a bandit gang around here." A hint of emotion mixed into his tone of voice. Eutie understood the weight of information Dario "knew from experience" as she listened. Not data derived from num