#8. It's Nothing Like I Heard.

#8. It's Nothing Like I Heard.

The northern reaches of the Empire.

Silver-rank adventurer Gale and his companions had finally reached the Winterwald Grand Duchy, sometimes by carriage and sometimes on foot through blizzards.

"B-b-boss, we're really going to freeze to death at this rate!"

"Damn it, they said it was spring, so why is there such a blizzard? The people of the territory must all be trembling, reduced to skin and bones."

Having come up from the warm Southern Continent, they clicked their tongues at Winterwald's harsh environment.

Surely this had to be a terrible place where the people of the territory were left to starve in the streets.

"Boss... I think we made the wrong choice after all."

"It's too soon to know that yet."

"Huh?"

"I've seen plenty of adventurers heading North, but I've never seen a single one turn back yet."

"N-now that you mention it, you're right!"

They passed through the castle gate as it opened with a majestic rumble and entered the territory.

How long had they walked, marveling that the streets were livelier than expected, when—

"……Boss?"

Gale stopped dead in the middle of the road and surveyed the townspeople.

"Move that cart over there! We've got to transport the wolf pelts and meat before the end of today!"

"Hahaha! Hey, wife! Wanna guess how many Dire Wolves I bagged today~? We're eating out tonight! We're eating out! Let's go cut into some meat!"

"Good grief. Meat again?"

Far from being refugees reduced to skin and bones, the streets were full of muscular men whose forearms put most orcs to shame.

Each of them carried a huge sack over one shoulder and laughed heartily.

'Is that all magic stones and wolf pelts in those sacks?'

The shopping district was filled with the scent of freshly baked meat pies and stew, and there was not a trace of cold or despair on the people's faces.

They even looked healthier than the people of the South.

"Boss... This isn't all some elaborate scam, is it?"

"Do you think you could build muscles like that just to fleece a few poor adventurers...?"

Gale had spent ten years roughing it in the South and prided himself on being in decent shape, but the moment he faced the savage, battle-hardened muscles of the Northerners, his confidence shriveled.

Could his paltry swordsmanship possibly work in a place where such monsters worked as adventurers?

Gale and his party entered the guild building timidly, only to be shocked yet again.

Huge men were fighting over the mission board, grabbing each other by the collars.

"Hey! Our party called dibs on the goblin settlement subjugation first!"

"Are you senile!? When we let you have it last time, you acted like you'd give us your liver and gallbladder, and now you're pretending you don't remember?"

Not merely a goblin hunt, but a settlement subjugation?

Were people here really making such a commotion because they all wanted to take on a life-threatening job?

Gale swallowed hard and cautiously approached the reception desk.

After hearing that they had come from the South, the receptionist kindly handed them guild membership applications.

Gale's party read them over carefully, line by line, and signed the applications.

"Welcome, adventurers! Your registration is complete, and I'll process your free weapon rentals and medical mutual-aid fund memberships right away. Oh, would you also like to receive free training for beginners?"

"Beginners?"

Gale's eyebrows twitched as if his pride had been wounded.

"Listen. We've been roughing it in the South for ten years. We're wild horses who haven't let the blood on our swords dry. Are you telling us to go back to the training camp and learn how to hold a sword from scratch?"

Despite Gale's threatening tone, the employee only smiled brightly.

"The choice is yours. If you take the free training now, 'Special Meat Soup Prepared by Her Highness the Imperial Princess' will be provided free of charge throughout the training period. There is a clause requiring you to participate in one wall-defense mission after completing the course, but think of it as more of an observation trip."

'A wall-defense mission!? So they're showing their true colors already.'

Just as he thought. There was no way they'd feed and house them for free.

A truly vicious finance minister must be involved in running the guild.

"Hmph! I'm not falling for a trick like that—"

"B-Boss!"

At that moment, Rick, the party member Gale regarded as a younger brother and relied upon, whispered with an earnest look in his eyes.

"I heard on the way here that the meat soup Her Highness makes herself with magic is supposed to taste absolutely incredible! They say it's a heavenly flavor you can't get even by paying at another restaurant!"

"You idiot. Do you think we're beggars?! Are we going to sell our lives for a mere bowl of meat soup?!"

It was true that they didn't have a single copper to their names, but Gale thought that as long as he refused to swallow his pride, he wasn't a true beggar.

"Boss, didn't we survive for three days on a few pieces of rye bread? And look at those brutes outside. I think it would be safer for us to undergo a little training too…."

Gale closed his mouth at Rick's words.

Through the window, he saw a shabbily dressed man from the territory split a log in two with the edge of his hand.

"……Ahem."

Gale cleared his throat and spoke to the receptionist.

"Then how about we take a look at what kind of training it is?"

***

'I'm insane! I walked straight into hell for the sake of a single bite of meat!'

Winterwald First Training Camp.

Gale, the self-proclaimed wild horse of the South, and his party wailed as they rolled across the frozen-solid drill yard.

After making them run several frantic laps around the drill yard carrying logs, they were thrown straight into wooden-sword sparring without even a moment to rest.

Thwack! Thwack!

"Aaaaargh! Boss! Save me! This old man is killing me!"

"Don't whine over a mere wooden sword! A wolf's claws will tear your thin skin to shreds without mercy!"

Adventurers who had come from all over the Empire screamed under the one-eyed guildmaster's relentless training.

Gale was no different.

The swordsmanship techniques he had honed through hard experience in the field crumbled helplessly before the Northerners' brute strength.

Gale's legs gave out and he collapsed, staring in horror as he watched the Northerners swing their wooden swords in silence.

They looked to be suffering quite a bit themselves, but their basic fitness was on an entirely different level.

'Why are monsters like these wasting away in some rural backwater…!'

When the hellish training ended and steaming meat soup was served, Gale understood why the Northerners endured it without a word of complaint.

"Munch, munch……gulp."

After taking one mouthful of the meat soup,

Gale found his eyes filling with tears before he knew it and covered his face with his palm.

Thick chunks of pork melted on his tongue, while the rich broth, imbued with the sun's mana, warmed him to the marrow.

"Sniff… Mom…."

His companions spoke aloud the feeble words Gale could not bring himself to utter.

Veteran adventurers who had survived ten years on the Southern Continent's front lines hugged their bowls of meat soup and wept like children.

For a moment, they felt they would gladly sign a lifetime contract instead of merely taking part in one wall-defense mission if it meant they could eat food like this.

***

Three weeks passed after they made it through the eventful basic training.

"You Southerners have average stamina, but there's not much else I can teach you! I grant you early graduation! Starting today, throw yourselves straight into actual combat!"

Along with the one-eyed instructor's bellow, Gale's party was proudly granted official status as silver-rank adventurers in the Winterwald Guild.

"At last, we're going into actual combat!"

"Boss, let's scoop up goblin magic stones today and get a private room at the inn!"

Thanks to the warm meat soup and training, the party members had fully regained the confidence they had lost and headed toward the guild bulletin board with chuckles.

It was then.

Bang!!

A messenger knight bearing a red flag burst in, flinging open the guild door as though he meant to break it down.

"Emergency! Emergency! Red alert from the northwestern watchtower!"

"A massive monster wave has appeared!! A mixed force of Dire Wolves and Ice Goblins! At least six hundred! They'll hit the walls within an hour!!"

Gale froze.

He had gone white as a sheet.

"More than six hundred…?"

Wasn't this a national disaster that the North's regular knight corps would have to handle?

The guildmaster grabbed the dazed Gale by the shoulder and gave him a bright smile.

"What are you waiting for, rookie!? Get ready and follow me! You picked quite a day to come. Consider yourself lucky, kid."

Gale gripped the hilt of his greatsword with trembling hands.

'Damn it, they said I had to participate at least once… Is today the day I die?'

Just as he looked around with resigned eyes,

"Kyaaaaaaah!!"

"It's finally here!!"

The Northerners, who had been sipping beer with sour expressions while grumbling about the princess and her meat soup, raised their weapons in both hands and began cheering wildly.

"Let's make a fortune!! Today is the day I buy my own house!!"

"Hurry if you want to pick up even the tiniest magic stone! His Grace will take them all again this time!"

"Let's go get the Imperial Princess's meat soup, yaaaaaa!!"

Gale thought he must be imagining things.

They said a monster wave, a symbol of calamity, was coming, yet the atmosphere felt more like a festival was about to begin.

Even when the gate in the wall opened, Gale's party wore bewildered expressions.

Something was beginning, but they had no idea what they were supposed to do.

"G-Guildmaster, what are we supposed to do?"

The guildmaster did not even answer Rick's question.

He merely snorted as if to say they should look after their own livelihoods.

A short while later, when the wall's gates had fully opened, the Winterwald guild members formed ranks and charged forward, drooling.

They looked utterly unconcerned as monsters came surging toward them like a wave.

'I used to be that reckless too—until I got hurt.'

As Gale stood at a distance, recalling the past, his sworn younger brother Rick stepped forward eagerly.

"Boss! For the honor of veteran adventurers! They say potions are provided too, so let's fight like hell!"

In the end, Gale's party was swept up in the mood and began sprinting outside the walls as well.

Rumbleeeee!

The snowy plain outside the walls.

The monsters surging forward like a pitch-black wave, shaking the earth, were more horrific than anything he had imagined.

The howls of bloodthirsty wolves and the grotesque screams of goblins turned Gale's mind completely blank.

'Ah, fuck. Why was I running again?'

The face of his runny-nosed little sister, from whom he had been separated in childhood because of his family's circumstances, shimmered in the air.

Was this the famous flash of one's life before death?

It was just as a wolf's sharp fangs lunged toward him.

Whoooosh!

The Dire Wolf was sliced in half.

No—the horde of monsters surging forward like a wave had miraculously been split in half.

Neigh!

A black-haired knight riding a black horse burst like lightning into the middle of the battlefield, cutting through hundreds of guild members.

The ruler of the North, the Sword Master.

It was Grand Duke Kylan Winterwald.

He flung his black cloak behind him and charged into the deadly heart of the battlefield, packed thick with monsters.

"His Grace the Grand Duke is hereeeee!"

"Woooooooah!"

The sight of their lord risking danger and leading from the front sent the soldiers' morale soaring. Gale, too, was spellbound by his overwhelming charisma.

"Ugh. I'm sick of paperwork…"

The Grand Duke of the North muttered something as he advanced toward the enemy lines.

"Woooah! Let's hurry too!"

"Run if you want to grab even one magic stone!"

KABOOOOM!

Every time the Grand Duke of the North swung his greatsword in a broad horizontal arc, the monsters, which had been moving in an orderly formation, began tucking their tails and fleeing.

Gale had spent ten years roughing it in the South and had seen talented people time and again.

But he had never seen a man defy nature itself.

The wave…

The wave that had surged in one direction until it broke was turning around mid-surge and heading the opposite way.

Gale's jaw dropped at that overwhelming power.

"……Hey. Isn't the North completely different from what we'd heard?"

"I-I know, right, Boss."

So there really was a place like this on the continent.

The adventurers from the South thought to themselves that the world was truly a vast place.