"It's getting colder and colder. ”

Yawning, Francis frowned, and reluctantly walked up to the top of the watchtower and looked around. Because the mountains are just over the hot burning plains, the winter of the Red Ridge Mountains has never had a climate where water turns into ice, but the winter morning breeze still carries a complete coolness, effortlessly passing over his shabby leather armor, making Francis feel the cold.

Despite this, as the most unqualified newcomer in the garrison tower and only three years into the army, he had to shoulder this heavy responsibility, braving the cold wind to go up to the top of the tower to take duty when everyone was reluctant to come up and look.

However, for Francis, it was better to be cold, and in any case, it was better to stand guard in this weather than to go out on patrol and fight dangerous creatures such as wild beasts and gnolls.

As the kingdom's stronghold garrison, this team is tasked with guarding towers and patrolling regularly. They need to clear out and kill or drive away beasts, gnolls or other threats within a fixed radius of the watchtower and on two sections of the road, and by the way, observe and monitor the nearby area through lookouts, and reconnoiter and report any abnormal situations in time.

Of all these jobs, standing on the top of the tower and looking around for a while is definitely the safest work. Unfortunately, such a safe errand fell to Francis, the most unqualified of the people, because it was the only mission that the team was actually carrying out at the moment.

According to the rules of the kingdom, a squadron was to be stationed at the three-story watchtower. Today, however, the outlying camp that was originally built next to the watchtower has long since been abandoned. Because the only eleven people left can't even get together a full team of twelve people, naturally there is no need to rotate the three squads in the guard tower according to the rules.

Last week, their veteran captain also retired and left, and the highest-ranking member of the team was Sergeant Eugene, and the team became more and more slack.

But it's also good that the squadron can't get together from three squads to one squad, and it has something to do with those patrol missions.

This team of soldiers who had not experienced real large-scale combat, and despite the fact that they had a lot of combat experience—limited to besieging wild beasts and small groups of gnolls—were rich in veterans, but when faced with more than fifty gnolls that had wandered into the vicinity, the encircled patrol team collapsed at once, and even the second lieutenant was killed in the wilderness. The remaining personnel of the squadron, which had been constantly losing but rarely replenished, could not hold the camp at all, and thanks to the timely lighting of the fire at the top of the tower to report the news, and relying on the strong guard tower, they insisted on the arrival of nearby rescue troops.

Since then, if it weren't for the monthly supplies that were strictly on the head, they would almost certainly have forgotten about the tower that had been slow to replenish its troops. The garrison team, which lacked manpower and had a psychological shadow, simply changed the frequency of patrols to once every two weeks, and the range was less than one-third of the original, and they would not leave the lookout range at all, and simply went through the motions. After the old captain is gone, this symbolic patrol also seems to have a tendency to stop.

If we don't patrol next week, will we be able to stop blowing cold winds every day? After all, the price of coming up to blow cold winds before is that we don't have to go out to patrol.

Francis, who was bored, suddenly had such an idea, and was immediately amused by his own thoughts. Who made him the lowest being in the ranks?

Rather than hoping that the wind will no longer blow, it is better to look forward to supplies. Counting the days, it is time for the monthly supply convoy to arrive again, and in this region where the trade routes are almost cut off, the supply convoy is the most important expectation, and it can finally be ...... Wait, what's that?

A large number of black-brown dots appeared on what should have been a monotonous wasteland, densely packed, and these dots were moving at a fairly fast speed in the direction of the watchtower.

"What is this?" Francis scratched his head as he stared at the dots in confusion. And before he made up his mind to turn around and ask the old soldiers, the little black and brown dots had grown a lot. "Gnolls, no, enemy attack—"

......

————————————

A hand reached through the curtain of the tent and opened the curtain, letting a cold wind blow in, followed by another tall figure in a red robe.

Marcus looked up and spoke in a voice chewing on soft white bread, "Is there something wrong, Captain Gelarmin?"

The man known as the captain touched his bare forehead, his brow furrowed, he looked at Marcus and sighed, "Ensign, I'm sorry to tell you that the supply convoy will not move forward any further. ”

This made Marcus's brow furrow, "What's going on, Captain?"

"Theoretically, we should spend the afternoon and night here before heading to your destination, the last stop of the supply convoy, the North Wind Watchtower. However, we saw fireworks. ”

"Fireworks?" Marcus could hear the uneasiness and nervousness in the other man's tone, but he asked anyway.

"Yes, you know that all the outlying watchtowers have a campfire on the top floor of the open air, and in case of an emergency they will light it to deliver some simple message through various smokes. ”

At this point, Captain Jelamin paused, and Marcus seemed to hear a sigh, though not sure.

"That is the message of the most dangerous situation, the North Wind Watchtower is under siege, and the enemy is twenty times the size of the garrison...... Obviously, during this time period, they must be facing the gnolls. In the event of unfavourable or uncertain circumstances, the supply convoy will not move forward. Considering that the watchtower might not last long against twenty times more enemies, and that I don't have many soldiers, we are ready to return. Second Lieutenant, I'm sorry you won't be able to get there. ”

Marcus had the urge of a day dog for a moment, and he didn't know whether he should be glad that he hadn't gone to fight the Gnoll sooner or that he had been a step too late to avoid being besieged. "Well, what should I do then?"

"In the event of such force majeure before taking office, according to the rules, you can go back and wait for a new appointment. ”

Hell, by any measure, after receiving the rank of second lieutenant in the kingdom from Marcus, his path to office did not go well. A lot of time is spent on the road, and leveling up with the help of the military system has not yet been put into action.

"So, can I stay here and wait for the situation to clear?"

"The situation may become clearer, but it will definitely not be here. Hundreds of gnolls in one area, what do you think it would be like? If that's what I think, it's at least a riot, another massive invasion by the gnolls. This watchtower isn't safe, but you're not a guard officer, so you can wait and see what the scouts send out here to find out, if any of them make it back alive......"