It had been a month since the prison raid and winter (if the elves even had any other seasons other than winter) was getting worse. The snow blanket covering the land was already knee-high. Luckily for me, I spent most of my time inside the Kreylin, where the elves constantly kept the snow blanket to a minimum.

Taking a sip from my coffee, I gave a sigh as to how relaxed I was. In order to cover up that I was undead and that I couldn’t freeze to death, I wore a thick coat over my robes ever since the weather started getting worse. Fortunately for me, it seemed that the coat was a nice wrap-around bed. I could probably lie down on the floor and sleep comfortably. I rubbed my hands around the hot cup of coffee curiously, trying to feel out some warmth.

As an undead, we technically can’t feel temperature. However, something ‘produces’ numbed down and fake version of the real feelings, which is why eating is still sensational for us to a certain degree.

After all, why liches would still sought after power if they couldn’t gain pleasure from the surge of power they get? In fact, tripping on power is the strongest sensation most undead would feel, which is why most undead are megalomaniacs.

“Boss, we need to talk.”

Oh dearest me.

That phrase sent shivers down my spine. I turned around to see that Maven was approaching me.

“M-Maven? What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be working at your restaurant or whatever it’s called?”

“Just in case you’re blind, the snow prevents anyone from doing much without freezing to death. Before you dodge me, I’d like to talk about your coffee addiction.”

“Coffee addiction?! Isn’t this just fruit juice?!”

“Look, no matter how powerful I am my mana can’t sustain making too many coffee beans. You’ve been drinking bags and bags of coffee lately. You keep picking up terrible habits like your gambling habit. It took us a long time to keep your gambling addiction to a level where you won’t spend all of your money in one go.”

“I don’t have a gambling addiction!”

“That’s five in a row, you lose, master,” Kendra nonchalantly placed down her cards onto the table and took all of my coins. I bit one of my fingers and sniffled as those precious metals left my possession.

“O…one more round!” I said as I placed more coins onto the table.

“My pockets are overflowing already but it’s tempting to make you lose again. After all, I haven’t lost a single game against you.”

“Hold it! That’s enough for you!” Maven shouted as she swept my coin purse before I could defend it.

“P-please! I need that bag! I’ll do anything!” I threw myself onto Maven’s legs and clutched it like my life mattered on the purse. No! My life did matter on it!

“And you! I thought better of you! Why would you take advantage of your teacher like that?” Maven turned to scold Kendra and she just looked away as she whistled.

“He said that games like poker improve magic abilities. It does make sense since it requires luck, emotional manipulations and…”

“That’s enough from you. Boss, you only get 5 silvers a day from now on. Also, I’m charging you for coffee starting from today.”

“Gah! Eurgh!” I clutched my heart as I heard ‘charge’ and ‘you’ in the same sentence. Breathing hard and speaking with a raspy tone, I asked,”H…how much?”

“5 silvers.”

“WHY?! This isn’t fair!”

“If you teach me more about magic, I’m willing to pay. I mean, these are Angolian coins so they’re useless here in the Union,” Kendra offered as she took my cup of coffee.

“See, Boss? At least your student is willing to teach you the meaning of working hard for what you earn. Kendra, you better not pay him much. Anyways, I have to grow some more plants in private. Take care of yourself, Boss.” Maven left with my coin purse, leaving me with only 5 silvers.

Dejected, I picked myself up onto my chair and slumped onto the table. “It’s surprising how much the king pays you for how little effort you put up,” Kendra commented as she counted the amount of money she won from me.

“He paid in amount of golds which I would convert to silver.”

“What? That’s a lot of silvers. Why would you do that?”

“Coins make for an interesting weapon.”

“I don’t even-…I give up.” Kendra briefly shook her head in disapproval then went back to counting her money. I looked to the side and watched the two heroes Blackhair and Aera spar, teaching each other some more new moves. I decided to check on them since I haven’t bothered to teach them much lately.

Now that I think about it, do they only train? Do they live to train only? Do they breathe training?

“Did my companion teach you well?” I greeted as a start.

“Sir Daggerless is a very good swordsman. I must say his ways are….dubious, but he said that if we have to fight, we should use everything in order to win,” Blackhair replied.

“He also taught me how to use my mithril rapier!” Aera excitedly showed me her new move which involved adding mana into her weapon for more power.

“Angolian Royal Thrust!” She shouted as she thrusted her weapon forward, leaving a brief afterimage. Not only did her form improve, her manipulation of mana to enhance her body and weapon also became much better.

“Just try not to shout out your moves.”

“Ah! I forgot! It’s just that I’ve been taught like this for the last ten years or so.”

Huh? Does that mean she was taught how to use a sword as a toddler? It seemed that Angolians were strict on their children. That reminded me that ‘princess’ Asha learned how to smith at a young age, as well.

Angolian children are scary!

“That reminds me, are you ready to go to the frontier town?” Aera hit me with what I could only call a riddle.

“What? Frontier town? Move where?”

“I thought you met with the leader of the elves? We agreed to defend the frontier against the upcoming orc attack at the frontier town of Revolution Fields.”

“Attack? Bah, with this winter, nobody would be rational enough to attack us.”

“That it true. Sivyit, comrade.” An elf lieutenant greeted us as he joined our conversation. He continued, “The party heads have not received any reports on orc activities so we are assuming that the orcs are holding off their attack. This should buy us time to prepare defenses.”

“I see…” Blackhair sighed.

Wow, he sounded like he really wanted to kill people. Is this really a hero?

“…that meant that we won’t be able to stop the demons controlling the orcs, then.”

Close enough. He still wanted to kill people.

“I’ve been preparing some skills that would hopefully incapacitate a demon instead of outright killing them.” Blackhair ended his sentence with a justice-filled fist pump.

My thoughts were fixed on that fact that Blackhair might actually be a psycho as well. Who the hell would try capturing a maniac who could probably summon the Abyss out of nowhere?

I swear, if I had to fight that damned Demon God once more…

The lieutenant discussed some plans regarding briefing the troops of the latest news before taking his leave.

“What’s going on? Is something important happening?” Kendra popped up as soon as the elf left.

“Yup, we’re not going to the frontline. It’s freezing cold so the orcs might not attack,” I explained to Kendra.

“That’s good. I’d rather sit here and drink hot coffee than moving to another frozen wasteland.”

“Well, we have to tell this to Leyna. Anyone knows where she is?”

“Leyna? She’s at…At…” Kendra gasped for a whole good minute while having a horrified face, “I..I forgot to tell you about the massive crusader army she’s been building up! How did I forget for a whole month?!”

Ah, right. I forgot about that one as well.

“Quick! We need to go! Damn it, let’s move! Even if the orcs don’t do anything…”

A massive earth shake stopped Kendra from finishing her sentence. The elven soldiers within the Kreylin sprang into action, running towards their barracks or assigned post. The heroes also grabbed their gear and started sprinting to the source of the explosions. Without a choice, I decided to join them.

Whistling out loud, my favorite oversized cassowary answered my call. Lugging her sword around with her beak, I placed my saddle on her back.

“How well are you at using your sword?” I asked Cass.

She cooed at me then swung the sword at the frozen hard ground, creating a small crack. Cass looked at me with an anticipating expression.

“Hmm…hmm. Well done! In fact, you’ve been such a good bird that I will now bestow upon you the honorary name ‘Sarjay the Second’.” I held my palm out and Cass glowed with a yellow bright light. She flapped her wings in confusion but noticed the change in her power levels.

“Know this, Cass. Names are powerful tools, especially in terms of magic power. Take pride that I have given you a heavy, prideful name. Also it’ll be hilarious to see Sarjay’s face when he realized I bestowed his name to a bird.”

Cass, following her training, flapped her wings at me to imitate nagging at me. Satisfied, I nodded at how well she took my training. She was really worthy of having ‘Sarjay’ as a name – At least, in my opinion.

Riding on top of her, I kicked Sarjay the Second into full throttle. On the way out of the Kreylin, I grabbed the dumb kids who opted to use their puny legs instead of having a majestic ride. Together, we all rode towards the smoke on the horizon.

As we got closer to the edge of the city, we could see elven buildings on fire and a lot of soldiers retreating back into the inner city. There was panic not only among the civilian, but also the military.

I saw an officer screaming ‘Not a step back, cowards!’ as he cast fireballs at retreating soldiers. There were some commissars attempting to organize the men while chanting ‘Mosovo shall remain Sayitsi!’

I thought that the outer wall had fallen but it appeared that it was still fully intact. It was besieged but was still holding. Upon reaching the wall, we hurriedly went inside the garrison.

“Who’s in charge here?!” Blackhair shouted as soon as entered the garrison fort. An elf with a heavy coat of medals approached him and gave him a salute.

“Kaptin Thistliyin reporting. You must be the hero-comrades that volunteered to help us.”

“We are. What’s going on? Where are all these soldiers coming from? Who is attacking us?”

“These soldiers are garrisons of the frontline forts. We don’t know who is attacking us but it’s clear from the weaponry that…”

The fort was hit by multiple explosions, causing some elves to drop onto the ground. Our group decided to get on the wall to see who was attacking us. Unfortunately, there was a thick fog covering the place so we had to ask the elves instead.

The wall was manned by both the city garrison as well as soldiers from the frontline forts. They were easy to tell apart since the ones from the frontline were covered in blood and bandages. We approached one of the frontline officers.

“What’s going on here? Where did you all come from?” I interrogated him as he loaded a bolt onto a crossbow.

“I…I don’t know! First, we were fighting a losing battle at Revolution Fields, and then suddenly we were at Mosovo! It’s like we were teleported in! When I was teleported, I was blinded by a white flash. I thought I had died!”

Teleported? Bright white flash? Damn it, there was only one group of people that knew how to do large scale teleportation.

“The fog is lifting!” An elf shouted. The thick fog covering the horizon slowly dissipated and my view was surrounded by a sea of….blue, red and white?

The opponents on the other side were hammering their wide range of weapons onto the ground, creating a sound loud enough that even we, on the wall, could hear it. They were chanting one word in a weird semi-coherent way.

“FREEDOM! FREEDOM! FREEDOM!”

Dressed in all types of manner while painted in blue, red or white, the orcs all proudly screamed repeatedly. As they chanted, larger orcs who held huge crossbows shot randomly into the air. The bolts exploded mid-air in the same colors they were painted as.

The more explosions that blew up, the louder the group become. A large figure in the middle of the horde came out into the open and raised his gigantic axe, pointing to where we were at – the wall.

“LET’S GET THIS FREEDOMING STARTED, LADS!” The figure was obviously the leader as he was louder, had more axes stuffed into his trousers than the other orc, and was even painted in all three colors.

I sighed tiredly as I saw a massive blue, white and red wave come charging towards us.

Welp. Here we go again.