"Safe! We survived!"
When Grayrock Town's gates opened and the refugees poured into the streets, hot tears slid down their cheeks again.
"Sir Gauss—who are these people?" one of the gate guards asked, looking at Gauss as he floated down from the sky.
Even now, they still didn't know who the newcomers were. They'd opened the gates purely out of trust in Gauss.
"They're refugees from Blackwater Town. Blackwater has fallen."
"I found them outside the walls being hunted by a pack of monster cavalry, so I stepped in and saved them."
The guard sucked in a sharp breath, suddenly feeling ice-cold all over.
Those two short sentences meant thousands upon thousands of families scattered and broken.
The soldiers watched the refugees entering the town with sympathy—and a lingering dread. If Gauss hadn't been stationed at Grayrock, they might've ended up just like this: homes destroyed, lives shattered.
"Go notify Sir Belrock. Get these people settled first."
They couldn't just let a massive wave of refugees flood into Grayrock unchecked. It wasn't impossible that spies were mixed in. So Gauss handed the follow-up work to Belrock and the town's officials.
Gauss's job was saving lives. The rest had to be handled by professionals.
Before long, the town militia escorted the refugees to the army camp.
The camp's cooks started boiling hot soup so the starving refugees could get something warm in their bellies.
"Damn… I didn't expect Blackwater to be breached." Sir Belrock stood beside Gauss, watching the line of people waiting for food, and sighed heavily.
This attack hadn't hit only Grayrock. It also struck Lincrown and Blackwater—and even farther away, other monster tribes had launched assaults in the dead of winter.
That was why Grayrock only received support from Belrock's Iron Anvil Fort. Every front was on fire.
Belrock and Eberhard had actually debated whether to aid nearby towns after Grayrock's victory two days earlier. But after weighing it, both shelved the idea for now.
One reason was that Grayrock itself had suffered heavy losses. The town needed repairs, and wounded soldiers needed rest.
Another was the fear that if they stripped Grayrock's defenders, the monsters that fled back into the Jade Forest might regroup and strike again, leaving Grayrock in real trouble.
And most importantly, the constant snow and deep freeze made moving a large army a nightmare.
Looking back, even if they had decided to help, they probably wouldn't have reached Blackwater in time anyway. Blackwater must have fallen even earlier than the battle at Grayrock began.
While the camp was settling the refugees, Gauss informed Sir Belrock and—under countless watching eyes—took to the sky again on his red dragon drake, Hephaestus, heading east toward Blackwater.
The refugees said that group of a hundred wasn't the only one to escape.
A day later, through Gauss's efforts, he escorted back several more waves of survivors.
In the endless snowfall, that streak of crimson became a beacon—an unmistakable guide in the white wasteland.
Of course, not every group he found was still alive. More than once he arrived too late—severed limbs scattered across the snow, clear signs a fleeing column had been caught and butchered by pursuit forces.
"Dragon Knight, sir…"
"Thank you for saving us."
Gauss was escorting the last group—nearly eight hundred people—toward Grayrock.
According to the cavalry captain, these were the main body of refugees fleeing toward Grayrock: plenty of adventurers and riders as escorts, but the group moved slowly because of the sheer number of people, and because so many were women, children, and elders.
They'd beaten back several enemy attacks along the way, losing time each time.
Before reaching Grayrock, they'd been terrified every moment, dreading that a larger monster host would get word and crash down on them.
That fear finally eased only when a bright red dragon landed in the snow and the handsome man on its back was identified as Gauss—Grayrock's powerful defender—sent out to meet them.
Gauss checked the map in his head. They still had some distance to go.
He looked at the little girls and elderly people in the group—lips turning purple from cold—and said firmly:
"Light fires and cook."
"I just scouted from the air. There are no enemies nearby."
In weather this brutal, if they didn't rest, some people would freeze to death before they ever reached Grayrock.
The soldiers and adventurers, already exhausted and hungry, didn't hesitate.
Soon, bonfires flared in the snow.
The warmth brought color back to women's faces, and the elders' expressions softened.
Hephaestus, basically a living furnace, provided steady heat as well.
But because of his vicious, intimidating look, most people still didn't dare get too close—even knowing he was Gauss's mount. They were terrified he might suddenly snap and treat them like a snack.
Gauss used the break to question the cavalry captain about Blackwater's battle.
Only then did he learn the key detail: Blackwater's fall began when a small fishman squad slipped through old, neglected sewers. Early in the fighting, the town was hit from both inside and out—outer pressure and inner collapse at once.
Before the town fully fell, while the monster army poured into the streets, civilians and mixed groups of adventurers were guided out through side gates and hidden routes.
After that, Blackwater was essentially erased from the map.
Anyone who stayed behind to fight would be slaughtered swiftly, and the open lands between the Jade Forest and Blackwater would be flooded with monsters—claimed, digested, turned into monster territory.
If humans didn't reclaim those lands, they'd eventually become Blackwater Forest and be swallowed into the Jade Forest itself.
The raid had been sudden—but in the century of "peace," it wasn't unprecedented.
Border regions occasionally lost towns and settlements, which became monster playgrounds.
Humans also launched counteroffensives into the Jade Forest—cutting trees, building forts, sinking outposts into the woods.
Last year proved that: even though Outpost 11—the one Gauss had been sent to—fell, several other outposts had pushed deep into the forest. Rumor said they were already taking on the shape of small towns, and in a few years might become another human foothold like Grayrock.
The border wasn't a stable line at all. It shifted constantly—only lately, the shifts were coming faster.
Gauss felt both sympathy and curiosity about Blackwater's fate, but he knew he couldn't go there alone right now.
He'd experienced firsthand how terrifying a "mob army's" collective pressure could be.
Charging into Blackwater on impulse would be suicide.
After the short rest, people ate warm food and regained some strength.
Even though Gauss believed in his own power, they still needed to reach Grayrock quickly—no one wanted to tempt fate.
By the time Gauss led the huge column to Grayrock, it was already deep night.
Once the refugees were placed and things settled, Gauss—finally exhausted—went home and slept properly for the first time in days.
The next morning…
The skies cleared.
After days of biting cold, the temperature finally rose a little.
Grayrock residents came outside to soak in sunlight and warmth.
The streets were unusually crowded, and unfamiliar faces were everywhere.
"Those are refugees from Blackwater, right?"
"Looks like it."
"Sir Gauss has been running himself ragged for two days."
"Terrible… I heard Blackwater completely fell. Thousands dead."
"And plenty of people who escaped got hunted down anyway."
Grayrock's residents watched the ragged refugees lining up at relief porridge stations—sympathetic, but shaken.
A fallen town meant countless deaths. Even survivors faced a bleak future: homelessness, separated families, lost property.
"Have you seen a little girl with black hair? Nine years old, about this tall—she has a birthmark right here on her face."
"Sorry…"
"Mary! Mary!"
Many people from Blackwater were still searching for family. In the chaos of flight, they'd been separated.
Gauss and his team headed to the Adventurers' Guild.
"Send some people to the town hall to help register the Blackwater civilians."
Gauss had personally brought back over two thousand people.
Housing, food, heat, medicine—settling them was a massive job.
Town hall alone couldn't handle it. The guild had to help.
"You've really been through it." Eberhard clasped Gauss's hands solemnly.
Gauss wasn't obligated to go looking for refugees in the wild—but he did it anyway.
In a blinding blizzard, even finding the right direction wasn't easy. Add monster cavalry hunting you, and every hour mattered.
Arriving a day later could mean the difference between a living group and a massacre.
"It's what I should do." Gauss waved it off.
In Grayrock, only he could do it.
Eberhard's griffin couldn't handle the cold as well, and it couldn't match Hephaestus for long-distance flight.
After a brief exchange, Gauss and his party moved on to claim rewards.
Everyone picked skills and items that suited their present and future.
Gauss redeemed the Level 4 spell Locate Creature.
He needed it to hunt enemies.
And unlike most people, he had an unfair advantage: he was familiar with many monsters, and his mental strength was high—meaning his detection range would be longer.
Conveniently, the spell was available right here in Grayrock. Eberhard quickly had someone bring up the scroll.
Gauss also mentioned the issue of his transformations destroying clothing, asking Eberhard for ideas.
"There's a wardrobe magic," Albena suddenly said.
Gauss had been busy these two days—this was the first time she'd heard the problem.
"Wardrobe magic?"
"Yes." Albena nodded.
"Like my armor. I paid an alchemist to inscribe wardrobe runes on it, so it can appear on me the instant battle starts."
That jogged Gauss's memory—her armor really was summonable.
"I'll request it from the higher-ups," Eberhard said. Even though he wasn't a caster, if the magic existed and wasn't extremely niche, the guild could absolutely source the book.
"Thanks." Gauss meant it. If the guild's big machine moved, this should be easy.
"Pick one more spell." Eberhard pushed the list back toward Gauss.
As if worried Gauss would refuse, he added, "Consider it a bonus for rescuing so many Blackwater civilians."
"Then I won't be polite about it." Gauss looked down the list again.
After weighing it, he chose another Level 4 spell: Confusion.
It was the kind of spell that could decide a fight.
Imagine a caster mid-chant, preparing a big spell—one Confusion at the right moment could make their magic backfire, severely injuring them or killing them outright.
Or in melee, a single blink of hesitation could be enough for Gauss to cut a throat.
Sometimes war wasn't decided by brute force—little "tricks" like this were deadlier than any sword.
After claiming their rewards, they didn't keep Eberhard any longer. It was obvious he had too much on his plate, and Gauss didn't want him assigning them admin work.
With the Locate Creature scroll in hand, Gauss left Grayrock's gates.
For the next few days, the team would be resting and training again.
Albena and Serandur were preparing to level up.
Gauss, Alia, and Shadow needed time to practice new skills.
"Let's break for now," Gauss said.
In a quiet room, he stared at the scroll, eyes bright and focused.
It was technically an over-level learn—but he wasn't new to that. And he already had two Level 4 spells under his belt: Control Water and Ice Storm.
With that foundation, this support spell felt much easier.
"So that's how it works…"
After half a day, he'd fully unraveled the spell model—something so complex that an ordinary person would get a splitting headache just glancing at it.
After a few attempts, deep in his mind, a pale-green, three-dimensional structure took shape—intricate and complete.
"Got it."
The model's complexity was enough to overwhelm a newly promoted master-tier caster's brain and leave them unable to think, possibly permanently without emergency treatment.
But Gauss held it with ease.
"Magic really is insane," he murmured.
The more spells he learned, the more amazed he became.
Magic was like a mysterious box—open it, and humans could create the impossible and bend reality toward whatever goal they wanted.
"Locate Creature."
In less than a tenth of a second, he visualized a hateful green little goblin in his mind. Pale-green wind-like mana rose around him, then swept outward—past a thousand meters.
On his first try, the spell succeeded.
"Wait…"
He hadn't even expected to find anything in town.
"Really faint… a goblin baby's life-signature?" he muttered.
In the mental link, he caught extremely weak traces of goblin "evil."
He shook his head and immediately guessed the source.
After the battle that night, some goblins must have slipped into town and violated livestock, getting them pregnant. The next generation was already starting.
Goblins really were like cockroaches—hard to kill, absurdly fertile, breeding anytime and anywhere. If you looked away for a moment, they'd spread their filth again.
But now Gauss had Locate Creature.
From here on, any green-skinned little monster near him wouldn't be able to hide.
He watched the spell's mana pattern in his mind, and the corner of his mouth lifted slightly.