Chapter 100 - Army of Defiance (1)

The Rangers who had been patrolling the mountain range began returning to Winter Castle one by one.

"The atmosphere in the mountain range is unusual. It's far too quiet."

"The small beasts are lying flat in the bushes, refusing to move, and the large beasts are holed up in their caves and won't come out. Even the monsters haven't shown themselves at all, so it feels like the entire mountain range is terrified of something."

And they clamored to report on the bizarre atmosphere lingering within the mountain range.

"If I had to describe it, it's like the calm before the storm."

For veteran Rangers who had survived the war with the Warlord to express such concern, it seemed something was truly about to happen.

The problem was simply that they had no idea what it was.

"There has never been a case like this before."

Even when tens of thousands of Orcs had formed a great army and pushed down, the mountain's atmosphere wasn't like this. Even looking through the records of their ancestors, they couldn't find a similar case.

"If only His Highness the First Prince were here at a time like this."

When no one knew of the Warlord's existence, the First Prince alone had warned of the danger. Perhaps the First Prince might know what was happening in the mountains.

However, after leaving behind only the instruction to strengthen patrols because something unusual was happening beyond the mountain range, the First Prince had holed himself up in his room and did not show his face at all.

Even when someone went to the First Prince's room out of frustration, all they could hear from the female knights firmly guarding the door was that His Highness was currently passing a critical juncture and to come back later.

"Why now of all times."

As a knight, entering a critical juncture meant taking a step forward in one's realm, so it was definitely something to celebrate. But given the timing, his anxiety was greater than any feelings of celebration.

"He just starts all sorts of trouble and leaves it at that."

After letting out a sigh of complaint, he spoke to a soldier nearby to summon the commanders of each unit.

The faces of the commanders gathered in one place were all stiffly hardened, without exception. It seemed they knew the atmosphere lingering in the mountain was not normal.

Then again, they were men who had lived their entire lives facing a mountain range swarming with monsters, so it would have been stranger if they hadn't felt the abnormal currents.

However,

"What about His Highness the First Prince...?"

"If it's His Highness the First Prince..."

The first words out of the mouths of those so-called commanders who had spent their lives rubbing shoulders with those monsters were all about the First Prince.

Where is His Highness the First Prince? If it's His Highness the First Prince, he might know something about this situation. His Highness the First Prince, His Highness the First Prince. Listening to their conversation, Vincent felt as if he had been struck in the back of the head.

He saw his own reflection in the commanders looking for the First Prince.

He snapped back to his senses.

This wouldn't do.

Defending the North was the destiny of the men of Ballorhard, not the duty of a prince who hadn't even had his coming-of-age ceremony.

Vincent took a deep breath and steeled his resolve.

BANG!

He slammed his fist down on the table as if to shatter it.

"Since when!"

And then he scolded them.

"Since when did the men of Ballorhard wait for someone else to step up and solve their problems!"

The command staff's eyes widened. On their faces, which had been blankly staring in confusion at the sudden anger, a look of shame quickly surfaced.

"What is the symbol of Ballorhard!"

"The three layers of shields!"

"What do the three layers of shields mean!"

"Courage, wisdom, and a sense of duty!"

BANG!

Vincent slammed the table once again.

"Do you think you possess even one of those right now!"

The command staff of Winter Castle sprang up from their seats and bowed at the waist.

"We apologize!"

"What you need to do right now is not merely apologize!"

"We know!"

"If you know, then why are you dawdling!"

The men of Winter Castle took their seats.

"We will widen the Rangers' perimeter further to the northeast..."

"We will reinforce the long-distance patrols and..."

And they began to pour out countermeasures.

Only then did Vincent's face, which had been stiff as stone, loosen up just a little.

* * *

Although they had shown a foolish side for a moment, the commanders of Winter Castle were by no means incompetent.

The somewhat chaotic atmosphere of Winter Castle was sorted out in an instant.

The number of Rangers on the walls doubled, and Rangers tasked with short-distance patrols went in and out of the gates several times a day. Even the Black Lancers, led by Quern, patrolled along the border of the mountain range to prepare for any contingencies.

It was a state of alert truly on par with wartime.

The Dwarves watching this from atop the walls expressed their admiration.

"Very impressive. The soldiers here accept war so naturally."

Even at the Dwarf's praise, Vincent replied with a displeased look.

"If you had come just last winter, old man, you would have seen a sight ten times sharper than this."

Because all the veteran soldiers had died off in the last war, most of the soldiers stationed on the walls were recruits.

They were strictly disciplined, but the fighting spirit within them was still severely lacking for them to be called elite troops.

"Are the Rangers who crossed the mountain range still not back yet!"

At Vincent's shout, the Ranger Company Commander shook his head.

The number of Rangers who had left to scout beyond the mountain range alone exceeded twenty. Furthermore, all of them were elite Rangers mostly made up of veterans. They were also the ones who had easily completed their missions and returned even in the days when monsters overflowed in the mountains.

And yet, not a single one of them had returned.

That was by no means a good sign.

"Just what exactly is beyond there that..."

His gaze looked beyond the rugged Blade Mountains. The mountains and fields were pure white, and the sky was blue, but for some reason, only the sky in that direction was a gloomy ash-gray.

"If you lend me a few Rangers, I'll just go take a look."

A certain young man approached him as he fell into thought. It was the young lord of the Eli family, Bernardo.

"You will?"

"Just attach a few guides. I'll go quickly with my boys and be back."

His flippant attitude did not inspire any confidence. The fact that he had been holed up until now and suddenly stepped forward didn't inspire trust at all either.

"Ah, come on. Just trust me and leave it to me."

Dumbfounded by the young lord of Eli's attitude of extorting a mission as if he were a market thug extorting protection money, Vincent let out a hollow laugh.

When he first arrived, he at least had some noble qualities, but after going through the war, he had ended up like this.

"You belong directly under His Highness the First Prince, don't you?"

When asked if he didn't need to get permission to deploy, the young lord of Eli replied nonchalantly.

"Since when has His Highness ever cared about such things."

Since that wasn't entirely wrong, Vincent inadvertently ended up nodding.

"Yorden!"

"Yorden is here!"

Ranger Yorden, who had been on the other side of the wall, came running over.

"Have your platoon support them."

"Underst... Wait, is it a long-distance patrol by any chance?"

When Vincent nodded, Yorden dropped his head.

"Damn it, they just can't stand seeing us rest at the castle. How long has it even been since we finished our last mission? We're going to die in the mountains at this rate."

Vincent chuckled at the barely audible complaint.

"If you complete this mission and return safely, I'll give you four weeks of special leave."

"We will complete the mission without a single margin of error and report back!"

Yorden, who had quickly changed his attitude and offered a sharp military salute, ran off to the other side of the wall to call his squad members.

"We've got a mission!"

"Again? Leader, are we on the higher-ups' shit list?"

"Did all the other Ranger bastards go out and die? Why is it always us doing the grunt work."

"Shut up! You punks! I was told we get a month of leave if we just come back safely, so shut your mouths and get ready!"

Watching Yorden bicker with his platoon members, the young lord of Eli spoke dubiously.

"They don't inspire any trust at all."

At those words, Vincent looked the young lord of Eli up and down.

Whether it was this guy or that guy, they were equally untrustworthy.

* * *

Eventually, when the next morning arrived, the Rangers of the 17th Platoon led by Yorden and the ten knight candidates led by Bernardo Eli departed the fortress.

It was a day that marked one week since the First Prince had holed up in his room and stopped coming out.

And when three more days had passed, the 17th Platoon of Rangers and the young lord of Eli, who had left for the mountains, appeared at the foot of the mountain range.

"Why did they come back so early?"

A few Rangers with good eyes spotted them and tilted their heads.

It would have normally taken at least ten more days to scout beyond the mountain range and return.

"Huh? Huh? I think they're being chased?"

Someone observing the young lord of Eli's group said.

It was because the sight of the men running for their lives the moment they exited the mountain range looked far too urgent.

"Behind them!"

Someone shouted at that moment.

The Rangers, who had quickly swarmed and filled the wall, followed that sound and looked behind the young lord of Eli's group.

Orcs, goblins, kobolds, gnolls, dire wolves, and all sorts of other monsters poured out from the entrance of the mountain range where Bernardo's group had emerged.

"Insane! There's a Troll too!"

Among the rapidly multiplying monsters of all shapes and sizes, there was even a Troll—a creature that reigned as an apex predator in the mountain range.

"Emergency! All Rangers to your stations!"

Simultaneously with the wall defense captain's order, the sound of horn bugles echoed out from all over the wall.

BWOOO, BWOOOOOO!

The quiet Winter Castle instantly became chaotic.

The Rangers gripped their bows and crossbows and glared out at the snowfield.

The young lord of Eli's group and the Rangers of the 17th Platoon were running for their lives. With a horde of monsters trailing right behind them.

BARK!

The swift dire wolves followed closely behind Bernardo's group.

"Faster! Faster!"

The Rangers cheered them on with one mind. However, no matter how fast a human was, they couldn't possibly outrun a four-legged beast.

"Huh? Huh!"

The Ranger at the very rear was eventually caught up to by a dire wolf.

"H-He's been caught— huh?"

But the dire wolf, which looked like it would snap its jaws and bite down at any moment, simply brushed right past the Ranger.

It wasn't just the dire wolf.

Even the Orcs, whom the Rangers of Winter Castle were sick and tired of, brushed past the Rangers, and even the gluttonous Troll, which was known to shove anything living into its mouth first and ask questions later, simply brushed past the Rangers and the young lord of Eli's group.

"What the..."

The Rangers were completely dumbfounded.

In their eyes, they could see the Rangers and knight candidates running for their lives, mixed in together with the monsters.

Humans and monsters sprinting side by side—could there be another sight in the world as bizarre as this?

"Ballorhard Rangers!"

A voice filled with mana rang out over the wall.

"Nock your arrows and stand by!"

The new lord of Winter Castle raised his sword, pointing at the snowfield, and poured out orders.

"The moment the knight candidates and Rangers enter range, snipe the monsters around them as your highest priority!"

The Rangers, who had been watching the monsters' sprint with dazed faces, hastily grabbed their bows and crossbows and nocked their arrows.

"Black Lancers! Break through the monsters and rescue our allies!"

The black cavalry dashed out through the castle gates.

"Fire!"

The moment the lancers dashed out, Vincent's command fell.

And the arrows that left their bowstrings crossed the air and rained down upon the monsters.

"Excellent!"

The one-eyed cavalry commander, Quern Liechtheim, gripped his spear with a face full of excitement.

The lancers turned to the right and rode for a while before turning their horses' heads to the left again. At the end of the gentle curve, they caught the monsters' flank.

"Vanguard, lower your lances!"

Dozens of spear tips overlaid with mana formed a single wedge and tore the monsters' flank to shreds.

Quern furrowed his brows.

Heavy armored cavalry were an existence that even monsters were wary of. But the monsters before them were different. Even though they must have noticed the earth-shaking sound of hooves and the lancers' momentum, they didn't even turn their eyes. The monsters simply looked ahead and ran.

Thinking could wait until later.

As he pressed forward while crushing the monsters, the sight of the knight candidates and Rangers running with their teeth clenched came into view.

"Each of you, snatch one and break away immediately!"

"Hah!"

Ahead of him, he could see the young lord of the Eli family.

"God damn it! It's not like I'm some kind of beater! What kind of mess is this every single day! Did someone rub honey all over my body! Every time I go out, there's a bumper crop of monsters!"

Seeing the young lord of Eli refusing to stop complaining even while completely out of breath, Quern lowered his stance.

"Relax your body!"

Leaning over as if performing acrobatics, Quern snatched the eldest son of the Eli family and hoisted him onto the horse's back.

"You can relax now! Give the detailed report to the lord once we return!"

At Quern's hearty words, Bernardo Eli shouted while panting for breath.

"These measly monsters aren't the problem right now!"

"What?"

"The bastards behind them are the real problem!"

Bernardo Eli's finger pointed far back, toward the mountain range.

"There's a swarm of unidentified bastards teeming in there!"