A bitter wind howled down from the north and slipped inside Lieutenant Nokmo's collar, making him shiver. He pulled his collar tight and hunched his shoulders.
When he looked up, the clouds had grown heavier than when they had left camp, hanging gloomily overhead like a blanket of cotton that had not been fully deseeded.
"Looks like it's going to snow again." Lieutenant Nokmo breathed out softly, forming a distinct cloud of white mist in front of him.
It was already mid-November. Snow was hardly unusual in Greenway, a small town in the central part of the former Frank Kingdom, slightly north of the center of the Sains Continent.
Lieutenant Nokmo was a native of a village near Greenway. He had lived here for more than ten years before leaving to join the Frank Kingdom's army, so he knew the local weather very well.
"Hey, Captain, do we really need to come out on patrol in weather this lousy?" a Frank Kingdom soldier complained behind Lieutenant Nokmo, his neck tucked into his collar. "Even the rabbits are too cold to leave their burrows. I don't believe those Lampari people would attack in weather like this."
Lieutenant Nokmo glanced back at him and snorted. "Shut your damned mouth, Makan. These are orders from above. Do you have the guts to disobey?"
The soldier called Makan spat and muttered, "They're not orders from our Frank officers, so why do we have to obey? Those bastards from the Malo Empire only know how to make us do their dirty work. If they're so capable, let them do it themselves."
Lieutenant Nokmo frowned and glanced at the other members of his patrol. Their expressions were much the same as Makan's, all showing traces of resentment, and he could not help sighing.
It was hardly