Chapter 303: Stake

Bang!

Winter in Finnomia, on the Kalmanama Isthmus.

Lobrus soldiers sent to search the mountain paths fell. A scouting party was wiped out, and an entire platoon failed to return.

A rumor naturally began to spread among the Eastern Alliance soldiers.

“There's a devil living on the isthmus. A snow-white reaper is blocking the way...”

“...One person?”

Andreyev, an Eastern Alliance general, frowned down at the report.

“One sniper has blocked off the entire mountain route?”

“Yes. We've even shelled the whole area, but...”

“Do you think that makes any sense?!”

Thump!

The adjutant quietly bowed.

The Supreme Leader's birthday, their promised deadline, had already passed. Yet the eastern advance was still slow, and the army on the isthmus remained stuck.

Of course, they kept attacking, but the enemy's resistance was no small matter. It wasn't just that sniper. Enemy troops on skis cut the roads and launched surprise attacks every night.

“...I'm sorry.”

“What's your solution?”

It was a narrow stretch of land covered in forests and swamps. If they couldn't cross it before spring came, mud would swallow the whole area.

“A sniper will be arriving soon.”

The general frowned.

“A sniper?”

“Yes.”

Knock, knock.

A timely knock came at the door.

It soon opened, and a man entered. Something about his appearance set him apart.

“Ivan Shcherbakov. I've been transferred here on orders from Eighth Army headquarters.”

His snow suit was perfect camouflage. It was so white that even his outline would vanish against the snow. The heavy sniper rifle on his back rattled.

The adjutant added in a near whisper.

“...He's a pure-blooded Lobrus citizen whose father is a Party member. He has eighty-one confirmed kills from the southern border conflict. He's famous as a counter-sniper, with nine enemy commanders and thirteen enemy snipers among his kills.”

The wrinkles on the general's face twitched.

Ivan spoke.

“I heard that one of the Finnomian country bumpkins has turned out to be rather good.”

The general folded their arms and signaled with a glance for him to continue.

“A sniper is like a tiger. It's a beast built to defend its territory, so it's hard to catch unless you understand how it behaves. In the end, you need another sniper to deal with one.”

“...You alone can do what an entire unit couldn't?”

A smile spread across Ivan's lips.

“Of course. No matter how good this one is, a country bumpkin is still a country bumpkin. They might be a decent shot, but they won't know how to fight another sniper.”

A duel between snipers required great precision and patience. Someone with little experience could only fall helplessly.

“Just mark where our soldiers were shot, along with the angles and times, on a map. With that information, I'll work out the enemy's field of fire and kill them.”

A confident face and a voice full of certainty.

Yes. This was how a Lobrus elite ought to behave.

The general raised an eyebrow at the adjutant, who answered with a small smile.

...

The cold covered the continent. Rivers froze, and even the rails contracted, bringing some train services to a halt.

It was the worst cold in nearly fifty years.

“...Hahaha! What a fine view. It's like the snow country I've only read about in novels.”

Crackle, crackle.

A stove burned in the office.

Kaido Hoess smiled in the office of the newly built Kebanov Camp in the east. Three Imperial Guard officers raised glasses of liquor and touched them together with a clink!

“It certainly is... But what should we do about the outdoor stoves? I hear the cold keeps putting them out.”

Kaido gave a little laugh at the young officer's question.

“Leave them. If they die working, they die. If they freeze, they freeze.”

They were Izenheim, after all. Whether they froze to death or not was hardly worth worrying about. All that mattered was that the numbers in the ledger matched.

The young officer asked again, rather cautiously.

“What if our superiors...”

“What about them? I've heard they're actually happier to see more deaths.”

The one who shuddered at the very mention of Izenheim might quietly welcome this winter too. A helpful season that saved them some work.

“That's why they sent us a gift like this.”

Kaido Hoess took another bottle of whiskey from the desk drawer. An elegant label wrapped around it.

“Who cares if a few filthy beasts die? We clothe them and give them somewhere to sleep. Do we have to keep their backs warm too?”

“Quite right. Hahaha.”

Laughter filled the room. The young officer watched the others for a moment, then simply laughed along. After all, their expensive fur coat was another item confiscated from the Izenheim.

Clink.

Their glasses met again.

“Let's focus on preparing for the book discussion. Everyone says the prizes will be incredible.”

Many new academic papers on race had recently come out.

Leutern II's “Lectures on Heart Moisture” and Lord Himmler's “A Study of Bloodline Hierarchy.”

They all reached the same conclusion.

Subspecies were inferior, and the Izenheim might be especially low even among them. Vermin with rotten water pooled in their hearts.

We were the great Aran. There was no reason for us to worry about their winter.

...

Whooooo.

A snowstorm swept through the Mer Camp.

Crackle. Crackle.

In his office, with a fire burning in the fireplace, Halbert Goring looked through a list.

Quite a few workers had arrived lately. They were Mer who had flooded in after the fall of Yursled and Bolska.

Thanks to them, the factory itself was doing well, but...

Whoooooo!

Snowflakes struck the windows like little stones.

Halbert was worried about the cold. The east was even colder than the central region. Would the workers' fingers fall off while they worked outside?

“How are things?”

Halbert asked Levi, a Mer supervisor. Apparently, Levi had been an executive at a large company before the war.

“The severe cold has caused many cases of frostbite.”

Halbert had given key positions to Mer who had done clever sorts of work before all this: accountants, lawyers, doctors, and so on. Levi was one of them.

“Frostbite?”

“Especially on their hands and feet...”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

Thump!

Halbert Goring closed the list. Levi watched his expression.

Halbert. Goring.

Goring was an infamous family name among the Mer and the others the Empire called “subspecies.” One wrong word, and...

“You idiot! People work less efficiently when they're cold!”

“...I'm sorry!”

Levi quickly bowed.

“No! Forget your apologies!”

Bang, bang.

Goring struck the desk.

“I said the cold makes them less efficient, idiot! Don't you even know that?!”

“...Pardon?”

“Go and buy some gloves and socks first!”

Gloves and socks. It would cost a fair amount to provide them for every Mer worker, but...

“Levi, you idiot, don't you know how delicate our work is? They have to sew. If their fingers freeze, we'll be drowning in defective goods!”

This was a particularly important factory among the Camps, and it was necessary for the war.

“Oh, and give them a bowl of hot soup with breakfast and lunch. They don't need it when they're sleeping after work, right?”

“Pardon? Oh, yes... That's true, but it could cost a little.”

“Ha!”

Halbert snorted.

“If these workers die or get hurt, we'll have to get replacements. Then we'll have to train them all over again...”

He shook his head with a look of disgust.

“Training alone takes two or three months. How many parachutes could they make in that time? That's a bigger loss, idiot! Hurry up and place the orders!”

“...Yes. Understood.”

Levi hurried out of the office. Beside Halbert, Nils asked a question while eating ice cream.

“Are you sure that's all right?”

“What is?”

“It'll cost quite a lot. Equipment prices are high these days because of the war.”

Nils had left the Agency and become Halbert's business partner.

He didn't do much, but his connections were useful.

“I told you. Skimping on equipment to save money is shortsighted.”

In the end, this Camp was only a stepping stone anyway.

Money mattered, but he also needed better results.

“To earn Sir Maximilian's trust, the numbers have to be clean!”

His ultimate goal was to catch that man's eye and start a new company.

Or to do something important at his side.

That was Halbert Goring's dream.

* * *

The Empire froze. The cold was so severe that even fighters and bombers struggled to take off, their runways slick with ice.

Yet the war at sea continued. Hundreds of Imperial submarines hunted merchant ships deep in Hailand's waters, tightening their grip on the shipping routes.

The east kept moving too. Lobrus swallowed the small eastern countries other than Finnomia.

They dressed it up as referendums and the like. Voter turnout: 99%. Votes in favor: 99%.

But Finnomia held out. Its people defended their land with astonishing desperation.

How long could they endure? The east would only grow stronger with every war and battle.

“...Max. Where do you want to go from here?”

At my mansion, as heavy flakes of snow turned everything white, Freya suddenly asked me that question.

“My goal hasn't changed.”

I had spent years practicing Ebenholtz swordsmanship and hand-to-hand combat. I had mastered my moonlight-like mana and could now use it as naturally as breathing.

“I need to grow stronger.”

But I was still far from achieving my goal.

Freya raised an eyebrow.

“You've grasped the stillness of Ebenholtz. There's nothing more I can teach you about handling mana or holding a sword. From now on, you must think about your goal and move forward on your own.”

A teacher could only help with the process.

Reaching the destination was now up to me.

“...”

I thought for a moment, but the answer was actually quite clear.

“...Sebastian Ebenholtz.”

My father.

The father I resented, whom I had never once called “Father” aloud.

“I need to reach his level.”

He had been my benchmark, but Freya firmly shook her head.

“Impossible.”

I frowned.

“Pardon?”

“Sebastian has poured his entire life into combat alone.”

Freya stood there, idly swinging her wooden sword. Beside her, Leo's ears pricked up.

“Let's be very generous and assume that you and Sebastian have the same total amount of talent. From the beginning, Sebastian put all one hundred into strength. You divided yours among several fields.”

She continued calmly.

“You've already diverted some of the talent you could have used on the ground into becoming a knight of the sky. How could you beat Sebastian? And that's assuming you have the same amount of talent in the first place.”

...It made perfect sense.

Before my regression, all the talents of that age had come together and barely defeated Sebastian.

The former members of the Revolutionary Faction, including Schatz Heizen and Edmund, and even Outcast, who were no longer in this world.

“Then... I have nothing left to learn now.”

Freya glanced at Leo.

Did she mean Leo still needed lessons?

“As for today's lesson fee...”

I handed her something.

“Please accept this.”

“...What's this?”

Freya tilted her head in confusion.

A small smile spread across my lips.

“Your donation can save thousands of Imperial children from the cold, Master.”

“Certificate of Donation for Extreme Cold Relief”

...Cold killed people.

That was especially true this winter.

I had proposed a “national donation drive” to the imperial household and the Empire, then put my name at the top of the list.

The amount was fifty million Imperial dollars.

Royalty and nobles, the regular army and the Imperial Guard, as well as business owners and officials, took part, if only to keep up appearances. Assets stolen from the Izenheim and the others the Empire called “subspecies” were distributed among Imperial citizens.

Soldiers went around the villages doing various jobs. They handed out food to the poor and built shelters warmed by stoves.

They also rounded up homeless people and put them into volunteer construction teams and factory work crews. The young ones were forcibly enlisted.

I had established this policy because I liked homeless people...

No, because I understood them.

It would get much colder over the next month. Rather than letting them freeze to death or turn to crime, it was better to force them to work and feed them.

“Here's the list.”

Today, in the Sentinel Knights' offices, someone handed me a list.

It was incredibly thick. Almost a dictionary, containing the identities of every homeless person the soldiers had rounded up.

“Good work.”

“...”

The agent didn't leave, however. She simply looked at me.

The woman whose curiosity went beyond the jobs I gave her was Schatz Heizen.

She was allowed to be curious about my actions, and I was willing to answer her.

“It's a hobby. I've been thinking I'd like to repay a few debts.”

Some of the people who had first taught me how to live on the streets might be on this list.

The people who had taught me about life, about living, and about how to survive. How old were they now? Where were they, and what were they doing?

“Debts, you say?”

Schatz seemed surprised by the very idea that I owed anyone anything.

“Debts I brought back from the future.”

Just then...

Ding.

Sentinel's main computer. Some closed-system thing powered by a single huge mana stone? I didn't really understand how it worked, but in any case, a new project appeared on its screen.

“Hmm...”

Sentinel knights sometimes designed their own projects, gathered people, and carried them out to earn distinction in this war.

It went without saying, but they weren't dolls that only moved on my orders.

Anyway, the first thing that caught my eye about this mission was the person who had proposed it.

Tiana, my fellow cadet.

...

“Well... Max, as you know, skirmishes and larger clashes keep breaking out along the western border.”

Tiana spoke.

I listened while looking around her office.

“There are bombing raids too. Hailand's an island country, so apparently they get rain instead of snow. Their runways don't get buried, so I hear they can take off as soon as the fog clears.”

She had decorated the place nicely in shades of blue.

It was spacious, with plenty of furnishings, and comfortably warm. Her attendants seemed to have a pretty good work-life balance.

“Anyway, Prozen and Hailand keep launching surprise attacks.”

Even in winter, there was never a quiet day near the border.

The fighting itself was brief because of the bitter cold, but people were still dying.

“Lately, there's been a rumor about a strange unit.”

“A strange unit?”

“Small groups of anti-imperialists from Prozen and Hailand. Apparently, they drive stakes through the skulls of Imperial soldiers they've killed and put them up beside the roads. Several whole platoons of the Frontline Imperial Guard have already been burned to nothing.”

I listened quietly.

This unit hadn't existed before my regression.

“They asked for help from the knights.”

I quietly studied Tiana's reaction.

Tap. Tap.

Her fingertips tapped the edge of the desk. Unlike her usual confident self, she seemed somewhat nervous, as though she were hiding something.

Was it about her father?

Tiana's father had gone back to the Imperial Guard after all.

He could have lived comfortably for the rest of his life, sheltered by the name of his daughter, a Sentinel knight. Yet even in this life, he was determined to become a burden.

“You don't have to join in too, Max. Anyway...”

“No.”

I smiled faintly as I looked through the reports from the front.

“I'm curious.”

Tiana. I owed her a debt.

Besides, if something came up for me to do this winter, I shouldn't turn it down.

Sitting idle made me more uncomfortable.

“What sort of scum would do something so vile? Izenheim?”

“We don't know yet.”

“Call Leon too. Let's do it together.”

Besides, it wouldn't be bad for the three of us from the same cohort to get together after so long. I wanted to talk to Tiana about her father, and to Leon about his older brother.

Both before my regression and after it, I had hardly ever experienced anything like that.

Come to think of it, I'd never had a single proper friend in my life.

“...Sure, I guess.”

Tiana looked at me for a moment, then let her shoulders drop.

“If you say you're doing it, Leon will too.”

Tap.

She closed the project she had proposed.

Reason: Team assembled.