Orphina welcomed Gawain as he entered the command room on the outskirts of Warrant. "Long time no see."

Gawain nodded at Orphina's greeting. "It’s been a long time. Hasn’t it been about a month and a half since you left the demon territory?”

"Yes, I was supposed to be relaxing in the capital for a year, but I can't help it because there’s an emergency.” Orphina smiled bitterly and shook her head helplessly.

"Ohohoho, are you Gawain, Bloody's nephew?" As Gawain and Orphina finished exchanging greetings, Glont, who was standing next to the commander-in-chief, smiled and asked a question.

Gawain asked out of habit, "Who are you?"

"Ohoho, my introduction is late. I don't know if your uncle told you, but I’m Glont."

"Ah!" Gawain exclaimed. "I’ve heard a lot about a ‘Glont’ from Uncle Bloody. I was told that other than his perverted tastes, he’s still stronger than an average warrior."

Glont burst into laughter. "Hahahaha! That sounds exactly like what Bloody would say! Ahahahaha!"

On the other hand, Orphina gritted her teeth after hearing Gawain. "That reckless simpleton."

Gawain was puzzled by the conflicting reactions. "Did I say something I shouldn’t have?"

"Tch. That’s the problem with Crows. It’s usually rude to call someone a pervert right to their face,” Orphina pointed out.

Gawain seemed to have been enlightened. "Oh! Come to think of it, I think he said something likethat about the world outsidethe village!"

Most of the Crow tribe didn’t hide their feelings. If another person said something offensive, they spoke directly and fought to resolve all their problems. Because of this, they didn’t even have any qualms calling someone a pervert.

Glont was well aware of this fact, so he smiled and moved on. "No, I'm fine. It's a hundred, no, a thousand times better than having a conversation while hiding your true feelings."

"Thank you for your understanding. But, unlike what I heard, you don’t really look like a pervert,” Gawain said.

Glont once again burst into laughter. "Hahahaha! It's wartime right now, so I have to show some dignity. It's annoying, but the commander has a duty to live up to his subordinates’ expectations." Gawain seemed puzzled, so Glont explained more simply, "It's like giving your subordinates the confidence that they can succeed in hunting. It's important because that kind of conviction determines the morale of the entire unit."

"Hmm, I think I know what you mean now."

William smiled at Gawain, nodding. "A commander who can't fulfill his subordinates’ expectations can be considered an incompetent commander."

Hearing Glont, Orphina crossed her arms arrogantly and snorted. "Most people are foolish enough to be misled by outward appearances, not someone’s true nature. They don’t recognize true greatness beneath appearances.”

"Well... I don't really know if that's foolish.” William refuted Orphina with a subtle smile.

"What do you mean by that?" Orphina asked in a sour tone.

William shrugged. "It's only natural for people to judge by what they see. Of course, it happens that everyone focuses on different things while looking."

Orphina continued, sounding as if she had heard something ridiculous. "Hmph, that's an opinion far from the absolute truth, taught by the Butterfly tribe that worships magic. Why don’t you talk about the future instead? It's not as if we have a lot of time.”

Orphina's sarcasm made William smile with a troubled expression. "I never knew you understood magic so well. Well, I agree that we should first deal with the fire under our feet.”

On the map laid out atop the table, William moved a large stone in the direction of Warrant.

"According to reports from the fourth intercept unit led by Dane Walker, the speed at which it’s moving southward has accelerated. They say they’re delaying it as much as possible, but at this rate, it might reach Warrant early in the night, not by midnight."

Glont and Orphina looked at the stone on the map with serious expressions. "Bloody will need to move as fast as he can,” Glont murmured.

Gawain pulled out the report from his bag when he heard Glont. "Oh, this is the interim report Uncle Bloody asked me to deliver."

William received the report, reading it intently. Then, he picked up a pen and marked some points on the map. "As expected, it’s going quickly since three Crows are stirring up the demon territory. If all goes well, we might be able to make it in time.”

Glont and Orphina’s hardened expressions relaxed.

"Even that fool can be useful at times like this,” Orphina remarked.

"You have to at least recognize his ability to break through. Hohoho!” Glont replied.

Orphina and Glont discussed how to move the stones that marked the imperial army with brighter expressions.

Just then, Gawain took a video ball out of his bag and put it on a table. "Oh, also, this is a video that Elder Mirpa-nim asked me to deliver."

With an odd expression, William picked up the video orb and played its contents.

After watching the video, Orphina dropped the stone she was holding, but no one there noticed. To be exact, no one could pay it any mind.

-Kaoooooo!

In the video, one of the four great demons, ‘The Dragon that Lived a Thousand Years’, was roaring.

And Doomstone was smiling brighter than anyone else, even while he faced the giant dragon alone. His appearance was filled with a majestic air.

* * *

In the morning, before the sun had risen completely, I suddenly woke up to the sound of a trumpet announcing an emergency.

"All troops! Gather around!"

"The demons are coming!"

I got out of my sleeping bag upon hearing the sound coming from outside. I quickly straightened out the uniform that I had roughly loosened in order to sleep last night, put on my combat boots, and tightened my shoelaces. Then I took the musket I had left next to me, slung it on my back, and holstered the rapier and pistol on my waist.

"Wake up!"I shook Demuir, who was still out cold beside me, to wake him up.

"Huh! What, what?!”

I gave Demuir some water to help him come to his senses from being woken up suddenly. "There’s an emergency. I'll go to Warehouse 12 first, so come quickly."

Demuir scrambled out of his sleeping bag. I ran to Warehouse 12 without looking back.

There were already soldiers in line to receive arrows there. I immediately opened the warehouse door and took out a pile of arrows.

“1331st Regiment, receipt of 2,000 arrows, confirmed!”

"2nd Headquarters Corps, receipt of 5,000 arrows!"

I quickly distributed the arrows and memorized how many arrows were supplied to which unit.

By now, I could see army magicians running this way to receive mana stones, but it would be too much for me to run two warehouses by myself unless I cloned myself.

"I'm sorry for being late!” Fortunately, Fiona came running in a disorganized fashion.

"No, you came just in time,” I replied.

Fiona opened Warehouse 3 and began distributing mana stones to the magicians. I also started to write a dispensary ledger for the arrows I’d distributed.

"We don't have enough mana stones! Please give us a little more!"

"We can’t. This is all we can distribute."

"What! It’s full of mana stones in there!"

The magicians began to scuffle with Fiona for more mana stones.

"It's a command from the top. I can't provide any more mana stones!"

"We need them to deal with the demons now!"

Just based on what I saw while distributing the arrows, the supply of mana stones definitely did seem far lower than what we had on hand. However, that was just because there was an absurd amount of mana stones in the storage, not because there weren't enough being distributed to fight the demons.

I stopped handing out the arrows and approached Fiona, who was struggling.

"It's a pity that the supply of mana stones is so limited, but it's an order from the top. I ask for your kind understanding." I tried to calm down a magician who had been getting worked up with Fiona.

Still, the frustrated magician yelled, "All this time, we’ve been waiting for more mana stones to be supplied! Do you guys even know that we’ve had to watch our comrades die due to a lack of mana?”

The magician tried to grab Fiona by the collar, but I put myself in between them and he ended up grabbing my collar instead.

Fiona was shocked and was about to yell at the magician, but I raised my hand to stop her and said, "I'm sorry, but I hope you can understand that there’s nothing we can do either. As you know, during wartime, disobeying orders from one’s superiors warrants a death penalty."

In particular, rules governing supplies were stricter, because they had a direct impact on the units’ future operations.

The magician also knew that, and loosened his grip before yelling in frustration, “Damn it!” He ran toward the city wall with his assigned mana stone while spewing curses.

"Are you all right?" I asked.

Fiona smiled at my concern. "I’m all right."

"The nerve of some people!" She fumed and glared towards the wall that the magician had gone toward.

"It's not that I don't understand. If someone’s been repeatedly squeezing out mana to the limit for several days, their nerves really will be on edge from a chronic lack of mana," I commented.

Combined with the stress of war, the fact that it had ended with him only grabbing a collar meant that the magician normally had an extremely gentle and mild personality.

If I thought of my previous life, was it like completely cutting out carbohydrates for a few days and working endlessly at a delivery warehouse, loading and unloading packages?

If I had been suffering from a chronic lack of mana and someone had offended me, it probably wouldn't have ended with just grabbing a collar. If it were me, I probably would have left them halfway between life and death.

I sighed and handed Fiona the arrow dispensary ledger I had written. "Let's switch positions."

Fiona hesitated at my suggestion. "But…"

"The pile of arrows is heavy, but here comes Demuir. Just leave it all to Demuir."

Fiona blushed when I smiled jokingly and pointed at Demuir as he ran over. "That's not what I mean!"

"Ahaha, I know. The magicians might come at me, and not just stop at grabbing my collar.”

She nodded seriously. "Then I should stay..."

"No." I cut off Fiona. Then I pushed Fiona toward Warehouse 12 and said, "Don't worry, I’m capable of overpowering a magician who’s lacking in mana. I'm probably the strongest civil servant at the headquarters, you know?"

Fiona wouldn’t know, but I was stronger than Guild Director Glont. As I flexed the muscles in my forearm and smiled, she still looked worried.

Even if it wasn’t at the level of my father or big brother, whose muscles were lethal weapons, if I looked at least like my second brother, my muscles would have been noticeable from the outside of the uniform. But even to me, my forearms didn’t look reliable.

I sighed and pulled out my rapier.I guess I can’t help it.

"Look carefully." I infused the rapier with very weak mana. Fiona was surprised when mana fluttered faintly across the blade.

"How...?" she asked. Her reaction was natural, as only knights and a small percentage of skilled elite soldiers could infuse mana into weapons.

"I'm from around here, too,” I said. It wasn’t a lie, since I was from Olympus Forest near here.

"Ah!" Fiona clapped her hands in admiration. She seemed convinced.

"I can take care of myself, so you can go quickly. Demuir will suffer if he has to work alone."

At the moment, Demuir was moving a pile of arrows by himself, moaning as he wrote his own ledger.

"All right. If anything happens, shout right away."

"Okay, I got it." I nodded as Fiona headed to Warehouse 12. Just in time, magicians started flocking over to receive their mana stones.