After a long silence, the Captain sighed deeply and then reprimanded me.

“Did you think I’d be happy hearing such disheartening words?”

“I’m sorry. But realistically-”

“Enough.”

Interrupting me with a firm voice, he began approaching me one step at a time.

With a mischievous smile on his lips.

“Are you going to keep using those lips to say strange things? If that’s how you’re going to use them, I’d rather borrow them for a moment.”

“Pardon?”

Without giving me a chance to ask what he meant, the Captain overlapped his lips with mine.

It wasn’t bad before, but now his movements were much more skillful.

The Captain blocked my lips for a long time with such skillful movements.

“Mmph… Wait, if someone sees us-”

“Shh.”

That was our last kiss in the Duke’s castle.

The day after that long kiss, we departed.

Towards the northern snowfields where monsters that had sprung from the rift were running rampant.

The current season is summer when roses bloom.

However, surprisingly, there really was a snow-covered field in the north.

I heard it suddenly became like this after the monsters appeared?

Anyway, we had to be careful.

This was my first time visiting here since I hadn’t had the chance to visit the Duke’s territory before my regression.

Of course, even then, monsters had appeared due to corruption near the Duke’s territory.

However, I wasn’t the one dispatched at that time.

Before my regression, my relationship with the Captain was awkward, so he chose other members instead of me to bring to his territory.

Hence, this was my first time here.

I looked around the snowy landscape, a bit more tense than usual.

Just then, the Captain asked.

“Can you detect the location of the monsters?”

“No, it’s difficult. Somehow I’m having trouble concentrating today.”

“I see.”

The reason I had been able to pinpoint monster locations until now was because I had seen their positions before my regression, but since this was my first time here, I didn’t know anything.

“But I do know one thing.”

At my sudden remark, the members’ attention focused on me.

I looked at each of them in turn and shared the only information I knew about the monsters in this area.

“The monsters here have intelligence nearly as high as humans.”

I had never directly seen the monsters that existed in this snowfield.

Nevertheless, I had heard something from other members before my regression.

-“The Winter Queen was a monster capable of devising strategies.”

That was what I had heard from one of the members who had been dispatched here at the time.

The members who had directly encountered the monster ruling the snowfield called it the ‘Winter Queen’.

Apparently, they named it so because it took the form of a woman made of ice?

Anyway, this Winter Queen supposedly used its ice ability to create a castle in the middle of the snowfield, hiding there and generating lower-level monsters called ‘golems’.

I heard that while defeating the golems alone would make it easy to invade the castle, they struggled because the Queen knew how to use these golems quite strategically.

So I informed all the members of this fact.

“…For this reason, we may encounter golems at any time on our way to the Winter Queen’s castle.”

“I see. So you know everything except the Winter Queen’s location. Impressive.”

“Thank you.”

“Well then, shall we get going? Even standing still is a chore in such a cold place.”

After saying that, the Captain immediately set his horse in motion, and we followed behind him.

Thus, we cautiously headed towards the Queen’s castle, avoiding places where golems might be.

We roughly determined the Winter Queen’s location using magic detectors, then Oscar used his clairvoyance to check if there were golems in that direction.

The journey was smoother than expected, but after about half a day, a problem arose.

“Captain, a group of knights… that is, a ‘knightly order’ has been approaching us for a while now.”

Oscar said this while looking south with his eyes imbued with clairvoyant ability.

Nothing was visible to our eyes, but something seemed to be visible to his clairvoyance.

Hearing Oscar’s words, the Captain immediately asked.

“Wait, a knightly order? Suddenly in a place like this?”

“Yes, fortunately, their numbers are small. About 10 people in total. Judging by how they’re steadily approaching us, they seem to know our location for certain.”

After saying that much, Oscar made a slightly more serious expression and added.

“In other words, there might be an awakened one among them with clairvoyant ability like mine.”

In short, it meant that a knightly order including awakened ones, a powerful armed group, was approaching us.

Hearing this report, the Captain seemed perplexed and hesitated to speak, so Oscar bowed his head deeply.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t detect them sooner. They approached while I was resting my eyes for a moment, so I couldn’t discover them in advance.”

If Oscar had continued to survey the surroundings with his clairvoyance, we would have detected the suspicious knightly order and avoided them before they discovered us.

But Oscar had a naturally low amount of magic power, so he couldn’t keep his ability activated all day.

Therefore, the fact that they approached while Oscar was resting his clairvoyance was an unavoidable accident.

Knowing this, the Captain didn’t blame Oscar too much.

“Don’t blame yourself. It’s impossible to keep your ability activated all day long. Anyway, a knightly order all of a sudden. Can you tell which group they belong to?”

“Please wait a moment. I’ll look more closely.”

Saying that, Oscar squinted his eyes and looked south again.

Soon, unbelievable words flowed from Oscar’s mouth.

“They are His Majesty the Emperor’s Imperial Guards.”

“…The Emperor’s Imperial Guards? Are you sure?”

To the Captain’s disbelieving question, Oscar replied in a clear tone.

“I’m certain. The Imperial Guard emblem is engraved on the left chest of their uniforms.”

“…”

The Captain’s eyes twisted even more than before.

Not just anyone, but Ernant’s Imperial Guards.

While we were waiting to hear their purpose, they finally arrived before us.

“Greetings, Your Grace. We are members of the Golden Deer, His Majesty the Emperor’s Imperial Guard-”

“I can tell who you are just by looking at the emblem prominently displayed on your uniform. State your purpose.”

At the Captain’s sharp retort, the face of the man who appeared to be the Imperial Guard captain hardened.

Nevertheless, he quickly composed himself with surprising speed and answered.

“We have come under imperial orders to support the Silver Knights in their monster subjugation.”

“…You’re saying you want to assist in our subjugation? You?”

To the Captain’s mocking question, the Imperial Guard captain replied again in a businesslike tone.

“All members of our Imperial Guard are awakened ones.”

“…Awakened ones, you say?”

“Although we have no direct experience in subjugating monsters, we certainly possess abilities. We will be a strong support for you.”

Given that they had managed to track down our location and the fact that faint magical energy could be felt from all of them, they did indeed seem to be awakened ones.

However, their abilities were likely not very powerful.

If they were powerful awakened ones, Ernant would have used them when recruiting monsters.

So while their level probably wasn’t very impressive, we still couldn’t let our guard down.

After all, they were ‘Ernant’s’ Imperial Guards.

They were the knights of the man who wanted to kill the Captain.

Ernant. What could he be plotting now?

I glared at them while thinking this.

The possibility that Ernant had sent his Imperial Guards to help the Captain out of pure intentions was close to zero.

He must be hiding some dark intentions.

Just then, Oscar alerted us in an urgent voice.

“Captain! Three ice golems are approaching us!”

Ice golems, the lower-level monsters created by the Winter Queen.

These ice golems were extremely tricky to deal with.

Their bodies were disgustingly huge, taking too long to melt, and too hard to break.

Of course, we could fight them if we wanted to, but we couldn’t afford to exhaust ourselves before meeting the Winter Queen, so we needed to avoid them quickly.

So when the Captain was about to give the order to retreat, it happened.

“We’ll handle them.”

The Imperial Guard captain suddenly said such a thing.

Of course, the Captain didn’t just let that brazen statement slide.

“What nonsense is this?”

“We will deal with the golems. Members of the Silver Knights, please keep yourselves safe in a secure location.”

“Ha.”

The Captain let out a derisive laugh and then pointed out in a sharp tone.

“Didn’t you all say you have no experience in subjugating monsters? Moreover, it doesn’t seem like you possess very strong abilities.”

“But we have been preparing for monster subjugation through constant training. We will demonstrate our skills to you.”

The Captain seemed at a loss for words as he watched the Imperial Guard captain insist without blinking an eye.

He just glared at the Imperial Guard captain as if dumbfounded.

That’s when Oscar shouted again.

“Captain! They’re getting closer and closer! It looks like they’ll reach us in about 3 minutes!”

Translation complete. 100% of original text translated.