Chapter 122

On the other hand, while Fernan and Luina crossed the wall and headed north, Albinos Bercheff found the letter his daughter had left behind.

[Father. The Demon Kingdom is a place even you have never managed to enter. There might be dozens, perhaps hundreds, of cultist nests there. Or maybe they’ve already summoned a demon… (fragment omitted)…]

[…It’s not that I doubt your abilities, but we must prepare for the worst-case scenario… (fragment omitted)…]

Crumple—

The letter was mercilessly crumpled.

“How brazen.”

“Seems the young lady is of marrying age now. Leaving a letter and fleeing in the night…”

At the aide’s comment, the margrave let out a snort.

“If she left at dawn, then technically it is a nighttime escape.”

“You seem quite upset, I see.”

“I am.”

Albinos shoved a handful of chocolates into his mouth nervously.

“Never thought my daughter would attempt a getaway like in those plays.”

“But you just said it wasn’t one.”

“If that brat Fernan weren’t involved, it’d be a dawn patrol. But with him there, it’s a nighttime escape.”

“You were the one who gave the order, my lord.”

The margrave didn’t respond.

“In any case, it seems that brat isn’t completely useless.”

He took note of the fact that Fernan had proposed hiring a mercenary.

“Are you going to let it go?”

“That he went through the trouble of hiring the King of Mercenaries works in our favor. All the better.”

He had known the King of Mercenaries was in the north. But he’d never considered hiring him himself—if Fernan was doing it for him, he could only be grateful.

Even so, his expression didn’t show satisfaction.

“I’ve no face to show my ancestors. I’ve allowed the affairs of Bercheff to be handled upside down.”

For a thousand years, the unspoken rule had been clear—even if they sometimes hired support, the defense of the wall was always Bercheff’s responsibility. That tradition had never been broken.

But now…

“It’s humiliating, but that’s the reality of Bercheff.”

Crack—

The armrest of his chair broke under his fist.

“If I can save more Bercheff knights at the cost of a bit of pride, then it’s worth it.”

His gaze fixed on the recording orb on the table—the image of the demon summoned at the Academy.

“Perhaps… there really are demons out there.”

To save Bercheff, he chose to swallow his pride.

***

The air in Bercheff was freezing.

Even if it didn’t snow year-round, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that for more than half the year, temperatures stayed below zero.

“And right now…?”

“It’s the middle of winter. Most of the year is like this.”

What had started as a light sleet at dawn quickly turned into a blizzard that blanketed the world in white.

The patrol, used to it, entered a nearby cave to light a fire and rest a bit. Inside, supplies were well-hidden.

“Is this a shelter?”

“Something like that. For emergencies, we’ve prepared places like this all over the north.”

It could be because of a snowstorm, a monster pursuit, or being left behind alone. Nothing was strange in these lands beyond Bercheff.

“And what do you normally do in these cases?”

“We keep going. Like I said, it’s not unusual for it to snow several days in a row.”

If they canceled patrols every time it snowed, they’d spend all winter indoors.

But the monsters didn’t stop attacking the walls or building new nests just because snow was falling.

“We warm up a bit and continue.”

“And what do you usually check for?”

“If monsters have changed their route, if there are new tracks, or if a new nest has appeared. That sort of thing.”

The top priority of patrols was to detect in advance any threat approaching Bercheff.

After a brief rest, they packed up and resumed the march. The blizzard was so dense that it was hard to see the direction. They rode like that for nearly an hour.

—Kyu!

Before anyone else, Wooden reacted.

‘A monster ahead? Are you sure it’s a cultist, not a beast?’

— Kyuu!

Wooden nodded confidently, even though Fernan’s eyes saw nothing.

“Luina.”

“What is it?”

“Maybe…”

He feared sounding like a liar in front of the veteran White Lions, when a scout about a hundred meters ahead returned.

“About 150 meters northeast—there’s a cultist.”

“……!”

Fernan instinctively looked at Wooden, who crossed his arms and shrugged.

“A cultist? Not a monster?”

“Yes. A pack of grade 7 cultist beasts.”

The creatures were beasts covered in thick black fur.

“How many?”

“Eleven.”

“Eliminate them all and follow their tracks.”

“Understood!”

The knights dismounted.

“Follow us.”

Except for two who stayed behind to watch the horses, the rest advanced silently.

“Is it necessary to follow the tracks after killing them?”

“To find out where they came from and why they came down.”

“You mean whether they descended on their own or were driven out by other cultists?”

“Exactly. If it’s the first, it’s not too serious. But if it’s the second, it’s a bigger problem. From here on—silence.”

Fernan shut his mouth.

Despite dozens of knights moving through the blizzard, there was almost no sound.

It didn’t take long before white silhouettes appeared through the snow—the scouts had returned.

“How’s it going?”

“They encountered a group of yetis. Two corpses, and the creatures are busy devouring them.”

“Then, we attack immediately.”

The White Lions’ captain didn’t hesitate to give the order.

“None must escape. And Lady Luina…”

“Yes.”

“Protect young master Fernan.”

“Understood.”

Since they left the cave, the knights had stopped calling her “young lady,” and Luina naturally accepted the orders.

It was a subtle change, but Fernan fully understood what it meant.

“It’s the first time I’ve seen a demonic creature.”

It would be the same for any newly-appeared cultist.

The knights surrounded the creatures and closed the encirclement.

“Why kill them all?”

“Because the Bercheff wall doesn’t cover all of the north.”

Unlike the wall at Altrioque that blocked the Taklakan Desert, Bercheff’s walls were eight fortresses in strategic points. There were always gaps.

“So they try to cover the gaps.”

“Exactly.”

While Fernan and Luina whispered, the knights were already upon the beasts.

‘Impressive.’

There was no sound. Though he could see them, he couldn’t feel their presence. The tradens didn’t even notice they had someone behind them.

And that was their downfall.

Slash—

A silent hand signal.

The eleven heads fell in unison.

It ended right there.

“…The White Lions are truly the White Lions.”

It wasn’t by chance that they were considered the best knight order in the north.

“Of course.”

There was pride in Luina’s voice.

“Do they always take part in patrols?”

For something so routine, they seemed too valuable.

“Not always, but sometimes. Though today might have to do with you and me.”

“I see.”

It was logical—protecting his daughter and avoiding conflict with the Pellenbergs justified sending the best force.

“Let’s move.”

The knights buried the corpses of the cultists and soon found the tracks from where they had descended.

“They stretch northward. What should we do?”

“Hmm.”

The captain gave a fleeting glance to Fernan, who understood immediately.

“Don’t worry about me. I assume you know I’ve already signed the letter.”

A document that absolved Bercheff of all responsibility should anything happen to him.

“Yes, we know.”

Even so, leaving him in real danger wasn’t an option.

“Follow the tracks. If they go beyond five kilometers, return. And beware of monsters.”

“Understood!”

Two knights set off as scouts.

“The snow is easing up.”

An hour later, they returned.

“The tracks continue past five kilometers… and it’s not just one.”

“What?”

“It wasn’t a single small pack. About four kilometers ahead, they split into three different trails.”

“Also, we found a snow troll settlement completely destroyed.”

The captain clenched his teeth.

“It’s not just an isolated group that came south. We need to determine the actual scale.”

And then, with a serious expression, he concluded:

“Sir, we will protect your safety to the end.”

“I have my own preparations. Don’t worry.”

“Thank you for understanding. Track them. We must find out how many there are and where their nest is.”

“Understood!”

The White Lions resumed their march northward.

***

“That was the snow trolls’ nest, right?”

In the small depression in the terrain, there were holes everywhere. Snow trolls had the habit of digging and living underground.

But now the place was filled with a thick stench of blood and corpses.

And among them, a few demons.

“They’re also demonic creatures. Eleven in total. Just like before.”

“Then maybe eleven is the standard number for a group of demonic creatures.”

The appearance of demons was recent and remained a mystery.

In ancient manuscripts, they could barely find names and traces, but many documents had been lost.

“We found tracks, but…”

It wasn’t three, but five.

If one was discarded for coming from the north, four remained. And those four extended south, in different directions.

As if they were spreading out like scouts.

“…This doesn’t look good.”

At the scene, Fernan frowned.

He didn’t know much about demons, or about strategy or tactics.

But from those tracks, there was something he could clearly understand.

The demons descending south were far more numerous than they had anticipated.

The White Lions’ captain looked again at Fernan. However, he seemed to decide that things couldn’t be left as they were and ordered the pursuit.

“We continue north.”

They left aside the other four branches and focused on finding the source.

If it truly was a large number of demons advancing in an organized manner to the south, the threat to Bercheff would be enormous.

So they continued for quite a while.

The sky remained overcast, dark as ink, but the snowfall gradually weakened to almost nothing.

Along the way, the patrol group encountered two more packs of demonic creatures, each with eleven demons, and annihilated them all.

“…Is this normal?”

“We don’t know. Even we don’t know much about the habits of demons.”

Even so, no one could ignore that the situation was strange.

A heavy tension began spreading among the knights of the White Lions.

Even Fernan, influenced by that atmosphere, didn’t dare ask Luina anything more.

And so, nearly another hour passed on horseback.

— Kyu!

Suddenly, Wooden began frantically pounding Fernan’s chest from inside his clothing.

‘What’s wrong?’

— Kyu! Kyu! Kyu! Kyu! Kyu!

An urgent voice, tiny hands striking in a rush.

Demons? Many? Too many?

‘That hurts! Stop it!’

Fernan’s chest turned red, inflamed from the forceful hits.

“Luina, up ahead…”

And just a moment later.

“There’s a massive number of demons!”

“There are at least hundreds…!”

The scouts in the lead came running back.

And then they saw it.

Within a wide valley.

Heaps and heaps of monster corpses—creatures that had once ruled that place.

And over them, moving all around, hundreds of demons.

The earth, stained in dark violet.

“…It’s a nest.”

It was the nest of the demons.

Far south of the supposed Demon Region, right here—they had established their lair.