Back to Blackflame Pass

Colonel Fraser had sensed something was wrong the moment he discovered that Ron and Robinson were missing. He had even borrowed a portal—the sort of thing only people from another world used on a large scale—to hurry back to Scarlet Castle, hoping to return to Pioneer Fortress and stop Ron from doing something stupid.

But just as he was preparing to leave Scarlet Castle, he received a message from Pioneer Fortress.

He was too late after all.

Major Ron Rorma Soros, the war hero of Blackflame Pass, and Captain George "Iron Hand" Robinson had been stripped of all their military posts for allegedly attempting to start a rebellion. They were currently being held in the cells at Pioneer Fortress, awaiting further proceedings before a military tribunal. Marshal Loren had personally ordered Colonel Fraser to return to the Shadowvale front at once and oversee the fighting.

It was obvious that Fraser wasn't to get involved in the matter.

To be honest, when he received the news, Fraser had felt a powerful urge to head straight back to Pioneer Fortress. But he was a rational man, after all.

Given the marshal's temperament, the fact that he hadn't shot the two bastards on the spot meant there was still a chance to salvage the situation. General Soros, Marshal Loren's longtime comrade, wouldn't stand by and let his son become a disgraced prisoner, either. So the most likely outcome was that Ron and Iron Hand would be thrown out of the Pioneer Legion.

That, too, was a kind of balancing the scales between merit and fault.

Fraser felt a jumble of emotions.

He wandered alone through Scarlet Castle, which had lost its former bustle under wartime restrictions. He wanted to find somewhere to get drunk, just so he wouldn't have to think about these