Marquis Bann Amaranthine is furious as he leads his men west, leaving behind the clamour of Redcliffe and the troops preparing to march out to the fort of David Lassic.

“Dammit. That damn Marquis Raeven…”

Bann could not hold back his cursing.

Amaranthine is deemed by others as having the weakest military power among the Great nobles, thus is tasked to circle around Arkland and conquer farming villages at the outskirt of Arkland. Raeven plot this strategy to wrest source of food and materials from being supplied to Lassic soldiers. 

As villages are defenceless, even the inferior Bann could defeat them. 

Thus, this war against Arkland is very important to the nobles; yet he had been given orders which has him running around on a useless errand like some lackey. What prestige is there in taking over frontier villages.

“My Lord, are you unwell? Shall I call over a doctor?”

The shrill voice at close range echoes loudly and seems to claw directly at his brain, and it even making him want to vomit. However, he overcomes it. It is fortunate that the cool air of winter helps soothe him, and that growing up in the noble household has trained him to keep up appearances.

Only a fool would reveal his inner feelings.

“No, no, pay it no heed. I was simply thinking about how to handle the task His Majesty gave me. Enough of that; Baron Buggy, didn’t you investigate the nearest village?"

"Yes, my Lord. It is a village called Oswin. Based on old survey by Denerim, it has about 200 villagers. So, it is walk in the park."

Bann's battalion had been crossing over the border to the Arkland side and is attacking every single settlement that is in its sights, although usually they didn't even have 20 villagers. Even though they attacked, it’s not like they were burning the villages and killing the villagers. They were just kicking the guards aside, burning the village chief’s  house and placing the Ferelden Kingdom’s flag.

Doing something like this was meaningless, but it seems that burning the village chief’s house in front of the villagers would lower the spirit of Arkland's citizens.

"Hmmm.... that many villagers. This Oswin looks like proper village. Finally, a meaningful task." Bann becomes a bit delighted.

"All right, we’re almost at Oswin Village now…” The captain oh the batalion reports to them.

This is the first cheerful thing which anyone had said since this morning, but Buggy clams up almost immediately.

Everyone looks at the village before their eyes. It is a rustic hamlet at the edge of the forest. There is nothing strange or unusual about it, so Buggy’s silence is a mystery.

“What’s wrong, Buggy? Is something the matter?”

“Ah, no, it’s fine. Just… I don’t recall seeing a sturdy fence like the one in front of us…”

“Really? But it looks like an ordinary fence. Actually, it’s kind of shabby for a frontier village fence, right? It wouldn’t be a surprise that a village at the edge of the forest would have a sturdy fence to protect against beasts, right?”

“Hm — you might be right… but Oswin is still a small village, so they’ve never put up a fence before…”

Everyone looks to the village. The village is surrounded by a fence as far as they could see, and the fence is made of logs which were resilient to cutting.

“How strange… did something happen…?" Buggy ponders loudly.

It should be fine. Then, let’s move on… shall we?”

Bann looks expectantly to Buggy and the captain, and they both reply in the affirmative.

The road narrowed as they go on, so they have to form up into a column as they approach the village’s entrance.

The wheat fields on either side of the road are a brilliant emerald, waving gently in the wind. The invaders look as though they are submerged in a pool of green water.

“Hm?”

The wagon advances with a clattering noise. Behind it, the captain makes a noise of suspicion and studies the wheat fields closely. It is not yet time for the harvest, but the stalks are over seventy centimeters high, and they are as impenetrable as the ocean’s depths.

“What’s wrong?” Buggy asks from inside of carriage.

“Hm? Oh, nothing, maybe I was thinking too much…”

Captain tilts his head in bafflement, then quickens his pace, drawing closer to the front.

Captain orders reconnaissance team consist of four soldiers to enter into the wheat field. The go further away from the main army.

The leader of reconnaissance team looks at a direction, and then opens up his steps once he makes sure there are no other movements.

The wheat fields spill over onto the road that lead to the village, like the sea swallowing up the land. They want to cut down the stalks to ensure stable footing, but if they do that, problems would result in the future.

“I hope the villagers can tend their fields properly. This seems terribly wasteful.”

The leader walks at the head of the group and because his armour touches the wheat stalks, it is soon covered in wheat grains. He mutters as he sees this, feeling that something is wrong.

This is a warning born from his instincts, which has been honed through countless brushes with death. Would the green grains fall off so easily?

Driven by instinct, he looks back into the wheat fields, and sees a pair of eyes staring at them. They focus their eyes and notice silhouette of a human. Although her face is obscured by the wheat stalks, it is clearly a female.

“What!?”

The shocks Leader and he wants to shout a warning to the main army colleagues, but the the figure that comes out makes them speechless.

"Hehe, you caught me, huh?”

A girl pops her head out from the fields and stuck her tongue out at them. She must have been trying to sneak up on them behind, but her stealth skills are not good enough to evade the senses of the reconnaissance team.

She is a tall beauty of nearly 180cm with light brown hair in a braid. Her left hand nonchalantly carries a spear. From her exposed arms and lower legs, they could see some muscles bulging from her toned skin. Her fists are covered by leather gloves.

Her large breasts are obviously viewable despite being fully covered by thick cloth.

They sense murderous intent from her, so they simultaneously jump at her with blades drawn. 

Rather than evading or blocking, she just makes a frontal attacks. Before their blades reach her body, her long weapon cut two men.

"This is Wolls family spear techniques."

She says that loudly while cut another two before their blade reaches her.

Four skilled members of reconnaissance team have been quietly killed far from the main army.