The County of Mansfield, a vassal territory under the Kingdom of Afronesia, was the front toward the Pernicious Forest of Periculosa in the western continent. It was rich in agricultural resources due to high fertility of the soil and also its proximity to one copious irrigation source — the Danuve River. Basically, it was a good spot for human livelihood. Its main problem, aside from the frequent floods brought by the river within its territorial jurisdiction, was the set of recurring violent assaults of chimeric monsters from the forest. There were strong walls, about 7 meters in height, erected to provide defense, but the people had long lost their trust on them. After all, just about a month ago, the same walls had been partially breached by merely a small-scale assault of a pack of wolves. Such an incident caused some fatalities. Thus, no use at all.

  Like any other country rearing at the forest, the said territory had towers used to oversee the whole wilderness. Its main purpose was to proffer a warning notification system if several monsters were sighted from afar, thus preparations be done before they arrived.

  The county's military composed of three orders. The Order of the Claws, the one serving as the sword and shield of the territory; The Order of the Peacemaker, the one providing law enforcement; and the Order of the Miracle, one where healers and herbalists belonged. Each of these was supervised by three different prominent families that had pledged allegiance to the count. The Claws had been under Lord Ruthven of the Clux Family. The Peacemaker had been overseen by Lord Edward of the Hinder Family. Lastly, The Miracle had been under the care of the Head Priest Medici of the local Afronesian Temple.

  Today, the three heads, along with their hundreds of followers, gathered at Meinsfield's Grand Temple for the recuperation and healing of the wounded soldiers in last battle against the monster assaults two days ago. In the same encounter, almost 42 soldiers were heavily wounded while five had unfortunately succumbed. The reason, of course, was due to the overpowering strength of the medium-sized F-ranked threat chimeric snakes that they fought against.

  It was a benign sunny morning. The two other heads waited at the reception room inside the temple's meeting hall for the head priest of arrive from a short errand. For the mean time, they chatted on the issues at hand to kill off the boredom. That as they sipped on the aromatic green tea served on the table by the two young temple maidens.

  "Lord Edward, how many snakes have we eliminated so far?" A black-haired man, who had just passed in his 40s, asked. His faint goatee and furrowed brows made him look like some unscrupulous person intimidating some teenager. "In last counting of the retrieved crystals the other day, there were 30 F-rank and 1 E-rank chimeric snakes. How about now?"

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  "As far as the record in the post-battle clean-up yesterday is concerned, there were only 5 more F-ranked cores added to that last count. So it's safe to conclude that only 1 of them was really of E-ranked…" answered the young man who had just assumed as head of the Order after his father, Lord Edgard Hinder, retired a couple of days ago due to some injury incurred in the incident.

  "I see… But even if they were just village-level threat individually, we still dealt a lot of losses due to its high numbers which is unusual…"

  "Indeed, Lord Ruthven… But what bugs me the most is that…you know, chimera snakes of those sizes have always been solitary in nature. For them to assault some human towns is just… bizarre, not mention abnormal. What's worse, they did it collectively. Snakes don't flock like wolves in packs…"

  "You're right on that… But, by the way, Lord Edward, aren't you acting more mature and responsible these past couple of days…? Just a week ago, you seemed aimless in your life… Did your father give you a whipping or something…?"

  "N-Not at all, Lord Ruthven!" He innocently smiled at the burly man seated in front of him. "Actually, I just realized some things in life when I looked at the records of the Order that father passed on to me. That being head of this Order is like sheltering the lives of the thousand people in this county. Like that… And I think it's timely for me to take things seriously."

  "I-Is that so…? Then as someone who's been a good friend of your father, maybe I should congratulate him once we see each other later, shouldn't I? You've been the source of your father's complaints everyday, you know? To think that some folks like you, who could change in just a night or two, do exist kind of made me feel in awe… You're even good in logistic studies…"

  "S-Surely you jest, Lord Ruthven… I simply took on my role as head. As a student of Bureaucratic Logistics in the ever proud ARA, I think what I did was just natural…"

  "Indeed. You've a fair point. Speaking of NMA… I graduated there, too… A good place of nurture. I'm sending my son there, as well. I hope he perseveres the way I did…"

  NMA as colloquially known was the short acronym for Nebulanus Military Academy. It was the most prestigious school in the kingdom and arguably one of the best in the whole western continent. It offered variety of courses for students who wanted to pursue the following fields: education, governance, and commerce. The young man belonged to the third category. For military training, the best and sole school in the kingdom is no other than the Nebulanus Military Academy.