“Are you the Raven Knight Order that came to investigate?”

The Marquis of the Frontier, wearing round glasses, had dark shadows under her eyes. In her hand, she held documents that were not fully processed yet, and the part she held was tattered, indicating she had read quite a bit. It was a stark contrast to other high-ranking nobles who leisurely managed their territories in the Royal Capital or peaceful regions.

“You’ve come a long way. There’s no urgent matter at the moment, so I’ll give you ample time to settle in and reorganize at your accommodations today. And…”

Camilla folded the documents and put them in her chest pocket, then let out a long sigh.

“Damn it. Anyway, wait here for a bit. I should at least personally explain what’s happening and what kind of place this is.”

After finishing her words, Camilla returned to her residence. As the door closed behind her back, Paola let out an amused chuckle.

“When I saw her last time, she was the former Marquis’ young daughter with bright blue eyes.”
“You know each other?”

When Roberto asked, Paola shrugged his shoulders.

“Even back then, she had pretty good instincts. Although her speech was rough. Her self-sacrificing charge into the front lines was impressive. Seeing her now, it seems she’s doing well.”

Camilla soon reappeared, opening the door of her residence. Her glasses when she first appeared were off, perhaps used for reading documents. She put her hands on her hips and looked at the Raven Knight Order.

“The royal family sent some capable people. Honestly, I had my doubts… Is the Commander the renowned Theodora Bening of the Snowy Lands?”

Camilla asked, facing Theodora. As always, Theodora responded in a calm voice.

“Yes. It’s an honor to be recognized.”
“If I couldn’t recognize you, my eyes would be worse than knotholes.”

Camilla patted Theodora’s shoulder.

“You’ve been through a lot in the north, and now that you’re trying to rest in the central region, they sent you here. You must be going through quite an ordeal.”

She then noticed Paola standing beyond Theodora. She grinned, revealing her teeth.

“There seems to be a familiar face. Didn’t you come here 15 years ago as part of the reinforcements defending this place? If my memory serves me right, you were a soldier back then, but now you’re a knight.”

Roberto looked at Paola with wide eyes. Christine and Maxim also glanced at Paola with surprised expressions. Aware of the attention on him, Paola shrugged his shoulders awkwardly.

“It’s an honor to be remembered.”

Paola displayed that foolish grin.

“I was just a young knight back then, but now you’ve become a splendid lord.”
“I can’t help but remember a comrade, especially one who showed great valor. Thank you for making the long journey to protect this land again.”

Having finished the greetings, Camilla stepped forward.

“Let’s go to the city walls for now. It’ll be faster to explain while seeing the overall situation.”

Camilla started walking towards the direction of the city walls. Even in her casual gait, there was no gap. It was the unique presence of someone always prepared for battle. The citizens working didn’t pay much attention even as she passed by. Some occasionally glanced at them, but most focused on their main work, treating it as a common occurrence.

“I need to give you an explanation about the uninhabited zone.”

The city walls, which seemed much taller up close than from afar, were rugged with protruding shadows on the stones. Usually, moss would grow on such rocks, but strangely, the stones were dry and sturdy as if they had just been brought from a quarry. With regretful eyes, Camilla looked at the elevator installed on the city wall, then turned her steps towards the stairs.

“Normally, we would use the elevator, but… since there are many people now, please bear with it.”

She began her story about the uninhabited zone as she climbed the stairs.

“The uninhabited zone is literally an uninhabited zone. It’s a term used to refer to a space where humans cannot exist. It’s a wilderness where only monsters that prey on each other thrive. There’s no hierarchy among the monsters there. They just charge at anything that moves to devour it.”

The sound of the knight order’s footsteps climbing the stairs could be heard. Maxim listened attentively to Camilla’s words as she climbed the stairs without hesitation.

“No one knows when, why, or how the uninhabited zone came. We don’t know what lies beyond it or how vast it is. To find that out, we might have to go back much further than the history of the Riant Kingdom or even the empire.”

As they climbed the stairs, the sounds from the top of the city walls became clearer. Maxim could hear the sound of soldiers hurriedly crossing the city walls, someone shouting and urging them on, and the clanging of weapons colliding.

“Beyond there lies a land even more barren than the wilderness you’ve passed through. And the job of the soldiers and knights of this territory is to kill the monsters crawling up the cliff at the end.”

Camilla tapped the city wall with the palm of her hand.

“This city wall is literally the last line of defense. We’re currently dealing with hordes of monsters that cross over at least once an hour, day and night, without distinction. Sometimes, we open the gates and go out for direct subjugation.”

The end of the stairs came into view. The sky, which came back into sight, had reached the very end of twilight, and the land was beginning to darken. Torches were hurriedly passing by.

“Well, we’re here. Feel the rest for yourself.”

Maxim could see the sight of the front lines on the city walls that stretched endlessly to the left and right. The scene he had imagined was a relentless battlefield with hordes of monsters and the desperate response to them. Still, the top of the city walls was more relaxed than he thought. However, upon seeing the expression of a soldier walking with a torch and breaking out in a cold sweat, Maxim changed his mind.

It was wrong to say it was relaxed.

A tense atmosphere, not quite taut, filled the top of the city walls. It was close to a mood of unease. It was like watching a lion trapped in a cage. The cage was intact for now, but it was destined to break someday, with a lion trapped inside. Everyone, regardless of being a knight, commander, or soldier, was guarding the city walls under the suffocating tension.

“…The atmosphere is quite different from when I came here 15 years ago.”

Paola muttered. He must have also grasped the current atmosphere on the city walls. Camilla replied in response to his words.

“It’s similar in terms of being an abnormal phenomenon, but the essence is vastly different. The monster attacks have increased if anything, but they’ve never suddenly decreased like this before.”

She approached the edge of the city wall. Maxim and the knights followed her to see the view of the uninhabited zone that would be spread out beyond the city wall.

What unfolded there was a wilderness brimming with ominousness.

It was broad and untamed.

On a different dimension from the scenery of the path the Raven Knight Order had passed, an eerie atmosphere could be felt emanating from the ground. On the land where not a single tree or blade of grass could be found, all that could be seen were the corpses of monsters and another monster approaching to feast on those corpses. It was a hellhound panting on all fours.

“Are you deliberately leaving that hellhound alone?”

One of the Raven Knight Order members abruptly asked.

“That’s right. It’s better to just leave one or two wandering around like that. If we shoot and kill them without reason, other monsters will pop out from somewhere, attracted by the smell of blood, and then they’ll start fighting and eating each other, quickly turning into a mess.”

Maxim could easily imagine that scene.

“Especially when it’s strangely quiet like now, we need to be even more… much more careful. Doing something unnecessary that doesn’t need to be done is the most discouraged behavior on the front lines… I’m already busy as is.”

The hellhound looked around cautiously, then began tearing at the corpse in a hurry. Behind it, a giant mantis was approaching. The hellhound, unaware of what was coming from behind, focused solely on tearing the corpse in front of it.

And then, poof.

The mantis’ scythe penetrated the hellhound’s abdomen, and the two monsters began a life-or-death struggle.

“Aside from subjugation in conjunction with patrols, we refrain from deliberately seeking out and killing monsters. There’s no need to throw more variables into a battlefield already full of variables piled upon variables.”

Camilla looked at the scenery beyond the city wall with a displeased expression. The hellhound tore off one of the mantis’ arms. Still, the mantis didn’t let go of its remaining arm that had penetrated the hellhound’s abdomen.

“That’s why we need to find out quickly what this signifies.”
“Is it really possible that it has become quiet beyond there…”

The member who had asked the question asked again, but Camilla shook her head decisively.

“No. With all my titles and honor, I can assert that there isn’t.”

The twilight gloom disappeared and became dark enough to be called night. The darkness of the wilderness slowly crept in as if suddenly swallowing the world. Only the torches and the narrow spaces illuminated by them were all that Maxim could perceive with the naked eye. Beyond the city wall, only the sound of monsters tearing flesh could be heard. There was no time to discern whether it was the hellhound or the mantis. Perhaps it was both.

“Do you roughly understand now?”

The members of the Raven Knight Order thought that the investigation of the uninhabited zone would take a much more desperate and less romantic form than they had imagined.

==

The late night at the frontier, the liveliness of the day and afternoon disappeared as if it had been a lie, and the streets were empty. It seemed as if the joyful play from a few hours ago was the true appearance of this frontier, and the current state after the curtain had fallen was like a stage.

Going up those quiet streets was a two-story building that no one would consider Camilla’s residence. It was where the Marquis of the Frontier stayed.

The rest of the servants had left for the day except for one on duty. However, the space she used as her office still had the lights on.

Marquis of the Frontier, Camilla Faye, was sunk into the sofa with a slowly burning pipe in one hand. Sitting across from her was the Commander of the Raven Knight Order, Theodora Bening.

“Care for a drink?”

Camilla held up a glass. The cheap wine swirled. Camilla preferred inexpensive and sweet wine, claiming that expensive alcohol didn’t suit her palate. Theodora pushed away the glass Camilla offered and declined.

“I’ll pass.”
“You might regret it tomorrow if you don’t drink today.”
“I… have a low alcohol tolerance.”

Camilla didn’t withdraw the glass and smiled.

“I can tell that from your face. I’m just saying let’s have a drink together, forgetting that fact. As young ladies who turned away from balls and tea parties and grew up looking only at steel and swords.”
“… I’ll have just one glass.”

Theodora took the glass and took a sip as if moistening her lips. It was astringent, sweet, and bitter at the same time, and terribly strong. Theodora frowned slightly and set the glass down.

“Actually, I’ve heard a lot of rumors about the Raven Knight Order. That it’s a detention center gathering only the representative troublemakers among knights. We’ve sent a few people there too.”
“His Majesty declared a reorganization this time.”
“Yes, it was a structure that wouldn’t be surprising to be reorganized at any time. It was rather surprising that it had been neglected for so long. I don’t know what His Majesty has in mind, but,”

Camilla poured more wine into her empty glass.

“Sending the reorganized Raven Knight Order here this time, I can tell it’s to give them a definite accomplishment and then lend them strength.”
“His Majesty asked this knight order to become his sword.”

Camilla nodded.

“I don’t know what’s going on within the kingdom, but it feels like something is about to happen no matter what.”

Gulp.

Camilla took a sip of wine and set the glass down with a thud. Rather than enjoying the wine, it seemed like she was drinking fruit juice.

“Well, before that, we need to solve this damn uninhabited zone first. Even if we try to investigate, we lack personnel above the knight level, not to mention soldiers. I think you’ve come at a really good time.”

Theodora took another sip of the astringent wine that had a strange addictiveness. The taste was still lacking.

“Do you have any speculations?”
“Of course. I can immediately come up with three worst-case scenarios, but well.”

Camilla inhaled deeply from the pipe. Smoke rose in wisps.

“The investigation will be quite difficult. I’m sorry, but you’ll have to bear some of the burden with me.”
“By all means, I don’t mind.”

Theodora took another sip of wine.

Because the words she was about to say to Camilla seemed to require a little boost from alcohol.

“There’s a favor I’d like to ask.”
“Say whatever you want. As long as it’s not nagging me to have a romantic relationship.”

At that joke, Theodora could smile very slightly. But soon, she tightened her lips and began to speak.

“In our knight order, there are still two people who were active in the previous Raven Knight Order.”

Camilla blinked.

“That’s unexpected. I guess they had skills worth keeping?”
“Yes, but I…”

Theodora bit her lip.

“I cannot tolerate the attitude of one of those two. Both as a knight and as someone who wields a sword.”

She also wanted to say how he treated her, but Theodora kept those words to herself.

“Is that so? I don’t like that either.”

Camilla said, removing the pipe from her mouth. Judging by the way her eyebrows twitched, she really didn’t like it.

“What should we do?”

Camilla asked, raising the corners of her mouth.

Theodora inhaled.

To somehow express these emotions to him, to Maxim. Theodora opened her mouth.

“Assign that person to the most dangerous and difficult places during the investigation.”

==

The night without stars was too dark.

Maxim, who had no idea what kind of story Theodora had told about him, was sitting in a chair by the window, facing his own reflection.

Recent events kept making him recall the past. The encounter with Emil Bordin, the conversation with Theodora, and even tomorrow’s mission.

‘I don’t want to think about it.’

Maxim looked out the window at the sky with dull, sunken golden eyes. Memories came and went regardless of his will like seawater being pulled and pushed by the moon’s gravity and repulsion. He was alone in the room. It made the sentiment deepen even more.

Maxim gave up on pushing away the memories. It was quiet. A good environment for contemplation.

He closed his eyes and began a long reminiscence.

It was a memory from three years ago.

A story from when Maxim and Theodora were still lovers, before Maxim took on the curse that gnawed at his body.