Golden Experience

The door was a masterpiece crafted by four well-known craftsmen; it was extremely solid, expensive, stately, and Hiers ebony-made. There was a knock on said door, after which it immediately opened.

“I have an urgent report!!!”

For someone entering the office of a country’s prime minister, there was a distinct lack of decorum. However, anyone who had enough authority to enter this area of the royal castle should have been well aware of the expected etiquette.

Said rude party claimed he had an urgent report to give. The prime minister of the Kingdom of Hiers, Marquess Douglas O’Connell, unconsciously stiffened at the prospect of dire news.

“P—Please forgive me, if you are preoccupied with more pressing matters—”

“It’s fine. If it’s so urgent, then out with it. What happened?”

The news would prove to be shocking for Prime Minister O’Connell, widely known for his sharp mind.

“Yes sir! Every region across the kingdom is reporting hordes of monsters flooding out of the monster territories and assaulting our cities!”

“What?!”

Monsters leaving the monster territories. That in and of itself wasn’t a rare occurrence. Monsters were just another form of life that inhabited this world. If their populations grew too large for their habitats, then some would leave their territories for the outside world in order to sustain their livelihoods—to put it bluntly, they would invade other areas in order to expand their territory. This had happened many times before, and specialized organizations were established on the borders in order to watch for those signs. However, the prime minister had not received any recent reports about such activities from the border cities.

“Without any indication…monsters suddenly began to overflow… Impossible.”

On hearing the more detailed report, he learned that the monsters abruptly descended on the cities near the border, engaging with the local garrisoned forces. The monsters had already breached the walls in a number of cities, causing damage to the town and killing residents. The castle had received pleas for help, but they were unable to send reinforcements; the kingdom’s troops had been organized into a subjugation army in response to the new calamity that had appeared to the east, and that army had already departed. Which meant that every border city had to rely solely on their stationed troops to deal with the monster attacks.

“I would have liked to have absorbed all the armed forces in every region into the subjugation army, but… Organizing the expedition was so hectic that we were unable to get that done, but it seems that failure turned out for the better…”

Another person barged into the room out of nowhere, this time without knocking.

“I have a report!”

“Stand down! I am currently in the middle of—”

“My deepest apologies! I was ordered to deliver these last words from our guard squad!”

“‘Last words’?! Where did you—”

“The citadel cities of Erfahren and Lourdes have fallen!”

“Im…possible…” Douglas gasped. He was glad he didn’t ruin his dignity by crying out disgracefully, but in fact, that was only because the news was just so shocking that he had forgotten to breathe.

The patriarch had been the one to bring news about the aforementioned new calamity, and Erfahren was the city closest to where it could be found. The subjugation army was currently on their way there. Normally, there would have been a ceremony revealing the formation of this army, and they would have held a parade to raise the soldiers’ morale and inform the citizens of what they were off to fight. However, since the calamity had just been born, they skipped those events and sortied right away before it could mature. With a preeminent focus on speed, logistics weren’t considered at all, so they intended to supply themselves on the road by commandeering supplies from the cities they passed on the march. This was a drastic decision that could only be made because they were marching entirely within the kingdom.

“They didn’t make it in time… So it’s powerful enough to destroy a city already… Wait a minute, Lourdes? Where is that again?”

While he was the prime minister, Douglas didn’t have a good enough memory to instantly remember where exactly every citadel city was along the border.

“Sir, it is a border city that is near Treu Forest—a monster territory that is more commonly known as the ‘Forest of No Return.’”

“—I remember now. The city was constructed without issue, but no one who entered that forest ever returned, so it was too dangerous for the town to expand. It somehow got by on monitoring the region and acting as a relay point for Erfahren and other cities… It’s not possible! After taking Erfahren, it went ahead to Lourdes as well?!”

If so, then this beast was frighteningly fast. While the kingdom was busy planning the army expedition, Erfahren had already been destroyed. If that wasn’t the case, then Douglas should have received word sooner. All the border cities had carrier pigeons and trained messengers; in times of emergency, they knew it was their duty to send word, and they had many different methods available to them.

“No, that’s not… From what I could gather, Erfahren was assaulted by a huge army of ants and wasps, while Lourdes was beset by a giant army of treants… Both cities seem to have fallen around the same time.”

Knowing that they reportedly went down at the same time made a certain amount of sense. Word of each of their destructions arrived at approximately the same time. While Lourdes was a little bit closer to the capital than Erfahren was on the highways, they were more or less the same distance away in a straight line. If both cities sent out pigeons at the same time, then both birds could have arrived here at the same time.

“So…there might be two separate forces, then…”

According to the patriarch’s oracle, there should have only been one catastrophe. What else could have happened? By chance, a threat to humanity emerged at the same time as another disaster-level monster capable of destroying a city? That would be too much of a coincidence.

“Something ridiculous like that can’t possibly…”

But the prime minister had no answers. The plan had been to use Erfahren as a base from which to subdue the Great Liebe Forest, but they had already encountered a huge setback. Douglas cradled his head in his arms.

Early the next morning, Douglas was already at his desk. Though “already” should instead be “always” since he was still there from the night before. Requests for aid had come from every region of the kingdom, so he had to write letters informing them that those requests could not be fulfilled. At the same time, he worried over how to tell the subjugation army that Erfahren had already been destroyed.

“Reporting in!”

Once again he was faced with sudden intrusions.

“What is it now…? I can’t believe this is happening so early this morning…”

“We’ve just received word that the town of Alto Riva has been lost!”

“What?!”

The prime minister desperately combed his memory. Was there a border city with that name? He stood up, knocking over his chair, and went to stare at the map on the wall.

“It—It’s over here.”

The official who delivered the report pointed at a spot on the map.

“That’s… That’s not…on the border at all!!!”

It was technically on the edge of the kingdom’s lands, but this was the region bordered by the highlands known by the name A Buon Mercato. According to legend, there was an old castle far above in those highlands, but since no people lived up there it had turned into monster territory. Either way, the cliffs couldn’t be scaled, so the highlands had always been considered the equivalent of a giant wall. On the other side there was the neighboring Kingdom of Welthe, but the highlands prevented any meaningful trade from taking place between the countries.

The city of Alto Riva was built along the Fiume il Confine, the border river that came from the highlands, which gave them fertile soil, allowing them to grow crops like barley. The lord collected a barley tax on the residents, which was sold to other towns, allowing Alto Riva to sustain itself. There weren’t any dangerous monster threats in the vicinity, but the city was also rather poor, so they didn’t really get any bandits.

“Why would such a peaceful city…?”

“The message came from a pigeon from the neighboring town of Ernstthal, and it says that a guard who escaped from Alto Vista claims that the city came under assault from an army of skeletons… In addition, he reported that this army came from the direction of Verde Sud…”

“It can’t be… That would mean this skeleton army has already destroyed two cities!!!”

What the blazes was happening?

Monsters were appearing all over the kingdom’s borders. In a single day, they had already lost four cities. And the only forces they had for defense had been mostly assigned to the army which was on its way to deal with the catastrophe.

Douglas wondered if it was a blessing in disguise that said force was already headed in the direction of Lourdes and Erfahren.

“…I wonder how the subjugation army fares. We should be receiving regular updates from them. Considering how much time has passed since they departed, I believe they should be passing through La Colline either today or tomorrow…”

La Colline was an important transit hub for the kingdom. Travelers were able to head in the direction of both Lourdes and Alto Riva from there.

From their last communiqué, the army should not have arrived at La Colline yet. The city had a special pigeon house; after they arrived, they would have to send their pigeons outside of the regularly scheduled pigeon flights. It would be no exaggeration to say that this army carried the fate of the kingdom—no, the fate of the entire continent on its shoulders. Hiers hadn’t requested aid from other countries yet, but they did have official emissaries. Pigeons couldn’t be sent to other countries, so the only way to get someone there would be by horse, but it was unclear whether their neighbors already knew about what was happening in Hiers yet or not.

Basically, the kingdom had to deal with the threat on its own for now. Unfortunately, for the residents of the destroyed cities of Alto Riva and Verde Sud, they don’t produce anything essential, and the governing lords aren’t from influential noble families. So, that region would have to be abandoned for the time being, then, once the main threat was subdued, they could go back and reclaim it.

“So the subjugation army…should just continue as planned to the Great Liebe Forest, I suppose. They can take a detour around Lourdes, which should keep them away from the Forest of No Return as well. I believe the road around there should have been laid to avoid that forest already. The city of Erfahren was…destroyed, but how much is still standing…? If they can take it back from the monsters and it can be used as a temporary military base, then maybe…”

In any case, since the army’s current location was unknown, they couldn’t send out a pigeon to them. Douglas didn’t know when they would reach La Colline, so while waiting to find out, all he could do was compose a letter with all the information that needed to be shared with them.

“I have a report to make!”

For the first time in a while, someone exercised all the proper etiquette while also knocking before entering. This was, after all, the prime minister’s room deep inside the kingdom’s castle. There were procedures to be followed.

“The subjugation army has informed us that they have reached La Colline!”

Douglas was relieved that the report didn’t lead off with the destruction of yet another city.

“I see. Then I shall compose a letter with information and their next set of orders… What? Is there something else?”

“Yes sir! The report also says that they will make contact with the enemy shortly!”

“‘Ma-Make contact’? Meaning the enemy is already there?! How?! If they went out of their way to let us know they would engage an enemy, then it must not be the typical monsters or bandits…”

“Right, sir! It says that there are…swarms of wasps carrying ants.”