Almark – Northern Sword, Southern Wand

Almark's Entrance to the Nork Magic Academy was delayed for two years.

It had been more than a hundred years since the flames of war had been broken in the central and southern regions of the country. In contrast, the wars in the north showed no sign of ending.

Various countries rose and fell, many people lost their lives in the war, and yet the people of the north spent 45 years in wars without having established a strong and powerful nation.

Mercenaries from all over the continent naturally gathered in the North.

Almark's father, Reyes, was also in the north as second-in-command of the elite Black Wolf Cavalry.

Almark first met the dean, Yorog, when he was five years old.

At that time, the Black Wolf Cavalry was on a mission in the conflict between the kingdoms of Phelan and Gilba, and was marching with its main force through the conflict zone between the two kingdoms.

There is no such thing as a safe journey to the north. On the same day, Reyes saw a cloud of dust ahead and took ten riders with him to scout the area.

Keep them away from the main force.

Reyes instructed his men and took the lead personally.

The enemy was soon identified. It was a group of thieves with a base of operations in this area. They numbered about 30 riders.

The thieves seemed to be in chase of an old man who was on a journey.

"They're a bunch of fools," Reyes muttered to himself.

We have information that Gilba's regular army is advancing ahead of us.

'Let's kick the thieves to the ground and go a bit further," he decided. He looked back at his men behind him.

"Let's go!'

At that moment, he had no intention of taking any action regarding the old traveler who was being chased.

He had his eyes on the bandit chasing the old man, not the old man being chased by the bandit.

The riders under Reyes took the bandits by surprise from their sides.

The black wolves, who were more than three times as numerous as the thieves, collapsed in a fragile heap.

　The battle ended when Reyes cut down the seventh man.

"The rest escaped?"

　Reyes muttered as he looked around. The bandits had fled, leaving behind a great number of corpses.

Then he looked at the old man for the first time.

　The old man was breathing heavily, and thanked him for his help.

"Sorry for your misfortune, old man,"

Reyes said.

"This area will soon become a battleground. It's not safe to travel alone."

He then turned to his men, who were picking through the corpses of the dead bandits, and shouted at them to leave it alone.

He counted the number of men who had gathered, and muttered to himself, "Wenner has been killed."

“We'll go a little farther and see if we can get a good look at the regular army of Gilba.”

And when they were all riding, he looked back at the old man, as if recalling.

“If you wait here for a while, our main force will come. If you've learned your lesson about traveling alone, just mention the name Reyes and they'll take you into their carriage. Don't worry. We're a band of mercenaries on the move, we have women and kids. I can go with you to the border.”

He said in a single breath,

"All right, let's go!"

At Reyes' shout, the ten black wolves began to ride at once .