Although snowflakes vaporized before they could touch the ground inside Night-Kirin City, outside the city, several days of heavy snowfall had already turned the world into a vast expanse of white.
At one in the afternoon on January 1, 998, the slanting rays of Laya finally made the grassland a little less bitterly cold.
At East 1 Post Station, on the territory of Landen's first knight, Daniko, the knight's family and the Territory Residents were finally able to leave their homes. They brought out sledges to clear the thick snow from the streets, while others worked their way along the main road, clearing it east and west in an effort to keep the most important route connecting Night-Kirin City to the outside world open.
A relatively tall figure emerged from the Secondary Castle of the lord's fortress. He passed through the busy crowd and made his way to the courtyard of a small chapel at the edge of the territory.
In one corner of the courtyard stood a stone tablet less than knee-high. The grave behind it looked very new, and the tablet bore just a few lines in the common tongue.
"Father, I'm sorry it took me until today to come visit you!" Jim knelt on one knee before the gravestone. "The Auxiliary Army camp has been so busy lately. Several thousand new people have joined, and they all need to be reassigned to the ranks according to His Majesty's instructions."
As he brushed the snow off the stone tablet, the man murmured to himself, "Knight Daniko is a good man. He not only helped take care of your funeral arrangements, but also agreed to give me everything you left behind."
Jim, a Mana-Less officer in the Auxiliary Army, was the son of Old Jim, who had served as