After the high council meeting, the North began preparations for the upcoming war.
Since the enemy had yet to take any military action, no official wartime declaration had been made.
There was no need to unnecessarily spread anxiety among the citizens.
However, the leadership moved quickly to ensure that when war was eventually declared, the people would not be caught off guard.
I had expected opportunists and traitors to crawl out of the shadows, looking to exploit the situation for personal gain—
Yet, strangely enough, none had appeared.
Even for Northerners, wasn’t this a bit too honorable?
Had Grace already wiped out all the scum?
That, I didn’t know.
The first order of business was the extraction of Cold Iron.
I had already shared my knowledge about it with Grace, and she had been planning to start mining it soon.
Since mining wasn’t something that could be accomplished overnight, they decided to begin immediately.
“You found this around here?”
“Yes, it was inside a cave in this area.”
Since I was the one who had provided the information, I naturally ended up taking the lead—essentially acting as a human metal detector.
Using my knowledge from the novel and my memory of finding a fragment of Cold Iron nearby, I spent about three or four days searching.
And then—
“It’s really here.”
A weapons engineer, who had been brought along as an advisor, confirmed that the ore discovered by the survey team was indeed Cold Iron.
Grace, impressed, nodded in satisfaction.
Without delay, mining operations began.
I had been concerned about how the North would handle an industry as grueling as mining, given its freezing climate—
But they worked with surprising efficiency.
It turned out that this war-driven region took the procurement of weapon materials just as seriously as warfare itself.
Mining had flourished out of necessity.
With agriculture, fishing, and livestock farming all heavily restricted, the North had no choice but to invest in industries like mining and forestry.
That realization made me feel a bit sorry for them.
On top of that, Northerners were naturally resilient and physically strong, so even harsh mining conditions didn’t faze them.
Still, without dynamite, I assumed tunnel excavation would take some time—
“Your Grace, you mustn’t collapse the entire mountain.”
“Be quiet. I’m concentrating.”
Boom!
A deafening explosion rang out, and a hole was blasted open in the mountainside.
…Right.
I needed to adjust my common sense.
This was a fantasy world with magic.
A place where cannons fired mana rounds instead of gunpowder shells.
And unlike dynamite, that person could fire multiple shots in succession.
In a way, she was an even more advanced alternative.
Of course, Grace wouldn’t personally dig tunnels with her Lion’s Blade all the time.
She was the Northern Duke, not an excavation machine.
This was a special exception.
The urgency of mining Cold Iron—
The excitement of rediscovering such a rare deposit after so many years—
And the fact that Grace had been needing a way to relieve her stress all played a role.
With the tunnels now secured, the next step was reinforcing them before full-scale mining could begin.
“Now then, Sir Luke. It’s your turn.”
“…Pardon? What do you mean?”
In response to my confusion, Grace gestured toward the tunnel.
“I told you before, didn’t I? You’ll pay for hiding the fact that you possessed Cold Iron by helping with the mining operation.”
“Ah.”
So she did remember.
She had said something like that back at Snowflake Tower, during the meeting about frost crystal weapons.
I had assumed she was joking.
Did she expect me to start swinging a pickaxe?
“You have heat-based abilities, don’t you? While they’re excavating, you’ll provide light and warmth to the workers.”
“I don’t mind, but if the goal is simply illumination, wouldn’t a fire mage be more efficient?”
“Mages lack patience. If we have them help, they’ll get bored and start goofing off. I need someone reliable—like you.”
When people imagined mages, they often thought of studious scholars who spent their days quietly researching magic.
That wasn’t entirely wrong.
But Northern mages were a different breed.
They, too, were intellectuals who studied the intricate complexities of magic—
But they weren’t the type to sit at a desk lost in thought.
Instead, they were eccentric scientists, constantly running experiments in the field.
If they were assigned as human torches in a mine—
Their curiosity would get the better of them.
They’d start dimming and brightening their flames just to observe how the tunnel’s lighting changed—turning the worksite into a chaotic mess.
And from Grace’s perspective, rather than asking Dariel for permission to borrow one of his fire mages—
It was much easier (and cheaper) to just put her own subordinate, who owed her a debt, to work.
“Understood.”
I had a debt to pay, after all.
So, without complaint, I lifted Obsidian like a glowing baton.
Being a walking heater and lantern was definitely preferable to swinging a pickaxe.
Elaine, seeing that her beloved office mascot had been abruptly reassigned to mining duty, looked visibly distressed.
But after hearing the full story from Grace, she seemed to accept that it was inevitable.
Before I left, she handed me something.
A magic potion.
A fantasy-world energy drink.
It was green—almost like vegetable juice.
And so, I was temporarily assigned to the mining team.
Once the tunnel was completed, I returned to the Winter Palace.
Looking back on my days with the mining team—
It was unexpectedly fun.
I had never worked at a construction site in my past life, but I had heard stories.
Many involved the dangers and unfair conditions of the job—
But what stuck with me the most were the tales of grizzled veterans, fiery yet jovial men with larger-than-life personalities.
The Northern miners were exactly like that.
No, even more so.
Knights were technically considered minor nobles, so to commoners, they might have seemed like distant figures.
But the miners spoke to me without hesitation, treating me like one of their own.
Some even recognized me from the knighthood ceremony in the central square—
And were curious why a famous knight was here eating with them and working in the tunnels.
The truth was, I was still not entirely used to being treated like a knight.
Having come from a world without a class system, I found this kind of easygoing interaction refreshing.
It didn’t take long for the hard-working, unpretentious knight and the cheerful, open-hearted laborers to hit it off.
Before I knew it, they were calling me “Sir Knight,” and I was calling them “the old men.”
They even threw me a farewell party on my last night before returning to the palace.
Of course, I had told them I didn’t drink—
—”Why? You get drunk and mess around with women or something? Hahaha!”
—”!!”
—”You idiot! As if Sir Knight would ever do such a thing! Apologies, Sir Knight. He’s only saying that because he just got married himself.”
It genuinely sent chills down my spine.
Life experience was no joke.
I felt an odd sense of camaraderie with my senior in life, listening closely to his stories.
It reminded me of the marriage talk Grace had brought up before.
After completing my work in the tunnels, I returned and reported to my direct superior—Elaine.
“From now on, don’t do anything that can be used against you. Ever.”
“Did something happen?”
“It wasn’t an issue before, but… now that you were gone, it was far too difficult.”
She was looking at the stack of paperwork on her desk.
Had the workload been that exhausting?
Then, Elaine suddenly spread her arms wide.
“???”
“……”
“Oh, that.”
Understanding what she meant, I stepped forward and hugged her.
“It’s work hours, isn’t it?”
Elaine, instead of answering, deliberately tripped herself.
I instinctively caught her before she could fall.
“Thank you for catching me.”
“?”
Her ways of expressing affection were getting more creative by the day.
At least she still refrained from this kind of behavior in front of others.
“For all I know, next time you’ll trip and ‘accidentally’ land a kiss.”
“What? That’s an option?”
…I had only meant it as a joke.
But she actually seemed interested.
After that, I went to report to the person who had sent me to the mines in the first place.
Haaa…
Grace, even though she had noticed Elaine and me entering, didn’t even glance our way.
Instead, she let out a deep sigh.
She was seated with her forehead resting in both hands, visibly frustrated.
Across from her stood Grindel, the diplomat—his face filled with discomfort.
He had left immediately after the high council meeting with orders to negotiate with the East and South.
His presence here now meant that he had finished his task.
But judging from his expression—
It didn’t go well.
In the novel, the East and South hadn’t supported the North either.
However, that was because they had been caught off guard by the sudden invasion.
I had thought that with the North preparing in advance, things might play out differently this time.
“Your Grace, did the negotiations not go well?”
Elaine, as both Grace’s captain and close friend, stepped forward and asked.
Grace sighed once more before answering.
“No, they didn’t.”
Frustrated, she began to explain.
Grindel had first gone to the South, as they seemed the more likely ally of the two.
When we told the South the truth—that the Seven Heroes had been manipulated by the dark elves under Rowe’s influence—they were utterly shocked.
They had already heard that Moonforest had collapsed and that the corrupted World Tree, El Aina, had been destroyed.
When they realized that it had been the Hero, Aran, who had done it, they were filled with regret that they had not been able to thank him properly.
They were also pleased to hear that the North had prevented the terrorist attack on Snowflake Tower.
Already frustrated with the central government’s lukewarm stance on the dark elves, they openly expressed their hostility toward them.
Overall, their response was favorable to us.
However—
“They said opposing the central government would be difficult.”
The South had been one of the regions that had suffered the most during the Great War.
One might argue that every region except the East had fought against the demons—
But the South, which had originally been the weakest militarily, had suffered the heaviest losses.
Just when they had begun to recover after the war,
Their former allies, the elves, had turned into dark elves and launched an invasion.
“That’s why they haven’t been able to fully recover from the scars of war.
And with the corruption of the World Tree, the entire region’s land has become a disaster zone.”
The South was still reeling from both the aftermath of war and the collapse of its economic foundation.
If they sided with the North against the central government—
“They fear that the central army would turn its blade toward them. The South is much closer to the capital than we are, after all.”
“But if we move our army south, we could pressure the capital.”
“If the West keeps us occupied, the central army alone is more than enough to crush the South.
Besides, the corruption of the World Tree has thrown their magic into disarray.
Their knights and nature mages can’t even wield their full strength.”
Just as the Northern Tower specialized in frost magic,
The Southern Tower’s primary focus was nature magic.
With nature magic crippled, one of their key military assets was effectively neutralized.
“In the end, they agree with us, but they lack the means to act.
Perhaps the prince orchestrated the dark elves’ attack for this very reason.”
They had anticipated our potential strategy and cut off our options in advance.
The starting line had already been different.
“What about the East?”
“That cowardly lot? You already know the answer. They don’t trust us at all.”
“Even after one of the Seven Heroes testified?”
“They don’t even believe that we have Rowe in custody.”
Now that I think about it…
I recalled the novel’s storyline.
Neither the South nor the East had played particularly significant roles.
The South had only been mentioned in Episode 2, as it was the region where Moonforest was located—
A region devastated by the dark elves.
After that, it had completely disappeared from the narrative by Episode 3.
As for the East, it had the weakest presence among the four regions.
Even as a reader of the novel, I could barely recall any details about it.
The North was the ally.
The West was the enemy.
The South was out of the picture.
And the East… was practically irrelevant.
From a world-building perspective, each region had been given a distinct identity—
But now that I was inside this world, the situation felt completely hopeless.
“Like the opportunists they are, the East will continue trade with us. If that’s any comfort.”
“They probably just want to sell us supplies at exorbitant prices when war breaks out.”
“Exactly, Lord Grindel. And they’ll act like they’re taking a huge risk to do it.”
The diplomat let out a deep sigh, and Grace scowled in agreement.
As she muttered something about showing the East what real suffering looks like one day—
[Your Grace, Knight Commander Sir Arthur and Elite Unit Leader Sir Gunter have arrived with the military commanders.]
“Let them in.”
The door opened, and the military leaders entered, led by two veteran knights.
With disciplined strides, they approached Grace and saluted.
“Can I leave the explanation to you? I need to clear my head.”
“Understood, Your Grace.”
Grindel turned to the newly arrived officers and relayed everything we had just discussed.
After listening, Arthur and Gunter—who were already serious men—looked even grimmer than usual.
“So we’ve lost the chance to secure allies and build our power.”
“It’s unfortunate. It means you’ll all have to work even harder.”
“Fighting is no problem.
Whether we cut down one enemy or three, the difference is negligible.”
…That’s a pretty big difference, isn’t it?
But seeing the atmosphere, I decided not to argue.
“Well then, let’s all celebrate.
More enemies just mean more fun.”
I had assumed it was just encouragement—
But looking at them now, these people were actually enjoying the idea.
It was both reassuring and utterly insane at the same time.
As I processed this mixed feeling—
A knight stepped forward.
“Your Grace, I will now report on the progress of Wintercannon’s fortress reinforcements.”
I recognized his face from the previous high council meeting.
The eldest son of Lionel DeepSnow.
The older brother of Rigrid.
The heir to the prestigious DeepSnow family.
And the Captain of Wintercannon’s Wall Guard.
Isaac DeepSnow.
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