The subjugation team arrived at the count’s territory where the ‘Abandoned Mountain’ was located after a full day’s travel.

“The outside of the walls is in a terrible state.”

Renart said with a gloomy expression as he looked around. The occasional visible houses were close to ruins, and the farmland was also in disarray.

“I heard no one lives outside the walls. It’s a bit better inside.”

“Is that so.”

Just as he was about to reply, an entrance leading inside the walls came into view. Gabriel, who was leading the subjugation team at the front, was already passing through the entrance.

Inside the quite high walls were dozens of houses. As people recognized the subjugation team and made way, Gabriel increased his speed again.

“Are you the captain of the White Knights?”

The gatekeeper guarding the main castle asked. While the walls themselves were quite high, the main castle where the lord resided was imposingly tall, almost dizzying in height.

“That’s right.”

As Gabriel pulled on the reins to stop his horse, the clamorous sound of hooves suddenly ceased.

“Please enter.”

At Gabriel’s gesture, the subjugation team dismounted their horses all at once. Meanwhile, two gatekeepers opened the castle gates wide from both sides.

“Please come in. We’ve been waiting.”

The one who appeared through the gates was Count Chloe, the lord of this castle. Beside the count were faces Rosebelia had seen in her memories.

“Captain, you’ve arrived.”

“You must have all had a hard time.”

Were these the knights dispatched from the White Knights to the count’s territory?

They looked slightly thinner than the faces Rosebelia had encountered around this time last year, but fortunately, everyone seemed fine.

“We came here of our own accord. By the way, captain, you seem to have gotten younger.”

Stroking his white beard and chuckling, Gabriel soon turned to the subjugation team and said,

“You’ve all worked hard riding day and night. We’ll ascend the mountain before dawn tomorrow, so rest well here today.”

“A banquet has been prepared, so those who want to eat first can follow me.”

“Please hand over your horse reins this way.”

From the butler guiding them to the meal, to the servants receiving the reins from the knights and moving to the stables. The castle staff moved in an orderly fashion, seeming accustomed to welcoming the subjugation team.

“Rosebelia, it’s been a while.”

“Indeed, senior. Have you been well?”

The one who addressed me was a man with a long scar on his forehead.

He was definitely a senior from the knights, but… was his name Oliver?

“Why didn’t Edwin come? Don’t tell me he didn’t make the subjugation list?”

“He made the list, but there were some circumstances.”

“What circumstances?”

“Well…”

As I was pondering what to say and where to start, I saw Vanessa approaching. She abruptly inserted herself between Oliver and me, saying,

“Senior Oliver, can’t we catch up later and eat first?”

Vanessa clutched her stomach like a hungry person and gave me a silent look.

Does she want us to go inside quickly?

“That’s right, we’ve had nothing but bread on our way here.”

“Is that so? You must be hungry. Let’s go eat first then.”

Ah, I remember now.

Oliver was infamous as a senior who never stopped chatting. That’s why he got along quite well with Edwin despite their bickering.

“Let’s go, Rosebelia.”

Following Vanessa into the dining hall, a rather luxurious meal was prepared. As she scanned the food with her eyes, she leaned slightly towards me and asked,

“Doesn’t the meal seem worse than during the last subjugation?”

“That’s understandable. The area outside the walls was in a complete mess.”

“Well, considering monsters have appeared even in villages on the outskirts of the capital, it must be even worse here. Shall we sit?”

As I sat in the seat Vanessa indicated with her eyes, a servant brought over a warm soup.

After a few spoonfuls…

“Excuse me, Lady Rosebelia.”

The call came from the seat right next to me. When I turned my head, I saw Conrad sitting in the previously empty seat beside me.

As I raised an eyebrow as if asking what he wanted to say, Conrad opened his mouth with a seemingly nervous expression.

“I’ve been wanting to apologize all this time.”

“For what?”

“For being rude to you, Lady Rosebelia.”

Ah, how quick indeed.

“You said to me then, that you couldn’t understand why there were female knights. That there’s no way a man could be weaker than a woman, so why recruit female knights…”

“I was ignorant. I should have apologized earlier, but I couldn’t bring myself to interrupt your training. To be honest, it wasn’t easy to approach you either. But I’ve sincerely wanted to apologize all this time.”

Conrad stood up from his seat and bowed to me. In fact, that incident was already forgotten, so there was no reason not to accept Conrad’s apology.

He had also readily answered when I asked what had happened at the imperial palace last time.

“I accept your apology.”

“Pardon?”

“We’ve come all this way for the subjugation together, so there’s no use dwelling on past matters for either of us.”

“That’s… true.”

I raised my hand to the bewildered-looking Conrad as if telling him to continue his meal, then slowly surveyed the inside of the dining hall.

Over twenty knights from the White Knights, about ten knights from the Guardian Knights, one monster researcher from the imperial family, and the rest were high-ranking knights recruited from noble families.

By imperial decree, noble families of viscount rank or higher had to send at least one high-ranking knight to the subjugation team every other year.

Of course, there were exceptions. That was the Riley family.

The Grand Duke Riley family had voluntarily sent two high-ranking knights every year, and in the last subjugation, the security force came instead of the Guardian Knights, so…

Does that mean the White Knights, monster researchers, and knights from the Riley family are the fixed participants in the subjugation?

As I picked up a grape to eat, I carefully observed the two knights from the Riley family. Next to them sat the monster researcher from the imperial family.

Sitting far apart from the other knights, they were whispering among themselves with food in front of them.

It wasn’t the first time I had witnessed such a scene. They would often gather among themselves to talk as if sharing secret conversations that others shouldn’t hear.

“Rosebelia, let’s go up now.”

“Yes, senior.”

Unlike the others, those three had noticeably more luggage…

I could understand why the monster researcher had a lot of baggage. They would always take water from the ‘Red Spring’ for research purposes every time they went on a subjugation.

But why would knights departing for subjugation have so much luggage?

It’s strangely bothersome.

*

The next day, before dawn broke, the subjugation team that had left the castle marched towards the ‘Abandoned Mountain’.

“Vice-captain, is that the mountain?”

“It seems so.”

“I guess the name ‘Abandoned Mountain’ wasn’t given for nothing.”

As the Guardian Knights said, there was an eerie atmosphere surrounding the mountain. The mountain itself wasn’t wide, but it was quite tall.

So the monsters living on this mountain came all the way to villages near the outskirts of the capital?

Come to think of it, this mountain itself isn’t that far from the capital either.

As they approached the foot of the mountain, Gabriel turned to face the subjugation team.

“As you all know, the purpose of this subjugation is to survey a wide area and kill as many monsters as possible.”

As Gabriel’s solemn voice rang out, a sense of impending battle filled the air. He made eye contact with each member of the subjugation team one by one as he continued.

“We’ll have to climb from the foot of the mountain to the peak and then descend on the opposite side, so it will be a journey several times more difficult than now. We never know where monsters might spring out from, so we must always stay alert.”

“Yes.”

The subjugation team answered in unison. A sense of gravity hung over everyone’s faces as they looked up at the towering, desolate mountain.

“What’s that?”

It was Vanessa who broke the somewhat heavy silence. There was something like a black shape where her finger was pointing.

That’s…

For a moment the shape disappeared, and then the ground seemed to move as if something was stirring beneath it.

Could it be a scorpion?

“Everyone, take defensive positions!”

“It’s a scorpion!”

Everyone was in a panic at the sudden appearance of the monster. Of all things, the first monster they encountered happened to be a scorpion, one of the trickier ones to deal with.

“Rosebelia!”

Standing dazed for a moment, I snapped back to my senses at Gabriel’s shout. As I drew my sword and followed Gabriel, the scorpion that had sprung out from underground raised its body threateningly.

It must be at least 4 meters long.

The scorpion clicked its pincers as if to intimidate us.

This is the real thing.

As soon as that fact sank in, the tips of my fingers gripping the sword began to stiffen.

“You know the scorpion’s weak points well, right?”

“Yes.”

The scorpion’s exoskeleton was hard, making it impossible to inflict a fatal blow in one strike. We had to aim for the relatively weaker parts of the exoskeleton. It was the part connecting the pincers to the body and the lower part of the body, wasn’t it?

Gabriel used to say it was between the thorax and abdomen, as if classifying an insect, so it must be there.

I rubbed my cheek where goosebumps had risen and glared fiercely at that part.

“We must end it in one strike.”

“Understood.”

The scorpion, which had been moving only its pincers as if gauging an opportunity to attack, suddenly stopped all movement. Even the clicking sound was no longer heard.

Why is it doing that?

The scorpion seemed to look back the way it had come, then disappeared into the ground.

“The scorpion is just leaving?”

“Could it be running away?”

To Lucas’s question, Gabriel shook his head firmly.

“If it wanted to avoid us, it would have done so from the start. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one come as if to attack and then run away like this…”

“This is the first time I’ve seen such a scene as well.”

The monster researcher who had somehow approached said. As everyone was puzzled, a knight from the Riley family abruptly interjected.

“Whether it’s the first time or not, what does it matter? Isn’t it a good thing that we didn’t have to shed blood?”

“Is that really so? We have to climb to the peak of this mountain, so we’ll encounter it eventually. It might have been better to deal with it early on.”

At Renart’s comment, the knight from the Riley family cleared his throat awkwardly.

“For now, it’s best if we move together today. Once we get somewhat accustomed, we’ll divide into two groups to search.”

“Yes.”

Following Gabriel’s order, the entire subjugation team climbed the mountain together. Although several relatively smaller monsters appeared multiple times, there were no large-scale monsters like the scorpion.

“Captain, please look at this!”

When they thought they had moved quite far from the foot of the mountain, Lucas, who was walking ahead, called out to Gabriel in an urgent voice.

“This is…”

“It’s the carcass of a monster.”

There were the carcasses of the scorpion they had encountered at the foot of the mountain and another slightly smaller scorpion. Pushing through the people gathered in front of the carcasses, I approached closer and furrowed my brow involuntarily.

Is this possible? If I’m not mistaken, this is…

The aura of an Aura.

Even if others couldn’t, I could clearly tell. A faint aura of an Aura could be felt from the carcasses.