All My Summons Become Divine Girls

Chapter 245: The Man Who Answers Bells

Vella put Hans on a clinic cot after finding blood beneath the bandage he reopened near the grain shed.

He sat upright as she wrapped his leg, reading three bell sheets across his knees.

"If you stand before morning, I seal your trousers to the cot," Vella said, tightening the final wrap, "test me after I missed lunch."

"The trousers belong to your lord," Hans said without looking up from the eastern sheet, "ruin his property if it improves your mood."

Hajin entered with Juna, carrying the patrol order they had rewritten beside the northern grate. She pinned it above the clinic desk where every road lead collecting medicine would read it.

"A surrendering scout goes into a cell," Juna said, tapping the final line, "we hold them while the Flints are moving against us."

Hans read the order before looking toward Hajin, checking who expected him to object.

"Prisoners need food," he said, moving one bell sheet aside, "Marrick will complain when the cells fill during planting season."

"He can complain while buying grain," Hajin said, taking the chair beside the cot, "what failed after the bells rang?"

Juna left them with the question and headed toward her ridge patrol.

Hans arranged the sheets by post and pressed a finger against the third ring recorded at the eastern wall.

"Everyone carrying steel went toward Loccy," he said, tracing the worker movements, "the northern grate had a child counting names when Toma disappeared."

"Lana found him missing," Hajin said, looking at the shelter times, "the post guard had already left for the mine road."

"You sent that guard east," Hans said, pushing the page toward him, "put someone else on the grate before you write his name down."

The northern post had reported clear with one ring after Ferra cut the fire line, using the same signal that cleared roads during drills.

"Elise thought that bell meant both cords were safe," Hajin said, finding her note beneath the time, "the forge line was still burning."

"Change the signal," Hans said, crossing out the post mark, "Elise heard one ring and moved before the forge was clear."

Hajin took the chalk from the bedside table, adding separate marks for road clearance and hidden-fire checks.

"What else?" he asked, returning the sheet while Hans watched whether the change survived the question.

"Your reserve had spears but no person allowed to move them," Hans said, pointing toward six names left near the registry, "they waited until I took them north."

"Then they answer to you during an alarm," Hajin said, writing the assignment beside their names, "including when someone else gave them work."

"Your orders emptied the northern post," Hans said, looking toward Loccy’s wall through the window, "giving me a louder voice does nothing."

"I am not hiring you to shout," Hajin said, setting the chalk down, "you decide the drills, patrol routes, and evacuation calls."

"When the gold convoy blocks my road, does your mine outrank me?" Hans asked, lifting the eastern page.

"You stop the convoy," Hajin said, leaning back in the chair, "Marrick calculates the loss after people reach cover."

"Loccy refuses to leave a fight because she thinks the wall falls without her," Hans said.

"You order her back," Hajin said, looking toward the treatment lane, "I will argue if the order is stupid, but she still moves."

Hans creased the bell sheet’s corner until the page held the mark.

"I took that authority from a lord once," he said, looking at his pinned sleeve, "I was wearing his badge when the checkpoint went down."

Hajin waited beside the cot, letting the clinic noise cover the part Hans had avoided since arriving in town.

"We sent for relief when a Gate pack crossed the western road," Hans said, rubbing the fold with his thumb, "the return order told us to hold."

The relief column had stopped four miles south where a noble’s wagons blocked a damaged bridge.

"Thirty riders stayed around those wagons," he said, keeping his attention on the page, "my checkpoint had whoever happened to be awake."

Another message reached them before the pack, naming the checkpoint an acceptable loss until the convoy cleared the bridge. Hans waited six minutes for that order to change, though the first monsters reached his barrier before the fourth.

"The man beside me kept pressure on the shoulder after the arm came off," Hans said, lifting his thumb from the folded corner, "he died before anyone rode north."

The clinic continued around the cot while Vella stopped grinding medicine across the room, listening without turning toward them.

"I left the badge at the relief captain’s tent," Hans said, gathering the sheets again, "after that, I stopped sending reports south."

Hajin looked at the empty sleeve without asking for the names Hans had kept out of the story.

"You will not wait for my permission," he said, pushing the reserve list across the cot, "if the call affects local defense, yours goes first."

"Even when your plan put the scouts on that road?" Hans asked, looking past him toward the patrol order above the desk.

"Especially then," Hajin said, holding his stare, "Juna saw the risk, but I kept using them until Toma paid for it."

Hans read the new rule again, finding no excuse added beneath the line that ended controlled release.

"The new rule is on the wall," he said, returning to the bell sheets, "I will use it when the next scout surrenders."

"You will find others," Hajin said, taking the eastern sheet from his knees, "what do you need before the next alarm?"

"Workers who report when called," Hans said, pulling the sheet back, "not volunteers disappearing whenever the mine offers another shift."

Hajin nodded toward the patrol order, giving Hans space to write the labor authority beneath it.

"When I pull someone from a road crew, Marrick keeps their wage running," he said, writing without checking the lord’s face, "the family should not lose supper for my bell."

"Done," Hajin said, watching him add the reserve roster, "choose how many people the drills take from each shift."

Hans added carrying frames beside the clinic order, then stopped before turning the page into Marrick’s entire ledger.

"The northern post moves above the drain," he said, pushing himself toward the cot’s edge, "Ferra can complain after her people build it."

Vella crossed the clinic before his good foot reached the floor, pressing him back with one hand against his chest.

"You command from that cot tonight," she said, pointing toward the open window, "the region will survive eight hours without your leg."

"Bring me the bell workers," Hans said, settling against the wall behind him, "they can move a post after she releases my trousers."

Hajin opened the clinic door, finding Marrick outside with a blank employment page plus two witnesses from the registry.

"He will need a formal title for payroll," Marrick said, holding the page toward Hans, "regional militia commander fits the ledger."

"Put commander on the page," Hans said, taking the reserve sheet instead, "the people outside already know my name."

Marrick filled the title while Hajin signed beneath the authority section, leaving the payment line empty for Hans.

"Salt goes on the northern wagon," Hans said, pointing toward the carrying frames he had added, "use the payroll for those before someone gets dragged on a shield."

The first bell worker entered with his rope burns wrapped as Hans handed him the eastern failure sheet.

"Tell me where you looked after the third ring," Hans said, holding the chalk ready, "then we fix what you could not see."

Hajin left the clinic door open as the remaining bell workers gathered outside with their own reports.