Chapter 3.1 – Autumn

This is employment fraud!

Greta thought to herself. But she couldn’t continue her thoughts any further.  

“Commander Lievo! Eleven o’clock direction!”  

“I see it!”  

Greta immediately pulled her bowstring and shot at the six-handed monkey monster running from the eleven o’clock direction.  

The arrow flew swiftly, piercing through the monkey’s eye with precision.  

Screeching, the six-handed monkey let out a grotesque sound before falling lifelessly.  

“There are two more at the two o’clock direction!”  

“I’ll take care of them!”  

It took about thirty minutes to k*ll a total of thirteen monsters. Once no more monsters were visible, Greta asked the sweating mage,  

“Can you perform a detection spell?”  

“Yes.”  

As the mage chanted an unknown spell, weak waves radiated from his body.  

“For now, there are no monsters within the detection range.”  

At those words, Greta and the archery patrol members all collapsed to the ground.  

“Haah, that was exhausting.”  

“It’s just the start of autumn, and it’s already like this. What’s going to happen later?”  

“Let’s switch shifts quickly. I’m seriously dying here.”  

Greta stood up abruptly, her face full of frustration.  

“This really is employment fraud! I’m going to protest to the employer!”  

“Commander Lievo, you said the same thing a few days ago and got rejected.”  

“Exactly, you got rejected before that too.”  

“And even before that!”  

“Shut up! This is real fraud, fraud!”  

Greta Lievo — the temporary training commander of the Debius Archery Unit.  

She had fallen for the schemes of her close friend, Tara Debius, who had recently become the new Marquis of Debius a few months ago. When Greta first arrived at the far northern territory, she had no idea that she would end up living such a harsh and busy life.  

During her academy days, Greta had even taught students who couldn’t properly place arrows on the bowstring — students whose talents were practically disastrous. Most of the students she taught eventually achieved excellent grades in archery courses.  

Greta’s training sessions with the Debius knights, who already had solid fundamentals and a different attitude towards training, yielded remarkable results. The knights selected as preliminary archery unit members showed significant improvement, and it wasn’t just effective — it was fun.  

‘Am I really a genius instructor?’  

Just as Greta began to puff herself up with pride, an unexpected situation unfolded.  

Monsters from the Zelita Snowfields began descending into the Debius territory.  

During the food-scarce winter season, monsters would leave the Zelita Snowfields, where competition for food was fierce, and descend into Debius territory to prey on vulnerable humans. The annual monster subjugation campaign in the Zelita Snowfields was practically a yearly event.  

But this year was different. Even before summer had ended, monsters began appearing frequently, and as time passed, the number of monsters descending into the territory steadily increased. This was unprecedented, even for the knights who had lived their entire lives in Debius, as well as the previous and current Marquis.  

The archery unit members, stationed on the walls for training, were the first to notice this change. Greta, who didn’t think the situation was particularly serious, saw the frequent monster appearances as an opportunity for intense practical training. After consulting with the knight commander, Sir Ronpa, she divided the archery unit members into five patrol teams and assigned them to guard duties.  

Thanks to Greta’s training, the unit members had significantly improved their archery skills, and as they faced the increasingly frequent monsters, they gained valuable practical experience. The results were excellent, just as Greta had hoped.  

However, the problem was that the frequency of monster appearances had become too high. As a result, construction work on the outer walls had to be completely halted recently.  

“This isn’t the Great Demon War or anything. What is this?” 

Greta muttered irritably.  

Lately, Greta had been extremely busy. Between training the newly recruited archery unit members two weeks ago, participating in patrol teams’ practical training to identify each member’s strengths and weaknesses, and dealing with the monsters charging toward the walls, she barely had time to breathe.  

“Tara Debius is ruthless. She picks up innocent people like me who don’t know anything and makes them the training commander of the archery unit, doesn’t pay extra allowances, and works them to the bone! It’s freezing! I’m freezing to death! I hate the six-handed monkeys! They’re terrifying! I hate them so much!”  

No matter how good Greta was at teaching and handling tasks beyond her responsibilities, she was still a twenty-three-year-old young adult who had grown up sheltered. Overwhelming workloads have a way of breaking a person’s spirit, and Greta was mostly irritated these days.  

“Commander Lievo, reprimand Team 3. Why haven’t they switched shifts?”  

“Sir Jenihen, if you tie up Sir Poba, I’ll shoot him.”  

“Good idea. Let’s throw him over there.”  

“I’ll help too, Commander! Sir Jenihen!”  

“Down with Team 3!”  

The exhausted members of Team 2 chimed in one by one. Just then, as if on cue, Team 3’s commander, Poba, and his team members came running hurriedly.  

Poba shouted loudly, 

“Oh no, we’re late! Sorry!”  

“Team 3, who failed to adhere to shift timings, must awaken!”  

“Awaken! Awaken!”  

“Team 3, who failed to adhere to shift timings, must do extra duty!”  

“Extra duty! Extra duty!”  

As Team 2 members chanted in unison, Team 3 scratched their heads awkwardly.  

“Midway, Steward No called for me and ordered me to bring the commander. That’s why we were late. Sorry!”  

“The steward? For me?”  

“Yes. It seems the Lord wants to discuss something with you.”  

Greta frowned.  

“This feels ominous, ominous!”  

While Greta loved her friend Tara dearly, Marquis Tara Debius was a ruthless and cunning employer. It was as if she had two personalities!  

“I’ll go check it out. Sir Jenihen, take over, and Team 2, get some rest!”  

“Got it!”  

“Take care, Commander!”  

Greta hurriedly headed toward the makeshift stable at the base of the wall.  

“Lulu, let’s go.”  

Her beloved horse, Zara, was born in the south and couldn’t endure the cold northern climate, so Greta hadn’t brought it with her. Lulu was a horse provided by Tara as part of employee welfare.  

Heading straight to Debius Castle, Greta made her way to Tara’s office, where she was waiting. Tara was buried in a mountain of paperwork, working as if swimming through the documents. Being a perfectionist, Tara had been pulling out unresolved issues from when the previous Marquis had fallen ill, properly addressing them, and dealing with the flood of tasks, including establishing the archery unit and reducing the mage unit. She was undoubtedly the busiest person in all of Debius.  

Feeling Greta’s presence, Tara spoke without looking up from the documents.  

“Oh, you’re here?” 

“You called for me? What’s the matter?”  

“You know the report you and Sir Ronpa worked on before?”  

“The report on monster appearance frequency?”  

A week ago, Greta and Ronpa had compiled data on this year’s abnormal monster behavior, comparing it to previous years’ information, and submitted it as a report to the Marquis. Sensitive to monster movements, Tara had attached additional materials to the report and sent it to the capital, Hiteria.  

“Yeah. It seems Hiteria is taking it seriously. They’re sending an investigation team.”  

“Wow, an investigation team? It must be serious.”  

“The team leader is none other than Sir Lucas Nindella.”  

“Whoa! But what does that have to do with me?”  

“Since Sir Nindella is coming in person, he’s also planning to give advice on the archery unit. The training instructor, originally scheduled for winter, will also be coming early and joining him. Since you’re the temporary training commander, I’d like you to handle matters related to the archery unit.”  

Greta’s jaw dropped.  

“Why are you giving me such an important task? Isn’t it too much responsibility for a contract worker?”  

“Currently, you’re practically the person in charge of the Debius Archery Unit.”  

“Ugh, that’s true, but…”  

Tara spoke nonchalantly.  

“Actually, the situation isn’t great, so I was planning to extend your contract until winter. But since the Imperial Palace is sending the training instructor early, you can just focus on handing things over during the remaining period.”  

Greta’s contract was for two months, and there wasn’t much time left.  

“When are they arriving?”  

“Today. Probably soon?”  

“Hey, Tara Debius!”  

“Sorry. I forgot to mention it.”