Just as Brian had said, once Snowfall came to Border Town, it wouldn't stop.
Overnight, the town was draped in a layer of white gauze. By morning, the snowfall had weakened, with only a few scattered snowflakes falling from the sky, but the sky was still gray. Roland found it unbelievable to think that he wouldn't see the sun for several months.
This was simply unreasonable, he thought. Although it was strange to look for reason in a world where witches possessed magic, how did the demonic beasts affect the weather? It was a pity he didn't have a weather satellite to tell him the specific distribution of cloud cover in the world.
Walking towards the West Wall, Carter couldn't help but sigh, "The town is much quieter. A bunch of guys followed the nobles when they evacuated."
"That's fine, at least they won't hold us back," Roland exhaled a white mist. "I've already arranged for Barov to conduct a census this winter."
"What's that?"
"It's going door-to-door to collect statistics, how many people are left, how many people are in each household, what their names are, what occupations they have, and then registering them," Roland explained. "This way, whether it's wartime allocation of human resources or postwar distribution of pensions, it can be implemented quickly and effectively."
"Uh... Human resources?" Carter blinked, then smiled. "Your Highness, you really are different than before."
"Oh?"
"In the past, although you would say some things I didn't understand and do some inexplicable things, they were, after all, things that were inconsistent with the identity of a prince. But now..." Carter paused for a moment, seemingly considering his words. "Whether it's the strange training rules you've set or the novel experiments moved from the Alchemy Workshop, the results are surprisingly effective. Perhaps this is what my grandfather meant when he said that extraordinary people are extraordinary because they can always see what ordinary people overlook. I have a feeling that you might actually become the next king."
"...Is that so?" Roland suddenly felt a surge of warmth in his heart. What could be more fulfilling than being recognized by his subordinates after striving? For a moment, he felt full of energy, and even the gloomy sky didn't seem so annoying.
Walking up the city wall, the militia were clearing snow from the passageway. When they saw the prince appear, they all bowed in salute.
I should teach them to salute, Roland thought. "How was the situation last night?"
"No traces of demonic beasts were found," Iron Axe answered him. "Your Highness, according to past experience, after the first snowfall, we have a relatively calm period. During this period, there are not many demonic beasts, and most of the mutated ones are weak animals."
Roland nodded. "Then continue to be vigilant."
The area behind the city wall had been transformed into a barracks. When the alarm wasn't sounding, most people would rest in the camp to conserve their energy. A rotation system was implemented, and considering the low temperatures in winter, each team would only conduct two shifts of patrol and vigilance before being replaced.
These measures were all set by Roland one by one. He had asked Brian and learned that Longsong Stronghold had no plans at all to resist the demonic beasts. The unluckiest recruits would be sent to monitor the movements of the demonic beasts, staying on the city wall for a whole day. As a result, laziness and desertion were common, and as many as twenty or thirty people were hanged for dereliction of duty or violation of military orders during a winter.
As for what happened after discovering traces of demonic beasts, it was even more of a mess, with no division of defense zones and no designation of responsibility to individuals. Thinking of the level of warfare in this era, Roland understood. Extreme emphasis was placed on individual bravery, honoring achievements, and even knights would charge forward on their own when they got hot-blooded. It was better not to ask for too much.
After patrolling along the city wall, everything seemed to be going smoothly, but Roland discovered that he had overlooked a problem.
That was the guiding barricades.
These obstacles were currently clearly directing the demonic beasts to the middle of the city wall, but if what Brian said was correct, two to three months of snow would eventually fill in all the obstacles. By then, any point on the six-hundred-meter defense line could become the path of the demonic beasts, and he wouldn't have enough manpower to take care of such a large area.
It was also unlikely to send people down to clear the snow.
A few agile wolf-like demonic beasts would be enough to cause heavy losses to the team.
Perhaps he still had to rely on the power of the witches.
For example, let Nightingale sneak out of the city with Anna, light a big fire to melt the snow, and then sneak back—just like she stole Nana Wawa from the Paine family.
Just then, the observation post on the left side of the city wall shouted.
"Look ahead!"
Roland and Carter looked in the direction he was pointing. A small black shadow crawled out of the snow and slowly moved towards the city wall.
"Your Highness, do you think we should..." The hunter in charge of that section of the defense turned around and asked.
"According to the previous drills, you should judge for yourself whether to sound the horn," Roland said. "And in this matter, you have more experience than I do."
He hesitated for a moment, but in the end, he just drew his crossbow and stood by the city wall to continue observing.
Roland nodded in satisfaction. As it stood, the order on the city wall was well maintained. He just didn't know if they could quickly organize their defense according to the steps of the drill when a large number of demonic beasts attacked Border Town.
The black shadow gradually approached, and when it was about fifty meters away from the city wall, Roland could see the appearance of the demonic beast.
Probably a fox variant?
Its fur was gray-black, its eyes were blood-red, and it came to the city wall, panting white air.
"This guy looks like he hasn't been corrupted for long, not a big threat," Iron Axe said as he drew his bow and aimed.
"You said they were all infected by the breath of hell and driven west from here?"
"It's not just to the west," Carter leaned over and said. "When the Gates of Hell are opened in the wilderness, places without the Impassable Mountain Range to block them will be attacked by demonic beasts, especially the Great Breach in the north. The Impassable Mountain Range that stretches to here seems to be cut off, and the breach is more than ten miles long, which is also the main direction of the demonic beasts' attack."
The frenzied monster wandered under the city wall for a moment, raised its head, grinned at the crowd on the wall and gave a low growl, and as it was about to leap up, Iron Axe released the bowstring, and an arrow accurately pierced its neck, pinning it firmly to the ground.
Roland noticed that the blood flowing out of it was black.
Why is it that when witches are corroded by the power of devils, they can preserve their sanity after awakening, while beasts become frenzied and their bodies change? If there is a chance in the future, I must go behind the Impassable Mountain Range to see, he thought. In the prince's memory, that place belonged to the forbidden land that humans could not set foot in, the place where the Gates of Hell opened. However, since no one had ever been there, these rumors, mostly inferred from ancient books, could not be verified and their credibility was questionable.
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