Published: September 10, 2025
※ Corrected typos on 2016/4/22.
This is Satou. Back in college, I lived in a boarding house that allowed pets, and I once had a cat there. Maybe because the place was rundown, there were times I’d wake up to find the cat looking very proud and the dead bodies of cockroaches laid out like offerings. Quite the predicament.
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In the room where I headed to the military command center along with the officer who rushed in about the General Winter, I tilted the cup of sweet potato shochu and opened the map to check the situation.
It seemed that the army of the Kogork Kingdom had invaded from the mountainous region in the southeast.
This was quite south of where the official highway was located.
—Centaurs?
Apparently, the Kogork Kingdom was not a human tribe nation.
Live centaurs, huh... maybe I should go and see them?
As I was thinking that and looking at the detailed map info, I noticed the movements of a small unit that seemed to have attacked the nearest village were odd.
It was as if they were fleeing from something, heading back to the main force.
Could they have encountered rocket wolves?
But there were no dead soldiers in the Kogork Kingdom army.
Only fainted or frostbitten.
I activated the “clairvoyance” and “distant ear” spells to check the scene.
“It’s a demon race! Snow demons are attacking!”
“Run! You’ll get trampled!”
I saw centaurs dressed in warm fur armor dashing desperately through the snowstorm.
Their language seemed to be that of the eastern countries.
“Waaaahhh!”
“Tommy!”
“He’s done for! Run away quickly!”
—Huh?
I recognized the white figure bouncing heavily.
It was a snowman golem we had used to transport supplies.
Since it was a disposable type that didn’t use a demon core, after finishing transport at the last village, we had left it set to protect the village.
We only left them in about three places, so the centaurs had pretty bad luck running into one randomly.
“I am Retaromy, the Third Prince of the Kogork Kingdom! Demon race! Become the rust on my treasured spear!”
—Wow, impressive.
I think it was the power of the wind stone attached to the tip of the treasured spear, but he performed a lance charge at a speed like flying through the air.
With a dull thud, the snowman golem’s belly was pierced through.
“Did you see that! Kogork is the strongest—”
Mid-shout, the snowman golem’s fist came down from above Prince Retaromy’s head and buried him deep in the snow.
The cavity in its belly restored as if the film was rewinding, and it cheerfully resumed chasing the other centaurs.
Watching the footage was comical, but the fleeing centaurs were deadly serious.
All settings were non-lethal except against monsters, so no one had died so far.
“Save the prince! Forward of the flame beasts!”
A slightly authoritative commander cracked a short whip with tassels, and eight ant-eater-like monsters that breathed fire came charging at the forefront.
Apparently, these were tamed monsters.
They probably used them to assist in marching through the snow.
“Burn them to ashes!”
The flames lit the snow red as the fiery bands dissolved the snowman golem.
But the snowman golem wasn’t about to melt so easily.
—MVA.
The snowman golem skillfully opened its mouth and let out a roar, then exhaled a blizzard breath mixed with icicles.
—KUGYWEEEEE.
—KYSHUUUUUUW.
—MVA.
Fire and blizzard intertwined, and the white mist obscured the view.
“Ahhh, so hottttttt!”
“So cold! I’m freezinggggg!”
Apparently, the nearby centaurs were having a terrible time caught between the hot steam and the cold blizzard.
Hopefully, this makes them dislike war a little more.
The Kiwalk Kingdom leadership, unaware that the Kogork Kingdom army was being chased by a snowman golem and couldn’t even focus on war, were likely to spend sleepless nights.
Before going to bed, I secretly rescued the underground weasel people and the maid who was paralyzed by poison and nearly frozen to death, then left them in a suitable stable.
They wouldn’t freeze to death there and would probably run off on their own.