"Hiss... hah..."
The musketeers in the front rank hugged their Muskets and breathed out clouds of white mist.
"Brrr... it wasn't this cold a few days ago..."
Two squads of musketeers filed into the undulating field of wooden spikes, which looked like fertile farmland buried under snow. Behind them, the walls of Star-Moon Bay loomed faintly.
"We'll warm up once the fighting starts." His companion crouched behind a snowbank that sheltered him from the biting wind.
The musketeers wore their newly issued cotton clothes beneath their plate armor, making them look a size bulkier.
Amy came from the south of the Kingdom, but even he couldn't stand the cold of the Northern Frontier. "Could we ask the Fire Elementals to light a few fires?"
"The Fire Elementals have more important work," Luoxi said as he passed.
"Captain!"
The two musketeers hurriedly stood straight.
Luoxi waved a hand. "Wait a little longer. If the sun still doesn't come out, we'll light fires."
Their luck wasn't great... or perhaps it wasn't bad. The blizzard gave way to overcast skies, so warm bonfires sprang up among the wooden spikes.
The two musketeers' backs warmed up, but their chests remained icy.
Unable to turn around, the Cavalry soldier stared at the snowy forest ahead. "Amy, did you know plate armor tastes sweet in a Northern Frontier winter?"
"Really?" Amy touched his plate armor curiously. "You're tricking me..."
"My ancestors worshipped the Frost Lady. Do you think a deity would lie to her people?"
Amy was skeptical, but he could hardly take off his own plate armor to test it. So he set his sights on the other man's armor.
"Don't—"
His warning came too late. Amy leaned toward the man's plate armor and stuck out his tongue. Predictably, it froze to the metal.
Femi