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The northern front is eerily quiet. The icy chill penetrates deep into the bones, while curtains of cold hang over everything. Every drop of sweat and tear, even the pooled blood, freezes in this desolate expanse.

Sitting in the barracks, the Deputy Captain gazed at the overcast sky, clouded like a blanket of gloom.

“……”

It’s hard to say that the current situation is anything but grim. It’s not some grand strategic overview worthy of the headquarters, but rather the stark reality of our predicament.

The north boasts a massive defense line, erected amidst its naturally fortified landscape, serving as a bastion against the marauding demonkin and those absurd monsters from the frozen ground.

The royal family has spared no effort to prevent the march of monsters and demons, evidenced by the multitude of military facilities scattered across the northern regions.

From the days when the Great One reigned over the world to the time when the Empress split the cults. The north, steeped in a history as rich as the Empire itself, is cluttered with facilities built in different eras all for a singular purpose. Thus, holding back the demonkin from descending south isn’t an overwhelmingly daunting task.

The Empire has withstood difficulties thus far and will continue to do so.

However, what the Deputy Captain worried about was something much more localized and micro-level.

“Deputy Captain.”

“What?”

“When’s our supply coming?”

“……”

—

**Episode 11 – No Issues on the Northern Front**

Supplies have been cut off.

To be precise, they haven’t arrived since about ten days ago.

The cold seeping from the frozen land has frozen roads and railways solid, and the sheer frost has routinely delayed supply deliveries. Because of this, units performing duties along the treacherous northern mountain ranges have swiftly become isolated.

Of course, the Imperial Army isn’t made up of fools.

The headquarters immediately issued orders to redeploy the troops to the next defense line, and a significant number of units relocated to areas with stable supply lines.

In other words, some units stayed behind in their original positions.

The reconnaissance unit charged with surveillance duties has also stayed put.

The Deputy Captain of the reconnaissance unit stepped outside for a moment, firmly pressing down on his water bottle while trying to reassure the senior soldier.

“Hang in there a bit longer. We’ve made it this far, right? Just hold out for one more week, and the shift will come around.”

Despite the Deputy Captain’s encouragement, the senior soldier refused to budge. He pointed at the camouflaged tent, his hands red and cracking from the cold wind.

“Everyone’s gone over a week without proper food or washing. Over half have caught colds and can’t even move. Plus, the kids who went out to monitor the demonkin are frostbitten!”

“……”

“If something really happens to them….”

“…Alright. I’ll try to contact headquarters.”

Though he said that, there wasn’t any brilliant plan from the headquarters either. They were looking for ways to supply us today, and all we could do was repeat the order to continue the surveillance mission from our current position.

Still, if we could just wait for a week, another squad would come to replace us, so the Deputy Captain did his best to keep around twenty remaining squad members holding on.

But the winds were not in their favor.

“What do you mean we can’t switch out?”

—”The second platoon that was supposed to exchange with you got hit all at once! There’s an epidemic spreading, and it’s chaos here. Platoon Leader Geumma is on the verge of death!”

The second platoon, set for surveillance, had contracted an epidemic and were quarantined at the military hospital. The situation was quite similar for the other platoons as well.

“What about the third platoon? They’ve had some time to rest, right? They can switch with us, can’t they?”

—”That one’s a mess too. Someone who was using magic in the support unit got frostbite on their hand and had to be sent to the medical unit—they had to amputate the wrist.”

“…What? How can a magician do magic without a hand?”

—”That’s the problem! There was only one magician in the third platoon, and now they’re out of commission. I barely managed to calm down the ruckus when they were ready to hunt down the doctor who did the amputation.”

As two out of the few reconnaissance squads remaining in the division crumbled, the division extended the mission period for the active reconnaissance crews. Any mention of when they would finally swap out was now nonexistent.

In the end, the headquarters, feeling sorry for the situation, sent a magician to supply combat rations and magic batteries for the radio, but when the magician, who was soaring through the skies, got caught by airborne enemies, that line was cut too.

Thus, the reconnaissance unit left in the Naroda Mountains fought against the cold, disease, and hunger for over a month. They had to keep watch for the demonkin and monsters that could emerge from the dense coniferous forest at any moment.

The Deputy Captain took command of the squad in place of the recently deceased squad leader. The squad, which had barely maintained around twenty members, was now down to just ten soldiers.

Three days turned into a week, and as this week became two, the squad members began to show signs of fatigue.

Amid the endless waiting, the reconnaissance unit received an unexpected piece of good news.

“…Deputy Captain! Deputy Captain!”

Embracing his water bottle tightly, while dozing off in the freezing cold, the Deputy Captain heard a soldier’s voice pierce through his slumber.

His fingertips had turned so blue they were nearly purple, yet he barely managed to open his eyes and scan his surroundings. A muffled voice slipped from his cracked lips.

“……What is it? Is the supply coming today…?”

“No! That’s not it! A magician has arrived!”

“…A magician?”

The reconnaissance soldier, whose face was wrapped up like Van Gogh, pointed below while rambling. After being holed up in the mountains for over a month, his speech lacked coherence, but it was enough to get the general idea.

The Deputy Captain, upon receiving the report from the reconnaissance soldier, led the remaining members outside the tent. There, he encountered the magician who arrived with a messenger from headquarters.

With fiery red hair and piercing blue eyes, her pristine coat and tidy attire made her look more like a tourist than a magician—especially since she wasn’t wearing a cape. However, the messenger swore that she was indeed a magician.

Of course, there was another woman with no apparent ties, but the Deputy Captain’s entire focus was on the magician.

After all, we all know how unique magicians can be; even when five people gather, there’s bound to be one oddball among them, so in a society of eccentric magicians, her attire was hardly out of place.

Naturally, there was only one magician amongst the group, and though she looked hardly over twenty, age mattered little when it came to magicians; as long as you had skills and talent, you could accomplish anything in their world. After all, the noble Duke of the North that the Empire’s magicians admired had strolled the battlefield in his twenties. This was common knowledge for anyone raised in the Empire.

Thus, the Deputy Captain felt a glimmer of hope at the sight of the woman before him.

“Your loyalty! It’s a pleasure to meet you. I am Deputy Captain Alexei, acting leader of the 1st squad of the 50th Rifle Division’s reconnaissance unit. Welcome, Miss Magician.”

The woman spoke fluent Kienian.

“Nice to meet you!”

“…Um, Miss Magician, which unit did you come from?”

“Me? Hmm… I don’t belong to any unit, actually.”

“…Huh?”

“I’m not a soldier!”

She grinned, but the Deputy Captain looked at the magician with a bewildered expression.

“…You’re not a soldier? You didn’t come from a division or legion?”

“I came from abroad!”

“…….”

The Deputy Captain gazed at the magician with a noticeably disappointed expression. He’d hoped she was sent to support the reconnaissance unit from headquarters but found out she was merely a filler.

His conflicted feelings simmered in the Deputy Captain’s gaze as he looked at the magician who had come with the messenger. She started distributing supplies pulled from artifacts to the reconnaissance unit. It was an abyssal-storage-magic artifact.

Suddenly, it struck him—are we really pulling in even such young ones to the battlefield?

Yet the Deputy Captain did his best to conceal his dismay.

“Excuse me, but there’s probably not much for you to do here.”

Though it was kind of them to bring supplies, that was about the extent of it. The reconnaissance unit’s mission was to keep watch for the demonkin and monsters that would emerge from the treacherous Naroda Mountains, and in the worst-case scenario, they would have to engage directly in battle.

Even well-trained combat magicians had perished in the Naroda Mountains, so a magician without military training or even combat gear wouldn’t be able to endure.

At least, that’s what the Deputy Captain believed.

“Supporting our reconnaissance mission won’t be enough with just one or two magicians. We’d need magicians from the legion or division, at the very least. Plus, you’re not even a soldier, right?”

Hearing the Deputy Captain’s concerned response, the magician smiled brightly and opened her mouth.

“Oh, I’m not here to support military operations.”

“What? Then why did you come?”

“I have my own job to do!”

The magician pointed a pristine finger somewhere. The gazes of the Deputy Captain and the reconnaissance members followed her lead.

At the end of that finger was the dense coniferous forest that had become a source of annoyance.

Camila beamed a smile.

“I’m going to burn that down.”

—

*

– Whoosh~!

Flames flicker to life. The fire leaps from fallen leaves to trees, and the blaze that consumes wood jumps to the branches…

The flames spread sideways.

The flames licking at the trees soon engulfed many of them, ultimately showcasing their might by consuming the entire forest.

The fire devouring the Coniferous Forest surged northward like a starving monster seeking food.

“Wow…!”

The Empire Army faced off against the Demonic Beasts and Monsters. However, the greatest enemy in the northern military region was not the biting cold creeping in from the frozen land, nor the cursed Demonic Beasts or monsters.

The true enemy of the north was the forest itself.

The ever-green, dense Coniferous Forest served as a source allowing the Demonic Army to move secretly, and it provided a hiding place for monsters to evade the pursuit of magicians and adventurers. The monsters hiding in the forest bred and multiplied, ambushing people, while the Demonic Army exploited the gaps in the watchful eyes to strike at supply lines and command centers down south.

Thus, the north’s greatest enemy was not Demonic Beasts or monsters, but the forest itself.

And now that very forest was ablaze.

The flames consuming the Coniferous Forest began to leap to the entire mountain range. Despite the cold of the biting winter winds, the flames continued their relentless march northward without a moment’s hesitation.

As the blaze soared higher, everything in the forest was consumed. Injured monsters hidden among the rocks, the young monsters gnawing at the human flesh their mothers had brought them from their lairs, and even the mines laid by the engineering corps meant to eliminate the Demonic Beasts and monsters.

-KABOOM!

Just then, a massive explosion erupted in the heart of the forest. A mine laid by the Imperial Engineering Corps couldn’t withstand the heat and blew up. Judging from the huge ice shards scattering around with the eruption, it appeared to be the newly developed “storm mine” created by the Ministry of Defense of Abas a few years back.

Watching the rapidly spreading flames, I couldn’t help but smile pleasanly.

“Indeed, it’s you, Camila. The performance is reliable.”

Right after arriving in the north, the commanders of the Military Government Headquarters casually asked me about Camila’s abilities after watching footage of the No Man’s Land operation conducted by the Ministry of Defense of Abas months ago.

Having gathered an understanding of the situation in the north from the materials of the Royal Intelligence Department and the Military Intelligence Agency, as well as through meetings with the Imperial military, I realized what those folks were really after.

The greatest enemy in the north was not the Demonic Army or monsters, but the forest itself. Even if we seized the Observation Height (a high terrain utilized to observe enemy activities), efficient surveillance remained impossible due to the damn forest, so the Empire Army in the north had been desperately trying to clear the Coniferous Forest.

However, burning the frozen forest was no easy task. Additionally, this place was where the biting cold winds howled.

Furthermore, the high concentration of magic power seeping from the Rift had turned the northern Coniferous Forest into something as tough as ironclad pine trees, making it nearly impossible to clear the area with regular magic or artillery.

I had considered using herbicides like armies do against the Eastern Elves, but if hit by flying Demonic Beast lurking in the cliff gaps, even a skilled Combat Magician would be torn to shreds in an instant.

In other words, it was almost impossible to eliminate the northern Coniferous Forest through routine means.

Unless, of course, it were an exceptional case.

“That’s why people need to learn. How great would it be if you could use magic? Job placements would be better, and long-term service would be secure.”

“But Colonel, you can’t use magic, right?”

“Pippin, do you want to end your military career as a Captain?”

“I apologize.”

I glanced around at the Coniferous Forest that Camila was burning. The forest had started to blaze in the morning and was still roaring into flames as lunch was coming to an end.

One monster trying to smother the flames by rolling in the snow was shredded by the firepower of the Empire Army. As the turret of an armored vehicle belched fire, the machine gun began to fire, sending a mix of reddish-purple meat flying in all directions. The ear-splitting screams were the icing on the cake.

Making a grimace at the noisy gunfire, I noticed Pippin, dressed in civilian clothes, rushing toward me across the snowfield to report.

“Earlier during lunch, the division reported to the Military Government Headquarters. They said that while it’s only a tiny part of the Nalloda Mountains, they cleared the mountainside much earlier than planned.”

“What did the Military Government Headquarters say?”

“They were really pleased.”

The Military Government Headquarters was astonished at Camila’s achievements. With the Empire Army’s pride, the Division’s Combat Magicians and Artillery Brigade couldn’t even clear the forest, yet she did it alone.

This was undoubtedly an encouraging outcome. The removal of the forest, which served as a route for Demonic Beasts and Monsters to infiltrate, was a long-held wish of the Military Government Headquarters.

“They must be thrilled that a dilemma they’ve struggled with for years got solved on its own.”

“That’s right. But seriously, is it even possible? Burning down the northern Coniferous Forest all by yourself?”

“What’s so impossible about that?”

“It’s because the forest has become extremely solid due to the high concentration of magic. It’s said that after nearly a century of erosion from the rift, chopping it wouldn’t even leave a scratch on the surface… Isn’t that, in a way, mystical? Like sandstorms that blow for months, the enormous forests eating away the vicinity, or the Magic Towers floating in the sky.”

“And?”

“But it burns so easily?!”

I shrugged my shoulders.

“How would I know? Plus, Camila is a Hero.”

“…I see your point.”

All theories about Heroes, creatures from another world, haven’t been firmly established even in our highly advanced modern society.

This is partly due to the lack of specimens and the generally uncooperative nature of the subjects under study.

What kind of madman would nod agreeably when a scientist and a magician he’s never met before claim they want to study him? Personally, I can’t even imagine that happening. And the influx of elements from the external world, such as diseases, food, knowledge, ideas, culture, and religion, could have negative impacts, just like the localized Nazism and communism spreading from the Magic Towers.

While Abas and the Magic Tower were pouring PhD-level resources into studying Camila’s abilities, that was just the early stage of their efforts.

Thus, there was no way to explain how Camila could burn down the Coniferous Forest—a problem that had remained unresolved for over a century—other than simply saying, “It’s because Camila is special.”

Fortunately, Pippin’s question didn’t carry that rational, logical undertone. He was genuinely surprised and asked out of pure curiosity.

After all, he was a humanities type.

Humanities students don’t think. Thinking is entirely the realm of science. The most a humanities student can ponder is whether to start a chicken shop or a convenience store after retirement.

“How’s Camila doing? Is she doing alright?”

“Yes, there don’t seem to be any major issues.”

“And what about the search party that was supposed to be here? Have they discovered anything?”

“They said they haven’t received supplies in over a month. They looked utterly ragged.”

“Supplies have been cut off?”

Pippin nodded. According to the analysts, the situation was as follows.

Due to the abnormal cold wave, all road networks in the north had been paralyzed. In fact, it wouldn’t be incorrect to say that the entire north was incapacitated, but the most severely hit was the transportation network.

Thus, the Military Government Headquarters ordered the divisions and legions operating in the north to draw most of their forces back to the secondary defense line. The only places with seemingly operable transportation routes.

The problem was that several units designed to detect enemy intrusions could not retreat back. The northern legions and divisions kept their search and reconnaissance units in place, and due to the already rough terrain, the areas with unstable supply lines were completely blocked by heavy snowfalls.

“And that’s why they hadn’t received supplies. The division wasn’t entirely inactive, having sent some mages multiple times to try and supply them, but they got thwarted by the flying Demonic Beasts, so that route was cut off too.”

However, that was now in the past.

Determined to sustain the supply lines for Camila as she organized the Nalloda Mountains, the Military Government Headquarters decided they would find any means necessary to restore the supply lines. After all, if word got out that Camila was shivering from the cold without supplies or going hungry, the image of the Empire military would plummet for sure.

Just then, the means to accomplish this arrived at a most opportune time.

While crossing the snowy path, I focused on the sound coming from the radio attached to my waist. It was Jake.

-“Manager, can you hear me?”

“Yeah, Jake. What’s up?”

-“The Golems are currently restoring the railway. We’re short on materials, so we can’t restore the entire northern railway, but we can at least fix one line with what we have right now.”

“Got it. Any news from Charnoy?”

-“Nope.”

“Thanks for your hard work. See you later.”

I ended the call and looked up at the sky.

With the wind carrying the warm air from the burning forest, I felt pleasantly refreshed.

“I love the smell of burning wood in the morning.”

“What?”

“Never mind. Let’s go.”

It was a perfect day for work.

 

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