Knights of Tristein (3)

It wasn’t that he couldn’t make an excuse.

“Well, that’s… It’s a little difficult to say. My brother stopped by the capital just before I came here. I accidentally saw the investigation documents he had. If my brother finds out, he will be upset, so please pretend not to know.”

His excuse would be the Asel family, which they weren’t normally in contact with.

‘Well, it’s my family, so I should use it when I can.’

Lippi admired him as she fixed the ivy pin on her head.

“It’s amazing their research is that good.”

“Not at all… I think my father’s company is a bit peculiar.”

“Thanks to that, we got some valuable information. Thank you.”

“Then, look back to work now.”

Kleio leaned back on the bench as he explained, as Cel jabbed at him.

“You’re pretty easy-going after scaring us about it coming from the sky.”

“I’ll keep an eye out, keep shoveling.”

“It’s a great division of labor.”

From then on, the children silently dug at the dirt and pushed it into the divots at a tremendous speed.

.

.

.

Rotan’s thick eyebrows wriggled.

“You did that in three hours?”

The vice-captain was stunned as he looked at the children wearing thin work clothing like they weren’t cold. Arthur was the one to reply with a flawless smile.

“As you can see. Is there anything else to shovel?”

Rotan looked around like he watched to catch some error, but the spacious training ground had been filled up. The children’s ability could be clearly seen in their work, and he was clearly unhappy that he couldn’t admit it. Eagerly, he finally found a breakthrough.

“After you’ve filled the pit, it’s time to get the floor right. After that, let’s have dinner.”

After that, Rotan turned around awkwardly and walked away. Kleio’s eyes lazily followed him.

‘You know what’s going on, but aren’t you too naïve?’

The building on the left of the training grounds was a cafeteria, and the long pipes coming out gave off a delicious smell as white steam billowed out. It was unforgivable to his Korean mindset.

“I’ll choose the floor since you’ve done all the shoveling.”

“Are you okay, Kleio?’

“What a difficult job. I’ll finish it soon and follow, so bring Lippi and Leticia in.”

The two twins approached Kleio with their shovels in hand.

“You’re going to use magic?”

“Yes.”

“Then I want to see it!”

“Why? You’ve seen me use it several times.”

“It’ll be fun to watch even if it was the hundredth time!”

“Me too!”

Kleio didn’t have the ability to calm the twins who had made up their minds.

‘I understand that they’re hung up on the spectacle, but even now?’

It had already passed four o’clock in the afternoon, and the sun was hidden behind the mountains. No matter how excellent they were as knight candidates, it would take a lot of ether to stand up against the cold. Lippi and Leticia, in particular, who were relatively small, seemed to be slightly slowed down. With a sigh, Kleio moved over to a corner of the training ground and brandished the ash-wood wand hidden in the arm of his coat. The training ground was rather large, so he had to use his magic repeatedly.

‘I’m still level 4. The ether container seems to be wide enough, but I don’t know what I lack to level up.’

Fortunately, highly complex magic wasn’t needed to melt and smooth the ground. He could use [Fever] and [Dismantle] to deal with the frost, and [Decomposition] to turn it to sand. Only two magic slots were needed for relaxed work.

‘What’s left is a mantra.’

Kleio quickly decided upon one as he looked through his Memory. It was cold, and he didn’t want to think deeply, so he picked one quickly.

“[The farmer came and announced it was already spring

Now I will go out to the western field and plow the ground.] 1)”

Kleio’s magical formula rose up, brightening the shadows cast by the castle buildings. It was a warm and bright light like the summer that they longed for. The magical formula melted the frozen ground and crushed the rough piles of dirt, causing white water vapor to ascend into the sky. Lippi and Leticia ran around as he cast his magic, while Kleio dryly evaluated the results as he tapped the ash wand against his hand.

‘Was the soil too heated…? Oh well, it’s dirt. What’s wrong about burning it?’

As soon as the magic formula ran its course, he moved on to another part of the training ground. Without rushing, Kleio moved slowly and worked his way through the training grounds, covering the ground in fine sand as he worked.

“Wow! Pretty!”

“The sand is shining like gold!”

A voice shouted over that of the twins.

“Are you a wizard?!”

It was the loud voice of vice-captain Rotan, whose mouth was hanging open. It would be strange if he didn’t notice such a large-scale flow of ether. Kleio’s response came leisurely.

“It should’ve been written in the documents you were delivered.”

Rotan looked at him as if he was speaking a different language, which was a funny expression for the more than the two-meter tall giant. The knowledgeable knight was confused by the dissonance between his common sense and the results that unfolded before him.

“How can you be like this at such a young age…? This makes no sense…”

“I’m done with my work, so I’ll go eat before it’s too late.”

Kleio left without waiting for an answer, as Rotan didn’t seem to be in his right mind to answer. He left Rotan alone in the middle of the grounds with a ghostly expression and headed to the cafeteria with the twins pulling at his arms.

“I feel good because it’s like we got revenge against the vice-captain.”

“The smell of dinner seems even more fragrant.”

“If it’s like eating in that pub, I’m looking forward to it!”

“It seems that they’re making food that doesn’t spare meat or fat.”

“Really, it smells great!”

The wind was cold, but it didn’t seem that bad when he stood close to the twins. He even laughed accordingly as they joked with him.

***

The same routine as that first day recurred throughout the week, as they engage in simple labor of repairing underground waterways and the turrets. The task today was to dig deeper into the moat in front of the gates. Even though the water was blocked, the soil was frozen solid, though it didn’t matter for the students. When those with ether completed the chores, everything became almost too efficient. No matter what their trivial tasks for the day were, he felt that the attitudes of the people around them were changing bit by bit.

“I thought they would be some spoiled children of a noble, but they’re polite.”

“They’re also hard-workers. They’re strong as knights.”

“Thank you.”

“Here, take this snack.”

Even now, Kleio was wrapped up inside his coat with a warm bottle of milk tea prepared for him by the cafeteria’s chef.

‘I’m hoping that a big monster appears soon so that we can stop this manual labor.’

Most of the beasts that had come so far were small ones of 1st or 2nd level. Fortunately, the damage to the residents had been relatively little. He wanted the students to be put into the subjugation team already, but the vice-captain had yelled at them.

“These are children who haven’t even been knighted?!”

Still, Rotan apparently hadn’t yet read their documents.

‘There are only seventy or so knights of 5th level in the entirety of Albion, and that prince far exceeds a normal 5th level. To put such high-quality personnel on digging duty.’

No demons had appeared around the castle yet. At first, everyone was vigilant, but after a week, the tension had been relieved enough that the twins were throwing snowballs and playing jokes. Arthur, Isiel, and Cel glanced around as they silently dug the moat.

‘They are very sincere too.’

As soon as they received the order, they had asked Kleio if he would use his [Dismantle] magic, but Isiel had told them to conserve their ether in case of a demon attack. Once they had the job done, even the vice-captain couldn’t look down on them.

‘He’s busy, but that’s not the only reason. If he approves of their abilities, he feels like he’s losing to the central aristocrats.’

Today’s work had been very good for setting up the stage’s background, as the children prepared the moat in front of the castle’s main gate facing the mountain range. Entering the outer fortress through that gate meant the first building was the knights’ accommodation, which was where the students were boarding. Kleio turned on Perception and stretched his neck, catching the noise of the injured returning to the castle and gathering for their meals. Their conversation was lively, so it seemed none of their injuries were serious.

‘It’s clear that this building is used as lodging to reduce the response time in case of an emergency. Good.’

The fact that the knights were growing to admire Arthur and his friends would be necessary not only for the future, but also to improve the current situation, as Pyton would surely attack this castle.

‘That vice-captain will come around too, but he’s stubborn.’

The wind blew through the mountains and ruffled Kleio’s hair, making it a mess.

‘Ah, it’s windy…’

Kuooooooooooo!

It was then that a black beast plummeted from above them with a deafening shriek.

1) 「Your transaction company」, Do Yeon-myeong.