Ninth

"You've seen him too, right?"

"Hmph, serves him right. Wasn't it very stupid of him to come here alone? He must have thought himself to be invincible, but didn't Lieutenant Warner take him down just the same?"

"Lower your voice a bit." The one who spoke sent a playful smack to the back of his friend's head. "That's still a person who took down an A-grade Invalid on his own. He could kill you with a glare."

The recipient of the smack laughed. 

"Kill me? With that thing around his neck? Even if he had a wrong thought he'd be fried into barbecue chicken."

Conversations like this seemed to happen all the time these days. Whenever a group passed by the pillar at the gate of their harbor, their thoughts would inevitably drift to the young man forced to stand guard there.