Ch.203Episode 11 – All Quiet on the Northern Front

The Northern Front is Quiet

The northern front is quiet. Bone-chilling cold and a chill that seeps into your marrow. The North is always filled with silence, where flowing sweat, tears, and even pooled blood freeze solid.

The platoon lieutenant, exhaling visible breath in the barracks, looked up at the gloomy sky that resembled dark clouds.

“…”

The current situation cannot be described as good, even as empty words. This isn’t about discussing macroscopic and complex matters like the war situation that only headquarters would know about.

The North is a massive defensive line built upon naturally advantageous terrain, a breakwater protecting the Empire from demons and monstrous creatures that vigilantly attempt to cross the frozen land.

The Imperial family spared no support to block the southward advance of demons and monsters, as evidenced by the various military facilities built throughout the North.

From the era when the Great Emperor commanded the world to the time when the Empress stood against the Church to separate the sects. The North, as old as the Empire’s history itself, had numerous facilities built in different eras for a single purpose. So defending the North—preventing demons from moving south—wasn’t particularly difficult.

The Empire has endured well so far and will continue to do so.

However, what concerned the platoon lieutenant was something far more specific and microscopic.

“Lieutenant.”

“What?”

“When are our supplies coming, sir?”

“…”

Episode 11 – All Clear on the Northern Front

The supply line had been cut.

To be precise, supplies hadn’t arrived for about ten days.

The cold pouring down from the frozen land had iced over roads and railways, and because of the completely frozen ground, supplies always failed to arrive on time. As a result, units carrying out missions along the rugged northern mountains were instantly isolated.

Of course, the Imperial Army wasn’t stupid.

Headquarters immediately ordered troops to withdraw to the next defensive line, and many units relocated to areas with stable supply lines.

Which means some units remained in their original positions.

And the reconnaissance squad assigned to surveillance duty was still holding its position.

The reconnaissance platoon lieutenant, who had briefly stepped outside, was scooping snow into his canteen while trying to comfort a veteran soldier.

“Let’s hang in there a bit longer. We’ve made it this far. Just one more week until rotation, so wait a little longer.”

Despite the lieutenant’s reassurance, the veteran soldier didn’t back down. With hands that were red, cracked, and torn from the cold wind, he pointed at the camouflaged tent.

“Sir, everyone hasn’t eaten properly or bathed for over a week. More than half are down with colds and can’t move. And the men who went out to monitor the demons coming down have frostbite too.”

“…”

“If something really happens to them…”

“…Alright. I’ll contact headquarters.”

He said that, but headquarters didn’t have any better solutions either. They just repeated that they were looking for ways to resupply and ordered the squad to continue surveillance from their current position.

Still, another squad was supposed to come relieve them in a week, so the platoon lieutenant tried to encourage his remaining twenty or so squad members to hang on somehow.

But his wish didn’t come true.

“What do you mean they can’t rotate us out?”

-“The 2nd squad that was supposed to replace you got taken away in one go! There’s an epidemic going around, and it’s chaos here. The 2nd squad leader is on his deathbed.”

The 2nd squad, which was scheduled for surveillance duty, had been quarantined in the military hospital after contracting an epidemic. Other squads were in similar situations.

“What about the 3rd squad? They’ve had some rest, so couldn’t they rotate with us?”

-“They’re in trouble too. A mage from the support team got frostbite on his hands and was sent to the medical unit, but they couldn’t treat it and amputated his wrist.”

“What? How can a mage cast spells without hands?”

-“That’s the problem! He was the only mage in the 3rd squad, and now he’s crippled. We barely stopped the 3rd squad from hunting down the medical officer who cut off his wrist.”

With two of the few remaining reconnaissance squads in the division collapsing, the division extended the mission period for the reconnaissance squads deployed in operations. There wasn’t even any mention of when they would be rotated out.

Headquarters, taking pity on their situation, sent a mage with combat rations and magical batteries for the radio, but when the flying mage was caught by flying demons and torn to pieces, even that supply line was cut off.

Thus, the reconnaissance squad left in the Naroda Mountains fought against cold, disease, and hunger for over a month. All to monitor demons and monsters that could emerge from the dense coniferous forest at any moment.

The platoon lieutenant commanded the squad in place of the squad leader who had died recently. The squad, which had maintained around twenty members, now had only about ten soldiers left.

As three days became a week, and one week became two, just when the squad members were starting to wear down…

Amidst the endless waiting while monitoring the front line, good news finally reached the reconnaissance squad.

“Lieutenant! Lieutenant!”

The voice of a soldier reached the ears of the platoon lieutenant, who was taking a short nap while hugging a canteen filled with snow.

With fingertips that had turned from blue to purple, the platoon lieutenant barely opened his eyes and looked around. A hoarse voice emerged from between his chapped lips.

“…What is it? Are supplies coming today…?”

“No, sir! That’s not it! They say a mage has arrived!”

“…A mage?”

The reconnaissance squad member, who had wrapped his face in cloth like Van Gogh, pointed downward while rambling incoherently. Having been stuck in the mountains for over a month, his speech wasn’t exactly coherent, but it was understandable enough.

After receiving the squad member’s report, the platoon lieutenant led his men outside the tent. There, they met the mage who had arrived with a messenger from headquarters.

Fiery red hair and blue eyes. A clean coat and neat clothes.

Judging by her appearance, she looked like a tourist, and honestly didn’t look like a mage at all (especially since she wasn’t wearing a cape), but the squad member who had received the news from the messenger insisted she was definitely a mage.

Of course, there was another woman whose origin was completely unknown, but right now, the platoon lieutenant’s attention was entirely focused on the mage.

Anyway, how eccentric these mages are. Even among just five people, there’s bound to be one oddball, so in the magic society full of eccentrics, such attire barely qualified as strange.

Of course, only one person had come as a mage, and it was concerning that she seemed barely over twenty, but age isn’t a particularly important factor for mages. In the world of magic, one could achieve anything with skill and talent. Even the Grand Duke of the North, admired by the Empire’s mages, had fought on battlefields in his twenties. This was a fact known to everyone born and raised in the Empire.

Thus, the platoon lieutenant also held a glimmer of expectation for the woman before him.

“Salute! Pleased to meet you. I’m Platoon Lieutenant Alexei, acting as the 1st Squad Leader of the Reconnaissance Company, 50th Infantry Division. Welcome, Mage.”

Fluent Kiyen language flowed from the woman’s mouth.

“Nice to meet you!”

“…Um, Mage. Which unit are you from?”

“Me? Hmm… I don’t have a unit.”

“…What?”

“I’m not a soldier.”

The woman smiled brightly. She was smiling, but the platoon lieutenant looked at the mage with a bewildered expression.

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

“I came from abroad!”

“…”

The platoon lieutenant looked at the mage with a clearly disappointed face. He had expected her to be a mage sent from headquarters to support the reconnaissance squad, but it turned out she wasn’t support but rather someone they were dumping on them.

With a complex mix of emotions on his face, the platoon lieutenant looked at the mage who had come with the messenger. Like the mage previously sent by headquarters, she distributed supplies from an artifact to the reconnaissance squad. It was an artifact with spatial magic.

Suddenly, he felt melancholic at the thought that they were bringing such young people to the battlefield.

But the platoon lieutenant didn’t show this outwardly.

“Excuse me, but there’s not much you can do here.”

It was grateful that she brought supplies, but that was the extent of it. The reconnaissance squad’s mission was to monitor demons and monsters crossing the rugged Naroda Mountains, and if things went wrong, they would have to engage in direct combat with them.

Even well-trained combat mages with years of experience die in the Naroda Mountains, so it would be impossible for a mage without military training or even a combat uniform to survive.

At least, that’s what the platoon lieutenant thought.

“Supporting our reconnaissance squad’s mission requires more than just one or two mages. We’d need at least corps or division mages. Besides, you’re not even a soldier, are you?”

Hearing the platoon lieutenant’s concerned response, the mage smiled gently and spoke.

“Oh, I didn’t come to support military operations.”

“What? Then why did you come?”

“I have something else to do!”

The mage extended her snow-white finger to point somewhere. The gazes of the platoon lieutenant and reconnaissance squad members followed her finger.

At the end of that finger lay the coniferous forest that they had grown sick of seeing.

Camilla smiled brightly.

“I’m going to burn that down.”

*

-Whoosh~!

Red flames flickered.

The fire started with fallen leaves and spread to trees, then from branches to adjacent trees.

The flames that spread sideways soon engulfed multiple trees, and eventually showcased their might by burning the entire forest.

The red flames consuming the coniferous forest charged northward like a hungry monster searching for food.

“Wow…!”

The Imperial Army faces demons and monsters. However, the Northern Military District’s greatest enemy is neither the bitter cold from the frozen land, nor the cursed demons, nor the monsters.

The North’s true enemy is the forest.

The evergreen coniferous forest serves as a source for demon advance parties to move stealthily and as a hiding place that conceals monsters from the pursuit of mages and adventurers. Monsters hidden in the coniferous forest breed and multiply before attacking people, while demons who exploit gaps in the surveillance network move south to strike supply lines and command posts.

That’s why the North’s greatest enemy isn’t demons or monsters, but the forest.

And now that forest is burning.

The flames consuming the coniferous forest spread with enough force to burn the entire mountain range. Despite the bitter cold and the cutting winter wind, the flames advanced northward without the slightest hesitation.

As the flames rose, everything in the forest burned. Wounded monsters hiding in rock crevices, baby monsters gnawing on human flesh brought by their mothers in nests, and mines planted by the engineering corps to kill demons and monsters.

-Boom!

Just then, a massive explosion occurred in the middle of the forest. A mine planted by the Imperial Engineering Corps had exploded, unable to withstand the heat. Judging by the huge ice fragments scattering around with the explosion, it seemed to be a “Storm Mine” newly developed by the Imperial Defense Ministry a few years ago.

I smiled with satisfaction as I watched the rapidly spreading flames.

“As expected of Camilla. Definitely effective.”

Shortly after arriving in the North, some commanders at the Military Government Command had discreetly asked me about Camilla’s abilities after seeing footage of the Avas Defense Ministry’s unmanned zone operation conducted a few months ago.

Having roughly understood the northern situation from Royal Intelligence Bureau and Military Intelligence Agency materials, as well as practical meetings with the Imperial military, I figured out what those gentlemen wanted.

The North’s greatest enemy isn’t demons or monsters, but the forest. Even if they occupy high ground for observation, proper surveillance is impossible because of the damn forest, so the Imperial Army in the North has been struggling to clear the coniferous forest.

But burning a frozen forest isn’t easy. Plus, this is a place of bitter cold.

Moreover, high-concentration magic flowing from rifts has eroded the surroundings, transforming the northern coniferous forest into something as tough as armored pine trees, making it nearly impossible to clear the forest with ordinary magic or artillery firepower.

They had considered spraying defoliants like armies fighting against Eastern elves, but if caught by flying demons hiding in cliff crevices, even the most skilled combat mage would be torn apart instantly.

In other words, removing the northern coniferous forest by ordinary means is impossible.

If it were an ordinary case, that is.

“This is why people should learn. How nice it would be to use magic. Good for employment, good for long-term military service.”

“But Major, you can’t use magic, can you?”

“Pipin. Do you want to end your military career as a captain?”

“I’m sorry.”

I looked around the coniferous forest that Camilla was burning with Pipin. The forest that had started burning in the morning was still blazing even now, after lunch.

A monster that had been rubbing itself in the snow to extinguish the flames clinging to it was torn apart by Imperial Army fire. As the tank turret spewed fire, the machine gun fired, and red-mixed purple flesh fragments scattered in all directions. The ear-splitting howl was an added bonus.

As I frowned at the loud gunfire noise, Pipin, dressed in civilian clothes, crossed the snow field and approached to begin his report.

“The division reported to the Military Government Command during lunch. Although it’s just a small part of the Naroda Mountains, they cleared the foothills much earlier than planned.”

“What did the Military Government Command say?”

“They were very pleased.”

The Military Government Command was amazed at Camilla’s achievement. She had single-handedly cleared a forest that couldn’t be cleared even with the Imperial Army’s corps and division combat mages and artillery brigades.

This was clearly an encouraging achievement. Especially since removing the forest used as an infiltration route by demons and monsters had been a long-standing wish of the Military Government Command.

“They must be thrilled since it solves a problem they’ve been worrying about. It’s been a troublesome issue for years.”

“I suppose so. But wait, is this even possible? Burning the northern coniferous forest alone?”

“What’s not possible about it?”

“It’s a forest hardened by high-concentration magic. They say the land has been eroded by rifts for almost a hundred years, and axes can’t even scratch the bark… Isn’t this a kind of mystery too? Like sandstorms that blow for months, the Eastern great forest that encroaches on its surroundings, or the magic towers floating in the sky.”

“So?”

“But it burns so easily?”

I shrugged my shoulders.

“How would I know? Besides, Camilla is a hero.”

“…Well, that’s true.”

All theories about heroes, beings from another world, aren’t properly established even in highly developed modern society.

This is partly because there are so few samples and research subjects are generally uncooperative.

What madman would nod and agree to scientists and mages from an unfamiliar neighborhood wanting to research them? Honestly, even I couldn’t do that. Moreover, diseases, food, knowledge, ideas, culture, religion, and other cultural elements imported from the outside world could have negative impacts. Like the localized Nazism and Communist ideology that spread from the Magic Tower.

Although Avas and the Magic Tower are grinding through doctoral-level personnel to research Camilla’s abilities, that’s just the beginning stage.

Therefore, there was no way to explain Camilla burning the coniferous forest that couldn’t be solved for over a hundred years other than “it’s because Camilla is special.”

Fortunately, Pipin’s question didn’t contain such rational and logical inquiries. He was just purely surprised and asking.

Because he was also a humanities major.

Humanities majors don’t think. Thinking is all in the realm of science majors. The only things humanities majors can think about are whether to open a chicken restaurant or a convenience store after retirement.

“How’s Camilla doing? Still okay?”

“Yes, no major issues.”

“What about those reconnaissance squad folks who were here? Did you find out anything?”

“They said supplies have been cut off for over a month. They’re in completely ragged condition.”

“Supplies cut off?”

Pipin nodded. According to the analyst’s explanation, the situation was as follows:

Due to the abnormal cold wave, all road transportation networks in the North were paralyzed. In fact, the entire North could be considered paralyzed, but the transportation network was hit particularly hard.

So the Military Government Command ordered corps and divisions operating in the North to withdraw most of their troops to the second defensive line. To areas where the transportation network was still functioning and supplies were possible.

The problem was that some units detecting enemy infiltration couldn’t move to the rear. The northern corps and divisions kept reconnaissance and patrol units in their original positions, and supply routes in already rugged terrain were completely blocked by heavy snowfall.

“So they couldn’t receive supplies. The division didn’t completely give up and tried to send mages with supplies several times, but even that route was blocked when the mages were caught by flying demons.”

Of course, this is now old news.

For Camilla, who was working at the front line clearing the Naroda Mountains, the Military Government Command decided to revive the supply line by any means necessary. If word got out to the press that Camilla was shivering in the cold without supplies and starving without food, the Imperial military’s image would definitely plummet.

Opportunely, those means and methods arrived at just the right time.

As I walked through the snow, 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 repairing the railway now. We don’t have enough materials to restore the entire northern railway, but we can at least restore one line with what we have now.”

“Got it. Nothing from Charnoi?”

-“No.”

“Good work. See you later.”

I ended the communication and looked up at the sky.

A pleasantly warm breeze carrying the heat from the burning forest was blowing gently.

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

“Excuse me?”

“Nothing. Let’s go.”

It was perfect weather for work.