A full pelt was draped over his body, the lifelike wolf head hanging from his right shoulder. Gems set into its eyes seemed to glow as they were fixed to the armor there, giving off a fierce stare.
His build was solid, tall as a wall, and though his appearance was rough, he carefully examined the documents presented by the clerk with a gauntleted hand. As he read, he chewed on strips of smoked, hardened meat.
The reports were all about monster attacks, which was nothing unusual in the monster-filled the Northlands. What stood out was the recent surge in numbers, the strange locations, and the equally strange groups of victims.
When too many oddities piled together, they stopped being mere coincidences. Wrapped in his heavy robe, the clerk felt cold enough to shiver, finally understanding why his seniors said this lord felt cold even when he was not particularly harsh.
That feeling could only be explained as awe toward someone powerful. This was Wolf Lord of the Northlands, the great lord of Icefang Territory in the northern lands of the Rohn Empire. Dotleivy Vann.
"Have you found the cause?" Vann asked.
His tone was not severe, but to the clerk it still felt like icy wind scraping across his heart. He stiffened and reported, "The mages we invited to investigate found no change in overall Magic levels, and dissections of monster samples showed no abnormalities."
"The attacked individuals were also examined. No shared traits or unusual signs have been found so far."
"…Keep investigating. Issue my order. In areas attached to the city and above, move the curfew earlier. Increase nighttime patrols by twenty percent and extend their shifts by another third."
"Also, expand the investigation area by half. Each team leader must be at least Black Iron Rank rank or higher. That will do for now. Others will add details later."
"Allow a twenty percent price premium and increase city defense equipment reserves by at least one third."
"All orders must be delivered within three days, and fully implemented within half a month. Someone else will handle the rest."
The clerk muttered softly as he pulled out his pen and rapidly wrote in his small notebook, recording most of the orders. A few parts, however, could not be written down.
"Yes."
The thick wooden door closed with a creak. The tall man with a face cold as steel let out a breath, then reached into his desk drawer without caring about appearances and pulled out an iron flask.
He could easily tell from footsteps and surrounding presence whether anyone was nearby, and this moment was perfectly empty. He popped the stopper, and the sharp scent of high-proof alcohol snapped his focus awake.
He drank deeply and freely, liquor dripping down through his beard. "…Hah. Compared to handling all that so-called real work, drinking is far better. Want to come have a sip? It is more fun with someone else."
Vann licked the liquor from his beard and lifted the flask slightly. As his words fell, the shadow in the corner spread like liquid, and a figure rose from it, completely without presence, clad in close-fitting armor and a black cloak.
"…My lord, you know this. Neither you nor I are allowed to drink during work hours," the figure replied, sounding helpless.
Vann waved his hand carelessly. "What does it matter? Go pass my order and change that rule."
"…Spit it out. What the hell is it, you little bastard, drinking on purpose in front of me."
"So why pretend at all? Come drink a few rounds with me. Wouldn't that be much better?"
The atmosphere between them shattered at once, clearly not the first time such an exchange had happened. The figure never took the flask, so Vann drank a couple more mouthfuls himself and wiped his mouth.
He stuffed the flask away with some regret, finding it completely empty. His expression quickly returned to normal as he spoke again.
"Check all files with numbers starting with nine and report back. I want to see who has the guts to stir trouble on my land at a time like this."
"Yes."
"Send the information to those few who might be useful. Tighten the key watchpoints."
"Anyone daring to stretch a claw at me now, whether they know why or not, cut it off. Anything hard to handle in the middle, have someone deal with it for me."
"And prepare a twenty-man team, ready at all times."
"Yes."
"Finally, prepare a five-liter bottle of Liao River liquor."
"…Two bottles."
"Yes!"
The figure dissolved back into shadow, flowing like a tide into the cracks at the edge of the room. It was impossible to tell how such a large shape fit inside.
After the shadow left, Vann stood in silence for a moment, then turned and opened the window. A sharp, freezing wind rushed in with flecks of snow, striking his face and bringing back a familiar feeling.
The snow had been falling for some time now and had never stopped. His eyes narrowed, brown pupils reflecting endless white and scattered black, with a strange sense of waking from a long sleep.
In an Otherworld where Magic existed, strange events were hardly unusual. Even odd things happening close together in both place and time could still be considered normal here.
That was simply how Otherworld worked. If you disliked it, you did not belong. Yet Vann's instinct told him someone was pulling strings behind it all, even without evidence or solid clues.
The feeling came suddenly, but he trusted it once it appeared. It might be confidence, arrogance, or pride, but as the Wolf Lord, he believed his sense of smell was sharper than anyone else's.
"…I smell you," he murmured.
Leaning on the window frame, he looked down, exhaling breath colder than the blizzard itself as old memories surfaced. Below stood a towering fortress built atop a crescent-shaped cliff, its dense spiked towers stabbing into the sky.
The inner city walls and bastions wound upward toward the peak, while the outer city spread endlessly with residential blocks. Chimneys of varying heights released smoke, their tops painted white and dotted with black.
Farther out, massive walls dozens of meters tall stood firm, giant ballistae already strung with steel cables. Armored soldiers stood unmoving in the wind like statues, while patrols moved back and forth.
At several great gates, streams of people passed through, patrol soldiers, merchants, farmers entering the city, and adventurers alike. Vann's gaze pushed farther, toward the distant snowfields.
Even farther away, figures wrapped in cloaks moved through the storm, some in groups, some alone. Monsters of all kinds, large and small, also gathered unconsciously toward some unseen point.
And somewhere beyond sight, a certain dragon flew onward, eating nonstop, now licking an icicle like a frozen treat.
"It must be migration season."
After entering this area, Belial reached that conclusion through repeated observation and a lot of snacking. He had circled around from the direction of the snowfields and noticed that all the monsters here, herbivores and carnivores alike, were drifting in the same direction with a steady pattern. Curious, he followed them and found that the farther he went, the warmer it became, as if the path led back toward lower latitudes.
Although this place was getting colder, it made sense that monsters from Otherworld would also migrate with temperature changes. Thinking it through like that, everything fit together. Belial nodded, then beat his wings and nearly tore a ring of sonic boom through the air.
Along the way, he spotted many strange monsters he had never seen before. A large portion moved in groups, some of them on an impressive scale. There were also solitary ones, and those usually had stronger individual strength.
Some carried abundant Magic, and with bodies that looked meaty and likely tasty, he could not hold back and ate round after round. He considered himself kind and disliked seeing anyone left alone, so every time he made sure an entire group reunited. That way, there was no waste at all.
However, flying up and diving down like that made too much noise, and he was often noticed. It was not just the sound, as some monsters seemed able to sense his Magic and fled early. A few of the stronger ones could do this as well.
That made Belial unhappy. Running around and not letting him eat properly was a serious offense. After experimenting for a while, he found that Energy Field was still very effective, since using it together with wind magic during dives greatly reduced the sound he gave off.
When monsters sensed his Magic, it was usually because he had expanded Energy Field too much. As long as he kept it very close to his surface, not a trace of Magic leaked beyond its range. With that solved, his sneaky habits returned, and in an environment with constant blizzards, even his black body blended in.
By adding a bit of wind magic to let the blizzard wrap around him and flying a little higher, there was no way anyone could see him. His hunting methods were varied, but lately he found it troublesome to bother. In this frozen land where ice elements were everywhere, he could easily freeze prey into ice statues.