Editor 110

Tristain Order of Knights (3)

Just because one was caught didn’t mean they couldn’t make excuses, of course.

“Uh, well… it’s a bit hard to say. Right before I came here, my brother stopped by the capital, you know? At that time, I happened to see some documents from the investigation department of his company that he brought. If this gets out, my brother will probably hate it, so please just pretend you don’t know anything.”

They were the kind of Aser family members who didn’t usually keep in touch, but were quick to come up with excuses.

‘Well, still, we’re family in name at least, so I should make use of it at times like this.’

Lifi admired as she fixed the ivy hairpin in her hair.

“The investigation department of a company must be pretty amazing.”

“Not all of them… I think my father’s company is just a bit unusual.”

“Thanks to you, we got valuable information. Thank you.”

“Now get to work.”

Cleio, who had taken his hand out of his pocket to explain, slipped it back in and sat down on the bench again. For some reason, that sight was both annoying and pitiable, so Chel poked Cleio.

“You scared us half to death about monsters showing up, and now you’re just sitting there relaxed, huh?”

“I’ll keep an eye on the sky. You go ahead and do the digging.”

“Wow, such a wonderful division of labor.”

From then on, the children, without a word, shoveled the piles of dug-up earth into the large and small holes.

It was an incredible speed.

.

.

.

Rotan’s thick eyebrows twitched furiously.

“You did all that in three hours?”

The vice-captain of the Tristain Order of Knights looked stunned as he glanced at Arthur’s smooth face and the other kids, who didn’t show the slightest sign of being cold even in their thin work clothes.

Arthur replied with an innocent, pure smile.

“As you can see. Is there anything else to dig?”

Rotan seemed to want to nitpick, but the wide training ground was completely filled in.

The children’s skills were obvious just from their shoveling, and it was clear he was more agitated because he couldn’t admit it.

Breathing heavily, he finally found a breakthrough.

“Now that the holes are filled, it’s time to level the ground. Once that’s done, we’ll have dinner.”

Having said his piece, Rotan turned around awkwardly and strode off toward the main building. Cleio’s disapproving gaze followed his burly back.

‘I understand the circumstances, but still, for an adult to keep taking it out on kids— isn’t that just too petty?’

The building on the left side of the training ground was probably the cafeteria, as delicious smells and white steam poured out from the long chimney.

If they missed mealtime, who knows if they could even get a separate meal for kids with no ties to this place— how could he be so regimented?

For a Korean, who cannot forgive anyone who plays with food, this was an unforgivable act.

“I’ll do the leveling. You guys did all the digging, after all.”

“Are you sure, Cleio?”

“It’s not that hard. I’ll finish quickly and catch up, so you take care of Lifi and Leticia and go in.”

The two twins, who had gathered up their shovels and scampered over to Cleio, shouted with excitement, not seeming tired at all.

“Are you going to use magic?”

“Yeah.”

“Then let us watch!”

“Why, in this cold? It’s not the first time you’ve seen me use magic.”

“It’s fun no matter if it’s the tenth or hundredth time!”

“Me too!”

Cleio had no ability to stop the twins, who had already made up their minds.

‘I can understand craving spectacles when there aren’t even black-and-white silent films yet, but do they really want to do this even now?’

It was already well past 4 p.m., and in the mountains, the sun was setting.

No matter how skilled the knight cadets were, being outside in this cold meant expending a lot of ether for [Enhancement]. Lifi and Leticia, being relatively smaller, were visibly moving more slowly.

It was quicker to just finish than to argue. Sighing, Cleio walked to a corner of the training ground.

Cleio took out the ash wand tucked inside his coat and estimated the remaining ether.

The training ground was quite large. With Cleio’s circle only covering 20 meters, he’d have to cast magic over and over.

‘Still at level 4, so the circle’s size is awkward. I think I’ve expanded my ether vessel enough, so I don’t know what’s missing for a level-up.’

Fortunately, there was no need to use any advanced composite spell to melt and level the ground.

‘If the ground is frozen, it’s hard to level, so use [Heating], and the rest can be [Disassemble]. If I go as far as [Decompose], it’ll turn to dust instead of sand.’

He filled only two slots in the spell formula. It was comfortable.

‘Now, the rest is the incantation.’

Cleio, shifting his cold feet, quickly decided on an incantation while running through the ‘Promise’ “Memory”.

He didn’t want to think any deeper because of the cold, and it was almost a hasty choice, but searching for a more impressive sentence just to level the training ground was foolish.

“When the farmer comes and announces that it is already spring

Now I shall go out to the western field and plow the land.”

1)

Cleio’s spell formula rose up.

Under the shadows cast by buildings of varying heights, the training ground, which had darkened before the sunset-tipped spires, became as bright as noon.

Like the summer that winter had longed for, it was a hot and dazzling light.

The expanded spell melted the frozen ground and crumbled the roughly clumped earth. White steam rose above the spell. The warmed earth smelled like spring.

Lifi and Leticia ran excitedly around the spell.

The caster himself, being emotionally dry, just tapped the ash wand against his left palm, evaluating the spell he’d just cast.

‘Did I overbake the soil…? Well, it’s just dirt, so what if it burns a bit.’

As soon as the spell faded, the work of leveling a corner of the training ground was finished.

Without hurrying, Cleio gently moved on to cultivate the next part of the ground.

The more he cast, the faster the spell triggered, and by the end, as soon as the light flashed, the ground settled into fine sand.

“Wow! It’s beautiful!”

“The basalt sand spread on the training ground sparkles like gold sand.”

Over Lifi and Leticia’s excited voices, a man’s loud shout overlapped.

“Are you a mage?!”

It was the shout of Vice-Captain Rotan, who had turned halfway around and stood gaping, his jaw almost dropping.

It would be strange if someone of the vice-captain’s level couldn’t sense such a massive flow of ether.

Cleio answered leisurely.

“It should have been written in the documents I handed over.”

Apparently, Rotan hadn’t even opened the envelope Isiel gave him earlier, as he just wore a dumbfounded expression.

A giant who must have been two meters tall making such a silly face was funny in itself.

The upright northern knight was confused by the mismatch between his own common sense or prejudice and the reality before him.

“How can someone so young… This doesn’t make sense….”

“Then, since the work is done, we’ll go eat before it gets any later.”

Cleio didn’t bother waiting for a response and moved on. Rotan didn’t seem to be in any mental state to answer anyway.

Leaving Rotan alone in the middle of the training ground, looking haunted, they all headed boisterously to the cafeteria.

The children each hugged Cleio’s shoulders, pulled his arms, and laughed and chatted busily.

“It feels great, like we smacked that grumpy vice-captain on the back of the head.”

“Maybe it’s because I’m so pleased, but even the smell of dinner seems more fragrant.”

“If it’s food like what we had at the pub, I’m looking forward to this meal too!”

“Since it’s a cold region, it seems they use a lot of meat and fat in their dishes.”

“Really, the smell is amazing!”

The wind was cold, but standing close together with the kids, it didn’t feel so chilly. At some point, Cleio found himself laughing along at their silly jokes.

---

For a week, the same routine as the first day continued. It was all simple labor, like maintaining the underground waterworks or filling the turrets’ storage tanks with oil.

Today’s task was to dig the moat in front of the castle gate deeper. Even with the sluice gate closed, the damp earth was frozen and terribly hard.

Of course, it wasn’t a problem for the kids.

With the power of ether sensitivity, they were almost too efficient at chores.

No matter how menial the task, they completed it with good faces and without complaint, and the attitude of people in the castle toward the children changed noticeably day by day.

‘I wondered how spoiled the noble children from the capital would be, but they’re so polite and well-mannered.’

‘They work well, too. They’re as strong as the knights.’

‘Thank you.’

‘Have this as a snack.’

Even now, Cleio was holding a warm bottle of milk tea, carefully packed by a cafeteria worker, inside his coat to keep it from cooling.

‘This should be enough. That vice-captain is so immature, sending kids out in this weather. I’m starting to wish a big monster would show up soon.’

So far, it seemed that only small monsters of levels 1 and 2 had appeared. The subjugation team was driving the monsters from the south to the north end of the territory, hunting them like wild animals. Fortunately, most monsters came out of the deep mountains, so the damage to residents was minimal.

Cleio had requested to join the subjugation team, wanting the kids to gain experience while the monsters were still weak, but the vice-captain just scoffed.

‘Kids who haven’t even been knighted yet, trying to drag us down!’

It was clear Rotan still hadn’t read their documents.

‘There are only about 70 level-5 knights in all of Albion, and that prince is a knight cadet who far surpasses the average level-5. And yet they’re having such high-level talent dig dirt.’

No monsters had appeared near the castle yet. At first, everyone was on high alert, but after a week, the tension eased and the twins threw snowballs at each other.

Arthur, Isiel, and Chel exchanged glances and, without a word, started digging out the moat on both sides.

‘They’re so diligent, almost too diligent.’

As soon as they received the order, Cleio asked if he should just use [Decompose][Disassemble] magic, but Isiel cut him off, saying, ‘You never know when monsters might attack. Save your ether.’

This time, Chel and Arthur seemed to agree, each grabbing one of Cleio’s arms and seating him on a makeshift staircase.

The vice-captain, having given the task, didn’t even show his face.

‘I know he’s busy, but that’s not the only reason. He must have noticed the change in how people see the kids. Maybe admitting their skills feels like losing to the central nobles.’

At least today’s work site made for a decent stage. The spot where the kids were deepening the moat was right in front of the main gate, facing the mountains.

And if you entered the outer castle through the main gate and went up the road, the first three-story building you came to was the knights’ quarters. It was also the building where the children’s rooms were.

With [Perception] activated and her head stretched out, Cleio caught the voices of several wounded who had returned to the castle last night, chatting in the first-floor cafeteria. Judging by the lively conversation, none of them were seriously injured.

‘They must have made this building the quarters so the knights can respond first in an emergency. Even if a Python flies in, there will be no shortage of helpers or witnesses. Good.’

The knights’ admiration for Arthur and his friends was necessary not only for future developments but also to improve their current situation.

Therefore, the monster Python would surely fly toward where the kids were, to the castle.

‘That vice-captain, later on, he’ll only act prickly on the outside, but inside, he’ll totally melt for Arthur. Still, he’s so stubborn. He’ll probably kick off his blanket in embarrassment even in his sleep.’

Whoosh—

The mountain wind whipped under Cleio’s hat and made a mess of her hair sticking out.

‘Ugh, what kind of wind is this….’

It was then.

Screeeeeeeeeeeech!

A black monster let out an ear-splitting screech and shot down from the sky.

1) “Returning Home” by Tao Yuanming.