The next day, the area in front of the south gate guardhouse was buzzing with commotion from early morning.
The knights lined up for the expedition wore expressions thick with bewilderment.
"Lord Lumio, to clear the southeast highway that the trading companies use, we'll need at least fifty men. Marauders are a concern, but there'll be monsters as well."
Knight Commander Arhan's worry was understandable.
The force I'd requested him to bring—himself included—numbered barely a dozen.
As he said, the roads south of the North were monster-infested territory, and under normal circumstances, a far larger force would have been essential.
"A few years ago, several knights were bitten on the head and killed by monsters."
His attempt to frighten me into backing down was transparent.
But I gazed down at the map in my hand and only smiled.
"No. Additional troops won't be necessary. There shouldn't be many monsters along the route we're taking. And if we pull half of our hundred-odd fighting force, who's going to defend the territory?"
"That's true, but......"
I understood Arhan's concern for his men. But isolated as they'd been in the North, they couldn't have known.
That, at least during this time of year, the roads south of the North were reasonably safe.
"I'll take responsibility. Every single person will return unharmed. Besides, I'll be coming along."
"Even if your health has been improving, it'll be dangerous with you there, Young Lord."
"As if an expedition wasn't risky enough—now we have to worry about protecting the Young Lord on top of it."
Glances of open distrust and concern poured toward me.
Catching the administrator's corruption hadn't been enough to earn their trust yet.
In my previous life, that kind of look would have stoked my insecurities into anger. Now, I actually found it amusing.
"Is what I asked for ready?"
"Yes, the provisions are loaded on the cart. But isn't it a bit much?"
It would certainly look excessive for a party of just twelve.
"I have a separate use for it."
I turned to the knights, still frozen with unease about the expedition.
"Relax, everyone. This isn't grand enough to call an expedition."
I added with a smile:
"As I've been saying, 'cleanup' is more the right word."
They tilted their heads, uncomprehending.
Seeing them like that reminded me of the past.
I'd worn that same expression all the time when I first started taking commissions as a wanderer.
It made me think of the friends I'd worked alongside back then.
They were all dead now—but if the North had never fallen, they'd never have been in danger in the first place.
"We move out."
Time to re-fasten the first button that had been misaligned.
***
Our party of twelve headed slowly southward.
It wasn't a straight line. We passed through dense forests and forded rivers.
Every direction came from me, reading the map.
We'd traveled a fair distance, yet the knights hadn't encountered so much as a marauder, let alone a monster—which puzzled them.
"The route we're on isn't the same one the trading companies take. Are you sure this is right?"
I glanced at the map Arhan held up and nodded.
"Yes. Keep following this path."
"I agreed to follow your lead, Lord Lumio, so we're going...... but if we don't engage the monsters, what's the point of clearing the road?"
"Monsters keep spawning no matter how many you kill. A handful of kills won't change anything."
"......Pardon?"
Arhan and the knights all wore the same expression: 'Then why did we come all the way out here?'
"But if this expedition goes well, the highway the trading companies use will be safe."
Arhan's mouth opened and closed.
He looked like he wanted to ask what made me think so.
But I called out first, urgently.
"Monsters up ahead."
Sure enough, beside a tree stood black dogs with red eyes, watching us.
Garms—that was what the monsters were called.
Five in total.
One of them burst from the underbrush, lunging at the knight at the front with its grotesque jaws gaping wide.
GRAAAWR!
A lightning-fast ambush propelled by raw animal elasticity—almost too fast to track.
"Ngh!"
The knight threw his arm up on reflex.
Garm fangs found the gap in his armor and dug in.
Just as the beast moved to tear his arm off—
A sickening crack split the air, and the Garm's head sailed skyward.
Julian's sword.
"Attack—!"
At Arhan's command, the knights drew their blades in unison.
A mere five Garms were no match for the knights.
Limbs were severed, and blood splattered in every direction.
"Are you alright?"
"My arm......"
Arhan took one look at his subordinate's arm and bit his lip.
"Damn—the tendons are completely severed...... Unless we bring a cleric, he might never use that arm again."
"Step aside."
I placed my hand on the knight's injured arm.
Refresh—a First Circle spell.
The man's face, contorted with pain, gradually relaxed.
"Huh? The pain......"
Arhan's eyes went wide.
"L-Lord Lumio. Was that— was that healing magic you just used?"
"The Young Lord can use magic?"
Arhan's voice was trembling badly.
The healed knight was gripping his own arm, frozen in a daze, while the surrounding knights couldn't close their mouths.
Julian nodded, as if he understood their shock.
"Please—it's embarrassing when you're that surprised."
They'd only heard that I was the one who'd exposed the administrator; they must have assumed Julian did the heavy lifting.
Every morning, I'd been regulating my mana to keep my body as stable as possible.
I could cast two or three spells a day without pain.
"Do you realize how incredible this is......?!"
"Is the North finally getting its own healer?"
Amid laughter, I felt the shift in the knights' gazes from what they'd been before the expedition.
"We're not done yet. Garms are relatively weak compared to other monsters, but they hunt in packs. There could be more nearby."
"Have you been studying monsters?"
"Lying in bed gets awfully boring."
I couldn't exactly tell them I'd regressed, so I passed it off as a joke.
The distrust in the knights' eyes was giving way to something closer to awe.
A good sign, I thought, as I wiped the blood from my hands.
Just then, a knight on perimeter watch came running over.
"Commander! Just as the Young Lord said—there's another pack of Garms ahead. But......"
"But what? Why the hesitation? Are they heading our way?"
"No, sir. They're locked in a bloody battle with another group! Based on their gear, they appear to be northern marauders."
We moved quickly toward the sound.
Up ahead, Garms and marauders were fighting fiercely around a camp.
The battle was tipping in the marauders' favor, but three or four of them were already dead.
A flag stuck in the camp caught my eye.
I recognized it—so my memory had been right after all.
The marauders lived scattered across the North in small groups.
That flag meant we were close to where their leader was based.
Arhan observed the scene and spoke.
"Looks like we can sit back and let them do our work. If they kill each other off, that's good news for us."
"No. We're saving them."
Ten marauders had survived at this location.
That number was about to become nine. A Garm bared its fangs and charged at a fallen marauder.
"Julian!"
Before my order had fully left my mouth, Julian shot forward and lopped off the Garm's head in a single stroke as it lunged for the marauder.
"Haah...... Knight order, full charge! Cut down the monsters and surround the survivors!"
As I walked toward the camp, Arhan clutched his throbbing forehead and issued the command.
"K-Knight order!"
"Damn it, why is the northern knight order here?!"
"Run!"
The marauders bolted, but the knights' encirclement was far swifter and more solid than their wounded strides.
Despair crept into their eyes.
The outcome was inevitable.
The marauders were weak.
If the northern knights fought in earnest, they didn't stand a chance.
That was precisely why they operated in cells, scattered apart.
To avoid being wiped out in one sweep.
"Sheathe your weapons."
But cornered rats bite cats.
I ordered the knights to stand down.
"Lord Lumio, that's out of the question!"
Arhan replied firmly.
Regardless, I extended my hand toward a marauder lying on the ground.
The man, who'd been squeezing his eyes shut, stared in bewilderment as his wounds slowly closed.
"......Why are you helping me?"
"You're from the Kalt Territory, aren't you?"
"How do you know that?"
His eyebrows shot up.
The Kalt Territory was one of the northern territories that had already fallen.
That's right. The marauders here were survivors from the fallen territories.
Most who made it to the capital ended up enslaved or died after being treated as less than human.
That was what happened to the people of our territory in my previous life.
That was why these people hadn't gone to the capital—instead choosing to survive in the North as marauders, hunting and raiding, risking their lives every day.
"If you don't attack first, we have no intention of harming you."
After finishing the treatment and releasing his hand, I looked at the marauders.
They exchanged glances, nodded to one another, and set down their swords.
"Commander, please bring food from the cart."
Arhan let out a quiet sigh and nodded.
"Can't be helped. They're people who used to live in the North."
"......What's the catch?"
"I'm the only remaining lord's son in the North. Consider this goodwill from a fellow Northerner."
"Lord's son? Goodwill? Ha! As if we'd believe that."
The man who appeared to be this group's leader snorted derisively.
"I'd sooner trust a passing stray than a noble!"
At the brazen mockery, Julian bristled, clenching his fist.
I held him back and added:
"I'm not asking you to trust me. Trust the food."
Right on cue, two knights hauled the cart over, and at the sight of the generous spread, the marauders' mouths began to water.
The leader barked at them.
"You idiots! Already forgotten what the nobles did to us out there?"
I understood the leader's reaction.
They must have begged so desperately for help.
How many times they'd been turned away, how many humiliations they'd suffered.
I knew it all too well, having experienced it myself.
"Fair enough. You've obviously got an ulterior motive."
"......Exactly. The only territory left in the North is the one that's circling the drain. No way they'd hand out food for free."
"He brought knights with him—maybe he's trying to find out where the boss is?"
"For that, wouldn't he have brought more?"
Justification was everything.
Especially in the harsh North.
I wasn't a charity, and I wasn't helping them out of the goodness of my heart.
I was more accustomed to killing than saving, and I wasn't that kind of person to begin with.
"I already know where your leader is. And as you've pointed out, if I'd planned to take you by force, I would've brought far more knights."
The small number of knights was itself proof that we meant no harm.
"Why should we believe that?"
"If you're that curious, come along and see for yourselves. Get a meal while you're at it...... or don't. Up to you."
I said it flatly and started walking. The knights and the provision-laden cart followed.
"W-wait...... We'll follow—strictly to keep an eye on you. If you turn hostile, we need to be ready to fight."
I cracked a grin.
"Wipe your drool first."
Having them tag along would serve as a useful demonstration for the negotiation ahead. The marauders knew the northern terrain well, and most of them could fight.
I intended to take them in—all of them—under our territory.
As road-clearing guards for the highway.