Grave Keeper of the Fallen Kingdom

A cold wind gently wrapped around my body.

I didn’t feel the extreme cold because I had cold resistance, but it was enough to wake me up.

“Ugh… … .”

My head hurts like it would break.

I should have used my energy to get rid of drunkenness, but I couldn’t because Arthur told me not to drink alcohol if I was going to do that.

‘I guess it’s because he’s drunk?’

The scenes in my memory were cut off moment by moment, and the back and forth were not connected.

Approaching the window and looking at the sky, the dawn was slowly creeping in.

The cold air of dawn squeezed through the cracks in the windows.

I hurriedly got dressed and headed outside.

“Hanat! Dooul! Threet! Neet!”

When I went to the training ground, the strong shouts of the knights were resonating from the inside.

The sight of him running a canter without an inch of distraction even after drinking like that the day before made me exclaim.

“Are you awake now?”

“Ah, yes. Stefan.”

“You don’t really seem to get cold, though.”

“yes?”

At that question, I lowered my head and looked at my outfit. I realized that I was only wearing a thin coat.

“ah… … .”

I was in a hurry and didn’t think to dress properly.

It wasn’t too cold because of the cold resistance.

“Ren, you’ll adapt quickly to the North.”

“You mean you endure the cold well?”

“no.”

He gave me a curious look and continued talking.

“I saw yesterday that you are the only one who came up from the continent to look at us with pity.”

“… … I mean?”

“okay.”

It was as if I was drunk and exposed my true feelings to the outside without my knowledge.

“sorry.”

“No, you don’t have to. But can you tell me why you saw it that way?”

I hesitated and looked at the knights running on the training ground in the distance and said what I was thinking yesterday.

“Yesterday, with Arthur’s guidance, I saw the tombs of the northern warriors.”

“Looks like Arthur has gotten pretty comfortable.”

“hahahaha, well, I’m comfortable, but Arthur doesn’t seem to be like that again.”

“He’s a bit naive by nature, so you understand.”

“yes. Anyway, I heard that friction with monsters is inevitable here, and warriors die every week.”

“… … yes.”

Stefan’s eyes darkened coldly.

The wriggling lips seemed to represent his bitterness.

“When I saw yesterday’s banquet, I suddenly thought of that. How do they live with enduring so many deaths every day? It’s not a lack of camaraderie or individualism, and people get along so close, so why are there no traces of people in the graves?”

“You figured out a lot in that short time.”

“When I think about it that much, I get the feeling that they are trying hard to ignore the death. Not going to the grave, drinking alcohol and laughing pretending to be bright. Everything, I felt that it was to live in reality.”

Stefan nodded and twisted the corner of his mouth.

“You said you became quite comfortable with Arthur, right?”

“yes.”

“Then would you like to run with them? Now, when I finish the training ground, I will go around the entire fort in a big way.”

Could it be that running at the training ground from this morning was just a warm-up stage for the body?

“her.”

I let out a blank laugh and took off my coat and threw it around.

“It must be cold.”

“it’s okay.”

Stefan patted me on the back and sent me forward.

It meant to get in their way.

‘Has it been acknowledged?’

I didn’t mean to say that, but it seems that my thoughts penetrated their hearts.

Did you say that if you want to get close to a person, look inside that person? That’s right.

“Sir Ren?”

Arthur called me with a happy face, as if he had finally found me.

“Do you want to run with me?”

“why? scared? Are you afraid you can’t run better than me?”

At my words, Arthur’s eyes lit up with a proud face.

“We’ve already run 20 laps here, haven’t we?”

“okay?”

Having said that, I dropped out of the ranks and rejoined with a large bag of sand on my back.

“Then I will run with this on.”

“… … You will regret it.”

“Are you trying to make me regret it?”

When I said that with a smile, Arthur, who had a determined expression on his face, nodded and fixed his gaze forward.

“Run faster today! Those who lag behind are all extra training! Got it?”

Yeah yeah yeah yeah!!

A deafening roar echoed from behind.

My words seemed to stimulate them quite a bit.

‘I’m a little scared.’

How embarrassing it would be if I could not catch up after running to the sand sack with great vigour.

“Everyone sings together!”

Alan, who was at the forefront, shouted.

“Storm! rushing! A pure white field!”

“Storm! rushing! A pure white field!”

“Storm! rushing! A pure white field!”

It was the first military song I ever heard.

Their military song, sung so loudly that the fortress was washed away, was the rhythm that announced the morning of the residents of the fortress.

“Brave! Descendants of warriors! Today we win!”

“Brave! Descendants of warriors! Today we win!”

Perfect for your step! right! The beats that match and the songs that you can feel their spirit.

Running after them and being inside the shout, at one point I was calling them out too.

“Comrade! we are!”

“Comrade! we are!”

When I first heard it, I couldn’t sing along, but during the long time they circled the fort, they sang the military song without a single break.

“North! I will protect you!!”

“North! I will protect you!!”

After listening so much, I was able to sing along to the military song to some extent.

[Health has increased by 0.1.]

I gasped, ignoring the message that came to me.

I wanted to push myself from before.

Why did you dare to say nonsense about running with a bag of sand on your back?

All of them ran with only their own stamina without using their energy.

It is said that walking around the snowy mountains requires strong stamina above all else.

I could clearly feel how they survived in that dangerous snowy mountain.

“ha… … , ha… … .”

Arriving at the training ground, I gulped down a glass of water.

It seemed like the things I ate yesterday would come up.

Not only me, but everyone was breathing hard and breathing heavily.

Certainly, compared to the northern warriors, my stamina is still lacking.

No, is it a lack of know-how?

Mental strength and physical strength were truly incomparable to the Golden Lion Knights.

“Captain?”

Just in time, the Golden Lion Knights were also entering the training ground.

It wasn’t too late, considering that today was the second day since I’d been here and that I had been drinking like that the day before, but after running with the Amaranth Knights, it just didn’t look good.

“ha… … , Everyone gather here.”

Seeing my stiff expression, Dominic, who was the first to assess the situation, hurriedly called the members together.

“Don’t be foolish!”

“Yes, yes!!”

atmosphere suddenly subsided.

The members, who were awakened by my shouting, lined up in a line with discipline.

“Starting tomorrow, no matter what happens, wake up 3 hours earlier.”

The northern sun rises later than expected and sets quickly.

All I wanted was to wake up before dawn.

“yes!”

Now these guys don’t really question whether I’ve figured out my tendencies.

It must have been because it was so necessary.

“And we do physical training according to the Amaranth Knights. If you come to the North, you will have to adapt to it.”

“yes!”

It seemed like he didn’t know how to answer, but he’d probably have to work hard to keep up with their training starting tomorrow.

It would not be easy for even the Golden Lion Knights to adapt to the severe cold weather in the north and keep up with the amount of training.

“Sir Ren. Reinforcements don’t have to go that far.”

Arthur came up to me and stopped me with a worried expression.

“No, I can’t see that.”

“Then give it some time to adjust… … .”

“Do you guys need a period of adjustment?”

I turned my head and asked the Golden Lion Knights.

Andrew, who was at the front, opened his eyes wide and shook his head.

“never! No need! I will adapt right away!”

“you’re right!”

“Didn’t the captain also run today?”

“We can do it!”

they shouted loudly.

“Is that so?”

“… … All right.”

After the light fuss of the morning, I had dinner with the Knights of Amaranth.

I don’t know if it was because we were walking together in the morning or because we drank together last night, but unlike the first time, their eyes were very friendly to me.

“I didn’t expect to adapt so well in one day.”

“That’s about it.”

“The Amaranth Knights are the most heavily trained unit in our Northern Legion. I’m not ignoring the Knights of the Golden Lion, but there are environmental problems, and it won’t be easy to adapt to because of various factors.”

“are you okay. You only have to roll it until you die.”

“… … That is true too.”

People are animals of adaptation, and when I was running earlier, it was so hard that I really wanted to die, but now that I think about it, I feel like I can do it again.

Even the Knights of the Golden Lion will roll somehow once they roll.

“Did you say the Golden Lion Knights? I need to do better.”

“I think the leader over there is worse than our leader?”

“Still, our captain gives us a period to adapt, right?”

“It’s scary, scary… … .”

Maybe they wanted to listen, but the knights of Amaranth muttered, even though they were at the next table, shaking their heads with pity on their faces.

Wherever I go, I thought that no one knew about the difficulties of the leader.

When they come later, they will realize the feelings of me and Arthur who think of the members.

“Today, I will go back and forth between barracks and barracks to show you what the soldiers are doing.”

“When are you going to practice?”

“It’s good to learn about going outside the city walls for at least two more weeks.”

“2 weeks? too long. Do it in three days.”

“Three days is too short.”

“You don’t know when they’ll react, but you can’t just take care of safety.”

“… … All right. Sir Ren would be fine.”

“thanks.”

* * *

Every day went by without a blink of an eye.

Three days passed, and among Brillant’s reinforcements, I was the first to leave the city walls.

Joined the search party and learned what they do.

The leader of the expedition is Ralph Ibenschutz.

He was Arthur’s naughty younger brother.

“If you cross the rugged mountains in the north here, you will come to the Black Land Snowfield, the main base of the monsters. So, never cross this boundary. As long as you pay attention to this, there won’t be much danger.”

“But you didn’t even cross the black ground, but the name raided?”

“That is really unusual. It is our guess that it was one guy when we saw that he attacked and avoided the camps of our soldiers around him, but it’s the first time in almost 10 years that Named has come this far alone, so it’s okay.”

“If such a change has occurred, shouldn’t we be more suspicious?”

“Ah, if we’re only concerned about safety like that, we can’t come out of the fort.”

Ralph said he wasn’t worried at all, but the change came to me unexpectedly.

The search team’s mission was to look around the temporary camp to make sure there were no monsters from the black land, and to check for signs of anomalies in the snowy mountains before moving to the black land.

Fortunately, the mission was completed safely.

Today was not a day to go very deep, so the search range was not very wide and the risk was not high.

“Hey, Hara doesn’t escort me, and you go around a lot.”

Allan playfully threw a joke.

“You are only inside the citadel anyway, so who would threaten Your Highness?”

“Ha ha ha, so I’d like you to help me at the executive meeting tonight.”

“yes? What do you mean?”

“My body is itching just to be here. I plan to follow them out of the castle tomorrow.”

“That is too dangerous.”

“Isn’t that why I’m asking you? you can protect me Are you my escort driver?”

It looked like it would never break that will.

I sighed inwardly and nodded.

‘It’s a bit annoying, but Alan has to go out of the castle eventually. It’s just that the time has come a little faster.’

In the evening, the executive meeting began.

The officers of Ain Bavaria gathered in the command and control room, spread out a map of the mountain range, and discussed the next unit operation in a serious atmosphere.

“A magic tool that detects the waves of monsters has finally arrived. In order to use this effectively, you must go near the border unconditionally.”

“Is this the best way to send troops? What if the name appears?”

“If you put together a large force, they’re more likely to detect it and ambush you. There was already a precedent of crossing the black land alone, and recently the air currents in the mountains are unusual. It would be better to organize a small number of troops and install them quickly.”

“hmm… … , but the troops to be recruited are-.”

“Hey, can I say something?”

Nominally, Alan was the highest commanding officer of this reinforcements.

That is why Alan participated in this meeting as well.

I came as his escort.

“Here is an advanced article.”

Alan pointed at me and said.

I was lost in thought with my eyes shining as if everyone hadn’t thought of me as a candidate for support.

“I will join the unit with Ren.”

“Apart from Ren, the prince too?”

“Sir Stefan, I am the supreme commanding officer for this application. Shouldn’t I experience the real battle as soon as possible?”

Stefan and the executives hardened their expressions as if they were a little embarrassed.

Earlier, he said he would listen to Alan, but when he came and heard about the operation, the mission seemed more dangerous than he thought.

Will Alan be able to carry out the mission?

‘It’s a mission to go to the border of the black land… … .’