Editor 114

Against the Darkness (1)

The snow stopped in the afternoon.

Instead of running outside, the vice-captain and the knights gathered in the drawing room. Bakura, the old man, was standing by the window, and everyone was listening to his words.

He wet his fingertip with saliva, stuck it out the window and waved it around for a while, then picked up a snowflake piled on the storm window, and finally nodded.

“It won’t snow for at least a week now. Go clear the snow.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Well, I should use what little talent I have for things like this. No need to thank me, Vice-captain.”

When Rotan signaled with his eyes, the knights and soldiers briskly lined up and got ready to go outside.

The guards on daytime duty climbed the castle walls to keep watch over the surroundings, and one knight took up a position in the watchtower and sharpened his sight. This was to guard against flying-type monsters.

Of the knights seen yesterday, only Lysa was missing, but Trude said she was caught up with paperwork and couldn’t come out. Was it just his imagination, or did Rotan look visibly relieved to have passed on the work?

Arthur and the children were also mobilized to clear the snow from the road. Whether they wanted to go hunting or bring up a food wagon, they had to be able to open the castle gate. Without shoveling the snow, everyone would be trapped in the castle.

All able-bodied members of the castle grabbed snow shovels and headed outside. They all worked with startling discipline, starting from the snow on the pavement and pushing it in a circle toward the drains in front of the buildings.

Cleo was quite surprised.

‘In Lundane, I even saw snowplows pulled by horses, but here… Well, the snowfall is too much for just a few horses to handle anyway. Besides, people are better than horses for this.’

The snow began to melt in the drains and flow downward. Judging by the lack of ether, it seemed they were heating the lower part of the sewers by connecting it to the hot springs flowing below.

The children were also at the forefront, shoveling an enormous amount of snow.

Of course, as for Cleo, he stood by the canal where the melted snow flowed, in the warmest spot he could find, with both hands tucked tightly into an out-of-fashion muffler someone from the castle had lent him.

“Ah, ah-choo.”

Now the weather was bitterly cold. In the north, February was the coldest time, and being outside was enough to freeze your breath in your nose.

“Ray, I’m more nervous just watching you, so why don’t you just go inside?”

Arthur, pushing a wide snow shovel, looked at him with a worried face. Isiel was the same.

“Arthur is right. What are you going to do if you catch a cold standing there?”

“And like Isiel said, you should work out a bit this year. You’re colder because you’re so thin!”

Cleo, knowing all this, let it go in one ear and out the other. He just became more determined to use his magic ruby. It was a shame he hadn’t engraved a spell yet, so it didn’t have a heating function.

“Report.”

Back in school, when he was short on money, he had worked loading parcels or on factory assembly lines. He was thin then, too, but he had guts and endured. Of course, the work was grueling. That only left him with even less energy or time to exercise.

‘Am I going to start working out now? If I don’t have to get up, I’ll just lie down every day.’

Even if he didn’t move, while watching the snow being cleared, he kept circulating his ether. He was close to level 5, but the breakthrough still eluded him, which was getting tedious.

Standing there, the part wrapped in the summer garden’s cape coat was as warm as could be, but even with fur-lined boots, his toes were freezing, and his hands too.

Chel, who approached busily shoveling away the snowdrift, clicked her tongue.

“What are you looking at? Get out of here before you freeze to death. Tsk tsk.”

“I might not be able to shovel, but if I stay, something else might come up for me to do.”

Cleo, now shivering to his chin, didn’t sound convincing. Chel gave him a blatantly exasperated look.

“Even if you used magic to push the snow into the drains, your walking speed is so slow, it would take all day to clear just one spell’s area. Instead of shivering like a wet dog, why don’t you at least make a fire with magic?”

“I’ll make a fire if it gets any colder.”

“Ugh, that stubbornness. Fine. Liffy, Leticia! Let’s finish quickly and go in together!”

“Okay!”

“Let’s do that!”

The twins, excited that once the snow was cleared, they’d get to go hunt wild animals that didn’t even hibernate, bounded around.

‘Those two are amazing shooters, and they can communicate over distance, so after one hunting trip, their reputation among the castle people will skyrocket.’

Unaware of Cleo’s calculations, the two children, cheeks flushed pink, kept pushing the snow. Leticia shouted first.

“Ray, Ray. This time I’ll really catch a fox and make a scarf for you. It’ll be much warmer than that rabbit fur!”

“Is that so easy? Don’t overdo it…”

“But Leticia, Ray looks cute with the rabbit fur now, too.”

“Yeah. Not that it’s not cute. I admit it.”

“Ahaha.”

While the twins frolicked in the snow like puppies, Cleo just kept circulating his ether.

In fact, Cleo didn’t want to be out here either. Now that the python had been caught, he planned to make any excuse to stay inside.

But a subtle sense of unease dragged him outside by the scruff of the neck.

‘There’s something suspicious about that python. There was a strange modifier in front of its name. “Young” python. Then somewhere, there might be an “adult” or “mature” python, right?’

Of course, the python in the last manuscript was just a python. There was no mention of two.

Now Cleo knew all too well. The previous manuscript wasn’t a perfect guide or a prophecy that always hit the mark for surviving another world.

Judging by the monsters from the Queen’s Garden, in the , any crisis appeared in a more intensified form.

‘That “young python” was oddly small. In the last manuscript, even with Arthur, Chel, and Isiel all attacking together, it didn’t fall.’

With that thought, he just couldn’t stay cooped up in a warm room.

“Ah-choo.”

Even with all sorts of winter gear, Cleo’s body couldn’t withstand the cold. Now it felt like even his nose and throat were freezing; he deliberately made a loud sniffle.

There was only one reason why, despite being called foolish, he didn’t use the [Heating] spell. He was saving his ether in case he needed to use a large amount.

‘If I use ether just to warm my hands after shoveling snow, and then I faint at a critical moment because I’m out of ether, who’s going to take responsibility for the manuscript?’

Even the knights rotated shifts, but as an editor with no one to swap with, he couldn’t even cry out of sadness.

‘I’m worried my tears would freeze at my eyes. If the author was going to make me work like this, why didn’t they put me in a sturdy body like Nebo’s, instead of picking a weakling and making it so hard to get around?’

While the “Jeongjin” inside Cleo lamented the treatment of his fragile body, the children and knights in only thin work clothes cleared the snow, steaming from their mouths, backs, and shoulders. Of course, each had their weapon at their belt. It was a precaution worthy of knight trainees.

‘The kids will handle themselves well, but I don’t know if it’s right to bring up the possibility of a monster that might not even appear and make everyone in the castle nervous.’

Before he knew it, all the snow inside the castle was cleared. After the drawbridge was lowered, Cleo followed the people clearing the access road outside the castle.

The outside, seen for the first time in days, was a world of pure white snow, looking like a world apart from civilization. The fortress, surrounded by deep valleys and high peaks, was in a lonely, isolated situation.

Bitter cold and heavy snow.

Out-of-season wild animals running rampant. And even monsters appearing. He could feel the exhaustion of the castle’s people slowly building up.

It was then.

Thudthudthudthud

Crunch, crack.

From the mountains toward the castle, something was approaching energetically through the snow. It wasn’t a monster or wild animal. It was clearly human.

The children all tensed up, then Arthur was the first to take his hand off his sword, looking puzzled.

“…It’s Master?”

“That bundle of rags is your teacher?”

“Yeah. Probably. Definitely.”

Everyone used ether to enhance their sight and watched the figure approaching at a frightening speed.

Leticia shook her head.

“Looks like your teacher hasn’t changed clothes once since we parted ways.”

“Well, that’s entirely possible for him.”

“Arthur, you learned things from your teacher you didn’t need to learn.”

“Ugh, that’s not true?! I wash and change clothes just fine!”

“I mean your room, the state of your room.”

“Ugh…”

While the kids bickered, the figure leaped up the last hill from the mountain to the castle in just three jumps and was close enough to hear his voice.

“What’s this. You guys have time to chat, huh? You’re all so relaxed, is that it? Huh?”

“Master!”

“Yeah.”

Up close, Mietz looked even more outrageous.

His robe was in rags, all frozen with snow, and even his beard was matted and stiff. Mietz, unconcerned about his appearance, grabbed Arthur by the neck.

Arthur slipped out, twisting his teacher’s elbow, and beamed like a child. His whole face was lit with joy.

“Master, you must’ve had a blast hunting monsters all over the mountains, huh? Why’d you come back alone?”

“Alone, my foot. Monster subjugation is over. Everyone else is crossing the mountain behind me. The youngest knight got his toe bitten by a little monster brat, so I came ahead to inform the castle.”

The knight in the watchtower seemed to recognize Mietz, who had been with the monster subjugation team, and signaled “Welcome.”

Replying in the same way, two guards started running from inside the castle toward Mietz. Their faces were full of joy, too.

Whatever trick he used, Mietz had joined the monster subjugation team as soon as he arrived at the castle. Apparently, he knew one of the knights from his mercenary days.

Judging by the knights’ and soldiers’ reactions, it was easy to guess what he’d been up to there.

Cleo, who took a few steps back from Mietz’s strong odor, saw the end of the robe stained purple with monster blood, and the scabbard revealed beneath.

‘He must have fought really well in the subjugation team.’

Mietz’s level was still unknown, but he was the one who taught Arthur and Isiel, so he couldn’t be ordinary.

Even wrapped in rags, the teacher strode with a prince’s confidence, nudging the real prince as he crossed the moat.

The snow wasn’t cleared for him, but it looked as if the road had been opened just to welcome Mietz.

The two master and disciple strode toward the knights’ quarters. The guards who joined them shouted “Mietz!” “You’re back!” and slapped his back. Though they’d only been together for about five days, it was like a reunion of lifelong comrades.

There were jokes about the stench, preparing bathwater, or asking for three bottles of lake wine before water, and raucous laughter broke out.

Though only Mietz arrived, the atmosphere in the castle instantly brightened.

It helped that the news came that all the monsters had been dealt with and there were no seriously wounded or dead.

“Master, you’ve got icicles hanging from your snot, so at least burn it off with ether. If you get in the bath like that, we’ll have to change the water at least twice.”

“Tch! Ever since you went to the capital, you’ve gotten so fussy, kid.”

“It’s a public health issue, you know?”

Without slowing his stride, Mietz flared his ether roughly. Instantly, the chill surrounding him turned to steam and flew off.

Cleo flinched at the sheer force of it, but strangely, he couldn’t see any form or color of the ether at all.

‘What…?’

He habitually rubbed his “Promise.” The ring pressed under his sheepskin gloves made its presence known.

Then the message that appeared, slower than usual, was shocking.

“Level 8 Swordsman

Title: Hermit of Cleanliness”

‘Level 8? Swordmaster?!’