A Dark Fantasy Spy

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The northern front is quiet. The biting cold and penetrating chill seep into bones, turning even sweat and tears into ice. The constantly frozen north is forever filled with silence.

Sitting in the barracks, the deputy captain exhaled a cloud of breath while he looked up at the gloomy sky, overcast with dark clouds.

“…….”

There’s no way to say that the current situation is good, not even as a polite lie. This isn’t a complex story that someone at the headquarters would know about, involving broad strategic discussions.

The north is a massive defensive line built on natural geographical features, serving as a bulwark protecting the Empire from the demon race and the ridiculous monsters that prey upon frozen ground.

The royal family has spared no support to prevent the advance of demons and monsters, evident from the various military facilities established all over the north.

From the days when the Grand Empire ruled the world to when the Empress was working to separate the sect from the cult, the north, as old as the Empire’s history, contains numerous facilities erected during different eras for a singular purpose. Thus, it isn’t too difficult to keep the demons from moving south.

The Empire has managed to endure thus far, and it will continue to do so in the future.

However, what the deputy captain was worried about was something much more localized and microscopic.

“Deputy Captain.”

“What?”

“When is our supply arriving?”

“…….”

Episode 11 – No Issues on the Northern Front

The supplies have been cut off.

To be precise, they stopped arriving about ten days ago.

The cold pouring down from the frozen ground has ice-locked the roads and railroads, and the frozen terrain has always been a barrier to timely deliveries. As a result, units operating in the rugged mountainous terrain of the north quickly found themselves isolated.

Of course, the Empire’s army isn’t foolish.

The headquarters immediately ordered the troops to fall back to the next defensive line, and a significant number of units relocated to areas where the supply routes were still viable.

So, it means that a few units remained in their original positions.

Moreover, the reconnaissance unit assigned to the surveillance mission was also holding its ground.

The deputy captain of the reconnaissance unit, briefly stepping outside, squeezed snow into his canteen while trying to encourage the senior soldiers.

“Just hang in there a bit longer. We’ve managed so far. If we can hold out for just a week, we’ll get a rotation, so hang tight.”

Despite the deputy captain’s encouragement, the senior soldier remained unyielding. His hands, bright red and cracked from the cold wind, pointed at the camouflaged tent.

“Everyone hasn’t had a proper meal or bath for over a week. More than half of us have caught colds and can’t move. Plus, those sent out to monitor the demon movements have suffered from frostbite.”

“…….”

“If something happens to the kids….”

“…Understood. I’ll contact the headquarters.”

Though he said that, the headquarters didn’t have any great solutions either. They were still looking for ways to supply. All they could repeat was to continue the surveillance mission from the current position.

Still, if they waited just a week longer, another squad would come to rotate, so the deputy captain kept reassuring the twenty or so remaining squad members to hold on somehow.

But the winds of change did not favor them.

“What do you mean we can’t swap out?”

-‘The 2nd squad that was originally scheduled to rotate with you all caught a group sickness! There’s pandemonium here because of an epidemic. The 2nd squad leader is on death’s door, and it’s a mess.’

The 2nd squad, meant to take over the surveillance mission, was quarantined in the military hospital due to the epidemic. Other squads weren’t faring much better either.

“What about the 3rd squad? They’ve had some rest, can’t they swap in for us?”

-‘They’re in chaos too. A member from the support team caught frostbite from using magic and had to be sent to the medics, who said they had to amputate his wrist.’

“…What? How can a magician use magic without a hand?”

-‘That’s the problem! He was the only magician in the 3rd squad, and now he’s a goner. I barely managed to calm them down when they were shouting about tracking down the medic who amputated his wrist!’

With two of the remaining reconnaissance divisions in the battalion gone, the command increased the duration of the mission for the reconnaissance squads already deployed. Now, there wasn’t even a hint of when they could swap out.

The headquarters, feeling the strain of their situation, managed to send a magician along with emergency supplies of combat rations and radio magic batteries, but when the flying magician was caught by the flying demons and shattered into pieces, even that supply was cut off.

Thus, the reconnaissance units left in the Naroda Mountains fought against cold, disease, and hunger for over a month. They were to watch for demons and monsters that could leap out from the dense coniferous forest at any moment.

The deputy captain had been commanding the squad in place of the recently fallen squad leader. The once twenty-strong squad had dwindled to just over ten soldiers remaining.

Three days turned into a week, and one week became two as fatigue slowly set in.

In the endless wait, a piece of good news reached the reconnaissance unit on the front lines.

“…Deputy Captain! Deputy Captain!”

The voice of a soldier pierced through the silence, waking the deputy captain from a light slumber while clutching the canteen filled with snow.

With fingers so blue they were almost purple, the deputy captain barely opened his eyes to survey the surroundings, and the words slipped through his chapped lips.

“…What’s the matter? Are the supplies coming today…?”

“No! That’s not it! A magician has arrived!”

“…A magician?”

The reconnaissance soldier, face covered in cloth like Van Gogh, babbled as he pointed below. He hadn’t been coherent after a month cooped up in the mountain, but somehow, it was understandable enough.

Hearing the report, the deputy captain led his men outside the tent. They met the magician who had arrived alongside the messenger from the headquarters.

With fiery red hair and blue eyes, dressed immaculately in a clean outfit, she looked like a tourist rather than a magician (especially since she wasn’t donning a cape), yet the soldier had confidently declared her to be the magician.

Of course, there was also another woman whose origins were completely unknown, but the deputy captain’s attention was solely on the magician.

After all, magicians can be quite eccentric. With even five people in a room, at least one will be a weirdo; therefore, in a magical society filled with oddballs, such an outfit wouldn’t be all that remarkable.

Sure, there was only one magician present, and her youthful age, barely over twenty, was concerning, but in the world of magicians, age isn’t a significant factor. The principle is that talent and skill open doors, regardless of age. After all, it’s a well-known fact that a prominent northern duke had roamed the battlefield in his twenties. Anyone from the Empire knew that.

Hence, the deputy captain too harbored a glimmer of hope towards the young woman standing before him.

“At your service! It’s a pleasure to meet you. I am Deputy Captain Alexei, serving in the 1st squad of the 50th Rifles Division’s reconnaissance unit. Welcome, Magician.”

The woman responded in fluent Kien, her voice cheerful.

“Nice to meet you!”

“…Um, Magician, from which division do you come?”

“Me? Well, um… I don’t belong to any division.”

“…Huh?”

“I’m not a soldier, you see!”

The woman smiled brightly. However, the deputy captain could only stare at the magician with disbelief.

“…You’re saying you’re not a soldier? Aren’t you from a division or a corps?”

“I’m from abroad!”

“…….”

The deputy captain looked at the magician with a face clearly marked by disappointment. Having hoped for a magician sent by the headquarters to support the reconnaissance unit, it turned out that they had sent someone who seemed to be doing busy work instead.

Conflicting emotions swirled within, and he observed the magician who had come along with the messenger. She began distributing supplies from an artifact sent by headquarters, items pulled from a spatial magic artifact.

Suddenly, it struck him how they were now dragging kids into the war.

Yet the deputy captain didn’t let it show on his face.

“Excuse me, but there won’t be much you can do here.”

While it was grateful to have the supplies, it ended there. The reconnaissance unit’s mission involved monitoring for demons and monsters coming over the rugged Naroda Mountain, and they might have to fight those monsters directly at any moment.

It was near impossible for even well-trained combat magicians to survive in the Naroda Mountains; it would be out of the question for someone who had no military training and hadn’t even received combat gear.

At least, that’s what the deputy captain thought.

“Our reconnaissance unit’s mission needs more than a couple of magicians for support. They’d need a full legion or division’s worth of mages. Besides, you’re not even a soldier, right?”

Listening to the deputy captain’s worried words, the magician smiled even brighter as she opened her mouth.

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

“Huh? Then why are you here?”

“I have my own job to do!”

The magician extended her white fingers, pointing somewhere. The deputy captain and the reconnaissance soldiers followed the direction of her finger.

At its tip lay the now-abominable coniferous forest.

Camila smiled brightly.

“I’m going to burn that down.”

*

-Fwoosh~!

Red flames flickered.

The fire leaped from the leaves to the trees, and the flames that engulfed the wood spread to the branches, growing ever outward.

The fire that spread sideways soon burned multiple trees, eventually demonstrating its might by incinerating the entire forest.

The flames consuming the coniferous forest surged north like a starving monster searching for food.

“Wow…!”

The Empire’s army confronts demons and monsters. However, the greatest enemy of the northern military region isn’t the biting cold that pours down from the frozen ground, the accursed demons, or the monsters; it is the forest itself.

The lush, evergreen coniferous forest serves as a hiding place for the demon race’s forward scouts, enabling their stealthy movements, while also sheltering the monsters from the hunts of magicians and adventurers. The monsters hidden within the forest breed and strike when the time is right, and the demons exploit gaps in the surveillance network to advance southward, disrupting supply lines and command posts.

Thus, the greatest enemy of the north isn’t demons or monsters, but the forest.

And now, that forest is ablaze.

The flames consuming the coniferous forest threaten to spread throughout the entire mountain range. Despite the freezing cold and biting winter winds, the flames continued their relentless march northward without a hint of faltering.

As the fire surged, everything within the forest was set ablaze. Even the monsters that had hidden their wounded forms within the crevices of rocks, or the baby monsters gnawing on human flesh handed to them by their mothers, or the mines laid out by the engineer corps to combat the demons.

-Boom!

Suddenly, a massive explosion erupted from within the forest. A landmine planted by the Imperial engineer corps couldn’t withstand the heat and detonated. From the massive shards of ice flying about, it seemed that the ‘Storm Mine’, a new product developed by the Ministry of Defense of the Empire a few years back, had been triggered.

Watching the swiftly spreading flames, a satisfied smile crept onto my face.

“Just as I thought, Camila. This is impressive.”

After arriving in the north, some commanders from the Military Government Headquarters once subtly inquired about Camila’s abilities after viewing the footage from the No Man’s Land operation conducted by the Ministry of Defense of Abas months earlier.

Having pieced together the situation in the north from various documents shared by the Royal Intelligence Department and the Military Intelligence Agency and discussions with the Empire’s military, I understood what those gentlemen wished to know.

The north’s greatest enemy isn’t the demons or monsters, but the forest. Even if they take the observation height, effective monitoring can be impossible due to the damned forest. Therefore, the Empire’s military has struggled intensely to eliminate the coniferous forest.

However, burning down the solidified forest isn’t an easy task by any means. And this was a region plagued by biting cold.

To make matters worse, the high concentrations of magic that seep from the rifts have turned the northern coniferous forest into something akin to a fortified stone pine, making it nearly impossible to clear with conventional magic or artillery fire.

Even though we contemplated methods like spraying defoliants as seen in conflicts with the eastern elves, being discovered by airborne demons hidden in the crevices of cliffs would lead to instant death for even the most skilled combat magician.

In essence, eliminating the northern coniferous forest with any ordinary method was a near-impossible endeavor.

In most cases, that is.

“This is why people need to learn. Wouldn’t it be great to know magic? It would help with employment and long-term service.”

“But Colonel, you can’t use magic, right?”

“Pippin, do you want to end your military service as a captain?”

“I’m sorry.”

I looked around at the coniferous forest that Camila was setting ablaze. The forest that had started burning in the morning continued to burn vigorously even after lunch.

A monster that was rolling in the snow to extinguish the fire was shredded by the Imperial army’s firepower. As the turret of an armored vehicle spewed fire, machine guns opened fire, scattering purple flesh mixed with red all around. A wailing shriek accompanied it.

As I frowned at the deafening sound of gunfire, Pippin approached me, darting across the snow to make her report.

“Earlier during lunch, the division sent a report to the Military Government Headquarters. Although it’s only a fraction of the Naroda Mountains, they’ve already cleared the foothills ahead of schedule.”

“What was the response from the Military Government Headquarters?”

“They seemed very pleased.”

The Military Government Headquarters marveled at Camila’s achievements. It was phenomenal she managed to clear a forest that the combined forces of division and corps combat magicians and artillery brigades couldn’t manage.

This results in a significant morale boost. It was greatly desired because removing the forest which had served as a route for demons and monsters had long been a dream of the Military Government Headquarters.

“Given the dilemma, they must be ecstatic that it resolved itself. It’s a problem that’s been bothering them for years.”

“That’s true. But how can this possibly be happening? How can someone burn down the northern coniferous forest by herself?”

“What doesn’t make sense about it?”

“The forest has been solidified by high concentrations of magic. They say that it’s been eroded by the rift for nearly a century, and that even a mere scratch with an axe wouldn’t make a dent… Isn’t this somewhat of a miracle? Similar to the sandstorms that last for months in the desert, or the encroaching eastern mega forest, or the floating magic tower in the sky.”

“So?”

“But it burns so easily?”

I shrugged my shoulders.

“Who knows? And besides, Camila is a hero.”

“…I guess so.”

Any theory about heroes from another world, which is still not firmly established even in an advanced modern society, remains elusive.

It’s largely due to the scant samples available and the general non-cooperation of the subjects in question.

What kind of madman would agree to be researched by scientists and magicians from a strange town? Honestly, even I wouldn’t.

Moreover, the negative effects of diseases, food, knowledge, thoughts, culture, and religion that enter through the external world could be concerning. Much like local strains of Nazism and communism that spread from the magic tower.

Although Arbas and the magic tower have poured doctorate-level staff to study Camila’s abilities, it is still just in the early stages of research.

Thus, the only explanation for how Camila could burn down a coniferous forest that had stumped researchers for over a century boiled down to “Camila is special.”

Fortunately, Pippin’s questions didn’t carry that logical reasoning behind them. They were merely expressions of pure surprise.

Because she was also in the humanities.

The humanities don’t think. Thinking falls within the realm of science. Those in the humanities are typically concerned with issues like whether to open a chicken shop after retirement or to just manage a convenience store.

“How is Camila doing? Is she still fine?”

“Yes, no major issues.”

“What about the reconnaissance soldiers who were here? Have they managed to find anything?”

“They’ve been cut off from supplies for over a month. They’re in a miserable state.”

“Cut off from supplies?”

Pippin nodded. Listening to the analyst’s explanation, the situation unfolded like this.

Due to an abnormal cold wave, all transportation networks in the north had collapsed. In fact, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that the whole north had come to a halt, but the transportation network had suffered the most severe damage.

Thus, the Military Government Headquarters ordered the divisions and corps in the north to reinforce the second defensive line. This was to lead most of the forces to areas where supplies could potentially flow.

The problem was that a few units assigned for detecting enemy movements couldn’t relocate backwards. The divisions and corps in the north retained the reconnaissance and scouting units in their original positions, and the already treacherous terrain became completely blocked by heavy snowfall.

“So they couldn’t receive supplies. The division didn’t completely give up; they tried sending a few magicians to supply, but they were thwarted by the flying demons, blocking any possible routes.”

Of course, this was now a thing of the past.

Determined to maintain the supply line for the reconnaissance units actively dealing with the Naroda Mountains, the Military Government Headquarters resolved to deploy any means necessary. The moment it was reported that Camila was shivering from the cold without supplies or starving would definitively tarnish the image of the Empire’s military.

Just in time, the means and methods needed to restore the supply line had arrived.

Concentrating on the sounds coming from the radio strapped to my hip, I heard Jake’s voice.

-‘Manager, do you hear me?’

“Hey, Jake. What’s up?”

-‘The golems are currently restoring the railway. We can’t fix the entire northern railway due to a material shortage, but at least we should be able to revive one line with the resources we have now.’

“Got it. Has anything come from Charnoy?”

-‘No.’

“Thanks for your hard work. See you later.”

I ended the call and looked up at the sky.

The wind was warm and caressed gently, filled with the heat rising from the burning forest.

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

“Huh?”

“Never mind. Let’s go.”

It was a perfect day for work.