Chapter 70: The Long Winter [ 1 ]

The Beast Tide did not end winter. It merely ended the part of winter that had nearly destroyed Althoff in a single day.

The Blackstone Ursar was dead, the largest concentration of Magic Beasts had scattered across northern Zulor, and no second army of thousands appeared beyond the broken walls, but the Blackridge Mountains continued emptying themselves into the lowlands for weeks afterward.

Packs of Frostfang Wolves prowled along the northern roads, herds of Ironhorn Elk crossed Althoff’s territory every few days, and smaller groups of Magic Beasts wandered close enough to the settlement that the watch horns remained part of everyday life.

The difference was that nobody panicked when they heard them anymore. During the first weeks of winter, a single patrol reporting wolves had been enough to send civilians hurrying indoors and guards nervously checking weapons.

By the beginning of the second month, Boris listened to the same reports while eating breakfast, asked how many beasts had been spotted, and assigned whichever hunting team happened to be available.

Raymond’s summoned Knights had changed as well. The Silver Knights were still overwhelmingly stronger than anything ordinary soldiers could handle, but the Bronze Knights had accumulated enough actual combat experience that smaller attacks were no longer treated as emergencies.

Even Boris’s original guards, Darric’s refugee volunteers, and Edran’s hunters had become noticeably more disciplined after surviving the Beast Tide together.

Raymond deliberately turned that experience into routine. Patrol routes were established across the territory, with hunters tracking migration patterns while Bronze Knights accompanied groups entering areas where Magic Beasts were common.

Silver Knights remained available for anything unusually dangerous, but Raymond stopped allowing them to solve every problem simply because they could.

If a hunting party encountered three Frostfang Wolves, he wanted trained guards learning how to fight them properly rather than watching a Silver Knight kill everything in seconds.

Boris supported the decision enthusiastically, especially after discovering that several of the former village guards had enough experience to become competent soldiers with proper equipment and training.

Darric became increasingly important in organizing them, while Edran developed a rotating network of hunters who could identify tracks, locate herds, and distinguish between creatures passing through Althoff and predators likely to approach inhabited areas.

The result was that hunting gradually changed from a defensive necessity into one of Althoff’s most reliable winter industries.

The first time Lily presented Raymond with a report categorizing Magic Beast carcasses as a regular food resource rather than emergency hunting gains, he stared at the page longer than necessary before asking, "Are you telling me the Beast Tide is helping our food situation now?"

Lily nodded seriously and pointed toward several columns she had prepared. Fresh meat from controlled hunts was being consumed first, while portions suitable for smoking or drying were added to winter reserves.

The three tons of preserved meat purchased from Valmere remained valuable, but they were no longer carrying nearly as much pressure as Raymond originally expected.

Harlan and Gideon had also begun carefully rationing livestock slaughter because there was little reason to kill breeding animals while Magic Beasts were effectively delivering themselves to Althoff’s territory.

Raymond leaned back in his chair after reading the figures and muttered, "So the monsters tried to eat us, failed, and are now paying rent."

Lily looked at him for a moment before quietly replying, "I don’t think that’s how rent works, my Lord."

Raymond placed the report down. "You’re ten. Stop correcting me."

Lily immediately answered, "Then you should stop being wrong."

Marianne, sorting another stack of documents nearby, suddenly became extremely interested in her paperwork while Raymond stared at his maid in offended silence.

Food was only the beginning. Leatherworkers who had once struggled to find enough usable material suddenly had more hides than they could process quickly, and the quality of Magic Beast leather made ordinary animal hide look almost worthless by comparison.

Thick Ironhorn Elk skins became boots, gloves, coats, bed coverings, and reinforced work clothing, while tougher predator hides were reserved for equipment that needed additional protection.

Blacksmiths experimented with horns, claws, teeth, and bones, discovering that some could be incorporated into tool handles or processed into materials useful for weapons and armor.

Mana Cores were carefully collected and stored separately rather than casually distributed, because Raymond knew they possessed value far beyond Althoff even if his territory lacked the craftsmen and facilities needed to exploit them properly.

The Blackstone Ursar became an entire project by itself. Its Gold Rank Mana Core was secured inside the castle treasury, its enormous hide required several experienced workers merely to cut safely, and the natural armored plates covering its body were stored under guard until Raymond could determine what they were worth or how they might be used.

By the middle of the second month, the creatures that had once represented nothing except danger had become food, clothing, materials, potential weapons, and wealth.

The transformation happened outside the workshops as well.

Althoff had been built for roughly twelve hundred impoverished residents, not several thousand people arriving within weeks of one another, and housing became the next crisis Raymond couldn’t solve by simply opening another storeroom.

The first emergency shelters quickly reached capacity, followed by the communal longhouses built earlier in the season.

Rather than wait until people were sleeping in corridors, Raymond organized construction crews from the growing number of carpenters, masons, laborers, and former villagers arriving through the gates.

Torren became one of the busiest men in the territory, supervising teams that dismantled unsafe buildings for usable timber before constructing larger communal houses closer to the protected center of town.

Raymond refused to waste resources making them beautiful.

He wanted thick walls, insulated roofs, proper ventilation, fireplaces that wouldn’t burn the occupants alive, and enough space that families weren’t sleeping on top of each other.

The result was plain, practical housing that could be built quickly, and every completed building freed another temporary shelter for future arrivals.

Those arrivals continued steadily enough that Raymond stopped asking whether anyone had appeared that day and started asking how many.

Some came in groups of five or ten, others in dozens, and occasionally entire communities reached Althoff together after abandoning settlements that could no longer survive the winter.

The stories varied, but the reasons rarely did. Magic Beast attacks. Destroyed food stores. Collapsed roofs. Dead livestock. Local lords who had evacuated with their households while leaving villagers behind.

Small estates that simply lacked enough resources to support everyone after trade routes disappeared beneath snow.

Not every settlement had been physically destroyed; some had merely reached the point where staying meant starvation.

Word of Althoff traveled along the same roads those people used, and each successful arrival became another person capable of telling others that the stories were true.

The System acknowledged the change one evening while Raymond was reviewing new housing assignments.

[ Ding! ]

[ Population: 2,416 / 5,000 ].