Civilization's Front Line, Afterglow Fortress (1)
The procession bound for the Hadrian Margraviate never halted except for meals and rest, monster attacks, and the times they had to swap the wheels of the carts and carriages for sled runners against the heavy snow.
Honestly, there was no need to push so hard.
It was not an urgent contract in the first place—only a provisional one. The whole point was simply to align opinions in preparation for the official proceedings next year. They could have stopped at villages and towns along the way, shaken off the fatigue of travel, loaded the empty carts with fresh meat and vegetables, and taken their time reaching the destination.
Catherine did not.
Even now the piles of work stacking up in her office—and the ones still destined to stack—made her skin crawl just thinking about them. Last autumn and winter she had already treated overtime as a baseline and all-nighters like daily bread. Of course, then and now could not even be compared. There was a world of difference between magical manpower “evaporating” until there were physically not enough people, and simply forcing a path through the snow-lashed north of Iceland.
She had scrambled through the truly urgent matters before they left. At this pace they ought to make it back to Coldon before winter arrived. Still, the impatience lodged in a corner of her heart was unavoidable. It was a brutal forced march that was bound to draw complaints for racing past every village and town. Yet the people in the column accepted it even while they grumbled. No—some of them actually welcomed the forced march.
The reason was simple. Even natives of Iceland were not all the same. For the majority, who came from Coldon, the northern cold remained merciless. Whatever else, they wanted to return as quickly as possible to relatively warm Coldon. Even the elite escorts the Duke himself had hand-picked longed for their warm homes.
Karem, Mary, and Gordon felt exactly the same. Karem had long since grown sick of cold beyond anything he had imagined. Mary was irritated that someone other than herself was invading her domain. And Gordon, dragged along like a water ghost, was lamenting his fate as a baron forced to drive the carriage for escort duty. Their thoughts were all different, yet none of them objected to the forced march.
Thanks to that, the procession closed on its destination at a speed exceptional even by Iceland standards and entered the Hadrian Margraviate in what felt like no time at all.
Then, just short of Afterglow Fortress, the horses and snow runners finally collapsed from exhaustion. No—it was rather impressive that nothing had given out until now. The column decided to grant a longer rest if only for the sake of the animals that had worked so hard. The moment Karem stepped out of the carriage to catch his breath, he could only marvel.
“Hooooh…”
He could not help it. The scenery north of Iceland was that astonishing. A pure white snowfield blanketed the earth from one end of the horizon to the other. Against it, the dense coniferous forests whose vigorous life force was visible even from afar formed a contrast that barely seemed real. Suddenly the scenic wonders he had only ever seen on screens in his previous life rose in his mind. Would the landscapes of Siberia or Alaska look like this if he saw them for real?
On that distant white plain where traces of civilization were almost impossible to find, a herd of enormous deer—hardly believable as deer—moved while kicking up a blizzard of their own. Yet an even more startling sight waited beyond them.
“You’ll freeze your mouth shut like that, kid.”
“No—that mountain over there. Or should I call it a mountain range?”
“Yeah. The Gogmagog Mountains. Quite the spectacle.”
“That’s our destination?”
As if he had never been the least bit mature, the present Karem could not close his mouth. His eyes held nothing but pure childlike wonder.
“Yeah.”
Ordinarily she would have needled him, but this time even she understood. As a great mage approaching sagehood, Catherine had seen a great deal—if not quite as much as Olivier—and that range naturally included countless dungeons, secret realms, and demonic lands. Even she could not help marveling at the majesty before her eyes.
Sheer cliffs of mountain ridges ran to both ends of the horizon, looking ready to swallow the snowfield and every living thing spread beneath them. Above, hundreds of large and small peaks rose irregularly like conifers, all crowned with snow, so that the whole mass resembled a winter forest made of mountains.
“So that’s one of the front lines of civilization. Afterglow Fortress. Definitely a spectacle, but…”
“What? You’re saying that entire mountain range is one fortress?”
“Huh? What?”
Catherine’s eyes went round at the absurd suggestion. Then she waved a hand with a short laugh.
“Kid, you’ve completely lost your wits.”
“No, anyone would lose their wits looking at that.”
“Well, I get it, but there’s no way that mountain range is a fortress.”
Karem turned his head in the direction Catherine pointed. In the middle, where the range dipped—the only pass through the mountains—a massive barrier that looked as if it had been carved from the range itself sealed the gap completely. Below it lay a city ringed by walls that resembled a fence, with various villages settled outside.
“That’s the fortress.”
“Oh, so that city is Afterglow Fortress?”
“No, that’s the urban district. What you’re looking at is correct. That enormous barrier completely sealing the middle of the ridge—that’s the fortress, or so I heard. Damn, what an ignorant fortress.”
Karem agreed and scratched his head. He had picked up bits and pieces about the purpose of Afterglow Fortress. The Seophon Kingdom was an island surrounded by sea on all sides. But the stretch of sea between it and the northern continent was extremely shallow. Through it came powerful monsters and beasts that had survived in environments where ancient and barbaric mysteries still breathed. The fortress existed to hold back such threats to civilization… yet…
“Even so, who’d think of completely blocking a ridge with a wall that huge?”
“I hear that too is a relic from the Mythic Age.”
“How on earth did they even build it…”
“Apparently an Ascendant who received a revelation dragged wild giants and ice trolls over and finished the job.”
…What? Ascendant meant Tutatis, right? But trolls? Giants? Whatever the difference from the giants he had heard of in his previous life, the man had used monsters as laborers?
“I don’t think even the temples ever said Lord Tutatis knew how to tame monsters.”
“He’s an ignorant war god through and through, so how he did it is obvious.”
“…He beat them until they listened?”
What the hell kind of explanation was that?
Just then Gordon, bored enough to be hauling grain sacks for the snow runners himself, cut in.
“Ah, I heard that from a combat priest who’s from around here too. It’s written in the scriptures, so for now it’s accepted as the official account.”
“…Does that even make sense?”
“Who knows?”
Gordon shrugged while still holding the sack.
“Anyway, the locals love it—say it’s bold and clear-cut and just like our war god, and that it’s a true story.”
“…Ha?”
Karem was too dumbfounded to continue, but Gordon took it in stride, turned, and walked back toward the snow runners to finish the job. Karem’s face twisted of its own accord as he absently pressed a finger to his brow. Was his previous life’s memory still too strong, leaving him short on Europa sensibilities?
“Well, the elves of Berseingeto often employ spirits for construction or pay wild fairies to handle simple tasks, so think of it as something in that vein.”
“Is that really something people accept like that?”
“If it’s a form of monster taming, sure.”
Catherine shrugged, though her expression remained dubious.
“But bare fists, no magic or anything. Well, it was the Mythic Age—maybe some details got lost.”
“Or it could be a true story exactly as it stands?”
“Well, if you ever get a chance to meet him, ask.”
“What?”
“He did descend in person last year, after al—wait, again?”
Catherine, scanning the surroundings, snapped irritably.
“Diagonal right! Undead monsters from wild animals appearing!”
At the shout the noisy column fell quiet for a moment, then grew noisy in an entirely different way as the escorts who had been enjoying their last rest before arrival grumbled and prepared for battle.
“Well? You going to watch at least?”
“Of course. Undead from wild animals—that’s a first for me.”
“Not common, but not exactly rare either. Still…”
Catherine narrowed her eyes at the zombie wild boar lumbering closer with its side torn open. As expected, there was no sign of decay at all.
“Something is definitely going on. Unlike the beginning, the numbers and frequency have dropped a little, but…”
No—had she misread it? She tilted her head watching the zombie boar get utterly smashed.
“Great. Since we have time to kill, let’s have a sparring match.”
“This crazy—”
“We’ll only spar on the journey. Hup!”
“I don’t even have a weap— Whoaaooooh!?”
It had not been a mistake.
After they entered the highland region, encounters with unseasonal undead grew more and more frequent, yet as they neared their destination the frequency fell again. Once Afterglow Fortress drew close, the reason became obvious soon enough.
“Undead in autumn. What a windfall this is! Hah!”
“I was going to take it easy because of Memorial Day, but at this rate I might as well make some pocket money!”
“Thief! Thief! Give me back my hand bone!!!”
“That’ll gather every undead in the neighborhood… that procession is…?”
Conversations filtered through the carriage walls. Having listened this far to adventurers and mercenaries who had set out to earn a little pocket money for Memorial Day and ended up making a big score, Karem felt conflicted.
“Out-of-season undead. I thought it was serious.”
“It is serious. Undead never appeared in autumn until now.”
“But the people so far don’t seem to think so?”
“For adventurers and mercenaries, money is more urgent.”
Catherine spoke without lifting her eyes from the book she was reading, turning a page.
“Besides, winter—the off-season—is coming soon, and there’s a festival too.”
“Ah, Memorial Day, you said. Right now.”
“It’s the tail end, but precisely because of that—”
“There are people trying to make one last big haul?”
Whether she was absorbed in her book or not, Catherine merely nodded in silence even while Mary tidied her hair.
“Well, there are always people who slack off then scramble in a panic.”
The busiest times for games, festivals, and events are the beginning and the end. People determined to enter first, and people who grow anxious with the finish line in sight, exist anytime, anywhere. Moreover, winter was only a few months away. Anyone would think of working hard for whatever reason so they could pass the winter a little more comfortably.
Whoa— whoa—!
Neigh! Squeeeeak—
The cries of horses and snow runners rose. Along with the driver’s attempts to soothe them, the carriage suddenly stopped.
“Finally arrived?”
“Seems so.”
Thump thump thump—
Someone knocked on the carriage wall. Gordon’s voice, escorting outside, came through.
“Whew, it’s pretty chilly once we’re here. Mage-nim. You’ll need to come out.”
“What’s the matter?”
“They’re stopping us, saying they need to see the orders personally for identity verification. What should we do?”
“Wait a moment.”
Only then did Catherine close her book, and Mary began setting her disheveled attire to rights.
“Even with this many escorts, they’re still checking?”
“Well, they must want to do the minimum identity verification.”
“Like when you showed the appointment letter to the gatekeepers or knights last year?”
“Yeah.”
When Catherine jerked her chin, Mary immediately opened the window. Piercing cold air flooded the interior!
“Hieeeek!”
“Junior Karem. Please bear with it a little.”