Chapter 46 – Variable (1)

On the snowy plain dyed grayish-white despite it being daytime, the sun directly overhead was hidden by thick snow clouds.

There was a group of fifty people making their way in a single file through the area where snow as large as wooden bowls fell heavily.

They were the hunting party of the Nameless Ember, led by Yann Casselos and Demian Vail.

On their sleds, four snowfield wolves that had already drawn their last breath were stacked neatly.

They were the Ember’s precious food.

However, since it was far from enough to feed the population of a thousand, the hunting party did not know how many more days they would have to spend on the vast snowy fields.

“We will rest here for a moment!”

The man leading them from the very front of the line shouted toward the back.

It was Archer Fordham, the leader of the hunting party who commanded this group.

Knowing that difficult days lay ahead, he ordered a rest to encourage them.

It was also lunchtime, so they had to eat their meal.

“Yes, Captain!”

Crunch, crunch!

As soon as the command was given, the hunters dug into the frozen ground with shovels.

Like experienced hunters, their hand movements were fast and skillful, so in less than ten minutes, they were each able to hide themselves in cozy dugouts.

In fact, they had not dug much into the ground, but it was possible because the snow was piled high above their thighs.

“Have you ever learned archery somewhere? Or were you a former hunter?”

Archer Fordham, who had returned from checking the state of the hunting party members, asked while sitting in his own small dugout and chewing on jerky.

Sitting in front of him was Jeremy Scott, a tavern owner who was not a member of the hunting party.

“Why are you curious about that?”

Jeremy, who was sipping alcohol from a leather-wrapped flask, replied.

His reply was curt, but Archer Fordham’s eyes shone instead.

“Is that even a question? I’m asking because you caught three of those four wolves all by yourself.”

Of the four snowfield wolves hunted so far, three were entirely Jeremy Scott’s doing.

He, who was merely a tavern owner, performed the extraordinary feat of piercing through a blizzard that even thirty-year veteran hunters could not see through, shooting arrows to cut off their breath.

What was even more surprising was that he did it with a single shot.

Jeremy Scott caught three wolves with only one arrow per wolf, a total of three shots.

The shots were so precise that all the arrows were lodged right in the center of their foreheads, causing the wolves to die without even letting out a groan.

This was a superhuman feat that required both terrifying eyesight and the hearing to capture even the slightest presence.

Even those who had ignored Jeremy at first were now looking at him with eyes of wonder.

“I was lucky.”

Jeremy Scott dismissed the extraordinary feat just like that.

To him, he just saw it, he just heard it, and he just felt it.

It was a sensory realm that could not be explained in words.

In that sense, showing his skills was a mistake.

He had followed the hunting party to stretch his stiff body since the tavern had entered a rest period after a long time, and to check if his combat senses had rusted, but somehow he ended up going all out.

Jeremy himself knew very well that he was born with a sixth sense that set him apart from ordinary people.

Back when he was fighting numerous battles while growing the influence of the Ember of Progress, as long as he had enough ammunition and his gun held up, he boasted of a martial prowess that allowed him to claim to be a one-man army.

In fact, there was a time when he had single-handedly annihilated about a hundred and fifty raiders he encountered on the snowy plain.

He worried that he might arouse unnecessary suspicion regarding this transcendent ability, but fortunately, the leader of this small Ember’s hunting party did not seem to think that far.

“Haha! Beginner’s luck, or something like that? Either way, it’s just as surprising.”

Archer Fordham laughed for a long time before asking him casually.

“Still, you have a talent for this.”

“Didn’t you just say it was beginner’s luck?”

“No, no. I called it beginner’s luck that you caught three of them in such a short time.”

“……?”

“But nocking the arrow the moment you spotted the prey, drawing the bowstring, holding your breath, and maintaining your posture after shooting. That was clearly not the level a ‘beginner’ would show.”

As if he had not won the position of hunting captain in a game of dominoes, Archer Fordham accurately saw through Jeremy’s archery technique that took place in a split second.

His discernment alone was enough to understand why he had become the leader of the hunting party here, which was full of hunters with decades of experience.

As if gaining confidence from Jeremy’s silence, he asked seriously this time.

“Would you like to join the hunting party? If you join, I’ll promise you the position of vice-captain.”

Because Archer Fordham’s eyes and attitude were not light, Jeremy Scott stopped his hand from drinking and looked at him.

“You’re offering me the vice-captain position? Are you serious?”

“Yes. I don’t know where you came from or what you did, Jeremy, but you can’t fool my eyes. Your skill is the real deal.”

“The real deal…….”

“Wouldn’t it be better to hand over that musty tavern to someone else and join the hunting party? I think that would suit your aptitude much better.”

Confirming that Archer Fordham’s proposal was sincere, Jeremy Scott stared at the hunting captain with an expressionless face.

‘What is he plotting?’

In this Ember, the leadership and the magic engineering department divided the power.

With each passing day, the confrontation between the two groups was intensifying, and that confrontation had reached its peak with the issue of magic engineering golem development.

And the hunting party was pro-leadership, essentially no different from the personal guard of the leader, Yann Casselos.

Right now, he was ambiguously positioned as the owner of a tavern under the leadership, but the moment he joined, Jeremy would definitely become a person of the leadership.

So this was not just an offer to join the hunting party, but an invitation to join the leadership’s faction.

‘This is a headache…….’

Having lived his entire life on the battlefield and not wanting to be caught up in conflicts anymore, Jeremy Scott spoke.

“The only tavern in the Ember, where all kinds of rumors and stories are heard, versus a hunting party that chases after the tails of snowfield wolves and wild boars. To me, the latter seems more tedious.”

He had politely declined to this extent.

No matter what happened to the fight between the leadership and the magic engineering department, he would be able to spend the rest of his life comfortably as the owner of ‘Night’s Haven’, a tavern where alcohol and the night went together.

However, Archer Fordham’s words, followed by a hearty laugh, shattered his small hope.

“Haha! The more I see you, the more I like you. Fine. I’ll tell you since it’s you.”

“……?”

“Soon, our Ember will become a dictatorship under the leadership. Lord Yann Casselos will put an end to the long battle with the magic engineering department and become an absolute ruler with unparalleled power.”

“……!”

Was it because Jeremy Scott was a person running a tavern under the leadership anyway?

Perhaps thinking there was no need to raise his guard, Archer Fordham’s mouth was remarkably loose.

“A dictatorship……?”

Jeremy, a general from the Ember who had risen to the position of ‘Third’ in a military dictatorship, narrowed his eyes.

Having dedicated his entire life to overthrowing the military dictatorship, he could not help but feel an instinctive aversion to the word ‘dictatorship’.

To him, Archer Fordham said.

“Why do you think we are expanding the hunting party? When we don’t lack food and resources thanks to the supplies that the Immortal Ember supports our Ember with, why on earth do you think we are increasing the number of hunting party members?”

“Don’t tell me…….”

“In five months, the magic engineering department will announce the failure of the golem development. And at that time, what will be held in our hands won’t be bows and arrows, but magic guns and ammunition. Our hunting party will become an army.”

“……!”

Recently, the expansion of the hunting party had indeed been excessive.

To the people, it was known as a measure to stockpile as much food as possible.

An announcement had been made by the Immortal Ember that a snowstorm would arrive soon, and if that happened, hunting would be suspended and the aid from the Immortal Ember would also be cut off.

However, that was only the reason known to the public, and the truth, just as Archer Fordham said, was to seize control of the Ember.

“The number of hunting party members has already surpassed a hundred. Of course, not all of them are on the side of the leadership, but once the revolution begins, they too will naturally have no choice but to follow the trend.”

In an Ember where a thousand people resided, there were a hundred hunters.

It was a number that might seem small at first glance, but if magic guns were truly placed in their hands, the difference in numbers—whether tenfold or a hundredfold—would become completely meaningless.

Moreover, as far as Jeremy Scott knew, about three hundred people were already Yann Casselos’s henchmen.

In the early days of this Ember, there were about seven hundred people, and of them, four hundred were those who followed Demian Vail, and three hundred were those who followed Yann Casselos.

By simple calculation alone, Yann Casselos commanded four hundred people, adding the one hundred troops armed with magic guns to his three hundred followers.

And that was a number corresponding to nearly half of the Ember’s population.

“So, make sure to choose your path clearly. The treatment before and after the revolution breaks out will definitely be different. Since you manage the tavern under our leadership, I am telling you this in advance.”

“……Thank you. I’ll think about it positively. As you know, I’m in a position where I’m tied down by my wife.”

Archer Fordham spoke in a cold but friendly voice, and Jeremy replied with a nod.

“It would be best not to let your contemplation drag on too long. I will wait for your answer by next week.”

Although he concluded the conversation with a smile, Jeremy could not laugh inwardly.

If not for the conflict between the leadership and the magic engineering department, this small, simple, and peaceful Ember was so much to his liking that he had chosen to settle down here.

Since such a pure Ember was now in danger of being defiled by power-mad people into a de facto military dictatorship, he could not help but feel uncomfortable.

‘I do need to choose a path.’

The leadership or the magic engineering department.

It was time to choose.

However.

‘It was a place I liked for once, but is it time to leave here as well?’

For him, the options were not just the leadership and the magic engineering department.

As an outsider anyway, he also had the option of leaving this Ember and settling in another one.

It was the easiest and most realistic method.

Although it was a pity to leave behind those he had grown fond of, it had only been three years since he settled down, so they did not have such a deep relationship, and he could just consider them dead to him and move on.

For someone who had sent away countless comrades on the battlefield, parting was not a difficult task.

Yet, paradoxically, the reason he hesitated so much was also because of a person.

‘When is Whiskey coming? It should be about time for him to arrive.’

Eilen Vail.

Because he was curious about the future he would bring.

“We’re heading out again. Everyone, move!”

Before his thoughts could continue, Archer Fordham led the hunting party once more.

There was nothing good about a long rest on the snowy field. It was best to finish the mission and return as soon as possible.

Just as the hunting party moved on to find their next prey.

Thud-thud-thud-thud!

‘……Something is coming!’

Detecting a threat with his instinctive senses, Jeremy Scott turned his head toward the rear.

“Aaargh!”

Sure enough, a scream erupted from the rear.

Along with the tearing scream, there was a snowfield wolf in the panicked rear.

Grrrr.

“……!”

A snowfield wolf of a size that neither General Jeremy Scott nor the fifty-year veteran hunting captain Archer Fordham had ever seen in their lives was scattering a crimson glow from its eyes.