Knights, Let’s Smash Them

4 – Starting from zero (1)

There was a lot of work to do.

The frost spirit was not the problem.

They were actually the ones that would naturally disappear if we held out until mid-May.

They come down to the city only in March or April, when the weather is still chilly.

It’s not even a halfway ridge, but you have to go to a highland where snow is piled up to see it, right?

Count Rupel knew that fact, so he didn’t put much effort into defeating the Frost Spirit.

However, it is not the Knights.

Didn’t he say that he led the knights under his command in the Battle of Lechenberg?

I don’t remember exactly, but I don’t think there were five knights at that time.

When I asked what the hell had happened, Count Rupel explained with a bitter expression.

-Our knights moved the front line to the Palisto Gorge after the Battle of Lechenberg.

Palisto Gorge.

It was only then that I realized why Count Rupell’s knights were virtually ‘disappeared’.

Of the many battles of the expedition, it was one of the battles that competed for the top 1 or 2 in the terrible battle.

At that time, only 3,000 of the 20,000 soldiers who were put into battle returned alive.

The remaining 17,000 people were left there without even their bodies recovered.

I told you that if you go that way, the enemy’s ambush will be severe, and you will suffer huge losses…… I couldn’t help it because the idiot duke Brandonneck insisted strongly.

Because I myself lost in that battle, I couldn’t pass the blame for the defeat on to anyone else.

Well, aside from that being an old story.

If Count Rupel’s knights had participated in that battle, it was quite understandable that the knights, who did not know whether they were white roses or gold roses, looked like this.

On the contrary, it is a pity.

His knights, who were treated as elite knights enough to get involved in the big and small affairs of the empire, are now worse than the people’s knights of the baron, whose name only remains.

“Hey, here…… These are the remaining papers.”

Sianne said, placing a thick tower of papers on my desk.

The infrastructure of the knights’ barracks on the other side of Count Rupel’s house was not bad.

It’s because the barracks aren’t well managed, but I also really liked the fact that the administrative offices were separated.

Right now, even if it’s close to a bright apricot, it’s better than nothing.

“By the way, are you saying you can review all these documents in one day?”

“Yes, there is no problem with that, so leave it to me. Captain Xianne and her knights only need to finish what I asked for.”

Xian Ne noticed that she couldn’t trust her. After all, people who used to work for good bosses shouldn’t be like this.

The Knights of the Black Lion processed exactly four times this amount per day. If it’s just one, I think it’s rather too little.

“Oh, and it doesn’t matter if you speak comfortably. In any case, since I am the administrator of the Knights, I am the commander’s subordinate.”

“That, that, that can’t be…” … !! I’m in a position where I have to learn, but you treat me badly! It doesn’t matter!”

Um~ good.

Passed the toughness.

I smiled at Xi’an and shook her hand.

“Then, as I said, take care of Frost Spirit.”

***

“Captain…… Does this really work? It’s the first time I’ve heard of luring a cold spirit into cold air.”

“This is Lubern’s words, not anyone else’s, and there’s no way they’re wrong.”

“So, even if it’s that black fox…… It means that you trust me too much.”

Heinz, a rank knight who was one of the last five members of the White Rose Knights, said in a slightly worried voice.

I heard that even though he was the former chief administrator of the Imperial Black Lion Knights and absolutely trusted by Count Rupel, it had only been a few days since he visited the estate.

After all, they are strangers.

Isn’t it strange that the position of an administrator of the Knights was decided so suddenly, even if he had a good background?

“And it’s only Frost Spirit, so it won’t be a big deal if you misinform me.”

The vice-captain ‘Emain Rua’, who had been listening to the conversation between Captain Xianne and Heinz, added one more word.

She was on standby due to an injury during the Battle of Palisto Gorge, where the White Rose Knights were completely annihilated.

She thought it was a humiliating injury at the time, but ironically, it saved her life.

Thus, she was the most experienced of the knights, and she was the one with the most bones.

If Emain Lua herself had not refused to assume the position of leader of her, she would probably have been sitting in Xi’anne’s place.

With her deputy captain in addition to her captain, Heinz, her general reviewer, couldn’t express his opinion any more.

And I’ve done everything I could.

Meanwhile, she said, ‘I can control the cold spirit with cold energy!’ It was true that it was surprisingly persuasive.

“But why is it an abandoned brewery?”

“The Count said there was no other place to drive the spirits except here.”

“Ah… ….”

“Stop talking about other things. Let’s finish the mission quickly.”

Even if we talked about it, in the end, it was a trivial content. Because Xianne just wanted to implement the method the Luverne magistrate told her about as soon as possible.

The five knights gathered in a circle in the brewery, drew their swords, and concentrated their mana.

If it wasn’t a high-level level of expressing aura, but simply generating mana of the ice attribute, even the Knights of the White Rose, who were mere half-penny knights, were fully capable.

Such thick mana was released from the bodies of the five knights and mixed with the calm air.

The closed space, the underground, and the stagnant air all worked together, and the temperature dropped horribly as the mana of the ice attribute was expressed.

The youngest knight, Barbara, who is especially weak against the cold among the five, began to tremble like crazy.

“Choo, Chueo… ….”

“Then why are you wearing thin clothes?”

“Ugh, I didn’t know how cold it would be.”

“Be patient, Barbara.”

We haven’t reached the point the Lubern magistrate said yet. Because he said it must be as cold as the peak of the Ardaros Mountains that stretches behind the manor.

Then, as he exhaled, white steam flowed out of his mouth.

Even Xianne, who is wrapped in cold-weather gear used in winter, feels the cold gnawing at her skin.

“Just a little more…… !”

“This, now that, that one, de, chu, come on, moi, can’t be…… Yo. This…… !!”

In the end, the impatient Barbara kicked the basement door of the brewery and ran out.

Those who had endured a little longer than that, quickly got out of the abandoned brewery when their toes gradually lost feeling.

“Captain, come out quickly!”

“Not yet…… No see…… ! Little bit more…… !!”

“Oh my God, let’s see…… !!”

In the end, the only ones left until the very end were the leader, Cianne and Heinz.

Heinz wanted to go outside right away, but as an ordinary knight, he couldn’t leave his superior behind.

“Close close close close.”

Fantastically clashing teeth, the two discharged mana to the limit.

If the temperature went down, even the slightest amount of water vapor adhering to the surface of the armor would freeze and make the metal armor look white.

“Keuhuhhh—!!!”

Heinz finally ran out of the brewery and rolled on the floor. Her legs trembled. They say that when it’s really cold, your feet feel like they’re on fire, and that was just right.

And Xian Ne follows and exits her brewery.

“Captain! The Frost Spirit has appeared!”

In the forest beyond the Count’s house not far away, sparkling spiritual bodies appeared. They were the ones I managed to repel yesterday and drive them into the forest.

‘Really?’

Xianne thought as she quickly pushed back her knights.

Normally the frost spirits didn’t roam much now that the sun was up. Because they hate warmth and sunlight.

‘I’m really responding.’

The chill in the brewery was so strong that such a frost spirit crawled out of the forest in broad daylight.

The cold air is really attracting the spirits.

They floated busily through the air, then went deep into the brewery, unaware that it was a trap.

“Now!!”

“Ughhhhh!!”

Boom!!

After confirming that all the frost spirits had entered the brewery, Xianne gave her signal, and Lonz, a knight as large as a rock, slammed her and shut the door.

“Hurry up!!”

That wasn’t enough, so I piled up the waste furniture I had prepared in advance and sealed it tightly at the entrance.

“That’s it!”

“Really!?”

It was so easy to trap the Frost Spirits.

They managed to lure out the bad guys who ran away if they tried to catch even a little bit, and if they gave up and turned around, they would come and play around as usual.

There was no need to be very nervous about the ice magic that might be fired.

“I really didn’t expect to succeed… ….”

“Look at that! I said the administrator was right!?”

Xian Ne put her hands on her waist and shrugged her shoulders.

“Captain, whoever sees it will know what the captain did.”

“Ugh…… ! No, what I did is right, right? The strategy was laid by the administrator, but…… !”

“Yeah, let’s just say that.”

“Heinz!!”

The five knights burst into laughter at the same time. The culprit that had been bothering her for several days had simply been eradicated.

It was really funny that the Knights struggled with ‘only’ Frost Spirits.

But now, I was just grateful for the achievement.

‘Great. How can you think of this just by looking at it?’

While Xi’an Ne was delighted with her achievement after a long time, she couldn’t help but harbor her vague longing for the Knights of the Black Lion.

If they could attract talent like Lubern’s magistrate, that order must have been run much more systematically than his own Knights of the White Rose.

‘I will make the Knights of the White Rose as great as the Knights of the Black Lion one day…….’

Xian Ne thought as she clenched her fists tightly.

Of course, the reality she couldn’t understand was more open than she thought, but she said.

***

“Chief Executive Officer!!!! Do you know where we put our last month’s expedition report!?”

“Hey!! Why is the cost of spending not right? How the hell are you guys doing your work!?”

“Did you guys embezzle the royal family money?”

“No, it just looks like a settlement mistake… ….”

“Oh, they are so different!”

The headquarters of the Imperial Black Lion Knights.

Hell had already descended there.

“Bring in Lee Vona, the head of the administration…. ?”

At the harsh criticism of the inspector dispatched directly from the imperial family, Lee Bo-na, head of the administration, was truly dying.

Was administrative work originally this difficult and complicated?

So you’re saying that Lubern Alroy managed all this work by himself?

How on earth!?

Ivona’s head was full of questions, but there was no one in the administration department who could answer them.

They, too, were all the same when the fire fell on their feet.

“Oh, the head of the administration doesn’t even know how his department works?”

“Sorry… ….”

“Are you saying you’re sorry for this?! Right now, the Knights’ administrative work is completely out of whack!! I’ll give it to you for four days, so let’s normalize it first, okay?”

Four days.

Can I really do it?

Yvona desperately held back the tears in her eyes.

Lubern Alroy.

This was the first time she had ever missed that grumpy face.