Rohan was practicing swordsmanship on the training ground. Today, too, his partner was Hatz.
'Father never said it had to be a solo mission.'
Hatz still hadn't made a name for himself. That was understandable: in the intermediate course, at thirteen he was the youngest apart from Rohan, and he was still at an age where a year or two was hard to overcome.
"Hatz. Skip training tomorrow and come somewhere with me."
"Where to?"
Hatz stopped swinging his sword and wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve.
Rohan picked at his ear and answered as if explaining were a bother.
"Follow me tomorrow and you'll find out. I'll tell the instructor, so don't worry."
"Yes. Is there anything I should prepare?"
"That sword. ......And dress warmly."
Hatz fingered the fur vest he was wearing.
"Warmly? It's not exactly thin now, though?"
It was a fur coat with no sleeves and not much thickness. Still, during breaks in training, it kept the body temperature around the heart from dropping sharply.
"That won't cut it. Wear a fur coat. Ah, you might not have one. Come to the villa where I'm staying. I'll give you one. Though I don't know if I'll have one in your size."
Hatz tilted his head for a moment. He simply figured they weren't going to be moving around much.
The next day.
Hatz waited in front of the villa. A moment later, Rohan came out carrying a coat longer than he was tall on his back.
"Try this on."
He tossed the coat to Hatz. Hatz caught it and put it on. The sleeves were a little long and the hem came down below his knees, but not enough to get in the way of moving.
"Thank you. But what about you, Lord Rohan......."
Rohan was wearing only the fur vest he wore for training. Since he could handle fire mana, he had no particular need to worry about the cold.
"Me? I'm fine. Worry about yourself."
But Hatz, who couldn't know this, took it for Rohan's consideration, and his eyes welled with tears of emotion.
"Has this guy lost it? Enough, let's go."
Rohan turned and went around behind the villa. Hatz hurried after him. Rohan was climbing the mountain.
"Where are we going?"
"Quit talking and just follow."
Hatz had already sworn the Guardian Knight's oath. Following his orders was his duty and his mission.
'If we keep going this way, we'll reach the Wall.'
Of course, he wasn't unaware of where the road they were on led.
The Wall. The border of the North as he knew it.
'Does he have business at the Wall?'
That was as far as Hatz's thinking went. He never imagined Rohan meant to cross the Wall.
The world beyond the Wall wasn't anywhere in Hatz's head.
When they reached the summit, they heard the voices of the guards on top of the Wall. The Wall was built on the mountain. Its height was relatively low here, so their faces were plain to see.
"Halt!"
Rohan didn't stop. Then a metal object came flying from atop the Wall.
It was a throwing knife, sharp at one end.
Hatz read the knife's path in an instant. The knife would pass just barely by Rohan's shoulder.
CLANG!
But Rohan swung his sword. It was so fast Hatz didn't even see the arc.
To his eyes, Rohan just seemed to be holding his sword up over his shoulder.
"Why are you blinking like that?"
"Pardon?"
"Did you think good eyes you were born with were all it takes? You've got a long way to go. If you want to keep up with my movements, train hard."
How are you going to guard me like this?
Clicking his tongue, tsk tsk, Rohan took a few more steps toward the Wall.
"Who are you?"
There were no more warning throws. They had understood that threats didn't work on him.
But the next knife would fly not at his shoulder, but straight at Rohan's heart.
"Rohan Baltran. The youngest young master of the House of Baltran."
Rohan shouted loudly. For a moment, silence took hold atop the Wall.
Hatz stared blankly at Rohan's commanding attitude.
So this is a Baltran.
I truly am serving a direct-line Baltran.
Even among the Baltrans, there was no one so brazen at the age of eleven, but Hatz, who couldn't know that, was simply in awe.
Atop the Wall, whispers broke the silence. They were discussing whether the child who had come up to the Wall was really Rohan.
It didn't take long to reach a conclusion. A tiny child had casually batted away a throwing knife thrown by the guard squad leader. The only kid they could think of with that kind of skill was the Baltrans' youngest young master, who had been the talk of all sorts of rumors lately.
"What brings you here?"
A trainee couldn't flaunt his family. But that rule only held between the trainees and instructors who lived under it every day. The Wall guards, who rarely had anything to do with trainees, didn't dare speak down to a direct-line Baltran.
"I have no business with you, so just open the gate."
Knowing this well, Rohan casually gave them orders. When they dithered, he started kicking the Wall's gate outright.
BANG! BANG!
They watched in disbelief. At the same time, they became convinced that kid was Rohan Baltran without a doubt.
In the North, the only people who could pull that kind of stunt were the Baltran direct line.
Though Rohan was the first to actually do something so vulgar.
The gate opened, and Rohan and Hatz entered the Wall. The gate on the opposite side was already open too. They didn't want to wrangle with Rohan any longer.
"Now they're listening."
Unlike Hatz, who looked uneasy somehow, Rohan stepped out beyond the Wall with a light face.
"Um, young master. Is this really all right?"
"What?"
Hatz didn't know what to point out first.
That a trainee had bullied the Wall guards? Or that they were heading out into the dangerous world beyond the Wall?
As if he had read Hatz's mind, Rohan grinned.
"Don't worry. We're out here on my father's orders."
If it was Rohan's father.......
"You mean Lord Gion Baltran?"
"Right. We're on our way to carry out a mission ordered by the Northern Grand Duke himself."
"B-But I'm just a trainee."
"You may be, but I'm not. I'm a pure-blooded Baltran and an official candidate for the headship who has held his Succession Ceremony. So no one can say the other heirs will leave me alone just because I'm young. Hatz!"
Rohan grabbed Hatz by both shoulders. Then he met his eyes.
"Listen well. I'm going to finish my training within 2 years. After that, I'll leave for the land I'll be granted. Once I've gotten it into some kind of shape, I'll set out on a journey, following the family tradition. You're my Guardian Knight. Of course I'm taking you. So you have to get strong, fast."
Hatz's shoulders trembled. His grip on his sword tightened.
Excitement and fear rushed in at the same time.
"I don't know whether I'm worthy of that."
"You are. You can definitely become a warrior worthy of guarding my side. I guarantee it, so all you have to do is trust me and throw yourself into training."
What could be more certain than having seen the future? Rohan hadn't the slightest doubt in his words.
And that confidence reached Hatz too.
Hatz looked at Rohan. His earlier oath had been made in a daze.
CRUNCH!
Hatz knelt on one knee. His knee sank into the snow.
"Guardian Knight Hatz. I will guard Lord Rohan's side with my life."
With a pleased face, Rohan gently laid his sword on his shoulder.
***
Rohan and Hatz came down the snow-covered mountain.
"That's strange. So much more snow just from crossing one Wall."
Hatz was struggling along, pulling his feet out of snow that swallowed him to the knee with every step. Rohan, on the other hand, only sank to the ankle, and it made little difference from walking on flat ground.
"This is a problem. When are we going to get there, walking like that?"
Rohan turned to look at Hatz and sighed. Hatz looked aggrieved.
"It's my first time somewhere so covered in snow. How are you walking so easily, Lord Rohan?"
"Just walk lightly."
Can't you do it like this?
Rohan walked backward, looking at Hatz as if to rile him. Even so, he was too fast for Hatz to catch up.
Rohan's distinctive gait came from a blend of his mercenary days crossing all kinds of rough terrain and the footwork he had learned in the Andelian family. Habits ingrained in his body came out naturally, and his footwork was no exception.
Rohan, who had been walking and widening the gap from Hatz, stopped. He was looking at something. Hatz, who had caught up at some point, looked where his eyes were turned.
"Is it a monster hunt?"
Five people in black fur coats had surrounded a huge beast covered in gray fur and were attacking it. The monster, which looked like a giant gorilla, flailed both arms in resistance, but the five toyed with it, lightly dodging its fists and plunging their swords into its body.
The monster's thick hide was pierced. Blood spurted, staining the snow-covered white ground red.
"They've all reached the 6th Stage of the White Ice Ring. And they've mastered the 6th Chapter of the sword style too."
On top of that, one of them was already at the 7th Stage. It was more than enough force to take down one monster.
There was only one case in which five people of that caliber in black coats roamed together outside the Wall.
"The Wall patrol."
The patrol also belonged to the Guard. But they were made up of the most skilled among the guards, and by custom, the Captain of the Guard was chosen from among them.
"Wow, so these are the ones I've only heard about in rumors....... They're amazing."
Hatz watched them fight with his mouth hanging open. Seeing that, Rohan smiled.
'If not for me, he'd be one of them himself before long.'
In his past life, Hatz had been a Captain of the Guard. The captain of the 1st Guard, no less, which protected the stretch of Wall closest to the main castle.
Naturally, he too must have come from the patrol.
As the hunt more or less wrapped up, Rohan walked toward them. Hatz followed, eyes still shining.
The five pairs of eyes turned to Rohan at once. Some of them unconsciously moved their hands to their weapons. But soon, realizing it was two children, they relaxed.
"How did you two get over the Wall?"
"I am Rohan Baltran."
It was an answer that had nothing to do with the question. The point was simple. Speak respectfully to a Baltran.
But the five patrolmen snorted.
"If you're the youngest young master, you're still a trainee. Don't you know trainees can't flaunt their family?"
The black-haired man Rohan had judged to be a 7th-Stage knight said.
"Yeah, that's right. Suit yourself. If you're sure you won't regret it in a few years."
When Rohan fired back with a smile, the patrolmen flinched. To them, Rohan was only an eleven-year-old kid.
But when he calmly returned an insult like that, they couldn't see him as an ordinary child.
Being born into the Baltran direct line was far from ordinary to begin with, but Rohan was beyond that level.
They had heard the rumors about Rohan too. So what he'd just said didn't sound like simple bluster.
But the black-haired man was still unimpressed. Rohan pointed a finger at him and spoke.
"You're the squad leader."
"That's right. The young master has a good eye, I see."
"Not just a good eye. A good memory too."
The man snorted with laughter.
"Then don't forget my name either. I'm Oshan."
"What if I really remember it and take some kind of revenge? Why give out your name so easily?"
"Haha. If you ever reach a position where you can make my life hard, I'll run far away, so know that."
It was an unexpected answer. Rohan ended up laughing along with him.
'He's got guts.'
Rohan filed his name away as a not-bad memory.
Rohan suggested they travel together. Oshan neither agreed nor refused.
"I won't stop you from following. But you'd better not expect us to wait for you, or to help when you're in danger."
"Same goes for us, so don't worry."
Oshan looked at Rohan with wide eyes.
"Haha! This one's something else. Come find me when you're grown. I've got to see with my own eyes how you turn out."
"By then, you won't dare look down at me from above."
Oshan put a hand on Rohan's head, then brought it level with his own chest.
"For that, you'd need to grow a lot taller."
What Rohan meant was, of course, not physical height. Oshan understood what Rohan meant too, but pretended not to and teased him.
The problem was who he was dealing with.
"Is there any need? You'll bend your knees on your own."
Beside them, Hatz was on edge that a fight might break out between the two. However strong Rohan was, he was just a trainee.
There was no way he could win against Oshan, the patrol squad leader.
If Rohan were in danger, would he have to step in? Then he'd lose his life on the spot.
Fortunately, his worry ended when Oshan turned away first.
"An interesting one has come out of the Baltrans."
"It won't be interesting when we meet again."
Rohan fired back to the very end. Oshan shook his head as if fed up and led his group on.
Rohan and Hatz followed them diligently. Hatz gradually got used to walking on snow.
Rohan watched him from beside with satisfaction.
'He sure learns fast. I'll have to keep training him hard.'
Hatz, walking beside him, had no idea how much pain Rohan's resolve would bring him in the future.
"We'll stop here."
Before they knew it, the sky had grown dark. Hatz looked up at it and spoke.
"Wow, night comes so fast outside the Wall."
"That's right. The farther north you go, the earlier night comes. From here, even inside the Wall counts as the south."
It was also proof they had come farther north of the Wall than they'd thought.
'Nothing's as efficient as moving with a patrol squad.'
Oshan came up to Rohan. Unlike before, his expression was serious, without a trace of a smile.
"You two go to sleep now. We'll take turns standing watch among ourselves. How could we trust you two, whom we only met today?"
Rohan read his intention. He'd said it curtly, but it was actually consideration for young Rohan and Hatz.
Rohan grinned.
"Yeah? Then I won't say no."
A while later. Rohan and Hatz rolled themselves up in the blankets the patrol gave them and fell asleep.
Having walked a hard road with their small bodies, Hatz in particular even snored, which he normally didn't.
Around the time the sun faintly began to rise.
Rohan and Hatz were forced awake by a scream.
"Miro's gone!"
Rohan didn't know the name Miro, but he understood the situation at once. One of the men standing watch had disappeared.
He wouldn't have vanished quietly. This was outside the Wall. There was nowhere to run, and monsters targeting them were plentiful.
"H-Here!"
They ran toward the patrolman's shout. On the snowfield where he pointed, footprints were clearly stamped. The shape of the feet was clear enough to picture which monster it was.
"Let's go after it, quick!"
Rohan stopped the patrol.
"Idiots. There are no drag marks from a body!"
"It could've carried him in its mouth."
Rohan pointed here and there across the snowfield as if they were hopeless.
"Even so, there'd be a foot dragging, or at least a drop of blood. Do you see anything like that?"
In place of the flustered patrolmen, Oshan answered.
"No."
"Right. This isn't just a monster hunting prey and carrying it off. It's definitely a trap meant to lure us."
Once he had heard Rohan's words, Hatz saw the footprints in the snow differently. It was as though they had eyes and mouths and would come running at him to eat him.