Not long after I was notified of the Corrupt Rift, I had the Baron begin hiring guards under the pretense that we needed to expand our local security force. 

It had taken longer than I wanted, but now, we finally had enough men. 

Previously, Northtown only had 40 guards that maintained order for the city. Now, that force had technically been expanded. 

There were now 240 guards, but of course, the new 200 weren’t actually guards. 

When I arrived at a field in the northern region of the city with Grace by my side, I could see 200 men of prime age standing casually in a huge group. 

At their helm was Baron Hviral and a helmeted knight whose identity was David Pointe, Tiya’s father. 

I couldn’t have Sir Pointe walk openly yet because after he decided to nearly kill his wife, he had become a hot topic that wouldn’t disappear for a while. But I could still use his expertise, so I made him work under the Baron. 

Those two would be the head drill instructors. 

“Attention! The City Lord has arrived!”

“Attention!”

Shouts rang out through the field, but because it was morning and these new recruits were untrained, everyone was dull as they quieted down. 

I stepped up to a platform that allowed me to overlook everyone. All 200 recruits looked back at me with curiosity, a bit of anxiousness, excitement, and some suspicion. 

Ever since I had become the City Lord, I had stayed out of the public eye for the most part. The majority of my days were spent in the study filling books worth of pages with information and plans. I was guiding every detail of the new operations within the city. 

I had only been seen a few times, and the most obvious time was the recent incident when Rachel had been brought to my doorstep. That and when I went on runs.

But other than that, only faint rumors had been going around about me. Of course there were the bad rumors, but because nothing had changed within the city itself, nobody paid much mind. 

Until now. 

My eyes went between the many faces of those who stood before me. 

“...All of you are young men, given this opportunity by Baron Hviral. All of you have come here to become guards, those sworn to protect the city from threats both foreign and domestic. I can imagine the generous pay was what brought most of you here. And truly, through this line of work your status in life will be elevated, your families rising along with you.

“But do not make the mistake of assuming that your work will be anything like the previous 40 guards of this city! You all will be specially trained, systematically pushed to your limits, and educated in what it means to be a real soldier! I have personally planned every single day of the next month of your lives. And I promise you, you will be earning the generous pay I have stipulated in all your contracts.”

I had a charismatic smile as I finished my short speech, and contrary to my seeming glee, the 200 men below didn’t seem as excited to be here as before. 

My final words brought them a bad omen in a weird way. 

I had made a standard contract for everyone here. In it was their salary, which was 80 coin weekly. That pay could only go up as they were promoted through my system of ranks. 

80 coin was nearly double what the standard citizen normally earned. And as I had stipulated the salaries for each rank above the lowest, everyone was motivated. Who wouldn’t want to become a Knight Captain and earn 250 coin weekly? 

I looked down toward Baron Hviral. 

“Baron, please open the first page of your guidance book and begin the first day of these recruits’ regiment.”

“Yes, Lord Audius.”

The Baron nodded and opened the book he had on him. It was one I had personally written, consisting of nearly a hundred pages that detailed every single day of the next month. 

The Baron was required to understand the day’s plans in advance so that he could properly train these future soldiers. 

“We will begin with a 10 mile march along the length of the wall! Now group up into 5 groups of 40!”

The Baron began yelling and instructing the mass of recruits. At the same time, I stepped down from the platform and caught David Pointe before he walked off. 

“Sir Pointe.”

“Lord Audius.”

He bowed. Despite being older, it seemed he didn’t have any qualms about displaying his complete and utter servitude. 

I pat him on the shoulder, glancing at the recruits. 

“You were a soldier, Sir Pointe. And you must realize that I am not creating this troop for nothing. A great threat is going to befall this city, and these people will be the ones who determine whether all of us live or die. Understand this as you push these people, as you train them and educate them. Work with the Baron and raise these young ones so that they may be capable of protecting everyone when the time comes.”

“A great threat? Of what nature?”

The knight asked a valid question. So I fed him what he needed to know. 

“Demonic beasts. Mutated monsters. You were a hunter, Sir Pointe. That means your knowledge will be valuable, conducive to preserving the lives of these young men when this threat bares its fangs. Still, know that the training program within that guide book is of the utmost priority. I am training them for a very specific purpose.”

“I understand, Lord Audius. You have my word that these recruits will be shaped to your will.”

“Mm. Now go help the Baron.”

I let him go, the knight saluting me before running off to assist the yelling Baron. 

After that, Grace moved to my side. 

“Are you sure that these people will be ready when the time comes? The Months of Darkness are only 6 weeks away. You might have a window even then, but that’ll give you at most two months before demonic beasts arrive outside the city. Can you really prepare an armed force in that time? It seems impossible…”

“Normally it would be impossible. But with my weapons, the difficulty of this endeavor will be dramatically reduced. Trust me. My confidence is not unfounded. In hopefully only a couple more weeks, I’ll finally be able to show you all the wonderful tools I have been boasting about.”

“...I hope they’re as great as you say they are.”

She sighed while turning her gaze back to the recruits who were beginning their march. 

It was hard to believe that all those kids could be turned into a military force strong enough to combat invasions of demonic beasts. 

……

…

“Prepare to move! Get those animals chained to the wagons!”

Gentle Snow watched as her sisters of the Sorcerers Militia packed all their items. 

There wasn’t any one place they could call home. They were little better than nomads, wandering the harsh mountain range while occasionally taking what they needed from the towns and cities nearby. 

This was an event that happened very rarely, however. For the first time, they were migrating out of this mountain range. 

Staying near a corrupted rift was far too dangerous. They would be easily overrun by demonic beasts when the time came. There would be no place for them, so they needed to find another place where they could wander and sustain themselves. 

It made Gentle Snow feel conflicted. 

There was a reason she sent Rachel to Audius instead of recruiting her to the militia. As she thought more and more, she seemed to convince herself that Audius and his leadership was the best thing for the sorcerers. 

For some time, she thought that it was at least good that Northtown was close by. But now that they were leaving, she felt insecure. 

She didn’t want to leave, but she was also one of the veterans of the militia. She protected her sisters, and that duty took precedence over her own desire to be comfortable with Audius. 

Though, she also wished it were possible to convince Helva, the Matriarch, to give Audius a chance. 

But because Northtown was on track to be besieged by demon beasts and because Helva trusted nobody except herself, such a thing would be impossible to rationalize. 

She watched as her sisters packed everything in the hideout. They had been making preparations for days, and now, it was finally time to set off. 

When the sun was high in the sky, Helva finally gave the order. 

The animals chained to the wagons began moving under the command of one sorcerer. The rest were either huddled within the wagons or walking. 

From the entrance, Gentle Snow gazed into the distance. 

Near the horizon in a place she couldn’t see was Northtown. 

Only twice was she able to return ever since she broke contact, and each time, she checked in on the situation. 

And it from everything she saw and heard, Audius was proving himself to be far greater than she initially expected. 

She saw the 200 soldiers he had recruited, and had read the manual he had written for the Baron. 

Within his desk she had found blueprints as well, designs for what she could only assume were the weapons he intended to make. But she couldn’t make sense of them since they had been coded in a different language. 

Then there were his designs for the iron smelter and cement kilns, his business deals with the Rock and Stone Foundation, and the progress with the wall. It seemed Rachel was being taken care of as well. 

In her eyes, he was doing everything right. More than that, he was getting so much done that she couldn’t believe so much progress was possible in such a short amount of time. 

Audius had so many secrets that Gentle Snow wished to know. After all, those rumors she had spoken of didn’t come from nowhere. He was supposed to be incompetent, a nobody within his family as opposed to his siblings who were vying for their father’s throne. 

And then there was his esoteric knowledge. 

Gentle Snow, although holding great love for her sisters, felt great resentment at the inability to work with Audius. She could only imagine how much more she could be doing. 

But instead, she was being forced to live like a rat, scurrying away when a threat bared its fangs. 

“You want to leave that badly? Despite the years of hell we’ve been through together, you would still think of choosing some noble over your sisters.”

She heard a sneering voice, which she responded to with a bite.

“No, Helva. I would choose him for our sisters. Yet I stay, in spite of you.”

Gentle Snow glanced at the leader of the militia who bore a frown on her sharp face. 

“You’ve lost all hope of something better. All you do is hide and survive. Years have and will continue to go by, and you will change nothing. I suppose that’s the difference between us.”

“Please. I see reality, unlike your naive self. Its why all of us are alive today, including you.”

“You call it naivety, and I call it hope. I want something better for us and am willing to fight for it. But you…”

Gentle Snow couldn’t help but scrunch her face in disgust. As she thought about it more, she was able to see the repulsive nature of Helva’s philosophy. 

“All you’re going to do is lead us to our deaths. One thing goes wrong and everything will come crumbling down, because you do nothing to give us a strong foundation. What should be a strong militia of powerful sorcerers is nothing but a fragile shell that you’ve surrounded yourself with. And that’s the only reason I’m here. To make sure that when everything breaks, my sisters at least have someone they can turn to. A blanket to protect them.”

“Excuse you? Are you saying that I can’t fight?”

Helva suddenly flared in anger, baring her fangs and exposing the poisonous powers that she dominated the militia with. 

It was a power that had saved the sisters no few amount of times from the Order and city guards who tried to kill them. 

But Gentle Snow stood unfazed, her naturally cold gaze seeing through Helva’s rage. 

“Watch yourself, Helva. Don’t give me a reason to challenge your authority. Because we both know that you can’t win against me.”

“And you can’t kill me.”

“I don’t have to kill you to win. I just have to take everything from you. So unless you want to lose your militia, I suggest you back off while I still feel like following along.”

“...”

Helva was silent, yet faintly quivering in rage. Gentle Snow didn’t need to glean the blade of her knife to threaten her. 

So she backed down first, storming off with hate spewing from her face. 

When she disappeared from view, Gentle Snow turned back to facing the distance, imagining Northtown in her mind and all the silent machinations that Audius was enacting. 

Now more than ever did she wish she could take her sisters there. But she was walking on thin ice within the militia, making her indecisive. 

She held hope for the future, yet couldn’t seem to find the way there. 

She hated that about herself.