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Volume 2 Prologue Part 1

PROLOGUE

A thick fog was hanging in the forest where dusk was soon approaching. A Lord cautiously advanced with his horse along a narrow road that weaves through the trees.

The man’s name is Elmer Zeels. When he turned 20 last year, he was handed the title of Baron by his father and joined the prestigious order of the heavy knights of Waldrind, where he immediately led a unit and was allowed to participate in the council of war.

And yet, even though he managed to reach the rank of Baron, he himself had no territories to speak of. And even better, he did not even had a contracted Mage serving under him.

Back in Waldrind, which was his homeland, the heavy knights are not paid according to the territories that they possess, but according to their titles that they hold. Therefore, he took up residence in the castle town of the capital and was always ready for battle. Under the 「Dragoon」 banner inherited by the Kraische family, heavy knights of Waldrind have become the strongest knight formation on the continent and have trampled all enemies who dared to oppose them and the Kraische family.

And yet, despite all of that, the heavy knights of Waldrind suffered a crushing defeat the other day. In addition, the other party that they have lost to was a young man named Theo Cornero, who was a wandering Lord until recently, with a peerage that was less than that of a Viscount.

Of course, they were not defeated by the young man alone. The army of Vilar Constance, the Earl of Artuk who was thought that he would not be coming to his rescue, suddenly appeared on the battlefield when the battle was nearing its end.

As it turned out, the entire siege of Theo Cornero’s stronghold was framed by Vilar Constance and his machinations.
At the war council, Elmer was the knight who was insisting that the Earl of Artuk will not be coming to Theo Cornero’s aid, and that they should focus their entire army to siege Theo Cornero’s castle and end the battle as soon as possible.

Now that he thought about it, if Elmer’s suggestion, Marine Kraische, the current head of the Kraische family would have been taken prisoner or killed when Vilar and his men raided her camp his main force. However, due to the advice of Aubest Meletes, Marine Kraische’s contracted Mage, it was decided to leave about 100 knights to guard Marine. The worst possible outcome to this situation has been avoided because of the hard work of those 100 soldiers who swore to protect Lady Marine to their last breath. However, many of them died in battle.

By the time Elmer, who had been in command of the front lines, returned to assist his main force, Artuk’s forces had already withdrawn. With this defeat, the heavy knights of Waldrind lost many of their comrades, influence over Selvis, and most importantly, their prestige as the soldiers of the leader of the Factory Alliance.

And now, the heavy knights of Waldrind were fleeing from the battlefield of Selvis, aiming for their homeland.

On the way, they had to pass through the territory of Ozer and Burtava. Although both countries belong to the Factory Alliance, there is currently no master-servant relationship based on the Crests between them, so when they heard the news of Waldrind’s defeat, there is always a risk of them trying to defect to the Fantasia Union. Because of that, the tempo of their march was forced and hard, and the entire formation was disordered.

In the meantime, Elmer, still stunned by the shock of defeat, inadvertently strayed from the rest of his unit. He must have taken a wrong turn somewhere, and before he knew it, he was alone, lost in a deep forest. It seems that he turned east when he should have turned north. He crossed the border and seemed to have entered Artuk’s territory by mistake.

The forests of Artuk are deep and ruled by witches, werewolves, and vampires. He has also heard that ordinary residents also lived in fortified settlements around the woods, and if any outsiders tried to invade them, they would mercilessly take their lives without a shade of remorse.

Elmer felt a chill run down his spine. He decided to check the position of the sun, which he wanted to use in order to determine his position so that he could go back north towards the allied territories, since he was still not found out by anyone here in the forest, but the woods were thick and dark, and so it was hard to see above their canopy and determine any direction.

Before long he was attacked by the feeling that he was spinning round and round in circles, and he also felt like someone was constantly watching him from behind the trees. Dusk was gradually approaching, and he could swear that he heard the howling of a beast that sounded like a wolf in the distance. At this rate, it will not be long before he will melt into the darkness and be sucked into the forest. Such anxiety was squeezing Elmer’s chest.

「Pull yourself together! You are the honorable Knight Captain of the heavy knights of Waldrind, god damn it! 」

Elmer scolded himself. Even if something did appear before him right now, all the he needed to do is to shoot that something with a heavy crossbow bolt infused with holy energy given to him through the power of the Kraische family’s Crest.

However, since he is far from his master, Marine Kraische right now, he would probably not be protected by the power of the 「Dargoon」banner. As a result, the armor he was wearing felt terribly heavy. His horse was also suffering because he hasn’t given him food or water for a long time, and the same thing was true for the other Knights from his unit. However, he was in no mood to dismount it, for as soon as he hits the ground with his feet, he felt something entangling itself around them.

Before long, the forest was engulfed in complete darkness.

Thinking he should not go any further, Elmer stopped his horse and dismounted it. He removed the water bag, pulled out the spout, opened it, and gave it all the water that was left in it. However, as soon as it finished drinking, his horse foamed at the mouth and fell down with a limp. It went into convulsions for a while, and then it stopped moving at all.

「I’m sorry…」

Elmer knelt down and prayed for the soul of his beloved horse, whom he had taken care of since he became a Knight. He sighed and rose up, taking off his armor with difficulty. Removing it by himself was tough, but he can’t walk through the woods with this heavy armor on.

As long as he has a heavy crossbow, he has nothing to fear, he convinced himself. He also had a sword on his waist.

Elmer walked away, carefully looking behind him to see if his dead horse drew the attention of any sort of beast.

How far would he have walked since then? He saw a faint light in the darkness. At first he thought it was a demonic fire, but the color of the light was reddish, so that couldn’t have been the case. It was the color of a normal fire, and there were people around it too.

He knew that he should remain vigilant, but Elmer’s thirst was nearing his limit, and his hunger and fatigue were unbearable.

He’s unarmored, so they will probably don’t recognize him as a knight of Waldrind. With a little bit of luck, they might assume the he was simply someone who was attacked by bandits while on his way back to Elam, and maybe they will even let him stay the night? Such an idea popped into Elmer’s head.

Elmer walked straight toward the light. On the way, he tripped over tree roots and fell several times, but he managed to reach his destination.

A small house stood there, alone. It was a rough structure with logs intertwined, the gaps filled with mud, and the roof thatched with bark. There was a small knock-down window through which light leaked inside.

The sense of relief at knowing that he was saved was so strong that he never even questioned why there was only one house in such a place.

Elmer knocked on the door of the house.